Books you're currently reading???

Perry Winkle · 03-02-2007, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clark. Got a hardback copy for $5 at Half Price Books, and so far it's enjoyable. The style of writing is kind of mock-Dickens, so it doesn't exactly let you get lost in the story, but it definitely succeeds at being amusing.

I'm still struggling with this book off and on. I feel that if I'm going to be bored with footnotes I'd rather read Eco, or a textbook. Pratchett can keep me interested in his footnotes because they're so short and usually a bit funny.

I don't know why, but it reminds me more of Jane Austen (which I can't penetrate at all) than Dickens.

I really want to like JS&MN, just like I really want to like Eco's The Island of the Day Before.

Urbane Guerrilla · 03-27-2007, 03:49 AM

I just finished John McPhee's latest: Uncommon Carriers. It's a McPhee go-there-and-explore look at the business of commercial transportation, and a slice of the lives of the people who make their livings at it: owner-operators of eighteen-wheelers, river towboats (which actually are push boats) -- you know, navigation gets interesting when the river is narrower than your barge string is long -- a digression into a canoe trip replicating more or less the trip Thoreau and his older brother (who died young of septicemia) took; a coal train out of Wyoming taking low-sulfur coal to Georgia. As is usual with McPhee when he writes about this kind of thing, you get a lot of I-never-knew-that tidbits.

This may not be the titanic work Annals of the Former World was -- anyone who enjoys geology should read that -- but it upholds McPhee's reputation.

BethL · 05-07-2008, 09:59 PM

Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile

It's a really good read (despite the poor proofreading job).

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

Stasiland by Anna Funder

I actually read that one a while ago, but it is just extraordinary. If you were intrigued by the historical aspects of the film The Lives of Others, you will appreciate this book. It looks at the affects of the Stasi on a selection of former East Germans. It's engrossing and heartbreaking.

03-27-2007, 03:49 AM	#2
Urbane Guerrilla Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Southern California Posts: 6,674	I just finished John McPhee's latest: Uncommon Carriers. It's a McPhee go-there-and-explore look at the business of commercial transportation, and a slice of the lives of the people who make their livings at it: owner-operators of eighteen-wheelers, river towboats (which actually are push boats) -- you know, navigation gets interesting when the river is narrower than your barge string is long -- a digression into a canoe trip replicating more or less the trip Thoreau and his older brother (who died young of septicemia) took; a coal train out of Wyoming taking low-sulfur coal to Georgia. As is usual with McPhee when he writes about this kind of thing, you get a lot of I-never-knew-that tidbits. This may not be the titanic work Annals of the Former World was -- anyone who enjoys geology should read that -- but it upholds McPhee's reputation. __________________ Wanna stop school shootings? End Gun-Free Zones, of course.

05-07-2008, 09:59 PM	#3
BethL Recruit or Something Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 4	Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile It's a really good read (despite the poor proofreading job). Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky Stasiland by Anna Funder I actually read that one a while ago, but it is just extraordinary. If you were intrigued by the historical aspects of the film The Lives of Others, you will appreciate this book. It looks at the affects of the Stasi on a selection of former East Germans. It's engrossing and heartbreaking.

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