What Are You Reading?

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Mr Larry Underwood

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Aug 8, 2014
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I thought it was well enough executed (Rowling is a good storyteller), but I don't get along with "well-off white people filled with ennui and behaving badly" books. They frustrate (and ultimately bore) me. I personally preferred her Galbraith books, and I'm not much of a mystery reader.

Life is too short to read whimsical fiction. If you're an adult, I find it pretty weird you are enjoying it. If there are no tules, everything is permitted: where's the suspense? Then again, I tried to read the stereotypicals ( Tolkien and RR Martin) but never got into it. Somehow, my brain finds it dificult to adapt to another (sometimes very inconsistent) reality. Same goes for dystopias.
 

swiftdog2.0

I tell you one and one makes three...
Mar 16, 2010
7,095
35,344
Macroverse
I'm taking a course called Banned Books And Dangerous Ideas.

This week I had to read selections from:

Steal This Book
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

I Sing The Body Electric (from Leaves of Grass)
Origin Of The Species

Not bad reads except for the Darwin stuff. Not that I disagree with his theories. It's just very dry reading.
 

swiftdog2.0

I tell you one and one makes three...
Mar 16, 2010
7,095
35,344
Macroverse
I'm re-reading Boy's Life by Robert McCammon. Mucho fantastico.

Read that one back in the day. I always liked McCammon's stuff. He edited a fantastic vampire anthology called Under The Fang back in the 90's. I have a first edition signed by all of the contributors. If you've never read it hunt down a paperback copy.

I want to check out his newer novel The Five.
 

Haunted

This is my favorite place
Mar 26, 2008
17,059
29,421
The woods are lovely dark and deep
Read that one back in the day. I always liked McCammon's stuff. He edited a fantastic vampire anthology called Under The Fang back in the 90's. I have a first edition signed by all of the contributors. If you've never read it hunt down a paperback copy.

I want to check out his newer novel The Five.
The Five is good. Have you checked out his novella I Walk the Night; first of a series, I loved it.
 

EMARX

Well-Known Member
Feb 27, 2009
2,970
15,757
While I was on vacation, I finished up Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph, by Jan Swafford. He is one of my favorite composers and this work is a very detailed account not only of Beethoven's life and his works, but most of his more famous compositions. The author who is a composer himself, shines light on what was happening to Beethoven at the time he worked on each of the pieces. But also shows with examples with sheet music, of specific passages, with both key and chord notations. I have a very limited knowledge of reading music and composition and yet found it very interesting. Beethoven was misanthropic and had no real social skills, but was very aware of his genius and wasn't afraid to let others know. The litany of ailments he suffered through for all of his life would have defeated most and yet through sheer will and discipline he changed classical music forever and created some of the most sublime and moving works. I came away from the book wondering what could have been if he hadn't been functionally deaf for more than half his life and not suffered through so many physical and psychological stresses. It could be that the music may have been radically different.
 

EMARX

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Feb 27, 2009
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I also finished The Likeness, by Tana French. Her first book In The Woods was a traditional crime novel but this book
has a great what if premise and if she had stuck to the traditional if could have fizzled out quickly. Putting her flawed protagonist into the very strange scenario and letting it take on a life of it's own gave the book an exiting and more believable finish.
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
92,168
USA
I started At Home in Mitford on skimom's recommendation and am so pleased that my reader's block seems to be gone! *singing* ;-D

It is exactly what I needed. Light and heartwarming and fun. It is very charming and I will be reading them all, I'm sure.

Thanks again, skimom2 !:biglove:

You're very welcome! That is usually my spring tonic series :)
 

Haunted

This is my favorite place
Mar 26, 2008
17,059
29,421
The woods are lovely dark and deep
I started At Home in Mitford on skimom's recommendation and am so pleased that my reader's block seems to be gone! *singing* ;-D

It is exactly what I needed. Light and heartwarming and fun. It is very charming and I will be reading them all, I'm sure.

Thanks again, skimom2 !:biglove:
The Mitford books are wonderful and such a pleasant respite from the heavier story lines out there.
 
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