Tuesday, February 3, 2009

What Are You Reading?


Sometimes Book TV stops people on the street and asks what they're reading. Almost every reader they stop suddenly becomes engaged and fairly eloquent. Readers usually mention three or four books, and if not for the time constraint, they'd probably talk about a dozen more. Most people say they read several books at a time; a nonfiction bestseller, a good novel or two, and then mention an author they've been thinking about. It's interesting to see what people are reading and how they're open to all types of books. One man mentioned Richard Wright because he'd read Native Son years ago and wanted to re-read it and other works by Wright now that Obama was in the White House. An excellent idea.


What are you reading now? What books would you like to read this year?


For fun, I would like to read Fripsey Summer but I don't know if I could find a copy.

17 comments:

R.L. Bourges said...

I've taken a liking to the name of the author of that Mystery of How the Village Got Deserted the Night of the Hurricane - E.M. Hoppensdedt. Imagine the typesetter's face when he saw that one!

tut-tut said...

I'm reading I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do) by Mark Greenside, but so far I'm not sure I like the author's tone. I picked it up because Diane Johnson has a blurb about it on the back—"One of the nicest of the trillions of books about France."

Megan said...

Right now I'm reading a PD James that my mom gave me and still working on Team of Rivals whenever I have the time to sit down and concentrate...

Deborah Godin said...

I always have several books marinating on the shelf, waiting for the right time to be read. Up next is either
1) The Outermost House, by Henry Beston (Walden Pond comes to Cape Cod)
2) Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science
by Jeff Meldrum

Just finishing "Fatal Interview", sonnets by Edna St.Vincent Millay

e said...

Fiasco by Thomas Ricks

The Audacity of Hope

Cat in Indigo Blue

The Reader

This is my short but very ecclectic list of current reading; two non-fiction, one novel, one cat-lover's mystery. I'd like to take a dip into works of literature next. Avid Reader, how did you get to be an avid reader?

JGH said...

My book group just chose "Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins. Looking forward to getting into that. Also Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight - memoir of Africa.

The book I most want to read this year is Marilynn Robinson "Home".
Could it be out in paper yet?

Read a review of a book called "Oyster" that sounded interesting!

mouse (aka kimy) said...

I just finished reading wally lamb's book the hour I first believed. he is a magnificent writer. it is a shame that there is such a long stretch btw books....but good things come to those who wait. each book is better than the last - if that is possible.

last night I started the madonnas of leningrad....

I also always have an audio book in progress in my studio so I can listen to a book while sewing - the book I currently have going there is the stone monkey - by deavers. the last audiobook was 'the world according to bertie' - which was a delightful 'listen' and probably would be just as good as a 'read'

ah so many books, not enough time....

I have a couple other books going I nibble on but I always tend to be focused on one main book....

ReversedCircle said...

I'm reading the essays of Truman Capote.

R.L. Bourges said...

oops. rushed through and missed the question, it seems.

Reading Philip Pullman's The Subtle Knife (2nd tome of His Dark Materials) and Prosper Mérimée's "La Vénus d'Ille et autres nouvelles".

mouse (aka kimy) said...

avid - just to let you know there's a little something for you waiting at the mouse.

Anonymous said...

I just finished "My Summer with George" by Marilyn French I give it a C minus. I just kept reading hoping it would get better.

Barbara said...

I'm reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Set in the WW II era, it is narrated by DEATH. Excellent read!

Next in line is Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. It comes highly recommended by a couple of good friends.

I have a stack of other books I hope to get to soon, but there never seems to be enough time.

tony said...

I,ve just got "Happenstance" by Carl Shields from The Library.'about to start it tonight.We Shall See.We Shall See.....

tut-tut said...

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is amazing, btw. JGH, you will be enthralled.

Avid: what say you to a virtual book group?

e said...

The virtual book group sounds fun!

Unknown said...

I'd like to read as much as humanly possible, but high on my list for this year is...

JAMES JOYCE
Dubliners
Finnegan's Wake
Ulysses

Also, I'd like to read
M.K. Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf
and Joseph Roth's The Radetsky March

Kurt said...

A collection of stories by David Means.

My Classic Fiction Book List -Partial List

  • Austen, Jane: (Complete Works)
  • Balzac: Cousin Bette/ Eugenie Grandet / Cousin Pons
  • Best Russian Short Stories
  • Boyle, TC: Short Works
  • Brennan, Maeve : Short Works, 1 Novella
  • Bronte, Emily, Ann, Jane (Complete Works)
  • Brookner, Anita ( Complete Works)
  • Cather, Willa (Complete Works)
  • Chekov: Short Works
  • David Copperfield (Dickens)
  • Dickens:A Tale of Two Cities
  • Dickens:Great Expectations
  • Dickens:Nicholas Nickelby
  • Dickens:Our Mutual Friend
  • Dickens:The Old Curiosity Shop
  • Doyle, Roddy (some novels, memoir)
  • Drabble, Margaret (4 Novels)
  • Drieser, Theodore (Complete Works)
  • Fitzgerald, F.Scott (Most Novels & short works)
  • Hardy, Thomas (Complete Works)
  • Hemingway, Short stories
  • Hemingway: The Old Man in the Sea
  • Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises
  • Hugo: Les Miserables/Hunchback Of ND
  • James, Henry: Daisy Miller
  • James, Henry: In The Cage
  • James, Henry: Portrait of a Lady
  • James, Henry: The Golden Bowl
  • James, Henry: What Maisy Knew
  • James, Henry: Wings of a Dove
  • James, Henry:The Ambassadors
  • James, Henry; The Bostonians
  • Kerouac: Dharma Bums
  • Kerouac: On The Road
  • Kerouac: The Subterraneans
  • Kerouac: Tristessa
  • Lardner,Ring:Short Works
  • Larsen: Quicksand
  • Lewis, Sinclair: Arrowsmith
  • Lewis, Sinclair: Free Air
  • Lewis, Sinclair: Main Street
  • Lewis, Sinclair: The Job
  • MacGill, Patrick (Complete works)
  • Mackin, Walter (novels)
  • Maupassant: Short Works, novels
  • McGahern, John (novels of)
  • McNulty, John (Short Works)
  • Norris, Frank: McTeague
  • O'Brien, Edna (3 Novels)
  • O'Donnell, Paeder : Novels of
  • O. Henry
  • Potok, Chaim (4 novels/1 non fiction)
  • Salinger, JD : Nine Stories
  • Salinger: Franny & Zooey
  • Salinger: Raise High the Roofbeams
  • Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye
  • Sinclair, Lewis: Dodsworth
  • Sinclair, Lewis: Elmer Gantry
  • Sinclair, Upton: King Coal
  • Sinclair, Upton: The Jungle
  • Steinbeck, John: Sweet Thursday
  • Steinbeck: Winter of our Discontent
  • Steinbeck: Cannery Row
  • Steinbeck: East of Eden
  • Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath
  • Theroux, Paul (3 Novels )
  • Toibin, Colm: (Novels of)
  • Tolstoy: Anna Karenina
  • Tolstoy: Short Works
  • Turgenev (2 novels)
  • Twain: T Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi
  • Vonnegut: Early Works (1950s-60s)
  • Wharton, Edith: Novels of/Short Stories
  • Women & Fiction (Edit. Cahill)
  • Zola, Emile ( 10 novels)