Reading...What's on your pages???

[Gold Usher]

I love to read...I devour words!!

I usually have 2 or 3 books running at one time much to the annoyance of Si (aka Doctor Partner) as he constantly moves the current one I just put down.

I usually ignore popular fiction unless it's very very good.
I find I am purchasing more non-fiction books lately than I ever did before.

Currently there are three in progress...

A History of Private Life (medieval society and how it worked -more of a text book loaded with illustrations)

The City of Light by Jacob d'Ancona subtitled 'The Hidden Journal of the Man Who Entered China Four Years Before Marco Polo. This should be interesting reading - considering the only Hartnell story I have is 'Marco Polo'.

and one I couldn't resist at the book shop....

The Nitpicker's Guide to the Original Star Trek



So what book(s) are you currently turning the pages on?

[John]

I'm not a great reader of books, I'm always getting distracted and can never keep still for long enough.

I do however enjoy listening to audiobooks, and I've just bought the CD of First Generation Mary Tamm's autobiography.

[merlinsseer]

Normally I am like you Gold, I like to mix my reading lot, but lately i have been in the mood for escapism , so i have gone and dragged out my Robin Hobb books. " The Assassins Apprentice" is the first book.
I don't really read the newer authors of fantasy or science fiction since most of it tends to be garbage and clones of each other which are bad copies of the classics .
Robin Hobb, like George R.R. Martin is a cut above the rest in weaving great thought provoking tales and their ability to make their characters so very, very real and very approachable. It's not overloaded with magic and silly quests . I would highly recommend them to anyone that does NOT like fantasy in general

[jaybee]

I can't read "heavy" stuff. I love history, but tend toward historical fiction. Then I spend a lot of time with the encyclopedia checking on how much is fact and how much is fiction. I also like thriller-type mysteries and science fiction fantasy. Can't really get into hard-core science fiction.

I'm quite enamoured of dragons and have read all of Anne McCaffery's stuff on the subject as well as a relatively new author who has mixed history with dragons. Her name is Naomi Novik. Her novels are based on the Napoleonic wars period, but involve dragons -- the air force of the warring nations. It's kind of neat how she mixes the fact with the fantasy.

I've just finished reading "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", which has absolutely nothing to do with dragons and everything to do with the girl. The author, Stieg Larsson, apparently wrote a trilogy and a couple of other books (one unfinished) and then died at his desk before any of them was published. It's a shame because the first book was a real page-turner. The second is released, but I don't do hardcover; so I'll just have to wait it out until it comes out in paperback. I can definitely recommend "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".

Who's next??....

[Jedi Princess]

I LOVE to read. I can't live without books. Right now, I am reading John Adams by David McCullough...it's very well written and informative I'm also re-reading Lord of the Rings for about the 23rd time (no exaggeration), along with Count of Monte Cristo, another one of my favorites

[Gold Usher]

I'm quite enamoured of dragons and have read all of Anne McCaffery's stuff on the subject

That I didn't know JayBee! Me too..

When John's brother and wife visited us in Maine, he picked up "The Atlas of Pern". Austin was looking through it most intently like he was trying to figure out where on Earth the maps were showing. Once he realized it was a fictional location, he looked like he'd been had and put it down. Which was not totally out of character for him as he fancied himself well traveled as well as a know-it-all. Older brothers are like that sometimes...

Of course as a former librarian, I'm very into books...When Si and I combined his books with mine, it was over 400 boxes of books to move.

John, you need to dedicate a place for reading...I can usually find the peace and quiet for 30 minutes at lunchtime at work and definitely that makes the hour long hot bath most worthwhile (sans the puss or the black dog trying to drink the water).

Reading is like exercise...you have to take the time to do it and once you do...you're hooked!
(Though I can't figure for the life of me why I can't get hooked on exercise )

Jedi Princess! Yes "John Adams" is a great read!! Too bad about his son Charles though - but John Q was definitely the better son. My "LOTR" is the paperback series from early 1970s I got in high school...still in good shape after reading not as many as 23 times

[Jedi Princess]

Gold Usher, have you read Dearest Friend, the companion book to John Adams? It's about his wife Abigail....you get a much better understanding of John if you understand Abigail And my LotR is a 3-in-1 copy my mum got me....my dad took it to Iraq with him a few years ago. It still has the sand in it On average, I usually read LotR (including the appendices) about 3 times a year....I'm a wee bit behind this year, though.

[Gold Usher]

I usually have a go-around with Anne Golon's "Angelique" series once a year - it takes a few months as there are 7 books translated into English but the last three haven't been.

My French is extremely limited but I've tried reading #8 enough to give myself a headache with barely remembered words and a very tiny French/English pocket (like vest watch pocket) dictionary.

Dearest Friend..have seen it -- might have been on a day when the pockets were empty though or got a book for Si instead. But this house hold a couple thousand books so it might have moved from where I put it for reading and it hasn't turned up since.

I tell what was an experience, reading a real live Shakespeare's Fourth Folio from the 1600s. Si had one - but unfortunately he listened to those who told him Florida's humidity would ruin his books. He sold it back to the book dealer in California he brought it from. That and his autographed John Wilkes Booth's playbook for Julius Caesar -- packing those for Ben to handcarry back to CA near broke his heart.

[Jedi Princess]

I bet That is so sad!

[tch]

My turn:

A biography of Oscar Wilde. Author's name escapes me.

Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice. Really disliked 'Interview with a Vampire', but got the other two books for fifty cents at a library sale and they've been surprisingly entertaining.

Mary Popins by Travers. Very odd, but fun books.

The Ship Errant. Just went blank on the author's name. It's part of Anne Mcaffery's Brain ship series. Great books.

and just got a big stack of comics to work though.