What Books Are You Reading?

I’m stoked. Just discovered books.com.tw. Having your books delivered to the nearest 7-11 rocks! Whilst looking for “We Need to Talk About Kevin”, one of my book club’s recent choices (and one that actually holds promise for a change), I decided to look around and found the following two : “The Portable Atheist” and Epstein’s “Good without God” – they just arrived at my friendly convenience store on Saturday. Nice.


I’ve forsaken the book club book and others I should be reading for the Hitchens-edited one. Stayed awake way too late last night reading his intro (brilliant), the Carl Sagan bits, and the start of an entertaining George Elliot piece. Orwell, Conrad, Hobbes, Khayyam, Rushdie, and - of course - Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins await (47 contributors in total). Hitchen’s intro alone makes it worth the price.

Will need to let you know the merits of the Epstein’s later.

Not a huge Sci Fi fan, but just read Iain Banks Excession for a change of pace, and I gotta say, the guy is not only an enjoyable read, he’s a frickin genius - I’m think in on the scale of the guy who wrote Inception. Dude drew up his own universe and really gave it a shitload of thought and scientific knowledge, then made it readable, no mean feat. Strongly recommend it as a change of pace book, though apparently there are earlier books in the series, you don’t need to read them first though it’ll take 30 pages to get into.

Read the Wasp Factory and another one I can’t remember the title of and both were good. Tried one of his Sci-Fi books and couldn’t get into it.

“The Museum of Innocence” by Orhan Pamuk (continued)

I finished this book a few days ago and still am at a loss for words as to what to say …

I’ll try though.

The narrator of the story (at the start) is an affianced 30 year old (Turkish sperm lottery winner) man who (unexpectedly and inexplicably) becomes completely obsessed with an 18 year old, beautiful (but vapid) girl. Time passes, they both age, but neither the man nor the girl seem to evolve.

Or do they? Is it inexplicable? 500+ pages - in spirit-numbing detail, exploring obsession totally from his point of view. It never degrades into “Fatal Attraction” or the like - it’s much more profound and surprisingly acceptable to all characters concerned - even though the consequences are ultimately predictable.

It’s not a spoiler: at p. 490, the narrator comments that Proust (and Montaigne) could maybe console him.
Well, I know nothing of Montaigne. But I did read Proust’s epic.


If you think “lost time” is worth spending your life attempting to recapture or preserve (at least in literature), i.e., if you liked Proust, then read this book. Otherwise …

Read the Wasp Factory and another one I can’t remember the title of and both were good. Tried one of his Sci-Fi books and couldn’t get into it.[/quote]
Will do, thanks.

[quote=“IYouThem”]The narrator of the story (at the start) is an affianced 30 year old (Turkish sperm lottery winner) man who (unexpectedly and inexplicably) becomes completely obsessed with an 18 year old, beautiful (but vapid) girl. Time passes, they both age, but neither the man nor the girl seem to evolve.

Or do they? Is it inexplicable? 500+ pages - in spirit-numbing detail, exploring obsession totally from his point of view. [/quote]
Ah, no thanks. Sounds unpleasant at best.

Linchpin by Seth Godin.

Highly recommended.

This Life She’s Chosen - a collection of short stories by Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum.

On a slightly unrelated note - Is anyone interested in swapping books? I have a few titles here to swap and I sure would like to read some of the ones you guys have mentioned here. Shipping is fast and easy within the island (as far as I know). Just a thought. PM me if interested.

Dear Mod: Hope this posting doesn’t get tossed out. Feel free to move it. I apologize for any inconvenience.

Just finished Red Gold by Alan Furst. I can’t recommend him enough. He writes very atmospheric novels about spies during World War II, yet the stories are rather unconventional for the genre. His earlier novels, of which this is one, have a more detailed narrative, but he’s become more spare with his later ones–to great effect.

Not sure what I’ll read next, but it’ll most likely be The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.

Finished The Devil in the White City. It’s a bit unusual in that it’s non-fiction, but it reads somewhat like fiction, somewhat like non-fiction. It’s also a combination of two completely unrelated stories: the construction of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and the actions of deranged murderer, using his charm to prey on unsuspecting young women. It’s a fairly interesting story–one that I imagine will appeal to fans of crime fiction. It’s also a good thing that the two were combined into one, as I’m not sure Larson could turn either story on it’s own into an interesting book. All in all, it’s interesting and entertaining, mainly because of the history we learn.

Currently reading Our Kind of Traitor by John le Carré.

Speaking of crime fiction, I’ve spent most of the summer reading crime novels by writers such as Henning Mankell, Stieg Larsson, Ian Rankin, and Peter James. I would be interested in hearing about any recommendations for crime related novels that are worth reading, as I’m always on the look out for new (or old) writers.

I haven’t read any of those writers you mentioned, but:

  • definitely Gorky Park and the other Arkady Renko novels (with the exception of Stalin’s Ghost) and Rose by Martin Cruz Smith
  • Berlin Noir by Philip Kerr
  • The Talented Mr. Ripley and Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith (those are the only ones I’ve read by her so far, but I’m looking around for more)
  • Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow
  • Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg
  • Theft by Peter Carey

If you’re into espionage, try anything by John le Carré or Alan Furst.

Cheers SlowRain for your quick response. I’ve heard good things about “Gorky Park”, so I’ll give that one a try. I read “Smilla’s Sense of Snow” a while back and loved it. I’ll check out the other ones you mentioned. If you like scandanavian crime fiction you might like Henning Menkell. His novels were adapted into TV series starring Kenneth Brannagh… I haven’t seen them but some of the novels are worth reading.

You’re welcome. Interestingly, I just picked up the first couple of books in Menkell’s Kurt Wallander series. I’ll give them a try sometime later this fall or else in the winter.

I also realize that my recommendation for Martin Cruz Smith is a little difficult to read; I meant to imply that Rose was one of his best novels, not one to be avoided.

I liked Gorky Park. I read it a long time ago. I haven’t read The Talented Mr. Ripley, but I had a book about writing by Patricia Highsmith that was a fun read, Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction.

I’m about a third of the way through War and Peace. Sometimes, I really have to wade through it, but I’m finding the further into it I get, the more I can’t put it down, though it does seem to be a slow read. Fantastic book though. I can definitely see why it’s so highly regarded.

Interpretation of Financial Statements by Benjamin Graham. I finished this recently, but I’ve been dipping in and out of it this week. Pretty easy to follow, but a bit dated and has a lot of gaps.

The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius. It’s not bad, and there’s some good stuff, but tends to be repetitive.

There are a couple of others I’m dabbling in, but those are the main ones.

Finished Our Kind of Traitor by John le Carré. It was good, certainly better than A Most Wanted Man. The narrative style was a return to the old le Carré, and the characters were much better than the hack-job that was A Most Wanted Man, but there still was a useless subplot regarding a money launderer’s daughter that could have been edited out. The dialog, however, was great–amazing, even. Unfortunately, he’s had more or less the same ending to all of his last five novels–what I call his ‘activist novels’. I think he needs to mix it up a bit, be less predictable. Still, a good read.

Currently reading Enduring Love by Ian McEwan.

Finished the graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave gibbons. :thumbsup: About half way through Thud! by Terry Pratchett. It’s one of his newer ones, which I’m enjoying immensely, all the more so since I found out he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. I hope he keeps writing for as long as he can.

I started reading Watchmen a few months ago, but haven’t gone past the second one. People keep saying how good it is for a graphic novel, but I think I must have missed something.

Personally, I preferred the movie, but having seen it, it was interesting to read the graphic novel and compare the two.