Books: What are you reading tonight?
We have ongoing threads on t.v. and movies we're watching lately; it's time for one for books. daveT's thread on favorite books covers ones we've already read, but let's put ones we are reading/going to read soon or have just finished(i.e., let's make this thread more like a log than a resume) here.
Below is some stuff I've pulled from daveT's thread, where I felt compelled to talk about my recent book-buying craziness, with some new comments.
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I'm one of those guys who will often read many books at once. Right now I'm at various depths into:
Stephen King -- On Writing
textbook on real estate
Ode to Kirihito - supposedly best graphic novel ever done by Japan's best graphic novelist ever
American Splendor (second collection put out after the movie) -- Harvey Pekar, graphic short stories
various meditation books -- Mantak Chia
How to Cheat Your Friends at Poker -- Penn Jilette
Cosmicomics -- Italo Calvino -- another re-read of it
On the burner to read next:
From Hell -- Alan Moore, graphic novel
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and The Palm Wine Drinkard -- some African dude won a Nobel prize for this I think; supposedly absolutely fantastic; the album by Brian Eno and David Byrne certainly was
God is Not Great -- Christopher Hitchens
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Vince: A Personal Biography of Vince Lombardi by Michael O'Brien.
It's certainly detailed.
Not particularly well-written though. Becomes kind of a slog. A number of typographical errors. Lots of other places where I thought, "well, that's worded in a strange way."
Overall, I can't recommend, even for a Packers or Lombardi fan.
Black Sun by Edward Abbey.
This is a work of fiction, though almost certainly autobiographical. It's about a fire-watch ranger working near the Grand Canyon, and the much younger woman he meets and has a fling with. A few other characters, but it's pretty sparse.
I was first turned on to Abbey's writing many years ago (maybe 2003-ish) when I was making a tour of the national parks in the American Southwest. A then-coworker lent me her copy of Desert Solitaire and loved it. Since the, I've read and liked all of Abbey's works I've come across, both fiction and non-fiction.
This one, however, didn't do it for me. Too blunt, too much soft-core porn. Meh.
