47 replies to this topic

[Alexandra]

I thought the summer list was getting a bit long, so we could start another one for back to school/new season reading.

Jackie has put up a topic on a specific book -- THANK YOU, JACKIE!  You're Official Forum Heroine of the Week

How about if we use this thread for a list of what's on the bedside table, and then start separate threads for any book we'd really like to TALK about?

I really did start "Atonement."  It will be my "read while you're sitting there waiting for the laundry to be done" book (I have to say it takes a lot for me to relate to characters named Jackson and Pierrot).

I also picked up Alice Hoffman's "The Probable Future" and Dani Shapiro's "Family History," both of which look promising. I was also intrigued by the conversation with Edward Jones on the News Hour Friday night about his book, “The Known World.”  Any writer who says (paraphrasing) "I figure if I make the character REAL, people won't care what kind of saddle he rides," is my kind of writer! (Jones was speaking in the context of impatience with writers who write pages and pages of description about what kind of leather the saddle was made of, and how long it had taken to tan it.)

[Treefrog]

Personally, I'm planning on reading lots and lots of sheets of paper with titles like "Can you light the bulb?" and "Circuit circus".  Also "Positive Discipline in the Classroom" (that's a book, not a sheet of paper).

Actually, I am feeling a bit bereft right now, because I DON'T have any books on the bedside table.     My furious summer reading pace dwindled.  I'm looking forward to the suggestions everyone makes so I can find a new read.  Or I might just take up the next Aubrey/Maturin;  I 'm up to "The Reverse of the Medal".  (This series is great if you never have time to scope out new books; I've been working on it off and on for about four years.)

[Paquita]

Well... since I'm in university now, I hardly have any time to read "fun" books anymore... Luckily some of the required readings are entertaining. I'm reading Herodotus "The Histories" which is pretty interesting and also very funny at times. It's not very historically acurate...

[Alexandra]

Paquita, what are some of your other "not fun" books?

[vagansmom]

Alexandra, thanks to Treefrog, who encouraged me, I finally finished "Atonement" and I'm glad I read it. I had trouble with the first section; I didn't like the style of writing. But Treefrog told me to hang in there so I did, finished it last week and it's now the next book, following "The Probable Future" (isn't that funny? We must be on the same wavelength right now) on the agenda for our staff book club.

I started "Life of Pi" for the umpteen time tonight. I had started it many times this past summer but other reading prevailed. My daughter's pushing me though so she'll have someone to talk to about it.

I'm also in the midst of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" which I'm told can be considered a good nonfictional companion volume to "Angels & Demons" and "Da Vinci Code", both of which I read a couple months ago.

Another book sitting on my bedtable is Edward W. Said's memoir, "Out of Place". He grew up in Palestine, Lebanon, and Egypt before coming to the USA as a college student.

I'm pecking away at "Genome", a 1990 book recounting the attempts (at the time) to map the human genome. I figure there'll be, or most likely already is, another book describing the later years. Meanwhile I'll be scientifically current through 1990. That's more current than I am in the movie-land world.  :shrug:

Finally, like Treefrog, I'm wading through the world of "Positive Discipline": "..for Childcare Providers", "...for Preschoolers", "...for Single Parents", "...for Blended Families", and "Positive Time-Out". Hopefully I'll be positively inspired enough to pass the testing process towards being a national PD lecturer in January (which takes place in Treefrog's neck of the woods - Hurrah!)    :hyper:  :bouncing:

Jacki

[Alexandra]

I also have the Dreamweaver manual, and about 15 books on late 19th century New York to get through, which is what is getting in the way of "Atonement."  I don't dislike it.  I just want to read it slowly.

[Treefrog]

vagansmom, we have to give out the full story.  I'm reading "Positive Discipline" thanks to vagansmom's enthusiastic recommendation off-line (we're both teachers).

Didn't want folks to think they'd missed the latest book club must-read  

[Treefrog]

Alexandra, as vagansmom says, it IS worth hanging in to the end.  But I agree, it wasn't nearly as captivating as, say, Bel Canto -- which is hands down the book I enjoyed most this summer.

[Paquita]

vagansmom, I've been reading "Life of Pi" on and off this summer also. It's getting put to rest again unfortunately...
Alexandra, fun school books this year include: Sophocles' Theban Plays, Aristotle's "Poetics", Thucydides "History of the Peloponnesian Wars" (this might end up no fun but I *hope* it's good), King Lear, some Chaucer, Hesiod...
not fun books are: my biology textbook (!) and Lucretius "De Rerum Natura" (we only have to read a few parts).
I also have to read "Phaedra"- Seneca, and "Oroonoko or the Royal Slave"- Aphra Behn. I'm not sure if I will like them or not...
My before bedtime book right now is "Writing in the Dark, Dancing in the New Yoker" which my ballet teacher gave me. Arlene Croce is such an excellent and articulate writer, and the articles are short and stand on their own. Since my recreation reading habits are so erratic during the school year, I can't seem to get into a long book because if I stop reading and start again I don't remember the details!

[vagansmom]

Paquita, I have that Croce book too. I love it at bedtime -short, interesting pieces.

My husband's college years were spent reading many of the books on your list. He attended St. John's College, which is famous for its "Great Books" program. Every now and again, I look at some of those titles on our bookshelf and vow I'll wade into them but I never do. For me, they'd require a discussion group.

You are very lucky  :yes:

Jacki

[Hans]

I recently finished "Year of Wonders" by Geraldine Brooks (who gave a talk at my school), and I'm earnestly trying to plough my way through Nijinsky's diaries (the version edited by Acocella) but it is very slow going.  For school, I have a music history textbook that I'm really enjoying (it comes with CDs! :jump: ) and I'll eventually have to read a book about the life of Balanchine for my ballet class.  

Paquita, you must be very learned indeed to enjoy reading all those!   Although I like reading those long, complicated 19th-century novels, I have to admit that Chaucer makes my head spin :dizzy: (PS:  I don't like biology either )

[Paquita]

I haven't read all those books yet, we will be studying them throughout the year.  So, I don't consider myself very learned, but I hope to emerge from university so I would not have the strength to tackle those Greek classics on my own, that is for sure! I agree with Jacki, they really do require a discussion group. The only one I read by myself were the Theban plays, last summer.
Hans, I also read the Nijinsky diaries- but a very old version I found at a used bookshop. I definately know what you mean when you say "slow going". He seems to repeat himself a lot and there is no real direction in his writing. But it is a fascinating portal into his mind (the version I have even has some pictures that he drew in the hospital) and he also had some very humourous and interesting musings!

[Arak]

I just ordered a copy of Nijinski's diaries. Should be here soon... In the meantime, I have a copy of The Pricess Bride (who doesn't love that movie?) to tide me over. William Goldman is a very clever man; pulled the wool right over my eyes. Just finished up Le Reine Margot, one of Alexandre Dumas' lesser-known historical novels.

[Treefrog]

Funny at the beginning, but quite sad (poignant) towards the end.

[Treefrog]

Funny at the beginning, but quite sad (poignant) towards the end.