I am currently reading (all for English) Chekhov plays, The Glass menagarie, Pale Fire, Howards End and EM Forster The critical heritage.

Cerebus: Church and State Pt. 1 - Dave Sim

Pretty good graphic novel. I like Dave Sim in these early books, much better than the crazy old guy he became.

yuri don't skim pale fire, it's excellent. not that you would, but one doesn't always have time for all assigned reading. thank god I'm done with schooling...

Book at work: Baudolino by Eco
Book at home: The Last Temptation of Christ(2nd time) by Kazantzakis

I've finally got around to reading the new Harry Potter. I'm about 200 pages into it.

In between my intellectual reads I finsihed T. Jefferson Parker's "Black Water" which is a mindless, yet entertaining, thriller.

I have just cracked open Jared Diamond's "The Third Chimpanzee"

Much to my surprise I've actually started reading the copy of pirsig's Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenace that I purchased whole heartedly never expecting to get the chance to read it. Strange.

PS Mike please post back what you thought of third chimpanzee as it is on my "to read pending good review by a jedi list"

I've just finished reading a book I got from Amazon.com called "Amongst The Marines" by Steven Preece. It was a good warts an all story about a marine's life amongst the ranks. It was violent, funny, disgusting and also deeply sad. All in all it had all the personal hallmarks of a good personal story that I really enjoyed.

I'm about 2/3's of the way through Tom Wolfe's "I Am Charlotte Simmons".

The Catcher in the Rye.

As a little bonus, here's a list of the books I have read this year:

Prey (shit)
The His Dark Materials trilogy (great)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (good)
Of Mice and Men (classic, plus I actually enjoyed it)

That's... six books, which is probably more than I've ever read in one year before (shamefully).

A couple days ago I finished reading The Boilerplate Rhinoceros, a collection of nature essays by David Quammen.

Now I'm at the tail end of a collection of science essays by Isaac Asimov called Asimov on Physics. When I get done with that I'll start Asimov on Chemistry, another science essay collection.


Also, I'm about 45 pages into a collection of Bertrand Russell essays called Unpopular Essays.

The Gas We Pass: The Story of Farts by Shinta Cho. There, I finished. The book, I mean.

I'm reading another collection of writings by Bertrand Russell. It's called Fact and Fiction. So far it's excellent, as Russell always is.

I think I'm going to start in on Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky in the next couple days.

Just started "Forests of the Heart" by Charles de Lint. This is the third de Lint novel I'll have read in the last year. I'd just finished "The Da Vinci Code" which I had mixed feelings about. De Lint's been an exellent read every time so far.

I finished up "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoyevsky a few days ago. I liked a lot of it, but it's a long book and it's such a downer pretty much the whole way through. After a while it gets depressing. Still, there were some really fascinating aspects to it. I love that Razumihin character.

I've started "Hard Times" by Dickens. About a third of the way through it now.

quote:

Originally posted by RavingLunatic:
I finished up "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoyevsky a few days ago. I liked a lot of it, but it's a long book and it's such a downer pretty much the whole way through. After a while it gets depressing. Still, there were some really fascinating aspects to it. I love that Razumihin character.

I've started "Hard Times" by Dickens. About a third of the way through it now.

"Hard Times" is a good one to start with as it is his shortest novel. If you enjoy Dickens, I highly recommend "Our Mutual Friend," the last novel he completed. It is long with a cast of thousands, but very cynical and funny.

quote:

If you enjoy Dickens, I highly recommend "Our Mutual Friend," the last novel he completed. It is long with a cast of thousands, but very cynical and funny.

I kinda feel the same way about Mark Twain's last story. It's my favorite of his (and I've read just about all of his stuff) and it's really cynical. It's called "The Mysterious Stranger" and it's really a novella at around 100 pages long. He actually had 3 different versions of the story going when he died and none of them were completely finished. Some guy finished one version and then expurgated the parts that he thought would offend people. This is the version of "The Mysterious Stranger" that most people read. If you want the real deal you'll have to seek out "The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts." I found it at a library. I'm also putting it on my Christmas list now that The University of California Press just reissued it a couple months ago for $17 (the cheapest one you can buy on Amazon is $75).

Now I'm reading "Simply Einstein: Relativity Demystified." It's by Richard Wolfson, who is a professor at the college I used to go to. I'm about halfway through and it's really good. It reminds me a lot of the Isaac Asimov science essays I so love.

i just finished "Monkey Hunting" and "The Little Locksmith."

Now starting: Under the Feet of Jesus.

"State of Fear" which is a slow starter, but if it is up to Michael Crichton's usual standard, should pick up speed. I need something a little less depressing than the book I've just finished - "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro, my favourite modern author.