What books are you reading right now?

I'm rereading moby dick for the hell out of it

 

I've got my J.G. Ballard collection waiting for me on my bookshelf for one of these days. So many books to read!

 

Finished Joan Didion's "Blue Nights."
I may be taking a break from reading about death for while. Though the book is well-written I found Didion's 'The Year Of Magical Thinking,' more to my liking. Sadly, as she was writing about the death of her husband ('Magical Thinking') her adult daughter died ('Blue Nights'). Blue Nights illuminates how devastating these deaths were and are for Ms. Didion. She's very brave to speak her truth. She's also quite wounded right now and I don't know that I would have wanted to 'howl' in a place where the whole world could hear me. Like I said, she's nothing if not brave.

 

Just finished "Plague of the Dead" and "The Earth Abides" . Plague was the typical zombie apocalypse story, though better than most. Earth Abides was really good. From 1948, the first of the end of the world books. Seems all since (both books and movies) have borrowed from this book.

 

Pink Boots and a Machete: My Journey From NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer -Mireya Mayor

 

Did either of you have a review on these? I'm about to finish up The Baroque Cycle and trying to choose a next book.

 

"Tell All" wasn't very good. It was Chuck falling into his predictable pattern of sacrificing story for style

 

Reading the two Kafka books I've been meaning to tackle, The Metamorphosis and The Trial. Really enjoyed the Metamorphosis... A fascinating piece exploring (as I interpreted it) the stress that mental illness puts on a family. Gregor's role reversal from breadwinner to invalid and the strain it puts on the Samsa family is truly heartbreaking... So many people who suffer from mental illness are abused by their families, and in a broader sense by society at large.

I'm almost done The Trial. It certainly reads like an unfinished work, that's for sure. Quite frustrating to digest, which I gather is part of its appeal. For those who have read it, did anyone else find it hard to support Josef? I mean, outside of empathizing with the general frustration surrounding being accosted by a faceless bureaucracy, I can't seem to muster an ounce of concern for this man. I know how it ends, and at this point I'm completing it just to be done with it. Perhaps I'll have to meditate on this one some more.

 

Was giving "Postively 4th Street, the lives and times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina and Richard Farina. Always have to check out the photos first.

 

Loved that book! A must-read for any sci-fi fan.

 

I'm about 1/3 through Better Angels so far, which is far enough to give some thoughts...

First off, this book is dense. Which I don't mean to be an insult in any way, but it doesn't fall into the category of 'light reading' in any way. Back in college we used to have these courses called "special topics", usually they were one off courses about a very narrow, pet subject of a faculty member and this is the style of book very often chosen as a text for those courses. It's focused, long on citations, very thorough and very academic (these are all meant to be positives) but does the best job I've ever come across of maintaining a narrative quality. Despite the density it hasn't felt tedious at all, though I would hesitate to call it a 'page-turner'. I think most people will find things the both agree and disagree with strongly, as is the case with any good book and the subject itself is quite interesting. I do think that people with a strong literary background will get more out of the book, but it doesn't seem to hurt without it.

I'd say if you're thinking about reading it you should definitely find the time, though prepare yourself because time is what you'll need. My typical reading pace is 60-70 pages/hr for fiction/novels, a bit slower for lighter nonfiction and this book has me down to about half that.

 

'Shockaholic' by Carrie Fisher. Seems like it will be a one-evening read.

 

An Edible History of Humanity

 

NY Times 100 notables of 2011: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/books/review/100-notable-books-of-2011.html?pagewanted=4&hpw

The non-fiction works on Catherine the Great and WWII look most interesting to me.