What books are you reading right now?

As/after you read Double Indemnity, please post your thoughts. I'm going to read it after I finish The Postman Always Rings Twice. I read very quickly (and just as quickly forget what I read ).

 

I started rereading Robert Jordans Wheel of Time series.
I loved them years ago but i never finished the series. It was so long between books i forgot about it.
Book nine Winters Heart is where i am currently up to, everything is starting to take shape for the Dragon Reborn. He has been crowned king in Illian in the South, and has appointed interim rulers in Tear and Cairhien in the East that he can trust until the rightful rulers can be found to claim their thrones. Elayne has arrived in Caemlyn with a hundred women who can channel and is setting about claiming the Lion Throne of Andor. Whilst the Borderlands in the North report that the Blight has never been quieter and has actually retreated in some places. But not all is well, Saidin (the male half of the power), is slowly driving the Asha'man mad and the Seanchan armies are conquering the south west of the continent like an unstoppable wave with Matt & Perrin right in the middle. Will the world survive until Tarmon Gai'don?

I'm really enjoying my reread.

 

I finished all three; I read quickly, and only Mildred Pierce was actually "novel-length." Noir isn't my taste in reading, works better for me in film (less time invested if nothing else). MP could be discussed at length as a feminist novel (a woman who throws out her cheating husband and goes on to become a successful businesswoman....in the 1930s), yet she was very human, making some serious blunders (tragic flawed heroine?).

EDIT--MP isn't well-written IMO.

I've now started Catcher In The Rye, yet another classic that I somehow missed reading in HS (not that the conservative public HS I attended would assign it) & college.

 

I always liked Catcher In The Rye. I was never one of those kids who sort of regarded it as the gospel of teenage angst, and found Holden to be like a perfect reflection of themselves. But I thought it was a good book, and certainly pushed boundaries for its time, and does have a few consistently relevant things to say about teen angst and social alienation.

 

I'm already not identifying with him; if I had been tossed out of school (public, not private) my parents would've had my scalp. I've heard & read so many good things about the Catcher in the Rye I hope that I'm not going to end saying, "So what was all the fuss about?". Kind of like seeing a movie long after everyone has talked it up, and up. In a few minutes I'm going brew a cup of tea and sit down to read some more of it.

 

I have always found that reading it as an adult just doesn't match up with reading it when I was 11 or 12, which is when I first read it, or when I re-read it in high school. I feel like the ready audience for the book peaks at around 16 or 17, and peters out around 22. I have re-read it a couple of times since college, but the pleasure I get out of it is largely linked to sentimental memories of my life at the adolescent and teenage times I read it. I could well imagine that without such memories attached to it, it could pale relatively quickly.

 

I agree that reading The Catcher in the Rye as an adult (in my case a middle-aged+ adult who read numerous Young Adult novels as a young teen) diminishes the impact the book might otherwise have. Another mistake that I made was reading it pretty much straight through (14 pages on Sat, the rest on Sun); taking a few extended breaks from Holden Caulfield would've been a good idea.

I can see why this book caused a stir in the early 1950s, and became 'required' reading for several decades.

 

I feel the same way about "classics" like anything by Willa Cather (whom I sometimes call Willa Catheter, because what she writes is painful going in and coming out, and uncomfortable in between), or "The Great Gatsby" (which I think is arguably the most overrated book of all time), or "A Farewell To Arms," or "Ceremony" by Leslie Marmon Silko ("overrated by postmodernists" poster child book)...a lot of books people think are "must-reads" that all teachers will surely adore. I hate 'em, and have never required a student to read them, and let students know that everyone has their preferences-- just because a bunch of people think they're the shit doesn't mean you have to like 'em.

 

I was curious to know if TCITR was still considered 'significant' these days, and my guess is probably not, except perhaps as an academic study in early young adult literature. I related much better to some of the S.E. Hinton novels, but I was also a young teenager when I read them, and they were much closer to my experiences than was TCITR.
--- merged: Jun 22, 2015 at 1:10 PM ---

I've read some "classic" Faulkner (As I Lay Dying) that had me asking, "W-T-F!? A classic? Seriously? Was the guy completely wasted when he wrote this crap? What editor decided it was OK to publish?". And I don't buy into the "experimenting with a new style of writing" excuse. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.

OTOH, I like Cormac McCarty's writing, many don't.

 

Miles, The Autobiography by Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe.

 

Just got through re-reading Peter Mayle's A Year In Provence and its two sequels. I find them very soothing and amusing in a mild, gentle fashion.

 

Debatable Space - Philip Palmer

Nice take on space pirates and the huge space epic.

 

I appreciate Miles Davis' music, I have quite a few of his albums.

As expected, Miles Davis has a very high opinion of Miles Davis. I'm pretty sure that his recollection of some/many events could be challenged by the other people involved in those events.

What I'm hoping to get a handle on, difficult at best, by the time I finish the book is his racism against whites. Yes, he was black and experienced negative things that I couldn't possibly undertand. He was also raised in a UMC family, his father was a successful dentist, Miles wore Brooks Brothers suits at age 14, his parents owned a nice house in East St. Louis and a farm in the country, his parents came form UMC backgrounds, his father paid his tuition at Julliard, his rent, and gave him a generous allowance. By 18 he was making very good money as musician.

 

Miles, The Autobiography by Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe.

A waste of time. He writes, and complains, about...

...Julliard only teaching him "old" "white" music, yet many times he mentions how classical music influenced him, the classical composers that he likes and what he borrowed from them.
...How young musicians would work with him and then move on to lead their own successful bands playing "his" music, yet he admits to doing the same thing when he worked with more established musicians.
...Critics who flame his music, yet he very much likes the critics who happen to like his music.
...How very few white people in the US "understand" his music, but says the whites in Europe do understand his music. And of course the majority of black people understand his music.
...White rock musicians using clothing to promote a certain image, yet throughout his career he was very meticulous about dressing 'just so' in order to present a certain image.
...Being a heroin addict, but after kicking the habit he goes on to drink heavily, and abuse cocaine for many years to the point of extreme isolation, having episodes of paranoia and hallucinations.
...Training with a well-known boxing trainer, learning to box well, yet he never mentions actually sparring with anyone (boxing gyms around the world are filled with guys who can look impressive.....outside of the ring).

A few people might get something useful from this book. Musicians with a very good understanding of music (I freely admit that excludes me), jazz historians looking for detailed info that only the jazz musicians can provide (they would have to judge how truthful or not Miles was being), and hardcore Miles Davis fans.

 

John Scalzi's "The End of All Things, set in the Old Man's War universe, is out in four e-book episodes (to be published as one novel in Aug).

Just picked up Episode 1: The Life of the Mind

Episode 2: The Hollow Union
Episode 3: Can Long Endure
Episode 4: To Stand or Fall

 

The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo, its good