Reading list:
The family has taken up a new and very nice practice; having family reading times - not scheduled as such, but so everyone has something good to read and is in the living room together reading. It works pretty well, I think, and is an improvement over endless oh-I-can’t-watch-that debates about TV stuff.
Tastes run like this for entertainment:
MERE: Could watch the Disney Channel endlessly as mind candy until her brains ran out her ears. For fun reading, she likes fantasy stuff; I try to steer her to less trashy authors, though fantasy isn’t really my bag. Some historical novels, some slice-of-life kids’ books. She reads at a whole lot higher level than her age group, and she’s in AT math and English. Right now, she’s reading the third HARRY POTTER book and loudly complaining about how much got left out in the movie. Wait till she reads the rest…
SUSAN: Her reading list has involved a lot of sub-sub-genre stuff - mostly odd mystery books based around dogs or knitting, etc. She’s now into two new-to-her Sara Paretsky books - BLEEDING KANSAS (which is modern day) and GHOST COUNTRY. She will read alternate history stuff, but she shares my distaste for stuff that masquerades as AH, such as CC Finlay’s latest stuff. She accidentally picked up one of those from my donate-to-the-public-libray pile, and did a WTF.
She’s also taken to using her MP3 player a lot for audio books, especially when in the car or commuting.
CONNIE: Really good historical novels, history works that are very readable and some biographies; she recently has been reading Ted Kennedy’s TRUE COMPASS cover to cover as fast as she can. Occasionally, something new-agey inspirational. One hole: she has a strong aversion to Roman history; I’ve tried to get her to read Falco mysteries or McCullough’s First Men in Rome series, and she won’t hear of it. Not sure why.
ME: Alternate history (because I have to read everything in the genre, pretty much, for the Sidewise Awards). Historical novels and histories. he occasional mystery or fantasy book; THE LIES OF LOCKE LAMORA was my most recent hot-stuff fantasy, and my favorite book of all time is LORD OF THE RINGS. (I like epic fantasy stuff, and not the stuff that is too weird (GORMENGHAST) or watered down (Shannara series, Thomas Covenant) to deal with. Throw in science stuff of all sorts; my to-read pile includes a ton of research on climate and history and whatnot for the ice age and since.