More book-related nattering
So lost_spook said "yay for having nice books to read!" and I was starting to chatter at her about ALL THE NICE BOOKS (and possibly nice books) that I have found on Project Gutenberg and not read yet, and it began to be... a bit infinitely long. So I moved it to a post! XD
I am rather boggled by how much my Kindle-reading habits differ from my paper-book-reading habits. I seem to prefer really long books that I can't finish in one sitting, for the Kindle; right now I'm working my way through The Three Musketeers, mostly at bus-stops, and I'm about 17% finished. But I don't mind. XD Whereas fanfics and short-story collections often languish unread.
Anyway! I have a truly absurd number of Books To Read on here. Some of them I got because people squeed at me about them (see Three Musketeers, also lost_spook); some of them simply because I heard of them somewhere years ago and am not quite clear on why they are famous. ;P Feel free to squee at me about particular favorites, or link me more! XD
* The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. Mainly because my little sister keeps talking economics at me and I am quite sure the textbook she got it out of was bosh. (Anything that contains the sentence "Therefore Communism is actually a capitalist system" gives me a permanent suspicious squint.) Hey, I've got to start somewhere... O_O
* The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, courtesy of sophia_sol's squeeing. I don't know whose translation / retelling, though; it says Anonymous. (According to Sophia they are mostly retellings, and quite inaccurate.)
* Jane Eyre. Because I read it when I was five and need to give it another chance.
* Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 1. Because I've mostly only read abridged versions. *shock, horror* Those were what we had handy, and I'll read anything when bored. (Even though I do not hold with abridging anything.)
* A Little Princess (the long version of Sara Crewe). Mainly because I am completely confused as to whether the lengthened book has a different ending or whether they only changed it in the movies.
* The Time Machine and The Invisible Man, both by H.G. Wells. I also thought about getting First Men in the Moon, but eh. Thoughts, anyone?
* Allan Quatermain, She, and King Solomon's Mines, all by H. Rider Haggard. These are books I randomly heard of as classics a long time ago and said "eh, why the heck not?" when I ran across them.
* Song of Hiawatha. I never did get around to reading the whole thing in paper-copy, because... well, poetry. I tend to have to read poetry aloud. o_O But Longfellow was a very good poet. (Also he liked kids, which is always a plus in my book. *g*)
* Moby Dick. Because I rather enjoy books that seem to have swallowed a science encyclopedia by mistake; see also 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which I read when I was eight and enjoyed immensely, except for the bit about the squids because that gave me nightmares. ;-)
* The four Jane Austens I haven't read yet (Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey). I have to be careful and ration these, because too many people getting paired off in a row will depress me exceedingly - don't even get me started on Louisa May Alcott, I have a whole rant about Rose in Bloom - but Jane Austen is one of, um, two romance authors I will read at all, so there's that.
(The other one is a random modern Christian novelist who writes the crackiest Western adventures I have ever seen, with the romance kind of... off to the side, metaphorically speaking. His name's Stephen Bly, and he is hilarious.)
* Journey to the Center of the Earth (which I've only read in abridged form) and Around the World in 80 Days (which I've only flipped through in passing). I suspect they're both a lot more interesting in French, but my French is about limited to "Je ne parle pas Francais; parlez-vous Anglais?" *g*
* Tristam Shandy. Also Don Quixote. Both selected because they're extremely long and said to be amusing. And Dorothy Sayers has Harriet bring Tristam Shandy to the beach, which I take as a recommendation for bus-stop reading. XD
* The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson. Because I like "Kidnapped" and various others of his works. Also Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, because it is one of those things that is reputedly always being referenced wrong.
* Works [short stories and poems] of Rudyard Kipling in one volume. Yay Kipling! :D
* History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides. I tried the paper version, liked what I read - hey, he starts out with a history of Greek ship types! - but only got partway through because small print and yellowing paper are not good for my eyes. So, yay Kindle!
* Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. This one's on the recommendation of GK Chesterton, who was a big fan of Walt Whitman's poetry. (Chesterton disliked Kipling's work, as indeed Tolkien disliked Chesterton's, so his taste was obviously not impeccable, but I thought I might as well give it a try.)
* The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. Another very large classic I kept meaning to read but haven't yet managed to keep out of the library long enough.
* A random Zane Grey - "The Mysterious Rider". I tried Louis L'Amour and didn't especially like him (I am quite willing to give him another try, though, if anyone has a particular book to recommend), and Owen Wister's "The Virginian" is frankly only good for poking fun at; let's see if Zane Grey is any better. I picked the most popular of his books on Project Gutenberg, basically at random.
I am rather boggled by how much my Kindle-reading habits differ from my paper-book-reading habits. I seem to prefer really long books that I can't finish in one sitting, for the Kindle; right now I'm working my way through The Three Musketeers, mostly at bus-stops, and I'm about 17% finished. But I don't mind. XD Whereas fanfics and short-story collections often languish unread.
Anyway! I have a truly absurd number of Books To Read on here. Some of them I got because people squeed at me about them (see Three Musketeers, also lost_spook); some of them simply because I heard of them somewhere years ago and am not quite clear on why they are famous. ;P Feel free to squee at me about particular favorites, or link me more! XD
* The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. Mainly because my little sister keeps talking economics at me and I am quite sure the textbook she got it out of was bosh. (Anything that contains the sentence "Therefore Communism is actually a capitalist system" gives me a permanent suspicious squint.) Hey, I've got to start somewhere... O_O
* The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, courtesy of sophia_sol's squeeing. I don't know whose translation / retelling, though; it says Anonymous. (According to Sophia they are mostly retellings, and quite inaccurate.)
* Jane Eyre. Because I read it when I was five and need to give it another chance.
* Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 1. Because I've mostly only read abridged versions. *shock, horror* Those were what we had handy, and I'll read anything when bored. (Even though I do not hold with abridging anything.)
* A Little Princess (the long version of Sara Crewe). Mainly because I am completely confused as to whether the lengthened book has a different ending or whether they only changed it in the movies.
* The Time Machine and The Invisible Man, both by H.G. Wells. I also thought about getting First Men in the Moon, but eh. Thoughts, anyone?
* Allan Quatermain, She, and King Solomon's Mines, all by H. Rider Haggard. These are books I randomly heard of as classics a long time ago and said "eh, why the heck not?" when I ran across them.
* Song of Hiawatha. I never did get around to reading the whole thing in paper-copy, because... well, poetry. I tend to have to read poetry aloud. o_O But Longfellow was a very good poet. (Also he liked kids, which is always a plus in my book. *g*)
* Moby Dick. Because I rather enjoy books that seem to have swallowed a science encyclopedia by mistake; see also 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which I read when I was eight and enjoyed immensely, except for the bit about the squids because that gave me nightmares. ;-)
* The four Jane Austens I haven't read yet (Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey). I have to be careful and ration these, because too many people getting paired off in a row will depress me exceedingly - don't even get me started on Louisa May Alcott, I have a whole rant about Rose in Bloom - but Jane Austen is one of, um, two romance authors I will read at all, so there's that.
(The other one is a random modern Christian novelist who writes the crackiest Western adventures I have ever seen, with the romance kind of... off to the side, metaphorically speaking. His name's Stephen Bly, and he is hilarious.)
* Journey to the Center of the Earth (which I've only read in abridged form) and Around the World in 80 Days (which I've only flipped through in passing). I suspect they're both a lot more interesting in French, but my French is about limited to "Je ne parle pas Francais; parlez-vous Anglais?" *g*
* Tristam Shandy. Also Don Quixote. Both selected because they're extremely long and said to be amusing. And Dorothy Sayers has Harriet bring Tristam Shandy to the beach, which I take as a recommendation for bus-stop reading. XD
* The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson. Because I like "Kidnapped" and various others of his works. Also Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, because it is one of those things that is reputedly always being referenced wrong.
* Works [short stories and poems] of Rudyard Kipling in one volume. Yay Kipling! :D
* History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides. I tried the paper version, liked what I read - hey, he starts out with a history of Greek ship types! - but only got partway through because small print and yellowing paper are not good for my eyes. So, yay Kindle!
* Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. This one's on the recommendation of GK Chesterton, who was a big fan of Walt Whitman's poetry. (Chesterton disliked Kipling's work, as indeed Tolkien disliked Chesterton's, so his taste was obviously not impeccable, but I thought I might as well give it a try.)
* The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. Another very large classic I kept meaning to read but haven't yet managed to keep out of the library long enough.
* A random Zane Grey - "The Mysterious Rider". I tried Louis L'Amour and didn't especially like him (I am quite willing to give him another try, though, if anyone has a particular book to recommend), and Owen Wister's "The Virginian" is frankly only good for poking fun at; let's see if Zane Grey is any better. I picked the most popular of his books on Project Gutenberg, basically at random.