Maybe next year will be the year that I finally keep a book diary

[thatgirly]

I don't read nearly as much as I once did, but I still read quite a bit, especially during the periods of time when I'm not in school, which I anticipate having a lot more of now that I'm, you know, done with school and all. I have repeatedly tried to keep track of the books that I read, either in list form, or in post form, or in brief review form

Comments

[thatgirly]

Honestly, most of what I read is total trash, but what I tend to want from a novel is an escape. I think novels do for me what heroin does for other people. I get completely transported, ignore my life and responsibilities, and then walk around in a fog for awhile afterwards trying to incorporate the experience I just had with all of the "real life" that seems to have been going on in my absence. The good news is that it doesn't destroy any of my organs, or threaten my immune system, and novels are much, much cheaper than drugs! (Free, at the library!)

If you like fantasy stuff at all, I'd recommend Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series. They're not high literature, by any stretch, but the guy can turn a phrase, and the plots will keep you up later than you meant for them to. :) A slightly more mature novel that I read this year was Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen. I cried. For about a chapter. Maybe two. I read a couple of his other novels as well, but they didn't make me care nearly so much.

It seems like you tend towards more "serious" fiction than I do. I read Wuthering Heights this time last year. It was a beautiful kind of miserable. A little too real in its portrayal of the bitterness and hatred we have a tendency to inflict upon each other. I can't abide Russian literature, unless you count Nabokov (and he clearly doesn't count). Even at my most angsty, it was too angsty for me. Good luck and God's speed if you can slog your way through Anna Karenina though!

I don't think I've read any Haley. Of course I watched Roots as a kid, and recall it being incredibly powerful. But my ability to forget movies/shows is only rivaled by my ability to forget books. Stupid crowded brain!

Thanks for your support on the lack of plot in The Prince. I may have to re-read it now just so I'll (briefly) know what I've forgotten. When I relayed this post to D (who can't be bothered to remember his password so that he can read these entries for himself) his comment was: "You read Machiavelli at 12 or 13? No wonder you're so crazy!" He might have a point. :)

[karinablack]

We should totally bookswap.

I trudged through Anna Karenina at 12. No book has ever pissed me off more.

I really liked Michael Crichton. I like the scientific details he adds in. Have you read him? and OMG Gregory Maguire just captivated me!

I've heard from Lilith I need to try the Dresden Files. I may just! Thanks!

[thatgirly]

I get most of my books either at the library of via my Nook these days, so book-swapping isn't super feasible, sadly. I do like suggestion swapping though!

I read a fair amount of Crichton, and I feel his stories are great, but his punctuation habits make me want to punch him in the neck. I've settled on enjoying the movies based on his books. I couldn't put Wicked down, but the others in the series left me feeling a little deflated. They were good, but he kind of shot his wad with Wicked, I felt.

Lilith is right! You should! You might also get a kick out of Pamela Ribon's stuff. It puts the lit back into chick lit. I've read and enjoyed Why Girls Are Weird, Why Moms Are Weird, and Going in Circles.