Comfort Books

Nov 18, 2006 02:00

I have lost my book reviewing edge lately. I got a little too obsessed with my reviewer rank (#364, fuck yeah!). I broke 1000, which took a year, and then broke 500 in no time at all. And now I don't care. At all ( Read more... )

francesca lia block, reviews, books, john irving, richard brautigan

Leave a comment

Comments 13

quirkytizzy November 18 2006, 13:45:39 UTC
I ADORE Francesa Lia Block's writing! I have read most of the series set in LA, her writing style is pure visual ice cream. It's hard to find a novel that reads like poetry, but she has done it!

Reply


antarcticlust November 18 2006, 14:52:15 UTC
Watership Down, Richard Adams
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Bette Smith
His Dark Materials Trilogy, Philip Pullman
Song of Fire & Ice series, George R. R. Martin (you should check these out- they're dirty and gritty and like a soap opera for smart people, and completley engaging, even if you're not a fantasy fan- there's practically no "magic" at all; it's all intrigue)
Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (ok, I've only read it once, but I know I'll read it again and again!)

This list is a bit dishonest, because The Lord of the Rings should be on there (I reread that annually), but people tend to know where they fall on that one, so it doesn't make a good suggestion.

I've been trying really hard not to let Amazon dictate my reading interests. I figure there's no need to rush things, and for a while I was only interested in reading "unreviewed" or "underreviewed" things at the expense of reading older titles that I needed to flesh out my reperatoire. Like The Name of the Rose, which I just finished and absolutely loved (Umberto Eco is my new ( ... )

Reply

infloresence November 19 2006, 04:41:54 UTC
Oooh, yay for Eco. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana is on my to-read list this summer.

Reply


blozor November 18 2006, 15:40:35 UTC
I'm in the process of reading through a book called Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door by Lynne Truss. It's not an actual etiquette book. Instead, it explores why it seems civility and ettiquette are falling by the wayside in modern society in a nice balance between being informative, poignant, and containing that wonderful British wit. The author draws parallels to today's society from writings hundreds of years in the past to illustrate that we're not exactly getting less civil, but we're just being rude in different ways. It doesn't actually tell you how to be polite, (realistically, you either are or you aren't - it's a conscious decision, and no amount of booklearning is going to sway your mentality), but more of a rallying cry for people who are sick of being told to "Eff off" for no good reason and other such social conundrums. It's a really entertaining read. I was planning on writing about it eventually, when I got closer to the finish. She ( ... )

Reply


beforetoday November 18 2006, 15:46:05 UTC
I heartily enjoyed In a Sunburned Country. And you know I've been pimping The Green Glass Sea for the past week or so, so I'll recommend it to you too! :)

###

Reply


autumnhawk November 18 2006, 18:02:32 UTC
Now that's an awesome book list. Nicholson Baker is the only one I'm not familiar with. Based on how good the rest of the list is I should check it out I guess.

Reply

lagizma November 18 2006, 21:31:29 UTC
Intellectual smut. Vox is a fabulous book. I already read it twice in the last two months.

Reply


Leave a comment

Up