What have you been reading?

[Dark_Phoenix]

After reading this article about a man who burnt his books because he couldn't even give them away (I'm stuck in friggen Heathrow airport, flight was cancelled) and I got to thinking about how little we're reading because of time, school, work, etc..

The article says:
Wayne began burning his books in protest of what he sees as society's diminishing support for the printed word.

"This is the funeral pyre for thought in America today," Wayne told spectators outside his bookstore as he lit the first batch of books.

(...)

"I think, given the fact it is a protest of people not reading books, it's the best way to do it," Bechtel said. "(Wayne has) made the point that not reading a book is as good as burning it."

So from the beginning of 2006 until now... what novels, stories, and other published material (not counting newspapers or magazines) have you read?

 

[SingFrAbsoltion]

the beginning of 2006..my memory doesn't go that far back haha

but I'm trying to read every book Chuck Palahniuk has written. I have 2 more to read. I love his style, stories, just everything about his books

I went to his reading in NY in the beginning of May. I loved it =]

oh and on his official myspace i'm one of the top people. holla.

I also read a couple of books by Haruki Murakami..but I didn't have that much time because of school..I'm happy that I'll actually have time to read now that it's summer

 

[MisStarrlight]

I totally wish I could read more. I always feel much more accomplished when I finish a book. I suppose I could find the time, but I have trouble concentrating since about 1/2 way through college...that, and I seem to have forgotten how to pick a book that I'd actually enjoy.

So I don't remember all the way back to the beginning of 2006, but here are recent the ones I remember (in no particular order)...

Without You-Anthony Rapp
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass-Lewis Carroll (re-read)
How to Set His Thighs on Fire-Kate White
a Marilyn Monroe biography
one of Jenny McCarthy's books
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (re-read)
a Lucille Ball biography

I'm sure there are more, but I can't remember them right now. (I read about a book a week on the subway over last summer's commute to & from makeup school.)

 

[prinzessin784]

Oh man that reminds me of Farenheit 451 - I hated that book haha.

I read a lot, more than the average 22 year old (not counting Cosmo and Lucky mag). I love historical mysteries and dramas (loved the Wives of Henry VIII books!) and I'm also a big fan of adventure stories. Right now I'm re-reading (for like the 10th time) all the Harry Potter books to get ready for book 7, which can't come soon enough!!!

 

[Simply Elegant]

I really don't remember but right now I'm reading The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot and Rain by V.C. Andrews. I'm just into light reading right now, nothing too complicated since I've read enough textbooks recently.

 

[blueyedlady87]

Wow, since 2006? Probably at least 100. I'll try to remember some that stand out:
-Through A Glass Darkly
-Forever Amber
-A dozen or so books on Marilyn Monroe (I'm obsessed, lol!)
-Audrey Hepburn biography
-The Memory Keepers Daughter
-10 Years in Nevada
-Characters/Plot/Action & Suspense books from the How To Write Great Fiction series
-Oryx and Crake
-The Handmaids Tale
-No Angel
-Hollywood Babylon & the Hollywood Book of Death

-Flappers
-The Last Days of Sylvia Plath
-City of Falling Angels
-1984
-a bunch of Mary Higgins Clark
-Molokai
-Chronicles of Narnia
-501 Must Read Books
-Illustrated True Crime
-Alice in Wonderland (love it)
-The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906
-Don't Believe: How Lies Become News
-The Girls
-Negotiating With the Dead: A Writer on Writing
-Rebecca
-The Little Friend (awful book, btw)
-Lucille Ball biography
-Stiff: Curious Lives of Cadavers
-Fashion: A History from the 18th-21st Centuries
-The Fountainhead
-9/11: Debunking the Myths
-Dorothy Parker's New York
-The Great Gatsby
-Lord of the Flies (hated it)
-Jane Erye (hated it too)

And currently Ava Gardner: Love is Nothing, a biography, Memoirs of Cleopatra, Gravity's Rainbow (in small doses, lol), & Ayn Rand's A Guide to Fiction

I'm in love with reading. The way I see it, we only get one life but in reading we can cheat that by experiencing things we wouldn't otherwise. I'm not sure why that man would burn books in protest of people not valuing printed work more. Isn't that a tad hypocritical? But I do agree people value books less and less. People don't want to read when they can watch it on tv or hear about it on the net. We've become so instant-gratification oriented, and that's a shame. Literacy programs (or lack thereof) in schools are terrible. We have kids graduating high school who read at a junior-high level and that's sad. My favorite is when people read Vogue or mindless chick-lit and call themselves readers, mphfff- not. Sorry for the long post btw!

 

[TIERAsta]

i like to think of myself as a pretty avid reader. i buy a lot of second-hand books and every once in a while shack up at borders for a few hours and come out with some great stuff. i normally stick to crime dramas and such, but recently have been on a biographical streak. right now i'm reading front row - it's a biography of anna wintour (the editor in chief of VOGUE), especially since i'd like to be a fashion/beauty journalist!!

 

[blueyedlady87]

if anyone is interested here is the link to my amazon review page. it has some of the books i listed and others with my reviews on them.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-...stRecentReview

 

[vchen]

The Grapes of Wrath, Hiroshima, The Glass Menagerie, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, The Woman Warrior, Sula, Animal Dreams, And the Earth Did Not Devour Him... that's all I can remember.

 

[User49]

Funny that you should post this because I haven't read a book for so long i was getting worried, then my bf suggested we read in bed together so I dug out one of those books that has been on the shelf for a long time, but I've never got around to it. It's called Tattoo Girl by Brooke Stevens. So far I'm not regretting picking it up. It's been far too long since I read a book. The last one I tried to read was The Devil Wears Prada bc I liked the movie, but books are usually better as you get more insight. But I got bored half way and haven't bothered since. Before that it was Nicci French The Red Room. I need to read more. I'd like to anyway.

 

[User49]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vchen The Grapes of Wrath, Hiroshima, The Glass Menagerie, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, The Woman Warrior, Sula, Animal Dreams, And the Earth Did Not Devour Him... that's all I can remember.

I love Grapes of Wrath. It's so good. Well when you plow thru it and get to the end... I actually cried at the end it was that powerfull writing.

 

[Dark_Phoenix]

For school: War & Peace, Crime & Punishment, A Farewell to Arms, The Sound and the Fury, Huckleberry Finn, The Scarlet Letter, Founding Brothers, Ragtime, MacBeth, Wuthering Heights, The Bluest Eye, Putin's Russia, The Old Curiousity Shop, Genesis/Exodus/Leviticus/Numbers/Deuteronomy, The Hadith, The Way to a Meaningful Life, A Brief History of Ancient Religion, Moby Dick, Benito Cereno

All books for mostly English, Russian, US History, and Theology.

On my Own: Oryx and Crake (again), Team of Rivals, Alexander Hamilton: A Life, 1776, Blood Canticle, The Godfather Trilogy, Russia: From Revolution to Reform, Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, Beyond Good and Evil (<best books I've read all year!!!), Simulacra and Simulation, The Illusion of the End, The Antichrist, Twilight of the Idols, Thus Spoke Zarathrusta, On the Geneology of Morality, The Unpublished Notebooks (Nietzsche), The Intelligence of Evil or the Lucidity of the Pact

O_O Um... yeah. I'm a huge fan of Nietzsche, Baudrillard, and anything about America's founding fathers. Beyond Good and Evil, On the Geneology of Morality, and The Godfather Trilogy are my favorite books I can remember reading this year.

 

[gracetre123]

All from Isabel Allende, I'm a big fan...

anyone has read THE SECRET?? is it good??

TIA

 

[chipmunkvoice]

^ i bought the book... i remember reading it and literally falling asleep after chapter 2 (i was already tired so it wasnt entirely due to the book haha) and i havent read anymore since then. It looked really appealing and interesting when i saw it on Oprah but after reading two chapters... i think its just another craze that will pass. I'm not sure if its classified as a self-help book but they have never really appealled to me anyways ... i thought this one might be different but i guess not. I think i might resell the book ... its better for someone else to read than for it to be sitting on my shelf gathering dust.

I'm currently reading "How To Walk in High Heels" and im liking every page haha
Other books i've read this year are : I Want Those Shoes, The Secret Dreamworld Of a Shopaholic, Shopaholic Abroad (i absolutely LOVE Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic series... need to read the next few), Captivating, .................. i cant think of what i've read. I've been on a bit of a hiatus haha But i love sitting in borders and reading ....... and not buying *cheap* haha

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emma_Frost On my Own: Oryx and Crake (again), Team of Rivals, Alexander Hamilton: A Life, 1776, Blood Canticle, The Godfather Trilogy, Russia: From Revolution to Reform, Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, Beyond Good and Evil (<best books I've read all year!!!), Simulacra and Simulation, The Illusion of the End, The Antichrist, Twilight of the Idols, Thus Spoke Zarathrusta, On the Geneology of Morality, The Unpublished Notebooks (Nietzsche), The Intelligence of Evil or the Lucidity of the Pact O_O Um... yeah. I'm a huge fan of Nietzsche, Baudrillard, and anything about America's founding fathers. Beyond Good and Evil, On the Geneology of Morality, and The Godfather Trilogy are my favorite books I can remember reading this year.

Well done to you

Baudrillard does my head in sometimes ... i had to read Simulacra and Simulation, The System of Objects for uni and aaaaargh it made my head hurt haha but i guess Baudrillard isnt as bad as Marx or Freud.