What BOOK are you reading right now?

I can't take Lawrence Durrell seriously after having read all of Gerald Durrell's books... poor guy.

The latest offering from my much-maligned book club has been surprisingly fun. Light light light but enjoyable. "The Next Thing on My List." It has a good plot engine and then takes a satisfactory detour at the end -- as I saw an Extremely Conventional ending looming I started to get grumpy, but it was averted.

I've been reading In The Skin of The Lion.

I listened to it as a radio play shortly after it was published and enjoyed it tremendously.

I'm finding it a bit disconcerting to read. I didn't realize how much of my real-life landscape is in there. Marmora, the Depot Lakes, the Napanee River, the Bloor Viaduct, the Harris Walter Filtration Plant. My childhood + places I travel by regularly, or in the case of the viaduct - objects I'm on daily. Weird-ish.

Great writing.

Collapse - Jared Diamond

Soz, I had a personal argument with Lawrence Durrell as I was reading (yes, he talked about his brother, slightly) from about half way through the book. Still glad I read it through, saying to myself, he is not me and that was >fifty years ago..

And I gleaned background, much of the point of much of my reading. True, background reported will fight background reported, and so it goes.

He kept mentioning the peasants, like his contractor, and others. This is out of my sphere, the whole peasant thing as separate from us, whoever be us, and it's an - I think unintentional - thread through the book, with a kind of telling resonance past his glimmering.

I'm glad enough to read counterpoint, should I see it. But if nothing else, it's a font of quotable quotes about landscape, some of which I relate to.

He reminds me of Theroux in a way, Paul, not Peter or Alexander, though I might have to work at saying why, past the word arrogance, which doesn't always work re either of them, at least every minute of typing, but seems a robust component of the writing of both.

Adding, sometimes his writing stopped me in my tracks..
re images in my mind from his words,
but, I sometimes recoil from a bath of all that,
words too much too far,
though I wouldn't be able to point out a sentence and say,
"that is the one that is too much".

Still, glad I read it, even recommend it.

That makes perfect sense, especially Paul Theroux and arrogance, I know just what you mean, osso.

Beth, I loved "In the Skin of the Lion." Amazing writing, my favorite of Ondaatje's (sp?) books. Even more so than "The English Patient," which was "Brokeback Mountain" before "Brokeback Mountain," for me -- a much-loved piece of literature that was made into a movie I can't quite bear to see even though it's supposed to be very good. (Haven't seen either one, yet.)

Highly recommended, along with Diamond's earlier work Guns, Germs and Steel.

Just finished my monthly National Geographics, now, back to Crime and Punishment.

Absolutely - I loved Guns, Germs and Steel.

So did I, hinge. I got Collapse when it first came out. But I've been "sampling" it, just reading a chapter here, a chapter there. Too many other irons in the fire to just sit down and give it the justice it deserves. The chapter on the settlement and eventual collapse of the first European community on Greenland is fascinating and eye-opening. It blew my mind how stupidly the Nosemen acted.

I finished In The Skin of The Lion. Had to kind of mentally pause for a moment. What a book. I could never get into the texture of The English Patient, but this - I'm still wowed. I'll be re-reading it sooner rather than later.

Then, thinking I wanted something fluffy I picked



off of my little (cough cough) stack of books to be read.

Not fluffy, but fantastic. I recognize some of the hamburgers' friends and their/our experiences.

Sort of a Canadian cousin to



which I raved about last year.

Just finished the Ladies Lending Library. Definitely not fluffy. I'm not sure if I wanted it to end or not to end, but I certainly reacted to it.

Quicksands, a memoir by Sybille Bedford

Describes a world about as far removed from mine as you can get. I'm enjoying it.

currently reading " HOT AIR" by jeffrey simpson (canadian journalist) -
"meeting canada's climate change challenge " .
the book was co-written with two scientists from simon fraser university and tries to get "non-scientists" to understand the changes that already have taken place , those likely to take place and how it will likely effect the environment and the people living in canada .
imo it is well-written and makes it possible to understand climate change without a lot of jargon , massive tables etc .
many examples that are easy to understand for many canadians are used throughout .
i give it 4 out of 5 stars .

i'm also trying to at least skim through "CHARLES DARWIN - VOYAGING" by janet browne , before we see the "darwin exhibition" at the royal ontario museum in toronto in two weeks . this exhibition is the first major exhibition in the world taking a comprehensive look at darwin's work .
looking forard to the visit .

of course , i cannot live or sleep without reading at least a few pages from RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY - rumpole has replaced wodehouse's bertie wooster for the time being (now being re-run on TV-ONTARIO - we make sure to watch bertie and jeeves :wink: ) .
hbg

Just finished: There's a boy in the girl's bathroom.

A book I bought for my stepdaughter, but while packing had a look inside and could not stop reading since it was so funny.

Also started: The Sugar Camp Quilt (Jenniver Chiaverini)

But have not yet given up on 'you know what'!

You Can't Win
Jack Black

it's a wonder the Soviet Union survived as long as it did

I just finished "Cool It" by Bjorn Lomborg---a fascinating look at some alernatives available in the "global warming" controversy".

"An Irish Country Doctor"
Patrick Taylor

" THree Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson.

Wonderful, Inspiring...
First book that I felt compelled to order in bulk from Amazon.com for my friends.

All I can say is if my Son could be 1/10 of a Greg Mortenson I would feel my Job in this world was done.