What BOOK are you reading right now?

I loved In the Heart of the Sea, which I read while proctoring the MCAS
(state competency tests for kiddos)/ What a great writer, the historian as novelist.

I am a big fan of his Mayflower book. Even bought an audiobook copy for my father for Christmas a couple of years ago.

She is! Impressive characterization by Larson.

Thanks for the heads-up, Tsar. I might watch it just to see what they do with it. I've already been through the excruciating-movie-version-of-a-book-I-just-read, (Harry Potter #4, "Goblet of Fire." Sozlet and I were yelling at the screen the whole time. "But THAT didn't happen! That's SO wrong. And where's DOBBY??"), doubt it's worse than that.

I think there's a new American version coming out soon, too.

five hours into listening to The Passage (almost 40 hours), pretty good so far, in my opinion better than The Stand so far

I'm starting again with The Book of the Courtier, by Baldesar Castiglione (1528).
I made a first attempt with it - oh, maybe seven years ago.

I'm on page 49. The actual start of the book is at page 39 (well, in this paperback edition) after the introduction by the translator, George Bull (very useful, in this case) and a note by Castiglione himself, and list of participants in the discussions in the book/who they were in history.

This is an old paperback, which has smallish print (urggggh) and is falling apart as I pass yet another page. I'll probably have to dig up a clamp from my old desk supplies box.

So far so good, though I'm only ten pages in.

It's the 1976 paperback I'm reading..
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=baldezar+castiglione&x=13&y=18

This reminds me of the last paperback I read that was falling apart and turned out to be utterly fascinating - Danube, by Claudio Magris - not so much re the subject matter, quite different, as for the reward of the reading. I have that one held together by a gold elasticized band.. with a bow.

the book I'm not reading right now (because I can't find it in the house) but I read and have read numerous times is "Finite and Infinite Games" by James Carse. This is for me, a life changing book written by a self described "religious atheist."

I saw the movie The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and thought it terrific. Saw the Girl who ate Fire, thought that slow-moving-nothing much happening. So, don't know what I'll do about the third. Sometimes wish I had just read the books.

Me, too, Dys. I started reading a really good book about three days ago...only about 15 pages into it...was busy for a few days getting ready for houseguests and now I can't find the book. I've looked everywhere. And I can't remember the title or the author.

I know exactly what you mean which is why I generally read two books at a time. I can generally find one!

MA, You might like Empire of the Summer Moon by Gwynne, which I'm just finishing. Great read about the Cheyenne and the last years of the Plains Indians

I will find Philbrick's book to read next. A Flaubert pretender should make for good reading, and at least the author has worthy aspirations.

Not the Cheyenne....the Comanches

I want to read Madame Bovary again and might try an audiobook. iTunes offers three or four versions. Two are read by Clare Bloom, two others are read by men. I can't decide which rendition would work best. Any ideas/experiences here?

I can't even guess how many years ago I read Madame Bovary.

I've actually listened to only one audio book: Bailey's Cafe by Gloria Naylor. The readers were excellent and so is the book. The reason I listened to that one is because I was chairman of the book group that year and I couldn't get my hands on a print copy easily . . . it was borrowed from the library and sold out at the local bookstore with just three days left prior to the discussion.

I should rent or borrow audio books for my long ride but I have so little time that I can't get over to the library to do so!

I can guess, Dys...but it will remain a deep dark secret

I read it in college and then about ten years later. I loved the book and want to remember why.

POM, I have listened to hundreds of audio books, mostly from the pub lib or from iTunes to my iPod. Apart from a few forays into passing NPR stations while I'm doing one of my frequent eight-hour drives, I listen to audiobooks. I've "read" history, biography, fiction and non-fiction, classics, you-name-it. I have poetry collections on CD that I keep in my car.

Also, I listen to books when I do long walks on a local path...not when I'm on an adventure walk or mountain trek, of course.

POM, there are certain books I would not listen to...novelists such as Coetzee, Damon Galgut, J. G. Farrell, Sebastian Barry, Ian McEwan, Peter Carey, Kingsley Amis...to mention a few in recent years. How the words look on the printed page are part of the experience of certain types of literature.

Actually, the quote I posted earlier (history as written by Flaubert) is in regard to Connell's Son of the Morning Star, not Philbrick's new opus.