What BOOK are you reading right now?

I've been really busy in the fall semester, but I finally got around to finishing Nicholas Nickleby, Pride & Prejudice and Rabbit, Run. Updike excluded, I've been focusing on 19th century literary antecedents, before moving on to more recent fare. Right now, I'm finally getting around to reading Barchester Towers and The Scarlet Letter.



Well, I haven't read it, but the Theodore Roosevelt biography that I have heard good things about is by Edmund Morris. It is three volumes, of which only the first two have been released thus far. The first volume, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, won the Pulitzer Prize, and the second, Theodore Rex, was well-received and sold well. The first's about 800 pages, the second about 600. I've been told that you really should read the first before the second, which deals exclusively with his White House years.

Trying to plough through the complete Little Nemo in Slumberland so I have time to get it wrapped. Perfect gift for an architect, I think.

Too fast to do justice to Winsor McCay's fine draftsmanship, but I knew the job was dangerous when I voluteered.

I am reading Oliver Twist, Portrait of a Killer (Jack the Ripper) by Patricia Cornwell & last weeks comic books.

Gets a bit fuddled in the greyish world sometimes...but I'm loving Oliver Twist. Portrait is feeding my need to know stuff, and the comic books feed my imagination (Batman & Wonder Woman have decided they can pursure a relationship).

I just finished reading the Da Vinci Code. I know this book has been discussed on this thread many times. I must live in a vacuum, as this opened up all new information to me about the Priory and Opus Dei. I had never heard of this stuff, especially the beliefs of the Priory.

I grew up as a Baptist (I can hear you saying, "poor thing")...and this is certainly new information and a new way of thinking. I have already been investigating and will plan to investigate more.

I did like the book, moved almost too fast at times, and almost too twisty, but certainly exciting and interesting. Raised a lot of questions and new ideas for me.

My pulse was racing after reading FACT, before the book even started!

Skepticism is always the ehalthiest response. Read Baigent Leigh and Lincoln, and be prepared to be more shocked, then dismayed at their poor research skills.

I'd forgotten about Wilkie Collins...I'll have to look him up the next time I'm in the library.

I've read countless, count 'em, countless mysteries and police procedurals, and I have never heard of Wilkie Collins. I picked the book from the shelf because it had that telltale penguin on the binding. At the other end of the spectrum, I got to like the series with the raven on the binding. Speaking in 'paperback' here...

My new library language is "large print". If it ain't in large print, I hesitate. Fortunately I go to the county library where there is a very big collection of large print books.

The all time great Wilkie Collins novel (mystery) is The Lady in White. But the Moonstone is good, too.

Speaking of largeprint, or books on tape, which I haven't tried, Wilkie Collins' books might be good on tape.

Dune.

I'm taking a break after volume I of Barchester Towers. I read Slaughterhouse 5 this morning and just started Heart of Darkness.

Wilso, I read the Dune series in college during the 1970s. The first was required for a communications (Theories of Communication) class. I had to force myself to read each line for some time before getting into it, connecting with it. Good psychology, there.

Now, I'm reading every single line, forcing myself to that is, of the first off Lord of the Rings series. And, this is the 2nd time I've tried to pick up on something that keeps me going. Think I'll see the movies first. Can't for the life of me understand this.

From a Buick 8 - Stephen King

Epsilon, several people on this thread have read various Trollope novels. I've read quite a few including all the Barchester series except the last. I'm now into the Palliser series. As others on this thread know, Mrs. Hazlitt is a retired teacher and loves to read aloud. We do a couple of chapters a day. It's surprising how many novels you read in a year or two.

Right now we are doing Christmas stories. Three that we did recently are Stubby Pringle's Christmas by Jack Schafer (author of Shane), Christmas Story by H.L. Mencken, and Christmas is a Sad Time for the Poor by John Cheever. These are all great stories.

Against Love
I have been meaning for some time to mention that I read a book by Laura Kipnis, Against Love. Kipnis is a professor of media studies at Northwestern University, and is something of an Iconoclast. Her thought is that in the postmodern era marriage has outlasted its usefulness, and is likely to be more a source of misery than happiness.

Her style is light and often humorous.

She starts out lampooning the idea that we seem to have to work at marriage in order to keep it going. She parlays this idea into a long chapter and makes many good points. Her thought seems to be that if the marriage goes sour after five years, what fun is there in going to counselors for years on end and straining your brain to revive something that is giving you no joy.

Her second, and interminable, chapter is called Domestic Gulags. Here she manages, in brilliant style, to catalog every marriage problem and pit-fall that you have ever thought of and maybe a hundred or so that have not occurred to you. It's a bleak landscape.

Her last two chapters, in which she discusses the art of love and the pursuit of happiness, are mostly devoted to the idea that true bliss is to be found in casual adulterous and single liaisons. She points out that there are difficulties connected with "the pursuit" but that these pale beside those of the dreaded marriage union.

I think Kipnis is trying to give us an intellectual justification for abandoning what she seems to see as a vestigial institution.

I would agree that marriage has changed radically over the last hundred and fifty years. Maybe it's main functions are now companionship and the best means of raising children.

One comment I'd make is, if she thinks postmodern marriage is a lot of work; I say what about all the work and frustration connected with trying to find a life long succession of temporarily satisfying liaisons?

What I like best about this book is that it reconfirmed my determination not to waste time reading non-fiction books. By the way, this book was taken seriously by a reviewer in the Chicago Tribune. People who are down on marriage will find comfort and confirmation in these pages.

I'm not down on marriage, particularly, but Ms Kipnis' ideas are pretty close to my own. As to the work of maintaining a series of liaisons, maybe the point is you don't need a constant "other." When the liaison comes along, enjoy it until it isn't enjoyable any more. Move on, or just away, when it starts being work, whether it takes five days or five years. That sounds like a whole other thread, tho.
Just to be crabby, I'll say I wish you hadn't characterized fiction as a waste of time. I read plenty of fiction and non-, and don't consider my time wasted with either.
Just finished Maya Angelou's All God's Children Need Travelin' Shoes. I should read all she has written. Began LOTR - The Fellowship of the Ring again for the umpteenth time (Tex-Star, I'm sorry you're not connecting... give it a little more time. At least until the hobbits meet Tom Bombadil; he's a favorite of mine and they left him out of the films altogether, I guess. Haven't seen 'em yet.)...
Also Stephen Pinker's Blank Slate -- generally I love his work but can't quite dive into this yet. Maybe because I've been studying dot-NET programming and my brain craves stories rather than more thinking when I sit down to relax with a book.

Wy, Just for the record, I said that I find NON-FICTION a waste of time. This is, of course, hyperbolae. What I in particular find not useful is popular books about politics and controversial social issues. Most of these kinds of books come at us from a strong political position. We usually do not learn much from them. They either confirm our preconceived opinions or fuel our anger and outrage at those with whom we disagree. I have an idea that many authors and publishers are just pulling our tails to make money. If they can keep us chomping at the bit for the next Ann Coulter or Al Frankin book, if they can just keep us in a constant state of uproar, they can sell a lot of books. Most of these books are just a rehash of things we've already read.

Obviously, there is much wonderful non-fiction. I have many favorite authors who write other than fiction. For example I had an awful time today resisting the temptation to buy Isaiah Berlin's book on the romanticism. I forget the exact title. I know I'll read it one of these days. I just finished Joseph Epstine's little book Envy. An entertaining but serious discussion of the topic. Oxford university Press has commissioned 7 essayist to write on the 7 deadly sins.

I too like fiction. In fact I read mostly fiction. I think that most good fiction tries to say something to us as human beings.

You might enjoy Kipnis's book. She is a wonderfully entertaining writer-- Lots of flair, style, and schmaltz.

Thanks for your comments.

Hazlitt, !
I read that sentence completely backwards... my only excuse is that I was just talking to a couple of friends who DO think fiction is a waste of time (one of the fellas has read everything ever printed about ammunition used in WWII -- now there's a good use of time if ever I heard one... 'course, I'm guilty too, I actually own a book about bookshelves).
Anyhow, I'm sorry I misunderstood. And I think I'll ask for Against Love when I go to the library next. Thanks for the recommendation!

Is it X-rated