What are you reading?

[Dinahann]

I received State of Fear for Christmas but haven't started it yet. I know what it's about, and I'm eager to read his point-of-view. I remember as far back as Jurassic Park that he had Ian Malcolm utter something to the effect of "Global warming being good for living creatures because we thrive on the sun."

I've waited over ten years to hear Crichton explain what the hell he's talking about.

He does explain it, complete with graphs and charts - but not in an overly complicated way. He has also included appendices and a bibliography. What I want to know is how someone can be so diverse and yet still so knowledgeable. Makes me feel like a remedial student. I'm anxious to see what you think of it.

[phat32]

He does explain it, complete with graphs and charts - but not in an overly complicated way. He has also included appendices and a bibliography. What I want to know is how someone can be so diverse and yet still so knowledgeable. Makes me feel like a remedial student. I'm anxious to see what you think of it.

It will probably be my next read.

I've put the other books I'm reading (Digital Fortress, Quicksilver, The Vanishing Man, The Know-It-All, et. al.) aside for the moment as I bear down on Dean Koontz's Life Expectancy.

I bring this up because (a) I've never read a Koontz book all the way through and (b) Koontz is one of my least favorite authors, along with Anne Rice and Tom Clancy; I don't like Dean's stilted, awkward composition:

Tears damp on his cheeks, green eyes washed clear of bitter emotions, and clear of doubts as well, the maniac had the look of a pilgrim who has been to the mountaintop and knows his destiny, his purpose. - Dean Koontz, Life Expectancy

(I like the metaphor, but "green eyes washed clear of bitter emotions"? And, c'mon, Dean, was it the thesaurus' day off? "Maniac"?)

(Rice's problem, in my humble opinion, is her god-awful Faulkner-like construction, and I simply find Clancy dull as grass.)

I picked this book up for the worst of reasons: I liked what I read on the jacket blurb, and he has overcome some of the awkwardness in his previous books.

LE is the story of a man whose grandfather predicted at his birth that he would face "five terrible days" in the course of his life. The grandfather gives the dates of those "five terrible days."

So call me a sucker, but I can't resist the premise.

[nausicaa]

The Master - Colm Toibin

ETA: Also skimming through a '84 issue of Granta best of. Martin Amis, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan,and a pre-bald Salman Rushdie. Pretty good, yeah.

[nausicaa]

(Rice's problem, in my humble opinion, is her god-awful Faulkner-like construction

Aaarghh!. Sorry to double-post, but please let's not diss Rice by debasing Faulkner's anything, 'mkay? The two don't even, like, inhabit the same geoliterary landscape (okay, correct that, they're both from the south, but c'mon, the styles and techniques are totally diff.!) The meridian mistress of gothic/horror owes more to that other Ann, Ann Radcliffe.

[phat32]

Dinahann, I finished Life Expectancy--not too bad--and have just cracked State of Fear. I'm about 50 pages in, and so far, so good, although I've already taken exception to some of Crichton's misnomers for information technology.

[Duxxy]

The Egg Nog Chronicles - I thought it was going to be light - a la Briget Jones but it just got heavy on me all of a sudden

[Dinahann]

I've put the other books I'm reading (Digital Fortress, Quicksilver, The Vanishing Man, The Know-It-All, et. al.) aside for the moment as I bear down on Dean Koontz's Life Expectancy.

I bring this up because (a) I've never read a Koontz book all the way through and(b) Koontz is one of my least favorite authors...I don't like Dean's stilted, awkward composition...
I picked this book up for the worst of reasons: I liked what I read on the jacket blurb, and he has overcome some of the awkwardness in his previous books.

Unfortunately I find I've grown increasingly less fond of Koontz. I still think the "good dog" books are his best efforts; his love for four legged creatures shines through in many of his works and bless him for that, however, his characters are of the absolute good/evil variety that inevitably bore me before the end of the book. I really would like to see one of his protagonists have an ambiguous motive or an occasional ambivalent thought. Not jaded, am I?

Dinahann, I finished Life Expectancy--not too bad--and have just cracked State of Fear. I'm about 50 pages in, and so far, so good, although I've already taken exception to some of Crichton's misnomers for information technology.

for you that you managed to finish a Koontz book! It was a quick read, wasn't it? As for Crichton, I feel I'm falling for his line. Help me to be objective!

[charstar813]

I'm rereading Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World. It's one of my favorites. Next up are Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude both by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I read One Hundred Years of Solitude in high school, but I don't remember it. I was pretty blitzed back then.

[geek the girl]

I am currently reading The Crimson Petal and the White, a nice quick read of about 900 pages. I wouldn't mind it being longer though; it's that kind of book that creates a world on its own, and as a reader you can't help being sucked in. The subject matter - prostitution in Victorian era London - is also very interesting. This one reads as a MUCH more liberal Dickens novel, with sparkling use of language and great characterization.

Also recieved a whole bunch of books for Christmas: The Falls by my darling Joyce Carol Oates (she can do no wrong), Just One Look by Harlan Coben, Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë, Case Histories by Kate Atkinson and a biography on Johnny Cash. Can't wait to read all of them. I suppose I'll just have to cancel all my social activities for a couple of weeks

[charstar813]

Geek the Girl, I almost bought The Crimson Petal and the White a few days ago. Sounds very interesting. Hmm, I'll have to remember to pick it up.