I got these two as gifts this year-both were on my to-read list, so I'll be diving into them pretty soon:
The Unbearable Lightness of Scones, by Alexander McCall Smith - seemed like it would be a quick read to tide me over to the books undoubtedly under the tree for Christmas. Not so much. I can't quite abandon it, but it has been touch an go! I mean, it is nice, and sweet, and there are some interesting characters, but Smith seems rather proud that it veers here and there with pace rather than plot (since, the preface explains, that's real life). Ultimately I don't dislike it.
About five to choose from at the moment, some heavy, some light. Think I'll go with light: Juliet, Naked from Nick Hornby.
Is Louis Lamoure the official dimestore western writer of Big Soccer? Does no one love Zane Grey anymore? I swear every other book in this thread is Louis Lamour. His heirs must be rolling in it.
The more hip of us western readers go for Ernest Haycox. L'amour is okay if you're into poppier westerns, but Haycox is huge in Germany.
Well, if your stated plan (as Atouk posted earlier in the year) is to read all of the L'Amour oeuvre, then it'll be more than 100 books before another author pops up.
Just started: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Master-His-Emissary-Divided-Western/dp/0300168926/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I314ZM3O0SEIXH&colid=29OJH9CXF83YT"]Amazon.com: The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (9780300168921): Iain McGilchrist: Books[/ame] Fascinating. Just finished the first book in the Stieg Larsson trilogy. A good story reasonably well told. Maybe the English translation didn't do justice to the original Swedish. Entertaining, but I can't say I'm too interested in reading any more of his stuff.
Brady Udall's The Lonely Polygamist - about 100 pages in. It is terrific, complex and funny and heartbreaking all at the same time.
My last book for 2010, which I won't finish this year unless our New Year's Eve plans fall apart, I'm Off Then by German comic Hape Kerkeling. It covers his walk (mostly) along the Camino del Santiago in Spain. Damn funny, and probably my Best Travel book for 2010.
Since I've seen a few good reviews (in this thread and elsewhere) on Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell, I thought I would give it a try. I'm almost halfway through, and though its good it just is not a funny as I had anticipated.
Same thing happened with me and 'Confederacy of Dunces.' Boss, coworkers, people on BS all LOVED it. And I hated it. Every word. Wanted horrible things to happen to Ignatius and they never came. I think humorous books are the hardest to recommended as well as take recommendations on.
I didn't like Confederacy of Dunces the first time I tried to read it. But then I started graduate school at Louisiana State Univeristy, where part of the novel takes place. I thought it was pretty good when I read it on the bus home over the semester. But I hesitate to recommend it to very many people. As they say about a lot of funny things, "you had to be there." Quite a few bigsoccer readers will dig this one, I think: The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel. I spent a bit of our giftcard on it. My elementary school relied on the "bookmobile" when I was a kid. There's a picture of the Colombian equivalent in Manguel's book, the "Biblio burro," and that led me to buy it.
Picked this up with a holiday gift card. I started reading this 12 years ago at college under my former trainer's (RIP) advice, and since I'm back riding again, thought it would be a good time to buy a copy and finish it up. Obviously not something I expect y'all to run out and buy , but it's a handy tool with tons of visualization exercises that really do help a rider.
Did that old lady get shot or is she having a belly laugh at the other person's expense (or the horse's expense for that matter)?
One Second After I am about halfway through this. It seems like the writer just watched the show Jericho and made his own story around the same circumstance.
William Gibson Zero History I enjoyed his previous two novels set in this world. I am also curious if the relative lack of buzz for this one is at all indicative.
200 some pages left in Infinite Jest. Anyone else read it? I'd be lying if I said I read every single word, but I know what is going on in it. Took about 600 pages to really get interesting