Books You're Reading?

[Rayen]

So, I'm probably the worst reader in the world. I go on crazed hours-long shopping sprees to find like one-two books that I insist that I'll read. Then I get home, think 'I'll read it later!' then it gets thrown into a random corner and forgotten. I have two giant filled book cases and I've probably read 1/3 of them, if that. Don't get me wrong, I love reading. Once I get into a book I think to myself 'why don't I read all of those books?' but I'm very easily distracted. I can spend hours surfing the internet doing absolutely nothing but sitting there reading a book makes me think I have other things to be doing.

My current 'I'll read it later!' book is called The Reformed Vampire Support Group, by Catherine Jinks.

I'm one of those people that hate Twilight with a passion and laughed hysterically throughout the movie that I was forced to watch with friends. (What? He watches her sleep and she's cool with that. That is not something a normal teenage girl does, okay? I wouldn't have been okay if some random guy that never showed up to school wandered into my room at night and watched me sleep. I'd be calling the police quickly.) I had pretty much given up hope on reading any decent vampire books ever again with the wave of them. But this book is a very nice little satirical poke at all of those books. The main character was changed when she was fifteen, and still lives in her mother's basement (she's fifty-one, and her mother is like seventy-five). She spends her nights writing books about this vampire chick that's pretty much every stereotype that has been used lately. Beautiful, doesn't need to sleep throughout the day, just perfect in every way. The vampires are pretty much disgustingly ill people that look like they're on drugs all of the time. They can't walk up flights of stairs without having to stop for a break, if they look at artificial light they bleed from their eyes, they puke up blood and they feel sick pretty much all of the time. They have weekly meetings at a local church where everyone whines about hard they have it and how sick they feel.

I'm about 80 pages in, if I sit down and actually read I should be done tonight. If not, I'll probably never finish.

 

[kirbyultra]

I buy lots of books I don't read either lol

I recently read Watership Down. Ya know, the classic novel about rabbits. Loved it more than could have imagined. Itwas a school reading assignment in high school that I skipped lol but now I am 26 and going back to reading since I have rabbits... I couldn't put it down. Highly recommend it!

I read thesequel too. It was just okay. Didn't blow me away.

 

[kirbyultra]

I read all the Twilight books and liked them enough. From what youre describing the reformed vampire sounds hilarious though! If you finish let me know how it was. I am looking for new book prospects again

 

[SunnyCait]

I read everything, LOL. I go through books like most people go through... toilet paper.

I read the Twilight books, too easy. Books like that irritate me somewhat. But then again they're "Young Adult" so they don't have to be that meaty.

Mmm I currently have ... 5 books going, three of which are re-reads. The two that I haven't read before are "Finnegan's Wake" and "The Sound and the Fury". So far I have to Google every 3 seconds while reading "Finnegan's Wake". LMAO

The three I'm re-reading are: "Wuthering Heights" (I just love this one, I re-read it usually once a year), "Beloved" by Toni Morrison, and "The Plain Truth" by Jodi Picoult. I am usually not a JP fan because of how predictable her stuff is, but I do love the Amish and it was a decent story.

My recent foray into weird girly books actually provided a gem! "The Undomestic Goddess" by Sophie Kinsella was HILARIOUS. I laughed and laughed and I thought it was a good easy reading type of thing. She's the one who wrote the "Confessions of a Shopaholic" books, just to give you an idea. But it was really good.

 

[Saffy]

Just read ... "A Little Run Around The World" - a fantastic book about a wonderful lady, whose husband died from prostate cancer, and she wanted to do SOMETHING so that she could move on.

This is her story .. she ran round the world .. it took her nearly 5 years, and she had a fair few adventures along the way ..

http://www.rosiearoundtheworld.co.uk/Bibliography home page.htm

 

[irishbunny]

I just read 'The Hiring Fair', it is set in Donegal, Ireland in 1890, the father of the house drowns on a fishing trip and soon they can't afford to keep their farm so two of the daughters, Sally and Katie are brought to a hiring fair where they are hired out for six months without knowing the people and they can't see their family. It was really good!

 

[pinksalamander]

I'm a big reader, probably several books a week. Just finished The Book Thief my Marcus Zusak. Oh My God. Amazing. Is now one of my favourite books (on par with Lolita, my absolute favourite book). Also read Life of Pi which was truly amazing. Next up I'm doing some lighter reading with Dawn French's autobiography. After that I'm going to go for the 4th installment of the Twilight saga (I want to get it on paperback), then probably try some more Sir Arthur Conan Doyle because I read Hound of the Baskervilles a few weeks ago and really liked it! Oh and I also read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe on holiday (yes, laugh all you like, it is a childrens book!) and plan to read the rest again but in the non-chronological order (the order they were written in).

 

[pinksalamander]

SunnyCait wrote:

"The Plain Truth" by Jodi Picoult. I am usually not a JP fan because of how predictable her stuff is, but I do love the Amish and it was a decent story.

I have this! Bought it a few months ago. Also not really a fan of Jodi Picoult, I tried reading My Sisters Keeper and The Pact... booooooorrrring. But I'm going to try and read this one.

 

[irishbunny]

I read my sisters keeper and I thought it was good, I want to go see the film. I read another book by her too but I can't remember the name of it!

 

[jordiwes]

Ah yes, I love books too. I have read most of Jodi Picoult, liked some, some not so much. Plain Truth was interesting.

Reading a REALLY good book right now about a Mormon lady whose husband leaves her. But it's about so much more and really interesting. Called "The Chinchilla Farm".

Also reading "A Suitable Boy" by Vikram Seth, I love books set in India. It's a good one too.

People, please tell me you have read the Time Travellers Wife. One of my favorite books of all time.

And Irish folk, please tell me you've read "Angela's Ashes", another one of my favorites.

Ah I could go on and on.

 

[paul2641]

I read books way too quickly finishing them in a day or two so I have forced myself to slow down because I am just running out of reading material.

 

[Rayen]

I can read about a 3-400 page book in about three hours if I try, it's not that I'm a slow reader or anything. Just... I think of the million other things I could be doing that makes me think I'll just read it later.

I also tend to like the young teen/young adult books. They may be shorter and simple, but their stories are usually more fantastic and unreal. I usually read only fantasy/sci-fi/supernatural, or else sappy love stories. If I can get a fantasy and sappy love story, well, that's just added bonus.

I will read more adult-leveled books, but the fantasy ones tend to be all the same. How many times have I read a group of 3-5 people wandering around from place-to-place and end up defeating an evil to save their empire/world/whatever? I don't find them any deeper either really, I can't remember the last time I read through a book and was genuinely surprised with the ending. A lot of the time, the only difference between the YA books and the adult ones is the fact they have more swearing, more talk of sex and the hints of what's going on are a teeny bit more blurred.

I also can't re-read books. I remember what happens and it ruins it. If I wait several years between them, maybe, but I like the journey of figuring stuff out and once that's over and done with there's no real point to continue. I just think 'oh yeah, this-n-this happens' close it and leave. I go through them again at times to read my favourite little bits, but never the whole thing again.

If anyone knows a good dragon book though, you should totally tell me. I'm so tired of searching for some and finding out it's a series then waiting patiently just to watch it decline a little more each book. (I'm looking at you Age of Fire)

I'm about 240 pages into my book now! Only 100 or so more to go.

 

[Becca]

I'm reading Moonwalk (Michael Jackson's autobiography) for the 7th time heehee!
I just love it

 

[irishbunny]

jordiwes wrote:

And Irish folk, please tell me you've read "Angela's Ashes", another one of my favorites.

Yeah I have, ever seen the film or read anymore of his books? He died the other day actually. That's the way my grandparents had to live, sad isn't it, but parts of it are hilarious.

 

[kirsterz09]

I not long ago finished reading a book called The Sight by David Clement Davies, It was a fascinating and intriguing read, it is about a wolf pack living in Transylvania and the prophecy that a wolf will be born with a power called the sight that will bring great change to the world.
I am currently reading Marley and Me by John Grogan, I saw the movie first but was wanting to the read the book for ages! However I think seeing the movie first has slightly ruined the readability of the book though!

 

[Aina]

I am actually between books right now. I actually just finished reading Harry Potter for the first time. *A gasp is heard from the audience* Never read HP before? Well, my mom read some net nuts when HP was coming out and said I couldn't read them while I was still a kid. I didn't really care because I don't like reading series until they finish. Coincidentally the series finished on my 18th birthday. Haha. I also try to pick my battles and books and movie choices are generally battles I let my parents win. It isn't like they are really harsh or anything, we never even had a curfew, heheh. But when I turned 18 I was getting ready for college and reading a couple of different series and didn't have time (parents, if you want to warn your kids about reading a book, The Sword of Truth series is *a lot* "worse" than HP.)

Anyways, I thought it was a pretty nice series. Pretty bland as far as the author's philosophy goes. I am used to books where I am arguing with the author's opinions the entire time so it was nice to have a break. Who can argue with "Don't bully" or "Love is powerful" lol. Now, I did argue with the characters at times. Mostly Harry. I agreed with Snape to some extent on the arrogant git thing. If Harry would have humbled himself things could have gone a lot better for him. Not to say that Snape is great at that himself. The wizarding world needs a course on the book "How to Win Friend and Influence People" but I can't think of anyone who could teach it, haha. Maybe Dumbledore.
Still, I thought Snape was the hero of the series. Maybe I just like sallow, greasy gits, but he had the best character development. Second favorite character was Hagrid, well, because who doesn't love a big fluffy giant? All the other characters I liked died, stupid JKR.

Despite what ultra conservatives say, I thought that JKR did a great job of going into the world of magic without a bunch of blatant wiccan philosophy permeating her books. But then again, I have read quite a few magical fantasy books and observed different ways they do things. Fail on the whole Dumbledore is Gay thing though, lol. He had about as much sexuality as a beanpole. Had to be a publicity stunt.

So that was my synopsis of the HP series. In short, good, not the best, but better than some.
Now, I have been warned against reading Twilight and since I don't care for Vampires anyways I think I'll skip it.

I pretty much read anything except romance. Actually, I listen audio books a lot. I hardly read anything. I can read rather quickly, but it takes me ages to finish a book just because I don't like staying still to read that long. Listening means I can do lots of other things at the same time.

 

[pinksalamander]

jordiwes wrote:

People, please tell me you have read the Time Travellers Wife. One of my favorite books of all time.

My Mum read it. It was on my list to read, now the film is coming out I'll have to squeeze it in.

 

[pinksalamander]

Aina wrote:

Anyways, I thought it was a pretty nice series. Pretty bland as far as the author's philosophy goes. I am used to books where I am arguing with the author's opinions the entire time so it was nice to have a break. Who can argue with "Don't bully" or "Love is powerful" lol. Now, I did argue with the characters at times. Mostly Harry. I agreed with Snape to some extent on the arrogant git thing. If Harry would have humbled himself things could have gone a lot better for him. Not to say that Snape is great at that himself. The wizarding world needs a course on the book "How to Win Friend and Influence People" but I can't think of anyone who could teach it, haha. Maybe Dumbledore.

I just got back from seeing the 6th film! Half Blood Prince is not the strongest of the stories IMO. Too much snogging, not enough exciting stuff!

 

[BethM]

Aina wrote:

I am actually between books right now. I actually just finished reading Harry Potter for the first time. *A gasp is heard from the audience* Never read HP before?I

Well, I've never read them and have no desire to read Harry Potter. *shrug*

I read lots of non-fiction. I love learning about new things, and most of the time I'd rather learn something interesting instead of read someone's made up story. I also rarely buy books. It has to be something I will want to read multiple times. There's a REALLY good library here, that has just about every book I could want to read, and it's free. I don't have money to waste on a book I might end up not liking, or liking but not enough to ever want to read it again. Not to mention, lack of space. Not too long ago, I sold a huge amount of books toHalf Price Books. They were all good books, but I can read them from the library any time.

Having said that, I do have a nice collection of Neil Gaiman books. I think he's the most fabulous author ever. I read the stories and novels over and over again, every few years. So good!

Right now, I'm reading _American Shaolin_. It's the memoir of a guy from Kansas who dropped out of college to go to China to study martial arts at the Shaolin Temple. This was when China was not near as open as it is now.

 

[Aina]

Heh, we had a library of over 2000 books when I was a kid. It was literally an entire room. Parents had four kids, all homeschooled so the books were read at least four times, sometimes more. Now that room is my bedroom. We gave the books to our library. I have a bookshelf but I think it has more art supplies on it than books. Plus books on tape are expensive.
When I build my mansion I am going to have a classic library and have all my favorite books bound in nice leather so it looks old and refined.

Pinksalamander: I never really liked the movies as much as the books. So much is lost in them. But I'll probably go see it at the dollar theater if it comes there before school starts.

Beth: What kind of non-fiction do you like? My best friend loves biographies but I found them pretty boring. I like success books and how to books though.