What are you reading for fun?

[Cici Beanz]

My husband read it Thursday after work and I read it Friday after class so we could watch it Saturday. I was pleasantly surprised with the movie and the book- reminded me a bit of The Giver.

I started to suspect that based on the trailer. Now that it's confirmed I really want to read/watch. I LOVED the Giver as a child.

[Cici Beanz]

I love this thread. Unfortunately, it's feeding my habit of buying books, setting them on my bookshelf, and not getting around to reading them.

Anyone else have this problem?

Amen. I do it all the time. I've probably only read about a third of the books I own.

[Cici Beanz]

Now reading The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. Also have the movie "Food, Inc." waiting on iTunes.

I started it a few weeks ago but back-burnered it in favor of my sudden Rizzoli and Isles obsession. I'd like to get back to it soon, though.

[mirandaw]

I started to suspect that based on the trailer. Now that it's confirmed I really want to read/watch. I LOVED the Giver as a child.

Have you ever read the sequels (actually called "companion novels") to The Giver? I remember Gathering Blue being okay, but being VERY disappointed in Messenger. I think Lois Lowry thought "if I take away all articles and pronouns, itll be more like a fantasy novel!"

[Cici Beanz]

Have you ever read the sequels (actually called "companion novels") to The Giver? I remember Gathering Blue being okay, but being VERY disappointed in Messenger. I think Lois Lowry thought "if I take away all articles and pronouns, itll be more like a fantasy novel!"

I read Gathering Blue but don't recall reading Messenger. I liked GB, but not nearly as much as The Giver.

[GreenePony]

I started to suspect that based on the trailer. Now that it's confirmed I really want to read/watch. I LOVED the Giver as a child.

It may be a bit more like Gathering Blue because of how it is in a less "ideal" community but I would still say The Giver is superior to Hunger Games.

According to Wiki a fourth book, 'Son' in the series is due out this year? http://en.wikipedia....e_Giver_Trilogy

Edited March 28, 2012 by GreenePony

[mirandaw]

It may be a bit more like Gathering Blue because of how it is in a less "ideal" community but I would still say The Giver is superior to Hunger Games.

According to Wiki a fourth book, 'Son' in the series is due out this year? http://en.wikipedia....e_Giver_Trilogy

uuuuugh noooo! Should have stopped at gathering blue.

[Eternal Icicle]

Reading The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck and loving it even more than I thought I would when I picked it up. Slow going, though, especially around schoolwork. I just read a collection of short stories for a class that I would highly recommend: Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing by Lydia Peele. She's great at inhabiting a broad range of voices.

Edited March 29, 2012 by Eternal Icicle

[Cici Beanz]

Yeah, it always makes me sad when subsequent books don't measure up to the original...somehow my view of the whole franchise ends up getting averaged out. Thankfully enough time passed between when I read The Giver and Gathering Blue that in my mind they stayed separate.

[avicus]

For long-term personal enhancement, I am reading a textbook on Cost-Benefit Analysis (good times...). Because this textbook is soul-sucking, I am reading graphic novels for fun. Just finished Garth Ennis' super-intense, post-appocalyptic, zombie/infection, ultra-violence/horror book "Crossed" (not recommended for anyone with a weak stomach) and am moving on to Guy Davis' The Marquis. Literature wise, I am plodding my way through 1Q84 (Murakami) but I haven't been able to set aside more than a few hours each week to make significant inroads to this monster of a book.

Hey I'm into graphic novels too! The most recent one I read was a Star Wars Omnibus from Dark Horse. As for Murakami, have only read Norwegian Wood (and loved it!). Yeah I agree about 1Q84 being a monster of a book, it's like Murakami's trying to outdo Proust LOL

[avicus]

Now reading The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. Also have the movie "Food, Inc." waiting on iTunes.

Food Inc is awesome! It manages to inspire awareness about the commercialization of food without resorting to shocking graphics (like those anti-fur activists).

[msafiri]

I just finished The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, which took me a while to get into but was actually really, really good. Today, I started Hunger Games. I'm planning to start Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and The Girl Who Played With Fire in the next couple of days. (I prefer reading more than one thing at once, though all of these have the potential to be depressing.)

From an academic perspective, I'm slowly reading The Oyster Question by Christine Keiner.

Thanks for all the great recommendations!

Edited April 14, 2012 by msafiri

[Dal PhDer]

Mmmm...recreational reading.

Right now I am reading a bunch of books- nothing like turning off at the end of a hard day with a smutty or easy reading book!

1)Outlander: I don't normally pick up romances...but dear god...I can't put this smut down!

2) Game of Thrones: I am on the third book of the series. However, I am saving it for after the second season...I have to stretch this gold out for as long as possible!

3) Maze Runner: I am just about to begin this 'tween' series...it was recommended to me as a 'if you liked the Hunger Games kind of thing

4) Health Graham: I picked up a few books from several of her series that I am looking forward to reading!

Does anyone here use the site Goodreads? I actually find it's a great way to get book recommendations...and if I am feeling particularly in need of some out of school relaxation- join an internet book club...I feel the geek label already being placed on my forehead!

Edited April 14, 2012 by jmmcswee

[Cici Beanz]

I'm on goodreads!

[GreenePony]

1)Outlander: I don't normally pick up romances...but dear god...I can't put this smut down!

I flew through the first 5 books the last two weeks of my field school. It's amazing how good they get when you're research is done and you can't speak to anyone you haven't been sharing a small apartment with for the month, since your Spanish sounds like Q'iche and you really don't speak Q'iche.

(someone else shlepped them down, I only brought text books and started to get desperate)

[triplebogey]

Hey I'm into graphic novels too! The most recent one I read was a Star Wars Omnibus from Dark Horse. As for Murakami, have only read Norwegian Wood (and loved it!). Yeah I agree about 1Q84 being a monster of a book, it's like Murakami's trying to outdo Proust LOL

YES. A fellow fan of the Wars. MTFBWY.

[Gauche]

I'm reading Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott (which I tend to pick up when I should be writing. Hmm...).

[badgers154]

Just finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick and almost done with Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

[sociologo]

Reading The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck and loving it even more than I thought I would when I picked it up. Slow going, though, especially around schoolwork.

Ah, I frequently re-read The Grapes of Wrath - right now actually! One of my favorite books. It's a really good accompaniment to Marx, so it usually fits with a lot of my courses.

[avicus]

Re-reading The Bible Code by Michael Drosnin, planning to follow with The Truth Behind The Bible Code by Dr Jeffrey Satinover.

Still remember the worrying (about how the world would end, and how I wouldn't know how to predict it because I didn't read Hebrew!) when I read the former for the first time around age 13. Thank God for maturity and university education.

[Dal PhDer]

I flew through the first 5 books the last two weeks of my field school. It's amazing how good they get when you're research is done and you can't speak to anyone you haven't been sharing a small apartment with for the month, since your Spanish sounds like Q'iche and you really don't speak Q'iche.

(someone else shlepped them down, I only brought text books and started to get desperate)

i was so surprised how quickly I flew through it! It's so nice to shut off your brain at night and just read simple and entertaining materials!

How are the others in the series? I must say...I got really disappointed in the character developments half way through. I absolutely LOVED Claire and Jamie for the first half of the book...then I became very disgruntled with them!

[Kelkel]

I just finished The Monuments Menby Robert Edsel. It was so good! It's a must read for people interested in art/art history/history/war.

I'm also on Goodreads. I love having it as a way to keep track how much and what I should read.

[Hank Scorpio]

Good call above with Ann Patchett! She's a wonderful author. Bel Canto is amazing, and Run is really good too!

I tried reading Gulliver's Travels, but gave up after about 150 pages. I found the "novel"ty (har dee har har) wore off fairly quickly. Cool concept for a story, but it draaaagged.

At the moment I'm reading The Great Gatsby. Loooooove it! F. Scott Fitzgerald is a brilliant writer.

[sociologo]

I flew through the first 5 books the last two weeks of my field school. It's amazing how good they get when you're research is done and you can't speak to anyone you haven't been sharing a small apartment with for the month, since your Spanish sounds like Q'iche and you really don't speak Q'iche.

What are you doing that involves you knowing Q'iche?!

[GreenePony]

i was so surprised how quickly I flew through it! It's so nice to shut off your brain at night and just read simple and entertaining materials!

How are the others in the series? I must say...I got really disappointed in the character developments half way through. I absolutely LOVED Claire and Jamie for the first half of the book...then I became very disgruntled with them!

You will flip flop between hating and loving pretty much everyone throughout the series (though you will in the end pretty much just hate Frank, at least I did). It gets pretty interesting with a character that is kind of introduced at the end of the first book and they do go to America further on in the series and that adds a new element that gives it a lot of possibilities. I never got a chance to finish The Fiery Cross, so I don't know how that turned out.

What are you doing that involves you knowing Q'iche?!

I was in highland Guatemala for ethnographic field school. But I'm pretty much done with that since I don't plan on having Anthro as my academic core in the fall.