Sunday!
All around my house, there are stacks of books. My books, my wife’s books, and I am sure some of them are my dog’s books. Just kidding, he is more of a magazine reader.
On my night stand, next to the bed, we have the following: The Penultimate Truth, a couple volumes of the JM Dent Works of Joseph Conrad, The Wind in the Willows, a ’30’s edition of Marco Polo, some Kingsley Amis sex romp, The Kaisers Mission to Kabul and a couple paperbacks: The Man Who Was Thursday and The Circus of Dr. Lao.
Atop the headboard of said bed, which has a nice flat surface on which to place, and lose, various things, we have more books: another of the Dent Conrad, a copy of Conrad’s Congo Diary, Chapelle’s book on classic boat building, a collection of Stickley works on bungalows and the first volume of the Pelbar Cycle.
Atop my desk there isn’t much, other than work related things, but that does include several NOLO press items, along with the wonderful Anubis Gates and the equally disturbing Black Dahlia by James Elroy, as I have been thinking about creepy clowns a lot, and both those books have them, great and terrible.
Beside my chair in the living room there isn’t much currently, as I cleaned it off the other day. Only a book on farm implements by John Deere, an old Stoeger catalog, a couple of reprints of Delta parts manuals for the classic scroll saw, and of course, Bernard Jones’ The Practical Woodworker.
Through all of that, you might guess what I have been reading over the weekend. But alas, due to purchasing a new (to me) vehicle, I am currently reading the manual on how to turn the stereo off of demo mode, which is driving me crazy. I am also reading the manual for the coffee pot that I just bought, as I accidentally shattered the carafe on the old one. This one apparently has a way to change the brew level, a change I just can’t seem to get to fruition.
So, what are you reading?
Photo; Stack of books in Gould’s Book Arcade, Newtown, New South Wales (NSW), Australia by Toby Hudson.
I’ve just started a novel called “The Boy Who Could See Demons” by Carolyn Jess-Cooke. I’m about 1/5 of the way through, and it seems pretty good. Unlike a lot of books I start reading, I’ll probably actually finish it.Report
I’ve been reading star wars comics all week. and watching fluffy movies like drumline 3. i’m less halfway through rv, a robin williams movie so sophomoric that it has extended poop jokes, but i had to stop because the good parts made me miss him so much that it was not having its intended effect on me.Report
Since Jim Butcher has apparently put his Dresden Files series on the back burner, I’ve been binge-reading alternatives for the last several weeks. Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series; Benedict Jacka’s Alex Verus series; and Mike Carey’s Felix Castor series. London is such a cool setting for urban fantasy, full of peculiar buildings, abandoned deep tunnels, and strange old parks and cemeteries.Report
@michael-cain all three of those have been on my reading list for a while. which do you think I would like best? … i will still read all three eventually, just wondering which one I should listen to the call of first :).Report
Jacka’s Alex Verus is the series that when I got to the end of the last chapter of the last book so far I thought, “I really, really want the next one!” Currently scheduled for June, 2018. Nine months. Damn.Report
@michael-cain Cool, next time I get that itch I’ll start there.Report
@maribou
The series takes a while to get rolling. Pretty much all series authors face the same question at some point: am I writing a collection of loosely connected stories using this set of characters, or is there some sort of overarching plot line? The Dresden Files are now as much about Harry figuring out what kind of demi-god he is as about solving mysteries involving magic and monsters in Chicago. Stross’s Laundry Files started out as individual tributes to 1960s spy thrillers and have been taken over by political story lines. The Harry Potter books started out as traditional British school stories and then morphed into saving the world.
I found the Vestus series more interesting after a long-term story line emerged. For me the hook at the end of the last one is a twist in that story line, not the characters or the London they occupy per se.Report
@michael-cain That’s a good observation; I’m used to it in these types of series, and I read a lot of them, so I’ll give it a few books :D.Report
Bobby “the Brain” Heenan. 1944-2017.
One of the best heels in the business, forever.Report
@jaybird he really was.Report
When Jesse “The Body” Ventura was elected Governor of Minnesota, I would always tell people they should have elected Bobby “The Brain” Heenan instead. Not everybody got it.Report
Not been reading much nowadays. Thinking of what I’ll be reading on my upcoming trips.
I need some long books as one trip will be 18 hours is in the plane.
Thinking Footfall, or the Thomas Covenant series. I’d buy an e-reader but then I’d probably have to buy the same books for the reader so how does that get me anywhere?Report