Does anybody read books here?

[salsabike]

I love Carl Hiaasen. Also Joanna Trollope, especially The Choir and The Best of Friends. Am also working my way through James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux series and Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series. I love EARLY Stephen King (Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand). I like Robert Parker's Spenser books as well.

[jeannierides]

Anyone read any of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, Vampire Killer's series? I've never been into vampire books, but found myself with one from the library and absolutely LOVED them! Her latest is Danse Macabre.

[LBTC]

Ah, Books!

These days I am reading Henry Millers' "Under the Roofs of Paris". woah. serious sex.
But much nicer than the Marquis de Sade's "Justine" Pretty creepy. Finished it just before this one.

Favourite books of all time: Tom Robbins - a toss up between Skinny Legs and All and Jitterbug Perfume.
Clive Barker - Imagica

And, amazingly, I really love Dean Koontz books. Despite all the depravity and violence, he has such a way of imbuing hope and a sense of the divine into his stories.

I've read and enjoyed all of the Anne Rice books, at least all that she originally published in her name. Belinda and Exit to Eden are both on my bookshelf and I will read them one day...

In high school I read a lot of Kurt Vonnegut and Frank Herbert. Later I realized that for me to find them funny I must have been pretty depressed. But I did.

I can just hear Tim Curry reading anything! Makes the snicket books seem very interesting!

And my all time favourite book to read while recovering from an illness or accident: The Good Time Gospel Boys by Billy Bittinger. Not necessarily easy to find, but a crazy funny story that had me laughing from the first sentence.

Happy reading, all!
Namaste,
~T~

[Kitsune06]

Vonnegut.... Didn't he write Naked Lunch? Maybe I'm confused. HS was spent reading Dune, Naked Lunch, On the Road, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Catcher in the Rye, etc...

interesting stuff.

[salsabike]

Naked Lunch is William Burroughs, I think. Vonnegut---maybe in HS, you got Slaughterhouse Five?

[Kitsune06]

Ah- you're right! I need to re-read so many books... I got through them, and loved them, then forgot what happened in them.

[Kano]

Tim Dorsey has a fun series of "murdering mayhem" -- more comedy than mystery, since we KNOW who's the bad guy all along. Carl Hiassen was mentioned on one of the covers, which got me started reading some of his work.

Piers Anthony did a fun pile of books too, fantasy fiction filled with puns. Most of 'em were pretty kid appropriate, and by the time some that weren't quite as kid appropriate came out, my daughter, who was totally hooked, was old enough to handle those too!

Stephen King did one under another name once, called Thinner. Scary book...

Harry Potter -- I just picked up the newest one of those (I think -- the one I hadn't read yet) the other day. Haven't read much of it yet, just a couple of pages while waiting for daughter at the surgical clinic the other day.

Karen in Boise

[Dogmama]

Ah- you're right! I need to re-read so many books... I got through them, and loved them, then forgot what happened in them.

Me too! I browse through Barnes & Noble & wonder, "Have I read this?" I'm starting to keep a list on my PDA of books I've read because I'm so forgetful lately. Problem is - I forget to bring my PDA to B & N!

WOW!!! So many good books to look at now! Thanks ladies!!!!!

Has anybody read the series --- here I go with the bad memory ---

The first book (big one) was about a nurse in 1945 who comes back from combat and somehow gets transported to the 1700's where she meets up with a man that she falls in love with?

It's a one word title. Argh!!!

[CyclChyk]

And, amazingly, I really love Dean Koontz books. Despite all the depravity and violence, he has such a way of imbuing hope and a sense of the divine into his stories.

Ahh = Dean Koontz. Whispers and Phantoms were my favorites from him.

As well, Ann Rice's son, Christopher Rice, is now an author. I read his first novel, A Density of Souls, and was veryyyy impressed. No vampires, just modern day mayhem. His second book was very good also.

[latelatebloomer]

Some of us even write books! My second kid's book, Oscar & the Mooncats, will be out next fall. And I'm TRYING to wrap up my first fantasy novel before the end of the year.

Since I'm working a day job and writing (and cycling and taking care of the world's smallest farm), my reading is not what it used to be. I've even been known to call out sick to finish a book (that honor goes to MamaDay by Gloria Naylor.) I love fantasy but am very picky about it - I also am devoted to Thomas Hardy and Willa Cather.

I read Dune many moons ago, snowbound in a farmhouse high on a Pennsylvania hill. My 2 housemates were also reading it, and we tore the paperback into individual chapers so we didn't fight over it. Much.

[Selkie]

Claire Messud is a wonderful writer. Her novel, "The Last Life," is one of my all time favorites.
You can't go wrong with anything by Alice McDermott, Louise Erdrich (sp?), Elizabeth George (British Mysteries), Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell, Joyce Carol Oates, or Ann Beattie.
Jim Harrison's "Dalva" and the sequel, "The Road Home" are just wonderful books.

[mudmucker]

I love history and historical fiction. A couple of good reads recommended from a vietnam vet friend (in my personal attempt to understand and explore a few things), "The Long Gray Line" by Rick Atkinson follows five or so men from west point through the war. "Killer Angels" is about the 4 days at Gettysburg. "Kennedy Nixon" by Chris Matthews is an interesting read. I like Col. David Hackworth and have read his "Steel My Soldiers Heart". I've gone back to some classics, "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac (I work in Lowell and have lunch at his park), "Black Elk Speaks" by Neihardt, "Fools Crow" by Mails. I revisit Solzhenitsyn often (have many original books from the '70's). Robert Conquest is good for russian history. I'm going to read Ulysses next.

[Lise]

I read Dune many moons ago, snowbound in a farmhouse high on a Pennsylvania hill. My 2 housemates were also reading it, and we tore the paperback into individual chapers so we didn't fight over it. Much.

Brilliant strategy. I read Dune during finals week, my last semester of college. It was my bribe. Every two hours I'd allow myself to go out on the lawn in front of Regenstein library at the University of Chicago and read Dune for 30 min. I was in a blind panic--what do you mean, I have to leave college?--Dune gave me relief. It's kind of a miracle I didn't just go to grad school, right? I started drinking heavily instead. Then got sober and went back to school!

LLB, I'm excited to check out your books! My mom's a children's librarian. Sadly for me, this means that she deluges my nephew and niece with books. I slip one in here and there, too.

[eclectic]

I too love to read - I cut cable TV this summer (the day after the Tour de France ended) and haven't missed it.

I don't know what reading genre I fall into, I am pretty diverse (hence the name eclectic

First of all I must admit I LOVE the Harry Potter books #5 is my favorite followed by #3. Anyone else out there closet Harry lovers?

Currently I am almost finished Undaunted Courage by Stephen E Ambrose - It is the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition, I don't really like his style of writing but the content is very good

For light fast reading I really like Dan Brown and Michael Crichton - I call them airport reading, quick and easy to get into, keeps you interested and they don't require much thought to follow. Angel and Demons has been my favorite

My all time favorite book is Giants in the Earth by OE Rolvaag. It is about Norwegian immigrants to the Dakotas in the late 1800's. It in no way romanticises the experience like so many other books do. It was originally written in Norwegian in 1921 and translated to English in 1924. Just an all around great read and I highly recommend it.
(I may be a little biased as in 1898 my Great Grandmother from Sweden lived alone for 2 years in a sod house on a claim in Roberts Co SD with 2 children under the age of three while my grandfather went to the gold rush in the Klondike - it wasn't a romantic era)

[Brandi]

I do a lot of reading with all my traveling and free time in airports. my book pick for this summer was a book called "The lobster chronicles" by Linda Greenlaw. She wrote an book on fishing as well which is really good. She was a captain of boat from the same place " A perfect storm" was from and about.
The book "The lobster chronicles" is about life on a very small island. I think there are less then 50 people living on this island. Linda talks about lobstering with her dad and just what it is like to come home and try to start a new life. It is very funny I thought. I come from a small town and can relate to it. Oh and it is a true story. I think it just came out in paperback.