So, What Are You Reading These Days? (besides comics)

[Alan M.]

Just bringing this discussion over to ning...

What books are you reading right now that don't have a narrative driven by images as well as words?

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Actually, that whole issue is especially good.  I got a dirt-cheap Rolling Stone subscription recently, and I've been enjoying getting re-acquainted with the magazine.  This despite the fact that I have very little interest in most of the contemporary pop and rock music they still cover.

Travis Herrick said:

Wow I think we are burying the lead here.

Jeff of Earth-J said:

The December issue of Rolling Stone (the one with the John Lennon interview).

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Finished Private Wars, Greg Rucka's 2nd Queen & Country prose novel.  I think I liked it even more than the first.  Over the course of the two novels Rucka has introduced several new characters which take the story beyond a mere continuation of the comic series.  And I started Patriot Acts, the Atticus Kodiak novel that picks up right where Critical Space left off.  No rest for the wicked in this so far.  And Rucka is not afraid to kill off familiar characters, is he?

[George]

"Colonel Roosevelt," the third and last volume in Edmund Morris' incredibly detailed (and incredibly entertaining) Theodore Roosevelt biography.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Life by Keith Richards with James Fox.  I was set to read more fiction, but my library hold came in at the right time.  It's good so far.  It begins with a 1975 Rolling Stones story--that's what everyone is buying the book for, after all--but then goes into Richards' early life, like any proper biography.  Lots of interesting stuff about his family and life at home and at school.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Oh, man I loved that book. There were somethings he put in there that I was a bit surprised about.

Mark Sullivan said:

Life by Keith Richards with James Fox.  I was set to read more fiction, but my library hold came in at the right time.  It's good so far.  It begins with a 1975 Rolling Stones story--that's what everyone is buying the book for, after all--but then goes into Richards' early life, like any proper biography.  Lots of interesting stuff about his family and life at home and at school.

[The Baron]

We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin.

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. Pretty durn good, but I'm not sure how to take it quite yet. It's about making your life a better story--worthy of being a movie, instead of living just a mundane existence. It's really well-written, and about 90% convincing as a possibility....

[The Baron]

Just finished We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin - it's well worth a look. Orwell said he'd read it, and he thought there was a good shot that Huxley had read it, as well. I can believe it, one can see elements in this book that resonate with elements in both 1984 and Brave New World.

[The Baron]

Coming up next is The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea, by Yukio Mishima.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Blood's A Rover by James Ellroy. I'm so excited to finally get to read this.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Finally getting around to some Kurt Vonnegut, which I have somehow managed to overlook until now. Started with Cat's Cradle, which I'm really enjoying. The amazing thing is how many plot points I was already familiar with--Bokononist terminology, ice-nine--just from them being mentioned in all sorts of cultural contexts, I guess. Vonnegut's writing style is deceptively simple: economical, and easy to read. Reminds me of Hemingway in that way (although I haven't read Hemingway in years, so memory may be playing tricks).

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Finished Cat's Cradle and have started Slaughterhouse-Five. The reading is going a little slower with this one, despite the fact that his writing style is about the same. Maybe it's the jaunty tone Cat's Cradle has (despite the subject matter being quite bleak)? Enjoying it, anyway. I saw the movie ages ago, but I don't remember much.