Recent Entries

Current Mood: cheerful

Promotion!

Sorry if anyone here has seen this already or hates seeing ads for other communities or whatever. I'll keep it quick!

Basically, me and my flatmate have decided on a challenge to read our own height in books. We've set February as the goal, but I suspect that is way too pessimistic and we'll be done long before. We'll see, though. Anyway, we made comms (both on LJ and DW) for us to track our progress, and also for other people to join in. Actually, it doesn't have to be books -- my girlfriend is doing a challenge based on watching her height in DVDs. It can be anything slightly off the wall like that.

If you're interested, the comm is

readheightetc (or

readheightetc if you'd rather).

Hope to see some more friendly faces there!

Goodreads

Hi, everyone :)

I just thought I'd throw this out there -- does anyone else use the website goodreads? I do try to keep track of what I'm reading, recently, but I'd like to know a few more people out there who frequent it. Perhaps we can trade usernames here and friend people with similar reading habits. :)

In any case, my profile is here, for anyone interested. Share yours, too!

"The Caves of Steel" by Issac Asimov

Book #15
Book Title: The Caves of Steel
Author: Issac Asimov
Category: Science Fiction
# of pages: 270
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best].: B-
Short description/summary of the book (taken from goodreads.com): A millennium into the future two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the galaxy & the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov's Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a NYC detective & a humanoid robot who must learn to work together. Like most people left behind on an over-populated Earth, NYC police detective Elijah Baley had little love for either the arrogant Spacers or their robotic companions. But when a prominent Spacer is murdered under mysterious circumstances, Baley is ordered to the Outer Worlds to help track down the killer. The relationship between Life & his Spacer superiors, who distrusted all Earthmen, was strained from the start. Then he learned that they had assigned him a partner: R. Daneel Olivaw. Worst of all was that the "R" stood for robot--and his positronic partner was made in the image & likeness of the murder victim!

My Thoughts: I liked this book well enough. I found it interesting. However, its promise of a murder mystery is kind of..not. It's more of a social commentary on prejudice/unlikely buddies story than a murder mystery. The ending was great, though.

Books read this year: 15/??

Next read(s): Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens. ~~Darn you, Masterpiece, for making me want to read this!~~

Thanks to

vanbrusage for the idea and format!

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Book #18
Book Title: Where the Sidewalk Ends (reread)
Author: Shel Silverstein
Category: ya fiction; humor; poetry
# of pages: 166
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best].: B
Short description/summary of the book: (taken from amazon.com): Come in . . . for where the sidewalk ends, Shel Silverstein's world begins. You'll meet a boy who turns into a TV set, and a girl who eats a whale. The Unicorn and the Bloath live there, and so does Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out. It is a place where you wash your shadow and plant diamond gardens, a place where shoes fly, sisters are auctioned off, and crocodiles go to the dentist.
Shel Silverstein's masterful collection of poems and drawings is at once outrageously funny and profound.

My Thoughts:I really enjoyed this book but I think I honestly appreciated it more when I was a child myself. However, I will definitely be giving my future children this book so that they can enjoy it as much as I used to. :)

Books read this year: 18/50.

Pages read this year: 6887/15000

Next read(s): I am about to start Blood Rites by Jim Butcher. I am still also reading Angels & Demons by Dan Brown & The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie OMartian.

Current Mood: hopeful

A Lonely Fan

Hello, I'm

mrsvc!
I don't know if this is allowed but I thought I'd go for it.
I am a HUGE Pearl S. Buck fan. I mean, HHHUUUUGGGEEEE. I've read 8 of her books and plan to read more.

However, I am alone in this. None of my Real Life or Internet friends are fans. They've either
a) never read one of her books
b) never heard of her
c) got forced with "The Good Earth" in high school but refused to read it and spark noted it instead
d) don't like her style or depth of detail.

I was wondering if there were any fans out there.
Also, I recommend all her books.

Topic of the Week

Here's a topic to discuss this week.

How many books to you read at a time? Can you only handle one, or do you start eight and then finish them all three months later? Do certain ones pull ahead of other ones?

I for one am currently reading six books. I'm not very far into any of them, but I will finish at least some of them soon I hope!

Current Mood: cheerful

Hypothetical Situation

Hi, everyone! I'm on a quest for book recommendations, but instead of just coming out and asking for them, I thought it might be fun to ask this: If you had $100 to spend at the book seller of your choice (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, that awesome local store, Powell's, Bigwords.com, etc.) what would you buy?

I would go for:

The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman
Three Plays: Blood Wedding, Yerma, The House of Bernarda Alba by Frederico Garcia Lorca
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, A Novel by Michael Chabon
Manhunt: The 12 Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L Swanson
Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays by Christa Wolf
Memoirs of Montparnasse by John Glassco
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
Inventing the Victorians by Matthew Sweet
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers

As a disclaimer, I should note that I haven't read any of these myself, only heard that they were good.

Current Mood: cold

Whatcha Reading?

First off, welcome to everyone again! Everyone can post right off the bat, so feel free to start discussions, etc.

I'll start. What all is everybody reading right now? I'm reading Eon: Dragoneye Reborn and Lux the Poet. Eon is really good fantasy and Lux is sort of odd 80s British YA stuff.

Greetings

Hello, guess I'll be the first person to make a new post. I've currently started working on reading more books for fun - something I haven't done enough of in a while. I'm also attempting to add more variety in what I read. In the past I've mostly been reading young adult with heavy focus on science ficiton/fantasy. I'm also attempting pay more attention to the authors I'm reading in order to read more books by authors of color.

I've got a book (and tv show/movie) commentary blog called Multi-Genre Fan where I've been discusing the books I've read so far this year. My goal is to read 50 books by February 2010. My current favorite authors are Neil Gaiman and Diane Duane. I'm currently reading “Joplin’s Ghost” by Tananarive Due - and am enjoying it so far.

Hiya

Hiya all, welcome to Book Nerds. Since DreamWidth is a newer platform, I'm taking to opportunity to create this community early on and I hope it will grow to be one of the larger communities on DW. It's for anyone and everyone who loves books as much as I do, and we can discuss what we are reading, etc.