What are you Reading?

[Hermes2020]

One of the books I am reading currently is When Paris Sizzled by Mary McAuliffe. It deals with the Paris of Hemingway, Chanel, Cocteau, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, and their friends in the1920s. I think many here would enjoy it.

 

[ZenDruid]

Evil Plans - Having Fun On The Road To World Domination by Hugh MacLeod. This is a tongue in cheek treatise on the creative life, but he means it. He's a cartoonist and blogger and has insights about creating and marketing your work. I read, and re-read, his earlier book Ignore Everybody. Aimed at artists: Don't follow the crowd, break out and do your own thing. A fun read with good insights.

 

[laika]

I think many here would enjoy it.

Well, so far, I've enjoyed the cover

 

[Hermes2020]

Well, so far, I've enjoyed the cover

 

[ntl]

Reading a kind of mish-mash myself: recent books or parts of, were PEREGRINE, THE SECRET LIVES OF TREES, dog books, MERLE'S DOOR, THE INSIDE OF A DOG, and others, but mostly detective/mystery types, Robert Parker, C. J. Box, John Grisham, a few cozies...I frequently open and read a page or two of COURSE IN MIRACLES, (Circle of Atonement edition) THE URANTIA BOOK, Catherine Ponder's books, and others similar. Both the FIP version of CIM and the Urantia Book are on the web.

 

[ZenDruid]

On the dark side, Tanith Lee's Flat Earth Series: Night's Master, Death's Master, Lords of Darkness, Delirium's Mistress, Night Sorceries, etc, pillow reading for sweet dreams. This is called speculative fiction, not sword and sorcery or dungeons and dragons. Tanith Lee is the best fiction writer I never heard of until ten years ago. She has a magical way with words, clean spare writing but every sentence evokes a picture or mood.

 

[Artyczar]

Neat Zen. Your dreams must be fabulous!

 

[Flowercat]

I personly read a lot of crime dramas and romance novels but also a lot of ohter stuff.
Most of my books come from these free libraries that are quite common where i live.
You can take books you like, leave your own books or just take one and bring it back. For free
Sometimes you can find real gems insde of these things. I once even got a signed book and a few ohters in english, even though i live in germany.

 

[Marc]

Finished Dune. It was appreciated more as I went along, but still not completely in love with it by its conclusion. I thought it much better than David Lynch's film adaptation, which none the less was quite visually good in parts. I give the book a 10 in world building and a 6 or 7 in story. In some ways it reminded me of some of my dreams in this feature. Except I'd say mine are more 7 in world building and a 4 in story.

 

[Lia]

Currently reading -
Paperback: The Shirley Letters: From the California Mines 1851-1852
Kindle: Art Before Breakfast by Danny Gregory
Audiobook: Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation, by Erika Krouse

 

[laika]

Welcome aboard!

Kindle: Art Before Breakfast by Danny Gregory

I just returned a book by Danny Gregory to the library: An Illustrated Journey: Inspiration From the Private Art Journals of Traveling Artists, Illustrators and Designers

 

[Lia]

Welcome aboard!

I just returned a book by Danny Gregory to the library: An Illustrated Journey: Inspiration From the Private Art Journals of Traveling Artists, Illustrators and Designers

@laika - sounds good. I had one of his other books (Creative License) and was very close to the end when it perished in a forest fire...... and I don't like to leave books unfinished. Maybe someday I'll get another copy and finish reading it.

 

[Artyczar]

I don't like leaving books unfinished either, but I have such a huge stack in-waiting that if I find one that I'm reading bad enough, I will abandon it eventually!

 

[ZenDruid]

@laika - sounds good. I had one of his other books (Creative License) and was very close to the end when it perished in a forest fire...... and I don't like to leave books unfinished. Maybe someday I'll get another copy and finish reading it.

Based on this post, I just pushed the button and ordered a copy from Amazon. Well also based on other reviews... It sounds like a good read, looking forward to it. Thanks

 

[Triduana]

I see a few people have mentioned Dune - I tried to read it last week. I don't think it's for me, I struggled to around halfway through and put it down.

I'm currently reading Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin; it's the first of his Inspector Rebus novels. I don't read a lot of murder mysyery books but I never give up on a genre. Plus I see the author in town from time to time so I've been meaning to read him for a while.

 

[Lia]

I see a few people have mentioned Dune - I tried to read it last week. I don't think it's for me, I struggled to around halfway through and put it down.

Dune was not for me either. I did read the first book, but wasn't enthusiastic enough to read any others. I expected more, and it was a let-down. It would be fun to do a series of paintings based on that imaginary world. He wrote it while living on the Oregon coast, as I recall... there are lots of sand dunes there... dune buggy rentals, and all that.

I just started reading an old art book... actually a collection of four lectures given in an art school about plein air art, by a man with fifty years experience. I read the first lecture, about composition. Great information. Other lectures are about mass, and his media: watercolors and charcoal. Anyhow the book is FREE on Kindle at Amazon... Outdoor Sketching - Four Talks Given Before the Art Institute of Chicago; The Scammon Lectures, 1914, by Francis Hopkinson Smith.

 

[laika]

Dune was not for me either.

I first read it when I was about thirteen and I remember thinking it was awesome - such fully realized worlds, systems, and cultures.
It would be interesting to erase it from my adult mind and read it again for the first time and see what impression it made now. But anyway, I'm sure that I'll read it again at some point, and hopefully recapture some of that youthful awe

 

[Artyczar]

I think I was sixteen or something too, when I read Dune. I do remember I liked it at the time, but it's not my thing these days.

 

[Flowercat]

I recently finished the Millennium series from stieg larsson. It was really good.
I liked how every character had a story wihtout it feeling forced.
Most of the books i read are crime books. But i also sometimes read romance,childen books fantasy and many more.
This weekend for example i read good omens. I liked it,it just felt a bit boring at times,which could also come from the fact i read this book at 2 in the night,which wasnt such a clever choise.
I own a few art books aswell. The oldest book in my entire collection is an artbook from 1949. I found it in a free book box,a while back

 

[rcleary171]

I recently finished the Millennium series from stieg larsson. It was really good.
I liked how every character had a story wihtout it feeling forced.
Most of the books i read are crime books. But i also sometimes read romance,childen books fantasy and many more.
This weekend for example i read good omens. I liked it,it just felt a bit boring at times,which could also come from the fact i read this book at 2 in the night,which wasnt such a clever choise.
I own a few art books aswell. The oldest book in my entire collection is an artbook from 1949. I found it in a free book box,a while back

I read Good Omens when it was first published (1990!) I’m a Terry Pratchett fan and he has a way of making me laugh out loud in public while I’m reading his books. Most of his books revolve around a universe that he created called Disk World. I recommend “Mort” as a good introduction. It’s not very long, like most of his books, and if you like Mort then you may like the rest of his stuff. I didn’t know Gaiman at the time but I like his writing too (dark, supernatural dramas).

I’m into the third book of Hilary Mantel’s trilogy of Thomas Cromwell, “The Mirror and the Light”. She had a gift for taking her readers to another time and place. Her prose is poetic yet accessible despite the high degree of research made to recreate that period. I’m very sad that she has passed away. Great historical fiction writers are rare and she will be missed.