There are three books sitting on my nightstand right now. Last week, I finished E. Annie Proulx’s lovely Pulitzer Prize winner, The Shipping News, but I still haven’t figured out a way to make space for it on my overcrowded bookshelves. (Donate some not-so-classic tomes, or buy yet another bookcase? That is the eternal question.) Of course, after finishing such a thoughtful, well-crafted feast, I immediately craved junk food, and I am currently midway through the literary bag of Cheetos known as Secret Diary of a Call Girl (by the Artist Formerly Known as Belle de Jour, and now just credited as Anonymous). Honestly, the new Showtime series (starring the fabulous Billie Piper) is a lot better than the source material, which is why I’ve already got Meera Syal’s Life Isn’t All Ha Ha He He queued up and ready for reading, hopefully by mid-weekend.
So that’s my current roster of books: What’s on your nightstand right now, P-Dubs? All must be revealed… even (especially) if you’re in the middle of some trashy/delicious beach read.
Comments (1-30) of 72 Add your comment
I’m a giant nerd and thought it’d be fun to read Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” to begin my summer. I was aiming to read at least 100 pages a week at minimum, but I recently fell behind. After that, I’ll be reading “Seeing” by Jose Saramago. I already read “Blindness” a couple years ago. Then third on my list is the 3rd installment of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, “The Waste Lands.”
Not trashy but deliciously disturbing. I’m reading “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.” It’s about a man who was recruited by the Army in Sierra Leone to fight the rebels after his family was killed. There’s been some hubub lately about whether or not it’s true. True or not, it’s disturbing. Either he’s a great fiction writer or he’s been through some horriffic experiences. I need to stop reading it before bed; it gives me bad dreams.
The Time Machine by HG Well for my book club.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Cadavers by Mary Roach. It’s hilarious, disgusting,and educational. The perfect book.
And the ever present Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman. I think I’m on my 6th copy at this points.
I’m on the verge of finishing Michael Chabon’s exquisite, wildly entertaining “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union,” and then I think I’ll finally have to sit down and see if Arthur Golden’s source material was really as inert as Rob Marshall’s “Memoirs of a Geisha.”
I just got done with “Tears of the Giraffe” by Alexander Mccall Smith- the second book in his No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. I finished that yesterday, but I’m already knee-deep in Laurie Notaro’s new book of essays, “The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death.” She’s the only author that can make me laugh out loud, and have to stop reading for several minutes so I can get ahold of myself.
I’ve had a copy of The Film Club by David Gilmore next to my bed for a few weeks but haven’t cracked it yet. Just brought out the screenplay of LA Confidential again after recently being remined how good the film was and as always the latest EW and Oprah. Along with my own journal of course which could be called The Secret Diary of Errands I Run On Any Given Day and if You Really Want to Know More of My Innermost Thoughts You Should be Reading the Comments at Popwatch. The title is a little shorter than Fiona Apple’s When the Pawn… album, but this is a diary so you’d expect a lot of words.
Just finished “Second Chance” by Jane Green. An easy summer read, but not bad. And, still paging through, “Eat This, Not That” – a guidebook from Men’s Health mag. Fascinating! And, I’m currently reading “The Friday Night Knitting Club.” I like where it’s going.
Due to its mention in EW, I’m reading “Waiting for My Cats to Die: A Morbid Memoir”. Because I really am waiting for my cats to die. Also on the nightstand is the current EW which I got a week late thanks to a post office sub (got a little “sorry!” note from the regular mail carrier).
And the answer, Slezak, is: buy another bookcase.
I want to read The Kite Runner sometime this summer, but first I have to get through Dear American Airlines.
Based on Stephen King’s recommendation in EW, I’m in the midst of Andre Dubus’ The Garden of Last Days. To be followed by the latest installment in the rockin Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. Then on to the behemoth that is The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Anyone read this yet?
I’m reading “My name is red” by Orhan Pamuk. It’s really good and I highly recommend it.
Katharine Kerr’s latest entry in the Deverry series, “The Shadow Isle” and Jacqueline Carrey’s “Kushiel’s Mercy”.
I’m going through Neil Gaiman’s Anasi Boys. I put it aside last summer and then it got lost during moving, but I’ve been missing some Gaiman lately so back to it. And split the difference: find people who will enjoy a good read so you don’t have to get a too big bookcase.
Moral Disorder – Margaret Atwood – stupendous and I highly recomment.
Story of Edgar Sawtelle – the one book I am looking most forward to reading.
March – Geraldine Brooks
China Lake – An Edgar Delaney mystery – I think I got that from a suggestion here.
I see a July and August full of wonderful reading.
I just reread Freakonomics for a non-fiction discussion group and it is still as wonderful as it was a couple of years ago.
Just finished Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult last night. Now I’m trying to decied between World War Z or A Thousand Splendid Suns as my next pick. Though… Georgette Heyer’s The Grand Sophy would be a fun pick to revisit, need a little fun after Nineteen Minutes.
And that would be decide. *sigh*
It’s chick lit time in my house. I just finished Love The One You’re With by Emily Griffin (it was okay, but Something Borrowed and Something Blue are still her best work), and am waiting for Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner to show up in the mail. It should be good – it’s a sequel to Good in Bed, which I loved. Happy reading, P-Dubs!
The Gentle Axe by RN Morris -mystery set in 1866 Russia (this book has a great cover)http://www.bookcrossing.com/fullsizecover/6138206
Absolution by Caro Ramsey – shortlisted for John Creasy best first mystery of 2008, set in Glasgow
A biography of Lincoln and “Midnight in the garden of Good and Evil” for the millionth time. I had the bookcase debate last summer when I did a purge of the apartment – I let myself keep 100 books. Really, do you need more than 100? (want is a different story) i do not miss any of the books that left the apartment that day.
I just finished my Summer school English credit, so I dove right into Bret Easton Ellis’s “Less Than Zero”, which I’ve been craving for a while, and next up: “Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon– and the journey of a generation”
My nightstand is so crowded I have books piled on the floor and in other areas of the house (“Hi, my name is Anne and I am addicted to amazon.com”). Book shelf only: “What is so Amazing about Grace” (v good-Sunday School book); “There is a Slight Chance I am going to Hell” (have not started it, but looks funny); “No.1 ladies Detective Series” (Am liking it); “Chosen by a Horse” (have not started); “Mayflower” (started and put it down-it is summer); “Things Fall Apart” (not started); “Leaves of Grass” (started).
Is this really the definition of the word p-dub that is commonly used in the EW blog?
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=P+Dub
i thought there’d be cake. its pretty funny.
Let’s see I have:
The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide
Stiff
Into Thin Air
I, Lucifer
a copy of EW
a Delia’s catalog
I rotate between the familiar and the new.
I’m currently reading A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby, but it’s going slower than I thought it would. When I’m finished, I’ll move on to Out of Sight by Elmore Leonard. I start grad school in the fall, so I’m getting in all the breezy reading I can.
Right now I’ve got one of Tom Clancy’s “Op Center” books, “The End of Faith” by Sam Harris, and Jarred Diamond’s “Collapse.” I also have a book about the history of oil and basically why everything is completely effed up now. However, I’m going to need a break from the heavy non-fiction before I get to that, so in honor of the late great George Carlin I’m going to pore through a collection of his works, “Three Times Carlin: An Orgy of George.”
Currently reading – Roommates Wanted – Lisa Jewell, what’s next is anyone’s guess. There’s approximately 68 books in my Bookswim list (it’s like Netflix for books) – who knows what they’ll send!
To ?: LOL, NO I don’t mean that! I think I’ll go back to using “Popwatch Peeps.” Yikes!
Let’s see here: I’ve currently got “Under the Banner of Heaven” by Jon Krakauer; “Girls Rule” by Ashley Rice; “The Smartest Decisions a Woman Can Make Before 40″; and a trashy, pretty dumb vampire romance that I cna’t recall the name of or who wrote it.
Just finished Emily Giffin’s Love the One You’re With, which was awful and not worth my time. Also read Chasing Harry Winston, which was alright, but not great. Now to cleanse the palette, I’m starting Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth, which I’m hearing fabulous things about! Love her books!