OMG BOOKS! ... for people who read books

[Mer]

So here's the thing.

I distinctly remember how much I hated reading in both primary & secondary school. At least when I was told what to read. I guess objectively speaking I still read books in amount above average, but there was some sneaking sense of resentment connected to it. When I found something that fascinated me, I couldn't for the life of me put it down until I was finished. However, as soon as somebody shoved one of those boring obligatory canon books down my throat, it really made me sick even to look at written word.
It changed a lot during my uni days and some sense of excitement about reading was obviously connected to learning a new language so it was less about real quality and more about "OMG I understand Norwegian!!".

But I truly came back to reading only two years ago after I finished the university and there was nobody telling me what I have to read this month. Sure, I have to still read a lot of crappy literature for my work, but I say it doesn't count. The discovery that there are SO MANY great books out there just waiting for me to read them was truly overwhelming, even if that sounds hella cheesy. Since that discovery I found it quite impossible to even get out of the house or ride a bus without a book in my hand. It's almost kind of a sickness, really.

So that was tl;dr, but here is the real point. Soooo many books get published these days and it's almost impossible to sift through all of the book reviews before you pick something. I usually get some hints from friends or find books purely by accident and sure, I've managed to find lots of interesting literature this way. What interests me most at the moment is contemporary literature in English but so far I have not found a good source for book recommendations anywhere on the internet which seemed any useful to me. I guess my question is, where do you, fellow bookworms, look for new book ideas? I'd be really interested to know.

If any of you feel like it, please do share your ideas or impressions about what you've been reading lately. I for one would be very happy to read about it.

The weekend is upon us so I'll use it as an opportunity to get away from the porn I'm currently translating. I think I'm taking "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer with me for the weekend and I've absolutely no idea what I'm in for but that's the beauty of it, non? :]

-m.

[tim]

I haven't read much fiction recently. The last book I read was ahead of an event I was going to that the author was speaking at, and I read it & then posted a 2,500 word review online before the event, so the author would read and retweet it, lol.

I also re-read Loving Sabotage by Amelie Nothomb recently after finding it for 50p at a library booksale.

In terms of contemporary English fiction, I strongly recommend Beasts of no nation, by Uzodinma Iweala, published 2005. Also anything by Ben Okri (start with his classic, Famished Road).

[Mer]

Thanks Tim, I'll definitely look into it.

-m.

[Stariki]

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. This is a monster of a book... almost a thousand pages. Set in Bombay it is one man's journey through the light and dark of that city. Only a couple of chapters in... but wow!

[Naylzie]

College was a funny beastie for me...  I had already made a habit of writing essays on music and literature in my free time (not very GOOD ones, but the intent was there), so the idea of a THESIS revolving around BOOKS OF MY CHOOSING was just amazing to me.  Sadly, said thesis was a project I was unable to finish due to my actual coursework; my honours programme offered an additional honor to be conferred at graduation for those who completed a thesis in their field.  As it was, I graduated Cum Laude with General Honours, but had I been able to wrangle the thesis in with the education department's requirements, I'd also have been credited with English Honours.

Graduating hasn't stopped me from working on that thesis xD

I'm currently reading *fetches book* Natasha Randall's translation of Yevgeny Zamyatin's We.  In the foreword, Bruce Sterling sets it up as the progenitor of the dystopian science fiction novel.  Rather high stakes when you consider that most educators who choose to take on the genre do so through 1984 and Brave New World.  I'm nearly through with it, and I can see, sadly, how drastically derivative these other works I've so loved really are.  What's interesting about We is how deeply embedded in the world of the One State the narrator is.  He continually comes back to the world he knows, insists on carrying on as he always has.  The book is also written directly TO the reader; we are assumed to be undiscovered colonies of the One State on Venus or other sundry local planets.  It's definitely going to take me a second read to get to the root of some of the metaphor; right now I'm reading for the simple enjoyment. 

I think that's part of what makes institutional reading so miserable; there just isn't time enough in the school year to allow even a fairly fast reader to get through a text multiple times before attempting to dissect it and assign meaning to its parts.  There's not that chance to read just for enjoyment before you have to look at the deeper, less immediately apparent layer of meaning.

[chimera]

Since that discovery I found it quite impossible to even get out of the house or ride a bus without a book in my hand. It's almost kind of a sickness, really.

Welcome to my life.  ;D  But for me it's Kindle in hand now.

Right now I'm re-reading Edith Wharton's The Reef which I haven't read for some time, this is one reason I love having omnibus editions of an author's work on my Kindle, it makes it more likely to go back and enjoy past works.

I remember first reading We in high school when I was first getting into dystopian literature; and I believe Sterling is correct in regards to the modern expression of the genre.  There were likely dystopian works prior to this, of course.

[spade]

I'm reading Jim Rossignol's This Gaming Life. Interesting, if a little too focused on the wrong aspects of justifying the importance of (video)games, in my opinion (ie: practical applications instead of artistic possibilities). Still, very enjoyable and easy read.

Got Haruki Murakami's 1Q84, which should be good, but I haven't had a chance to start reading it. It feels like I should give this book particular attention and I just can't right now. Besides, it's too big to take on the bus. : P

[kristin]

I've gotta get a kindle. My roommate has one, and my sister's bf gave her one for xmas so I've had time to fiddle around on one, and I really like it.

@ spade- I've got Murakami's 1Q84 on my list too. Love his stuff.

[kristin]

aaaaandd i just bought a kindle. Expected delivery- May 19th.

[Aaron]

Ya they are super nice. I love mine... Which kind did you get? Like the one with adds or and free or 3g? I think the worst thing is buying books you already have again.

[kristin]

Nah, I don't need the one with 3g network, I just got the basic one with WiFi

[Goose]

I refuse to pay for something again unless I'm getting some serious upgrade (like a 5.1 remastered mix for an album for something that's hasn't been printed since the late 80s, for example).  I don't think I could ever justify paying money a second time for a book I already owned, just to get it on my ebook reader.  Thank jeebus for torrents.

As well, the Kindle is often annoying for people not in the US, but its all the publishers/rightsholders fault.  There are a number of books available for sale for the Kindle in the states that aren't in Canada, because someone is just sitting on the publishing rights and not doing anything with them.  This pissed me off enough when looking for some of Isaac Asimov's work to actually e-mail the last publisher of his work (Random House) and give them a piece of my mind.  Surprisingly enough, they e-mailed me back in about an hour and told me flat out that the Canadian publishing rights had reverted back to the Asimov estate, and they weren't doing anything with them.  Random House actually said they wanted to publish in Canada, but couldn't.  After thanking the Random House rep for the thorough explanation, my next stop was a torrent.  Given how fucking easy it is to sell eBooks these days, there's no excuse unless the original version is still the author's typewritten manuscript and hasn't been digitized yet.  If I can't buy it legally, I will get it for free, whether copyright law says I should or not.

This is also an excellent argument for the reduction of copyright terms.  I don't think Asimov's work is going to be making anyone any great windfalls any time soon.  Just throw it into Project Gutenberg and get it over with.

[Mer]

Once again, it's really lovely to hear from all of you

re: Kindle - while I totally appreciate the concept and see how useful and handy it is, I'm also one of those people who get an orgasm from smelling a brand new book so I simply couldn't say no to that. I just love the texture of book pages and the way a book feels in my hand, it just adds to the whole experience (even though yes, I do understand this is technically considered environmentally unfriendly, but oh well, can't help it).

edit: BTW, I find myself constantly underlining sentences and marking pages with post-it notes, so I don't see how this would be actually possible with an e-book...

-m.

[kristin]

I'm definitely a person who enjoys the feel/smell of a new book- my bookshelf is jammed. I'll continue to buy hard copies of certain books, but I'm taking a lot of vacations this summer and don't want to bog my suitcase down with all of my books

[tim]

I haven't read any Murakami for years. I read as much as I could get hold of in one go, then read Kafka on the Shore (which I thought was a bit over-rated) a few years later, then nothing since. Is it worth getting hold of recent stuff?

I will probably get  a Kindle when solar chargers are at the point where you can charge and operate a laptop or kindle device at the same time.