Just wondering ... what is everyone reading now?

[vitauta]

following babetoo's lead and moving on from patti smith's bohemian greenwich village to kathryn stockten's racially troubled south. i need to hit some book bins or pay a visit to my favorite used book store again soon, though. i'm spending way too much money on kindle books. does anyone have ebooks that are both reasonably priced that you would recommend highly? as much as i love reading, i cannot afford to continue paying $10-$15 for such a short-lived pleasure. romance novels are the only genre i wouldn't be interested in. thanks for any help....

 

[Katie H]

following babetoo's lead and moving on from patti smith's bohemian greenwich village to kathryn stockten's racially troubled south. i need to hit some book bins or pay a visit to my favorite used book store again soon, though. i'm spending way too much money on kindle books. does anyone have ebooks that are both reasonably priced that you would recommend highly? as much as i love reading, i cannot afford to continue paying $10-$15 for such a short-lived pleasure. romance novels are the only genre i wouldn't be interested in. thanks for any help....

Omigosh, I love The Help. I lived in the south during the time of Kathryn's book and can fully understand the subject. We also had black help, but I never imagined treating Juanita like the characters in the book treated their ladies.

I'm eating the book and I'm really looking forward to seeing the movie, which comes out in a couple of weeks.

 

[Dawgluver]

following babetoo's lead and moving on from patti smith's bohemian greenwich village to kathryn stockten's racially troubled south. i need to hit some book bins or pay a visit to my favorite used book store again soon, though. i'm spending way too much money on kindle books. does anyone have ebooks that are both reasonably priced that you would recommend highly? as much as i love reading, i cannot afford to continue paying $10-$15 for such a short-lived pleasure. romance novels are the only genre i wouldn't be interested in. thanks for any help....

Check out the free enewsletter, Kindle Nation, from Steve Windwalker. He publishes weekly lists of free Kindle books. Amazon has a list of cheapies on their Kindle page as well. I have 11 pages of books on my Kindle, along with my archives, and rarely if ever have paid full price.

 

[vitauta]

Check out the free enewsletter, Kindle Nation, from Steve Windwalker. He publishes weekly lists of free Kindle books. Amazon has a list of cheapies on their Kindle page as well. I have 11 pages of books on my Kindle, along with my archives, and rarely if ever have paid full price.

you're right, dawg, no shortage of cheap and free ebooks out there--a glut of them, in fact! my problem, having spent many hours on many occasions going through endless pages of book listings, is weeding through all the useless junk to find some worthwhile reading there. and i read through some book reviews before making selections, too. 4 1/2 starred books are all too often nothing more than poorly written, virtually illiterate, sophomoric drivel--can't imagine who is doing the reviewing of this hopelessly amateurish tripe. in these few months that i've been taking book recommendations from dc book readers, i've been rewarded with winners, time and again. but, so far, none of them have been of the cheap or free variety--thus my request for further help....

 

[Dawgluver]

you're right, dawg, no shortage of cheap and free ebooks out there--a glut of them, in fact! my problem, having spent many hours on many occasions going through endless pages of book listings, is weeding through all the useless junk to find some worthwhile reading there. and i read through some book reviews before making selections, too. 4 1/2 starred books are all too often nothing more than poorly written, virtually illiterate, sophomoric drivel--can't imagine who is doing the reviewing of this hopelessly amateurish tripe. in these few months that i've been taking book recommendations from dc book readers, i've been rewarded with winners, time and again. but, so far, none of them have been of the cheap or free variety--thus my request for further help....

I wish I could remember what was how much on my Kindle. I've enjoyed the books I've read so far, haven't gotten to all of them yet. J.A Konrath/Jack Kilborn has a number of cheap/free books for Kindle. He has a nice gory sense of humor. I also got the Steig Larssen books for cheap. Elizabeth Peters has some interesting titles, I haven't started one yet, but she combines archeology and history. Love Carl Hiaasen.

I know it's tedious plowing through the lists. I like Kindle Nation as they separate everything into categories.

 

[JoAnn L.]

Just found out that our Borders store is closing. A store called Books-in-a-Million will be moving in. Does anyone buy from them? Are they a discount store?

 

[Dawgluver]

Just found out that our Borders store is closing. A store called Books-in-a-Million will be moving in. Does anyone buy from them? Are they a discount store?

I just read an article about a nearby city trying to court them as a replacement for their Borders, apparently all Borders are closing. The article said BIAM may try to buy up Borders store leases at auction.

I had never heard of them before.

 

[vitauta]

Just found out that our Borders store is closing. A store called Books-in-a-Million will be moving in. Does anyone buy from them? Are they a discount store?

who's next, barnes & noble? probably. "bam" is said to be the second largest book chain, now that borders is closing. evidently, they do have a number of wholesale subsidiaries and superstores in operation, mostly on the east coast.

 

[Claire]

I have 3 books going. "The Catcher in The Rye". I don't see where it is so great. I can't get pasted chapter 2. Janet Evanovich " Sizzling Sixteen". I keep getting preoccupied. "No Angel" My Harrowing Undercover in the Hells Angles. It is slow., Interesting though.

Catcher in the Rye was considered so scandalous when I was a kid that we needed parental permission to read it in my 8th grade American Lit class. I remember wondering what in the heck the big deal was about? Of course, Mom had already let me read valley of the Dolls. I lived in Germany, and had to lunch and take the bus home with rambunctious, toilet-mouthed high school students. It just didn't seem a big deal then. Every once in awhile I think of revisiting it ....but I have a tendency to think there are so many books I have not read, why re-visit a book I didn't much like when I was in 8th grade?

 

[Claire]

Right now I'm in the middle of Ya-Yas in Bloom by Rebecca Wells. What IS driving me crazy is that I'd picked up a book to read and cannot find it. It is here somewhere. I didn't feel like going to the library today (will have to give in and go tomorrow if I cannot find that darned book!) It is a Japanese-set murder mystery by someone named Rowland or something similar. I remember liking one of her previous novels, although it took a chapter or two to get into.

This time of year, I rarely read anything serious. I just sit by the window a/c unit with the most frivolous reading I can bear.

 

[Zhizara]

I got my order from Abe Used Books, and am reading another Lisa Gardner, Alone. It is previous to another book of hers I've read so I'm really enjoying it.

 

[vitauta]

stockten's the help is a fine debut novel, though i think she had some struggles bringing it to a close. the movie? i shudder to think....next on my reading list is carl hiassen. dawg "loves" him, and he is compared to voltaire and george carlin--plus, it's a 7.99 kindle book (stormy weather - early hiaasen) - win, win, win!!

 

[tinlizzie]

Re Hiaasen -- years ago my late husband and I were driving to S FL and had the recorded version of Native Tongue playing all the way down the peninsula. Had us in tears, laughing so hard.

Hiaasen is pretty hard on Disneyana. Not necessarily a bad thing. A memory I have from taking the kids to Disney in the 70's -- we were all sitting under some fake birds listening to them sing fake bird songs. It struck me between the eyes that I should be almost anywhere else, listening to real birds. And if I never hear Small World again, it will be too soon. Oh dear. Have I said too much?

 

[Selkie]

Paleography: Notes upon the History of Writing and the Medieval Art of Illumination - Bernard Quaritch

 

[vitauta]

reading hiaasen brings to mind the memorable writings of kurt vonnegut from the 1960s and 70s--slaughterhouse five, god bless you mr. rosewater, cat's cradle, etc., etc.--they say, great minds think alike. if so, then vonnegut and hiassen are kindred souls, indeed....

 

[tinlizzie]

There's a slim volume of Vonnegut "interviews with the dead," a compilation of what was originally radio pieces, aired on a NYC station. Doesn't take long to read; occupies the mind for quite a while. Can't come up with the exact title at the moment.

 

[Selkie]

A book I just received yesterday from my aunt for my birthday:

Charles Stanley's new book, "Turning the Tide."

 

[Dawgluver]

reading hiaasen brings to mind the memorable writings of kurt vonnegut from the 1960s and 70s--slaughterhouse five, god bless you mr. rosewater, cat's cradle, etc., etc.--they say, great minds think alike. if so, then vonnegut and hiassen are kindred souls, indeed....

Vit, check out some Elmore Leonard. He wrote "Get Shorty" plus many others. Geez, the guy was born in 1925! I had no idea. Highly entertaining. I remember reading "Maximum Bob" and laughing my head off. Great beach reads!

 

[Claire]

I love Elmore Leonard and Hiassen. We loved the TV series (that didn't last long, I guess you have to have a certain sense of humor) as well. Lately my library seems to have gotten on a kick of Scandinavian murder mysteries, so just finished The Snowman by Jo Nesbo (sorry, don't know how to get that last o correctly). Right now I'm reading one of those cupcake mysteries. This time of year I want reading, light!

 

[simonbaker]

I am still looking for the book "Michael Vey" written by Richard Paul Evans.