I enjoyed Infinite Jest, though it's a bit too self-absorbed for my tastes.

Just finished: Grimus by Rushdie
Just started: Scott Pilgrim vol 5

Just finished: The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation

Just started: Naked by David Sedaris

garbage and information sciences textbooks.

The Penguin Book of Historic Speeches.

The Year of the Boar and Jackie Robison

Tuck Everlasting

From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

(i'm teaching 5th grade now)

but really i'm working my way through the 2008 Best Science and Nature Writing book. it's a neat series that i look into once and while. this book has articles/essays on animal hybrids, army robots, a tribe in the brazilian rainforest that speaks a language like no other, nanotechnology, and a bunch of other stuff. pretty cool.

Read these at the beach:








Still need to finish the latter.

I've read all of Rushdie's novels (well, I've got about 80 pages left of Enchantress of Florence) and this was easily the worst. What did you think?

started slow, but got a lot better. Good read.

The Best Lawyer in a One Lawyer Town by Dale Bumpers

This one of the most enjoyable books I've picked up in a while. Dale Bumpers is a two-term Governor of Arkansas (1970-1974) and four term Senator (1974-1999). A proud and self-described liberal who can explain why in simple, direct terms.

His memoirs are 75% where he came from and how he was reared, and the last quarter is about his life in government. It's a quick and easy read with a conversational tone, and Bumpers is pretty damn funny. He's a country lawyer with small town charm, but he's no rube. He's smart, down-to-earth and pretty damn persuasive.

As a relative unknown from tiny Charleston, Arkansas, he first ran for governor in 1970, beating six-term governor Orval Faubus in the primary, and two-term incumbent Winthrop Rockefeller in the general. After two terms, he defeated five-term Senator William Fulbright in 1974.

At the end of his Senate career, Bumpers was asked to address the Senate on behalf of fellow Arkansas Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial.

this book was highly influential on my current career. I LOVE this book. I should re read it.



after a semester of reading things I can barely understand, I picked up this gem (founder of Cosmo):




my lite reading:



who doesn't love a 9,00 page novel written from the perspective of a former SS Officerfor some casual reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Bienveillantes

then have this on deck for my vacation next week:

[img][324:500]http://regularrumination.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/2666.jpg[/img]

it's supposed to be fantastic. Another HUGE book -
2666 (2004) was the last novel written by Chilean-born novelist Roberto Bolaño. Depicting the unsolved and still ongoing serial murders of Ciudad Juárez (Santa Teresa in the novel), the Eastern Front in World War II, and the breakdown of relationships and careers, the apocalyptic 2666 explores 20th century degeneration through a wide array of characters, locations, time periods, and stories within stories.


I always mean to read Infinite Jest.
I have a funny pic my friend holding it last summer while I am totally focused on his dog.

I have wanted to read this since it was published, but just never gotten around to it. I use the title to talk shit about my small town lawyer friends ALL. THE. TIME.

I'm reading The Wind in the Willows right now

I just sat down and read this from cover to cover:



Great, uplifting read for The 4th of July.

Just read:

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan, book four of the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series.
As an English major, two things are frowned upon by "serious" literary minds: fantasy and children's books. Somehow Children's fantasy has ended being my genre of choice. I've been keeping up with the Percy Jackson series as the new books release in paperback. The writing style is competent without being amazing... Riordan's skill is in characters and engaging plots. As far as children's fantasy goes, I'd not recommend him before other authors... but for those of us who love the genre, he's a fun read.

And I'm about to start:

The Source of Magic by Piers Anthony, the second book in the Xanth series.
I read a lot of Xanth novels as a teenager... then got rid of them, feeling they weren't serious enough as I adopted English snobbery. Recently got the interest in going back and reacquainting myself with Piers Anthony (because deep down I really DID like his books). I'm finding them to be more intricate than I had remembered, and I look forward to continuing the series.

School:
Maxwell's Handbook for AACR2 by Robert Maxwell
Manheimer's Catalging and Classification by Jerry D. Saye
HTML, XHTML and CSS by Rob Huddleston
a shitload of articles and journals and lectures

Fun:

[img][338:500]http://superpouvoir.com/~marv/Comic-Independant/Solicitations/January-2009/queencountry4.jpg[/img]
The Definitive Queen & Country, Vol. 4 by Greg Rucka


The Blonde by Duane Swierczynski


The Time Machine Did It by John Swartzwelder

How is this?

I literally just started it, but so far it's pretty funny.

Pynchon: Vineland

The Pesthouse - Jim Crace

A post-apocalyptic story about a young man and a woman who travel to the east coast of America in search for a boat off the continent. Similar in some ways to The Road but only about 10% as bleak.

Up next...



God is a Bullet - Boston Teran

Violent, crime thriller about a man whose daughter is abducted by a murderous, satanic cult.

made it about halfway through The Dharma Bums and it was painful, so I just put it down. Just wasn't feeling that shit for right now.

This has been sitting on my girlfriend's mother's coffee table for the past couple weeks and have been thinking about reading it, especially after seeing him on the Daily Show a week or so back. He's a good friend of my girlfriend's mother, so that helps too. Sat down with it today and read about half of it. Pretty great.

if you're listening to these, I would totally recommend the old radio programs (which you can find for free on archive.org) that star Basil Rathbone. They're well done and the voice acting is great.

also, I would not see that movie that's coming out.

That was the only cover art I could grab, but no, not listening to them. I have a little hard-bound edition that I finally got around to reading, when I ran out of stuff.

Just finished "The Cruelest Miles" about the dog sled teams that made a serum delivery to Nome in the 20s. It was a quality non-fiction book with enough of a narrative to keep me interested.

At lunch today I started Mao II by Don Delillo. Only about 20 pages in so I don't have much of an impression yet. The only other one of his I've read is White Noise and it was so long ago I don't remember much about it.