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*What book are you reading ?

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Well over the last few days I've been glued to Fear of Flying by Erica Jong. Which in truth, I should've read years ago :oops:
It's bad for me in a way as it means that I think about sex all bloody day & night :oops:
It's also been quite depressing in parts, to be reminded that at one time (the seventies) women were so repressed that this book was seen as liberating! :eek: Wish I'd read it back then - despite not being born.
Essentially a lot of it is trash, though pretty well written trash, and I haven't been able to put it down. :)
 
Gawd, been a few years since I read Fear of Flying - the zipless fuck eh? Must be strange reading that now, as a young woman, when casual sex has been the order of the day for some years now (for het women). She made me angry when I read it though - although I tried not to be!
 
***Vixen posting!***
sojourner said:
Gawd, been a few years since I read Fear of Flying - the zipless fuck eh? Must be strange reading that now, as a young woman, when casual sex has been the order of the day for some years now (for het women). She made me angry when I read it though - although I tried not to be!
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Why angry?
I think I know what you mean but I just keep of thinking about when it was written. Erica Jong has a lot of worthwhile stuff to say nowadays - in keeping with today's feminism, I mean. :)
 
Dandred said:
I'm currently reading "Sophies World" it's a kind of history of philosophy but gets strange later, haven't finished it yet, give me a day or two on the bus. :cool:
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It's a nice little book that. I really enjoyed it. :)
 
Female Chauvinist Pigs - Ariel Levy. Lots of interesting stuff in it, many good points, tho its is also - too American (can let her off that as she is American I guess), ahistorical, too anecdotal (hardly any actual stats) and has no conclusions worth speaking of,
 
Dandred said:
I'm currently reading "Sophies World" it's a kind of history of philosophy but gets strange later, haven't finished it yet, give me a day or two on the bus. :cool:
Click to expand...
i found the "philosophy" bits were very hard to get through, it felt a bit like the surrounding "story" only existed to provide a sort of vague red thread for the author to cut-and-paste in these chapters...in fact i think i zapped past them and only read the story :D

you should read his book "The Solitaire Mystery", it's much much better and raises the same philosophical questions, but without preaching and in a much more subtle and original way...his best book imo (even if it's meant for children) :oops:
 
I'm reading Truman Capote's book In Cold Blood at the moment - a most excellent read which I would recommend to everyone. Bit of a grim subject matter though.
 
belboid said:
Female Chauvinist Pigs - Ariel Levy. Lots of interesting stuff in it, many good points, tho its is also - too American (can let her off that as she is American I guess), ahistorical, too anecdotal (hardly any actual stats) and has no conclusions worth speaking of,
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One sentence and i'm put off reading it.
 
maya said:
i found the "philosophy" bits were very hard to get through, it felt a bit like the surrounding "story" only existed to provide a sort of vague red thread for the author to cut-and-paste in these chapters...in fact i think i zapped past them and only read the story :D

you should read his book "The Solitaire Mystery", it's much much better and raises the same philosophical questions, but without preaching and in a much more subtle and original way...his best book imo (even if it's meant for children) :oops:
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Agree Sophies World is grinding. Stopped reading half way through never finished it. Poorly written - is being kind.

Not read the other one though.
 
exosculate said:
One sentence and i'm put off reading it.
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it doesnt take long, very easy style. and there is a lot of stuff that could be used in a better book.

shit - forgot to mention!!! it's so fucking middle-class. it's like, totally, like, shocking because it's middle-class girls/women/bois who are doing this stuff, and they should know better
 
Brainaddict said:
***Vixen posting!***Why angry?
I think I know what you mean but I just keep of thinking about when it was written. Erica Jong has a lot of worthwhile stuff to say nowadays - in keeping with today's feminism, I mean. :)
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The indecision mainly...frustrated the hell out of me, her dithering over one particular bloke (can't remember his name), and whether she was enjoying him (and the sex) enough. I tried to keep it in mind as well, the year of publication, but couldn't help but get annoyed with the dithering! Still a good book though, with plenty to say, as is The Second Sex, written wayyy before it...but which I still to this day feel has a lot of valid points in it.
 
Philbc03 said:
I'm reading Graham Greene's The Quiet American for my reading group. Seems alright so far.
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you're the second person in three pages, i think,yup, vintage paw post 5731. you could have your own online reading group with them.

platform, houellebecq. slightly strange, having seen a photo of the author i can't get him out of my head while i read the main characters opinions.
 
maya said:
i found the "philosophy" bits were very hard to get through, it felt a bit like the surrounding "story" only existed to provide a sort of vague red thread for the author to cut-and-paste in these chapters...in fact i think i zapped past them and only read the story :D

you should read his book "The Solitaire Mystery", it's much much better and raises the same philosophical questions, but without preaching and in a much more subtle and original way...his best book imo (even if it's meant for children) :oops:
Click to expand...
exactly what i was gonna say! didnt finish sophies world, but loved the solitaire mystery :cool:

note to all, do not read "call me elizabeth" its shite!
 
Teta, Mother and Me by Jean Said Makdissi... the author (Edward Said's sister) traces her family history and talks about the turmoil in the middle east in the 20th cnetury and what it means to be an Arab women.

I'm really liking... It's reminding me of my own grandmother and stories she used to tell me about her childhood. It's also making miss home!
 
Was warming up quite a lot to 'Black Swan Green', now that he's all but dropped the unconvincing narrative voice, but have had to leave it behind for my week's travels in London as it's a massive hardback and I'm already carrying a huge bag on my back and feeling like a snail. So have started again with Rupert Thomson's 'Divided Kingdom' and am really, really enjoying it.

I am supposed to be reading 'Himalaya' by Michael Palin for my next book group meeting in 2 weeks' time, but instead I've got two previous book group books on the go :rolleyes:
 
Alistair Crowley, Diary of a Drug Fiend. Its surprisingly good IMO, there's all sorts going on and "Do What Thou Wilt..." is very definitely interwoven yet I have found it as enthralling and enticing as any fiction recently. The joys and the horrors of drugs, true divinity and proper pain, weep from the pages.
 
mrkikiet said:
you're the second person in three pages, i think,yup, vintage paw post 5731. you could have your own online reading group with them.
Click to expand...

We read the same copy ;)

I just finished A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Hilarious. Ignatious J Reilly is one grotesque character!

Now readng The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Only up to chapter 6 so far but am very impressed. I think it will end up having a similar effect on me that The Grapes of Wrath did - they have a similar tone although written 3 decades apart.
 
Dead Beat -- Jim Butcher (from the Dresden files series)

http://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/

Its like Mickie Spillane meets Harry Potter. Instead of prostititues it has vampires. Instead of beautiful babes, it has fairies. Instead of contract killers, it has ghouls. A highlight it when the main character zombifies a dinosaur and rides it through downtown Chicago. Evidently, "Dinosauers don't corner well." :D
 
The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks

I'm only a bit of the way through, but it's really good. There's a real sense of galactic scale with this one.
 
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