The girl who's afraid of science fiction's reading log

eclectichoney

First post! I have been keeping my log in a spradsheet on my PC since the start of the year so I am just gonna copy across what I have got through so far since Jan 1st. It will be so much easier to keep track of online from any PC - wtg BossArky!

Empire Falls Richard Russo

Discomfort Zone Jonathan Franzen

Disturbing the Peace Richard Yates

Handmaiden's Tale Margaret Atwood

Story of English Robert McCrum

Now That You're Back A.L. Kennedy

Paradise A.L. Kennedy

Essential Cataloguing J.H. Bowman

Making Globalization Work Joseph Stiglitz

Dubliners James Joyce

The Stars my Destination Alfred Bester

The Looming Tower Lawrence Wright

Light Years James Salter

Inheritance of Loss Kiran Desai

The Echo Maker Richard Powers

Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon

No one belongs here more than you Miranda July

Member of the wedding Carson McCullers

Dream Lover William Boyd

Mr Pip Lloyd Jones

Ragged Trousered Philianthropists Robert Tressell

Birds of America Lorrie Moore

Scholarship in the Digital age Christine Borgman

And then we came to the end Joshua Ferris

eclectichoney

Currently reading:

Future of Ideas Lawrence Lessig (dipping in and out of this, Note to self, must go back to it)

Man of no qualities Robert Musil (This book is massive, I got to about page 300 last Monday and just couldn't go on with it, but I haven't completely abandoned maybe I just needed a break)

Age of the Warrior Robert Fisk (Nearly finished this one - great stuff, but more of a dip-in-and-out of read than all at once)

Just just started (as in page 3) Stephen Pinker's Stuff of Thought.

eclectichoney

Finished

Age of the Warrier - Robert Fisk

and

Stuff of Thought - Steve Pinker

over the weekend. Both excellent, very readable non-fiction.

eclectichoney

Sorrows of an American - Siri Hustvedt:

This was very good though not as good as What I Loved (which, in fairness, was exceptional)

eclectichoney

The Enchantress of Florence - Salman Rushdie

Didn't like it at all. Really struggled not to give up and even skimmed parts of it.

eclectichoney

Rivals - Bill Emmott

eclectichoney

Indelible Acts - A.L. kennedy *awesome*

BossArky

eclectichoney wrote: »

The Enchantress of Florence - Salman Rushdie

Didn't like it at all. Really struggled not to give up and even skimmed parts of it.

Have you read any of his other stuff like Midnights Children or The Satanic Verses? I find his writing annoyingly flowery.

eclectichoney

I liked Midnight's children a lot actually, Shalimar the Clown was readable if not great, but Fury was terrible.

His latest is written with a real oldy-worldy, almost picaresque vibe. Not my thing at all tbh, so I guess I was asking for trouble!

eclectichoney

Disgrace - Jm Coetzee

eclectichoney

Day - A.L. Kennedy

eclectichoney

Omega minor - paul verhaeghen

eclectichoney

Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horse - Didn't think this would be my kind of thing but it's actually really compelling! Recommended

eclectichoney

Loneliness on the net - Janusz Wisniewski

The ordinary person's guide to empire - Arundhati Roy

eclectichoney

The New Granta Book of the American Short Story - Richard Ford

Loved this - two thirds of it is pure gold and the rest is still worth reading if not spectacular. A keeper for sure.

eclectichoney

De Niro's Game

God's own Country - Ross raisin

Both very good, compelling reads, if very different.

eclectichoney

Gerard Donovan - Country of the Grand

eclectichoney

Paul Auster - Travels in the scriptorium: Not up to his usual standard, more like a stop-gap.

eclectichoney

The missing person's guide to love - Susanna jones : pretty decent, light enough though, but sometimes you need that

The spare room - Helen Garner : Not bad, but wouldn't recommend it tbh.

eclectichoney

A bit of catching up:

S – a novel about the Balkans Slavenka Drakulic (Very tough to read by excellent)

Little constructions Anna Burns (A bit meh, written in a very unusual style, funny in parts it must be said but felt a little forced in that regard)

Cassada James Salter (Disappointing compared to Light Years which was *awesome*)

Chi Running Danny Dreyer

Original bliss AL Kennedy

Anthropology Dan Rhodes (Annoyingly useless and rubbish)

About Rothko Dore Ashton (Rothko is not as exciting as I would have thought it seems!)

What I talk about when I talk about running Haruki Murakami (Perfect)

The Yiddish policeman's union Michael Chabon