I used to read every night when I went to bed. I fall asleep so fast, though, that I could only get 5-10 minutes max of reading in that way.
What book are you currently reading?
Shortstuff
(Allie)
#344
I’m trying to make a little time to read before bed, even if it is only ten mins.
NinMD
#345
I’ve decided to read at least 20% of my current book each night before I do other leisure activities (TV, I’m talking to you). My Kindle will track the percentage. That way it won’t take me more than 5 days to complete each book, and I should be able to finish them before they have to be checked back in.
ellisael
(Lisa McCoy)
#348
I am reading couple of books right now. I am reading Into the Wild as a part of English Writer’s Assignment. Alongside, for my tuitions I am learning basic economics through this popular guy Mankiw’s book Principles of Macroeconomics But i am most eagerly reading the script of Hamilton, one of the best Broadway shows that I have watched.
DiMo
(Diane)
#349
I found Into the Wild particularly brutal, but also one of those books that has really stayed with me.
PaulL
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing)
#350
The Territories of Science and Religion, Peter Harrison (Chicago, 2015), newly arrived.
Also, Territories of Human Reason: Science and Theology in an Age of Multiple Rationalities, Alister McGrath (Oxford, 2019)
Rclause
(Scott)
#351
Keto for Cancer By Miriam Kalamian, just getting into this book but I like it so far.
Just finished Any Way You Can By Annette Bozworth. It got a little slow when it was describing how to implement a keto diet over a significant part of the book. I still liked it.
SlowBurnMary
#352
Just finished the elder E. Jean Carroll’s recently published brilliant, very funny, yet deep memoir + road trip adventure into the heartland of America. (E. Jean’s is a divorcee and a former cheerleader, beauty queen, Saturday Night Live comedy writer, and longtime published advice columnist now in her mid 70s). For this book, last year she drove with her dog from New York to many neighbouring southern and midwestern U.S. states visiting only towns named after women, and talking with the locals in diners, on porches, and in other encounters - asking them the question of the book’s title.
As a crone who’s interested in eliciting conversations, her road trip fashion style is a jaunty sideways baseball cap, plaid kilt + turtleneck, and black tights + chunky shoes which seem to make people instantly chuckle or at least curious, and open to talk.
E. Jean asks diverse women (business owners, servers, maids, saleswomen, independently wealthy heiresses, women at restaurants/hotels/expos and a couple of typical 20something students) and a few men in those towns the book’s central question, and their many plain-spoken responses are frequently HILARIOUS and also quite refreshing. She also confides in the reader like a quirky aunt, and adds even more humor to the mix from that. Her modest proposal - a humor prop but also a liberating line of inquiry - evolves over the course of the book, and I won’t spoil it in case anyone wants to be surprised.
While she journals her travels and thinks about things on the road, she also openly looks back on her own typical and not-so-typical stories of surviving numerous experiences of sexual harassment and assault in girlhood & womanhood (and one involving a certain tycoon turned politician) without lingering in victimization yet also speaking plainly about it from her perspective as someone who’s been celibate for about 25 years and who wants justice: respect for women & children. A really entertaining read, highly recommend to anyone!
And currently, am very much enjoying this short book, about the friendship of two women named Joan. The amazing Joan Erickson (psychoanalyst Erik Erickson’s wife and an author in her own right), who at age 90 was encountered by Joan Anderson (a children’s book writer in her 50s) in the Cape Cod area on the beach - they became friends, and the story of their friendship in Joan’s last years contains many wonderful reflections on life, female navigation of development in the second half of life, social justice, and relationships.
BuckRimfire
(BuckRimfire)
#353
I’m rereading Lucky Jim, since my wife just got a new copy after she loaned her old one out a year ago and never got it back. Rather archaic, but even more amusing since I read a New Yorker article 5 or 10 years ago that said that the ridiculous character of Professor Welch is largely modeled on Tolkein.
Also slowly rereading Good Calories, Bad Calories and highlighting it. My spousal critter complained that I am highlighting too may lines! But my style of highlighting is intended to make it possible to read ONLY the highlighted words and have a more or less grammatic flow that catches most of the important stuff, so it’s not just a single point per page that I want to emphasize. So, one could then reread the book in about 30% of the time and still get close to 90% of the content.
ETA: I should point out that I love LOTR and The Hobbit (and hate the movie version of the latter), have read The Silmarillion a couple of times and am always looking to work a Feanor reference into a conversation (usually ineptly), but I’m willing to believe that Professor T was pretty hard to take if you were his much younger colleague or student.
DKElisaga
(K-9 Handler/Trainer, PSD/EP Specialist, Veteran)
#354
I’m reading three at the moment… I read one or the others at differing times of course… dependent on my mood and where I’m at.
All pretty good so far… but I doubt most people would be interested unless they participated within the niche in which they are written.
Sculptorma
(Diane Dupree-Dempsey)
#355
“Into The Wild” is a haunting book. I once knew someone very like Chris McCandless. His family and friends never did find out what happened to him. That was forty years ago.
I found myself mentally raging at Chris McCandless. His apparent selfishness was so breathtaking. Yet who is to say what path someone else should take? “Into The Wild” was well written and is fascinating but it can be a tough read emotionally.
Bill22
#356
Agreed about David Weber… I’ve really enjoyed the Safehold series but it’s taking too long.
Bill22
#357
“Sailing Alone Around the World” by Joshua Slocum. A memoir published in 1900 by the first person to circumnavigate the world solo. It took him just over 3 years to complete… He left Fairhaven, Massachusetts on 24 April 1895 and made it back on 27 June 1898. It’s been fascinating reading so far 
PetaMarie
(squirrel-kissing paper tamer)
#358
I got into the James Patterson “Alex Cross” books for something to listen to at work. After about 4 of them the formula is obvious and repetitive. The last two I listened to this week were different. He was writing catastrophe and heartbreak in order to trick the reader, not simply the main character. I don’t mind when we go along for a ride with one of a book’s characters, but I do mind when a worn out author uses overly emotional manipulation as a way to spice up a mile long series in place of writing a decent storyline.
So, he’s not for me and now I’m listening to Zeros, a book about 5 hackers busted and forced to work for the government on a possibly nefarious project.
PaulL
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing)
#360
Either the Safehold story was never completely plotted out, or it took a major deviation from the planned direction of the plot. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have petered out the way it did. Pity.
Weber has stated that he has a definite outcome in mind for the Honor Harrington series, but the books apparently expanded to unmanageable proportions in the writing. I doubt he’ll live to finish the story, given his health problems and the fact that he appears to find other stories more interesting now.
Part of the reason Weber’s books grow so large is that he writes by dictating to transcription software. This is fine, but it requires one to be ruthless about pruning. Otherwise, an author in love with the sound of his own voice is doomed.