Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Upcoming pleasures


I couldn't help it. Harry looms, and in anticipation, I've been treading water, trying not to get into any books that's going to mean a long commitment, trying to get more work related reading done. Nothing fits. That's a good excuse to get more books, right? And just be forewarned, if you're the one that gives away the Potter plot before I've finished it, I'll hunt you down. And it won't be pretty. Ask the guy who spoiled Anna Karenina for me.


Neil Giman's Neverwhere was on reserve for me at the library and I went to pick it up yesterday. A number of the bookish bloggers I read have enjoyed this book. After thirty pages It's nowhere, as far as I'm concerned. I thought it was supposed to be an adult book fiction but it has the rhythm of a book written for younger readers (not that I don't love that genre, but it's not what I expected). And I'm annoyed by the voice - I find it kind of twee. I just don't have the patience for it right now.















I'm expecting Veronica to come in the mail (Sheila's recommendation) and Buddenbrooks, which I've always wanted to read and the Marcel Reich-Ranicki memoir I read last week reminded me of that fact.


Finally, I went strolling through Labyrinth bookstore yesterday - one of my favorite indy bookstores - and found Tarjei Vesaas' The Ice Palace - which the fabulous dovegrey reader recommended recently, and made irresistible, and The Mind's Past by Michael Gazzaniga. Gazzaniga is one of the founders of cognitive neuroscience and this is a slim, up-to-date tour through the subject for the lay reader.

6 comments:

Loose Baggy Monster said...

Someone spoiled Anna Karenina for me as well! argh... I have a feeling that my best intentions of pre-reading the novels for my fall semester's courses will be falling to the wayside this weekend once the UPS man delivers Harry Potter to my house on Saturday (2 copies of course, as I won't share w/my husband and we're both too impatient to wait until the other has finished reading)!

Eva said...

*shields Neil Gaiman with body*

When I started Neverwhere, I wasn't too impressed, but it gets better. Have you read other stuff by him? If not, you should definitely not write him off on the basis of Neverwhere; other books have a very different tone (esp. Stardust and Good Omens). Oh, and his short story collections are great!

Ted said...

Thanks Eva - I'll try Stardust, then.

Ted said...

LBM - I love that you're getting two copies of HP - that's serious!

Dewey said...

I'm about to finish Half of a Yellow Sun today, and I can't get involved in a new novel unless I think I can finish it by Friday night. So that leaves either a kid's book I can zip through, or reading some non-fiction, because I can put non-fiction aside and pick it up later.

As far as spoilers, I am going nowhere near the internet from Friday afternoon til I finish reading the book!

Anonymous said...

As one who is likely to spoil it for others, warning noted.