Will dance for books

[katiefoolery]

Welcome back and congratulations to everyone on surviving Christmas. I hope it was fun/crazy/lovely/hot/snowy/filled with family/filled with friends/filled with food/tick whichever apply. Now you can all rest in preparation for doing it all over again next year.

But now, we must move on to real life. And in my real life, a terrible situation is enduring: I do not have a book to read.

I need a book to read.

Neeeeeeeeeeeed.

Therefore, I am turning to my ever-reliable and intelligent and gorgeous and wonderful and have I flattered you all enough yet? flist. Please, recommend me a book. Recommend more than one book. Any genre, any style, old, new, fiction, non-fiction, one you wrote yourself... I don't care. Feed my need for books!

There'll be some left-over chocolate-coated peanuts in it for you all. :D

Comments

[everydayjoy.livejournal.com]

Quite possibly you have read these a thousand times over, but Roald Dahl's autobiographies, Boy and Going Solo, are enchanting.

Also: Rosemary Sutcliff. Everything from her pen. Everything.

[kwalktown.livejournal.com]

My next book to read is Ishmael by Daniel Quinn - it comes highly recommended!

Also, reading this book called Regeneration, I've only just started it, it's on my reading list for next year, but it's fantastic so far! It's by Pat Barker, and yeah, while I've only read a little bit, it's fantastic. About war poets - there's bonus homoerotic relations!

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Actually, I haven't read the Roald Dahl autobiographies, so I shall add them to my list. Thank-you!

I have to agree with you about Rosemary Sutcliff - I love her books! She has a real talent for making you feel as though you're back in the past, living along with her characters. Love them.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Oooh, a bonus! :D Thanks very much for your recommendations - they're going right onto my list.

[rhianon76.livejournal.com]

Well... I can pimp my book to you once I finish the dang zero draft.
But for immediate enjoyment, may I recommend John Ringo's The Last Centurion (specfic, futuristic). Or Kim Harrison's series The Hollows (urban fantasy, with a light splash of romantic and political entanglements). Or Elizabeth Bear & Susan Monette's Companion to Wolves (straight fantasy w/ a Nordic flair, homoerotic).

Those are the ones I've enjoyed this past year. Or, enough to read more than once, or remember with clarity.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Fantastic! Thanks for that - they all sound great. And I'll definitely be reading your book once you finish it. I don't think I even know what it's about, but I don't care - I like your style so I'm sure I'll enjoy your book.

[starlingthefool.livejournal.com]

I picked up Bonk by Mary Roach the other day, and like it a lot. It's about sex, and OMG PEEING MY PANTS funny. She's got two other books out as well: Spook, about scientists understandings of the afterlife, and Stiff, about what happens to human bodies after death. Not biologically, but to the actual cadaver before it's buried or burned or whatnot. It's morbid, but it's fascinating stuff.

[nesmith.livejournal.com]

U.S. Grant's memoirs (I know, totally boring, but he's actually a very good writer), and Confessions of a Yakuza are the two I'm working on.

Also, The People of the Book is really good.

[rhianon76.livejournal.com]

I'll add you to the rather meager list of "people who feel brave enough to read this thing". :)
(It's a Short List. *heh*)
Hopefully with the assistance of GYWO, I'll have a complete draft of it by mid February, at the latest. That's the goal I'm aiming for, at least.

Would love to hear what you think of any of these, if you read them.

[everydayjoy.livejournal.com]

Oh, hurrah!

(I always feel quite sure that, whenever I recommend anything to a voracious reader, she will certainly have already read it. Nice to know you haven't read the Dahl childhood books yet. I think you will be in for a treat :D).

[gogosama.livejournal.com]

You might have read this already, but gogo 150% recommends Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Hilarious, brilliant, witty, and wonderful.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Heh, the whole "brave enough" thing makes me even more keen to read it, actually. I'm going to consider it an exclusive list rather than just a short one. :D

I'll certainly let you know how I go with your recs. They do sound very interesting.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Heheh! They sound like fun!

*adds them to the list*

Wow, my list's getting quite long already. Is good.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Thanks for those! They sound different from the stuff I normally read and that's a very good thing.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have read it but it was quite a while ago. Might be time to re-visit, so thanks for reminding me of it. :D

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

It's hard to tell sometimes, isn't it? The last time I asked for book recs, elfie_chan went to the trouble of writing a list of about half a dozen books... all of which I'd read. I just figure it means we share the same good taste.

[everydayjoy.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! Great minds think alike :).

[nesmith.livejournal.com]

I picked up Grant's memoirs after reading about them in the book Grant and Twain, which had its weak spots but really gave a lot of detail about how Grant got to writing his memoirs while he was dying of cancer.

[joyinthedance.livejournal.com]

If you haven't read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Adventures-Kavalier-Clay/dp/0312282990/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230441834&sr=8-1), you must. It's so good on so many levels. It's got comic books, escape artists, New York, Antarctica, Prague, World War II, romance of multiple orientations, and some of the most lifelike and endearing characters I've seen in a long time. It's not short and takes a few chapters to get into, but it's worth it.

As for me, pretty much all I got for Christmas was books, so I'm set for awhile!

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I just looked at the first page of People of the Book on Amazon and realised that it's actually a book I was interested in reading a while back. Thanks for refreshing my memory there!

I'm really glad you recommended more non-fictionish sort of stuff because I have been straying across from fiction lately and enjoying it a lot. Hopefully I'll be able to pick these books up somewhere.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

That sounds like so much fun - and it also sounds as though it might be good inspiration for my getyourwordsout project, too. Definitely going to try and get hold of that one!

You're so lucky, getting books for Christmas. No-one ever buys me books (or even book vouchers) despite my very, very broad hints...

[bethamphetam1ne.livejournal.com]

Inspired by TV, I've been reading lots of blokey books lately. All the Top Gear boys have books - I've got Jeremy Clarkson's column collections, Richard Hammond's autobiography written after his near-death crash, James May's Magnificent Machines etc.

Long Way Round and Long Way Down by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman are also really interesting.

And for light bubbly fun, Sophie Kinsella's "Shopaholic" series is addictive!

[nesmith.livejournal.com]

Most bookstores should have Grant's memoirs in their Civil War section. My local Borders had three different versions, and I imagine you could get a really good, cheap copy from Amazon. :)

[moonlitpromise.livejournal.com]

Um... Keri Arthur's Riley Jensen series? Prince of Twilight by Maggie Shayne is my favorite. Hide and Seek will fulfill your perverted reading needs. (Don't ask. haha) Idk...When you find something good, let me know.

[naelany.livejournal.com]

Twilight series? ^_~

The Time Traveler's Wife