What Are You Reading Right Now?

Just finished Treasure Island and now I am on to:

__________________

i read far too slowly and noncommittally to be picking the long ass books i do. been working my way through Ducks, Newburyport for idk how long now.

I think I'm going to go on a Kurt Vonnegut marathon.

Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions. About halfway done, and I'm not really impressed. I mean, I can appreciate the attempt at capturing the little things in life, but not every one of these little things seems to matter much. I still want a story, and if the little things are going to matter, they should at least be a little more powerful than just being too close to everyday life.

Just started Al Pacino's Sonny Boy - A Memoir

__________________
"Population don't imitate art, population imitate bad television." W.A.
"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." M.T.

Geddy Lee's memoirs, My Effin' Life. Highly recommended even if you already know everything about Rush. A highlight so far is the long chapter about his parents' experiences as Holocaust survivors.

It's a linguistic book.

Something a bit lighter

I'm about a quarter way through Prisoner of Azkaban in the original British. Yes; Americans and Brits both speak English. However they use different dialects, and the Harry Potter books were "translated" (read: the slang and prose were changed) when they came across the Atlantic, so now I'm reading the books the way Rowling originally wrote them. They're a lot better this way.

__________________
Why wasn't this murder reported yesterday! Why wait until the last minute!

The Incerto series by some guy who i don't feel like spelling, it's a neato smarty pants kind of work which evaluates randomness, and huge cataclysmic changes called Black Swans, and Antifragility which is better than mere resilience. If i can follow along for the duration of the relatively short chapters, i can thereby get the feeling that i perhaps have a brain that still operates the way brains should optimally. And more to the point, the essence of why this work matters to me grows out of the interest in Stoicism, and living in uncertain times, the latter being not the thing to go into on this website. That's ok, but i need to think of those things regardless. ...... i also desire to be plunged into an extremely sad novel, that doesn't irritate me in any way. On the hunt of a lifetime for such a book.

__________________
No time left for anything else

For decades I've read Stephen King books with no sense of order (since the early 1980s when I first read The Stand). Someone in a SK reader group suggested reading the books in order of publication. She stated that this gave her an interesting sense of seeing King's style develop and also let her see small throwbacks King put in later novels, referring to earlier ones.

So, I'm taking up this task and will reread any of his novels I'd read previously when I get to them. I've gotten through Carrie and 'Salem's Lot, neither of which I'd read before, and am now about 25% through The Shining (which I read so long ago that I don't remember much).

[Side Note: Actually, I should be reading his story Rage next, but that story is no longer available unless you can get your hands on an older copy in The Bachman Books that has it. King pulled it from publication once he learned that the Columbine shooters used it as a sort of handbook and manifesto for their crimes. And I don't want to pay more than $1,000 for a used copy of that collection.]

I'm constantly reminded as I read King's novels that he is a gifted storyteller and that nearly all screen adaptations of his work fall far short of the books. The best bits of his stories are getting inside a character's head, which rarely translates to the screen.

Anyway, I'm enjoying this and trying not to see or hear Jack Nicholson as I read. (Sorry, all you Kubrick fans, but Nicholson's portrayal is nothing like the Jack Torrance in the book.)

__________________
Linda's Author Website
Linda's Amazon Author page

I've wanted to do this too, read all his stuff chronologically, have most on my kindle. Good luck and enjoy the 70s, 80s and 90s Stephen King!!

So far I really am enjoying reading the earlier stuff. HOWEVER...

I've always been able to read King's books, even the scary ones, any time of day or night, even alone in my old, creaky house at 3 a.m. on Halloween... but with 'Salem's Lot I found that I really didn't want to read it after dark at ALL.

This has never happened to me with any horror book before. The way he does the slow-burn of suspense in that story is so fabulous.

I found Salem's Lot pretty scary too!!

A few things. Finishing Palahniuk’s Adjustment Day. It’s an odd one, I can’t say I liked it, but it had a few interesting ideas. Don’t want to read any more stuff like Technofeudalism, so tentatively planning to try some Bradbury. Haven’t read any Bradbury in over twenty years.

I'm listening to David Lynch's memoirs, Room to Dream. As I should have expected, it's the most unusual audiobook I've ever listened to. Like a panel discussion, co-writer Kristine McKenna gives a preamble of each chapter of Lynch's life followed by him adding the color to it as if he were having a conversation with you.

So far, I'm loving it. His own life was full of the contrasts, dualities, dichotomies, what have you found in his art. On one end, there's the picket fence idyll of his 1950s America childhood and him being a popular student who did student council, always has a steady partner, etc. (kind of like Laura Palmer, huh)? On the other end, there's personal experiences ranging from strange to traumatic, i.e. ones you would assume would never happen in such a time and place.

Anyway, I've probably said too much, so I'll stop there and say you should check it out even if you only have a faint interest in the man. I'll just add that luckily, like his movies, he just gives you the puzzle pieces and leaves it totally up to you to assemble them.

When Roger Ebert wrote about movies he liked, he was very good. When he wrote about movies he hated, he was brilliant. I have Kindle versions of "A Horrible Experience of Unbearable Length," "I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie," and "Your Movie Sucks" on my phone and tablet to fill in blank moments during the day.

For extended reading, I'm trying to relive my childhood. The works of Harlan Ellison (as writer and editor) set my early teen brain on fire. I'm trying to make my way absolutely chronologically through "Dangerous Visions," "Again, Dangerous Visions," and "The Last Dangerous Visions." Alas, what seemed "dangerous" circa 1970 ... well, some of it comes off like avocado-colored kitchen appliances. Thought they were sleek and "with it" back then; now, well, some still are ... and some aren't." Continuing the quest though.

And also flipping back and forth through Ellison's other works, including his brilliant non-science-fiction story about Old Hollywood, "The Resurgence of Miss Ankle-Strap Wedgie."

__________________
Scarecrow: I haven't got a brain ... only straw. Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain? Scarecrow: I don't know. But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't they? Dorothy: Yes, I guess you're right.

If you don't mind reading a digital format, The Bachman Books (Rage included) can be borrowed online at Open Library/Internet Archive.


The Long Walk is my favorite early SK novel, and I'm really excited about the long-awaited film adaptation coming out some time later this year!


BTW, I second not being able to read Salem's Lot after dark ⚰️