It's November '11 gobble gobble - What Are You Reading?

I'm reading Tell-All by Chuck Palahniuk. It's not so bad, I guess. We'll see how I feel about it when I'm finished.

I actually liked Tell-All. I wish more people would stop ragging Palahniuk for experimenting. He can't just keep rewriting Survivor.

I'm also a big fan of All About Eve.

Yeah, Tell-All was pretty good.

IMO it's the best of the last three or four books.

I'm reading The Fandom of The Operator by Robert Rankin. Good fun.

It's better than I expected anyway. Definitely much better than Snuff and Pygmy.

Tell-All was alright. The name dropping wasn't really an issue. A bit predictable though.

I'm about a third of my way through Cocaine Nights by J.G. Ballard which I'm really enjoying. It's only the second of his books I've read but I'll definitely be reading more.

Also, is nobody else reading anything this month? What's going on?

I've been trudging through Hardy's The Return of the Native and Little Women for three weeks. This is how one can tell when I have no time, my reading rate drops from a book a day to this mess. After I finish those I swear I'm not reading another classic till the end of the year. I might start The Return (Assassin Whores, in the original) by Roberto Bolaño one of these days though.

I started reading that Salt: A World History. it's pretty frickin' enthralling considering it's just the history of salt.

Wheel of Time book 5 . I have no idea what its called

It's on the cover, ain't it?

In Defence of Food by Michael Pollen. It's kind of interesting, but kind of boring too, I doubt I'll read the whole thing. But it has made me think about margarine.

And I have three pregnancy books around the house. One in the lounge, one on my bedside drawers and one in the loo. Sometimes they're ok, but sometimes they freak me out and make me all anxious. I read terrible things about nipples the other day.

There is no cover... It's a kindle.

Picked this up at a market yesterday:

It's pretentious but I love Jim so I don't care.

I've also got to start my new book club book, 1Q84 by Murakami.

Now I'm reading Hidden Moon by James Church. It's a mystery set in North Korea.

Spoiler! Kim Jung Il did it!

The Return by Roberto Bolaño.

Just finished John Dies at the End by David Wong and I really enjoyed it. Trying to decide what to read next, was considering getting Monica Drake's Clown Girl.

Do it! It's a pretty good book. And Monica is a really great person too.

By pretty good Pete means its pretty awful.

Well, that's like your opinion... man.

I am no man.

You also think The Big Lebowski is awful I'm guessing?

You go too far, sir.

When I called you "man," that was a quote from The Big Lebowski.

Why do you have to go making sense and shit?

Little known fact, The Big Lebowski was actually loosely adapted from William Shakespeare's Hamlet, and as such, the book was far better than the movie!

Due to the current state of affairs around the world I recently re-read '1984' and am now balls deep into 'Brave New World'.

I tend to see them as a double act, and always read one right after the other. This is probably the sixth time since I was 16.

I've been reading too many news websites recently and am looking forward to indulging in fiction. I've been travelling so have been away from my own books and library. Saving the last of my money for the airport bookshop!!

Now I'm reading A Fighter's Heart by Sam Sheridan. I've been wanting to read this for a while now.

The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan.

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami.

We're reading Inheritance

Pussy cat!

I'm enjoying Murakami's 1Q84. I think he's a bit of a corny writer but I'm enjoying it so much more than some of the other books I've read this year. I read the Amazon reviews and it told me to steer clear of the book if I'd never read anything by Murakami before. I don't really understand why other than it's 600 pages...

Everytime I see that title I think it says IQ84 and it's supposed to be about some Forrest Gump person.

Your having pointed this out is the first time I've not thought the same thing. Totally changes the meaning.

Took me a month, but I wrapped up David Simon's Homicide (basis for the TV show, and The Wire to a small extent), having read the last half in about three days of awesome. Killer stuff, no pun intended, and essential reading for crime writers seeking realism. Now I'm treading in Yuknavich's The Chronology of Water (even though I'm not usually into memoirs), which has a very direct, self-deprecating, fucked-up-ness about it and . . . ah, hell, you guys have already read it, so you know. Then trying to get around to Slut Lullabies before the end of the month for book club.

Just finished this.

Amazing. Really really fantastic.

Finished A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. I didn't like it much, so that was disappointing.

Sunset Park by Paul Auster. It's good so far. A nice, smooth read like all of Auster's work seems to be.

I read Harcore Zen (Brad Warner) in a couple days. Interesting.

I'm almost done with 11/22/63 by Stephen King and I'm loving it. It's a little different from his other stuff, but it's still a long, wordy, ridiculously detailed story, which is one of the things that makes him my favorite author.

I saw an ad for that. At first I thought that was when it was supposed to come out and wondered why the title was supposed to be some big secret and then figured it was some thing where a title or description wasn't needed and they only had to have Stephen King's name on the cover to sell it and was getting infuriated at people for that but then I saw the year in the date and went "Oh. nevermind."

I read the synopsis of this and it looked more interesting than his more recent churn outs. If you didn't like it though, I definitely won't bother.

King Solomon's Mines (H. Ryder Haggard)

Just finished up my copy of Damned. Not his best work, but better than his most recent novels. Moving on to The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton.

I'll be starting You Can Make Him Like You by Ben Tanzer some time today for the Book Club discussion.

Ben will be popping in, so you guys should all join in!

I think I'm going to re-read The Hobbit with the first movie coming out soon.

Now I'm reading Palo Alto by James Franco.

I've heard nothing but bad things about Palo Alto. You should return with a verdict.

Black Spring by Henry Miller.

The Hundred Secret Senses - Amy Tan

It's a good thing I didn't judge this book by its cover

You Can Make Him Like You is great. Just thought I'd post that to let you know that I did actually start it, and I am actually enjoying it.