Book hunt.

I just picked up The Reader today at Borders. I liked the movie, so I thought I should read the book!

I was also looking for books by Colette (Cheri and the Last of Cheri) and Maguerite Duras (The Lover and Hiroshima Mon Amour), but couldn't find any. I'll have to get them from amazon.com.

A little bit of Harry Potter lore...

I just read The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling. This is a collection of fairy tales from the wizarding world of Harry Potter. They are moral tales similar to "Muggle" fairy tales. One, The Tale of the Three Brothers, is a part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This collection has notes "written by" Professor Dumbledore. A very cute and easy read, and a nice addition to the Harry Potter series.

So that was book number eight for 2009. *lol* I really need to get reading!

Getting more read this month!

So far, I've read A Spoonful of Poison, the latest Agatha Raisin novel by M.C. Beaton. It was okay, not one of her best. I'm still on the waiting list for Death of a Witch, the newest Hamish story!

Yesterday I finished Fifty Acres and a Poodle, by Jeanne Marie Laskas. She used to have a column in the Washington Post that I loved called Significant Others. I was disappointed when she quit! This book is about Laskas buying the farm she dreamed of having as a child. It's funny and heartwarming. I plan on checking out her other books soon.

I have started reading two books for this week: Death from the Skies! by Philip Plait, and Take the Cannoli by Sarah Vowell. Death is a scary but occasionally humorous look at the ways our planet is doomed. No getting around it, the universe is a scary place, and it will all end someday...kind of reminds us how unique and, um...rather insignificant we are! Take...is humorist Vowell's look at American life. She's a fabulous storyteller, and I will definitely look for her other books (this is an early one). I should finish these two books this week, bringing me to a grand total of...seven books for 2009. Ugh. I need to get back into my reading!

Live Journal's question for today:

You're packing your bag for that other desert island—the one with no electricity—what 5 books do you take with you?

Off the top of my head:

Rebecca
by Daphne Du Maurier
Bleak House
by Charles Dickens
Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
The Lord of the Rings
by J.R.R. Tolkien
Complete Works of William Shakespeare (hopefully an edition with study guides/glossaries!)

Four favorites, plus one that would take a long time to get through. Five books is not enough. 100 books isn't enough!

I haven't been reading much of anything except cooking and craft books. Hopefully, I'll find time to read this month!

2 books read this month.

Numbers two and three. I finished Brideshead Revisited (though I'm still listening to the audiobook). I liked it, but I liked the first part of the book (the Oxford days) better than the second.


Next was Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher. It was a funny memoir by the Star Wars actress, based on her one-woman show. She glibly but frankly describes her drug abuse, relationships, and her bi-polar disorder. It's hilarious but a little bit too short. The best part of the book is the cover art:



I never did re-read Rebecca, but I will.

I picked up one of the last three Torchwood novels: Skypoint. I'll read it this weekend, and pick up the other two next week.

Re-Rebecca.

:p

A live journal meme going around right now has people grabbing the closest book and posting a line from a specific page. The closest book to my computer happened to be Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier. And it also happens to be my favorite. I think I'm going to re-read it today for the umpteenth time. "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again..."

So that will be book #2 for 2009. No rule that says re-reading books doesn't count!

First book for 2009!

I read Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë in one day. I liked it. It was a simple story without any of the wild drama the other Brontë sisters wrote. No obsessive love like Wuthering Heights, and no crazy wife locked in the attic like Jane Eyre. It's a nice tale about a governess and her life with two different families- one with horrid children, the other with somewhat shallow daughters. She finds love with a vicar. Happy ending for Agnes, no strings attatched! Agnes is almost too good to be real, but she's smart and tough, even when things are terrible.

One book down, 59 to go!