Treasure!

I’ve got myself quite a few good books today.

Catch Me If You Can by Frank Abagnale arrived today from a fellow bookmoocher. I’m really looking forward to starting it – it’ll probably be next after Lolita.

My mother went to town today and I was also able to coerce her to take my library list (since I only had one libary book out and I’ve just finished it, and I only have one outstanding reservation which I’ve been waiting for since January even though nobody else has it and it’s only coming from a couple of miles away, so I can afford to have a couple of books out). I was expecting one or two books but instead she treated me to Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson, You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers and Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Oranges is first up because it’s the shortest – I’m not in the mood for anything long at the moment.

I have a lot of exams at the moment so I won’t have much time to read them, but it’s nice to know I’ve got so many good books waiting for me. What reads are you looking forward to at the moment?

The Sunday Salon

This has been a pretty good week for reading. I’m still on holiday, so I’ve had plenty of time, and I’ve used it to finish (finally) Plus Ca Change by Jean-Benoît Nadeau & Julie Barlow and also to make some good progress with The Red and the Black, so hopefully I might even be able to finish that soon too. It’s taken me over a year to plough through it, and I’m not going to give up now!

I spent the afternoon reading Lolita outside on the bench in the sun, which was very pleasant. Initial thoughts are that the writing style is very unusual – it took me a while to get the hang of it, and I’m still not sure I’ve completely got it – and that it’s thoroughly bizarre reading a book that looks like it’s written in Chinese (I’m reading from a Chinese edition with the book itself in English but pretty much everything else in Chinese).

I’m also keeping up the bookmooching. This week, I’ve received Second Burial by Andrew Nugent (I haven’t actually read the preceding book, The Four Courts Murder, but my father took it from my bookshelf in the mistaken belief that it was one I’d recommended to him and asked me if it would be possible to Nugent’s other book) and Booked to Die by John Dunning. I’ve also mooched A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, which I wanted a copy of, and Catch Me If You Can, which was made into one of my favourite films.

Here’s to another week of reading!

Reading at the PC

I can’t be the only bookworm out there who gets annoyed waiting for my PC to boot. Recently, though, I’ve started putting that time to good use. I’ve started to keep a book on the desk, which I pick up and read a couple of pages of while waiting for the machine to turn on (because of various issues with the computer’s fan, it’s a necessity to stay by it while it turns on in case it’s about to explode).

It took me a little over a month to read Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism, a book for preteens, which I chose because it was already lying there after being shipped back to me because a bookmoocher gave me the wrong address. I’ve now chosen Me Times Three by Alex Witchel because it looked like the kind of book you can pick up and put down without losing the thread. I’m really enjoying it, but I’ve decided to keep it solely for PC-side reading so that I can get on with finishing the two books I should have finished a long time ago (Plus Ca Change, which I’ve renewed 3 times and is now due back on May 1st and will be finished by then, and The Red and the Black, which I have been reading for over a year now and am damn well going to finish because I paid for it).

Do you do the same? Do you have other ways of sneaking a few extra minutes of reading into your day?

Meme on Monday

I’ve stolen this meme from Rebecca over at The Book Lady’s Blog, though since marking it down as one to do, I’ve seen a couple of other people complete it too. Why not play along?

Hardback, trade paperback or mass market paperback? I should probably be ashamed to admit it, but I don’t know the difference between a trade paperback and a mass market paperback. Anyone care to enlighten me? Anyway, I prefer paperbacks because I find them easier to hold and I love creased spines. Weird, I know.

Barnes & Noble or Borders? Well, I’m a Brit, and I’m not sure we even have Barnes & Noble here. I’ve only been in a Borders once, and I’ll admit that it was pretty awesome, as bookshops go, but there’s none round here so I haven’t been back. I’m not keen on bookshops because of the price of new books and also because I prefer my books pre-loved. Secondhand (bookmooch or charity shops) or the brilliant bargain bookshop in the next town are my venues of choice.

Bookmark or dog-ear? Bookmark.

Amazon or brick-and-mortar? Again, neither. The Book Depository are normally cheaper than Amazon, and if I do want to buy specific books new, I tend to go there. For browsing, it’s charity shops.

Alphabetize by author, or alphabetize by title, or random? Alphabetical by author.

Keep, throw away, or sell? Keep, keep and put on bookmooch or charity shop.

Keep dust jacket or toss it? It’s never even occured to me to remove it.

Read with dust jacket or remove it? See above.

Short story or novel? Oh, novel for sure. Short stories always leave me feeling a little unsatisfied.

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? Gave up on Harry Potter and never read the 7th (though honestly I had no idea of anything that happened after number 4) and was bitterly disappointed by the end of the Lemony Snicket series.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? When I’m tired, normally, though often I’ll be wondering when to stop and hit the end of a chapter and think ‘right, okay, this is a good place’.

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? Oh puh-lease. None of the above! None of the above!

Buy or borrow? Buy (used) or borrow from the library. I rarely borrow from friends, mostly because none of my friends share my reading taste.

New or used? Used all the way. I dislike reading new books.

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendations, or browse? Browse or book reviews (from blogs, not from newspapers and such).

Tidy ending or cliffhanger? Tidy ending but without everything fastened away. I like to know where the characters ended up at the end of the book, but I don’t like being able to see where the rest of their lives are going. I’d rather know where everyone is when I turn the final page and then be free to imagine what happens to them after.

Morning reading, afternoon reading, or nighttime reading?I read just before go to bed, always. A couple of months ago, though, I decided that I hated how reading always got pushed to the bottom of my priority list and resolved to make time for other reading at some point every day. I get home just before 3 and normally read something either at that time or later on, about 7-ish or 8-ish.

Stand-alone or series? Stand-alone. I used to read a lot of series when I was younger, though.

Favorite series? Hex by Rhiannon Lassiter.

Favorite children’s book? Couldn’t really choose one, to be honest. Does Anne of Green Gables count?

Favorite YA book? Again, Hex by Rhiannon Lassiter.

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? Oh how I love it when people don’t put the preposition at the end! I can get quite tetchy about that, even when it means using really weird sentences. Anyway…probably Dangerous Parking by Stuart Browne.

Favorite books read last year? Dear God I have no idea. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, probably.

Favorite books of all time? Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote. Hex by Rhiannon Lassiter. Want to Play? by PJ Tracy. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. Funny how the same books are the answers to all these questions.

What are you reading right now? Just before I sat down at the computer, I finished The Rosary Girls by Richard Montanari. I’m also reading Plus Ca Change: The Story of French from Charlemagne to the Cirque Du Soleil by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow.

What are you reading next? The Technicolour Time Machine by Harry Harrison. My father mentioned it the other day and has now acquired an evangelical zeal for getting me to read it.

Favorite book to recommend to an 11-year-old? But I don’t know any 11-year-olds! Um…probably the Animorphs series. I loved those when I was 11.

Favorite book to re-read? Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult.

Do you ever smell books? No…sorry? What’s that? I’m blushing?

Do you ever read primary source documents like letters or diaries? No.

Drug Books

Thanks for leaving a comment about the Teaser Tuesday I did on Smack (aka Junk in England). What other “drug” books have you read? I’m becoming obsessed…

By the way, if you’re interested, you should totally watch The Wire (it’s a series that was on HBO for five seasons about the drug trade in Baltimore, MD, USA). Quite different perspective from Smack, but AMAZING show. I’m also watching Breaking Bad (which is another American show), but this one is about a meth-addict/high school Chemistry teacher.

I’m not a drug user either (actually never), but I’m becoming obsessed. I’d welcome any oher book recommendations.

Burgess is kind of a genius, eh? I loved Doing It.

That’s a comment from Heather at What Was I reading? Normally, I don’t bother to make posts in order to reply to comments, but given the severity of my drug book habit, I thought I’d make an exception.

The first book I read about drugs was Junk by Melvin Burgess. It’s the story of two teenagers who run away and end up hooked on heroin. It’s written from the characters’ POV in standard English. It was quite easy to read and enjoyable as well.

Another YA book in the genre is Candy by Kevin Brooks. Kevin Brooks is an author I feel I ought to really enjoy but never did. Martyn Pig, the first of his books that I read, was excellent and inspired me to go on to read several of his others. However, I failed to enjoy them. Candy is the story of a boy who falls in love with a young girl who is addicted to heroin. All very well and good, but what let it down was the inplausibility of the story. The duo appear to have a limitless supply of out-of-the-way cottages to disappear to and getting off heroin is as easy as staying in bed for a few days. I wouldn’t particularly recommend this one.

Irvine Welsh has written a number of books about drugs. The first one I read was – probably like most other Welsh fans – Trainspotting. I found it a bit of a slog to start with – it’s all written in Scottish dialect and the POV shifts without warning – but in the end, I loved it. Since then, I’ve reread Trainspotting and also read Glue (which isn’t about drugs so much), Porno (a sequel to both Trainspotting and Glue, which I enjoyed enormously) and Filth, which doesn’t feature drugs heavily either. I also have copies of Ecstasy (no prizes for guessing what that’s about) and Marabou Stork Nightmares waiting to be read.

Another quintessential book about substance abuse is A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. I don’t have a copy of this, or else I’d type out some of it to show you how it’s written. The writing style is absolutely unique. Despite all the controversy about whether or not this was a ‘real story’, I very much enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it. It was nice to read another take on the ‘rehab book’.

If you’re wanting a more leisurely ‘rehab book’, I’d suggest Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes. It’s the story of Rachel, an Irish woman in New York. At the beginning of the book, she’s packed off to a clinic by her best friend Brigit, boyfriend Luke and family. The book switcehs between her time in the clinic and the time leading up to it. It’s quite a cleverly-done book, with very realistic development and characters. Even if you weren’t looking for a book about drugs, I’d recommend this one.

I wasn’t maniacally keen on Junky by William S. Burroughs, though I did enjoy it. This one is about heroin in the 1930s. Personally, I thought it was an interesting read, but perhaps because it’s based on real life, it didn’t really have much direction to it: just a series of anecdotes and musings.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson is an essential of the genre and just as good as it’s made out to be. My edition also has some cracking illustrations in it.

Probably the oldest ‘drug book’ that I’ve read is Wormwood by Marie Corelli. This is a book that’s slightly harder to get hold of (though there is a modern reprint), but if you’re interested, you can read this very comprehensive page at the Virtual Absinthe Museum. I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would and have been trying (and failing) to find more of Corelli’s books ever since I read it.

Another book about – or related to, anyhow – absinthe is The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler. If you haven’t heard of him, you might have heard of A Series of Unfortunate Events, which he wrote under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket. If you didn’t like the style of that series, though, don’t be put off – The Basic Eight is written very differently. It’s not so much a book about drugs, but a book that involves them. I don’t think I could sum up this book any better than the summary on Amazon.com, so I suggest you take a look over there.

And finally, I’d like to mention Dangerous Parking by Stuart Browne. The drug connection is fairly tenuous – the main character is a sober alcoholic – but it’s still well worth the read and it does make a change to read a book where drugs aren’t the main focus, even if they’re still instrumental in the plot.

That pretty much concludes the recommendations I can think of at the moment – what about you? Anything to add?