Take a look, it's in a book

[vovat]

I'm an idiot. Last night, I forgot to remove the cardboard from the bottom of the frozen pizza I was heating up. I'm lucky there was no fire or anything. I think I made the mistake because Red Baron makes a few different kinds of pizzas, and the ones I usually get don't have the cardboard. The Pizzeria Style ones do, though.

You know, I really hate sweating. When will there be any relief from this heat wave?

Finally, I'm wondering what book I should read next. The thing is, there are a lot of books that I've put aside, and should probably get back to reading someday. I know I did that with Les Miserables, the third book in Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea Trilogy (I think it's called The Farthest Shore), and 1984. There are plenty of others in that category, too; those are just three that immediately come to mind. I'm not sure any of those books are in places where I can easily access them, though, and I think I've totally lost my copy of 1984. I also have several books on mythology and games that I've been carrying around with me, but haven't gotten around to actually reading. The weird thing is, I can read a lot of books really quickly, and often re-read them constantly. There are other books, though, where even if I like them, I just put them aside and forget about them.

I've been meaning to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ever since seeing the recent movie, but I haven't been able to locate a copy at the library. bethje also has a few books I've been meaning to read, including Abarat and Teleliteracy: Taking Television Seriously. I've also been wanting to check out Robert Rankin, whom I've seen mentioned as an author that fans of Terry Pratchett might like. And speaking of Pratchett, I kind of have the desire to re-read the entire Discworld series, even though I've already read many of the books multiple times. I wanted to check out The Colo(u)r of Magic yesterday, but the library's copy was already out, so I took out Night Watch instead.

Anyway, does anybody have any recommendations for books I should read, or re-read, or get back to?

Comments

[rockonliz.livejournal.com]

That's funny, I also started but then put aside Le Guin's The Farthest Shre. I absolutely loved the first two in the trilogy, but I could barely finish the third. I eventually did, and it was okay, but not as good as the first two.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's weird, because I got all three of them in a set, and I read the first two back in junior high. For some reason, though, I've only read the very beginning of the third.

[revme.livejournal.com]

I always recommend these, but if you haven't read them:
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami (my favorite novel)
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (though it might do to start with, say, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by him so you get his style, as that's the book that's closest to the IJ style that's also short fiction (i.e., not 1000 pages).)

Also, various works of Philip K. Dick are good, too. Like A Scanner Darkly or VALIS.

[skylark-king.livejournal.com]

Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is a must read in my opinion...

After that the List of Seven/Six Messiahs books by twin peaks co-creator MArk Frost were pretty good as well as Lois MCMAster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan books (particularly if you like sci-fi)

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

You've read so much that I've read that I wouldn't know what to suggest!

But I do have a hint-- track down the sequel to Abarat (I forget what it's called at the moment, but it's something that's just "Abarat: The Subtitle that Makes This a Separate Book") and make sure you have access to it before you read the first one. Because the first one just ENDS. Absolutely no closure. Complete cliffhanger. It was the most frustrating thing EVER when the second book hadn't even been PUBLISHED yet! Very good book though-- of course: it wouldn't have been nearly so frustrating if it hadn't been good!

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Beth has the both first and the second Abarat book, although she hasn't read much of the second as of yet.

I think the second one is called Days of Magic, Nights of War, or something like that.

[bethje.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been meaning to comment that I only have the second one, which you bought me. I got the first from the library, but I've been wanting to own it ever since reading it.

It does end abruptly, but I was cool with it, because I thought, "oooh, exciting things to come from the great Clive Barker!" {g}

[slfcllednowhere.livejournal.com]

Haha my mom did the same thing with our pizza the other day.

Uh, I don't know about reading. I feel like everything I've really been into is so cliche and obvious and it's not like I have any awesome unknown things to suggest.

[bethje.livejournal.com]

REQUIEM FOR A DREAM!!!!!!!!!!!