Post Punk Kitchen Forum

It's really hard to make that decision to just put a book that you're not into down for good. I finally did it with Atlas Shrugged (during the million page long speech...I had had enough).

If you enjoy it (I did), I would recommend her autobiography/memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?. I love Jeanette Winterson.

(edited for grammar)

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.

tons of helpful information about animal agriculture.
if you can call it agriculture.

also working on Surfacing by Margaret Atwood, which i found at the "free library" down the street from my place (there is a birdhouse-like structure in someones front yard full of used books that people borrow/take/trade, it's awesome).

then I'll be reading croissant by Inga Muscio, whcih i got for christmas!!!!!

Is it possible for you to share a photo of this "free library"?! I love hearing about individual libraries like that.

I am reading The Professor and The Madman and Kurt Vonnegut letters.

I love Simon Winchester! He can be a bit of a pompous windbag sometimes, but overall, I love his tangents and depth. The Map that Changed the World, and Krakatoa are my favorites.

currently reading The Talented Miss Highsmith by Joan Schenkar that i got from my sweetie for the holiday. Also just finished the China Study (recommend it!).

Me too. I was really into it for a while, but it's not the best for reading before bed. Feels like [interesting] homework.

i'd loved 'the professor and the madman'
one of my fave books on books

Reading A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, got it a few weeks ago at the library because the PPK seems to love it so much, and you haven't led me astray yet!

I really liked that book when I read it years ago. It meant a lot to me at the time, but now I really can't remember much about it. It's about time for a reread.

Oh, when I first read your comment, semi, I thought it said Inigo Montoya, and wondered why in the world a fictional swordsman would have written a book titled Croissant, filtered or not.

I finally finished Storm of Swords after devouring the last 15% on the train home after Christmas and now I'm a couple chapters into the 4th Game of Thrones book, A Feast for Crows. I'm really enjoying this series, but I can't wait to finish it so I can move on to other things. I'm tempted to read through The Hobbit and Lard of the Rings, but I don't think I want to be committed to another sprawling pseudo-medieval fantasy series just yet.

/dork

Is that the same book as The Surgeon of Crowthorne, the one about the Oxford English Dictionary? I loved that. I also really liked his Prison Diary, Argentina about when he was arrested on suspicion of spying during the Falklands War.

I am currently hugely enjoying Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George, whose books are a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine.

i mentioned a page or so back that ATGIB is my absolute favorite book of all time. i hope you adore it. i re-read it every year or so.

yes, it seems to be, a quick wiki search turns up that 'the surgeon of crothorne' was renamed when it was published in the USA......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Surgeon_of_Crowthorne

Yeaaah! I can't explain how come I have never read Jules Verne!
(...Just started Journey to the center of the earth)

I've been going through the same thing. I want to reread Lard of the Rings but don't know if I want to commit that much time when I have so many other books on my to-read list. And I adore the Song of Ice and Fire books and was dead to the world for a few months earlier this year as I devoured them.

Somehow I have never read a full Simon Winchester book. I have read lots of essays of his in various anthologies and have always enjoyed them but haven't gotten around to his books. Good to see so many recommendations.

I'm about halfway through 1Q84.

I finished Oranges.... I quite liked it, but it left me wanting more. I might have to get her autobiography.

I'm now reading Snobbery with Violence by M C Beaton. It's the first in a series of Edwardian mysteries (I think they're meant to be murder mysteries, but I haven't run into a murder yet and I'm already 21% through it). I'm trying to get through this one quickly so I can determine whether or not I want to pay almost £5 for the 2nd book and get the last 2 for 99p each while they're still on sale.

I finished Live from New York (SNL anecdotes) and it was generally annoying. Kept me interested though for its gossip value.

Now what to read next! Imma pick something you guys have been reading because I didn't even have three books that I considered favorite enough to list in the three favorites thread. I think I'll re-read We Have Always Lived in the Castle for now because I didn't really feel I absorbed the story and characters in my first go through, I was focusing too much on style and authorly technique. In fact my reading list 2012 was so unmemorable, I don't even remember what I read. I guess I could scroll through this thread and refresh my memory, but meh. I read some great short stories this year though.

I finished Monkey on a Stick. I don't know what to think about it. It was well-written, I think. Honestly I'm just distracted by how BAD people were. Lots of drugs and guns. My mom's response was that the 70's were a different time. Um? Content aside, I thought it was written in such a way that made me want to keep reading, which usually merits a 'good' rating from me.

I'm now on to Sloane Crosby's I Was Told There'd Be Cake. I'm walking a line between liking it and thinking that she's patting herself on the back a little too much. Like the writing is witty and she's just sitting back thinking, yeah, that was a good one.

This book gave me intense nightmares. Have you noticed the narration over-reminds the reader about parts that have obviously happened? Overall I loved it- it's wild to think about how it's translated. What do you think about it so far?

That's how I felt when I read it. I liked it, but I felt very unfullfilled by the time I finished it. I think I just can't read comedy writing like that - there's never really a point that the writer gets to. I never really "get" stand-up comedians, and I feel like this is the same sort of thing.

I am reading Debt: The First 5000 Years. It is fascinating.

I also just started Angelmaker. Love the writing so far.

Oh man. My ex read that and loved it (which is great!) but that meant that all I heard about for the next month was debt this, debt that (not great!).

I just started "A Working Theory if Love" and I am really enjoying it. It's about a guy who's Dad killed himself and left behind tons of journals. Then they use the journals to attempt to give a computer artificial intelligence and now he's having convos with his Dad. Except it's not.