Total Number of Ratings: 10
Top of the Book Stack: Fall 2009
First Published: Wednesday, September 9, 2009 12:26 AM
Last Saved: Wednesday, September 9, 2009 12:29 AM
This is not the list of books I have waiting on my bookshelf and in my Kindle to read. Nor is it the list of books that I've either written down or grabbed as a "preview" on my Kindle because I know I want to read them as soon as I clear room on the waiting list. It's not even the list of books swiming in my head that I haven't written down yet that will likely jump ahead in line if given the slightest opportunity.
This is the list of books that for whatever reason have the greatest chance of being read (or in many cases, finished) before the clock strikes Winter. Check back in early December to see what's in store for Winter. Maybe it'll just be a re-post of this list, but hopefully the embarrassment factor will give me the extra shove I need to persevere.
A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin
It feels like I have been reading this book for years, but it's only been off and on for a few months. I don't mean to imply that it's a bad book (because the Song of Ice and Fire series is genre-defining), but it's a bit slow-going. It's the sort of book that forces you to pay attention and since he switches narrator and plot line every chapter (in a good way, really). I have this book in paperback, but I spent the cash on a Kindle edition, too. On the one hand, I miss the easy access of the map and cast of characters that comes with a tangible book. On the other, being able to instantly look up the obscure definitions and the search-able cast of characters I added as a separate "book", makes the Kindle invaluable.
Mudbound by Hilary Jordan
and 2 other yet-to-be-discovered titles
This one is for a local book group that meets on the 4th Wednesday of every month. I don't really have much else to say about it other than if I only finish 3 books this fall, these will be ones.
How Fiction Works by James Wood
Fiction Writer's Workshop by Josip Novakovich
How Fiction Works is insightful, fascinating, but oddly organized as if he stopped at the "write all your ideas on index cards" step and just published the book like that. I am aaaaaaalmost done, but i've been almost done for a few months. I keep getting distracted by shinier books. It's possible I'll have this finished before this post gets any traction, in which case I'll move onto/back to the Fiction Writer's Workshop. I've had this book for years and occasionally try to turn it into a self-guided course. It's been a while since I've done that and I've never gotten past the first 3rd or so. It makes a good jump-start for other writing projects. Usually I get some great idea while I'm working through it, get frustrated that I have "homework" that's keeping me from it, so I put it down. There are worse problems to have.
The Woman with the Alabaster Jar by Margaret Starbird
My mother asked me to read this book eons ago, but some how it ended up stashed away and was only recently discovered. A bookmark suggests I started it before it disappeared, but since I can't seem to recall any of it, I think I'll start over. How did something so forgotten get pushed to the top of the list? It's not my book and I feel like I'm over-due in returning it. I also like to toss in a non-fiction, non-writing book occasionally so that I can make interesting small-talk at parties with my mom's friends. 
Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
....having just discovered that this book is not available on the Kindle, it has been pulled from the list.
That's enough for three months, anyway, considering one is NaNovember. In case I run out of books (ha!) or get distracted with something else, the short list for alternates looks something like this:
- Baking Cakes in Kigali (because goodreads will never give me another book for free if I don't)
- Mansfield Park (because i need to get going on my Austen list)
- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (because it will keep taunting me until I do)
- Vanity Fair, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations (because I may want something else off Project Gutenberg that is on the "Things I Should Have Read in High School" list.)
- Anathem (because I might need something completely different)
I really need to stop stalling and get back to Feast for Crows, don't I?
I want to recommend Time Traveler's Wife in a specific medium. I listen to a lot of audio books. Even though there are many good books in audio form, the audio version isn't always an improvement. Though, I'm sure I would have loved reading the novel, I can't imagine it being as good as the unabridged audio version. The performances by the two narrators are moving, and the pacing is perfect (which is sometimes a problem in audio books), making this one of the best audio books I've ever read! (heard? ... saying heard sounds funny)
You will absolutely love Time Traveler's Wife. The movie does a pretty good job at sifting out what to put in and what to leave out, but it was too short. I have been putting off A Feast for Crows because I read the first three and am hoping to start AFFC once GRRM FINALLY puts out A Dance with Dragons. C'mon GRRM! The good news is A Song of Ice and Fire will be an HBO series...exactly what it needs to be. I am new to Murmur and haven't read your reviews before, but just based on the books you are intending to read I will definitely look into the suggestions you have.
finished mudbound in record time and almost 2 weeks "early", which means the only things left at the top of my stack are nonfiction and i just don't wanna. maybe i'll pick up p&p&z after all.
hit the surge to the end of Feast for Crows a couple of days ago and just decided to make it the thing I did with all my free time until i finished it.
it's a good thing for the rest of my stack that he hasn't finished the next book yet. it's a bummer that the next book will cover the same time period as this one, only for different characters. that means 2 books and several years until i find out what happens next.
also: if you like robert jordan, but also like books where time passes and things happen, you could do much, much worse than george r.r.
I'm always amazed by people who can have more than one book going at a time. Once I start a book I have to finish it. I do read some graphic novels in the mean time but I consider reading prose and comics different enough that it doesn't bother me.
On another note, do you (or anyone else) have any other books beside the two mentioned that would be good reading for someone who has never written before but would like to try? I don't see my self writing stories necessarily. I seem to lack that creative gene but I would love to try my hand at articles and review type writing.
i used to be completely single-focused when it came to reading, and i still rarely have more than one fiction book going at once. now that life is way more chaotic than it used to be, it's easy to get distracted from what i'm reading, which means that it's easier for something slightly shinier to distract me when i turn back to the books.
It just makes me read the book I'm reading faster so I can get to the shiny one that I want to read. If only I didn't have to sleep.
I went into reading Time Traveler's Wife thinking it would be a science fiction book. Not a sappy romance with some sci-fi elements. I cried a lot that night....
Anywho...
It has been an embarassing amount of time since I last finished a prose book (in my defense, I have read over 50 trades/graphic novels in the past year or so). I have a small stack starting to grow, and The Omnivore's Dilemma keeps glaring at me because I started it and put it down a few times. I think I need to join a book club to get my butt in gear.
If you're looking for a book club, you could check your local library. And yes, that is my answer to everything. Be warned: it may be populated exclusively by old people.
Other book club can be found though sites like http://www.readerscircle.org/ Just a few ideas if you're really interested.
Thanks for the link! I'll check it out.
The sad thing is my cousin runs a book club that would be perfect, but she won't let me join :(
I found Time Traveler's Wife to be excellent reading. It is a very emotionally moving book with very fun time travel elements.
I have to wonder if it isn't on Kindle due to its length. Are Neal Stephenson's books available on kindle? They are massively long.
i don't think length is an issue with kindle books. data is data and i've got the entire works of shakespeare in a single "book". my friend the internet tells me that anathem is 960 pages in the hardcover and time traveler is only 560.
i know that rowling won't let anyone "digitize" any harry potter, so it could be something like that. does the book make use of multiple fonts for any time travelly reason? that would most certainly limit the kindling.
Every day I wearily eye the huge stack of books that I have piled on my dresser. I think my only impetus for reading them is that when I do my next stack article in January there will be a minimum of repeat appearances.
This is unlikely.
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I've been reading Pynchon's Inherent Vice for over a month. I don't know why it's going so slowly but it is. I feel you on being "almost done" for a while. Although I am not almost done.