Having visited a few fetes and 'goodwill' shops of late, I'm indulging in obscure old Penguin paperbacks at the moment. Mostly people in 50s Britain being "simply beastly" to each other in bittersweet romantic sitting rooms. Brilliant stuff!

BTW, I also read Thomas Harris' Hannibal recently. Having seen the movie a few times, I'm yet again struck by how completely Hollywood can stuff up a great story ending.

'Memoirs of a Geisha' by Arthur Golden (I believe).

I can't seem to stop reading Flashman! Something made me think of one of the books in the series about two months ago, so I ordered it from the library. Finished it, went on to reread others - I'm 7 or 8 books in, and can't seem to get out. Nothing else appeals just now. I hope that once I have reread the whole series, I will be done, and won't have to start again!

"An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreiser

Just popped open Michael Crichton's "Congo"... for the 3rd time in my life. Granted it has been 6 years since the last time I read it.

' Dragonfly" by John Farris... brilliant suspense

"Team of Rivals," the new Doris Kearns Goodwin book about how Lincoln brought all of his significant political rivals (well, not the Confederates) into his government.

Very interesting.

Reading two books:

"Little Fur" by Isobelle Carmody

and

"Eldest" the sequel to Eragon, by Christopher Paolini

At present, I am re-reading Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis downstairs, and Corrie Ten Booms' The Hiding Place upstairs. Not much real time to read anything except comforting old faves right now.
Tell me. How many others practice the lunacy of having books started in favorite cozy corners all over house? The nightstand, maybe that chair by the window? The car while waiting for junior hi band practice to be over...I know you're out there.

When I was kid, my mom made a rule - no more than four books going at one time. I had an upstairs book, a basement book, a bathroom book, a kitchen book.....
Now, as I listen to books on tape, as well as the regular type of reading, I always have a minimum of two going, one paper, one tape. There is also a Dave Barry book in the bathroom. My radio station also reads a book, twenty minutes or so a day, that I usually catch. There are a couple of paperbacks in the car that I have been working on for quite some time. Oh, and then there is my purse book so I always have something to read if in a waiting room. I enjoy the way that images from different books tend to bounce off each other - it sets up a nice resonance.

As for what I am reading right now - short stories by favorite mystery authors on tape, and, oddly enough, a mystery short story collection on paper. I seem to have finally broken the Flashman hold on me.

I used to always have several books on the go when I was younger, but now I'm an old woman I find I can only really read one at a time. But I tend to read much more quickly now (or perhaps just much more?) so I start a new one every few days anyway. I've just finished 2 novels in a row which must be the first time in months if not years. I never thought I'd be a serious reader! BTW, the novels were Ben Elton's latest The First Casualty which I wouldn't have looked at twice if my husband (who reads even fewer novels than I do) hadn't really enjoyed it and it was certainly his best I think (but I've only read a couple of others). And I finally got around to the The Unbearable Lightness of Being - for some reason I seem to have about 5 copies of it, but I can't remember ever buying one, spooky! - and it was brilliant. I am a little worried, however, as it is supposedly very dark but it seemed quite light (no pun intended) to me . Some wonderful images in it...might pick up another Kundera next I think - come to that I seem to have several copies of most of his books...somehow their appearance and multiplication seems appropriately post-modern; I'm sure Milan would approve!

Just finished Michael Chabon's, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay . Wonderful!

Just started on Clifford Simak's "City" this week. 'Is man real or myth', that's what the dog population often discuss when sitting around campfires. And what became of the human population if it existed, my canine pals, hmmm?

I've always enjoyed Simak's brand of sci-fi and not sure why it took so long to find a paperback copy of "City". But it's definately another winner.

Just started reading 'Without Reservations' (The Travels of an Independent Woman).

A librarian recommended it to me but after the last Harry Potter and then Kavalier & Clay? I'm finding a plot about a woman my own age a bit of a struggle! But its definitely well written and escapist reading even though its a biography.

Finished C S Lewis' 'The Last Battle' today. It's the 3rd time I've tried to read it. I think I was probably too young the other 2 times... I actually enjoyed it! I'd previously found it disappointing compared to the other Narnia stories, but now my eyes have been opened!

I'm about halfway through the 4th book in the Sword of Truth fantasy series by Terry Goodkind right now. I started about two weeks ago. I'm a huge fantasy fan, and my husband has all the Sword of Truth books (two copies of some, I don't know why), and has been trying to talk me into reading them for almost 4 years now, but for some reason I just wasn't interested. But now, I'd re-read a bunch of my favorites from the bookshelf and was hunting around for something new to read, and finally decided to bite the bullet and start the Goodkind stuff. I'm enjoying it so far, but it hasn't been the eye-opening fantasy read of a lifetime for me like it seems to have been for my husband. In short, I still like Middle Earth better. Hubby thinks my beloved J.R.R. is too wordy. I, on the other hand, think Goodkind is a little obvious in his borrowing of elements from other authors, as well as being no master of foreshadowing. I'm not disappointed yet, though. Long as they were, I still knew they were going to be a little fluffier than what I prefer.

As far as I'm concerend, Goodkind suffers from the same problem that ails too many fantasy writers - he doesn't know when to end the story.
I quite enjoyed the series, to a certain point, and then I thought it just got to be too stretched out and needed a conclusion. I think I got as far as volume 7 or 8 before giving up on it.
Jordan's 'Wheel of Time' series was another that was fabulous at the beginning, but I gave up on after book 9 or 10 (or something equally as silly).
That's the beauty of writers like Tolkein and Donaldson, there is a finite ending to their works, and not a dragged out, painful death.

Isn't that great how some books are timeless? I was just thinking The Chronicles of Narnia are due for a read this decade!

First time I read The Last Battle? I cried. I was 10.

I've never been able to piece together the Bible in the books. Recall from somewhere that C.S. Lewis had supposedly written them based on the Bible but never saw more than a patchy glimpse myself.

Has anyone else seen it?

When I was very young, my parents read Narnia to me, and I think the first time I read them myself I was 7. And the last time I read them I was in high school. I've always liked them, just as I've always liked middle earth for the same reasons. But I grew up with a couple of agnostics for parents, and my sis and I are both of the non-religious variety still. When I heard Lewis and Tolkein as a child I didn't notice the religiousity of them. When I read them as an adult (or nearly so) it was obvious, but neither detracted from nor added to my enjoyment of them. I've read the bible a couple of times, but I don't think I had yet the last time I read them, so I'm sure I might have recognized certail correlations of virtue, and I knew that Lewis was Christian (and of course I knew the basics of Christianity, and the most well-known of stories), but I wouldn't have noticed any direct correlations in the stories as a whole. I still probably wouldn't, but mostly because it seems rather worthless for me to look for them. I'd rather enjoy them on the level I always have, and not spend time trying to decifer them.

I have just discovered Bill Bryson, I am reading Notes from a Small Island. Thank goodness I'm not reading it on the train to work, my sides are aching from laughing so much

Same with the "Sword of Shannara" guy, his name escapes me at the moment.
This doesn't only apply to fantasy - any 'series' genre is prone to it. Robert B Parker springs to mind. When you think of how really, really good some of his earlier books were, and then read the incoherent messes that have come from him in the last ten years or so..... Thing is, even now he sometimes writes a half decent book, so I can't seem to stop reading them altogether, which is what I probably should do.
I suppose the money, pressure to 'keep in the game', pressure from publishers, etc, all contribute to it, but I really wish that authors could just say "You know what, I'll just wait until I get a really good idea before I write another book, if you don't mind. Sorry about the contract and all, but..."

Was that Terry Brooks? Shannara? I haven't read them. Or Eddings, or Jordan. I'm not 100% sure what finally made me want to read Goodkind.

I also find that Piers Anthony sometimes has trouble with series. Generally up to book six of most of this series everything is OK, and once you pass that, it goes downhill. Granted, I think not many of his series are that long, but Xanth is just uncalled for at this point. And I quite like the early xanth books.

I know what I will be spending my Christmas money on Ing..... and I know they will be re-read many times.