What Are You Reading

[DStuttgen]

I love my Kindle

Reading on my Kindle, "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain. Very entertaining!

I am reading Middlemarch by George Elliot on my Kindle.
I love my Kindle but I still want to have the real deal on my bookshelves.
Dan

 

[Touchofevil]

I thoroughly enjoy my Kindles because they are so convenient and I am able to get copies of out of print books for next to nothing. I am also able to carry a wide variety of stories with me where ever I go so there is never that I am not in the mood for that situation.
Depending upon the author, I am still likely to buy a paper/hardback here and there to place upon my very crowded bookshelves.

 

[Atinkerer]

Yo Ho Ho

I'm reading Treasure Island

 

[Annichen]

A beautiful,heavy book about Gustavian art/interior design.
One of my passions is rococo/neoclassical interior (and exterior to a certain degree).
Especially I find the Gustavian style very beautiful, a scandinavian interpretation of the heavy rococo style.
It is named after the swedish king Gustav III.


Den Gustavianske konsten - The Gustavian art.

Gustav III's bedroom, I love that room..my bedroom is heavily inspred by it

 

[DStuttgen]

Kindle

I thoroughly enjoy my Kindles because they are so convenient and I am able to get copies of out of print books for next to nothing. I am also able to carry a wide variety of stories with me where ever I go so there is never that I am not in the mood for that situation.
Depending upon the author, I am still likely to buy a paper/hardback here and there to place upon my very crowded bookshelves.

My wife bought me a Kindle 1 for Xmas 2008 and she was afraid I wasn't going to like it.lol I read a lot from the classics such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austin, Bronte and also Sci Fantasy like Laurell K Hamilton and Terry Goodkind. Best part about the Kindle is sites like Gutenburg .org. Convert to kindle format and you have even more good books to read. Yeah, I love my Kindle.
Dan

 

[Ethan Bentley]

Finishing off the Burton biography.

 

[Feraud]

Which Burton bio are you reading?

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Unfortunately, Chandler did not produce nearly enough material and as a result, I had to pace myself so that it wasn't over before I knew it. Now if he had produced at the pace of Georges Simenon, I would be exceptionally happy.

Quite true. Not really a prolific writer, Chandler recycled much of his early material from his pulp magazine days into the Philip Marlowe stories, notably The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, and Lady in the Lake.

FL'ers can take note of the almost loving detail in which Chandler lavished in describing the attire of his characters. An example are the Quest Sisters from The Little Sister.

First we meet Orfamay Quest of Manhattan, Kansas:

She didn't have to open her mouth for me to know who she was. And nobody ever looked less like Lady Macbeth. She was a small, neat, rather prissy-looking girl with primly smooth brown hair and rimless glasses. She was wearing a brown tailor-made and from a strap on her shoulder hung one of those awkward-looking square bags that made you think of a Sister of Mercy taking first aid to the wounded. On the smooth brown hair was a hat that had been taken from its mother too young. She had no make-up, no lipstick and no jewelry. The rimless glasses gave her that librarian's look.

and Marlowe's first encounter with Orfamay's sister Mavis Weld:

A whiff of perfume reached me and I started to turn. A woman who had been in the bathroom was standing there holding a towel in front of the lower part of her face. Dark glasses showed above the towel. And then the brim of a wide-brimmed straw hat in a sort of dusty delphinium blue. Under that was fluffed-out pale blond hair. Blue earbuttons lurked somewhere back in the shadows. The sunglasses were in white frames with broad flat sidebows. Her dress matched her hat. An embroidered silk or rayon coat was open over the dress. She wore gauntleted gloves and there was an automatic in her right hand. White bone grip. Looked like a .32.

"Turn around and put your hands behind you" she said through the towel.

 

[plain old dave]

To Appamattox: Nine April Days, 1865

I have always been a Burke Davis fan. Marine!, They Called Him Stonewall, Gray Fox and a scad of others are fascinating reading. His account of the United States troops occupying Richmond is POWERFUL stuff.

 

[Mario]

I'm just re-reading a few books by Eric Ambler. At the moment it's 'Cause For Alarm' from 1938.

 

[fluteplayer07]

Recently finished Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Montecristo". Fantastic book; thought provoking, too.

 

[Widebrim]

Unfortunately, Chandler did not produce nearly enough material and as a result, I had to pace myself so that it wasn't over before I knew it. Now if he had produced at the pace of Georges Simenon, I would be exceptionally happy.

I agree, especially since his stories take place in Los Angeles and its environs. Am currently reading The High Window, and enjoying it.

 

[Widebrim]

Recently finished Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Montecristo". Fantastic book; thought provoking, too.

I'm on summer vacation, and I think I'll include that one on the long reading list...

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Library Sale Find of the Day!

Dancing for the Hangman by Martin Edwards
(Five Star Publishing, 2009)

From the cover:

It is 1910 and Dr. Hawley Crippen has been convicted of the murder of his wife Cora. In his cell at Pentonville Prison, Crippen faces the prospect of the gallows. Laying bare his innermost feelings, he looks back at his austere childhood in Coldwater, Michigan, his tempestuous marriage and life on the run with his lover Ethel Le Neve. Yet as he revisits his life, Crippen entreats us to consider his "confession": I am not a murderer.

In Dancing for the Hangman, Martin Edwards reopens the file on one of the most notorious and fascinating cases in criminal history. Edwards blends imaginative insight with detailed and extensive research to bring to life the characters and events of a hundred years ago. As he explores all the known facts of the murder case, Edwards skilfully reveals the many questions surrounding Crippen's conviction and arrives at a fresh interpretation of the case.

Darkly humorous and highly readable, Dancing for the Hangman is also a strikingly vivid portrait of Crippen himself, drawing the reader deep into the mind of this hapless, baffling and complex figure.

 

[Mario]

Recently finished Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Montecristo". Fantastic book; thought provoking, too.

Great story indeed. There is a book based on the same story written by Stephen Fry called "The Star's Tennis Balls". It could be considered as "The Count of Montecristo" for the dotcom generation. Highly recommended.

 

[Chas]

"Hitler And Ibsen"; the author postulates that Hitler guided his career to resemble a plotline of an Ibsen play. I'm dubious about the premise, but keeping an open mind. He certainly had a flair for the dramatic.

 

[Touchofevil]

Widebrim, I too am on summer vacation. Might I suggest, if you already haven't, you might take a look at Ross MacDonald. He is, for me, as enjoyable as Chandler and Hammett and was much more prolific.

 

[Touchofevil]

If you are in to vintage espionage, Eric Ambler is a great choice. Discovered him when Black Lizard/ Vintage Crime rereleased his stuff a number of years back.

 

[Wally_Hood]

The Sporting News College Football Preview. Does this count? I read each year's issue cover to cover. Huge cast...

 

[Wally_Hood]

Which Burton bio are you reading?[/QUOTE]

Yes, which, the one born Jenkins, or the explorer? Or the movie guy?