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[MaximumZero]

Never been in a book club...don't really know what people would like to know, or what I'm even supposed to be doing in here.

Ahhh, the things my popularity does...

Anyway, you just kind of... talk about books.  "This is what I'm reading, and this is what it's about, and this is what I like, and this is what I don't like, and my god this thing is full of social criticism or not."  It's kind of like a combo happy/sad thread, but for books.  Maybe you post favorite quotations.  And so on, and so forth.

Aha. I should make time for a good book. Also, I should go to the library.

[Grakelin]

I got pretty close to finishing One Hundred Years of Solitude, just before school started, and my pleasure reading time vanished all at once. For Tennessee Williams in Performance, however, I'm going to be reading 9 Tennessee Williams plays this semester, at a rate of about one per week. I've already finished The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire.

[darkrider2]

umm... Can I suggest Michael Crichton... more specifically sphere, Jurassic park, and Prey. Those were my favorites but I read through a whole bunch of his books.

[ILikePie]

A book club? oh happy day!
Anyway, yeah, since everyone is posting what they're reading, I guess I'll do so too. Currently reading Dune Messiah which is great, don't really know if I want to read the next one though, politics tend to bore me.

Also, Jurassic Park was incredible, I'd totally give it another read sometime this year. Maybe in English too if the local library decides to expand their selection of books.

[Aklyon]

I'm reading Dune as well.
Pie, the third book is pretty ok, but God Emperor of Dune (the one I'm up to) is pretty boring if you get bored by politics.

[ILikePie]

Aye, I guess it couldn't hurt to try another one. I took a look at Asimov's Nemesis earlier this week and from the looks of it, it's just the type of book I'd like to read. Also, something odd I've noticed, Hebrew tends to give books a much more childish tone.

[Il Palazzo]

Subscribing, subscribing...

[Retro]

umm... Can I suggest Michael Crichton... more specifically sphere, Jurassic park, and Prey. Those were my favorites but I read through a whole bunch of his books.

I think Prey was my favourite Crichton novel. I can't remember that much of it now, and the reveals weren't that exciting for me, but I enjoyed the writing and pace.

[Vector]

Personally, I just started The English Patient.  In the first 10 pages it's shown itself to be very elegantly written, though it also kind of hits one over the head with the Christian symbolism...

Though apparently I may be ordered to read French Women Don't Get Fat first.  Very exciting.

[Solifuge]

Book Club! Yays!

I'm currently reading "Lucy: Growing Up Human." It's an account of a chimpanzee, raised from infancy to maturity as though the human daughter of a psychotherapist. Here's an excerpt:

(If TL;DR start at the second paragraph.)

One time we had gotten her a kitten. Her first response to the kitten was hostile; she tried to kill it. After several hostile introductions, the kitten suddenly started following Lucy and Lucy's attitude changed. From that moment, it became Lucy's cat and she wanted it with her. The kitten would follow Lucy about, and Lucy would pick up and carry it on her back much as a chimpanzee mother carries her infant offspring. She never wanted to be without her kitten. Sometimes Jane and I had to separate them so the kitten could eat because Lucy hated to part from her even for a few moments. She would often pet and stroke the kitten while it was eating or drinking its milk. Lucy tasted the cat food, but did not like it, much as human children identify with their pets and want to be treated the same way, eating out of the pet bowl and wanting to sleep together. Sometimes Lucy would be too rough with the cat- particularly if there was a difference of opinion. For instance, if the cat did not want to go upstairs Lucy would just grab the cat by the neck, hold her aloft and take her wherever she wanted to go. They had a beautiful relationship for almost seven months, and Lucy was deeply attached to her cat. Unfortunately, though, one day the cat died. I was in the courtyard at the time and I heard a scream coming from inside Lucy's roof-top room. It was a different kind of scream from any I had ever heard and I rushed immediately to the roof of the house. The cat was dead. Lucy was at the other end of the room, obviously quite shaken. She was staring at the body intently, not moving a muscle. Lucy approached the body, reaching a forefinger towards it as though to poke it. But she never touched the body. She withdrew her hand rapidly and shook it, a movement indicating anxiety, just before making contact with the body. She appeared to have some sort of understanding that the cat was dead, never to return, for she never looked for it again nor seemed to expect to play with it. Since there were no broken bones or bleeding, we conclude the kitten had died from an infection.

Three months after her cat died, Lucy was leafing through an issue of Psychology Today. She was turning the pages rapidly and casually as she usually does. This issue had an article on chimps and included a picture of Lucy and her cat. When Lucy came to the picture of herself and her cat, she stopped turning pages and sat transfixed, staring at the picture. She stared for about three minutes without moving, and then starting signing in ASL "Lucy's cat, Lucy's cat, Lucy's cat-" altogether she signed "Lucy's cat," repeatedly for another ten minutes as she continued to stare at the picture. Her mood was one of thoughtful sadness.

It was after her cat died that Lucy started showing interest in the dead animals on the road as we drove to the ranch on weekends. She would stare at them and sometimes turn her head to watch the body as long as she could as the car passed. Once she saw a dead cat ahead in the road and she became very excited, uttering a "boo" sound, and put her hand on the steering wheel. She steered the car into the other lane around the body so the car would not run over it. To my knowledge Lucy had no further contact with cats for about two years. We decided not to get her another one. Then Steve, who had been away attending the university, visited us with his cat. Lucy attacked savagely the minute she saw it and it took all Steve's strength and dominance to save the cat. Lucy was trying to kill it. She screamed and charged the moment she saw it, charging in a direct line which knocked Steve out of the way, grabbed the cat, and threw it high in the air. It would have been killed had Steve not intervened. A few weeks later Steve brought the same cat back. This may have been poor judgment, but the cat was sick and Steve could not medicate it properly in his apartment. Again Lucy screamed in fury and charged, again knocking Steve aside to get at the cat. I thought she was going to attack Steve she was so enraged. Steve finally grabbed the cat at great risk, I felt, to himself and pushed Lucy away. Lucy then whimpered and looked uncomfortable. I do not understand this behavior, but it had not happened before. She had never attacked any animal so savagely before her cat had died, but is this so surprising? I have seen aggression or hostility mobilized in humans as a response to grief and loss.

There was an Radio Lab Episode done on Lucy some months ago as well, which originally clued me into her story, and a friend of mine later found the book at a local book sale... so I'm borrowing it from her for the time being. It's absolutely fascinating stuff.

[ChairmanPoo]

Reading the "Prince of Nothing" trilogy.

[ECrownofFire]

umm... Can I suggest Michael Crichton... more specifically sphere, Jurassic park, and Prey. Those were my favorites but I read through a whole bunch of his books.

I think Prey was my favourite Crichton novel. I can't remember that much of it now, and the reveals weren't that exciting for me, but I enjoyed the writing and pace.

Timeline is a really great book, also by Crichton. I like how his version of time travel at least tries to explain it. As in, instead of traveling back in time, you're traveling to an alternate universe. I should probably read Jurassic Park, and probably Prey, now that you mention it.

Right now, I'm not really reading anything, but some books I've enjoyed in the past include the Pendragon series by D.J. MacHale. To give a small hint, the entire series is one massive Xanatos Roulette. The main bad guy, Saint Dane, is the world's most magnificent bastard you will ever see. I really like how Saint Dane is characterized, you get the sense from when you first get introduced to him that he is a manipulating, scheming, magnificent bastard.

[Euld]

I haven't read much recently, but the last book I read was a collection of Lovecraft stories.  My goal is to read is complete works of Lovecraft before moving on to something new.  His early works are kinda meh, but after that, he rocks.  I consider myself a pretty jaded person, but Lovecraft's scary stories made me (figuratively) shriek like a little girl.

Considering how many different books are being read... maybe we should compile a book list for everyone to follow and discuss.  At least, that would be pretty fun for me :>

[Renault]

Good Omen, by Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman. It combines the strengths of both and has so far been a great, if somewhat light, read.

[Solifuge]

Good Omen, by Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman. It combines the strengths of both and has so far been a great, if somewhat light, read.

Hehe... that was a pretty good one. Along with The Last Hero, I actually got my copy of Good Omens signed by Pratchett... he wrote "Burn This Book!" I'm still rather mystified.