I stumbled upon Lesley Hazleton this evening and I'm blown away. I've watched a few vids on YouTube: One TED talk on faith, and another on Suni & Shia conflict. I'll be looking up her book "The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad". Anyone familiar with her or her books?

And do you have any specific reading plans for 2019?

I'm planning to read some capital L Literature this year. First up, I think it qualifies, will be The Natural by Bernard Malamud. Also, Mary Anna and I started the audiobook for Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, but never finished it; I'd like to restart it and get through it.

I'm also planning on reading some trendy fantasy/sci fi stuff. The trend over the past I-don't-know-how-many years has been something called "grimdark" ... the countertrend is called "hopepunk". (And then there's "noblebright".) I'm guessing that Dol is well aware of all of these sub-genres. On tap right now is The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison and The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie; and I plan to get to Neuromancer by William Gibson (Dol's recommended that before, I think), and maybe Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook. I'd also like to read some N.K. Jemesin and Neil Gaiman (although I've always found Gaiman to be a labor to read). And more Dan Simmons.

That's going to be very unlike most everybody else's list, except maybe Dol's, and I bet she's read most of this stuff already.

Side note: these days, I prefer reading a book and listening to its audiobook simultaneously. (It's kind of like watching movies with the closed captions on, which I also do.) I think it improves my comprehension and retention.

Trump's and Pence's obituaries.

Biography of Frederick Douglass

Mary Oliver poetry

The New Yorker

jf

quote:

Originally posted by Jack Frost:
Biography of Frederick Douglass

Tell me you mean the autobiography and not just any biography (though that might also be interesting).

lol Mark - though I'd settle for their resignation letter/tweet.

quote:

Originally posted by markj:
Trump's and Pence's obituaries.

Death is too good for them. I want to read indictments, trial transcripts, and convictions.

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:

quote:

Originally posted by markj:
Trump's and Pence's obituaries.

Death is too good for them. I want to read indictments, trial transcripts, and convictions.

(d) all of the above

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:

quote:

Originally posted by markj:
Trump's and Pence's obituaries.

Death is too good for them. I want to read indictments, trial transcripts, and convictions.

(d) all of the above

And a sentence: life in an outsourced federal prison; not Club Fed, a real prison. And not in solitary confinement. In with the regular inmates.

When I look at my relatively short list of books next to read, they mostly fall in the new release non-fiction 'big ideas' genre. I just finished the Yuval Harari books and Bostrom's Superintelligence. I'm reading David Reich's population genetics book now, with Robin Hanson's and Geoffrey West's newest books in the queue.

Also some political non-fiction, I recently finished Ellsberg's and Fukuyama's new books, with Amy Chua's on deck.

But that probably just gets me through the winter.

I might return to history. I have just a few presidents left in the bio series. I'm sure I'll read some more philosophy this year too.

a.) Emily Dickinson's poems. I do want to read both the Johnson reading edition for the 4th time (just sayin') and the Franklin reading edition.

b.) Quentin Crisp's autobiography (the one with the cover of him dressed with a pile of hats on his head).

quote:

Originally posted by pianojuggler:

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:

quote:

Originally posted by markj:
Trump's and Pence's obituaries.

Death is too good for them. I want to read indictments, trial transcripts, and convictions.

(d) all of the above

And a sentence: life in an outsourced federal prison; not Club Fed, a real prison. And not in solitary confinement. In with the regular inmates.

I thought traitors have to face a firing squad?

quote:

Originally posted by Bernard:
...

And do you have any specific reading plans for 2019?

More. Of everything.

Oh and while I'm on the topic, let me rant for a minute.

I find it massively disturbing when I hear people say they read only 2 or 3 books a year!

How is that even possible? What do those people do with their brains? Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy a mindless movie (pretty much anything with Bruce Willis in it for example), certain game shows on TV (Pointless is great btw), Jodie Whittaker's Dr. Who (and Quirt did you know Neil Gaiman has written a couple of Dr. Who episodes?), football fixtures, football games, and a whole host of other stuff that is simply crap in the grand scheme of things. Even with all of that 'useless energy spent' (to quote The Moody Blues) I still read one to three books every week. Things like playing the piano, crafts, exercise of any kind all IMO count as expanding the mind and not wasting it too. Full disclosure, probably 2/3rds or more of my reading is mindless fiction so maybe I'm being unfair with this whole thing anyway.

But 3 books a year?!? What are these people doing with their time?

Whew! Ok I feel better to have gotten that off my chest. Rant over.

I'll speak for myself. I used to be a huge reader, and always had at least one book going at a time. Then I went to graduate school and that took up a lot of time. Yes, I read a lot, but it wasn't novels or essays. Then I started working full-time while still in grad school. Then I finished school but had 2 kids and a husband who traveled a lot. By the time I got out of work, got the kids, cooked and fed the crew, baths, bedtime, I. Was. Done. I was good for watching stupid TV for an hour or so and that was that. I would read, perhaps, 1 page of the book on my bed, fall asleep, and start over.

But all hope is not lost! Once my schedule calmed down (and with kids, it will, eventually....) I was able to, um, rekindle my reading habit. This is 1000% due to my husband getting me a Kindle. I found the convenience of not needing to go to the library or bookstore to be a godsend. Further, kindles are small, and easily fit into a purse or backpack. Suddenly I had a book with me at all times, and I read any time I had a free moment.

I missed it terribly during the decade or so that I wasn't a reader. And I am enjoying it, and addicted to it again, now that I'm back at it.

I have 1 kid who is a reader, 1 kid who isn't. The difference: the non-reader plays games on the computer. I'm neutral about whether this is good or bad.