Tuesday, November 26, 2013

The Reading Keep : My reading list


I am almost too tired to be making this post, but I am anyway! So this picture about sums up how I feel about books and reading lists: I want more of them than I can probably manage. That is why I am resigned to building a Keep to hold what will be someday a truly absurd number of books. This entry, and its fellows to come, will be the precursor to the actual physical "Reading Keep," and for now all it will be holding is the books I am most currently reading. I am quite serious about this being a physical structure, and blueprints will be forthcoming, just you wait. Now then!

At the moment I am working my way through:

1984 by George Orwell

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
and
Neverwhere
by Neil Gaiman

I have read all of these before, aside from the last one. I tend to have several different books for several different purposes.

1984
is what I take with me when I am going somewhere and I know I will have some time to kill, like the Doctors office, or some other sort of appointment.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is what I read shortly before going to bed. I really love this novel and all its wonderful relatives, and when tired the rich detail sends me off to a rather wonderful world of slumber. I mean this in all of the best ways, and at times the book will keep me awake more than help me fall asleep.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire isn't actually what I am "reading" at the moment. Don't get me wrong though I am not watching the movies. I could write an entire series of posts on how I feel about the movies, maybe even a whole other blog. I have taken to listening to the Harry Potter Novels on Audio book instead of watching TV. Any time I have the desire to watch TV I usually squelch it with a good book, but at times when I need some kind of sound other than the gears of my own mind, I turn to a good audio book. Recently the audio books of the Harry Potter series, as voiced by Jim Dale, have served me quite well.

Last, but certainly not least, Neverwhere is the novel that I am actively working my way through at the moment. I am a big fan of Neil Gaiman and enjoy his work immensely. This is currently the only book that I will spend hour upon hour on, and as usual, it is going by too fast, but that is not author's fault, merely my voracious appetite. I have read several of his novels including American Gods, Stardust, The Graveyard Book, and the novel he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett, Good Omens.

All of the novels I have listed or mentioned come highly recommended from me and I am sure will offer you a good time. If anyone has any suggestions I would be more than happy to hear them. I will read anything really, I am definitely not a genre snob and can even joy non-fiction. Although I am not afraid of making some enemies now in saying that nothing but angry spurting will come from suggesting Twilight, or any of its author's other work. Fair warning.

I know this is a long post, but hey, why not make it longer. I am open to the idea of starting a book club if anyone is interested. I know this blog is in its infancy at the moment and the club might only consist of myself for a bit, but I thought I would get the idea out there. It would be something like one book a month and could range wildly in genre, and be very open to suggestion.

Best to all! And Goodnight!




8 comments:

  1. Also! Who can, off the top of their heads, give the full names of the abbreviated authors in my post? Questions like this will appear from time to time and If I might start attaching prizes to them if the response is good.

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  2. When you say book club... do mean for people you can physically get together and meet with, or something done through this blog?

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  3. Well, I had intended on it being through the blog, but I suppose I could do both. I know we discussed this at one point. We should start brainstorming a book for December.

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    1. Either is cool. I spend plenty of time on blog sites discussing books already. But I'll pretty much discuss most any book with anyone at anytime. Live and in person, or typing and online; count me in. And a good book for December would be Hogfather, especially if you're already planning on reading it. I've not read any Pratchett yet, but I've really wanted to.

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  4. Keep at it, John. I'm a friend of Oliver's. I started a book club in Washington County over a year ago and it keeps chugging along. This month, I went with Terry Pratchett's Hogfather. Which is what we did last December, also. It just seems the book to do.
    I've also started scheduling The Hobbit as a secondary book. Only expecting a chapter or two to be read each month which will hopefully lead to deeper discussions.
    Good luck with the blog. Everybody needs an outlet.

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  5. Thanks! I appreciate the feedback. Oliver is a good guy, did he mention this to you? You really couldn't have a better Salesmen or PR guy than Oliver. As far as the blog is concerned it has a lot of purposes and interests, which largely reflect how I also operate so that makes sense. We shall see how things go.

    And I absolutely love the Hogfather, It is one of my favorite novels and it is easily in the top five of my favorite "Christmas" novels. In fact I am adding that to my list for December. Have you seen the two part miniseries? The Hobbit is just a given in my world, great novel. Also, what is the name of the book club you run?

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  6. It's the Washington County Sci/fi fantasy meetup on meet up.com or if you friend me on facebook I can slip you right in to our fb page, which I keep private. Oliver is a member and I think I saw this on a fb scroll. My last name is Valentine and the profile pic is a black lab.

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  7. Excellent, thanks for the invite.

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