Recent Book Activity

the picture above is "hello cthulhu," the hello kitty take on the HP Lovecraft cthulhu mythos character. I am both a hello kitty freak and a Mythos fan, so when I found this picture, I decided to adopt it for my profile.


I devour books. I'm a really fast reader, and I stay up WAY too late reading.

October: relief for my overtaxed brain after the last two months (just a whole lot of no-thought novels):

1. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
2. The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown
3. Stardust, by Joseph Kanon
4. Inherent Vice, by Thomas Pynchon (audibook)




and, as always, trying to plow through the tbr pile
(actually, all of October's books are from the tbr pile)





and:
Listening to: Son of a Witch, by Gregory Maguire

To see this year's books at a glance, click here

Favorite book of 2004: The Electric Michelangelo, by Sarah Hall
Favorite book of 2005: Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov
# books read in 2005: 289
Favorite book of 2006: The New York Trilogy, by Paul Auster
#books read in 2006: 199
Favorite book of 2007: The Atrocity Archives, by Charles Stross
# books read in 2007:156
# books read in 2008: 156

Favorite book of 2008: (I have a tie here: Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson and A Fraction of the Whole, by Steve Toltz)

I very highly recommend: (for 2009), in order of reading them)

1. Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People, by Tim Reiterman
2. Drood, by Dan Simmons
3. The Redbreast, by Jo Nesbo
4. The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, by Soji Shimada
5. Annie's Ghost, by Steve Luxenberg
6. Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel *
7. The Glass Room, by Simon Mawer



My theory about reading: if you only stick to the bestsellers you are missing a lot of great books! And for me, a book worth a 9 or a 10 leaves me wanting to read it again and leaves more questions than answers.



*****
Any book that is marked available is yours for the asking. Absolutely no trade necessary -- I have a rather gigantic tbr pile ... so please TAKE MY AVAILABLE BOOKS!


Rating: I am in no way shape or form a professional reviewer. I know what I like and what I don't; I rate books within their genre. Frankly, I'm not really concerned whether or not people agree with how I rate a book and I'm not worried that books that I like may not be well liked by others. The higher the rating, the greater my enjoyment of the book!!!!!


About me:
I LOVE reading!!!! I love obscure books, ones that will probably never find their way onto any bestseller list, although they usually turn out to be great. My latest discovery: HP Lovecraft & his imitators. I love a great mystery (especially a British one) good ghost stories, novels either set in Victorian times or real Victorian novels, old vintage mysteries, and historical fiction.

I like to read books that are off the beaten path -- "literary" fiction & mysteries, and especially books where I am challenged to think. I rarely to almost never do chick lit and never (knowingly) do romance or westerns. My graduate degree is in history, so I read a lot of historical nonfiction as well. I guess I'm somewhat, in a limited sort of way, eclectic.

Life is so short, and it's so true that there are so many books and not enough time!!!



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