# What's Everybody Reading?



## phoebe (Jul 3, 2002)

We just got back from three weeks in France where I was sick with the worst cold of my life (truly!  ) for two of the three weeks. The upside (besides getting the chance to practice my French at several Pharmacies) was slowing down our pace and getting the chance to just relax in lovely places and read.
Gail Godwin's _Evensong_ was interesting if a little chilly. Judith Ryan Hendricks's _Bread Alone_ is fun--though you wish the main character Wynter wouldn't take SO long to wise-up--and the baking part is great. Wynter moves from L.A. to Seattle and rediscovers her love of bread-baking (she apprenticed at a boulangerie in Toulouse during college).
I started Tim O'Brien's _July, July_ but, frankly, I don't really feel in the mood for so much disappointment and loss. I might just set it aside and try _Life of Pi_ .

So what is everyone else reading right now?


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

I've just come off a binge of Southern style cookbooks. I'm gearing up for _Quicksilver_ by Neal Stephenson as my next new read. I loved _Cryptonomicon_ which ties in tangentially with Quicksilver.

Phil


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## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

Just recently finished "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco. It is the 4th or 5th time I have read that. Also for a change of pace from my usual detective, forensic thriller, I am reading the Harry Potter books. I am on the 4th on right now.


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

I'm about to dive into Anita Diamant's Good Harbor for my book club. I will soon start reading The Bedside Torah bit by bit as well. The last book I finished was The South Beach Diet . The only thread I can find among those titles is "hope". I guess it must be the season.


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

Eco is great. I also like Focault's Pendulum. An aside, Eco's translator, William Weaver must also be a genius. The number of times I have to go to a dictionary to find a word in these books scares me now and then. And for Weaver to translate it all amazes me.

Phil


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## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

Last two where "Culinary Artistry" and Giradets latest "Recipes from a Master of French cuisine" I recommend both highly.

PS, Phoebe, I hope your feeling better.


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## thebighat (Feb 21, 2001)

Had my hot little hands on The Name of the Rose after having read the DaVinci Code, but didn't read a word of it. Read the last 4 Harry Potters this summer and am now re-reading the goblet of fire very slowly to maximize the fantasy of being at Hogwarts. 

Now, doesn't anybody else think that being a baker is the closest thing to Potions class? I saw some cool pewter measuring spoons and cups that were handcrafted and sort of pricey, but I wanted them so much. Mix stuff up in a bowl, say the magic words, put it in the oven, and get something that is more than the sum of the parts back out.

Also read The Big Splat, about where did the moon come from, Absolutely American, about West Point, Rosemary and Bitter Oranges, about growing up in Italy, Olive Season, about life in Provence, Tale of Two Valleys, about Napa and Sonoma, The Bobby Gold Stories, by our buddy Anthony Bourdain. I typically have about 10 books out of the library at any given time.


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## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

TBH, I used to be that way also. Usually had 5-7 books going at once. Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of time anymore. Sometimes I have time to read a book cover to cover in a weekend, sometimes it takes me almost a month. With work, Cheftalk, correpondences, dogs, and a baby on the way, I sometimes feel that I have no free time at all!!!!


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

I have just finished Philip Roth's " The Human Stain" a shocking book on the American society and I have just started " How we believe" of Michael Shermer.


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## nathanz (Aug 22, 2003)

i found one of my old copies of the jungle on friday finished it on sunday. one of the scariest books i have ever read, one of my favorites to, although im not sure why


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

I'm reading...

"What to expect during the first year."

Kuan


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

You're a good daddy, Kuan!


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

I just finished Lasher by Ann Rice....trully trashy ...Moliere was sent back to the library partially read, I just bought Real Cchocolate by Chantal Coady...it is from Engladn and is really interesting.I am also in the midst of reading E the Environmental Magazine article on Why Bottle Water?
I am reading more these days than frequenting movies.....seems that there was nothing of interest in the theatres.


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## gwyntt (Sep 28, 2003)

Just read "About A Boy" and it was GREAT! Very funny at heartwarming. 5 Star book that I couldn't put down. 

Has anybody read "The DiVinci Code"? And should I start it?


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## markface (Aug 11, 2003)

I'm in the middle of "The Green Mile" by Stephen King. I saw the movie and liked it , and someone said the book followed the movie pretty close . Half way through the book and it's really surprising how close it is to the movie . 

I also read a couple news letters(email) either daily or weekly depending on when they arive . Also i'll read any box or label with in reach if i'm sitting still to long .


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## pongi (Jan 11, 2002)

I'm amazed at all these people reading Eco! Name of the Rose's tangle of literary quotations and jokes is hard to follow also for the Italian readers who are familiar with the original text, can't imagine for foreign readers (I agree with phatch, it must have been a hard job for the translator...). I remember that the first time I read the book, about 20 years ago, I had the bad idea to do that in August, while I was sunbathing in my garden. After few pages my brains seized up and I had serious problems even in following the plot. After having read it another couple of times in a cooler season, I started to unravel the hank and to love it 

As for now, I'm reading the works of the Sicilian writer Leonardo Sciascia. I just finished "Il Giorno della Civetta" (The Day of the Owl) and I'm reading "Todo Modo". If you are interested in some thrillers that also enlighten about the mechanisms of Italian political corruption and connections with Mafia, buy them, they're classics.

I also just got as a present from a couple of Japanese friends a book entitled "The Art of Japanese Food and Manners". Very nice! Do you know, for example, what are "the 11 things you mustn't do with chopsticks"?

Pongi


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Please, Pongi, tell us at least a few of them! 

I tried valiantly to read Name of the Rose but it just didn't catch with me. I loved the movie, although I thought I heard it was a pale imitation of the book. Can't refuse a chance to see Sir Sean, though!


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## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

I thought the movie was pretty good also, though it pales by comparision to the book. But then again don't most movies?


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

I am re-reading Les rois maudits, The Damned Kings maybe in English? Anyhow it's an historical novel retelling the life of the kings of France during the XIV century during the trial of the knight of the temple, the biggest trial in history. The geat chief of the order of the temple, jacques de Molay, has been arrested and will be burned alive by order of the King. Before dying Jacques de Molay calls to the king saying he will be damned to the thirteen generations....

Foodwise I am deep into Land of Plenty by ***hsia Dunlop, on Sechuan cooking. A fascinating book, I am somewhat surprise though not to find in it the recipe of the General Tao chicken. It's the best seller of Sechuan dish in Montreal, you can find it in most restaurants. Yet no one has ever seen a recipe for it.


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

That's 'cause General Tao/Tso/Djo/Chu is about as Chinese as fajitas are Mexican.

Phil


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

You can say that again!  

The General Tao Chicken is a bit of a joke here. Two or three time a year someone will ask for the recipe in the food section. Strangely enough the recipe they give out is never the same....


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## ritafajita (Mar 2, 2002)

Anything by Lee Smith or Sharyn McCrumb.

RF


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## markovitch (Oct 14, 2003)

Have you read "how to travel with salmon and other essays"? it is freakin hilarious. its a collection of his favorite columns he writes for a magazine in Italy that resembles the new yorker.

Other than my insurmountable assignments for college, i;ve been working my way through Andrew&Karens's books and "the psychology of Taste"

markovitch


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## markovitch (Oct 14, 2003)

yeah, Eco is almost Kantian is his pentient for creating new terms...


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## pongi (Jan 11, 2002)

markovitch,
:lol: :roll: 

In Italy, that collection has been published with the title "Secondo Diario Minimo", following a former "Diario Minimo" published in the 70s, and contains many other essays which maybe haven't been included in the American edition (some of them could be hardly appreciated by non-italian readers, as they refer to things that are familiar only to italians).
I agree with you...those columns are hilarious! My best favourites are "How to become a cowboy movie indian", "How to write an art catalogue" and "How to recognize a pornographic movie" 

Pongi


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## kayakado (Sep 25, 2003)

I just got an xm radio (Roady), so I've been listening to radio dramas and stories at night while lying in bed instead of reading. No light needed and using headphones, I don't keep anyone else awake. Detectives, thrillers (Theatre of the Mind stuff)


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## soussweets (Apr 12, 2003)

i am hopelessly addicted to the lord of the rings trillogy, tolkien was a true genius.


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Amen, Soussweets. I wasn't much of a reader before I discovered him. Now what do I do for a living? I'm a reading specialist.


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## soussweets (Apr 12, 2003)

well said mez. its amazing what a good book can do for you. i myself have never been a big reader,,,, but the trilogy has made me very hungry for new and unknown books. any suggestion???


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## gilbear (Sep 19, 2003)

Stay with some books in the same vein. For example; The Hobbit; The Silmarillion; Unfinished Tales; and , The History of Middle Earth. Some are by JRRT and some by his son, Cristopher. They extend the mythology of the Trilogy in ways I didn't expect. If you are interested, there is a site called the Barrow-downs that explores all of Tolkiens works. Not, of course, that one would ever leave Cheftalk.:beer: :crazy:


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## thebighat (Feb 21, 2001)

Try The Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake. It was dramatized by the BBC a little while ago and that prompted me to pick up the book which I have had for almost thirty years without ever opening it. I got so hooked on Tolkien as a teenager I went and bought every trilogy I could find, thinking they'd be as good. No world ever dreamed up by any author comes close to Middle Earth, as far as I'm concerned. In spite of what critics say about the actual literary value of Harry Potter, that runs a not so close second. I can pick those up and start reading anywhere, buy the leather bound boxed LOTR has a place of honor on the bedside table.


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

:lol: Gilbear!

To branch out a bit, I discovered John Varley (strange SF/fantasy stuff!- try Wizard  first); Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass. I enjoyed Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series, although it palled by the fifth book. I'll think of more and get back to you.


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## soussweets (Apr 12, 2003)

thanks gill b,,, already read the hobbit,, and lost tales and semorillion are on my shelf waitiing for me to finish the trillogy,, told you i was addicted thanks mezz and big hat,,, i shall have to check these out. everyone in my kitchen is an addict so of course we had to use our skills to further our nerdiness and came up with a recipie for lembis bread. its quite good and looks pretty cool in a peace lilly leaf!


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## thebighat (Feb 21, 2001)

As long as we're talking scifi--there's Ringworld by Larry Niven, I enjoyed Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson, then there was some wacky series by Dan Simmons that started with The Rise of Endymion. that's enough to keep a fast reader going to St. Patrick's Day. And there's nothing wrong with going a little retro and reading The Mists of Avalon.


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