On Nashville, and books
It is really hot in Nashville today. Unfortunately, when Nashville gets really hot, it starts to smell like trash. Rotten trash. Another fun thing about Nashville is that, much like Disney World, we hide speakers in the bushes and trash cans so music can be piped out along the sidewalks. This music is - what else? - country music. So today I’m stuck in a city that smells like rotten trash and plays country music. I don’t mean to be a pessimist, but…seriously?
Anyway, this post is really about books. I need some reading suggestions. You see, ever since Cameron got an xbox, I no longer watch television. It’s not that he plays xbox that much; it’s just that in the beginning he played it enough to get me out of a TV watching habit. So now I am going at the rate of 2-3 books per week. So I need some suggestions. Let me explain to you my reading method (yes, I have an organized method for reading as well. Surprised?)
I usually read about 3-4 books at one time: a “fun” fiction (i.e. candy reading - right now this has been a balance of the Twilight** series/the Southern Vampire Mysteries/assorted Stephen King fiction - wow - I promise I am not that into vampire/horror fiction); a “reading list” fiction (i.e. an important/thinker/classic fiction - currently in the form of Manhattan Transfer); a non-fiction (heaven help me, right now I can’t stop reading autobiographies from former polygamist Mormon women, but at least I’ve also started If I Die in a Combat Zone…); and whatever I read when I go to Borders.
So I say all that to say…whatever you suggest, it will probably fit into one of those categories. So bring on the recommendations (please!) In addition to my accelerated book-per-week rate, we’re going to Florida soon, and I’ll need to accumulate some books to take with me.
**Anyone else reading this series? I’m kinda embarrassed to admit it, but seriously…ZOMG, I am in love with these books.
Dialogue
ZNB
on a Wednesday
at 5:49 pm
I hardly ever crack open a book, but I’d like to suggest something out of the norm. “Bone” by Jeff Smith. Go to the library and pick up the “One Volume Edition.” If you have any love of art and epic stories, this one is one of the best you’ll pick up. Yes, it’s a graphic novel… so don’t let that stop you (especially since you asked for recs)!
B
on a Wednesday
at 7:14 pm
Have you read Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven? Probably so if you’re enjoying the ex-polygamists’ autobiographies! Another really fantastic one I read recently is The Everlasting Story of Nory by Nicholson Baker.
kyleigh
on a Thursday
at 11:28 pm
been reading “Stiff-the curious lives of human cadavers” reeally interesting and funny…..or anything by tim gautreaux or shirley jackson’s short story book “just an ordianry day”
Jared
on a Friday
at 9:57 pm
Sound and the Fury- Faulkner (or As I Lay Dying, more approachable. I would never have read S and the F if I hadn’t had to for school…)
Till We Have Faces- C.S. Lewis
The Shadow Children- can’t remember
Song of Solomon- Toni Morrison
Rachel
on a Sunday
at 11:37 pm
I can’t help myself - so I am going to say it - “The Audacity of Hope” by Barack Obama. It was a quick read and it’s about a lot of different things, from his first uncomfortable encounter with Senator Byrd (which ends up really endearing and thoughtful) to how he views all the basic issues like abortion, to his quest to rejuvenate our culture around the arts and sciences. Ok seriously, that is all I am saying.
Cameron
on a Thursday
at 3:20 pm
Shannon has totally been ignoring all you nice people, so in her stead, I’ll say:
@B - She totally picked up that Krakauer book. Or the other one. Anyway she said she picked up one of your recommendations.
@kyleigh - Tim Gautreaux … I had forgotten about him. I’ll have to remember to grab a book of his.
@Jared - When we got married and combined libraries, I think we had 3 copies of Till We Have Faces somehow.
@B, @Jared, @Rachel - when Shannon wrote this post, I told her that B would recommend something we’d never heard of, Rachel would recommend the Obama book (which, yes, I do plan to read), and Jared would recommend Faulkner. I know you guys. I know you so well.
Jared
on a Friday
at 12:33 pm
Well… you do. Know us so well that is. But thanks for giving all of us a chance to show off our good taste in books anyway…