Book Club: What are you reading?

[agate]

Welcome, houghchrst!

My reading has been almost at a standstill lately while I've been taking care of my PC problems. I still have to get the scanner and the camera software reinstalled but I took care of getting Norton back first thing. I listen to books in any spare moments but there's the housework and laundry that have been put on hold while I took care of the PC issues, and now I'm catching up on that.

I'm hoping to get on with the reading now.

[houghchrst]

Thanks guys, I am waiting for SK's new books to get here, hopefully tomorrow.

I suffer from Chronic Pain, mostlly from the waist down fluctuates from a 5 to a 10 depending on whether or not I am walking or moving, well that basically means I am at about an 8 on average lol. Fibro, migraines, nerve damage in lower back, Bipolar II, med resistant depression and anxiety, IBS, insomnia, and I have arthritis here and there lol I think I got most of things lol. Here I would like to add that many of these things are being treated with mmj and besides the pain, depression and anxiety the rest is treated with lots of meds and mmj so symptoms are at a minimum.

I have done audio but it is hard for me to concentrate on what I am listening to if say I am cleaning house. I have to be able to concentrate thats why I haven't done it in so long.

Heather Graham is who I am reading now, paperback, can't remember what it is called. I promised myself I would never read her books because they are basically romance with built in story the only reason I have stuck with this one is because it has ghosts in it and I am desperate for a read lol. Was in a box of books I got from my BIL passed away.

I hope you get your pc fixed.

[agate]

Reading is generally the last thing I have time for, but I hardly ever keep a book so long that I ask to renew it. This time though I did have to renew the library book that was due on the 20th--the book about Marlene Dietrich and the film-maker Leni Riefenstahl. It's very interesting--I knew very little about either of them--and I do get time as I'm drifting off to sleep at night or doing some of my exercises, or when I wake up at night.

I used to listen to books while I did housework but nowadays background noise makes it difficult to hear the narration--though I am able to sort laundry and iron while "reading."

When I don't have any movies to watch in the evening, I listen to a book or magazine while I do some crocheting.

This was how I spent many years, before I had movies to watch and before there was a computer, but back then I was also doing quilting, knitting, and even making needlepoint pillows as well. Quilting takes a lot of setting up, and you really need to have a block of several hours at a stretch to make it worth the effort. My eyes and hands aren't exactly what they used to be either. So quilting gets done only if the quilt I'm using needs repair.

[Cat Dancer]

I can't get in to audio books. Just not the same as reading. I guess there may well come a time when I'll have to do it, though. I know lots of people enjoy them.

[Sunshine]

I too have that problem.

[Lazarus]

So, if I get a Kindle...as several of you have made me think again about the pleasure of always having the freedom to read no matter what line I am standing in....here are my questions:
* What do I have to do to set it up once I get it
* are there different models? Which do you use
* what else should I know about using the kindle that is either good or difficult?

Thanks in advance. I still read books with a pen in my hand but it might be neat to add this to my choices

[Virginia]

Linda, I have had two. The one I am using has a lighted background which you can adjust and I really like that. I bought both of mine on Amazon and they helped me with any questions that I had and if I had a problem setting it up the first time they helped with that. Then I am registered and I just go in, choose a book and hit buy with one click. I use Pay Pal so that is really easy. I do not put in a credit card number at all.

Cat can tell you more than I can I am sure. Love my Kindle. I was afraid I would not, but the lighted background has helped me to see it more easily and also I sometime read a thousand page book and they are heavy, with the Kindle this is not a problem.

[Lazarus]

I just finished A Gentleman in
Moscow and adored it. The novel is exciting right to the end and gives so many big ideas to think about that it is just a pleasure. I smiled and laughed all the way through. The writing itself is just so darn good. And, it is on Obama’s list too!

President Obama’s just listed his favorite books of 2017:
The best books I read in 2017:
The Power by Naomi Alderman
Grant by Ron Chernow
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Five-Carat Soul by James McBride
Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
Dying: A Memoir by Cory Taylor
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
*Bonus for hoops fans: Coach Wooden and Me by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Basketball (and Other Things) by Shea Serrano

[Virginia]

Linda, thanks for Obama's list. I am going to check some of them out and see what I think. I am in the mood for another book. Finished my latest Michael Connelly a couple of days ago.

[Sunshine]

Me too! Thanks Lazarus! I put a hold on Gentleman....Moscow.

[agate]

I've read only one book on Obama's list--Evicted, and it was excellent.

I have a request in at the library for the Amor Towles book.

[Sunshine]

We have dueling requests :) although on opposite sides of the nation

[houghchrst]

Almost finished with Stephen King's 'Night Watch' and for some reason I am just not feeling him. Not to say the book is bad or uninteresting but Stephen King has a way of writing that grips you and if you have read all his books, a number of times for most of them lol, then you know the way he tells a story and you get a feel for the writer. I can devour one of his novels usually but this is taking me a bit. It almost feels like a Koontz novel. I have one small King to read after this then I need to see what I have missed since I quit going to the library.

I use to love the library. I would go about once a week and bring a big old cloth bag my grandma made and quilted and fill that sucker to where I could barely carry it, sometimes I would have to have CJ get it out of the car and still have movies or more books to carry. I would go and be there lost for an hour looking for movies, books to read and what I call the brain books. I would get a bunch on a variety of subjects that interested me and peruse those. Crafting, building, animals, places, one of my favorites use to be the 'Day in The Life' books. THat is how I came to know a lot of nothing and a little about so many things lol. But alas it was not to last my favorite librarian moved on and a young romance fanatic moved in and that is mostly what she ordered. Drama/romance, Thriller/romance, Biography/romance, horror/romance...come on now, seriously. Even the new books, brain books that I would check out got boring. I commented on it a number of times and got the standard response of "you can order any book that you think you might lilke" So I quit going, I quit reading, that is bad for me. I missed it. Psychological issues.

But it is one of the things I want to get back in my life. Being lost in a book is like a brain vacation. So I get them delivered right from my computer. Can't afford to buy books though I am getting a good Koontz and King collection. I was collecting Anne Rice for a while there.

[agate]

I don't buy books either but request them from my regional library (Talking Books). Some patrons ask for the librarians to choose books for them. If they like mysteries or romance or whatever, or specific authors, they request those categories. I've always requested specific titles, and I get them from reading book reviews and sometimes from recommendations from people I know.

[Sunshine]

Hiughcrist,
I have a good picture of you from your post. Thank you for taking the time to talk about it. I too am a major Stephen King bookfan , although some of them don’t do much for me. My favorite is hearts in Atlantis, and right up there is November 22, 1963.





Today, I scored two old Michael Connelly books for two books at a used book center. I read them years ago but I do not remember even one detail about them , So I get to read them again! Delicious