Welcome to the Club

So now we finally have everyone here. Hooray. Grace - just out of curiosity, who IS in your top 10? You got me thinking about mine, and I was having a hard time picking out who I would put up there. Dostoyevsky is my number one, but after that its a toss-up for number two. (If I had to pick, I'd probably go with Hemingway). However, I'm now totally working on listing my top ten. When I've got it all figured out, I'll post it here. 

Anyone else who wants to name their top ten (or five), I'd be curious to know. And if nothing else, it's a topic we can all contribute to seeing as we are all working on reading different books at the moment.

Also - anyone with a proposal to rescue me from NJ, please post here. I'm starting to notice a decline in my will to live with each day that passes in which I remain in this state. 

East of Eden

Hello fellow bibliophiles!

Took me a bit to get this working, but luckily we're all here now.  Let me tell you all about my summer reading.  I have been slowly making my way through East of Eden since I've gotten home.  Although its a very readable book, dense but not overwrought, it's been a surprisingly slow process (my fault, not Mr. Steinbeck's).  I'm about half way through.  I think my opinion about Steinbeck will remain the same.  I dig him a lot, but he's not on my top 10.  

Luckily, my parents are opening an art gallery that I'm going to manage(!).  Hopefully that will give me significantly more reading time.  Also, I've decided that I'm going to make my profile photo correspond with the book I'm reading at the moment, hence the James Dean. 

-Grace

So last night, when I decided that reading was a much better use of my time then SVU, I got pj's, brushed the old pearlies, scrapped off my contacts (tormenting image, I know), and climbed into bed, expecting to finish the little 224 pg, illustrated Horse and His Boy... I read 4 pages!!! Fell asleep. To some this may seem normal; often when one reads the repetitive movement of the eyes across the page makes them want to close and rest... It was 8 o'clock!!! BLARG! *falls over*

Hi all. I did invite Grace...no matter what Kailey seems to think. So at the moment, I'm of course reading something all of you would not be interested in...another vampire series, but I have one book left and then I will get to Satanic Verses. I hope at this point I don't have to start over though. I really haven't read it since what...we got back from spring break? Oh well, guess I'll find out.

Next Book

Since no one is jumping at the chance to pick the next one, and since I'm the only one whose finished the first one on our list at this point, I'll go ahead and recommend the next one from the list Grace compiled for us on facebook. I just got the movie Everything is Illuminated, and I'd like to read the book first, so I'm probably going to read that one next. Anyone opposed to this? I also am probably going to get and read Life of Pi pretty soon too, so if anyone prefers, we can do that one next instead. Opinions?

Books... I like them

I also want someone to tell me what to read so I don't have to choose... I don't like choosing. Well, I will eventually but it will probably be a play or something cuz I like them. I'm thinking I'll be nice to Arielle and not jump right into Shakespeare. Might start with David Mamet or Tom Stoppard (cuz he's The Man). Dunno though... what do we want to read?

After Satanic Verses that is... *sigh*

Epic Emily Fail

Hello lovelies! How I miss you all. Hope everyone's summer has been going well, and that lots of literary action has been occurring!

Cuz guess what? I bought the Satanic Verses and haven't read a page bahahaha. I'm so sorry. I swear I will start it soon except I'm a bastard and I have been saying that for weeks. But once I start it I promise I will post my initial thoughts and such!

How is everyone else's progress? Read any other books? I read a wee bit of "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac on the airplane to Florida, but unfortunately not enough to comment on it. Seems promising though. Have any of you read it before?

I must be off to bed now, but I like this bloggy thingy and hope to hear from all of you. OFTEN. DO IT.

-Emmy

Satanic Verses

I do believe that is the first time you've called me by anything other than "Momo" in quite a long time. Really, I can't even remember the last time you called me by Anne. Weird.

Speaking of weird, Satanic Verses is batshit insane. I mean, we all know I'm a little bit too far along on the crazy side myself, but some of those sections I had to read at least three times. Though to be fair, I actually enjoyed the book. Arielle - I agree - Mahound is a little slow, but when it comes back later on in the book, it is crazy hilarious. And I think I probably should have paid more attention in my Sunday school classes (...which weren't really on Sunday. They were after-school. Off-topic.), rather than working on getting myself kicked out. There were way too many moments in that book where I knew that he was probably alluding to something from the Bible that I didn't know. So that was a bit of a struggle. May end up re-reading this book post a greater understanding of the Bible.

All in all, not a bad choice. I'm better for having read it. It's a little lengthy at times, but its never so boring/hard to read that it is unbearable. Now I must remember to continue reading Catch-22. Also, someone pick the next book already so that I can beat you guys to finishing that too...

Soooo Satanic Verses is still in one of the boxes along with all my other college stuff in the garage... oops. Yeah totally haven't unpacked yet...

I did start the Chronicles of Narnia though! I've read it before but not for a while. I'm reading them in the order of the story set by Lewis (the author... though I think you all know that hehe) rather than the order that they were written. The last time I read them I did it in the order they were written and was a wee bit confused. Anyway, I am now on the third book, The Horse and His Boy, but I forgot how biblical these books are! Mostly the first one, The Magician's Nephew! It's like "Yay, lets create the world!" Of course, due to my lack of character building Sunday school as a kid I can't really make specific comparisons but the lion is obviously Jesus! He's the king who answers to no one except the great power from across the lands! haha So yeah, you should all read it! And I am going to finish these and then go search for Satanic Verses... or I'm just gonna go find it and read it at the same time... hehe. Anne did you even like it? Or was it more like "oh crap, I have to read this," or something?

Grace and Emily! I miss you! What have you gals been up to? or I guess more appropriately for this blog, what have you been reading?! haha.

Also, what are we reading next?

Grace: we talked about studying the bible this summer so we're not out of the loop when it's referenced in literature. You still want to do that?

I win!!!

1. How can a summer go well when it is taking place in NJ?

2. I win! I finished Satanic Verses the first week home. Have since moved on to Catch-22. Though that has stalled out recently because...

3. ...I should never be allowed to purchase another baseball videogame ever. Someone please stop me if I ever try. I have spent more hours playing videogames in the past week than I think I spent on homework over the last semester.

At any rate, hope y'all are doing alright. 

Intro.

Hey everyone!!! Hope your summer's going well. I guess the first book on the list is still Satanic Verses...which means I have to actually finish it. So everyone read and then discuss. Or Kailey also suggested we could just talk about whatever books we're reading.