(no subject)

[nny]

So far this half term I've read The Lady in the Lake, finished 31 Songs and read Castle in the Air. Next up is finishing Red Dust by Ma Jian, then I've got Fly by Night, Gender Trouble, Tipping the Velvet and The Jews of Britain, 1650 to 2000 under the coffee table which probably ought to be read and (in the case of one or two) returned to the library in fairly short order.

1) GOD I LOVE HALF TERM
2) apparently a symptom of my weird depressive moodswings lately is that I've only really read things that are comforting and/or familiar. Mostly fanfic with happy endings; I can't really remember the last new book I read before this week. (Re-reads of Temeraire and Good Omens really don't count.)
3) joining the library was possibly a bad move considering all the books I own and haven't read, and that's not even counting the boxes full at my parents' house. ¬_¬

Tell me about your favourite book?

Comments

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Comfort reading is good :) Although I'm not allowed to borrow library books any more - or only one at a time - since I had to pay £45 in fines :S Apparently a red mist comes down over my eyes when I'm presented with all these free books, and I can't quite bring myself to return them...

My own comfort read is Nightwatch by Terry Pratchett. Vimes is one of the best characters ever put on paper, and this book is pure him. Squared. It's both a brilliant story and the model I try to look to for how to take a character apart while keeping the plot going. And it's fun and heart-breaking all at once. Admittedly I tend to listen to it (because Stephen Briggs *gets* these characters like no one else) but still. Best book on my shelves.

[apiphile.livejournal.com]

One of my favourite comfort reads is "Drawing Blood" by Poppy Z Brite because, um, it's a love story between two fuck-ups that has a happy ending for everyone involved to an extent, and it involves HUGELY OUTDATED COMPUTER HACKING and gay sex and comics and basically it makes me feel 17 but without the misery. The others tend to be Hardy Boys books and the Narnia books, all of which I've read so many times that it's not so much reading now as staring at the page and remembering.

[skygiants]

I cannot pick just one! D: D: D: Um, um, everything Diana Wynne Jones ever wrote? Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles, my secret and adored shame? Current favorite epic fantasy of the moment, Sherwood Smith's Inda? MANY MANY MORE?

Also, was Castle in the Air a new read for you? *curious!*

[pennyplainknits.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, that's really tough. I'd say PTerry's Lords and Ladies, I love Granny Weatherwax's showdown with the Queen ("but still I'll not bend, and still I'll not kneel, and still I have strength"), but I also love Forster's A Room with a View if I'm feeling meloncholy, and Nagio Marsh's Surfeit of Lampreys and Artists in Crime for murder and intrigue

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Gah! I have lots of favourites!

The one I seem to return to most at the moment is The Left Hand of Darkness, but I've also been recently rereading Pat Barker's "Regeneration" (should really see about getting the rest of the trilogy). And I know whereof you speak about old faves: I skimmed "The Eyre Affair" by Fforde a couple of times, but while it entertained me, it didn't really "get" me. Haven't yet cracked the Madeleine l'Engle and Octavia Butler I got at the same time.

[were-duck.livejournal.com]

Weirdly, my comfort read is also one of the most depressing and disturbing books ever-- Lilith's Brood by Octavia Butler, but it's a journey that has a certain catharsis, and I feel like it's worth and rewarding of all the horrible shit she puts the characters through. Same with the Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, which is not coincidentally another old comfort read.

OR if I just need stupid gayboy candy, I'll skim through Mercedes Lackey's Last Herald-Mage trilogy, which I am ashamed to admit.

I'm glad you got your reading mojo back a little--I think a lot of folk, myself included, go through long stretches where books just don't get read.

[torakowalski.livejournal.com]

My favourite comfort read ever, ever is Smoke and Mirrors by andpuff. It's a slashy, UST story about a faily trainee wizzard and the TV star who (sekritly) loves him. ♥

[dramaturgca.livejournal.com]

Tam Lin, by Pamela Dean. It's a retelling of the 13th c. Scottish ballad at a small liberal arts college in the Midwest in the '70s. There's theatre and poetry and Shakespeare and marine biology and LOTS of book nerdery. It's basically the best thing ever.

Also, any anthology edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, especially the mythic archetypes series (The Faery Reel, The Green Man, and The Coyote Road) and Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners series (Swordspoint, The Privilege of the Sword, and The Fall of the Kings) which contain gay, swordfighting, magic, and helped originate the mannerpunk fantasy genre.


Also, watch Leverage. Teams, capers, slashiness, funny, Mark Sheppard. Where's the bad?

[flyakate]

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, which I heart desperately and I am so sad that my copy is back at my parents' house.

I love Neverwhere quite a bit. Little Women and (even more) Little Men (despite the fact that some of those books gets clouded in some complex issues of femininity and the needs of a narrative--Louisa May Alcott always was kind of pissed that she had to marry Jo to Professor Bhaer).

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is a book that I always have to have with me wherever I am living (from home to boarding school to college to now) and I reread it a lot too.

[winkingstar.livejournal.com]

Joining the library is never a bad move! *is not at all biased* :D

Also, Fly By Night is awesome, though faintly dizzying and a tad preachy toward the end. But the world is fascinating and the characters are fab.