Library books
On hold:
The rent collector : a novel / by B. Glen Rotchin.
The night journal / by Elizabeth Crook.
The continuity girl / by Leah McLaren.
Alphabet of thorn / by Patricia A. McKillip.
Size 12 is not fat : a Heather Wells mystery / by Meg Cabot.
Black swan green : a novel / by David Mitchell.
A dirty job / by Christopher Moore.
Queen Isabella : treachery, adultery, and murder in medieval England / by Alison Weir.
The ruins : a novel / by Scott Smith.
Stumbling on happiness / by Daniel Gilbert.
Veronica / by Mary Gaitskill.
The pure in the heart : a Simon Serrailler crime novel / by Susan Hill.
Suspect / by Michael Robotham.
Special topics in calamity physics / by Marisha Pessl.
Out:
The reckoning / by Sharon Kay Penman.
The historian : a novel / by Elizabeth Kostova.
Water Inc. / by Varda Burstyn.
Desertion / by Abdulrazak Gurnah.
Snow / by Orhan Pamuk ; translated from the Turkish by Maureen Freely.
Misfortune : a novel / by Wesley Stace.
An instance of the fingerpost / by Iain Pears.
Oblivion / by Peter Abrahams.
The catastrophist / by Lawrence Douglas.
Lunar Park / by Bret Easton Ellis.
Kafka on the shore / by Haruki Murakami ; translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel.
A field of darkness / by Cornelia Read.
The skirt man / by Shelly Reuben.
Dialogues : a novel of suspense / by Stephen Spignesi.
Daalder’s chocolates / by Philibert Schogt ; translated from the Dutch by Sherry Marx
Our culture, what’s left of it : the mandarins and the masses / by Theodore Dalrymple.
Marrying up / by Jackie Rose.
Someone comes to town, someone leaves town / by Cory Doctorow.
Invitation to the game / by Monica Hughes.
They also keep track of recently read books.
I also have a list of books I want to take out which are not actually out now so I will pick up once my currently out list gets to the single digits. But that list could use some growing, so: suggestions? Where do people get their book ideas from? (Newspapers, other blogs, stumbling on them at the bookstore, reading up on the shortlists for some prizes. Bookslut never did it for me. Chicklit is gone.)
September 3rd, 2006 at 10:22 am
I’ll be curious as to your thoughts on Snow.
As far as ideas of books: the new york times, browsing amazon.com (find a book I like, see what others who like it have read), browsing the new book section at bookstores, browsing independent bookstores where employees fill out recommendation tags on books, elle magazine (they do a great job of finding really good books), etc.
September 7th, 2006 at 6:30 pm
Well this week my out of the library list much shorter than yours and is shrinking as I try to alternate between books I borrow and books I’ve bought and not yet read.
My sources for reading suggestions are erratic. Often it’s random: a title catches my eye in the stacks or in the store–usually I read a page or so and the book flap. Sometimes I’m in the mood for bulk reading and head to the paperback section and pick-up mysteries that look interesting.
Some seasons I read a lot a recent releases. When I’m in the mood for this I make notes about books appearing the Canadian book press (tho’ Quill & Quire reviews have been beyond dull lately). The Guardian usually has an interesting range of books. And I tend to keep copies of the Orange and Booker longlists.
I also find interesting references in blogs and in other books I’m reading. I also get references from my soon-to-be-eight niece. (And yup I read them–part of the full-auntie deal.)
The most satisfying reading for me seems to come from happening on a book a like and then reading several others by the same person.
September 7th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
Elle? Never would have thought. Thanks.
Heather, I don’t read bought books until I am on vacation. I do the longlist things, though, and blogs, and — I don’t know.
I am liking Kafka on the Shore, though it’s quite dense so it is slowish going.