Friday, September 23, 2011

#FridayReads - What I'm Reading

I'm reading several things that I'm really liking right now, so this seemed like a great time to do a #fridayreads blog post. Before I get to the titles, yes, I'm one of those people who reads multiple books at the same time. (Oh, not at the same-same time. You know what I mean... I don't finish one before I start another.) I have been for as long as I can remember. When our house isn't in the middle of major renovations, there's usually a gigantic stack of to-be-reads and just-finished-readings and being-reads and started-but-didn't-finishes sitting on a nightstand by our bed.

That brings up another point.
I'm still (mostly) a paper book reader. I don't own a dedicated eReader, but I do use the Kindle app on my iPod Touch from time to time. That said, I think I may be starting to shift somewhat on this. Two of my three current reads are Kindle purchases. I still expect to haunt used bookstores and library sales for quite some time to come, but as far as buying new books? I think more of those are going to be eBook purchases.

OK, enough yammering... On to the books.

Current Read #1: The Postmortal by Drew Magary
This is a science-fiction story by sports blogger and humorist Magary. The premise is that a cure for aging has been found. It's not a cure for death -- you can still be murdered or die in a car crash or of various diseases. But you don't age a day. It's an epistolary novel and I'm a real sucker for that type of story. I think I'm about 25% of the way through it. (Heck, if I started up my Kindle app, I could say exactly...) I like it quite a bit so far. The author has a good voice for his main character. There's some humor, but it's mostly pretty serious.

Current Read #2: Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi
While The Postmortal has some humor in it, Agent to the Stars has had me -- literally -- laughing out loud as I read it. This is one of the books I picked up at our local Waldenbooks before it closed, and I'm so glad that I did. It's a first contact story, but far from typical. The aliens are gelatinous beings who communicate through (offensive to human) odors. Between these differences and what they perceive from our media as being a general fear of aliens, they decided that they needed someone to give them a good public image before they became known to the world at large. And who better than a Hollywood agent for image management? I'm about a third of the way through this one and loving every minute.

Current Read #3: The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2011 Edition edited by Paula Guran
Like any anthology, there's going to be some stories that each reader likes better than others in the volume. Still, from the four and a half stories I've already read, it definitely seems like an anthology worthy of its name. Norman Partridge's "Lesser Demons" was excellent and I also really liked Catilin R. Keirnan's "As Red as Red." Fellow Ohioan Maureen McHugh's "The Naturalist" is off to a very good start. And there are TWENTY-SIX more stories in this book. Not to be too much of a shill, but for goodness sakes, at $4.95 for the eBook how can you possibly go wrong if you like this genre even a bit?

OK, so those are my current reads. What have you been enjoying reading recently?

7 comments:

  1. Hi Michael,

    It's always interesting to hear about what others are reading. I haven't heard of any of the ones you mentioned. But then I'm not really a sci-fi, fantasy, horror fan. I also usually have multiple books going at once.
    Right now I'm reading The God of Small Thing by Arundhati Roy, The Quickening by Michelle Hoover, finishing up YA novel The Pull of Gravity, and re-reading Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. If only there were more hours in the day. . .

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  2. Ohhh, "Lesser Demons," sounds interesting. I just may have to pick up that anthology. Thanks for the info and the recommendations. It's always nice to stop by and read your blog. :-)

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  3. @inluvwithwords, thanks for stopping by! How are you liking The Pull of Gravity? The description sounds interesting, and there are a couple of avid YA readers in our house.

    @Karen, thanks for the comments! Yes, I've already gotten my money's worth from that anthology. (Now I've got "The Night Hank Williams Came To Town" in my head...) There's a companion Science Fiction one which I may go ahead and pick up, too. I'm pretty sure it's also $4.95 for Kindle at the moment.

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  4. Your current read #2 sounds good...I am a fantasy/sci-fi nut, most particularly, though, stories about time travel. I'm currently re-reading Galbadon's "Outlander," but, like you, I have several books open. Love your blog...and if not totally objectionable to you, I'd like to give you the Versatile Blogger Award...I hope you'll accept.

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  5. Cindy, I like time travel stories, too. One of my all-time favorite novels is Octavia Butler's "Kindred."

    Yes, I'll be happy to accept the award. I received it a couple of weeks back, too, but I think I can scrounge up some fresh random facts about myself. I'll make sure to let you know when I put up my own reply to the award.

    Glad that you like my blog so much. Have a great day!

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  6. I'm (much-belatedly) finally jumping into the Dresden files. The first one was only so-so for me, but I loved the second. Hope they continue to get better and better!

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  7. Nicole, that's one of my favorite series. I've read them nearly as they came out (I think 1-3 were out when I started) and I would say that the peak of the series is around books 4-10 so far. So, if you don't get too disappointed with 2 & 3 I think you're in for some good reading!

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