The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. Don't let the fact that a dog narrates this story put you off. It is far from some cute little kid's story. The book is about grit, the human spirit, the devotion of a dog, and of course, racing in the rain.

Also just got myself a replacement copy of Pablo Neruda's Cien sonetos de amor (100 Love Sonnets). The Spanish and the English translations are side by side - useful if your Spanish is rusty like mine is. Neruda's command of the art of poetry, his way of turning a phrase, and his deep love for his wife Maltilde for whom these sonnets were written make this a "must have" volume for anybody who enjoys poetry. Sample from Sonnet 11:

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps...

And I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
hunting for you, for your hot heart,
like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.

como un puma en la soledad de Quitratue.

Great stuff!

Just read "Before I Go To Sleep".
Bleh.
Glad I didn't buy it (I read Mum's copy)
I read it in one evening for a start.
And I certainly wouldn't read it again.

Currently trudging through "Under the Dome"
I actually flicked to the back to see who survives. I think I've only done that with 2 or 3 books in my life. It's a bloated, turgid read which nevertheless heaps atrocity upon atrocity. I read somewhere it was Orwellian. Ha ha ha. It's ten times the length of any of his books with a tenth of the depth.

I like Stephen King. I don't expect him to be George Orwell.
I often need to reread his books again a few years later because something in them has resonated with me. Or a phrase or description sticks in my head. But it helps to know the end; he's longer any good at suspense.

"Marine Corps Martial Arts" by The United States Marine Corps - MCRP 3-02B

Mockingjay. Oh boy. I should never have started. never. But the recommender's grandmother had just died. I was trying to make her feel better, so I said I'd read the books ... at least I didn't pay for them.

I should really learn to listen to that little inner voice, the one that screams at me telling me I'm being stupid when I accept reading recommendations from other people, or at least ones without a good track record at suggesting books that I'll actually like. A special pox on those who recommend the first book of a series ...

But anyway.

I was trying to pacify a friend's teenage daughter by acquiescing to her claims of the awesomeness of the Hunger Games.

That's it. That's my only excuse. For the first one. Which wasn't bad. It was interesting, a different take on The Running Man, but with kids, and a strong government is evil subplot. Fine. I read it.

Then I figured out that Catching Fire was very much of a bridge book. It only existed to drag the reader from point A to point C.

So here we are. Mockingjay. The culmination of what now passes for an epic storyline, and clearly isn't.

Think Running Man meets Twilight, but with more gunfire and explosions.

I like gunfire and explosions, but not these.

I saw the ending from the beginning, which is never a good thing.

Oh, and everybody sparkles in the pretty, sunsoaked meadow at the end.

The Innocence of Father Brown - G.K. Chesterton

Bought it shortly after I got my first Kindle, it's been sitting in my TBR for far too long. I love these stories, had read a few of them in my teens, recently started watching the Father Brown stories on Netflix and have gotten hooked again.

The Wisdom of Father Brown - G.K. Chesterton

Just picked up A Hard Day's Knight, the next to last Nightside novel, from my local library. After reading the first page I realized that..

A) I had missed reading the previous novel

B) The first page contained a spoiler to a major event in that novel

Now I have to take back the book and read the previous book, although from the description maybe I did read some of it 2 years ago. I'm getting deja vu looking at the Amazon description. But I can't remember reading the event that the spoiler mentioned.

Knocked off Agincourt a couple days ago. Am re-reading the Art of Happiness after a few years. And am not getting excited about a bio of Ben Franklin but maybe it will catch eventually.

The Secret of Father Brown - G.K. Chesterton

I just finished book six of Harry Potter and The library copy of 7 is out and the bookstore is closed.


AAAAAAH

I've sent out emails to local friends...

I read Reamde. It was fine; not quite up to my usual Stephenson expectations.

I don't have enough shelf space for Diskworld (though I do have a few of them), but now that I have a Kindle, I'm starting from the beginning. I'll probably do a mix of publishing order and an order I found online.

I'd do the standalones in publishing order (stuff like Thief of Time, Moving Pictures, Small Gods) but the arcs I'd definitely take together.

So, for instance, the Rincwind arc, starts with Colour of Magic and ends with The Last Continent I think.

The City watch/Commander Vimes arc starts with Guards Guards, and ends with Snuff

The Witches arc starts with Equal Rites and not sure what it ends on.

The two Moist von Lipwig stories (Going Postal and Making Money) are worth taking together and best left until after at least some of the City watch stories have been read :)

The Death arc starts with Mort I think, though he appears in the first couple of books as a support character.

This page lists the different arcs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld

Still wandering through the Target Doctor Who novelizations, well into Pertwee (The Mutants), on the side, I'm reading the manga Hikaru No Go, since I just finished watching the series, which was a remarkably faithful adaptation, also have Redemption Day by Steve O'Brien, which is a review copy from the publisher (adventure/thriller), and got my copy of Warrior Mindset signed by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman at his presentation today, so that's now on the top of the pile beckoning me. I also started The Lion, the Lamb, and the Hunter, the newest book by Andrew Kaufman.

Can you tell I'm a little anxious?

Through that, I found this, which is a newer version of the reading order I have been using. Cool.

The Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. It's highly amusing and the solutions to some of the mysteries are genuinely unexpected.
I also just recently finished reading A Dance With Dragons - the most recent Song of Ice and Fire book. I really liked it but I do wonder how long this story is going to go on... so many plots!