sophistry | (no subject)

Also! I am toying with the idea of trying to read my height in books this year, since my total amount of leisure-reading last year was utterly appalling. I've made a good start - I'm not far off finishing my second book of the year. But my problem is this: I have a horrid tendency to buy books based on an eye-catching cover/title, a neat-sounding blurb, and a cursory scan of a random page or two to ascertain a reasonable command of prose and the English language on the behalf of the author.

Which books, inevitably, turn out to be bad - a contributing factor to my abysmal record in finishing books in the past year.

So, friendslist:

REC ME BOOKS.

I do like a good historical setting; I've just finished Imperium, by Robert Harris, which was rather good, and I'm currently reading The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, which is set before and during the American Revolution. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell OWNED ME IN THE BEST WAY, as did Temeraire and anything O'Brien. I wantses The Lies of Locke Lamora, but every time I have the cash on me, the bookshops are just out. I dig Pratchett and Gaiman, and love like oxygen fantasies in which characters and plot take precedence over Great Big Epic Fantasy Worlds (without, of course, ignoring the latter completely). I tend to like my futuristic settings in my tv shows as opposed to my books, but I'm willing to let someone try to sell me on one, if it's awesome enough. Likewise, I'm perfectly willing to be sold on novels not of the sci-fi/fantasy genre (cf, the first two I mentioned), though I draw the line at chick-lit. Mostly, what I want out of a book is a ripping good yarn. Books of miscellany and academicness are also good - there's a history of swordfighting I'm eyeing at the moment, and wondering whether I can find a cheap copy of Hero With A Thousand Faces.

So in conclusion: I'll give anything a try, once.

REC ME BOOKS.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I am 3/4 of the way through "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova. It is a really interesting take on the story of Dracula, but told through the point of view of historians. It's really hard to describe, but the writing style is very Austenian - it feels old-fashioned, even though it was written 2 years ago and is mainly set in the 70's. I'm not doing a very good job of describing this, but I seriously cannot put this book down. Deliciously frightening and beautifully written.

Ooh, I read that last year - it was awesometastic. :D