Last night I couldn’t sleep. At 4.00 in the morning it was 32º in my bedroom and the electric fan was just blowing hot air around. I decided that what I needed was a good book and, after rummaging around the bookshelves for awhile, picked up this wonderful collection of amusing ghost stories told by the inimitable Robertson Davies. They were just what I needed.
I also realised how my reading habits have changed. Last year was typical in that I read roughly a book a week. But this year! I think I’ve barely managed a book a month and I really don’t know why because I love reading. Okay, in part I blame the iPhone I got for Christmas. A lot of my reading is done in bed, either before I fall asleep or when I invariably wake up in the wee hours, and I started using some of that time to check my email and read blogs on the iPhone. Also, due to financial constraints, I haven’t been able to buy many new books and I’d pretty much reread most of what I felt was rereadable in my library last year. But it was also as if reading had somehow become less important and, as I say, I have not found any good reasons to explain that.
I feel quite ready to do some really big time summer reading now though, and may even splash out on a couple of new books. Any suggestions? Meanwhile, I highly recommend any of Robertson Davies’ books to you all. I’d quite forgotten that I had the ghost stories and it was a real treat last night to immerse myself in the superb talent of one of the most delightful story tellers I know.
What are you reading this summer?
casa azahar 
I am sordidly reading a couple of Star Trek novels by Diane Duane, a cut about the usual fare in that line, with well developed alien characters and society.
And a book by Rose George all about shit. No, really.
And I opened up Newton’s Opticks again. I only get a bit of that read at a time.
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Barbara Hambly is another writer who wrote both Star Trek and Star Wars books way above the usual level of either series. She is a writer who researches details very well.
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You should try some Terry Pratchett, Sled. I’m sure you would love his stuff.
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I’ve just started a history book on collecting called To Have and To Hold. Too early to tell if it’s going to be any good
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Thanks for the recommendation. I just finished “Like Water for Chocolate” which was excellent and romantic and “Cuts” by Richard Laymon which is about a homicidal maniac. (Yes I am slightly bipolar in my reading selections. LOL)
Both are good summer reading.:)
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I’ve been a slacker in the reading department this year too. I blame the internet and my garden. However, I did just finish Neal Gaiman’s book “Anansi Boys.” I found it amusing, not very deep. Then I found a book in the bookshelves I have not read yet, and so have begun a collection of Five Spy Novels selected by Howard Haycroft. My reading tastes are so eclectic I wouldn’t call them bipolar, more like Multiple Personality Disorder. . .
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When I’m not reading non-fiction, I’m reading mysteries. But like a couple of other people have said, my reading has slacked off. Don’t know why. One of my holds came in, however, and I was determined to read it. Now I’ve got four new mysteries by writers I haven’t read before. May read a little tonight. Everything is pretty much shut up tomorrow, so might as well relax.
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I haven’t read much Davies, for some reason.
I’ve been reading a guy named Colin Bateman lately. Been enjoying his stuff, slightly edgy, slightly humourous, slightly supernatural…overall fun.
Recommend Orpheus Rising.
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I’m on a Mexican lit kick for some reason. Just finished Girl Trouble, about the case of Gloria Trevi, superstar who recruited girls into a sex cult, and The Queen of the South, a really fantastic novel about a Mexican girl who ends up being a major drug smuggler between Spain and Morocco. I have a nonfiction book on the golden age of pirates next.
Tried reading the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but my friends have ruined it for me entirely by reciting all the good lines. I got two pages in and had to just stop.
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So of course a visit to the local bookstores proved fruitless in finding any of the titles mentioned here. I did find one by AS Byatt called The Children’s Book that looked interesting. And another called Cockroach by Rawi Hage and … damn, can’t remember the name of the third one.
Have decided to buy one new book for each summer month (July and August) and also do some rereading of the casa az library.
Today Agustín recommended the Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson – anyone out there read it?
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