Friday, November 17, 2006

reading report

I don't have time to go to Amazon and copy the cute little icons of the covers of books.  It's nearly noon and I haven't had breakfast and before I do, I have to do my sit--ups.  I've been trying to catch up on reading the blog posts I've missed by being off line in Pennsylvania.  There are so MANY!  They are fun, but it takes time.  I am also way behind on my email and my unpacking and even my snailmail!

I am reading one book:  Three Women by Marge Piercy.  I am loving it.  But it is very upsetting.  It was building to a huge confrontation for a long time and yesterday at lunch, I got to the confrontation, so instead of reading just the lunch's worth of pages, I read a lot more, until I got to the end of that longish section.  Then I read a little more while I was baking cookies.

Keith is also reading to us at reading time, just before bedtime.  He is reading Dragonsinger to Graham and I, by Anne McCaffrey (*wonderful!) and Oxaca Journal by Oliver Sacks to me.  We missed a great deal while I was away for almost two weeks.  By the way, the chapters in Dragonsinger are too long for reading aloud.  If you ever write a book (a novel), keep the chapters manageable for aloud reading, please.

I've been listening to books on tape while traveling.  Recent ones include:  One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (I loved it!) and Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison (excellent).  Now I am listening to Ciderhouse Rules by John Irving.  There are 17 tapes and 25 hours of listening and I am about halfway through and trying to figure out how I can listen in the house.  I may have to wait until my next trip.  It's wonderful so far, the characters are so well-drawn.

9 comments:

BerryBird said...

I'm glad you are enjoying Cider House Rules. I am always a little hesitant to recommend books after several fiascos where you hated my books.

I am getting caught up on a bunch of posts all at once here. My bloglines had some error and wasn't updating with your new posts. I am going to try unsubbing then resubbing to see if that helps.

Just curious, what is a good length for reading aloud? Not in pages numbers, because that would vary by the density of the book, but timewise? 20 minutes? Half an hour?

a/k/a Nadine said...

Did you ever listen to the book-on-tape that I suggested (Jennifer Weiner)?

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

No, not yet, because it was a CD and I can't play CDs in the car, so I either have to make it into tapes or play it on the computer while I'm doing photos or something and Keith isn't here. Sort of limits it. But I do WANT to.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

I am LOVING Cider House Rules so far, LOVING IT! It's wonderful. I'm glad it's a long book. When I like a book, I like it to be long.

Even some of the books you recommended that I wasn't crazy about were definitely interesting and worth reading like that one about the far guy by Kennedy. I didn't find any of the characters very likable, but the book was still very interesting.

Keith, who is the one who reads aloud in our family, mostly, says 12 to 15 minutes, then you can read one or two alound depending on how you're feeling.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

The fat guy, I mean, by Kennedy.

BerryBird said...

Yes, Confederacy of Dunces is one of the failed recommendations I was thinking about. You might be glad in retrospect that you read it, but at the time you weren't too happy.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

A Confederacy of Dunces was not really a cheery or fun book to read, but it was thought-provoking and stayed with me for a long time afterwards.

a/k/a Nadine said...

Gak. It didn't stay with me 'cause I refused to finish that revolting pile of crap.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

LOL! ROTFLOL!

It's funny that I share some book interests with Sara and some with Erin!

We are really enjoying Dragonsinger! Zair and Kimi have just been hatched.