Reply To: What are you reading?
I don’t read that many books, since most of my week is taken up by reading New Scientist magazine, and when I do, I tend to prefer non-fiction. But I’ve read several fiction books lately, because I let my paper subscription to New Scientist lapse so I coud catch up on the backlog I still had from not suspending my subscription for long enough while I went on the cruise.
I finished Joseph Scrimshaw’s Comedy of Doom the other day (it was so nice to see so many people I knew in the acknowledgments) and before that, The Orange Girl by Jostein Gaarder, and before that, I think it was… uh, apparently this one hasn’t been translated into English yet, but it will be, and I recommend it; the first novel by Jonas Jonasson. The life of the protagonist kind of reminds me of my own, in an abstract way, because he keeps being in the right place at the right time and meeting famous people.
I have a feeling there was another one before The Orange Girl, but I can’t think what.
Anyway, there was an error when I tried to subscribe to the digital edition of New Scientist yesterday, so I started reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (well, actually, I started reading a biography [in the form of transcribed interviews] of the guy who started the World Wildlife Fund, but it didn’t really hold my attention, so I switched) but I think the subscription is sorted out now, so it’ll probably take me a while to finish that.
Oh, I’m still about halfway through Steve Wozniak’s biography, iWoz, which I have on my iPad for when I unexpectedly don’t have anything else to read. I recommend it, and think it should be read to children and adults as bedtime stories. He’s a great guy, and when he talks about electronics or other technical stuff, which is not really the bulk of the book but it comes up a lot because he’s passionate about it, he explains it in ways anyone could understand and get excited about. Even if you don’t like Apple, you’ll love the Woz..
On the subject of bedtime stories, I read Trevor Strong (from The Arrogant Worms)’s ‘Very Grimm Fairy Tales’ to various people as bedtime stories, and much fun was had by all. Currently @mrgoldenbrown and I are reading each other (over Skype, in case anyone is not aware we’re on different continents) The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, which is one of my favourite books, and I’m also reading that to another friend of mine (one of the ones I read the fairy tales to, who now has a taste for being read to.) Has anyone outside an audiobook read you a story recently? I highly recommend that.