AR Book Club

[Avaitor]

Rereading The Heroin Diaries now, which contains passages from Nikki Sixx's journals when he was at his all-time low in terms of abuse while Motley Crue were at their all-time high in terms of commercial success. It's one of the greatest rock-related books I've read, and a wholly hollow book at that.

Just going through it again makes me think about a couple of things

1- This explains why the Girls album sucked.
2- Why haven't I read The Dirt yet?
3- Never, ever do heroin. Or date a girl named Vanity.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Spent the night binging through Grave Peril. Definitely an improvement over the first two Dresden books.

[Pharass]

Currently reading Moorcock's Glorianna or the Unfullfill'd Queen. I haven't read much by Moorcock before, save for one Elric book and The Dancers at the End of Time, but this book is truly excellent. It's very Mervyn Peake in it's characters and atmosphere. Oh, and if you're not familiar with the works of Mervyn Peake, let me just say that the comparison was meant as a compliment.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Read some book called King Dork, which was fine up until a bunch of nonsensical plot resolutions happened near the end. Also went through the first book in the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. The series is thick as all hell (2700 pages with tiny font in total), but still a gripping read.

With that, I'm currently starting the second book and Terry Pratchett's Masquerade.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Reading Men at Arms, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and The Brothers Karamazov. I'm on a bibliophilic roll.

[Kiddington]

So... I thought I'd pass along this nugget of information that turned up today. If you haven't already heard, Borders bookstores are now, officially, going out of business:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Borders-Calls-Off-Auction-nytimes-1678947798.html?x=0

...and thus, the inevitable has arrived. We all knew this was a foregone conclusion; after they filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, 'twas just a matter of time.

As far as brick and mortar bookstores go now, this basically leaves Barnes & Noble... or, if you're lucky, you've still got a good used/indie operation going in your area.

[Avaitor]

I actually don't have a local Borders. I rely on Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million when I don't want to buy used or go to the library.

Sucks, though, since this doesn't speak well for the future of book stores.

[Kiddington]

Ah, right; forgot about Books-A-Million. We don't have those here, though (at least, not in Reno anyway; not sure about the west coast as a whole).

[Dr. Insomniac]

Well, that sucks for the Borders at Boston. Though can't say this'll affect me much since I buy most of my books on Amazon now.

[Hime]

I'm still reading on If There Are Thorns by V.C. Andrews. Though I need to find Petals of The Wind.

[Angus]

That's sad. I was thinking of getting some bookshelves, but wonder if even that is going to be a rarity.

[ToonFaithful]

Eh, I have plenty of Borders up in northern Virginia. Not seeing any of them here in Florida though, except for Books-A-Million. Went over there yesterday to purchase Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Have to read it for a class in school, liking it so far.

[Commode]

That sucks.  I haven't been to a bookstore yet out here in VA, so I don't quite know what's around, but I did like the Boise Borders location much more than I did the Boise B&N.  I too have never seen Books A Million back west, but there's Hastings, which is a general entertainment store(music, movies, video games, etc), but they had a pretty good selection of books, and in most locations even had a cafe, just like any other book store.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Been catching up on The Dresden Files (aka if Peter Parker pretended he was John Constantine). and it's been getting better with each book. Manages to be over-the-top without being stupid, and gives all its characters these delightful little shades, where even the villains are well-rounded and likable.

[Pharass]

Currently reading Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. Great book, so far, I'm actually a bit surprised by how much I like it and it's characters.  It just goes to show that in the end, genre is nothing, writing is everything.

There are still genres I prefer to others though. I read a lot of historical fiction for example.