Sunday, December 6, 2009

My Library Haul

First, thanks to the new followers: Rena, who is an absolute blogging machine; the cowgirls (about damn time we got some cowgirls in here), and the inimitable Bryan Bliss. Thanks, all. I look forward to your many witty comments.

Went to the library today and picked up six books. They are:

Al Capone Shines My Shoes
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Andromeda Klein
Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The Treasure Map of Boys

And here are my opinions of the books before I even read them:

Al Capone Shines My Shoes is a sequel and as such will disappoint.

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim will be funny because, like the cast of Seinfeld, Sedaris is unabashedly selfish and that always makes for laughs.

Andromeda Klein will positively drip with voice, but will be skimpy on plot and probably wander off a bit. But it'll be funny, so I'll read it in spite of its shortcomings.

Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo will be good, but won't come close to matching the Bartimaeus Trilogy so it will ultimately be a little dissatisfying.*

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas--I've never seen the movie, but I know drugs play a prominent role. I'm hoping for an entertaining voice and some major drug-induced hijinks. If it's not shaping up that way, I probably won't finish it.

The Treasure Map of Boys, or as it's printed on the book, the treasure map of boys, which irritates me. I'm teaching my third graders to capitalize titles, the least the publishing industry could do is stick to the rule. I liked the disreputable history of frankie landau banks so I figured I'd give this a shot even though it doesn't look like my cup of tea. Also realized after I got home that it is "a ruby oliver novel" and I haven't read any other ruby oliver novels so I might be out of the loop.

What are you reading?
____________________________
*Is there a difference between dissatisfying and unsatisfying? I should probably know if there is.

12 comments:

Paul Greci said...

I just read The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams. It's a poetic, page turning YA novel.

And I read Coe Booth's Tyrell, another edgy YA novel. Great voice.

Lily Cate said...

Hunter S. Thompson has the most entertaining voice in the universe.
After Vegas, I recomend Generation of Swine.

Tina Laurel Lee said...

A library haul is a fine thing! I too liked The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks but I have never read another thing by E. Lockhart.

Kelly Polark said...

I still need to read a David Sedaris book. My mom loves them.
I'm reading Charlaine Harris's Dead in Dallas (the series that the True Blood show is based on) and The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. I'm enjoying both!

Monica said...

i'm reading Three cups of tea, which i expect to be annoyingly self involved, but its for my book club, so i'll have to slog through it. I just bought Audrey Niffenegger's new book...tho the title escapes me right now.

Bryan B. said...

Dress Your Family is funny, but not as funny as his other books. Fear and Loathing is one of the best books ever written - seriously. I was told Andromeda Klein was not very good...

Heather Kelly said...

I'm not telling what I am reading because it is so darn booooooring, and I won't say something this bad about a book. (hey--it might be your favorite, right?) But, I can't believe that I didn't put this one down. For some reason I need to get to the end. And it is painful. And the thing is that it is a great story/idea, many passages are great, and I like the characters... but it could have been written in about 1/3 of the words. Urgh. So, I can't wait for it to release me.

Amy Allgeyer Cook said...

I didn't like Gateway to Foo too much. But then, I didn't care for The Bartimeus Trilogy either.

I just finished The Outsiders and am halfway through The Book Thief, which I don't love as much as other people have. The Outsiders was fantastic.

Donna Gambale said...

Love the predictions! I haven't read any of them, so no comments from my end. I love going to the library because I tend to choose a wider variety of books than at a bookstore -- simply because I'm not investing any money in them!

Sarah J Clark said...

What a great idea - posting what you THINK a book will be about before you read it!

I just finished Jerry Spinelli's SMILES TO GO. It was NOTHING like imagined it to.

It turned out to be about the MC's little sister.

I'll have to steal your blog post idea sometime!

HAPPY READING!

Unknown said...

@ Amy - I teach The Outsiders. It is fantastic in many ways and antiquated in others.

@ Sarah - what did you think of Smiles? I was hoping for something to happen at the end, but it never did. Spinelli's writing is so readable and fluent though. You can really fly through his novels.

Paul Michael Murphy said...

Finished the Sedaris book last night. I laughed out loud on a number of occasions.

I thought this was hilarious:

Six to Eight Black Men