What did you just finish reading?
A lot of random stuff -- "psychobiographies" of Diane Arbus and Truman Capote; The Lady and Her Monsters, "about" Mary Shelley but really mostly a rehash of biographical gossip with some pop science mixed in; Capote's infamous Answered Prayers; Laura Lippman's Tess Monaghan mysteries.
I read the Lippman books completely out of order, as usual (something like -- the fourth first, then the third, then the fifth, then the first, and so on), and I'm glad I did, because the first book was not that well-written and had some awful reactionary moments to boot. My favourites in the series are probably In a Strange City (the story of the Poe Toaster! so literary) and The Last Place, and The Sugar House and By a Spider's Thread were reasonably good too. Tess is a fun heroine, strong without being either "feisty" or "kickass," and I like her unrepentant sexuality and independent femininity (long hair, but crew rowing); Lippman is about the equal of Sue Grafton, writing quite readable prose that occasionally snaps into really good sentences. I've read a couple of Lippman's standalone mysteries, which are much more "literary" (sadly) and seem to be trying for a kind of Tana French atmosphere, but she's just not as good a writer.
I also had a whole post planned out on how disappointing the Hyperbole and a Half hardback was and how blogging isn't really writing and so therefore books made out of blogs are doomed to suck, but I don't have the energy to write it down now. If you buy that book in hardback, as I did, you are a sucker, but apparently a sucker the publishing industry is counting on to keep afloat. I have mixed feelings about this.
(Do I think Amazon running the publishing industry is a terrible idea? Yes. Do I think the "traditional" hardbacks-in-the-warehouse Big Six publishing industry is handling the transition to the modern era terribly and ripping off writers/readers in the process? Yes. Am I constantly dismayed at the horribly shitty quality of proofreading, design and simple font choices in ebooks? Yes. Am I buying nearly all new books as ebooks now because I just don't have the room, let alone the money, for new books in hardback? Yes....)
What are you reading now?
No idea. I need something to hit that sweet spot between "having difficulty paying attention" and "entertain me while I'm feeling ill," which is usually a Pratchett reread, but there are only so many Pratchetts even I can reread and I don't want to wear them out. Mysteries often hit that spot, but I don't want to reread A.J. Orde/B.J. Oliphant/Sheri Tepper right now either....I KNOW, I looked at the shelves (another big problem with ereaders: where are the shelves? You can only see 10-12 books at a time) and apparently I still have a chunk of unread Wilkie Collins, who, as I've discovered before, is perfect sickbed reading. Plus, Sarah Waters' Affinity is right on top of that pile too. Much better.
What do you expect to read next?
Aww, it's Bram Stoker's birthday tomorrow....maybe I'll reread Dracula, I haven't done that in a bit. I'm avoiding the NBC series (mostly because I use the TV we have for streaming Netflix and that's it), but I might rewatch the Coppola film too.
That to-read pile (some of it already read):
