www wednesday #4: goodreads

hey look! my goodreads to-read list! time to pick that back up again. also, the kwan sisters book swap. if anyone else is interested in book-swapping (i'm looking at you, anna), let me know. :)

+ what are you currently reading?
let the great world spin / colum mccann
honestly just picked this one up out of my goodreads list. i'm super excited and happy to be reading for leisure again. :) i've heard good things about let the great world spin and figured it sounded like a good transition from the night circus into something a little more solid. looking forward to it.







+ what did you recently finish reading?
the night circus / erin morgenstern
definitely a fun, easy read for anyone looking for their imagination to just run wild and go crazy. loved it. read as part of the kwan sisters' book swap! :) thanks, twin.








+ what do you think you'll read next?
i love yous are for white people / lac su
i've always been big on these kinds of memoirs. i like history. memoirs combine being able to read about all of that history with the opportunity to still let my imagination do it's thing and picture the scenarios and events being described. now, if only i could actually find a copy of this book in a bookstore anywhere...






"the more that you read, the more things you will know. the more that you learn, the more places you'll go." - dr. seuss, i can read with my eyes shut!

www wednesday #3: blast from the past.

it's come to me to do another www wednesday on multiple occasions, but it keeps happening on a non-wednesday and then i forget by the time the next wednesday comes around. it's actually quite frustrating...but then i'd forget about that too.

but now it's wednesday!!! and i remembered!

+ what are you currently reading?
the wind-up bird chronicle / haruki murakami
so i really should have finish this book by now. i just keep getting distracted by long nights of work and busy schedules. it's actually been quite good. aside from the more apparent quirks of reading a book so obviously translated from a different language, there are definitely notes of differing cultural characteristics. i'm not sure if that's just how it got translated or the genre itself, but murakami's writing style has made it an interesting read. it's almost a softer way of writing. not so aggressive about pointing out and explaining every aspect of what's happening. it's actually somewhat like tolkien's works, another translated pieced, in that a lot of the language is more imagination provoking than direct guidance of what the reader should be thinking at any given point in the story. current plan: finish it.

+ what did you recently finish reading?
catching fire / suzanne collins
really getting ready for the second installment of the hunger games trilogy coming to theaters over thanksgiving 2013. super excited! already can't wait. :)

+ what do you think you'll read next?
the very hungry city / austin troy
this is my nerd read for the season. "urban energy efficiency and the economic fate of cities", the very hungry city is an analysis of urban civilization today and the rising levels of energy demand in the many growing metropolises around the world. troy expands on such issues by explaining what such rising demands could mean for people in the future, and what potential solutions could be, instilling the importance of early action in order to cut off any negative effects for civilization before it's too late. perhaps not the most positive of reading options, but i have to say that the basis for this kind of analysis definitely sparked my curiosity. i'm all for green planning, but also admit that i'm probably lacking in knowledge of the arguments to back up the why. very much looking forward to this read.

"good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life." - mark twain

www wednesday #2: the shambles.

i haven't posted in awhile. but my brain, as proven by today's attempts to be productive, is in shambles. so here goes another www wednesday post.

if you're not familiar with the www concept, here's the gist: answer three simple questions.

+ what are you currently reading?

commencement / courtney sullivan

received through another book trade with my sister, i figured this would be a good read as a semi-follow up from reading prep by curtis sittenfeld awhile back. going to an all-girls high school, i'm curious to see if i can relate at all to the characters and goings on in this story based on four women attending smith college in northampton, mass. can't say i'm too far into it, but it's definitely got its moments of entertainment through sullivan's depiction of certain all-girls school, stereotypical characters: the all-american belle, the rebel, and the preppy girl, which i'll honestly say aren't that far off from the truth, at least in my experience. 

+ what did you recently finish reading?

the joy luck club / amy tan

so asian! i've always liked reading memoir-type novels. but this one i definitely held off on just because of the horror stories i heard about it from people who had to study it in school. going off of that tenth grade critique, it apparently was boring, false and poorly written. i will admit its not the best book i've read to date, but its certainly not the worst. i still found the story interesting, since i am into that kinda thing. the overlapping storylines were at times a little difficult to follow, to the point where i had to keep flipping back and forth to make sure i was thinking of the right character each time. but if taken as a collection of mini stories that ultimately coincide into one bigger picture, it's quite entertaining and educational about certain chinese cultural aspects. one pet peeve i've discovered: i really dislike the author's use of pseudo-pinyin to write in chinese but words are spelled wrong. i then feel the need to sit there and figure out what she's actually trying to say, instead of thinking about what's actually going on in that part of (one of) the storyline(s).

+ what do you think you'll read next?

the wind-up bird chronicles / haruki murakami

not going to lie, i was just in a barnes and noble looking for a new read, while almost all of my books sit in storage until we find a new place to live (after i find a job). scrolling down my goodreads list, i picked out a few that i was in the mood for at the moment, and then went and found each of those selections to take a closer look and make a final purchase decision. it came down to the wind-up bird chronicle and the glass castle by jeannette walls. i figured i had already read several book recently that were similar to walls' story. not to mention, it was another memoir. so i went for the one that was different. we'll see how that goes.

"books!" - troy and abed, nbc's community.

to read or not to read.

today's post is yet another one inspired by anna hong, who in turn took a page from MizB's book, because like anna, i went on a serious book shopping spree this summer and flew through each and every one of them, and now i'm only restraining myself due to unemployment and, therefore, lack of funding for books.
so here goes:

www wednesday #1 - to do this, all you have to do is answer the following three questions.

+ what are you currently reading?
the art of racing in the rain / garth stein
i actually started this book awhile back towards the tail end of the summer. then once summer ended, strangely so did my energy for leisurely reading all the time. but i've recently restarted it again and it's super enjoyable. it's definitely a good read if you're looking for a feel-good, story-telling, nicely-humbling novel. also along similar lines, if you've already read this one, is a dog's purpose / w. bruce cameron. a little cuter, a little less of a humbling tone, but similar idea and super cute.

+ what did you recently finish reading?
little bee / chris cleave
this was actually a little while back, near the end of summer/beginning of fall. (yea, that long ago.) but a good read. serious and, at times, a little dark. but still a good read. i will admit the ending could be considered a little unfulfilling, but it's definitely still a book i would recommend to anyone who asked.






+ what do you think you'll read next?
the distance between us / maggie o'farrell
i don't actually know much about this book. it's a recommendation from jess, and i'm trying to re-kickstart my book reading so i figured i'll give it a go. also, we've started doing this book trading thing where one of us will send the other a book as a recommendation to read, and when that person's done, they send it back with a book recommendation of their own. it seems like a good system, except that i have, unfortunately, been dropping the ball on my end and have had this book for awhile without having gotten to it because i've just really slowed down in my downtime reading. but i'm fixing it! :) my goal is to finish this by christmas.


if you have any book recommendations for me to add to my nicely-filling-up bookshelf, comment here!