Read any good books lately, that you might recommend?

Go ahead and re-read The Lord of the Rings, Two Towers, etc. you'll be glad you did. Nice to escape our current world for that one.

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome is one of the funniest books in the English Language. The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith is another.

What format should I use to download the etext? I've never done this before. Should I use a zip file?

I recently re-read Stephenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I hadn't realised when I read it at 13 how amazing a book it is.

Another good book that's left a lasting impression on me is Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things.

A friend has suggested I read Thomas Pychon. Have any of you read him? What did you think? Which novel should I go for?

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Originally posted by wordnerd:
Read any good books lately, that you might recommend?

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I'm in the process of writing one. If it turns out any good, I'll let you know.

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What format should I use to download the etext?

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If you're talking about Project Gutenberg Etext, it's a simple text (*.txt) file, which will open in your browser. Alternatively you can download it as a zip file, then unzip it to your hard disk. You can then open it with a decent text editor or word processor. (Note: if you have Windows 9X/ME don't try to use Notepad -- it won't open large files.)

Besides, of course, my daughter's 2 books on women's Seders, I very much enjoyed Elizabeth Strout's "Isabelle and Amy". This is a wonderful novel about a mother/daughter relationship (a bit risque in places!) by a new author whom I am going to carefully follow. She writes much like Anne Tyler.

My daughter recommends Republic.com, by Cass Sundstein, which addresses some of the issues of using the Internet for information. I am anxious to read it.

'A Pelican In The Wilderness - hermits, solitaries and recluses.'
by Isabel Colegate.
(Harper Collins)

I've just finished this and it was a joy to read. Some absolutely fascinating information and anecdotes about great writers and poets which are manna to a hungry mind. It's a dance through history, religion, idiosyncracy, poetry, literature, gardens, and very strange people!!

I loved it.

Tadpole

This looks interesting to me, especially in this "terrorist" time: http://www.powells.com/review/2006_11_23

I've been looking at Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney (pronounced "tawney") by James F. Simon. My interest was piqued by a recent review, When the Court Lost Its Conscience.

PS: The review states that in a particular case Taney "also tacked on the gratuitous announcement that blacks were incapable of rising to the level of citizenship." A terrible and disgusting view, of course, but as not at all gratuitous: the case required that the Court take a position on what "citizen" meant under the constitution.

I've been reading Frank McCourt's Teacher Man. It's good, but I liked Angela's Ashes better.

I'm currently listening to the CD of The World is Flat and finding it very interesting. I'm also reading At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much by Yarn Harlot, whose blog I read regularly. I also just finished reading Home Again, a very well-done romance by a friend of mine and former librarian.

Just finished Vernon Vinge's Rainbows End (the lack of an apostrophe in the title of and a location in the book make it into a minor part of the plot) and Gregoire Bouillier's The Mystery Guest. Both were good. I am currently reading The Warden of English: The Life of H W Fowler which I picked up used for a penny. It is by Jenny McMorris.