Books, booksy booksy books.

Hey!

I've been reading!

It's that delightful time at the library when ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENS and one is able to spend the better part of a shift reading.  ...I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

So, as if you cared, and as if I was actually maintaining what started out to be a music-and-literature-themed blog, here's what I've been reading.

Since I've heard only good things about this book and I knew they were making/had made a movie, I decided to check this book out to myself upon checking it in from someone else.  Excellent choice, me!  I loved the storytelling in this dark and heartbreaking book.  Some of it--a lot of it--can be very upsetting to read, but I would recommend this to anyone.
I saw this book dominating Amazon's #1 seller spot for a long time and thought it odd that I had no idea what it was, but after reading The Kite Runner I knew I had to check it out (uh, literally).  As it turns out, I enjoyed this one even more--I literally just finished it ten minutes ago.  As with The Kite Runner, this can be tough (as in, disturbing) to read, but just demonstrates what I consider to be some fantastic storytelling.  Even more so with this book, though, I connected with the characters, deeply cared about them, hurt for them.  Another book I'd strongly recommend.
I saw this ages ago at Barnes and Noble, was intrigued by it--and then forgot all about it until my mom surprised me with it a few days ago (way to go, Mom!).  Absurdly silly cover featuring a picture of the author aside, I'm really enjoying it so far.  The book consists of different sections, each of which discuss similar case studies of people who have had unique psychological (and physiological) experiences with music.  I've only made it through the first section so far (which deals with people haunted by music--blargh, some scary stuff in there, especially for a musician... imagine hearing the same loud, high note, over and over and over all day long), but this book makes my inner psych-major-wannabe happy.
Since my only experience with Kurt Vonnegut so far has been through a short story ("Harrison Bergeron")--and uh, since this book was conveniently at the circulation desk when I got to work--I thought, what better way to become more familiar with the author than through a collection of short stories and whatnots?  I haven't started this yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

(In other news, I've learned that reading multiple books from multiple genres rather than focusing on one book at a time silences that nasty habit my brain has of narrating my life in the voice/style of whatever writer I'm reading.  ...Someone wanna do a case study on that crap?)

I have three books lined up to read next, assuming the library doesn't yield some other distracting treasure--which, of course, it will.  Coming soon!

Because I bought the book at a garage sale and it's been sitting in my car for two months...