I love House of the Scorpion because it was sort of deliciously twisted for a YA book. I loved the fact that the country was called Opium. Matt was so broken, sad and confused.

If you liked that, you should try M.T.Anderson's book Feed which is also Sci Fi for the YA set. In the book, parents have a feed directly installed in the brains of children that allows them immediate cranial connection to the internet. So amazing.

Oh! It's the climax of the first "character flees from awfulness" segment of the story

Y'know, I think this is what's missing from reality TV. ("Joe Millionaire rides up to the house on horseback. The women flee from awfulness. The End.")

None. Go. Do.

Done.

The good thing about this kerfuffle? It got me to check in with this thread, which I haven't read often for reasons that escape me.

Anyhow, despite 21 years of reading, I've barely touched the canon. Mostly, I've read children's books, non-fiction, and random modern literature. (My college degree is in journalism, with a creative writing minor. I'm not sure I read any novels I hadn't done in high school or read on my own.) I deeply love all the Shakespeare I've read or seen performed, but that's about six plays. My only Dickens is an abridged Great Expectations in ninth grade. I've only read excerpts from Chaucer, Milton and Dante. And I was all proud of myself when I finished Tess of the D'Ubervilles last month, because it was the first Classic I had read in a long time.

I am a lazy reader with a short attention span, which I freely admit. Anyone want to recommend anything to me?

Yeah, Billytea, that was Herriot. I just read the book and saw the movie of the "Long Goodbye"...liked them both, for all they're so different...that thing about the cat food, bwah!

The good thing about this kerfuffle? It got me to check in with this thread, which I haven't read often for reasons that escape me.

Yeah, me too. (That and a slow workday.) I've actually started reading fiction again just recently, having finished my exam and thus gaining some free time. Just finished The God of Small Things, and I'm now about halfway through The Blind Assassin. Following will be Gould's Book of Fish (A Novel in Twelve Fish), Life of Pi and Dirt Music. It's a good mix, I feel. After that I might hit the library. Or just get into some Doctor Who.

Yeah, Billytea, that was Herriot.

I couldn't remember whether it was him or Siegfried, though I figured James. Loved those books as a teenager, read them over and over again. (I felt the postwar stuff started to lose some of the distinctive charm, unfortunately.)

just out of curiosity, was it the fast increase in # of posts, knowing there was a kerfuffle, or someone suggesting it - that brought not normal readers back to this thread?

I am always interested when posters that don't normally post in a thread appear when there is a kerfuffle. I've certainly done it, mostly from bad motivation, but that is me.

Maybe lots of people lurk here?

Right now, I've only got one book going on right now: Gravity's Rainbow. I just can't keep another one in my head. It's hard, because I'm used to having two or three going on, and reading whichever based on my mood that day. The Pynchon requires so much concentration that starting another book would be actively harmful to my reading.

Has anyone else who is used to multi-booking had that happen to them? Which books?

just out of curiosity, was it the fast increase in # of posts, knowing there was a kerfuffle, or someone suggesting it - that brought not normal readers back to this thread?

For me, the kerfuffle got mentioned, which reminded me we had a literary thread. Plus, rubbernecking, it's true.