Wednesday, February 7, 2007

I always loved a good read

As a kid I read everything I could get my hands on.
When I say everything you can bet that I really mean it.
Everything.
There was very little in the way of Jewish literature. Marcus Lehman, Lubavitch Olumainu magazine and the Jewish Press (feh). There just wasn't much else to read.
So I grew up reading Jules Verne, Mark Twain and the like , all the Hardy boys and Nancy Drew books. Stuff that would be considered heretical nowadays.
I could never get enough, as a typical Hardy Boys book took me about 35 minutes to read.
We had an Encyclopedia Judaica that I read through.
As I got older I read Ellery Queen, Agatha Christie, Erle Stanley Gardner and tons more, point (yes, I noticed that I frequently do that) is I loved a good mystery.
As life is way more hectic, I never have time for a really good read.
I haven't really noticed this aspect of my life being diminished, until I got this Email regarding a weird murder mystery, I read it and naturally loved the story, short as it was.
Having gotten into trouble once before with reposting stories, I checked out Snopes and of course the story is too good to be true but far all you who love a murder mystery with an interesting twist, here's the link to the sight:
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/opus.asp

I gotta get a good book to read, and please don't give me the so called 'jewish' books that dominate the shelves today, their corny I could sit and make these by the dozen, if I typed fast enough.
Any suggestions?

25 comments:

Rivka Photography said...

A good thriller is The Broker by John Grisham. If you like life inspiring books then I'd suggest Mitch Albom. His best is For One More Day.

I also read a lot so i know how you feel :)

Sarachka said...

Know what you mean! no time for books. I read through plenty but can never get enough. I dont really have a suggestion- if you come up with one, please share!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Pragmatician said...

I like Jewish books, I think there are some really good ones.
What I also like is to read the books I read as a teenager, Aghata Christy for e.g. is still fun to read.

Anonymous said...

Yaffa Ganz's sand and stars is pretty good.
If you like history.

anonym00kie said...

im sure no kid with a tv would ever read thru an encyclopedia..or even open one for that matter!

socialworker/frustrated mom said...

I am not much of a reader but I could also use a good suggestion and start getting back into books.

ggggg said...

Most "Jewish" books are stale and boring with a lackluster vocabulary and content. Why does it have to be this way? Aren't there any trul talented frum writers? i guess not.

Independent Frum Thinker said...

How familiar.
I too read everything and anything that I got my hands on, including our Britannica encyclopedia.

F said...

Of course you've read Dorothy Sayers and P.D. James???
And then Raymon Chandler, "The Long Sleep"

I was homeschooled and read all the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys too...I would go to the library and bring home 10-12 books at a time, and then bring them back two days later! Of course I ruined my eyes...

I was thinking of getting the Batya Gur book "A Literary Murder" or "The Saturday Morning Murder: A Psychoanalytic Case", but I haven't browsed through them in person to see if the writing style is worth it--have you read any of this Michael Ohayon series?

F said...

oh, and one book I read this past year that is really great is "Gorky Park" a spy-communism thriller that is really great in my opinion. I'm not usually into the spy thing, but this book was an exception.

Anonymous said...

Your life is not interesting and mysterious enough? Perhaps instead of reading, you ought to be WRITING?

yingerman said...

rivka
read grisham's books he is good

sarachkla
just finishes yaffa ganz stars and sand - its for yopung readers and doesnt have alot of details but interesting

prag
read all i could at one point hardy boy too

chumash
just finished-thanx

mooks
had a tv when I was young
liked reading better

SWFM
you probably have enough work related stuff to read....no?

venter
YUP!

IFT
here's to shared ennui

JFB
yes to the first 4, never heard of gur or ohayon
yes I read Gorky park
years later saw the movie
book was way better
of course

IAGN
Of course
problem is that writing may give away my secret identity
(muhahahah)
I mean, the more I tell people 'bout myself the likely it will be for someone to figure out who I..really am.

Anonymous said...

If you won't find it offensive, you'll find "Beware of God" by Shalom Auslander highly entertaining!

smb said...

I enjoy some books by dean koontz and others. Those are good thrillers

Anonymous said...

just curious to know if your wife knows about this blog?

Anonymous said...

"Five people you meet in heaven" by Mitch Albom.

have you read Da Vinci Code? It's an amazing thriller... yes, a lot of what he says is contested, but the details, the plots, the intrigue is beyond amazing.

ggggg said...

sigh. I wish I had the time to read as many books as I used to.....

Anonymous said...

chaim walder writes well, and so do a few other Israeli frum wrtiters

Anonymous said...

M. Amitz. Yeair Weinstack to name a few

yingerman said...

The jewish books are real crap.
Sorry, but I really feel that way.

Anonymous said...

Faye and Jonathan Kellerman are Modern Orthodox Jews who both write mystery novels.They are books they have written jointly but most of there books they have writen seperately. Often there is Orthdox items in there books they add to the stories but they are great books to read even without these items.

Anonymous said...

all daniel silva books - really great author

Jacob Da Jew said...

Ditto on Daniel Silva. I prefer:
Science Fiction,
Crime Novels,
Dale Brown,
Harold Robbins( great!),
Stephen King
Dean Koontz(as mentioned above)
Stephen Frey (corporate warfare)
Grisham is o.k.

And lots more. I take out 15-20 books at a time.

It has paid off, all this reading. I recently went for an aptitude test, and I scored in the 85% percentile on the vocabulary test(which means I have better vocabulary than 85% of population).

And I lived in Israel for 7 years.

Gee, enough bragging Jacob.

MAK said...

As a big reader myself, I think I can suggest some books.
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett (You can start with any book, they're all good)
Assassin - Ted Bell
And..can't think of any more, most of my books are still packed away, awaiting my new bookcases.