Tea & Books - What are you reading?
Kakuzo Okakura: The Book of Tea. I’m also digging into some fiction as well as non-fiction about the Borgia family, since obviously I love the Showtime series.
Just got done reading The Language of Flowers. It was excellent, the best book I’ve read in a long time. It was perfectly complimented by a cup of green tea on my porch.
Reading Lord of the Rings, drinking Earl Grey Creme. That’s how you make a friday night awesome.
Have to admit… Lord of The Rings has remained on the top of my list for many, many years. And have read them all way too many times. Don’t forget to enjoy “The Children of Hurin” as it is also a great read. Myself (enjoying the audio versions) I love the audio as Christopher Lee narrates this book! Awesome.
I love them while enjoying Summer Darjeeling.
Lord of the Rings is a series made to be read while drinking Earl Grey.
…and Game of Thrones it is now. Is it unreasonable to want a direwolf already??
We aren’t watching the show until we read all the books. Still a few weeks yet. : )
An excellent strategy. I read all but the last one before the show came out. I like both. Now I just need a direwolf tea to drink while re-reading the series. ;)
The wolves each have such distinct personalities. I think they each deserve their own tea.
You know that’s a valid point Mercuryhime. I have to agree that they each deserve their own tea. :D
I read the Iliad (new translation by Stephen Mitchell) 2 books ago. Then I consumed Hilary Mantel’s new Bring Up the Bodies. Now I’m on Joyce’s Ulysses. After that I’ll need to get back to course preparation, with reading on musicians in Renaissance northern Italy.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig.
Otherwise, on the side, I’ve been reading comicbooks. Yup. And occasionally /re/ reading The Book of Tea.
Mostly the classical Doctor Who comics originally from the magazine (which they were, for a while, slowly republishing to America through IDW, but seem to have stopped? Don’t know what happened there—so I’ll usually just find them in pdf or cbr). Occasionally NewWho, but mostly only picked up “The Forgotten”. Also related publishes, like the shorts of Faction Paradox and Miranda.
Otherwise, I loosely follow Marvel’s Deadpool, and pick up the back issues related to him (rather than fight for the newer ones, which are usually long gone before I get there).
Most recently, I’ve been following the re-translation of the Sailormoon manga (I did read the original translation, years ago, but). Only manga I’ve ever read, to be honest. But come on. /Sailormoon/.
And then just fill in the cracks with other things that fill my interest.
LOL, I remember being a big fan of the Sailor Moon anime when it first came to N. America (I think I was ten or eleven then). But it’s nice to see that the manga is being reprinted. Seeing it on the shelves at work makes me smile nostalgically. :)
If you’re looking for other manga to get into I highly recommend FullMetal Alchemist. As for other types of graphic novels the Walking Dead series is pretty good and I love the classic ones like Maus and V for Vendetta.
some doctor who novels are available as an ebook. As for comics if you like Marvel has some out on gooogle play. Hellboy, Witchblade and stuff are on Kobo. Fullmetal Alchemist is awesome, I also enjoy .hack// stuff.
I think that my all time favorite graphic novel has to be The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. I highly recommend it!!!
As for Manga, I have not kept up to date on the new stuff… But really enjoyed Pet Shop of Horrors (though the anime is awful…)
JasonCT,
Since you liked WOLF HALL, I assure you that you will also like BRING UP THE BODIES. Evidently Mantel plans that these be part of a trilogy and has already started the 3rd (when Cromwell will finally run out of luck). The final 100 pages of BODIES zoomed. I wish that the machinations of these folks were not so believable, but that would be naive.
I LOVED LOVED LOVED the Thomas Cromwell character! I found myself even laughing out loud during parts of WOLF HALL (I listened to the audio version which I would highly recommend)
Of course he’s the best — and that’s such a surprise for those of us who know A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS, in which he is the villain. I especially like the way Mantel lets us inside Cromwell’s mind; and, her back-story for him really works. By the way, have you visited the Frick art collection? They have Holbein’s portraits of Cromwell AND More, and they hang them facing one another.
I’m currently reading A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix – love his books. I needed something to bleach the memories of slogging through Fifty Shades of Grey (or Fifty Shades of Crap as my co-workers at the bookstore are calling it) from my mind. DX
Yup, Chapters bookstore, which is basically the Canadian equivalent of Barnes & Noble. It’s a great job, but you might not be so jealous if you saw how crazy it gets during the Christmas season. ;)
Love Garth Nix!
Tried to get a job at Chapters once. Friend ended up getting it instead. Curse him.
I would love to work in a bookstore, I applied to Chapters and Mcnallyrobinson but didn’t get it. Oh well I have a good job now so I’m happy :D
I just bought Fifty Shades of Grey… :( Oh well… I took advantage of being in an airport and having access to English Language books to pick up a few from the tiny selection available. Hope the others I got are better…
Currently reading Game of Thrones because well.. its awesome. I’m also reading (being a history geek) War and Peace.
WAR AND PEACE is one of my absolute favorite books. What translation are you reading? I’ve read a few of them and have to say that the old Constance Garnett version is by far my favorite!
I’m reading the Singet Classic translated by Ann Dunnigan, so far its taking a lot of re-reading to make sure I understand their mid-19th century lingo correctly, but I’m loving the book lol.
When I approach a classic like this, with beautiful yet antiquated dialog, I like to think of it as eating cheesecake – best when savored slowly. Stick with it and I assure you you’ll keep thinking about this book for a long time!
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts as you progress!
Just started reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed. Not sure what tea would go with a book like this. It’s a autobiographical account about a woman who lost everything important to her and then lived a self-destructive lifestyle until she had an idea to hike the entire Pacific Crest Trail (from Mexico to Canada) in order to turn herself back into the person she was before she got lost. She has never hiked for more than a day.
THe book is very engrossing. I saw it on the New York TImes top seller list and thought I’d give it a try. I’d say a calming tea would be good with this book. The story is very depressing and it’s easy to relate to the character. So a happy tea or relaxing tea would keep you from getting too involved in her depressing world. :(
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