The Thoughts of a Frumpy Professor

............................................ ............................................ A blog devoted to the ramblings of a small town, middle aged college professor as he experiences life and all its strange variances.

Friday, April 27, 2012


Reading List (Authors) & Reading Habits
Billy (over at Spirits Doings asked me a question yesterday about what types of books I tend to read. That is the inspiration for this post. One easy way to flesh out my reading habits I thought, would be to list a few "trade" authors... the typical paperback writer authors that I have been enjoying lately. These are not "high brow" heavyweights.... they are just run-of-the-mill, fun reads.

Robin Cook - his mysteries all revolve around some form of science and/or medical treachery that results in mysterious drama. An excellent writer, albeit his dialogue can sometimes ring as a bit "stilted". His grasp of science and medicine and how he weaves them into his stories are excellent... he happens to be a medical doctor (retired).

Michael Palmer - like Robin Cook (above), Palmer's stories tend toward mysteries that are science and/or medical in background and scope... leading to some sort of treachery. Palmer had interesting ideas and I enjoy his books, but sometimes I feel slighted by his minimal development of even the major characters in his books.... and while R. Cook has trouble having his characters sometimes sound rather stilted, Palmer's issue with dialogue is that sometimes his dialogue is rather hokey and therefore rings untrue.

Michael Connelly - his Harry Boesch novels are well crafted and engrossing in every way. My favorite thus far is "The Lone Wolf". His genre is in the detective/police/crime arena... but he takes a psychological outlook to his writing that is very pleasing. He has a very good grasp on the dialogue... it all feels very authentic.

Lawrence Sanders - his "Deadly Sins" series of books are wonderful, as have been "Caper" and "The Secrets of Lucy Bending". He also is a detective/police/crime novelist. Unfortuantely, Sanders has died, so now further work from him. I suggest avoiding the later "McNalley" series of books by him and continued by a substitute author as well... they are VERY cheesy and basically obnoxious.

Those represent the general reading NOVELS I focus on lately. I also enjoy biographies a great deal (not about idiot pop celebrities, but those about historically relevant people.... such as Hemingway, Pasteur, Darwin, Steinbeck, etc.) Please do not get me wrong, I read a helluva lot of other things as well (a lot for my research and teaching, several newspapers, and more classic literature as well at times), but the above represents my current FUN reading material. In my past I have had other general fiction fads as well. For a long time I loved Westerns, but I haven't found any recent ones that have captured my attention. The same is true for my prior love of science fiction... I have not been able to find a more current science fiction writer who grabs my mind in quite a while.

 PipeTobacco

5 Comments:

Blogger BBC said...

I've not read any Robin Cook book, not much interest in such things.

If you haven't read IACOCCA by Lee Iacocca I'll send it to you if you email me an address to send it to.

I don't have a copy of it but if I did I would send you Smokey Yunick's auto biography, best damn such book I've ever read.

Friday, 27 April, 2012  
Blogger austere said...

Where do you find the time? Seriously.I have a pile of unread ones.

This morning I began, waiting for some routine tests-- The Guernsey Literary and Potato peel pie society-- hilarious and VERY good.

Saturday, 28 April, 2012  
Blogger PipeTobacco said...

Billy:

I have read "Iacocca"... it was indeed an excellent book! I was surprised at how interesting I found Lee Iacocca, and see him in a much better light than I had previously from other news accounts.

I am not familiar with Smokey Yunick, but will look him up due to your recommendation.

Austere, it is often difficult to find enough time to read, but fortunately for work realted efforts, I am a bit of a speed reader and can plow through things fairly quickly. For lesiure reading, most of my time for that these days is at bed. It is a true tonic that helps me to put my mind in a more relaxed frame so I can go to sleep easily. I started purposefully doing this a couple of years ago and it has been wonderful for sleeping. Before that I would toss and turn and often have difficulty falling asleep.

PipeTobacco
http://frumpyprofessor.blogspot.com

Saturday, 28 April, 2012  
Blogger frankcostello said...

From my opinions book & read choice depends upon the particular individual that what he likes to read. How ever i like crime theme based stories.murderers

Thursday, 03 May, 2012  
Anonymous White said...

From my opinions book & read choice depends upon the particular individual that what he likes to read. How ever i like crime theme based stories. murderers

Thursday, 10 January, 2013  

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