Current Favorite Reads: a Michael Crichton Binge
I’m out of town (yay! Visiting friends in warm ol’ Texas and TOMORROW IS EDGEFEST!!!), so I thought I’d make today’s post simple. A month or so back, a reader asked,
What are some of your current favorite reads?
Well, as of this week, I’ve been on an “old-books-I-read-but-don’t-remember” kick. I started on Sunday, with Good Omens (my World Book Night giveaway book).
I zoomed through THAT amazingly hilarious book in an evening.
And guys, it wasn’t my “normal” reading genre. Lately, all I read is adult fantasy, adult romance, and occasional YA. But Good Omens is straight humor. It’s speculative fiction layered with more clever jokes than you can imagine…and just as I had when I’d read it at age 18, I adored it on Monday. I haven’t laughed so hard in ages.
So after finishing Good Omens, I thought: why not read other old favorites I’ve forgotten? Why not read…(insert me rummaging through moving boxes of unpacked books)…Jurassic Park? I was a huge Michael Crichton fan in junior high, but I really didn’t remember most of his books. Plus, scientific thrillers and heist books really aren’t my usual diet.
PLUS, I just saw Jurassic Park 3D (which was amazing, of course) and was on a dinosaurs-are-terrifying-and-cool kick.
I wound up reading into the wee hours of the night, and the book was sooooo good. Better than I remembered it, and even with my overly-critical-author’s mind, the story gripped me from page one. I also hadn’t read the book since becoming a scientist, so I gained an extra oomph of pleasure from seeing all the accurate scientific stuff (or rather as accurate as it can be with fake, impossible science) crammed into the pages.
Then came Lost World, the excellent sequel to Jurassic Park that is absolutely NOTHING like the movie and features one badass leading lady.
Now I’m going to start Timeline, which I read when it came out in 1999 (yep, my mom took me to the book store to buy the hardcover on release day; I remember it vividly). I recall this book being my all-time favorite Crichton book, so I guess we’ll see if that’s still true.
Obviously, my tastes are PRETTY SPECIFIC right now…Basically anything by Michael Crichton. 😉
Also, can I just say I wish there were more Jurassic Park books? As horrific and moderately disturbing as the whole idea of dinosaurs running rampant and killing everyone is, I LOVE IT. I love the whole theme park idea and terrifying velociraptors…and I love that Crichton writes some tough, intelligent women of science.
Anyway, end Sooz’s love letter to Crichton books.
You tell me: what are YOU reading right now? Have you read any Michael Crichton?
April 26, 2013 @ 3:23 pm
I’m reading THREE by Ted Dekker, but most importantly I WILL SEE YOU TOMORROW!!!!! 😀
Ps: sent you an email 😉
April 26, 2013 @ 3:27 pm
AAAAHHHH!!!!! WILL YOU BE THERE?!?!?!?! Omg, you’ve made me so excited! I CAN’T WAIT!
April 26, 2013 @ 4:37 pm
I DEFINITELY WILL!!! Ahdksiadkauah 😀
April 26, 2013 @ 3:31 pm
Strangely, I’ve never read or watched Jurassic Park… possibly because dinosaurs are a bit out of my field of interest. I’m reading Finnikin of the Rock and The Brothers Karamazov right now. Both very interesting, although Finnikin has my attention at the moment. It’s a bit confusing though, because it mentions so many places and since I’m reading the ebook, it’s hard to keep flipping back to the map so I’ve only a vague sense of the places mentioned ;___;
April 26, 2013 @ 3:47 pm
Oh yeah–I wound up checking out Finnikin from my library for that same reason. I needed the map. 😉 And I’ve never heard of Brothers Karamazov–I’ll look that up right now!!
April 26, 2013 @ 3:48 pm
Looked it up. Feel like an idiot for not knowing it (though really, Russian classics are NOT my forte). How is it?? Are you reading it for fun or for school?
April 26, 2013 @ 4:15 pm
I’m only on part two, but I love it so far! Haha, reading it for fun. Oddly, we never really discussed classics in high school/uni apart from To Kill A Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, and the first part of Faust. One of my lit professors was more into having us read contemporary ones like Murakami’s Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World 😀
April 26, 2013 @ 4:05 pm
Whooooo, Jurassic Park! I read “Lost World” on the drive home from vacation when I was 10 or 11. Which turned out was too young for me, but besides being still emotionally traumatized by the T-Rex nest scene, I loved it to pieces. I mean, after even after having been super shocked, I couldn’t help continue reading, and half an hour later I had picked up the book again XD
Currently reading: Girl of Fire and Thorns and Northanger Abbey – love them both so much!
April 26, 2013 @ 5:58 pm
I love reading books I’ve read and loved before and finding that I still love them. I’ve never read Jurassic Park (!) but I do love the films. I mean, come on – DINOSAURS. That’s pretty much a winning element right there.
April 26, 2013 @ 7:59 pm
I had a bit of a bookshelf purge the other day – I took every single book that I haven’t yet read off my bookshelves and put them into four big stacks. There’s a SHOCKINGLY large amount of books stacked up! *hangs head in shame*
I’m reading Catch 22 by Joseph Heller (at the top of Stack A), as well as The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (I belong to a book group and this is our pick for the month), and over the weekend I’ll be starting Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, after a friend recommended it to me. April has been a great month for reading! Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers (the ASTOUNDING sequel to Grave Mercy), The Fault In Our Stars by John Green and The Great Night by Chris Adrian.
And now I’m going to have to raid my parents’ bookshelves for some Michael Crichton. 😀
April 27, 2013 @ 3:38 am
Wow, what a list! MAN I LOVED DARK TRIUMPH! That was such an amazing book and even better than Grave Mercy! The Fault in Our Stars is fantastic (I’ve easily read that book 3 times since last July).
April 28, 2013 @ 12:35 pm
I loved Grave Mercy but I ADORED Dark Triumph. I wanted to know Sybella’s story from the moment she was introduced in Grave Mercy. 🙂 (Ismae’s story was still wonderful, and Duval was just delicious. ;))
April 28, 2013 @ 1:17 pm
Duval <3 I fell in love with Ismae (and LaFevers' writing) that I was worried about Sybella. She wasn't Ismae! I was so wrong to think that way, totally didn't trust LaFevers taking me on this ride. Sybella was so amazing, and I wish that Ismae had the same freedom (not being held to historical data like Sybella). I can't wait to read about Annith! I've been intrigued about her for a while.
Btw, so glad I can gush with you about this series. Don't know anyone else who's read it.
April 29, 2013 @ 5:32 pm
Are you on Twitter? I will totally add you for more Fair Assassin gushing!! 😀
April 29, 2013 @ 6:02 pm
😀 Totally! @listentomuses
April 29, 2013 @ 5:39 pm
Oops, something went wrong and I wasn’t signed in when I left that other comment. Jessi, if you read this and want to discuss the Fair Assassin books or anything by John Green, you can add me on Twitter as follows: @miss_rosie 🙂 ~Rosanna
April 26, 2013 @ 9:39 pm
First off: Have so much fun at Edgefest!!! I wish it were closer, I would SO be there.
I haven’t read any Michael Crichton. (I feel like this is a crime, somehow.) But I love the JP movies…who could not?
And least but not least…I’m glad you asked. I just read Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt, and I LOVED it. It’s a short read, but it transported me right back to the fairy tales my dad used to read us for bedtime growing up. (He read Grimm tales, in German…it’s not all light and fluffy, and this book wasn’t either.)
April 27, 2013 @ 3:25 am
I love Michael Crichton; I read many of his books back when Jurassic Park came out. (Sphere was my favorite). I still haven’t read much of his later stuff, though.
If you want another good dino-eat-human read, there’s Footprints of Thunder by James David.
April 27, 2013 @ 3:42 am
Oh man! Michael Crichton! I haven’t read a book of his in a really long time. I never got around to timeline, but I remember being 14 or 15 and reading Jurassic Park/.The Lost World. Really different from the movies, but I liked it!
I’m reading What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen. I finished Scarlet by Marissa Meyer today, which was pretty excellent. I’ve been reading a lot of dark fantasy back to back, and needed a little break. I have the Across the Universe trilogy by Beth Revis that I am DYING to start though.
So many books to read, so little time!
May 11, 2013 @ 5:11 am
Hi Sooz! I read so much Michael Crichton and was constantly stealing Jeremy’s books! I got Micro for Christmas this year. In that same vein, have you ever read The Swarm by Frank Schätzing? I think it’d be right up this alley, especially with your fish science.
Right now I’m rereading a favorite series of mine – the Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko. It’s a good take on the fantasy genre. The bleak Russian setting has me convinced that the forces of light and dark are probably battling in Moscow as we speak. Have you read it?