This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

Ipso · 18-12-2014 7:44am

Birneybau wrote: »

On to '2001' by Arthur C. Clarke, enjoyable, very accessible, picked up the whole collection, seems short enough, makes a change from having read 'Song of Ice and Fire' collection over the Summer. ; )

Also, re-reading 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' by Bryson on the side. Love it.

Was thinking about getting that, what about Rendevous with Rama? Heard it's supposed to be good.

Birneybau · 18-12-2014 6:10pm

Ipso wrote: »

Was thinking about getting that, what about Rendevous with Rama? Heard it's supposed to be good.

I may get to it eventually but '2001' is my first Arthur C. Clarke book.

eire4 · 18-12-2014 10:24pm

Finished a re read of Roy Keane's 2002 biography self titled Keane. Interesting read but amazing how constantly negative he is in the book.

Hrududu · 18-12-2014 11:14pm

Finished Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell and adored it. Not sure whether to take a break before reading another of his or jumping right in. First book I've read in a long time where I didn't want it to end.

Birneybau · 19-12-2014 10:42am

Hrududu wrote: »

Finished Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell and adored it. Not sure whether to take a break before reading another of his or jumping right in. First book I've read in a long time where I didn't want it to end.

Read 'Black Swan Green', a very straight forward palate cleanser before delving into 'The Bone Clocks'. Do not read "Number9dream' straight away.

Callan57 · 19-12-2014 11:12am

Birneybau wrote: »

Read 'Black Swan Green', a very straight forward palate cleanser before delving into 'The Bone Clocks'. Do not read "Number9dream' straight away.

I don't care what order but read them all ... I love David Mitchell

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 19-12-2014 12:23pm

I've started The Colour Purple. The dialect was a bit annoying at first but I've gotten used to it now, I find myself reading with an accent

Callan57 · 19-12-2014 12:25pm

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I've started The Colour Purple. The dialect was a bit annoying at first but I've gotten used to it now, I find myself reading with an accent

I found that such an upsetting book to read - brilliant but upsetting

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 19-12-2014 12:33pm

Callan57 wrote: »

I found that such an upsetting book to read - brilliant but upsetting

Well she's

raped

on the first page so I wasn't expecting a light read.

Birneybau · 19-12-2014 1:10pm

Callan57 wrote: »

I don't care what order but read them all ... I love David Mitchell

I'm yet to read 'The Ten Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet' myself to complete his works, a great writer.

Finished '2001' by Arthur C. Clarke last night and really enjoyed it, the moment where Dave goes through the Star Gate and what happens next were awe-inspiring.

Straight into ' The Book of Strange New Things' by Michel Faber today, excellent so far, another fantastic writer.

ivytwine · 19-12-2014 2:49pm

Birneybau wrote: »

I'm yet to read 'The Ten Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet' myself to complete his works, a great writer.

Make that your next one, fab book!

Birneybau · 19-12-2014 3:37pm

ivytwine wrote: »

Make that your next one, fab book!

I'll line it up for next!

Aenaes · 19-12-2014 5:20pm

I finished The American West by Dee Brown. Was a good read full of history, stories and some myth busting.

I read The Hunger Games last night. It was okay.

Birneybau · 19-12-2014 6:20pm

Aenaes wrote: »

I finished The American West by Dee Brown. Was a good read full of history, stories and some myth busting.

I read The Hunger Games last night. It was okay.

Have you read 'Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee'? Read it years ago, loved it.

Callan57 · 19-12-2014 8:30pm

Birneybau wrote: »

Have you read 'Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee'? Read it years ago, loved it.

One of my favourite books, I read it years ago, lost my copy during various moves but a few weeks ago didn't I pick up a copy in the Cancer Shop

Aenaes · 19-12-2014 10:13pm

I haven't but it was mentioned as a big deal on the back of "The American West" so it's made me keep an eye out for it.

SarahBM · 19-12-2014 11:02pm

I started Jamaica Inn by Daphne DuMarier last night. Love it so far.

I was a blubbering mess at the end of a Monster Calls.

Busi_Girl08 · 19-12-2014 11:56pm

I just (finally) finished The Goldfinch. How that convoluted piece of garbage won a Pulitzer I will never understand.

The whole thing comprised stories that went nowhere, like when Theo wore an onion on his belt, as was the style at the time.

That was more an ordeal than a story of acceptance of life and life choices.

Moving on, I'm going to start Metamorphosis by Kafka.

Has been on my list for a while.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 20-12-2014 1:18am

SarahBM wrote: »

I was a blubbering mess at the end of a Monster Calls.

I cried from where his friend gave him the note until the very end and for a little while after.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 20-12-2014 1:21am

Busi_Girl08 wrote: »

I just (finally) finished The Goldfinch. How that convoluted piece of garbage won a Pulitzer I will never understand.

Agreed.

Hated it. It was like she wrote a really long first draft and then didn't bother showing an editor and just printed the whole damn thing.

Busi_Girl08 · 20-12-2014 1:26am

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Agreed.

Hated it. It was like she wrote a really long first draft and then didn't bother showing an editor and just printed the whole damn thing.

There were entire prose that were irrelevant. Why, WHY do we need repeated elaborate descriptions of the titular painting. I KNOW WHAT THE THING LOOKS LIKE.

It really felt like she gave herself a target and padded it out to death to reach that limit of pages. I did that when I was in 3rd year and had to write a 3 page long essay on Romeo and Juliet.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 20-12-2014 3:02am

Busi_Girl08 wrote: »

There were entire prose that were irrelevant. Why, WHY do we need repeated elaborate descriptions of the titular painting. I KNOW WHAT THE THING LOOKS LIKE.

It really felt like she gave herself a target and padded it out to death to reach that limit of pages. I did that when I was in 3rd year and had to write a 3 page long essay on Romeo and Juliet.

The sad part is I was really loving it at the start. Young Theo was quite likable and I cared about his life after the explosion and his relationship with the old guy in the shop. Then he moved to Vegas and it all went to hell.

IvyTheTerrible · 20-12-2014 9:38am

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Agreed.

Hated it. It was like she wrote a really long first draft and then didn't bother showing an editor and just printed the whole damn thing.

Busi_Girl08 wrote: »

I just (finally) finished The Goldfinch. How that convoluted piece of garbage won a Pulitzer I will never understand.

The whole thing comprised stories that went nowhere, like when Theo wore an onion on his belt, as was the style at the time.

That was more an ordeal than a story of acceptance of life and life choices.

Moving on, I'm going to start Metamorphosis by Kafka. Has been on my list for a while.

Hated it too.

She does her own editing, it's true! How arrogant is that?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 20-12-2014 10:47am

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

Hated it too.

She does her own editing, it's true! How arrogant is that?

Or doesn' bother doing her own editing seems more likely.

IvyTheTerrible · 20-12-2014 11:14am

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Or doesn' bother doing her own editing seems more likely.

That's what it looks like but she has actually said she edits her own books. Sure how can you do that objectively?

Jijsaw · 20-12-2014 11:28am

'A Piece of Cake' by Cupcake Brown. I'm up to her "Gangsta period" which apparently turned a lot of people off her memoirs but I'm finding it good so far. It's a bit hard to believe all her stories though what with her always stating how she was drunk and/or high all the time yet still could remember everything with perfect clarity...

Callan57 · 20-12-2014 11:54am

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

The sad part is I was really loving it at the start. Young Theo was quite likable and I cared about his life after the explosion and his relationship with the old guy in the shop. Then he moved to Vegas and it all went to hell.

Agree completly, I loved it up to that point. I actually thought, WOW I'm going to be pulling an all-nighter with this - Boy was I ever wrong

Aenaes · 20-12-2014 12:39pm

SS-GB by Len Deighton. Extremely festive.

Swiper the fox · 20-12-2014 12:46pm

Has anybody else read Time and Time again by Ben Elton. I absolutely loved it, very interesting hypothesis of what could have happened if there had been no WW1
Back to reading sports books for the moment,

ivytwine · 20-12-2014 1:27pm

Swiper the fox wrote: »

Has anybody else read Time and Time again by Ben Elton. I absolutely loved it, very interesting hypothesis of what could have happened if there had been no WW1
Back to reading sports books for the moment,

Oooh I like the sound of that Ben Elton book!

Reading Martin Sixsmith's Russia. Very interesting. I realise I knew absolutely nothing about Russia until now!

Wyldwood · 20-12-2014 4:20pm

Finished Kathryn Hughes The Letter and was disappointed. Two parallel stories, one in the 1940s and one in the 1970s. It started off very promisingly with a charity shop worker named Tina, who was having her own problems with an abusive husband, finding a letter written in 1939 by someone called Billy to a person called Chrissie apologising for the way he had treated her. The letter had never been posted as there was no postmark so Tina decides to try to reunite the letter and Chrissie.

The first half was quite gripping but then it became very predictable and stretched credibility, after one too many coincidental encounters with the people needed to move the plot along I started to lose interest. The final straw was when the protagonist, who was from Manchester, was in Tipperary town in 1974 and "heaved open the cumbersome red door of the telephone box", simple research would have found that Ireland had green phoneboxes (or maybe cream and green by then?)

Enjoying my time with Scrooge and A Christmas Carol now.

Callan57 · 22-12-2014 10:01am

The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence

the ax murderer · 22-12-2014 10:12am

Finished "Look Who's Back" last week, the book about Hitler coming back in the modern day. It was decent, pretty underwhelming towards the end.

Now I've started "Age of Magic" by Ben Okri, not too sure what to make of it as of yet.

mejulie805 · 22-12-2014 10:55am

Finally finished with Edge of Eternity- disappointing in comparison to the others, and took me quite a while to get through. Wanted something different for a couple of days so picked up 'The Small Hand' by Susan Hill. Little short ghost story. Moving onto 'Tiger Tiger' next, unless I get 'Only ever yours' in my Christmas stocking!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 22-12-2014 5:23pm

Finished The Colour Purple.

I'm not really sure what to make of it. It's a good story and all but the way it's written I found it very hard to get any real emotional attachment to anything. It's all just very matter of fact.

Ipso · 22-12-2014 9:11pm

Birneybau wrote: »

On to '2001' by Arthur C. Clarke, enjoyable, very accessible, picked up the whole collection, seems short enough, makes a change from having read 'Song of Ice and Fire' collection over the Summer. ; )

Also, re-reading 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' by Bryson on the side. Love it.

Got 2001 and just started it. The intro chapters are great, I remember seeing that bit of the film on tv when I was young and being almost mesmerized. Not that I had. Notion what was going on.

Birneybau · 23-12-2014 1:40am

Ipso wrote: »

Got 2001 and just started it. The intro chapters are great, I remember seeing that bit of the film on tv when I was young and being almost mesmerized. Not that I had. Notion what was going on.

It gets better

crustybla · 24-12-2014 11:48pm

Really enjoyed Orphan Train. It's fiction, though these trains did actually run. Very interesting bit of history, I looked it up after I read the book. It's mostly from the perspective of an orphan who sadly found herself on one of these trains that apparently ran in the 1800's-1920's, taking children from America's east coast and giving them off to whoever needed help on farms or in houses or whatever. Some did find good homes but sadly a lot didn't. Mainly Irish, Polish and Italian immigrants.

Stumped now. Sometimes I hate starting a new book. Love being immersed in a good read.

Happy Christmas everybody!

Callan57 · 26-12-2014 3:26pm

Finished The Universe versus Alex Woods ... seriously superb and highly recommended.

Next is Hugo Hamilton's Every Single Minute

Jijsaw · 27-12-2014 2:19pm

I'm a bit late to the party but currently reading Burial Rites which I got for Christmas- I'm halfway through it now, really enjoying it despite the fact nothing has really happened. Interested to see how it ends now will probably finish it today or tomorrow.

Callan57 · 28-12-2014 9:52pm

I'm reading two at the moment

The Taxidermist's Daughter by Kate Mosse
The Luminaries by Eleanor Cotton

Kurtosis · 28-12-2014 10:23pm

Jijsaw wrote: »

I'm a bit late to the party but currently reading Burial Rites which I got for Christmas- I'm halfway through it now, really enjoying it despite the fact nothing has really happened. Interested to see how it ends now will probably finish it today or tomorrow.

I finished up Burial Rites last week. Although I enjoyed it, I was expecting more from it for some reason, so interested to hear other people's take on it.

Have moved on to Half of a Yellow Sun now.

SarahBM · 28-12-2014 11:44pm

penguin88 wrote: »

I finished up Burial Rites last week. Although I enjoyed it, I was expecting more from it for some reason, so interested to hear other people's take on it.

I read it during the summer. I didn't like it at first. But the more I think about it the more I think I liked it. I loved the setting, and now I really want to visit Iceland

I originally only gave it 2.5 /5 but the more I think about it I think I would give it 3.5 or 4 /5.

Belle E. Flops · 28-12-2014 11:51pm

Finished Good Omens earlier. Really liked the book. It's absolutely mad, but very clever in places and it had me chuckling away throughout. I loved the relationship between Crowley and Aziraphale.

I'm a 6 or 7 chapters into Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Not really sure what I make of it so far.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 29-12-2014 12:04am

penguin88 wrote: »

I finished up Burial Rites last week. Although I enjoyed it, I was expecting more from it for some reason, so interested to hear other people's take on it.

Have moved on to Half of a Yellow Sun now.

Earlier this year a good few of us read Burial Rites. I think it was universally loved to the point where others came along after and were expecting something life changing and were slightly disappointed with it. Personally I loved it.

Coincidentally I have also just started Half of A Yellow Sun. Not far enough in to have an opinion yet though.

Aenaes · 29-12-2014 12:22am

I read Boy: Tales Of Childhood by Roald Dahl. Funny and interesting but annoyingly I had remembered them all.

ivytwine · 29-12-2014 11:40am

Belle E. Flops wrote: »

Finished Good Omens earlier. Really liked the book. It's absolutely mad, but very clever in places and it had me chuckling away throughout. I loved the relationship between Crowley and Aziraphale.

One of my absolutely favourites! The BBC are doing a radio adaptation of it at the moment.

SarahBM · 29-12-2014 9:34pm

Finished Jamaica Inn. Loved it.
I wasn't planning on reading it, but I am going to read Gone Girl for cinema book club.
Also going to start The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Really looking forward to this one!

boobar · 29-12-2014 9:46pm

The Bat by Jo Nesbo

First of the Harry Hole Series, top class for fans of crime and detective novels.

Jijsaw · 30-12-2014 1:48am

Finished Burial Rites this morning. Enjoyed it very much, I really want to visit Iceland now! I wish there was a bit at the end explaining what happened to the family members, Toti etc. at the end if the author knew.
I'm about 70 pages into Titanic Survivor: Violet Jessop's memoirs, good enough so far but I've found quite a few spelling errors in it. It has been reprinted 3 times since 1997, (I have the latest edition- 2010) so it has no excuse for simple mistakes.

This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

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