This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

Sammy Jennings

...continued from this thread

A Good School by Richard Yates

Slight, but some great moments

Elliemental

Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel. It`s one of the best historical fictions I have ever read.:D

Chumpski

Just finished The Man who Cycled the World by Mark Beaumont (excellent read) and The Angels Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The Angels Game was a bg let down after The Shadow of the Wind. The plot was no where near as compelling. It read like a giant tourist brochure for Barcelona.

Just starting A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin this week!

IvyTheTerrible

I just finished "A prayer for Owen Meany". Major disappointment and a very irritating story.

Started "Strangers on a train" by Patricia Highsmith (she wrote the Mr Ripley stories). Seems good so far.

Codofwar

Just finished twilight,
Very good i must say, I was expecting it to be quite feminine about the relationship between edward and bella and it was but not as bad as I expected,
very good read, starting the second one now new moon I think its called.

Donnaghm

Murts-Rig wrote: »

I always said the church economically and socially retarded this country. I might get that book off you some time Duna Boy. Reading it would probably pass me off a bit though.

Unfortunately Mick I've finished it and given it to my cousin whose faith in both Fianna Fail and the Catholic Church has waned somewhat lately due to the former's apparent gross ineptitude and the latters propensity to turn a blind eye to paedophile rings who operate in their own ranks. Hopefully this book will finish the job.

I have now turned to yet another history book entitiled " the decline and fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997" by Piers Brendon. I just can't get enough of history lately.

callmescratch

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

Just started 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

you lucky thing

Just read The Question of Bruno by Aleksandar Hemon. His writing is just stunning.

I'm reading Zoo Station by David Downing now

Mink

Over 1/2 way through The Brief & Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.

It's absolutely brilliant. Very funny, heartwarming but also harrowing.
Anyone who is/was a bit of nerdy geek would love this. It's such a mixed bag as you follow different characters in the US & in Dominican Republic over different time periods. There's tons of references to Lord of The Rings as a symbol of the oppression Dominican Republic people went through under their dictator Trujillio. There's a lot of Spanish threaded through & I don't have a clue what some of it means but it fits & adds to the atmosphere.
I'm really enjoying it. Highly recommended

Silent Partner

I'm currently working my way through "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov. I'm finding it to be beautifully written if very disturbing. I sit there reading away, admiring the beautiful language and the authors narrative only to remember the subject matter and go AGHHHH! Only half way through it right now.

callmescratch

Started The Ask and the Answer yesterday. very good

not bakunin

"The Go-Between" by L.P Hartley and "The Age of the Warrior" by Robert Fisk.

two brilliant books, the perfect blend of classic fiction and highbrow journalism, yaaaaay.

This_Years_Love

I've just started reading My Sister's Keeper. I was given this book by a friend about a year ago but I'm only getting around to it now. I want to read it before seeing the film.

Codofwar

Finished the last three twilight books, All in all I found them a brilliant read. Un put downable.
Reading The Kings Bucannear by Raymond E Feist now. A continuation in his line of books after the magican trilogy. Very good read so far.

IvyTheTerrible

We need to talk about Ross by Paul Howard. Very funny.

Mink

The Devil Wears Prada by Laura Weisberger.

It's actually fairly good. It's a very light read but it moves at a good pace & it's funny & satirical. Would be good for airplane, in bed ill or on a beach. Enojoying it quite a bit. I'd seen the movie first & wasn't pushed either way on reading the book but I'm glad I am now.

turgon

Brave New World

Whats up with the title btw, "This week I are mostly reading"?

chocgirl

Just finished The Book Thief this morning, best read in a long time.

tHE vAGGABOND

finished "A Hundred Years of Solitude" last week - very good, a bit slow at times but well worth it. His use of langauge is amazing.

Gone a totally different direction now, and Im reading a history of the Spanish Civil War by Antony Beevor. So far its excellent, as always from Beevor.

ronano

The Fight - Mailer

Hiroshima - John Hersey

Both reporting rather than fiction but both exceptional,i read the fight well half of it years ago and lost it (aint that the worst thingthe world

callmescratch

Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann
Haven't read him before, really liking this.

callmescratch

turgon wrote: »

Whats up with the title btw, "This week I are mostly reading"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-z5T8meC84

IvyTheTerrible

ronano wrote: »

The Fight - Mailer

Hiroshima - John Hersey

Both reporting rather than fiction but both exceptional,i read the fight well half of it years ago and lost it (aint that the worst thingthe world

I love "the fight". It's so much more than just about the boxing.

ronano

true sir! however i can't help but feel ali is thinking one thing,mailer another,ali thinks 10 words,mailer writes 10,000. I'd love to see mailer spend a day with a housewife and write about it afterwards

TheBandit

Chumpski wrote: »

Just finished The Man who Cycled the World by Mark Beaumont (excellent read) and The Angels Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The Angels Game was a bg let down after The Shadow of the Wind. The plot was no where near as compelling. It read like a giant tourist brochure for Barcelona.

Just starting A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin this week!

I just finished Game of Throne's and thought it was great. I was gettin a bit fed up with fantasy and its cliche's but this turned me around.
Not gonna dive into A Clash of Kings, i think i'll leave it a while but can't wait to start. Start reading dubliners in the toilet in work today, a great wait to waste time and get paid. From the reports i heard i didn't think i'd be able for Joyce but I loved The Sisters and didn't think it challenging....maybe it was Ulysses they where talking about

turgon

Been reading a lot lately, finished Brave New World and To Kill A Mockingbird in 4 days. On to The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad now. Been wanting to read more Conrad since I finished Heart of Darkness, who I rate very highly.

Paddy Samurai

About 25% through and enjoying it so far.

IvyTheTerrible

I'm reading "Millenium" by Tom Holland. I loved "Rubicon" (his account of the fall of the Roman republic) and while this one isn't quite as gripping (it's a bit "all over the place" as he is covering European history around the first millenium, so goes from Byzantium, Holy Roman Empire, England, Vikings etc) but it is still impressive.

sestina

Dipping into short stories by Katherine Mansfield and Chekhov, also attempting to get into Pale Fire by Nabokov, but it's a strange one.

TedB

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

I'm reading "Millenium" by Tom Holland. I loved "Rubicon" (his account of the fall of the Roman republic) and while this one isn't quite as gripping (it's a bit "all over the place" as he is covering European history around the first millenium, so goes from Byzantium, Holy Roman Empire, England, Vikings etc) but it is still impressive.

I loved Rubicon, but was very skeptical that he went on to write a book about the Pelopenessian War and then this one about medieval Europe. There's not many historians can write that broadly with any great effect. That raised my snob-dar a bit.

So, finished it yet? What'd you think?

IvyTheTerrible

TedB wrote: »

I loved Rubicon, but was very skeptical that he went on to write a book about the Pelopenessian War and then this one about medieval Europe. There's not many historians can write that broadly with any great effect. That raised my snob-dar a bit.

So, finished it yet? What'd you think?

No not finished yet but I reckon it'll be done by the end of the weekend. I'll let you know.

The one gripe I have is that he seems to be making a huge deal about people's supposed fear of the second coming linked to the year 1000 without actually providing any evidence (like saying "X's rampaging would surely have put people in mind of the Revelation of St john"), like as if his editor said he needed to have a point to looking at that period in history.

Damian Duffy

Reading "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole, just over half way and loving it!

TedB

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

No not finished yet but I reckon it'll be done by the end of the weekend. I'll let you know.

The one gripe I have is that he seems to be making a huge deal about people's supposed fear of the second coming linked to the year 1000 without actually providing any evidence (like saying "X's rampaging would surely have put people in mind of the Revelation of St john"), like as if his editor said he needed to have a point to looking at that period in history.

While there certainly was a persistent fear that a second coming was going to happen in 1000 A.D., I get the feeling that Holland tries to put himself in the mind of a medieval peasant and imagine what it 'must have been like'... Which is all rather disconcerting.

Quality

I are reading

Purfume by patrick Suskind!!

Very enjoyable!

TedB

Quality wrote: »

I are reading

Purfume by patrick Suskind!!

Very enjoyable!

Are you OK?

Quality

TedB wrote: »

Are you OK?

Have American Psycho lined up next...

Its a phase!!

IvyTheTerrible

Quality wrote: »

I are reading

Purfume by patrick Suskind!!

Very enjoyable!

I really liked that book! I loved the imagery, I found it really easy to picture the smells and sights. Great (if a little gruesome at times). And MUCH better than the film.

LightningBolt

Crime and Punishment at the moment.

bluto63

Halfway through Jack Kerouac - On The Road. Loving it so far

JamesTaylorfan

I have to say I loved A Prayer for Owen Meany....I liked it's edgeiness if there's such a word.

JamesTaylorfan

I'm halfway through The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins........really thought provoking.

JamesTaylorfan

I often wondered if it would be kinda dated by now.Maybe I'll give it a go so.

fisgon

Mink wrote: »

Over 1/2 way through The Brief & Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.

It's absolutely brilliant. Very funny, heartwarming but also harrowing.
Anyone who is/was a bit of nerdy geek would love this. It's such a mixed bag as you follow different characters in the US & in Dominican Republic over different time periods. There's tons of references to Lord of The Rings as a symbol of the oppression Dominican Republic people went through under their dictator Trujillio. There's a lot of Spanish threaded through & I don't have a clue what some of it means but it fits & adds to the atmosphere.
I'm really enjoying it. Highly recommended

I'm not sure if we're supposed to comment on what people are reading in this thread, but here goes, anyway.....
Was really disappointed in this, (Oscar Wao), was expecting more. The voice he uses is funny, but the humour doesn't last, and the whole thing is quite depressing, there is a sense of inevitable doom about the whole novel. There really is a lot of Spanish in it, untranslated, and I can actually read Spanish fairly well, but for someone who can't I imagine it would detract from the flow, seems to be aimed at an American Latino reader. It has its moments, but a better treatment of the Trujillo regime is in Mario Vargas Llosa's The Feast of the Goat, stunning book.

To follow the thread, I'm reading Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence, another disappointment. I think he's stopped writing books about real things, he just gets lost in his fantastical little literary world, playing games and messing around with magical realism without writing characters you could actually care about.

Wow, sorry for the negativity, must come back with something i actually liked later...

Ann22

Quality wrote: »

I are reading

Purfume by patrick Suskind!!

Very enjoyable!

Isn't that the film 'Perfume-the story of a murderer' came from? I really enjoyed that film. Far fetched I know but I was glued to it. I'm reading 'Dracula' at the moment for the 3rd time. Just finished 'To see you again' by Betty Schimmel...a Holocaust survivor's story, very good.

ocianain

The Celts - A History by, Peter Berresford Ellis (of Sister Fidelma fame). Great book by a great scholar. PBE demolishes some current myths (there were no such thing as Celts) and some old ones (the Celts were illiterate) is the opening pages of the book, it only gets better from there. Well worth a red for anyone interested in such history.

Quality

Ann22 wrote: »

Isn't that the film 'Perfume-the story of a murderer' came from? I really enjoyed that film. Far fetched I know but I was glued to it. I'm reading 'Dracula' at the moment for the 3rd time. Just finished 'To see you again' by Betty Schimmel...a Holocaust survivor's story, very good.

Yes it is a film.

I haven't seen the film, but I really enjoyed the book!

Linguo

Reading The Strain at the moment by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan, it's good!Pity it's a trilogy and I have to wait for the next one though!

Jako8

I am reading, "The Judas Strain" by James Rollins.

IvyTheTerrible

I'm reading "Dead Souls" by Nikolai Gogol, for the book club. Love it so far, very funny.

bullpost

A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole.

willy wonka

Reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold - really love the way she sees things.
Saw that they are making this into a film - I would hope it would be a lovely little quirky indie flick, but that's not gonna happen! :rolleyes:

Takk

willy wonka wrote: »

Reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold - really love the way she sees things.
Saw that they are making this into a film - I would hope it would be a lovely little quirky indie flick, but that's not gonna happen! :rolleyes:

I just started reading this too. Liking it so far. The film could be pretty good; Saoirse Ronan as Susie, Peter Jackson directing.

Also reading Dead Souls and Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness.