This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

Censorsh!t

Finished I, Claudius by Robert Graves the other day. It's a really good and entertaining way of learning about Ancient Rome. I had previously heard of Caligula and his wild antics, so I really enjoyed reading about him in this.

I'm now reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I was never one for fantasy (except LOTR and The Hobbit), but I've recently been reading A Song of Ice and Fire and getting more into the genre. And so far, this one looks good. And gets great reviews, so hope it lives up to that

Honey-ec

Started This House is Haunted last night, and I'm halfway through already. Proper, good old-fashioned ghost story

Censorsh!t wrote: »

I'm now reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I was never one for fantasy (except LOTR and The Hobbit), but I've recently been reading A Song of Ice and Fire and getting more into the genre. And so far, this one looks good. And gets great reviews, so hope it lives up to that

I loved The Name of the Wind, I've read it three times at this stage, I think. I wasn't as enamoured with the follow-up (the name of which escapes me right now), but I would like to read it again, as I only read it once.

Honey-ec

Well, finished This House is Haunted last night. As I said, it's a good old-fashioned ghost story. Not actually scary, mind you, but still very enjoyable as a bit of brain-fluff.

Raided the work library yesterday as I'm going on hols next week, and got John Connolly's Dark Hollow, Michael Connelly's 9 Dragons and Kingsley Amis' Lucky Jim.

I'll probably pick up another couple in the airport.

SarahBM

Struggling a bit with East of Eden, but enjoying re-reding the Witches.

I wonder, would I be likely to read more if I had a Kindle/e-reader?

123 LC

Wanted to get back into reading so I joined the library (literally I've only read harry potter, twilight and the hunger games in the last few years )

so I took out The Stand by Stephen King - this is very long but I've made a start at it anyway, but i'm not sure if this is the right genre for me

I also took out Jane Eyre which i'm more looking forward to reading

AnnyHallsal

City of Bohane. So far finding it irritating. The Pat McCabe/Martin McDonagh cartoonish rural violence seems old hat at this stage.

Callan57

The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro

wilkie2006

Honey-ec wrote: »

Raided the work library yesterday as I'm going on hols next week, and got John Connolly's Dark Hollow, Michael Connelly's 9 Dragons and Kingsley Amis' Lucky Jim.

I'll probably pick up another couple in the airport.

Lucky Jim is incredible; it's a very, very funny and enjoyable book...

AnnyHallsal wrote: »

City of Bohane. So far finding it irritating. The Pat McCabe/Martin McDonagh cartoonish rural violence seems old hat at this stage.

Don't give up on Bohane, it's amazing. I think Kevin Barry's one of the very finest writers around at the moment. Actually, I might even read City of Bohane again now.

Have finished a mountain of novels since my last post in this thread but some of the better ones have included:

Vargas Lloasa's The Dream of the Celt (about Roger Casement): would highly recommend
David Mitchell's Black Swan Green (far more accessible than Cloud Atlas and quite charming, but in a very different way)
Howard Jacobson's The Making of Henry (a bit Amis-ish in its style... which is probably why I enjoyed it so much)
Hugh Leonard's Fillums (enjoys a really promising start but looses its momentum about halfway through)
John Lanchester's Mr Philips (not bad, but not great - should probably have read his more celebrated Capital as an introduction to Lanchester).
Vargas Llosa's The Bad Girl (an absolutely remarkable novel; the only romance story I think I'll ever enjoy [and WHAT a romance story it is!])

Read quite a bit more but can't really remember what just at the moment... hmm, I wonder if that says more about me or the novels?

wilkie2006

123 LC wrote: »

Wanted to get back into reading so I joined the library (literally I've only read harry potter, twilight and the hunger games in the last few years )

so I took out The Stand by Stephen King - this is very long but I've made a start at it anyway, but i'm not sure if this is the right genre for me

I also took out Jane Eyre which i'm more looking forward to reading

Hey, who cares what you read as long as you're enjoying it.

Tom Joad

Plus one on Lucky Jim - great and funny read.

Meathlass

Currently reading The best of Myles by Flann O'Brien - a collection of his columns from The Irish Times from the 40s. Some laugh out loud moments but lots of his little hobby horses as well which aren't great.

Slattsy

The Map and Territory by Michel Houellebecq.

Only a few chapters in, its hardly gripping but im warming to it. For the good press it received it should be a great read, i love a good satire.

wilkie2006

Slattsy wrote: »

The Map and Territory by Michel Houellebecq.

Only a few chapters in, its hardly gripping but im warming to it. For the good press it received it should be a great read, i love a good satire.

What do people make of Houellebecq? I read Atomised and Platform when they came out (geez, that's about 10 years ago now!) and thought they were useless: unpleasant, seedy, salacious, and affectedly controversial. Was I right?

Recently I bought "Whatever" and am going to give it a go presently. Or should I?

By the way, I absolutely hate his books' covers!! For a writer who's lauded as an intellectual and innovator, why do his novels all look like something Jackie Collins would put out?

Tom Joad

wilkie2006 wrote: »

What do people make of Houellebecq? I read Atomised and Platform when they came out (geez, that's about 10 years ago now!) and thought they were useless: unpleasant, seedy, salacious, and affectedly controversial. Was I right?

Recently I bought "Whatever" and am going to give it a go presently. Or should I?

By the way, I absolutely hate his books' covers!! For a writer who's lauded as an intellectual and innovator, why do his novels all look like something Jackie Collins would put out?

I liked Platform and Atomised but thought that The Possibility of an Island was awful shíte. Never read Whatever - in fact gave up on him after The Possibility of an Island.

IvyTheTerrible

wilkie2006 wrote: »

What do people make of Houellebecq? I read Atomised and Platform when they came out (geez, that's about 10 years ago now!) and thought they were useless: unpleasant, seedy, salacious, and affectedly controversial. Was I right?

Recently I bought "Whatever" and am going to give it a go presently. Or should I?

By the way, I absolutely hate his books' covers!! For a writer who's lauded as an intellectual and innovator, why do his novels all look like something Jackie Collins would put out?

I only read Atomised, and I had the same opinion as you. I'm not particularly fond of Houellebecq himself either, I see him interviewed regularly on French tv, and he gives the impression of being pretty sleazy too.

Callan57

Life Mask by Emma Donoghue

wilkie2006

Have nearly finished The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain

Enjoyable enough story and very easy to zip through. Anyone looking for something light-hearted for the beach would probably appreciate it. A pretty accurate review from the Guardian here

I reckon I'll start Crab Walk by Gunter Grass tomorrow

wilkie2006

Callan57 wrote: »

Life Mask by Emma Donoghue

Any use? Didn't think too much of Donoghue's "Room"

wantacookie

I am just finishing A Dance with Dragons by GRRM and I am going to reread His Dark Materials by Pullman when I am done! I haven't read them in a while and am excited

another question

Nearly finished The Buddha in the Attic by Julia Otsuka, anyone read it?

eire4

Finished a very enjoyable re read of Michael Connelly's The Scarecrow.

Tom Joad

Just started Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey - bit slow to get going but enjoying it so far.

Travel is good

another question wrote: »

Nearly finished The Buddha in the Attic by Julia Otsuka, anyone read it?

I just finished it and liked it. It's the story of the Japanese internees during 2nd World War after Pearl Harbour, in California. It's fiction, so I'd like to read a true history of that event.

This week I'm reading "Fever" by Mary Beth Keane, enjoying it so far.

another question

Travel is good wrote: »

I just finished it and liked it. It's the story of the Japanese internees during 2nd World War after Pearl Harbour, in California. It's fiction, so I'd like to read a true history of that event.

This week I'm reading "Fever" by Mary Beth Keane, enjoying it so far.

I liked it too, in fact I loved it until about halfway through but I thought it went a bit downhill from there and I found the ending disappointing.

I'm starting Zadie Smith's N-W today.

I started reading Suttree by Cormac McCarthy during the week. It has a lot more humour than the other books of his I've read so far. I'm liking it a lot so far.

Swiper the fox

I'd never read Kate Atkinson before but I thought Life after Life was really good, picked up another of her books "Case Histories" and started it last night, amazing how similar the style is to Life after Life.

kam3qnwvebf4jh

Finished "The 100 year old man who climbed out of a window" recently as recommended by an earlier poster and I must say that I enjoyed it tremendously. Kinda like Forrest Gump re-imagined by Quentin Tarantino. Have now just started into I Am Legend and liking it so far.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

^ That 100 Year Old Man... book keeps jumping out at me whenever I'm browsing books lately, it's everywhere I look! Must be a sign. I'll have to check it out.

AnnyHallsal

Wolf Hall, finally.

Monkeybonkers

The Turing Option by Harry Harrison and Marvin Minsky