This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

SarahBM · 04-11-2013 11:08PM

Aenaes wrote: »

Yeah, I've read P&P. Thought it was very good and even funny in places, which I wasn't expecting.

P&P is vrey funny, as is Emma. Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility are more serious. I want to read them all again

Call Me Jimmy · 04-11-2013 11:22PM

I'm afraid to re-read Revolutionary Road. It has a reverential position in my room where the only thing I do is sometimes pick it up and remember how brilliant it was. It was one of those things where you read a book at exactly the right time in your life; as Flight of the Conchords say 'conditions were perfect'.

So I don't want to read it again but I do want to read a similar type of book in the sense that it is accessible (I'm with Hemingway when it comes to unnecessarily dense prose) and still an amazing book.

I might be opening a can of worms but I feel uncreative, any recommendations?!

Gamayun · 05-11-2013 08:55PM

emeraldstar wrote: »

I've picked this one up in bookshops so many times but always left it back without buying. Interested in hearing how you find it!

Finished it today.

Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
A collection of short writings done for various publications over the years. A mixed bag, I just had a quick scan through again there and there are six stories here that I think are great (and will re-read at some point I'm sure), several really good and unfortunately a few duds. It was worth it for the good ones though.

I wouldn't recommend it to someone who hasn't read any Gaiman before as they would be better served by one of his novels, but if you're already a fan then it's worth a look, especially if it's on sale!

Moving onto A Country Doctor's Notebook by Mikhail Bulgakov ,the Michael Glenny translation. I chose the older Glenny translation as I have read his version of the first story in the book, The Embroidered Towel, twice already as it appeared in a collection of Russian stories I read (and re-read) and I really enjoyed it.

Callan57 · 07-11-2013 04:11PM

Finished The Year of the Flood (Margaret Atwood) last night - fanbloodytastic can't wait to get my hands on Maddaddam

In the meantime I've started Frank McGuinness "Arimathea"
Twenty five or so pages in & I think I'm going to love it.

Saorenza · 07-11-2013 07:14PM

Started Closed for Winter by Jorn Lier Horst. It's a police procedural set in Norway, written by a policeman. It is OK, but is heavy on the policing detail even for a procedural. (When we were went to Waterstone's in London I got a few Eurocrime novels by writers, new to me.)

So, I just downloaded The Magus of Hay by Phil Rickman, bonus points for the Hay-on-Wye setting which I visited a few years ago. This is my reward for getting one of my essays in

Also I am reading a lot about the Protestant and Catholic church in Ireland in the nineteenth century for another essay.

Mr.Nice Guy · 07-11-2013 11:15PM

Call Me Jimmy wrote: »

I'm afraid to re-read Revolutionary Road. It has a reverential position in my room where the only thing I do is sometimes pick it up and remember how brilliant it was. It was one of those things where you read a book at exactly the right time in your life; as Flight of the Conchords say 'conditions were perfect'.

So I don't want to read it again but I do want to read a similar type of book in the sense that it is accessible (I'm with Hemingway when it comes to unnecessarily dense prose) and still an amazing book.

I might be opening a can of worms but I feel uncreative, any recommendations?!

Try Eleven Kinds of Loneliness by Richard Yates (author of Revolutionary Road). It's a collection of short stories and I remember enjoying it.

I loved Revolutionary Road as well.

fruvai · 09-11-2013 05:31PM

Finally finished Gravity's Rainbow - I think a celebratory banana breakfast is in order :pac:
Gonna start Cormac McCarthy's Child of God now

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 09-11-2013 06:26PM

About 100 pages into Daughters of Mars. Enjoying it so far.

Callan57 · 10-11-2013 02:24AM

Finished Arimathea by Frank McGuinness ... sheer poetry.

Next for me is Lamb by Bonnie Nadzam

[-0-] · 10-11-2013 04:25AM

Voices from the Grave - Ed Moloney.

Belle E. Flops · 10-11-2013 09:56AM

I'm a little over half way through My Cousin Rachel and I'm enjoying it. At times I felt like not much was happening but It has picked up again.

I'm thinking about what I'll read next and at the moment it's either 'A Moveable Feast' by Hemingway (even though I seriously struggled to finish his The Old Man and The Sea. Most painful book of all time, with possibly the exception of Madame Bovary) or 'The Beautiful and the Damned' by Fitzgerald.

Tom Joad · 10-11-2013 09:39PM

Finished Donna Tartt - The Secret History and absolutely loved it - would recommend it to everyone - great story and well written. Started on Bill Bryson - Notes from a Small Island last night and already 1/4 way through it - really well written and very enjoyable to read.

Callan57 · 10-11-2013 09:45PM

Tom Joad wrote: »

Finished Donna Tartt - The Secret History and absolutely loved it - would recommend it to everyone - great story and well written. Started on Bill Bryson - Notes from a Small Island last night and already 1/4 way through it - really well written and very enjoyable to read.

Agree ... The Secret History is one of the best book I have ever read. Can't wait to get my mits on her new book The Goldfinch

Gamayun · 11-11-2013 10:17PM

A Country Doctor's Notebook by Mikhail Bulgakov trans. Michael Glenny
Collection of stories based on Bulgakov's own experience in the medical practice. Really enjoyable. I might get around to watching the TV adaptation at some point.

Fifty-One Tales by Lord Dunsany (Public Domain)
Supposedly an influence on J.R.R. Tolkien, H.P. Lovecraft and Ursula K. Le Guin. I abandoned this around the twentieth tale. I can appreciate the significance of this but it just didn't grab me at all, some of the tales were just plain boring and other just a weird rambling series of events that I assume were meant to be parables of some kind, lost on me.

Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck
A collection of stories in the fantastical/magic realism mould with a Scandinavian folk influence. Fantastic, I read this in two sittings.

Moving onto Padraic Colum's The Boy Who Knew What The Birds Said, a public domain children's novel from 1918 that pulls several folk tales into one narrative. I read the first two chapters and it's very nicely written and has brilliant illustrations throughout by Dugald Stewart Walker. After that I think I'll finally read The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima having had it for a while.

Callan57 · 13-11-2013 10:13AM

Well into The City of Shadows by Michael Russell .... very, very good depiction of Dublin 1930s - not that I was around then I hasten to add!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 13-11-2013 12:31PM

Callan57 wrote: »

Well into The City of Shadows by Michael Russell .... very, very good depiction of Dublin 1930s - not that I was around then I hasten to add!

I often wonder about the 1930's. It's one of those decades you don't really associate with anything.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 13-11-2013 02:44PM

I'm still reading The Daughters of Mars. I had to put it away for a day or two because twice I was still awake at 3am reading it.

It's a great story in itself, so far, but it's also a bit of an eye opener. I'd never really thought about the role nurses played in the war, and especially WWI where everything was a bit of a clusterf**k. Gallipoli especially. They may not have been on the front line in the same way the men were, but they were there all the same. It's sparked a curiosity in me to find out more once I'm finished this book.

Aenaes · 13-11-2013 03:02PM

I finished Emma, wasn't one of my favourite books and didn't find it as good/funny as Pride and Prejudice but I'm glad I read it.

I've started Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter since, not far in but it's shaping up to be an enjoyable story at least.

Callan57 · 13-11-2013 03:28PM

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I often wonder about the 1930's. It's one of those decades you don't really associate with anything.

Agree with you - if this book is an accurate portrayal it was steeped in arrogant Catholism & we also came scarily close to fascism. From my reading of history I knew it was not a pleasant time to live in Ireland if you were anything other than a rip-roaring conservative catholic & it is easy to see where the Magdaline Laundries etc came from.

emeraldstar · 14-11-2013 03:43AM

Halfway through Jeffrey Eugenides' The Marriage Plot. I was a little dubious going into it as I found Middlesex completely tedious, but I'm rather enjoying it so far.

Frank McGivney · 14-11-2013 10:17AM

i nearly finished crazy as choclate by elizabeth hyde, its funny and sad at the same time

diddlybit · 14-11-2013 01:59PM

emeraldstar wrote: »

Halfway through Jeffrey Eugenides' The Marriage Plot. I was a little dubious going into it as I found Middlesex completely tedious, but I'm rather enjoying it so far.

I was the complete opposite, Middlesex is one of my favourite books, but I couldn't wait for the Marriage Plot to end.

Reading Everthing is Illuminated Jonathan Safran Foer. Unsure about it so far...

Callan57 · 14-11-2013 02:30PM

diddlybit wrote: »

I was the complete opposite, Middlesex is one of my favourite books, but I couldn't wait for the Marriage Plot to end.

Reading Everthing is Illuminated Jonathan Safran Foer. Unsure about it so far...

First half had me in stitches laughing but the second half was very peculiar - the film was brilliant because they left out the second half of the book!

diddlybit · 14-11-2013 02:33PM

Callan57 wrote: »

First half had me in stitches laughing but the second half was very peculiar - the film was brilliant because they let out the second half of the book!

I read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close first, which I adored. Should have possibly started with his first book.

Still determined to finish it though.

Saorenza · 14-11-2013 02:51PM

The Marriage Plot was OK. I loved Middlesex.

I have not been reading much the last day or two. :eek:

Swiper the fox · 14-11-2013 04:32PM

Middlesex and Virgin suicides are both great books, Middlesex easily the pick of the two. They were a hard act to follow but the Marriage Plot was very disappointing for me also.

Saorenza · 14-11-2013 04:35PM

I haven't read The Virgin Suicides yet.

diddlybit · 14-11-2013 05:50PM

Saorenza wrote: »

I haven't read The Virgin Suicides yet.

Worth reading, but definately don't watch the film first (which is what I did:()

emeraldstar · 14-11-2013 07:48PM

diddlybit wrote: »

Worth reading, but definately don't watch the film first (which is what I did:()

Same, but I still enjoyed the book.

emeraldstar · 14-11-2013 07:50PM

diddlybit wrote: »

I was the complete opposite, Middlesex is one of my favourite books, but I couldn't wait for the Marriage Plot to end.

I was chatting to someone in work the other day and she said the same - and I think that's the more usual opinion. I just couldn't wait for Middlesex to end though. The immigrant story was tedious.

This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

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