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This Week I are mostly reading (contd)

Sammy Jennings

...continued from this thread

A Good School by Richard Yates

Slight, but some great moments

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booklove72

Currently halfway through, A song of fire and ice. Love it.
Also reading, the Autobiography of Gretta Garbo. Very interesting stuff.

Esterhase

Finished Fall of Giants by Ken Follett last night. That was a good loooong one. It felt like a lecture on the struggles of the working class at times but overall a very enjoyable and easy read for me. I'll be jumping straight into the next part of the trilogy next.

IvyTheTerrible

Wyldwood wrote: »

Slightly off topic but I reached my Goodreads Challenge goal today. I set my target at 52 book for 2014 and hit that today when I finished Pereira Maintains thanks to the horrible weather.

Anybody else have a target on Goodreads Challenge?

Starting Wilkie Collins The Moonstone next.

I had a target of 75 last year and I reached it but it was too much pressure, so I lowered it to 50 this year.

I love having a easy place to log what I read.

Aenaes

I don't like the idea of setting myself reading targets. If falling behind, does it not make you trying to rush through your current book?

Also, would it not make you persevere with a book you're not enjoying just so it could count towards your goal rather than see it being as a waste of time target-wise?

IvyTheTerrible

Aenaes wrote: »

I don't like the idea of setting myself reading targets. If falling behind, does it not make you trying to rush through your current book?

Also, would it not make you persevere with a book you're not enjoying just so it could count towards your goal rather than see it being as a waste of time target-wise?

That's why I set a reasonable target this year!

Kurtosis

Finished up The Grapes of Wrath, huegly enjoyed it, really conveys the sense of desperation at the time.

Continuing on an American literature trend, I'm about halfway through "All the Pretty Horses" by Cormac McCarthy. I've read The Road and No Country for Old Men and really liked McCarthy's style of writing - the profound observations peppered among the long stream of consciousness descriptions. Glad I have the other two Border trilogy books to read after this too!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Aenaes wrote: »

I don't like the idea of setting myself reading targets. If falling behind, does it not make you trying to rush through your current book?

Also, would it not make you persevere with a book you're not enjoying just so it could count towards your goal rather than see it being as a waste of time target-wise?

I did think like that for a while but then I realised that I'm spending a month struggling through something I hate when I could have had 3 or 4 better books read in the same time. It's actually made me more likely to quit a book than I ever was before.

Wyldwood

I didn't really think about the target while reading, I must say, but had no problem reaching my goal. I did abandon 2 books that I couldn't get into which is a rare occurrence for me. One was Wolf Hall and I am going to give it another try later.

I just set the challenge for fun as I am an avid reader and log my books anyway.

Half way through the Moonstone and it's so enjoyable, I love Wilkie Collins' style of writing.

A Suitable Boy by Vickram Seth is up next so that will probably see me through November at almost 1500 pages!

eire4

Finished a re read of The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.

Callan57

Finished A History of Loneliness by John Boyne ... superb and heartbreaking read.

Next The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

ivytwine

Almost finished Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett- it was the very first Discworld book I read when I was around 15 and I haven't read it since.

No wonder I fell in love with Discworld; and it was a lucky chance it was this one I picked up! So funny, and really sums up what Ankh-Morpork and the Watch are all about.

STP, you are my hero!

crustybla

Wyldwood wrote: »

I didn't really think about the target while reading, I must say, but had no problem reaching my goal. I did abandon 2 books that I couldn't get into which is a rare occurrence for me. One was Wolf Hall and I am going to give it another try later.

I just set the challenge for fun as I am an avid reader and log my books anyway.

Half way through the Moonstone and it's so enjoyable, I love Wilkie Collins' style of writing.

A Suitable Boy by Vickram Seth is up next so that will probably see me through November at almost 1500 pages!

Read A Suitable Boy years ago, loved it. I sometimes wonder if I'd enjoy it as much if I read it now, being ahem, slightly older. I'll be interested in your opinion of it.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I read Playboy of the Western World this week.

I guess it works better when you're actually watching it on a stage...

Hilarious that it caused riots when it first opened in Dublin

biZrb

I finished Burial Rites last night, I read it because it was so highly recommended in this thread, however I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would, I found it a bit long winded.

I recently read Death of a Salesman for the first time, really loved that.

I'm going to start The Free by Willy Vlautin at lunchtime, he's one of my favourite authors so looking forward to another great book by him.

I also read A Suitable Boy a few years ago, absolutely loved it.

Kurtosis

Finished All the Pretty Horses, loved it, can definitely say Cormac McCarthy is one of my favourite authors. Then milled through The Escape Artist by Matt Seaton, a great read that really captures the emotions of amateur cycle racing.

Have now moved onto to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, it's been in my to read pile for far too long and decoded to try read it before I see the film.

Tom Joad

Finished The Bell Jar and enjoyed it - well written and engaging. Also just finished Germinal by Emilé Zol and loved it - absolutely flew through it and would highly recommend it. Have started two books - Moby Dick which I am tearing through and At Swim Two Birds which I'm not really getting yet but it is early days.

Ice Storm

Tom Joad wrote: »

Finished The Bell Jar and enjoyed it - well written and engaging.

I loved it. I've read it twice and can see myself reading it again in the future.

heathledgerlove

Just finished Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, 2005, protagonized by the most pathetic central character I have ever read about, that's really the only way you can describe Lee. She's a scholarship student aka fish-out-of-water in a fancy New England prep school, surrounded by the haughty and entitled children of the filthy rich. A lot of the reviews online criticize Lee for being a complete nobody, but she's a tiny bit worse than that; she's a nasty piece who judges everyone and values them entirely in terms of her needs; how they could bolster her social position or drag her down. She brings absolutely nothing to the table in terms of friendship or loyalty or engagement or enthusiasm but is still injured beyond belief when other people have the nerve to dislike or ignore her. Infuriating.

In addition to the curiously unsympathetic and continuously embarrassed narrator, the book's layout is somewhat baffling; though it's purportedly a novel, it's really a series of vaguely connected events that happen around (but very rarely to) Lee in her four excruciatingly long years at Ault. Whatever does happen to her is entirely external: she is inertia personified and yet she yearns, to the point of sleeplessness and extreme obsession, to be pretty, popular and desired by lads. While doing absolutely nothing to achieve this; barely acknowledging a casual "Hello" in the school corridor lest she be mistaken for being anything other than cool and distant and uninterested.

How and ever! The writing itself is top-drawer; that is, the descriptions, the dialogue, the confidentialities, the relatable observations, the pacing. (as opposed to the length; this book needed editing like whoa. Entire chapters - most definitely certain characters - could have been easily omitted, and the point - if there is one - would remain intact.) As such I will be reading more of Sittenfeld's output in the hopes that she has created a main character who isn't quite so strangle-worthy.

Starting Skippy Dies, more boarding-school malarkey but promises to be heaps more fun.

Ipso

Read The Barrytown Triogy a ehile back, great stuff with The Snapper being my favourite.
Just started Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith, good so far but takes a while to get going.

Dial Hard

So, long, TWIRMR... I'll see you in May

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SarahBM

Good luck with that!!!

eire4

Finished a re read of Malcom Gladwell's very insighful book Blink.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Big Maggie by John B Keane.

The book was 130 pages long so as I was about half way through and really getting into it.... it ended! Half the book is notes on the play, not play itself!
As I said, I was really starting to get into it and thought it was all about to kick off but nope, ended.

Not having much luck with my play choices...

Started The Outcast by Sadie Jones today. So far so good.

Birneybau

'The Crimson Petal And The White' by Michael Faber, looks like I'm in for a long haul, enjoyable so far.

Callan57

Birneybau wrote: »

'The Crimson Petal And The White' by Michael Faber, looks like I'm in for a long haul, enjoyable so far.

Fantastic read I loved it - hope you enjoy

Ice Storm

I started Jamaica Inn a couple of days ago. I'm finding it hard to put down but i need sleep! I'm enjoying the dark, gothic atmosphere; it seems appropriate for this time of year.

SarahBM

Ice Storm wrote: »

I started Jamaica Inn a couple of days ago. I'm finding it hard to put down but i need sleep! I'm enjoying the dark, gothic atmosphere; it seems appropriate for this time of year.

I have this in my to read pile next. I loved Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel.

I cannot wait til christmas when I can get back to reading books I want to read as opposed to text books and journals.

further education sucks. I just wanna read man!

Wyldwood

SarahBM wrote: »

I cannot wait til christmas when I can get back to reading books I want to read as opposed to text books and journals. further education sucks. I just wanna read man!

One of the joys of retirement, sit down with a book and a cuppa after lunch and suddenly realise it's time to get the dinner

I'm reading Chris Bohjalian's Sandcastle Girls at the moment. Set in Syria at the start of WW1 and has some very harrowing descriptions of the Armenian genocide and Gallipoli, with a love story thrown in. Has some resemblance to Faulk's Birdsong.

eire4

Finished a re read of David Hay's Paradise Lost. An interesting light read which mostly is focused on his 4 years as Celtic boss.

Callan57

Finished The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters ... immensly enjoyable read

Now it's on to The Sentimentalists by Johanna Skibsrud