What Are You Reading?

pajor · 15-07-2015 10:04pm

LoonyLovegood wrote: »

TKaM is a book that I read every summer. (I'm actually due to read it around now) Atticus has been in my top list for boys if I ever have kids for years, thanks to it.

I think (outside of any religious sense) Atticus is the personification of all that is possibly good in the world.

Which is why I can't stand the idea of him being a bigot. But I have just ordered the book online. Should have it in a couple of days.

SarahBeep! · 15-07-2015 11:20pm

LoonyLovegood wrote: »

My sister bought it for me...halfway through, it's difficult to read.

I've bought it but it's still in it's bag, I'm not sure if I'm emotionally able to be let down by Atticus Finch just yet.

wnolan1992 wrote: »

I have virtually non interest in wrestling, but this sounds like a really interesting book and I may pick it up.

Heard a review for this Harper Lee book that just said "it's a bit meh. Just go and read TKaM."

Having never read TKaM, would y'all recommend it? I've always sort of kept it in the Catcher in the Rye, Jane Eyre, etc pile of "great literature" that I just can't be arsed investigating.

Please read TKaM, it's outstanding. It's not a dusty old classic, so many of it's themes are relevant today more than ever. It makes me feel things I've never felt about another book. It's special. The characters are special. Atticus is a very realistic hero, he's up againts the odds and I think the scene where he has to

shoot the dog

shows that regardless of how moral and upstanding you are, you can't

save everyone

. That book helped me grow up. You need it in your life, trust me.

acemaster · 30-10-2015 6:28am

Game of thrones, What'next?

Junco Partner · 30-10-2015 7:11am

acemaster wrote: »

Game of thrones, What'next?

If you like multi novel fantasy stuff I'd reccomend Stephen King's The Dark Tower series; Multi-dimensional post apocalyptic wastelandsmeets King Arthur and the knights of Camelot crossed with spaghetti westerns.
The Gunslinger is the first book.

Been on a reading buzz the last few weeks
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
Anti war story, ptsd, inevitability of man's cyclical slaughter of itself and also time travel.

The Martian by Andy Weir
Lots of maths and science. Thought the writing was very plain but lots of pop culture humour and macgyvering.Robinson Crusoe vibe to it. Really enjoyed it. Will probably go see the film .

Have just started Dune by Frank Herbert.
Picked it up because it's supposed to be the sci fi template novel. Lots of overly complicated words so far but enjoyable.

Insect Overlord · 30-10-2015 12:21pm

I've actually managed to read a few books this year! All of them in the last few months, and all of which I'd read before at one time or another, but all absolutely worth a second read.

Most recent was "The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon. Very, very cleverly done. Inspired me to start practising square and cube numbers in my head again.

Before that was "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway. I think he won the Nobel Prize for Literature for that one. Feels like a quick and easy read, but really stays with you.

I started with Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", the tale of a sailor's journey on a merchant vessel deep into the 'horror' of exploitation of the Belgian Congo around the turn of the last century. Also inspired most of the plot for the film Apocalypse Now. For a book with little over 100 pages it takes ages to get through, but some of Conrad's phrases and sentences are flawless, brilliant.

I'm halfway through "The Picture of Dorian Gray" now. Never managed to finish this book before. Will report back here whenever I get it done!

wnolan1992 · 01-01-2016 1:43pm

I read the first book I've completed for about 4+ years over Christmas. Downloaded the Kindle app to my tablet and got a free trial of Kindle Unlimited.

I read "Medieval: Blood of the Cross" by K.M. Ashman. I'm torn on it. It caught my attention, and I read the entire thing in like 2 days (which is pretty quick for me since I read at a rather slow pace). I found the plot really engaging, and it had me thinking it was going somewhere incredibly stereotypical but diverted at the last minute to somewhere far more entertaining.

But, there were a few glaring plotholes, at times the style of dialogue veers erratically between fitting in with the 13th Century setting and the modern day which is jarring, and towards the end it felt like he was just trying to wrap things up, and the dramatic climax you would have expected just never comes. The story builds up, peaks, calms, begins to build up again and then just has a mundane ending.

That said, it was still enjoyable, and I've begun reading the second book in the series called "Medieval: In Shadows of Kings".

SIDE NOTE: Anyone here subscribe to Kindle Unlimited? Is it worth the price? I have a 30 day free trial now, so will test it out during January. I want to read more, but I don't want to spend 10 plus quid a pop on books that I may or may not read y'know?

Insect Overlord · 28-05-2016 6:17pm

An File wrote: »

I'm halfway through "The Picture of Dorian Gray" now. Never managed to finish this book before. Will report back here whenever I get it done!

I still haven't finished this.

My objective for the summer is to read a load of Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. I read the opening chapters of "A Farewell to Arms" last weekend, so hopefully I'll make a proper dent in it this weekend.

wnolan1992 · 30-05-2016 3:58pm

wnolan1992 wrote: »

I read the first book I've completed for about 4+ years over Christmas. Downloaded the Kindle app to my tablet and got a free trial of Kindle Unlimited.

I read "Medieval: Blood of the Cross" by K.M. Ashman. I'm torn on it. It caught my attention, and I read the entire thing in like 2 days (which is pretty quick for me since I read at a rather slow pace). I found the plot really engaging, and it had me thinking it was going somewhere incredibly stereotypical but diverted at the last minute to somewhere far more entertaining.

But, there were a few glaring plotholes, at times the style of dialogue veers erratically between fitting in with the 13th Century setting and the modern day which is jarring, and towards the end it felt like he was just trying to wrap things up, and the dramatic climax you would have expected just never comes. The story builds up, peaks, calms, begins to build up again and then just has a mundane ending.

That said, it was still enjoyable, and I've begun reading the second book in the series called "Medieval: In Shadows of Kings".

SIDE NOTE: Anyone here subscribe to Kindle Unlimited? Is it worth the price? I have a 30 day free trial now, so will test it out during January. I want to read more, but I don't want to spend 10 plus quid a pop on books that I may or may not read y'know?

I ended up reading the entire series of 3-4 books (can't quite remember). Decent enough set of books, but I was deeply unhappy with how some storylines were sort of just dropped.

For instance

a guy falls in love with a girl, they're basically living together for ages, then your man gets the urge to go off on a sea voyage for 2 years. While he's away, she's convicted of murder and hung. Your man never mentions this on his return. Ever.

And that's just one example. The final ending of the series was utter crap tbh.

Haven't read anything since then though, and I uninstalled the Kindle app. :pac:

pajor · 31-07-2016 10:14pm

pajor wrote: »

I think (outside of any religious sense) Atticus is the personification of all that is possibly good in the world.

Which is why I can't stand the idea of him being a bigot. But I have just ordered the book online. Should have it in a couple of days.

I must admit I only finished reading this several days ago. Just realised that the book sat on a chair beside the bed for nearly a year gathering dust. I just didn't really want to read it. But we were on holidays camping so I plowed on with it. The only conclusion I can come up with is that its thoroughly disturbing. I did enjoy the character of Uncle Jack though.

Currently reading Journey Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino. Bought it in a German bookshop, when I had finished the above. About half way through. It's very confusing, complicated but marvellous. The worst of human nature written down on paper.

I will not be buying any Harry Potter scripts. :pac:

parkerpen · 06-08-2016 4:57pm

Just finished reading a couple of Sidney Sheldon books. I would recommend him as an author. Lots of suspense. The kind of books you don'r want to put down.

LoonyLovegood · 06-08-2016 5:12pm

Picked up a copy of Kate Leth's Hellcat AKA Patsy Walker in Hodges Figgis last week. I love Kate Leth.

MissD93 · 27-08-2016 10:23pm

girls on fire just ruined my life

Insect Overlord · 13-03-2017 4:37pm

Read the first few chapters of Hemingway's "Fiesta:The Sun Also Rises". Must get back into that.

I never did finish "A Farewell to Arms" either!

gimli2112 · 13-03-2017 4:43pm

An File wrote: »

Read the first few chapters of Hemingway's "Fiesta:The Sun Also Rises". Must get back into that.

I never did finish "A Farewell to Arms" either!

As a pretentious teenager I decided I really needed to read more classics. Struggled through A Farewell to Arms but the ending was absolutely brilliant. This really motivated me and I started in on War and Peace. Threw that away after about 50 pages and just read Watership Down again.

Junco Partner · 13-03-2017 5:05pm

I was making my way through War and Peace until I left it behind on a bus . Not worth the effort buying it again. It's heavy .

Insect Overlord · 02-10-2017 11:10pm

I dug out some old books today.

Now I have to decide if I should read "The Táin" first, or start "The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" again. I may just alternate between the two for a few months.

Insect Overlord · 29-04-2018 3:04pm

I've been reading a lot of poetry recently. The Limerick Writers' Centre ran their annual festival, April Is Poetry Month In Limerick, with its biggest bill of events ever. I volunteered at a couple of the events and attended a few others and got to hear some amazing ideas.

Picked up some of the poetry anthologies published by the Writers'Centre over the last few months and read three of them this week.

"It's A Queer City: All the Same" was edited by Shane Vaughan and released for Limerick Pride in 2016. It's a collection of poems and stories inspired by questions of sexuality, gender, and identity, featuring a mixture of straight and lgbtq+ writers.

"River People" was edited by Ron Carey and released late in 2017 after he ran a series of creative writing workshops for older writers. Some pieces are memories of times gone by, others are works of fiction, and some of the poems are excellent too.

"Voices from the Cave" is an anthology of poems about addiction and recovery. It was edited by Dominic Taylor and Ron Carey and released just under a year ago. Very powerful stuff.

Insect Overlord · 02-04-2020 4:40pm

These days I'm getting into books about running.

Aptly enough, I started this phase with Murakami's "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running". It's a quick, simple read. He interweaves stories about his experiences as both a runner and a writer, which I felt I could relate to on a certain level. I haven't run any marathons yet, but I'll get there eventually!

I started straight into "Born To Run" after that. Christopher McDougall has a very entertaining style to his writing. It has been criticized in some quarters for being too Gonzo but it works for me. I laughed a lot as I waited for his mystery to unfold, and learned a lot along the way from his anecdotes and the side-stories based on his background research.

This week I'm ploughing through "Ultra-Marathon Man" by Dean Karnazes, one of the characters mentioned in Born To Run and one of the biggest names in the world in ultra running circles. The early chapters are fairly unremarkable, bar some little gems of advice and the tragedy of losing his sister, but the whole book really picks up once he gets into his recollections of the Western States 100 Mile race. There are some great laugh out loud moments in chapters 9 and 10 especially.

iamanengine · 05-04-2020 3:44pm

I got a kindle yesterday and the first book I got is Dracula. I'm about a 1/4 of the way through, it's been real good so far!

As an aside I am about to go for a run! Maybe I'll look in to some of those books

Insect Overlord · 05-05-2020 1:17am

Three more running books to report on this week.

I read "Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance" by Alex Hutchinson a few weeks ago. It was quite well written and researched. The author admitted that he'd gone into the project with one particular philosophy in mind, but was happy to have discovered some expertise that contradicted it in different ways. The over-riding message seems to be that the mind is the most powerful factor and that confidence-building exercises, mantras and mental training can be very powerful. Some simple supplements and placebos are also very effective.

I also finished "Natural Born Heroes" by Christopher McDougall, the same writer who was behind "Born to Run". It combines the incredible true stories behind the Resistance movement on Crete during World War 2 with the author's continued exploration of human fitness. It's hugely influenced by parkour and the ideas behind Paleo and Ketogenic ways of eating. A little bit preachy towards the end, but overall a truly fascinating story.

Tonight I'm half way through "Eat and Run", the memoir of ultra-running legend Scott Jurek. He combines his journey as a runner with vegan recipes, but there's much more to it than just running stories and food. He's very honest about his formative years and gives great credit to the people who helped him along the way. I'm really enjoying this one, maybe because I only expected it to be something simpler.

Insect Overlord · 15-06-2020 10:50pm

Seeing as I won't be going to the Gaeltacht this summer I've decided to re-read the various texts I was supposed to read for my Irish degree.

So far I've finished all the stories in Gearrscéalta An Chéid (the favourite 20 short stories of Aisling Ní Dhonnchadha and Gearóid Denver from the 20th Century) and the essays in Léachtaí Cholm Cille XXXVI about modern Irish prose, and Cúirt an Mheán-Oíche by Brian Merriman (as well as essays by Seán Ó Tuama, Declan Kiberd and Liam P. Ó Murchú about the text).

I'll be focusing on 20th Century poetry for the rest of the week, between Duanaire An Chéid (again selected by Gearóid Denver) and Anois Tacht an Eala and Léachtaí Cholm Cille XLI (both of which examine the works and influence of the Filí Innti, a group of poets who emerged together in UCC in the 1960s and 70s).

What Are You Reading?

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