What books are we reading at the moment ?

[red marley]

What have they got against library books?

[mattc]

What have they got against library books?

Presumably they won't make a dent in your TBR pile!

[Bledlow]

I'm not going near that. Last time I was involved in some reading thing with targets, I was accused of lying by my school, & put on detention - until my mother checked my list of books read, questioned me on their contents, then sent the school a blistering letter demanding an apology (to me, not her, by the teacher who'd told me I was lying, in class so that everyone who'd witnessed me being called a liar witnessed the apology).

Apparently I couldn't have read all those books because I didn't have time & some of them were too adult for me. If only I'd known that, maybe I wouldn't have read them all, or so quickly. Maybe I wouldn't even have (successfully) pestered the local library to give me an adult library card although I was supposedly too young for it, because I was bored with the contents of the childrens section.

You see why I've steered clear of reading challenges ever since.


I have a sneaking feeling that some other members of this forum may have had experiences which evoke fellow-feeling with what I felt back then.

[citoyen]

I might have done, but they let me have an adult library card when I was 8.

[tiermat]

Command Authority by Tom Clancy

The latest Jack Ryan thriller, co-written by Mark Greaney (never heard of him).  It's ok, not brilliant, not in the league of Red Rabbit or The Bear and the Dragon, but ok.

[citoyen]

The goal is to read one or more novels from each of these continents in the course of 2014:

Africa
Asia
Australasia
Europe
North America
South America (please include Central America where it is most convenient for you)
and
The Seventh Continent (here you can either choose Antarctica or your own ´seventh´ setting, eg the sea, the space, a supernatural/paranormal world, history, the future – you name it).

You could tick off the first five on the list just by reading last year's Booker shortlist, if you're so inclined. For a South American novel, I'd recommend Heliopolis by James Scudamore - English-born author but he lives in Sao Paulo and the novel is set there (hence the name). It's very good.

I'm on Goodreads, which I think I've mentioned before, and I'm now in my third year of doing the reading challenge there. In 2012, I set myself the target of reading 52 books and managed 53. In 2013, I set myself the target of 60 but only managed 55. However, I did read some Very Long Books last year¹, so my average page count² was up by 50 pages per book - a crude measure but a good rough indication. I've set myself the same target this year and intend to read some shorter books in order to make up the numbers. Missing the point a bit, maybe, but I don't care.

Anyway, it's not like I'm doing it to be competitive against anyone else - it's just to motivate myself to read more, in the same way that I've previously used mycyclinglogs to motivate myself to get out on the bike more.

1. eg Parade's End (which is technically three books but I counted it as one) and Our Mutual Friend.
2. virtual pages, since most of my reading is on Kindle these days. Tend to go by the page count of the paperback.

[Peter]

Citoyen,

I think from the sort of stuff you list (from Dickens to Pym) and the fact that you were enquiring about prose stylists the other day, that you might like "Sick Heart River" by John Buchan.  I've just finished it (I've read a great many of his books) and while it has the standard Buchan non-plot of a chase or quest of some kind, it's by far his most contemplative and thoughtful (not to say autobiographical) novel.  It is also his last and was published after he died.  His books contain lots of attitudes and sentiments that I don't agree with and in this final one you can see him coming to terms with this himself.  It's also a ripping yarn, as are all his "shockers", as he called them.

I saw the challenges you set yourself.  "Our Mutual Friend" definitely has altitude points!

Peter

[citoyen]

you might like "Sick Heart River" by John Buchan.

Buchan's another who's passed me by, but I'll take your recommendation (still adding books to my to-read list faster than I can get through them...)

"Our Mutual Friend" definitely has altitude points!

I don't really think of Dickens as a "prose stylist" but he has his moments - and he's at the height of his powers as a writer in Our Mutual Friend, IMO. The description of the Veneerings' dinner party early on (second chapter, I think) is particularly brilliant - "leaves in the Twemlow" is a sublime metaphor. And there's a passage towards the end where he's describing a dog howling outside a lively village pub that really sums up the joy of reading Dickens for me - two pages to describe what could have been summed up in a short paragraph, but a sumptuous pleasure to read for its own sake.

[Peter]

Sure, I've read most of Dickens, now.  He occasionally (ok, frequently stumbles, especially in his short stories and whwre he was obviously writing to fill his magazine deadlines), but he does make me laugh out loud with some of his wonderful imagery.  I agree absolutely about the way he never uses one word when a chapter would do just as well.  Not to be Pecksniffed at!

[pcolbeck]

The Templar Knight trilogy by Jan Guillou (translated from Swedish). The story of a 12th century Swedish boy brought up by Cistersian Monks who ends up as a Templar Knight in Outremer at the time of the Third Crusade.

[Wowbagger]

"The End of the Party", aka "The Rise & Fall of New Labour", by Andrew Rawnsley.

Assuming it's true, I had no idea how far back and how extreme was Brown's antipathy towards Blair. So far, Rawnsley gives me the impression of being a great deal more sympathetic to Blair than he does Brown.

[T42]

you might like "Sick Heart River" by John Buchan.

Buchan's another who's passed me by, but I'll take your recommendation (still adding books to my to-read list faster than I can get through them...)

"Our Mutual Friend" definitely has altitude points!

I don't really think of Dickens as a "prose stylist" but he has his moments - and he's at the height of his powers as a writer in Our Mutual Friend, IMO. The description of the Veneerings' dinner party early on (second chapter, I think) is particularly brilliant - "leaves in the Twemlow" is a sublime metaphor. And there's a passage towards the end where he's describing a dog howling outside a lively village pub that really sums up the joy of reading Dickens for me - two pages to describe what could have been summed up in a short paragraph, but a sumptuous pleasure to read for its own sake.

And probably a sumptuous pleasure to write: I think a good deal of Dickens' writing was done for the fun of it.

Hardy, now... I still remember our English master saying "we can skip the next paragraph, it's just another of Hardy's interminable useless descriptions". And his introduction to Jane Eyre: "the girls'll like that one, it's a good cry."

Glad I read them, though: how else to enjoy the Thursday Next novels?

[Peter]

"The End of the Party", aka "The Rise & Fall of New Labour", by Andrew Rawnsley.

Assuming it's true, I had no idea how far back and how extreme was Brown's antipathy towards Blair. So far, Rawnsley gives me the impression of being a great deal more sympathetic to Blair than he does Brown.

Andrew Rawnsley seems to me to be trying to atone for his part in helping Cameron and Clegg to get elected.  His hatchet jobs in the Guardian on the Labour leadership have not been forgotten in this household. 

[citoyen]

Harvest by Jim Crace

It's undoubtedly very well written but not really grabbing me so far. Halfway through and still waiting for the story to start but suspecting that this is all I'm going to get. 

Maybe it's just me - I'm too tired to focus on reading for pleasure at the moment.

[edit: having just gone back to remind myself what her_welshness said about it at the time of the Booker nominations, I've decided it's not just me - I seem to agree with her entirely.]

[Wowbagger]

"The End of the Party", aka "The Rise & Fall of New Labour", by Andrew Rawnsley.

Assuming it's true, I had no idea how far back and how extreme was Brown's antipathy towards Blair. So far, Rawnsley gives me the impression of being a great deal more sympathetic to Blair than he does Brown.

Andrew Rawnsley seems to me to be trying to atone for his part in helping Cameron and Clegg to get elected.  His hatchet jobs in the Guardian on the Labour leadership have not been forgotten in this household.

As I read more, the sympathy to Blair has evaporated. Brown was pretty well absent from the chapters about the Iraq war, especially the lead-in period. I think (without going back over a hundred or more pages) that it was Gen. Mike Jackson who commented, a propos the second Goldsmith opinion, "I put in a great deal of effort getting Milosevic behind bars in The Hague. I'll be damned if I'm going to end up as his next door neighbour!"

[Nuncio]

Listening to some H H Monro stories and enjoying them. I'm not sure if you can tell from listening, but he certainly sounds like a prose stylist.  Maybe it's the skill of the reader.  It seems as if the style is perfectly suited to the short story form - too pithy, cutting, and arch for anything longer.

I wonder if he called himself Saki because he's a wry swine. (Sorry).

[bobb]

Command Authority by Tom Clancy

The latest Jack Ryan thriller, co-written by Mark Greaney (never heard of him).  It's ok, not brilliant, not in the league of Red Rabbit or The Bear and the Dragon, but ok.

I got given that for Christmas. Is it worth reading all the others first?

[Mrs Pingu]

Just finished Wool by Hugh Howey. Quite enjoyed it. I hesitate to call it SF, more like dystopian William Gibson. Nice female lead character. Will seek out the others in the trilogy. Allegedly Ridley Scott has the film rights.

[Karla]

I've been sent a couple of reading challenge suggestions, from one of the 30 zillion book blogs that my Literarally Better Half reads. If you like this sort of thing:
...
Mt Kilimanjaro
...

Never trust a reading challenge that mentions Mt Kilimanjaro.  If they only read their Hemmingway properly, they'd know it was simply 'Kilimanjaro'. 

As for me, I'm reading Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde.  Within the week I will myself be Dr M & Mr B 

[mattc]

Just finished Wool by Hugh Howey. Quite enjoyed it. I hesitate to call it SF, more like dystopian William Gibson. Nice female lead character. Will seek out the others in the trilogy. Allegedly Ridley Scott has the film rights.

Ooh. Intrigued!

(But I'm a bit worried by this phrase Science fiction's answer to Fifty Shades of Grey that seems to be attached to it  )

[tiermat]

Command Authority by Tom Clancy

The latest Jack Ryan thriller, co-written by Mark Greaney (never heard of him).  It's ok, not brilliant, not in the league of Red Rabbit or The Bear and the Dragon, but ok.

I got given that for Christmas. Is it worth reading all the others first?

I would say so, as there is definitely a progession to the storylines (though this book is still readable without having read the others first as TC does fill in the background).  I have now finished this and my view still stands, in that it is ok, but not as good as the others.

[L CC]

Just finished Wool by Hugh Howey. Quite enjoyed it. I hesitate to call it SF, more like dystopian William Gibson. Nice female lead character. Will seek out the others in the trilogy. Allegedly Ridley Scott has the film rights.

Ooh. Intrigued!

(But I'm a bit worried by this phrase Science fiction's answer to Fifty Shades of Grey that seems to be attached to it  )

I think that's due to it's word-of-mouth success rather than the content!

[Mrs Pingu]

Just finished Wool by Hugh Howey. Quite enjoyed it. I hesitate to call it SF, more like dystopian William Gibson. Nice female lead character. Will seek out the others in the trilogy. Allegedly Ridley Scott has the film rights.

Ooh. Intrigued!

(But I'm a bit worried by this phrase Science fiction's answer to Fifty Shades of Grey that seems to be attached to it  )

I'm pleased to report I have not read 50 shades, though I have read the Graun 5 min digested read version http://www.theguardian.com/books/series/digestedread and I can say it seems unrelated to me

[mattc]

I think that's due to it's word-of-mouth success rather than the content!

Yes, that seems to make a lot more sense now! 

(It would have been helpful if the journalists concerned had made that clear - they seem to live in a world where everyone knows everything ever said/written about 50 Shades ... )

[tiermat]

Raising Steam

The first Pterry book that has made me laugh in a while.

I like it!  Especially as the engineer, in my mind, sounds just like Fred Dibnah.