Reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

Currently reading The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle and Dubliners by James Joyce. Both are really good so far.

Currently reading Orhan Pamuk's The Black Book. A man's wife disappears so he starts searching for her in the streets of Istanbul and scouring the newspaper columns written by his cousin (her half-brother who has also disappeared) for clues.

It's not a conventional detective novel (the kind that the protagonist's missing wife used to constantly read) but more an exploration of identity and a compendium of stories about the history of the Turkish city. The protagonist becomes so consumed by his columnist cousin's articles that he gradually assumes his identity, moves into his apartment and writes his columns in his absence.

Some people find Pamuk's books a bit academic and hard going but anybody who like Umberto Eco, Italo Calvino and Borges would probably enjoy him. I've also read My Name Is Red which was great, similar to Eco's The Name Of The Rose.

This summer I've been teaching a class where we've focused on the "Killing Time" of the 17th century. The class has looked at Scott's *The Tale of Old Mortality*, Ballantyne's *Hunted and Harried* and Stevenson's *Kidnapped*. Today I re-read *Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde*. I enjoy it anew each time I read it. Anyone here a lover of Scott and Stevenson?

Reading Le Morte D'Arthur The Winchester Manuscript. Not technically a Scottish book, but King Lot is from Lothian and rules Orkney too...and his sons, Gawain and his brothers, are Orkadian. Must read something modern soon though.

Lindy-Lane wrote: "I am currently reading "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Steig Larsson."

I read this about a year ago, and I found it amazing! How are you finding it? I've just bought the sequel, and i'm really looking forward to getting started on it!

I'm reading Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino just now, its fascinating!

new to this group, and the website! Hi All!!

Hiya, I'm new! Can't say I'm a big fan of Scottish authors, but I do live in Scotland so I hope that's okay. =) I'm currently reading The Princess Bride for another Goodreads group.

im reading If You Could See Me Now

I am currently reading "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Steig Larsson.

Peter JamesDreamer

only on page 50 but so far seems to be good.

I am currently reading Three Things About Me by Aliya Whitely. It's an entertaining black comedy about customer service trainees. Er.. that may not sound particularly exciting but there is a hint of darkness to the novel and a whiff of the absurd about it.

I must confess that this book is a a bit lighter than the usual stuff I read but I needed a break from Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for None and All!

Reading:

Have just finished Agamemnon's Daughter by Ismail Kadare, although there's another two short stories in it I don't know whether to read.


Other than that, I'm reading:
Gentlemen by Klas Östergren and The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany


And swithering over whether to pick up either The Book Of Words by Jenny Erpenbeck or Submarine by Joe Dunthorne next.

Hi there, Akarenina, and welcome to the group. Yes, I often have more than one book on the go. I listen to audio books on my iPod when I'm out and about, and I always carry a book in my bag too, so there's two straight off. :)

I've just started listening to Villette by Charlotte Bronte and I'm about to start reading Out of Africa by Karen Blixen (just as soon as I've finished Les Liaisons Dangereuses!).

I'm working my way through volume II of James Hogg's Ettrick Shepherd's Tales. The books got a really old fashioned typeface which I find I can only concentrate on in small doses and - I'm ashamed to say - some of the Scots dialect escapes me, even though the characters are mostly from around my area. There a some chilling tales in the collection, dealing with assorted spirits, brownies and devils, and all in all, its worth the effort, and I'll get to the end of it eventually.

I've also started reading Ben Okri's 'The Famished Road'. It took me a few pages to get to grips with some of the imagery - I kept trying to imaging the 'people' that were surrounding the narrator and it took me a while to accept the reality of the narrative. It is good so far though, and I really like the way it slips seemlessly between the real and spirit world and jumbles it all up. I'm working my way through volume II of James Hogg's Ettrick Shepherd's Tales. The books got a really old fashioned typeface which I find I can only concentrate on in small doses and - I'm ashamed to say - some of the Scots dialect escapes me, even though the characters are mostly from around my area. There a some chilling tales in the collection, dealing with assorted spirits, brownies and devils, and all in all, its worth the effort, and I'll get to the end of it eventually.

ps I'm posting this from work - my ancient PC won't let me submit anything for some reason.

I'm afraid I only read one book at a time these days and I was never a fast reader. I'm currently reading The Seagull Drovers by Steve Cockayne.
It's the last in a trilogy called Legends of the Land and it's not a bad read.

I'm now reading another one (reviews for the others will follow shortly!)

Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Synopsis:
The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge make Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. The subject of major film and stage adaptations, the novel's prime movers, the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, form an unholy alliance and turn seduction into a game - a game which they must win. This new translation gives Laclos a modern voice, and readers will be able a judge whether the novel is as 'diabolical' and 'infamous' as its critics have claimed, or whether it has much to tell us about the kind of world we ourselves live in. David Coward's introduction explodes myths about Laclos's own life and puts the book in its literary and cultural context.

I'm now reading another one (reviews for the others will follow shortly!)

Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Synopsis:
The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge make Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. The subject of major film and stage adaptations, the novel's prime movers, the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, form an unholy alliance and turn seduction into a game - a game which they must win. This new translation gives Laclos a modern voice, and readers will be able a judge whether the novel is as 'diabolical' and 'infamous' as its critics have claimed, or whether it has much to tell us about the kind of world we ourselves live in. David Coward's introduction explodes myths about Laclos's own life and puts the book in its literary and cultural context.

I have three books on the go at the moment.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen which I am enjoying so far, I am desperate to know what happens next.

The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco which I am reading slowly, its not that I do not like it, I am just not in the correct frame of mind for it.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, I am really enjoying this one, especially since I read Jane Eyre last year.

Fnished The Tenderness of Wolves (which was excellent) and I'm almost finished Heart of Darkness (which is not). Now reading:

500 Ways to Change the World by Global Ideas Bank
Synopsis:
500 inspired ideas from around the world that cost nothing to implement but could enhance all our lives. 500 inspired ideas from around the world that cost nothing to implement but could enhance all our lives. They range from ideas that could benefit charitable organizations (donate airmiles to disaster relief fundraising schemes) to ideas that make people's working lives better (write the minutes of a meeting before it takes place) to ideas that help social relations as a whole (Boomerang Days when you return all the things you've borrowed over the course of the previous year. The book is bursting with brilliantly original initiatives. For anyone interested in doing something more than just grumbling and feeling generally fed up, this is probably worth about a whole year of press and TV.

Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders by Gyles Brandreth
Synopsis:
This work is set in London, 1889. Oscar Wilde, celebrated poet, wit, playwright and raconteur is the literary sensation of his age. All Europe lies at his feet. Yet when he chances across the naked corpse of sixteen-year-old Billy Wood, posed by candlelight in a dark stifling attic room, he cannot ignore the brutal murder. With the help of fellow author Arthur Conan Doyle he sets out to solve the crime - but it is Wilde's unparalleled access to all degrees of late Victorian life, from society drawing rooms and the bohemian demi-monde to the underclass, that will prove the decisive factor in their investigation of what turns out to be a series of brutal killings. The Oscar Wilde Murders is a gripping detective story of corruption and intrigue, of Wilde's growing success, of the breakdown of his marriage, and of his fatal friendship with Aidan Fraser, Inspector at Scotland Yard! Set against the exotic background of fin-de-siecle London, Paris, Oxford and Edinburgh, Gyles Brandreth recreates Oscar Wilde's trademark sardonic wit with huge flair, intertwining all the intrigue of the classic English murder mystery with a compelling portrait of one of the greatest characters of the Victorian age.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
Synopsis:
When Axel deciphers an old parchment that describes a secret passage through a volcano to the centre of the earth, nothing will stop his eccentric Uncle Lidenbrock from setting out at once. So, with silent Hans the guide, the two men embark on a perilous, astonishing, terrifying journey through the subterranean world.

At the moment, I'm listening to an audio book of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, and reading The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney (a Scottish author!).

The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Synopsis:
Set in a time of oppressive colonisation, when large areas of the world were still unknown to Europe, and Africa was literally on maps and minds as a mysterious shadow, Heart of Darkness famously explores the rituals of civilisation and barbarism, and the frighteningly fine line between them.

We get the tale through a classic unreliable narrator, relating as Marlow, a ship’s captain, tells how he was sent by the Company to retrieve the wayward Kurtz, and was shaken to discover the true depths of darkness in that creature’s, and in his own, soul. Conrad based the work closely on his own terrible experience in the Congo.

This work has been reinterpreted and adapted into many modern forms, the most well known being the film Apocalypse Now.

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
Synopsis:
It is 1867, Canada: as winter tightens its grip on the isolated settlement of Dove River, a man is brutally murdered and a 17-year old boy disappears. Tracks leaving the dead man's cabin head north towards the forest and the tundra beyond. In the wake of such violence, people are drawn to the township - journalists, Hudson's Bay Company men, trappers, traders - but do they want to solve the crime or exploit it? One-by-one the assembled searchers set out from Dove River, pursuing the tracks across a desolate landscape home only to wild animals, madmen and fugitives, variously seeking a murderer, a son, two sisters missing for 17 years, a Native American culture, and a fortune in stolen furs before the snows settle and cover the tracks of the past for good.