What Are You Reading Showing 1,401-1,450 of 6,935

[Trelawn]

what happened Jamie Lynn?

[Trelawn]

Hmmm if it hasn't grabbed you try something else and maybe come back to it at a later date. Judging from what you've written about tv as well you may need something more lighyhearted. I have read a few "heavy" books lately so I picked up a laugh out loud book and I'm taking my time with it. just what i needed :-)

[[deleted user]]

@Colleen. I've never availed of any of these deals, but I think I'll have to browse more on Amazon. I hope to be starting The Effect of Her soon, but I'm inundated with books at the minute.

At least three people in the group highly rate Unspoken. I think you'll really enjoy it.

[Colleen]

Strumpet CityDeclan wrote: "@Colleen. I've never availed of any of these deals, but I think I'll have to browse more on Amazon. I hope to be starting The Effect of Her soon, but I'm inundated with books at the minute.

At le..."

I've used Amazon a lot and so far I haven't had a problem .I think I'll like it and if I do I'll order the next.Haha I didn't know there was a next one..until Allan mentioned it.

[Colleen]

Allan wrote: "Colleen, it's great to see that you got Unspoken for such a low price. It's the first part of a two part series, which starts the day that De Valera is 'moved upstairs' to become President, and end..."

I loved Strumpet City. I was in Ireland last year and it was everywhere so of course I had to buy it and I was glad I did.

[Allan]

I'm wondering, with the quarterly read coming up, whether Unspoken would be a good nomination? Well worthy of a reread from my point of view anyway...

[Paul]

I loved Strumpet City as well. Its a book I have recommended on many occasions . Having read the description and a few reviews for Unspoken its just not grabbing me. I am Irish and have a strong interest in History but its not a period I have a lot of interest in. It sounds like an attempt at something like Ken Follett or Leon Uris might write but I don't know from the reviews how likely it would be to draw me in.
I could be wrong of course

[Paul]

Lifes too short for a book that's annoying you. Move on to the next.
Need a witch book try Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett . Best take on Macbeth since Shakespeare.
Read Half Bad a few weeks back which is a YA witch Fantasy. Not too bad.

[Paul]

I know but its also hard to give up too early as well.
The terry pratchett stuff has a comic edge but the witches are great. Think theres possibly about 7 or 8 witch books all together.

[Paul]

They're good for a laugh at the very least but are really well written with great characters , If you like witches you'll love Esme Weatherwax and Gytha Ogg

[Paul]

I promise there are no witches burnt in these books . :-)
And there's always a better book waiting for you when one is too gross or unentertaining

[[deleted user]]

@Jamielynn. I've read a couple of Pratchett's books and they're funny, witty and satirical. I really think you'll enjoy them.

@Paul. I might be back to ask for more Pratchett recommendations.

I think you might enjoy Unspoken, by the way.

@Cathleen. Strumpet City is one book I readily recommend to anyone. I love that book so much.

[Paul]

I'm not ruling the Unspoken out at all . Just noting that it didn't grab me from the description. I'll still probably try it on the back of all the recommendations here.
Any Pratchett related questions feel free to ask. I've the complete set of everything on the shelves at home and have a fair bit of insider knowledge from a long association with his forum. I'm a long time fan and collector basically .

[[deleted user]]

There are few writers who I've read and then had to read their entire back-catalogues. I'm afraid that if I read a few more of Pratchett's books I'll get into that frame of mind, too, and he's such a prolific writer he'll leave little time for anything else.

[Paul]

Well Discworld is 40 books including YA but not including spin off guides.
NAtion, Dodger, The Long Earth series (5 books possibly ,2 so far) , Good Omens , Carpet People , Strata , The Darkside of the Sun are the main other ones. But you can pick a miniseries within the Discworld stuff if you want to dip a toe. They can be broken easily enough into Death Books, Witches, Rincewind, Guards , Moist and Religion.
A small bite of the cherry makes it an easier undertaking

[[deleted user]]

I read The Colour of Magic a few years ago and I liked the character of Rincewind. I might continue with him for a while.

[Cathleen]

Declan wrote: "@Jamielynn. I've read a couple of Pratchett's books and they're funny, witty and satirical. I really think you'll enjoy them.

@Declan, I'll have to push that up on my TBR list. I'm sure I'd enjoy it from all the reviews and recs. It sounds like the kind of book I could easily get sucked into, and I just finished The Free That novel was very Steinbeckesque. [I know that's not a word! :) ]

[Paul]

Then the light Fantastic is next on your list. Followed by Eric, The last Continent and Interesting Times and the Graphic novel The Last Hero. He's drifted from the series in the later books

[Paul]

@Cathleen. I'd be surprised if anyone didn't like Terry Pratchett's books. There's something for everyone

[[deleted user]]

@Cathleen. I actually meant to address that to Colleen, but I think muscle memory took over over. I do think you'll like that book. It's the great Dublin Saga.

It seems like a pretty serendipitous mistake.

@Paul. I just added The Light Fantastic to my list, but that pile of books is getting pretty out of hand.

[Allan]

Paul, I wish I'd taken your advice to Jamielynn re not finishing a book you don't like, but I soldiered on and finally finished Taipei by Tao Lin this morning.

If I ever post a comment suggesting that I'm going to buy a book tagged as experimental fiction again, will someone please stop me-life's too short to be wasting the time I wasted on that book again. Hateful characters, no story...avoid like the plague!

I suppose the only positive from reading the dirge that was Taipei will be how much more I'm bound to enjoy 'The Wayward Bus' by Steinbeck, his first book published post Grapes of Wrath, which I'm going to get stuck into in the couple of hours before dinner tonight.

[Paul]

I saw your review of that on my updates earlier. sounds quite painful. 1stars are a rare commodity but sometimes you just have to.

[Paul]

@Declan But wouldn't we be lost without a pile of books waiting on us.
I prefer the later ones to The light Fantastic but everyone has their favourites and it follows straight on from Colour of Magic.

[Trelawn]

@ Declan like you I've dabbled in the Terry Pratchett books. I haven't tried any of the sequences but the Moist books are great. I have the third in my TBR pile. Unseen Academicals is amazing esp. if you're into football. Dodger set in Victorian London is also brill. I'm not helping you, am I? :-)

[Paul]

My favourites are the Watch books revolving around the rise of the city police force and it's commander Sam Vimes.
Some of the best fantasy I've read.Night Watch is one of my favourite books.
The Moist books are great as well and quite accessible for non fantasy readers.everyone loves a changer and Moist would even out do Bertie Ahern.

[Paul]

Looking up then :-)

[Trelawn]

I read a book like that before called The Food of Love i think and it kept describing all these amazing pasta dishes and Italian desserts. I may have drooled on that book a little :-)

[Seraphina]

I'd just be hungry all the time reading books like that lol

[Paul]

Some of the food descriptions in A Song of Ice and Fire are quite graphic and drool inducung. They went with sex instead of food for the tv series instead

[Cathleen]

Declan wrote: "@Cathleen. I actually meant to address that to Colleen, but I think muscle memory took over over. I do think you'll like that book. It's the great Dublin Saga.

It seems like a pretty serendipitous..."

@Declan, that's funny because even though you meant Colleen, I hadn't gotten a chance to read it last year when the group did. So it fit my circumstances, too :)

This is apropos of nothing, but what does the phrase about putting something on the long finger mean?

[Cathleen]

Allan wrote: "Paul, I wish I'd taken your advice to Jamielynn re not finishing a book you don't like, but I soldiered on and finally finished Taipei by Tao Lin this morning.

If I ever post a comment suggesting..."

When I first joined GR, a man in another group said that he used some sort of scale--something about subtracting his age from 100 and that's how many pages he would read in a book before he would put it aside. At 70, he gave a book 30 pages, and he wrote that one of the benefits of getting older was being pretty sure that if he wasn't interested in a book 30 pages in, it wouldn't change. That seemed like such a systematic way to abandon a book without guilt :) I should have taken his advice when I read one of Lionel Shriver's books....

[Trelawn]

That's a pretty good system actually.

[Colleen]

Cathleen wrote: "Allan wrote: "Paul, I wish I'd taken your advice to Jamielynn re not finishing a book you don't like, but I soldiered on and finally finished Taipei by Tao Lin this morning.

If I ever post a comm..."

Cathleen which Lionel Shriver book ? I read We Need to Talk About Kevin and I'm reading The Post-Birthday Worldnow. I never like her characters but I can't stop reading because I love the way she writes even though I don't like what she says half the time. I don't know if that makes sense.lol.

[Colleen]

Cathleen wrote: "Declan wrote: "@Cathleen. I actually meant to address that to Colleen, but I think muscle memory took over over. I do think you'll like that book. It's the great Dublin Saga.

It seems like a prett..."

@Declan I did read it and gave it 4 stars .Loved it! lol

[[deleted user]]

@Trelawn & Paul. Well, you've both given me plenty to read when I get back to Pratchett. Maybe enough to make it difficult.

@Cathleen. Putting something on the long finger means to put postpone something indefinitely. It's an old Irish saying but it appears in UK media a lot, so I thought it was fairly well known.

@Colleen. I'm glad you enjoyed it so much. :) Now, be sure to spread the word about it.

[Paul]

I feel no guilt for adding to your reading list ;-)

[Trelawn]

I feel a little guilt but nothing i'll lose sleep over. night :-)

[[deleted user]]

At least I won't run out of books in a hurry. :)

[Cathleen]

Declan wrote: "@Trelawn & Paul. Well, you've both given me plenty to read when I get back to Pratchett. Maybe enough to make it difficult.

@Cathleen. Putting something on the long finger means to put postpone so..."


I had never seen the expression before reading it here. I'll have to start using it--I really like it.

[Cathleen]

Colleen wrote: "Cathleen wrote: "Allan wrote: "Paul, I wish I'd taken your advice to Jamielynn re not finishing a book you don't like, but I soldiered on and finally finished Taipei by Tao Lin this morning.

If I..."

Colleen, it was We Need to Talk About Kevin. I know she's a talented writer, and I appreciate that. But I had grave misgivings all while reading that novel--and then a couple months after I finished it, there was the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Connecticut. I know it's intended to be a difficult read--and she succeeded mightily. I just wish I had stopped when I started getting creeped out.

[Isabella]

Paul wrote: "I know but its also hard to give up too early as well.
The terry pratchett stuff has a comic edge but the witches are great. Think theres possibly about 7 or 8 witch books all together."

There's no better example of that comic edge than the part where Granny Weatherwax refers to a man who is sick, saying he has the 'dire rear'.

Terry Pratchett is the only author who has made me laugh aloud in public (on a train).

[Paul]

He's done that to me too on many occasions as well . Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg are one of the best double acts in books today.

[Paul]

You won't regret it :-)

[Paul]

he's not always light but he's always fun

[[deleted user]]

@Cathleen. There's no exact reference as to how the phrase came about, but the best explanation I know is that if you push something away as far as you can with your middle finger, that's as far as you can push it while keeping it in arms reach.

Re. Pratchett: I remember wacthing Soul Music on telly when the band caused a scandal for claiming to be 'more popular that cheeses.' I loved that.

[Paul]

Dodgy Welsh accents,Death and Rock and Roll. I quite liked the animation and Death is such a good character. And of course his wonderful horse Binky.

[[deleted user]]

I saw that years ago, long before I ever read one of his books. It certainly made me warm to Pratchett... and Death.

I remember the conversation with the Guru about the colour of infinity. That was priceless.

[Sara]

I also am a big fan of Discworld with Moist von Lipwig being my favorite character (although I've read 1/3 of the books featuring him). I've also read most of the Witch books. I'm not as big a fan of the Watch books as many others are. My favorite Discworld novel is Small Gods though, which is pretty much a stand alone FYI Jamielynn (but I also think you would really like the Witch books). A year or two ago I went back and started reading all the Discworld books I hadn't already in order, and the next one up (whenever I get to it) will be Soul Music.

I also get into arguments all the time with a good friend who loves Pratchett and Gaiman, but can't stand Good Omens (which is one of my favorite books).

[Paul]

@Sara I quite like Small Gods as well. it's quite the comment on organised religion and you have to live Pratchett's take on the great philosophers.
You're friend must be odd.Good Omens is one of those collaborations which pulled in the best of both writers.
Pure genius.Azrapheal and Crawley get me evetytime.
I also freely admit that the watch books are my favourite but we'll agree to disagree.
@Declan. Death is most Pratchett readers favourite character. He's been drawn so well and his perspective on humanity is priceless.
Nice follow up for anyone who liked The Book Thief to read another sympathetic take on death. I'd recommend Mort or Reaper Man to any interested in a comparison.

[Seraphina]

Can you just pick up a random pratchett book Paul/Sara. I think that's why I haven't read him because it always looked like this amazing series but didn't know where to start