The Jolly Good Reading Society discussion
What are you currently reading?
Jen wrote: "Which one in particular would you recommend to start with?"Ooh, you've got me there.. I'll have to think back further than a week.. okay - The Star Diaries was the first one I read and got me hooked, so I'd suggest that one. It's a series of short stories based around one of his regular characters. Solaris is his most famous one (made into 3 films).
Jen wrote: I read that one earlier this year. ..."Well , I can say it didn't amaze me, it felt sort of "meh". I'll watch the movie during the weekend and expect it will be better :)
Very unorthodoxly, I'll write my review after I watch the movie :P
I have now picked up a book by a Portuguese author,
, I don't think it has been translated yet, so I'll do my best translating the synopsis:All the colours of the wind
«A poet, an orthodox Jew, a Palestinian, a Jehovah witness, an agnostic woman and a cat inhabit the same building.
Each of them lives encased in his dungeon, except the cat, who will witness the tensions, hatreds and religious conflicts that will arise between the tenants.
In an everyday life so often more absurd than you would believe, prejudice spawns, small obsessions reach gigantic proportions and the characters become the survivors of a contemporary war.»
I'm actually looking forward to how the author will manage the characters' dynamics :D
Just finished Paper Towns by John Green (loved it!) and now onto Wool by Hugh Howey.
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I read Wool a few months ago. I really enjoyed it. I want to read Shift and Dust too.
Jenna wrote: "Just finished Paper Towns by John Green (loved it!) and now onto Wool by Hugh Howey."We'll be discussing Paper Towns on the group as part of the John Green readalong! That's the choice for September =)
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I'm participating in the Booktubeathon at the moment so what I'm reading is changing a lot as I'm finishing a lot of books at the moment. Currently I'm reading The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom...it's really fast paced and is based on fairy tales. It's a middlegrade so really funny too, and the illustrations really help bring it to life =)
I'm currently reading Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. I'm only about one-third of the way through but I'm loving the writing so much I went ahead and bought another Murakami novel.the writing is so beautiful and the dialogue is very realistic. I feel like Murakami writes how people really talk.
I just finished The Princess Bride and am about to start The Mystery of the Blue Train. I`ve heard a lot of good things about Norwegian Woodmaybe I`ll take a look at that too.
I've just finished all of my reading for the readathons so I've finally picked The Name of the Wind back up and I'm really enjoying it! It's great to be reading what I'm in the mood for and this book is just so well written and so in-depth!
Lora wrote: "I'm overloaded with books from Netgalley! I'll have to stop requesting for a while. I dropped everything to read Children of the Morning when it came out though. This series is goin..."Know exactly what you mean with NetGalley...I really need to catch up!
I'm reading 3 books at the moment; The Name of the Wind, which is absolutely amazing! So many great characters...I'm just reading it slowly because I don't know when the third book is being released so I want to savour the first two!I started Warm Bodies earlier because I'm doing the #7in7Readathon on Twitter and it's a pretty short book. I've wanted to read it for ages and am glad to have finally gotten around to it. I'm interested in seeing the film too.
Also, whilst I'm in work on quiet days, I'm reading Three Men in a Boat which is on the BBC top 200 list so I've wanted to read it for a while and it's been on my shelf for ages now. I'm enjoying it so far =)
(I'm also doing a 'reread' of the audiobook of Michael McIntyre's Life And Laughing: My Story walking to and from work, so I'm taking that slowly too)
I liked the film Warm Bodies a lot, but not sure if I'd like the book, so I look forward to your assessment. I'm currently reading Gone Girl and am enjoying it immensely!
Helle wrote: "I liked the film Warm Bodies a lot, but not sure if I'd like the book, so I look forward to your assessment. I'm currently reading Gone Girl and am enjoying it immensely!"I've heard great things about Gone Girl!
Charlotte wrote: "Helle wrote: "I liked the film Warm Bodies a lot, but not sure if I'd like the book, so I look forward to your assessment. I'm currently reading Gone Girl and am enjoying it immensely!"I've heard..."
Charlotte wrote: "Helle wrote: "I liked the film Warm Bodies a lot, but not sure if I'd like the book, so I look forward to your assessment. I'm currently reading Gone Girl and am enjoying it immensely!"
I've heard..."
I highly recommend Gone Girl. I'm currently reading Death in Venice by Thomas Mann and the Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury (the latter is a short story collection).
Helle wrote: "Charlotte wrote: "Helle wrote: "I liked the film Warm Bodies a lot, but not sure if I'd like the book, so I look forward to your assessment. I'm currently reading Gone Girl and am enjoying it immen..."I've wanted The Illustrated Man for so long. I read Fahrenheit 451 and loved it. Bradbury's writing style was amazing so I really want to read more by him.
I totally feel the same way. I read Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles and Death is a Lonely Business as a child and then completely forgot about him until I read Something Wicked This Way Comes last year and fell in love with his writing all over again!
I'm still hacking away at
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. This is going to be one I really need to focus on because I've struggled with it for nearly two months. I don't usually finish no-matter-what but so many people encouraged me to not give up, stating its slow beginning pays off at the end. We shall see.
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. This is going to be one I really need to focus on because I've struggled with it for nearly two months. I don't usually finish no-matter-what but so many people encouraged me to not give up, stating its slow beginning pays off at the end. We shall see.
Liz (Liz'sBookBuffet) wrote: "I'm still hacking away at Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. This is going to be one I really need to focus on because I've struggled with it for..."I picked it up at the library once but couldn't get into it...it's definitely one that I'll be trying again though =)
Charlotte wrote: "I picked it up at the library once but couldn't get into it...it's definitely one that I'll be trying again though."
It took nearly one-half of the book before I got into it. It's quite graphic (on a YA level) in parts and a mystery is finally surfacing. I'm starting to enjoy it a little. Still, my fear is that it will end up being a disappointment and I will have stuck with it for nothing. But, then again, I may be pleasantly surprised.
It took nearly one-half of the book before I got into it. It's quite graphic (on a YA level) in parts and a mystery is finally surfacing. I'm starting to enjoy it a little. Still, my fear is that it will end up being a disappointment and I will have stuck with it for nothing. But, then again, I may be pleasantly surprised.
Liz (Liz'sBookBuffet) wrote: "Charlotte wrote: "I picked it up at the library once but couldn't get into it...it's definitely one that I'll be trying again though."It took nearly one-half of the book before I got into it. It'..."
Hopefully the latter...everyone seems to love that series
I am currently reading Mary: Mrs. A. Lincoln. It is a novel recounting the famous First Lady's days spent in an insane asylum later in her life. I can't help but think about another novel I read quite recently that places the main character in a similar situation, Blue Asylum. I'm only a few pages in, but it seems pretty interesting so far!
I've just finished The Illustrated Man (I highly recommend it) and have started reading The wind-Up Bird Chronicle. This will be my 4th Murakami.
Andrea wrote: "...Blue Asylum. I'm only a few pages in, but it seems pretty interesting so far! "
Ooh! A friend bought this for me for Christmas last year. I didn't expect to get to it any time soon, but please let us know what you think. Perhaps I'll bump it up the TBR list.
Ooh! A friend bought this for me for Christmas last year. I didn't expect to get to it any time soon, but please let us know what you think. Perhaps I'll bump it up the TBR list.
Liz (Liz'sBookBuffet) wrote: "Andrea wrote: "...Blue Asylum. I'm only a few pages in, but it seems pretty interesting so far! "Ooh! A friend bought this for me for Christmas last year. I didn't expect to get to it any time so..."
Of course! :]
I'm about a third of the way through The Girl With All the Gifts by M. R. Carey and loving it so far.
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I wish I could say the same about Shift by Hugh Howey...I seem to have been trudging my way through this one for months! I'm going to try my best to read a big chunk over the next few days or, unfortunately, I'll have to give up :(
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I'm currently reading Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig and I really like it. The writing style is beautiful and the characters have such depth. I'd definitely read more of his work.
I'm currently reading Hollow Pike by James Dawson...it's a little out of my comfort zone but I'm doing some early Halloween reading for some blog posts and videos that I'm planning =) It's really good so far and not scary at all really, it's more about the mystery which I really like =)
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I've started Gutenberg's Apprentice: A Novel by Alix Christie which tells a fictionalised story of the printing press. It's interesting so far but a slower paced book.I'm still reading I Can't Begin to Tell You by Elizabeth Buchan and A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.
I'm enjoying everything I'm reading but I'm just not motivated to read large amounts at the moment so we'll see when I eventually finish these.
I did enjoy Hollow Pike though!
I am so upset! I couldn't even begin to read Frankenstein, because of how busy my life has gotten in the past week and a half. :( I started school, and now I'm reading about accounting and crunching numbers. Hopefully over fall break I will be able to catch up on some reads!
I haven't managed to get to Frankenstein yet because I have a massive 'currently reading' pile at the moment but I'm concentrating A Discovery of Witches and I'm absolutely loving it so far. Some of the characters are annoying but I'm really interested in what's going to happen =)
I finished A Discovery of Witches yesterday and loved it! I moved straight onto the second book in the trilogy, Shadow of Night
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I have read hardly anything this month. But, what I have read, has been by John Christopher. I'm only a couple handfuls of pages away from finishing The Death of Grass and I finished The White Mountains a little while back. Both are fantastic post-apocalyptic science fiction novels, very short in length. I picked up another John Christopher novel A Wrinkle in the Skin. Not sure when I'll get to that but it also has a great-sounding premise.
Liz (Liz'sBookBuffet) wrote: "I have read hardly anything this month. But, what I have read, has been by John Christopher. I'm only a couple handfuls of pages away from finishing The Death of Grass and I finished..."I've barely been reading either! I think it's the time of year or something. I keep just starting things but not finishing them...
I've actually been in the mood for non-fiction/true-crime stuff but I always hate those types of books, so I've been watching a lot of similar documentaries on Netflix. I also just finished Forgotten Planet which is about industrial boom towns which eventually went bankrupt and were abandoned by the companies that built them. It's eery. There was even an episode about Detroit which hits close to home for me. I read more of Emma this month and was really enjoying it but was watching the BBC miniseries to kind of propel the story for me. Then I got really into the show and just abandoned the book. I did start reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone but it just wasn't my thing. I read a little HP and the Deathly Hallows but put that down for The White Mountains and have just lolly-gagged through the rest of the month. I think I was just burned out. I was actually tired of reading. We'll see what October brings.
Liz (Liz'sBookBuffet) wrote: "I've actually been in the mood for non-fiction/true-crime stuff but I always hate those types of books, so I've been watching a lot of similar documentaries on Netflix. I also just finished Forgott..."Burnt out is a good way of describing it. I've gone from reading about 15 books a month to 5 this month!
I feel like this time is very busy! I'm usually so burnt out from reading books from school that I don't even want to pick any others up. Haha! Currently Im reading Real Sex by Jennifer Winner. It basically describes chastity and sexual ethics in the world today. I'm writing a research paper on those topics, and I only intended to use a few snippets from the book. However, it turned into a very compelling read after the first two pages! Haha! Needless to say, I got sucked in!
Andrea wrote: "I feel like this time is very busy! I'm usually so burnt out from reading books from school that I don't even want to pick any others up. Haha! Currently Im reading Real Sex by Jennifer Winner. It ..."Reading books for school/university really do change your reading mood. I still have to read quite a few classics for this semester and the pressure of those has sort of made me stop reading for fun as well...well, until I picked up The Casual Vacancy
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Yesterday I started We Have Always Lived in the Castle" by Shirley Jackson. The writing style is magnificent! While I want to fly through this book, because it presents itself as a book to be devoured, there's also an element of mystery and suspense that invites one to read slowly and savor the language and characters. I will probably try and pace myself over the last few days of the month.
I'm currently reading The Casual Vacancy by J.K.Rowling. It's been on my shelf since it came out 2 years ago and I'm enjoying it so far. It's a little depressing at points but it's written in such a way that it feels completely realistic!I've also just started the short story collection The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich for university. I won't be reading every single story right now, just the ones we're studying, but I will read the rest at some point =)
Jen wrote: "I finished Shift and really enjoyed it....looking forward to reading Dust now :)I'm currently reading Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig and I really like it. The writing style is beautif..."
I read the Wool Series and really enjoyed them.
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I'm currently reading Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig and I really like it. The writing styl..."
I've enjoyed them so far. I'm looking forward to reading Dust, hopefully before the end of the year. I have so many wonderful books waiting to be read, it's difficult to choose :)
I just finished Gone Girl for a neighborhood book club. I really enjoyed it, but wanted a little more "closure" for an ending. But excited to see the movie soon. Now I'm reading Maze Runner since that is out in movie now (at least in the US). My friend really enjoyed the movie so I want to read the book before I see the movie. I'm also re-reading Outlander to keep up with the TV series. I'm sooooo happy happy about the mid-season break though!!
Lacey wrote: "Jen wrote: "I finished Shift and really enjoyed it....looking forward to reading Dust now :)I'm currently reading Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig and I really like it. The writing styl..."
I read them all in a row. I sort of like to know the 'end' so I usually like to read the whole series at one time.
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If you haven't tried him already, I'd recommend Stanislaw Lem - sci-fi/philosophy with a little satire thrown in."
Thanks Stephen, I haven't read any of his books but they definitely sound like my kind of thing. Which one in particular would you recommend to start with?