Which LIST book did you just start? Showing 3,751-3,800 of 7,242

[Tyler]

Started Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon recently.

[Peter]

Just started The Secret History by Donna Tartt

[Tim]

The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

[Diane]

Starting Voss by Patrick White.

[Sarah]

Started The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

That's high praise. I may have to bump this up my TBR a bit. I bought a nice edition of all three trilogies a few years ago, but I haven't gotten round to them yet.

[Diane]

Rites of Passage by William Golding.

[S.L.]

Silas Marner

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray. I read Barry Lyndon some time ago, and I can hardly remember anything about it, so I'm hoping I have a better experience with Thackeray this time

[Diane]

Started Deadlock, the 6th book in Pilgrimage by Dorothy M. Richardson.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Mercedes wrote: "Bryan wrote: "Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray. I read Barry Lyndon some time ago, and I can hardly remember anything about it, so I'm hoping I have a better experience with T..."

Just few chapters in, and I'm already enjoying VF more than Barry Lyndon. Becky seems a little over the top, but not too much so. Amelia maybe a little too good, but it sets up a good contrast.

[Mia]

I started The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.

[Diane]

Started Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin.

[Karina]

Started One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

[S.L.]

Mercedes wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Started The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy."

That trilogy is the only one I've read in which all three books were astounding. I hope you enjoy as much as I did Sarah."

Have you seen the series?

[George P.]

Just started The Diviners by Canadian Margaret Laurence (1974), her sole list book though she wrote many.

[S.L.]

City of God

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Starting The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

[Sean]

I have started Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

[Peter]

The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West

[Sean]

Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch was picked for the neighborhood book club. So I am reading it again.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

[George P.]

An oldie: Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz of Poland.

[Sean]

Two long books at one time... Good thing July has 31 days.... A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

[Nocturnalux]

Mercedes wrote: "Cane by Toomer. I've been looking forward to this one for a while."

I have also been meaning to read that one for a while now.

Meanwhile 2666 just became available at the library. This one will take a while, I think, and not just because it is so very long either.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Started At Lady Molly's by Anthony Powell, vol 4 in his Dance to the Music of Time series.

[Mia]

Platero and I by Juan Ramón Jiménez.

[Nocturnalux]

Mercedes wrote: "Nocturnalux, I've thought about you since I started Cane: it's poetry!"

I will give it top priority, then. There's a Norton edition, which is wonderful all around.

[Pillsonista]

Mercedes wrote: "Cane by Toomer. I've been looking forward to this one for a while."

Toomer's 'Georgia Dusk' is one of my most favorite poems that I've ever read.

[Peter]

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

I've wondered about her as well--I know she's well regarded. I just picked up White Teeth this month, and I've got NW on audiobook.

I do 99% of my book buying at thrift stores--I don't think it's very accurate, but sometimes I correlate between how much of a particular author I see at stores like that and how disposable they are--for instance, I see a ton of James Patterson and Danielle Steele and James Grisham etc. I think of them as fairly disposable, one-time-use authors. I almost never see Zadie Smith. Considering that she's quite popular, the fact that I rarely see her books on thrift stores shelves makes me think that people have a tendency to hold onto her books.

Like I said--I don't think that's very accurate. And even if she is good, that still doesn't mean she'll appeal to any particular reader. But I'd been looking for her for a long time, and was happy to finally get a chance to decide for myself.

[Nocturnalux]

I have White Teeth sitting on the shelf but have yet to read it.

That's an interesting point about an author's visibility at bookstores. I buy most of my English language books online as it is considerably cheaper but I do browse physical bookstores fairly regularly and pay attention to what titles are on display.

Interestingly enough, when you live in a non-English speaking country, the books in English form their own category as just that, 'books in English'. This means that it becomes fairly eclectic (even if sci-fi and fantasy in English tend to have their own shelves and displays) so that you can find Danielle Steele right next to, say, Ralph Ellision.

It makes sense as the amount of books is considerably smaller when compared to what you'd find in bookstores catering (almost) exclusively to an English speaking readership; Portuguese bookstores consider 'reader who read in English' as a discrete demography of sorts and thus do not subdivide the reading material as much as they do with Portuguese language books.

There is some classification as I've seen 'Dover thrift' editions, for example, or 'Penguin classics' with dedicated shelves but overall the way books in English is presented in somehow undifferentiated.

This means that authors that are huge a bit all over can- and do- stand side-by-side and with almost as many physical books- as more literary and less read (and usually better) authors.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Mercedes hits the nail on the head--recently two of the stores I go to frequently have had sales of 3 books for a dollar and 5 books for a dollar. Those may be a little extreme, but the average is 50 cents to 2 dollars per book.

I do still go to regular book stores, but that's mainly to look at their bargain and clearance bins.

[Storm]

A Christmas Carol

[Mia]

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett.

[Karen]

Mercedes wrote: "The Gathering

I've very much enjoyed Irish writers so far. Let's see if Enright keeps with the tradition."

I'm halfway through the audiobook -- quite good so far.

[Tim]

Rabbit, Run by John Updike

[Tim]

Mercedes wrote: "On Beauty by Smith

I'm bracing for a disappointment... most new writers aren't my thing. Let's see if I'm pleasantly surprised."

This one is on my list for August. Interested to see your evaluation.

[Nocturnalux]

The New York Trilogy

[Sean]

Started my first James Joyce with A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

[Tyler]

Started Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett.

[Tim]

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

[Sarah]

Mercedes wrote: "Sarah wrote: "That trilogy is the only one I've read in which all three books were astounding. I hope you enjoy as much as I did Sarah."

Thank you! It was very good! I really enjoyed it.

[Sarah]

Started Antic Hay by Aldous Huxley.

[Tim]

Sarah wrote: "Started Antic Hay by Aldous Huxley."

I really enjoyed Antic Hay and Chrome Yellow as well. I never connected with Brave New World. It seemed a little YAish to me.

[Vikki]

Moby Dick.

[George P.]

Just starting Wise Children by Angela Carter (Britain, 1991).

[Karina]

Just starting The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark. I really enjoy her writing and I am enjoying this one so far about 30 pages in.

[Karen]

Mercedes wrote: "My husband and I are reading The Name of the Rose out loud."

I love The Name of the Rose. I hope your edition includes Eco's Postscript -- it is excellent.

[Mia]

I started Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Excited about this one.