What do you plan to read this month?

[[deleted user]]

Ooh let me know how you get on with Your Face Tomorrow and Alias Grace :0)

[Angela]

This month, I am reading:

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (my festive pick)

:)

[Hilary]

I don't normally plan what I'm going to read but here goes

Monthly Reads
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie
The Hogfather - Terry Pratchett
The Beggar Maid - Alice Munro
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlen

From my TBR shelf
The Daughters of Mars - Thomas Keneally
The House with the Green Shutters - George Douglas

Finish reading
Merival - Rose Tremaine
Mao's Great Famine - Frank Dikotter

And here's wishing good luck to us all!!

[Paul]

Aiming to read:
Veteran Gavin Smith
Elantris Brandon Sanderson
Jack Glass Adam Roberts
Rosalind Franklin : The Dark Lady Of DNA Brenda Maddox
The Painted Man Peter V. Brett
Alone in Antarctica Felicity Aston
Call of the White: Taking the World to the South Pole: Eight Women, One Unique Expedition Felicity Aston
Meander : East to West along a Turkish River Jeremy Seal
A Lizard In My Luggage: Mayfair to Mallorca in One Easy Move Anna Nicholas
Sovereign C.J. Sanson
The Underpainter Jane Urquhart
One Day David Nicholls
Gold Chris Cleeve
Great North Road Peter F. Hamilton

[[deleted user]]

Good luck to us all indeed !

[Hilary]

@ Paul. I'd be interested in what you make of One Day. I loved it but others i know thought it was dreadful! Are you not joining us in any of the monthly reads?

[Paul]

Hilary wrote: "@ Paul. I'd be interested in what you make of One Day. I loved it but others i know thought it was dreadful! Are you not joining us in any of the monthly reads?"

I will review when I have read it. I haven't as yet due to a lack of time. If I can get hold of Stranger in a Strange Land then I will

[[deleted user]]

Ok I have a few to carry over from last month- but I'm finding January rather depressing - so apart from group reads - I'm going to read only children's books and stuff I've been been wanting to read for a while this Month:
Obabakoak monthly read
The Ballad and the Source - monthly author
Persuasion Readalong
Parts 2 & 3 of Stranger in a Strange Land quarterly read
2 instalments of The Pickwick Papers
The Moomins and the Great Flood
The Mouse and His Child
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
The Little White Horse
Artful
Burial Rites
Orkney
The Bad Beginning
Five Children and It
Read all except the last third of Stranger in a Strange Land

[Laurel]

I've never read The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (I must have missed it when I was a kid!) - let me know what it's like Lee

[Ellie]

I'm struggling to resettle myself after Christmas so I'm not progressing very far on my reading at all. My plans for this month are pretty much exclusively group reads:

Finish Stranger in a Strange Land
Finish Austen's Sense and Sensibility
Finish Trollope's Sense and Sensibility
Finish the Hogfather (bit late now but I have to finish what I started!)
Finish The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Obabakoak (group read)
Persuasion (if I have time)
At least a couple more chapters of Mason & Dixon
And as my library reservation came up this week (earlier than I expected!), I'm going to make a start on We Need New Names

[Jenny]

My list for January:
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar
The Sin of Father Mouret by Emile Zola
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe paired with:
Foe by J.M. Coetzee ( Robinson Crusoe retelling)
Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock
Gedichte by Anna Akhmatova
A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel

[Laurel]

OK well I'm going to read:
Obabakoak for the group read
Persuasion for the readalong
Austerlitz for the readalong last month that I'm well behind on
Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Peacock
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones for my around the world in 80 books challenge thingy
and I'm going to finish Byatt's The Children's Book, Lehrmann's Dusty Answer and Pynchon's Mason & Dixon all of which I'm reading now.
After those, I'm winging it!

[Hilary]

When I get through what I planned for December I'll consider what I might plan for ......er.............probably April. But I will keep up with the monthly Boxall and the monthly author and try to catch up with Pickwick.

If I could only finish For Whom the Bell Tolls which I'm finding quite tedious.

[[deleted user]]

Good luck Hilary. I've never got on to well with Hemingway either.

[Cynthia]

Well we are part way through the month, so my list is shorter.
Finish Mr. Pip
Obabakoak, if my reserve comes through at the library soon.
Jesus Land: A Memoir by Julia Scheeres
Start Complete Tales of the Unexpected by Roald Dahl

Just on a sidenote, how does one create an underlined title of a book that links?

[Laurel]

At the top of the comments box, it says 'add book/author' - click on that then type in the name of the book and press search, it should give you a list so you can choose the one you want and then when you post your comment it will have the underlined link for the book title - hope that made sense ;)

[Hilary]

Thanks Laurel for the answer and Cynthia for the question. I've wondered how you do that so For Whom the Bell Tolls is finished at long last, incredibly tedious with flashes of interest

[Cynthia]

Ah, the add book/author doesn't show up on my Goodreads iPad app!
I have to be on our regular computer to see it.
Can I ask a question? Do most of you get your reads from the public library? If so, is there a wait for them? If a book is good, there is most often a wait for it here. Sometimes a very long wait......

[Jenny]

I use the library for most books as well. However we have a pretty big network of libraries in town, so if a book is taken in the main one,they will get it from another local one, plus there's the university library as well, which is extremely handy for books that haven't been translated to German, since they have a huge English language section.
How long do you generally have to wait Cynthia? I imagine this makes joining in with group reads quite difficult sometimes?

[Ellie]

I try to use the library as much as possible, Cynthia, but have the same problem as you sometimes - popular books have a long waiting list, I've had some on reserve for a couple of months at least now and still no sign of them. :( Understandably, it's the ones that have been in the press recently that are the most popular and hence also most difficult to get hold of - it'll take months before I see The Luminaries

[[deleted user]]

Would it help people if I tried to give 2 months notice of monthly books and authors rather than just the one?

[Hilary]

I think that might be helpful, Lee, to those who have access to a library. But I think it might also become quite confusing, to me at least, with various titles floating around I suspect I'd lose track of what was being read and when.

I'm in the position of mostly buying the books I read which means I don't necessarily join in with all the books mentioned.

[[deleted user]]

Ok so I'll start giving more notice of up and coming reads for those of us who use the libraries and I'll do my best to to make the timing nice and clear and we'll see how it goes :0).

[Cynthia]

That would be great. Yes, I must wait on some of the more popular books for weeks or months. There are even books that have so many holds that you would never ever get it. The reservation expires first!

[Hilary]

I can see that would be frustrating although it's good to see them being so well used. Wouldn't you think they would buy some more copies rather than have people wait for such a long time?

[[deleted user]]

Or make more e-books available to borrow online?

[[deleted user]]

February's list
Robinson Crusoe
The beginning 3rd of The Idiot Quarterly read
A Sea Grape Tree Virago
Cheerful Weather For The Wedding Persephone
The Death of Achilles monthly author
The Man With the Golden Arm - monthly read
Kidnapped
The Grass is Singing
Every Man Dies Alone
The Phoenix and the Carpet
The second half of Dirt Music
Start The Sea, the Sea

[Ellie]

This month I shall be mostly reading The Luminaries!!

[[deleted user]]

Of course you will! :0)

[Angela]

Nice looking list Lee :)

I admire you Ellie - I hope you dont carry it around in your handbag. You might do your shoulder an injury!

[Angela]

I am going to finish The Hobbit, then:

The Brush Off
Brideshead Revisited
And the Mountains Echoed

[[deleted user]]

March's List

Finish Alone in Berlin
Finish The Sea, the Sea
Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead virago
The Courilof Affair
2nd half of Dirt Music
2nd book of The Idiot - Quarterly book
The Guide monthly read
The Inheritors monthly author
The Republic penguin
Grey Souls
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Closely Watched Trains
Finish The Man With the Golden Arm
Next instalment of The Pickwick Papers

[[deleted user]]

Somewhat unrealistic I know - but there you go.

[Jenny]

I will finish The Republic by Plato and Neverwhere by Gaiman

and will then get to:
The Spire – William Golding
The Collected Stories– Eudora Welty
The Third Man – Graham Greene
The Guide – R.K. Narayan
Beethoven. Der einsame Revolutionär - Jan Caeyers (no english translation yet, Beethoven biography half for work, half for pleasure)
and a book of poetry by Robert Frost

[Jenny]

Lee wrote: "March's List

Finish Alone in Berlin
Finish The Sea, the Sea
Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead virago
The Courilof Affair
2nd half of Dirt Music

Lee, you'll be reading 'Grey Souls'next month? Enjoy!
When are you starting 'The Republic'? I will be reading 2 chapters (books) a week, so I am only on chapter/book 3, and will be reading it all through March in case you want to chat about it.

[Angela]

@Jenny - Let me know what you think of Robert Frost. I've never read his poetry and would love a recommendation if it's worth it :)

How are you both doing with Plato?

[Laurel]

I'm going to finish The Man With the Golden Arm
and probably:
The Flamethrowers - Rachel Kushner
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe - Carson McCullers
The Guide - RK Narayan
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Hell at the Breech - Tom Franklin
Deadhouse Gates - Steven Erikson
and the next part of The Idiot

[[deleted user]]

@ Jenny - I'll start next week and try and catch up - 2 chapters a week sounds like a good idea :0)

[Jenny]

Angela wrote: "@Jenny - Let me know what you think of Robert Frost. I've never read his poetry and would love a recommendation if it's worth it :)

How are you both doing with Plato?"

Angela, you saying that you haven't read any Robert Frost makes me feel much better, because I thought I was the last person to read him, and I generally read quite a bit of poetry. I guess poetry is - more so than prose writing - confined to it's language territories, a mention of a lot of 'must read poets' in the States for example would only get a 'and that's who exactly?' from most German readers. I'll let you know what I think of it!

As for Plato: after struggeling through Russells The Problems of Philosophy (good grief he's dry!!) Plato feels like a walk in the park. It's all written in Socratic dialog, which at times has the benefit of being almost witty. I am only getting to the juicy bits now, but I find it surprisingly enjoyable to read, or at times to listen too. There's quite a nice iTunes version of it, if you can get used to the nasal tone of the narrator I'd recommend it. https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/plat...

[Angela]

I've been looking for things to spend my $100 itunes voucher on so this is perfect! Thanks Jenny :) We can compare notes!

[[deleted user]]

I'll start a Plato's Republic read (or listen) along for us

[Jenny]

Angela, you won't have to spend a penny, it's free!!

[Jenny]

thanks Lee!

[Angela]

I saw that. How am I ever going to use this $100? Everything I want is free (what a great problem to have...)

[Hilary]

I've had a copy of Republic on my bookshelves for years and never read it, count me in for a shot at it now

[[deleted user]]

Yay!

@ Jenny and Angela - I haven't read a lot of Robert Frost - but I really like the 2 poems of his we've had as Poem of the Day - no. 25 After Apple Picking and no. 88 Birches.

[Jenny]

Great!!

[Ellie]

Well, I really don't know what's going on, the last couple of months have been manic!! I've not been able to keep up with the group reads at all this year :( I'm going abandon the February reads and move straight to March, and try and make an effort to keep!! I also need to finish off some of the Jan and earlier stuff that I haven't finished yet!

So, this month will be:

Stranger in a Strange Land
Mason & Dixon (arrrgghh!)
Invitation to the Waltz - Rosamund Lehman

The Spire - William Golding (monthly author)
The Guide - RK Naryan (Monthly Boxall)
Moon Stallion - Brian Hayles (a favourite from my childhood that I had an urge to look at again)
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachael Joyce (from my TBR pile)

[Kayla]

This month I plan to read
Cannery Row
Giovanni's Room
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Ellen Foster
A Virtuous Woman
Ethan Frome
Quicksand and Passing
The Collected Stories

[Angela]

I'm going to try for:

The Republic
The Book Thief
Stardust
and finish The Good Thief

I'll add more if I find myself with time to spare..