what are you reading at the moment?

[Hilary]

Just finished Black Narcissus totally compelling. Even though I had some vague recollections of the film and knew how it ended I couldn't stop reading. I can't remember the last book I read that was so full of brooding tension, you are just waiting the whole time for disaster to strike. Now what next?

[Joy]

Just started Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. Not sure if I'm going to like it. The reviews I've read make it sound a 'marmite' book. I seem to be reading a lot of accidental books at the moment - things I've been given as presents or that my OH has picked up on special offer.

[Jenny]

Joy, personally I was a bit dissapointed by that one, but I know a lot of people that adore this book (marmite book indeed ;)), so I hope it is a 'hit' rather than a 'miss' for you.

[Laurel]

Reading a bit more of Daniel Deronda - I am going to have to get a biography of Eliot, she is an amazing writer. I was so absorbed in it earlier I was nearly late for work oops!

[[deleted user]]

Must read more Eliot - The 3 I've read - Adam Bede, Middlemarch and Silas Marner - I've really enjoyed.

[Laurel]

Yeah I loved Middlemarch, it's a brilliant book, enjoyed Silas too. Haven't read Adam Bede though..... maybe that one next.

I've just started Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock as well which is another brilliant book.

[[deleted user]]

I've heard of that I think it's in the to read list somewhere.

[Jenny]

I am juggeling a whole lot of books at the moment but really enjoying all of them so far.

I've just started reading The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell as well as an interesting genre hermaphrodite by W.G. Sebald: The Rings of Saturn. I was somehow convinced that they were travel essays, but the book won a price for best fiction, and is generally filed under 'novel', so I am slightly but pleasantly confused.
I've also started reading a poem or three a day of Drysalter by Michael Symmons Roberts
and I am listening to A Simple Heart by Gustave Flaubert.

[[deleted user]]

Oooh, we had Austerlitz by W G Sebald as a Readalong recently - we all really enjoyed it - he's quite unique isn't he?
We've had a poem from Drysalter as one of our poems of the day - I've love the way he manages to express so much with so few words.

[Joy]

I've given up on Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. I'm indulging in some PG Wodehouse.

[Hilary]

I find I can't read more than two books at once. It's not that I get confused exactly it's just it doesn't seem right!!! If I try more than that, some of them get lost along the way, like poor mr Pickwick has.

[Tracey]

I'm afraid that I'm just a one book at a time girl, although I have enjoyed the diary entry a day on here too.

[Jenny]

Well honestly, 4 books at once is outrageous for me too, and indeed doesn't feel quite right. However I often read a book of fiction and one of non-fiction at the same time and the more I read poetry the more I have made it a habit to have a book of poetry next to my bed, reading a poem or two before I go to sleep. It works for me because they are all different genres, which somehow all call for a different way to be read, and I particularly like if they are subject related. However two books of non-fiction or two books of fiction or poetry, that is where my capacity and my reading pleasure would end.

[[deleted user]]

I think 3 books at a time is probably my limit - though if I'm reading in instalments - like I'm doing with Dickens I think I could have many more on the go.

[[deleted user]]

I like the Idea of poetry at bedtime.

[Angela]

@Jenny - I'm the same. I can do a couple if it's different genres and like you said @Lee - if it's instalments then multiple texts is a bit easier :-)

When I was on Dante I had to toggle with something else to put some air back in my brain!

[[deleted user]]

I can imagine!

[Ellie]

I've tried juggling six books but I found I wasn't getting as much out if them as I felt I should. I've gone down to 2 maximum now, though when I get about three quarters through a book, I find I want to concentrate on just that one.

[Ellie]

Some time ago, I put in a reservations for The Luninaries - there were over 40 reservations at the time, so though it would take ages before I got it. Not sure how long it's been, but it arrived this week, so my task for the next three weeks is to get through that! There's still 28 reservations on it so I won't be able to renew

[[deleted user]]

Wow! Good luck Ellie - I have that somewhere on my kindle - but am thinking of reading it in chunks over 3 months rather than 3 weeks!

[Laurel]

Hope you enjoy it Ellie, it looks really good.

[[deleted user]]

Finished Orkney which I loved and 20% thru Robinson Crusoe - he wasn't quite as solitary as I had been led to believe - at the current count he has 1 dog, numerous cats, several goats and a parrot ! - almost as many animals as Mr Pepys!

[Hilary]

Has anybody read Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally? It got very good reviews when it came out and I thought Schindlers Ark, which I read not long after it was published was outstanding. I started it ages ago and keep putting it to one side and reading something else instead. I just find it very slow and it doesn't grab my attention in the slightest.

[[deleted user]]

Finished the 1st lot of Mr Crusoe's adventures and enjoyed them - I'm having a bit of a change before I start his "Further Adventures" and have just started The Idiot.

[Laurel]

I haven't heard of it Hilary, although I liked Schindler's Ark too.

How is The Idiot so far? Haven't started yet as I'm still reading Daniel Deronda and I can only do one big fat classic at a time. I'm also reading Boris Akhunin's The Winter Queen which is a fairly quick read (I'm already half way through) but I'm enjoying it.

[[deleted user]]

@ Laurel - my kindle tells me that I'm 11% in and I'm hooked. Like other Russian novels I've read (not very many) I have absolutely no idea what any of the characters are going to do next - their brains seem to work very differently from mine.

[Laurel]

Cool, have been meaning to have a go at Dostoyevsky for a while so once I finish the Eliot I'll start catching up!

[Hilary]

@Laurel. Glad to hear that The Winter Queen is good as the library are shipping it in from somewhere for me, I just hope it comes soon as I reserved it two weeks ago.

The Daughters of Mars is improving but I think it's going to be a graphic condemnation of WW1, it's a novel but very much based on fact and the main action is on a hospital ship so far. A bit distressing as I know my grandfather fought in the Dardanelles which is where it's currently picking up casualties - although he did survive.

I've just started the Idiot and I'm hooked already, I think I'm going to enjoy it.

[Angela]

Is Dostoyevsky easy to read? As in accessible?

[[deleted user]]

I think so - he's very readable - his characters are all extremely intense and passionate and behave in quite bizarre (to me) ways - I'm addicted.

[Hilary]

I think he's very readable as well, as my claim to fame is that I read Crime and Punishment aged 11, I really have to say that! I'm enjoying the characters in the Idiot already, I can't wait to see what they are going to do next.

[georgiabread]

Insurgent by Veronica Roth!!!!! :D

[[deleted user]]

@ GAB - ah I understand now.....

[Suzan]

I just started reading A Game of Thrones. I was very hesitant to buy the book because I am not good with series, I tend to dislike them or at least only read the first (but buy them all), but then my friend bought the first three books of the series, didn't like the first one so gave them all to me.
I do love the story so far, but it helps that I've seen the tv-show and that they're very similar so far. I don't think I would understand it all if I didn't know the characters from the show. Also, my edition has a overview of all the houses (I don't know if all editions do), but that's very helpful too.

[Hilary]

I loved A game of Thrones and although I think the first book in the series is the best, I did become seriously addicted and read the whole series one after the other. I didn't see the TV series but since then I've seen the DVDs and they do adhere very faithfully to the story line. I hope you enjoy them Suzan

[Joy]

I'm reading Poor Miss Finch and am loving it.

[[deleted user]]

Excellent - I think I might just have to read that next month.Has anyone changed colour yet?

[Angela]

I hope you are enjoying it Suzan 1 I'm thinking if cracking out the first one soon so let me know how you are travelling with it :-)

[Jenny]

I am currently reading Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, which seems to be a consensus-favourite for many people. I wonder whether the reason the enthusiam hasn't hit me yet, is because I've just finished The Rings of Saturn by Sebald, which was brilliant and quiet exciting and - would I not have had to return it to the library - I would have started all over again after finishing, because apart from brilliant it is also strange and confusingly complex. Compared to it, somehow Rebecca looks a bit pale at the moment, but I hope that'll change.

[[deleted user]]

I think you just have to be in the mood to let Rebecca completely take you over

[[deleted user]]

I'm having a slight break from the utter madness that is The Idiot and am starting The Death of Achilles - Boris Akunin

[Joy]

Lee wrote: "Excellent - I think I might just have to read that next month.Has anyone changed colour yet?"

Oh yes! But I won't spoil it by giving away who...

[Laurel]

Finished The Winter Queen which was a fun mystery although the ending was a shock. Am now reading Leviathan Wakes which is a sci-fi space opera mystery thingy which I'm quite enjoying and also Night Film by Marisha Pessl which is very intriguing so far.

[Angela]

I finished the Hobbit! I loved it - probably could have done without all those songs but it was really fun :-) I've heard so many mixed opinions about the following trilogy though.

[[deleted user]]

Oh I love The Lord of the Rings - I never thought I would - but I was totally caught up in it from the very first page.

[Hilary]

Although I enjoyed the Hobbit I don't think its in the same league as Lord of the Rings. I believe that the Hobbit was written as a children's book whereas The Lord of the Rings is very much an adult story with a very different tone.

Has anyone ever read the Silmarrilion (? That spelling looks odd!) which he wrote next. I've had the book for years and years and never even opened it!

[Hilary]

Disaster has struck!!!! I'm away for the weekend as usual, decided not to take The daughters of mars which I'm now really into but to concentrate on the Idiot because it was easier to carry on the Kindle and find I haven't packed the Kindle either and neither have I downloaded it on to the iPad.

Too many books, too many devices, too little organisation!

[[deleted user]]

Oh no! But maybe you'll find some buried treasure lurking on your iPad :0)
I suspect it was the turmoil of realising that you liked Elvis after all that caused you to forget your kindle.
I have tried to read the Simillarion but just couldn't get in to it.

[[deleted user]]

Just finished the 1st part of The Idiot - which left me slightly dazed - an amazing book. I started The Death of Achilles - a book by a modern Russian author set in the Tsarist past - but it's suffering in comparison with The Idiot whose characters are so much more alive - if completely mad - so I'm putting that to one side for a bit while I read Cheerful Weather For The Wedding - a very funny and totally Unromantic novella about a wedding day.

[Angela]

Lots of different stuff there Lee - hope you are enjoying it all. That last one sounds like great fun :-)