what are you reading at the moment?

[[deleted user]]

It certainly is :0)

[Ellie]

Still on The Luminaries.....

[[deleted user]]

How's it going Ellie?

[Ellie]

300 pages in; the way the story is building is very clever but also a little slow. Can't help thinking maybe it could have been 200 pages shorter....

[Angela]

I think you are doing well Ellie! Have you set yourself any sort of timeline or just going to float along with it?

[Ellie]

It has to be returned to the library by 22nd Feb, so basically I have 12 days to read 500 pages. Easy....

[[deleted user]]

Good luck:0)

[Jenny]

The Luminaries is on my TBR too, so I am looking forward to hearing what you think Ellie!

I am currently reading The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson, and I am still stuck in the first part which a lot of people seem to find rather boring. Now I don't think it's boring but it's hard to really get invested yet. Which, according to friends' reviews, will change rather drastically soon, so I am looking forward to that.

[[deleted user]]

Just finished "Cheerful Weather for the Wedding" - a very funny novella about a wedding, which at the same time makes you feel very sorry for a number of the characters who seem to be making a terrible mess of their lives.
Also finished Robinson Crusoe - which I was surprised to discover is a bit of a page turner.
I'm a quarter of the way through The Grass is Singing - Doris Lessing - which Is amazing. It starts with a murder which no one seems to want to get to the bottom of and then takes you back through the victims life explaining the circumstances that led up to it.

[Ellie]

Almost half-way through the Luminaries now!

[Hilary]

Are you enjoying it Ellie? I have bought it on one of the Kindle deals but I remember it got some very mixed reviews even though it did so well in the Booker.

[Laurel]

I keep trying to get it from the library but no luck so far, missed the kindle deal as well although I did get A Tale for the Time Being and The Lowland which were on the booker shortlist.

Am still reading Night Film which I'm really enjoying.

[[deleted user]]

I've added that to my to read list - it sounds intriguing.

[Hilary]

That sounds like one I'd enjoy too. This sounds really pathetic but I've just realised that if you touch the highlighted title you can have a look at it and then come back to the thread. I'm a bit slow on the uptake!

[Laurel]

It's really good so far, not horror-type scary but definitely a bit creepy in parts.

[Anna]

Now finished Obabakoak and am giving my brain a rest with The Wizard of Oz before starting the Man with the Golden Arm!

@Lee - are you enjoying The Grass is Singing? I read it ages ago and thought it was brilliant. I must add it to my BWRA list (Books Worth Reading Again).

[[deleted user]]

Definitely - it's an amazing book, it's marvellous how the author manages to keep your sympathy for both Mary and her husband, despite their appalling views and behaviour (particularly Mary).

[Ellie]

@Hilary, sorry, had a couple of busy days so only just noticed you asked me about The Luninaries! I'm about half way through, and finding it a good story, cleverly written in the way the it unfolds, but it does all feel very slow and there have been the occasional bits of repetition; I think I said before that I can't help feeling that it could have been maybe 200 pages shorter?! It is worth reading, though, and it's not a difficult read, I'm having no trouble getting through it

[[deleted user]]

Finished the wonderful The Grass is Singing and also A Sea-Grape Tree - which wasn't nearly as good as it's prequel The Ballad and the Source. Now I'm reading The Phoenix and the Carpet and Kidnapped - a rather good film of which I saw a couple of weeks ago (starring Michael Caine).

[[deleted user]]

Just finished the wonderful Kidnapped, half way through The Phoenix and the Carpet and just about to start The Man With the Golden Arm

[Kayla]

Currently I'm reading Absalom, Absalom!The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & ClayLady Chatterley's Loverand1Q84

[Angela]

Kayla wrote: "Currently I'm reading Absalom, Absalom!The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & ClayLady Chatterley's Loverand1Q84"

How are you finding 1Q84 Kayla? I can see some mixed reviews on that one.

[Kayla]

Angela wrote: "Kayla wrote: "Currently I'm reading Absalom, Absalom!The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & ClayLady Chatterley's Loverand1Q84"

How are you fin..."
I'm enjoying it, but am having a hard time reading it in one sitting. It's taking me months, I can only handle a chapter or so at a time. I think because it's so long, so I'll read a chapter or two and then read a couple other books, and follow that pattern until it's done. We'll see how it goes.

[[deleted user]]

I got to the end of book 2 of 1Q84 - some bits I enjoyed but they were outweighed by the bits that really annoyed me. I keep wondering if part 3 would reconcile me to the rest of the book - let me know what you think when you reach the end :0)

[Jenny]

I am wondering the same Lee! In Germany book 1&2 and book 3 were published seperately, so book 3 is still waiting to be read. Book 1&2 did suck me in like most Murakami books do, but I didn't actually think it was a particularly good book. Maybe part 3 will/would change my mind?

[Ellie]

Still on The Luminaries.......!

[[deleted user]]

Keep in there Ellie :0)

[georgiabread]

Allegiant

[Suzan]

I'm reading too many books at the same time, plus having too much uni work, which means I'm still reading A Game of Thronesand I'm probably only one or two chapters further than next time. I'm also reading Tess of the d'Urbervilleswhich is taking me extremely long although I do really enjoy it, and I sort of started in The Idiot. In between I read Wonderwhich is really lovely and I have also started The Book Thief.
I am waiting for some books I ordered for school, Pattern Recognition and Falling Manand I'm hoping that they arrive today, and they'll have my priority.
As I said, I'm reading too many books.

[Hilary]

I don't know how you can remember who is doing what, where and to whom in all those at the same time Suzan. I'm definitely no more than two at a time!

[Hilary]

At the moment I'm reading for the umpteenth time a book of poetry by Christopher Reid called The Scattering. Full of the most moving poems about his grief at his wife's death, yet very matter of fact at the same time. Would very much recommend it.

[[deleted user]]

@ Hilary - I though we were talking Superman for a minute!
@ Suzan - yes definitely too many books :0)

[Laurel]

@ Kayla - how is The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay? I've got a copy sitting on the shelves, just haven't got round to it yet.

I'm still reading Leviathan Wakes and starting The Idiot soon

[Kayla]

Lee wrote: "I got to the end of book 2 of 1Q84 - some bits I enjoyed but they were outweighed by the bits that really annoyed me. I keep wondering if part 3 would reconcile me to the rest of the book - let m..."

Will do. It's definitely interesting, I am finding that a lot of stuff that bothered people in the Goodread Reviews doesn't really bother me, so I hope overall I'll feel it was worth the journey.

[Kayla]

Laurel wrote: "@ Kayla - how is The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay? I've got a copy sitting on the shelves, just haven't got round to it yet.

I'm still reading Leviathan Wakes a..."

I honestly love it. It's a very easy read. Long, but so far worth it to me. I'm a little over halfway through it now.

[Angela]

I am just about to start And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini. I have a feeling it's going to be as sad as his others...

[Ellie]

I have to say I am really enjoying the Luminaries, it is very cleverly written, and the twists and turns the plot takes mean that you really don't know how the mystery will be resolved. Definitely worth the read, though you might want to give yourself a bit more than 3 weeks for it!!

[[deleted user]]

Hi, I have just started reading Under the net, Iris Murdoch.

[[deleted user]]

I've read a few Iris Murdochs but not that one - let us know what you think of it.

[Jenny]

I am currently reading Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, my second play by him and I think I like it even better than his Arcadia , which I have read a while ago. It kind of makes me want to pull Hamlet out of my shelf to read alongside it, since - as the blurb is saying, it is - 'Hamlet told from the worm's-eye view of two minor characters', namely Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

I've also started to listen to The Republic by Plato. I am listening to an iTunes version of it, read by a man that is all nostrils, meaning he reads very nasally which somehow, once you get used to it, gives the dialog form it is written in an interesting tint of irony. I am surprised by how entertaining it is!

[Ellie]

I finished The Luminaries!!!!

Honest opinion - brilliant for the first 7/8ths, but the need to be clever seems to overtake the story-telling in the last 1/8th.

[[deleted user]]

Congratulations Ellie!

[[deleted user]]

@Jenny - all those books are on my to read list - I've been meaning to read Plato for ages.

[Jenny]

Lee, I've only just started, but I somehow imagined The Republic to be a much more 'dry' read, but it really isn't. I think it has a lot to do with the dialogue-form it's using, making it into some kind of non-fiction/fiction hybrid.

[[deleted user]]

Excellent - I'll bump it up the list - perhaps next month.

[Laurel]

Brilliant Ellie but shame about the ending!
I've given up on Leviathan Wakes - I just wasn't in the mood for it so am now reading The Idiot in drips and drabs and have started The Man With the Golden Arm which has yet to grab me. Am also reading The Eyre Affair for light relief from the Algren one.

[[deleted user]]

I found The Man With The Golden Arm a little hard going until Frankie Machine and Sparrow get out of prison - I was hooked after that.

[Hilary]

I'm reading The Daughters of Mars for light relief from Algren although it has such brilliant descriptions of the wounded of WW1 that it's hardly a laugh a minute. I didn't take to it at first but I'm really hooked now.

[Joy]

Jenny wrote: "I am currently reading Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, my second play by him and I think I like it even better than his Arcadia , which I have read..."

I've not read this but saw it performed a long time ago - very funny!

[[deleted user]]

60% through The Man With the Golden Arm and I feel that things can only get worse for everyone concerned and I've just started Alone in Berlin - Hans Fallada .