I Read Therefore I Am discussion
Books and Reading
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what are you reading at the moment?
@Joy, I'm having a hard time getting through it too.. but I have not yet given up! I haven't yet read any other Hardy but I am interested to see his other works, although I've read many times that most people think Tess is his best, and some even say it's the only good novel he's ever written..
I have to admit I thought a lot of Hardy was rubbish! Tess definitely stands out for me - though I liked Far from the Madding Crowd too.Now I know I'm three months late, but I've just started The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and so far think it's brilliant!
I loved it - it was my first Agatha Christie and not what I was expecting at all. I think it was the wicked humour that really surprised me.
Just started The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - I'm quite shocked -he's just faked his own death to escape from his violent father and is watching attempts to recover his body from the river !
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I'm reading Part Two of 'The Idiot' at the moment which is shaping up to be just as mad as Part One ;)
@Lee , I read Huck Finn for uni two years ago, and although it took me a long time to read it (mostly due to the accents), I did really love it. I'm still reading Moby-Dick, and although it's going slow (just hit page 50) , I think I like it so far.
We had a lot of discussion about Moby Dick some time ago in one of the threads. I really like it and would recommend the book detailing the true story on which it's based called In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex if you also read non fiction.
@Hilary , I generally don't read non-fiction, but I will definitely check it out. Thanks for the recommendation.
Finished The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - loved it except for the bits featuring the obnoxious Tom Sawyer. Just about to start Closely Watched Trains - my copy is called Closely Observed Trains which sounds rather better I think.
Starting The Guide and also a paperback copy of Smoke and Mirrors that I chanced across, it's my first Neil Gaiman.
Well, then it IS true that great minds think alike. : ) The paperback I've got was published in 2001 and in the back there is a list of some of his other works and I was going to try Anansi Boys next, as it was a NY Times #1 bestseller.
I greatly enjoyed Anansi Boys. I started to read Neil Gaimon last year. I also really liked Neverwhere and The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I didn't think much of American Godshowever, although I know its very popular.
I am loving his style - pure magic! Have you started yet Antipodes? I find him very accessible. Is that what lured you in Joy?
Angela wrote: "I am loving his style - pure magic! Have you started yet Antipodes? I find him very accessible. Is that what lured you in Joy?"Yes, I think it probably was. I like fantasy within realistic settings, on the whole - magic realism? I must try Antipodes.
@ Joy - Antipodes is a person not a book :0) - I see where the confusion arose though.
If I were a book I think I would like to be Three Men and a Boat.
If I were a book I think I would like to be Three Men and a Boat.
Hahaha! I can just see that Lee :)If I were a book I would be Sophie's World (I certainly would not be The Republic!)
I see- entertaining, educational and slightly mysterious.
And you, witty and adventurous! Love it ;)
This really set me thinking but I've racked my brains and still have no idea at all! I'd like to think that's because I have such an interest in and experience of so many different things one book couldn't encompass them all. But really it's because I'm lacking in imagination!
@Angela - enjoying Smoke and Mirrors, I like the imagination, especially liked Troll Bridge, I think it was, am only a hundred pages or so in. Smoke and Mirrors is a collection of short stories, looks like most were originally published in magazines. If I were a book I would be The Hobbit. I was a huge fan back in the early 70s
@ Hilary - Mason & Dixon? :0)
O Lee! That's below the belt. Long winded, chaotic, weird and totally incomprehensible. I hope not! (Haha!)
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@Antipodes - so glad you are enjoying it. That man is not short on imagination! I finished Stardust over the weekend and gave it five stars. I am going to write a quick review later but it really was so magical and provided me with the escapism I need at the moment. He paints a beautiful picture of whatever world he is inviting you in to. Can't wait to read another!
Lee wrote: "@ Joy - Antipodes is a person not a book :0) - I see where the confusion arose though.If I were a book I think I would like to be Three Men and a Boat."
Oops, sorry!
No offense taken on my part. As Antipodes, I am a person, but if I were a book I'd be a Hobbit. And if that doesn't make any sense, I don't know what does.
Lee, I'll be reading Vertigo in May, are you liking it?
Loving it - as with the other Sebalds I've read it makes you feel like you"re in a very strange dream. This one in particular reminded me of The Unconsoled
Put Moby Dick away for the time being. It's not that I really didn't enjoy it, I just wasn't in the mood for it. I've just started reading The Book Thief which I am enjoying thoroughly. I may pick up Moby-Dick again after this one.
Ooh I'm about to start The Book Thief too - we will have to compare notes :)
I've started to read The Name of the Wind which I found on my iPad but have no recollection of buying. However, I'm enjoying it so I'm not complaining! Does anyone know if it's the first in a series and if so what the rest of the series is like - and how long it is.
@Hilary - so far it's a trilogy (Kingkiller Chronicle) of which the third book will come out in 2015 I believe. All I know is that a lot of people are enjoying it, although the books are quite long (the second is around 1000 pages). I have no intention of ever reading them though.
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Started A Wanted Man by Lee Child, a Jack Reacher novel. Light reading, usually very good suspense/action/crime genre. This one was a NY Times #1 Bestseller to boot, so it should be good. I have read a few others of the Jack Reacher set, they have all been good so far.
Just got one that I am really excited about, it has taken me a while to get it downloaded from my local library, where we can borrow ebooks and download them online. Technical issues have been overcome and I just did get it to download. It is Prague Winter, a memoir by Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State. The memoir is subtitled 'A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948'.
These are some of the kinds of things that keep me reading and searching for deeper meanings in what I do read, and I get a sense that many in this forum are of like constitution:"What fascinates me - and what serves as a central theme of this book - is why we make the choices we do. What separates us from the world we have and the kind of ethical universe envisioned by someone like Havel? What prompts one person to act boldly in a moment of crisis and a second to seek shelter in the crowd? Why do some people become stronger in the face of adversity while others quickly lose heart? What separates the bully from the protector? Is it education, spiritual belief, our parents, our friends, the circumstances of our birth, traumatic events, or more likely some combination that spells the difference? More succinctly, do our hopes for the future hinge on a desirable unfolding of external events or some mysterious process within?" Madeleine Albright. A little of all of it, I would think. I am, at least, hoping for more sense and clarity on these issues than that provided by our friend Plato.
Sounds fascinating - I have been thinking about what makes people act in completely different ways in the same situation myself recently - mainly due to reading Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada which follows a group of civilians in
war time Berlin.
war time Berlin.
@Angela, @SuzanHope you enjoy The Book Thief as much as I did.
I just finished it a couple of days ago.
I thought it was really amazing, very original. I want to read it again already. (Tip - when you finish go back and re-read the Prologue, which will then make more sense).
I've finished The Book Thief (WW2 novel set in Nazi Germany and narrated by Death himself) and The Island (Victoria Hislop) which concerns a leper colony off the coast of Crete.Now I've started Diary of a Nobody because, let's face it, I now need a good laugh!
@Antipodes you would make a great writing critic! What you mention are the exact methods I am currently looking at in my coursework. There are lots of websites where people post amateur pieces and they would really benefit from your inquisitive nature!@Anna - I have STILL not started it because I have been caught up reading poetry. Today I am determined! Ill let you know how I go :)
@ Antipodes. I think you pose questions which have no answers! It always astounds me how people who share so much, like siblings, can be so very different.
@Lee - sounds like a good book, I'll add it. @Angela - what course are you taking? I must have missed it if you mentioned it before. @Hilary - no children for me, but my brother had 5 and he told me he was amazed by the personality difference between his two eldest, both girls, like night and day in many ways - one was really fastidious about her clothes and how she looked and the other couldn't care less. He never mentioned too much about the differences in the rest of them, I always figured he was too worn out by then to really notice. You know - 'What's that you say? Bryce set fire to the cat? That's nice, pass the toast, would you please?' - kind of a thing. We all come into this world with distinct personalities, though, don't we?
I Read Therefore I Am
Books mentioned in this topic
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Barry Loewer (other topics)Catherine Clément (other topics)
Agatha Christie (other topics)
Oscar Wilde (other topics)
Neil Gaiman (other topics)
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@ Hilary - I liked the Secret of Crickley Hall as well - it was fun wasn't it? I never did see the last episode of the tv adaptation - just as well I know how it ends really ;)
@ Ellie - yeah, you've caught up! And overtaken me, I'm still trying to find a Golding book to read and having no luck with Narayan at all.