what are you reading at the moment?

[[deleted user]]

My cat is not quite perfect at the moment - she woke me up this morning by being very noisely sick in our bedroom!

[[deleted user]]

Finished Effi Briest and the Testament of Mary. Just started A Perfect Spy and Your Face Tomorrow, Vol. 1: Fever and Spear -not sure what it's about but I'm really enjoying it.

[Hilary]

@Joy. So is baby a bundle of Joy or are you too tired to even know!

[Ellie]

@Lee - cats, you gotta luv 'em.....

I'm 70% through The Testament Of Mary, so bear with me, we can pick it apart this evening :)

Also reading Effi Briest; Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and The Vicar's Wife. Finished Girl With A Pearl Earring last night.

[[deleted user]]

Wow thats good book juggling Ellie. From what you said about The Testament of Mary - I'm gathering that you feel the same way about it as me!

[Ellie]

It's taking me longer to read than I would've expected of a 104-page novella; It's not pulling me in sufficiently to prevent me being distracted. Apparently have 10 mins reading left, but have to get back to work now so will finish it off after work.

[Laurel]

Am about halfway through Mist Over Pendle which isn't quite what I expected but I'm enjoying it. Also started reading To the Lighthouse on my kindle during my lunchbreak.

[Joy]

Laurel wrote: "Am about halfway through Mist Over Pendle which isn't quite what I expected but I'm enjoying it. Also started reading To the Lighthouse on my kindle during my lunchbreak."

I studied To the Lighthouse at university (donkey's years ago) and really struggled with it. However I heard it read on radio 4 a short while ago (last year or so) and enjoyed it.

[Laurel]

Joy wrote: "Laurel wrote: "Am about halfway through Mist Over Pendle which isn't quite what I expected but I'm enjoying it. Also started reading To the Lighthouse on my kindle during my lunchbreak."

I studi..."

I'm having to concentrate to keep up with the stream of consciousness thing but definitely enjoying it so far! I might see if I can find the broadcast of it - sounds good.

[[deleted user]]

Must try To the Lighthouse again - I really like Mrs Dalloway and The Waves - but didn't get on so well with To the Lighthouse.

[Hilary]

Just finished I'm Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti. Only started it this evening but just couldn't leave it. It's short and written in the voice of a nine year old Italian boy who discovers something that he shouldn't! I'd never heard of it but added it to my TBR books on the Kindle as I had come across it in Boxall and was intrigued. Heartily recommended.

[[deleted user]]

Another one for my TBR list then :0)

Just finished Mister Pip a book about a small village caught on the edge of a brutal civil war whose children find an escape from the disturbing present into 19th century England when their temporary school teacher reads Great Expectations to them. Some parts of this book are amazing - others are just a little too hard to believe.

Just started William - An Englishman the 1st book published by Persephone. So far it's a gently amusing story about a slighly dim and unimaginative but very likable young man involved in various millitant left wing causes on the eve of WW1 - I have a feeling it's just about to get much darker.

[Laurel]

I read Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig yesterday - absolutely brilliant, even better than the first one in this series! I'm about halfway through To the Lighthouse as well which is beautifully written and I might start Dracula later.

[[deleted user]]

@ Hilary - just looked up I'm Not Scared - sounds excellent - may just have to acquire it sooner rather than later!

[Hilary]

@Laurel - Dracula was one of the books that I read at one sitting when I was young. Read all through the night and then got up and went for a long walk on a glorious summer morning. Couldn't do it now!!!! Frankenstein was the other one I remember doing this with. Happy days!

[[deleted user]]

Love Dracula (though it gave me a couple of wakeful nights after first reading it) not so keen on Frankenstein -it seemed a bit woffley.

[Laurel]

I love Dracula - this will be my 3rd read of it! But haven't started yet, my brain was tired and I needed a break so have been reading The Fires of Heaven which is the 5th Wheel of Time book instead.

[Holly]

I've been meaning to read Dracula! It been on my TBR list forever, and has been sitting on my shelf gathering dust...

[Laurel]

It's great Holly - hope you enjoy it. I've got a massive annotated version with background info and trivia to read this time so I can be a total Dracula geek!

[[deleted user]]

Just finished William - An Englishman which is excellent - I'm not surprised that Persephone Books chose it for their 1st reissue.
On to The Imperfect Tense now.

[Hilary]

@Laurel do you like the Wheel of Time. I thought the storylines grabbed you but the series goes on so long!!! I can't remember which one I got up to before abandoning them but I just got irritated because I wanted to get to the climax.

[Laurel]

Yeah, I really like it but it does get bogged down in detail in the middle. But I was invested enough in the characters and the story by that point so pushed in through and the last few books pick up again. I really want to know how it ends - have read them all except the very last so am re-reading before I read the ending :) This is book 5 (the series runs to 14 in total)

[[deleted user]]

Blimey - I don't think I could read a series that long - I think the longest I've ever read was the Little House on the Prairie books (7 or 8?). Must dig those out again - haven't read them for ages.

[Laurel]

Ha ha, yeah it's quite long! But I love fantasy so I fly through them in a couple of days anyway.

[Hilary]

Lol, someone else who rereads a whole series before reading the next one. Doesn't it take ages! I want to read the new Stephen Donaldson which ends the Thomas Covenant story but haven't got time at present to reread the, I think 8, before it.

[Laurel]

Yeah, I'm doing the same once I finish Wheel of Time! I wasn't going to but can't help my self ;) Am very excited for the final Thomas Covenant book!

[Tracey]

I have to admit, I've never read the same book twice. I've tried to do it a few times and been bitterly disappointed and abandoned them the second time. I always described Birdsong as my favourite book ever but couldn't get past the first 20 pages the second time around and did the same with lord of the rings and Thomas Covenant. They were all fantastic books when I first read them but for some reason they didn't generate the same interest second time around. Am I odd?

[[deleted user]]

For me the test of a good book is if I want to reread it and I do find it difficult to understand someone loving a book and only wanting to read it once. But there a loads of people who never reread and I guess it cuts down on bookshelf space and you get to read more books :0)

[Laurel]

Sometimes when I re-read a book I don't like it as much as the first time but other times I like them even more! Depends on the book I suppose. I can see more faults with the Wheel of Time series than I did the first time round (was at uni when I read most of them so have now got another ten years perspective) but the story is still really good.

[Ellie]

I have never re-read book, purely because I have so many unread titles to get through!! Ha ing said that, I am desperate to read The Reluctant Fundamentalist again; loved it when I first read it but feel that I've forgotten much of it. But after reading these last few posts, I'm a bit nervous about reading it again in case I don't like it!!

[[deleted user]]

Aren't other peoples reading habits fascinating? If someone told me I wouldn't be able to reread my favourite books ever again I'd be inconsolable :0)

[Hilary]

I agree with you Lee. There are books I must have read a dozen times at least and that I know I'll read again. And I can't really say why except that they draw me back.

[Laurel]

You might like it more after reading it again though Ellie - I always think if it's a really good book it will stand up to a re-read.

I have got a few books I can quite happily read every few years as well, mostly fantasy stuff.

[Hilary]

Interested in what you say Laurel as, apart from Pratchett, it is SF and fantasy books that I re-read. Namely

Dune series
Helliconia
Amtrak wars series
The Stand

Every few years they get read, especially Dune and Helliconia. Why I really couldn't say, except that I enjoy them immensely.

[[deleted user]]

My most reread books are Villette, Bleak House, Sherlock Holmes, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, A Glastonbury Romance ( Cowper Powys), The Blue Flower (Penelope Fitzgerald) and recently Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
( oh, and a number of Georgette Heyer Regency romances).
I haven't really read any Sci-Fi (apart from some H G Wells which I liked and the first Asimov Foundation novel which I really disliked) or Fantasy (apart from Jonathan Strange and The Raw Shark Texts - not sure if that one counts). My dad is a real sci-fi buff but fantasy novels tend to make him cross.

[Laurel]

@ Hilary - I really want to read the rest of the Dune series, have only read the first one but did enjoy it!

@ Lee - definitely Sherlock Holmes! They never get old. And Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell is due for a -re-read, I loved that one!

[Hilary]

@ Laurel the first Dune book is definitely the best but the following two are well worth a read. The series does tail off and although I have read all of them, it is the first three which get re-read.

@ Lee for me SF and fantasy, as long as they're well written, tend to blur into each other, I don't really differentiate!

[[deleted user]]

Just came across this Guardian article about re-reading.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/book...

[Tracey]

That's interesting, about the reconnection with yourself from the time of earlier readings.

[Hilary]

Very interesting and thought provoking article, I'll have to think about it.

[[deleted user]]

Just finished Your Face Tomorrow, Vol. 1: Fever and Spear - hard to describe what it's about - it's like the books narrator is sitting by you and talking about whatever comes into his head - there is a plot - but there have been so many digressions that we're not very far through it yet. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next 2 books of the trilogy.

Just started Mr. Fortune's Maggot - according to page one a maggot can also be a whimsical, perverse fancy - and Mr Fortunes Maggot is to become a missionary to the tiny Island of Fanua it's only 174 pages long so hopfully I'll be finished soon and on to We Need New Names readalong with Laurel and then The War of the Worlds readalong with Ellie - must go now and start reading !!

[Hilary]

Just finished The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng. A beautifully written book with not a superfluous word. Simple, sparse writing where every word counts. Very little happens! A Chinese female survivor of a Japanese labour camp in Malaya, in memory of her sister, learns to design and build a Japanese garden from a man who used to be Emperor Hirohito's gardener. Alternating between her time with him and the present day, the story gradually unfolds their relationship, her experience in the labour camp and her current situation. Some of the phasing is very poetic and the whole book is very atmospheric.

I don't know what it's ratings are and I suspect it wouldn't appeal to everybody but I thought it was one of the most beautifully written books I've read.

[Laurel]

Sounds good Hilary - I have got The Gift of Rain on my kindle and am hoping to get it soon, especially now!

[Tracey]

Hi Hilary. It seems to have some very good reviews and a rating of 4.06.

[[deleted user]]

sounds excellent - I shall add it to my TBR list

[Laurel]

I've put Dracula to one side for now as I have a load of library books to get through before they have to go back. So am reading Let the Right One In and also Prince of Thorns.

[[deleted user]]

Oooh I loved the film of Let the Right One In (the original Swedish? Version) - never seen anything quite like it before.

[Laurel]

Yeah me too, the it's similar in feel to the book, quite slow but creepy as well. I'm really enjoying it.

[georgiabread]

The children of the king by Sonya Hartnett

[[deleted user]]

I've never heard of The Children of the King so I just looked it up and now I know I have to get it - are you enjoying it?