Which LIST book did you just start? Showing 3,901-3,950 of 6,816

[Leslie]

I just started The Handmaid's Tale. I can't believe it has taken me so long to read a Margaret Atwood novel! Yes, this is my first!

[Charity]

Leslie wrote: "I just started The Handmaid's Tale. I can't believe it has taken me so long to read a Margaret Atwood novel! Yes, this is my first!"

One of my faves! Enjoy!

[Shovelmonkey1]

I just started The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Brrr espionage is chilly... what? It's not that kind of cold? Oh well.

[Genia]

Moved Ivanhoe to the table by the couch. I hope it's good; it's been one of my Big Omissions in reading.

[Renae]

Genia wrote: "Moved Ivanhoe to the table by the couch. I hope it's good; it's been one of my Big Omissions in reading."

Personally, I wasn't a fan. Very racist (in keeping with the times) and not historically accurate. Interesting plot, though. I didn't mind it too much.

[Genia]

Complaining about racism in a 19th century book is like complaining about purple prose; cathartic, perhaps, but pointless. I take it as par for the course and understand that this is how things were. it ain't pretty, but then, humans ain't pretty.

[Regine]

I'm reading This Side of Paradise. I'm 100 pages in. It's aiight I guess.

[El]

I just found Ivanhoe to be boring. I was surprised and disappointed by that, but I do hope you like it, Genia.

[Genia]

Renae wrote: "Genia wrote: "Moved Ivanhoe to the table by the couch. I hope it's good; it's been one of my Big Omissions in reading."

Personally, I wasn't a fan. Very racist (in keeping with the tim..."

A quarter of the way in, and so far I like it. It's fairly entertaining, if you're used to the slower pace of Victoriana. On the whole I find the racism pretty minor. Doesn't bother me much.

[Jacqueline]

I only just noticed there was a separate thread for books you are starting versus books you finished (my bad!). I'm just starting Don Quixote. I had to read about 100 pages of an abridged edition for a class this semester and liked it so I bought myself a used unabridged version and am starting from the beginning.

[Mikela]

Am just beginning Fingersmith

[[deleted user]]

I just started Robinson Crusoe which I think a lot of people grew up with. I really like it. I am tracking the books chronologically in my blog 1001everything.blogspot.com.

[[deleted user]]

Maggie wrote: "Yesterday I started Catch 22."

I love Catch-22! It completely changed how I view the world. An excellent read!

[Deanne]

Started Oblomov on my kindle, found lots of books I was finding it hard to track down, less than 170 of the original list to read now.

[Jess]

Little Women I read it when I was younger and decided that to re read it.

[Renae]

Jessica wrote: "Little Women I read it when I was younger and decided that to re read it."

That's a good one. I've been meaning to reread too.

[Jess]

Renae wrote: "Jessica wrote: "Little Women I read it when I was younger and decided that to re read it."

That's a good one. I've been meaning to reread too."

Been wanting to read March by Geraldine Brooks which is based off of it so thought take the opportunity to re read it

[Jess]

Maggie wrote: "Yesterday I started Catch 22."

I just read that book this year but had it for about ten years totally worth the wait. I love it.

[Shovelmonkey1]

Just starting The Lambs of London by Peter Ackroyd. I loved Hawksmoor, but was less keen on The House of Doctor Dee so i'm interested to see what the end verdict will be on this one.

[Sarah]

Spouse has been talking up Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams so I decided to try to read it again. I definitely need some humor in my life right now.

[Ellen]

About halfway through Nights at the Circus, and 12% into The Master and Margarita. I'm finding both very interesting but not easy at all. I'm also reading The Master and Margarita: A Critical Companion, which is helping me understand the book much better and is enhancing my enjoyment of it.

[Judith]

Started "Death in Rome" this morning.

[Judith]

Ellie wrote: "About halfway through Nights at the Circus, and 12% into The Master and Margarita. I'm finding both very interesting but not easy at all. I'm also reading [book:The Mast..."

I have been looking for something by Angela Carter for quite a while. What is she like? I think I have read her compared to Flannery O'Connor....Does that ring true?

[Ellen]

Interesting-I would never have thought of that comparison but I can see it. If you take into account that you're comparing a very English carnivalesque writer to a very Catholic American southern gothic one!

But that notwithstanding, I'd say yes in their use of a kind of fairy tale structure. O'Connor's stories appear more realistic which is what threw me at first with the comparison but underneath that apparent reality is a very dark fairy tale-like structure. Carter's work is much more apparently written like fairy tales with the underlying reality the aspect of the narrative that is obscured.

Thank you for sharing that. I love O'Connor and have been struggling with Carter & your post suddenly opened a whole new way of reading with which I feel comfortable. I want to try it out immediately! :D

[[deleted user]]

I just finished Robinson Crusoe and now I am going to read From Whom The Bell Tolls. Tracking the books on my blog 1001everything.blogspot.com. Check it out!

[Ellen]

Bookbuddies-if you could link your blog to GR, it would be easy to check out. I'd be interested. I'm just not good at navigating the web.

[[deleted user]]

Ellie wrote: "Bookbuddies-if you could link your blog to GR, it would be easy to check out. I'd be interested. I'm just not good at navigating the web."
I am glad you are interested. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to link my blog. I am not good with computers either. However, you could just copy and paste the URL into the search engine.

[Tanya (aka ListObsessedReader)]

Bookbuddies wrote: "Ellie wrote: "Bookbuddies-if you could link your blog to GR, it would be easy to check out. I'd be interested. I'm just not good at navigating the web."
I am glad you are interested. Unfortunatel..."

Hi Bookbuddies. For linking there is a special code you can use which you can see if you click on (some html is ok) above the comment box here when you are making your reply.

For a more simple method though, if you put the http:// infront of the address you are already giving out it should automatically become a link:

http://1001everything.blogspot.com

Good luck for reading the books through chronologically! I have only read Oroonoko from the pre-1700s at this stage so I definitely have a ways to go up that end of the 1001 scale!

[Deanne]

Started Rasselas a prince of Abyssinia by Johnson this morning, surprisingly easy to read.
Ellie and Judith, my favourite Angela Carter book is Wise children, think her stories read like fairy tales with humour and the odd gruesome scene thrown in.

[Ellen]

I agree, Deanne (about the stories). Have not had any success reading Wise Children but if I ever make it through Nights at the Circus, I will go back & try again. I think if I ever master her style, I will really enjoy Carter; I'm beginning to already.

I remember enjoying Rasselas very much. I liked Johnson's style. I still love browsing through Johnson's Dictionary

[Hannah]

Bookbuddies - For Whom the Bell Tolls is one of my favorites! I'm interested to see what you think

[[deleted user]]

Tanya wrote: "Bookbuddies wrote: "Ellie wrote: "Bookbuddies-if you could link your blog to GR, it would be easy to check out. I'd be interested. I'm just not good at navigating the web."
I am glad you are intere..."

Thank you so much! Did you like Oroonoko? I didn't really care for it.

[Tanya (aka ListObsessedReader)]

Bookbuddies wrote: "Tanya wrote: "Bookbuddies wrote: "Ellie wrote: "Bookbuddies-if you could link your blog to GR, it would be easy to check out. I'd be interested. I'm just not good at navigating the web."
I am glad..."

No worries! I wouldn't say I really 'liked' Oroonoko but reading your blog I definitely didn't dislike it as much as you. :) I think I gave it three stars on here, although sometime I suspect I may be generous... I think my biggest trouble was getting into Behn's writing style, which is probably going to be true of most books from that era. Looking forward to getting to some of them though!


Also on a side note for this thread I have finally gotten around to starting A Room with a View. I am listening to an audio version and enjoying it so far.

[Shovelmonkey1]

Started The Good Soldierby Ford Maddox Ford at 5am this morning. Couldn't sleep so was up, staring at my bookshelf looking for a new book to read and this one found its way into my hand.

[KOMET]

Over the holiday weekend, I began reading

The Samurai by Shusaku Endo



It is a very intriguing novel (loosely based on a true story) about the first Japanese (along with a Franciscan missionary fluent in Japanese) to visit the New World (Nueva España) and Europe during the 17th Century.

[mark]

just started re-reading The Swimming-Pool Library. i got most of the way through it many years back, but then inexplicably lost the book and never bought another copy. just found it at the bottom of a box in my storage space!

i had very mixed feelings about it during the initial read. but all the interesting discussion in this group last year about the novel has inspired me to start it fresh.

[Judith]

mark wrote: "just started re-reading The Swimming-Pool Library. i got most of the way through it many years back, but then inexplicably lost the book and never bought another copy. just found it at..."

Looking forward to reading what you think of this one, Mark.

[Sissy]

The Things They Carried. I have been wanting to read this book for quite awhile - was happy to find a copy at a book sale a month ago. Finally getting to it!

[El]

Sissy, I read that one just a few weeks ago. I absolutely loved it.

[Judith]

Billy Budd - Herman Melville

[Ellen]

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

[Shay]

Ellie wrote: "Catch-22 by Joseph Heller"

I think this is a really interesting view on WW2. A lot of more modern fiction about WW2 is more nostalgic in tone. Kind of like looking back and seeing it as the last "great" war, the last noble war.

[Maggie]

The Trial by Kafka.
I think I'm going to hate it.
How's THAT for an open, curious mind?

[Genia]

I have severe Kafkaphobia, and I despised The Trial. It doesn't help that it was an uncompleted manuscript. I still don't understand why it's considered his masterpiece; it's not even finished.

[laut]

I've just started Cloud Atlas. Hopefully it won't take me forever to finish!

[[deleted user]]

Genia wrote: "I have severe Kafkaphobia, and I despised The Trial. It doesn't help that it was an uncompleted manuscript. I still don't understand why it's considered his masterpiece; it's not even finished."

The Trial is one of my favorite books :( Consider this! What is it we are being accused of all the time to send us to hell or even heaven.

[Leonard]

Sonia wrote: The Trial is one of my favorite books :( Consider this! What is it we are being accused of all the time to send us to hell or even heaven.

I like The Trial a lot. K was accused of an undisclosed crime, based on a hidden law, by an unreachable court. Makes us think about our human predicament.

[[deleted user]]

I just finished Love in Excess and I don't know what I am reading next. Any advice? I think it is in between From Whom the Bell Tolls, Jane Eyre, or Ivanhoe.

[Mikela]

Just going to begin The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

[whimsicalmeerkat]

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen