What are you reading in 2018?

[Paul]

Tell us about the books that you are reading throughout the year here. To start off I am reading The Diary of a Bookseller and The Inner Life of Animals: Surprising Observations of a Hidden World

[Nancy]

I just started Les Misérables : Tome I for a chapter-a-day readalong and Revolutionary Ride: On the Road in Search of the Real Iran for #WorldFromMyArmchair challenge 2018!

[Toyah]

I'm racing to finish I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings for book group on Saturday. And I'm also reading Tales of the Jazz Age, and The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, all started in 2017

[Danielle]

I'm re-reading: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

[Joy]

I’ve just started The True Deceiver and it feels very familiar so I suppose I’ve read it before. However I can’t remember what happens so I’ll read on.

[Toyah]

I'm going to start In Cold Blood by Truman Capote next, despite the fact that I'll be starting my next book group book tomorrow after the meet and I already have The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and Tales of the Jazz Age on the go. I do this every January...book fever has peaked!

[Paul]

In Cold Blood is well worth reading. Bear in mind it is a fictionalised account of the horrific events though

[Toyah]

So, I haven't started In Cold Blood yet, because next month's book for my book group is The Luminaries...which is huge! I thought we'd put it in for March! So I've started that instead and planned out how many pages per day I need to read. It's surprisingly readable; I was expecting not to like it from the outset after I read the blurb, but so far so good.

[Patricia]

Toyah wrote: "So, I haven't started In Cold Blood yet, because next month's book for my book group is The Luminaries...which is huge! I thought we'd put it in for March! So I've started that instead and planned ..."

I read In Cold Blood aloud to my husband about 35 years ago. We lived out in the country with no TV or radio. I still remember so many details of the book. Now I think that was a terrible choice for folks living out in the middle of nowhere!!
Read the Luminaries with this group. I thought it was very interesting which made its length less of an issue. But I also remember having to look back and figure out who was whom and who did what! Happy reading!

[Toyah]

Patricia...haha I'm not sure I'd have the nerve to read In Cold Blood in those circumstances. I'm only 40 pages into The Luminaries and already confusing names so it doesn't bode well...I'm terrible with names

[Ruby]

I am currently reading China Dolls by Lisa See. It is set in the 1940s and is a historical fiction of the Asian American experience. Pretty good read so far.

[Nancy]

I survived the introduction and preface (in French), whew! (pg 21) Psychanalyse de Victor Hugo (IMAGO

[Lisa]

On to The Good People for our monthly read. So far, so wretched!

[Paul]

Currently reading The Land Beyond: A Thousand Miles on Foot through the Heart of the Middle East and then onto All the Devils Are Here

[Toyah]

I'm 164 pages into The Luminaries and pleasantly surprised! It's really not what I was expecting, but it's pretty readable! Still confused over who's who, but the story has dragged me in nevertheless

[Nancy]

Today starting Towards Mellbreak
Book is on shortlist E. Stanford Travel Writing Award for 'Sense of Place" (Hayes &Jarvis Fiction).
...nice pastoral tone, hardworking country folk...fells, sheep, longing to start family (Harold) and memories of deceased family.

[Jazzy]

Nancy wrote: "I just started Les Misérables : Tome I for a chapter-a-day readalong and Revolutionary Ride: On the Road in Search of the Real Iran for #WorldFromMyArmchair challenge..."

Les Misérables is my favourite book x

[Nancy]

Jazzy wrote: "Nancy wrote: "I just started Les Misérables : Tome I for a chapter-a-day readalong and Revolutionary Ride: On the Road in Search of the Real Iran for #WorldFromMyArmc..."

Reading at a slow pace...enjoying every word!

[Paul]

Just started the last book for my bookbuster challenge, Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick by Jenny Uglow

[Nancy]

Just started A Wizard of Earthsea in rememberance of Ursula Le Guin (1929-2018)

[Ruby]

Just started Andrew Pham's Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam for a class here at UC Riverside.

[Paul]

That looks really good Ruby. One Jason might like too

[Patricia]

I just finished The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. It was recommended or on someone's reading list or talked about on Book Vipers. Thank you to whomever brought it to my attention! I enjoyed slowing down to a snail's pace, at least while I was reading, and examining life. I will better appreciate the snails (and maybe the slugs) that I encounter.

[Pamela]

Now reading Guilty Thing: A Life of Thomas De Quincey, really enjoying it. It gives a great sense of how eccentric De Quincey was, and plenty about the other literary figures he met like Coleridge and Wordsworth.

[Paul]

Patricia wrote: "I just finished The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. It was recommended or on someone's reading list or talked about on Book Vipers. Thank you to whomever brought it to my attention! I ..."

Couldn't see who recommended it, Patricia. Though it was first mentioned about a year ago.
Most of the way through Eastern Horizons: Hitchhiking the Silk Road at the moment

[Toyah]

I'm on course to finish The Luminaries before my book group on Saturday. 700 pages in 3 weeks...not bad for a book I thought I was going to hate!

[Pat]

I loved it. Hope you did too.

[Joy]

I’m reading Death and Mr. Pickwick. I’m 120 pages in and don’t know what to make of it -it is so meandering with no apparent shape. However I’m enjoying the atmosphere and characters so I’ll keep going for a bit longer.
I’ve never read The Pickwick Papers ( not a Dickens fan) but I’ve heard that also rambles so perhaps this one is intentionally in the same style.

[Wendy]

Just started A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway my first Hemingway novel - the prose took a little getting used to initially but really enjoying it so far. It’s also the borrowed book for the magic square challenge.

[Paul]

I have never read anything by Hemmingway yet. Looking forward to your final thoughts on it Wendy

[Mike]

Wendy wrote: "Just started A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway my first Hemingway novel - the prose took a little getting used to initially but really enjoying it so far. It’s also..."

I really liked A Farewell to Arms. I hope you enjoy it.

I always knew the book had its origins in Hemingway's time as a Red Cross ambulance driver, but was intrigued to find out recently that his fellow-drivers included John Dos Passos, Walt Disney and Ray Kroc, the father of Macdonalds.

[Mike]

Have just read Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House and am awaiting my copy of Hillary Clinton's What Happened. In between, am enjoying A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal.

I have also just read, and been bowled over by, this: Two Under the Indian Sun

[Rebecca]

What did you think of Fire and Fury?

[Jazzy]

Paul wrote: "I have never read anything by Hemmingway yet. Looking forward to your final thoughts on it Wendy"

This surprises me! How did you survive an education without reading Hemingway whether you chose to or not? You simply must now though.

[Jazzy]

I'm reading The Spy Who Came In from the Cold and I love it.

[Paul]

Jazzy wrote: "I'm reading The Spy Who Came In from the Cold and I love it."

It is a brutal book too, but so good.

[Lisa]

My Name Is Lucy Barton for my book club read. So far, fairly meh, after the drama of The Good People, but perhaps it'll get better, and it is at least short.

[Toyah]

I finished The Luminaries tonight, so I've read a bit more of Tales of the Jazz Age, and I've just bought Gorky Park to start this weekend for February's book group read. I want to find time for so many others too!

[Jazzy]

Tales of the Jazz Age is very good, Toyah, and Paul I really love this book. I'll be sad to see it end!

[Paul]

Jazzy wrote: "This surprises me! How did you survive an education without reading Hemingway whether you chose to or not? You simply must now though...."

We were forced to read other stuff... What would you recommend?

[Jazzy]

Here Paul x

https://theteacherscrate.files.wordpr...

I like The Sun Also Rises, The Old Man and the Sea, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Farewell to Arms... x

[Paul]

Thank you Jazzy

[Toyah]

I've just finished Tales of the Jazz Age on kindle, so now I'm reading a real book to give my eyes a rest; How Much Land Does a Man Need by Tolstoy.

[Jazzy]

Paul wrote: "Thank you Jazzy" My pleasure, Treasure.

The Old Man & The Sea
https://la.utexas.edu/users/jmciver/H...

The Sun Also Rises
https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/hemingway...

For Whom The Bell Tolls
http://kkoworld.com/kitablar/ernest_h...

A Farewell To Arms
https://libcom.org/files/farewelltoar...

Toyah, I loved Tales of the Jazz Age! I used to charge my nook and kindle and read them all the time, but they are disused and forgotten as now it's mostly paperbacks thrust in the pocket of my tweed coat, and a few hardbacks as well.

[Wendy]

Just started Kim by Rudyard Kipling have to say I'm finding it quite hard work so far!

Also I am reading Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman love Gaiman but this is my first graphic novel and although I am enjoying it, it does feel a bit odd to be looking at pictures.

[Toyah]

I've just finished How Much Land Does a Man Need? by Tolstoy, and I'm still on Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith, so for some light relief I've just started Mort by Terry Pratchett.

[Jo]

I am reading The Dry and listening to The Confession

[Paul]

Just about to start The Genius Within: Smart pills, brain hacks and adventures in intelligence

[Nancy]

Just started:
Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe

[Jazzy]

I expect to finish The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe today as there less than 30 pages left. I have read a lot of beat generation books so seeing all these authors and real-life characters making their appearance in this book whilst working on books of their own is really fascinating! Amongst them are Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady, Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, Larry McMurtry, Ken Babbs, Carolyn Garcia, Lee Quarnstrom, Stewart Brand, Paul Foster, Del Close, Wavy Gravy, Ed McClanahan, Gurney Norman, Paul Krassner, Robert Stone, and all the band of Merry Pranksters on and off the bus FURTHUR and experimenting with LSD in the Acid Tests during a time when it wasn't illegal in California, and Kesey in trouble with the law because marijuana was.