What are you reading in 2018?

[Jazzy]

Paul wrote: "Just about to start The Genius Within: Smart pills, brain hacks and adventures in intelligence"
kind of sounds like the book i'm reading :D

[Paul]

Next block of books to read are:
The Reading Cure: How Books Restored My Appetite by Laura Freeman
The Secret Surfer by Iain Gately
Gavin Maxwell: A Life by Douglas Botting
The Gift of the Gab: How Eloquence Works by David Crystal
Warrior Herdsmen by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

[Toyah]

I finished Mort by Terry Pratchett the other day...now attempting to get through Gorky Park for Saturday... it's not going well, I've had so little time for reading this week

[Jazzy]

Yesterday I finished two most excellent books.
Bonjour tristesse - Françoise Sagan
The Easter Parade - Richard Yates

I am currently reading
Penguin - Stephen Martin
The Ice Storm - Rick Moody

Just got in the post an out of print book for £2.69 and it's like brand new!
Gold Edition Classic Hits for Easy Guitar Tab
I'm working all weekend, will have to squeeze playing time in, but I'm so excited x

[Jim]

Good morning!

I apologize for not chiming in. With a Goodreads TBR "mountain range" approaching 5,000 books, I am forever playing catch up and never getting to mustard. These are the books I have read so far in 2018:

The Music of the Primes: Searching to Solve the Greatest Mystery in Mathematics by Marcus du Sautoy
One to Nine: The Inner Life of Numbers by Andrew Hodges
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
Free-Range Lanning by Max Brand
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Currently reading Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev.

Jim

[Toyah]

I've just started The Missing Girl by Shirley Jackson. It's one of the 50 Penguin Moderns. It's short but sweet at 55 pages, and consists of 3 very short stories. I needed a short read in the form of a real book to get a break from Gorky Park on my kindle.

[Toyah]

So having finished both Z for Zachariah by Robert C O'Brien and Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith this weekend, I borrowed a book on Kindle - Silent Child by Sarah A. Denzil. It's less complex, but so far a pretty good read.

[Jo]

I am about to start this month's Fiction Read, My Name is Leon. I've also recently started listening to Peter Frith (excellent) narrating Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

[Toyah]

I finished Silent Child in no time so now I'm being frivolous and reading Filthy English: The How, Why, When and What of Everyday Swearing by Peter Silverton. I got the eBook years ago but never got around to it. I'm also currently on Riddley Walker so it's nice to have some light relief.

[Jazzy]

I'm reading everyone's favourite, Nineteen Eighty-Four again and it's making for some good conversations out in public.

[Jazzy]

Jim wrote: "Good morning!."

Good evening Jim!
Les Misérables is my favourite book ever. Was this your first time reading the brick? If so, i'm ever so jealous because you can only have one first reading in your whole life. What did you think? And which translation did you read?

What an adventure! It leaves a catch in my throat just thinking about it. x

[Paul]

Just shy of 100 pages into Ground Work: Writings on People and Places are thouroughly enjoying it so far

[Toyah]

Having finished Riddley Walker last night, I'm about to start In Cold Blood by Truman Capote because I didn't get around to it last time I intended to.

[Jo]

I hope you enjoy In Cold Blood, Toyah.

I am reading The Queen of Bloody Everything and swotting up on RYA Powerboat Handbook as I have my powerboat driving certification next week!

[Jim]

Jazzy wrote: "Jim wrote: "Good morning!."

Good evening Jim!
Les Misérables is my favourite book ever. Was this your first time reading the brick? If so, i'm ever so jealous because you can only ha..."

Hello Jazzy,

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (1802-85).

It was my fourth time reading the brick. I think the first three times were last year when I got 100, 100, and 642 pages into the 908-page, 2012 Fall River Press/Barnes & Noble hardcover that I was reading, before giving up. I restarted it on January 1, 2018 and finally finished it on February 22, 2018. Once I got past the rants into which author Victor Hugo indulged, which were, I realized, essential background information to the plot, I really enjoyed the story.

Having just finished Adrian Goldsworthy's excellent Caesar: Life of a Colossus (a slightly smaller brick at 583 pages) for another GR group, I am now reading Einstein: The Life and Times by Ronald W. Clark. I am on a brick-reading phase, I guess, for straw and sticks just aren't as durable. ;)

Jim

[Paul]

Good luck with that Jo!

[Jazzy]

Jim wrote: "It was my fourth time reading the brick...."

Just thinking about it makes me feel all dreamy. Which translations did you read and what was your favourite?

Also I have read Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov and am reading The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry amongst others. Are you a fan of War and Peace too? I have only read the Pevear & Volokhonsky translation.

[Jim]

I don't know the translation. It was the same edition.

[Toyah]

I've just finished In Cold Blood and I'm about to start a freebie borrowed Kindle book: The Good Liar by Catherine McKenzie. I probably should finish some of the other books I'm currently reading but I fancied reading this one.

[Paul]

This weeks reading will include:
Inside the Wave - Helen Dunmore
Stay with Me - Ayobami Adebayo
The Long Spring: Tracking the Arrival of Spring Through Europe - Laurence Rose
The Pull of the River: Tales of Escape and Adventure on Britain's Waterways - Matt Gaw
Mayhem: A Memoir - Sigrid Rausing

[Rebecca]

I read Stay With Me a little while ago, I thought it was really good and quite thought provoking. I'll look forward to hearing what you think Paul.

[Toyah]

I've just finished The Good Liar by Catherine McKenzie, and I'm finally about to get around to Ready Player One.

[Toyah]

So I finished Ready Player One, and The Color Purple in quick succession. I've now just started The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen, and I'm about to start Dubliners by James Joyce for my book group read.

[Paul]

Just started Among the Summer Snows; good so far

[Paul]

Just started Swansong. Interesting first chapter

[Sam]

I finally picked up H is for Hawk. It's different from what I expected and I really enjoy it. There is a whole analogy to T. H. White going on and it breaks my heart.

[Joy]

Just started The High Mountains of Portugal. I liked The Life of Pi very much so I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to get round to reading another by Yann Martel.

[Toyah]

I just finished Dubliners by James Joyce, but skipped most of it because it was starting to bore me. Now on to For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway, and I'm hoping to finally finish some other current reads.

[Toyah]

Joy I've yet to read more of his too but I loved Life of Pi!

[Joy]

Toyah wrote: "Joy I've yet to read more of his too but I loved Life of Pi!"

I couldn’t put this one down last night - fell asleep with it in my hand - so definitely one to read.

[Toyah]

So I finished My Friend Dahmer for some relief from For Whom the Bell Tolls, and I'm about to start Neuromancer I think. Still plodding through For Whom the Bell Tolls!

[Joy]

I’ve read about 60 pages of English, August: An Indian Story , but it’s going to have to get a lot better in the next 40 pages if I’m not to give up (my new ‘life-is-too-short’ rule : if I don’t like it after 100 pages, I’m not ploughing on to the end.)

It’s supposed to be funny but I haven’t so much as twitched a lip.

[Jim]

I'm currently just over halfway through Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), and am enjoying the story. I also have The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) on my Currently Reading list.

[Toyah]

I finished One Hundred Years of Solitude earlier in the week so now I'm on to The Smoke in the Photograph by Kit Tinsley. A horror novel, and something to tide me over until Blood Meridian, my next book group read, comes in at the library.

[Jim]

After finishing Jazz-Rock: A History (1998) by Stuart Nicholson on August 2, 2018, I am now reading a hardcover edition of the classic western novel The Ox-Bow Incident (1940) by Walter Van Tilburg Clark (1909-71).

[Toyah]

I read The Carter of La Providence today, a short story and the second Maigret book. I loved the scene setting and the way the plot was developed in so few pages.

[Paul]

About a third of the way through The Written World: How Literature Shaped History. Fascinating so far

[Toyah]

I just finished The Smoke in the Photograph by Kit Tinsley and I'm about to start Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy for next month's book group

[Paul]

Just starting The Psychology of Time Travel tonight. And on opening it realised that my proof is signed too

[Sally]

Just finished Women in Sunlight. Currently reading Seeing a Large Cat and The Story of My Boyhood and Youth.

[Joy]

Paul wrote: "Just starting The Psychology of Time Travel tonight. And on opening it realised that my proof is signed too"

That sounds my sort of book - and a search reveals they have it at my local library!

[Joy]

I'm reading The Missing One which I'm enjoying. I really liked one by the same author that I read a few weeks ago - The Night Visitor. Psychological thrillers.

[Toyah]

So I decided on a whim to start Thus Spake Zarathustra again after ending up not being in the mood for it last time. I feel like I also need to pick out a fluff read for some respite.

[Jessica]

Just started reading Bel Canto and am enjoying it so far. I enjoyed Ann Patchett's book State of Wonder which is why I decided to pick up another book of hers.

[Paul]

Just started Craeft: How Traditional Crafts Are about More than Just Making last night. Good so far

[Corey]

Starting “21 Lessons for the 21st Century” by Yuval Noah Harari this very minute.

[Paul]

Corey wrote: "Starting “21 Lessons for the 21st Century” by Yuval Noah Harari this very minute."

I have been set a copy of that to read. Have you read any of his others, Corey?

[Jim]

Reading The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340-1400). Hard to read the Middle English dialect.

[Jan]

Right now I'm re-reading The Magic Mountain--very carefully: it'll take me weeks if not months.

[Toyah]

I'm 20 pages from finishing Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton, which I have LOVED