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What are you currently reading?
Jt wrote: "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a grower. Give it more time."Will do, Jt!
Picked up a copy of But Have You Read the Book at the library. Each of the 52 titles does a little comparison between the book and its subsequent film. There are quite a few that I've only read or watched, so always-afraid-of-a-spoiler I'm just flipping through to the selections in which I've experienced both the book and the film.
Reggia wrote: "Picked up a copy of But Have You Read the Book at the library. Each of the 52 titles does a little comparison between the book and its subsequent film. There are quite a few that I..."Sounds interesting. What books are included?
Barb and I have gotten a good start on reading
Spilled Milk the fourth novel in the Barks and Beans Cafe Mystery series, by Heather Day Gilbert (whom I've often mentioned before on this and other threads), We've previously read and liked the first three books (and I've also read an ARC of House Blend, which isn't in the Goodreads database yet); but so far, I'm liking this volume the best of those that I've read.While passing time earlier this week in the public library in Harrisonburg, Virginia, I started reading
The Best Short Stories of Bret Harte, which goes onto my "being read intermittently" shelf for the present. This is actually my third read of that collection; but the most recent one was around 20 years ago, so I've largely forgotten most of the stories and it's almost like a new read.
Thanks for this terrific recommendation, Reggia! I think I'm going to make it a project to read it and all of the books she recommends (though I've already read some of them...). Maybe start a long term book/movie group. And the BEST, most intriguing, book to movie I've ever read is the 1938 "Address Unknown" (only about 7pps, so really more of a novella but incredible...) and its 1944 film adaptation. Chilling. Disturbing. About 2 art business partners from LA, one German, one Jewish, and what happens when the German goes back to Germany to expand their business.... The movie misses some parts and adds a plot line, but still was a fascinating experience in adaptation...
I enjoyed the reading those few chapters, but each seemed a bit too succinct? I would've appreciated more background on both the books and the movies.
Given my Swedish background and interest in all things Scandinavian, I've long been interested in reading
The Prose Edda: Tales from Norse Mythology by the medieval Icelandic poet and scholar Snorri Sturluson. It's been in my physical TBR piles for quite a while; so yesterday, since I was looking for a short book before starting a group read next month, I finally pulled it out and began reading it!
The excellent Goodreads group Works of Thomas Hardy (https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/... ) often features discussions of individual poems by Hardy. I've not read many of these; but the comments there whetted my interest, so I've begun intermittently reading (when I'm between other books)
The Complete Poems of the author. (In this edition, the text itself has 954 pages; so this will definitely be a long read!)
I'm interested in both these posts Werner! The Prose Edda has been sitting on our shelves for ... um ... more than 50 years (bought by me for Chris for his birthday once, though I couldn't quite believe the name Snorri Sturluson) *gulp* and of course we'll all be delighted to hear your views on individual poems by Thomas Hardy 😊
Jean, thanks for your interest! :-) I'm glad to have finally read The Prose Edda; but I wouldn't really call it a must-read unless you're VERY seriously interested in things like medieval literature or Norse mythology. If you just have a curiosity about the stories themselves as stories, they're delivered in a much more reader-friendly style in more "modern" retellings like the Keary sisters' The Heroes of Asgard: Tales from Scandinavian Mythology (or probably, though I haven't read it, Neil Gaiman's realatively recent Norse Mythology).Since I'll be reading Hardy's collected poems piecemeal, I'll be reviewing the collection in piecemeal fashion as well. I'm expecting to post the first installment early next month, but I won't completely finish the read and review until sometime next year. I'll post a link to the whole review on our group's reviews thread at that time.
Great!I forgot to say how much I enjoyed your review ... though you'll have seen the "like".
We actually read The Heroes of Asgard Tales from Scandinavian Mythology at school, (at 12 I think) straight after "Celtic Legends" (can't find the correct edition). My school believed in giving us a good grounding 😊
Bionic Jean wrote: "I forgot to say how much I enjoyed your review ... though you'll have seen the 'like"."I did; thanks!
When I was in grade school back at that age, we generally didn't get to read anything that interesting. :-( Then too, by age 12, I was going to a very narrow parochial school, which definitely subscribed to the "extreme position" I mentioned in my review. Of course, I read a lot on my own (and not always things my teachers would have approved of!); but I don't think I developed much of an interest in Scandinavian or Celtic mythology until I was older --high school or college age.
This was the first year of the English equivalent to your High School, where we spend 7 years. This explains the "broad base" aspect.
Bionic Jean wrote: "This was the first year of the English equivalent to your High School, where we spend 7 years. This explains the "broad base" aspect."Thanks, Jean! It's instructive (no pun intended! :-) ) to compare and contrast the two systems. (I don't really know that much about any school system outside of the U.S.)
Yes, it puts it in context. You're welcome! These divisions are the same now, although not every school offers the option of 7 years, and some would go to a (6th form) college for the 6th and 7th years, before entering university.
Another group I'm in is doing a common read of the medieval Welsh classic
The Mabinogion, and I'm joining in. This book has been on my to-read shelf for awhile now, mostly because my understanding is that it's a basic original source for Celtic mythology. Another title that's been on that list a long time is The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander; and I'm thinking that the former will be a good source of background material for the latter! :-)
I read the first 2 of those in my teens/twenties: The Book of Three and The Black Cauldron, but not the final three. Since I can't remember much about them, I can't say why I stopped! So I'll be interested in what you think, Werner, to decide whether to have another go! We used to holiday a lot in Wales at that time, and that plus a fantasy element could well have been the attraction.
Jean, I definitely do want to read the omnibus volume of The Prydain Chronicles at some point (I'm thinking of it as a book Barb and I might read together). That said, though, next year would be the very earliest time it might happen; and I'd expect it to be a read spread over a pretty long time frame.
Right, thanks for the heads-up!
Hi! My first post in here! I recently finished Patrick Rothfuss’s two books in The Kingkiller Chronicles. Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear. Can’t wait for the 3rd book to finally come out! I’m hear info next year maybe. Currently debating whether to start Robin Hood’s books or the Discworld series. I keep getting both recommended to me!
Well, I gave The Mabinogion an honest try, but bailed on it after 44 pages. This note explains why: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .Now, I've begun reading
To Calm a Storm, the concluding book of the Tavland Vikings duology by Heather Day Gilbert and Jen Cudmore, newly published this past summer. (It's not a review book, but rather one that I purchased because I liked the series opener.) I'm a fan of historical fiction, and the medieval period is one of my favorite settings, so this is right up my alley!
Having finished Spilled Milk, the fifth book in the Barks and Beans Cafe' cozy mystery series by Heather Day Gilbert, Barb and I are continuing right along with the sixth installment,
Trouble Brewing!
A couple of days ago (although I didn't get around to posting about it until now), I started reading the text of the play
A Man for All Seasons (1960), by British playwright Robert Bolt. I've seen the 1988 movie production starring Charlton Heston, and have the impression that it's more faithful to Bolt's original than the better known 1966 movie version starring Paul Scofield (which I haven't seen, but have some information about). So I wanted to check out my impression by going back to the source! :-)
It looks like I didn't post here that I was reading Antonia Barber's novel,
The Ghosts, started on Sept. 30. I've already finished it, so that was a quick read for me!G.K. Werner is a long-standing Goodreads friend of mine. Though I've never read any of his work, I've long been intrigued by the descriptions of his retelling of the Robin Hood legends, The Clerk of Copmanhurst's Tales trilogy, and the three books (all of them purchased) have been sitting in my TBR piles for years. Yesterday, I finally started on the first book,
Robert of Wakefield: Robin Hood's Father.
So far this year, although I've read parts of a couple of poetry books, I haven't read a whole one. To remedy that, I've started reading
Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (although I'm reading the undated Grosset and Dunlap printing, not the one pictured here. Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha only got two stars from me, but I thought that his long poetry deserved another chance.
To complete a challenge in another group, I need to read a book "from Africa" (that is, written by an African writer). Although I wouldn't force myself to read a book I didn't think would be rewarding just for a challenge, the classic South African novel
Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton has been on my to-read shelf for a long time. So I'm finally seizing the opportunity to read it.
I'm reading the young adult classic, The Giver. It's been on the bookshelf a long time, but noting the movie is currently on Netflix I thought this would be a good time to get it read.I enjoyed Cry, the Beloved Country and consider it a must-read.
How Music Works sounds interesting... reminds me of Musicophilia which I've only read about halfway.
Reggia wrote: "I'm reading the young adult classic, The Giver. It's been on the bookshelf a long time, but noting the movie is currently on Netflix I thought this would be a good time to get it read...."Reggia, The Giver has been on my to-read shelf for some time, so I'll be interested in your review!
The Lady of the Shroud by Bram Stoker is a long-standing "loose end" in my reading; I started reading it as a kid, but didn't get to finish it at the time (long story!). I always intended to eventually get back to someday, but have never gotten around to it until now. But an unexpected window of opportunity having opened up in my reading schedule, I've finally seized on the opportunity to start it again. (I know a bit more about it from secondary sources than I did back then, but I'm still interested!)
The Giver was an easy read, of course. Although the author states (in so many words) that it's not meant to be dystopian, it certainly comes across that way. Written in late 90s, I think, I feel many of those 'ideas' have come to pass. Certainly the thought of them (including thought-control, although not necessarily meaning to allude to that at this moment) is in our rules and practices.Other parts of the story are sci-fi'ish (yes, i just made that word up, lol) and it went easier for me than normal... then again, it's kids' fiction. ;-) To be sure, I'm glad I read it! :-)
I don't know how to rate it, for interest, the ideas are not new, but seeing them once again, gives one pause to think as we look about us and see what we've become as well as how we will evolve as a planet of humans.
* * *
I've now begun All Quiet on the Western Front with Netflix once again being my prodder. To be sure, I've had these on my bookshelf for not a few years!
currently reading The Wager by David Grann… loving it so far!! would recommend it for anyone that enjoys fictional stories based on non-fictional events or time periods :)
Welcome, Blair! Thanks for sharing about The Wager. I just saw that Gramm's work in it was compared to that of Patrick O'Brian -- thanks for the recommendation!
Barb and I read
Through the Ice by Piers Anthony and Robert Kornwise sometime back in the 90s, after buying a copy at a flea market; but I've never reviewed it, and it's been on my "to-reread" shelf for quite a while, since I need a refresher read to do it justice. We both liked it at the time: and since Barb has even less memory of it than I do, so that for her it can be essentially a new read, we've started reading it again. (We've also read and liked a number of Anthony's Xanth novels.)
One way to not have as many ongoing, "dangling" series on one's literary plate as I once had is, once you start reading one, to follow up with the sequels quickly. :-) So, having embarked on The Clerk of Copmanhurst's Tales trilogy by G.K. Werner earlier this year with the series opener, Robert of Wakefield, I've now started on the second book,
Robin of Locksley: Tales of Robin and Marian.
I have just listened to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, narrated by Michael York. (He played the handsome Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet of 1968).
Robin of Lockskey looks interesting. I might visit if not read the book.
Cynda will back full time 2024 wrote: "Robin of Lockskey looks interesting. I might visit if not read the book."I really liked it; but it's definitely best to check out or read the series opener first. (The second book grows out of the first one like a tree out of its roots.)
With the end of the year approaching, I wanted to start a fairly quick read; so I went with one that's been on my to-read shelf for a long time, the nonfiction book
The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton (180 p.). (However, I've already discovered that due to the author's style, the small print, and the complexity of the thought, it's not really likely to be a quick read after all. I'm in it for the long haul, though!)
Well, I still want to read a correctly printed copy of The Everlasting Man sometime, but I gave up on the copy I had because it turned out to be very poorly digitized. :-( Still wanting a quick read before I start my Christmas season reading, I've begun on one of the many books in my physical TBR piles,
The Ginger Star by Leigh Brackett. Her Black Amazon of Mars got five stars from me when I read it back in 2016.
I have been aware of The Everlasting Man for a long time, a personal since forever. That I know can read during this time of rest.
Cynda will back full time 2024 wrote: "I have been aware of The Everlasting Man for a long time, a personal since forever. That I know can read during this time of rest."If you review it some time, Cynda, I'll be interested in your take on it!
Sounds good Werner! I am currently listening to The Egg and Other Stories by Andy Weir
I have read 3 of 9 stories. I like the twists.
Hi Cynda! Everlasting Man looks very interesting, so I just added it to my to-read list. You mentioned rest -- hope you are well.
Working on finishing some large books...The Magic Mountain and the last book of the trilogy The Good Earth called A House Divided. Also for a shorter book I am started reading Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Thank you Reggia. I am better everyday :-) It is nice have this gentle space to come to as I heal.
Cynda, consider me as having joined you in this time. Hello Cosmic... have yet to read any of Didion's work, but the name keeps coming off and my curiosity is piqued.
I, too, am finishing up several reads. I think they've all been mentioned here before but to update they are the 2nd book of Les Miserables, All is Quiet on the Western Front, and Sophie's World as the main ones. Wish me luck, I will need it (although I love having family visiting me)!!
Thank you Reggia. That is kind and supportive. . . . Enjoy your family visit!
As a kid, although I was something of a fan of the Hardy Boys mystery series, I never discovered the Nancy Drew books, and only heard about them much later. I've often regretted that, and have been curious enough to have had
The Secret of the Old Clock (1930), the series opener, on my to-read shelf for some time. Having time to work in one more short book before the end of the year, I decided to finally give it a read! :-)
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Nothing new being added to my Current list, but I have finished some that had been on it for awhile.