What Are You Reading Now? Showing 1,701-1,750 of 2,435

[Savita]

Tom wrote: "I am about half way through David Copperfield. I like how Dickens values good, honest people acting with principles. And the many humourous eccentrics.
Just finished Washington Square by Henry Jame..."

Dickens should be a slow and lovely read .... he has to be savoured and his insights into human nature have to be appreciated .
You're lucky to have found a succession of great reads ! - David Copperfield , Washington Square and an Oscar Wilde !

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished the classic Science-Fiction/Horror novel


The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the first book in the Border Trilogy, winner of both the U.S. National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992


All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

[Georgia]

I've been rereading Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. This is a review of my favorite poem - "The Sleepers" https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Tom]

Dickens should be a slow and lovely read .... he has to be savoured and his insights into human nature have to be appreciated .
You're lucky to have found a succession of great reads ! - David Copperfield , Washington Square and an Oscar Wilde !

You're right, I need slow down and savour Dickens. It's quite long though, so the temptation is to speed up. Enjoy Hardy!
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[Savita]

Thanks , Tom !

[Jess]

I've finally finished Moby-Dick or, the Whale and wish I'd given up on it to be honest. The insights on the whaling industry were interesting but everything dragged out far too long and I didn't connect with the central themes.

[sabagrey]

Lilly wrote: "Or also, in well known cases like Enid Blyton, I found that some of the apparently in Britain very well known series are almost unknown here"

sorry to disagree a bit - seeing that by 'here' you mean Germany. I have known the name Enid Blyton since my childhood - many decades ago - and almost everybody in my age group knew her books, especially the 'Five' (translated as Fünf Freunde) . - I don't know them because I didn't like them after the first I tried and never finished ;-))

[Tom]

Jess wrote: "I've finally finished Moby-Dick or, the Whale and wish I'd given up on it to be honest. The insights on the whaling industry were interesting but everything dragged out far too long a..."

Me either and I couldn't finish despite a heavy investment. Well done for finishing!

[Wreade1872]

Finished a biography of a major figure in the sci-fi world Judith Merril. I should have stuck to her fiction, this was a chore to get through.
Better to have Loved by Judith Merril and Emily Pohl-Weary [2/5] review.

However i also finished the 5th book in the only Urban Fantasy series i read, which was really great best so far. One more to go in that series that i know of.
White Trash Zombie: Gone Wild by Diana Rowland [5/5] review

[Richard]

I finished Henry James's terrorism novel The Princess Casamassima which I liked immensely, and having finally read and also been equally impressed by Gustave Flaubert's Madame BovaryL'Ed, I have now embarked on L'Éducation sentimentale although this is presently going rather slowly.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished the bleak noir classic


The Burglar by David Goodis
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading a WWI-era spy novel that is the sequel to The Thirty-Nine Steps


Greenmantle by John Buchan

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished the short novel


Washington Square by Henry James
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the autobiographical


H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

[Wreade1872]

Finished the mildly funny A House-Boat on the Styx by John Kendrick Bangs [3/5] review, from 1895.
Started The Silver Stallion by James Branch Cabell (1926). Which is interesting in that i have now purchased 19 volumes by Cabell and not read a single one yet... in physical form.
I have in fact read almost all of them as ebooks before buying but not this one.
So first time read and i have a Ballantine edition from 1969... *sniff* ...ah.. that's the stuff... 1969 was a good year for paper :P . Looking forward to this one :) .

[Janice]

I am rereading Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery and enjoying it very much! <3

[CindySR]

Janice wrote: "I am rereading Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery and enjoying it very much! <3"

I want to do the same. <3

[Pharmacdon]

I am reading Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1997.

[James]

Mr Noon by D.H. Lawrence

[Dave]

All my reference to “reading” means listening to audiobooks.

I am rereading The Magus by John Fowles for the 7th time in my life. I have always considered it my favorite novel.

Ian also listening to Truman by David McCullough, The Comanche Empire by Pekka Hämäläinen, The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagerkrantz, Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, and The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by Michael David Lukas.

[Teri-K]

My oldest grandchild suggested I read some manga, so I bought Macbeth, full original text, in manga form. I love this play, and I'm really enjoying it. It looks like a good way for people who struggle reading plays, or Shakespeare specifically, to try.

I'm also rereading Our Hearts were Young and Gay by Cornelia Otis Skinner. It's an amusing memoir of a 1920s trip to Europe by two young women. I saw the play when I was little and have enjoyed the book over the decades.

[Darren]

there's a manga version of Soseki's I Am a Cat that I'm quite tempted by:
Soseki Natsume's I Am A Cat: The Manga Edition

[Janice]

CindySR wrote: "Janice wrote: "I am rereading Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery and enjoying it very much!

I want to do the same. <3"

Oh, you should! <3

[Pharmacdon]

I am reading One of Ours by Willa Cather. The Pulitzer Prize winner for 1923.

[Teri-K]

I'm really like Cather's books, but I haven't read One of Ours. I'm afraid it might be too depressing for me. How are you liking it?

[Simona]

The Family Upstairs 🤯

[Pharmacdon]

Teri-K wrote: "I'm really like Cather's books, but I haven't read One of Ours. I'm afraid it might be too depressing for me. How are you liking it?"
So far, it is great, with the family dynamics and the personal struggles of the main character, Claude Wheeler.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished the non-fiction travel account of Graham Greene's 1938 trip to Mexico which inspired him to write The Power and the Glory


The Lawless Roads by Graham Greene
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading another book written about events on the opposite side of the globe just two years prior...


The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Also, I finished the sequel to The Thirty-Nine Steps


Greenmantle by John Buchan
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the first in the Travis McGee series


The Deep Blue Good-By by John D. MacDonald

[Savita]

I have finished the fourth tale of T.Hardy 's Wessex Tales . It's remarkable how, in a matter of minutes or hours , life can completely, dramatically, ruthlessly change the stage settings of people 's lives..... ☆☆Beware Spoilers (view spoiler)[ A previously happy household can become so violently uprooted that , where love and security had hitherto bloomed , suddenly dismal suffocation and sorrow move in to take possession 🤔 . There's a curious to and fro movement of the emotional pendulum in this story .... and at the end , there's a huge , disturbed sigh from the distracted reader . Elusive , capricious , tantalizing happiness remains just out of the hand's grasp .... always 🤔 . (hide spoiler)] ☆☆ Why should it be so for some unfortunate human beings ? Karma ( deeds ) ? As you have sown , so you shall reap ?

Now for the fifth , surely interesting and thought provoking , tale .

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished the somewhat-autobiographical classic


Martin Eden by Jack London
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I will take a quick break to read the short story

Andrea by John O'Hara

then I will be moving on to this collection of short stories based on the author's time served in a Siberian gulag


Kolyma Stories by Varlam Shalamov

[Teri-K]

I'm reading Greenmantle for the first time. I'm most of the way through and enjoying it.


I just started a reread of A Tale of Two Cities. It was a favorite of mine when I was younger, but I don't think I've revisited it in many decades. I really love Dickens style, and am having fun.


I just finished Macbeth in manga form, with the full original text. I quite enjoyed it; it was a new way to read one of my favorite plays. And I impressed the older grandkids with the fact that I read a manga. lol

[Lynn, New School Classics]

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "I finished the somewhat-autobiographical classic


Martin Eden by Jack London
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."




Andrea was a difficult story for me to read. I actually threw away the book and wasn't going to finish it, but then I went back for it.

[Pharmacdon]

I started reading Trust by Hernan Diaz, the dual winner of the Pulitzer Prize for 2023. There are certainly a lot of mixed Goodreads reviews (either loved it or hated it.)
I finished the novel, another one set in New York City in the 1920s, which no one wins. I gave it four stars.

[Chris]

I just started Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Lynn wrote: "Andrea was a difficult story for me to read. I actually threw away the book and wasn't going to finish it, but then I went back for it."

Really? What was hard about it? Did you end up enjoying it? I'm curious because I've never read anything by O'Hara so this will be my first. I'm working my way through Sixteen Short Novels edited by Wilfrid Sheed and "Andrea" is included in that anthology (although I don't think it is really a "short novel" - more like a short story).

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished an anthology containing 26 of the most notable Science-Fiction short stories from the time period 1929-1964


The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929-1964 edited by Robert Silverberg
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started on the first half of the second volume of the anthology which contains the 23 most notable classic Science-Fiction novellas from roughly the same time period (with one notable exception - The Time Machine by H.G. Wells from 1895) - this volume, Part II-A, contains 12 novellas


The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two A: The Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time Chosen by the Members of The Science Fiction Writers of America edited by Ben Bova

[Teri-K]

I'm rereading Richard II and watching David Tennant act it. Interesting to see how he portrays the king - not what I imagined. But I'm eager to see how his characterization plays out.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished the first book in the Border Trilogy


All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Lynn, New School Classics]

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Andrea was a difficult story for me to read. I actually threw away the book and wasn't going to finish it, but then I went back for it."

Really? What was hard about it? Did you end up..."



The poor girl's life was so difficult. Nope, definitely not enjoyable, but it was a train wreck I had to watch to the end.

(view spoiler)[. There are reviewers who think this is a fun modern relationship with a completely shocking ending. Nope. And I don't see why they can't understand the story.

This is a miserable case of a man using a young girl who makes bad choice after bad choice, and in the end she is so broken she kills herself. After years of trying to make the relationship right, she just can't. I believe the subtext is that she had one or more abortions along the way and the man who "loved" her would see her for a while then discard her again, thinking they were both ok, but it was really killing Andrea inside. Andrea makes one last desperate attempt with him, and he is completely clueless yet again, so she kills herself.

I was so upset with the male character I threw the book away just before the end. Then I went and fished it out of the trash can to read the last two pages and of course the worse happened. (hide spoiler)]


Oh, and I own the same edition you do, Sixteen Short Novels.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Lynn wrote: "...(view spoiler)"

I've got a couple more days of reading until I finish it, then I'll unwrap your spoiler and respond.

[Wreade1872]

Finished two books which were both really great but for some reason i didn't feel like giving 5-stars. Still great though, had a very good time reading them.
Truth of the Divine by Lindsay Ellis [4/5] review and The Silver Stallion by James Branch Cabell [4/5] review

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished the memoir


H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and after a quick break to read the short story

Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville

I will be reading the short story collection


Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr.

[Lynn, New School Classics]

I am reading the short story The Web of Earth by Thomas Wolfe. It is a bit difficult to follow due to the style of narration, and it discusses some difficult topics. Yet, it is fascinating.

I was looking over our long list of short story nominations and realized I owned the Complete Works of Thomas Wolfe. I thought I would read my first text by him.

[Jayson]

A few days ago I finished reading Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea” which I thought was fantastic. I was so amazed on how much Verne was ahead of his time. I I really enjoyed it.

Now I’m reading Ian Fleming’s story about a secret agent in a casino called “Casino Royale.”

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished the first Travis McGee novel


The Deep Blue Good-By by John D. MacDonald
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading


Triple by Ken Follett

[Teri-K]

I had to put down Doctor Thorne a while back, due to pile up of library books and other obligations. I've restarted it and am loving it. It's only my second Trollope, but I really like his style and characters and can't wait to get to more of the Barsetshire series.

I'm also rereading Cranford in my copy of The Cranford Chronicles: Mr. Harrison's Confession / Cranford / My Lady Ludlow. It's fun, but definitely is a book I can put down for a while, then pick up again when I'm in the mood. I love Gaskell, and this is good but it isn't her best.

[Janice]

I just finished Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus and am now rereading Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde

[Franky]

Currently reading The Master and Margarita and Titus Andronicus. One is nuts and silly, and one is nuts and bloody.

[Brian E]

Franky wrote: "Currently reading The Master and Margarita and Titus Andronicus. One is nuts and silly, and one is nuts and bloody."

A Bloody Margarita is really good: https://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/bl...
And with a few nuts - mmmm.

[Franky]

Brian E wrote: "Franky wrote: "Currently reading The Master and Margarita and Titus Andronicus. One is nuts and silly, and one is nuts and bloody."

A Bloody Margarita is really good: ht..."

Haha! Totally, Brian!

[Cynda]

I have just finished The Time Machine by H.G. Wells


The last time I read this as a teenager I did not understand the science of time. Now that I have read several books where time and time-space are described, I better understand this book. Very probably because of the bend of time-space, I may never completely understand, yet I understand enough to appreciate the descriptions