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Currently reading anything by a British writer?
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Oksana
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May 01, 2020 02:33PM
I am reading Who Murdered Chaucer? by Terry Jones. It is not fiction but reads like a historical mystery to me.
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Oksana wrote: "I am reading Who Murdered Chaucer? by Terry Jones. It is not fiction but reads like a historical mystery to me."Oksana, this sounds intriguing. I will add it to my list. Thanks for sharing.
Just as a reminder, this thread is for keeping each other updated about British authors that we're currently reading. (If you have a favorite author or authors whose work you'd like to recommend, the thread for that is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... .)
I'm reading The Moorland Cottage by Elizabeth Gaskell, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens and Poor Caroline by Winifred Holtby.
In another group I belong to, a common read of one of Agatha Christie's Poirot mysteries,
Death on the Nile, is to start on June 1. I'm a slow reader (or rather, I read quickly enough as such, but have limited time for it each day, so it takes me more time than most to finish a book) and may not get a chance to read on Monday, since we're expecting company. So, since I was ready to start a new book anyway, I went ahead and began my read of this today.
Are we going to read anything this summer?
It would be nice if we could, but I can't think of any titles right now.Do any of our members have suggestions for our annual group read?
I was thinking about reading The Sweetest Dreams, a 2001 novel by British Nobel Prize in Literature-winner Doris Lessing, or Wolf Hall, a historical novel by Hilary Mantel
Because of the current widespread disruption in interlibrary loan services (because so many libraries are currently closed), it might be practical to pick something that's old enough to be in the public domain, so that it would be available online or as a free e-book. (Both of the books you mentioned, Oksana, are relatively new.) Of course, more libraries might be open by the time we get closer to August; it's hard to plan ahead, because the situation is so fluid. :-(Does anybody else here sometimes read poetry? Would there be any interest in picking a poetry book? We've never done one, to my knowledge.
I love poetry and have quite a collection at home.
I love poetry too, especially the 19th century poets like Tennyson, Wordsworth, Browning, etc. But I'm open to reading any readily available poetry that the group chooses.
Of course, we don't have to do a poetry read this time, unless the majority want to. But I did resolve last year, as I planned my reading for 2020, to start trying to read at least one poetry book every year (since I've tended to neglect that form of literature); and I haven't read one yet this year. :-) Rosemarie, I have Tennyson's In Memoriam on my to-read shelf; but like you, I'm open to pretty much anything the group chooses!Original writings published up through 1922, under U.S. copyright law, are in the public domain. Introductions to books, critical notes and other added material, if written from 1923 on, are still copyrighted even if the original material they're commenting on isn't. So, to make up a hypothetical example, a collection of Tennyson poems published last year, with a lot of added material, wouldn't itself be in the public domain. But if we pick the collected works of any British poet who wrote from 1500-1922, or any individual poem that can be read as a free-standing book or any partial collection he/she published or somebody else made before 1923, the original content WILL have public domain editions. (Sometimes a whole lot of editions!)
Modern (1923- ) translations of older works are also under copyright (the translators or their heirs/assigns are the copyright holders). Before 1500, British poetry was composed in Old or Middle English. So, while the original-language texts of things like Beowulf or the works of Chaucer are in the public domain, post-1922 translations into Modern English are not (nor, or course, are any added explanatory materials). But again, there will be lots of Modern English and other editions of these works that were published before 1923!
Hope all of this discussion of copyright is useful to some people! (I'm a librarian, so being aware of this kind of thing goes with my occupational territory. :-) )
In Memoriam is on my to-read list as well.I am also open to reading other genres like novels, short stories or plays.
I have a poetry collection too. Let me know. Carol
Let's move this discussion over to this thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... , since that's actually where most group members will expect to look for it!
My Goodreads friend Steve Haywood and I had been planning on doing a buddy read of one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story collections, His Last Bow, so I've finally started on it today. I'm reading it in the print format Summit Classic Press edition,
His Last Bow: 8 Stories, a faithful reproduction (edited by human beings, not a computer program!) of the 1917 American edition by Doran. It'll be a quick read on my part, since I've already read most of the stories.
I'm taking part in our group's common read of Beowulf this month, and got started on it this morning.
Rosemarie, I've read a few of Jerome K Jerome's books. I loved "Three men in a Boat". But also found a few of of his works a bit tedious and not as funny. Wasn't sure if it was him or me. Sometimes an author is inconsistent but sometimes a readers mood changes. I may reread them, and see how I feel about them now.
The novel Paul Kelver was very reminiscent of David Copperfield, a gentle coming of age story.
I'm reading Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. It's a long book but the chapters are short and the book is a fun read.
This month, I'm joining in a common read of
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M. R. James, in another group. (I was fortunate enough to be able to get a paper copy by interlibrary loan.) So I started on it today. Although I've never actually read any whole collections of his stories before, I've read quite a number of them in other anthologies over the years (starting when I was a kid); of the eight stories here, I've already read four of them, so I expect this to be a pretty quick read.
Although I probably won't be able to work it in this year, I'm really hoping to finally read The Scarlet Pimpernel early next year. Though I'm a history major, and have a certain amount of knowledge of the French Revolution, and an opinion about its significance, based on general reading, I've never read a nonfiction book focused entirely on giving a complete account of the subject; and I think my understanding would benefit from that. So I've started on
The French Revolution: A Concise History by Norman Hampson.
In another group, I'm joining in a September common read of an Agatha Christie mystery story collection,
The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories. I know, I'm coming very late to the party (long story!), but it's a short book and I'm expecting it to be quite a quick read. This is a reread for me; but my first read of it was back sometime in the 90s and I hardly recall anything about the stories, so it's essentially like a new read so far.
Some reading buddies in another group I'm in are doing an ongoing read of Agatha Christie's entire Poirot canon. I don't join in all of the reads, but I'm taking part in the one this month, of
Sad Cypress. This is a reread for me; but my previous read was as a kid of perhaps 11 or 12, and I don't really recall anything about it except that it was set in England, had Poirot in it, and took its title from a Shakespeare quotation that considered cypress as wood for a coffin. So for me it's essentially like an entirely new read!
Earlier this week, I finally got started on Oscar Wilde's novella
The Canterville Ghost, which is a common read this month in another group. This is a re-read for me (it's included in the anthology Classic Ghost Stories), and I'm reading it this time in electronic format, though at the Project Gutenberg site rather than in the e-book edition that Goodreads treats as its primary link.
Last week I started on 'Lethal White' (Robert Galbraith/JKR) and finished it today. Enjoyed most of the writing. The previous books were decent novels but not great crime stories (as in, they weren't really that strong in the mystery/thrilling department). This one is the best in the series; of course I haven't read the latest book yet (Troubled Blood)
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy is a book I've long regarded as a must-read. When an unexpected window of opportunity to work in a read of it recently materialized (long story!), I took advantage of it to start reading the novel this morning. (I'm actually reading the Airmont Classics edition; but I'm not going to hunt through the 1,293 editions to link to the correct one! :-) )
Rosemarie wrote: "That's a fun read, Werner."I've been looking forward to it for years! Although I've never read the book, I did watch the 1999-2000 series of TV adaptations of the novel and (I think) at least some of its sequels, starring Richard E. Grant in the title role. (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0182408/ .)
In another group, I'm taking part in a common read of
The Werewolf (1896), by Clemence Housman. (I'm actually reading it in an online version, here: https://www.owleyes.org/text/the-were... , rather than the e-book edition that Goodreads shows as its default entry.) This is a reread for me, but the first time I've read it free-standing. (It's included in A Lycanthropy Reader: Werewolves in Western Culture, which is where I read it back in the early 90s.)
I'm reading The Other Side of the Dale by Gervase Phinn and The Clock Strikes Twelve by Patricia Wentworth.
Another group I'm in is doing a common read of Dickens' classic novel
Dombey and Son, starting tomorrow, and I'm joining in. Since I don't expect to get to read tomorrow, I started it today, and am just a few pages in. This is a reread for me; but my previous read was perhaps as much as 50 years ago or more, or certainly close to 50, so my memories of most of it are hazy at best. But I did vividly recall the opening scene of Dombey after the birth of his son and heir, and the satirical humor with which Dickens depicts it!
This month, I'm taking part in another group's common read of
The Devil Rides Out by Dennis Wheatley (I started a bit late). It's my first introduction to his work --surprisingly, I'd never heard of him before I joined Goodreads.
This was one of my favorite writers as a kid growing up in England. I must have read dozens of his books. I then graduated to Nevil Shute, another great writer.
I'm reading Basil by Wilkie Collins.
My first read of George Eliot's great novel
Middlemarch was more than 20 years ago. Since I'd never reviewed it here, watching the wonderful 1994 BBC miniseries adaptation (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108858/ ) on DVD last summer inspired me to do a reread, so I finally started on it again yesterday.
I enjoyed Middlemarch more on second reading,Werner.
Rosemarie wrote: "I enjoyed Middlemarch more on second reading,Werner."I think it's often the case that you can get more out of a novel on a second reading. (That would be a good argument for rereading more than I typically do --but then, there are also so many new-to-me books out there that I want to read!)
I agree that you can often get more out of something reading it a 2nd time. Especially if it's a long time and you have therefore matured and read a lot more. Also, now that I write myself, I find I read more critically - even stuff that's not very good - and learn from it (I hope).
Even though I've started it fairly late in the month, I'm finally joining in on our group's common read of
The Sign of Four. This is a reread for me (as of last year, I've read the entire original Holmes canon); but my previous read was as a tween kid back in the 60s, so my recollections of it aren't sharp.
Because she knows I'm a fan of Agatha Christie and of her series sleuth Hercules Poirot, my wife gave me a copy of
Mrs. McGinty's Dead for Christmas some years ago. As is usually the case with books in my mountainous TBR piles, it's sat unread for years; so I'm taking advantage of a common read in another group this month to finally read it. (I'm joining in very late in the month; but it's a fairly short book, and I'm expecting it to be a quick read.)
I'm rereading The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson and Village School by Miss Read.I'm reading The Picts & the Martyrs or Not Welcome at All by Arthur Ransome for the first time.
5.0 out of 5 - The Airshipmen Triology by David DenningtonThis should be a MOVIE - its a no brainer. Its all there in print and images
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 August 2021
I have just purchased this excellent book trilogy - its a hidden gem. I did read David's one book edition a while ago. I enjoyed it so much that I was so happy to recently discover via Amazon, that this great story has now been recreated and published across a set of three books. This time with many original photographs of airships, crew, passengers, interiors. Also many maps and photos of the construction yards etc. This all bringing the history back to life even more. So pleased to now be able to read this great story again but this time will real images.
This trilogy is screaming out to be made into a feature film
I found the Airship history portrayed in David's books fascinating and what better way of learning about history through these 'Faction' novels. Fiction-based-on-fact. Brilliant .
THE AIRSHIPMEN TRILOGY 3 - TO ASHES: Based on a true story. The gripping, high-stakes conclusion.
I did write this review on Amazon as well so you should go to this link to see photo I uploaded: https://www.amazon.co.uk/AIRSHIPMEN-T...
David, you might want to edit your comment. It looks like, when you were possibly copying-and-pasting (?), you accidentally hit a key twice.
Mike barden here, i will edit that good spot. I think it did not enter first time.
No problem, Mike! Thanks for making us aware of the trilogy; I hadn't heard of it myself.
I'm reading Gentian Hill by Elizabeth Goudge and The Gathering Storm by Winston S. Churchill.And a reread of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling.
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