Books you are currently reading

[Naomi]

Doesn't necessarily have to be a cult book, just books you are currenntly reading and liking/not liking etc.

[Naomi]

I've just started The Gargoyle and am really liking it so far, knew nothing about the book when I first started reading it, but really addicted.

[Auntie]

I am currently reading The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966. It's quirky and cute.

[Naomi]

I just read A Single Man by Isherwood, I came to it after watching and loving the recent film adap of it by Tom Ford, knowing from that it was a book I had to read.

It was an amazing book, every single precious word was so tantalizingly true and real and cutting and deep. It was written in the stream-of-conciousness style that I reall liked, I read Mrs. Dalloway earlier this year that was witten in this style too, there is something so liberating about reading a book in this style, it allows the writer to encompass so easily a range of emotions, because that's what life is like, certainly my life, my head constantly jumping through a range of different subtle emotions.

This is from the opening paragraph:

Waking up begins with saying am and now. That which has awoken then lies for a while staring up at the ceiling and down into itself until it has recognised I, and therefrom deduced I am, I am now. Here comes next and is at least negatively reassuring: because here, this morning, is where it had expected to find itself; what's called at home.

I just loved every single word of this book, and will most definitely be reading more Isherwood!

[Alice]

I'll have to check A Single Man out. I adored the movie and was wondering whether or not the book was worth the effort.

[Naomi]

Alice wrote: "I'll have to check A Single Man out. I adored the movie and was wondering whether or not the book was worth the effort."

Yes, its definitely worth checking out!

[Naomi]

I'm currently reading The New York Trilogy by Auster and am really liking it, I love certain ideas he brings up, can't believe I haven't ready any Auster before.
Anyone else read it, any thoughts on it, love to hear what you think!

[Alice]

I just picked up Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love. I hope it's more sweet than bitter.

[Christopher]

I've just started The Gargoyle and am really liking it so far, knew nothing about the book when I first started reading it, but really addicted.

Outstanding book Naomi - probably one of my two favorites of the millennium so far. Would have recommended it here, but not sure of a book that got a $250 000 advance could count as cult?

I've just started the book thief, on a recommendation from another book club. Didn't realize it was YA until I started it - but still, a book narrated by death has to hold some potential....

[Alice]

I have problems with books being classified as YA when the content is clearly not. The Book Thief is an amazing work, but I would never recommend it to anyone under 17 due to language and content. It baffles me that just because the main character(s) is a child or teenage they would consider it YA...maybe it's just me.

[Christopher]

Cool, two positive recommendations in a week - I look forward to getting into it. Thanks

[Naomi]

Ooh The Book Thief is an awesome book, enjoy!

I'd agree about it not really being a YA, it didn't read like that anyway it just seemed original, and does have some pretty hard hitting themes. I loved death!

[Naomi]

Reading The Book of Lost Things at the moment and I really love it, I love dark fairytales and how it seems to be poking fun at the Disneyfied versions, can't put it down!

Plus some of the opening excerpts about books, are just brilliant:

Stories were different, though; they came alive in the telling. Without a human voice to read them aloud, or a pair of wide eyes following them by torch light beneath the blanket, they had no real existece in our world. They were like seeds in the beak of a bird, waiting to fall to earth, or the notes of a song laid out on a sheet, yearning for an instrument to bring their music into being. They lay dormant, hoping for a chance to emerge. Once someone started to read them, they could begin to change. They could take root in the imagination and transform the reader. Stories wanted to be read, David's mother would whisper. They needed it. It was the reason they forced themselves from their world into ours. They wanted us to give them life.

[Alice]

I bought Book of Lost Things a few years ago, but just haven't cracked it open. Might have to migrate to the top of my to read list. So many great books so little time!

[Christopher]

I agree Naomi, I read The Book of Lost Things a couple of years ago and really loved it. It's certainly dark, but the humor is spot on too. I don't want to spoil anything, but the dwarves are a trip.

I'm also really getting into The Book Thief. Deaths a great narrator, the way he seems to stay a bit removed from the events just adds to the impact - top book.

[Christopher]

Just finished The Book Thief

Absolutely outstanding book.

It's so hard to pick out a passage from a book so dense with beautiful language, but I think this exert from page 358 goes someway towards giving a feel of the voice of Death -

'On June 23rd, there were a group of French Jews in a German prison on Polish soil. The first person I took was close to the door, his mind racing, then reduced to pacing,then slowing down, slowing down...

Please believe me when I tell you that I picked up each soul that day as if it were newly born. I even kissed a few weary poisoned cheeks. I listened to their last gasping cries. Their French words. I watched their love-visions and freed them from their fear.
I took them all away, and if ever there was a time I needed distraction, this was it. In complete desolation, I looked at the world above, I watched the sky as it turned from silver to grey to the color of rain. Even the clouds tried to look the other way.
Sometimes, I imagined how everything appeared above the clouds, knowing without question that the sun was blond, and the endless atmosphere was a giant blue eye.

They were French, they were Jews, and they were you.'

[Alice]

I'm reading The Grass Harp and A Tree of Night currently. It's my first Capote and I'm not quite sure I like his style.

Anyone else read this one?