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Post by Kate_R on Dec 23, 2012 12:53:53 GMT 2
I read that recently. Really enjoyed it, and will be reserving some more John Greene novels in the new year.
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Post by katcalls on Dec 23, 2012 13:16:39 GMT 2
Kate, I'm enjoying it too - a little to my surprise for some reason.
I have his latest one (The Fault in our Stars?) lined up to read soon after, but I may diverge from it to read Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon first.
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 23, 2012 17:01:16 GMT 2
Aaah! Hello people, I found you - I was going into desperate WT Book Thread withdrawal.
I just finished Philip Roth's "American Pastoral" -- at first I thought it was kind of miserable... I just didn't care so much about this guy's nostalgia about a star football player from Newark. But as the story unfolds, it became mesmerizing and heartbreaking (and yet often very funny at the same time). It's basically about that thing we all learn eventually in life, that everyone has a secret heartbreak about something, even the most perfect-seeming people. That we're all wrong about things, sometimes heartbreakingly wrong. Sounds miserable, doesn't it? Biput it was very very good, and now Roth is on my list of people whose books I will read regularly.
Now I'm about to start an Edward St Aubyn novel, which is also supposed to be heartbreaking and yet funny. So that's me.
(Oh, and katcalls - yep, I duly copied that NYT list for future reference! I was glad to see Kunzru's "Gods Without Men" on there - weird book.)
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mei
Happy Potters
Posts: 90
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Post by mei on Dec 23, 2012 17:09:30 GMT 2
ah! a book thread!
I just finished a short read, which I'm not actually counting (and yay for my spreadsheet otherwise I'd now be lost on numbers), but I want to vent my disappointment about it somewhere. so this is where ;-)
A short book called 'The serendipity machine' (http://www.theserendipitymachine.com/) which conceptually is about a great idea: serendipity; finding things/meeting people you didn't know you were looking for. And in this case it looks at the economic perspective on that creating value by facilitating opportunities to connect with people and ideas you had no idea were out there. 'The serendipity machine' is supposed to be a way/method of making that happen.
Unfortunately, though, it is a fan book on one concept, Seats2Meet.com, which is very successful here in the Netherlands by offering workspaces/coworking at no financial charge and which succeeds in making unexpected connections etc. Where as I do really like S2M I was hoping the book would be more about just that concept. Disappointed :-(
Anyway, my goal for this holiday break is to finally get through 1421. A big monsterbook (800 pages?) about the world explorations the Chinese embarked on in 1421. It's a long tough read....
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Post by itsasmallworld1 on Dec 23, 2012 17:10:48 GMT 2
Hi all,
Great to have found you all and to find another books thread.
I am reading "Talking it over" by Julian Barnes, Is a book told by 3 or 4 different people's POV as a speech. And their interactions and their seeing same situations from each one's POV. So far it is hilarious and thought provoking in a way. Glad to have met this site/thread.
I remember having read another J.Barnes but didn't like it at all, glad I gave him another chance, this book is really good imho.
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Post by Scrubb on Dec 23, 2012 23:35:30 GMT 2
I'm in the middle of "After the Quake" by Murikami. I love his stuff but don't think I'd want to read more than 2 books in a row. I need a break from him after a while.
This one is a collection of short stories. Each one is a microcosm of his world.
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 24, 2012 1:01:51 GMT 2
OK, this book is short, so since so I spent a lot of time on the subway today Christmas shopping, I've now finished reading Edward St. Aubyn's "Never Mind." This is sometimes very amusing but also pretty strenuous; it concerns a day in the lives of these horrible British aristocrats, who are incredible assholes. Sometimes it's very funny, since St Aubyn describes them very amusingly and ruthlessly; however, the effect is that by the end of the book you'd like to see them all drowned, particularly the sadistic father of the poor little boy who is the focus of this series of books. The father does something horrible to the boy in this book, so I wouldn't recommend this to everyone. I'm actually now reading the sequel so that I can see the bastard of a father dead.
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pickychick
Pot Smoker
Come to the dark side - we have cookies
Posts: 122
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Post by pickychick on Dec 24, 2012 1:10:21 GMT 2
I don't read as much as I'd like these days, I start losing concentration and thinking about things I don't want to (work and such).
I've been reading the second Duncton series novel by William Horwood (which I think I might have started last summer but keep ditching for other books), I've also picked up Stephen King's Dead Zone which I initially started reading on holiday. I didn't go back to it as it reminded me of being on holiday I suppose, but I'm starting to get back into it now.
It's so odd. I used to devour books in hours rather than months.
Just to comment on the 50 shades... I read through all three (in e-book form) over a rainy weekend a few months back, I have to say I was quite disappointed. For the reputation they gained I found them quite dull, with not that much sex and what there was, was repetitive and not that kinky. The main characters became annoying quite quickly, and the ways in which I wanted to slap them were far from sensual. I did read them all to find out what happened, but they could've been written a lot better.
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Post by Aussielover on Dec 24, 2012 1:22:44 GMT 2
Just about to start reading a historical fictional account of Princess Mary Tudor and her marriage to Philip of Spain. I don't know why I have a hard time reading books set in the present day.
The book is called The Queen's Sorrow, by Suzannah Dunn.
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Post by kneazle on Dec 24, 2012 7:46:25 GMT 2
I'm reading The Kingmaker's Daughter by Philippa Gregory
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Post by lumi on Dec 24, 2012 10:17:53 GMT 2
I agree with what pickychick said about the 50 shades trilogy except I am stuck somewhere about 50 pages in on the third book. It is jut so repetitive and annoying that I can't even force myself to keep reading - after only a few pages I have to put the book down.
I have started James Patterson's 10th Anniversary which is part of the women's murder club series (haven't read any other in the series though). It's not the most awesome book I've read but ts interesting enough and easy to get through.
I finished Mayada a few days ago and quite enjoyed the book. I have another book by Jean Sasson under the Christmas tree so will probably start that one in the new year.
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pickychick
Pot Smoker
Come to the dark side - we have cookies
Posts: 122
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Post by pickychick on Dec 24, 2012 11:00:03 GMT 2
I am stuck somewhere about 50 pages in on the third book. It is jut so repetitive and annoying that I can't even force myself to keep reading - after only a few pages I have to put the book down. If you want to get to the end, just start skimming / skipping. Nothing happens in the third book (even less than the first two).
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Post by lumi on Dec 24, 2012 11:53:31 GMT 2
I could but I hate skimming and skipping when reading, even when I'm totally not into the book. I'm one of those people who read every single word and process it all as I go, not wanting to miss anything. If I can just read one page a day I could be done by 2014! ;D
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Post by rikita on Dec 24, 2012 12:12:57 GMT 2
hm, i used to always skim and skip when i was younger, and got through really long books very fast as a kid (usually skipped things like descriptions of landscapes etc.) - and then i completely stopped doing that, so now i need ages for a book. i suppose i stopped doing so during university, when i suddenly realized that skimming through required reading made me miss all the important points...
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 24, 2012 15:55:06 GMT 2
Last night I read "Bad News," the next book in what they call Edward St Aubyn's "Patrick Melrose books" since the first one had been kind of fun (in a terrifying way).
But I found it more something to be withstood... poor Patrick is now 22 and he's in NYC to pick up his father's ashes and in the course of about 15 hours consumes a mind-boggling amount of drugs and alcohol. It's wonderful in that the awful father is dead, and it's interesting simply from the perspective of thinking of it as some sort of Olympic record of drug-taking, but it just went on and on with the effects of the various substances he's consuming, and the demons in his head, and taking taxis back and forth from the Pierre to obtain more heroin and whatnot without enough of the funny bitchiness of the first book. So I'm going to take a little St Aubyn break now and move on to something else.
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Post by Hedonista on Dec 24, 2012 16:18:32 GMT 2
I am stuck somewhere about 50 pages in on the third book. It is jut so repetitive and annoying that I can't even force myself to keep reading - after only a few pages I have to put the book down. If you want to get to the end, just start skimming / skipping. Nothing happens in the third book (even less than the first two). Mrs H was reading it and felt I had just to know what she was going on about, but even for a self proclaimed sex maniac like me I found the sex boring and repetitive so I ended up skipping (or just scan reading) those bits, as Mrs. H did too. I'm interested to see which one make the best movie, the porn parody or the real thing.
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Post by Baz Faz on Dec 24, 2012 18:08:03 GMT 2
I wish I'd kept a blush count for 50 shades. Sometimes the girl blushes twice on one page.
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Post by Scrubb on Dec 24, 2012 19:51:17 GMT 2
I finished After the Quake by Murakami. Collection of short stories and I don't think it's his best genre, but I enjoyed them. Especially the last 2, I really liked - they were like his novels only encapsulated into just a few pages.
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Post by Scrubb on Dec 27, 2012 2:09:53 GMT 2
Well, I've started a biography of Julia Child - "Dearie". It's fairly readable, but way too long-winded. I'm only about 1/10th of the way through but so far it seems it could be half as long altogether. Why can't people get good editors??
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 27, 2012 5:35:18 GMT 2
Just finished James Joyce's short story collection "Dubliners," which I'd never read and figured It was about time. For those for whom Joyce is only the difficult "Ulysses" or the impenetrable "Finnegans Wake," I can assure you that these are quite conventional in structure, and I really enjoyed them. They're small stories - small slices of people's lives. I particularly liked the little details of what the characters' homes, offices, clothes, etc were like. (#86 for the year, if anyone else is still counting here in this foreign land.)
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Post by missalaska on Dec 27, 2012 8:18:59 GMT 2
I started a fucking awful book about Africa's future, can't remember the title, but it was an academic economics paper, really not what one wants to be reading in the near 40 degree heat in the desert. Painfully big words big words and I rarely give up on a book.
Now I'm onto 'The revolution will be digitised' by Heather Brooke... another hand me down. Makes me think of the Gil Scott Heron track 'The revolution will not be televised'
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Post by Baz Faz on Dec 27, 2012 18:36:01 GMT 2
I am going at a snail's pace through Fifty Shades. I'm on about page 90. They have gone to his apartment for the first time. He has just unlocked the door to the chamber of...what? The chapter ends with her thinking: Holy eff.
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Post by auntieannie on Dec 27, 2012 21:17:44 GMT 2
mostly reading Davidson's principles and practice of medicine. It is well written. phew! I need it for my exams!
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Post by itsasmallworld1 on Dec 27, 2012 22:03:26 GMT 2
Just finished "Talking it Over" by Julian Barnes.
I really liked the book, is a fast read, very witty and with lots of "britishisms" which for some non native speaker are great way to learn how you Brits talk in real life. The story of 3 friends, reported by each of them in small paragraphs alternating the observer who describes the situation. Some situations seen by the 3 of them, with their different POVs.
The book is about life, friendship, relationships basically. And is fun. I recommend it. I read another of his books ( history of the world in ...) and didn't like it at all. I am glad I gave the author a second chance. Will look for more of his books.
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Post by itsasmallworld1 on Dec 27, 2012 22:07:45 GMT 2
Liii, Dubliners is excellent! I didn't dare yet with Ulysses but already got it in my Kindle to be read.
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Post by tinier_dragon on Dec 27, 2012 23:46:35 GMT 2
i just read "the children's war" by monica charlesworth and i'm going to read "boys adrift." by leonard sax, i think.
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Post by Kate_R on Dec 28, 2012 12:30:09 GMT 2
I finished the Kate Morton type book and have decided I want to read more about the Spanish Civil War. Not quite sure if I want to start with Hemingway or work up to that.
Now reading 'The Queen Takes the Train' - so far it is light and enjoyable.
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Post by Liiisa on Dec 29, 2012 1:49:41 GMT 2
OK, just finished Dorothy L. Sayers' "An Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club." I am not much of a reader of mysteries but will admit having a bit of a crush on Peter Wimsey, so I'm slowly working through these at the rate of about one a year. #87 for the year.
itsas, I really liked "Talking it Over" too.
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mei
Happy Potters
Posts: 90
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Post by mei on Dec 29, 2012 13:46:36 GMT 2
Finally finished my big huge book. 1421 by Gavin Menzies. Promised a colleague I'd read it but it's spent about a year on my bookshelf. Finally got through it. In itself a fascinating and interesting story, of how the Chinese fleet sailed the world in the early 1420s and discovered the America's, Australia/NZ, the route around Cape of Good Hope etc. All way beyond the famous European explorers.
Still, despite interesting content the book was tough reading with the level of detail (on how to calculate longitude through solar or lunar eclipses, for example - not my cup of tea). I've also heard reviews that say the research the book is based on is unreliable. I don't know enough about this stuff to be able to give any judgement on that (and I skipped the final 200 pages of evidence, research, appendices, etc).
Off to the library now for some nice fiction, I think!
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Post by Aussielover on Dec 29, 2012 17:15:29 GMT 2
Reading a very cute story called Wishin' and Hopin', by Wally Lamb. It's a slice of mid 60s Americana and I am having flashbacks the whole way through!
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