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Post by Scrubb on Aug 24, 2012 23:33:04 GMT 2
I'm in the middle of 3 different books:
1. Chronicles of Paris - a small history of important events and people from/in Paris. I kind of wish I'd read this while I was living there, in the first half of this year - but it's fun retrospectively too.
2. The Tale of the Virgin - set in ancient Rome about a vestal virgin who entered the temple when she was 5 years old - a bit slow moving but ok, I'll finish it eventually (have been reading it now and then over a few weeks)
3. Skeletons on the Zahara - about some sailors who wrecked on the African coast and were trapped in the desert for some time. A true story and should be interesting, but the writing style isn't very gripping so far. I've only read a couple chapters and he's giving a lot of history & background which is interesting, but he doesn't exactly breath live into it alol.
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Post by trentt on Aug 25, 2012 1:10:51 GMT 2
Upon first glance at #1 I thought you were reading Chronicles of Pans.
I'm reading Red Earth and Pouring Rain, which is a bit of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a bit of Salman Rushdie, a bit of 1001 Nights. It's set in India. At the center of the story is a monkey who is nursed back to health by a family after a near-fatal shooting. As the monkey recovers, he remembers a past lifetime as a human and begins to communicate (via typewriter) with the family. And so begins a series of stories, stories-within-stories, stories-within-stories-within-stories (you get the idea). These ramble all over history and some are in contemporary times. Figuring out a plot line is futile; often I can't recall 30 pages into a story who is telling it, and whether that character is also within someone else's story ... but once I gave up trying to keep track of everything, it is proving a very entertaining read!
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Post by Scrubb on Aug 25, 2012 2:56:06 GMT 2
"Chronicles of Pans" - yes, the history of the wok, and the adventures it's been involved with, makes for scintillating reading. And don't even get me started on bread pans!!
Your book sounds pretty cool, trentt.
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Post by Big Iain on Aug 25, 2012 8:49:09 GMT 2
Half way through Rain Gods by James Lee Burke. It's amazing, like all his writings. I would say that he is my favourite author overall. I've also dipped a few pages into How I Won The Yellow Jumper which is by a journo who has covered the TDF for 20 years.
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Post by Baz Faz on Aug 25, 2012 9:25:13 GMT 2
I am most of the way through Stewart Lee's How I escaped my Certain Fate. He seems (in the UK) to be a well regarded stand-up comedian. He includes in his book the transript of a couple of his performances. For me, not many laughs. It must be the way he tells them.
Also rereading Chandler's The Little Sister. Some good snappy dialogue.
I met Raymond Chandler once. It was mid-afternoon and he had obviously had a good and lengthy lunch. He kept trying to get me to kiss his agent. We looked at each other. I saw a middle aged woman. She saw a callow youth. So we looked away.
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Post by Tilly Star on Aug 25, 2012 12:29:57 GMT 2
I am reading the Long Song by Andrea Levy. It is a fictional memoir of a Jamaican lady, set in the years just before and after the abolition of slavery. Andrea Levy usually writes comic books and this could have gone wrong, but she keeps it funny without making it seem trivial and at times you get whacked down to earth with a serious bump. I am also reading a book called Unjust Rewards by Polly Toynbee, but I have to keep stopping as it makes me so cross. It is about the ever growing gap between rich and poor in the UK. It is really well written with a lot of strong stats backing it up. I was going to quote a few of the figures from the introduction, but this review does it for me and much better: www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/aug/04/workandcareers.executivesalariesAfter Long Song, I'll finish it if I can stop myself from crying in frustration.
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Post by crazyrabbit on Aug 25, 2012 16:48:56 GMT 2
Does the intention of reading count?
I have The Hunger Games sitting on my bedstand, borrowed from Little Kit's girlfriend.
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Post by wikki on Aug 25, 2012 19:46:50 GMT 2
the biography from Stefan Hessel and a book from Sten Nadolny (Selim oder die Gabe der Rede), sorry, I don't know if it exists in English. I love books from Nadolny. I think his most famous one is "The Discovery of Slowness"
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Post by rikita on Aug 25, 2012 21:28:17 GMT 2
"R.U.R." by Karel Capek. reading it in the original, so I only understand parts, but I will check the wikipedia article about it when I am done to see if I understood right...
And a book about pregnancy and baby development in the first weeks and months after birth... Just to feel, like, a bit prepared...
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Post by Baz Faz on Aug 25, 2012 23:12:21 GMT 2
Rossum's Universal Robots. First use, I think, of the word Robot.
Interestingly (or not) in SA traffic lights are called robots. And since it is a dubious foreign word it is pronounced roeboe.
Unless things have changed in SA since I was there.
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Post by rikita on Aug 26, 2012 9:58:31 GMT 2
yeah... that was mainly why i bought it, because it is the book for which the word was "invented" (at least in that particular meaning...)
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Post by trentt on Aug 26, 2012 12:54:24 GMT 2
I remember when the word "universal" was first coined.
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Post by auntieannie on Aug 26, 2012 12:55:16 GMT 2
Pray tell?
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Post by lumi on Aug 26, 2012 14:06:27 GMT 2
I started Paulo Cohelo's The Pilgramage today. I have read a couple of his other books and really enjoyed them. I felt like they took me on a journey and it was something that I felt rather than just read. AM hoping this one is just as good and if it is I'll buy some more.
I'm also in the middle of 50 Shades of Grey. I never thought I'd read it but it was only 3 pounds when in the UK so mr lumi bought it for me as a bit of a joke. So far it's not as bad as I had expected but I'm embarrassed to tell anyone that I'm reading it!
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Post by rikita on Aug 26, 2012 14:22:36 GMT 2
hm, i only ever read one book by coelho, and didn't like that one, so i never tried any of the others... but maybe i will one day...
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Post by lumi on Aug 26, 2012 14:37:39 GMT 2
hm, i only ever read one book by coelho, and didn't like that one, so i never tried any of the others... but maybe i will one day... I think his style and story are not for everyone, annie. Do you remember which book you read? In a sense I think that the books of his I've read so far could be described as the same story in a sense (different setting, characters etc) but the feeling as you read is different. I don't know how to say what I am wanting to say really without sounding like a weirdo!
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Post by rikita on Aug 26, 2012 16:56:56 GMT 2
it was called "eleven minutes" i think. was about a prostitute and supposed to be very ground breaking and open about sex and all that - which when i read it, i didn't agree with at all...
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Post by crazyrabbit on Aug 26, 2012 18:02:09 GMT 2
I'm also in the middle of 50 Shades of Grey. I never thought I'd read it but it was only 3 pounds when in the UK so mr lumi bought it for me as a bit of a joke. So far it's not as bad as I had expected but I'm embarrassed to tell anyone that I'm reading it! I don't understand this and I saw it all over TT. It frustrates me that one can't read whatever one wants to without being judged for it. I am just a guilty about not wanting to admit to what I'm reading. I was mocked for reading all the Twilight books and enjoying them. Lumi, a girlfriend told Mr Rabbit to buy the books for me. Reason? He'd get laid for sure.
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Post by Scrubb on Aug 26, 2012 18:55:55 GMT 2
Wow, that's really tough, Gobhoza. I'm pretty sure that I'd be the opposite in your situation - I lose myself so completely in books that I'd probably be reading constantly specifically because it would help me to avoid thinking.
I hope that it changes for you.
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Post by Scrubb on Aug 26, 2012 19:02:37 GMT 2
Seems like a second loss, then - losing reading, too.
I read an awful lot, but my husband doesn't so it doesn't feel like a bond or link with him.
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Post by wikki on Aug 29, 2012 22:30:35 GMT 2
the 50th shades of grey. i think every women at work is reading it. me being an ignorant..... heard nothing of the book until last week one of the girls mentioned it to me. but there are so many other books on my list that i wanna read. guess i will read those grey books in a year when nobody talks about it anymore.
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Post by Scrubb on Aug 30, 2012 5:31:10 GMT 2
I finished one I mentioned above, and read a short book called "Beyond Midnight in the GArden of Good and Evil". The author said she was fascinated with the story from the book & movie "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" and decided she wanted to figure out what really happened.
Considering that the people who know what happened are both dead; and that there were 4 (4!!) trials of the guy charged with murder, I don't know why she thought she could figure it out when no one else was sure!
Anyway, it wasn't very well written, but I did enjoy laughing at stuff like "A man who frequents the square outside the house where Jim W used to live told me that..." i.e., some random stranger on a park bench is her source for some of her "facts".
I'm further into the Skeletons on the Zaharah book and enjoying it - though his style is not gripping the story is. The sailors are currently slaves to nomads, in the throes of dehydration and starvation, with terrible sunburn.
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Post by sunshine on Aug 30, 2012 16:59:41 GMT 2
I'm redading "The Wave" from Morton Rhue and "retrato en sepia" from Isabel Allende
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Post by Hedonista on Aug 30, 2012 22:34:49 GMT 2
50 Shades Darker, after having read the 1st one.
Sad I know but fun, Mrs H reading too so there are 2 bookmarks as we tend to read at different times. But I have another book on the go too.
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Post by lumi on Aug 31, 2012 9:42:54 GMT 2
I'm also in the middle of 50 Shades of Grey. I never thought I'd read it but it was only 3 pounds when in the UK so mr lumi bought it for me as a bit of a joke. So far it's not as bad as I had expected but I'm embarrassed to tell anyone that I'm reading it! I don't understand this and I saw it all over TT. It frustrates me that one can't read whatever one wants to without being judged for it. I am just a guilty about not wanting to admit to what I'm reading. I was mocked for reading all the Twilight books and enjoying them. Lumi, a girlfriend told Mr Rabbit to buy the books for me. Reason? He'd get laid for sure. After reading your comment rabbit, I have mentioned the book to severla friends without embarrassment - a few of them had also read it! haha When mr lumi is home and see me reading the book I like to pull faces of fascination and delight, just to stir him up. He's figured out that I'm doing it on purpose now though ;D Actually the book hasn't been as full on and in your face as I had expected from what I'd heard before reading it. I've only got about 100 pages to go so unless something completely shocking happens I'll almost feel let down!
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Post by lumi on Aug 31, 2012 9:44:15 GMT 2
it was called "eleven minutes" i think. was about a prostitute and supposed to be very ground breaking and open about sex and all that - which when i read it, i didn't agree with at all... I haven't read this one yet.
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Post by missalaska on Aug 31, 2012 14:09:56 GMT 2
50 people who stuffed up South Africa- I can only manage about 3 entries at a time, otherwise I get really angry!!
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Post by crazyrabbit on Aug 31, 2012 16:41:15 GMT 2
That's funny Lumi. My friend said you need to get to the next book and it gets better. Does Mr Lumi laugh? I think it's only online that some people have to make themselves feel superior by their enjoyment of reading serious literature and put others down for reading Brain Candy. Not that there's anything wrong with serious literature but it's not fun for me. I don't know anyone who would do this irl. Lots of people, read lots of different genres. I think I've been online too long when I take others' views and they end up in my subconscious. I hope I didn't make you feel bad. I now proclaim, everyone can read whatever they want, without mocking, except the phone book. That will get you a torture of teasing. A long time ago, I didn't have a thing to read so I picked up the washing machine manual and read that. Now that's desperate.
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Post by lumi on Aug 31, 2012 16:54:33 GMT 2
You didn't make me feel bad, rabbit - you actually freed me from my denial of reading the book! Mr lumi thought it was quite amusing when he figured out what I was doing with the faces. I knew he was watching me because he kept commenting on how much I must love the book cos I was reading so much. I wasn't reading that much actually so I think he had it in his mind that every women loves the book hence I was loving the book and thought then that he observed me speed reading to get to the end.
I think it's perfectly fine to tease someone about the book that they're reading provided that you have that kind of relationship with them and you do it in jest, not to the point of being mean. With that in mind, you really were a crazy desperado to pick up the washing machine manual for reading pleasure!!
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Post by crazyrabbit on Aug 31, 2012 17:05:09 GMT 2
I think it's fine to tease too but that's saved for your friends vs being mean. It doesn't matter much anymore, I really struggle reading now and keeping track of a single story line and characters. What can you do except read the book more than once so you can get it.
Yes, the washer manual was pretty pathetic but I do wish I knew where my oven manual was. I'm not sure how to use the 'self-clean' button and I would love for the oven to do it by its' self so I don't have to.
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