Hi, all! I thought, if nobody minds, that I would start a book thread here! I'm actually still reading the same book (Louis the Well-Beloved, by Jean Plaidy) as I was when I started the book thread on the old forum, lol! I am listening to a different audio book though - Birmingham Friends, by Annie Murray - an enormous family saga on 14 cassettes!

So what is everyone reading?

Mandy

Hi Mandy,

Since you mentioned listening to audios, I should like to get A Prairie Home Companion set; quite entertaining and soothing.

prairiehome.publicradio.org/

I used to read a lot of jean plaidy - am currently reading an elizabeth chadwick (to defy a king) - similar sort of fiction - got a philippa gregory lined up for when thats done (the lady of the rivers) and my bathroom book is kafka on the shore - haruki murakami.

Coco wrote:
Sorry it's taken me so long to reply to this post, coco - what am I like?!

Anyway - I've heard of Garrison Keillor - he wrote Lake Wobegon Days, I believe, which I've not read, but my OH has.

I love audio books - I tire easily these days and so don't always find sustained concentrated reading easy, but I could listen to a book for hours!

Mandy

thoreau wrote:
Glad to see another reader of historical fiction!

I love Jean Plaidy, and have done so since my early teens! I also like her alter ego, Victoria Holt, under which name she writes rather dark, Gothic horror-romances.

I am now reading The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton. It's rather long - 600+ pages - so will probably take me ages, but it's got nice, big print lol! It's a sort of multi-stranded novel: the action keeps pinging back and forth from 1900, 1930 and 2000-ish. Hope I don't get confused!

Mandy

Hunter S Thompson Generation of Swine (The Gonzo Papers Vol 2)

Last one was Victims by Jonathan Kellerman.

i wish i was as erudite and cultured as you guys, but i just decided to read real ultimate power by robert hamburger again

batou wrote:
ALL reading is worthy reading, bat

batou wrote:
You are not alone, batty! After decades of reading classics et al, I finally turned to genre to give my reading some "pep" again (and because I decided to write Murdah Stories, and forget about the Nobel Prize ). So. Right now I'm tucking into the last of the Jo Nesbo ("The Next Steig Larrson") series with the detective Harry Hole, THE LEOPARD. And very disappointing it is, too.

Nesbo started off really well and the character Harry Hole is really captivating - and then the USA gets him. 'Nuff said.

The Leopard is over 700 pages long, with Nesbo's clumsy and cringeworthy attemtps at sex scenes (you can tell the writer was so not used to doing that stuff) and Hole - an alcoholic with relationship problems - is now a parody of what he started out as.

Ahhhh! In and out of "literature", be true to your writing and forget the damned "American Market"!!!!

psketti wrote:
Yes, indeedy! I think that just about any book is better than no book at all! I've had to read a lot of "heavy" books in my time (English A-level, then Classical Studies at uni) but these days I just want to give my poor ME/CFS addled brain a rest! Occasionally I have been known to read - whisper it! - a Mills & Boon (particularly the Regency ones!).

Mandy

I'm reading the Star Mirror by Mark Vidler for the second time.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fire_Support_Base_Ripcord

"Ripcord: Screaming Eagles Under Siege, Vietnam 1970" by Keith W. Nolan

The book is about a battle fought during the vietnam war, Where the Americans had to abandon the base they got fucking done, But as we all know the yankies never lost a major battle in that conflict

EDIT Also Chuck Norris's brother was killed there.

Now I'm reading another Hunter Thompson book called Songs of the Doomed; it's a bit of his column work on sports and politics, and some of his fiction too. I really enjoyed the last one, so I picked up this one. A library card is 10 x more important to me than having a drivers license....

One thing I do now that I never did before is to stop reading a book once the themes get too depressing or violent and depraved. I would always finish the book regardless. Now, I feel like I've absorbed so much crap through the media already that I don't need to read the mind garbage anymore. Actually, I did stop reading one once before, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis... right after the Bateman character brutalizes the homeless man and his dog, I thought "this is enough..." and put it down. I haven't even watched the movie all the way through tough it did play up the satire angle. The book wasn't satire, it was a depiction.

Here's to reading good books!

I'm reading...



I've always struggled with anatomy... hopefully one day I'll be real good at it, or so I hope!

ronisron wrote:
I have a library card and no driver's license also!

I used to struggle through books I wasn't enjoying too, but now I think that life's just too short, and since I read these days mainly for pleasure, whilst I will give a book I'm not enjoying a chance, I will put it aside for something better if it doesn't "grow on me"!

I've not read American Psycho, but I have seen the film, which was pretty bleak and very hard work. I tend to be quite sensitive to outside influences so I need to be careful about what I read or watch these days.

Mandy

Food Energetics By Steve Gagne

Is It Me For A Moment? by Matthew Delooze.

A co worker brought in a few books that she and her daughter had read. I selected An Irish County Doctor. While I have not cracked it open yet, by just reading the teaser I hope it's akin to Creatures Great and Small.

Coco wrote:
That sounds like an interesting read, coco! I love All Creatures Great & Small - both the books and the TV series!

Mandy

I'm an avid reader and whilst I enjoy a good movie, my first love is reading the books first. I can get through about 3 books a week depending on size. The R.R. Martin books took a bit longer to get through obviously....but I've read all five of them. Fantastic series.. (oops that's the Ice and Fire series or Game of Thrones as it's more commonly known)

I'm currently reading S.J. Bolton's 'Dead Scared' having just finished the book before that which was 'Now You See Me'. I love thrillers or historical thrillers.

Anyway, nice thread