What Are You Reading? (Part Three)

Status
Not open for further replies.

catspaw66

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
May 5, 2012
Messages
5,508
Purraise
1,616
Location
Waldron, Arkansas
utOpia, would you be interested in a copy of Alice in Wonderland that is a PDF of the original manuscript with the original Carroll drawings? Shoot me a PM if you do.
 

sugarsandz

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jun 11, 2013
Messages
615
Purraise
23
I'm reading Dean Koontz book Ticktock, it's a little slow to start but it picks up around page 60.
 

otto

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 7, 2008
Messages
9,837
Purraise
197
I got lucky at the library this past time and got to read some good novels. I've already returned them so of course can't remember what they are except the one I just finished, which I will never forget, and hope to get my own copy someday

The Snake Pit by Mary Jane Ward.

I ordered the book after watching the movie with Olivia de Hallivand. The book leaves me stunned. In fact I felt stunned the whole time I was reading it. At least I know my library system has two copies, when I want to read it again.
 

mservant

The Mouse servant
Veteran
Joined
Jul 8, 2013
Messages
18,064
Purraise
3,451
Location
The Mouse Pad, UK
Hello fellow bookies. This thread is amazing, had to read it right through and see so many books I love, and even more to go and find...:)  Love reading but go through phases like one a day for weeks then nothing for months.  Currently in the middle of A Sentimental Traitor by Michael Dobbs. Got it from 'somewhere' but can't remember -  not one I'd choose for myself. Finding it a bit slow and complicated. Just polished off Faceless Killers by Henrick Mankell, Ian Rankin's Strip Jack, and Kathy Reichs 2006 Bones. First of hers I'd read and go with others' comments + thought it was really predictable. Next on the shelf are Henrick Mankell's Italian Shoes and Iain Banks Transition (a bit of science fiction).

Mostly get books second hand from charity shops but get some as presents and hand-me-downs from family if they've enjoyed them. Not good with libraries as I often don't read something for ages after I've acquired it. Bad habit.  Not got in to ebooks - kind of like the feel of paper and often double check pages if I've been speed reading and want to go back over detail.

In to a wide range including fiction and non fiction, and slow reads to total 'junk' if I want a bit of light relief. Love crime and mystery novels including old classics like Crime and Punishment and The Moonstone. Crooked Letter Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin was good too as had a different twist to a lot of others I've read.  Also enjoy Ian Rankin, James Patterson, and Indridason's books.  

Phillipa Gregory's Tudor series had me totally hooked. The White Queen was my favourite though, maybe because it was the first one I read.

These are some of my favourite books over the years:

Scarlet and Black - Stendhal

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee - Dee Brown

The Book Thief - Markus Zuzak  (had me in tears)

Blood River - Tim Butcher  (changed my understanding of international / central African politics) 

Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Innocent Man - John Grisham (I see an earlier comment about this book - changed my view of the justice system too).

Murder Most Fab - Julian Clary  (I should be too embarraced to put this in but it was ridiculous fun and I'll never think of 'mercy killing' in the same way again! Not for everyone...)

Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver.  (I loved the way it's written but think it might take more than chapter 4 to get in to it)

The Crimson Petal and The White - Michael Feber

Girl with A Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier (way better than the movie!)

The Adventures of Dougal - Thomson  (The scripts to the Magic Roundabout - fantastic therapy if you're feeling glum, or want to read out loud with kids :D )

I'm obsessed by this book The War Of The End Of The World by Mario Vargas Llosa. I've had it on my book shelf for years and tried to get through it SO many times but never got past about 100 pages. My mind gets all muddled up between who/what's good and evil and have to give up. I'd love to know if anyone else had ever read it (or tried)!

The Harry Potter series I have to mention - I have the whole lot on CD unabridged and play them when I can't sleep and am too tired to read. And all the better for being read by Stephen Fry.
 
Last edited:

otto

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 7, 2008
Messages
9,837
Purraise
197
Right now I'm reading Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain. I'm enjoying it, as I do with most of Twain's books.
Great story! I had a Mark Twain fest not too long ago myself!

I'm struggling through Twilight for lack of anything else, since I haven't been to the library. It's pretty lame, after reading vampire books like The Historian (which STILL scares me) but I have to read something and a teenager gave me the set, so they were just sitting here.
 
Last edited:

natalie_ca

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 2, 2006
Messages
21,136
Purraise
223
Location
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
I'm still working my way through John Grisham's books.  I'm currently reading "The Bretheren"

I must say that his endings are rather different.  The last book I read was "The Testament". It sure didn't end the way I was anticipating, or how the book was leading up to it ending.
 
 

otto

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 7, 2008
Messages
9,837
Purraise
197
I gave up on the Twilight series. I made it about 80 pages into the second book before I called it off. :lol3:

Still haven't been to the library, so as I hung over my book cases desperately trying to find something I felt like reading I finally decided on The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn. I haven't read it in years, but I always loved it, so I guess it will hold me over for a few days. :)
 

natalie_ca

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 2, 2006
Messages
21,136
Purraise
223
Location
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
I gave up on the Twilight series. I made it about 80 pages into the second book before I called it off.
I must admit that I did read the books, only because I love almost anything vampyre!  The sparkly vampyre thing is just soooo wrong on so many levels!

I enjoyed the concept of the story (human in love with a vampyre), but I found the Author's writing ability to be terribly lacking. I don't care that it was written for young adults, the writing was very unpolished and immature and sounded like it was written by someone in grade school.

My friend's daughter who is 16 said it best. She said that she felt like she was being talked down to while she was reading Twilight. For books that are written for young adults, it's not good when your target audience feels like you are questioning their intelligence through your level of writing.

I'm very picky and critical of books that I read!!

For me it has a great deal to do with how developed the Author's writing skills are!

The Author needs to be polished and mature in their writing skills. The writing in a first book is usually very basic in nature and quite immature sounding. So I'm forgiving if it's a first novel. But if the person has written a second or a third novel and their writing skills and/or level haven't improved, I won't bother with their books anymore.  Not really sure why I continued to read Twilight. I think I was hoping it would get better.

Organization of the story is important. I don't like reading books that seem to jump around everywhere and doesn't seem to have a continuity of flow. Writing of that nature tends to stress me out instead of relaxing me and taking me on a journey.

Character development is hugely important. If the characters are superficial and have no substance, the story won't draw me in. A book is more than words to me: I tend to relate to the characters of a story and visualize them and the lives they are living while I'm reading. Basically I have a movie playing inside my head while I'm reading.

A good balance of detail that allows you to visualize the story but doesn't make my eyes glaze over and think "Ok...enough! Get on with the story!"  Kathy Reichs is an example of an Author that tends to go into way too much mundane and useless detail that it often seems like you are being lectured in a forensic classroom. Some detail is good, but 4 or 5 pages describing different knife blades and the types of cuts they make is just too much!

And of course the subject of the story is important to me. It doesn't matter how well written the book, if the subject is not interesting to me I won't be able to stay awake long enough to read it. There have been a number of "Best Sellers" that I thought were a complete waste of trees!

On a superficial note, if the cover art isn't interesting to my eye, nothing will get me to read the book. I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but I just can't help it.
 
Last edited:

cassiopea

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 30, 2013
Messages
4,795
Purraise
5,676
Location
Ontario, Canada
Currently reading "Athenais: The Life of Louis XIV Mistress, The Real Queen of France" By Lisa Hilton. So far, so good. It's fairly interesting, and well written. Only half way through though, so we shall see. There is quite a bit of bias going on however on behalf of Athenais by the author, with plenty of justifications for otherwise unacceptable behaviours, while being insensitive to others in that lifetime...which can be a tad fustrating. Apparently some aspects of the book have been copied by another as well.
 

Finished reading "The Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch. Highly recommended, especially if you like fantasy/adventure works with a bit of a clever twists. Characters you think wouldn't be important become engaging. It was refreshing and enticing altogether, and had funny moments as well as serious. I also enjoyed the refreshing take on female characters - strong and interesting, female leads and daughters treated equally and admired and it is all seen as perfectly normal. And well written, too.
 

Also just finished reading "A Song for Arbonne" by Guy Gavriel Kay. It was alright, a little dragged on sometimes, taking awhile for things to happen despite the regular insistance that something will happened. Random, almost pointless scenes here and there, a pointless character here and there. Also, while the women characters are strong (Which is always a plus in literature) they are all physically beautiful with similar personalities. Main male character started off interesting but eventually seemed a bit bland, also seems to be able to sleep with quite a few of said beautiful women- three of them, with a fourth having attempted an offer. The only true complex character was the brother of the main character, suprisingly. The last few chapters of the book was probably it's best feature, with a great surprise and a nice change from the usual dynamics of things. It was well written though, and it was altogether alright. Maybe I am just missing something since in general it had good reviews by other people, but as a long time reader of such books it was only decent.
 

Since I'm quite new here, might as well briefly mention my tastes - favourite types of genre to read are adventure and fantasy novels, and history. Love history, from the Ancients to WWII, in novels, bios, texts and so forth (And it was my major at Uni afterall) and once in awhile a mystery, as I grew up with Agatha Christie. Fave authors, George. R R Martin, Alison Weir etc

I'm also a manga reader, but that is a whole other thing altogether, har har.

And yes I am a big book worm. I adore reading a good book.
 
Last edited:

mani

Moderator and fervent feline fan
Staff Member
Moderator
Joined
Feb 28, 2012
Messages
46,571
Purraise
23,328
Location
Australia
I can relate to your tastes, Cassiopea.  I particularly like well-researched history fiction.  And for fantasy, those RR Martin's got me through a really bad illness many years ago... They're quite a read!

Currently reading I Shall Not Hate by Izzeldin Abuelaish for our non-fiction book club.   He is the Palestinian doctor whose three daughters were killed by an Isreali rocket and yet he embraces everyone and refuses to be bitter.  Quite an inspiring read.
 

catspaw66

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
May 5, 2012
Messages
5,508
Purraise
1,616
Location
Waldron, Arkansas
Hi, Cassiopea. If you like history, you should check out "A Place Called Armageddon" by C.C. Humphreys. It is about the 1453 siege of Constantinople. It is a novel, but the places and actions are historically documented. Humphreys is an archeologist.
 

sugarsandz

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jun 11, 2013
Messages
615
Purraise
23
I'm reading "Phantoms" by Dean Koontz. . .I am really enjoying it more than I thought I would.
 

furperson

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Aug 10, 2013
Messages
27
Purraise
13
Location
Florida
Good posts, here. I'm an avid reader (and writer) and am currently reading "Trap-Lines North" by Stephen Meader. Its a true story about a family in the 1930's Canada who ran several hundred miles of trap lines to make their living off the fur the caught. Fascinating story. I am a fur trapper myself, so its amazing to read how they did things back then. Our modern ways are a lot more humane for sure, though the experiences those people had back then were unlike anything you'd hear about today!
 

mservant

The Mouse servant
Veteran
Joined
Jul 8, 2013
Messages
18,064
Purraise
3,451
Location
The Mouse Pad, UK
Phew, I finally finished 'A Sentimental Traitor' a couple of nights ago. I did enjoy it but I took time off from reading while my friend was staying. 

I'm about to start Hennning Mankel's 'Italian Shoes'. That will be the second of the Wallander series that I will have read and looking forward to it.
 

catbehaviors

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 9, 2010
Messages
2,070
Purraise
42
Location
Montana- Where orange kitties rule!
Right now I'm reading Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain. I'm enjoying it, as I do with most of Twain's books.
Eileen, I'm presently reading No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger. Have you read it?
Yep, I read that one right after Pudd'nhead Wilson. No. 44 was great. I hope you enjoy it.

I started The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien a few days ago.
 

natalie_ca

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 2, 2006
Messages
21,136
Purraise
223
Location
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
I'm almost finished a John Grisham book.  I've read so many that I forgot the name of this one; I think it is "The Appeal".

After I finish I will start on James Patterson's "Mistress".  Just released this month.
 

sugarsandz

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jun 11, 2013
Messages
615
Purraise
23
I'm reading "Fire and Ash" by Jonathon Maberry. It's the fourth book in the "Rot and Ruin" series and is last book which makes me kind of bummed. They are going to be movies at some point which is awesome. They are zombie novels but not mindless and unrealistic.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top