Please or to access all these features

What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

What are you reading now and next?

166 replies

LaSoiDisantDame · 22/11/2009 15:04

P;ease indulge my nosiness

haven't seen one of these threads for a while, & love scanning them for future reads.

I am reading The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Dickens) & One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest(Ken Kesey) Find msyelf swapping these two around according to my concentration levels but enjoying them both in different ways

On my To Read Next Pile is Revelation (C.J Samson -loved the first three), A Prayer for Owen Meany and This Thing of Darkness (Harry Thompson)

But I know when I;ve read two of those I will panic & need new ideas. Help!

OP posts:
Kaloki · 28/11/2009 19:17

There's a film of it too, which isn't too bad, though it loses the scary terrifying atmosphere of the book. (Admittedly my biggest fear is going blind, due to an idiot optician when I was 9)

JaneiteMightBite · 28/11/2009 19:13

Gosh - that sounds interesting - and terrifying. Will google.

Kaloki · 28/11/2009 19:08

Teameric > What do you think of Poppy Z Brite, I never got along with her stuff

LoveTheCarbs > Blindness is great, if you enjoy it I suggest you try Seeing as well.

Janeite > It's about people randomly going blind and it being contagious and the aftermath. It's a really interesting read, though strangely written.

JaneiteMightBite · 28/11/2009 19:00

I absoloutely hated (loathed actually) 'A Quiet Belief In Angels' but dp loved it.

Have finished 'Hungry Hill', which was okay - and am not at all taken by the Edith Wharton one; so may start 'Half Of A Yellow Sun' tonight. If it is intellectual or depressing though, I really don't feel up to it.

Never heard of 'Blindness' - what's it about?

LoveTheCarbs · 27/11/2009 21:51

I have just finished 'The Brutal Art' by Jesse Kellerman, which was an enjoyable easy reading thriller, and am just starting 'Blindness' by Jose Saramago, which looks very interesting. Both are MN recommendations, which is where I seem to be getting most of my reading material from nowadays!

J - Loved Half a Yellow Sun - moving story with great characters and tells you a little about Nigeria.

Tiger - I thought A Quiet Belief in Angels was okay, but it didn't half go on towards the end and I'd be interested to hear what you think of it.

teameric · 26/11/2009 15:03

Have just read Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite
Want to read The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters next

PrincessFiorimonde · 26/11/2009 14:55

LaSoi, may I second the friend who suggested 'A Place of Greater Safety'. An excellent book!

MrsJohnDeere · 26/11/2009 13:54

Now: Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Next: Mrs Tim of the Regiment (MN book club book)

Spidermama · 26/11/2009 13:49

I've just read Larklight out loud to DS. Fantastic!

I'm reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon. It's great!

LaSoiDisantDame · 26/11/2009 13:45

that would be 'thumbs up' then

OP posts:
LaSoiDisantDame · 26/11/2009 13:44

nsf I haven't read it but it got the thumbs from teddymummy further up the thread!

OP posts:
nigelslaterfan · 26/11/2009 01:26

Can't get into anything at the moment.

My f is recommending 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' like crazy. Anyone read that?

elkiedee · 26/11/2009 01:24

Not sure what next, I have a lot of library books out. Perhaps the new Anne Tyler or the new Margaret Atwood, as I might not be able to renew those otherwise - I already had to return one copy of Noah's Compass (the Tyler) and place another reservation with a different library (they're free where my dp works and his office is in the central library building).

elkiedee · 26/11/2009 01:21

I'm reading a book about Kirsty MacColl by her mum - two thirds a mix of bio/memoir and one third about the campaign after her death to get justice - she was killed by a speedboat which shouldn't have been there, and which was owned and quite likely driven by a very rich powerful man, so it seems likely that a lot was hushed up.

It's far from objective for obvious reasons and sometimes a bit repetitive but definitely worth a read.

JaneiteMightBite · 25/11/2009 20:24

And here she is...the human bad penny.....

Nooooooooooooo - the last one is great - weird....but great....and rather lovely....and very sad. Please read it.

Insomnia is good too.

Hungry Hill is annoying me - old Daphne seriously needed lessons in the use of semi-colons: and she layers on the foreshadowing with a huge, dirty shovel.

moonshine · 25/11/2009 20:22

Thanks to Janeite's 'championing' This Thing of Darkness on several threads I am finally reading and enjoying it enormously. I shall probably read the (non-fiction) Agent ZigZag next or a thriller (always good to read in a warm bed or bath on a cold dark winter's day.)

LaSoiDisantDame · 25/11/2009 20:10

Filth is v good, liked everything from The Acid House to Porno but felt he went a bit off the boil after Porno?

Haven't read Dark Tower series, Bustle,but it sounds like you need to go with your instinct r.e Atwood

Hopefully Janeite will turn up and put you straight

got so many ideas from this thread and am now trying very hard not to reach for the plastic and BUY THEM ALL

OP posts:
BustleInYourHedgerow · 25/11/2009 18:16

Got to read all the Dark Tower books bar the last one before DS arrived. DP told me the last one was rubbish so have'nt been able to bring myself to pick it up since.

Don't really trust him with books though, he hates Margaret Atwood so there must be something wrong with him....Is the last one any good?

Currently reading The Colour Purple, as chapters are so tiny that even my non-existant attention span since DS was born can cope with this.

Oh and The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao but got stuck halfway through...

BendyBob · 25/11/2009 18:04

Not fiction, but I am reading 'Anything Goes: A Biography of the Roaring Twenties by Lucy Moore'. If you're interested in that era it's really fab

Kaloki · 25/11/2009 17:57

Currently reading "The High Lord" by Trudi Canavan, will be reading "Filth" by Irvine Welsh next

LaSoiDisantDame · 25/11/2009 17:28

I loved Insomnia

Thought you were joking Janeite, until i googgled HH

OP posts:
pollywobbledoodle · 25/11/2009 04:05

just finished insomnia by stephen king..not usually a fan but was desperate for a book..it was great!
next mitford sisters letters or the help.

teddymummy · 24/11/2009 20:35

girl with dragon tattoo just finished - brilliant! Am now reading the sequal= the girl who played with fire. reminds me I must go and find it and read some now!!

JaneiteMightBite · 24/11/2009 20:33

Hungry Hill! Am liking it so far.

VeniVidiVici · 24/11/2009 14:04

Now: Notes from an exhibition -Patrick Gale (liking this so far)

Next: The Corrections -Franzen or Life: A User's Manual - Perec

HTH