What's Everyone Reading in the New Year?

[expatinscotland]

I've started w/Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

i have read hte new douggie kennedy one "state of the union"
fab

ian mcewan 'atonement'.

i forgot how astonishingly beautiful his concise prose is. a real treat!

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If you like your books to carry you away and give you a dream landscape to live in (plus nostalgia), Lark Rise to Candleford is one of the utterly loveliest books in the world. It's a bit like Laurie Lee, but kinder & warmer (less self-regarding) somehow, because it's not so much about the author as about all the other people, the community and the spirit of the place.

On the other hand, if Steven King is your favourite author, stop now!

I have just started Elias Canetti's memoirs of living in Britain (well, very much "England" rather than Britain) and am very taken with it, which is not at all what I'd expected.

Bink - are you binkie?

yip - got tired of the babyish bit!

OK, got it - between Christmas names, name changes in general and new joiners (who sometimes pick names that are similar to other members), it can get confusing around here!

I know ... I should have a little "as previously known as" banner at the end of the message, shouldn't I.

It's rather nice to be recognised without that, though

So, what are you reading?

Oh, other than mumsnet?

I'm in America until later this week, so am reading mostly essays from authors I like (no heavy books to carry on the plane as dd's possessions seem to take up all the "optional" space in the luggage).

Just finished a fascinating essay by Oliver Sacks on aphasia, and how it's possible to be afflicted and learn to live a life worth having.

About to start reading a profile by Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote "The Tipping Point". This one is on Rick Warren who wrote "The Purpose Driven Life" which was a huge bestseller in America. Rick Warren is minister to one of the largest church congregations in America (he rents out a baseball stadium when he wants to get his entire congregation together). It will be a fascinating insight to a slice of American life that I am curious about, and don't understand at all. I find Gladwell's writing thought provoking - both in concept and style. Whatever he writes is always worth reading.

Once I'm back in London, I'll get back into more long term/in depth fare....and will probably check this thread for inspiration/ideas.

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Kitchen Diaries Nigel Slater
Snow Orhan Pamuk
The Art of Basket Weaving and Slate Engraving Dunno who by

currently reading gentlemen and players - joanne harris but very slowly. can't devour books like i used to!
notquitecockney: have you read green grass, running water by thomas king? read it in uni, really enjoyed it.
WWW and cam: timetraveller's wife is AMAZING. sobbed like a baby. course it probably didn't help that i read it when i was 8 months preggers!

cull, I read it, I liked it ok. I think my mom sent it to me because she knows I like W.P. Kinsella's Native stories, but I don't think I liked it quite as much.

I have finally started On Beauty, having been distracted by a Heston Blumenthal cookbook, a bunch of knitting books etc etc. I'm enjoying On Beauty so far ...

Marina, I just finished Jonathan Strange a couple of nights ago and am feeling completely bereft. What a wonderful, original book. I was wishing ks was around for the same reason you mentioned prufrock- I am sure she'd like it. I had thought that without even registering the Quincunx link!

Ahh Bink, Lark Rise is one of my all time favourite books which I need when I need a 'comfort-book'!! Have you read Flora Thompson's Still Glides the Stream? It's fictional (but very similar to Lark Rise. Set in an Oxfordshire villagew around Queen Vic's golden jubilee in 1887) Lovely.

Giddy - can't sell you any Flora Thompson - I re-read them too often

giddy1, Lark Rise is a staple of public libraries - sure you can find one there.

Should re-read it myself sometime, as well as the one you suggest, fullmoonfiend!

I've just finished Canetti's Party in the Blitz, which while deeply interesting was a wee bit short in the human wisdom and wit department. So with some relief I am back with lovely humane lucid funny Alan Bennett (before a reading, in the foyer of the Wakefield Playhouse, meeting some "sabre-toothed pensioners. 'It had better be good,' one of them warned. 'We're big fans of yours.'")

I finished On Beauty, and started a thread complaining about it ... well, I did really like it, but the ending just ... ended.

Yes www Time Travellers Wife is good, it made me cry.

Now reading Ian McEwan's Saturday - unputdownable

Is it Cam? Just bought it half price £3.99 in Waterstones and is next on the list to read.

no thought ttw was pants

i too loved candleford
ahd a big craze on them when i was about 15
dunno if id still like em

Posey are you talking about TTW or Saturday? (Ignore cod)