Right, i have four books on my desk beside me and i can't decide what to read, not sure they are all well known but here goes.

[lucyellensmum]

So, i have just finished Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks - Didn't like it that much, found it a bit preachy and it took me AGES to finish it. I did enjoy Johnathan STrange and MR Norrel. I seem to be enjoying historical novels right now. I absolutely loved the Historian by Kristina Katonova (is that her name?)>

So....i have:-

The Dante Club by matthew pearl - not sure about this, it looks a bit intellectual and the font is shite and it might irritate me. Plus i have never even read an ounce of anything written by or about dante, but know that he wrote stuff about death and punishment? See, i know nuthin!

An instance of the fingerpost by iain pears - looks like a historical detective novel, 17th century

The meaning of night - micheal cox, victorian chick lit?? (odd on favourite at the moment)

Or

The life of Pi - yann martel

or, not on my desk (i wonder what i did with it) Salmon fishing in the yemen, but i cant remember who.

So..........i want something substantial but that i can read quickly and not feel like i "have to" finish it. I couldnt put down JS&MN, but Human Traces was a chore and took me twice as long to read.

Or do i give up and go and buy something on recommendation.

[DisplacementActivity]

Message withdrawn

[MarsLady]

This reminds me of how much I heart ellbell. She is my literary hero

[moonshine]

LEM - slight diversion. You said you loved the Historian. I have been trying to read it for weeks but keep falling asleep after a page or so. Now I could be dog-tired all the time but I just cannot get into it, although I don't actively hate it. Did you find it took some time to get into it, or were you hooked from the start (I've temporarily abandoned it and but I do normally hate giving up on books)?

[becaroo]

Didnt rate the Dante Club, but absolutely LOVE An Instance of the Fingerpost...it is well worth persevering with.

Keep meaning to read Life of Pi.......

[TotalChaos]

I started and gave up on both Dante Club and Fingerpost. I enjoyed both Meaning of Night and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.

[Botbot]

I loved the Fingerpost book.

[FlossieTCake]

Ooh!! Thank you, ellbell. That is very exciting, if somewhat bad news for my bank account...

[Ellbell]

Did someone mention Dante?

Flossie... all three volumes of the new Kirkpatrick translation are now available. It's a lovely, very sensitive, translation.

[FlossieTCake]

at all the Dante-philes hurrah hurrah hurrah.

Recently returned from 10th wedding anniv in Florence, selection of destination strongly influenced by Dante-worship.

Def recommend new(ish) Penguin Classics versions
(1) Dante in English ed Griffiths/reynolds - lem, this might suit you as an intro to Dante; there is a monster introduction of about 200 pages, but the rest is an anthology of Good Bits as translated/interpreted/responded to by various English writers over the years
(2) new translations of the Commedia by Kirkpatrick (only Inferno published so far but I believe the rest are to follow).

I would start a thread but am slightly doubtful as to whether Dante counts as "adult fiction"...


getting back to the OP... the only one of the four you mention that I've read is Life of Pi, which tbh I was a bit disappointed by after all the hype. Wanting to go back and re-read it now though as currently halfway through an Edgar Allen Poe which has clearly heavily influenced LoP, and I want to see how explicit that was made (geek alert).

Want to read both The Meaning of Night and Dante Club though.

[AbbeyA]

Affinity-it was my favourite by her-I wasn't so keen on Nightwatch.

[lucyellensmum]

I really liked fingersmith and another one by Sarah waters, title escapes me, about a woman "clairvoyant" in prison? I have the nightwatch nagging me to read it, but couldnt get into it at the start - i was pregnant though. Might go back to it. Ive made several attempts at Donna Tartt, can't get to grips.

[MrsWednesday]

Oh, cross-posted with bookthief who explains it better than me!

[MrsWednesday]

I've read The Instance of the Fingerpost (it's not the Sarah Waters one, Fingersmith I think Quattrocento?) and it's very good. Read it years ago and I think it's about one event (a murder?) told from several different perspectives. Sorry, that's a rubbish description - the details are hazy but I do remember that it was quite difficult to get into but worth persevering with.

[bookthief]

Instance of the Fingerpost is one of my favourite books ever but it does take some time to get going. It's the same story told from different viewpoints so it's not really until the first retelling (iyswim) that it starts getting really interesting. I thought it was amazing though.

I loved Life of Pi as well. Didn't get too far with The Dante Club, but I was pg at the time and had the concentration span of an ant.

[AbbeyA]

I would recommend 'The Life of Pi'.

[lucyellensmum]

OK so i started the meaning of night last night. 15 pages in and i think it might be quite good. I think. The fact that i got 15 pages read in my knackered state was a good sign especially as DP kept bloody talking to me . He doesn't get that reading is not like watching a film, you actually have to concentrate a bit

I will have a look at some Dante, it honestly does sound a tad too intellectual for me. I think i miss out on a lot here as lots of stuff goes way over my head.

[Ellbell]

[Ellbell's dantalert (© Califrau) goes off to let her know that someone somewhere has mentioned Dante. Donning medieval-style robes, she rushes to the scene to provide elucidation/enthusiasm.]

[zippitippitoes]

of course you could also read war and peace

which is far better thsan the meaning of night i read it twice in a week tho i was also studying it bt it is readable and fun

[S1ur]

not read any, but friend really rated life of pi

[Ellbell]

Yes. But Dante is my luuurrrrvve!

[zippitippitoes]

lol have you read the decameron

[Ellbell]

OK. So a guy (Dante) comes to his senses, aged 35, to find that he's lost in a dark wood. He can see the sun and a path leading up a mountain, but can't get past the wild animals that are barring his way. At this point, a guide appears (this is Virgil) and tells him that the only way out for him is to travel through Hell and Purgatory, until eventually, in the company of the woman he had loved before her death (Beatrice), he will enter Heaven.

The rest of the poem is the story of that journey and of the people he meets on it. Unlike most characters in medieval literature (and this is just one area of D's genius) the characters are not one-dimensional representations of abstract concepts (love, greed, etc.) but 'real people' (either contemporaries of D, historical characters or characters known from earlier works of literature, like Ulysses or Roland). They tell their stories in ways that are totally plausible and they show us how tempting bad behaviour can be and yet, at the same time, how wrong it is (and what deep shit - s'times literally - it can get us into).

This story is interwoven with 101 other concerns: politics (D was exiled from his native Florence for being a member of the 'wrong' political party and for his opposition to the interference of the papacy in political matters), poetry (D shows his huge debt to classical poetry while at the same time showing how poetry written in Italian can rival and exceed classical Latin poetry for beauty and seriousness), religion and philosophy, love (human and divine), etc. Oh, and while he's at it, he pretty much invents the Italian language.

[zippitippitoes]

have you read the betrothed alessandro manzoni

or crime and punishment

[snice]

Meaning of night has a great opening paragraph zippi-surely not tedious