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Has anyone been to see the new Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief film yet? I'm hoping it's better than the book. No offence to Rick Riordan, nor even to Puffin Books, but I'm up to page 150 and it's only just getting going. I mean only now is it getting going, and also it's hardly raising any interest. But it's a YA book and a best seller ;) so I feel I should read it all the way through. Ah, I know: it's bound to have a brilliant ending.
Just caught back up on this thread. Re SS and FF I loved them but there was another series that she did ("The castle of Adventure" was one of them) which I loved but I also loved the books by Malcom Saville as a child...I still have them. My mother loved them and therefore passed them onto us as children. The other ones that we first had read to us then re-read time and again were Mary Norton books about the Borrowers.
Anyway I'm starting ona Lee Childs book called "Nothing to Lose".
I seem to have managed to get myself out of the habit of playing on my nintendo DS before bed and have returned to reading.
So my reading has sped up quite a bit as a result.
Finished 'Flirt' by Laurell K Hamilton, about to start 'Brava, Valentine' by Adriana Trigiani [there is also a book called 'Encore, Valentine' but they appear to be one and the same].
I am still reading 'The Woman in White' by Wilkie Collins during my work breaks - but as I can't read at work as much as I do at home I am only halfway through that book.
I found a copy of Jane Wenham Jones' Perfect Alibis in a charity shop, bought it for 55p. Only bought it because it was her and I thought, it may just possibly be a good read. Plus I needed some change for the bus. :)
If you want a laff, I thoroughly recommend it. :) I have picked up similar books in the past and just discarded them after a few chapters but this one, just sooooo funny. I couldn't put it down and simply had to know how it was going to end. The beginning and middle are better than the end, IMO, but it's well worth a read.
I'm reading Margaret Forster - The diary of an ordinary woman - we are reading it for the village book group and when I read the cover I wasn't looking forward to it. I thought it wasn't my cup of tea at all - how wrong I was - I am really enjoyingit. very well written.
ginab, I didn't like Nothing to Lose too much, but Gone Tomorrow, the latest, is brilliant, much better all round.
That's current reading. Friend bought me Stephen King's Under The Dome for Christmas, outstanding, riveting, all the cliches imaginable. It really is.
Then I finished reading the trilogy A Horseman Riding By - got tired of holding heavy books by then. Re-read Swan Song by Robert R McCrimmon, bit like Stephen King's The Stand with twists of his own, really enjoyed reading it all over again. Forgotten so much of it that it was like reading it for the first time.
Then John Connolly's latest Charlie Parker mystery, The Lovers. Also brilliant.
I'm reading two very different books at the moment, both of which I'm thoroughly enjoying:
The Shakespeare Curse by Jennifer Lee Carrell, which is of the Dan Brown ilk.
The Gladiator by Simon Scarrow, which is very Bernard Cornwell-ish.
Dorothy doesn't reading Under the Dome remind you of the Simpsons Movie lol. I guess you haven't seen that film though have you? I didn't think about it at first, I was happy just loving the fact SK has got his mojo back on this one. But my daughter asked me what it was about then said, 'Oh just like the Simpsons Movie then.' That was it.
Never seen the Simpsons movie, so it all came fresh to me. I thought it was a brilliant book, so many characters, so well handled. Almost like The Stand all over again but in a confined space.
Betsie - just started The Girl with the dragon tattoo. Fell asleep on about third page....but that is no reflection on the book ! (It was very late and I had been reading The Disordered Mind before that ;) )
Just finished my Lee Childs book (Nothing to lose) and it wasn't bad, quite enjoyed it but thanks for the tip on the next one Dorothy. I'll look out for it and give it a go. I quite like the Jack Reacher books.
As my husband started dealing in second hand books last year I have about 1500 in the spare room to choose from. It is quite comforting to know I can always find a book to read and we have a wide range of books that I wouldn't necessarily buy for myself. :)
Don't bank on it Dwight - I don't get through books very quickly - I only have a little read before going to sleep. It's taken me a while to get through first three chapters of this book - so much stuff to remember.
just read Michael Robotham's book, The Suspect, gripping stuff. Decided enough thrillers have been read lately, am going back, pulled a Howard Spring from the shelf, (These Lovers Fled Away) and am going for some nostalgia. I have only read each of them about five times, that's all.
Dorothy, how do you find time? But it's no wonder you're a fluent writer.
Gina you remind me of the YA novel Malarkey by Keith Grey, where the protagonist's mother has bought premises to start a second-hand bookshop but never gets round to sorting out the boxes of books through finding so many good reads.
Dwight, 14 months ago we joined the 3% of the country that does not have a TV.
I read:
over breakfast.
There's a book in the boot of my car and one on my desk/shelf/bolted on thingy here which I take to lunch if I go on my own.
At teatime (shut away in my office, I am working my way through a two part biography a bit a night)
sitting with my daughter after work finishes, sometimes she reads too and there is silence, of a sort. Sometimes we do word puzzles, as in me giving answers to clues called across the room (Called? the room is 21 ft long and 15 ft wide) -
I always maintain there is time to read. It's my lifeblood, like breathing and writing.
Busy wading through two weeks' worth of back issues of the Mail up to this morning, tonight, back into Howard Spring, Yayyyy!!!! Class writing again.
fortunately for me, daughter gets up after I do, so I get reading time.
My partner invariably goes to lunch with me but there was a period when he was ill with shingles when I ate alone for two/three weeks. Got through some books then.
Reading in the evening depends on how daughter feels (she is a depressive, I go with her mood swings and phases)
Eating alone helps, she doesn't like 'noise' so my munching my way through Ryvita, corn thins and rice cakes bothers her.
I'm reading 'A Study in Scarlet' by Conan Doyle, I was going to do 'A Sign of Four' as per Stan's recommendation, but I enjoyed 'Hound of the Baskervilles' so much I wanted to read all the rest in order, so Scarlet today, Sign of Four on monday.
Well I got half way through Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox before I burnt out and haven't had time to read again. What I have read is good however, and it's making me think a lot about the nature of novel writing and how to fill a middle of a book since I know the beginning and end of mine. I'll get around to finishing it one day.
[quote=Pixie J King]it's making me think a lot about the nature of novel writing and how to fill a middle of a book since I know the beginning and end of mine.[/quote]
That's great, PJ; sounds like you're reading like a writer. I'll bet you're picking up so much, and Eoin Colfer's a master.
How's it going with Stieg Larsson, Betsie? I'm up to p.70 and enjoying. I've got it next to the bed but I should really get going on it this weekend.
Since someone mentioned his name on another thread I have been reading Stuart Macbride's crime series about DS Loghan McRae. They are unputdownable. DI Steele is one of the best characters I've ever come across, absolutely brilliant. I recommend them.
being forced to read Annie Proulx's The Shipping News...but it is our last book for prose so after monday afternoon i can read my own book again... was reading Mauritius Command before prose rudely interrupted me... not enjoying Shipping News... and once again (like last week and Elephant) everytime i actually sit down to read i'm so tired that i can hardly keep my eyes open...
I know the feeling about keeping eyes open - try matchsticks!!
I've been e-reading a book by a 19th century Scottish preacher, Alexander Whyte about characters from 'The Pilgrm's Progress'. Like the curate's egg it is good in parts.
I have finished 'Brava Valentine' by Adriana Trigiani.
I'm just about to start 'The Brutal Art' by jesse Kellerman - which I bought ages ago and completely forgot I had.
And I'm also about to start [because it is only a small book and will not take me long to read] 'Dear Me: A Letter to my 16 Year Old Self' - this is a book that has letters written by various celebrities to their 16 year old selves.
There's about 60 letters in there from celebrities from all walks of life! Just to list a few: Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Lynda La Plante, Julia and Nadia Sawalha, Yoko Ono - the list goes on...
Chippy, daughter has just read "The Brutal Art" and said for once she found a book that was interesting and well written. She's had some duff books from the library lately, but as I said, "The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle" doesn't come around too often. That's a book that stops you dead in your tracks and you wonder if you will ever read anything again, at least for a week anyway, which is how long she took to get over it.
Reading "All The Day Long" by Howard Spring. I have had these books for years and still can go back to them as if they were being read for the first time. Howard Spring and RF Delderfield were writing at the same time, they would often pass one another when out walking before settling down to write. They both have that storytelling ability.
Just started reading Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. I've had it for ages and haven't read it before now. It is the first in the True Blood series. The programme is pure filth. The book is just as dirty. I'm rather enjoying it. ;)
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Anyway I'm starting ona Lee Childs book called "Nothing to Lose".
So my reading has sped up quite a bit as a result.
Finished 'Flirt' by Laurell K Hamilton, about to start 'Brava, Valentine' by Adriana Trigiani [there is also a book called 'Encore, Valentine' but they appear to be one and the same].
I am still reading 'The Woman in White' by Wilkie Collins during my work breaks - but as I can't read at work as much as I do at home I am only halfway through that book.
If you want a laff, I thoroughly recommend it. :) I have picked up similar books in the past and just discarded them after a few chapters but this one, just sooooo funny. I couldn't put it down and simply had to know how it was going to end. The beginning and middle are better than the end, IMO, but it's well worth a read.
That's current reading. Friend bought me Stephen King's Under The Dome for Christmas, outstanding, riveting, all the cliches imaginable. It really is.
Then I finished reading the trilogy A Horseman Riding By - got tired of holding heavy books by then. Re-read Swan Song by Robert R McCrimmon, bit like Stephen King's The Stand with twists of his own, really enjoyed reading it all over again. Forgotten so much of it that it was like reading it for the first time.
Then John Connolly's latest Charlie Parker mystery, The Lovers. Also brilliant.
The Shakespeare Curse by Jennifer Lee Carrell, which is of the Dan Brown ilk.
The Gladiator by Simon Scarrow, which is very Bernard Cornwell-ish.
Currently reading Robinson Crusoe, its taking me ages and I am sick of seeing the word 'providence'.
As my husband started dealing in second hand books last year I have about 1500 in the spare room to choose from. It is quite comforting to know I can always find a book to read and we have a wide range of books that I wouldn't necessarily buy for myself. :)
Gina you remind me of the YA novel Malarkey by Keith Grey, where the protagonist's mother has bought premises to start a second-hand bookshop but never gets round to sorting out the boxes of books through finding so many good reads.
Just finished The Silver Lining Playbook and now reading Wedlock.
I read:
over breakfast.
There's a book in the boot of my car and one on my desk/shelf/bolted on thingy here which I take to lunch if I go on my own.
At teatime (shut away in my office, I am working my way through a two part biography a bit a night)
sitting with my daughter after work finishes, sometimes she reads too and there is silence, of a sort. Sometimes we do word puzzles, as in me giving answers to clues called across the room (Called? the room is 21 ft long and 15 ft wide) -
I always maintain there is time to read. It's my lifeblood, like breathing and writing.
Busy wading through two weeks' worth of back issues of the Mail up to this morning, tonight, back into Howard Spring, Yayyyy!!!! Class writing again.
My partner invariably goes to lunch with me but there was a period when he was ill with shingles when I ate alone for two/three weeks. Got through some books then.
Reading in the evening depends on how daughter feels (she is a depressive, I go with her mood swings and phases)
Eating alone helps, she doesn't like 'noise' so my munching my way through Ryvita, corn thins and rice cakes bothers her.
That's great, PJ; sounds like you're reading like a writer. I'll bet you're picking up so much, and Eoin Colfer's a master.
How's it going with Stieg Larsson, Betsie? I'm up to p.70 and enjoying. I've got it next to the bed but I should really get going on it this weekend.
Am still reading 'Brava Valentine' by Adriana Trigiani
It includes some interesting diagrams.
I've been e-reading a book by a 19th century Scottish preacher, Alexander Whyte about characters from 'The Pilgrm's Progress'. Like the curate's egg it is good in parts.
I'm just about to start 'The Brutal Art' by jesse Kellerman - which I bought ages ago and completely forgot I had.
And I'm also about to start [because it is only a small book and will not take me long to read] 'Dear Me: A Letter to my 16 Year Old Self' - this is a book that has letters written by various celebrities to their 16 year old selves.
There's about 60 letters in there from celebrities from all walks of life! Just to list a few: Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Lynda La Plante, Julia and Nadia Sawalha, Yoko Ono - the list goes on...
Reading "All The Day Long" by Howard Spring. I have had these books for years and still can go back to them as if they were being read for the first time. Howard Spring and RF Delderfield were writing at the same time, they would often pass one another when out walking before settling down to write. They both have that storytelling ability.
*SA*
Before that, Roadside Crosses, Jeffery Deaver, great stuff.
Now reading 'Lost' by Michael Robotham