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What book(s) is everyone reading at the minute?

edited December 2015 in - Reading
What book(s) are you all reading at the minute? I'm reading David Gemmell's Midnight Falcon, second book in his Rigante series and John Berger's Ways of Seeing.
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  • Boy23, Jim Carrington (YA brilliant, dystopian), DH Lawrence, Birds, Beasts and Flowers (poetry), A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler - just finished Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel (SF, brill).
  • Nice! I just finished Dracula by Bram Stoker, it was unexpectedly excellent! Didn't expect to enjoy something that raw or something written over a hundred years ago for that matter. But can definitely see how it is a corner stone for horror.
  • Hi John, I'm away travelling. I had picked out a Peter Carey book to take with me, then at the last minute swapped it for The Island by Victoria Hislop, lent to me by a friend who said it was a great 'holiday read'... big mistake!
    This is not my usual reading material and it's garbage.
  • Sounds like a nightmare Claudia, but that's where a kindle comes in handy. Download an emergency book! haha
  • The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle. I haven't got into it yet. I was sent it to review by the publisher so we shall see if it grabs me.
  • Telephone Directory. I need a taxi.
  • Just finishing 'Dark Side' by Belinda Bauer and halfway through 'Anger is an Energy', John Lydon's book - he knows how to spin a good yarn, does John. Really enjoying both books.
  • Nearing the end of The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, follow up to the Harold Fry title a few years ago. It's a lovely read!
  • Oh! I didn't know there was one, Karen! Have to go on my Christmas list! i loved Harold, but my book group was split... but we were judging it as a Booker prize.
  • In between - just finished 'How to Write a Pantomime' and about to start 'Brooklyn'. But also reading Trudi Canavan's Magician trilogy part 2 ('The Novice') with daughter.
  • I read this thread as....

    'What book(s) is everyone reading LAST minute?'

    I panicked, trying to figure out what the deadline was :S

    Currently reading GodBomb! by Kit Power.
  • Got a few pages into Zeno's Conscience by Italo Svevo. Have no intention of going any further.

    Also reading Pound's ABC of Reading.
  • The Little Friend - Donna Tartt.

    It's taking me a long time to get through. Don't know why...
  • Just started 'Elizabeth is Missing'. I think it will be a good book, but I can't really say I'm enjoying it as it feels a bit close to home in some ways.
  • I read that one, heather. It's so well-observed.
  • How to Haiku - Bruce Ross
    A writers guide to haiku and related forms. Just what I was looking for.
  • But is he telling you the correct thing, C2? So many 'experts' aren't any such thing.

    I half read Elizabeth, Heather - it didn't hold me.
  • I'll be back in a moment the potatoes have burnt to the saucepan :(
  • Ambush - Dean M Cole - A sci-fi novel from a guy who followed me on Twitter. Unfortunate confusion between Turrets and Tourettes. Oops. Still, quite fun.
    The Grapes of Wrath..Steinbeck. I am sure this is sacrilege, but blimey. It's a bit like wading against the current.
  • I downloaded the book last night and so far I have read some of the things I wanted to know, the difference between Haiku, Senryu, Tanka ect.
    I'm still reading through the intro, a long way to go.
    I'm also reading The Classic Tradition of Haiku and PJ Bayliss -Taboo
    Is he telling me the right thing? I really don't know, Liz. Time will tell. It seems a good read.
  • LizLiz
    edited December 2015
    Alan Summers is a brilliant writer and teacher of haiku. He does courses over the internet. He speaks Japanese and is a world-renowned and award-winning (in Japan as well as here) haiku writer.

    Seaview writes good haiku.

    My (published) poet friends and I did a course and half dropped out - it is so hard. Most haiku you see on the internet is not haiku. It's immensely difficult to write but enormously rewarding to write.

    Alan's webpage is http://www.withwords.org.uk/ - i've just had a look and something is wrong with it, the words are white on white in parts, I'm going to let him know! If you highlight them with your cursor you can read them. Good info on there.
  • LizLiz
    edited December 2015
    Also reading a book on haiku - Haiku Animals.

    Edit to say, alan says his website is changing to be better next February, and his blog might be a better read... http://area17.blogspot.com

    He recommends this page -

    http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/extended-judges-report-for-2013-world.html

    (Honestly, once you get him talking you can't stop him...)
  • C2C2
    edited December 2015
    Thanks, Liz as always a very helpful lady.
    I would just like to add, if you find it hard... :-\" I'll give it a go and see and see how I get on.
    I have read that some of the haiku produced today is not the genuine article.
    It is reading seaview's haiku in the OWC that has inspired me.
    Haiku Animals - not available for kindle and thanks for the link.
  • I finished off David Mitchell's "Slade House" yesterday. Good fun, although I wouldn't recommend it if you haven't read "The Bone Clocks". It would work as a standalone, but there's more in it if you're familiar with the Bone Clocks' universe.

    I'm now reading "Now That You're Back", a collection of short stories by A.L. Kennedy (her first collection, I think; I've read several others by her). I really like her writing, and so far this collection is ticking all the right boxes.

    I'm also dipping into a book about the collective nouns for animals.
  • Oh, The Bone Clocks. I was trying to remember that title so that I could borrow it from the library. You've just reminded me. Yes, apparently, all his books are linked in some way, although (apparently) it's not necessary to read them in any order. I'd like to read Slade House, too, so I'll take your advice and read it second, Dan.
  • Liz, I was delighted when I saw it in the book shop, Harold was such a lovely character and now we get to see Queenie's version of events.

    Heather, I found Elizabeth is Missing a little bit hard to get into at first but I did really like it.
  • Hello, Karen. Are you new?

    If you'd like to, you can open a new thread and introduce yourself so that people can get to know a little more about you.
  • Hello Tiny :-h I joined the forum several years ago, then had twins (a poor excuse, I know) and lost my writing way! They're at school now so back to the grindstone! I'll start a new thread shortly :)
  • Ah, then welcome back - and congratulations!
  • Twins! How careless!
  • edited December 2015
    I've been there, karen. Don't worry it will all come rushing back, and everything that your brain has put to store will emerge. :)

    Hello again. :)
  • If anyone wants to start a "Who has twins?" thread, I'm eligible.
  • If anyone wants to start a "Who has twins?" thread, I'm eligible.
    The most tiring club on earth (except triplet club I imagine, I'm very glad a third wasn't hiding in there too..)
  • Carol can comment there...
  • Twins are a fascination of mine; I have included them in more than one book!
  • .
    It is reading seaview's haiku in the OWC that has inspired me
    Thank you!
  • 'Private Peaceful' by Michael Morpurgo.

    It's a gentle story at first, but I've only read three chapters. There's a definite undertone of battlefield drama to come. He wrote 'Warhorse'.
  • Saw Private Peaceful at Bristol Old Vic with a young actor doing the whole thing as a monologue, some noises off. It was electrifyingly good. Very moving.
  • edited December 2015
    What book(s) are you all reading at the minute? I'm reading David Gemmell's Midnight Falcon, second book in his Rigante series and John Berger's Ways of Seeing.
    John Berger wrote a definitive book about Picasso didn't he? Have you read 'The Picasso Bestiary', by Neil Cox, and Deborah Povey?

  • The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier.
  • Just finished Stoner by John Williams, now reading Albion, The Origins of the English Imagination by Peter Ackroyd.
  • Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
  • What Remains by Tim Weaver.
  • I read Stoner, ana, and really liked it.
  • edited December 2015
    Oh, The Bone Clocks. I was trying to remember that title so that I could borrow it from the library. You've just reminded me. Yes, apparently, all his books are linked in some way, although (apparently) it's not necessary to read them in any order. I'd like to read Slade House, too, so I'll take your advice and read it second, Dan.
    The Bone Clocks was the first one of David Mitchell's books that I thought could have done with a bit more editing. It gets a little bogged down in the middle and there's a lot of fantasy-style jargon that I didn't really get on with. It picks up again at the end, though, and overall it's a good book, just not one of his best. Slade House is like a much slimmer, more athletic cousin to TBC and hustles along at a brisker pace.

    It's interesting picking up on the links to his other books, but it does leave me wishing I had time to re-read the others to see if I've missed anything, as some of the references are pretty subtle.
  • Some really great suggestions here! I'm ticking Treasure Island off my list, and loving it! Really wish I'd read it sooner. Next is "How to Be Both" then I think it will be time to buy my holiday horde. :)
  • Some really great suggestions here! I'm ticking Treasure Island off my list, and loving it! Really wish I'd read it sooner. Next is "How to Be Both" then I think it will be time to buy my holiday horde. :)
    I tend to listen to audio books whilst doing things where I can't physically grasp a book and Treasure Island is my current one. I'm actually really enjoying it as well, wasn't expecting it to be so easy to read (in my case listen to)
    What book(s) are you all reading at the minute? I'm reading David Gemmell's Midnight Falcon, second book in his Rigante series and John Berger's Ways of Seeing.
    John Berger wrote a definitive book about Picasso didn't he? Have you read 'The Picasso Bestiary', by Neil Cox, and Deborah Povey?

    And I'm not sure, this is the first Berger book I have picked up.

  • Dispatches by Michael Herr. Utterly fascinating.
  • Just finished Halfway Home by Hugh Howey and about to start Veronica Roth's Allegiant.
  • I've just read Yan Martell's Beatrice and Virgil - didn't get on with it too well - nothing like as enjoyable to read as Life of Pi.
    I've now just started Us by David Nicholls and it's good so far.

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