Thursday 26 August 2010

What are you reading?

Just came back from a picnic (laughs hollowly - okay we spent the day in the pub drinking) with my colleagues, and one of them said something blindingly brilliant yet so simple which gave me an idea. Because I feel bad for never posting about books anymore.

She said she keeps a list of the books she reads, otherwise she forgets. Despite a lifetime of reading, I've never thought of doing this. So what I'll do, any time I post I will put a little postscript of whatever book I'm reading, and you can comment or totally ignore it, it's up to you, but at least it will make this blog vaguely book related.

And to kick us off, what are you reading these days? Any good?




Sometimes I have a few on the go -
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle
Under the Net, Iris Murdoch

20 comments:

  1. I'm re-reading my way through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series, and loving them all over again. Iris was a fan, by the way. Also reading Patrick Leigh Fermor's From the Woods to the Water. Just finished Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story and thought it was a curate's egg written by an Asian fetishist.

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  2. I'm reading The Collector by John Folwes, just because the girl I'm going on a date with tomorrow has read it.

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  3. I do the list thing. My reading notebook for books completed has been packed away for months since the move and I've been twitching. Also have another notebook for books I want to read. It's a good idea to have notebooks with different colored covers - ahem.
    Had an urge this week to re-read The Statement by Brian Moore, remembered I'd sold my own copy and then found one in the Oxfam shop. Also reading A Visual History of Cookery, The Believers by Zoe Heller and on the bus - The Pusher by Ed McBain.

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  4. I have just finished "The Greatest Show on Earth" by Richard Dawkins and am feeling a lot cleverer for having done so!
    Just started "The Audacity of Hype" by Armando Ianucci, which is very entertaining so far...

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  5. Just finished Jonatham Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude (long passages of brilliance, but somehow didn't grab me overall) and have moved on to Tom McCarthy's Remainder. Also have a book of Donald Barthelme short stories beside my bed - fun and weird and serious and great.

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  6. B, you know that saying, not to judge a book by its cover? I'm guilty of that, anything with a ship on it puts me off, but I should give him a go. I saw the video for Super Sad True Love Story, I'm guessing it's a satire?

    Tuesday Kid, is it the Punchbowl Girl? Proper date? Hurrah! The Collector is dead creepy as I recall, especially as it's very convincing - I loved the heroine in it though.

    3 gold stars for you, Arabella! I was so scarred by reading Notes On A Scandal I've avoided the other Zoe Heller novel. You should definitely join the #stationeryclub on Twitter, they'd love your different coloured notebooks.

    Haven't read any Richard Dawkins yet Steve, I'm pretty rubbish on non-fiction. But I do like him and how passionate he is. Love Armando Ianuuci, I bet that is entertaining.

    Emordino, ah, Donald Barthelme. He is great but I associate him with being heartbroken - once ordered a new hardback of his for someone as a present when a poor student but by the time it arrived, we'd broken up. I felt like an arse giving him this expensive book when he didn't love me anymore...

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  7. I've just finished Bad Science by Ben Goldacre and have just started whatever the latest Marian Keyes is.

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  8. I know nothing about ships, but I now gabble about stuns'ls with a sailor friend. It's like Jane Austen with sex, world travel and violence. And funny. And the women (who arrive in book two) are rather marvellous.
    Super Sad True Love Story... I wish he'd stuck to satire and dystopia. The love story is awful.

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  9. The most recent Douglas Coupland (Generation A). It's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory rewritten by JG Ballard. The usual, then.

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  10. I must read Bad Science GSE, I like his blog. I like Marian Keyes too, interesting how she writes about depression and alcoholism under the guise of chick lit.

    That sounds great B, this is why it's good to get personal recommendations from people.

    There's one Douglas Coupland I really like Tim, I think it was called Microserfs. The last one I read was Girlfriend in a Coma, proposterous but entertaining. When I worked at the bookshop my boss had met him. She said he was very, very odd.

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  11. I'm reading Love on the Dole as recommended by John Harris. It's making me angry so that's good.

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  12. You should read Copeland, he's very good. I'm just about to start Q by "Luther Blisset".

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  13. I started a book blog (the link is on my profile should you wish to have a gander) a few months ago because every time I went to write a post on my personal one I just seemed to want to talk about books. I just put up short reviews of anything I can remember clearly. The last couple I've read are The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman, which is a really interesting take on the historical Jesus and the evolution of religion, and The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts by Louis be Bernieres, which is funny and vicious on every single page and really magical in parts.

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  14. I would thoroughly recommend Q by Luther Blisset. A bloody good read

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  15. Very timely, hey Geoff. Why is no one writing the equivalent of that these days?

    Who be Copeland, Billy? I'd never heard of Luther Blissett before
    "For reasons that remain unknown, the name was borrowed from a real-life Luther Blissett, a notable association football player, who played for England in the 1980s" ha, excellent!

    Andrew, I love how Philip Pullman always writes about religion while coming over all militant atheist, the hypocrite, though I did like the kids' books. Will check out your book blog. More book blogs, hurrah!

    It sounds very intriguing, Steve.

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  16. Been keeping a list (in the back of my (appointments) diary) since I was a teenager - also have multiple books on the go at once.

    Currently reading some Estonian novel (hard going); ploughing very slowly through The Flame of Queen Something by Umberto Eco (ok-ish idea badly executed); and Balzac's Black Sheep (am enjoying).

    Have also just read a Marian Keyes which I rather liked..

    Arabella, I really liked The Believers - the mealy-mouthed reviews it got were a bit wrong I reckon.

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  17. That is dead highbrow Spin - I must try and read more non-English or American authors.

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  18. Nicholson Baker's The Anthologist, which is funny and tender and maddening. The narrator is supposed to be writing an introduction to an anthology of rhyming poetry, but is very creative at procrastination, which strikes a chord. His GF has left him and he is a bit helpless about that, a nice element of suspense. Almost any of his dorkish pronouncements on poetry is true and at the same time very wrong and could re-start the poetry wars. Great fun for poetry dorks (erm, not sure why I'm sharing this...)...

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  19. Do share Anne,that's what this is all about! (or should be anyway.) I loved The Everlasting Story of Nory, it was a bit spooky how accurate it was at remembering what it's like to be a child (& obsessed with wobbly teeth falling out.)

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