Read Any Good Books Lately?

[Monoclinic 39]

I have to admit I don't re-read and there is one simple explanation for that, there are only 24 hours in the day and so many books that I want and most likely will never get around to read. IMHO one major factor in why we read less these days is because the 9-5 job is less common. I am sure a lot of you out there would be in the same position as me in that you work a lot more than your "contractual" hours, whether at work or home. As long as you are interested in your job you don't resent it either, well I don't. Couple this with the enormous amount of computer use required in many modern jobs, we just don't have the eyes for reading for hours on end and it'll be a while before evolution catches us up.

[Toast 16,130]

we just don't have the eyes for reading for hours on end

 

You could be right, pre-computers I used to read a lot (I could read all day given the opportunity and a good book). Now I find that after a few pages I can't keep my eyes open, and doze off.

 

Might be the comfiness of the sofa though.

[Monoclinic 39]

we just don't have the eyes for reading for hours on end

 

You could be right, pre-computers I used to read a lot (I could read all day given the opportunity and a good book). Now I find that after a few pages I can't keep my eyes open, and doze off.

 

Might be the comfiness of the sofa though.

 

I was told that in fact computers are in fact extremely bad for our eyes as the focal point is neither near nor far and thus points them under a great deal of strain. I'd hazard a guess that the true effects of computers won't be seen until those who have lived with Windows since birth grow up. At least when I was 5 we had to wait about 30 minutes for a game to load from a cassette and the school BBCs were black with white text... ah guaranteed everytime we'd play Granny's Garden someone whould have first typed in something to BASIC

 

10 RUN

20 COLOUR 8

30 PRINT "MRS JONES SMELLS OF POO"

40 GOTO 30

 

And then that would be it in flashing cyan and magenta the teacher or whichever misfortunate would be dissed in the only way a 7 year old knows.

 

[maryportfuncity 10,642]

Speaking of re-reading, I've re-read a rew, notably Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, 3 times that one. Odd since I thought it awesome, sh*te and fairly good, in that order.

[Lady Grendel 139]

I was wondering how many of us reread books. I was talking to a DL'er tonight who never rereads anything, my ex husband was exactly the same, could not understand why I would want to read a book I'd read before. I suppose it depends on your interests and my ex was only interested in factual books, fiction to him was a no-no. I love to read and never leave the house without a book, nor do I go to bed without reading a few chapters and can often be found burning the midnight oil trying to find out what happens next, in recent months I've reread quite a few books and enjoyed them just as much as I did the first time round, although it can have disapointing results. I loved 'A Town like Alice'read it at 18, reread it at 21, but read it now again in my 40's, wish I hadn't. Rereading great books has always been a pleasure for me and I pick up something different each time.

Why did the third reading disappoint? I read Catch-22 as a teenager and loved it, re-read it a year or two later and enjoyed it again, then picked it up to read a third time a few years later and couldn't work out what the hell it was about, so left it. In the interim I had seen the dreadful film of the book. Perhaps it's time to try it again. Just now I'm reading The Kindly Ones, not sure whether I saw it recommended here or not. It's taking ages.

 

Difficult to pinpoint my disappointment Godot, I think I knew little of the details of the 2nd World War in Burma back then, but since have read Quartered Safe Out Here and spent a few years working with a man who was posted out there, sadly deceased now. I guess their tales of the conflict became interspersed with my idea of the book and I thought it was lot more detailed than it turned out to be. I suppose the other thing being is it is a love story with a fairy tale ending, at a young naive age you think that's what happens in life, after all we are brought up with tales of 'happy ever after', could be I'm just older and wiser and a lot more cynical about that sort of thing.

 

I am currently reading the copy of Jackie, 'Special Valentines Day' issue from 1975 that was given away with todays guardian, the 'How to Dry Clean Your Hair' advert makes me wonder why I never tried it before, and of course the pin up poster of David Essex will be above my bed in a matter of minutes .

[maryportfuncity 10,642]

Have just finished Henry James' 'The Turn of the Screw'....ponderous but gripping from the middle onwards.

 

Now grooving to this. Obviously as a woman in my nineties it's a little close to home, but it's best moments offer a hearty laugh in the face of old age and death.

[DevonDeathTrip 2,358]

Cliffs of Despair: A Journey to Suicide's Edge, by Tom Hunt. Everything you ever wanted to know about the lure of Beachy Head.

 

Too much flowery prose and not enough action. C+.

[maryportfuncity 10,642]

Digging the current - but not for much longer - Booker Prize holder, The White Tiger. Engaging, rapid-read look at the darker side of success in India.

 

A- IMHO, largely brilliant, let down only by the rather convenient way a few plot items fall into place.

[BrunoBrimley 86]

Currently reading through my Dawn Powell collection. Seeing as how she's dead, it seems appropriate for this thread.

[maryportfuncity 10,642]

Summat very strange is going on in periodical publishing. A few titles - long thought to have died - are reviving themselves. A Carlisle United fanzine came back after 14 years of inactivity but the one that has truly delighted me is the return of Poot! a gloriously silly little competitor to Viz. Saw one in a newsagent in September and discovered it was the first for 18 YEARS!

 

Well worth a read.

[Guest D.Daugh]

I love to read. I enjoy reading all kinds of books. I am looking for some suggestions on what books to read next? Does anyone have a favorite they would like to recommend? Thanks

[Madcow 6]

I love to read. I enjoy reading all kinds of books. I am looking for some suggestions on what books to read next? Does anyone have a favorite they would like to recommend? Thanks

I would have to go with 'The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse' by Robert Rankin. Makes me laugh every time I read it.

[Tuber Mirum 125]

I love to read. I enjoy reading all kinds of books. I am looking for some suggestions on what books to read next? Does anyone have a favorite they would like to recommend? Thanks

I would have to go with 'The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse' by Robert Rankin. Makes me laugh every time I read it.

An excellent book by all accounts.

For those unfamiliar with the works of The Master or with Far Fetched Fiction as a genre in general, Snuff Fiction is probably a good starting point. I think I'll reread it right now. Keep me from posting too much on the Deathlist.

[Madcow 6]

I love to read. I enjoy reading all kinds of books. I am looking for some suggestions on what books to read next? Does anyone have a favorite they would like to recommend? Thanks

I would have to go with 'The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse' by Robert Rankin. Makes me laugh every time I read it.

An excellent book by all accounts.

For those unfamiliar with the works of The Master or with Far Fetched Fiction as a genre in general, Snuff Fiction is probably a good starting point. I think I'll reread it right now. Keep me from posting too much on the Deathlist.

Sir, I commend you on your taste in literature. I shall toast you with a pint of large at The Flying Swan.

[Lady Grendel 139]

My bookshelf is now restocked thanks to Xmas. A couple of books I hadn't heard of before but I am particularly looking forward to reading are these:

 

The Book With No Name

 

Howard's End is on the Landing

 

I shall report back if they are any good, but judging by the pile of books I received this may take a few weeks. I always like to find new books I hadn't thought of reading before and this thread has introduced me to a few new authors, shame it is underused as it's one of my favourite threads.

[Josco 49]

Have been reading this:

A Classical Education: The Stuff You Wish You'd Been Taught at School by Caroline Taggart

 

Recommended.

[honez 79]

Have been reading this:

A Classical Education: The Stuff You Wish You'd Been Taught at School by Caroline Taggart

But we didn't have a Caroline Taggart at my school...

[Magere Hein 1,400]

Have been reading this:

A Classical Education: The Stuff You Wish You'd Been Taught at School by Caroline Taggart

But we didn't have a Caroline Taggart at my school...

All the more reason to read the book, I'd say.

 

BTW, my school only had a Caroline Visser. I won't say what she taught me, for legal reasons, but I assure you it was worth learning.

 

regards,

Hein

[Tomb raider 9]

Have been reading this:

A Classical Education: The Stuff You Wish You'd Been Taught at School by Caroline Taggart

But we didn't have a Caroline Taggart at my school...

All the more reason to read the book, I'd say.

 

BTW, my school only had a Caroline Visser. I won't say what she taught me, for legal reasons, but I assure you it was worth learning.

 

regards,

Hein

 

She probably taught you how to bark like a dog?

[maryportfuncity 10,642]

An interesting curio, I just polished off here.

[harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy 1,684]

In non-fiction, the book I most enjoyed reading this year was Richard Holmes's The Age of Wonder, while was my favourite novel was probably the disconcerting The Act of Love by Howard Jacobson.

 

I'm currently splitting time between Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy and a So You Think You Know the 80s quiz book that Santa put in my stocking.

[Banshees Scream 110]

I'm currently reading the book "Outliers" and I'll probably be starting "Freakonomics" in a day or so.

[DevonDeathTrip 2,358]

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. It took me a bloody long time to finish, eleven years to be precise, but I got there in the end .

[Terminator 13]

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. It took me a bloody long time to finish, eleven years to be precise, but I got there in the end .

Those long, words can be so tedious to look up....

[honez 79]

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. It took me a bloody long time to finish, eleven years to be precise, but I got there in the end .

Those long, words can be so tedious to look up....

That's why I much prefer The Magic Pudding. That's more my style.