One of my new year's resolutions is to try to stop buying books before I've read a good chunk of the books in my tbr pile.

So the first book in the pile is Among the Russians and I'm off to get started now!

I read a great book by Colin Thubron years ago, titled Where Nights Are Longest: Travels by Car Through Western Russia. The title makes it sound like a fairly prosaic travelogue, but the "car" in the title is a ridiculously well appointed vintage automobile (type escapes me), which turned more than a few heads in Soviet Russia. Great book! Let us know how Among the Russians turn out.

I've just finished Among the Russians and really enjoyed it. He describes his travels by car across the Soviet Union in this book too. It's incredible that he managed to complete a lengthy journey across such a forbidding country during the cold war and also that he managed to survive the many vodka drinking sessions on the way!

Next up I'm having a break from Russia and reading The Handmaid's Tale.

I wonder if it's the same book published under a different title?

It does sound as though it could be.

I finished The Handmaid's Tale late last night. I couldn't put it down once I'd got going on it. I think I would have enjoyed reading it even more in the eighties when it was first published and I was full of teenage angst!

3. August is a Wicked Month by Edna O'Brien - the cover attracted a bit of attention on the train this morning.

Message edited by its author, Jan 14, 2009, 12:56pm.

Msg 1:
One of my new year's resolutions is to try to stop buying books before I've read a good chunk of the books in my tbr pile.

My comment is why? Your real dream is to have a library. Why suppress it? You know you won't be able to anyway. So enjoy what your reading and enjoy adding to your library. To me these are both exciting. :)

I am usually reading several books in a period of time. Not sequentially - just whatever mood I am in.

You can also probably tell I just finished A Library at Night

Message edited by its author, Jan 31, 2009, 11:12am.

You were right about not being able to stop myself buying books. I volunteer in a charity bookshop on a Saturday and I seem to buy more than I put on the shelves.

4. Just finished The Sea by John Banville.

5. The Granta Book of the American Short Story lent to me by a customer.

What's your opinion of The Sea? I've always wanted to read Booker prize winners, but somehow never get around it.

Msg 9:

I volunteer in a charity bookshop on a Saturday and I seem to buy more than I put on the shelves.

:) It is hopeless for you to try to quit....

Msg 11:

I picked up The Sea because like you I've never got round to reading Booker winners and thought it was about time. I disliked the narrator though from the start so couldn't really connect with the book, but I can see why it won the prize. It's a very descriptive book, I can't remember reading a book with more vivid descriptions of smells before and I'd say that it is very much a critic's book in that it would be very easy to go through and pick out exceptional passages of writing. I suppose that would be why it won the prize. For me it was one to appreciate but not really enjoy.

Message edited by its author, Feb 7, 2009, 6:11pm.

I guess I won't put it on my reading list.

6. Finished This 'n that by Bette Davis

7. Started Like Water for Chocolate for my night book. Still reading the short stories on the journey to and from work.

8. Reading Under the Net next. Flipping 1001 books spreadsheet!

9. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - a lovely read, think I'm going to have to read more about the occupation of the Channel Islands now. I'm ashamed that I know so little.

Pardon my ignorance, but who occupied the Channel Islands?

The Germans. It was the only British soil that was occupied (sacrificed). I just read a review about a set of DVD's that are out. British television had a series about it called "Enemy at the Door" from 1978. Looked very interesting.

Duh. Thanks, it's so obvious now. My excuse is that I had just arrived from a long flight to Asia.

Thanks Tames I'll keep a look out for it.

10. Letters to Vernon Watkins while having a break in a cabin in West Wales. My favourite line in one of his letters was 'I didn't like the people at all; some looked like lemons, and all spoke with the voices of puddings.' I'm going to practice writing letters like that!

11. The Love of my Life

CalamityK you are doing really well! I am only up to like book #4 and trying to get through Middlemarch which I started in January.

I agree with Tames. I have not been able to find much time lately to pick up on my reading.

Well I have to admit I'm not doing quite as well as it looks! I'm still reading The Granta Book of the American Short Story on the journey to work each day and I'm picking my way through Under the Net.

Nothing I've read is anything as challenging as Middlemarch and having spent 3 months reading Anna Karenina last year I know exactly what you are going through Tames! Although I fell in love with the book it was a bit of a slog at times.

CalamityK thanks for the encouragement. I too want to read Anna K. someday. Perhaps this is why these are great works. You really have to engage the brain. I just got my copy of Easton Press The Iliad today. What a beautiful book. It's very tempting to get started on it. But I am going to stick to my plan. Edwin Drood it is!

Finished #5 The American Short Stories. Very enjoyable and great to read on the train. More short stories and letters from now on.

12. Read another Booker winner The Gathering and loved it. It was so much more engaging than The Sea. I picked it up because I'd read some of Anne Enright's columns in the weekend paper and was a fan of her writing style. The book didn't disappoint me in the slightest.

13. The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters - just finished this one. I found it tough in the build up to WWII (the casual acceptance of facism by some of the sisters was truly frightening) but reading about the relationship between the sisters over the larger part of the twentieth century was fascinating. Also an insight into how the other half live!

14. Regeneration

15. 84 Charing Cross Road & The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street - A joy to read. Next time I go to London I'm going to spend a bit more time walking round and appreciating it I think.

There is something about London that makes you forget you ARE IN LONDON, FOR GOD'S SAKE.

My experience is tooling around, and suddenly stumbling on a Roman wall, or some little forgotten church, then it all comes back to me.

This is London. Look up more.

16. The Eye in the Door

re message 31: not everyone in Britain lives in London!!! BE NICE

17. The Ghost Road

#33: Did I say something mean?

The more I read #31, the more I can visualize you talking to yourself.

Here is the long flowery version:

Here you are in this city rich in history. The hustle and bustle keeps your nose to the ground or just directly in front of you because you have much business to attend to. I think this is what CalamityK is saying too. Then you stumble upon a Roman wall or a forgotten church. You hit your palm on your forehead and say "Eeee gads! I'm in LONDON for God's sake. I need to be looking up (and around) more!"

So in effect you are agreeing with CalamityK's statement about walking around and appreciating it more.

How's that for an interpretation? :)

Message edited by its author, Apr 7, 2009, 9:26pm.

#36: An excellent interpretation. Thank you for translating my mumbling...

That's what I meant. I'm here for Easter and I've been doing exactly that. Lots of walking and buses and less time being hidden underground on the tube. As well as buying too many books at my sister's bookshop!

18. The Bookshop at 10 Curzon St: Letters Between Nancy Mitford and Heywood Hill 1952-1973

#38: Ah, well you can justify the expense as supporting your sibling.

Now if only I could convince one of mine to open a bookshop.

19. The Authorised Biography of Dusty Springfield: Dancing With Demons

@19: Ooooo. That sounds good.

It was but also quite depressing, I love Dusty Springfield and knew she'd had her troubles but not the extent of them. Such a shame that she couldn't enjoy the talent she had.

20. The Right Stuff - fabulous!

That's one of Wolfe's good ones. When he's good, he's really good, and when he's bad he's incomprehensible.

This was the first book of his I'd read, mainly for the subject matter. Which are the incomprehensible ones? So I know which to avoid!

21. Dylan Thomas in America - A record of Thomas's tours of America and encounters with John Malcolm Brinnin from 1950 until his death. This book helped to create the myth of Dylan Thomas as a drunken womaniser.

Brinnin's Thomas is a very different man than the one revealed in his letters to his childhood friend and fellow poet Vernon Watkins. The Vernon Watkins letters though stopped in 1948 (bar one on the death of his father in 1952).

I found myself getting angry with Brinnin for not doing more to stop Thomas's 'descent into hell' and it did seem that the book was written in part as a justification of this.

Message edited by its author, May 5, 2009, 3:38pm.

22. Trans-Siberia by Rail and a Month in Japan - not the greatest travel book, but I enjoyed it for the author's English County Lady grumpiness through her travels.

23. Family and Kinship in East London - a sociological study of families living in Bethnal Green in the 1950s and in a new housing estate on the outskirts of London. Excellent.

Message edited by its author, May 18, 2009, 3:48pm.

Hey! You are almost done. What are you going to do the rest of the year? Go back and start on one again.
Good job.

@48 That sound like a very interesting book. It's an interesting point in British history. Have you read either Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor or Random Family? Interesting sociological surveys of underclass folks in New York. The second one reads like a Dickens novel.

#49 I'm reading War and Peace for number 25. That should see me to the end of 2009!

#50 It really was. It was referred to a lot when I studied sociology in school in the 80s, so when it came into the shop I had to pick it up. Thanks for the recommendations, I'll add them to my wishlist.

War and Peace? Want to do a group read anyone?

I have an Easton Press edition just waiting to be cracked open.

Since this is the SLOW... group, I figured out a calendar to read it by the end of the year - 30 weeks anyway. I think you could actually read something else too during that time.

Hope I figured right:

370 chapters (includes Epilogues)
15 books, 2 Epilogues

This is approximately 12 chapters a week. Most of the chapters appear to be in small bites.

I will start a new thread and post the calendar if anyone wants to do it.

Edit: Schedule would start by chapters 1-12 being finished by May 30.

Message edited by its author, May 20, 2009, 8:08pm.

I would love to join, but first I must finish Foucalt's Pendulum.
War and Peace is one of those books that must be read several times in one's lifetime. I've done it twice- back in my school years, so it may be appropriate to tackle it again (pending time availability of course, but I'm always more ambitious than time permits)

Just finished #24 The Line of Beauty so am going to start War and Peace next for #25. You've scared me with your post Tames, I'm 3 days and 12 chapters behind already to finish by the end of the year!!

Message edited by its author, Jun 2, 2009, 1:57pm.

Yeah, there were no responses to that one - at least for now, so I didn't post the calendar - didn't start it myself either...

Message edited by its author, Jun 2, 2009, 9:49pm.

I'm willing to jump in if you do (although I must admit I have not finished Foucalt's Pendulum yet)

The Escape Artist - a bit of a break from War & Peace

Nearly there with War & Peace but just couldn't take it away on holiday. Instead I read Year of Wonders, loved it except for the ending and Nick Kent The Dark Stuff.

Finished War & Peace last night. The last part was a real slog but I was determined to read every word and not to skim Tolstoy's treatise on history writing. The rest of the book was incredible though. I've had a lovely couple of months in 19th century Russia and I think I've fallen in love with Pierre a little bit. Mr Knightley and Pierre will have to fight it out for the title of my literary idol.

Message edited by its author, Oct 3, 2009, 2:03pm.

Great!
I've just been thinking about reading it again...and time goes by so quickly.
Have you read Eugene Onegin?

No I haven't, I went to buy it today but it was a bit expensive. I'll have to wait til it comes into the shop and get it then. All books come through the door eventually!

Finished Bluestockings: The Remarkable Story of the First Women to Fight for an Education.

Hidden Lives: A Family Memoir - brilliant.

Got my reading head back.

Hound Dog by Richard Blandford. Funny in parts but very dark. Made me feel a bit icky reading it.

The Small Woman by Alan Burgess. The film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness was based on this book. I realised while reading it that my memories of the film have got a bit muddled up with The King & I. Lots of hymns being sung but very little dancing and whistling in this story!

Message edited by its author, Oct 23, 2009, 4:47pm.

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

Twenty Thousand Saints by Fflur Dafydd. Beautifully written and funny, it's set in summer on Bardsey Island, and involves nuns on their annual hermit conference, sex (not the nuns), a possible murder, sunshine, saints and archaeology - what more could you want from a book? Flipping marvellous!

Sounds like they were having problems in the "saints" department!

:)

Definitely!

Just finished The Cedar Tree by Michael Hardwick. It was based on a series that I used to watch with my mum years and years ago.