February 2018: What are you reading?

Short books for the shortest month of the year? Tell us what 1001-list books you are reading!

Still trying to get through Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse

I'm reading The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell. I really liked Troubles so I have high hopes for this one as well.

On paper, reading The Witness by Juan Jose Saer which is extremely odd (cannibals! orgies!) but definitely short. Am enjoying its differentness. On audio, Lorrie Moore's Gate at the Stairs which I really cannot pretend to like much. It just feels ordinary and occasionally quite annoying. But the ordinariness is not a bad antidote to Witness, so OK.

>3 japaul22:, The Siege of Krishnapur was fabulous! I liked it even more than Troubles, which I also enjoyed a lot. I'm gearing up to read the last in the trio some time this year.

I've started on the first volume of Your Face Tomorrow by Javier Marias which is quite engrossing - imagine a blending of Le Carre (understated espionage) and Proust (long philosophical digressions). The three volumes are around 1200 pages so it will be interesting to see if it sustains its pace (or lack thereof).

>5 puckers: Book two is the best of the three, imo, but I really enjoyed the work as a whole.

And I am still reading (almost done!) Underworld.

Just wrapped up Ormond, which was garbage, and intend to wrap up the Jane Austen oeuvre - Persuasion and Northanger Abbey - before the short month is out.

>6 ELiz_M: Thanks for the encouragement. It is an intriguing/original work of literature.

Hmm, now a second time in a short while when I read a book I was almost sure was on the 1001 list and when I marked it read in LT, found out it wasn't (The Man Who Was Thursday, the previous one was Le grand Meaulnes).
I blame Boxall, since both of those books appear on several other similar book lists.

>10 hdcanis: I did the same thing with The Man Who Was Thursday!

(He is on the Guardian 1000 list so I got to check it off there)

I didn't get the short books message, I guess. I've just started The Tale of the Genji-- probably will take me all month unless I really can't put it down.

Just finished Sense and Sensibility which was good. Next up i The Idiot for the group read.

Just started The Marriage Plot and have The Idiot ready to start on the weekend.

Started The Wind-up Bird Chronicle on the bus to work.

Augh! Cannot believe that I listened to the entire Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore, hating every minute of it, only to discover that while two other books by her are on the list, this one is not! I only kept going because I wanted to be able to cross it off.

On the one hand this somewhat revives my opinion of the List compilers (I kept wondering how they could have such terribly poor judgment); on the other, I am filled with dismay at the thought of having to read two other books by Moore.

>17 annamorphic: it is on the list, added at the end of the last edition at place 1298. From your comments above I’m not sure if that’s good news or bad news!

>18 puckers: Good news for me! Bed news for the rest of you who have not yet read it. Review coming but my advice: read in paper form to facilitate skimming. This is just a bad book — plot, writing, characters, plausibility, you name it.

>19 annamorphic: Urghhh :(

Reading The Idiot (very slowly) and need to get on to The Siege of Krishnapur for another challenge read this month.

>19 annamorphic: :(((

Still reading The Moon and the Bonfires in Italian (still only half through - beautiful, but one of the slowest books ever). Also read this month: The House of the Seven Gables, Felicia's Journey, finally finished G. A Novel and read and loved The Drowned and the Saved.

Started next month's GR Underworld, Ovid's Metamorphoses and Cause for Alarm by Eric Ambler. I'm out of my mind, but I'm in a bit of a panic that another reading funk will set in before I finished at least 12 listed books in 2018.

>17 annamorphic: I find it fascinating how different some of our tastes are... I LOVED A Gate at the Stairs. I'm trying to remember what appealed to me so much- I'll have to go back to my review.

>22 amaryann21: I loved the sarcasm in Gate at the Stairs. I don't remember much else about it but do remember loving the sarcastic wit.

>22 amaryann21: >23 Yells: I know I have very different views on certain books than others do! For instance, I also just loathed The Poisonwood Bible which many adore. I felt very similarly about Gate at the Stairs. I listened to both of them on audio, which I think heightens my antipathy toward books that I'd otherwise only mildly dislike. I resent the amount of time it takes, and being made to listen to every word when I could skim in a paper book.

This is why I love hanging out here! We all bring something different to the table so it's neat to see why each person loves/hates a book. I loved The Poisonwood Bible but that was probably because the father reminded me so much of my grandfather that I really related to the poor kids.

I still haven't been able to make it through Lincoln in the Bardo (audio or paper) yet everyone else seems to love it. Saunders is extremely talented and I think the idea of the novel is amazing, but it bores me to tears every time I open it.

Listening vs. reading are VERY different experiences for me. I don't do a lot of audio books, but when I'm traveling, I like to get a few "out of the way" that way. The narration makes or breaks it for me, and I just consume them differently. It takes me MUCH longer to develop a picture of the characters. I wonder what my impression would be if I'd listened to it?

I speed up the books I'm struggling with if its an audio, 1.25 speed means I can still understand it but I get through it quicker.
Listening & reading do make a difference, it really depends a lot on a good narrator.

Finished all my 1,001s for this month except for Metamorphosen, but should finish that one as well by the 31st. Am now also reading Blindness of the Heart, the contender for this month's GR, and started Molloy, my first Beckett. Almost forgot: am listening to Cristo si e fermato a Eboli, but it's not a great audio time for me right now, that one might drag on although I like the book a lot.