Group Reading Log: September 2008

time for a new thread now that September is here (as of approximately eleven minutes ago)

I'm kicking the month off with The Lady and the Unicorn and I'm reading The Vile Village aloud to my family.

Just to kick off the month, I'm roughly two thirds the way through Booked to Die. It's an easy and fairly interesting (from the books point of view) read. I have some reservations too - but obviously don't know if they're the same as yours, wookiebender.

We'll discuss reservations afterwards. :) Meanwhile, enjoy the rare-book pr0n! (Says she, who watched "The Ninth Gate" and spent more time drooling over the rare books than over Johnny Depp...)

I'm still going with Spirit Fox which isn't dreadful (as I thought it might be) but is a bit irritating with the authors adding in far too many characters/sub-plots than required. But I am intrigued to see where they're going with it, so it's definitely getting a plus for not letting me guess easily what's going to happen, unlike a lot of other fantasy novels.

And First Among Sequels is still making me snigger on the bus. I seem more easily distracted than I did with the other Thursday Next books: at the moment though, I'm putting that down to my vagueness, not a lapse in Mr Fforde's writing skills.

I LOVE Jasper Fforde & I really enjoyed First Among Sequels too, but I have to admit that I found it less engrossing than the other Thursday Next novels. Perhaps it was something to do with the length of time between that and Something Rotten which preceded it. Either that or the fact that I've just been teaching If on a Winter's Night a Traveller and I guess Fforde's fiction wouldn't exist without Calvino.

I'm *still* getting through The Hobbit - finding it mildly entertaining but not engrossing, and also, meanwhile, been lured into The Watchmen which one of my precocious Year 10s lent me. I've never read a graphic novel but this is absorbing - kind of like watching Memento on DVD with remote control at hand - freeze that frame! Is that headline significant? Didn't I see that guy six pages ago? etc.

As a bonus, I discovered The Watchmen is also on the 1001 book list!

Are there any graphic novel readers here? Any pointers or recommendations?

I'm not a big reader of graphic novels but I have a few favourite series..

currently I'm loving Empowered - I love the characters but there is a lot of gratuitous nudity and bondage humour which could put many readers off before the characters have a chance to shine through.

Fables is a great series about a community of fairy-tale characters who are ousted from their own reality and living in New York City.

Runaways is about a group of teenagers who don't wish to follow in the footsteps of their super-villain parents.

Invincible is a teen superhero who I can't say much about without including serious spoilers.

Astro City is another excellent series which looks at the personal lives of its heroes as well as their heroics.

{edit}

and Fade From Grace (one-off graphic novel, not a series) is excellent if you can find it...

{/edit}

finished The Lady and the Unicorn which was more fun than I expected.

next up: Charmed Life (which I hope to read to my family next, and I like to pre-read most books before reading them aloud)

...and after reading the first chapter of Charmed Life I think I'll continue with it at one-chapter-per-day and start on Nineteen Minutes

Finished Booked to Die and enjoyed it, but perhaps not quite as much as I was expecting to given the build up. It was fun having it all about books though; and also reading about heaps of other people out there who are just as nutty about books as we are!

Next up I think will be Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, a nice slim 1001 book. I have a lovely little 1947 paperback edition.

Isn't Watchmen excellent? After an abortive attempt to make a movie of it back in the 1990s (with *shudder* Bruce Willis as The Comedian), I have now seen trailers for another movie, with a bunch of (mostly) unknowns. It had BETTER be good.

Other graphic novels I have enjoyed:

The Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman or John Ney Rieber. (NG wrote the first, JNR wrote the spin-off series.) The main character has a lot of superficial similarities with a certain Harry Potter (loved the idea of him appearing in First Among Sequels), but the tone is quite different.

It's been a while since I read it, but the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman is also wonderful. About The Endless, various semi-deities (Dream, Death, Desire, Delirium, Destiny, etc). Death is pretty darned peachy keen, and also appears a bit in The Books of Magic.

For superheroes, I did love the first two Rising Stars by J Michael Straczynski. Am yet to get the other ones (only found out about them recently). He also wrote a one-off called Midnight Nation which I also enjoyed, more about people than superheroes or anything.

Friends of mine who read Watchmen first reckon it's better than Rising Stars. I came to them the other way round, and really liked both.

The Red Star series by Christian Gossett is MAGNIFICENT, but also fairly emotional reading (one of the series came with a warning because the images were just that bit too close to the photos of ground zero following Sept 11, and I did find that disturbing - completely unintentional, but disturbing). I've lost track of where I got up to reading/buying that series (kids got in the way).

And I too have Runaways because some episodes were written by Joss Whedon. Sounds like fun, it's yet to be read!

And if you like Buffy, ANYTHING written by Joss Whedon is worth reading. Season eight of Buffy is available in graphic novel (while never reaching TV...). And Fray is a great spinoff of that universe.

And I just read The Dark Knight Returns which was an amazing reimagining of Batman. Probably one more for the fans (I did have to ask a few questions of Mr TQD while reading it).

Mr Bear chose for our night-time read tonight The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Hurrah for Lucy Pevensie and Mr Tumnus! Two chapters in already, because I'm such a sad fan of the Narnia books that I couldn't stop at just one chapter...

We did try Peter Pan first (second attempt at reading it) and it is a bit too difficult for him still. (Such a brilliant book, however. I hope he enjoys it at a later date!)

I finished First Among Sequels late last night... er, actually early this morning, to be specific. I did enjoy it, he writes a good fun silly intellectual romp, although the final pun was a *shocker*. And you have to try to not think too hard about the time travel stuff, or you'll lose all sanity.

I think moving it up from the 1980s into a non-reading 2002 was probably the flaw for me. I don't want to read about reality tv ("Samaritan Kidney Swap" - or similar - was really made/considered recently in Europe, I believe), and it was a bit depressing that people weren't reading any more. But still a worthy addition to the Thursday Next canon.

Oh, crimson-tide, my reservations about the Booked series was the main character - I thought he was a violent ick. But I loved the book descriptions, and the books were well paced, and well plotted.

Started Tipping The Velvet on the bus this morning. So far, it's living up to the hype. :)

I enjoyed the first two Thursday Next books, though I felt I was missing a lot through unfamiliarity with some of the books visited. Books 3,4 & 5 are somewhere in my bottomless TBR pit.

Yes, I won't let Mr TQD read them until he's read Jane Eyre first. He did (sort of) watch the recent TV adaptation with me the other month, so that might be enough... But I think this might be a book series that just won't be shared, he's just too much into his sci-fi/fantasy and never reads "literature". (Well, he did at school, and is still horrified that I actually *want* to read Great Expectations...)

He's currently having fun re-reading our Dune series...

ETA: Oh, have you tried the Nursery Crime series by Jasper Fforde? Less literature-based, the first one The Big Over Easy is a bit slow as he has to set things up, but the second one - The Fourth Bear - is excellent.

I have both Nursery Crime books but I haven't read them yet - they're vaguely pencilled in for sometime after I read Robert Rankin's similar The Toyminator and possibly the remaining Thursday Next books (I did get them up to a point, just not as well as I should have)

Freelunch, I think anyone who gets ALL the jokes in the Thursday Next books is a freak. :)

At the moment, I am googling The Great Panjandrum just to see what the hell that's all about, as that character has been in the last several TN books. (Yay for the wondrous combination of Google and Wiki! http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Great_Panjandrum)

Like you freelunch, I have thus far only read the first two Thursday Next books and have the other three plus the first two of the Nursery Crime series sitting on my shelf here. Oh dear . . . I have so many great books sitting here patiently waiting. I just wish I could get through them faster than I manage to at present. I fear I may need to do something drastic like break a leg in order to get more reading time!

wookiebender, I agree totally with your summation of the 'hero' (!) in the Booked series. I just hope he improves as the series continues.

Thanks for all the graphic novel recommendations, freelunch and wookiebender! For someone who's not a "big reader of graphic novels", freelunch, your list sure beats mine (on zero)! :)

For all you Fforde readers out there - get to book number three! I think Well of Lost Plots is my favourite. I'd also like to second wookiebender's comment about The Fourth Bear - much more entertaining than The Big Over Easy.

Miss-Owl: I thought he'd lost the plot in Well of Lost Plots. :) I may have to re-read the series (oh no, woe is me), because a number of people whose views I trust really liked that one the best.

Popped into King's Comics today, and they had no Rising Stars #3 or #4, Sandman #1, Books of Magic #3, or Runaways #1. Yeesh, I'm stymied with my graphic novel readings this fortnight!

Oh, and I did see V for Vendetta which I read last year and enjoyed (much more than the movie, which *missed the point* entirely, I felt).

I love the film adaptation of V for Vendetta, so much so that I haven't bothered reading the graphic novel yet - perhaps I should :)

Everyone I know loved the film of V for Vendetta, and I think I would have enjoyed it MUCH more if I hadn't loved the book so much.

I did like Stephen Fry's character, that was a new addition and an excellent one. But the changes to Natalie Portman's backstory got TOTALLY up my nose. And, as I said, missed the entire point.

Such a great story though, not even the Wachowski bros could totally stuff it up.

Finished Spirit Fox last night. As I said earlier, not a bad little fantasy novel, but far too many subplots/characters. And an inability to make any of the characters evil was a flaw (well, one small subgroup were baddies, but they had no major characters from them). And a weak ending. But if one is into fantasy, one could do worse.

Not sure what trashy novel to start tonight. I'm tossing up between continuing Tipping the Velvet (my bus read) because it's a great story and perfectly readable, so fits well into my "easy" read category for bedtime; or start Already Dead by Charlie Huston, the first in a series of noir crime with vampires, recommended to me by a mate... I think Already Dead might win out, it's been intriguing me from the top of the Mt TBR ranges for too long.

Hey, so maybe not having either read or seen V for Vendetta, I should watch it first? That way I can enjoy that, and then get totally blown away by the book...

I wish I were enjoying The Hobbit more. It fills me with trepidation about how I'm going to manage the longer Tolkiens on the 1001 list.

I recently re-read The Hobbit aloud to my kids and I found the prose very awkward (and I don't think I'm usually sensitive to that kind of thing.) I don't recall having the same problem when I read most of The Lord Of The Rings aloud many years ago, so there may be hope for it for you.

I've read about one-third of Nineteen Minutes - it very much follows the formula of the other Jodi Picoult books I've read and I'm enjoying it. I'm finding it just a *little* scary how close the kid in it matches my oldest son, and so I won't be passing it on to my wife to read after I'm done with it.

Charmed Life is fun so far - Enid Blyton writing Harry Potter springs to mind. I'm sure my kids will enjoy it.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, freelunch. I finished Watchmen last night so there's no excuse now for not going back to The Hobbit and finishing that off. I feel my journey through the book is almost as arduous as Bilbo's to Smaug.

I always feel if I did read a Picoult that Nineteen Minutes would be the one I'd pick up. Yet... as a high school teacher I can't say the plot (from what I know of it) fills me with excitement!

Finished Cannery Row today - it's a lovely little book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm ashamed to admit though that I'm pretty sure it is the first Steinbeck I've read. Not sure why. I have some others on my shelf here waiting, so it won't be the last one.

Now I'll be starting The Drowner by Robert Drewe for our book club.

In the Jodi Picoult arena, I've snagged Plain Truth as the one that I'd most likely read if and when I ever did delve into one of hers. But it's been sitting on my shelf for almost three years now . . .

I just finished Nineteen Minutes, the fourth Jodi Picoult book I've read, and probably the best so far. Miss-Owl, if the plot is putting you off you might be better trying My Sister's Keeper which seems to be well-regarded by many, and which I enjoyed very much.

next up for me: Singer from the Sea

not liking Singer From The Sea (probably my fault, not the book itself) so I'm switching to Mr Commitment

freelunch, you gave up on a book and switched to Mr Commitment?! Heehee :D

Have *almost* finished Already Dead and have really enjoyed it. It's hard-boiled noir crime feel, but with vampires living amongst (unknowing) humans in New York. The main character is a vampire, and is NOT glamourous (yay! I'm so over the whole Anne Rice sexy vampire guff). There's a generous helping of grunge (he is an ex-street kid/punk), a fair amount of violence and nasty people, and a cracking pace.

Fluffy crime, this is not. :)

I'll finish it on the bus on the way home (a mere handful of pages left), then get stuck back into Tipping the Velvet, which is a bookring, and what I should have been reading this morning, only I spent all my waking moments over the weekend desperately trying to find time to get back into Already Dead...

I'm still procrastinating on Hobbit. Trying to traipse through two chapters a night - I'm *determined* to finish my first Tolkien by the end of the month!

Have now picked up Wide Sargasso Sea, which I've always been wanting to read.

wookiebender, Already Dead would sound great if I were not so so over the Twilight thing that all the kids at school never shut up about!! It sounds like an antidote but I just can't stomach vampires at the moment!

Mr Commitment isn't as engaging as the other two Mike Gayle's I've read (My Legendary Girlfriend and Turning Thirty) but it is still good for the occasional chuckle.

I'm starting tonight on Between a Rock and a Hard Place which I owe to a Canadian bookcrosser - I don't usually enjoy memoirs but I've read a couple of good ones recently so hopefully the trend will continue...

well I'm staying committed to Mr Commitment, but Between a Rock and a Hard Place will be continuing its travels without being read by me. The first chapter was torture so I flicked through the book and everything I glanced at looked like more of the same. I guess I'm not still not memoir-guy.

so tonight, instead, I'll start reading Death and Diplomacy

finished Charmed Life - aside from a couple of lines of dialogue which made no sense grammatically or in context (almost like they were mis-translated, if the book weren't written in English originally) it was a fun tale which I'm sure my kids will enjoy.

Any experts on James Patterson's Maximum Ride series about? My Year 8s are raving on about it and one lent me the first book today. She obviously doesn't know how high Mt Toobie is at the moment!

I understand James Patterson writes pretty good action novels. Not a genre I usually pay much attention to, however.

Finished Already Dead, the final pages did not disappoint. (And Miss-Owl, don't worry about it. I didn't read fantasy novels for about a decade after reading far too many for most of my life. Books have to arrive at the right time for each reader!)

Picked up M is for Malice, but it's not grabbing me as much as Ms Millhone usually does. I'm probably just a bit Millhoned-out after the last few, but I've had these darned bookrings for a year now, so I really must get them moving again... (It's hard to get motivated when seven turn up at once! At least there's only four left now...) This one just feels a bit arch, instead of sassy. If you know what I mean. A bit too stylised or something. (I probably have just read too many Kinsey Millhone books this year!)

Finished The Drowner and was pleasantly surprised. It was not at all as I'd expected. Lyrical, interesting and different. Has anyone else read it?

Next is a bookring The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai, which is one of yours I believe Miss-Owl.

I've got a copy of The Shark Net somewhere on Mt TBR, but that's the closest I've come to reading Robert Drewe...

I've kind of stalled on M is for Malice by picking up the second Joe Pitt novel (No Dominion) the other night in preference. Oh well, best laid plans and a teetering stack of bookrings and all that...

Oh, got to go kids book shopping at lunch for three birthdays this weekend. Wheeee! Barely got out of the shop alive and with credit card intact.

I saw The Shark Net on TV and something about it put me off, I'm afraid. But then of course the books are usually so much better than the TV versions. Perhaps I should read it sometime, as I grew up in the same general area of Perth as he writes about (although a decade later). I do remember all the talk and goings on around Eric Cooke at the time.

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Not related to the above at all . . . . but I was wrong when I said I hadn't read any Steinbeck previously. I was just entering Of Mice and Men into LT and realised I've read that one. Great book. I must go for the short ones, as the next of his I'll be reading soon is The Pearl. :-)

Hey, yes, that *is* my ring, crimson-tide! So good to have it revived again... sort of had to jump-start it a few months back there.

Nearing the end of The Hobbit now (finally!). Smaug was great. I don't think I really got into it until Smaug appeared on the scene. In general, I've just found the whole thing meanders along a whole lot, with not a great deal of suspense since you already know Bilbo will come out all right!

I guess the big question with The Hobbit is whether the meandering pace is a result of Tolkien's translation or Bilbo's original prose?

If the original manuscript is still available it might be interesting to read a contemporary re-translation.

:P

finished Death and Diplomacy, surely the most sexed-up official Doctor Who novel ever ("The Stranger" by Portia Da Costa will outdo it, but it isn't official and reading in order I won't get to it for another couple of years at least) - not recommended to anyone unfamiliar with The New Adventures, the narrative following Bernice Summerfield and husband-to-be Jason Kane is fabulous, the rest of the book considerably less so.

...and I still feel the (unusual for me) need to read something else concurrently with Mr Commitment so I'm starting on Crimson Orgy tonight.

Finished the second Joe Pitt novel, No Dominion, and it was another violent brawling vampire crime novel. Needless to say, I enjoyed it immensely. (And will have to pop into Galaxy to get book three asap...)

Back to the bookrings now...

I've finally finished The Hobbit!!

freelunch - not sure if the moseying was Tolkien or Bilbo - but I would have been happy to lend a blue pencil either way. Blasphemous?

Now I can get back, guilt-free, to Wide Sargasso Sea, which I'm absolutely loving. As opposed to the Hobbit, it's a short book I wish was longer!

I saw someone else praising Wide Sargasso Sea somewhere recently - I'm beginning to think I shouldn't have given away my copy, unread, a few weeks ago.

Tonight I'll finish at least one of the books I'm currently reading. I'm not sure yet what I want to start next so I guess I'll be back later...

The "someone else praising Wide Sargasso Sea somewhere recently" - erm, freelunch, that wasn't me, was it? (#30)

I'd help you out with a copy but mine's from our school bookroom.

Just found out I got accepted to do HSC marking again, starting at the end of October. The experience and money are great but I can already foresee the quality of my reading rapidly deteriorating until I can no longer read anything more complex than Spot!

Miss-Owl, I knew you'd mentioned Wide Sargasso Sea in this thread previously, but I saw it somewhere else too - reviewed by someone I know through bookcrossing.

My sister-in-law gave me a box of books a while ago which included WSS - I had every intention of reading it until I had to do so to send someone - it ended up going unread.

I have a copy of Wide Sargasso Sea freelunch. It's TBR but perhaps you could pick it up in the "make me read it" relay sometime.

Actually "sometime" may be approaching very fast as I've been eyeing off tqd/wookiebender's TBR list recently . . .
;-)

as have I, but I've been trying to avoid TBR commitments - it is nice to be able to pick what I read once in a while :)

Yes I agree - but my reading commitments list is not very long right now so I thought I could afford to indulge a little. I also like seeing what others choose, and to know it is going to a "good" home.

I finished Crimson Orgy which was entertaining but gruesome (not for the squeamish) and Mr. Commitment which I enjoyed, though I found the hero less endearing than Mike Gayle characters I've encountered previously.

next up: The List of Seven

I added Wide Sargasso Sea to my librarything shelf a few days ago and gave it four stars. I read it (through bookcrossing) while stuck in traffic last year while George W. Bush turned our perfectly nice city into gridlock with nine feet high fences on the streets.

Bloody APEC.

It's one of those terribly atmospheric novels, and a very interesting background to an old favourite of mine, Jane Eyre. But I spent most of the novel trying to work out how it was going to fit into JE, so I wish I had time to re-read it now without that distraction! I've since sent that copy out on a bookring, and I believe it's stalled. Oh well.

Restarted M is for Malice last night, and really got back into it. Obviously it wasn't Ms Grafton or Ms Millhone that wasn't suiting last week, it was me. Hurrah, I was rather disappointed that I wasn't getting into a Millhone mystery!

mystery solved, thanks wookiebender :)

I love Jane Eyre too... but lately it seems I've been reading more *about* it than actually reading the book itself - like in The Eyre Affair. Definitely worth a revisit sometime!

wookiebender, I've managed to read Wide Sargasso without too much hindrance from the original, although it did throw me when - Mr Rochester, I guess! - he hasn't actually been named, I don't think - called Antoinette Bertha for no apparent reason. I'm not sure I can quite reconcile Rochester with the guy in Wide Sargasso at the moment, but I guess it's quite a few years down the track.

As for APEC - have you seen the Chaser ads? - Chas Liciardello dressed as Osama - "the only good thing to come out of APEC" :)

Finished The Inheritance of Loss last night and think it's a worthy Booker Winner. Very powerful but easy to read.

Also two thirds the way through The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory on audio, and my 'don't forget the child in me' book is currently The Twits by Roald Dahl.

Oh good, crimson-tide, I'm glad someone enjoyed it! It's had a bit of a patchy reception. Looking forward to reading it, with your recommendation, when it finally gets back to me!

Finished Wide Sargasso, now letting it bake for a while before reading Native Son. Apparently it's a must-read on the US curriculum. Has anyone here read it? I must admit I hadn't even heard of it before I discovered the 1001 list.

Miss-Owl, I've never heard of Native Son! I must skip that page when I scan the 1001 books you must read before you die (no pressure).

Finished Tipping the Velvet on the way home this evening, and I did enjoy it. The sex scenes were rather explicit, so it comes with an Adult Content warning from me. :) And a great story, well told.

And then jumped straight into Use of Weapons, which after a slow start (I think the change from Victorian lesbians to sci-fi was possibly a bit much) caught my attention.

Meanwhile, I almost burst into tears tonight when the White Witch killed Aslan (chapter 14 of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe). Mr Bear looked at me funny. *sigh*

The Twits is not one of Dahl's best, but fun nonetheless, and I always love Quentin Blake's illustrations.

Now up is The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera.

And I'm another who had never heard of Native Son. It doesn't sound like a happy read.

I finished M is for Malice last night, and it was (yet again) a spiffing tale.

Not sure what will take its place tonight - Fool Moon is towards the top of the pile, but I've got a craving for Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders... if I could find *where* my copy is...

Glad to know I'm not the only one who's not heard of Native Son! It's turning out to be a really easy read, despite its daunting density (small font, 400 pages in my copy), and quite enjoyable in its own way, getting into the mindset of some ghetto youths in the 1930s. There are some really interesting descriptions of violence from the point of view of someone who doesn't really analyse his impulses. After the imagistic beauty and the poetry of Wide Sargasso the writing a bit obvious, but I guess it's appropriate for the main character.

I think Dahl deserves a medal for his short stories - they've been keeping my very excitable Year 7s absolutely enthralled over the past few weeks... something I appreciate so very deeply when some quirk of the timetable has given me Year 7 last period three days in a row!

What's Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders about, wookiebender? Sounds fascinating... when you find your copy! Just out of curiosity... do you ever take a break between books?

I read Book of Laughter and Forgetting some years ago, crimson-tide. Was there laughter? ... I've forgotten :p I'd be interested to hear about it if you get the chance.

after several days of avoiding The List Of Seven I'm giving up on it. when I'd rather sleep than read I know its time to move on...

next up: Voices Of Hope, because I haven't checked in with Nick Seafort for a while and Fisherman's Hope was absolutely brilliant!

We had some of Roald Dahl's short stories in early High School too. A friend of mine was sick after one particular one ("Pork"?) and still blames the story, not a dodgy lunch. So, be warned, some of your students may develop an aversion to Roald Dahl's adult stories that lasts nearly 30 years... :)

I did find my copy of Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders buried at the bottom of one of the TBR mountain ranges (how depressing) and hooned through the first 50 pages or so quite quickly last night. It's told from the point of view of one of Wilde's friends (a character I assume was created for these books), about when Mr Wilde stumbles upon the body of a young boy, and (inspired by Conan Doyle, who was a charming character), sets about investigating it. Fluff, but they've captured Wilde's charm and that whole Sherlockian vibe and I'm very curious to see how it's going to go.

Freelunch, I see you just gave up on a book with Conan Doyle as a character. :)

I hate having breaks between books. There's always at least one on the boil, and I've got various books stashed all over the house so I can grab one without the kids noticing (if they see me move, they demand stuff).

Finding Use of Weapons a trickier read than I was hoping. Some sentences just don't seem to scan, so there's a bit of re-reading of paragraphs (and staring out the window of the bus at Spring springing up all over Sydney). Fascinating story, though, so I am determined to find out what happens.

wookiebender, I actually think I'm contributing to creating some very macabre little minds out there... reading "Man from the South" & doing some predictive activities, I had stories even more gruesome than Dahl's! (That's the one about the little man who likes making bets about cigarette lighters so he can collect fingers.) I don't know the one called "Pork"... but it sounds delicious!

Your story brought back memories of a video in science we watched at school in Year 8... halfway through, my friend got up and threw up in the row of sinks directly opposite. I think it was on reproduction (!). Ah, high school & other thrilling rites of passage :)

Native Son took a turn for the gruesome. I read from about page 85 in awestruck horror, thinking "This has to be the character's dream"... but it wasn't.

(Edited for typo... I'm a pedant.)

Hah, wait until you're in an ante-natal class and all the men go to make a cuppa when they're about to show the video of an actual birth. Way to be supportive, guys. Although I didn't really blame them. If I could have, *I* would have been out there, making a cuppa myself. Where is my teleportation technology that would just beam the baby out, hmmm? Damned Star Trek, raising my expectations of boffins.

Speaking of unrealistic expectations, The White Witch was killed tonight and after Aslan's resurrection, Mr Bear isn't quite convinced that she isn't coming back. And he was really rather sad that there are limited trips to Narnia in one's life span. I remember thinking that too, it seemed quite unfair.

So, yes, we have finished The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and we've already found my copy of Prince Caspian for next read. (Yes, I think The Horse and His Boy is technically next, but I thought we should stick with the Pevensies. Or the movie order, if you like. :)

I must admit I'm finding The Book of Laughter and Forgetting a bit of a struggle. I read The Unbearable Lightness of Being a number of years ago and thought it was great. Then early this year I read Immortality and that was a big struggle. I thought it was a bit of a waste of paper actually. This one is somewhere in between the two, and as it is in seven parts which are totally unrelated I keep hoping it will improve. But there has to be something wrong when you'd rather do your tax on a weekend than read a book!

And you are dead right, Miss-Owl. There is not a lot of laughter.

The Virgin's Lover was an interesting fictionalised account of a short time in history, but being abridged it would undoubtedly read better as the original. I got annoyed that Elizabeth was portrayed as being very wimpish and dependent on Dudley.

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting has finally been finished, and is now best forgotten. :-) There are rave reviews all over LT and BC, so perhaps I just wasn't in the right space for it.

Next is The Lollipop Shoes (a bookring), The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones, which is a 'dip in and out of type of book', and The Blind Assassin on audio.

Oh, I never quite got into Kundera. I've got The Book of Laughter and Forgetting somewhere...

Finished Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders last night. A good whodunnit, but slightly conflicted with the future knowledge of Wilde's downfall and death and Victorian attitudes to homosexuality, and trying to be light and fluffy. I bought this while visiting Readings in Melbourne with a friend, and she baggsed it when I finished it (only took about 9 months to read...) so I'll be bookcrossing it and passing it along. I might check out the sequel (I've seen it in the shops lately), but there's no urgency.

Oh, Mr TQD has read the first Harry Dresden (Storm Front) and really enjoyed it, so I might be fighting him over the chance to start the second one (Fool Moon) tonight. :) He also read Tinker and liked the concepts, but not the kissing bits. The sequel for that one will be for me alone, when I get around to buying it.

My favourite Kundera was The Joke which was his first one, I think. Everything else I've managed to forget.

I'm finished Native Son now which also completes my Set It Yourself challenge for July-Sept: yay! It was a pretty gripping read - claustrophobic at times, and I certainly felt ripples of fear wash over me which meant a few hours' sleep lost! It belongs to the 1001 library if anyone wants to read it. An interesting, if at times didactic story of race relations before Martin Luther King.

Now rewarding myself by plunging into Wicked by Gregory Maguire which froggirlwendy kindly sent me as a rabck.

Can't believe it's almost the end of the month! We'll have to start a new thread soon!

Miss-Owl, i think the 1001-library is a brilliant idea! But I need fewer books to read (especially of the 1001/Booker Prize variety), so I've only ever donated
to the library. One day, when I've reduced the TBR mountain range to say, just one Mt TBR, I might take advantage of that.

This is the same day that Hell might freeze over, I hasten to add. I picked up six new books this week alone, plus one library book. Argh!

Finished Fool Moon and it was a **ripsnorter**. Poor old Harry Dresden managed several days without sleep fighting vicious werewolves. I was exhausted by the end myself! (Nothing whatsoever with it being 1:30 in the morning, I'm sure.) And I'm now dying to start the third book in the series, because we're getting more hints about his backstory which are highly intriguing...

In the meanwhile, however, I will tackle Mt TBR (1001 Books) and start The Book of Illusions, a Paul Auster. I love Paul Auster, and this is probably the most urgent of the pile of bookrings (a little bump on the side of Mt TBR (1001 Books)). It's not my usual choice of a "fluffy" bedtime book, but Use of Weapons is still taking a while, and I really must get the bookring situation under control...

Er, got distracted from The Book of Illusions by one of my new books: Pistache by Sebastian Faulks. A highly amusing series of parodies and pastiches: William Shakespeare writes a speech for Basil Fawlty; Jane Austen meets American Psycho; TS Eliot re-writes his most famous poems as limericks; PG Wodehouse and Raymond Chandler swap locales for a while; etc.

Some went over my head (I don't actually read poetry at all, so I got the TS Eliot joke, but not to the depth a more well-read person would have, I believe) and some didn't quite gel (Jane Austen sending Miss Emma Woodhouse to a doof-doof party), but overall, two thumbs up.

Will start The Book of Illusions tonight...

Pistache sounds awesome, wookiebender! That's what I love about all these online book cults - great recommendations :)

Oh, and as for the 1001-library - I agree it's a great idea, and I've already borrowed another book from it. But... it only works if people keep them moving! Otherwise I could end up housing the 1001-library singlehandedly!! (I think that's why tabby-cat-owner over on BC was so pro-active about PMing to see if people wanted to borrow her books.)

Moderately enjoying Wicked at the moment. I think I'd prefer it if Jasper Fforde had written it instead.

Argh, I must contact tabby-cat-owner and see if she still has some books she offered before (at an awkward time)... Because I agree, we've got to keep those books moving!

I found Wicked far less interesting than it could have been. A friend of mine **loved** it to pieces, but I just found it dreary in the extreme in places with far too much discussion over the nature of evil (gimme We Need to Talk About Kevin for a dissection on Evil any day of the week). But it did get me interested in reading The Wizard of Oz which I'd never read before! Quite a charming novel (and an excellent movie). Might put it on the short list to read to Mr Bear (who is still enjoying Narnia, and still very worried that Susan's on her last visit and wants to know just when will Aslan be turning up, hmmmm?).

I *did* start The Book of Illusions last night, and it was wonderful Auster. However, I have decided that reading about one man's grief at the death of his wife and young sons is **in NO way** fluffy bedtime reading. (The comment about going into the eldest's room and playing with the Lego is still bringing tears to my eyes now.)

I'm assuming the grief will not continue (in typical Auster, there's already a mystery to be solved and spooky surreal mysterious things happening), but I think I need something with vampires or elves to recover. Book TBA.

After finishing the first chapter anyhow, I cheered myself up with Scouts in Bondage, a beautifully produced little book with covers from books from an older (and more innocent) time. Worked a treat. :)

RL has been interfering a bit with my reading lately . . . how dare it! I did finish the audio of The Blind Assassin and think that one day I should probably read the book properly. I must stop listening to abridged versions as they leave me feeling somehow dissatisfied and a bit 'cheated'; especially if they are of 'good' books where you would normally savour the writing for the writing's sake. I still think audios are a great way to 'read' more books than I would otherwise have time for, but I'll stick to the full versions in future.

Currently I'm about half way through The Lollipop Shoes and enjoying it. It has a different structure and a different feel from Chocolat. Terrible title though! lol Apparently in the US it has a different title but I'm not far enough into the book to appreciate the significance of that one The Girl with No Shadow.

The Tough Guide to Fantasyland is still mostly unread and may end up moving on before it is fully read.

Squeezing in one last post before the end of the month :)

Couldn't agree with you more about Wicked, wookiebender. I *am* persevering with it, but only because I want to find out how Elphaba becomes the 'wicked witch' and Glinda the 'good witch' and Nessierose squashed by the house. It's all a bit pretentious and sententious for my taste. Still wishing Jasper Fforde had written it (and why won't his touchstone work?).

All the best with RL, crimson-tide. At the moment I only have one because it's school holidays - yay!

Aaah! Now I can squeeze another in before the month ends too. I'm lucky and get an extra few hours to the month over you lot! ;)

I did forget to say in my earlier post that *YES* . . . I absolutely agree with you as well wookiebender (and Miss-Owl) about Wicked. Even the bit about never having read The Wizard of Oz and going off to find it and read it. It was an OK read but that's about the extent of it. If it hadn't been the last book to hand towards the end of a holiday (and due to pass it on to another BookCrosser I was meeting en route), then it would probably have been passed over for something else.

it is technically October already but I've just finished Voices Of Hope (book five in David Feintuch's excellent Seafort Saga and I feel it belongs in this month :)

If you've never met Nick Seafort I *HIGHLY* recommend starting the series from the beginning with Midshipman's Hope - each book is a complete stand-alone story with no cliffhangers or loose ends trailing into the next novel, so it is possible to stop at any time, but reading from the beginning in order is essential for ongoing character development.

If you've read Seafort before, then 'Voices' is a slight change of pace as it is the first book in the series not written in Nick Seafort's first-person narration - the book instead skips back and forth between five different narrators (some of whom I liked more than others) which took a little getting used to, but it all lead to a most satisfactory climax.

I managed to squeeze in one more finished book into September: Use of Weapons grabbed my attention and would not let go. crimson-tide, it shall be in the mail to you in a few days! (Yay!)

Killer of an ending which Mr TQD - having read the book at some stage while it was in our house - loathed and is *still* cheesed off about it, some years later. I thought it was great, which is apparently, the more common position. Can't say too much about it without giving stuff away!

My whinges on the book were that it jumped all over the bloody place. One chapter here, another chapter there, never really being clear about timelines or what were actually important bits to the plot and what were just fleshing out characters. And this particular edition's proofreader needed a damn good slap around the ears (I spent a while last night wondering if "while he was her" was actually correct and implied some sort of sex change for one of the characters - not out of the bounds of this book - or should have been "while he was here"; it was, of course, a typo).

On the whole, I liked it, and I am very curious about the rest of The Culture novels. (You've got to love a spacefaring race that calls a spaceship "What are the Civilian Applications?".) Great characters, fascinating universe, the fight scenes and dialogue were excellent.

I've never read Iain M. Banks, but both reviews here on LibraryThing describe The Also People as "the best Culture novel he never wrote" - I have a spare copy if you're interested wookiebender

As mentioned in my last email, yes please! (Although I would feel better if it was a swap of some sort: I need to get books *out* of the house, not into it!)

Based on Use of Weapons, I would recommend his stuff. It's not the heaviest sci-fi I've ever read (I'd include some of the trippy mathematics in Diaspora by Greg Egan as some of the "hardest" sci-fi I've ever read - and enjoyed!) but it's not space opera either (epitomised, for me, by Elizabeth Moon).

I'm yet to read any of his non-sci-fi. Although I do have a copy of The Crow Road somewhere upstairs, in a TBR shelf. (Books multiply when you're not watching, don't they?)