Group Reading Log: March 2009

Hey, it's March now, isn't it? :)

Still going on The Leopard on the commute (haven't had much commuting the past few weeks due to late nights and taxis home, but hopefully will get a bit more knocked off soon!) and Anna Karenina as my bedtime reading.

Finished Persuasion yesterday. I enjoyed it, but not enough to say I'm a real J.A. fan and rush off to read all the others right away. They'll get read eventually though. The best thing about it was, in my opinion, her comments on the times, the society, the people, the manners, the expectations etc etc. And I agree with you wookiebender, Anne is a great character and a worthy heroine for a happy ending. :D

I must say though, that I was getting a bit tired of everyone taking three paragraphs to say what could be said in one sentence! I kept losing the plot of the conversations and having to reread stuff - but maybe I was just tired.

Now started on Wide Sargasso Sea which is a 1001 book, and Stiff, a bookring.

Wow - finished my first March book. OK so I started reading in in February - but still didn't get to the last page until just now :)

It is: When will there be good news by Kate Atkinson - was very good

>2 crimson-tide: Oh, crimson-tide, I loved Wide Sargasso Sea. I just read it a few months ago. You'll have to let me know what you think.

Persuasion is one of those Jane Austens I've been meaning to re-read. Mansfield Park didn't quite bear the scrutiny of a revisit, but it sounds like Persuasion will. Maybe for my next SIY challenge. I'm looking forward to the next quarter, and we're still just two-thirds into this one!

I've just passed half-way in A Clockwork Orange and can finally see a point to all the endless "tolchocking"s, obscenities & violence. Although I still can't see why someone had to go make a movie out of it!

Finished The clothes on their backs a great read but, it's funny, I feel a bit tongue-tied about what else I could say about it.
Last night started The Wind-up Bird Chronicles, which at 600 odd pages it might be my only 1001 book for the month :)
I do enjoy Murakami's style. I'm happy to go with the flow until he starts tying the threads together at some stage.
Wild Sargasso Sea sounds very interesting.....

Miss-Owl: I've already planned next quarter's SIY Challenge: read all the bloody bookrings in the house! They're getting in the way of my "oooh, I'd like to read that now" style reading. (And then for the *next* quarter, I'll just knock off a stack of 1001 books... I haven't thought ahead to the Oct-Dec quarter yet. ;)

KimB, some books are just hard to describe. I found it difficult to write a review of The Clothes on Their Backs too! Glad you enjoyed it though. And I hope you like The Wind-up Bird Chronicles, it's my favourite Murakami.

1/3 of the way through Anna Karenina now. Well into Part 3, and I don't think she's going to appear in this part! She'd better appear soon, this part's focus is on farming, which isn't my most favourite thing to read about. But it's still written with a lovely light touch. (To number crunch: about 800 pages, split into six (or is it seven? I haven't looked ahead that much) parts, each about 120 pages. And each part is broken up into lots of little mini-chapters, each only a few pages long. It's nice to have lots of little segments, rather than one long rambling chapter that's hard to find a break in which to put the book down when my eyes get too tired.)

KimB: I'm going to join the club & say that I loved The Wind-up Bird Chronicle as well. It might not take as long as you think - I found it a huge page-turner! ... Well, it's huge, anyway :)

wookiebender: What? How can Anna K not bother to turn up to Part 3? I suppose she's having wardrobe changes and make-up touch-ups or something :) Anyway, the plan is to begin it tonight, assuming I can find it (like, how can I lose an 800 page book?!).

crimson-tide (and others): speaking of Austen, is anyone going to watch Lost in Austen on Sunday night, ABC? Sounds like The Eyre Affair - really promising!

Oh, I've been looking forward to "Lost in Austen" for far too long. Sometimes Sydney bookcrossing meetups (bookdrinks!) turn into illegal-DVD-crossing meetups... And I've been given a copy of LiA, but just have had NO time to watch it, so having it screen on my usual TV watching time (Mr TQD forsakes the remote for me one night a week, so I can watch the BBC dramas on Sunday) is just perfect. :)

The verdict was: better in concept than in execution, but they all giggled themselves to death quoting various lines, so I think it must be pretty good fun.

I think Ms Karenina probably has a pretty good reason for going to ground for a while. At any rate, the focus is now on one of the other characters, who would be interesting in any other book, but I wanna get back to Vronsky/Anna!

I worked out that I just have to read ~20 pages a night and I'll have it finished by the end of the month. Woot!

Thanks for the heads up re "Lost in Austen", Miss-Owl. And it will be showing on International Women's Day too! :D

I'm thoroughly enjoying Wide Sargasso Sea btw.

I enjoyed The Fern Tattoo immensely, though I became a little lost in places - the story is told in non-linear fragments via an unreliable narrator and I'd probably have a better grasp of it now if I'd thought to take notes and construct a timeline as I read (as was suggested by Judith Armstrong in The Australian), or it may have been the author's intent that readers lose their way a little.

next up for me is All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye

freelunch: That's great! I'm going to add The Fern Tattoo to my next SIY challenge right now! Love the titles of the books you read, freelunch - that last one sounds great :)

crimson-tide: how appropriate! But no thanks for reminding me about the IWD breakfast I have to attend... 6:45 Friday morning! I really dislike having to set my alarm any earlier than 6am... :(

wookiebender: I knew there was a reason why I stopped going to those meetups! - says I, who have only attended two... ever :) I started Anna K last night, and oh dear, it's all so familiar. Why oh why didn't I finish the book last time? Please give me a hard slap if I'm tempted to give up this time round! - Distressingly, I found a bookmark jammed in at page 624 or so. {Sigh} Anyway, I remember I liked Levin, and it's nice making his acquaintance again.

Miss-Owl: Thanks. I bought this one for its title - I saw it mentioned online somewhere, liked the name and read a couple of positive online reviews, then I found a copy for cheap at a book clearance warehouse in Melbourne last year. And so far it is a fun read :)

Miss-Owl: yes, Levin is a nice guy, if somewhat *obsessed* by farming. :) Ms K has appeared in Part 3, and she was about to have a big dramatic meeting with Vronsky, but eyes... wouldn't... stay... open...

I also started reading some Edgar Allen Poe short stories/poems (*three* of which are on the "1001" list, so that'll be good for my stats ;) for the Monthly Author Reads group and they're really excellent, he's got a wonderfully readable punchy style that's hard to put down. I'll pass the book around on a bookring once I'm finished, for other 1001-aficionados. And Bart Simpson only once said "eat my shorts" during my reading of "The Raven". I haven't been *completely* corrupted by popular culture.

Finished Wide Sargasso Sea the other day and while I did thoroughly enjoy it, I found it incredibly sad, verging on tragic, and also a little disturbing. The way "he" - aka Mr Rochester to be - behaved towards Antoinette was absolutely despicable. Talk about making your fears come true!

And have also managed to fit in a quick read of A Grief Observed before sending it off to a moocher. Not everyone's cup of tea but a searingly honest look at one man's passage through the anguish and despair of his grief.

Have just finished The Great Plague: The Story of London's Most Deadly Year. Very informative and well worth the read. Now I'm getting back to The sense of Being Stared At.

Wow you guys are all reading "literature"

Well I am reading nothing worthy - I am reading purely for entertainment and I am reading Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts. Sex, romance, sex, adventure, demon fighting, sex, more paranormal hanky panky and did I mention the sex!!!?

LOL

sally906: was there any sex, by any chance? ;)

fairy-whispers: now that's another great title! - The Sense of Being Stared At, I mean :)

crimson-tide: totally agree. I'm still not altogether clear on how 'Antoinette' became 'Bertha', though I'd love to re-read it & focus on how Mr Rochester came to be, too.

wookiebender: that's true - I'm not all that keen to hear about the Zemstvo and somesuch. There's no farming at present, though, just the sound of his poor heart breaking. I liked this line: "He walked along the path leading to the skating lake, and kept repeating to himself: 'I must not be excited. I must be quiet! ... What are you doing? What's the matter? Be quiet, stupid!' he said to his heart." Hehee!

I subscribed to DailyLit (they email you every day with ~5min of reading material from various books, so you can read Anna Karenina in about 169 daily installments, or The Raven in 1, etc) this week and as a test, I got them to send me The Yellow Wallpaper, which is a VERY short "1001" book. And a most excellent one, *highly* recommended to everyone, 1001-addict or not, and easily available online as it is out of copyright and very short. :)

I also got another "1001" very short book crossed off the list with The Fall of the House of Usher. Macabre stuff, but he's a great writer.

And sally906, I'm looking forward to the end of this worthy literature binge, I've got too much entertaining stuff waiting in the wings! I've got to get rid of a lot of bookrings, I think I'll be sending some on unread next week...

Oh, saw Watchmen at the movies last night. Pretty much a perfect adaptation (apart from the forewarned lack of *spoiler*, and the pirate comics were missing too, but that was fair enough). So much perfect that at one stage I thought 'hell, I could have stayed at home and read the book!' Which isn't a very good thought, but then I got caught up in it again. Very very violent (bones popping out of flesh) - I never thought of the super-heroes as being any more better than ordinary people, but they were super-strong and super-tough (many scenes which left me wincing left them with barely a bruise). One risible sex scene (quoth Mr TQD: "oh, so that's why it's R-rated. No, hang on, it's the violence, isn't it?"). The music was fun, but very obvious choices (I think "Ride of the Valkyries" has been done before for the Vietnam War). And we both thought that Adrian was, well, a bit *weedy* actor-wise. And I thought BrownNight Owl's costume wasn't quite daggy enough. BUT Rorshach was spot-on, and everything else was good. I'm just netpicking, really.

thanks for the reassurance wookiebender, I'm now *really* looking forward to seeing Watchmen tomorrow :)

and speaking of comic-to-film adaptations... I've just finished All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an Eye which I found very reminiscent of the recent adaptation of Wanted. A 46-year-old housewife/grandmother joins forces with a team of mercenaries to rescue her kidnapped son. It took a couple of chapters to really get going but once it did it was a fun ride.

next up for me: The Accidental Time Machine

Well, I'm finally finished The Sense of Being Stared At. It contained some interesting facts and experiments, and was fascinating to read. However there were parts that were quite technical and dull, so if you are reading it for pleasure, you may want to skip those parts. However, the inclusion of experiment parameters and results means that this would be a valuable resource for the serious researcher. I particularly like the appendices, which include experiments that can be completed at home by the average layperson, and contact details where you can send the results. Overall, this is a worthy book for those who are truly interested in the subject.

I am now reading both The Old Man and the Sea and The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve.

>18 wookiebender:: Wookiebender, I followed your example, signed up on DailyLit and have now also read The Yellow Wallpaper via email installments. :D

I agree wholeheartedly - it's a great (short) read and a great free service they offer. The fact it comes in chunks is somewhat less daunting, especially so for longer books I imagine, than the whole thing on screen at once. Now I'm off to find another freebie "book".

crimson-tide, I went from The Yellow Wallpaper to Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley, because, well, there it was on the page. I read the first installment last week and rather enjoyed it (although I'm not used to Huxley as a comic writer, because - while I haven't read it yet - Brave New World is the only one of his novels I've heard of pre-1001-list and it's a dystopia, right?).

I think I have another 68 installments to go. ;)

I wish DailyLit sorted by length, with a cross-reference to the 1001 list. But that would just be lazy of me.

Reading has slowed down this week thanks to a headcold, sick kids, and overwork. Just... want... to... sleep...

wookiebender & crimson-tide, I'm now another devotee of daily-lit. Thanks for mentioning it wookiebender. Although, I decided to read The Yellow Wallpapers 8 instalements in one day rather than one instalement each day for 8 days ;-)
Now onto "The Curious case of Benjamine Button" and I might try the wikipeidia instatlements to.
After that I'll read some more from the 1001 list. Hope Crome Yellow is a better shade than Charlotte Perkins Yellow Wallpaper :-)

ETA Wookiebend, they have a suggestion box (of sorts) it sounds like a good suggestion to me, I'd use a sort by length search to.

My thanks also to wookiebender, as DailyLit has another new devotee, as well as another person wishing for a sort by length feature. :-) I've chosen The Time Machine to start me off, and am enjoying it so far.

Agreed, DailyLit looks great - but I'm racing the calendar to finish my SIY challenge this quarter! Anna Karenina - 200 pages down, 600 to go... and yes, wookiebender, I've discovered the farming :)

Wow, all these DailyLit devotees! Wish there was some sort of referral system... ;)

I got The Yellow Wallpaper in two lots of four installments (you can adjust the installment length, and get 1, 2 or 4 installments at a time, but there are noticeable breaks from the 1-installment version, so you'd read a chunk and there'd be another heading... A minor quibble). And I read it all in one sitting, I didn't think it needed being stretched out much, and it was a can't-put-down read. (Until the cat headbutted my leg towards the end, and I screeched and leapt to my feet, but that was hardly the story's fault. Well, yes, it probably was the story's fault, but in a good way.)

Finished The Leopard this morning on the bus, just as it pulled into my stop near work (timing!). Unfortunately, I didn't realise I was so close to finishing it, so I have none of my "must reads" to hand for the commute home. Dagnabbit. I won't be bereft of books (I've set up a "free books" shelf at work), but I really shouldn't start anything that isn't one I *need* to read and pass on. What a dilemma!

The Accidental Time Machine was good fun - A physics undergraduate in the near future 'accidentally' builds machine which is able to transport him forward in time. There are a couple of catches - he can't specify his destination date (the first jump is approximately one second, and each subsequent trip propels him twelve times as far into the future, so before long he is jumping ~170 years then ~2000 and on and on). Also, he can only travel forward, there is no way back to his own time.

next up for me: Water for Elephants

Just finished reading The Nose online. Another short story ticked off the 1001 list. It was so short that I'm not sure if this is the full version.
The title is a direct link to the online version

Hope you enjoy Water for Elephants freelunch, it was one of my best reads last year.

I am reading bombproof by Michael Robotham - am really enjoying it :)

Fairy-Whispers - I enjoyed the pilots wife when I read it a year or so back and freelunch Water for Elephants was an 'A' read for me last year.

Let me just join in the chorus: I loved Water for Elephants too. Lent my copy around the family, and they all enjoyed it as well. A fab read, very entertaining!

With thanks to DailyLit I've finished The Time Machine. So now I'm on to Pride and Prejudice. Seen the movie many times so I thought it was finally time to read the book. Also still plowing through The Far Pavilions.

The Far Pavilions is another one of my favourites from many years ago as is another of MM Kayes Shadow of the Moon. My dailylit reading over the past couple of days has been a bit of Poe The Pit and the Pendulum and The house of Usher, also A modest proposal so good to tick those short ones off the 1001 list. Also working through The Awakening only 65 installments.

tantan, I read The Time Machine last year (a library book copy) and it was a great read, I really liked it. I've got his The Invisible Man upstairs, and I'm looking forward to that one too!

I'm currently reading The Lambing Flat, a book I got *ages* ago through the Happy Crazy Smile Day RABCK, and I promised to catsalive through the relays last year. Ahem, running late (as usual). The first chapter was a bit "yeah, been here before" as our young couple headed out bush mid-19th century. But then we jumped to a boat en route from China to the goldfields, and that's definitely new to me. According to workmates, "something" happened at Lambing Flat, but I put my fingers in my ears and said "lalalala" a lot (obviously my history classes in High School missed that bit), but with all the escaped convicts, the whites' fear of the aborigines, the tension with the Chinese at the goldfields, it's going to be explosive, I fear. A good read, so far.

Miss-Owl (and anyone else who is interested): the Set It Yourself challenge #8 is up and running! http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/6/6113498

They're quite explicit that it's not a *releasing* challenge, so I hope my choice of "all the bloody bookrings in the house" isn't considered a release, but a reading challenge!

KimB, I've read Shadow of the Moon also, quite a few years ago. I remember enjoying it. I also have Trade Wind and quite a few of her 'Death' books on the TBR mountain. I'm fairly certain I've read Death in Zanzibar, but can't really remember anything about it.

I'm also planning on knocking off a few Poe's via DailyLit. I read The Tell-Tale Heart a long time ago, and I'm looking forward to revisiting Poe.

wookiebender, have you read any other Wells? I've got The Invisible Man here also, and I think another but I can't remember the title? I remember reading The Island of Doctor Moreau as a bookring a few years back. Another great read.

I finished Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers a few days back (one of wookiebender's bookrings) and thought it was absolutely wonderful. Would highly recommend it to anyone who is not squeamish. Informative, well written and a good laugh in lots of places.

Dailylit's current offering is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which I understand is really very different from the movie which is supposedly based on the story. Will finish it today. I didn't see the movie - has anyone seen/read both and care to comment?

Now into How Late It Was, How Late, (a 1001 read), which is full of the "f" word and glaswegian speak, has no chapters (!!!) and is in a rambling 'stream of consciousness' style, but nonetheless has me captivated.

tantan, I've only read The Time Machine. I tried one of his books as a young adult, as I really enjoyed Jules Verne at the time, and thought I might enjoy Wells as well. But I didn't get into it then. Then I thought I'd try The Time Machine when I saw it at the library, and thought it was a great story. He's written an awful lot though, one of those prolific writers. (Hurrah!)

crimson-tide, I read The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in summer, fully expecting to see the movie, but never got around to it. I did really enjoy the story (and I must get the book back from Mum one day so I can send it on a bookring). My Mum did see the movie and said it was "wet", so that rather dampened my enthusiasm. The short story was in no way, shape or form, wet. It was a perfect little story.

Went to the cafe this morning, and picked up a trashy Regency romance called The Butler Did It. Have been unable to put it down since. Trash, but highly entertaining trash. And a nice change from high literature. :)

I have just finished Bombproof by Michael Robotham and added my review - wasn't anywhere as good as Shatter but still a good thriller :)

I am now reading my friend's latest release The Killing Hands by P.D. martin and also Silent in the Sanctuary two mysterys that are totally different :)

I've succumbed to the DailyLit site. Thanks a lot, wookiebender :) I've just added Anna Karenina for now, because it doesn't look like I'm going to finish it in time for SIY#7 after all :( Levin is taking an age to get around to sorting out his life, while Anna and Vronsky are just digging themselves in deeper and deeper. (I'm around page 330.)

Thanks for letting me know about the next SIY challenge - this one looks distinctly dodgy so I'm looking forward to a fresh start!

Btw, I think DailyLit will be wonderful for my English Extension 2 students. They need to read plenty of short stories as part of their Major Work research, and this is a great way of delivering the reading to them to minimal effort. Thank you!

Yes, I'm rather boggled at the lack of Ms Karenina for great swathes of the book! I won't be finished by the end of the month (although, hang on, I do have a couple of days off next week for my birthday... hmm...), but I'll finish it anyhow.

And The Butler Did It kept its silly farcical (in a *good* way) premise bubbling along. I've never read a romance that was so silly! When our hero was doing his Beau Brummell impersonations, we were meant to laugh at him! Mills & Boon has come a long way since I was a teenager, and we read them to mock.

crimson-tide, I'd love to know what you think once you've finished How Late It Was, How Late. I read it a few years ago as part of a challenge to read all the Booker winners (which I'm still working on), and I had very mixed feelings about it. The language was excessive, and there didn't really seem to be a 'story', as such, but I was glad I persevered with it in the end. It was a worthier winner than G., at any rate, IMO.

I've just finished The wind-up Bird Chronicles and it's been a good month of 1001 reading so far, with including a few short stories along the way ;-)
Tonight, I'm starting I know why the caged bird sings another 1001 bookring, and I think it is one of the few autobiographies on the list.

I'm adding my voice to the chorus of approval for Water for Elephants, I *really* enjoyed it. :oD

next up for me: No Country For Old Men, I love the film adaptation and I enjoyed Cormac McCarthy's The Road so I've been looking forward to this one.

(edit)No Country For Old Men touchstone won't work :((/edit)

I have been having a bit of a reading slump, and have only really been reading things for school, eg:
- Norman Enormous by Dave Hackitt
- Pink! by Lynne Rickards

I've also given up on Northern clemency. As much as I was enjoying it, it was just too much on the old wrists, and not the best choice of bedtime reading.

But, I did pick up The devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho, and have been able to read a few pages.

I hope that fog clears soon....

But, I plan to read The wind-up bird chronicles in the near future. I've read virtually all his other books, and have been saving this one. You enjoyed it KimB?

I've heard lots of things about Water for elephants, and after all this praise, I'll trot over and add it to my wishlist soon. Thank you Freelunch.

I think you will enjoy No Country for old men too. I think it was his best book. Even better then the film.

Right, still in my pjs, but get going now!

Jubby, I loved The Wind-up Bird Chronicle as well. The first one of his I read, and I still think it's his best. (But quite often that appellation does apply to the first book by someone you read.)

Finished The Lambing Flat on the bus this morning. A good read, if about rather depressing topics at times (massacres, grief, miscarriages, more massacres, etc). But a lovely love story in the middle of it that rather overshadowed all the doom and gloom. (Hurrah!)

Will start A Child's Book of True Crime by Chloe Hooper, which Miss Boo picked out for me at the library. I remember reading the reviews when it came out a few years ago, but I can't remember if they were positive or negative or whatever. Anyhow, good an excuse as any to give it a go. :) And it looks less daunting than her other choice for me, something by Gore Vidal.

No Country for Old Men was excellent, and I thing better than the movie - chiefly for the greater insight it gives into the mind of Sheriff Bell, and for several story elements which were left out of the film adaptation.

next up for me is Diary Of A Nobody, for which I mistakenly joined a bookray - I think I was thinking of An Imaginary Life at the time - but as it is here now I'll give it a shot.

I've finished The wind-up bird chronicles and I know why the caged bird sings which is such a fabulous autobiography. Onto 2 half read books Tuesdays with Morrie and then It's Raining in Mango. Both were my handbag reads, but that didnt work very well so I hope to polish them off soon for bed-time reads. Am about half way through with The Awakening on Daily.Lit, sometime I find the format a bit jarring other time is seems good and I forget I'm reading off the screen.

Jubby, I think I liked Kafka on the Shore more. How's that for a Rhyme:-)
But that was my first of his works. I rushed this one a bit, it being a bookring. There are some diverse parts to it and some were excellent.

The Diary Of A Nobody was a lot more fun than I expected from a comedy originally published in the 19th century. I'm glad I stuck with it past that first chapter when I was tempted to put it aside.

next up for me: The Women

freelunch, good to hear, because Diary of a Nobody is one of the bookrings on my Mt TBR! I'll tackle it soon.

I finished A Child's Book of True Crime and found it a bit of a mess, overall. Really did not like the main character, I dislike true crime as a genre so when she dipped into that I was squirming rather (do I need to know what Ivan Milat did? I think not, I'm rather regretting losing that particular piece of innocence this week), and it just didn't quite hit the mark at times. But the overall idea was good (young naive woman having an affair with the father of one of her students while his wife has written a true crime book about a woman who killed her husband's young lover, and our protagonist starts seeing too many parallels between the true crime and her own story), and it was well written and I turned the pages quite happily.

I was going to spend this weekend blitzing Anna Karenina but last night was my birthday party and far too much champagne was drunk, so there has been no serious reading since Thursday night... But the champagne was fun. :)

Happy Birthday wookiebender!
Today is my 14 year olds sons Bday.

Finished Tuesdays with Morrie and It's raining in Mango two books that have been sitting on my BC shelf for too long saying read me, read me. Both very good reads in their own ways. Still working on reading other titles that have been with me for over 12months. Now reading West Block one about the Canberra Public service in the 70s. I'm really interested to see how it stacks up. Fun, fun ;-)
I went to the Canberra bookfair yesterday, I'm going to have a really hard time not to start reading the new books and leaving the planned reading behind.....

Happy birthday, wookiebender!

Thanks for the write-up on A Child's Book of True Crime. It sounds quite suitable for one of my Extension 2 kids - I'll add another recommendation to her pile...

I have done a bit of an Anna K blitz this weekend - 600 pages down, 200 to go! I might actually finish it this month after all. I'm absolutely loving it. Sometimes with reading I think it's a matter of timing as much as anything else. I just don't think I would have understood it in quite the same way as I do now, had I completed it when I first picked it up two and a half years ago.

It's a gorgeous weekend - going out to enjoy it now!

Ah, Miss-Owl, there was a fair amount of (unpleasant) sex in the book as well. Our protagonist was having an affair with the father of one of her students, and, well, a fair amount of creepy sex occurred (she goes all infantile and it's all "I'm a bad girl, punish me", and it was quite ick). It wasn't explicit, but it was definitely Adult Content. It's a shame, because the basic idea was great.

And thanks for the birthday wishes, although The Big Day is this Tuesday. :) I've got the day off work (huzzah!) and will be doing my standard birthday routine: yum cha in the city and my favourite bookshops.

Thanks for the warning, wookiebender. I'll have a look into it. Last year I had a student write an appropriation of Lolita (quite a successful one, in fact) and another one inspired by American Psycho (argh! it took me four goes to type 'psycho' correctly) so they seem to have much more, er, developed tastes than I had when I was seventeen... actually, than I do now. Scary! Still, I don't want to be recommending dodgy things... :)

By the way, I love the concept of the birthday ritual - go crazy!

I have just finished reading Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers and didn't enjoy it any more the third time than I did the first except that I already knew who did the murder.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6991110

I consider it to be her worst book unless you are obsessed with train timetables.

pinkozcat, I can't believe you read it a *third* time, if you didn't even like it the first time! :)

Maybe the original reviewers were train spotters. There are a lot of them around, I have discovered.

Miss-Owl: I haven't read American Psycho (although I do have it upstairs, the bits of the movie I did manage to watch looked rather amusing, strangely enough), and I gave up on Lolita. I might have preferred them when I was 17, I may not have had quite the same reaction to Humbert Humbert when I was younger and innocent and far less cynical. I find that I could read stuff I didn't particularly enjoy much more easily back then. More time??

Still rather amazed at the huge swathes of Anna Karenina *without* Ms Karenina in it. But on track to finish it by the end of the month, I've just got about 150 pages to go now. My biggest stumbling block (apart from Levin's farming chapter) is the motivation of Mr Karenina. I don't particularly understand where he's coming from in the middle of the book, and it's obviously really quite important. I do like Ms Karenina though, and I think Tolstoy is quite spot on with a number of his observations concerning her tragedy. I'm halfway tempted to do what I did with Lady Chatterley's Lover: get towards the end of the book, and stop before it all goes pear-shaped. But then I think I might be missing some great stuff with Anna.

Given my age, three times for a supposedly iconic book is not so bad. I guess that I was hoping that I had missed something; but it was still a boring book.

I couldn't sleep last night so I have just finished Publish and be Murdered by Ruth Dudley Edwards.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/3190872

Another re-read but a very funny one and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I'll probably do a re-read of the rest of the series.

Why am I re-reading old books? Currently I am tied to the house and have read all the books I bought to take with me to hospital and I'm not allowed to do anything physical for another three weeks so I am reading some of my old favourites again.

Oh, I love re-reading old favourites. That's probably the *worst* thing about bookcrossing: I keep on discovering and hearing about new books to read, so I never get a chance to re-read anything!! (I think part of my attempt to clear the decks of bookrings etc is so I can do my annual-ish re-read of Harry Potter.)

Picked up His Majesty's Dragon at Galaxy today (Hippo Birdie To Me), and started reading it on the bus on the way home. Mr TQD was snoring gently next to me (hence the need for something to read) after I dragged him from Chinatown (yum cha) to Galaxy (books) to DJs (essential girly shopping - he went and checked out the Lego) to the Art Gallery (Archibald Prize, can't say there were any standouts for either of us this year) and then back to the city to catch the bus home. (Phew!) It's Napoleonic wars, and there are dragons. The blurb on the back says it's like "Jane Austen playing Dungeons & Dragons with Eragon's Christopher Paolini". I take exception to two of those - it's far better than Eragon ever was, and it doesn't have the deftness of touch of Ms Austen. But the D&D reference is pretty right, and I'm 100 pages into it already and enjoying it muchly. It also got good blurb from Stephen King (who knows his entertaining reads) and Peter Jackson (ditto). I'm thinking more Hornblower with dragons, than Lizzie Bennett with dragons. Hmmm, it's my birthday, maybe I can convince Mr TQD to watch Lost in Austen a third time... What *IS* it about this damned period in history that we're all ga-ga over it??? Or is it just me?

Hippo Birdie, wookiebender! :)

That's really all I wanted to say. Am totally wiped out from school camp, *and* I forgot to take Anna K, so am behind with the SIY challenge again :(

At least I got to abseil :)

Thanks Miss-Owl. :)

I'm on the home stretch of Ms Karenina's tale! But I'm having to carry AK around with me on the bus in order to get through it in time, and it's bloody heavy.

Finished His Majesty's Dragon and it was definitely an entertaining read. Turns out Naomi Novik is a LT author, so I did some cyberstalking last night. Didn't turn up anything interesting, but Peter Jackson has optioned the books for movies (huzzah! if anything comes of it), and there's another four or so in the series. I might need to pop into Galaxy again some day soon to buy books #2 and #3...

ETA: Abseil? Wow, far more exciting camps than I ever went on!

another four? damn! :(

I might have to bite the bullet and read His Majesty's Dragon before the series is complete - as a rule I try to avoid getting tied up in series which aren't yet fully published.

I've been distracted from reading by the evils of videogames this week (Disgaea: Afternoon Of Darkness, one of the most fiendishly addictive games I've ever played).

I'm still reading The Women which I'm finding less engaging than the other TC Boyles I've read. It is a fictional account of the life of Frank Lloyd Wright, specifically his dealings with his three wives plus one mistress, but it is told backwards with extensive footnotes (written by the fictional biographer - a Japanese architect who has chapters devoted to his own story, and by another fictional character who - fictionally - translated the book from Japanese) It all seems rather convoluted for a story which wouldn't be out of place as a TV historical/soap miniseries. Boyle's other two works of bio-fiction focussed Alfred Kinsey and John Harvey Kellogg, both of whom I felt were more interesting historical figures than Frank Lloyd Wright. But I've yet to be disappointed by TC Boyle so I'm sticking with it :)

another four? damn! :(

Well, if it's any consolation, they do seem to be standalone books in an ongoing series. There were questions still to be answered at the end of the first book, but there was no cliffhanger.

I understand your reluctance to start any series before it's all been written. (George RR Martin, I'm looking at you, and it's not a pleasant expression on my face.) I have fallen off the wagon over that one on occasion, but so long as the books keep on coming out (thank you, Stephen Erikson, Elizabeth Moon, and Charlie Huston among others), I stay (mostly) content.

ETA: Link to the series on LT: http://www.librarything.com/series/Temeraire - five out so far.

My reading slump continues...

I've formally given up on The time we have taken, and posted it on (thank you for being so patient with me TQD), and posted Love without hope on also, without even opening.

I started reading The devil and Miss Prym, after entering into Freelunch's Oz VBB, but realised I was taking to long, so sent that along also.

I'm now about four chapters in to Transit of Venus, as part of Southern Cross Exchange on www.bookobsessed.com. I've also got The slap lined up for my online reading group (ANZLITLOVERS - *waves to Jenniwren*).

Here's to hoping the fug lifts soon...

OK, I've been sick on and off for the past weeks, so I haven't been spending much time online. The following books have been read but not yet reviewed:

The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve
The World's Greatest Crimes of Passion by Tim Healey
The Dark Room by Minette Walters
Gerald's Game by Stephen King
Seven Little Australian's by Ethel Turner
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

I will put my opinions here over the next few days, as I do the reviews on my blog.

The books I am currently reading are:

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Wicca & Witchcraft Second Edition by Denise Zimmerman and Katherine A. Gleason
Wheel of the Year: Myth and Magic Through the Seasons by Teresa Moorey and Jane Brideson
The World's Greatest Secrets by Allan Hall

Hope everyone else is well :-)

Here is a copy of my review of The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve:

The Pilot's Wife is an eloquent portrayal of the grief felt when someone close to us dies suddenly. This grief, and the accompanying anger, are exacerbated when we learn that our lover, the person we thought we knew best, is not the person we thought them to be. We can all expect to learn minor secrets about our loved ones in this situation, but what happens when the facts we learn are major? When we learn that our lover has been leading a whole other existence? This book deals with just that situation. The Pilot's Wife is an engrossing, evocative and poignant read that is not to be missed.

I finished Anna Karenina last night. (Woot! First Russian novel I've ever completed!)

There were bits that didn't make sense (I kinda get Mr Karenin's strange attack of magnanimity half way through the book, but I think I missed some nuances), some bits that made my eyes glaze over (agriculture in 19th Century Russia, and a whole lot of religiosity at the end), some wonderful characters (Prince Stepan Oblonsky - wouldn't want to spend time with him, but he was great to read about; Mr Karenin and Countess Lidia; Anna and Vronsky; Levin and Kitty), some interesting politics (communism is mentioned quite a bit), and wonderful writing.

Am tossing up between a few novels for the next one to start (although I might just finish off those Poe short stories in the meantime). Watch this space.

Good to see you back again, fairy-whispers. Did you like The Old Man and The Sea? I've only tried one Hemingway novel (To Have and Have Not, I loved the movie with Bogart) and I found it a very difficult slog as a teenager. Been meaning to get back to him, to see if he improves as an adult. I think I've got a copy of For Whom the Bell Tolls somewhere... But I did like A Moveable Feast (a LT recommendation!) which I read last year.

Good on you, wookiebender! If, I mean, when, I finish Anna Karenina it will be my first Russian novel too. I'm a bit stuck at the moment on some tiresome legislation they're trying to pass. I'm officially not going to complete my SIY challenge this quarter!

Miss-Owl, it's definitely a "when", not an "if". :)

I actually rather liked the legislation bit, it was nice having an innocent's perspective on these things that consume us a bit too much. (Or maybe it's just me that can get awfully worked up over politics. I take it all *very* personally.) I particularly liked how Kitty spent 90 roubles on a "nobleman's uniform" which forced him to go (since the money was spent anyhow). What *IS* a "nobleman's uniform"??

And I finished my book of Poe short stories & poems (well, I skipped one story, and most of the poems) - I liked his more macabre ones best. The mystery ones were interesting, but more from a historical perspective (ooh, look, an early example of a whodunnit!) but they positively plodded next to his pithy ones with death and horror.

I also picked up Will The Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby which is about cult fandom, in particular anything revolving around Joss Whedon's shows: Buffy, Angel, Firefly. It's a good page turner, although I do have some minor quibbles. (Hey, I'm a fangirl, it's our duty to have quibbles. ;) Will be finishing it off tonight, it's a quick read.

And I picked up Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook as my public transport read today, and then ended up getting a lift to work (Miss Boo isn't well, and Mr TQD needed an extra pair of hands to help out). So that one is in my backpack to be started tonight on the way home.

I have finished up a few books in the last week:

silent in the sanctuary
Fried Eggs with Chopsticks
Food, Sex and Money
Pretties and
Reading the Ceiling (my contribution to 'literature' reading)

Am currently reading The cat who played Brahms and Katherine but won't get these two finished for March.

Thank you Wookiebender. Yes, I did enjoy The Old Man and the Sea. The language was very beautiful and the story was so sad.

I'm doing my reviews of all those books today. I apologise in advance that they will be just coppy and pasted from my blog, but there are a lot to get through :-)

Here is my review of The World's Greatest Crimes of Passion by Tim Healey:

The World's Greatest Crimes of Passion is a fascinating look at some famous (and not so famous) murders committed in the name of love. With most true crime books dealing with serial killers or child murderers, crimes of passion tend to be neglected and upstaged. However, some of these crimes are quite interesting to read about.

As with most anthologies, this book doesn't have room to cover stories as in-depth as I might like. However, there is more detail than I am used to in books of this type. The World's Greatest Crimes of Passion is not spectacular, but it is a decent and enjoyable read nonetheless.

My review of Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner:

Seven Little Australians is a charming Australian children's classic that is just as appealing to adults as it is to children. It is refreshing to read a book that doesn't moralise the way many children's books of the era did. This is an entertaining and uniquely Australian story, with a highly unexpected ending, and it deserves a place in everyone's reading list.

Being the last day of the month, here are the books which I have read in the last week. All old favourites as I am unable to get to a bookshop at present. Daughter No.2 has offered to take me to a big secondhand book barn in Fremantle so hopefully I can branch out again.

I have been re-reading all my Ruth Dudley Edwards collection, some better than others:

Murder in a Cathedral by Ruth Dudley Edwards - I had to add the author here as LT thinks that the book was written by T S Eliot. Sad, that ...
Carnage on the Committee
Murdering Americans
and I have just started on
Matricide at St Martha's

All good, non-politically correct stuff although I felt that she was running out of steam in her latest book, Murdering Americans.

My review for The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway:

Wow. That's all I could think when I finished this story. Wow. The language was just beautiful. The themes that played out in the old man's mind, and in his struggle with the sea, are ones that resonate with all of us. Courage in the face f adversity, the struggle to tame nature or to simply to survive and the determination to succeed are all themes we can relate to. As is the spectre of our aging bodies being unequal to the tasks at hand. The Old Man and the Sea is a sad story that will easily withstand the ravages of time.

fairy-whispers: Excellent! I look forward to revisiting Hemingway's fiction one day in the not-so-distant future.

Started Red Seas Under Red Skies (again, I originally picked it up in Dec but got waylaid by other books) which is the second book in Scott Lynch's "Gentlemen Bastard" series. Lots of fun. Finished Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby? and I'm afraid I gave it a rather poor review. Amusingly written, but about stuff I really wasn't interested in overall. It's a bookray, so I'm popping it in the post to AmberC later this week (Mr TQD expressed an interest in reading it first and I got it done quickly so if he's quick about it...).

My review for Gerald's Game by Stephen King:

Gerald's Game failed to pass the fifty page test for me. As a Stephen King fan, I was truly disappointed with this book. Boring, boring, boring!!!

My review for The Dark Room by Minette Walters:

The Dark Room was a fairly average read, despite being fairly well written. While there were a few intriguing twists and the culprit was totally unexpected, this book was not as thrilling as it should have been. The characters seem rather cliched and most aspects of the plot are predictable. This is OK to read once, but I wouldn't go back for seconds.

That wraps up the month for me. Remind me not to get sick and leave it all to the last minute next time...

I finished Matricide at St Martha's by Ruth Dudley Edwards last night so I just sneaked it into March.