Your Book Activity - July 2016

[Athena]

We're in the second half of 2016 already! What are you reading today, or do you have any other book activity to share?

 

I'm going to start my read-a-thon today, so I'll be starting off with a Babysitters Club book by Ann M. Martin (#47).

[Peacefield]

I'm just shy of being halfway through Game of Thrones.  I started out reading it and then listened to quite a bit while I was on my road trip earlier this week.  Now I'm back to reading .

[Nollaig]

I'm about two third through Distress Signals by Catherine Ryan Howard and absolutely loving it! Just hope it's got a satisfying resolve at the end

[Anna Begins]

I finished Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie yesterday, made it through half of Farmer Boy today!

[davidh219]

I'm currently reading:

• Winter by Marissa Meyer (65% done)
• Perdido Street Station by China Mieville (15% done)
• A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab (15% done)(Audiobook for doing chores to)
• Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (60% done)
• The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson (40% done)
• The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury (10% done)
• Writers of the Future, Volume 30 (75% done)

I have a graphic novel adaptation of Auster's brilliant post-modern novel City of Glass that I haven't started yet but will likely read in one sitting and finish before any of the above just because it's fairly short and I'm really excited. 

 

Is it weird that I read lots of books at once? Anyone else do that? 

[willoyd]

Finished Emma on the last day of June, and was going to read a Somme related book, either Martin Middlebrook's classic The First Day on the Somme or Frederic Manning's The Middle Parts of Fortune, but when it came down to it, I just couldn't stomach the gloom: work too stressful and still too depressed after the Brexit decision (which looks ever more self-destructive), so need something a bit lighter. I am finding the political shenanigans fascinating though, and need to read a political memoir for one of my challenges, so have picked up Gyles Brandreth's Breaking the Code, and it looks like it might serve its purpose. We'll see.

 

On a more positive note, am celebrating the Welsh win this morning, and the Tour starts today, so some things look brighter!

[Athena]

Is it weird that I read lots of books at once? Anyone else do that?

I know some people who do that. I personally couldn't do that. Reading more than one book is very confusing for me. At school I had to read books for Dutch and English, and I wanted to read one of my 'own' books. I always found it hard (especially if all are fictional, with information books it's a bit less difficult). In the rare occasion that I do start two books, I tend to gravitate towards one of them and just read that one until it's finished. I can't do multiple things at once very easily, I have trouble enough focusing on one thing. But I'm amazed you can read so many books at once.

[Angury]

I can't believe it's July already. Scary.

 

I am currently reading the second of six books of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time called Within a Budding Grove.

 

It's a fantastic series, I would highly recommend his work. His writing is different to any other style I have read before. My goal is to get through all six books, although I suspect that will take me many months.

[davidh219]

I know some people who do that. I personally couldn't do that. Reading more than one book is very confusing for me. At school I had to read books for Dutch and English, and I wanted to read one of my 'own' books. I always found it hard (especially if all are fictional, with information books it's a bit less difficult). In the rare occasion that I do start two books, I tend to gravitate towards one of them and just read that one until it's finished. I can't do multiple things at once very easily, I have trouble enough focusing on one thing. But I'm amazed you can read so many books at once.

 

To be fair, The Illustrated Man and Writers of the Future are both short story collections, so they basically don't even count. You read one story and you put it down, there's no ongoing plot or characters to keep track of. But yeah, I've always had a really good memory which I guess is the main thing you need for this? I can also put a book down for months at a time and come back to it with minimal issues which I've been told is weird. But you know what I think is weird? That my girlfriend can have 3-4 different serialized shows going at once that she watches every week, but she can only read one book at a time. I don't understand what makes them different. -shrug-

[Athena]

To be fair, The Illustrated Man and Writers of the Future are both short story collections, so they basically don't even count. You read one story and you put it down, there's no ongoing plot or characters to keep track of. But yeah, I've always had a really good memory which I guess is the main thing you need for this? I can also put a book down for months at a time and come back to it with minimal issues which I've been told is weird. But you know what I think is weird? That my girlfriend can have 3-4 different serialized shows going at once that she watches every week, but she can only read one book at a time. I don't understand what makes them different. -shrug-

That does seem odd, I don't know why she'd find those different. I can't watch 4 different serialised TV shows at the same time, either. My short term memory isn't so good, my long term memory is pretty good.

 

Today it's the read-a-thon so I'll be continuing on with my library read-a-thon loans.

[chesilbeach]

Still reading my Wainwright Prize books, and currently on book seven (of twelve) called Raptor my James Macdonald Lockhart.  Haven't felt much like picking up any fiction for some reason, so I think I'm going to carry on working my way through the rest of the longlist.

 

I did start listening to Wuthering Heights but only in the car, and am only about an hour in, and haven't gone back to it yet.

[Nollaig]

I finished Distress Signals by Catherine Ryan Howard, and really enjoyed it. Also read The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware, which I enjoyed but not as much. Onto a short book called Foster now, which I'll finish this morning before moving onto Tender by Belinda McKeon I think.

[Marie H]

I am currently reading the second of six books of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time called Within a Budding Grove.

 

It's a fantastic series, I would highly recommend his work. His writing is different to any other style I have read before. My goal is to get through all six books, although I suspect that will take me many months.

Hope you enjoy Proust's Within a Budding Grove  . And your odyssey for the whole of In Search of Lost Time!   I haven't read much of Swann's Way for a while, but I will get back to it hopefully.

 

 

At the mo. I'm enjoying Alexander McColl Smith's (hereby referred to as Sandy  ) The Sunday Philosophy Club. I noticed in Goodreads that this series are not that popular, especially (I think) that by those who loved the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, actually loathe this, but I love this one. Slow it is, and at a very provincial but intellectual type of Edinburgh, so I think that it is a very required taste.

[willoyd]

Still reading my Wainwright Prize books, and currently on book seven (of twelve) called Raptor my James Macdonald Lockhart.  Haven't felt much like picking up any fiction for some reason, so I think I'm going to carry on working my way through the rest of the longlist.

I know what you mean. I've tried to pick up a few fiction books since finishing Emma, and none will do. Sometimes, that goes on for a while, and then suddenly a novel clicks. It goes the other way too sometimes.

 

I am finding the political shenanigans fascinating though, and need to read a political memoir for one of my challenges, so have picked up Gyles Brandreth's Breaking the Code, and it looks like it might serve its purpose. We'll see.

 

It didn't last long, but after some pages I was already getting tired of the string of celebrity names, and the rather overblown style - these are diaries for goodness' sake. I know those were the circles Brandreth circulated in (and may well still do), but it felt like an awful lot of unnecessary name dropping. Reviews indicate that it gets much better as it goes along, but I was also starting to feel that this was an awfully long time ago, and actually I wasn't that bothered: not long ago enough to feel like history, not recent enough to feel current.

 

So, I've swapped to Chris Mullin's diaries: A Walk-On Part. Whilst it's the third volume in terms of publishing sequence, it's actually the first volume chronologically of a trilogy, this one covering the period from 1994 to 1999, starting on the day that John Smith died, and tracking the rise of New Labour. It's not that much more recent than the Brandreth diaries, but I much prefer Mullins's more down to earth style (these really feel like diaries) and the history feels more relevant. I read A View from the Foothills (first published, second chronologically, covering the early noughties) when it first came out, and it was a gripping read, so am more optimistic.

 

 

[frankie]

^ I've heard of The Velveteen Rabbit, but don't know anything about it. It was the favourite book of one of the Friends characters (can't for the life of me remember which one! ).

This, and only this is the reason why I'm reading the book and know of the book to begin with :lol: It was the favorite book of this red-headed girl who was going out with Joey but whom Chandler fell in love with when he spent a lot of time with her, and then it all got mixed up and Joey got hurt but in the end the girl started dating Chandler. I can't remember her name. I didn't like the character at all, and therefore didn't like the actor, but then found her in Criminal Minds and now I love her

 

Edit: Kathy, played by Paget Brewster  

Edited July 3, 2016 by frankie

[bobblybear]

This, and only this is the reason why I'm reading the book and know of the book to begin with :lol: It was the favorite book of this red-headed girl who was going out with Joey but whom Chandler fell in love with when he spent a lot of time with her, and then it all got mixed up and Joey got hurt but in the end the girl started dating Chandler. I can't remember her name. I didn't like the character at all, and therefore didn't like the actor, but then found her in Criminal Minds and now I love her

 

Edit: Kathy, played by Paget Brewster

 

Oh yeah, now I remember! She played an actor, didn't she? Are you enjoying the book?

 

I've just now finished Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver, which was an amazing read (after a dodgy first chapter).

 

Next up is Finders Keepers by Stephen King.

[frankie]

Oh yeah, now I remember! She played an actor, didn't she? Are you enjoying the book?

 

Hm I do remember one girlfriend of Joey's who was an actor in this play and whose SO was the director, but that was a different red-head... I don't remember what Kathy did for a living.

 

I liked the book But I didn't think it was extraordinary. Maybe if I'd read it as a child... It was rather short, too.

 

Edit: Okay, I had to google it. Turns out Kathy was an actor, too! I'd just forgotten about it and could only think of the other woman.

Edited July 3, 2016 by frankie

[Virginia]

After waffling between books I have finally settled on An Undisturbed Peace by Mary Glickman. 

 

From Amazon

 

This sweeping historical novel tells the story of the Trail of Tears as it has never been told before

Abrahan Bento Sassaporta Naggar has traveled to America from the filthy streets of East London in search of a better life. But Abe’s visions of a privileged apprenticeship in the Sassaporta Brothers’ empire are soon replaced with the grim reality of indentured servitude in Greensborough, North Carolina.
 
Some fifty miles west, Dark Water of the Mountains leads a life of irreverent solitude. The daughter of a powerful Cherokee chief, it has been nearly twenty years since she renounced her family’s plans for her to marry a wealthy white man.
 
Far away in Georgia, a black slave named Jacob has resigned himself to a life of loss and injustice in a Cherokee city of refuge for criminals.
 
A trio of outsiders linked by love and friendship, Abe, Dark Water, and Jacob face the horrors of President Jackson’s Indian Removal Act as the tribes of the South make the grueling journey across the Mississippi River and into Oklahoma.

Edited July 3, 2016 by Virginia

[Anna Begins]

I've been making progress in the Little House books, finishing Plum Creek and now am on Silver Lake.

[chaliepud]

Still reading my Wainwright Prize books, and currently on book seven (of twelve) called Raptor my James Macdonald Lockhart. Haven't felt much like picking up any fiction for some reason, so I think I'm going to carry on working my way through the rest of the longlist.

 

I did start listening to Wuthering Heights but only in the car, and am only about an hour in, and haven't gone back to it yet.

[Nollaig]

I'm finding The Essex Serpent a bit difficult to get into because of the flowery language, but I'm going to push on with it as I've almost stopped other excellent books at this early stage for the same reason.

[chesilbeach]

I finished Raptor yesterday and thought it was another great book from the Wainwright Prize, although the shortlist has now been announced and it didn't make it which I'm a bit disappointed by, but there are so many great books they couldn't all be in the shortlist!  I've got five books left to read, and can't wait to start the next one.  

 

I've had to take a break though, as I have my book group book to read next, which is My Father's Fortune by Michael Frayn.  I've read a couple of his novels but none of his memoirs yet, so it'll be interesting to compare.  Having said that, my library copy is a large print edition and too big to keep carrying around in my bag, so I've left it in my desk at work to read at lunchtimes, so I might start another Wainwright book this evening! I've got Landskipping, The Moth Snowstorm and Landmarks waiting for me, so might pick up one of those.

[Athena]

I'm currently reading Geronimo Stilton - De Kronieken van Fantasia 3: Het Sprekende Woud (La Foresta Parlante). It's good so far. I plan to finish it later today.

[Marie H]

Finished reading Roald Dahl's Boy, a very enjoyable read; apart from the appalling amount of caning (as corporal punishment) that was inflicted on Dahl (and it seemed pretty much all the other boys in his boarding schools) during his schooldays  .  But apart from that, it's a great book. I will defiantly read the next of his autobiographies Going Solo too.

 

I'm finding The Essex Serpent a bit difficult to get into because of the flowery language, but I'm going to push on with it as I've almost stopped other excellent books at this early stage for the same reason.

Oooh, it's not just me then. I have tried the first few chapters, but the flowery language really put be off. As it was a library loan, and with more readers requesting the book, so I didn't try to read any more. I'll be interesting to see how are you getting on with this one.  

[Janet]

 

Still reading my Wainwright Prize books, and currently on book seven (of twelve) called Raptor my James Macdonald Lockhart. Haven't felt much like picking up any fiction for some reason, so I think I'm going to carry on working my way through the rest of the longlist.

 

I did start listening to Wuthering Heights but only in the car, and am only about an hour in, and haven't gone back to it yet.

 

Did you mean to say something to Claire? 

 

I read The Gremlins by Roald Dahl today as part of my challenge (to read his memoirs and his children's/YA books).  I only have one to go now to finish the challenge. 

 

I'm not sure what to read next.  I'm going away for a week on Saturday evening, so I don't know whether to start a slim book and hope to finish it, or whether to read something on my Kindle.  Hmmm, decisions, decisions...