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Your Book Activity - January 2018


chesilbeach

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On 1/22/2018 at 9:59 AM, Litwitlou said:

 

To make things worse I was speaking in an annoying voice and being a wise ass because Pete had been getting on my nerves.  But if you want to see some of the books I had 6 or 7 years ago, here they are.I advise you not to look. It ain't pretty.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZoimwCV3M8

 

 

Allow me to explain:

You may have noticed a book on my shelves called Porn 101. The book contains a series of U.S. Supreme Court cases concerning obscenity and pornography. What books and films were banned and why; who went to jail; arguments about the limits to freedom of speech and so on. The book is all text and much of it in legalese. No pictures.  Let's keep it clean, people!

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On 02/01/2018 at 12:04 PM, chaliepud said:

Thanks Claire, I did google something to that effect though they did also say that the z has been less used over the last 100 years or so. I prefer the s, it seems less harsh. Thankfully for the world, I am not a writer so I won't be upsetting anyone! :D

 

To add further detail: there are two groups of words in English.  There is one group where only -ise will do, which include words like advertise, advise, supervise etc. Applies to both American and British English.  Then there's a second and much larger group which include -ize, from Greek, e.g. realize, civilize, organize, finalize etc, and derived nouns, e.g. realization.  In American English these must be spelled -ize.  In British English, -ize is traditional and still used by some publishers, e.g. OUP.  However, the newer -ise is more widespread nowadays.

The rule is whatever you use, you need to be consistent.  So if those writers are only using -ize sometimes, then they're wrong, but if all the time for those words, then that's OK.  Simplest way of staying correct IMO is to always use -ise, and, on this occasion, be grateful that one's not American and having to decide which is which (American English is, of course, more consisently straightforward in some other areas!).   All we have to do is make sure we know when to use -ise rather than -ice (advise, advice; practise, practice)!

Edited by willoyd
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Back to work today, and spent my lunch hour getting stuck into The Essex Serpent and pleased it's living up to the recommendations so far.  Read some more of Hidden Nature last night and I'm loving it - the writing style is so welcoming and it's a lovely read so far.

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I like the other Margaret Atwood books I've read but this one... is a struggle. Life Before Man. She's introduced characters and told us about them and had them talk to each other. But I don't like the characters. They aren't at all sympathetic. And I have no idea where she's going with this. Never mind, I already started a non-fiction book :

Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters: From the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima by James Mahaffey

I like it so far.

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I finished Turtles All The Way Down by John Green. It was sub-par. Which is a shame, as I really like John himself and a couple of his other books.

 

Now reading The Good People by Hannah Kent and really enjoying it. I'm from the broad region it's set in, and I can confirm that she has absolutely captured the feel of the people and culture, it's uncanny. I'd swear it was written by a native Kerryperson.

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Just finished The New Mrs Clifton by Elizabeth Buchan and Autumn by Ali Smith and almost finished listening to Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon. Not sure what to read next .. whatever jumps off of the (tottering) pile I suppose :D Seriously considering downloading the audio of Mythos (written and read) by Stephen Fry. It's not my usual thing but I've listened to a sample and think I'll be able to keep up :lol:

I had a Waterstone's voucher so treated myself to a (signed) copy of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar.  It was on my radar as there's a bit of a buzz about it at the moment and the cover is quite, quite, beautiful so it was a done deal. It's supposed to be very The Essex Serpentish which I'm happy about but in any case .. the pages have turquoise edges!! That in itself was enough for me to pick it up. Nobody can see that when it's on the shelf but I'll know!!! :wub: So, that's another hardback I've been seduced into buying :blush:

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17 hours ago, Litwitlou said:

I like the other Margaret Atwood books I've read but this one... is a struggle. Life Before Man. 

I haven't read that one, but Atwood is one of my favorite authors. I wasn't completely taken by Surfacing when I first read it, but want to give it another try. 

 

Finished Our Lady of the Flowers and I am both happy I read it and happy to be done with it. I am on to The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm volume II. I at least know that I will enjoy myself reading that.

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17 hours ago, poppyshake said:

I had a Waterstone's voucher so treated myself to a (signed) copy of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar.  It was on my radar as there's a bit of a buzz about it at the moment and the cover is quite, quite, beautiful so it was a done deal. It's supposed to be very The Essex Serpentish which I'm happy about but in any case .. the pages have turquoise edges!! That in itself was enough for me to pick it up. Nobody can see that when it's on the shelf but I'll know!!! :wub: So, that's another hardback I've been seduced into buying :blush:

 

I love it when the pages of a book have coloured edges! I only have a handful of books like that. I hope you enjoy your new purchases :)!

 

I'm currently at three quarters in The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan, book 2 in The Wheel of Time series that I'm re-reading. Alongside it I started In the Hope of Memories by Olivia Rivers, so far I'm really liking the diversity in the book. I look forward to read more of both later today.

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My reading mojo is sluggish at the moment. Tried to listen audible version of The Bear and the Nightingale, but I had a real problem with remembering the Russian names for the characters (especially the formal and pet names).

 

The text version is definitely easier, but.....mojo is very reluctant to do any reading. :(

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19 hours ago, Marie H said:

My reading mojo is sluggish at the moment. Tried to listen audible version of The Bear and the Nightingale, but I had a real problem with remembering the Russian names for the characters (especially the formal and pet names).

 

The text version is definitely easier, but.....mojo is very reluctant to do any reading. :(

 

Oh no :( I hope your mojo gets better soon!!

 

I'm making nice progress in my reads: 83% in The Great Hunt (page 590 out of 708), and 40% in In the Hope of Memories (page 160 out of 400). I hope to have both of them finished before the end of January (so before Thursday).

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I've read some more of Hidden Nature and it's been a wonderful read - I've probably got about 40 pages left to go now, so hoping to finish this afternoon.

 

Made some more inroads into The Essex Serpent but it's a long book with long chapters, so it's going to take a while.  I'm reading it on Kindle, so it's been more of a "away from home" read, during lunch breaks and while out and about, so I think it'll take a while to finish yet, as I'm still only at 23% read, but I am enjoying it. :) 

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I've just a few pages left of Orlando.  It's been amazing.  So, I'm going to continue with Virginia Woolf and start on Mrs Dalloway a little later this evening. 

 

I have a whole pile of VW books incoming.  My postman won't know what's hit him!  :lol:

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3 hours ago, chesilbeach said:

I've read some more of Hidden Nature and it's been a wonderful read - I've probably got about 40 pages left to go now, so hoping to finish this afternoon.

 

Just finished and I absolutely loved it.  I'm going to start You Took The Last Bus Home by Brian Bilston for my next hardback.  It's a departure for me, as I don't usually read poetry (as I don't really understand it), but I've seen some of Brian's poetry on Twitter, and it's mostly lighthearted so nothing too deep for me to try and decipher!

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 I just pre-ordered the Alan Bradley book The Grave's a Fine and Private Place: A Flavia de Luce Novel. I can't wait to read it and didn't want to wait until the library got it. :)  Recently finished reading Over Sea Under Stones. 

 

                

Edited by muggle not
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Yesterday I read The Nest by Kenneth Oppel, a middle-grade psychological horror. I know right?! As if kids that age aren't already suffering from anxiety enough :lol: But seriously, it was a really good read. 

 

I also finished The Good People by Hannah Kent over the weekend, really enjoyed that too.

 

Now reading The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor, and really enjoying that too! Yay for a run of good books.

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Been reading from my hardback and paperback current reads today - You Took The Last Bus Home which is the hardback poetry collection, which has lots of humour and wordplay in it, and I'm enjoying much more than any poetry I've read since my children's book of humorous verse from when I was nine!  Also, my paperback is The Lost Plot by Genevieve Cogman, which is the fourth in her Invisible Library fantasy series, and is so much fun, I'm already 100 pages in! :D

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I left my Grimm book at home and needed something to read so I picked up Jodi Picoult's Song of the Humpbacked Whale out of the free bin. I like Picoult enough (I really enjoyed The Tenth Circle) but her flaws as a writer really show up in this book. At one point something dramatic happened and it gave me a fit of the giggles. Not her intended reaction, I would imagine. 

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8 hours ago, Cechak said:

I left my Grimm book at home and needed something to read so I picked up Jodi Picoult's Song of the Humpbacked Whale out of the free bin. I like Picoult enough (I really enjoyed The Tenth Circle) but her flaws as a writer really show up in this book. At one point something dramatic happened and it gave me a fit of the giggles. Not her intended reaction, I would imagine. 

 

I tried to read Songs of a Humpback Whale years ago and had to abandon it, I could not get through it. At the time I had only read one other Jodi Picoult book, My Sister's Keeper, which I had loved. I'm glad I stuck with Picoult though because I've really liked the other books I've read by her and she's one of my favourite authors. I plan to go back to Songs of the Humpback Whale one day to see if I get along with it better now, but probably not until I've read all of her other books. Sorry to hear the book hasn't worked great for you so far.

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14 hours ago, Athena said:

 

I tried to read Songs of a Humpback Whale years ago and had to abandon it, I could not get through it. Sorry to hear the book hasn't worked great for you so far.

Thanks. It isn't horrible, but it's an odd book. So far it's hard to get a hold on the characters. Also, I am finding many mistakes which normally I do not. I wonder if she was in a hurry when she wrote it.

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6 hours ago, Cechak said:

Thanks. It isn't horrible, but it's an odd book. So far it's hard to get a hold on the characters. Also, I am finding many mistakes which normally I do not. I wonder if she was in a hurry when she wrote it.

 

I think it was her debut novel, so I always thought that that was the reason. But it's also possible she was in a hurry or something.

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I spent yesterday afternoon reading at the small cafe in my local library. I haven't done this in ages and I forgot how much I enjoyed doing it. I wasn't sure what to read but in the end decided on a novella by Roberto Bolano.

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