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Your Book Activity - November 2018


Brian.

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On 08/11/2018 at 11:08 AM, Onion Budgie said:

I've just 30 pages left of Murder is Easy by Agatha Christie.  I'm enjoying the story, but NOT AC's apparent homophobia.  It makes me want to tweak her nose and put runs in her tights.

 

No idea what I'm going to read next, but I have a few good things lined up for December.

Remarkable how very dated literature is seeping homophobia from every pore, as well as racist.

W Somerset Maugham routinely derided Chinese and Malay people as Chinks, of course he got away with it...it looked clever 100 years ago, which just about sums it up.

Edited by itsmeagain
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2 hours ago, itsmeagain said:

Remarkable how very dated literature is seeping homophobia from every pore, as well as racist.

W Somerset Maugham routinely derided Chinese and Malay people as Chinks, of course he got away with it...it looked clever 100 years ago, which just about sums it up.

 

Yes, it gets a bit wearing.  Christie's possible racism is a whole other barrel of bananas!  She's made my jaw drop more than once on the subject of "foreigners" in both narration and character dialogue.  She may not have even thought twice about it. 

 

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On 08/11/2018 at 11:08 AM, Onion Budgie said:

I've just 30 pages left of Murder is Easy by Agatha Christie.  I'm enjoying the story, but NOT AC's apparent homophobia.  It makes me want to tweak her nose and put runs in her tights.

 

No idea what I'm going to read next, but I have a few good things lined up for December.My phone is not letting

 

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My phone is displaying the reply box all wrong, sorry OB.

I think the racism was casual, even amusing, to the literary types who perused Somerset Maugham in days gone by.

Now things have largely changed but bigotry was an amusing pastime for the wealthy a hundred years ago.

Maugham was gay and I've read a story about a gay relationship in his book so far.

 

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Racism, homophobia and similar attitudes in older books are very revealing of how general attitudes have changed. I have no real issue with it in books as long as it fits with the time frame in which the book was written and it isn't unnecessarily  gratuitous. I hit across this in a big way with the Ian Fleming Bond series of books. There was a word which shocked me but in a way I was glad they shocked me, it shows how much times have chnaged. It makes me wonder what ways of thinking will be seen as archaic and unacceptable in 50+ years time.

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I think the racism and homophobia in older books would bother me to be honest. But time will tell, I haven't read any more Agatha Christie yet (though I have few other old books/authors on my TBR).

 

I'm currently reading Het Idee M/V by Asha ten Broeke. It's a non-fiction read I picked up at a library sale, but it's actually turning out to be very interesting and food for thought. It's about gender ideas and gender norms and where these ideas come from etc. I'm just over halfway through.

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Thanks for bringing it back! I could not get into Game of Thrones, I just found the entire premise so dreary and everyone was terrible. I couldn't find much to enjoy and so never bothered with the TV show either, even though it's wildly popular. 

I'm currently reading The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis and I gotta say, it's a surprisingly fun read for such an old book. Fairly humorous story told from the perspective of demons writing to one another as they try to figure out how to corrupt a human man.

I've never read anything by Agatha Christie, but I do enjoy reading old books/classic lit. I have rarely come across any commentary so outrageous that it made me put the book down, though I've certainly slogged through some outdated written word. Mostly it seems to me to be an interesting look into how people thought in the past and what society was like. I don't take offense because, well, these people are no longer around and society is completely changed, so what's the point in getting upset? Unless it's depicting discriminatory violence I usually just press through those bits and enjoy the rest of the book. 

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Finished manga Laid-Back Camp (Laid-Back Camp #1) by Afro. It was a sweet manga, very cute characters and illustrations; very much "armchair travelling/camping", for me :). So I( bought the Kindle 2nd of the series. 

EDIT and #3 and #4 later on...:D

Edited by Marie H
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Finished with The Troubled Man and decided to start The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche. It’s a book that has fantastic reviews but I’m having second thoughts about carrying on as I discovered the author has been disgraced in a sexual abuse scandal. The book was written well before the scandal emerged and is considered a bit of a classic spiritual text but I still feel a bit icky reading it.

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2 hours ago, Brian. said:

Finished with The Troubled Man and decided to start The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche. It’s a book that has fantastic reviews but I’m having second thoughts about carrying on as I discovered the author has been disgraced in a sexual abuse scandal. The book was written well before the scandal emerged and is considered a bit of a classic spiritual text but I still feel a bit icky reading it.

 

I read that years ago ! No idea about the scandal. :(

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How was Nine Perfect Strangers, Frankie? Any good? 

 

Last night I finished listening to The Silk Roads, and also finished reading Children of Time. The former was a monumental struggle and I was glad it was finally over. :lol: The latter, I really enjoyed though I feel the middle was maybe a tad long.

 

Next up for me is to read Picking Up The Pieces by Paul Britton and also to read/listen to The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (I have the Kindle and Audible versions).

 

Yesterday on Audible I bought I Can't Make This Up: Life Lessons by Kevin Hart which has been very highly rated. 

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Ive decided to stick with The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying but I am taking it slowly as its packed with good stuff and it’s a book I want to digest. I’ve picked up something lighter to go along with it, Eating Smoke a non-fiction book by Chris Thrall about his time spent in Hong Kong and his spiral into drug addiction.  I’m also about half way through the audiobook of Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor.

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6 hours ago, bobblybear said:

I've started The Luminaries (Audio and reading), and I'm enjoying it a lot. It's had a lot of mixed reviews, with most critics saying it's too slow, but so far I'm liking it.

 

I quite enjoyed The Luminaries. Not the best book I've read or the most exciting of plots, but I thought it was well written with an interesting concept. Looking forward to hear what you think of it - it does seem to divide opinions.

 

I just started reading Moby Dick by Herman Melville a few days ago. It caught my eye after I saw a Youtube Video about how it's not as hard as people make it out to be and is in fact very deep, covering matters such as philosophy, spirituality and religion. 

 

I'm enjoying it so far. The writing is lovely but I can tell it's not for everyone. Just waiting on the dreaded chapters on the Encyclopaedia of the Whale that everyone seems to hate.

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Finished Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa. 

Loved it! Definitely a bittersweet novel, and it actually made me cry.....:cry2:...which is an unusual experience with reading.

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Finished Company for the Evening by Ursula Orange last night. Well, the ending was such a disappointment! . I’m miffed, as the book was really good, but then the narrator changed her character dramatically, in such a silly way...

:wacko:.

Finished Flying Witch Vol. 3 - another enjoyable slice-of-life manga, of young witches in rural Japan. 

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Making good progress with The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. Enjoying it a lot.

 

There were quite a few audiobook deals on Audible today, so I bought:

 

Pale Blue Dot - Carl Sagan (£1.99)

Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

Middlemarch - George Eliot

Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami

The Godfather - Mario Puzo

The Humans - Matt Haig

 

The last 5 were only £2.50 each. Fantastic bargain, I reckon! 

Edited by bobblybear
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