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Your Book Activity - March 2019


Onion Budgie

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White rabbits!  It's 1st March already, and nearly spring, thank goodness.  What's everyone reading this month?

 

I've just about finished with A Passage to India.  I started off quite enjoying it, became bored halfway through, and now I'm actively disliking the second half.  It took E.M. Forster 10 years to write this novel, so he must have been as cheesed off with it as I currently am reading it.

 

Next up will be either: Hello Darling, Are You Working? by Rupert Everett, OR The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.  I'll decide when I get there.

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4 hours ago, Onion Budgie said:

I've just about finished with A Passage to India.  I started off quite enjoying it, became bored halfway through, and now I'm actively disliking the second half.  It took E.M. Forster 10 years to write this novel, so he must have been as cheesed off with it as I currently am reading it.

 

Bwhahahah! Sorry but that made me laugh :lol:!

 

4 hours ago, Onion Budgie said:

Next up will be either: Hello Darling, Are You Working? by Rupert Everett, OR The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.  I'll decide when I get there.

 

I've heard good things of the latter, I hope you enjoy both of them when you get to them :)!

 

I'm currently reading A Silent Voice Volume 2 by Yoshitoki Oima. It's good to get back into this story, I read Volume 1 in the beginning of January.

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6 hours ago, Madeleine said:

I've found Forster a bit heavy going as well, haven't read Passage to India but found Howard's End a bit of a slog, despite loving the film.

 

I surprised myself by loving Howards End (By the way, there's no apostrophe - something I only learned recently), rather more than A Room with a View, which is meant to be lighter.  Haven't even tried A Passage to India yet.  Sounds a bit of a challenge!

 

Finished The Art of Not Falling Apart by Christina Patterson, for one of my book groups.  Had looked forward to this as something a bit different to my usual reading, and blurb looked interesting, but sadly disappointing.  Two stars.

 

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I had to read A Passage to India at some point for uni, thoroughly disliked it. 

 

I'm now reading several books as I've never have been one for sticking with just one book at a time, I prefer to have several which are suitable depending on my mood or where I am.

 

I've got Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man on audiobook for my bus trips have read it before but now have Colin Farrell in my ears doing the reaing for me which is pleasant.

 

I've also read a good bit into Ilja Pfeijffer's Grand Hotel Europa which is a Dutch book written from a first person perspective, the person haing the same name as the author but I really hope for the author's sake he isn't quite as narcissisticly inclined. It's gotten rave reviews in a lot of Dutch papers which I can only partly understand as it's about half very lofty and exuberant prose and a lot of very crude sex scenes which are quite off-putting to be frank. It reminds me a little of the film "The Grand Budapest Hotel."

 

At some point I also started reading the however-manieth instalment of the Number 1 Ladies' Detective by Alexander McCall Smith which is very light-hearted and more of a bed-time sort of book.

 

Lastly, I'm reading Alex Pheby's Lucia which is (very) loosely based on the life of James Joyce's daughter, Lucia. It's not an easy read and has a few rather disturbing aspects to it I think.

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7 hours ago, Polly Parrot said:

I've also read a good bit into Ilja Pfeijffer's Grand Hotel Europa which is a Dutch book written from a first person perspective, the person haing the same name as the author but I really hope for the author's sake he isn't quite as narcissisticly inclined. It's gotten rave reviews in a lot of Dutch papers which I can only partly understand as it's about half very lofty and exuberant prose and a lot of very crude sex scenes which are quite off-putting to be frank. It reminds me a little of the film "The Grand Budapest Hotel."

 

I can't say I know much about this author, and I'm Dutch and live in the Netherlands. Shows what I've missed! I have a book on writing, by Ilja Pfeijffer, I tried reading it a few years ago but found it a bit narcissistic too so I put it down again. Maybe I'll get back to it some day. I don't think I'd much like Grand Hotel Europa based on your thoughts on it so far. I hope it gets better for you and that you enjoy your other reads :). That's a lot of books to read at the same time! It would confuse me, but I am always in awe of people who can easily read a few books at a time.

 

I'm currently reading Natsuki Takaya - Fruits Basket Volume 2, which is a re-read. We managed to buy the missing volumes of our collection recently, so I've decided to try to read about 2 volumes per month and I should be finished in December, if I read more of them in November and December. We have a number of volumes that are the originals (and found the missing ones second-hand, as they are out of print) and then we bought some of the more recent collector's edition volumes for the later volumes, which include 2 of the original volumes. If I read 2 original volumes each month and I read 4 volumes in November and December (or 2 of the collector's edition volumes) then I should be finished by the end of the year. There are 24 original volumes in total, so we have the first 16 in original volumes and then a couple of the collector's editions (volumes 17-18, 19-20, 21-22 and 23-24 bindups of the original). I hope some of this made sense!

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Today I finished reading 'The Knife of Never Letting Go' by Patrick Ness and 'The Diving- Bell and the Butterfly' by Jean-Dominique Bauby. They were both very different, but I really liked them.

 

Now I'm going to start reading 'Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine' by Gail Honeyman. This book got a lot of hype last year, so I'm interested to see if I'm going to enjoy it.

 

Edit> I started reading 'Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine' by Gail Honeyman and had to stop reading after 40 pages, because I didn't not like it's almost sneering tone. It seemed like everyone (including the writer) was making fun of Eleanor. Even the supposed funny moments I read, just came across as laughing at her, not with her.

 

Am I missing the point of this book, or does anyone else feel like this?

 

Now, I've started 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' by J.K Rowling.

Edited by karen.d
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14 hours ago, karen.d said:

Edit> I started reading 'Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine' by Gail Honeyman and had to stop reading after 40 pages, because I didn't not like it's almost sneering tone. It seemed like everyone (including the writer) was making fun of Eleanor. Even the supposed funny moments I read, just came across as laughing at her, not with her.

 

Am I missing the point of this book, or does anyone else feel like this?

 

I haven't read the book yet, but that's what I was afraid of! It's received so much good praise so I bought it when I found it cheap one day, but I haven't started it yet because I was hesistant of how Eleanor and her 'habits' / routine and social awkwardness etc would be treated.

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16 hours ago, karen.d said:

Edit> I started reading 'Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine' by Gail Honeyman and had to stop reading after 40 pages, because I didn't not like it's almost sneering tone. It seemed like everyone (including the writer) was making fun of Eleanor. Even the supposed funny moments I read, just came across as laughing at her, not with her.

 

Am I missing the point of this book, or does anyone else feel like this?

 

 

That's how it came across to me too, Karen.  It rubbed me up the wrong way.  I also found the plot too predictable.  I still gave it a 3/5 on GoodReads, because *some* of it hit the mark -- but right now, I can't remember what it was!  I'm puzzled as to why so many people rave about it.

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1 hour ago, Onion Budgie said:

 

That's how it came across to me too, Karen.  It rubbed me up the wrong way.  I also found the plot too predictable.  I still gave it a 3/5 on GoodReads, because *some* of it hit the mark -- but right now, I can't remember what it was!  I'm puzzled as to why so many people rave about it.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this! Everyone seemed to be raving about it, and I wasn't sure if I was reading this wrongly or something.

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I wasn't that made on it either, I did think the same as you initially, but after a while it just got on my nerves, and I didn't find it that convincing. 

 

A better book on a slightly similar theme, and which involves a bookshop (!) is Lost for Words by Stephanie Butland, which I really liked.

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On 3/4/2019 at 1:45 PM, Madeleine said:

 

 

On 3/4/2019 at 1:45 PM, Madeleine said:

I wasn't that made on it either, I did think the same as you initially, but after a while it just got on my nerves, and I didn't find it that convincing. 

 

A better book on a slightly similar theme, and which involves a bookshop (!) is Lost for Words by Stephanie Butland, which I really liked.

 Thanks for the recommendation, I will try and find it!

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I finished my (re) reading of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series, and his Heroes of Olympus series. A fun and action filled romp through Greek and Roman myths and legends. 

 

Now I am struggling to settle on my next read, Dan Brown's Origin. I can usually fly through his books, as they don't take any work to read, but I am finding the same old style a liitle grating this time around. I may leave it for the time being and find something a little more engaging. 

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Yesterday, I finished re-reading 'Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone' by J.K Rowlijng and I enjoyed it, but it's not my favourite book in the series. Now, I've started 'The Twelve' by Justin Cronin the second book in 'The Passage' series. It's good so far!

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I'm halfway through Hello Darling, Are You Working by Rupert Everett, and am enjoying it.  It has some funny one-liners, and the fact that it's surreptitiously autobiographical makes it even better.  The author's bio paragraph at the back of the book says that "Any resemblance between his novel and his actual life is undoubtedly coincidental."  :lol:

 

 

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On 1.3.2019 at 6:37 PM, Madeleine said:

I've found Forster a bit heavy going as well, haven't read Passage to India but found Howard's End a bit of a slog, despite loving the film.

 

On 1.3.2019 at 8:57 PM, Onion Budgie said:

:lol: I'm finished with it now -- THANK GOODNESS.  Sheesh.

 

 

I read Howards End, too, and didn't like it all that much, and I really did not enjoy A Room with a View

 

I'm glad you could pummel through APtI, Onion Budgie :D You have now earned a great next read!! 

 

I'm currently reading A Noise Upstairs by Linwood Barclay. Liking it so far! 

 

As for Eleanor Is Completely Fine, I really liked it! I think there's two ways to go about it: not take it that seriously, and/or taking it in the way that the tone is set sort of by how others see Eleanor, while not understanding the reasons why she acts the way she does. I wish I could explain it better. I know a few people who could make the points I'm trying to make! On the other hand, that's just my view and I totally get that the book is not for everyone. 

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On 3/2/2019 at 7:11 AM, Athena said:

 

I can't say I know much about this author, and I'm Dutch and live in the Netherlands. Shows what I've missed! I have a book on writing, by Ilja Pfeijffer, I tried reading it a few years ago but found it a bit narcissistic too so I put it down again. Maybe I'll get back to it some day. I don't think I'd much like Grand Hotel Europa based on your thoughts on it so far. I hope it gets better for you and that you enjoy your other reads :). That's a lot of books to read at the same time! It would confuse me, but I am always in awe of people who can easily read a few books at a time.

 

I'm struggling with it, reading little bits of it every so often but it's not exactly gripping me. So far, the narcissism doesn't get any better.

 

I've now finished the McCall Smith book and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

 

Started a new book as well: The Bothy by Trevor Mark Thomas, it's very dark but I'm liking it a lot.

My new audiobook is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, it'll be short and trippy. I also have The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy lined up on audio but not quite ready for that yet, maybe next week.

 

I haven't finished Lucia yet, not because I don't like it, it's just not the easiest book to read and can get a little uncomfortable at times.

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Wow, it's been a while since I was here. Let's see, what have I been reading:

First,

to go back to A column of fire and The lonliest girl in the universe (as I believe Athena asked me what I thought of them and then I wasn't around for months :rolleyes:)

 

A column of fire - perhaps not as good as the first two, it was still a very enjoyable romp through another period in history.

 

The loneliest girl in the universe - I found this really compelling and I got through it really quickly. It perhaps turned a bit 'Point Horrory' at the end, but on the whole I enjoyed it.

 

The Fireman by Joe Hill - absolutely brilliant. One of the best things I've ever read.


Lyra's Oxford by Philip Pullman - a very short and a little bit pointless story 


Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman - ditto :lol:


La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman -  very different to what I was expecting but it was very good and I'm keen to read the next in the series when it comes out


Nomad by Alan Partridge - currently halfway through. Pretty funny so far. It kind of helps that a new tv series is on a the same time so I can hear the personality come out more. :D

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I've been traveling a bit recently so I have been quiet on here but I have managed to finish 2 books this month. The first is the audiobook of The Battle for the Falklands by Max Hastings and the second was the Kindle version of The Nowhere Man by Gregg Hurwitz.

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On 3/11/2019 at 10:59 PM, More reading time required said:

Wow, it's been a while since I was here. Let's see, what have I been reading:

First,

to go back to A column of fire and The lonliest girl in the universe (as I believe Athena asked me what I thought of them and then I wasn't around for months :rolleyes:)

 

A column of fire - perhaps not as good as the first two, it was still a very enjoyable romp through another period in history.

 

Thanks for remembering, it's good to know what you thought of it :)!

 

On 3/11/2019 at 10:59 PM, More reading time required said:

The loneliest girl in the universe - I found this really compelling and I got through it really quickly. It perhaps turned a bit 'Point Horrory' at the end, but on the whole I enjoyed it.

 

I have this on my TBR, I enjoyed Point Horror in my youth so maybe I'll like it haha.

 

On 3/11/2019 at 10:59 PM, More reading time required said:

The Fireman by Joe Hill - absolutely brilliant. One of the best things I've ever read.

 

Another one on my TBR! So glad you loved this :).

 

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I've been fancying reading some graphic novels lately (though I'm never sure which ones to go for as I don't know that much about them) so I picked up a few from the library. Whether I finish them all before they need to go back is another matter. I got:

 

Gentleman Jim - Raymond Briggs

Vortex Butterflies (a Dr Who one with David Tenant's doctor)

Locke and Key book 2 - Joe Hill (I read the first one last year)

And a Star Wars Clone wars collection of 6 stories.

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