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Your Book Activity - February 2022


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11 hours ago, muggle not said:

I am having a hard time getting into reading this year. Don;t know why but I just can't get going.

 

I've changed my pattern of reading as was feeling rather sluggish towards the end of last year.  I'm deliberately aiming for fewer books this year, but longer reads, some of which I'm dipping in and out of over an extended period (non-fiction).  May not suit others by the sound of it, but it's working for me.  I've also started working on a new challenge (Read Around the World), which has stimulated my reading books I wouldn't otherwise be looking for.  All in all, my reading already looks very different to last year, and my interest in it is reviviing.

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On 14/02/2022 at 1:54 PM, lunababymoonchild said:

I bought Delphi Complete Works of Emile Zola (Illustrated) Kindle Edition.  I just fancied reading Zola and Lourdes (which is what I was looking at) said that it was complete and unabridged from the Delphi Complete Works.

 

I've got a fair number of the Delphi collections: they're excellent value.  That includes the Zola collection. However, I'm reading the new translations trecently published by Oxford World Classics, some of them the first translations since almost the original time they were written. They just seem to read more 'cleanly' and, when comparing with original French, do seem to stay closer to the original.  Having said that, a whole lot more expensive, and perhaps not really worth the difference. I'me enjoying them though!

 

Just finished Sebastian Payne's Broken Heartland, his detailed examination of what happened at the last General Election with the Tories breaking through Labour's so-called Red Wall.  Some fascinating material, certainly providing me with a different perspective.  I do worry for those who increasingly seem to have been deluded by Johnson's charisma, although they themselves don't seem to be bothered, so maybe I shouldn't either.  One can totally see why so many voted for Brexit though, and quite how disastrous Jeremy Corbyn was for the Labour party.  4 star rating (out of 6).

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On 2/12/2022 at 10:55 AM, Chrissy said:

 

Another Raymond Chandler fan here. He has a wonderful turn of phrase at times. 

 

 

I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it.

 

From the first paragraph of The Big Sleep.

 

I've just finished reading Playback, and am now looking for something else before I return to Middle Earth!

 

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Finished listening to Richard Osman’s The Man Who Died Twice (The Thursday Murder Club #2)


Lesley Manville’s narration was great, and the book was good, though I think this one is not as good as the first of the series. Though I have pre-ordered the 3rd The Thursday Murder Club Audible already :)

 

Reading Ben Aaronovitch’s The October Man (Rivers of London #7.5) today.

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I felt like I needed something familiar so I started A Storm of Steel pt 1 by George R.R. Martin. I watched the show before I started reading the books so I can always see the people who played characters in my mind's eye when I'm reading. 

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I'm in the middle of Elizabeth of the German Garden, a biography of " Elizabeth von Arnim" (she was actually Mary and her books were by Elizabeth, or later, 'by the autor of Elizabeth and her German Garden', she didn't start being referred to as E von A until after her death). I love her books, they're sharp, funny and sarcastic and very modern in some ways, this is very good as a literary biography but I'm getting totally bogged down in extraneous details, like her feeling better after a good walk.

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We enjoyed 10 hours of a power cut on Friday, followed by a 5 hour electricity free afternoon on Saturday.

Aside from some meaningful, laughter filled and relaxing chats and the playing of board games, by torch and candlelight I read my way through the rather wonderful Cassandra Darke by Posy Simmonds, as recommended by Andrea. A graphic novel, this murder mystery of sorts was pithy, engaging and just what my poor beleaguered reading mojo has been looking for.  

 

I have already started on Gemma Bovery, another GN book by the same author. This reader's block may just be passing! < I'll say this quietly, so as not to jinx anything. 

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Self isolating with Covid, I've found some more time for reading.  Finished two books for different book clubs:

 

Golden Hill by Francis Spufford:  superb historical novel set in the frontier town of New York of 1746 (population barely 13000).  Totally gripped by this start to finish. It won three literary prizes, one of which was The Ondaatje prize for fiction/non-fiction evoking a sense of place, and this was certainly one of its strengths, but its characterisation and the plotting were utterly engaging.  At least 5/6.

 

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce.  Oh dear. I had been looking forward to trying Rachel Joyce out, but I won't be repeating the experience.  Far too sentimental (cloyingly so for me) - I should have been warned by such phrases as 'heart-warming', with characters and a plot that whilst initially promising, just failed to even remotely engage me.  I found here style of writing intensely annoying too..  Right at the opposite end of the spctrum from the previous book: 1/6. 

 

Currently reading Reading The World by Ann Morgan, looking at how she tackled her 2012 project of reading a prose narrative book from every country of the world within the year.  It's not quite what I expected, but fascinating stuff. About halff way through.

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8 hours ago, Raven said:

I hope you are feeling okay! (sucks, doesn't it?)

 

52 minutes ago, poppy said:

Hope you feel better soon, Willoyd.

 

Thank you both. Don't want to clog this thread up, but just to say, that for me it's currently pretty much like a dose of flu (proper flu I mean!) - all the aches, shivers, snuffling, coughing etc.  Pretty unpleasant, but, so far, not disastrous. It sucks just about sums it up Raven.  Anyway, not so poorly that can't enjoy the reading - in fact, it's pretty much all I feel up to!

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On 21/02/2022 at 12:26 PM, Chrissy said:

We enjoyed 10 hours of a power cut on Friday, followed by a 5 hour electricity free afternoon on Saturday.

Aside from some meaningful, laughter filled and relaxing chats and the playing of board games, by torch and candlelight I read my way through the rather wonderful Cassandra Darke by Posy Simmonds, as recommended by Andrea. A graphic novel, this murder mystery of sorts was pithy, engaging and just what my poor beleaguered reading mojo has been looking for.  

 

I have already started on Gemma Bovery, another GN book by the same author. This reader's block may just be passing! < I'll say this quietly, so as not to jinx anything. 

 

That's fantastic Chrissy! I'm so pleased you enjoyed it!! :)

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On 2/17/2022 at 4:37 PM, Raven said:

 

I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it.

 

From the first paragraph of The Big Sleep.

 

I've just finished reading Playback, and am now looking for something else before I return to Middle Earth!

 

Thanks to you and Chrissy I just finished reading my first Raymond Chandler book, The Big Sleep. I was amazed at the quality of his writing. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I will read many more of his books and in fact just started book 2 in the Philip Marlowe series, Farewell, My lovely.

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On 21/02/2022 at 12:26 PM, Chrissy said:

We enjoyed 10 hours of a power cut on Friday, followed by a 5 hour electricity free afternoon on Saturday.

Aside from some meaningful, laughter filled and relaxing chats and the playing of board games, by torch and candlelight I read my way through the rather wonderful Cassandra Darke by Posy Simmonds, as recommended by Andrea. A graphic novel, this murder mystery of sorts was pithy, engaging and just what my poor beleaguered reading mojo has been looking for.  

 

I have already started on Gemma Bovery, another GN book by the same author. This reader's block may just be passing! < I'll say this quietly, so as not to jinx anything. 

I wasn't expecting that first sentence to turn into a positive but I'm glad it did! (quiet 'yay' for the possible return of reading motivation :) )

 

On 22/02/2022 at 9:19 PM, willoyd said:

Self isolating with Covid, I've found some more time for reading.  Finished two books for different book clubs:

Aww no :(. I hope you feel better soon. Glad that you at least enjoyed a really good book!

 

I feel like I need something light-hearted (because, you know, the state of the world) but something I can still sink my teeth into - so I think I'm going to start the next Septimus Heap book, Syren

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6 hours ago, muggle not said:

 

Thanks to you and Chrissy I just finished reading my first Raymond Chandler book, The Big Sleep. I was amazed at the quality of his writing. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I will read many more of his books and in fact just started book 2 in the Philip Marlowe series, Farewell, My lovely.

 

 

Glad you enjoyed it!

 

They are good; I worked my way through them over a few years (there are only seven full length novels, but there are a lot of short story collections - most of which are not in print in the UK at this time, and some of them were combined to make up the full length novels).

 

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Finished Reading The World by Ann Morgan tonight.  The author took on the challenge of reading a book by a writer from each of the 196 UN recognised nations during 2012, the year the Olympics came to London.  Her website is fascinating (especially when trying to do the same challenge, if over a longer timespan!), but this is slightly different, focusing on a number of themes that came out of that year's reading, for instance the issues of translation, differences in cultural views etc etc.  In its own way it was just as interesting, althoug I did find that, having read a chapter and been quite enthralled, I couldn't actually remember much of what had been discussed - partly, I suspect, through trying to read through a slight fog of Covid, but also because the discussion was in places quite dense and, dare I say it, a little bit liable to wandering?  I'm not sure, and have promised myself to go back and read individual chapters to enable more time and space to absorb.  Whatever, it has certainly inspired me all the more. One little note - I'd have appreciated an index, as it'll certainly be used for reference in the future.  4/6 stars.

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