Polka Dot Rock
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Posts posted by Polka Dot Rock
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Hey Squawk
The best thing to do, I reckon, is have a quick look at some (if not all!) the others' reading blogs on here and you can get some ideas of how you might like to lay your blog-thread out.
The majority are for the current year, but you can do whatever you can possibly do - the choice is yours!
You'll often see 'summaries' on the first post (usually lists) of what people have read so far (often with marks out of ten or a sentence on their thoughts), what they're currently reading, their To Be Read lists, any books they're interested in and want to make a note of etc etc...
These posts are usually edited quite frequently as you add books to different lists.
It's entirely up to you!
Hope that helps and wasn't too confusing!
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The translation is an interesting thing, too. I know that Tolstoy wrote parts of War and Peace in French and parts in Russian.
Ooh now I didn't know that! Learn something new everyday etc.
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So is it the same as War and Peace? Not only incredibly long, but it takes an age to really get going at all, and there's a cast that's almost incomprehensibly large to start off with?
I think so! Especially confusing as Anna isn't the only principal character, despite being in the title...
The translation I've got is wonderfully fluent tho' so I imagine that will help
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Good idea, Andy!
I notice a few people have Anna Karenina (which I've never even opened) on their TBR piles so perhaps it's time to discuss Tolstoy.Yep, I'm one of those people. I'm not sure when I'll get around to reading it, but maybe this thread will help
I feel re-inspired to read it again after seeing Newsnight Review last Friday: they were discussing those new (awful) abridged classics, and Anna Karenina was one of them.
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Lunch today (as part of my slightly healthier routine of making my own lunch) two small spelt-flour bread sandwiches with black forest ham and hummus, a tomato salad (fresh vine plum tomatoes, basil, black olives, a small amount of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper), two clementines. Lots of fizzy water.
Very jealous!!
Did you prepare it yourself, or did you buy it all ready-to-eat? -
Oh dear... Now 29... How did that happen?!
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I've had some cheap books through the post (including a swap from Kell - cheers hun!), so have added The Island by Victoria Hislop, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (snazzy American edition too!) and An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears (hmm, not what I'd define as 'good' condition
But hey ho, it's readable).Also remembered I've never got around to reading Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse so I've moved it to my TBR shelf
Already planning my next read: think I may be in the mood for some more Daphne du Maurier so have also moved Jamaica Inn to my TBR shelf.
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don't think I've read any Zola since the summer - so it's good to read him again.
Were you having Zola withdrawal symptoms?
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I had the same problem when I first started reading A Tale of Two Cities (my first Dickens). I found it a bit difficult to get into, but by the end I absolutely loved it. I found it quite educational too (not knowing much about that particular period in history). It inspired me to a bit of extra research, which is always a good thing! I hope you enjoy the rest of it!
Thank Lowek
That's very useful to know: much more encouragement to read it! I can already feel myself becoming more involved, now I'm past the 200+ pages mark. -
Amy, have to say, you enjoy a challenge eh? makings of a evil genius I think, a book evil genius that is...
Oh yes! Well, I do practice my evil-genius laugh at work: Bwa-ha-ha-ha-HA-ha-ha! To that effect
Have you ever seen the episode of The Simpsons when the school is closed down, and Bart and Lisa have to stay at home for a week? Well, I think I'm like Lisa in that episode, in that she can't cope without some kind of task to achieve! "Grade me! Grraaade ME!!"
And I think Evil Book Genuius will become my new member status quote thingy *tootles off to do so*
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The Summer Book by Tove Janssen
I think I remember hearing that The Summer Book is semi-autographical...? Or I may have misheard it... Hmm.
As you've probably noticed, I'm on another French theme as I'm reading A Tale of Two Cities: who knew the French said "Thou" and other such Shakespearan-type-phrases a lot?!
Erm, interesting idea, Mr Dickens! -
Nice to see you've given One Good Turn 10/10 - it's on my wishlist.
Hello you!
Ooh get to it quickly!! It's fantastic! I'm having lots of fun with genre fiction: One Good Turn as a crime story, and I've just finished The Tenderness of Wolves which is, basically, a Canadian 'Western'.
One Good Turn really did make me laugh... Hilarious characters!
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So, here I am, fresh new blog for the Spring/Summer months. This is when my reading normally hits full flow, so it's probably a good idea to open a new thread!
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney was an absolute joy to read: I throughly enjoyed it and it well deserves it's award winning status ("Boo!" to the Orange Prize for not shortlisting it: "Boo!" again, in fact).
I will review it properly as I'd like more people to hear about it. Beautiful characterisation, wonderful plotting, AMAZING atmosphere (I can't think of anything I've read that captures a mood and landscape so completely)... A beautiful and compulsive novel, and I can scarcely believe it's only Penney's first! She is also a screenwriter, and although the dialogue is pitch-perfect, I can't imagine this particular story as anything other than a written narrative.
It's one of the few books where I've got to the end and felt a huge need to read more. I demand a sequel! I can't be left without knowing more...
I've now embarked on Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities (which is part of my Classics Challenge). It's a novel that I've heard referenced to an awful lot throughout my life, so thought it was high time I read it.
However, I am struggling a little bit with it, which makes me wonder if my Victorian reading sensibilities are a little rusty... I think I'm getting back into the swing of things: once I hit Dickens' dialogue, it's like a part of brain/imagination is instantly fired up.
So as yet, I'm not finding it as immediately compulsive as Great Expectations, but I'm certainly sticking with it
I like the sense of injustice and protest that Dickens is weaving throughout A Tale of Two Cities already. It's interesting that some elements of society that Dickens protested about can still be seen... Interesting, eh? -
From April 22 to June 24 (Previous Blog can be found here and the Continuing Blog here
)Colour Key
Classics
Modern Classics
Short Stories
Recent/New Releases (2006/2007)
Doorsteps (Chunky monsters of a novel, approx. 400 pages +)
(occasionally, one book can also be classed as another so this noted by a corresponding asterix)
Currently Reading
The Fahrenheit Twins - Michel Faber
January
Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi (9/10)
Vanity Fair - W.M Thackeray* (8/10)
Wicked - Gregory Maguire (7/10)
February
The Night Watch - Sarah Waters (8/10)
The Girls - Lori Lansens (9/10)
March
Restless - William Boyd (3/10)
One Good Turn - Kate Atkinson (10/10)
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (6/10)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon (8/10)
April
Poppy Shakespeare - Clare Allen (5/10)
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood (8/10)
Disobedience - Naomi Alderman (9/10)
The Tenderness of Wolves - Stef Penney* (9/10)
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (5/10)
May
Jamaica Inn - Daphne du Maurier (8/10)
How Novels Work - John Mullan (9/10)
Watchmen - Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons (9/10)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - Mark Haddon (9/10)
My Cousin Rachel - Daphne du Maurier (8/10)
The Crimson Petal & The White - Michel Faber (10/10)
June
Arlington Park - Rachel Cusk (7/10)
The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly (6/10)
Small Island - Andrea Levy (8/10)
Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (9/10)
The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde (7½ /10)
TBR
Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis
Money - Martin Amis
Maps for Lost Lovers - Nadeem Aslam
Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood*
Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
Sense & Sensibility - Jane Austen
Villette - Charlotte Bronte*
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop - Lewis Buzbee
Love - Angela Carter
Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes (trans. Edith Grossmann)*
No Name - Wilkie Collins*
The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens*
The Woman Who Walked Into Doors - Roddy Doyle
Julius - Daphne du Maurier
The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot*
Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
Chocolat - Joanne Harris
The Island - Victoria Hislop
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Goodbye to Berlin - Christopher Isherwood
Finn Family Moomintroll - Tove Jansson
Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones
Man Walks Into A Room - Nicole Krauss
The People's Act of Love - James Meek
Suite Francaise - Irene Nemirovsky (trans. Sanda Smith)
An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears
Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl*
The Book of the City of Ladies - Christine de Pizan (trans. Rosalind Brown Grant)
Franny & Zooey - J.D Salinger
Kartography - Kamila Shamsie
Anna Karenina - L.N. Tolstoy*
To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
Want
Nightwood - Djuna Barnes
Possession - A.S Byatt
Will & Me: How Shakespeare Took Over My Life - Dominic Dromgoole
This Is Not a Love Song - Karen Duve
The Apple: New Crimson Petal Stories - Michel Faber
Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris
Howards End - E.M Forster
The Odd Women - George Gissing
Carter Beats the Devil - Glen David Gold
The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing
Affluenza: How to be Successful and Stay Sane - Oliver James
The Cement Garden - Ian McEwan
Valley of the Dolls - Jacqueline Susann
Last Orders - Graham Swift
Re-Read
Nights at the Circus - Angela Carter
Wise Children - Angela Carter
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Unless - Carol Shields
On Beauty - Zadie Smith
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
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As a few others have done, I'm going to 'close' this thread and begin a new one before all the posts get horribly tangled (said she with three blogs on the go...)
Book Blog Part 2 (April 22 - June 24)
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The blurb:
"Oh, why, dear God, did I marry him?"
Emma Bovary is beautiful and bored, trapped in her marriage to a mediocre doctor and stifled by the banality of provincial life. An ardent devourer of sentimental novels, she longs for passion and seeks escape in fantasies of high romance, in voracious spending and, eventually, in adultery. But even her affairs bring her disappointment, and when real life continues to fail to live up to her romantic expectations the consequences are devastating.
Flaubert
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"Vanitas Vanitatum! Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?"
The blurb:
No one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth and worldly success than the alluring and ruthless Becky Sharp, who defies her impoverished background to clamber up the class ladder. Her sentimental companion Amelia, however, longs only for caddish soldier George. As the two heroines make their way through the tawdry glamour of Regency society, battles
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It's the Recorded Books version, recorded in 1988 and narrated by someone called Betty Harris (who has rather an expressionless voice, but I wonder if that's intentional for this reading?).
Plus, have you ever heard Margaret Atwood herself speak? I love her but OH DEAR. She has such a flat voice! But she is a lovely and witty person, so perhaps she gets away with it. Perhaps.
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I'm actually about to start listening to the audio book of this...
Who's doing the reading, Kell?
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I always think I should read Irving, but never know where to start. I think it's because the film adaptations can be a quite hit-and-miss, so I'm never sure what the actual novel might be like. For example, I love the film of The Cider House Rules, but I've seen part of one with Robin Williams in, and that was, erm, interesting... (Is that The World According to Garp?).
Is Owen Meany usually consdiered his best? Or can anyone recommend another Irving starting point?
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Oh wow, nice finds Kitty!!
If I may...Well iw ent to the RSPCa shop and i got some ace books, brand new hard backed classics, you know the sort of books from the 1980's that people had a collection of but never read, all for 99p each!!I got:
A tale of 2 cities - Charles Dickens
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
Vanity Fair - WM Thackeray
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Kim - Rudyard Kipling
The great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
Great Expectations, Vanity Fair and Wuthering Heights are three of my favourite books, and I'm reading A Tale of Two Cities at this very moment (well, not at this particluar moment as that would inolve the tricky feat of reading and typing at the same time, and... oh, nevermind!
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Excellent finds, h&d!!
Quite jealous actually...
Hanley's charity shops are rubbish for books
Poor me -
*Ahem* Just realised, it's actually 30 as I have two on order... Oops!
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Lol, all the above looks as clear as mud to anyone who hasn't read it!
Sorry not-yet-read-The Robber Bride people! It's for your own good
Judy's Classics Challenge
in Classics Club
Posted
I beg your pardon??!
:D (Sorry, couldn't resist!)
Judy's very fond of them too, which is why I know she won't mind me replying in her thread
How's the Zola ticking along, Judy? I'm struggling with Two Cities, I'm afraid
It's not as character driven as Dickens' other works I've read, I think that's the problem for me.