Polka Dot Rock
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Posts posted by Polka Dot Rock
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What a brilliant idea for a thread! Thanks for sharing your own little literary treasure, Oblomov
Sadly, I can't think of anyone I've really stumbled across accidentally... I think I can blame that on too many years of course reading lists
I keep meaning to go to Hay-on-Wye one day and find a hidden gem there (seeing as they have 30+ book shops!). -
Nope, I've never done it! Not even when I was a kid. 'Though, I can understand why people would.
It reminds me of a bit of When Harry Met Sally (one of my favourite films), when Harry says that he starts a new book, he always reads the end first so that if he dies, he'll know the end of whatever he was reading!
I hope none of you do that!!
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Although I would love a large bottle of whisky I don't think it is the best thing for a breastfeeding mother...
*Mmm* Whiskey... Oh, whoops - drifted there!
To give my 'two pennerth' worth, Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of my favourite novels, Em
I read it in 6th form and had a fantastic tutor who really got under its skin, but aside from that, I still think I would have enjoyed it. The ideas Orwell uses are wonderfully pertinent (still) and usually quite terrifying. And I found myself caring about Winston, which was unexpected!There are some great, iconic scenes in it too, so it's worth reading just so you can get to 'those' moments (I'm giving nothing away tho').
I'd steal it from your OH or at least encourage him to hurry up
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Starting Steph Penney The Tenderness of Wolves, got me hooked
I thought this book was superb - really wonderfully written. I hope you continue to enjoy it!
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You have to be in the mood for a particular book, be it classic or otherwise. I have done the same, started a classic and then decided that I'd prefer something more contemporary, only to go back to the original book a week or two later.
Just your mood PDR IMHO
I agree with PP you definately have to be in the mood for a classic novel and I have to also be in the mood for a contemporary one also. I find also it can be hard to be in the mood for the classics when the weather's hot - think they are very often curling up on a dark evening books.Yeah, it's happened. I bought Far From the Madding Crowd which is a very popular book on this forum. I opened the first pages and felt exhausted! It just seemed like work to me, I need to be in the right mood to read a classic.*Phew!* Ah, thanks guys! I feel a lot more secure with my classic reading habits now
You can forget how 'moody' reading can be.Judy, I think there is something about summer and the classics - yet, strangely, not contemporary novels that are written in the style of classics (For example, I read Jonathan Stange... and The Crimson Petal... in sunny weather)
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I finished 'The Penelopiad' by Margaret Atwood and 'The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories' by Tim Burton today. Both really good books, I enjoyed reading them especially 'Oyster Boy', I know how weird I sound, but that wee book was so pretty.
I love this book! My favourite is The Pin-cushion Queen "that stick in her spleen" (hmm... new avatar time perhaps...?)
Oh, and I have a load of the toys too (and you thought you might sound weird!!)
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The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly - Hmm, well... I'm afraid I wasn't exactly bowled over by this. I thought the main idea (and a great deal of the fantasy elements within it) were very derivative of a few contemporary novels and films (especially Angela Carter - I'd be extrememly surprised if Connolly hadn't read The Bloody Chamber, he completely stole the wolves from her! - and The Labyrinth).
I found the language annoyingly oversimplified at times, and was also irritated by the way the narrative perspective started 'wobbling' about towards the end. (
E.g. I found it a bit frustrating how the reader was told what The Crooked Man had been doing and that we didn't find out through David discovering. That was a bit lazy, in my opinion.
However, I did find some parts very funny (like Snow White and her not-so-happy dwarves) and I thought Roland was a wonderfully written character (so tragic!).
The first half was definitely stronger than the latter chapters: I was gripped by David's plaight in the real world, but I found the Other World less so. I don't think it was really thought out well enough and I found it unconvincing at times.
I did appreciate the twist (
regarding Rose's uncle, Jonathan
) and even though I began to rapidly lose interest towards the end, I thought the final chapter was very moving and fitting with the tone of the first half of the book.
Not a bad read, just very hit and miss for me
After a couple of false starts with some other books, I've embarked on Small Island by Andrea Levy (which won the Orange Prize in 2004). So far, it is very much my cup o' reading tea
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At the moment, I'm having a bit of a problem with the classics: I suddenly can't read them!!
Not a happy bunny...I started The Mill on the Floss (George Eliot) yesterday but I just lost the will to read it. I just wasn't in the mood.
Has anyone else had this? I just thought it was because I wasn't in the mood for reading, but I started a contemporary book and I was fine!
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Anyway, I found myself flicking through some computer magazines aswell.
Aw, was that because you missed us, Michelle?
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Finished Kavalier and Cray and loved the whole tone and storyline.
A bit like John Irving for me.
I'm so pleased you enjoyed it
You read it very fast!And your last comment makes me now want to read A Prayer for Owen Meany...
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Hello moussecake!
I read The Girls in February and I loved it: it will definitely feature in my favourite books of 2007 and we're already halfway through the year!
I thought it was amazingly moving without being sentimental and also incredibly funny.
Paula wrote a terrific review earlier in the year: click here to read it
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! You'll be amazed at how quickly you feel at (virtual) home
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:17:Lee!
I see you're settling in nicely and look may that continue!
I have to say, I'm very envious of you living so close to a beach
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I could do with a recomendation of a single title of hers to start out with.
I'd say The Handmaid's Tale or The Robber Bride
Her work is amazingly varied but I think those two contain a lot of her key issues. -
Finished Arlington Park last night. It was an interesting read - reminded me very much of Virginia Woolf. I think it will be worth reading again, so I'm going to hold on to it for a bit, I think.
The narrative construct was really convincing: I liked that it's almost like a short story collection, which heightens the 'seperateness' of the neighbours from one another. They live close and are going through similar emotional lives, but are basically strangers.
However, I would be disappointed if it won the Orange Prize (especially when Stef Pennet wrote a richer, more unusual book and didn't make the shortlist). Some characters were realised better than others (I loved Maisie, Solly and even Christine. But I found Juliet's thoughts a bit melodramatic at times, even though I could relate to her).
But I'll soon be able to compare it to its fellow nominess over the next few weeks
I've now picked up The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, which I am really looking forward to delving into.
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...Watch Paint Your Wagon sometime and see Clint Eastwood singing "I Talk To the Trees", you'll fall down laughing -- go ahead, make my day!
Oh I've seen a clip of that!!
It is hilarious and very bizarre (and I also think Lee Marvin - is it him? - singing 'I Was Born Under a Wanderin' Star' is also very amusing. How low can you go?)I only found out the other day that Brando was in a musical. I still can't believe it! I can't wait to see this movie - I really can't imagine him singing and dancing.He's actually pretty good - but him just being 'Brando' makes it work. He's so charismatic!
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Hello! And a hearty
from me! Hope you settle in, nice and easy -
If Gene Kelly is dancing, I'm watchin'. I have not seen anyone to match him for the combination of skill and passion he brings to the dance.
I wholeheartedly agree with you, there
As I imagine I've said elsewhere, I never ever tire of Singin' in the Rain. I could watch Gene Kelly all day!I finally watched Guys & Dolls at the weekend: I quite enjoyed it, although I think Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons' really made it watchable for me. (Btw, does anyone else watch Guys & Dolls thinking who weird it is that Marlon Brando's in it?? He's very good but every now and again, I started thinking "But he's Don Corleone! He's Colonel Kurtz! And he's singing?!"
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I always take at least half a dozen books with me if I'm going for 1-2 wekks, so I have a choice depending on what mood I'm in when I get reading time and during travel...
Ah Kell, I knew I could rely on you - just when I was starting to feel a bit over-zelous about books on holiday!
I usually make it an excuse to get to the more interesting books on my TBR pileYes, I do that too. I've been saving some up especially for this holiday!
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I'm not a huge holidayer, but when I do go somewhere there usually isn't much time spare for reading...
Ah y'see, my natural state is to be manic so I need holidays as an excuse to do absolutely nothing. Except read, of course.
I think I'd prefer to take one massive book - maybe even a re-read - rather than several small ones.That's interesting - I'd worry about not enjoying it and having no others to turn to!
I always seem to end up taking at least a couple that are based in hot countries! Obviously wishful thinking on my part...
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Since it's fast approaching that time of year, I was wondering about books on holiday.
How do you decide what to take with you? Is it dictated by the kind of holiday you're having? How many do you take? (Kell, I dread to think what your luggage must be like!
)Also, what books are you taking / have taken / would like to read on holiday this year?
I'm off to North Devon soon for some serious reading and relaxing for a couple of weeks, so I've worked out I'll probably read at least 5 or 6 books. Therefore, I'm taking 8
So far, I'm thinking of:
Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl
Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears
...and I'm torn between The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot or To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
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Ooh I have it on my TBR shelves too! I'm planning on reading it when I go on holiday.
Update: Penguin are offering an audio download of the first chapter - here
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Yesterday, I started reading Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk:
Arlington Park, a modern-day English suburb, is a place devoted to the profitable ordinariness of life.
Amidst leafy avenues and comfortable houses, its residents live out the dubious accomplishments of civilization: material prosperity, personal freedom, and moral indifference.
For all that, Arlington Park is strikingly conventional. Men work, women look after children, and people generally do what's expected of them.
Theirs is a world awash with contentment but empty of belief, and riven with strange anxieties.
Set over the course of a single rainy day, the novel moves from one household to another, and through the passing hours conducts a deep examination of its characters lives: of Juliet, enraged at the victory of men over women in family life; of Amanda, warding off thoughts of death with obsessive housework; of Solly, who confronts her own buried femininity in the person of her Italian lodger; of Maisie, despairing at the inevitability with which beauty is destroyed; and of Christine, whose troubled, hilarious spirit presides over Arlington Park.
I've already flown through the first half as it's quite a short book. I'm really enjoying parts of it, yet I feel (as I remember feeling about Cusk's first novel, Saving Agnes) that her writing can be a bit labourious at times. It's as if she fears that the common themes of her work (middle class women, motherhood, marriage, female anxiety) can seem 'chick lit'-like, so she needs to thrown in some opaque words to show 'weightiness'. If that makes sense...?
Anyway, we'll see how it goes.
It's also been nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction, and we now have all but one in the house, so I should be able to judge for myself this year!
Also from my bookshelves, I've picked up The Fahrenheit Twins which is Michel Faber's second collection of short stories. After falling in love with The Crimson Petal, I thought some short peices of his writing might ease the heartbreak of that novel ending
I keep meaning to read more short stories, so I'm hoping I'll keep 'dipping' in and out of this collection.
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I'm so lazy - I hold it in both hands and have to be supported by cushions or a table!!
So lazy... I find it really difficult to just hold it on one hand and keep ith in front of my face.I also 'slump' over which causes some real neck/shoulder problems... Bad habits from when I was little.
Anyone have any advice? I find it really hard to be comfortable when reading.
A problem with... crime / thrillers
in Crime / Mystery / Thriller
Posted
After Andy's and Kell's threads on fantasy, horror and the classics, I was really curious to see if anyone else one the forum has a 'problem' with the crime and / or thriller genres?
They are clearly very popular genres amongst many members (as well as the book buying public!), and I just thought I was the 'odd one out' as it were. But then I remembered that when I mentioned my not being a fan in passing, there were a couple of interesting responses, which I now quote below:
(H&D and Judy: I hope you don't mind me quoting you!!
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So perhaps I'm not in the minority after all!
But I still don't really know why crime and thrillers don't 'do' anything for me: I've had some bad reading experiences such as The DaVinci Code and Restless by William Boyd, but then I really enjoyed Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: The Mirror Crack'd. Yet I didn't feel the need to read anymore. However, I did hugely enjoy Kate Atkinson's One Good Turn and will definitely read more of her crime fiction.
Perhaps I crime and thrillers don't provide me with some magic component that makes me want to read on. Or perhaps many can be too similar? (I'm not one for reading books by the same author in a row or even on similar issues/themes on after another).
Also have a feeling that TV drama puts me off as there is so much of it on! And I get terribly bored (and I suppose it doesn't help that many are adapted very loosely from books).
If you don't like crime and/or thrillers, what is it for you that switches you off?
If you do, what am I missing?