Ben

Ah I'm really not sure about whether it would help you or not. I mean, I never really 'got' poetry either, and if it wasn't for the fact that I'm determined to have a better knowledge of it for the course and the exam, I may have already given up trying to learn about it. I think it all depends on how much you're interested in learning the technicalities, because there's certainly a lot to wrap your head around when it comes to learning about trochees, iambs, tetrameter, etcetera. It's certainly helped me appreciate poetry more I believe, but whether or not I'd persevere with learning the intricacies of prosody if I didn't have to, I really can't say.

Incidentally I have just started another of Fry's books: The Ode Less Travelled. This isn't fiction as such, rather a guide towards 'unlocking the poet within.' I've actually avoided it and put it aside many times, but now I regret not picking it up earlier. It is an absolute god-send for helping me with my poetry course, as Fry breaks down the technicalities of poetry so well without ever over-complicating it. I've found myself a little out of depth with some of the terminology, but a quick glance back through what I've read helps me there; as does, of course, Fry's knack for explaining things. I've only read the first fifty pages or so, but the handy 'poetry exercises' he has the reader doing are brilliant in helping you come to grips with what he's talking about. Interestingly, I notice the book was included on my 'possible secondary reading' list for university, so it's obviously fully endorsed to help with the course.

Cheers. I put this off for a long time due to university reading too, but I'm please I finally got around to it. Stephen Fry is wonderful as always. I must agree though. I got the audiobook as well and although I adore his voice, you're right: it doesn't have the same effect as reading the text. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on The Fry Chronicles when you get around to it mate; I would probably go as far as to say it is better than Moab is my Washpot, and having enjoyed that I'm confident in saying you'll enjoy this too.

Well there we have it, I simply couldn't stay away from The Fry Chronicles and I've just finished it. The book is in excess of 400 pages, and yet it's only taken me a couple of days to read, even with everything else I have to do at the minute. This is tribute to Stephen Fry's writing style, which is just fantastic. He says himself early on that if something can be said in one word, you can be guaranteed he'll say it in ten. You would think this could be frustrating, but it is far from from it; his love for words is evident, and his poetic prose has you flicking the pages quickly through his narrative. Picking up from where Moab Is My Washpot finished, this book describes Fry's period at Cambridge, up until his thirtieth birthday. The book is filled with hilarious anecdotes and fascinating tales of the company that Fry surrounded himself with. As with its predecessor, The Fry Chronicles offers an intriguing insight into the real inner-workings of the author's mind; it is quite a shock to hear him describe how he feels in life, not how he is perceived by others. All in all then, a fantastically witty and wonderful read, both engaging and entertaining. I would recommend to all. 5/5.

Well as we go into the final month of reading for the year, I thought it was time for another update (cue groans). Okay so it seems I'm getting snowed-under (although it's a bit early in the month for the literal sense of the phrase), by the reading pace at the moment for university. I finished Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter which started well, but in my opinion laboured a little as it went through. I adore her style of writing; some of the metaphors she uses are simply wonderful. However, I think the story was just difficult to sustain for me. Even though the idea is to suspend disbelief while she blends the boundaries between truth and lies, magic and realism, I struggled slightly to stay engaged. Nevertheless, far from the worst book I've read so far on the course, and it's definitely worth a read. It may even be the case that I struggled with the middle-to-end of the novel because of other distractions, and that might not be the case for other readers. As for what I have on the go, I have a number of books that I'm making my way through. I started reading The Fry Chronicles a couple of days ago because I thought I had a bit of spare time for recreational reading (instead of university-required books, oh how I was wrong), but alas it is that good, that I've hardly been able to put it down. Fry once again, like he did in Moab is my Washpot, manages to capture and entertain the readers, with his both hilarious and fascinating anecdotes of his time through university. I've found myself laughing aloud on more than one occasion, and his enjoyment of words and of alliteration is pleasing and plain to see. As a result I've been neglecting some of what I have to read for university. I've made a start on Tom Jones by Henry Fielding which is rather long and daunting, and I also have Turn of the Screw by Henry James to get through, which is less so. It's not often I juggle a few texts on the go, but if I stick at it I'll manage. I hope everyone else has a good reading month to end this year.

Hey emmylou, I'll be with you soon! I've asked for Inheritance for Christmas, and I will start reading it straight away. As soon as I'm done I'll pop back here with my thoughts. What did you think of it? Did he finish the series well?

Might have to get myself a copy of this, perhaps add it to my Christmas list; sounds fascinating.

Sorry about my slow response, I missed this entirely! I'm entirely with you on this, and can only think it must just be considered great because it was one of the first novels. I find his work terribly long-winded, but that isn't the problem. I've read books that are long before, as have we all, that I have managed to enjoy, so it's not the length, rather that his stories always seem devoid of any real plot. It could, however, just be me too, and I'm sure there are a lot of people that do enjoy Defoe's work after all. I'm not sure how good of an explanation this will be, but the main interpretation I chose to take from it, is the philosophical one; although it has been interpreted in a Freudian manner, and politically, as well as in other ways. In fact, Beckett himself said that its success as a play is because of the numerous different interpretations. Anyway, I related directly to the the idea of existentialism, which focuses on the fact that to live our lives and understand ourselves properly there are certain fundamental questions, like the meaning of human existence, that we should consider. Most humans spent their lives doing trivial acts, always 'waiting' like the characters in the play, whereas we should be bettering ourselves and thriving for intellectual development. I'd be loathe to suggest that it could be as I know some people that struggled with it, and it could just be my personal preference which made me enjoy it! You're quite right though, Haroun really was a light-hearted relief-read, one of my favourite books this year as it happens.

More reading news! I've recently finished Haroun and the Sea of Stories which I have to admit has been one my favourite reads on the course so far this year. It's a children's book and as a result is a lovely, easy read (something I've needed with the difficult 18th century fiction work I've had to tackle this term). In any case, even though it's a simplistic text to read, it's not difficult to recognise how Rushdie writes about his own experiences, and the whole idea of freedom of speech is an important one throughout. It's also very cleverly written character-wise - I wouldn't want to ruin it for anyone that's planning on reading it, but I'd certainly suggest it to anyone that enjoys a charming tale about stories and the real power they have (as I'm sure many of my fellow readers will know). Okay, so recently I've also finished A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne, which I have to admit is a bit of a chore at times. This is one of the first real 'stream of consciousness' type of books, and as a result the plot is virtually non-existent. The central protagonist Yorrick goes travelling through Italy and France, simply on a bet with a friend, and this typifies the type of character and book that we're dealing with. Things seem to happen spontaneously for Yorrick and he often goes off and devotes three or four pages on something that has randomly captured his attention. So, although it is a tricky book to read, I did in the end find it enjoyable (once I had got used to the style a little more). All in all it was an interesting read, even if I wouldn't recommend it as a bit of light reading.

Don't have anything shorter but there's a few really good short poems (as well as frustratingly long ones), that I'm studying on my poetry module at the minute: In a Station of the Metro The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough. - Ezra Pound, 1919. Oread Whirl up, Sea - Whirl your pointed pines, Splash your great pines On our rocks; Hurl your green over us, Cover us with pools of fir. - H.D., 1920. The Red Wheelbarrow so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. - William Carlos Williams, 1923. I love all three of these to be honest; sometimes short poetry can inspire or resonate just as much, or even more so, than epics.

Reading Update. I know I haven't commented much on what I've been reading in this thread recently (probably because half the time my discussion on what I've read is exhausted in essays/questions or seminar discussion), but I have updated the list on the front page with the books I've read and studied already. I do a module called 'Reading Short Narratives' so I have a lot of fascinating short stories to read. I wasn't sure whether to list these individually as a books read, so I settled with posting some as individual tales while the majority I've just listed as read from one anthology; The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories which has been extremely engaging and has included tales from Henry James, Robert Louis Stevenson and Elizabeth Gaskell, amongst others of course. As for the novels I've completed, I've read Defoe's Moll Flanders and Robinson Crusoe both of which I didn't really enjoy. I'm not sure if it's because of the long-windedness of the two tales, or if it's just not for me, but either way I struggled with both texts. I've also read Shakespeare's Venus & Adonis which I thought was fantastic and Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett which wasn't 'enjoyable' as such, but the background and idea behind it was utterly fascinating. What else have we got? Oh Ayub Khan-Din's play East is East Is a fantastically funny read (as you will know if you've read the book or indeed watched the film). Probably one of my favourite texts of the course so far was Richardson's Pamela which although is an 18th century text and therefore hard to get your teeth into (at least for a lot of people including me most times, these 'old-y' kind of texts are), held me interested throughout. I was fascinated by how the central protagonist doesn't conform to what is expected of her, and all around it was just an enjoyable read. I'm now going to go read 'The Canterville Ghost' by Oscar Wilde, who I've astonishingly never read much of, but who still holds the title of one of my favourite authors for The Picture of Dorian Gray. I'm understandably looking forward to studying him and I'll probably read around the subject and check out some of his other tales too. Well, that's a bit of an update, feel free to comment on anything and happy reading to you all.

Hey folks, know I haven't really been in this thread much, but I've updated the first post with a bunch of stuff I've been reading while here at university, and I must say I'm enjoying the new, different reading experiences. I've been reading a lot that I probably wouldn't normally pick out and the books we're reading are taking on whole new meanings with the additional studying we're doing on them.

That sounds a really crappy and expensive deal for the fans! Interestingly enough I was thinking about Ice Hockey today, and how I enjoyed it when I watched some World Championships, or Olympics perhaps, sometime ago. I was wondering about starting to watch again, but have no idea if it's even in season or which team I would support or anything like that. Is there any major matches on at the moment? Doing a quick search it seems NHL is the stuff I'd enjoy watching, now just to pick myself a random team.

It certainly is. Oh and that's entirely true, just that when it's university reading I'm not allowed that luxury of slow reading.

Well it's been a long time coming but I've finally finished Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Despite taking such a long time with it, I'm quite certain it isn't because the book wasn't enjoyable; on the contrary, I enjoyed it immensely. Austen has a writing style that I feel moves the narrative at a quick pace, and for such a young author (in her twenties when she wrote this), she has a wonderful insight into the world. In essence the book revolves around the protagonist Elizabeth Bennet, and the fact that her mother's simple aim in life is to have her daughters married-off to rich men. Despite this, the novel's real message is of how a young man changes his manners, and how a young woman changes her mind and heart. The novel is packed full to the brim with content; romance, humour, wit, all of which certainly put a smile across my face as I read. Overall then, the mixture of entertaining characters, engaging plot developments, and witty dialogue make for a fabulous novel that many will enjoy. 5/5.

Argh Kindle Touch looks amazing! Want, want, want.

I'm reading the background on her as we speak. The edition that we were given to buy has loads of critical essays and background information; different ways of interpretation for the text, that sort of thing. It's fascinating actually, and I'm definitely making sure I know as much about the background to my texts and the authors, as essentially that's what the lectures and seminars will all be about.

Just finished Oroonoko by Aphra Behn and in the end I thought it was a charming little read, although for the most part I definitely struggled. It's written in a very difficult style as it's such an old novel - well, I guess I should say novella. However, once I got used to the writing style I found myself engrossed and wondering what was going to happen. It was remarkable how much of a story Behn manages to tell in such a short amount of pages, and the novella on a whole offers an interesting portrayal of slavery, and a captivating story of two lovers' journey to be together despite the odds. 3/5.

Hey welcome to the forum.

Okay, reading news! In other words, a lack of, as I've really been struggling getting into anything at the moment. It couldn't be a worse time for me to be having another reading drought, as I have so much reading to do for university that it's unbelievable, but what can I do? Sometimes a loss of mojo just happens and you have to deal with it. In regards to my lectures that start on Monday, we're apparently going to be working at a book per week! When I was told this I did a little bit of a double-take, as that is quite a lot, even for someone who loves to read. I know a lot of people on here would manage it, but it's still a tenacious pace. In any case, I've started Oroonoko by Aphra Behn, which I need to finish for Monday. It's not long but looks fascinating.

Google is pretty cool today..

Hey welcome to the forum.

Oh my mistake Michelle, I thought this was where it was posted in the first place - I guess putting it here makes sense.

Hey welcome to the forum Lu Lu!