Jump to content

Your Book Activity - April 2015


frankie

Recommended Posts

Being off work with too much access to the forum is bad news … a while back, Diane recommended a series of novels about quilting to me, and then today Virginia also recommended them.  So I thought I'd go back to the library and check if they had it, but they have lots of the books in the series, but not the first one … off I toddle back to check the Kindle edition and put it on my wish list, and the next think I know, I've clicked on Buy.  The Quilter's Apprentice is now on my Kindle :doh:

:giggle2: ....ooh, another book!..... :D

 

I have read the first couple of chapters of Reasons to Stay Alive, but my attention span is very short. Maybe I'll try to have a session this evening with Barbara Trapido's Sex with Stravinski. Or not  :blush2:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 264
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

It's not like I really need an excuse to buy a book … but it's a great excuse to buy a book!  Keeping up the family tradition. :smile2:  (She also used to get me a cassette tape or record too, I'm going to show my age here, but I definitely remember getting Adam and the Ants Kings of the Wild Frontier for Easter when I was about 10 :D)

 

You're right, of course: we don't need an excuse... :blush: (And don't worry, I don't know when AatA was all the rage :D I don't think I've heard of them. I remember getting records on Christmas myself... Those were the days :wub:)

 

Everytime I google 'Anastasia' I get the  :censored: FSOG one!! Before I didn't know that the FSOG woman was called Anastasia  :irked: .

Really?? That's worrying!! :(

 

 

I'm not offended at all, but I am curious what is your favourite holiday? I've never really thought about that myself, though I personally do enjoy Christmas more than Easter (that's not to say I don't enjoy Easter, but Christmas is more special). And back when I was younger there was Sinterklaas too, which was always fun. We also have 'Pinksteren' but since I'm not religious it's just a day off for my close family, we don't do anything special.

 

My favorite holiday is Mayday (or Mayday Eve). It's in the spring, you don't have to plan for it for weeks before and you don't have to stress about gifts and where to go etc. Everyone seems to be in a great mood then and I've never heard anyone complain about it as a holiday. 

 

I think I have about 40 pages left of The Night Guest and I'm really curious to see how the book ends! 

Edited by frankie
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm *still* plodding through The Shadow of the Wind.  I'm enjoying it more than I was, but I'm not loving it.  :(

 

My mojo is still poorly (although I feel I could quite happily read Middlemarch quickly if I wasn't doing it as a group read).  I think maybe I should read a couple of comics like The Beano to increase my reading numbers for the year!  :giggle2:  Just kidding!  :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm *still* plodding through The Shadow of the Wind.  I'm enjoying it more than I was, but I'm not loving it.  :(

Awww, that's a shame :( For your own sake, of course. It would be a lot more fun to read it if you loved it!   :empathy: 

 

 

My mojo is still poorly (although I feel I could quite happily read Middlemarch quickly if I wasn't doing it as a group read).  I think maybe I should read a couple of comics like The Beano to increase my reading numbers for the year!  :giggle2:  Just kidding!  :D

 

Haha, go for it :giggle2::D 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not really being fair - I'm not hating it either.  It's certainly picked up now, but I found it took me aaages to get into. :)   So many people told me I would love it (including my Mum, who did, and we have similar tastes in books) that I think I put too much pressure on myself.  Does that make sense? 

 

I know lots of people love them but comics are not something that appeals to me.  If I did read them I don't think I would count them towards my yearly reading total because they tend to be short (that's a sweeping generalisation, I know, but I'm thinking of things like the Beano). I feel bad if I read a novella that only has 60 pages and count it towards my total, but then I guess I have read them, so they should count.  :shrug:  It just feels a bit like cheating. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not really being fair - I'm not hating it either.  It's certainly picked up now, but I found it took me aaages to get into. :)   So many people told me I would love it (including my Mum, who did, and we have similar tastes in books) that I think I put too much pressure on myself.  Does that make sense?

It makes perfect sense :yes: Unfortunately that's just what happens with some books :(

 

I know lots of people love them but comics are not something that appeals to me.  If I did read them I don't think I would count them towards my yearly reading total because they tend to be short (that's a sweeping generalisation, I know, but I'm thinking of things like the Beano). I feel bad if I read a novella that only has 60 pages and count it towards my total, but then I guess I have read them, so they should count.  :shrug:  It just feels a bit like cheating.

I'll let you in on a secret: I, too, know that comics are popular but I've never been a huge fan  :hide:   And I wouldn't count them towards my read books, either. :) Novellas are different though, in my opinion. Even though they are short, they are still all text and no pics. 

 

I finished reading The Night Guest last night and started Scent of a Killer by Kevin Lewis. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My favorite holiday is Mayday (or Mayday Eve). It's in the spring, you don't have to plan for it for weeks before and you don't have to stress about gifts and where to go etc. Everyone seems to be in a great mood then and I've never heard anyone complain about it as a holiday.

We don't have that holiday here, but it sounds great :)

 

I'm *still* plodding through The Shadow of the Wind.  I'm enjoying it more than I was, but I'm not loving it.  :(

 

My mojo is still poorly (although I feel I could quite happily read Middlemarch quickly if I wasn't doing it as a group read).  I think maybe I should read a couple of comics like The Beano to increase my reading numbers for the year!  :giggle2:  Just kidding!  :D

I'm sorry you're not really enjoying your book :(

 

I'm not really being fair - I'm not hating it either.  It's certainly picked up now, but I found it took me aaages to get into. :)   So many people told me I would love it (including my Mum, who did, and we have similar tastes in books) that I think I put too much pressure on myself.  Does that make sense? 

 

I know lots of people love them but comics are not something that appeals to me.  If I did read them I don't think I would count them towards my yearly reading total because they tend to be short (that's a sweeping generalisation, I know, but I'm thinking of things like the Beano). I feel bad if I read a novella that only has 60 pages and count it towards my total, but then I guess I have read them, so they should count.  :shrug:  It just feels a bit like cheating.

It's possible there is too much pressure :(.

 

I don't read comics often either, though I sometimes read some Donald Duck pockets (but they aren't short magazines, they are proper books.). We don't have that many comics in the Netherlands, like in for example the US, and they seem to be mainly a children's thing here. We certainly don't have a lot of superhero comics like in the US, most of that never gets translated. It's hard to find more 'adult' comics here (and by that I don't mean 'erotica' like comics..). I do read sometimes manga or a graphic novel, or the Donald Duck pockets, and I personally do count them towards my total as they are pages read (I don't count magazines though). They are however a minor part of the books I read, as most of the books I read are books with text, or illustrated children's books. I believe only ~5% of the books I read so far in 2015 were comics, manga and graphic novels.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm *still* plodding through The Shadow of the Wind.  I'm enjoying it more than I was, but I'm not loving it.  :(

 

My mojo is still poorly (although I feel I could quite happily read Middlemarch quickly if I wasn't doing it as a group read).  I think maybe I should read a couple of comics like The Beano to increase my reading numbers for the year!  :giggle2:  Just kidding!  :D

 

Janet, I don't know how Alex feels, but I wouldn't mind if you wanted to carry straight on with Middlemarch if you wanted to.  Maybe you could just make notes at the end of each book and join in the discussion as we get to each stopping point.  Especially if it helps your mojo … I wouldn't want to stand in its way :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I finished Jon Ronson's The Men Who Stare at Goats. Crazy stuff.

 

I have one book on the go from my book jar and I still have another to start, but I couldn't resist choosing yet another from the jar. It's Haruki Murakami's Underground, in which he interviews people involved in the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995. I'm a few chapters in and it's really interesting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last night I started reading something called My Heart And Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga, and despite its extremely emo title, it's actually a very good read, about two suicidal kids who buddy up to do it together. Anyway the actual quote from which the title comes is brilliant, the girl is talking about how sometimes she feels pangs of affection for people or a desire to live despite being deeply unhappy most of the time, and she says, 'sometimes I wonder if my heart is like a black hole - it's so dense that there's no room for light, but that doesn't mean it can't still suck me in.' I just love that line.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Janet, I don't know how Alex feels, but I wouldn't mind if you wanted to carry straight on with Middlemarch if you wanted to.  Maybe you could just make notes at the end of each book and join in the discussion as we get to each stopping point.  Especially if it helps your mojo … I wouldn't want to stand in its way :D

Thanks kind of you, Claire.  :) 

 

I'm going to start my Book Club book soon, so I'll see if my mojo improves after that, and if not then I might well do that.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last night I started reading something called My Heart And Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga, and despite its extremely emo title, it's actually a very good read

:lol:

 

I finished Jon Ronson's The Men Who Stare at Goats. Crazy stuff.

 

I have one book on the go from my book jar and I still have another to start, but I couldn't resist choosing yet another from the jar. It's Haruki Murakami's Underground, in which he interviews people involved in the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995. I'm a few chapters in and it's really interesting.

That Murakami I might be able to try, I will download the sample, thanks! 

Gee, Goats doesn't sound like crazy stuff at all :P

 

I finished off The Giver, read the entire novel of Catherine Ryan Hyde's Jumpstart the World and started a new book all in one day yesterday!  I am now 30 pages into one of Oprah's Book Club selections, written about Rwanda and a Kenya slum.  It's called Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks kind of you, Claire. :)

 

I'm going to start my Book Club book soon, so I'll see if my mojo improves after that, and if not then I might well do that.

Sounds like a great idea to me Janet :) It's all about enjoying our reading and whatever helps with that makes sense to me!

 

I'm still plodding through The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Although 950 pages plus another 300 page book in the last three weeks is maybe not plodding... But I'm not sure of a more appropriate word. :D

 

I'm really enjoying it, but it's just long and packed with information. I'm hoping to get it finished over the long weekend and then go back to the box of destiny for my next read.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have finished The Bhagavad Gita this afternoon and the TBR jar chose The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells as my next read. I'm really looking forward to this one and I was a little apprehensive about what the jar would choose.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have finished The Bhagavad Gita this afternoon and the TBR jar chose The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells as my next read. I'm really looking forward to this one and I was a little apprehensive about what the jar would choose.

Do have fun with that and keep in mind, it was blowing readers minds back in 1898 :o

 

 

Next up ultim_zps1xcr3e3r.jpg

Haven't read of that one, but I posted in your other thread!

 

I plan on finishing the terribly depressing, Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan  today and continue to have trouble with my Kindle Fire :banghead:

Edited by Anna Begins
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really?? That's worrying!! 

Teaches me to try to remember more relevant words when Googling  :giggle2:  :roll:

 

I'm *still* plodding through The Shadow of the Wind.  I'm enjoying it more than I was, but I'm not loving it.  :(

Yes, I went through a similar phase during TSofW, when I was often yelling "Oh, just get on with it!!"  :motz: It did get better towards the end, thankfully  :smile: .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My reading is just diddley squat at the mo. Much more interesting spending time pottering in the garden - dead heading the daffodils etc. on a sunny, warmish afternoon.  

 

I keep reading a few chapters of Reasons to Stay Alive, then I have to read some of Winnie-the-Pooh for some serious philosophical ideas :D . Some chapters of RTSA are very good, and then the next chapter sounds quite the opposite!!  :roll:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, I went through a similar phase during TSofW, when I was often yelling "Oh, just get on with it!!"  :motz: It did get better towards the end, thankfully  :smile: .

It picked up for me too, eventually, but it took me so long to get into it.  :)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It picked up for me too, eventually, but it took me so long to get into it.  :)

That's good  :smile: . It was a great book, but a bit too much waffling sometimes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...