Your Book Activity - September 2022

[lunababymoonchild]

Started reading the new Vera by Ann Cleeves

Edited September 1, 2022 by lunababymoonchild

[lunababymoonchild]

I'm buying e-books at a faster rate that I can even note them here but this morning's puchase was Psycho by Robert Bloch, the book that Alfred Hitchcock based his film on. I didn't know that the film was based on a book and I didn't see the film until fairly late in life. It scared the livin' daylights out of me!  The book promised to be even darker, so I'm looking forward to that.

Edited September 3, 2022 by lunababymoonchild

[Hux]

Started reading White Noise by Don DeLillo.

[lunababymoonchild]

Currently reading Psycho, Robert Bloch. The book that inspired the Hitchcock movie

Edited September 6, 2022 by lunababymoonchild

[willoyd]

Read Real Bloomsbury by Nicholas Murray during a 3-day trip to London for some orienteering races round the City and Kings Cross - a lively and engaging historical guide to one of my favourite parts of London (4*).  In my spare time, enjoyed visiting Dr Johnson's house just behind Fleet Street, following Virginia Woolf's various houses round Fitzrovia and Bloomsbury, spending a few hours at the Charles Dickens museum in Doughty Street, and dropping into various favourite bookshops and the British Library. My type of weekend!

[Brian.]

12 minutes ago, willoyd said:

Read Real Bloomsbury by Nicholas Murray during a 3-day trip to London for some orienteering races round the City and Kings Cross - a lively and engaging historical guide to one of my favourite parts of London (4*).  In my spare time, enjoyed visiting Dr Johnson's house just behind Fleet Street, following Virginia Woolf's various houses round Fitzrovia and Bloomsbury, spending a few hours at the Charles Dickens museum in Doughty Street, and dropping into various favourite bookshops and the British Library. My type of weekend!

 

Tell me more about these orienteering races. I did some as a schoolboy aorund muddy fields and woodland but the idea of doing it in a city environment sounds intriguing.

[lunababymoonchild]

Currently reading Killing Floor (Jack Reacher 1), Lee Child

[willoyd]

On 9/7/2022 at 12:08 PM, Brian. said:

 

Tell me more about these orienteering races. I did some as a schoolboy aorund muddy fields and woodland but the idea of doing it in a city environment sounds intriguing.

 

I do plenty of the more traditional sort too!  Urban orienteering really started taking off post-foot and mouth, when we were limited to streets etc.  It's now a thriving discipline of its own. It's generally technically easier than 'terrain-O', but that's partly compensated for by being a lot faster.  Emphasis is usually on route choice and route spotting rather than the actual navigation and 'finding' the control (larger scale maps too - 1:4000 or so rather than 1:10,000 or so), but it has its moments, especially when dealing with multi-level stuff (eg the Barbican!), which takes a lot of skill to map.  One major branch of urban is 'sprint' orienteering: short (winning times of 12-15 minutes), very intense (20-25 controls in 3-4 km) and very fast - my favourite form of the sport; it needs to be traffic free, so usually held somewhere like university campus (this year's nationals were held at Leeds Uni).  The world champs is now divided into two different formats held in alternate years: one year it's traditional terrain, with middle/long distance and relays, the other it's sprint with two forms of individual racing and a relay.  I've orienteered round many British towns, especially cathedral cities, with interestingly technical centres.  Best of all though is Venice!!

The London race started in the Temple, and for my course went eastwards into the city south of St Pauls, behind the Bank of England etc, before looping back round the south of the Barbican, into St Barts, back down to Holborn Viaduct, through the back alleys into the Temple again.  The Sunday race was shorter and faster round the developments behind Kings Cross and St Pancras.

[willoyd]

Finished Amy Liptrot's recent book, The Instant, a sort of follow-up to her prize-winning The Outrun.  I loved The Outrun, my book of the year at the time, and was really looking forward to her new one, especially in the light of some positive reviews. Have to say I was bitterly disappointed, and, in spite of it being a mere 180 pages, found it tedious, miserable and self-obsessive,  lacking all the qualities that made The Outrun such a great read. The Outrun had such a sense of place, this for me had little to none.  I can't recall the last time a book was such a letdown.  Just about scrapes 2 stars - came close to my first 1-star award of the year, but aware that my disappointment might be influencing me.  Will be really interested to see what the rest of the book group think (one has already indicated she liked it, so I can see an interesting meeting coming up), but as things stand, I'm gutted.

Edited September 10, 2022 by willoyd

[Hux]

Just bought 'As I walked Out One Midsummer Morning' by Laurie Lee.

[timebug]

Hux, I always found 'As I walked Out One Midsummer Morning' by Laurie Lee to be a fitting companion to his more famous 'Cider With Rosie'. A nice warm pair of books reflecting a bygone age where things seemed so much more innocent!

[Hux]

On 9/11/2022 at 9:01 AM, timebug said:

Hux, I always found 'As I walked Out One Midsummer Morning' by Laurie Lee to be a fitting companion to his more famous 'Cider With Rosie'. A nice warm pair of books reflecting a bygone age where things seemed so much more innocent!

 

Yes, it's part of a biographical trilogy I believe (along with A Moment of War). But this one specifically came recommended.

[Hux]

Started reading 'The Discomfort of Evening.' Contemporary (prize winning) literature generally lets me down. Let's see if this is any different.

Edited September 12, 2022 by Hux

[lunababymoonchild]

Finished The Killing Floor (Jack Reacher number 1), Lee Child 

[lunababymoonchild]

Currently reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot 

[anisia]

21 hours ago, lunababymoonchild said:

Finished The Killing Floor (Jack Reacher number 1), Lee Child 

I'm slowly making my way through the Jack Reacher series...they're surprisingly good!

---

I started Win by Harlan Coben yesterday during my lunch break, always enjoy his books. 

[timebug]

I had the 'Reacher'argument a couple of years ago with a lady friend. She reads classics and only classics, and she berated me for 'wasting time reading trashy novels like that'. I pointed out that my own choice of reading is generally a good biography/autobiography or historical book, followed by a couple of quick 'thriller' or mystery novels, to clear my brain, ready for the next 'serious' book I read. Among those 'quick' reads, were the Reacher series, which I find to be generally well thought out and well executed plots, and Reacher himself is a solid (In more ways than one!) 'hero' of the stories. As a much younger man, I used to condemn people who read Mills & Boon romances, now, I accept that whilst they may not be to my tastes, there is a wide market out there for such things!

So if you want to read an action/thriller with a convincing 'hero' then give the Reacher series a look. You may find it is worth the effort!

[lunababymoonchild]

1 hour ago, timebug said:

I had the 'Reacher'argument a couple of years ago with a lady friend. She reads classics and only classics, and she berated me for 'wasting time reading trashy novels like that'. I pointed out that my own choice of reading is generally a good biography/autobiography or historical book, followed by a couple of quick 'thriller' or mystery novels, to clear my brain, ready for the next 'serious' book I read. Among those 'quick' reads, were the Reacher series, which I find to be generally well thought out and well executed plots, and Reacher himself is a solid (In more ways than one!) 'hero' of the stories. As a much younger man, I used to condemn people who read Mills & Boon romances, now, I accept that whilst they may not be to my tastes, there is a wide market out there for such things!

So if you want to read an action/thriller with a convincing 'hero' then give the Reacher series a look. You may find it is worth the effort!

I manage my reading in the same way that you do Timebug, except that my 'serious literature' can be anything at all, fiction, non-fiction, stream of consciousness, existentialism and/or anything else I fancy. I've been choosing my own reading material since I was 4 so while I welcome an opinion on reading in general and books in particular it's still up to me as to what it is I actually read. I leave that choice to other people too and would never criticise someone for their choice - in fact, I'm usually so nosy that I end up asking someone about what they are reading and why. Nobody's ever refused to tell me and it's always been an interesting conversation. I tried the first Reacher book on my father's recommendation and thoroughly enjoyed it.  He was right once before about a book so I reckon that the only way I'll find out if I like something is to try it. I want to be as well read as I possibly can and that, to me, means being willing to try everything I can. If I like it, I like it, if I don't I don't but there's only one way I'll find out. And there is nothing wrong with reading 'trash' 

[Madeleine]

I agree, it's nice to read something light or escapist after some "heavier" reading, however I have to admit I tried one Reacher book and gave up halfway through.  Maybe it just wasn't one of the better books in a long series, whatever.  Each to their own.

[MissMohawk]

I'm currently reading A Discovery of Witches. It is only in the past year or so that I have varied my reading, I used to read mainly crime fiction. 

I am in love with this book 😍 it just makes me smile. It is so brilliantly written, the images that I conjure up while reading are just magical (excuse the pun 😅).  

I get utterly lost in it and forget the world around me. 

[lunababymoonchild]

5 hours ago, MissMohawk said:

I'm currently reading A Discovery of Witches. It is only in the past year or so that I have varied my reading, I used to read mainly crime fiction. 

I am in love with this book 😍 it just makes me smile. It is so brilliantly written, the images that I conjure up while reading are just magical (excuse the pun 😅).  

I get utterly lost in it and forget the world around me. 

I read this when there was a series on TV, 2019, I think. I loved it and the subsequent books.

[willoyd]

Just finished One Moonlit Night by Caradog Prichard.  A fictional account of a young boy's growing up in a town in North Wales in the early twentieth century (based on Bethesda, with elements of autobiography).  Dark and very different, but definitely not mis-lit.  A slim volume, but I ripped through it in a couple of days - beautifully written.  My book for Wales (I think it's the first book I've ever read translated from Welsh) in my Read Around The World, a book I would probably have never read otherwise, but so glad I did - I will almost certainly return to it. 5 stars out of 6.

Edited September 16, 2022 by willoyd

[Brian.]

On 9/10/2022 at 7:24 AM, willoyd said:

 

I do plenty of the more traditional sort too!  Urban orienteering really started taking off post-foot and mouth, when we were limited to streets etc.  It's now a thriving discipline of its own. It's generally technically easier than 'terrain-O', but that's partly compensated for by being a lot faster.  Emphasis is usually on route choice and route spotting rather than the actual navigation and 'finding' the control (larger scale maps too - 1:4000 or so rather than 1:10,000 or so), but it has its moments, especially when dealing with multi-level stuff (eg the Barbican!), which takes a lot of skill to map.  One major branch of urban is 'sprint' orienteering: short (winning times of 12-15 minutes), very intense (20-25 controls in 3-4 km) and very fast - my favourite form of the sport; it needs to be traffic free, so usually held somewhere like university campus (this year's nationals were held at Leeds Uni).  The world champs is now divided into two different formats held in alternate years: one year it's traditional terrain, with middle/long distance and relays, the other it's sprint with two forms of individual racing and a relay.  I've orienteered round many British towns, especially cathedral cities, with interestingly technical centres.  Best of all though is Venice!!

The London race started in the Temple, and for my course went eastwards into the city south of St Pauls, behind the Bank of England etc, before looping back round the south of the Barbican, into St Barts, back down to Holborn Viaduct, through the back alleys into the Temple again.  The Sunday race was shorter and faster round the developments behind Kings Cross and St Pancras.

 

Sorry for the late reply, I've been up in Scotland hiking for the last week or so. All of this sounds really interesting, I had no idea it even existed.

[willoyd]

13 hours ago, Brian. said:

 

Sorry for the late reply, I've been up in Scotland hiking for the last week or so. All of this sounds really interesting, I had no idea it even existed.

To give you an example, the map I've included here is from the qualifying heats at the British Sprint Champs in Leeds in June: large scale 1:4000.  Triangle is the start (where you pick up your map, after timing starts), double circle the finish. It was reasonably easy, but thus very fast, so mistakes were measured in terms of seconds. Whilst the centre of the circle is the position of the control marker, the graphics grid shows the 'pictorial descriptions', that tell the competitor the precise position of the marker (including which side of the feature - so for #14, it reads 'staircase, top of', #15 is 'middlemost distinctive tree', #17 is 'distinctive tree, west side' and #19 is 'southwesternmost wall, inside the southernwestern most facing corner'! Because we use contactless electronic punching nowadays, you don't have to stop running to record your visit, just make sure your chip (on your finger) passes within half a metre of the marker (the chip beeps to confirm you're registered).

 

Edited September 17, 2022 by willoyd

[willoyd]

Finished Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, my book for Minnesota in my Tour of the US States.  A satirical look atlife in a small mid-West town of the early twentienth century.  A solid, reasonably easy and enjoyable read overall, but rather overlong and dragged at times, particularly in the third quarter.  3 stars out of 5.