That damn bee book was the exception and that I had to read for the book club meet.
Our next read is Roald Dahl's My Uncle Oswald, which is waiting patiently on my to-be-read-shelf. (With dozens of others.)
I've still got the Edward Carey Observatory Mansions to finish.
Have read most of Alice Munro's excellent short collection Dance of the Happy Shades (one of my warehouse sale purchases!).
Started The Little Friend by Donna Tartt at the hairdressers (should have read it yonks ago) and already I know I'm going to love it.
Am a third of the way through Hari Kunzru's The Impressionist, which I'm sipping slowly because I have to keep reading back over the passages I've enjoyed most ... word drunk, delighted and entertained am I. I picked up the book because I keep reading about Kunzru (bookslamming, d.j.ing, mixing cocktails ... you know, all the things that authors usually do) and it seemed daft not to have read anything by him. Besides .... Nope. I won't tell you. It'll have to be a surprise.
Am also snacking on various books by Scottish writers to find extracts that will work well when read aloud and keep a restless MPH-Saturday-afternoon-walk past audience happy. Trying to find an extract from Irving Walsh's Trainspotting that won't shock all those mums with kids ... may just give up on that one!
Then there's the books for review. Shall put aside Hari for a while to read Saturday. Then there's the couple of novels-in-progress I've promised to read for other people ...
Picked up a pre-loved copy of The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry from Silverfish the other day and am enjoying dipping in in odd moments.
You might think me totally nuts (probably do already) but I love to read poetry aloud ... in the bathroom where the acoustics are good. (Try it and see!)Poetry is three dimensional, but on the printed page only two.
I seem to go through phases with my reading ... times when I can whizz through books, and times like now when I find it hard to concentrate and would so much rather write instead. I suppose that's a blessing of sorts.
Now what are YOU reading? Any good?
15 comments:
Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca. Hitchcock mah.
i re-read elizabeth kostova's 'the historian'. *still* gives me the creeps, 2nd time around.
visiot - du maurier is good ... have you read her short stories? she wrote The Birds of course, but a story i like even more is The Blue Lenses ...
zyrin - thanks for telling me about a book I hadn't heard of ... I went here to find out about it.
i had a browse through The Historian at MPH but thot it was just another crap revisionist horror novel. now i think i will have to read it.
yes, i do plan to read Du Maurier's short stories, after i finish Rebecca, which is God-knows-when!
= - (Sorry, can't find square brackets on my keyboard so my fingers can't pronounce your name!) Nice to meet you. I think we shouldn't get sniffy about waht folks call disparagingly "genre-fiction". When I lived in Nigeria for two years I read a diet of African novels, and thrillers borrowed from my next door neighbour. Some I enjoyed very much ( The Eagle Has Landed!), others I didn't mainly because I felt that the characters were shallow and the plots formulaic. Would love to hear about the thrillers you've enjoyed most and am glad that you are trying other kinds of fiction. I took a glace at your blog - wow - Anna Karenina is in at the deep end, but an excellent book. (I've read it twice.)
-ahem- you're welcome ;)
I liked the sue monk kidd book, she has a new one out called mermaid something.
Ah, the historian looked interesting. It must be good if you're re-reading it, am I right?
I finished Comfort Me With Apples by Ruth Reichl recently which was all about food (of course!). Now starting on Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenberg.
ah but remember, i am a big fan of Stephen King. i read a lot of horror, but mostly classic stuff from Clark Ashton Smith, Lovecraft, Poe, Machen, Blackwood, et al. i find most modern horror fiction too silly and unbearable. only Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Ray Bradbury (well, he's more fantasy than horror), and a couple others. no one can replace the likes of Karl Edward Wagner, Robert W. Chambers, Oliver Onions, E.F. Benson, oh i could go on.
oh, u weren't talking about me...DOH! (slaps forehead)
boo_licious - it's zyrin reading The Historian, not I, so am not sure whether it's a good read or not.
visitor - I enjoy Stephen King ... and love to be scared. When I was around 15 found Bradbury's books and fell in love with them. Can still remember many of the stories more than 3 decades later! Must reread Poe one of these days too.
Have you read Henry James The Turn of the Screw? One of the best horror films ever was based on it: The Innocents. Haven't read or even heard of many of the writers you mention! clearly i've been missing out.
The Turn Of The Screw? ur talking to a horror connoisseur (i can't spell!)!
TTOTS is standard required reading for any horror fan.
i am a big, big, BIG Bradbury fan. but haven't been reading his new stuff tho. his style is simple yet elegant, minimalist yet resonant.
~ square smiley - I came across this link and thought you'd like it - lots of reading suggestions for readers of thrillers:
Must-read Thrillers.
(Posted it on your blog too in case you dind't come back here ...)
So, Visitor, have you seen The Innocents? When I saw it as a kid couldn't sleep!!!!!!!
no i havent seen it, but i have been hearing about how good it is!
another film i'm looking for is The Woman In Black, also based on a novel.
Susan Hill's book The woman in Black is very good indeed.
Now not much apparently. Have got to stock up on people like Pratchett and C. S. Lewis. Modern literature is so.. modern.
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