I'm going to be pretty busy today running a creative writing workshop for IKIM (my third). So I'm just going to leave you this space to tell us - what are you reading? And is it any good?I promise that I will be back to answer the question myself later!
19 comments:
I'm just looking for a reason not to get started on work.
Reading The Night Watch, but too early to tell if it's any good. My last book was The Book Thief, and it was very good.
Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Huge thing. Might take a while to finish.
Adventure Divas: Searching the Globe for Women who are changing the world by Holly Morris.
"After years of working behind a desk, Holly Morris quit her job and set out on a global trek to find daring women who shared her philosophy that adventure is not just a vacation mind-set but a way of life."
This is featured in a series of short documentaries that are currently being aired on the weekends on Star World.
Some really good stuff from women in Cuba, India and Iran.. There's even a chapter on living in a longhouse in Sarawak (sadly no Divas featured..).
synical - loved Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell! She also has a book of short stories out - you can pick it up for cheap (hardcover!) at BookXcess, Amcorp Mall.
I am reading, for the second time, Jo Abercrombie's trilogy, The First Law. It is one of the best first trilogies ever to hit the market, I reckon, and I cannot stop enthusing about it. By extremely skilful use of the close third POV, Abercrombie writes from so deeply inside each character that the reader cannot help but feel their feelings and experience their experiences. I hope he goes on to produce many more of these dark, gritty, wonderful fantasies.
I hope your workshop went wonderfully, too, Sharon!
Am currently reading: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski - I think it's his first novel. The protagonist is mute. It takes place on a farm. The plot so far is a little bit like The Lion King meets William Shakespeare. It's all very good. Also, When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris and How Fiction Works by James Wood.
synical: I loved Jonathan Strange. Did you pick up the one big volume or the three volume edition? I had the hardback. My arms would hurt after a couple of hours reading.
I am reading Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norell too!! How strange is that?? My biceps are also beginning to look really comely.
Sharon!! Could u do a piece on how to charge your clients (freelance editing/writing) and how to collect late payment (tactfully, I hope)
Any thoughts, I am always asked these questions on WOrd UP!
The Great Railway Bazaar, in anticipation for his new travel book. I'm just about to leave Burma (with Paul Theroux).
helo and nice to meet u at workshop this morning at unikl,coil subang.from your lecture, now i know how to write the good writing.i have my own blog regarding my life and my family. if u want to give the idea or comment to my blog. this is the address http://syidrus.blogspot.com/.
thank u so much.
About to finish City of Thieves by David Benioff and halfway through Rabih Alameddine's The Hakawati.
i'm looking up all the books i didn't know about ...
mr siso - nice to meet you this morning and thanks for the link to your blog. keep writing!
The Hakawati's good. Have just reread his Koolaids. Now on Penguin Book of Gay Short Stories, edited by David Leavitt. A nearly 80 year old woman has foisted her Kafka On The Shore on me, saying it's INCREDIBLE (but then she bought it for the pussy cat cover) so may read it next...
- Poppadumdum
...and also "A Custom Unearthed" bu Jumpa Lagi. Great collection of short stories, written in a simple style, unpretentious, no need for silly textual gimmicks, making the impact of the stories so much more powderful...
- Poppadumdum
I'm interested to know what these guys are currently reading:-
1: Mr Sufian
2: Mr Amir Muhammad
Thnx
Tapioca
I am reading "Year of Wonders" by Geraldine Brooks....I find it well-researched and evocative of its time, and also a good, inspiring story.
I'm currently reading Society Must be Defended by Michel Foucault, which just makes me more aware of my slowly deteriorating reading skills. Like that article I read awhile back... a good one it was too, not histrionic or stupid... that argued the Internet changes the way we read. I find that it's the case with me more and more and these days. It's just so damn hard to concentrate, not like in the past - it was a breeze to let a book totally absorb me. Now it seems like my mind pings all over the place. Is it just me getting dumber (and older) or does anyone else experience it too? With more internet usage, less ability to immerse oneself in a book? On the days when I don't turn on the computer, then it's easier for me to get going...
Anyway, the book is a collection of lectures by Foucault and I've been reading it for *awhile* now so that's a bit embarrassing.
I've always wanted to read The Year of Wonders. And the other one she wrote, the one written from the perspective of Mr. March (of Little Women). I don't know what it's called. March? Heh.
The Saturdays, by Elizabeth Enright, published in 1944. It's a children's book, but when you've been reading the kind of stuff I have to read all day, it's about the only thing you can deal with!
At the moment, finishing Shadows Return by Lynn Flewelling.
David Mitchell's "Black Swan Green" is really good :).
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