What did you just finish reading and what are you reading now?

Orwell's talking about The Wizard of Oz made me think, and I believe what you read says at least a little something about you. So i wanted to start a thread where we could, if we feel so inclined, to share what we have just read lately and what we are or intend to be reading now or soon.
I am doing a hobbit discussion for the next some months on the Gentle Planet so by necessity and by choice I am immersed in The Hobbit daily, as well as The Letters of Tolkien because I constantly have to look things up. But as to personal reading I just finished Agatha Christie's Poirot's Last Case, I already read it once but this time it seemed so much more painful and poignant. I started my new reading sometime yesterday and it is Charles Dicken's Tale of Two Cities. I relate to his style of writing and the way he can bring a person so very much to life that sometimes , especially like in Oliver Twist and Great Expectations it seems hard to breathe when reading of what the characters endured.

Dont realy read much these days, but i have been flicking through The Belgariad by David Eddings and i do fall a sleep with the
lotr's CD playing (again) just got to the bit where Frodo and Sam capture Gollum.



















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Well, I've just been reading The Nightcircus by Erin Morgenstern.
Any of you know about it? Because it seems to be quite successful in America; they are already planning the film adaption.

It's not about one of the usual "I love you, but I can't love you, because you are not good for me, etc. etc....." - fantasy/romance-stories (no offense ). It doesn't even seem to have a straightforward story - no golden thread, if you take my meaning - but no matter, I still loved the book!

Just one word more about it: If you love The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus you will like this book for sure


(sorry, if it seems like I'm going to advertise the book, but as a bookseller I sort of have this in my blood )

Just finished rereading H G Wells War of the Worlds and Orwell's 1984 and just started the rather odd In the Days of the Comet (another Wells).
If I'm reading a new book I give it my full individual attention but if I am rereading as in this case I can have 2 or 3 books on the go at once.

Also been listening to a superb audio version of Anthony Burgess Clockwork Orange- which I highly reccomend.



Brilliantly read.

I've recently been reading a bunch of non-fiction on 18th century maritime history, and for fun I'm re-reading "The Boat Who Wouldn't Float" by Farley Mowat, a tale of his misadventures in the Canadian Maritime Provinces. He's a wonderful storyteller, and his prose is just fun to read. And then I'm expecting to read "The King of Elfland's Daughter" because Mrs Figg recommends it. It should appear in my mailbox any day now.

wow great thread LeeLee. I read fast so its a longish list.

I just finished Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson. Sci Fi, fantasy, Quantum Theory, Time travel, adventure, underworld in London. this book has got the lot. I am going to read The Battle of the Sun her sequel book after.

A couple of weeks ago I read two books by one of the Who writers Ben Aaronovitch, called Moon over Soho and Rivers of London, Urban fantasy, part well researched police procedural, part Harry Potter, part gruesome murder hunt, narrated by a likeable and witty Constable who's just a bit too curious and trouble attracting for his own good. and one cold morning in Covent Garden, when he's left guarding a crime scene and a witness steps forward from St Paul's Church, a witness who is the ghost of a victorian cockney actor btw, he crosses the line between normal life, routine, and a gray future and the world of Wizardry, excitement and danger like he could never imagine.

last week I finished Black Hearts in Battersea, by joan Aiken, part of her Wolves of Willoughby Chase sequence, it is a rollocking adventure full of Hanovarian bomb plots, Dickensian villains, cockney guttersnipes, whimsical adventure fantasy and charm.

Reading two at the moment.

(Well, three really, still haven't finished the "History of Cant." It's about Georgian English attitudes. Some folk were full of cant once - many still are. Strange to say, I often think of Odo when I'm reading the book. Yes, strange. ).

"The Brain that Changes" by Norman Doidge, MD. About brain plasticity.

Also, "Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: A Portrait of Paul Keating, PM." by Don Watson. About Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating's time as Labour Prime Minister, for about five years in the early to mid 90's. I had recently read an Autobiography of Prime Minister John Howard, Keating's Liberal (Tory-equivilent in Oz) successor. Keating was an adroit politician with a taste for smart-arsedness. Not sure what the appeal is for me, actually. Howard was a typical down-to-earth Conservative.

Oh yes, and all things Forumshiran.

Semiramis wrote:(sorry, if it seems like I'm going to advertise the book, but as a bookseller I sort of have this in my blood )

You don't also 'publish' books do you?

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Also been listening to a superb audio version of Anthony Burgess Clockwork Orange- which I highly reccomend.



Brilliantly read.

Yep! But I read it a long time go. Film was interesting.. Err.. so was the Goodies version.

I have been flicking through my copy of A Naturlist Voyage Round the World by Darwin and I am lucky enough to have found myself in possession of a 4th edition copy printed in 1909 (its not worth anything but boy does it have that glorious old boook smell!). I was round a friends earlier and noticed he had a modern edition, a quick flick through was enough to notice that some of the comments about the natives had been excised from it, those which by modern standards would be considered at best casually racist, and I could see nowhere in the index or appendix which told the reader this had been altered.
I dont like that sort of thing. A piece of work should reflect the times it was written. Changing it changes history and thats too Orwellian for my liking. No one generation has the right to alter the record of the past for future genrations I dont believe.

Hey! Enough of the "Orwellian" business!

Orwell wrote:

Semiramis wrote:(sorry, if it seems like I'm going to advertise the book, but as a bookseller I sort of have this in my blood )

You don't also 'publish' books do you?

No, I don't

But I am allowed to read a good deal of them before they are available for anybody else...

I am just re-reading Madeleine L,engles series of books starting with A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A swiftly Tilting planet. this is truly life changing stuff. These are the books that got me hooked on popular science. sci fi, and time travel. amazing.

Mrs Figg wrote:I am just re-reading Madeleine L,engles series of books starting with A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A swiftly Tilting planet. this is truly life changing stuff. These are the books that got me hooked on popular science. sci fi, and time travel. amazing.

Loved A Wrinkle Time.. but read it sooooo long ago. Mrs Who, Mrs What, Mrs Howcome? I think that's the book. Didn't read the others. Good too, hey?

yep they just get better!

Such diversity, I am tempted to read every book mentioned. I too don't approve of that sort of thing Petty, what was was in that time period. That is h ow we understand the political, moral climate and it is the ambience of the thing. Imagine every slightly offensive thing santized from say Huckleberry Finn,rediculous. I am Jewish and read Mine Kampf, it was what it was.
I absolutely love Farley Mowatt, he was a genius, pure genius. I loved that he had a dog as a boy that learned on his own by practice to actually climb sort of up a tree so he could get a cat. And the story, don't remember what where he was up toward the north pole somewhere and was fed the blubber by a kind company of Eskimo when he was in extremity and they gave him something to drink and he found to his er horror it was a bowl of blood. Oh the things he went through. We children took many of his stories in school and we saw him on the television dressed in his kilt and wearing his his lovely beard and being terribly witty and hilarious.
Mrs. Figg your choices are making my bookstore card itchy to go shopping
I was always fascinated with the great Orwell since a child and for real I would worry myself sick about the possibilities of his sort of prophetic warnings coming true. I remember seeing a documentary about somewhere in England where workers in a room filled with monitors were watching people out on the streets and could see instantly if someone mugged someone or whatever. I thought' oh it has come true then, just look at that.'
I also read several books at once, perhaps it is just a nervous need to keep my brain busy so as not to think about things or whatever. And like Petty I give my full attention to a new book, but only that one time. So I just finished a documentary like book on the bombing of Hiroshima from the writings of the few including some Catholic priest that survived and spent day and night trying to help or save others. It was horrifying beyond belief that the survivors could even think a thought after they themselves suffered severe radiation sickness never mind going and helping others. What a terrifying nightmare. I felt too frightened to cry even. It is called Hiroshima, by John Hersey.
I am just starting today to reread The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Doyle and The Unfinished Tales by Tolkien. I don't generally like to read two books of the same type at the same time- I can't stand that actually, don't know why.

leelee wrote:I was always fascinated with the great Orwell since a child

Be careful with your wording. We don't want to give our Orwell further delusions of grandeur.

You know Eldo I somehow knew that in my heart as soon as I logged out of the thread. I meant the great GEORGE ORWELL, not to say the other Orwell isn't great, something like that anyway.

Why did I say George, I don't know his name is George, only HG, it could be Gary or Geronimo or Grizzly, I have only known him as HG. You rattled me Eldo, I don't want to have nightmares of Orwell trying to get me and make me admit I am not me even though I am me. He makes me tres nervous, tres, tres, tres. hey it said 160 posts twice.

Don't we all feel that way.

HG Orwell? I only know Orwell as "George". Not saying you're wrong though, leelee. I'm immediately thinking of "HG" Wells for some reason...

Hang on a moment... o

Wikipedia is marvellous, aint it! Apparently the (other ) great Orwell referened HG Wells a bit in his works. I think that's where you might have got your "HG" from, leelee.

Btw I read Animal Farm, Homage to Catalonia, and 1948 (sorry, 1984), but that's the depth of my knowledge of his writings. I prefer Enid Blyton anyhow - especially The Magic Faraway Tree (which I first encountered by reading it to my kids).

Ahhhh! The Magic Faraway tree! My fave was Madam Slap*. She was terribly Orwellian - and scary. She's been edited out in politically correct Modern versions; along with Fanny and Dick, who were just innocent kids. Sorry - I have to vomit - always do when I think about it.

*I think it was something like "Madam Slap" anyhow. If I wasn't so lazy I'd check. She kept slapping her students if they broached any class rules, I think. If I remember correctly, rules that were almost impossible NOT to break.

Eldo: don't worry, I have plenty of delusions to keep me happy without being compared to some long dead Lefty!

leelee wrote:Imagine every slightly offensive thing santized from say Huckleberry Finn,rediculous.

Ridiculous certainly! But have you seen this?
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/40917583/

Thankyou for pinting this out to me, I have tears flowing down my face. For heavens sakes what is all this. Politically correct for the proper reason is one thing, to subjugate writers and destroy the fibre of their work is just so terrible. I was horrified reading Mine Kampf being Jewish , but I also got to unerstand some things. If certain things were taken out I would have missed some vital things and never ever ever would | hope to have any insight into certain things. Well, I am glad Samuel Clemens never had to live to see this dreadful day.

I like to think that Twain would be chuckling evilly now

He wrote Huckleberry Finn as a challenge to the society of his time to face its own hypocrisy. It's probably been banned from school libraries than any other book in the 125 years since it was written, first for being too liberal, then for being too racist I can imagine him laughing out loud that his book is still getting people arguing about racial issues 125 years later. Timeless! What a legacy!

Really,I don't love reading