éclectique discussion

None of my friends have the same taste in books. Not one! I love goodreads but I find I am a little withdrawn from interacting with goodread friends. I've always wanted to do a bookclub and now I can! Here is where we can share what we are currently reading, whatever it is. Today I just started reading The Table of Less Valued Knights.

Alysa wrote: "None of my friends have the same taste in books. Not one! I love goodreads but I find I am a little withdrawn from interacting with goodread friends. I've always wanted to do a bookclub and now I c..."

I'm currently finishing up my re-read of "Great Expectations" - probably my least favourite of Dickens' novels with child protagonists. (I prefer Oliver Twist.) I'm basically re-reading all the novels by Dickens that inspired the recent BBC TV series 'Dickensian' which finished last weekend. Luckily, the next book on that re-read list is 'Bleak House', which I absolutely love. (Though I plan on alternating Dickens with other authors or I'll fall into a depressive Victorian slump!)

Alysa wrote: "None of my friends have the same taste in books. Not one! I love goodreads but I find I am a little withdrawn from interacting with goodread friends. I've always wanted to do a bookclub and now I c..."


I don't even know anyone in real life who reads, except my mom, sometimes. I loved Library school where everyone shared a common interest. I joined Good Reads after I graduated because I missed that interaction.

I'm not reading anything I love at the moment. I'm waiting for the library patron to return Jane and the Waterloo Map so I can read it.

Alysa wrote: "None of my friends have the same taste in books. Not one! I love goodreads but I find I am a little withdrawn from interacting with goodread friends. I've always wanted to do a bookclub and now I c..."

I'm glad you made this group. Goodreads is useful for finding new books, but otherwise I feel sort of isolated. I'm shy and it's difficult for me to talk in groups, as I always think I'm boring and unoriginal.
The Table of Less Valued Knights is on my to-read mountain, I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of it.

Quite a few of my friends do read, but not the books that I enjoy. British History, Historical Fiction, Mysteries and Fantasy are my favorites and my friends read a lot of Chick Lit and contemporary best sellers. Contemporary fiction leaves me cold, I prefer any time period by my own.

Michele, Oliver Twist is one of my all time favorite books.

Rory wrote: "Alysa wrote: "None of my friends have the same taste in books. Not one! I love goodreads but I find I am a little withdrawn from interacting with goodread friends. I've always wanted to do a bookcl..."

There's also a pretty good TV adaptation of 'Oliver Twist' which stars Michael Kitchen as Mr Brownlow (and I'll freely admit is the sole reason I watched it, but not the only reason I enjoyed it!)

History (esp relating to the two world wars and the interbellum period), historical (including alternate history), mysteries and fantasy are absolute fave genres of mine. Have you read 'Code Name Verity' or 'Rose Under Fire' by Elizabeth Wein? Both set during WW2 and absolutely brilliant - totally compelling reading.

Michele, I haven't read Code Name Verity but I have it marked as to-read.

I'll look up that adaptation of Oliver Twist. I've been watching Dickensian on BBC iTunes and really enjoying it.

I learned a new term today: Interbellum period. Thank you, I had no idea that time period was called that. I love that era as well.

Rory wrote: "Michele, I haven't read Code Name Verity but I have it marked as to-read.

I'll look up that adaptation of Oliver Twist. I've been watching Dickensian on BBC iTunes and really enjoying it.

I lear..."

Dickensian was an interesting experiment, I thought, but a bit long-winded - too much time wasted on the bumbling Bumbles, Silas Wegg, and Mrs Gamp - none of which advanced the plot, and all of which was excessively repetitive.

Heh, stick with me and you'll learn plenty more new words!

Michele, I love that you are re-reading Dickens! Right now I'm re-reading the much less cerebral Agatha Christie. I'll have to look for the miniseries and the Oliver Twist. If you like the world wars, have you read Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis? Two of my favourites. I also just read the Passing Bell, the War that Saved my Life and War Horse. You'll need tissues for War Horse though.

QNPB, Gasp! Are you a librarian?!?! My dream job!! Actually, I'd also love to open a children's bookstore one day. I'm not loving anything on my currently reading list either. Right now I'm on A Creature of Moonlight (I like to find things for my kids that they will love) but I like a little more humor in my kids books.

Rory, I think Goodreads is amazingly isolated. So many people with similar tastes loving the same books but not chatting too much about them. I guess book lovers are often shy, but when we get chatting about books we love, watch out! And book clubs are hard sometimes because when you find out a friend doesn't love something you do, it's like they insulted your child or something. I have a very close family member who once told me she hated Eng Lit because she couldn't stand Jane Austen and I've had a hard time forgiving her.
I got stalled on The Table of Less Valued Knights - I think I could like it, I just wasn't in the mood for it, it's still on the pile. And I have the same to-read mountain. I just try to keep it down under 1000.
My sister reads Chick lit. I feel your pain.

I have read some Connie Willis but got totally lost when I tried Blackout. :(

They are kind of books 3 and 4 in the series. Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog are the first two. I wonder if maybe it made it confusing to read them out of order?

Nope, 'cos those are the two Willis books I'd already read. I LOVE LOVE LOVE 'To Say Nothing of the Dog' (have read it 3 or 4 times), which is why I was disappointed by my failure to read 'Blackout' - I couldn't get my head around who all the characters were - they were just a confusing mass of people.

I'm really enjoying The Lies of Locke Lamora at the moment, but if you don't care for crude language, you might not like it. Scott Lynch tosses around the F word like it's on sale at Walmart.

"I have a very close family member who once told me she hated Eng Lit because she couldn't stand Jane Austen and I've had a hard time forgiving her."
Oh Alysa! How do you bear it? Just the thought!

Alysa wrote: "QNPB, Gasp! Are you a librarian?!?! My dream job!! Actually, I'd also love to open a children's bookstore one day. I'm not loving anything on my currently reading list either. Right now I'm on A Creature of Moonlight (I like to find things for my kids that they will love) but I like a little more humor in my kids books. .."

I have a fancy piece of paper that says I'm a librarian but no actual job to back that up. At this point, I'm more of an archivist but I'd like to be a special collections librarian if anyone will hire me.

I read some chick lit when I have nothing else to read and need something fun and fluffy. My sister doesn't read except to her kids. I used to read to her when she was very young and my parents always read to us but once she was too old to be read to, she stopped reading. When she was pregnant and home doing nothing all summer, she read Twilight and True Blood. I tried to convince her to skip Twilight and read Wuthering Heights instead. She knows enough to know that I would hate grammatical and spelling errors in her favorite books. I laugh at her because her daughter is a little bibliophile. O is in Kindergarten and trying to learn how to read and write. She takes after me that way. :-)

Michele, To Say Nothing of the Dog is one of my all time favourite books ever. And I love Three Men in a Boat too. I was on vacation at the sea when I read Blackout and All Clear so nothing to do but read and relax, maybe that helped.

Rory: "Scott Lynch tosses around the F word like it's on sale at Walmart." BAHAHAHAHA!

QNPB, Sigh: A special collections librarian. Oh how wonderful that would be. I once read about a first edition P&P set going for auction at Sotheby's for $100,000 CAN and thought that seemed quite reasonable. My husband thought I was bonkers of course.
I often read chick lit that is recommended to me by my sister. I have enjoyed some of it - I liked Elegance, and Bridget Jones' Diary. I still have not been able to get through Dead Until Dark though. Going to keep trying - It's nice to chat books with people you love but who are not really readers. My husband is worse - total non-reader, only science journals. He recently read The Martian and then watched the movie and said the words "The book was better than the movie" for the first time in his life. It was the first fiction book he had read since high school a LONG time ago. It took him a month, then I read it in about 4 hours and really annoyed him. And yes, the book was better. :)

Haven't seen the movie yet, but galloped through the book of The Martian.