Literary Exploration discussion

What are you reading, planning to read, looking forward to coming out this month?

For book clubs I'll be reading The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia, Shadow's Son, Machine Man and The Player of Games.

Working on finishing Red Mars and Golden Buddha.

Will also try and read The Marvelous Land of Oz, Black Powder War, Fool Moon, The Gun Seller and whatever else I stumble across.

Happy reading

Apart from The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia I plan to finish Pop. 1280 and Eye of the Needle.

Then I need to read The Knife of Never Letting Go & The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz: A True Story of World War II.

If I still have time I will start Perdido Street Station

I'll be reading The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia, and Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, and Towing Jehovah for my clubs.

Frankenstein for KL.

And as many spooky novels as I can squeeze into 31 days.

Just started Heart-Shaped Box and i have Survivor and Meat to read to name a few. Hope its gonna be a scary October for me.

I approve!!

I plan to finish Rebecca which so far I am absolutely loving! Now my Kindle has been fixed I also have The Alchemist's Secret to finish.

Of course there is also The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia to read which I borrowed from the library today. Naturally having a major book problem my trip to the library saw me getting tempted by many other books and the one that came home with me on this occasion is The Postmistress.

Finally at the end of the month I may try to cram in Chill Factor which I won as a giveaway and came through my letterbox yesterday.

While I'm waiting on The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia to come in, I'm currently working my way through Dracula. It was a slow start for me, but I'm getting sucked in. I'm afraid I won't be able to finish it before it's due back, so I'll have to pick up where I left off after putting in another request.

Aside from those two, I'm reading a few other, shorter books: You Can't Drink All Day If You Don't Start in the Morning, Letters to a Young Poet, and various poetry collections which I read sporadically.

I hope to also read Laurie Notaro's newest book, which I've had on request since June Or July! It's finally in transit, and I'm next on the library's wait list.

I'm glad you approve, KL. I would hate to read anything without your blessing. Frankenstein is very involving so far.

You Can't Drink All Day If You Don't Start in the Morning has got to be one of the best titles ever. I'm waiting for the latestLaurie Notaro too.

There is a lot happening in that book, but stick with it, it has an incredible depth and that makes it so interesting

Reading The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia with the group. Also, started A Passage to India and I am going to reread Misery because I want something to tie in with October and Halloween. Although, I am more into ghost stories, novels, so I might pick one up if I have time. Any good ghost stories/novels suggestions?

Franky, I was going to suggest The Little Stranger but I see you've read it already.
Maybe The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is what you're looking for. It's creepy without being a real horror novel.

Thanks to Xeni's ENTHUSIASTIC recommendation, I will be reading The Night Circus this month, as well.

Melki wrote: "Franky, I was going to suggest The Little Stranger but I see you've read it already.
Maybe The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is what you're l..."

Cool. I have a copy of that book already. I've been wanting to read it for awhile, so I'll definitely add it on my list. I saw the movie that goes with it awhile back too.

I've started Before I Go to Sleep. I've been anticipating this book since it was first released. What an interesting concept. And the beginning is VERY good. Kind of creepy compared to what I usually read, too. I like to mix things up.

Lori wrote: "I've started Before I Go to Sleep. I've been anticipating this book since it was first released. What an interesting concept. And the beginning is VERY good. Kind of creepy compared ..."

I really enjoyed that book, hope you do too

Just finished "The Fund", by H.T. Narea, a recovering banker. Really enjoyed it. Narea has found a new weapon in the war on terrorism: love.

I really do have a book problem when I enter libraries or bookstores. The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia came in, so I went to pick it up with Laurie Notaro's new book... I not only left with those two, but five others as well. (The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing, Anne Sexton's Completed Poems, Going Fast: Poems, Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems, and By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead)

:P

Still reading Dracula and Celia Rivenbark's books, too. All the poetry collections can be read at more leisure, at least.

There is so much I want to read! I must start The Dispossessed tonight.

I'm taking a break from the extremely long fantasy quartet I mistakenly started reading a few weeks ago and have begun Q written under the pseudonym Luther Blissett. All that talk about The Name of the Rose made me want to revisit a medieval theological mystery and Q looks pretty cool so far.

Have also been reading a few fairytales each week from Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales. It's full of weird and wonderful folklore peopled by paupers and kings; innocents and devils; sorceresses, enchantments and more than one idiot who tries to get their cow to graze on their roof... (a weird recurring theme, no?)

I've just started The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia and I have to say I don't think it's going to be hugely my thing. I don't mind watching science fiction (in fact I quite like it) but somehow when it comes to books the genre loses me. But I am going to stick to it! As a side read though I'm reading Snowdrops which is much more to my tastes!

Victoria, I have to ask, how does someone even go about getting their cow on their roof in the first place?

I just finished Pat Conroy's "My Reading Life," which I enjoyed greatly. Last night, I met Charles Frazier on tour and had his new "Nightwoods," signed. Both Frazier and his wife were a pleasure to meet. Also picked up Karl Marlantes' "What It Means to Go to War." I highly recommend The Alabama Booksmith, a fine Indie bookseller. Their website is www.alabamabooksmith.com . Jake Reiss, the owner, is outstanding in his ability to bring the best authors and books to this area. Online ordering is available. His Book of the Month Club is an exceptional offer. Recently listed as the top bookstore in the South to visit by Southern Living Magazine.

A recent browse at Barnes and Noble produced "Things Fall Apart," which I've always meant to read; "Blood Meridian," ditto; and Ian McEwan's "Cement Gardens."

Having just joined the group, I have begun to re-read "The Dispossessed."

I have become bogged down in Gurganus' "Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All." At page 421 or so, I have not been able to pick it up. My break on this is becoming lengthy, a rarity for me. It is tempting to remove it from current reads. However, should I do that, it would be an admission of defeat. The book is exceptionally good. I have come to associate it with my mother's lengthy hospital stay and her continuing illness. I imagine I am not the only person to have put down a book for a similar reason. Am I?

I just finished A Cold Day for Murderand before that, The Queen: A Patrick Bowers Thriller by Steven James. I also squeezed in Ian Flemming's Goldinger.

Thanks, Hugh...now I'll have the "Goldfinger" theme song stuck in my head all day.

I've read a few Gurganus books, Mike, but never even started Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. My copy is a mass market paperback with absolutely NO margins - not exactly a joy to read. I know what you mean about associating a book with a sad event. I'll always remember which books I was reading when each of my parents died - 17 years apart, but oddly enough both books were by Garrison Keillor...not that I blame him, or anything.

Melki wrote: "Thanks, Hugh...now I'll have the "Goldfinger" theme song stuck in my head all day.

I've read a few Gurganus books, Mike, but never even started [book:Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All|..."

Aaaah Melki! :( My brain didn't quite automatically make that link when I read Hugh's post. But then I read yours... and my first thought was "how does that go..."

In case anyone else wants it stuck in their head:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MagCoU...

Melki wrote: "In case anyone else wants it stuck in their head:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MagCoU..."

Very thoughtful of you. I might have to play it later to spread it amongst my co-workers for the weekend!

Melki, You are evil--evil, evil, evil. However, I have fond memories of John Barry's many scores. Perhaps this will remove "Goldfinger" from the minds of all those snared by Hugh and YOU! *laughing* Barry's "Out of Africa."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_fAEd...

Currently reading Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves and going to read The Staff of Rahgorra as the author gave it to me to review.

So far read The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia and A Game of Thrones / A Clash of Kings.

Just started reading The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates.

Currently reading The Gun Seller and The Templar's Code

It's been a while (OK, a decade or more) since I read any science fiction, and I finally gave in to a friend telling me I HAD to read Hyperion. About 2/3 of the way through it and, yeah, it's pretty damn good. Can't believe I overlooked this one.

I've just finished The Sense of an Ending which was amazing, and hope to finish They Shoot Horses, Don't They? soon too. Then I think I'll read Double Dexter

In October... Yeesh. I've put down a lot of books... the latest, Diamond Sandby Pia Sendaand enjoyed it very much. I've just started on Storm Front by Jim Butcher. I've also finished:



And I know I'm forgetting one somewhere.

Nicely done hugh

Thank you. I've been busy (P-{D>

I've only read 10 books this month. I'm getting a little slow.

That's 3 more than me. I guess I'm going at a snail's pace. I need to pick it up!

I read The Jungle Book (having read Kimand The Tiger's Wife which mentions it significantly) - and reading it brought up thoughts of Orwell, who admired Kipling, because one of the stories in The Jungle Book could have influenced Animal Farm (my circuitous logic).

Also read A Red Herring Without Mustard - 3rd in the series with 3 more to be published - Flavia, the main character, 11 years old, has the smarts of a young Jane Goodall, and at times the goofiness of Lucille Ball. She's eccentric. It felt like a novelty reading chapters in chronological sequence after some recent reads.

Tomorrow, when it's finally released, will start 1Q84 - which I imagine will be no holds barred. :)

Don't try to keep up with Kim, he's insane

I've only read 8 this month

Just finished In The Miso Soup, still reading Survivor not getting very far with it for some reason but just started The Ritual which is looking promising.

Kim wrote: "I've only read 10 books this month. I'm getting a little slow."

I thought I was doing really well with 7 down this month. How do you get through so many?

I saw someone in another group well on track for 500 books this year. Which is about 1.5 books a day!!! How???

When you need maxim. 3 hours for a 400-pages-book it DOES work. I´m speaking out of experience there, but I´m still going to school so I´m a bit slowed down too. At the moment I´ve got holidays, so there is more time to read though...

For me it all depends on the book. I don't ever read x amount of pages per hour. I can read a 1000+ book faster than a 300 page book if I enjoy it more. I also never stop reading. I always have at least 2 books I'm reading.

Have just finished A Dance with DragonsGeorge R.R. Martin - this exhausting series has kept me busy for weeks but is by a long way the best fantasy I've read since The Lord of the Rings. Snuck in the brilliant Booker winner The Sense of an Ending to cleanse the palette before rereading The Talisman byStephen King who I had forgotten always leaves me with that bloated feeling! Haruki Murakami's 1Q84is waiting but I'm committed to The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia first.

I have 14 hours of October left and 150 pages of The Lieutenant to read. *fingers crossed* I can get some actual reading time in today as then I'll be on 8 books for October which will be my best since I think January (yay!!)

Of course I am at work for the next 7/8 hours, then meant to be spending 2/3 hours studying and then cooking dinner tonight etc etc etc :S

I'm trying to finish The Gun Seller before October finishes.

I'm reading The Exploits of Brigadier Gerardby Arthur Conan Doyleand I'm finding that it gets funnier and funnier. If your into classics, this is a fun one.

Philippa wrote: "I have 14 hours of October left and 150 pages of The Lieutenant to read. *fingers crossed* I can get some actual reading time in today as then I'll be on 8 books for October which w..."

Kim, we can do it!! How many books does that put you on for the month?

I managed to finish it with 2 1/2 hours to spare :) That's 13 for the month and I could possibly squeeze another small book in but I don't want to rush through it. I can wait til tomorrow