The Bookworm's Thread 2016

Lynplatinum

PS re not finishing books - I once belonged to a Book Club which read very heavy duty stuff - including Salman Rushtie - dont think it went down well when I said that his work seemed to be all about a middle aged man indulging in extreme self pity!! And that I couldnt be bothered to finish such a boring book!!! :-)
there is so much great stuff out there - why waste time?? (You folks have mentioned authors I havent tried - so exciting)
I left the book club shortly after - cant stand pretentious folk who read what is fashionable!! (Or seems clever!) there's nowt like a good old aga saga for a comfort read :-)

[Deleted User]

AliBee16 wrote: »

Child 44 which is a near perfect crime novel,

I read Child 44 and found it brilliant I also have read his two follow up books,great writer.

Giddynmg The Mitch Albom book was so good that when I was in New York in 2008 I bought the next three of his books as I couldn't get them here.I loved Tuesdays with Morrie.

There are books I read to relax ,and books I read to inform.

The only book I have never managed to finish was Moby !!!!.I had it on my reading list when I was doing my degree and after getting so bored with it I told the tutor it was really hard going. I had got to page 126 and the hero hadn't even got onto a boat !!

The course I was on that semester was literature of the sea so she gave me an alternative book called The Star of The Sea by Joseph O'Connor and it was a great book, all about a ship going from Ireland to New York during the potato famine and the people on board. Highly recommend it to anyone

lollyfin

Can I join in too. I've got a little list going now of book you have recommended so I'm going to have a look and see if they are for me.
I'm another one who always finished books when I was younger but now if I'm not getting it or feel that I don't care about what happens then I'm just not going to read it...quite a freeing feeling.
I love sci if/fantasy books, nothing too heavy, Terry Pratchett and Game of Thrones series were my favourites a couple of years ago.
I'm another one who likes to have a couple of books on the go at a time, an easy read and one to learn from and usually some kind of self help book too.
I'm away to start the Chimp Paradox (was recommended by someone on another thread here) and I also got the new konmarie book on my kindle.

Gers

So many lovely recommendations since I last looked!

I remember that as a young girl I read a book a day, mostly (at one point) fairy stories. Because of that I find it especially odd that I can't plough through scifi/fantasy books, I'm not able to follow the story or names of the characters.

My mother has a collection of very old books by Rex Stout, the Nero Wolfe stories. Written in the '30s I think they feature the 'genius' dectective Wolfe who is enormously fat and never leaves his brownstone house in NY. Very light reading and of their time. I read one occasionally when at her place overnight.

At my bedside now is another Craig Robertson book, Cold Grave.

pollypenny

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I'm exactly the same.

Apart from thrillers I find most modern novels full of first world problems and angst - they always seem to me to have been written specifically to be discussed in book groups where people discuss whether or not they like the characters (as in would like them socially if they were real). I don't think mine is the only book group that discusses books in the same way they discuss characters in a soap.

February's book is Mansfield Park, which I love, but I have a feeling that the discussion will be more Mansfield Street than Mansfield Park.:(

Rant over.

My U3A book group had become rather trivial, so I told them that I would like a more academic approach; not totally serious, but as I did with A-levels classes. One woman left, but we did manage it, with a few hiccups.

I felt a major boost when a very intelligent woman, still taking philosophy courses at 90, said how much more she got out of novels with my probing questions.

VfM4meplse

Lynplatinum wrote: »

PS re not finishing books - I once belonged to a Book Club which read very heavy duty stuff - including Salman Rushtie - dont think it went down well when I said that his work seemed to be all about a middle aged man indulging in extreme self pity!! And that I couldnt be bothered to finish such a boring book!!! :-)

I read Midnight's Children some years ago. I found the first half gripping, the second half far less so but persevered. I don't understand stand how someone who can write so well can lose their way....or perhaps I just didn't get it?

I bought this book a while ago from the chaz for the princely sum of £1.75:



It's a compilations of her newspaper columns written over a period of time. I have read all her books which I love for their gentle, "away with the fairies" quality and am enjoying this even more, because it's far better written and shows off her wit. But as I'll never find another Maeve Binchy to read I am "saving" it: I have started to read it as and when I need a little treat in life, as each article is only a couple of pages I think I can spread the read out over the year.

Warning: Maeve Binchy is not for everyone. You'll either love or hate her writing.

mumps

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I read Midnight's Children some years ago. I found the first half gripping, the second half far less so but persevered. I don't understand stand how someone who can write so well can lose their way....or perhaps I just didn't get it?

I bought this book a while ago from the chaz for the princely sum of £1.75:



It's a compilations of her newspaper columns written over a period of time. I have read all her books which I love for their gentle, "away with the fairies" quality and am enjoying this even more, because it's far better written and shows off her wit. But as I'll never find another Maeve Binchy to read I am "saving" it: I have started to read it as and when I need a little treat in life, as each article is only a couple of pages I think I can spread the read out over the year.

Warning: Maeve Binchy is not for everyone. You'll either love or hate her writing.

I have read several of her books and loved them as they reminded me of childhood holidays in the 1950s when my father would take me to the village in Mayo where he grew up. Nostalgia can be powerful. I must have a look to see whatelse she has written.

mumps

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Have you read "Small Island" by Andrea Levy? It might change your mind. There is some pre-and WW2 plot, but a lot is post war.

I didn't like the BBC adaptation but I haven't tried the book. I might look out for it on my next library trip.

Goldiegirl

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Have you read "Small Island" by Andrea Levy? It might change your mind. There is some pre-and WW2 plot, but a lot is post war.

Yes, I read that one a few years ago, and really enjoyed it


But that's not the sort of book I was referring to in my previous post


It's was this sort of book I don't enjoy



As Mumps put it, Catherine Cookson rip-offs!

pollypenny

I'd recommend Small Island. It's very sad in the way the Windrush immigrants were treated, compared to the way West Indians had been treated during the war.

I'm going to have another go at The Goldfinch now. I just couldn't get into it before.