What are You reading right now

Black Mamba · Post by **Black Mamba** » 21 Oct 2006, 14:48

I'm reading Stephen King's 'Secret Window Seccret Garden' It's the book the film Secret Window' starring the drop dead georgus, talented Johnny Depp as auther 'Mort Rainey. Good stuff.
King can certainly reel you into his stories.

rapunzell · Post by **rapunzell** » 21 Oct 2006, 14:59

'Voices in the garden' by Dirk Bogarde, set around the priviliged people and never-ending summer at an ornate villa in Cap Ferrat. The whole atmosphere makes me feel like reclining on a velvet chaise longue and sending the maid for a parasol : )

Have just finished 'Great Meadow', the first part of Dirk Bogarde's autobiography, which was excellent. I recommend the audio book read by himself, for full effect.

arachnid · Post by **arachnid** » 22 Oct 2006, 00:12

Just going to start reading " Digital Fortress" by Dan Brown

bearcub · Post by **bearcub** » 22 Oct 2006, 19:44

About to start "Marley and Me" by John Grogan.

Read an excerpt in a magazine while visiting in-laws and my family over the weekend. Was about to order through Amazon when we got home, until S pulled out a book that my sister had leant her as "a good read" - yep, same one. Result!

Maria · Post by **Maria** » 28 Oct 2006, 14:02

Just finished "The Stornoway Man" by Kevin MacNeil and am currently dividing my attentions between Margaret Atwood's "Moral Disorder" and "Snow" by Orphan Pamuk. Thoroughly enjoying both books.
Next up is "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell (of "Cloud Atlas" fame

) which comes strongly recommended by colleagues.

Sandra · Post by **Sandra** » 28 Oct 2006, 14:11

Marya wrote:Next up is "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell (of "Cloud Atlas" fame ) which comes strongly recommended by colleagues.

Hope you enjoy I just couldn't get into that book.

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 28 Oct 2006, 14:44

My holiday reading (and I had plenty of time to read) consisted of:

'The Island' by Victoria Hislop:

On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding longs to find out about her mother's past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. All she admits to is growing up in a small Cretan village before moving to London. When Alexis decides to visit Crete, however, Sofia gives her daughter a letter to take to an old friend, and promises that through her she will learn more. Arriving in Plaka, Alexis is astonished to see that it lies a stone's throw from the tiny, deserted island of Spinalonga - Greece's former leper colony. Then she finds Fortini, and at last hears the story that Sofia has buried all her life: the tale of her great-grandmother Eleni and her daughters and a family rent by tragedy, war and passion. She discovers how intimately she is connected with the island, and how secrecy holds them all in its powerful grip...

I read the book, we had lunch in Plaka and then took a boat across to Spinalonga. It was amazing to think that the leper colony existed within living memory and I wondered what some of the old women we saw in Plaka in their traditional black clothing would make of the bestseller holiday reading their history had become.

'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini:

A previous POL Big Read, I enjoyed this immensely.

The Kite Runner of Khaled Hosseini's deeply moving fiction debut is an illiterate Afghan boy with an uncanny instinct for predicting exactly where a downed kite will land. Growing up in the city of Kabul in the early 1970s, Hassan was narrator Amir's closest friend even though the loyal 11-year-old with "a face like a Chinese doll" was the son of Amir's father's servant and a member of Afghanistan's despised Hazara minority. But in 1975, on the day of Kabul's annual kite-fighting tournament, something unspeakable happened between the two boys.
Narrated by Amir, a 40-year-old novelist living in California, The Kite Runner tells the gripping story of a boyhood friendship destroyed by jealousy, fear, and the kind of ruthless evil that transcends mere politics. Running parallel to this personal narrative of loss and redemption is the story of modern Afghanistan and of Amir's equally guilt-ridden relationship with the war-torn city of his birth. The first Afghan novel to be written in English, The Kite Runner begins in the final days of King Zahir Shah's 40-year reign and traces the country's fall from a secluded oasis to a tank-strewn battlefield controlled by the Russians and then the trigger-happy Taliban. When Amir returns to Kabul to rescue Hassan's orphaned child, the personal and the political get tangled together in a plot that is as suspenseful as it is taut with feeling.

The son of an Afghan diplomat whose family received political asylum in the United States in 1980, Hosseini combines the unflinching realism of a war correspondent with the satisfying emotional pull of master storytellers such as Rohinton Mistry. Like the kite that is its central image, the story line of this mesmerizing first novel occasionally dips and seems almost to dive to the ground. But Hosseini ultimately keeps everything airborne until his heartrending conclusion in an American picnic park.

'The Time Traveler's Wife' by Audrey Niffenegger:

A clever idea but I got fed up with Henry's random travels and it all turned out a bit girly for my personal taste.

Now reading 'The Shipping News' by Annie Proulx.

Sandra · Post by **Sandra** » 28 Oct 2006, 16:44

I loved the Island

Highly recommend.

Also enjoyed Time Travellers wife, read it on holiday.

Maria · Post by **Maria** » 28 Oct 2006, 17:13

I liked 'The Time Traveller's Wife' (good one for Higher English pupils looking at narrative technique for their personal Study!) and also enjoyed "The Kite Runner', but did find the rather blatant tugging on my heartstrings a bit OTT at times.

You'll enjoy 'The Shipping News'. No-one can fail to enjoy an Annie Proulx book. BTW whatever happened to the "E"? She seems to have dropped it these days.Mr Magnolia can you enlighten us here?

SoupDragon · Post by **SoupDragon** » 28 Oct 2006, 17:55

Read the Island whilst on holiday in Greece which helped the recreate the atmosphere.
Thought the Historian by Elizabeth Kostove an intriguing idea but a bit over long.
Currently reading Country of the blind by Christopher Brookmyre before starting on the new Ian Rankin book

thumper · Post by **thumper** » 29 Oct 2006, 10:46

i am reading 2nd chance by james patterson. just finished the de vinci code.

rapunzell · Post by **rapunzell** » 29 Oct 2006, 13:12

'King Solomon's Mines' by H Rider Haggard.

Also, 'Seeing Things' by Oliver Postgate, on audio book read by himself, which is the best way for autobiogs, except that the voice of Bagpuss and the Clangers doesn't usually say such rude words! It sounds so wrong.. but in a good way

Dadaist · Post by **Dadaist** » 06 Nov 2006, 08:12

A while ago some people left me some free books outside my door so I'm reading them. The first one is really boring - no discernable plot yet but there's a cast of thousands.

I'm determined to finish it and get to the second one they left, which promises to be the adventures of a cat called Thomson.

rapunzell · Post by **rapunzell** » 06 Nov 2006, 09:19

Dadaist wrote:A while ago some people left me some free books outside my door so I'm reading them. The first one is really boring - no discernable plot yet but there's a cast of thousands.

I'm determined to finish it and get to the second one they left, which promises to be the adventures of a cat called Thomson.

Sandra · Post by **Sandra** » 06 Nov 2006, 10:54

Martina Cole - Close

ali · Post by **ali** » 06 Nov 2006, 11:47

The Scotsman closely followed by The Herald...........

Dadaist · Post by **Dadaist** » 06 Nov 2006, 11:52

ali wrote:The Scotsman closely followed by The Herald...........

Your post.

thumper · Post by **thumper** » 06 Nov 2006, 13:46

i have just started reading the ISLAND. going to crete next year so will have to go and visist a few places, i read captain correlis mandoline while in kefelonia. (sorry about the spelling)

Black Mamba · Post by **Black Mamba** » 06 Nov 2006, 14:02

Dadaist wrote:A while ago some people left me some free books outside my door so I'm reading them. The first one is really boring - no discernable plot yet but there's a cast of thousands.

I'm determined to finish it and get to the second one they left, which promises to be the adventures of a cat called Thomson.

bellybabe · Post by **bellybabe** » 06 Nov 2006, 14:53

Existentialism and humanism - Jean Paul Sartre
The interpreted world - Ernesto Spinelli
Existentialism - Mary Warnock
Everyday mysteries - Emmy Van Deurzen
The discovery of being - Rollo May

and more... I can't wait to finish this assignment and read something mindless.

I love the Shipping News.

foxy · Post by **foxy** » 06 Nov 2006, 15:14

Bellybabe wrote:Existentialism and humanism - Jean Paul Sartre
The interpreted world - Ernesto Spinelli
Existentialism - Mary Warnock
Everyday mysteries - Emmy Van Deurzen
The discovery of being - Rollo May

and more... I can't wait to finish this assignment and read something mindless.

I love the Shipping News.

swat...I'll bring you some Readers Digests to the Christmas Nightout

Speaking of Shipping News, I always used to puzzle over what they were saying when they said "North Utsire, South Utsire". I thought it was north hut zero etc

Jamesie · Post by **Jamesie** » 06 Nov 2006, 18:26

Currently reading "Hope and other stories" by Laura Hird - always guaranteed a good read from the Edinburgh-based writer.

Have ordered "The Stornoway Man" from Amazon on recommendation from this forum.

Pal of Porty · Post by **Pal of Porty** » 06 Nov 2006, 19:06

The Argos Catalogue

seanie · Post by **seanie** » 06 Nov 2006, 19:19

Just started The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End having just finished Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq.

tom nimmo · Post by **tom nimmo** » 07 Nov 2006, 20:22

Em, this actually!

Dave Connelly · Post by **Dave Connelly** » 07 Nov 2006, 22:54

The shadow of the wind

Carlos Zafon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Wind-Car ... F8&s=books

<img src="http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/image ... 142334.jpg">

Worth a read even if Richard and Judy did mention it

Sandra · Post by **Sandra** » 08 Nov 2006, 22:07

Pal of Porty wrote:The Argos Catalogue

Forced or through choice??

Sandra · Post by **Sandra** » 08 Nov 2006, 22:08

Dave Connelly wrote:The shadow of the wind

Carlos Zafon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Wind-Car ... F8&s=books

<img src="http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/image ... 142334.jpg">

Worth a read even if Richard and Judy did mention it

Thanks, I've also read a few of Richard & Judy's choices

which have actually been really good reads.

bellybabe · Post by **bellybabe** » 09 Nov 2006, 10:47

I read the first page of The Shadow of the Wind. The writing was so appalling that I knew I wouldn't even make it to the second page. Shame because it sounds like a good idea for a story. But no doubt there'll be a film.

tom nimmo · Post by **tom nimmo** » 09 Nov 2006, 14:14

Bellybabe. You thought the Shadow of the Wind was appalling!!!. I read it recently and everyone else I know who has read it has thought it was fantastic. May I recommend "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey. This is the most powerful and honest 'rehab' book I have ever read. If you work anywhere within the field of addictions and their consequences then this book is essential reading. It's brutally honest and a very moving story. I have a copy which I would be prepared to lend if I was guaranteed to get it back.

Porty · Post by **Porty** » 09 Nov 2006, 15:36

tom nimmo wrote: If you work anywhere within the field of addictions and their consequences then this book is essential reading. It's brutally honest and a very moving story. I have a copy which I would be prepared to lend if I was guaranteed to get it back.

That's a generous offer but what if you unkowinlgy leant it to a recovering cleptomaniac?

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 09 Nov 2006, 16:19

From what I've read and heard it is not totally 'honest' - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Frey

tom nimmo · Post by **tom nimmo** » 09 Nov 2006, 18:24

Porty. I don't yet know what I don't know but I do know that I don't know if I would get it back if I lent it, don't you know.
Poppy. I enjoyed it because it felt honest to me. Obviously there has to be some sort of literary licence in a memoir as it is impossible to remember conversations word for word over a period of time. More so if the writer was totally %^&*Â£$-up at the time.

Dave Connelly · Post by **Dave Connelly** » 09 Nov 2006, 19:05

Games People Play

Eric Berne MD

<img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/03454 ... ZZZZZ_.jpg">

http://www.amazon.com/Games-People-Play ... 0345410033

Should be right up your street Poppy. One or two of the chapters you may particularly enjoy. I read it when I started working at Rosslynlee, that was quite a few years ago now, but it is still relevant, if not more so in this day and age.

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 09 Nov 2006, 19:35

Should be right up your street Poppy

I have no idea what you mean, Dave?