What are you reading?

[grumpyhack]

3 hours ago, March Hare said:

My evening read has arrived @grumpyhack

Thanks for your support @March Hare.  All my friends seem to have received their copies but mine aren't scheduled to arrive till Mid January, so I still don't know what the printed version looks like.  I'm now contemplating a kids picture book written by me but illustrated by my two five year old twin grandchildren.  That should keep us out of mischief till this Covid ends.

[bamber]

I read a lot more in the summer than the winter because I can't resign to sunbathing and claim I'm actually doing something by sunbathing. I've been through all that before here, however:

These are the two most memorable books this summer, both highly recommended.

The first is "A Struggle for Power" by Theodore Draper

and the second is "Biocentrism" by Robert Lanza

[WestCountryGirl]

Well, I did it - I read 52 books in a year! Final one that I just finished was "The Book of Longings" by Sue Monk Kidd, which in a strange way felt like a really fitting way to tie up the target I set myself.

I found a note the other day that I'd written to myself as a goal for 2018 to read 6 books - and I don't think I even achieved that! I set the 52 target for myself before Covid had exploded and ruined the year - my intention was to rediscover the joy of reading and to spend less time mindlessly scrolling online. I've achieved both of those things, and then some.

Looking forward to all of the wonderful words I'll get to read in 2021. Really appreciate everyone contributing to this thread with recommendations and thoughts - let's keep the discussion going 🙂

[vintagelaureate]

42 minutes ago, WestCountryGirl said:

Well, I did it - I read 52 books in a year! Final one that I just finished was "The Book of Longings" by Sue Monk Kidd, which in a strange way felt like a really fitting way to tie up the target I set myself.

I found a note the other day that I'd written to myself as a goal for 2018 to read 6 books - and I don't think I even achieved that! I set the 52 target for myself before Covid had exploded and ruined the year - my intention was to rediscover the joy of reading and to spend less time mindlessly scrolling online. I've achieved both of those things, and then some.

Looking forward to all of the wonderful words I'll get to read in 2021. Really appreciate everyone contributing to this thread with recommendations and thoughts - let's keep the discussion going 🙂

Well done, I wish I was as motivated to read as you are! Partly with having two young children, I always fend to fill my spare time (which is very limited!) with TV or endless YouTube rabbit holes! I've really got to address that!

[philipsteak]

7 hours ago, vintagelaureate said:

Well done, I wish I was as motivated to read as you are! Partly with having two young children, I always fend to fill my spare time (which is very limited!) with TV or endless YouTube rabbit holes! I've really got to address that!

I don't even have the excuse of kids! Really have to get out of these bad habits

[gigpusher]

9 hours ago, WestCountryGirl said:

Well, I did it - I read 52 books in a year! Final one that I just finished was "The Book of Longings" by Sue Monk Kidd, which in a strange way felt like a really fitting way to tie up the target I set myself.

I found a note the other day that I'd written to myself as a goal for 2018 to read 6 books - and I don't think I even achieved that! I set the 52 target for myself before Covid had exploded and ruined the year - my intention was to rediscover the joy of reading and to spend less time mindlessly scrolling online. I've achieved both of those things, and then some.

Looking forward to all of the wonderful words I'll get to read in 2021. Really appreciate everyone contributing to this thread with recommendations and thoughts - let's keep the discussion going 🙂

Yay well done. I managed 60. Hoped to finish the 61st that I started but that hasn't happened. I'd say in 2019 and 2018 I read no more than 10 books and they would have been what I read on holiday so kind of proud of myself. 

My latest book is Just Eat It by Laura Thomas and it is very interesting. Basically she's a nutritionist and it's about how dieting and diet culture actually makes us less healthy. Mainly aimed at women but useful information if a little too self-helpy for me. I have bought a lot of 99p kindle books ready for next year. I think this year has been an exceptional year but hoping that I can stick at around 30-40 books a year going forward. 

[WestCountryGirl]

21 hours ago, vintagelaureate said:

Well done, I wish I was as motivated to read as you are! Partly with having two young children, I always fend to fill my spare time (which is very limited!) with TV or endless YouTube rabbit holes! I've really got to address that!

I can't imagine reading a single book with two young children around! I am very fortunate to have little in the way of extra curricular commitments... and having lots of extra time on my hands this year 😅

12 hours ago, gigpusher said:

Yay well done. I managed 60. Hoped to finish the 61st that I started but that hasn't happened. I'd say in 2019 and 2018 I read no more than 10 books and they would have been what I read on holiday so kind of proud of myself. 

My latest book is Just Eat It by Laura Thomas and it is very interesting. Basically she's a nutritionist and it's about how dieting and diet culture actually makes us less healthy. Mainly aimed at women but useful information if a little too self-helpy for me. I have bought a lot of 99p kindle books ready for next year. I think this year has been an exceptional year but hoping that I can stick at around 30-40 books a year going forward. 

Your total was very impressive indeed! I'm looking forward to putting my Fire to use now that I've got through this year's physical copies 🙂 I'm going to set my sights lower for 2021 - but I definitely still need a number to aim for, that's something I've learnt about myself in doing this.

First on the list for the new year: Karen Armstrong's "History of God".

[Gilgamesh69]

25 minutes ago, WestCountryGirl said:

I can't imagine reading a single book with two young children around! I am very fortunate to have little in the way of extra curricular commitments... and having lots of extra time on my hands this year 😅

Your total was very impressive indeed! I'm looking forward to putting my Fire to use now that I've got through this year's physical copies 🙂 I'm going to set my sights lower for 2021 - but I definitely still need a number to aim for, that's something I've learnt about myself in doing this.

First on the list for the new year: Karen Armstrong's "History of God".

Maybe next year aim to do fewer books, but harder ones? Deep reading rather than wide reading

 

[WestCountryGirl]

40 minutes ago, Gilgamesh69 said:

Maybe next year aim to do fewer books, but harder ones? Deep reading rather than wide reading

 

Don't really feel the need to quantify it in that way, judging what's hard or easy like. I'll just read what I enjoy, same as this year. I know there will be more non-fiction, but that's just because a great many have landed on my "to read" list. I won't be denying myself a nice "easy" novel if one takes my fancy 🙂

[bamber]

On 12/30/2020 at 11:09 PM, WestCountryGirl said:

Well, I did it - I read 52 books in a year! Final one that I just finished was "The Book of Longings" by Sue Monk Kidd, which in a strange way felt like a really fitting way to tie up the target I set myself.

I found a note the other day that I'd written to myself as a goal for 2018 to read 6 books - and I don't think I even achieved that! I set the 52 target for myself before Covid had exploded and ruined the year - my intention was to rediscover the joy of reading and to spend less time mindlessly scrolling online. I've achieved both of those things, and then some.

Looking forward to all of the wonderful words I'll get to read in 2021. Really appreciate everyone contributing to this thread with recommendations and thoughts - let's keep the discussion going 🙂

A book a week is more than can muster. I'm guessing Mason and Dixon or Ulysses or War and Peace were not amongst the titles you chose? (All tough reads, I recommend Mason and Dixon of the three)

[WestCountryGirl]

18 minutes ago, bamber said:

A book a week is more than can muster. I'm guessing Mason and Dixon or Ulysses or War and Peace were not amongst the titles you chose? (All tough reads, I recommend Mason and Dixon of the three)

 

Haha, no siree! Had to read (some) of Gravity's Rainbow at uni - that was enough Pynchon for me!

Just realised I don't think I mentioned it in this thread as I read it back in May, but definitely my favourite book I read last(!) year was 'Pachinko' by Min Jin Lee. Moved right up there as one of my favourite books ever - I'm already looking forward to the day when I decide to revisit it.

[bamber]

11 minutes ago, WestCountryGirl said:

Haha, no siree! Had to read (some) of Gravity's Rainbow at uni - that was enough Pynchon for me!

Just realised I don't think I mentioned it in this thread as I read it back in May, but definitely my favourite book I read last(!) year was 'Pachinko' by Min Jin Lee. Moved right up there as one of my favourite books ever - I'm already looking forward to the day when I decide to revisit it.

.. and Pachinko is on my list. Ta.

[bamber]

30 minutes ago, WestCountryGirl said:

Haha, no siree! Had to read (some) of Gravity's Rainbow at uni - that was enough Pynchon for me!

Just realised I don't think I mentioned it in this thread as I read it back in May, but definitely my favourite book I read last(!) year was 'Pachinko' by Min Jin Lee. Moved right up there as one of my favourite books ever - I'm already looking forward to the day when I decide to revisit it.

Mason & Dixon is actually far more approachable than Gravity's Rainbow and a better book for it . Gravity's Rainbow and Ulysses are the famously most difficult texts. Get to the end of one or both and you will find all other books piss easy in comparison, so worth persevering for that alone, though actually, unsurprisingly ,they are both very good books on the third or fourth read. 

Edited January 1, 2021 by bamber

[BlackZeppelin]

2 minutes ago, bamber said:

Mason & Dixon is actually far more approachable then Gravity's Rainbow and a better book for it . Gravity's Rainbow and Ulysses are the famously most difficult texts. Get to the end of one or both and you will find all other books piss easy in comparison, so worth persevering for that alone, though actually, unsurprisingly ,they are both very good books on the third or fourth read. 

I agree.

I'm into the last hundred pages of Ulysses....having read 6 other books since starting it.

It nearly broke me.

Imagine having 40 different styles of prose to show the evolution of language in one chapter? (Oxen of the Sun)....who does that?

 

[bamber]

The first time I read Ulysses, the first day I started reading it in fact, on only page five or six, a man with a massive white beard and long unkempt white hair and wearing a loin cloth walked straight up to me, on the beach where I lay, and recited the last page to me from memory. He then spent the next twenty minutes basically slagging it off. We became friends.

[bamber]

I must reiterate my earlier recommendation.

"A Struggle for Power" by Theodore Draper

All you need to learn about where we all came from and why the world is the way it is, and why not much changes or will ever change. The dominant motivation of mankind let loose in a 'new' world. No Taxation without representation. It turns out nothing motivates men more than that.

[Avalon_Fields]

My son bought me Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. A fascinating history of humankind. I don’t agree with all his points but it is an amazing, thought-provoking book. 
 

 

[BlackZeppelin]

On 1/1/2021 at 10:34 PM, bamber said:

The first time I read Ulysses, the first day I started reading it in fact, on only page five or six, a man with a massive white beard and long unkempt white hair and wearing a loin cloth walked straight up to me, on the beach where I lay, and recited the last page to me from memory. He then spent the next twenty minutes basically slagging it off. We became 

Must have been waiting for ages to spot someone reading Ulysses. No doubt made his day.

[John the Moth]

On 1/2/2021 at 2:20 AM, Avalon_Fields said:

My son bought me Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. A fascinating history of humankind. I don’t agree with all his points but it is an amazing, thought-provoking book. 
 

 

I got ‘Sapiens’ too as a Chrissy Pressie, not started it yet, but I’ve heard good things and am looking forward to getting stuck in after first reading...

 

Edited January 4, 2021 by John the Moth
The cropped quote made it unclear what I was talking about :)

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

The best book that I ever read was - Janet and John: Book One

 

Purely because it's the book that taught me to read in the first place.

 

[gigpusher]

My reading so far this year. Have just started Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier so expecting that one to take a bit longer. 

[Ted Dansons Wig]

On 1/1/2021 at 11:18 AM, bamber said:

Mason & Dixon is actually far more approachable than Gravity's Rainbow and a better book for it . Gravity's Rainbow and Ulysses are the famously most difficult texts. Get to the end of one or both and you will find all other books piss easy in comparison, so worth persevering for that alone, though actually, unsurprisingly ,they are both very good books on the third or fourth read. 

Gravitys Rainbow broke me and i VERY rarely give up on books. 

Loved the opening sentence which has stayed with me but lost the novels thread at some point shortly after

 

Edited January 11, 2021 by Ted Dansons Wig
error

[Ted Dansons Wig]

 

Been binging for some months on American politics. This is one of the best

[gigpusher]

2 hours ago, Ted Dansons Wig said:

 

Been binging for some months on American politics. This is one of the best

Sounds great. Have added it to my list. 

[1986]

On Pynchon, I read Inherent Vice in prep for the PT Anderson adaptation a few years back and I found that very tough. I also own Bleeding Edge from when I saw it in a charity shop in what looked like brand new condition. I assume the previous owner couldn't get into him either.

2021 and i have set myself a target of 20 books this year. For Christmas I got the first 2 Harry Potters and Ant Kind by Charlie Kaufman. Finished Potter 1 in a week and have moved onto Kaufman. 100 pages in so far and its pretty addictive and frustrating in equal measure, haven' read anything like it (not that that says much) but if you like his films its worth picking up.