Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[Trekkiemelissa]

Originally Posted by doreenjoy

I read His Lady Mistress yesterday (desperately needed a break from Perdido St Station). I enjoyed it, but found it a bit melodramatic.

I had a hard time getting into it at first, but as I started reading it, it did get a bit better. I have not read a harlequin romance book in a long time. I think high school was the last time I read those type of books. I am working on the whole star trek: stargazer series now, so the next 5 books will be that. I have the first 2 on my kindle, but as I start onto the 2nd book, I will get the next book in the line that I need. I had the series that I had downloaded to the computer a while back. I had a hard time reading the book on the computer. I have not really had any problems reading on my kindle than on the computer. When I get the time, I will just sit down and read.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Currently reading Perdido St Station for another online bookclub, and really enjoying it!

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

As I said, perhaps it is just a European stuff that I just don't get. And other US folks think this book is a "roaring funny" book?

BOb

BTW: I laughed my ass off at Hitchhickers Guide and that was very dry British humor.

i think tompe is right, it's perhaps more subtle than some books (including hitchhiker's guide, although it is a similar kind of humour) and has sometimes slow buildups to the jokes but the situations are so well-described and he makes such a masterful use of litotes that i find it more evocative and more effective than a more heavy-handed approach. there are some scenes which will make me giggle just thinking about them, like singing the comic song, or the "stuffed fish" in the inn, or the maze... the writing style seems to allow a lot of participation from the reader to imagine the scene and so i feel always quite drawn in.

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

It's always fun to watch the boats go up and down

yes, isn't it ?

Most of the towpaths here have been transformed to biking paths. And even we, in one of the flattest countries, have locks. When we were on our way home last saturday, we passed a lock where they had the old (1945) prices hanging (people used to pay for passing a lock). A tree trunk costed 3c per trunk! (which would be about 1.3 euro cent).

here as well. in fact the client i was working for this month always takes a cycling holiday in the summer, he was showing me his route this year on a map and quite a lot of his route is along canals, he's going to go all the way down the canal du midi.

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Interesting canal-related bit of etymology:
If a tunnel didn't have a towpath running alongside it

"...the boatmen had to find another way of getting their boat through the tunnel. ... the boatmen had to lie on the roof of the barge and use their legs to "walk" the boat through the narrow tunnel. ... it was this procedure which coined the phrase "legging it". "

http://www.yorkshire-escapes.com/yor...-narrow-canal/

ha ! how funny ! i love stories like that.

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Hi All! It's been a while since I posted here. After a while re-reading some of my old p-books (I had an anxiety attack when I was jobless and started re-reading my whole fantasy-romance collection, lol), I am back to e-books and reading two of them at the moment:

Nouveaux souvenirs entomologiques by Jean-Henri Fabre (new entomological memoirs? Something like that), the second volume of his memoirs, which I find fascinating. I've always been interested in insects because they are the easiest wildlife to observe, but I don't have the patience to spend years just watching them and I'm happy he did that so that I get to read about it instead. He was a very thorough observer and experimenter, and I like his lively style too. He was completely wrong about evolution, but it's also interesting to read about his opinions on that, which probably were shared by many of his contemporaries.

The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem is weird, because it's the story of a boy who was born almost at the same time I was, but his childhood is so different from mine we could be from different planets. Otherwise it's well written, a good book for sure, but somehow there is something missing I can't quite put my finger on. Good, but not great.

hm, Nouveaux souvenirs entomologiques sounds quite interesting, i will have to take a look at it. thanks for the recommendation ! by the way, we've started a thread on this subject in the french forum now as well.

i've just finished some short stories by moejoe and peverel. it's really great discovering the writing of our members and i want to thank them for sharing it !

[tompe]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

there are some scenes which will make me giggle just thinking about them, like singing the comic song, or the "stuffed fish" in the inn, or the maze...

Same here. Or the scene with the swans, or the tin-opener scene ("It was George's straw hat that saved his life that day." is just such a perfect sentence and a very good example of the type of humor in the book).

I think I have to re-read the book for the fourth time tonight. It was over three years since I last read it so it should work.

[lilac_jive]

I'm trying to figure out what I want to read next....

[Sparrow]

I've just finished 'Three Men in a Boat'.

Now started 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or the Murder at Road Hill House' by Kate Summerscale.
A book about a real-life Victorain murder case; it's been getting enthusiastic reviews, and I couldn't resist when I spotted the pback edition library.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

Currently reading Perdido St Station for another online bookclub, and really enjoying it!

Yep, I thought it was excellent. But I didn't get the same enjoyment from Mieville's subsequent books 'The Scar' and 'Iron Council'.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by tompe

Same here. Or the scene with the swans, or the tin-opener scene ("It was George's straw hat that saved his life that day." is just such a perfect sentence and a very good example of the type of humor in the book).

I think I have to re-read the book for the fourth time tonight. It was over three years since I last read it so it should work.

...or when they try to put the tent cover over the boat ! or when they finally get their clothes washed... or when they are having lunch and one of them (i forget which one) disappears suddenly, and then reappears as just a head, because he has fallen into a hole...

i think i should re-read it too, although i read it not that long ago.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

...or when they try to put the tent cover over the boat ! or when they finally get their clothes washed... or when they are having lunch and one of them (i forget which one) disappears suddenly, and then reappears as just a head, because he has fallen into a hole...

i think i should re-read it too, although i read it not that long ago.

Or the scene near the start when they're trying to find out which platform their train leaves from, and finally convince a train driver to go to Kingston, without any of them (driver included) realising it was the Exeter mail train.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Yep, I thought it was excellent. But I didn't get the same enjoyment from Mieville's subsequent books 'The Scar' and 'Iron Council'.

Have you tried his YA one - Un Lun Dun? (I haven't read that yet, it's on my list along (now with a little trepidation) The Scar and Iron Council)

[lilac_jive]

I decided on "Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar." So far it's very interesting. Gosh I love freebies.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Yep, I thought it was excellent. But I didn't get the same enjoyment from Mieville's subsequent books 'The Scar' and 'Iron Council'.

Same here, I loved 'Perdido Street Station' but didn't enjoy 'The Scar' as much. I haven't read 'Iron Council' yet but it's in my wish list at BoB.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

there are some scenes which will make me giggle just thinking about them, like singing the comic song, or the "stuffed fish" in the inn, or the maze...

Now you're making me smile, and I'm at work! My own favorite part is when he explains how to boil water, the important thing being not to watch it and to pretend you're not waiting for it to boil

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

the writing style seems to allow a lot of participation from the reader to imagine the scene and so i feel always quite drawn in.

Very true! It annoys me very much when authors don't leave any room to my imagination (that's one of the reasons I sent The Davinci Code back to Amazon after reading about 5 pages), but sometimes I forget to appreciate it when they do. It does play an important role in my enjoyment of the book though.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

Or the scene near the start when they're trying to find out which platform their train leaves from, and finally convince a train driver to go to Kingston, without any of them (driver included) realising it was the Exeter mail train.

oh yes !!! hilarious !!

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Now you're making me smile, and I'm at work! My own favorite part is when he explains how to boil water, the important thing being not to watch it and to pretend you're not waiting for it to boil

now i am giggling like a loon at my desk !!! i am definitely going to read this book next. perfect timing as last night i finished some short stories so now i can start a new book.

Very true! It annoys me very much when authors don't leave any room to my imagination (that's one of the reasons I sent The Davinci Code back to Amazon after reading about 5 pages), but sometimes I forget to appreciate it when they do. It does play an important role in my enjoyment of the book though.

yes, i think it's one of the best things about reading compared to other entertainment like tv or films (not that i dislike those necessarily !). it's also why generally i'm disappointed by film adaptations of books i love, and to be honest, i even prefer to read a play most often rather than see a live performance ; i am frequently disappointed by the theatrical versions, with some rare exceptions (i saw "Rhinoceros" by ionesco at the théâtre de la ville a few years ago, apart from the fact that the actors were all much older than i imagined the characters to be, it was brilliantly done).

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

Have you tried his YA one - Un Lun Dun? (I haven't read that yet, it's on my list along (now with a little trepidation) The Scar and Iron Council)

Nope, not read than one I'm afraid.

I thought The Scar was fine - just not as good as PSS. So it's worth a read imho.
'Iron Council' I gave up on half-way through.