The Book Thread Book • Page 35

Is this your first Murakami? If so, and if you don't end up really enjoying it, you definitely don't have to / want to check anything else by him out. So you'd save a lot of time haha. If there is a fault of him it's that all his books have the same feel if not damn near the same characters / personalities and quirks (ears, cats, jazz music, spaghetti, etc.) it's just a matter of how good the surrounding story is. Most really love Wind-Up Bird (it's probably #4 or #5 in order of my favorites of his out of 19 books)

 

I finished Men Without Women a few weeks back, I loved it. Real classic 20th century short story style writing. All were great except the Kafka one, which I thought was kinda stupid tbh.

 

It's the first full novel. I've read a couple of his short stories and I thought they were alright. I'm not disliking it, but I'm not drawn to it as much as I had hoped I would be

 

Been making my way through a reread of Suttree. McCarthy really is a hell of a writer.

 

Currently reading The Sweet Forever by George Pelecanos. Really enjoying it so far.

 

Expensive but look at dat artwork

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? & A Scanner Darkly | The Folio Society

 

That art is amazing.

 

The Folio Society made that cool edition of The Sound and the Fury where the text is color coded and I'm gonna buy one of those if I ever become wealthy

 

A historian says all of sci-fi shares the same major flaw — except one legendary novel

 

Just started The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. So good.

 

I think I just had to give TWUBC more time. I just finished volume one and it's due back at the library tomorrow and I have midterms and can't finish it tonight but it's fantastic now

 

Fascinating to read that article as I read Brave New World during September.

 

I'm currently reading Charles Dickens' 'Bleak House'. I'm about a third of the way through but it's taking a looooong time. Some of it is interesting but some of it is a real chore. I'm flitting between enjoying it and finding it a bit dull. A shame - I thoroughly enjoyed 'A Tale of Two Cities' and 'A Christmas Carol'.

 

Been thinking I ought to try a Dickens at some point. I just generally find myself put off trying anything written pre-1900, it's something I probably need challenging on. Is there a good place to start with Charles Dickens?

 

Yeah, that ones hard to get through. Think it took me like 5 months as I'd only be able to read 10-15 pages at a time of super small font. Some passages were real good and went super fast though and some of the humor is real dry and actually had me laughing out loud. Smart fella, that Dickens.

 

A Tale of Two Cities is real good and shorter than most of his works. Honestly I'd say to go to the store, look at all his works and pick the shortest one so you get to experience Dickens but without it taking half a year or more (depending how much you end up liking his writing)

 

I've been trying to read pre-1900 classics here and there since the beginning of 2016 - it's fun and there are some great ones. Also, it helps that you can get ebooks for free as they're out of copyright.

As already mentioned, A Tale of Two Cities is a lot shorter. I found it hard going for the first few chapters because there were so many characters but then it ended up being pretty compelling. As I studied history, the backdrop of the French Revolution was great.

For an introduction to Dickens, I would recommend reading A Christmas Carol in December. It's even shorter. I don't know if you are a Muppet fan but it really made me appreciate what they accomplished with their version! As I read it I kept imagining all the Muppet voices and characters... haha!

Yes, because I'm the kind of person who likes to read a book from start to finish, I kind of forget with some of these older books like Charles Dickens novels that they were actually serialised over a long period of time in newspapers or other publications, so don't necessarily need to be read back to front in one go. I'm aiming to hit 50% and then I might read a few other backs and come back to it at the end of October.

 

Finished up The Sweet Forever yesterday and really enjoyed it. May have to check out more stuff from George Pelecanos now.

Since I typically read two books at a time (one Kindle book, one physical) I started my review copy of Artemis by Andy Weir on Kindle the other day and it's good so far. Going to try to start The Stand by Stephen King once I get a couple more things done today.

 

On a big Mary Karr kick right now. Finished Lit and started The Art of Memoir.

 

Halfway thru Annihilation and I'm really into it. I've heard Authority drags a bit, but I'm excited to get to it based on how much I'm enjoying the first one.

 

Currently reading There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins and good god I'm glad I don't put weight into GR reviews

 

Ended up with a Breaking Bad 101 review copy so I read that Sunday and Monday and then finished Artemis yesterday. Now to get back to The Stand.

 

how was it!

 

I really enjoyed it! I do need to write a review for it, but I want to sit with it for a couple days. I have a couple other articles to write today, but hopefully I'll start that review by the end of the week and figure out where I'm posting it haha.

 

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah is 1.99 for Kindle in case anyone else has been waiting on a sale to read this.

The Nightingale: A Novel - Kindle edition by Kristin Hannah. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.