When a thread reaches about 300 posts, we usually lock it and start a continuation thread; so I’ve locked the original “What are you reading at the moment?” thread now. The original thread can still be read; it just can’t be added to.

I’m on a Victorian kick at the moment. I’ve read “London: A Pilgrimage,” first published in the 1870s and famous for its engravings by Gustave Doré; and I’m starting on a life of Richard Burton (not Elizabeth Taylor’s husband, but the nineteenth century diplomat, explorer, and translator).

Oh yes! Sir Richard Francis Burton! An absolutely brilliant person. Do you know he was the first to translate Arabian Nights (among other things?) He seemed to have endless talents. Yes one of those. Unlike his more modern namesake, I am afraid.
I am reading such a lovely book. It is called the "Rosewood Casket" and it is is by Sharyn Mc Crumb. She writes so beautifully , mainly about the Appalachians and its people. It is a real can't put downer. I am sure I read something else by her...

Right now, I'm reading Vladimir Nakobov's "Lolita" and William Goldman's "The Princess Bride" for the 12th time... there's just something about the book, which reminds me that I just finished Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" for maybe the 20th... Hey, there's no point in owning a book if you're not going to read it more than once.

I'm a big Sharyn McCrumb fan - she has two styles, one the interesting and sensitvie Appalachian stories, and the other silly and fun. Both really good - I'd recommend anything by her.

At these moment I'm reading "The secret of Monna Lisa" from Dolores García.

"The Bridge to Holy Cross" by Paullina Simons. Got suckered in by the first one "The Bronze Horseman", so I just HAVE to see how she could make it a trilogy.
Also "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver.

Dirt Music by Tim Winton. This must be the first Tim Winton novel I've read (not counting The Bugalug's Bum Thief! ) Not bad but not great, either. He's a good writer, but it gets slow at some points.

The Plague by Albert Camus. Read one of his books years ago and decided to go back and see if he really was as good as I remember, so far so good.

I started Dracula last night. It has been really interesting so far, and exceeded my expectations.

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

I just started, and finished, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It's a nice book, and has a very simple way of explaining complicated matters, from the viewpoint of a child.

I honestly tried to get through Angels and Demons by Dan Brown just to see if I might be persuaded to read the sequel again.
I managed to get to the middle, but then, I got distracted. He just doesn't keep my interest and, a member of my family researched this subject so perhaps it just falls flat for me as I've read a lot about it in the non fiction area.
It does not sound like Tom Hanks to me but I'm not sure why.


I did read a fascinating book by Ursula Hegi called "Stones from the River" about a woman growing up in wartime Germany who is a person of small stature. I did not put it down for about six hours and read into the night.

I also got the latest Michael Connolly and that one was great. The Lincoln Lawyer about a kind of sleazy lawyer, but who finally is faced with an innocent man!

I thought "Stones from the River" was very good - I don't know if I wuold say I 'enjoyed' it, but it was worth reading.

I DID enjoy "The Lincoln Lawyer" - more than the last few of his series books, actually.

Well, I enjoyed the way the woman wrote it, but obviously not the context. I think it reminded me of when I'd lived on the German border for two years and how people told me they'd survived the war...got sent to Russia though they were born French to fight like Germans, a bunch of things they'd tell me.

The Lincoln Lawyer was great...but so was the blood one as well as the Void Moon one.

I din't like the Michael Connelly one where the guy went out to solve a crime after his heart transplant - was it the murder of the person whose heart he got? Something like that.... Here he is, barely out of the hospital, gotta take all these anti rejection drugs, etc, and yet he takes off for days at a time and doesn't even bother to call home. If I was his wife I'd have killed him.
I'm starting to get a little tired of all of these detectives with no interpersonal skills, can't get their act together to pay parking tickets, etc, and yet are well organized enough to solve the crime. I'm sorry; if you are disorganized and careless in your day to day life, you'll be that way on the job, too. I'd like to write a mystery story where the "oh so cool doesn't care about little stuff" hero ends up not solving the case, because he had all the clues but was too sloppy to notice. Sorry for the rant, but I've just quit reading the latest Robert Crais halfway through, for exactly that reason - the two main characters just got up my nose. You can spend endless hours on stakeout, but can't spend five minutes being polite to your mother on the phone, meanwhile she's taking care of your kids? Give me a break.

Scar Tissue by Anthony Keidis
Sex. Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll and he's still only 13. Unbelievable.

Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens!
What a delightful book. What a master of portrait painting the man is.

I recently finished Maya Angelou's "Gather Together in My Name" and Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" and I'm currently reading "The Lottery and Other Stories", once again by the late Shirley Jackson.

Just read Jeffrey Deaver's The Cold Moon. Wow, I can already see it on the big screen. He wrote The Bone COllector which became a motion picture remember with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. The team of Rhyme and Sachs are now 'together' as a couple and still solving crimes. I couldn't put it down

I have volume 1 of Burton's Supplemental Nights and it's amazing how someone could be so knowledgable during those days; and also have so many adventures.

My favorite version of the Arabian Nights is an 1890 version printed by Routledge & Sons which has a lot of black and white, and color illustrations which fit nicely with the old style story telling.


Right now though I'm reading Darwin's Origin of Species because there seems to be so many arguments over today. I read when I was 13 or 14 and remember it as saying those who fit in best survive; not that those most fit survive. There is a difference.

I'm also reading a Patrick McManus book of essays called How I Got This Way. Easy, short breaks from a sometimes depressing world.

"Needful Things" by Stephen King, which contains a very disturbing scene involving a corkscrew and a dog's chest, and an outdated, 2004 issue of "Poet's Market".

I have finally got around to starting the latest Harry Potter. I had been waiting to buy it at a bargain price in paperback, and preferably two books for the price of one or something.

At the moment this thread. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) Otherwise, I just finished Whiskey Sour, the first of the Jack Daniels comic mysteries, and have read my way through Christopher Moore to the last one and my current book: A Dirty Job.

Oh, I've read a couple of those Jack Daniels ones - not bad.

I've never read any of the Jack Daniels comics, are they any good? I'm just settling into a bit of a Stephen King phase at the moment, realised last week that I had never read any of his work, so I've just worked my way through Firestarter and The Gunslinger, so I'm now reading Pet Sematary whilst waiting for my friend to lend me the rest of the Dark Tower series. Being the cheapskate that I am I refuse to spend money on books unless they are in a deal, £7 for one paperback just seems ridiculous!