Re-reading "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens.

Lol. I am also re-reading. Vanity Fair by Thackeray. I loved it the first time (maybe 50 years ago.)

I'm actually reading Alice in Wonderland. I never could enjoy the book as a child, and still do not enjoy any of the film or animated films made of it. I am, however, getting more enjoyment out of the book this time round.

I was just the same, Toni. I didn't even begin to love it till I was an adult. I may have been a victim of the "You-must-read-it-you-will-love-it-everyone-does-"syndrome.
A big off-putter for me.

I'm reading "Black Box", the latest Harry Bosch novel from Michael Connelly. Except I don't know if I can - he's always been an unlikable character but it's gotten to the point where I can't stand to spend the time with him. I don't think it would bother me so much if he ever suffered the consequences of being a colossal jerk, but he doesn't, really. He still has a decent relationship with his kid, his co workers still do favours for him - in real life he'd be the guy whose waits five times as long as everyone else for people to get back to him, and his kid would be out every night and spending the rest of her time boarded up in her room. I get the feeling Connelly is a jerk himself, maybe, and so sees this character as just lightly and pleasingly flawed, rather than as toxic.

How very true! There's nothing so off-putting as someone insisting that you absolutely must like a certain book, particularly when it has been shown before that your own taste and that of the person recommending a book are not exactly in sync!

At present I´m reading a historic novel called " Love and War " which the second part of a trilogy about the Civil War. I've already read the first " North and South " and when I finish it I´ll read the last " Heaven and Hell ". They are very interesting and I learn a lot about that period of American History, They were written by John Jakes.

It's a great novel representing a fruitful period in English Literature.

Gosh, I got totally engrossed in that series years ago, probably just fresh out of school in the late 80s, and I loved them! A great big sweeping saga with the civil war as backdrop and enough historical references to keep it interesting for someone who had absolutely no grounding in American history or the civil war. Happy memories!

I'm reading posts. LOL. No FT for six weeks kinda sux. Know what I mean?

I had to finish the school year, but I did manage to read a couple of novels. I'm too embarrassed to name them, but they did help me sleep.

Thank God I can read and don't have to have the internet or TV.

T

Hello Everyone, Irishrosy here,

This is my first post ever as a member of Fun trivia.
It is a pleasure to meet you all.

As a young child my most treasured "toy"
was my library card. Today for most, I suppose that "toy" is now some type of Kindle.

Reading a book to me is like breathing, something I cannot do without.

At the present time, I am reading one of my favorite authors. He is sort of "wacky" but I think highly intelligent and his book topics are well-researched when he does a parody, as he is doing in my current read, "Sacre Bleu".

Perhaps you may have surmised I am speaking of Christopher Moore. Moore's book, "Lamb" was my first introduction to him, and I loved it, as I think it is very difficult for an author to write a book that enables the reader to really laugh out loud! "Lamb" did just that for me.

Just as "Lamb" is a fictional novel of Christ's early years from childhood to age 30, told by his best friend, "Biff" who is an an angel sent to earth to complete the story of his childhood friend, Jesus, "Sacre Bleu" explores the life of the Impressionists Painters, with the theme about the "mystery" of the death of Vincent Van Gogh, with Toulouse Lautrec being the chief investigator along with Renoir, Pissaro, etc.

Accompanying the text are black and white printed copies of many of the Impressionists Masters' works.

For an interesting, humorous, tongue-in-cheek read, centered on the world of Art, this for me is a good novel.

Welcome Irishrosy! Really honoured your first post was in books, although it sounds as if that would be appropriate for you!
I enjoyed Lamb, and had no idea he had written another one
I must get that one , as soon as I have finished My Animals and Other Friends by Clare Balding. I am enjoying it, a very quick easy read. She is the daughter of Ian Balding who trains the Queen's horses and she had an unusual childhood. It's an ok read.

You're a teacher, aren't you, Bitterlyold?
I find it very hard to read challenging and new texts during term time if they aren't related to the job. I have to save them for the holidays.
I do still read two or three books a week, but they are old, familiar and comforting ones; historical fiction, sci-fi, literature from my childhood or murder mysteries. I think a balanced diet is healthy and nothing to be ashamed of.
It's often a concept that parents of children I teach struggle with, not every text has to push them on.

That's without me having survived a tornado!

HI, Thank you for your warm welcome! I have a quiz online about books and authors also. I picked up "Sacre Bleu" at the airport. Ian Rankin is another of my favorite authors, and I put his "Watchman" aside to read Moore. If there is a stall outside a store with books for sale for a dollar, you cannot drag me from it. That is how I bought Rankin's "Watchman".

I loved the book "Lamb". Another of Moore's books that I enjoyed was "Fluke"; a story of a whale watcher and what happens when you come up close and personal with one. A truly "laugh out loud" story.

"Lone Wolf" by Jodi Picoult - the information about wolves is fascinating.

Just starting "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides - just a couple of chapters in, and I'm hooked.

So, reading "Middlesex" on audiobook, and something by Mary Higgens Clark in print. It's like alternating meals of Tournedos Rossini and frozen fish sticks.

I have just finished reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I couldn't put it down long enough to mention it while I was actually reading it.

It totally blew me away. It's been years since I read any of King's books. I loved Salem's lot and a few of his earlier books, but stopped reading him when a few of his books went in a direction not of interest to me. I picked this one up solely because of the subject matter. I was nineteen in 1963 and can't say how I would have felt about the book had I not lived through those days. There were a few parts that went on a bit too long or went into more detail that was seemly, but overall, wow!

Currently reading (and very much enjoying) River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay.

Like a lot of what Kay writes, its a sort of hybrid between Historical fiction and fantasy. The setting and much of the plot is based on China around the time of the Mongol invasions, but there's also a little bit of myth/legend thrown in as well (so far most notably an encounter of one protagonist with a fox spirit).

I'm reading " Vagabundeando por el mundo" ( Roaming around the world ) by Mar'ia Eugenia Gutierrez, an expert on travelling. She went round the world twice and tells you about her experiences in a lot of countries. It's great fun and you learn a lot. It's in Spanish.

Rading 'Airborn' by Canadian writer Kenneth Oppel. It's a book for young adults that I have had in the house forever (my son read it). It's really well written.

Just about finished Middlesex on audio. One of the richest, most satisfying books I've read in some time. And for something completely different, took a small break from it to listen to Rachel Maddow's "Drift", a study of the changes in the US's approach to war over the last half of the twentieth century and to today. Maddow is as always knowledgeable and passionate.

In print, "The Wasp Factory" from Iain Banks. Very disturbing, this one. Certainly not everyone's cup of tea. Resonates interestingly with the other book.

Also just read "In the Country of the Blind" by Jess Walter. He's gone on to more mainstream fiction, but I really liked his first few crime novels. One heckuva writer.

Skunkee, my daughter was a huge Kenneth Oppel fan as a kid. His "Silverwing" series about bats is also very good.

Just finished "Six Moon Dance" by Sheri Tepper. She is one of my favourite SF authors
Many of her books are semi feminist, but that doesn't spoil a good story. I like the themes in this one, what is humanity, what constitutes a sentient race plus the idea of a completely impartial galactic overseer.

"Joyland" by Stephen Kind.