What are you reading this month?

[peaceful_sands]

So that's a question for you. What are you reading this month?

One of my sort of new year's resolutions was to reduce the number of unread books that were on my bookshelves. The simple way to do that would have been to just throw a load out, but I couldn't do that, so instead I'm making a concerted effort to read my way through books I already own.

It's already thrown up a few obstacles (turns out some of the books are parts of series and I don't have the earlier parts, therefore necessitating tracking down copies of those), but overall it's a challenge I'm enjoying and I just thought that perhaps other people might have recommendations or words of caution about books they've been reading, inspiring me and others into trying out that good book that you've just finished or are part way through.

So, who's willing to share? What are you reading this month?

Comments

[peaceful_sands]

I've finished four books so far this month, some with relief at getting to the end and being able to move on, some with sadness that the journey was over. Here we go though.

"The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern. I loved this one and was fascinated by the world she created and the characters within it. I wanted to hear more about what happened afterwards. This is one I'll definitely keep.

"The Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Mohsin Hamid. I didn't enjoy this one, I didn't like the way it was told as a narrative, just didn't work for me.

"The Girl Who Fell From The Sky" by Simon Mawer. This one was interesting, it was about a young woman who was taken from a desk job iduring WW2 and trained to be an undercover agent and then dropped by parachute to work in occupied France, passing messages, retrieving information and working to get key individuals out of the country. She retains a certain naivete throughout. I could pick faults in some aspects of the story, but I won't because overall it was a good one.

"The Tales of Beedle The Bard" by J K Rowling. This barely counts as it was just a couple of hours reading if that, but I liked it well enough. It probably only took that long because I was interrupted a couple of times. It's a little book of fairy tales that might have been told to the children brought up in the magical families of Harry Potter, with notes and thoughts on each tale from Professor Dumbledore himself.

I'll wait until I'm further along to tell you about the ones I'm reading now as I'm not even at the halfway point in most of them yet and the one I've just passed half still has over 300 pages to go (more likely to be finished next month I think!)

[becomingkate]

I'm reading Little Star, but I'm such a slow reader I got it for Christmas and I'm probably a quarter through it. It's good, but I haven't been a huge reader since elementary and middle school (when I couldn't go anywhere without a book).

[peaceful_sands]

How quickly you get through it doesn't matter so long as you're enjoying it. It's not one I'm familiar with, but I hope you enjoy the rest of it.

I haven't read much over the last few years between work, life and crafting or other hobby distractions. I'm quite enjoying the challenge at the moment but who knows whether I'll keep it going till the end of the year.

[becomingkate]

It's written by the same guy who did Let The Right One In, if you're familiar with that one.

[peaceful_sands]

Ah! That one I've heard of but not read. :D

[becomingkate]

I'm liking Little Star a lot better than LTROI.

[seventhbard]

I'm still working on Emma. I kind of interrupted it in the middle to read Sprig Muslin by Georette Heyer (I've been really into period romances lately).

I've also been reading The Unapologetic Fat Girl's Guide to Exercise and other incendiary acts which is barrels of fun.

Mostly though I've been into my crafting and reading patterns and books about techniques and stitches more than anything else. XD

[peaceful_sands]

I like the sound of "The Unapologetic Fat Girl's guide to Exercise" - anything that is fun sounds good. I got a book of new crochet patterns for Christmas which has some exciting projects in (as well as a few odd ones!) but I'm making myself finish some of the outstanding patterns before I allow myself to look too carefully!

[seventhbard]

I really recommend it, it's a great book.

I got several crochet books as gifts for Christmas, which was sweet and thoughtful of the givers (they knew that I do a lot of crocheting) but I wish they'd said something first because I'd have asked for books about knitting! I can do very nearly almost everything I want to do in crocheting already, but I'm only just starting to learn to knit, and there is much much more to know about knitting (because it is by far the older craft so there are lots of techniques and tricks).

[peaceful_sands]

That's a shame. Although I can do both (I am better at crochet than knitting in terms of being able to manage anything beyond 'simple') but I still need patterns and things to work from and so I'm still at the stage of liking getting anything with new ideas in. I experimented for the first time in the run up to Christmas - having learned how to make one type of snowflake and then tried to make up my own designs.

[claripossum]

In my experience, anything by Jane Austen is a rather dry read. Or any classic literature, for that matter. :/ I've come to the conclusion that, for the most part, I enjoy them more if I've seen the movie first, at least with Austen and Dickens. Great stories, just... really, really dry to read. If I know the story already, it motivates me more to read the book to find out what's different from the movie.

[seventhbard]

I've read all of Austen's stuff now (Emma's the last one), but some are better than others!!! I really love Persuasion. This one's okay but I think the title character, Emma, is sort of a twit. XD

For the most part I agree with you though, a lot of the stuff that's labeled "classic" is... not the most interesting or exciting reads from the era. My biggest beef with it though is that so much of classic literature is so bloody depressing! I've never hated any book quite the way I hate Wuthering Heights for example (which is a Gothic novel that gets gushed about as a great romance, which never ceases to baffle me because it's a book about a bunch of odious people who act hateful to one another).

[claripossum]

My problem is getting through the drudgery of super-descriptive writing which Dickens seemed to be really really fond of doing. I started skipping pages of Bleak House just because I couldn't stand pages and pages describing what someone's house looks like anymore. I did love the miniseries, though, and even though it was on the gloomy side in some parts, I think Dickens was trying to make a point and that's what I loved about that story.

Another one that I saw before I read was "The Way We Live Now" by Anthony Trollope. That was was an easier read than Bleak House, for sure, but I have to say having Matthew MacFadyen's image of Felix Carbury in my head made the book that much more enjoyable--he just cracks me up! :)

[lliira]

Titan by Ron Chernow. It's a biography of Rockefeller, and it's a very interesting look into the beginnings of the melding of big business, Christianity, and patriotism in the U.S. through the lens of Rockefeller's life.

[peaceful_sands]

That sounds interesting, not something I know anything about at all.

[skyjam]

I'm hoping I'll finish "Raven: The Untold Story of Reverend Jim Jones and His People", a book detailing Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple cult and mass suicide. I love nonfiction books about crimes/human suffering and whatnot, and this book is very excellently written and has me hooked so far. I just seem to have the problem of starting stuff and then losing interest in it and never finishing it. I love reading, but am having a hard time finding something that I want to get through lately. I'm really hoping I get through this, though, because it's really good and I miss passing hours on end just snuggling with a good book.

[peaceful_sands]

It's good to find a book that completely takes your interest so that there's nothing better than snuggling up. It's good to find a well written book (fiction or non-fiction!) because that makes immersion in it so much easier. I hope this one keeps you hooked.

[badfalcon]

So far this month I've read:
A Dangerous Inheritance by Alison Weir
Kings & Queens: National Portrait Gallery by David Williamson
William the Conqueror: Makers of History by Jacob Abbott
The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground Was Built and How It Changed the City Forever by Christian Wolmar
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming
Quite the selection, I know. I think it's possible my history fan is coming out there...

I've almost finished reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and next on my to-read pile is The Love Resort by Faith Bleasdale... a little light chicklit after all that haha

[peaceful_sands]

You're on a real marathon read there! It's great when you get time to indulge the 'fan' in you, be it a history one or some other kind. I've got a number inside me I'm sure of it - there's definitely a history one (for certain periods and certain civilizations) but there's also one who's got more of a travel/geographical/cultural leaning too and quite possibly a slightly quieter one who likes to read biographies - but not celebrity biographies necessarily, she's as happy with lesser known but interesting people. I can't keep up with them all!

[claripossum]

I've been working my way through the Sherlock Holmes collection. It gives me something to do while nursing my 11mo to sleep, and is definitely an easier read than Dickens. ;) Not sure what I'll read when I'm done with it, but I'm 65% through, or a little less. It's been fun expanding my vocabulary via the Kindle app's dictionary. I now know what "inexorable" means! Haha. :D

[peaceful_sands]

Oooh, Sherlock Holmes, it's years since I read those, but I remember really enjoying them. I love finding new words (no Kindle, have to resort to using either dictionary.com or an old-fashioned dictionary I'm afraid - although I had to laugh when a friend said that she found herself jabbing the pages of a book the other day hoping the dictionary feature would pop up because it's become so instinctual when she's reading on her Kindle!)

And the excitement of what to read next awaits you. Hopefully you'll find something you enjoy as much. (Would something like Agatha Christie appeal, if it's the 'period' solving mystery theme that you like?)

[claripossum]

It was more curiosity that drew me to Sherlock Holmes, and that it seems so many other people are familiar with it and I hadn't read more than one or two of the stories. But I do like them. I like your Agatha Christie suggestion, I think I might just move on to those next! Hadn't really occurred to me, to be honest, though I have to say I am a huge fan of Holmes' genius and incredible attention to detail. He and The Doctor seem to have a lot in common, to me. ;)

[marahmarie]

Jakob Nielsen's Designing Web Usability (http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Web-Usability-Jakob-Nielsen/dp/156205810X/ref=la_B000AQ2MFK_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1390269367&sr=1-3), mostly because it was just gifted to me and exactly because he is so over-cautious in design owing to conditions online many years ago that just don't apply anymore.

It's hilarious to read 14 years after it was published (and perhaps up to 15+ years after it was actually written). In fact, once I get through a bit more of it I plan to start a series of posts that will at least mildly lampoon portions of it (although he did make some nifty predictions which have more or less come true, and his baseline advice for organizing/administering a website so as to hold/not drive off visitors still isn't wrong today).

[peaceful_sands]

Amazing how far and fast society has moved in 15 years really, particularly when you start looking at internet and how it's used - it's like watching old sci-fi movies and seeing their space age 'computers'!

Glad you're enjoying the book - if only from a laughing position.

[marahmarie]

But it's oh so serious, OMG. In that, like, he actually publishes before and after screen caps of editing a web page to remove three thin borders used on it to save, hmmm, I don't know, something like 0.5kbps of download from the server aka 1/10 of a millisecond client-side wait time or so. It is simply hi-LAR-ious, I tell you (but the sad part is, his advice was sooooo correct for the times he wrote it in, it's actually not very funny). :)