What are you currently reading?

[Kephas4]

Paul Magrs' Never the Bride - it's nice to see a story where the monsters can have a happy ending.

[Medziotojas]

Queen Camilla by Sue Townsend

 

Having been brought up alongside Adrian Mole, I'm enjoying this deviation.

[sassermaet]

A Stranger Came Ashore by Mollie Hunter....

 

After all these years

 

I've still never read it...or at least finished it

[mainlander]

I recently finished Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

 

The blurb on the back says:

 

"Wuthering Heights is a classic work of artistry and genius. Today, it is still a totally absorbing and utterly compelling novel of a grim passion, of a glorious love.

 

Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff must take their places amongst the great lovers of the world. Their complete obsession, and possession of each other, symbolises the oldest, the grandest, and the most romantic theme in literature."

 

I had expected to enjoy it, but didn't at all, probably because most of the characters are unpleasant. I had also expected it to be a romance of some kind, but I didn't think it was - I didn't get the feeling that Heathcliff and Catherine even liked each other, never mind loved each other, although there was certainly obsession there. There was some humour throughout the book, though, which I hadn't expected.

 

I'm sure it's a classic for a reason, and lots of people will have enjoyed it, but the only feeling I had after reading it was relief that I had finished!

[khitajrah]

^ I didn't particularly enjoy that novel either. It certainly wasn't my idea of a love story. I recall covering my eyes when Heathcliff hung that boy by his foot over the stairs and then felt ridiculous for covering my eyes while reading a book like I was watching some horror film.

 

I'm just finishing up The Shipping News (perhaps another 50 pages left) and it's been an alright, somewhat interesting story despite the author's aversion to the use of pronouns. Each incomplete sentence, to me, was like fingernails grating on a blackboard, but once I got used to her unusual style of writing I started to get into the story. She doesn't paint a very nice picture of Newfoundlanders at all though. I wonder what they thought of it!

[mainlander]

I love the picture of you covering your eyes at that bit, khit!

 

It's about ten years since I read The Shipping News, and I can't really recall the style of writing I'm afraid. I found it an interesting story, but pretty bleak, if I remember rightly. And, as you say, probably not on the Newfoundland Tourist Information list of suggested books to read before you visit!

[sassermaet]

I loved Wuthering Heights - it is really bleak though

[mainlander]

^ I'm wondering whether I might enjoy it more second time around, especially now I know what to expect. I might try it again in a few months to see.

[khitajrah]

I started Stephen King's It last night. Another charity shop find that happens to be on the BBC Big Read Top 200 list I am working my way through. I can't wait for the bedtime routine to finish so I can get into it again!

[mainlander]

^ I really enjoyed reading It, but think I read it during the day instead of at night as I found it proper scary!

 

Have you read much Stephen King? I read and enjoyed all his books up to The Tommyknockers but have found his writing a bit variable after that.

[Fjool]

I'm reading Just After Sunset by King. I've read loads of him, but you're right he's variable. These are short stories though and he's particularly good at them.

[mainlander]

I agree, he does excel at short story writing. I read yesterday that in November he will be releasing a book called Full Dark, No Stars, which will contain four novellas, and I'm looking forward to that.

 

If you are a fan of The Stand, apparently one of the four is set in Hemingford Home, Nebraska, birthplace of the prophet Mother Abigail in the novel - that made me think that I had been meaning to re-read The Stand for years, so now is the time to do it. Then I realised that I have actually been meaning to re-read it for decades!

[khitajrah]

Have you read much Stephen King? I read and enjoyed all his books up to The Tommyknockers but have found his writing a bit variable after that.

 

I haven't read Stephen King in a very long time. I went through a spell in my teens where I read a lot of King and Dean Koontz. Carrie got read in a single afternoon when the rest of the highschool went on a 'field trip' to play hockey and I asked if I could please wait in the Library until the bus came at the end of the day (never a hockey fan, me). Firestarter, The Dark Half and The Tommyknockers were devoured and enjoyed, and later on I read Four Past Midnight. I loved The Langoliers (film was rubbish). Can't recall the rest of the book though. That's it until now.

 

Didn't he write under an alias for awhile? I think I might have read some of those too.

[mainlander]

Firestarter is one of my favourites, but you don't see it mentioned often.

 

I know he wrote a few books as Richard Bachman (Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, The Running Man, and Thinner, all of which I read and enjoyed, and The Regulators and Blaze which I haven't read).

 

I didn't discover Dean Koontz until about eight years ago, but I have read about half a dozen books by him now and enjoyed them all.

[MJ]

just finished Lord Sunday by Garth Nix

the final installment of the keys to the kingdom series - finally. Well it was an ending. Not sure if the series was actually suitable for the age range it was written for. I know my one would find the seven books hard going. Very C.S. lewis. But I was hooked from Monday.