What Books Are You Reading?-#3

Re: What Are You Reading?-#3

i'm still ploughing through madame bovary - it's quite a struggle reading such a literary classic in french. my french isn't bad, but proper literature tends to use odd things that are fine in your own language but not in others (like subjunctives, allusions, metaphors, idioms and so forth) so i don't always know whether someone's doing something or just thinking about doing it! also there are a lot of words i don't know, many of them are archaic and no longer used (so not in the damn dictionary!)... i've now learnt that the best thing is to not look up words i don't know, but keep reading and aim for getting the gist of things, as opposed to the exact meaning. as long as i know roughly what happens in the book and in what order, i think i'll be ok, and any extracts i have to do in more detail i can go to with a dictionary.

sorry, that was a bit of a ramble, i just had to vent on that one!
 
Re: What Are You Reading?-#3

I finally gave in and am reading Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I was put off reading it because I'd read a few pages and it takes a while to get going and also because of all the hype about it and having people come into work going on and on about it (I work in a library). But then my mum borrowed it from a friend and really enjoyed it, and as she doesn't usually read crimes/thrillers, or be swayed by hype over a book, I decided to give it a go. It's pretty good so far.

On audio, I'm listening to The Watcher by Brian Freeman. It's another Lt. Jonathan Stride book. In this book, a journalist Tish Verdure is writing a book about the murder of Stride's late wife's sister, who was murdered when Stride was 17, and dating his future wife. A black vagrant was suspected of the murder but escaped after a confrontation with Stride. Stride's always doubted his guilt, and as Tish begins to investigate, it seems he may be right. As well as that storyline, there's the case Stride's partner, Maggie Bei, is investigating about a peeping tom, a case that may be more sinister than it seems. It's good so far.
 
Re: What Are You Reading?-#3

I've been waiting for a copy of Anthony Zuiker's Level 26 novel "Dark Origins" to arrive and it did so today. I'm excited to start reading it. I Tweeted that it came and Anthony Zuiker tweeted me back, "Whoo Hoo!" I don't know why, but I found that amusing.
 
Re: What Are You Reading?-#3

Still reading 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' - it's getting pretty good. It takes a while to get going, but the characters are interesting enough to keep you reading until it does start getting good. It's way more violent than I expected.

Still listening to 'The Last Stand of Fox Company' on audio, it's interesting.
 
Re: What Are You Reading?-#3

i'm still reading bovary, i have a feeling i won't get to finish it, i'm going very slowly (my french is fine but it's quite densely written and i'm nervous i'm missing something so i keep rereading stuff). we've been doing baudelaire so far, then we do bovary, and after that rimbaud. i'm pretty sure i'll have to start work on rimbaud before i'm even half way through bovary.

it's frustrating because i have a big pile of books i want to read (notably "god's little acre", another one by erskine caldwell, whose book i enjoyed recently, plus one about the east end of london) and i'm trying really hard to be good and focus on my homework but knowing i'll almost certainly not finish it anyway makes it much harder!!
 
Re: What Are You Reading?-#3

I'm a bit over half way through Zuiker's "Dark Origins." I like the book, but could do without the cyber-bridges. They're unnecessary at best and laugable at worst. I've heard the bridges for the second book are better. I sure hope so, because so far the ones for the first book do nothing to enhance the reading experience and, IMO, detract from it.
 
Re: What Are You Reading?-#3

I finished 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' and I have to admit it was bloody brilliant. Much better, and more violent, than I expected. For once I have to admit I think the book actually lives up to the hype! I have ordered the other 2 books in the series.
(sorry, *talkingtocactus*! I have been corrupted!)

I'm reading Stalked by Brian Freeman. It's another Lt Stride book. Stride's partner, Maggie's, husband is murdered, and she comes under suspicion. Stride believes she's innocent, but he also believes she's hiding something. .Also, a recently escaped killer may be stalking Serena. That's as far as I've got. As always with Freeman, it's really good.

I did download Chris Mooney's latest Darby McCormick book to my Ipad, but I had to give up on it. For me, the Darby character has crossed the line from 'tough as nails, strong, but likeable female character' into 'hard assed bitch'. Things that mildly irritated me in previous books seemed much worse in this one, and also, 18 chapters in, there's not nearly as much 'CSI' type stuff as in previous books, which was a big draw for me. Before, it was stressed that Darby had to put up with a lot of sexist crap from the men around her, and she dealt with it really well, and could kick any of their butts etc. Which was fine, but in this latest one, it seems to be more that she's SO much better than men, or anyone else, and she'll beat the crap out of anyone who even disagrees with her, and all men suck....and that's just annoying for me. I'm all for strong women and I love to see idiot men get their butts kicked, literally or mentally, by a cool woman character, but there's a point at which that kind of stuff crosses over from acceptable to just irritating, and at which the character stops being a strong woman and just becomes a grade-A b*tch.
 
Re: What Are You Reading?-#3

hmm who knows maybe i'll give in some day. we'll see, i guess. i have a huge to do pile and about 50 books on my kindle and french texts to plough through so for now it's quite unlikely!
 
Re: What Are You Reading?-#3

I tried with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but really couldn't get into it. I will give it another shot I think, but not get the book out from the library on Express as I had to read it within seven days. I've got The Girl Who Played with Fire so I should really give it a go.

I am reading "Needful Things" by Stephen King at the moment - I've read several of his books recently and I'm really enjoying them - The Dead Zone being my favourite so far.
 
Re: What Are You Reading?-#3

^^^ The Shining is an awesome, awesome book. Far better than any of the movies, in fact. You should find that one. :)

I thought The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was just OK. I'll probably read the others, but I'm not really in a hurry to do so. I just didn't find any real surprises in the story, I guess. Then again, maybe all the hoopla around it added to my expectations. I felt the same way about the movie, too. Pretty average.
 
Re: What Are You Reading?-#3

I just finished reading Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. It was hmm. I can't really describe it without spoiling it so I'll put the rest in spoiler tags.

Everyone died! What the heck? I mean, random much? Of course, Ishmael doesn't die. I could have lived with him dying though. I already miss Starbuck. He didn't deserve to die.

So my favorite character was Starbuck. I loved how Melville wrote him. He is a great representation of family ideals and capitalism. Ahab was great as the larger-than-life, Romantic hero. Queequeg was also fantastic. He was my second favorite character.

I am happy to have finished the book. If only I didn't have to write a paper over it. I could definitely live without writing that. All in all, it was a good book. At least, I won't have to deal with Melville's humor anymore.
 
Re: What Are You Reading?-#3

I am now reading Dean Koontz's Relentless. He's my favorite author, and this book is proving to be just as intense as all of his others, if a bit on the odd side.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top