What are you reading at the moment?
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Forums » Entertainment » Books, Poetry and Literature » What are you reading at the moment?
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posted at 9/10/2004 6:10 PM BST
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Total posts: 346
First post: 9/1/2004 Last post: 17/2/2005 |
Definitely tending to think that Douglas Coupland is overrated. I do click much more with Miss Wyoming than with Gf in a Coma - but that's simply due to its general themes of identity and escape, and esp the fact that its main characters are primarily individuals rather than part of a group. There's something I find kind of hollow and samey. Not finished that yet, but I started on a single volume trilogy of David Lodge novels. At the risk of going even more bloggy. Not sure why I hadn't read him earlier. Always meant to, as one of his was the only book I was successfully prevented from reading as a kid. (Think it was either Small World or Nice Work - the latter 2 in this copy.) It had found its way into the children's section at the public library, and at 11 I was thoroughly bored as had read most of the stock. But no, it was taken from me. Anyway, have finished Changing Places, the first of the 3 linked books about the misadventures of some academics. Really like. :D Very funny on different levels - absurd slapstick bits that left me giggling uncontrollably on the bus, and arch cerebral conceits and references that you'd especially like if you enjoyed studying Eng Lit. |
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posted at 10/10/2004 12:16 PM BST
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Total posts: 3374
First post: 9/1/2004 Last post: 21/11/2009 |
Gave up on Bride Stripped Bare. Could feel no sympathy with the narrator - got to page 60ish I think. The chapters were also too short - I think it felt like it had no flow. Also tried picking up The Tennis Stars' Balls - decided I didn't want to read about public shoolboys. Am now reading The Photograph by Penelope Lively which I think I'll get along with as I nearly bought it earlier in the year. |
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posted at 11/10/2004 4:40 PM BST
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Total posts: 1219
First post: 15/3/2004 Last post: 15/8/2007 |
I've just finished Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry - really enjoyed it but it's not as good as The Star's Tennis Balls which i loved! Totally gripping! I'm now reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Half way through and it's great... should finish that in the day day or two i think and then I'll move onto either Making History (Fry), Fast Food Nation or one of the millions of Ed McBain books my dad lent me (he's determined to make me a McBain fan but although i love crime novels i'm not sure i'll like McBain... odd style of writing and very american) Having said that i'm about to browse on Amazon and that usually means a purchase! ;) |
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posted at 12/10/2004 10:28 AM BST
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Total posts: 1900
First post: 16/6/2003 Last post: 29/10/2007 |
Hi everyone i am currently reading "best of friends" by Cathy Kelly - enjoying it so far :) I read about 3/4 of Fast food nation but didn't' finish it as i also went to see "supersize me" in the cinema & i felt like i was overdosing ;) |
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posted at 12/10/2004 12:32 PM BST
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Total posts: 30
First post: 12/10/2004 Last post: 11/2/2005 |
It's an old(ish) one, but I'm currently reading 'the drought' by JG Ballard. It's about (funnily enough) a drought that has resulted from the sea becoming so polluted it has formed a 'skin' over itself, and the resulting chaos as society breaks down and everyone still alive scrambles for any water they can get. I love all Ballard's stuff - I saw Empire of the Sun when I was about 14 and then read the book of it, and then progressed onto his other books. |
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posted at 12/10/2004 6:27 PM BST
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Total posts: 1110
First post: 19/1/2004 Last post: 1/3/2005 |
Originally posted by bachelorette I almost agree, which is odd, as I love Coupland. ;) I think he's settled into something which is approaching formulaic, and although I've enjoyed all his books, I've found them increasingly less stimulating. They still have startling characters and plots but I'm quite bored of the issues surrounding faith in a godless world (although he can blame most of his contemporaries and predecessors for my boredom with this too. That and life). I found Miss Wyoming and All Families Are Psychotic the least interesting, perhaps because they're so close to traditional "stories". Have you tried Life After God? That's not really like anything else, that's a put-down-after-every-chapter-and-think-about-stuff book. The hollow bit - I agree, but I like that. I took it that they were supposed to feel hollow, in line with the recurring themes of superficiality and pointlessness. In spirit of the the thread, I'm just about to start Joan Didion's Where I Was From, which is a sort of memoir of her family's history, from settling in California to present day, in the context of the shift of California from frontier to the consumerist/superficial Couplandesque landscape of today. I read a lot of her stuff when I was a teenager and loved her style, so I'm hoping that a) she's still got it b) I still get it. ;) |
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posted at 13/10/2004 5:39 PM BST
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Total posts: 26867
First post: 4/9/2003 Last post: 1/8/2009 |
Snobs by Julian Fellowes while I'm still waiting for my Amazon order with Fitzgerald, Wharton and de Laclos to arrive.
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The only perk we offer is a cavity search. |
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