What are you reading now?

[french frank]

... ah, alphabetical rather than chronological. Interesting....

Easier to remember. I used to do chronological but could never find anything. I have done alphabetical within roughly chronological. That works.

[vinteuil]

I've just looked. I think I must have given it away as there's nothing between Ivo Andrić and William Beckford ... Not sure that I got through the Beckford either.

... ah, alphabetical rather than chronological. Interesting....

[LMcD]

... predictably I love Barnes. Tho' nowadays I find I re-read (and relish) his essays and short-form pieces more often than I do the novels. (Flaubert's Parrot is still a joy.)

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I'm currently re-reading The Lemon Table (a collection of short stories).

[french frank]

(Flaubert's Parrot is still a joy.)

I've just looked. I think I must have given it away as there's nothing between Ivo Andrić and William Beckford ... Not sure that I got through the Beckford either.

[vinteuil]

... couldn't get into Barnes though - but I only tried Flaubert's Parrot and preferred Flaubert)...

... predictably I love Barnes. Tho' nowadays I find I re-read (and relish) his essays and short-form pieces more often than I do the novels. (Flaubert's Parrot is still a joy.)

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[richardfinegold]

Impressive reading schedule, richard. Like being back at study. Delighted to see Elmore Leonard's name and fame. Was a big fan - must search the L shelves to see if our library still carries the odd title.

I was in a second hand store today and purchased a collection of 12 novels for $30. Only 2 duplicates for me, Freaky Deaky and Get Shorty. My wife and I also watched the first episode of Justified yesterday. I’ve got the Elmore Leonard bug pretty bad

[Padraig]

I am in two book clubs. They both meet this week.
Yesterday I was the moderator and we discussed my choice, Elmore Leonard’s Freaky Deaky.

Impressive reading schedule, richard. Like being back at study. Delighted to see Elmore Leonard's name and fame. Was a big fan - must search the L shelves to see if our library still carries the odd title.

[vinteuil]

... am in France (in the Ariège, between Toulouse, Carcassonne, and Foix), so have chosen Queneau's first novel, le Chiendent [1932]. I see I last read it in August 1984, forty years ago. Like Céline's Voyage au bout de la nuit [also 1932] it's one of the first novels using the language of French-as-she-is-spoke rather than 'literary' French. Not sure how much I got out of it forty years ago, but I'm enjoying it immensely this time around...

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[french frank]

I cannot but commend your adventurous reading. I've never been happy with 20th-century novels after Virginia Woolf, with a few exceptions such as Patrick Hamilton, CP Snow, Moredecai Richler and Julian Barnes. I know I ought to be more adventurous but I prefer re-reading old favourites.

Unlike many people , I rate CP Snow as a novelist (couldn't get into Barnes though - but I only tried Flaubert's Parrot and preferred Flaubert), but I particularly enjoyed the earlier novels of Ishiguro: I haven't tried the last few as I'm not into science fiction-y, futuristic type novels.

Another 20th-c writer I enjoyed was William Maxwell. I see I bought five of his, which ranks him with Maugham and Waugh neither of whom I would read at all now. On the whole I prefer European (not UK) novels of the 20th c.

[smittims]

I cannot but commend your adventurous reading. I've never been happy with 20th-century novels after Virginia Woolf, with a few exceptions such as Patrick Hamilton, CP Snow, Moredecai Richler and Julian Barnes. I know I ought to be more adventurous but I prefer re-reading old favourites.

The husband if an old friend of mine refused to read any novels because 'they're not real' , and therefore a waste of time. I gave up trying to persuade him that fiction can convey truths, although some of us have known that at least since Homer.

Re The Book People, Pulcinella, we bought a lot of books from them, but I'm sorry to say many of them ended up being given away to charity, simply because we ran out of space for newer purchases . Now we have a bigger house with a library, we could have kept them all!

[richardfinegold]

I am in two book clubs. They both meet this week. One was yesterday-it is a Zoom Club that started during the Pandemic- and the other is Wednesday. The Zoom Club is irregularly scheduled, depending upon member availability, the other club is the first Wednesday of each month.
Yesterday I was the moderator and we discussed my choice, Elmore Leonard’s Freaky Deaky. Written in the late eighties the plot concerns 2 1960s radicals who had been living underground and then did jail time, and have now emerged to use their bomb making skills to extort some former colleagues who have financially prospered. Some of the action revolves around a fund raising party for the Black Panthers back in the day in a wealthy Detroit suburb that very much resembles the notorious party that Leonard and Felicia Bernstein had in Manhattan that was lampooned by Tom Wolfe in his story Radical Chic. I pulled up the story along with some articles on some Radicals who probably inspired the characters and shared them a few days ago and our members were appreciative.
Among other things we learned that the Weatherman had set 2500 bombs over a few years. The most famous is the one that exploded prematurely in their bomb making factory in Greenwich Village killing 3 of the bomb makers.
My Library Club meets Wednesday to discuss The Grapes of Wrath.
The disadvantage of the 2 Clubs coinciding is that I will have 2 new books assigned at the same time which even in my retirement will limit my scope for independent reading. Anyway the Zoom Club has assigned The Women by Kristin Hannah, a tale of American Nurses in Vietnam, and my wife coincidentally had finished reading 2 days ago. I need to finish it before we leave for France in a month as I don’t want to lug it in my backpack and I don’t want to buy a Kindle Version since we have the real thing

[Pulcinella]

Does anyone else miss The Book People?
This year's Booker long-list looks more interesting (to me) than those of late, and I used to buy the shortlisted books as a set from them as my Autumn/Winter read at a real knockdown price.
Presumably, selling margins became so tight (as teamsaint knows) that their business became unsustainable, with competition from other suppliers, but the job lot offer is sorely missed.

[smittims]

I cannot read while listening to music, as I find I fail to take in one or the other. I can listen to music while doing something practical ( cooking, painting, or repairing a lock, to name recent examples) but I cannot do anything else while reading or I find I've got through a whole page without registering a single word. Also, I always read as if reading aloud (but silently!) . I did once go on a speed-reading course : the book was John Hersey's Hiroshima. But I prefer to read at slow speed.

It's the old thing about different aptitudes and different parts ofthe brain. One of my grandsons is ambidextrous and regularly writes with either hand to keep in practice. His father is left-handed, as was mine. .

[richardfinegold]

I have always listened to music while reading. It was one of the attractions of Classical Music when I was in my teens. I wanted some music to listen while I did my studies, found the popular music to distracting, so I played my parents otherwise un used classical LPs and the radio. Eventually listening became an equal priority and when I really needed to concentrate needed total silence.
There was a novel by Anthony Burgess called Napoleon Symphony. The hype was that is was a prose realization of Beethoven’s Eroica. I remember reading it both with and without the Beethoven in the background. That was when I realized that music and prose are fundamentally different art forms. This may sound trite, but if one listens purely to popular music that distinction becomes blurred, as when Bob Dylan won a major prize for literature

[Padraig]

There was a very good Woman's Hour item on Edna O'Brien yesterday, if anyone wants to search BBC Sounds, including a recording of her own voice.

Thanks, smittims. Found it - and bookmarked it. My sound has gone. Looking forward to hearing Edna O'Brien in her own words.