What are you reading now?

[smittims]

Sense and Sensibility.

Mansfield Park is my favourite. I've never liked 'Emma' much. 'Persuasion' I think is the difficult one for a beginner.

[muzzer]

Many thanks all.

[Mal]

Sense and Sensibility.

Mansfield Park is my favourite. I've never liked 'Emma' much. 'Persuasion' I think is the difficult one for a beginner.

I agree with the choice of Sense & Sensibility.

I can't remember finding Persuasian very difficult. I also didn't like Emma that much. I gave up early on Mansfield Park, but the discerning keep recommending it, must give it another try.

[Mal]

Do read Jane Austen, muzzer. Her novels are so much better than the TV adaptations, which have to cater for the intellectual level of the average TV viewer; so all the subtle ironies are ... ironed out.

Trollope is my favourite. I'm re-reading 'The Prime Minister' for the third or fourth time. I never tire of him (Trollope, that is, not the Prime Minister).

I read one of his later novels in my yoof, found it a bit of a slog, and didn't look at Trollope again until recently; I liked "The Warden" and will now certainly read on.

[johncorrigan]

If you're looking for a great short story to read, may I recommend 'The Country Funeral' by John McGahern. It concerns three brothers who go from Dublin to the countryside to organise the burial of their Uncle. Absolutely wonderful piece of writing and beautiful use of language throughout.

[Joseph K]

The Sea by John Banville. Richard B mentioned this author and am pleased to report I'm enjoying the book.

Also going over The Enigma of Capital by David Harvey again in the hope I'll absorb yet more of it this time (which might be the third or possibly fourth - but hey, this is an enigma after all...)

I finished The Sea last night. I thoroughly enjoyed it - beautifully written, amongst other things.

Now, in addition to the David Harvey book mentioned, I am a few pages into Pierre Boulez Studies.

[ardcarp]

The Captain's Apprentice: Ralph Vaughan Williams and the Story of a Folk Song
by Caroline Davison

It's the book which was serialised last week. It's factually interesting, both in the locations that RVW visited, other folk-song collectors and in his friendships with other composers. To be honest, the style of writing is, well, ordinary, a bit repetitive and the book is not a 'page-turner'. But there are a few little nuggets of information, namely quotes from letters between RVW and his friends, plus a few press cuttings.

For a musician, it's a bit short on detail, although there is a basic explanation of modes as exemplified by starting on different white notes of the keyboard. But then I suppose it's aimed at the non-specialist reader.

I enjoyed the radio programme more!

[ChandlersFord]

Sylvia Townsend Warner - The Corner That Held Them


Making heavy weather of this story of a Northamptonshire Priory in the middle ages. The cast of characters keeps shifting and changing.

[ChandlersFord]

Finally finished this. I read an article a couple of weeks ago which said that reading complex works of fiction is good for staving off Alzheimer's. In which case it's probably too late for me as I only finished this last night and am totally unable to remember what it was about. I can describe what I think the author was doing …

Attempted this a couple of years back. I think I got as far as page 3.

[french frank]

Attempted this a couple of years back. I think I got as far as page 3.

I did get through it [Calvino] but there are some novels where you feel so absorbed in what's happening that you just follow where it leads, without always thinking "What the deuce is he doing now?" So Ishiguro's The Unconsoled was a fascinating 'journey' yet - controversial here, I know - with Joyce's Portrait of the Artist I kept thinking, Yeah, I know what you're doing - I read the Introduction - and I decided the 'artificiality', the artifice, of what he was attempting to do didn't interest me. And yet, a masterpiece, I understand.

[Petrushka]

'The Three Taps' / Ronald Knox.
A detective story - yes, Ronnie Knox writing an elegantly and amusingly written detective story!

Strangely, I picked up a copy of a 1961 Penguin paperback reprint of this book from our local street bookstall during the summer. I've not read it yet so don't reveal whodunnit!

[ChandlersFord]

I did get through it [Calvino] but there are some novels where you feel so absorbed in what's happening that you just follow where it leads, without always thinking "What the deuce is he doing now?" So Ishiguro's The Unconsoled was a fascinating 'journey' yet - controversial here, I know - with Joyce's Portrait of the Artist I kept thinking, Yeah, I know what you're doing - I read the Introduction - and I decided the 'artificiality', the artifice, of what he was attempting to do didn't interest me. And yet, a masterpiece, I understand.

Agree on both. I fail motored through The Unconsoled and was sad when it ended. Portrait .... left me cold, though. The only part I remember vividly is the preacher's hellfire sermon, but that's the bit that everyone remembers.

[french frank]

Agree on both. I fail motored through The Unconsoled and was sad when it ended. Portrait .... left me cold, though. The only part I remember vividly is the preacher's hellfire sermon, but that's the bit that everyone remembers.

I think there are two things a novelist starts off with: 'What do I want to say' and 'How, what devices am I going to use to say it'. When the second becomes the point of attraction and the subject of university courses, I seem to lose interest in the novel - even though I'm not really a fan of page-turners and ripping yarns where the story holds the main appeal.

[smittims]

Character is what matters to me: when the writer creates a character I want to know, and am sad to leave when the novel ends. This is why I love Anthony Trollope.

[DracoM]

Raven Black / Cleeve