What are you reading now?

[smittims]

Was 'The Passenger' the source of the Antonioni/Jack Nicholson film of the same title? I liked that.

[Sir Velo]

I think Dombey and Son may indeed be the longest: other contenders are Martin Chuzzlewit and Little Dorrit.

I read it many years ago, and can recall enjoying it. However, it isn't all that good and can never compete with the 'biggies'.

Reaching for the Penguins on my shelf, Bleak House comes in at 965 pages, Dombeyt at 948; MC at 930 and LD at 888.

[Sir Velo]

Was 'The Passenger' the source of the Antonioni/Jack Nicholson film of the same title? I liked that.

Wasn't that written by Antonioni himself?

[gradus]

Mediaeval Children, Nicholas Orme's wonderful and engrossing study of a neglected area of history.

[Padraig]

I'm reading Middlemarch, as if for the first time.

It was 'as if for the first time'. I hardly remembered large chunks - but the advantage was precisely that. I read most carefully - not like the first time when I was conscious of reading a great English classic. This time the dilemmas and mistakes of the characters caught my attention, and I thought more about my own experiences than about their struggles. I got over my infatuation with Dorothea from earlier reading and marvelled at George Eliot's painful digging into true motives and self analyses that her characters had to undergo. Like one member here I noticed the author's omniscience at play, but I found that totally absorbing, and helpful in patching the different parts of the widespread fabric. I also found and appreciated many instances of wit and humour that I had previously missed.
I started reading on 13 November, and closed the last page on New Year's Eve. And, Yes! It was a most wonderful read. I can say that now with honest conviction, having fooled myself that I had read it before.

[Petrushka]

Back in the Day by Melvyn Bragg.

I just love books like this. The book is an autobiographical memoir in which Bragg tells of his early life in Wigton, Cumbria. He has an extraordinary knack of bringing the people he knew to life and tells his story with an intense poetic beauty that has me reaching for Cider with Rosie as a comparison. Late 1940s/early 1950s Cumbria seems just as much of a vanished world as the early 1960s Midlands in which I grew up and I compare my own childhood experiences with his, my own parents to his as I read.

I've just read his description of the girl morris dancers at Wigton Carnival, a wonderfully moving passage, full of innocence and simple pleasure that is writing of the highest quality.

I can't recommend this book highly enough!

[ChandlersFord]

Over Christmas, I re-read The Magic Mountain.

I then read Sylvia Townsend Warner's Lolly Willowes (good).

I went on to Three Plays by Philip Ridley (Pitchfork Disney, Fastest Clock In The Universe, Ghost From A Perfect Place) - a display of increasing brilliance. Why is this man not recognised as britain's greatest living playwright? He's better than Stoppard and Churchill.

Currently: Henry & June by Anias Nino. Hmmm.....not sure I'll stick with this.

[gradus]

The Life and Adventures of Arminius Vambery, hugely enjoyable, rather like a Hungarian Michael Palin of the Victorian era.
Next to Nature by Ronald Blyth, rural writing at its best.
Colditz, Prisoners of the Castle, Ben Macintyre's terrific account of the POW's held, but not always, in the seemingly impregnable fortress.

[Petrushka]

The Life and Adventures of Arminius Vambery, hugely enjoyable, rather like a Hungarian Michael Palin of the Victorian era.
Next to Nature by Ronald Blyth, rural writing at its best.
Colditz, Prisoners of the Castle, Ben Macintyre's terrific account of the POW's held, but not always, in the seemingly impregnable fortress.

I had Ben Macintyre's 'Colditz' for Christmas and is next on my 'to read' list. One of the directors at my then place of employment many years ago had been imprisoned in Colditz during the war. He was a friendly type but in those days (late 1970s) you really didn't dare ask your director about such things but I still very much regret not doing it anyway.

[smittims]

My listening to 'King Priam' recently drove me to re-read the Iliad. Rather a slog this time , I'm afraid. It's a curious work. Now I've moved on to Shakespeare's 'Troilus and Cressida' which is much more my cup of tea.

[JasonPalmer]

Read the telegraph on Monday, have been dipping into an issue of the new statesman my mother in law got me for Christmas. Have been learning more about Ruskin from the guild of st geoerge tweeting a video of several members reading his writing and searching YouTube for lectures about him.

[Bryn]

Read the telegraph on Monday, have been dipping into an issue of the new statesman my mother in law got me for Christmas. Have been learning more about Ruskin from the guild of st geoerge tweeting a video of several members reading his writing and searching YouTube for lectures about him.

Good job it was the Guild of St George and not the League.

[JasonPalmer]

Indeed https://www.guildofstgeorge.org.uk

[Serial_Apologist]

Read the telegraph on Monday, have been dipping into an issue of the new statesman my mother in law got me for Christmas. Have been learning more about Ruskin from the guild of st geoerge tweeting a video of several members reading his writing and searching YouTube for lectures about him.

Ruskin Park is located 2 miles north of me - named after Ruskin, who lived at two Herne Hill addresses, it lies adjacent to Kings College Hospital. Three years ago the Herne Hill History Society conducted a guided walk around the district, at the end of which we arrived at a small grassed area behind the tall council flats facing the area where Ruskin had lived; the organisers had arranged a wonderful surprise to round the event off - a lady "mysteriously" emerged from one of the council houses bearing a trayful of schooners of sherry, and served to all in attendance!

[ChandlersFord]

My listening to 'King Priam' recently drove me to re-read the Iliad. Rather a slog this time , I'm afraid. It's a curious work. Now I've moved on to Shakespeare's 'Troilus and Cressida' which is much more my cup of tea.

Read T&C a couple of years back, and found it disappointing. Then I saw an rsc production at Stratford, which was ..... even more disappointing.