What are you reading now?

[JasonPalmer]

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.

Enjoyed performances at the globe when I lived in London, tried different seats and the cheapest standing ones are best but wear comfortable shoes, it's a long stand.

Merchant of Venice was particularly good.

[Serial_Apologist]

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.

As is Walton's 1954 operatic setting of the play, written largely in an anglified Ravel style: pleasant enough, mind: he could certainly compose powerful love themes in his later years.

[Guest]

'Brazil' / John Updike.
Real grip on the odd strands of Brazilian middle/ super-rich class groupings.

[pastoralguy]

’Reel Change’. RichardWallace & Jon Burrows.

A history of British Cinema from the Projection Box.

A fascinating insight into the role of the projectionist, or ‘operator’ as they were originally known, from the beginning of cinema to the demise of ‘film’ from the projection room.

[Bella Kemp]

My New Year's resolution was to read an unfamiliar Shakespeare play every Sunday afternoon. Well, resolutions are made to be broken . . .but I did read Pericles. It's absolutely bonkers, but a great read.

[Historian]

'Anna Karenina' over Christmas. The intention was to read something that chimed in with the expected wintry weather (at least in parts). In the event most days were mild and wet, but that didn't matter as Tolstoy evokes the landscape and weather so effectively in the country scenes - for me at any rate.

[smittims]

My Christmas reading is often Parson Woodforde's diary, but I do return to Anna Karenina, in my view Tolstoy's one really satisfactory novel.

I Re-read Shakespeare's plays regularly if not frequently. I enjoy those which have suffered from critical censure, e.g. Two Gentlemen of Verona.

[groovydavidii]

Quarter-way through “The Ghost Variations” by Damian Lanigan, contemporary bitter-sweet (in first person). Protagonist an acclaimed classical pianist, humble background, gifted, dedicated, flirtatious, but has to contend with mental demons, great character descriptions, interesting musical insights.

[ChandlersFord]

I've given up reading Henry & June by Anais Nin. I know neither Henry Miller's work, nor Nin's, and this was probably not the best place to start with either. The book struck me as failed pornography and self-indulgent. The kind of book that makes you want to slap its author in the face, not for being obscene, but for the far greater crimes of being solipsistic and BORING.

Currently reading We Have Always Lived In The Castle, by Shirley Jackson, which is a lot better (how could it fail to be?) but I get the feeling I'm missing something about this highly-rated (by others) author.

[smittims]

You probably wouldn't like 'Sexus' , then , which is the only Henry Miller I've read and which could be said to 'tick most of those boxes.'

I'm well into re-reading 'Dombey and Son' which at almost 1,000 pages is one of the longest novels I know. Utterly delightful.

I used to know a chap who lived in Rochester and worked in Westminster and commuted by coach, reading Dickens from and to end all year round. I'm not such a Dickens fan as that but I enjoy some of his novels.

[ChandlersFord]

You probably wouldn't like 'Sexus' , then , which is the only Henry Miller I've read and which could be said to 'tick most of those boxes.'

I'm well into re-reading 'Dombey and Son' which at almost 1,000 pages is one of the longest novels I know. Utterly delightful.

I used to know a chap who lived in Rochester and worked in Westminster and commuted by coach, reading Dickens from and to end all year round. I'm not such a Dickens fan as that but I enjoy some of his novels.

I've only read D&S once, and that was many, many years ago. I recall it as an easy, enjoyable read, despite its vast length. However, it's not held as one of D's major novels and I can understand why: unlike the others, there's very little I can remember about it, other than the characters. Captain Cuttle doesn't really cut the mustard for comic relief ....

[JasonPalmer]

Still need to finish mondays daily telegraph, I usually only buy the Monday edition. I should try pick up more books, read an Andy McNab book recently, was very good boys own adventure stuff.

[muzzer]

I’d never ‘got’ Henry Miller but at the charity shop recently picked up The Colussus of Maroussi - essentially a memoir of his time in Greece - and really enjoyed it. There’s no pornography in it. He could certainly write. Am currently reading A Tale Of Two Cities. I can see myself ‘getting into’ CD for the sheer escapism in the language. I’ve always thought Martin Amis’ characters are as picaresque as those in Dickens, so now’s the time to research properly ;)

[smittims]

What I like about Dickens (I'm still plodding through 'Dombey and Son' for the second time) is his depth of character and scene. All we have is words but we can imagine ourselves there and hearing the characters speak. And they all speak in their own way, as real people do.

Of course all the master novelists do this (think of Mrs. Norris in 'Mansfield Park') but I've found it a quality lacking in second-rate writers such as Alexander McCall Smith, whose characters all speak in easily-readable standard English, making the book bland and losing my attention.

[Pulcinella]

I haven't trawled through this thread to see, but mention of Dickens makes me wonder if anyone here has read Barbara Kingsolver's 'retake' of David Copperfield: Demon Copperhead?
It's not my favourite Dickens novel by quite a way, but I'm a little intrigued to see what Kingsolver makes of it.