Now reading...

[BillF]

After this, it will be Kidnapped. Hard to believe, but I've never read either up to now.

Read it as a boy and have never forgotten David Balfour's ascent of the stairway. Still, I'll leave it to you ...

[jlhoots]

Roberto Bolano: The Insufferable Gaucho

[mikelz777]

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War - Karl Marlantes

[paul secor]

James Hanley: Against the Stream

A fine writer who seems to fly under the radar - at least in the U.S.

[GA Russell]

I've learned this week about a website called goodreads.com, which is something of a social website for readers.

I've decided to keep track of my books in 2011, so I have started a list which you can see here:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4689852

[jlhoots]

Jennifer Egan: A Visit From The Goon Squad

[Van Basten II]

Heinrich Böll: The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum.

Are Criterion making books now, are they as expensive as their DVDs ?

Seriously, I guess you could not find an image of the book so you put a picture of the DVD instead.

Edited December 24, 2010 by Van Basten II

[Royal Oak]

Albert Camus - The Plague

Enjoying this very much.

[jlhoots]

Lisa Arana: Lima Nights

[Jazzmoose]

Albert Camus - The Plague

Enjoying this very much.

You know, I picked up a copy of that in '76, and still haven't read it... I guess it was the tail end of my Camus obsession, and I just never got to it. But I transport it from place to place rather than getting rid of it, so I guess there's still hope.

[Elissa]

=

Now on:

Part of a great 30s/40s series (they overlap but are not a series or chronological). This one is based in Poland in 1937.

Read a few of these, awfully good aren't they. Very romantic, the Polish resistance. Just saw the new Peter Weir film, The Way Back, tonight about a number of fellows, some Poles among them, who escaped from the Gulags in Siberia and WALKED to India. Astounding cinematography even if a lil predictable. It was in a double bill with the new Mike Leigh, Another Year, which I loved.

I'm reading Robt Gottlieb's new bio of Sarah Bernhardt now, which is a great read - a christmas gift I've almost polished off.

[Royal Oak]

Albert Camus - The Plague

Enjoying this very much.

You know, I picked up a copy of that in '76, and still haven't read it... I guess it was the tail end of my Camus obsession, and I just never got to it. But I transport it from place to place rather than getting rid of it, so I guess there's still hope.

It's been on my shelf for months. It's quite apt at the minute, as we are on the verge of a flu epidemic/pandemic (can't remember which) here in England, with a nice little pocket where I live, in the North West. Are you listening Bill?

I've only ever read "The Fall" of Camus, and I enjoyed that too. Not so much for the "existential" thing, but his prose, which I find pleasingly spare, yet substantial. I seem to recall some liner notes applying the same sentiments to Monk - compared it to roast beef - much meat, no sauce. May have been the Sonny Rollins meets Monk LP.

[BillF]

Albert Camus - The Plague

Enjoying this very much.

You know, I picked up a copy of that in '76, and still haven't read it... I guess it was the tail end of my Camus obsession, and I just never got to it. But I transport it from place to place rather than getting rid of it, so I guess there's still hope.

It's been on my shelf for months. It's quite apt at the minute, as we are on the verge of a flu epidemic/pandemic (can't remember which) here in England, with a nice little pocket where I live, in the North West. Are you listening Bill?

Indeed I am - and I got my free anti-flu injection for the over-65s last week!

As for Camus, far and away the most significant one for me has always been The Outsider (L'étranger). I've read it twice in English and twice in French - its very short length and plain-statement style made the latter possible.

[Jazzmoose]

I've never read it in French (it's a crime in the U.S. to know more than one language...), but that was my favorite, followed by The Fall. I read it first as an impressionable teen, so it became a big influence on my thinking, for better or worse.

[A Lark Ascending]

A page turner even though there was more gratuitous violence than I care for; and the characters were cardboard cut-out. None of the depth of Mankell.

[jlhoots]

David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas

[ejp626]

David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas

I really enjoyed this one. I wasn't that taken with Number9Dream. Haven't read his latest two, but will probably get to them one day.

On a bit of a tangent, I am wondering when Murakami's 1Q84 comes out in English. I was somewhere where I actually saw it in Japanese (probably just the first volume), but it would have been pointless and pretentious to have bought it.

[ghost of miles]

Over the past couple of days, these two:

Edited January 3, 2011 by ghost of miles

[A Lark Ascending]

Loved this. See-saws between grim murder mystery and tall, whimsical tale. I think the latter just wins out. A larger than life tale but a fun one.

Now on:

Leon's books always make me hungry - Inspector Brunetti's wife always makes such wonderful meals!

Edited January 4, 2011 by A Lark Ascending

[Royal Oak]

Solzhenitsyn - The First Circle

[jostber]

Norman Lewis - I Came, I Saw

Edited January 8, 2011 by jostber

[Matthew]

The Doors by Ben Fong-Torres and the Doors. On a major Doors binge lately...

Edited January 10, 2011 by Matthew

[jlhoots]

Thomas Powers: The Killing Of Crazy Horse

[jazzbo]

[Van Basten II]

While still reading Proust at work, started reading this at home

It's Ingrid Betancourt tale of her kidnapping by FARC members, to the best of my knowledge it has yet to be translated in English. Don't know what kind of politician she would have made but I can tell you she's a heck of a storyteller.