What Are You Reading?

[Stephen]

So does anybody here read those rectangular shaped things filled with paper and words?

Let us know what you're reading and whether it's any good or not.

[Stephen]

I'll get the ball rolling.

At the moment I am reading 'The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath' and a biography on that very same woman: 'The Death and Life of Sylvia Plath'.

She is the most interesting, intelligent, genuinely real poet/author that I have ever come across and I have never so intently gone about studying someone before without it being necessary for educational or work reasons. The journals are so frank and yet so beautifully written - I just want to underline every sentence and remember it forever. Plath also wrote my favourite novel: 'The Bell Jar', a book that I feel can never be trumped in it's portrayal of the haunting, twisted but yet wonderful process that we call 'being alive'.

[rubyblue]

I'm currently re-reading Flaubert's Madame Bovary and Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Love them both

[Seekwal]

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest by Stieg Larsson. Great trilogy of books, can't wait for the GWTDT film to come out before Christmas.

[Pin Money]

Three To See The King by Magnus Mills

Good so far, quite interesting prose, reminiscent of Hemingway

[electroRoss]

I'm reading 'The Unreliable Life of Harry the Valet: The Great Victorian Jewel Thief'. It's superb and you'll love the first words of chapter 1:

"He was an immaculately dapper and suave man; stylish without being showy. Everything about him was neat and precise, as though he'd only just left the fitting room of his Savile Row tailor."

[billyreedwah]

I'm about to start reading 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'. I want to read it before I watch the film, which I've heard good reviews about.

[Tone]

I generally read all the James Patterson books, he writes so many that it's enough to keep me going. I've been looking into getting a Kindle so I may get more into reading soon, well until the novelty has worn off at least.

[Sam]

I'm about to start reading 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'. I want to read it before I watch the film, which I've heard good reviews about.

I wish I'd read it before I saw the film; the film was great but damn it was a challenge. I've never eaten so little popcorn in my life!

I've just finished the Great Gatsby myself. I'm also constantly dipping in and out of Larkin's poetry, it's been a real revelation. Depressing too. But his outlook really resonates with me. Perhaps I'm too big on cheap suits, pointy shoes and red kitchenware and all that (amazingly and knowingly of its time that couple of lines - like a poetic time capsule) to be able to really read Larkin without feeling hypocritical though.

Also, I am personally not convinced by the Kindle. It's like the mp3, which I hate too; I'm a sucker for a beautifully packaged record, or in this case, a well made book. My copy of the Whistun Weddings, as a matter of fact, is a paperback whose covers are marvellously finished; I think it's a hammered finish but it might be linen. I'm not sure... GCSE graphics is a little while behind me now. It does add to the enjoyment for me though.

[William Colman]

I've been given a nice stack of required reading for uni - all 19th century literature - which means Jane Eyre, Charles Dickens, Tess of the D'urbervilles and all sorts of other hideous menstruating guff. . . . . Might poke out my eyes.

Current read from this list is Mary Barton. . . .because I need to know it for next week.