October 2018 Reading Thread

[hitmouse]

That is very good. Is that in the South Downs?

 

[HareBrain]

That is very good. Is that in the South Downs?

Cuckmere Haven, next to the famous Seven Sisters chalk cliffs.

 

[Av Demeisen]

I'm currently reading Tade Thompson's Rosewater and Peter F. Hamilton's Salvation.

 

[Allegra]

Reading Stephen Clarke's 1000 Years of Annoying the French, annoyingly funny.

 

[Hugh]

That is very good. Is that in the South Downs?

I'm glad you like it. The road eastwards climbs up into the Downs from the valley, and gives you this spacious view. The Cuckmere River is not that wide in Summer, but this picture seems to be from a visit in February/ early March 1939: at this time of year the valley is usually flooded to some degree, especially out of sight, further upriver.

 

[Vertigo]

I'm glad you like it. The road eastwards climbs up into the Downs from the valley, and gives you this spacious view. The Cuckmere River is not that wide in Summer, but this picture seems to be from a visit in February/ early March 1939: at this time of year the valley is usually flooded to some degree, especially out of sight, further upriver.

If you google Cuckmere Haven you'll see some photos taken from almost exactly the same viewpoint. Quite interesting to compare the two; the one realist and the other, would it be fair to say, slightly impressionistic in style.

 

[Anthoney]

I've started Kelley Armstrong's Other World series. I've read Bitten and moved on to Stolen. I did watch the TV series based on the books but from what I've heard the show only followed book 1 then went it's own way.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Next up is Get a Life! (1999) by William Shatner, "with" Chris Kreski (which I assume means it's really by Kreski.) It's about Star Trek fandom, of course, with the title taken from the famous Saturday Night Live skit about Shatner and Trekkies.

 

[Hugh]

"East of the Sun, West of the Moon" illustrated by Kay Nielsen (Taschen 2018 edition). Norwegian folk/fairy tales. This is an exquisite production. It feels like handling a work of art. This is despite realising that I had bought the smaller of the two hardback editions (just 20.3cm X 14cm). I'm delighted with it. I also hadn't read it before.

 

[HareBrain]

"East of the Sun, West of the Moon" illustrated by Kay Nielsen (Taschen 2018 edition). Norwegian folk/fairy tales. This is an exquisite production. It feels like handling a work of art. This is despite realising that I had bought the smaller of the two hardback editions (just 20.3cm X 14cm). I'm delighted with it. I also hadn't read it before.

I think I have that one -- it's by Taschen and fits your description, but is marked 2015, and is 29.5 x 24. Are there two editions that are identical apart from sizing, then? TBH I think the smaller size might be better -- some of the pictures in mine look too enlarged, seemingly bigger than their original size. I haven't read it yet.

 

[janeoreilly]

I am reading an unbelievably tedious and awful paranormal romance which I would DNF but it's for a book thing so sadly I cannot. Before that read Vivian Shaw Dreadful Company and that was really good.

 

[soulsinging]

I bailed on Name of the Rose. My latin was too far in the past to be any help and the church history is even duller than I remember it being K-12. Strip those away and you've basically got a mediocre Holmes knock off overstuffed with obscure debates on medieval Catholic theology. I'd prefer Fr Brown or a few Agatha Christie if I want church-related intrigue.

Instead, I opted to pick up John Steinbeck's East of Eden, which is considered a personal favorite by two of the biggest readers I know. I've not read anything by Steinbeck since I had to read The Pearl in high school.

 

[Vertigo]

I bailed on Name of the Rose. My latin was too far in the past to be any help and the church history is even duller than I remember it being K-12. Strip those away and you've basically got a mediocre Holmes knock off overstuffed with obscure debates on medieval Catholic theology. I'd prefer Fr Brown or a few Agatha Christie if I want church-related intrigue.

I managed to get to the end but it was a struggle. It's a rare occasion where I think the film is better for stripping away a lot of the really rather pretentious stuff the book is full off. Maybe that's a little unfair; I guess if you happen to be a religious historian you'll love all of that stuff!

 

[Toby Frost]

So far, the only new book I've started is Red Bones by Anne Cleeves, a mystery set in the Shetland Isles. It's the 5th book by Cleeves that I've read. I've enjoyed the others, although I've found the solutions to the mysteries very hard to guess (albeit credible once explained). I think some detective stories are a kind of sinister alternative to soap opera: you're watching a community not to see how it continues, but how it falls apart.

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

The Dark Defiles by Richard Morgan.

The last of the trilogy, been great so far, halfway through.

 

[Hugh]

I think I have that one -- it's by Taschen and fits your description, but is marked 2015, and is 29.5 x 24. Are there two editions that are identical apart from sizing, then? TBH I think the smaller size might be better -- some of the pictures in mine look too enlarged, seemingly bigger than their original size. I haven't read it yet.

Yes, I think that's the case. I hadn't realised that there were two editions, and thought that I was ordering the one that you have. When it arrived two or three months ago I was disappointed and just thought I'd got the size wrong. When I got round to reading it a few days ago, I checked back on Amazon and realised that there were two (2015 and 2018) and that mine was the 2018 edition. Once I got into reading mine, I thought it exquisite and (rather to my surprise) did not yearn for the larger edition. If I remember right from Amazon, your edition, being larger, has less pages. Amazon can be tricksy though, it took me several lots of clicking to realise that there were these two editions.

 

[HareBrain]

If I remember right from Amazon, your edition, being larger, has less pages.

Does yours have the text in two columns, or one? I find the two-column format a bit strange in a book.

 

[Hugh]

Does yours have the text in two columns, or one? I find the two-column format a bit strange in a book.

Just the one column. I can see two would be strange.
You're doing a good job of making me believe I've got the right version (for me, at any rate).

Edit: maybe your one might make a good Xmas present?

 

[HareBrain]

Maybe they issued the 2018 edition because they realised the 2015 was a bit of a pup! Sadly I bought mine with a shrink-wrapper on, in a town four hours' drive from where I live.

 

[Extollager]

The Norwegian folktales book that I love dearly is this one:

Art by Werenskiold and Kittelsen. As I've said here before, I have 4000 books and if I had to winnow my collection down to 200, this book would be one of the keepers.