April Reading Thread

[Hugh]

April 1st: another month to hear about the reading habits of one's Chrons colleagues....

Virginia Woolf “Flush”
A biography of the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s dog Flush, somewhat anthropomorphised, but based on Barrett’s poems and letters. Very much "of its time". Fortunately just 106 pages in small penguin classic form – I read it in another attempt to see if I could manage to enjoy Woolf’s writing, knowing its short length would mean I could probably finish it.
What I did find interesting were the brief insights into 1840s London and Italy. There was good money to be made in London at that time in kidnapping dogs of the wealthy that had been let off their leads. Flush was kidnapped on three occasions and Barrett forked out a total of £20 in ransom money for his return. In surprising contrast there was no such cottage industry in Florence and Flush was free to roam the streets wherever he liked.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I read that back when I was in grade school, I think. I mean, I know I read it and liked it, but not really sure of the year.

 

[Simbelmynë]

At the moment I’m reading Jane Eyre, Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan (I don’t know why), and The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser - I’m getting into long form poetry. Once I thought I’d never appreciate Elizabethan verse but lo and behold I doth love it.

Virginia Woolf “Flush”
A biography of the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s dog Flush, somewhat anthropomorphised, but based on Barrett’s poems and letters. Very much "of its time". Fortunately just 106 pages in small penguin classic form – I read it in another attempt to see if I could manage to enjoy Woolf’s writing, knowing its short length would mean I could probably finish it.
What I did find interesting were the brief insights into 1840s London and Italy. There was good money to be made in London at that time in kidnapping dogs of the wealthy that had been let off their leads. Flush was kidnapped on three occasions and Barrett forked out a total of £20 in ransom money for his return. In surprising contrast there was no such cottage industry in Florence and Flush was free to roam the streets wherever he liked.

Planning to read A Room of One’s Own soon. I’m working on a group of songs with some accompanying prose for my band’s next EP, which is going to be 1920’s themed. Been watching films and reading novels from the era as source material. I’ve so far read The Great Gatsby and Fiesta by Hemingway.

 

[Garfunkel]

I'm currently reading Stephen King's Duma Key and listening to Michael McDowell's Blackwater. I've never managed to actually listen to an entire audio book before (audio dramas are more my thing), but I'm really enjoying Blackwater.

 

[tobl]

I'm currently reading Stephen King's Duma Key and listening to Michael McDowell's Blackwater. I've never managed to actually listen to an entire audio book before (audio dramas are more my thing), but I'm really enjoying Blackwater.

is stephen king really a good author to read in this time? lolo next you read clive barker or are you guys preparing for a real TWD?

 

[Randy M.]

I don't know. A good horror novel seems rather comfy, cozy just now. (With a few exceptions like The Andromeda Strain, of course.)

Randy M.

 

[Garfunkel]

is stephen king really a good author to read in this time? lolo next you read clive barker or are you guys preparing for a real TWD?

Hahaha, well, at least it isn't The Stand! King is one of my favourite authors and horror is one of my preferred genres, so I suppose it's almost like comfort food. I have some lighter books, including a bunch of Discworld novels, lined up for when I need a change of pace.

 

[tobl]

Hahaha, well, at least it isn't The Stand! King is one of my favourite authors and horror is one of my preferred genres, so I suppose it's almost like comfort food. I have some lighter books, including a bunch of Discworld novels, lined up for when I need a change of pace.

hey, if you want a day to day of the crisis try executive orders by tom clancy. oh and if you find zombies going around could you keep them there please? i mean... if you can tell which person is a zombie of course... except for alice, milla jovovich, send her, i will take her in

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm reading The World of Jeeves, by P. G. Wodehouse. A nice hefty omnibus edition of 34 stories in 774 pages.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Am reading Francis Pryor's Britain BC. I really enjoy his affable and humanising-approach to archaeology. He keeps the emphasis on the subject being about people, and tells everything in such a warm and conversational manner.

Am also reading The Barbarian's Speak, which is about what we know about Western Europe before the Roman conquests there. A little more heavy, but still interesting enough to dip through.

I'm sure I have some other books lying around that I've started and not picked up again - being a very fussy reader at the moment.

 

[tobl]

i've saw the new trailer for a show from syfy called spides.... just curious about something... did someone told mira grant someone stole her parasitology books?

 

[Danny McG]

Plague by Graham Masterton - I last read this well over forty years ago.

IIRC it had only been released a few months when it was totally eclipsed by Stephen King's The Stand.

 

[elvet]

On to book nine of the Malazan series--Dust of Dreams. This is the only series book I gave a 4/5 star rating to on my first read back in 2012. I've a better understanding of how everything is coming together now, whereas the first time, I was a bit overwhelmed by all the characters and storylines.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have started A Kiss Before Doomsday (2017) by Laurence MacNaughton, second in a series of romantic comedy/urban fantasy novels. Light, fast reading.

 

[dask]

Working my through this:

There's much to enjoy in this collection of essays spanning a 14 year gap between 1968 - 1982 (if I did my math correctly) but some of it left me flummoxed beyond reason. To add to my annoyance it happened just as Blish was to elaborate on one of my favorite topics: the definition of science fiction. It all began in a chapter titled "Probapossible Prolegomena To Ideareal History" and as soon as I saw that I started to subconsciously massage my forehead. The chapter is divided into sections with titles like "Archaic Zelotypia And The Odium Teleologicum" and "Gnosis Of Precreate Determination". When I finally got to what I was waiting for it was in "Agnosis Of Postcreate Determinism" and it went like this: Science fiction is the internal (intracultural) literary form taken by syncretism in the West, and further elucidated with a two half page footnote of a quote by Peter Nicholls that would leave John Clute shaking his head like a dog shaking itself dry. Hopefully this was the worst of it and from here on in the curve will begin to flatten itself .

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

A few days ago, I started again (for the, uh, third time, maybe?) Little, Big. I've already gotten further than I had previously, but then, earlier today, I recommended to @nixie , on the "Light Reading" thread, a novel by Rumer Godden, which reminded me how much I love her writing. Soon after, my eyes alit on a book of Godden's I bought last summer, but didn't get around to reading, Greengage Summer. I picked it up, and 30 pages into it, I'm loving it. I'm hooked. So Mr. Crowley may have to wait a bit longer, again.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Am reading Francis Pryor's Britain BC. I really enjoy his affable and humanising-approach to archaeology. He keeps the emphasis on the subject being about people, and tells everything in such a warm and conversational manner.

Love his work. Terrific author.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

A few days ago, I started again (for the, uh, third time, maybe?) Little, Big. I've already gotten further than I had previously, but then, earlier today, I recommended to @nixie , on the "Light Reading" thread, a novel by Rumer Godden, which reminded me how much I love her writing. Soon after, my eyes alit on a book of Godden's I bought last summer, but didn't get around to reading, Greengage Summer. I picked it up, and 30 pages into it, I'm loving it. I'm hooked. So Mr. Crowley may have to wait a bit longer, again.

You'll get there in the end... and it really is worth it!

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

You'll get there in the end... and it really is worth it!

I imagine so. I have a good friend who adores it. But I'd like to point out how worth it Rumer Godden is too. Kingfishers Catch Fire and The River (the basis for Jean Renoir's film), in particular, are two of the most beautiful novels I've read.

 

[Parson]

I read Red State Christians by Angela Denker. For me this is the best work I've ever read trying to explain something that has crushed me the last four years, namely: How could evangelical Christians overwhelmingly support a man who seems to break almost every Christian principle. Angela Denker seems to be an excellent choice to delve into this question. She was a journalist as a first career, and then a pastor. Her way of approaching this was to travel around the U.S. to interview evangelical Christians and pastors from glitz Orange County CA. to Appalachian churches. You can easily see that she's both a journalist and a pastor. She helps to understand the people, their reasoning, their strengths, and the their flaws. No one, not even Angela herself, comes away with a perfect grade. If you have any interest in this subject I can't recommend this book highly enough. I gave it one of my very rare 5 stars. Here's my Amazon Review:

Angela Denker takes the readers of this book on a trip into the Christian/Evangelical heart of the Trump electorate. It is a story which is filled with honest dialogue and nuance. It speaks of people as they really are, people who are filled with contradiction. None of us can truthfully be reduced to a simple sentence or two. Everyone has a tendency to stereotype and every stereotype is too confining for reality and Angela brings us and herself to task for refusing to see our own warped thinking and how we limit God's grace working in everyone.

As a retired evangelical pastor I recommend this book highly to everyone who finds themselves shaking their head at how a man who seems to break almost every Christian principle is the overwhelming choice of most of the most obvious Christians in the United States for President.