January 2023 Reading Thread

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Some of his spy yarns are ok, but his massive historical works tend to dull out your consciousness
 
I just finished The Haunting of Borley Rectory by Sean O'Connor and loved it. On the surface it's a non-fiction book about 'the most famous haunted house in Britain,' but it's much, much more than that and covers the social history of England and delves into the lives of a wide range of interesting and strange characters who lived in and investigated the goings on at the house since it was built in the 19th century.

A great start to my reading year!
 
I gave up on Moby Dick.
Life's too short.
But unfortunately his chapters aren't short enough.
He uses a whole chapter to describe something that needs but a few words. Far toouch fluff and waffle.
And afterwards I had no idea what had just happened!
I do want to know how it ends though so will look out for a good film version.
 
AE35Unit said:
I gave up on Moby Dick.
Life's too short.
But unfortunately his chapters aren't short enough.
He uses a whole chapter to describe something that needs but a few words. Far toouch fluff and waffle.
And afterwards I had no idea what had just happened!
I do want to know how it ends though so will look out for a good film version.
Click to expand...
I'm sure you can find a summary on the internet. Wikipedia maybe?
 
Now reading Danubia by Simon Winder. The book was a gift. It's not the usual type of book I like for history, so I've been ignoring it... for almost a decade (WOW! time flies). I'm not sure why the author chose to write this book (other than someone payed him to), because the opinionated little ... *man*... seems to hate the inhabitants of central Europe. In the first 50 pages I don't think he has said one nice thing about them.
 
Currently reading Samuel R Delaney's Nova. I've never read it before but got a SF Masterworks copy recently. Halfway through and enjoying it so far.
 
AE35Unit said:
I gave up on Moby Dick.
Life's too short.
But unfortunately his chapters aren't short enough.
He uses a whole chapter to describe something that needs but a few words. Far toouch fluff and waffle.
And afterwards I had no idea what had just happened!
I do want to know how it ends though so will look out for a good film version.
Click to expand...
I haven't read it. How many words does an author really need to describe a sexually transmitted disease?
 
AE35Unit said:
I gave up on Moby Dick.
Life's too short.
But unfortunately his chapters aren't short enough.
He uses a whole chapter to describe something that needs but a few words. Far toouch fluff and waffle.
And afterwards I had no idea what had just happened!
I do want to know how it ends though so will look out for a good film version.
Click to expand...
It's a book that needs the middle hundred or so pages torn out. The rest is a pretty decent story. There's a 1956 movie version with the screenplay written by Ray Bradbury, directed by John Huston and starring Gregory Peck. I think it's still the best version.
 
Currently CULTS by Max Cutler. Non-fiction. And MEETING EVIL by Thomas Berger. 1991.
 
Foxbat said:
It's a book that needs the middle hundred or so pages torn out. The rest is a pretty decent story. There's a 1956 movie version with the screenplay written by Ray Bradbury, directed by John Huston and starring Gregory Peck. I think it's still the best version.
Click to expand...
I got through the first 400 of 1540 pages, that was enough for me!
 
That's odd. I have the World's Classics edition that runs at just under 600 pages (not including many pages of introduction, notes and glossary). It doesn't state whether it is abridged or not but here's what it says in the introductory notes: This Worlds Classics edition therefore follows the American first edition of 1851, incorporating only those changes which it seems could only have been made by Melville.

Anyhow, abridged or not (and I'm not knowledgable enough to know), I'd suggest that if you want to know how it ends read from chapter 133 (The Chase-The First Day.....less than fifty pages in my version).
 
Foxbat said:
That's odd. I have the World's Classics edition that runs at just under 600 pages (not including many pages of introduction, notes and glossary). It doesn't state whether it is abridged or not but here's what it says in the introductory notes: This Worlds Classics edition therefore follows the American first edition of 1851, incorporating only those changes which it seems could only have been made by Melville.

Anyhow, abridged or not (and I'm not knowledgable enough to know), I'd suggest that if you want to know how it ends read from chapter 133 (The Chase-The First Day.....less than fifty pages in my version).
Click to expand...
Forgot to mention its an ebook on my kobo, so 1540 pages is like 1500 page turns
 
James Crowden "Dorset Women"
A series of thirty five interviews with women working close to the land in Dorset - shepherdesses, farmers, cider makers, scrap dealers, undertakers, game keepers, midwives, stone masons, taxidermists, priest, horse dentist, and others. Interviews in 2006. Age range: born 1915 - 1980s. Very well produced book. Interviewer barely present in the interviews, and a strong sense of each individual comes through.
I loved it and managed to stretch the reading over several months.
 
Foxbat said:
It's a book that needs the middle hundred or so pages torn out. The rest is a pretty decent story. There's a 1956 movie version with the screenplay written by Ray Bradbury, directed by John Huston and starring Gregory Peck. I think it's still the best version.
Click to expand...
Gregory Peck always did those sort of tortured soul roles so well!
 
Foxbat said:
It's a book that needs the middle hundred or so pages torn out. The rest is a pretty decent story. There's a 1956 movie version with the screenplay written by Ray Bradbury, directed by John Huston and starring Gregory Peck. I think it's still the best version.
Click to expand...
Double post; seems to be incredibly slow for me just now.
 
Having finished a second reading, after many years, of Gormenghast (what a book!), am now, after almost 50 years, read The Worm Ouroboros for the 3rd time (what a book!). This reading may turn in to a revisiting of other fantasy classics from long ago in my reading life (a thread I should revive) -- maybe with Dunsany's The Charwoman's Shadow.

I have put aside -- only temporarily -- Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, to make a determined run at Iain McGilchrist's The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, hoping my old 2009 edition will do. I've read a fair bit of this and even given away several copies but never read the whole book. The biggest problem with McGilchrist's book is that the print is terribly small. It should be twice as large, to suit me anyway.

Then there's Kozinn and Sinclair's The McCartney Legacy Volume 1: 1969-1973. This has already given me a greater sense of the importance of the tensions around Allen Klein as a big factor in the Beatle split-up. Love his beard from around 1970:
1674147331813.png


And I'm working my way through Kleinig's commentary on the New Testament book of Hebrews, and am getting more proficient, incidentally, at being able to make out the Roman-letter versions of words written in New Testament Greek, and guessing the meanings. But someone who's put one hard day into the matter specifically of trying to learn NT Greek would probably have a better grasp than I.
 
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