What are you reading?

[Former_Member]

What book are you currently making your way through? Do you recomend it? Has it inspired any crafting?

I'm currently making my way through The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. I have been thinking about making a pipe tobacco scented soap in honor of Holmes.
It's very good, not as sparkling as some of The Adventures, but still quite good.

[stitchingbevy]

Hi there!

I tend to read 3-4 books at a time along with magazines. In the non-fiction realm, I'm reading a book on linguistics/discourse analysis as a research method for a chapter I'm getting ready to write. I'm also reading The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood and a funny memoir called The Aquanet Diaries. I just finished an excellent book called Room by Emma Donahue. Really suspenseful!

[Former_Member]

Oooh interesting sounding books stitching - I will have to add those to my list.

I'm currently reading Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. I'm enjoying it as a Cinderella type story, but I have to say the "moral of the story" is to...have none (morals that is). O_o

I have Conan Doyle on my reading list for this year. So far I've only read A Study in Scarlet.

[Former_Member]

Study is probably my least favorite, it's the sloppiest. Wait until Hound of the Baskervilles- excellent novel.

[Former_Member]

I'm taking a break from Holmes novels to read some A.S. Byatt, my literature professor recommended her to me. I also want to read more Tom Hardy.

[Former_Member]

ooh! I just finished both Barnes and Nobles Volumes of Sherlock! Loved every story!

I'm trying to slog through anna karenina, but I can't seem to get hooked!

[Former_Member]

I also had trouble with Anna Karenina when I tried to read it two summers ago. I kept waiting for Anna's story to get started, it never seemed to. I want to give it another try though.
I'm giving Dickens another try as well- I had a really bad experience in high school with A Tale of Two Cities (or, rather, the class it was being read in), and I haven't read any since. I just picked up a copy of David Copperfield.
I love the B & N Classics, their a good size, well priced, and I like the texture of the covers.

[Former_Member]

I agree, Morning... They do have a nice "feel" to them. I still can't understand the whole "kindle" faze. I like the feel of paper and a good binding in my hands!

[Former_Member]

I had to read Anna Karenina in my Russian Literature class and - it could have been my awesome Prof, but I found the story pretty good. I've actually been meaning to read it again. I do get a bit frustrated with Anna though...
I have liked every Dickens novel I've read so far. Finished Nicholas Nickleby a couple years ago. It was ridiculously long and it took me forever to read it (I read several books at the same time) but it was a neat story.
I just finished Miss Pettigrew Lives... and am thinking about starting Middlemarch by George Eliot. From the description on the back this book should have magic and sunshine emanating from every page (the comments were a little much in their glowing recommendation.)

[Former_Member]

@stitchingbevy - That's kind of how I work too! I'll rarely read just one book at a time. I'll usually have two non-fiction and 1-2 fiction books going at a time. For non-fiction, I'm currently reading "The Narnia Code," and re-reading "Sex with the Queen" by Elenor Herman.

"The Edible Woman" is a great name for a book. What's it about?

@Molly @Morning @biologyrose - Yay for Sherlock Holmes! Definitely some of the best stories of all time.

On that note... what did you gals think of the Sherlock Holmes movie that came out last year? Did you think it did the books justice, or do you think it was just a good movie in its own right but didn't do a thing for the books?

[Former_Member]

I'm reading Lady Audley's Secret and the Troublesome Reign of King John. I started making a sort of literary Shakespeare to the Victorians treasury earlier and it kind of died when i accidentally refreshed the page before I saved it. I had to get to class so I didn't remake it, and my treasuries don't get to many views when I make them at night, so i'll re-assemble it in the morning :-)

[Former_Member]

Hmm... I liked the new movie when it came out, but the more I read Doyle's stories, the less I like it as an adaptation. It was a fun movie, but it wasn't Holmes to me. I'll still probably go to the sequel because... well... Jude Law.
Has anyone seen the BBC's new mini-series Sherlock? I was so skeptical, but it was fantastic.
Middlemarch never really captured me. It's very dense, but I've been meaning to start The Mill on the Floss, that's supposed to be one of her best.
I just started Tess of the D' Urbervilles last night.

[Former_Member]

ooh, I LOVED the mini-series of Sherlock Holmes. Benedict Cumberbatch did a fantastic job as Sherlock while Martin Freeman captured the character of Watson to a t. I can't wait for the next season to come out!!!!

I'm reading Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen...again. Its not even my favorite of hers but its the one I've read the most...well, unless you count listening to Emma over...and over....and over....about every night....

I hope to start Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell soon.

[UneekDollDesigns]

I am currently reading A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens and a non fiction book book called Charles Dickens and the House of Fallen Women...

(It was a little know fact that he started a project of a sort of halfway house for women who had been in prison and he tried his own methods of reforming them to fit back in society to succeed...:)

[Former_Member]

Well don't I feel a bit out of place for reading something a bit lighter. Currently running through various Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, a book on Taoism, and Gone With the Wind. I'm a book hopper.

[Former_Member]

@Morning - I totally agree! I think it was a good movie, but not as an adaptation since, as you mentioned, I really didn't feel like it was "Holmes" I was looking at, but instead some sort of edgy hybrid.

And I haven't seen the mini-series... I will have to check it out! My husband and I are just finishing up a SciFi series, but I think I've had enough of futuristic 'doom and gloom' for a while. :) Holmes sounds like just the thing!

Oh, and on the note of books turned into TV series... has anyone watched the TV show "Merlin?" Someone was telling me it was really good, and I love Arthurian myth, but I was wondering if anyone here had seen it/enjoyed it...

[Former_Member]

The mini-series was definitely the best adaptation I've found...even though it is set in the 21st century. After that would come Jeremy Brett. Follows the story almost perfectly. I didn't like Basil Rathbone, I thought they changed up the story too much.

Haven't seen Merlin but heard it was really good.

[stitchingbevy]

HesedBooks- The Edible Woman was one of Atwood's first novels. It's set in the late 1960s with the main character who works as a data gatherer in a food research firm. I suspect that's what the title refers to. I'm about 30 pages in. It deals with the themes of expectations to get married/have kids and the conflict this creates in the main character Marian. So far the writing is really lively and fast paced, but I find most of Atwood's books to be this way, with a little darkness thrown in!

[Former_Member]

I like Atwood- I read Handmaid's Tale about two years ago (wasn't fond of the epilogue, but anyway...). I've been meaning to read more of her.
For a Non-Fiction writing class we're looking at Lucy Grealy, she wrote Autobiography of a Face, very interesting and sad.

[Former_Member]

@Stitching - That sounds really interesting! I would be really interested to read about the expectations of getting married/having kids set against the cultural backdrop of the 60's.

I also find it interesting that she is a data gatherer in a food research firm. From my (very limited) knowledge of the food market, I think it was during the 50's or 60's that a lot of our current food regulations came into play. I wonder if Atwood will touch on that in the story...

[Former_Member]

@VagabondCarnival - Light is also good.
I just picked up a two-books-in-one of the Pirates! books. One is The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists and The Pirates! In An Adventure With Ahab. (found at GW for $3, yeahhhh)
I read The Pirates! In An Adventure With Communists last year and it was hilarious so I'm looking forward to more silliness.

[Former_Member]

Jeeves Takes Charge by PG Wodehouse. Love it. :D

[Former_Member]

MorningValleySoaps says

I like Atwood- I read Handmaid's Tale about two years ago (wasn't fond of the epilogue, but anyway...). I've been meaning to read more of her.

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Yeah, the epilogue didn't seem to fit too well. I like that she tends to leave stories at a cliffhanger, pretty Lady or the Tiger-ish. It's maddening, but also cool. I've read "Oryx & Crake" which is an interesting take on the lead up to an apocalyptic event.

[LisaChun]

i love a.s. byatt - especially her fairytales and short stories. but right now i'm reading anne lamott's "plan b, further thoughts on faith" and going to start jonathan franzen "how to be alone." i tend to read like 10 books all at the same time. of different genres. non-fiction. poetry. spirituality. humor. and last year i was working on classic literature.
:) hello everybody! i'm new here and i am definitely into english geeky things and literature!

[Former_Member]

Hiya lisachun!

I read multiple books at a time as well. Keeps me from getting bogged down and giving up on huge classic pieces like Middlemarch...good book but the characters are starting to irritate me. So I'm also reading Confessions of a Shopaholic. Can't get much further away in style than that! :)
(I was curious if it was like the movie. Yes and no. Set in a different country anyone? What the heck were the filmmakers thinking?)