What are you reading at the moment??

[Killme00]

I just picked up a book the other day called A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole......he was born in 1937 and wrote this book in the early 60's.  He commiited suicide in 1969 when he couldnt get it published.

I am reading it at the moment and to be honest i wasn't expecting much but it is very very good.  Has anyone else read it?

Tom

[lolly]

cant say i have tom. wots it about? im on a bit of a holy grail fetish at the mo after reading such books like the da vinci code and labyrinth. ive just started a book called the historian and am hoping itll be as gud as all the suggestions

[Heidi G]

Hey Thomas,

I've not read Confederacy myself, but it was discussed once in a reading group I joined.  People either seem to love or loathe it; there wasn't  much in-between opinion on that one.  What do you think of it so far?

Owing to my bookstores inability to find where their new guy had put the books I ordered (UPS claims they were delivered) and owing to the new guy being in a class and not home to answer the phone, I was forced to buy something else while I wait for the mystery to be solved.

I found, of all things, Jane Austen mysteries.  Premise is that they are edited, long lost journals and unsent letters of Austen. Bit surreal, bit goofy, definitely light reading, but fun if you are a Austen head.  And it's apparently a nice, long series of books.  Damn, another author to collect.  But good light beach reading for when summer decided to get here (tell me, why is beach reading always preferred as "light".  I mean, you NEVER see anyone with, say, War and Peace just relaxing in the sun....)

[Killme00]

So far its great..it is billed as one mans crusade against ignorance, vice, corruption and modernity...modernity  does that sound right??...anyway its very funny so far.

[Killme00]

Hi Heidi,

Looks like we both replied at the same time....whenever i order books from my local bookshop, which i do very regulary they always seem to lose them in the backroom and ring me a week later to say they found them again.

Never realised that there were any Jane Austen mysteries...i am gonna have to have a peek on amazon for them

[Heidi G]

Yup, I am the Queen of Cross Posting (and keep any wise comments to yourselves!); just ask Jayne and Neoni.

Confederacy is something I will have to check into.  Given the strong reactions to the books (like I said, no one said "Oh, it was all right, I guess") it seems like it must be hitting on something...people don't usually get so offended by a book unless it really has something to say!

[Killme00]

Does that apply to people too...now i fell so much better about the millions of people i have offended since i was born

[Jayne]

I'm reading Lifeless by Mark Billingham at the moment - it's his best novel yet, in my view...

[Michaela]

I actually just started to read "The White Road". The first time I read it was in 2003 when I bought it in Dublin where I used to live (and it was my first John Connolly book I ever bought). Just moved back home (Hamburg, Germany) and while doing the unpacking, I suddenly had that book in my hand and thought that I could read it again - there are so many pieces in that book I had forgotten about and I am totally rediscovering that book!

[Dylanadonis]

I can't confess to knowing half as much as other people who post on this forum (this is my first post!), but I love to read and re-read John's books, I discover something new everytime.

Mmmmm....... just thinking about it has me considering opening The Black Angel again. Now where did I leave it?

[Jayne]

It's great to have people here from the old forum and I'm thrilled to have some new members on board too - a very big welcome to you all!

Jayne

[Barbara]

Hi all,
will continue reading "Want to play" by PJ Tracy later on... read the sequel first, a while ago, so I only remember that some people will survive and don't remember who the killer is... it's good stuff, funny characters, light evening entertainment!
The thing about someone copying in life what these people have produced as a computer game reminded me of a line in "The name of the rose" somewhere (don't have it here right now), it was something along the line of life imitating art sometimes, and rarely, when writing, I did discover something like that... not that I started willingly to write and make life imitate it... would be bad, anyway, but the concept I liked... it's good for a story but not for real life, don't get me wrong! ;-)
After reading that, and now for something completely different, "music and the mind" by A. Storr, which is all about what music does for people, escaping etc...
Right, gotta go read...
Cheers,
Barbara

[JC]

I love "A Confederacy of Dunces".  I read it for the first time when I was in New Orleans, which is a bit like reading "Ulysses" while in Dublin.  It's such a wonderful, funny book, and it's sad to think that the author took his own life before it was published.  It's definitely one of my favourite books . . .

[Linda]

Hi
I'm just about finished James Lee Burke's "Purple Cane Road". It's a wonderful book, although I feel somewhat out of place, it's my first of his, and I feel like I've walked into a movie 3/4 of the way through and am trying to understand the connections with people. I probably should have started with an earlier Robicheaux. It is a great book though. 

I'm also working through Guy De Maupassant's short story collection. He's an 1800's french writer, who went mad and tried to commit suicide. Sounds morbid, but I think it made him a brilliant writer. His best known would be "Le Horla", and my fav at the moment is "The Terror" about how the mind can play tricks on you when you're alone in the darkness. Very real and creepy....

[verve]

I loved "The Terror" Scared the beejeebers out of me...

And I agree, Linda, that paranoid madness made his writing brilliant. Sure, he may not have enjoyed it, but it did add a certain edge to his prose you can't usually achieve when you've got your full set of marbles...