It's Monday! What are you reading?

Your meme is hosted here: http://bookjourney.wordpress.com/

I'm still picking away at Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay but I suspect it might have to go back to the library largely unread. I'm enjoying it but it's a large, dense book that demands rather more time than I have at the moment, I fear.

I picked up My Life in Paris by Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme and it's far more my speed right now. It's basically a collection of reminiscinces (ouch spelling) by Child about her years in France and it's a lovely, light read.

What are YOU reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading?

Monday seems to come around faster and faster, doesn't it?

Your meme is hosted here: http://bookjourney.wordpress.com/

I hope everyone had a happy Christmas, and that there was much reading done :-)

For myself, I finished Guardian of the West by David Eddings, and Hercule Poirot's Christmas, by Agatha Christie. Both re-reads, but both very enjoyable.

On the slate this week we have Fierce September, by Fleur Beale. It's the sequel to Juno of Taris and I'm reading it now because it's due back at the library on January 1. Good stuff so far.

Also King of the Murgos, book 2 of the Mallorean; The Mists of Avalon, which is  my half-assed online book club's read for December/January; Quillblade by Ben Chandler; The Two Towers (I'm getting bloody-minded about finishing LOTR again - lol) and The Fall, by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, which is my break time at work read. :-)

Obviously this will take longer than a week, but that's what my night stand looks like. How's yours this week?

The reading week

Whoever said that being a mother means watching your heart walk around outside your body, had it spot on.

Please excuse the crazy hair _ he likes to put his breakfast through it _ not a very effective styling agent, I have to admit, but Patrick seems to like it.

Anyway. On to What are You Reading on Mondays? hosted by http://j-kaye-book-blog.blogspot.com/ where we talk about what we have read, and what's coming up.

Believe it or not, I finished two books last week. Well. At the weekend.
I read Wyrd Sisters by Sir Terry Pratchett (review below) and Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, my March classic, and the first one I've finished this year.

I loved it. I loved the language and I just wanted to ... fall into it and roll around for a bit, the way you do when there are lovely clean sheets on your bed ... or is that just me?

I'm still reading Travels Through France and Italy for the Try Something New mini-challenge, and I accidentally started Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult. It's not my fault. My co-worker who helps handle the book cupboard at work with me is on holiday. So it's left to me to open all the packages, with all of the lovely books.

So I tripped, and came home with five books, just today. I came home with Handle With Care last week, promising rashly to read it quickly.

Um. Probably something else as well, for the Once Upon a Time III challenge.

That's all, move along, nothing to see here ...

The Reading Week

How cool is this? J. Kaye at http://j-kaye-book-blog.blogspot.com/ has started a weekly event: What Are You Reading on Mondays? (It's Tuesday, but that's splitting hairs).
And you know, I already do my reading week post on Mondays (or Tuesdays) so I'm joining in the fun. :)

In the past week I finished ... um ... oh! After the Funeral by Agatha Christie, and Q & A by Vikras Swarup.

On this week's menu is Travels in France and Italy by Tobias Smollett; my Try Something New challenge read, and Mrs Dalloway my March classic. And probably something else _ something lighter, but I'm not sure what yet. Either a library book or a review book for work, though, both of which are starting to pile up a little bit.

After my fairly recent non-reading week, I feel as though I still haven't quite got my mojo back, even though I'm reading again. I miss my mojo :(

The reading week

What's on the go for the first week in November? Well, my November classic, Love in the Time of Cholera, for a start. I have read it before, about 13 years ago, so it's a fairly distant memory. I would have done One Hundred Years of Solitude but I only read that (for the third time mind you) last year. I have very vivid memories of it because I was reading it in May, just after we brought Patrick home from the hospital. :)

So that, and then I have a novel about the Knights Templar that I'm also going to start this week ... I think it's called Knights of the Black and the Red but it's all the way in the bedroom ("We're knights of the Round Table ... we dance whenever we're able") ... sorry ... and um ... it's by Some Guy.

I think those two books will take me through to the end of the week all right. I have two late shifts this week (which means working 5-1 instead of 4-12) and they kind of knock me for a few days, because I end up staying up so late trying to wind down. So this week I"m going to try just coming home, going to bed and reading for a bit, so I'm not up so freaking late (I'm talking 3am ... bleh).

I've also started mentally compiling my classics list for 2009.
So far I have
-The Woman in White by Wilke Collins
-Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
-The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
-Something by Grahame Greene (I haven't decided which one yet)
and ... I know no Dickens this time, and no Brontes. But that's about as far as I've got.
All ideas gratefully received _ any genre. :)

Have a great week everyone. :)

The reading week

I can't do it. I cannot read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall because Gilbert Markham is a tosspot. He's spoiled and self-centred and just the thought of picking up the book makes me angry.

I've just got to the bit where he's about to misunderstand an encounter Mrs Graham has with her landlord and I swear ... he's thisclose to throwing his toys out of his cot and kicking his heels on the floor.

It's possibly not the best choice of book at the moment, with a lot of the work stuff I have going on (a lot of which seems to be dealing with sulky men for some reason), so it's just making me angry all over again. My dilemma is that it's one of my classic reads for 2008 _ October's classic, and I've already bailed out on The Old Curiosity Shoppe, The Once and Future King and The Picture of Dorian Grey. If I manage to read Love in the Time of Cholera and Stranger in a Strange Land, I"ll have read eight out of the twelve.

I skipped Dorian Grey at the time, because I was falling behind, so it's possible I'll pick that one up before the end of the year.

But Tenant ... it's just not happening. I"m avoiding it, and feeling guilty and miserable about it and for crying out loud, that's not why I read!!! I certainly don't read in my spare time only to be reminded of work!!!! So. No more Tenant, for now. At least until the work thing settles down, or I get over my very strong aversion to Gilbert Markham.

Unfortunately, this has left me in a quandary, with little else on the go except for The World of Jeeves Omnibus. Which I'm enjoying, but I need a novel. A novel!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, I'm going to do my classics challenge again next year (I'm an optimist); read one classic novel (any genre, doesn't matter) a month. If any of you lovely people who either read my blog on purpose (and I love you, I truly do), or stumble across it by accident (I'm mildly fond of you, but I'll love you if you comment) have any suggestions, let's hear them!

Right. Time for bed.

The reading week ... late

Little late. This is one of those weeks where i seem to be reading lots of different books, that will eventually get finished. It doesn't happen often, normally I try to stick to two or three, but sometimes I trip, or something.

I finished Up Till Now, by William Shatner, which was awesome (review to come) and I finally started The Tenant of Wildfell Hall _ October's classic read. I can't say what I think of it yet; I'm only about 20 pages in. I'm also still reading House by Frank Perretti and Ted Dekker, and that's due back at the library tomorrow. Since I can only read it in daylight hours without totally freaking myself out, I'm not sure if I'll get it finished.

I pulled Inkheart from my bookshelf to read but I don't know when I'll really get a chance to start it. I'm also picking away at a variety of short stories, for a Creative Writing course I started a few weeks ago. For our next assignment we have to talk about a short story that has changed/impacted us in some way. I'm not a great short story reader, so I've been picking at a few different ones. I"m pretty sure I'm going to use October in the Chair by Neil Gaiman, though. Which, of course, will mean reading the whole Fragile Things collection (again ... heh).

Um. That's all ... for now. :)

The Reading Week

I've been quite productive, book-wise. I started Up Till Now, William Shatner's autobiography last week, and a horror novel, House, by Ted Dekker and Frank Perretti, which is making the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

I also read But Wait, There's More by Suzanne Paul. She's kind of world famous in New Zealand and she has had some very public up and downs lately. It was an interesting read, to say the least. It's kind of a self-help/autobiography and a very easy read. I also finished Evil Under the Sun (again), then had a weird sense of deja vu when I saw that it was on UKTV on Saturday. Not the Peter Ustinov/Diana Rigg one, but one with David Suchet. Who I love as Poirot, but I wasn't entirely happy with some of the changes made to the story.

However, on to the reading week. I'm working 11-7 again this week, then it's back to normal next week. So, if I'm good, and turn the TV off early every night, I should be able to finish Up Till Now, and start The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which is October's classic novel.

Also on the starting blocks (maybe) is Books One and Two of Star Trek: Voyager String Theory. However, our local library doesn't have book three, so I'm not sure whether to read them and try and track down the third, or not read them (decisions decisions).

That'll do for now, I think.

Have a great week. Read lots. :)

The reading week

And so, a new week begins again. Funny how that works. Hopefully, with luck, a fair wind and the stars in alignment, I will have finished The Vintner's Luck by tomorrow night (Monday) so I can return it to the library just a few days late.

I was cross-eyed tired last night, so instead of The Vintner's Luck I turned to an old favourite, Agatha Christie, to see me off to dreamland. I anticipate I'll finish that this week, too.

Then what, I hear the masses cry out, biting their nails at the thought of being left in suspense. I'm not entirely sure. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte is October's classic novel, so I will hopefully start that this week.

I've re-sorted my library and book review books, and some have been put on the backburner for the time being. Also, some were due back at the library that I hadn't already started reading, so they went back on Friday.

Hmmm ... I have a couple of Star Trek: Voyager novels that I got out of the library last time, and they may be calling, after A Moveable Feast and The Vintner's Luck back-to-back. Something light, like my Christies, but something I haven't already read 100 times. I think that's what the book doctor ordered.

Have a great week everyone, full of rainbows and puppies, if that's your thing. Or you know, barbed wire and large rats, if that's what fries your onions. :)

The reading week and a wee review

Here we go again ... I finally, finally finished Artists in Crime yesterday. It took me far longer than I expected it to. And, unfortunately, I didn't greatly enjoy it. Apparently Ngaio Marsh's books get better later on, and I hope so.

Artists in Crime was just so slow! The middle part seemed to really drag and there were a couple of continuity issues that really bugged me:

In one part, Inspector Alleyn asks what the time is, and is told it's after midnight; about 12.20am. Then, a few short paragraphs later, someone mentions that it's after 11.

In another scene, one of the minor policeman characters was there, then he'd gone to do a job, then someone asked him a question (not mentioning whether he'd come back) then Alleyn said they'd better see how he was getting on.

It really brought my enjoyment level down, which wasn't particularly high to begin with. It probably didn't help that I seemed to have less reading time last week _ I worked two 12pm-8pm shifts, which really isn't conducive for doing anything and I read very little those two nights. But I made a concerted effort yesterday and finished it. The book did get better towards the end _ it picked up as they came closer to finding out whodunit, and apparently it's of interest because it's in this book that Inspector Alleyn meets his wife.

I'd like to read more of Ngaio Marsh's books, but I think next time, I'll pick up one of the later ones.

Now, the reading for this week is (finally) A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, my classic for September. I started it today, and so far I'm loving it. It's so descriptive, and evocative. And it makes me want to time-travel to Paris in the 1920s.

I'm also hoping to start ... maybe The Vintner's Luck, by Elizabeth Knox. We'll see. :)