What BOOK are you reading right now?

One of my water related nightmares, in short:

I was in a pool, the deep end, and suddenly I realised that the sides of the pool went all the way to the ceiling. There was no way out, and the water was 12 ft deep! I remember how cold the tile felt on my wet hand, and how treading water became quite hard with only one arm, and I began to sink... (that is a tiny nutshell, I know, sorry)

ossobuco, I also read 'Lolita in Tehran.' I thought it was good, but I felt the ad-line was a bit misleading. I think it implies that the majority of the book is about the girls and their discussions while I found it to be more of a one-person memoir detailing a female teacher's struggles in a revolutionary Iran. With a large helping of literary greats thrown in too. Good read, though. It certainly inspired me to read works that I'd never considered before.

Now I'm reading 'The Winter's Tale' by Shakespeare. It's good so far. A bit of an Othello meets Oscar-Wilde-mistaken-identity feeling to it. Good parts for women and strong scenes make for an interesting time with the Bard.

Just loved "The Winter's Tale" (especially the character of Paulina (who I played last year))
I've just finished "The Magic Toyshop" (Angela Carter), and I plan to read "The Spiderwick's chronicles 2" (tonight probably). Hmm... my personnal library needs to be refreshed... I should buy some novelties this week (Aaaah! American Bookshops in Paris, I'm coming!)

Just finished "Under the Frog" by Tibor Fischer.....BRILLIANT!

Under the Frog, is a saying in Hungary, indicating that things just cant get any worse. It means that you are under a frog's arse, at the bottom of a coal mine. The very lowest point of existence.

A snippet of a review by Richard Sutherland:-
...."A book about Hungary between World War II and the revolution of 1956 has no right to be this funny, but Tibor Fischer's pointed derision of all things Communist is hilarious.

Of course, looking at events through the eyes of a cynical young basketball team with a predilection for nudity is bound to put a funny slant on just about anything -- even if anything means food shortages, hard winters and arrest by secret police. These problems, racked up alongside those more typical of adolescent males, give Under The Frog a feel that is equal parts "Summertime Blues" and Ivan Denisovitch, unlikely as that may seem."

Reading 4 right now, actually...the Bill Clinton biography "First In His Class", a Richard Burton biography, "According to the Rolling Stones" and "The Purpose Driven Life." All good reads (depending on your mood) while floating in the pool on a hot summer weekend.

!!!!!!!!!

Magic Toyshop is on my top ten favorite novel list. I'm a big fan of Magic Realism. That one is a gothic masterpiece. Unlce Philip is an absolutely staggering, unforgettable character. Finn, too. For a reiteration class we had to write a "ten years later" story based on a preexisting text, so I chose Magic Toyshop.

A quick modern gothic read, by another British female, is Doris Lessing's "The Fifth Child." Totally did not expect such a great horror story from Lessing.

HickoryStick, thanks for obliging! That dream does not seem pleasant at all!

Sort of started LeGuin's The Dispossessed.

I am still clanging around with Reading Lolita in Tehran.
Thick book with a lot of resonance. Clang, and then, clang.
It's true I tended to lose my place, both because it is by nature sort of a repetitive, and because I tend to fall asleep with books, as I read them in the wee hours, and then re read to establish my place.

I also found it not any kind of quick read, indeed irritating at parts, but how can you weigh my California irritation against what she describes.

This is a big book to me.

I am reading Christina Stead, For Love alone. Call me sad, but its my 50 something reading, since I got it two years ago. It reminds me so of me, the main character. never ever get tired of it.

Highly recommend this book (and other Stead books) to everyone of you!!

That's a mild one, tee hee. Once I decided to turn my nightmares into written stories, they didn't scare me anymore.

I like your avatar, btw... I love boxers!

Hey Radical Edward: I really enjoyed The Winter's Tale too. I'd love to play Paulina. She rocked.

I'm about to finish The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby. He is just too funny. It's a collection of columns he did for The Believer from Sept 2003-Nov. 2004. It's subtitled 'A hilarious and true account of one man's struggle with the monthly tide of the books he's bought and the books he's been meaning to read.' What book lover hasn't shared that sentiment? Between 'Reading Lolita' and this one, I've come to the realization that I have to stop reading books that discuss literature for the moment. I just end up going to Amazon and going a bit nuts.

Next I'm onto Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie.

i just started reading the eight by katherine neville.
i loved reading the magic circle by her, so i bought another book of her.

Know what? I just asked myself, after finishing it: "And now? What will happen?" What did you write?
I read this book for the university, actually, and we found out the references to (fairy) tales in The Magic Toyshop... Just amazing how much we found!

Reading Light in August by Faulkner now. Second book I've read by him (other being Sound/Fury). The style is much easier to understand, but his themes still seem pretty largescale. Need to finish the work before I can say for sure... and even then it's no simple task. Outstanding writing, as expected.

HickoryStick - she's my little baoxer dog, isn't she cute?

Hmmm - "Dead Europe" - a fabulous novel looking at Europe from the point of view of an Australian Greek. Only just begun it - wonderful examination of attitudes to Jews and traditional Greek society...


And - "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" - about the tactics used by American government/business to encourage third world indebtedness to them - and hence control - by a man who was one of them.

"Odd Expressions"...a pictographic survey of the classic facial expressions used by Disney animators but presented in multi-colored clay and using typical cartoon props such as cigarettes, lipstick etc. What makes the book particularly odd is that the 'face' was modelled from Barbara Bush's labia.

Have not finished it yet. Two pages a day...

Madame Bovary and Finnegan's Wake.The latter being a long term project at an even slower pace than Francis is going at.