What BOOK are you reading right now?

I'm reading The Cellist of Sarajevo by Stephen Galloway for a community read. It is great. Coming on the heels of teaching Hamlet and preparing to teach The Dead, this is a good book because most of it takes place in the minds of the four characters who ponder war and reality as well as friendship, promises, death and responsibility.

Galloway is a master wordsmith and the concepts are amazing.

What did you teach your students regarding the scene between H and O in Act 3 Scene 1? I would be interested, perhaps entertained, in how you handled that little beaut.

I'm reading Donald Thomas's biography of Henry Fielding. I have read it before but I always find the first time with a book to be quite similar to the first time with a lady.

Prof. Thomas also wrote a biography of the Marquis de Sade.

I recommend both books for students of history and to those rarer souls who are students of life. It is only by reading such biographies that the works of the subjects of them can be properly appreciated.

Teachers in colleges and other so-called educational establishments are a complete waste of time. And space too I don't doubt.

Thanx for the write up. When the London Times divulged who the author was the book shot up to the top of the best sellers list.
Doesn't seem quite right somehow.

No, it doesn't. Especially when it's set next to the hard-won success of, say, Stanley Gordon West, who had to self-publish his novel and sell it from the trunk of his car, traveling from bookstore to bookstore. Finally, after more than ten years, when it was reported that he had sold 40,000 copies by word-of-mouth alone, he was approached by a publisher. It then sold over 150,000 copies immediately and is still selling well at the present time.

The book is titled Blind Your Ponies. It's not an exceptional book, only it's history is unusual. Probably the best thing about it is the title, which supposedly comes from a Native American expression in reference to some insurmountable disaster: blind your pony and ride it over a cliff.

I came across a rather interesting website when I was looking for the meaning of sukebind which comes from Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm.

For what it's worth, here's the link: http://www.bookdrum.com/.

Thanks. It does look interesting.

The Stones of Summer is a novel by American writer Dow Mossman. Both the novel and Mossman are also subjects of Mark Moskowitz's Slamdance award-winning film, Stone Reader.

I saw that film. Has anybody read the book?

When Moskowitz tracked down Mossman he found him stoking the boiler in a school.

Gibbons coined a fair number of words in Cold Comfort Farm, which are included in this glossary, amongst others which are commonly known:

http://www.bookdrum.com/books/cold-comfort-farm/9780140274141/glossary.html

Haven't heard THAT book mentioned for yonks.

A yonk is roughly how long it's been since I read it. Mebbe a yonk and a quatter.

Great website - thank you!

The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st Century Bestiary by Caspar Henderson. A beautiful book to hold and behold.

Here's an Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Barely-Imagined-Beings/dp/022604470X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top#reader_022604470X

Cold Comfort Farm wasmade into a movie I remember fondly

I'm reading a book by Robert Wilson, an author I have liked before.

The last one of his was A Small Death in Lisbon. This one is The Blind Man of Seville. He writes in one of the ways I like re police procedurals. Many of those are pulsing sensationalistism, and he is the opposite sort of writer. Thoughtful. Delves into history. A mix of taut writing with some psychological exploration of all concerned. Plus the settings: I get to read about Portugal and Spain.

Just finished Speaking from Among the Bones: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley this afternoon.

Going to start Gun Machine by Warren Ellis tomorrow morning.

From the editorial blurb:

"The great master of farce turns to an exclusive island retreat for a comedy of mislaid identities, unruly passions, and demented, delicious disorder.

On the private Greek island of Skios, the high-paying guests of a world-renowned foundation prepare for the annual keynote address, to be given this year by Dr. Norman Wilfred, an eminent authority on the scientific organization of science. He turns out to be surprisingly youthful, handsome, and charming—quite unlike his reputation as dry and intimidating. Everyone is soon eating out of his hands. So, even sooner, is Nikki, the foundation's attractive and efficient organizer.

Meanwhile, in a remote villa at the other end of the island, Nikki's old friend Georgie has rashly agreed to spend a furtive horizontal weekend with a notorious schemer, who has characteristically failed to turn up. Trapped there with her instead is a pompous, balding individual called Dr. Norman Wilfred, who has lost his whereabouts, his luggage, his temper, and increasingly all sense of reality—indeed, everything he possesses other than the text of a well-traveled lecture on the scientific organization of science.

In a spiraling farce about upright academics, gilded captains of industry, ambitious climbers, and dotty philanthropists, Michael Frayn, the farceur "by whom all others must be measured," tells a story of personal and professional disintegration, probing his eternal theme of how we know what we know even as he delivers us to the outer limits of hilarity."

I hate it when they tell you what is going to happen after the first page. Which is why I rarely look at the back book cover for more than a millisecond.
Anyway, sounds like a good one.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind and I highly recommend it. If you like good books, you should read it.

The Leopard by Tomaso di Lampedusa. Very astute depiction of History at work through ordinary (and less ordinary) people's life.