What's On Your 2020 Bookshelf?
Here it is ... your shiny new reading thread! This is for general discussion of any books the Shipmates are reading this year. Share reviews, recommendations, thoughts and questions about books in this thread. This is distinct from the Book Club thread where we discuss a specific book we read together each month ... here it's a free-for-all where you can talk about anything on your bookshelves!
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"Journey to the Manger," " The Risen Existence," and "Body." I just started, "Journey to the Manger," and I am enjoying it so far.
Now I'm about to try Truthwitch by Susan Dennard, which I picked up at FantasyCon on the off-chance. Robin Hobb says it will delight me!
The non-fiction title I'm about to try is Dakota by Kathleen Norris - I love her spiritual writings.
Now that I’m (checks calendar) 58, I feel like I have infinitely more life experience to understand them with, and I like them very much.
I’ve just started a book club with said sister to read Proust’s Remembrance Of Things Past, in French. That should keep us busy until 2030!
Up next is the new edition of Robert Lowell’s The Dolphin.
Those are probably my all-time favourite books and I give them a full re-read every few years. Glad you enjoyed them better this time around.
As for what I'm reading, I have been meaning for years to read something by Terry Pratchett, knowing that many people whose taste in books I share (including some Shipmates) love his books so much. I did finally read Good Omens after the TV series came out, and that was pretty good, but of course that's only partly by Pratchett. So when a student of mine did Hogfather for her independent novel project, I asked if I could take her copy of the book home over the holidays, figuring it would be a good Christmas read.
I'm sad to find I'm ... not loving it. All the whimsical ideas, twists and turns, wordplay ... it's the kind of stuff I should like -- the kind of stuff I did/do like in, say, Douglas Adams ... but it's just not compellingly interesting for me. I feel like a person who hears a joke and says, "Oh, that's really funny" but doesn't laugh. Like I see why it's funny, and it's just the sort of thing I normally would find funny, but ... for some reason I don't, at least not enough to keep the pages turning.
I'm a bit disappointed in myself honestly. The copy of Madeline Miller's Circe that I had on hold from the library dropped onto my e-reader yesterday and I quickly got into that instead.
In my Kindle reader, I have the complete Bram Stoker and complete Sherlock Holmes to finish. (How 19th century.)
Re Terry Pratchett - I'm in the I-adore-him camp..... In my eyes he can do no wrong ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
The German version of wizardry has had quite a different evolution to the English version, which adds to the interest. The mystery revolves round a vineyard near Trier, and includes the local river goddesses.
Yet another naive punter who signed up for an online genealogy service who thinks he's related to Warwick the Kingmaker or the Houses of Lancaster and York?
Or is there anything more substantial this time? I have been wrong in the past ...
I'm looking forward to reading some acclaimed books from 2019 - the one with the woodcuts about Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1798, 'The Making of Poetry', and also the novels 'To Calais in Ordinary Time' and 'The Second Sleep.'
I've also got stacks of 2nd hand books I've not got round to reading.
Kindle, Schmindle. I do have one but I've reverted to paper.
Although the plot line is quite improbable, anyone who has been a wife and mother and slogged their way through to middle age will identify with the sentiment!
Also starting a more serious book on the Book of Kells, the who, how, when of it filled with marvelous reproductions of pages. Finding that fascinating, and taking notes!
Oh, I loved that book too, @Eigon!
If it's by Bernard Meehan, I'm reading it too (though it's a little big for a night-table book).
I'm dipping in and out of "The Bullet Journal Method" by Ryder Carroll, having been given a bullet journal starter kit for my birthday in December. I also found and bought this week Richard Rohr's latest, very short, book "What Do We Do With the Bible?" which I have skim-read and intend to revisit. Also by him is my bedside book "Eager to Love" which I am partway through, had neglected for other things, and picked up last night to be reminded of how good it is.
Having heard him on the radio, I read the book with his voice narrating it in my head.
@Nenya I’ve been doing a bullet journal for about 3 years now, I’ve adapted it to suit me, and find it really helpful. Hope you enjoy it!
Have you? How interesting! I feel very much a beginner but am really enjoying it so far.
I BuJo too. (New thread, perhaps?)
At the moment I am reading Isabella Tree's Wilding, about how she and her husband returned their Sussex farmland to nature. I am also in Jasper Fforde's Early Riser: I liked the first five Thursday Next books a lot, although sometimes his imagination is a bit over-fertile. The basic premise of Early Riser is a promising one, but he does seem to introduce a new character or concept in almost every paragraph...
I realized my mind can no loner cope with abstractions - if indeed it ever could - when (at the recommendation of my sister who had heard him speak on the radio) I tried Jonathan Rée's Witcraft. Realized very quickly that I was skipping the meat and pulling out just a few of the biographical plums.
And when the library has nothing for me, I resort to the Elizabeth Goudge titles on my own shelves - some of which I now realize I never finished. Even for the ones that were favourites, I can no longer remember what happens next. Rediscovering is another of the joys of old age.
I hadn't heard of Andrew Miller before, and, having read this I wonder why not, as this is his eighth book.
Have you read Shades of Grey? I'm thinking of trying that one
I got it from my library on Libby and am reading it now. I keep thinking to myself, "Why am I reading this? What is this? Who was it who told me to read this again?"
I'm only halfway through the book. If he provides such an explanation, I'll try to remember to post it here.
One part of Wildwood that interested me was the section about Australia where he describes how Aboriginal peoples traditionally used fire to alter the landscape.
Sort of.........in the sense that I tried!
I'm finding it an interesting reminder of how families used to believe they had a right to decide the future of their offspring.
In order to balance matters a bit the next book is Josephine Cox’s novel, “Looking Back”.......
Incidentally, I aquired this through BookCrossing, so if anyone wants it after me, and can organise how to get it from me, they are welcome.