tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post497855875914128187..comments2024-02-10T19:58:20.327+00:00Comments on Stuck in a Book: Some recent books...StuckInABookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10017836017530130716noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-56442871587034745112013-04-20T12:23:39.183+01:002013-04-20T12:23:39.183+01:00I would like to give ZD its second negative review...I would like to give ZD its second negative review. I recently read it for A Century of Books and was so excited to dip into it. The first few pages great. But it didn't take long before I really disliked it. Ruth is right, it was a slog, and whimsical slog at that, which somehow made it worse.Thomas Hogglestockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14284352537015457974noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-44740047471769580772013-04-19T20:41:32.642+01:002013-04-19T20:41:32.642+01:00HI - I hope you enjoy That Sweet City - but it is ...HI - I hope you enjoy That Sweet City - but it is being published on 1st May - not 28 March.Katherine Shocknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-7259763781667634302013-04-14T09:48:03.778+01:002013-04-14T09:48:03.778+01:00You mean she breaks a teapot! I need a lie down i...You mean she breaks a teapot! I need a lie down in a darkened room.Alexhttp://thinkinginfragments.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-35537710132594762552013-04-13T14:11:01.679+01:002013-04-13T14:11:01.679+01:00Great selection, Samara! I've heard such good...Great selection, Samara! I've heard such good things about Powell's from various blog commenters, and it certainly sounds as though you did well.StuckInABookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10017836017530130716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-38100941869604770842013-04-13T14:10:27.176+01:002013-04-13T14:10:27.176+01:00Well done you! (When I've given up buying book...Well done you! (When I've given up buying books for Lent, my reaction has been to buy lots more, rather than lose the habit...)StuckInABookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10017836017530130716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-13354785311002083202013-04-13T14:09:59.378+01:002013-04-13T14:09:59.378+01:00Hi Barb! Lovely to know your name now :)
What a ha...Hi Barb! Lovely to know your name now :)<br />What a haul! I have The Book on the Bookshelf on, ironically, the bookshelf - I must read it this year, since it was a gift book. The only one of these I've read is Ella Minnow Pea, which you know I admired :) - oh, and Never Let Me Go, which I'm afraid I didn't.StuckInABookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10017836017530130716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-60814412576704127582013-04-13T14:08:49.771+01:002013-04-13T14:08:49.771+01:00I'll try to make sure I do, Susan!
And I MUST ...I'll try to make sure I do, Susan!<br />And I MUST read something by Nichols... well, except the one he co-wrote with Monica Dickens.StuckInABookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10017836017530130716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-7019664385189430922013-04-13T14:08:16.073+01:002013-04-13T14:08:16.073+01:00Intriguing and complex indeed - I'm looking fo...Intriguing and complex indeed - I'm looking forward to that biog. And it will doubtless lead off into me reading all the unread CSL books on my shelves.StuckInABookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10017836017530130716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-38762030865884202802013-04-13T14:07:22.243+01:002013-04-13T14:07:22.243+01:00Great! I'm definitely interested to find out w...Great! I'm definitely interested to find out what he says.StuckInABookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10017836017530130716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-79302688923336071482013-04-13T14:07:09.306+01:002013-04-13T14:07:09.306+01:00Oh dear, Alex! (And I think things get even worse ...Oh dear, Alex! (And I think things get even worse than cracked teacups... if you can imagine such a thing.)StuckInABookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10017836017530130716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-83560852610327134402013-04-13T14:06:42.121+01:002013-04-13T14:06:42.121+01:00Really? How lovely - I do love Lancaster.Really? How lovely - I do love Lancaster.StuckInABookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10017836017530130716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-40146467295545042112013-04-13T14:06:23.974+01:002013-04-13T14:06:23.974+01:00I'm hoping that being in Oxford will make me a...I'm hoping that being in Oxford will make me appreciate ZD all the more... and there aren't enough funny books out there.StuckInABookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10017836017530130716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-51092060239199835552013-04-13T14:05:49.770+01:002013-04-13T14:05:49.770+01:00Oo, that's the first negative review I've ...Oo, that's the first negative review I've heard of ZD! At least it'll make me feel less guilty if I don't end up liking it...<br /><br />But I'm not hugely admiring of Terry Pratchett! I've only read one, Going Postal, which was pretty good but not my cup of tea.<br /><br />I've not read Candide for over ten years! I should again, although I did like it the first time around.StuckInABookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10017836017530130716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-89011241602235459622013-04-09T16:58:04.180+01:002013-04-09T16:58:04.180+01:00Oooh! I'm going to have to find myself a copy...Oooh! I'm going to have to find myself a copy of "That Sweet City." Amazon lists it as a pre-order... but says it will be available March 28, 2013 :/ I'll keep an eye out :) <br /><br />I recently took a trip to one of my favorite bookshops (Powell's in Portland, Or). I came away with:<br />- The letters of John Keats<br />- The Rhymes of a Red Cross Man by Robert Service<br />- Selected Poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins<br />- Brighton Rock by Graham Green<br />- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh<br />- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry<br /><br />Now I just need about a week off to sit down and get stuck in a book :)samarahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12110418558011704941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-75784564834050688642013-04-09T14:25:01.550+01:002013-04-09T14:25:01.550+01:00Well, I gave up buying books for Lent so have got ...Well, I gave up buying books for Lent so have got a bit out the habit. The latest book I borrowed from the library was Maria Semple's Where'd You Go Bernadette which is on the Women's (formerly Orange) Prize For Fiction long-list this year. I loved it. Very funny & an excellent plot.Ali Malhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01595941215998565255noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-56649325218190894842013-04-08T23:06:20.498+01:002013-04-08T23:06:20.498+01:00Let's see now ... made a lovely haul last week...Let's see now ... made a lovely haul last week when stuck in town for far too long; did the rounds of the charity shops and one of my favourite "proper" used book stores. The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry (which I immediately read and can report that it's tremendously funny in a rather rude, over-the-top way, but rather jaw-dropping in it's explicit depiction of what could only be termed bestiality, except the motivation was not what one would think - very weird overall but unputdownable), also a bunch I haven't started yet.<br />The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (companion to Half-Broke Horses)<br />The Road Past Altamont by Gabrielle Roy (new to me, and I've been reading her stuff forever)<br />Hill's End by Ian Southall (vintage Australian teen drama)<br />Down the Great Unknown by Edward Dolnick (John Wesley Powell's trip through the Grand Canyon, because we are hoping to make it down there some day and the history is fascinating)<br />Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn (because Simon mentioned it recently and then it jumped off the shelf at me)<br />The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski (an erudite history)<br />Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro<br />Once in a House on Fire by Andrea Ashworth<br />Earthly Pleasures by Roger Swain (hurray! one of my favourite garden writers from back in the days when the magazine Horticulture still had actual articles, not just sound bites and splashy, too-big pictures)<br />Fits Like a Rubber Dress by Roxanne Ward (for the title, mostly - love it!)<br />The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke (it looked like a vintage book, but is instead a recent collection of short stories in a nicely designed cloth cover)<br />and that's it.<br />Now just needing time to read. Ha!<br />Of your list, the only one I know is the Bodger, and I hope you enjoy it Simon. (I'm Barb, by the way. :-) )<br />Have tried Beerbohm several times but he never seemed to "take".<br />And that's about it. Tea break being more than over, I'd better head back out to the greenhouse; transplanting season is in full swing and we must get the green babies into bigger pots so they'll be ready for the sale season, a mere month away... (I operate a perennial plant nursery, in case this last comment makes no sense at all.)<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-44980927976641343152013-04-08T22:22:12.243+01:002013-04-08T22:22:12.243+01:00I've had my eye on the McGrath - you will have...I've had my eye on the McGrath - you will have to report on that one. Love the cover of the Visions of Oxford book. My most recent purchase was Beverley Nichols' A Village in a Valley - I read the first of the trilogy last fall, got the 2nd for Christmas and was eager to get the third.Susan in TXhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09550766549670690646noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-87557606674928075112013-04-08T17:33:03.847+01:002013-04-08T17:33:03.847+01:00look forward to your thoughts on all these books s...look forward to your thoughts on all these books simon ,All the best stustujallenhttp://winstonsdad.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-8427028285859473272013-04-08T10:18:11.704+01:002013-04-08T10:18:11.704+01:00Great books Simon! I have a Penguin Zuleika Dobson...Great books Simon! I have a Penguin Zuleika Dobson waiting to be read too! I'll be interested to hear what you make of the C.S. Lewis biog - I went through a CSL phase many, many years ago and read most of what was about at the time, but haven't read any newer stuff. An intriguing and complex man.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-84406300149516571472013-04-08T09:01:11.497+01:002013-04-08T09:01:11.497+01:00Lovely selection! I'll bookmark Alister McGrat...Lovely selection! I'll bookmark Alister McGrath for then I'm done with Roger Ebert's autobiography.Bookworm Chickhttp://www.foundinbooks.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-64490691533400792082013-04-08T08:51:39.718+01:002013-04-08T08:51:39.718+01:00Even the title 'The Crack in the Teacup' h...Even the title 'The Crack in the Teacup' has me shivering. I live in dread of cracking one of my favourite teacups. Tea would never taste the same again. I think I'd better avoid this one:)Alexhttp://thinkinginfragments.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-44410448778419383152013-04-08T08:10:55.989+01:002013-04-08T08:10:55.989+01:00I've been meaning to read 'Zuleika Dobson&...I've been meaning to read 'Zuleika Dobson' for years. I recently visited the Lord Randolph Hotel and saw the bar there that's full of Osbert Lancaster's illustrations for the book---well worth a visit. Sue Gedgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01387494692709639043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-3167682591362584442013-04-08T06:44:41.235+01:002013-04-08T06:44:41.235+01:00Lovely books! I enjoyed Zuleika Dobson - I think I...Lovely books! I enjoyed Zuleika Dobson - I think I read it first when I was at University myself and all of my then boyfriend's close circle of school friends were at Oxford, so we used to go down and visit quite a lot, and I'm pretty sure I've read it again since. A real romp, I recall. <br /><br />I bought "The Tent, the Bucket and Me" by Emma Kennedy just this last Saturday - the current Mr Lyzzybee's fault, as he wanted to go in a shop I don't like and left me in Smiths ... one more for my Book Confessions category!<br /><br />LizAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-446727280609751914.post-75835088411543882162013-04-08T02:44:56.518+01:002013-04-08T02:44:56.518+01:00Lovely books! Of the books listed, I have only rea...Lovely books! Of the books listed, I have only read Zulieka Dobson…I found it a bit of a slog, actually. I believe it is a satire, but I don’t know the works it is satirizing, so I didn’t get the humor. Pretty much the only thing I remember is that Cleo is the muse of history, which has actually turned out to be very useful for crossword solving. Hopefully you will find it more entertaining! The Teleportation Accident looks interesting, I’ve been meaning to pick that one up as well.<br /><br />I just bought five used books from the library today: three Terry Prachett hardcovers (I have never read him, but I believe he is pretty universally adored…and the books are in PRISTINE condition, always a plus), Candide by Voltaire (again, in perfect condition. I’ll bet someone had to buy it for a class and didn't read it. I first read it in college too) and Parallel Lives, Five Victorian Marriages by Phyllis Rose (sounded interesting). <br />Ruthiellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03871834571645928819noreply@blogger.com