Booker Price Longlist 2016
martin_z
7 years ago
Featured Answer
Comments (10)
sheri_z6
7 years agolast modified: 7 years ago
vee_new
7 years agoRelated Discussions
Booker Prize Short List 2009 is out!
Comments (18)Though it's difficult to be sure (having only read two and a half of them) I think it's the best short list since 2005 - which was an exceptional year. (I didn't agree with the winner, though!) I agree that Vernon God Little and The Gathering are two of the poorer winners of the prize. The first in particular is a dreadful book in my opinion. Mind, I remember watching a TV program on the evening of the prize award (when VGL won), and they had four people on to discuss the six books - it was obvious that all those four also thought it was the best. It was the last one discussed of the six, and there was an obvious "buzz" around all of them as they started to discuss it - it clearly appealed to all of them too. So perhaps it's just you and me......See MoreBest Books Read in 2017
Comments (30)I have never missed a bus due to reading, but I have missed getting off a bus at the right stop for that reason. That can be unfortunate if I end up in a dubious neighborhood. Fortunately I rarely ride buses anymore. For me the act of reading is in itself important, but much less so than what I am actually reading. Like Vee, I don't bother to finish a book that fails to hold my interest. I probably abandon a quarter or so of the books I pick up. There are thousands of books out there, and more published every year. If I live another 40 years and read 100 books a year that means that there are only 4000 books left for me. Sobering thought, that. I'm not going to waste time on books I don't enjoy. It does not all need to be great literature (and it won't be) but it does all need to be a rewarding....See MoreReading in July
Comments (152)I am on the third book of my exploration of Gothic literature. Unlike The Castle of Otranto, which is made up of one suspense scene after another, The Old English Baron is long-winded, wordy and full of exposition and the author manages to kill the thrill of the handful of suspense scenes almost before they begin, by explaining too much. I am now reading Vathek by William Beckford, and find it is the first of these books that I would call a full-blown Gothic novel. As well as being an influential on the Gothic genre, it also influenced the fantasy and horror genres, and both Keats and Byron, as well as Poe and Lovecraft, were influenced by it. It is highly entertaining and Beckford mixed together an Oriental setting with Gothic elements like supernatural happenings, villainy and dark deeds, and added both humour and horror to the mix....See MoreWhat are you reading in July?
Comments (79)I finished the two "Secret Diary of Hendrick Groen" novels mentioned above. Amusing, a bit thought provoking, I wonder if we will get another in a few years. I recently finished Suzy Becker's "I Had Brain Surgery, What's Your Excuse" -- her account of discovering she had a brain tumor, the early days after the operation, and what stretched into months of recovery. Filling in the gaps this month has been a cozy mystery series by Ann Ross. Her heroine, Miss Julia, is a sort of 'steel magnolia' and charmingly blind to her own foibles. On the couch next to me is a treat with a rather impressive subtitle: "BakeWise: the Hows and Whys of Successful Baking With over 200 Magnificent Recipes". I've read bits of cookery writing by Shirley Corriher before, am hoping this book lives up to its name....See Morewoodnymph2_gw
7 years agomartin_z
7 years ago
bookmom41
7 years agomartin_z
7 years agomartin_z
7 years agowoodnymph2_gw
7 years agomartin_z
7 years agolast modified: 7 years ago
martin_zOriginal Author