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Post by Tiarnán on Nov 27, 2011 17:20:32 GMT -5
I figured it'd be cool to have a thread dedicated to stuff we're reading right now, our favourite books, books we've tried but really disliked etc. Anything related to the topic really.
Normally I'd always say that I'd like to read a lot more than I actually do, but given that I'm doing English, I'm now in a position where I kind of have to read weekly, which is a good thing, because it kicks me into gear. The downside is that if I spot something that I really want to read then I'll most likely have to leave it for a while because I'll have other set books to get through.
I pretty much spent the bulk of yesterday reading The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, and it was really good. I knew there was a film about it starring Maggie Smith and I'm just about to watch it now, but I held off from watching it initially due to the fact that I know I would've used it a way to get around reading the book itself. I felt a bit bad for this one girl, Mary Macgregor, because the others were constantly going on about basically how shit she was at everything, and her first description was something like "Mary Macgregor was famous for being a lump". Then she died in a fire and it was like, oh.
I'm glad we got something half decent to read this week, because I have to write about it, and I'm sick of writing essays on stuff that I don't care about.
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Post by Tarry on Nov 27, 2011 17:37:23 GMT -5
I'm currently reading An Idiot Abroad: The Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington. I haven't read any for like 7 or 8 weeks now though, because the new series started and I didn't want to blow a funny fuse.
A Lion's Tale - Around the World in Spandex is one of my favourite books of all time. I also enjoy the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
And my favourite series to revisit is the Captain Underpants franchise. I know it's a kids book, but I still get excited for the new ones and I love reading the old ones. They should have made a movie at the height of it's popularity.
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Post by Brandon on Nov 27, 2011 17:38:19 GMT -5
I actually do like to read. My friend and I have this makeshift book club where we sometimes buy the same book and check up with each other on it. The last one I read was called Sweetly. It was like a modern take on Hansel and Gretel, but with werewolves. It was pretty good. It was also set around here, which was cool. I'm thinking about checking out the companion story, which sounds like a twist on Little Red Riding Hood.
My friend and I both tried to read The Lightening Thief, but I just couldn't get into it.
My favorite book that I've read recently though is definitely Beauty Queens. It's about these teenage pageant contestants who are stranded on a deserted island, and the POV switches between the handful of survivors. It's really funny, kind of like Daria in the jungle.
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Post by Tiarnán on Nov 27, 2011 17:39:03 GMT -5
I remember reading one of the Captain Underpants books. My friend was really into them and he persuaded me to buy it at one of those Primary School book fairs.
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Post by Tiarnán on Nov 27, 2011 17:40:42 GMT -5
I actually do like to read. My friend and I have this makeshift book club where we sometimes buy the same book and check up with each other on it. The last one I read was called Sweetly. It was like a modern take on Hansel and Gretel, but with werewolves. It was pretty good. It was also set around here, which was cool. I'm thinking about checking out the companion story, which sounds like a twist on Little Red Riding Hood. My friend and I both tried to read The Lightening Thief, but I just couldn't get into it. Speaking of H&G and LRRH, I think that if I manage to stick at this for two more years then I'll eventually get to spend a whole semester studying fairytales, which actually sounds like the coolest thing ever. |
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Post by Burke on Nov 27, 2011 17:58:16 GMT -5
I used to read books to kill time when I was working nights. Basically, anything supernatural/horror-esque I would give a go. As well as sports/music autobiographies.
My all-time favourite book is Stephen King's The Stand.
Btw, is anyone else like me when reading a book in that you basically have to finish it all in the one go? I don't care how many pages it has, if I start a book I'm attempting to finish it that day/night. Under some circumstances, I might finish it off the next day if I'm too tired or if something comes up to distract me from it. Either way, I definitely couldn't be one of those people who read like one chapter at a time. I have to do the whole thing while the story is fresh in my mind.
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Post by Brandon on Nov 27, 2011 18:07:46 GMT -5
Btw, is anyone else like me when reading a book in that you basically have to finish it all in the one go? I don't care how many pages it has, if I start a book I'm attempting to finish it that day/night. Under some circumstances, I might finish it off the next day if I'm too tired or if something comes up to distract me from it. Either way, I definitely couldn't be one of those people who read like one chapter at a time. I have to do the whole thing while the story is fresh in my mind. Yeah, I'm the same way. |
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Post by Tiarnán on Nov 27, 2011 18:11:28 GMT -5
I'm generally not like that at all. I wish I was at times, because I can't count the number of books I've gotten really into at first, decided to leave for a little bit and then just never finished. But yeah, sometimes I won't be able to put it down for a good while because I'll want to see what happens next, but usually I can find a point where I can put it down for a day.
The exception is obviously Harry Potter. I used to persuade my mum to drive me to the 24 hour Tesco at midnight when those came out, lol. Then I'd read it for hours, sleep for a tiny bit and then read it non-stop with my friend for the rest of the day. I'm sad those days are over. :/
Aside from Harry Potter my favourite book is and will probably always be To Kill a Mockingbird. I doubt it will ever lose its luster. I generally try to leave it for a year or two before rereading it, but sometimes I can't help myself.
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Post by Burke on Nov 27, 2011 18:21:19 GMT -5
I’ve never read a Harry Potter book but I met J.K. Rowling on a school trip like 12 years ago. I don’t think she was all that famous at the time. I certainly had no idea who she really was. She read us part of a book. Come to think of it, it might have been Harry Potter she was reading us.  And I used to work security for Borders and a couple other stores in the shopping centre here. Every week or so there would be an author in signing copies of their books. It was never anyone I had heard of though. Sometimes they would be sitting around forever without anyone bothering to go up to them and I felt embarrassed for them, lol. Oh, and book reports in school were always fun. We would always get cool stuff to review like Goosebumps books. |
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Post by Tiarnán on Nov 28, 2011 17:21:07 GMT -5
I have to read The Turn of the Screw next. It doesn't look as good as the last two, but it's about ghost stories, so it could be alright.
I wanna reread Romeo & Juliet. We did it in 3rd Year and I actually found it alright once I figured out what was going on, so I wanna see what it's like to read it now that I'm older and I've forced my way through some other Shakespeare plays.
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Post by Mutant Couch on Nov 28, 2011 21:34:27 GMT -5
I read constantly. I go through an embarrassingly large number of books a week. I'm not that into modern fiction though. I prefer my poetry by old dead guys. I do love over the top and cheesy romance novels/erotica. My favorite was this really awful book that actually contained this line: "Fucking in her in the ass, saving her life." It was genius. The Quirk Classic are really fun to read too. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, The Meowmorphosis and so on. I also tend to get a lot of non-fiction in. I've lost interest in reading about religion since I exited my teens for the most part. I'll go for on occasionally, but it's more tedious than entertaining any more. Anything to do with the cosmos and evolution I'm all for. Right now I'm mostly trying to get through all of the reboots from DC and finishing off the few Sinclair Lewis books I haven't read. I have to read The Turn of the Screw next. It doesn't look as good as the last two, but it's about ghost stories, so it could be alright. I really like Henry James. If you have to write about it, you're kind of lucky, because it will be pretty easy to hammer something out about it. |
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Post by Brandon on Nov 28, 2011 21:42:29 GMT -5
lol, my friend and I used to read erotica to one another to help pass the time at work.
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Post by Mutant Couch on Nov 28, 2011 21:51:44 GMT -5
It's really some of the funniest stuff written. Usually unintentionally so which just makes it better. Also, this is one of the most disturbing things I've ever read. It's Edgar Allan Poe's poem Annabel Lee corrupted into what's supposed to be erotica, I think. Anyway, it's really wrong. stories.xnxx.com/story/19778/My_Dream_within_a_Dream_for_his_Annabel_Lee |
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Post by Brandon on Nov 28, 2011 21:56:41 GMT -5
That was really poorly written and slips in and out of past and present tense. Samantha G. needs her ass beat.
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Post by Mutant Couch on Nov 28, 2011 22:04:58 GMT -5
Honestly, I was able to overlook that. It was when she started describing Poe's junk that it really bothered me. "as he was blessed with a prodigious organ of unbridled sexuality. It swayed with strength and a heavy demand."  Unbridled? Really? |
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