What are you currently Reading? (7 Viewers)

[Shoubadoo]

Currently reading the Tomorrow Series by John Marsden.
Yet again. Great novels they are.

 

[Kirsty Xx]

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

Yet again

 

[scarybunny]

The Great Gatsby.

Mostly because I have to for uni, but it's good so I don't mind.

Should have it finished by the end of the week.

 

[chelsea girl]

the lovely bones by alice sebold.

quite good, and very easy which is nice after all the meaty, sprawling, epic novels i've been reading. a read-in-a-day kind of book, but not completely bereft of depth at all.

 

[Doctor Jolly]

the lovely bones by alice sebold.

quite good, and very easy which is nice after all the meaty, sprawling, epic novels i've been reading. a read-in-a-day kind of book, but not completely bereft of depth at all.

quite an extraordinary book too. I would've enjoyed mine better if it had not been in large print.

 

[Tulipa]

The Great Gatsby.

Mostly because I have to for uni, but it's good so I don't mind.

Should have it finished by the end of the week.

What uni class?

And that's one of my favourite books of all time.

I've just started Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis.

 

[-WaxingLyrical-]

the lovely bones by alice sebold.

quite good, and very easy which is nice after all the meaty, sprawling, epic novels i've been reading. a read-in-a-day kind of book, but not completely bereft of depth at all.

yeah I read that...thought it was a pretty forgettable book though (except for the bit about the icicles, strangely)

reading 'The Good Nazi' by Dan van der vat

 

[chelsea girl]

What uni class?

And that's one of my favourite books of all time.

I've just started Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis.

agreed on the great gatsby being one of the best books ever.

and i am jealous that you're just starting glamorama. honestly, i think it might be my favourite BEE book, it is so amazing. the shift in style and plot and ideas from beginning to end is really quite remarkable. probably the best book i've read so far this year.

 

[sajad07]

Cloudstreet by Homo Winton

 

[*TRUE*]

Birthday Letters - Ted Hughes
I've been in floods of tears all day. I don't like Hughes

 

[selablad]

A Confederacy of Dunces, again, because it's awesome

 

[Doctor Jolly]

Cloudstreet by Homo Winton

haha. My friend tried reading that book. Initially she didn't want to read it, but my teacher gave her the book as a part of wide reading and she didn't want to disappoint. Nevertheless, she had the book for over a term and only progressed as far as page 50. It was hilarious seeing the teacher's face when she gave it back to her saying that she could not read another page after 50.

I, personally, despise ALL of Tom Winton's books. They are all about the ocean and nature - and that stuff bores me.

 

[Twilight25]

Twilight. Again. Love it.

 

[elliotkool]

Mao's Little Red Book =]

 

[Sastrawan]

The Shark Net, by Robert Drewe. If you've read Cloudstreet (or even if you haven't) you might want to have a look at this. It's a memoir, set in approximately the same time and place as Cloudstreet (50s and 60s Perth), but with a very different style.

If you get sick of Winton's colourful, over-the-top language, Drewe's style is cool, witty and brilliant. He is about 15 years older than Winton, and you can tell he really knows the setting he's writing about. Winton, I find, tends to romanticise and sentimentalise a bit, which is fair enough, considering he never experienced that world first-hand.

Another interesting thing is that Drewe was an acquaintance of Eric Cooke, who in Cloudstreet is the Nedlands Monster. He portrait he draws of Cooke is a very powerful and human, and much more compelling, I find, then Winton's somewhat cursory "He was a man. Just a man. With evil in him."

Winton, I feel, uses his characters and setting as tools to build his overarching thematic purpose, sometimes forcing them into contrived plot turns and unconvincing personality changes to force the message of Unity Above All. Drewe, on the other hand, imposes no such ready-made dogma onto his memories, and so the characters come out, in my opinion, much more true and convincing, because they seem like real people, with all their contradictions, failings and squabbles.

If you got fed up with Cloudstreet, or if you just want to read some good quality Australian literature that isn't all about sentiment and glorification of the bush/coast, try The Shark Net.

 

[Doctor Jolly]

I was thinking of starting to read Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.. is it really good? I'm doing Gothic for Extension English so I think NA would be a good start for wide reading and it could also expand my vocab ;D

 

[bleu]

I was thinking of starting to read Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.. is it really good? I'm doing Gothic for Extension English so I think NA would be a good start for wide reading and it could also expand my vocab ;D

Yeah, definitly give it a try. I loved it

 

[Doctor Jolly]

Yeah, definitly give it a try. I loved it

will do then

 

[bleu]

Just finished The girl with the pearl earing

Started:
Scarecrow by Mathew Reilly

 

[Doctor Jolly]

on second thought, I think I might read Wuthering Heights.