Question What are you reading?

[Tangled up in Blue]

Neraly finished How Green Was My Valley, a 1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn, Not exactly The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist but still a classic of working class literature.The lashings of nostalgia for a now vanished way of life will put many off though I suppose.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Just started Sarfaz Manzoor's Greetings from Bury park.A must for Springsteen fans and the inspiration for the forthcoming film Blinded by the Light.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Just finished Beyond the Columns a short monograph on the Librarie Des Colonees in Tangier and its literary Circle by Andrew Clandermond and Dr.Terence MacCarthy. Not exactly news that from Paul Bowles onwards there was a thriving gay scene in Tangier.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Wed Wabbit for MK Junior....I'm quite enjoying it, and for a kids book it's quite dark!

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Nearly finished Kevin Barry's wonderful novel Night Boat to Tangier.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Currently reading Johny Pitts' Afropean:Notes from Black Europe.Fascinating.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Currently catching up with Tim Lott's excellent millennium novel:White City Blue.Always knew that QPR fans were a bit odd.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Just started Tim Lott's "When we were rich" the sequel to White City Blue.Wonderful read.

 

[Napster]

The Buried Giant not bad

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Billy Bragg's pamphlet :The Three Dimensions of Freedom.A timely look at the evident failure of neo-liberalism.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Just started Chris Roland's "Understanding Teenagers in the ELT Classroom." Been meaning to get round to it for over a year or so now.Not bad. (Rather take exception -in the acknowlegements-to the author's description of one of his DELTA tutors as "fantastic".She's the partner of an ex-colleague of mine.For all I know, she might be an excellent EFL teacher/tutor but she's certaintly not much of a human being).

 

[blues exile]

One last try with 'Ulysses'.. Gave up after several previous attempts but now reading it with different technique, just listenihg to the sound of the words without trying to understand what is going on in too much detail.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

One last try with 'Ulysses'.. Gave up after several previous attempts but now reading it with different technique, just listenihg to the sound of the words without trying to understand what is going on in too much detail.

You and many others (including myself).Chapeau.
Remember at a meeting of the LIT/Debating soc.at WHS first hearing an extract of it read out just after the paperback was released.Did pick it up again for the Molly Bloom sequence at the end, after the film came out.

My Dublin colleague & mate tells me it helps if you know the locations where it's set.I only know a few of them.

 

[blues exile]

You and many others (including myself).Chapeau.
Remember at a meeting of the LIT/Debating soc.at WHS first hearing an extract of it read out just after the paperback was released.Did pick it up again for the Molly Bloom sequence at the end, after the film came out.

My Dublin colleague & mate tells me it helps if you know the locations where it's set.I only know a few of them.

Yes, I am sure it would help. It's so rich in allusions I doubt if it is humanly possible to fully understand so many layers of meaning. Really enjoying it this time although I used to think William Faulkner was difficult!

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Yes, I am sure it would help. It's so rich in allusions I doubt if it is humanly possible to fully understand so many layers of meaning. Really enjoying it this time although I used to think William Faulkner was difficult!

That and knowing the plot of Homer's Odyssey too,apparently, (which I don't). Your technique of just listening to the sound of the words "without trying to understand what's going on" is also the recommended way of trying to read Finnegan's Wake,of course.A Brummie mate (with Irish parents) swears this worked for him. Can't say I've tried.Not a fan of Faulkner either,who as you say, is difficult.

 

[MK Shrimper]

I took 4 on holiday (including a "teeny" Morpurgo that I read in a day), but I haven't finished the other yet. Stephen King's 11.22.63 IS the longest book I have ever read. I read it religiously every day and my Kindle says I still have 30% left to read..........

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

I took 4 on holiday (including a "teeny" Morpurgo that I read in a day), but I haven't finished the other yet. Stephen King's 11.22.63 IS the longest book I have ever read. I read it religiously every day and my Kindle says I still have 30% left to read..........

Ha! I imagine with Kindle (as with real books) you can still flip to the last few pages if you want to though.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Ha! I imagine with Kindle (as with real books) you can still flip to the last few pages if you want to though.

Oh you can but I have no intention of. It is enjoyable but maybe could have used a tad more editing....there's a lot of literary fat in there....

 

[Napster]

The Buried Giant not bad

It was fantastic.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Just picked up Tim Lott's wonderful memoir The Scent Of Roses.Curiously, his parents first met the year I was born.