The Word Cloud

10 Comments

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  by maryluv 1 year ago

  I did 'Veronika Decides to Die' in one evening, recently. Some books just seem to resonate at a particular time in one's life, methinks.
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  by EmmaD 1 year ago

  Jasper Fforde's The Well of Lost Plots, only it was hard to read because I was shaking so much with laughter.
  
  At the other end of the scale, Tobias Hill's The Love of Stones was incredibly compelling, and Angela Carter's The Magic Toyshop...
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  by AlanP 1 year ago

  Patricia Highsmiths "uncollected" short stories. They are so varied and cover a lot of years I can just pick it up and get lost in there for a half hour or so and be done. I'm about halfway.
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  by Steve 1 year ago

  It's been a while for me, sadly. The 1980s was the last time I read something glued to my fingers. And I'm not talking about Airfix instructions. There has been some good fiction since, but all putdownable in my overly-picky way. The best read I've had in recent years was Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything.
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  by Skylark 1 year ago

  William Nicholson's the Wind on Fire trilogy. I read it a few years ago and it blew me away. Back in the early weeks of younger son's life, I was in need of some comfort reading to get me through the non-stop feeding sessions every evening so I picked it back up again and suddenly the 2-3 hours I was spending every evening feeding him was something I looked forward to. It was guaranteed peace and quiet time as my older son was already tucked up in bed and I devoured all three books in the space of about a week. Only problem was I finished it far too quickly! But I was unable to read anything else for about two weeks afterwards because my head was just full of the characters and the story and the emotion. Brilliant.
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  by mike 1 year ago

  The most recent book 'Shelley' the pursuit' by Richard Holmes. The period and the characters come vividly to life and he explains difficult poetry with great ease. Previous to that, 'The Collected Shorter Fiction of Wilkie Collins. - the sheer imagination and originality of his police plots.
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  by Spangles 1 year ago

  Thanks for all your replies. You've mentioned some books that i'm going to have to discover for myself.
  
  Skylark, I think you've put your finger on what for me is the downside of being completely swept up in a book - the inability to read anything else for some time afterwards. And I know exactly what you mean about comfort reading. A few years ago I badly broke my wrist so my entire arm was in plaster from my knuckles up to my armpit. I found it very hard to sleep at night, so I did a lot of reading. Jilly Cooper was the best company of all, and I reread all her novels from Riders onwards.
  
  One of my most powerful memories of my early teens was reading Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, curled up in an armchair. My mother came in to tell me lunch was ready, and I can remember the extreme difficulty of leaving the world of the novel and mentally coming back into the so-called real world. When Amanda Foreman's Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire was published, I couldn't put that down. In fact, it's about time I read it again.
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  by Gels 1 year ago

  I find it quite hard to put a book down when I start it, even if it's not my usual cup of tea! If I loved it - the inability to read anything else for some time afterwards, hits me too.
  
  A book that I didn't stop reading until it was finished...and it didn't take very long. I found it very interesting was 'the curious incident of the dog in the night-time' by Mark Haddon.
  
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  by Caducean Whisks 1 year ago

  It hasn't happened to me in a loooong time - well, not with as much regularity, anyway. I don't know why that is? In my twenties, I went from one great book to another - they were all great - lightweight, welterweight and I tried some heavyweight stuff too - and that was great too! These days, I still read voraciously, but am rarely lost in a book the way I used to be. I don't know if part of me is analysing it, or if I've become jaded, or if I'm just reading the wrong genre for where I am today. Perhaps all three. One that came very close recently, was "Hangover Square" by Patrick Hamilton - stonkingly good. I took it with me when I had to wait for an appointment, and I haven't done that in ages. It was nice to get the old feeling back. Yes, I agree about "Curious Incident" as well. Another one I read in my teabreaks, at bus stops, whereever I could. And, funnily enough, the first Harry Potter. And the third. And "Never Let me go", and "Oryx and Crake". Perhaps there's more than I thought?
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  by Spangles 1 year ago

  Whisks, I think you're right and it has to do with reading as a fellow writer, rather than as a reader who can't turn the pages quickly enough. I know we've all discussed this before on other threads - for me, I read a paragraph or a chapter and think 'that's good'. Then I think 'why is that good?', and sometimes I look through it to find out and other times I just have to keep reading because I don't want to break the flow.
  
  My husband will be thrilled that you loved Hangover Square - it's one of his favourite books of all time.
  
  The Curious Incident didn't do it for me at all. I had to read it for a book group I belonged to at the time, and I thought it was interesting but it didn't grab me.
  
  Oh yes, reading at bus stops! I can remember falling over while walking to work once because I had my nose in a book (I think it was David Copperfield) and wasn't looking where I was going.