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So ILB is going to shut down for 2 weeks starting tomorrow.

On this thread we say what reading we will have completed in those 2 weeks, and when ILB comes back we can say how we got on.

In 2 weeks time I will have read 'Snow' by Orhan Pamuk, finished those last few chapters of 'Bend Sinister' by Nabakov that I've been putting off for weeks, and be well into 'The Rings of Saturn' by WG Sebald.

― Joe Kay (feethurt), Thursday, 1 July 2004 14:14 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe i'll finally read don quixote. i got about 50 pages into it last month before getting distracted by other stuff.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 1 July 2004 14:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, I have an existing Yahoo group which was an online writing group/workshop forum type thing but has died a bit of a death.

If anyone wants to share work or just talk about books on there, feel free to go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wordshare/ and join. It could use some action ;)

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 1 July 2004 14:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I will miss ILB more than ILE. But in the meantime I can concentrate on Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time, start The Brothers Karamazov (which I bought many moons ago due to ILB) and be able to concentrate on fiscal rollover madness at work. And visit Archel's group.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 1 July 2004 15:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I shall finish Anna Karenina. I'm falling for her in a big way.

It's a shame, because ILB has been good fun recently. As opposed to ILE which has upped the idiot count of late.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 1 July 2004 15:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I shall cry. But once the tears dry, I will probably get on my reading list. I might tackle a Simone de Beauvoir biography after I finish John Banville's 'The Book of Evidence'.

― bookdwarf (bookdwarf), Thursday, 1 July 2004 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I need a new book to start reading. Any recommendations?

― Leon Czolgosz (Nicole), Thursday, 1 July 2004 15:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Fiction or Non-fiction?

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 1 July 2004 15:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Either one, I enjoy both.

― Leon Czolgosz (Nicole), Thursday, 1 July 2004 16:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Have fun everyonne! See you back here in 2 weeks. I'm gonna be reading all those sci-fi short story collections I picked up at the thrift store. It is my speculative summer.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 1 July 2004 16:13 (twenty-one years ago)

TWO F***EN WEEKS! I guess I'll complete H2G2 and Selections from the complete works of Swami Vivekananda, and start Eats, shoots and leaves maybe.
I think I'll use the google cache for visiting this site whenever I start missing it :-)

― Fred (Fred), Thursday, 1 July 2004 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

My recommendation for Leon (stepping back one presidential assassin ;-) : Kenneth Ackerman, Dark Horse, story of James Garfield and Charles Guiteau. Mentioned it before, it's really a fine read, great style, lots of info that you just don't get from basic stories of the period.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 July 2004 19:57 (twenty-one years ago)

No, God, no! NO! Please No!!!

― SRH (Skrik), Thursday, 1 July 2004 20:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Eek! I posted a list of books I wanted to read this summer on my journal, but the three I'd like to have done in two weeks are Bloodsucking Fiends, McSweeny's Mammoth Trasury of Thrilling Tales, and A Hat Full of Sky.

― Mary K, Librarian (Mary K, Librarian), Thursday, 1 July 2004 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

At a guess I will finish (these are my next planned reads anyway, and I think my estimates will be near the mark):
Underworld by Don DeLillo
three monographs on architects I like (Piano, Foster, Mies - not big books, these)
at least one Astro Boy book
a couple of Pinter plays
The Wooden Sea by Jonathan Carroll
The Burglar In The Library by Lawrence Block
maybe also You Must Remember This by Joyce Carol Oates
and read some more from a mammoth sculpture book, and browse through an Encyclopaedia Of Jazz enough that it can then take its proper home on my reference shelves.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 1 July 2004 21:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Anne Carson,
The Beauty of the Husband and The Anthropology of Water.

I've just discovered her, and reading her is so disturbingly good that for some reason I keep putting off picking her up.

― Caroline (Caro), Friday, 2 July 2004 00:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll hopefully be finishing off the Karamazov brothers (is that right? Despite having read 800 odd pages of it, I still can never remember if it's Kamarazov or Karamazov) this weekend and then probably moving onto something a bit shorter. What that might be, I don't know. I've just received news that my goods, including a lot of books, will soon be arriving from England, so I will have lots to choose from. Hurrah!

― Paul Field (foxeee), Friday, 2 July 2004 01:27 (twenty-one years ago)

in 2 weeks time I'll be gone on holiday so it's going to be a whole long month without ILB for me. and as a matter of fact, I never plan what to read, I usually finish what I'm reading (Ruth by E. Gaskell at the moment) and then decide how much I'm allowed to spend in books and spend 3 hours chosing something new to read, right in the bookshop.
Let's say next will be Hard Times probably, which is the last Dickens' I haven't read yet, and everything else that may make me feel good.
I'll keep track and let you know when I'm back from the sea :)

― misshajim (strand), Friday, 2 July 2004 06:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Where are you going on holiday?

I want facts...

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 2 July 2004 08:00 (twenty-one years ago)

south of italy (i can't move much with a 7 months old belly ;)
gargano and calabria, pure sea!

― misshajim (strand), Friday, 2 July 2004 09:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Have a lovely time. It's an area I've always wanted to see.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 2 July 2004 10:08 (twenty-one years ago)

two weeks pass...

What I said above:
Underworld by Don DeLillo
three monographs on architects I like (Piano, Foster, Mies - not big books, these)
at least one Astro Boy book
a couple of Pinter plays
The Wooden Sea by Jonathan Carroll
The Burglar In The Library by Lawrence Block
maybe also You Must Remember This by Joyce Carol Oates
and read some more from a mammoth sculpture book, and browse through an Encyclopaedia Of Jazz enough that it can then take its proper home on my reference shelves.

Good guessing: I've not quite finished the Oates, and haven't read much at all from the sculpture book, but all the rest are read (just one Astro volume), plus a couple more comic collections - one Powers, one Alias - and several other comics. And I've read a bit of a book on brain and mind.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 16 July 2004 11:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I finished 'The Cold Six Thousand' and started on 'London Orbital'. (With a brief interlude of reading mostly 'The Rough Guide To Wales' and OS Explorer 17.)

― Mog, Friday, 16 July 2004 11:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Finished Anna Karenin last night, plus The Full Cupboard of Life (Alexander Mccall Smith), Coma (Alex Garland), A Handful of Just (Evelyn Waugh) and Hiram Bingham's Inca Journal.

Just started What A Carve Up! (Jonathan Coe)

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 16 July 2004 12:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Everything is Illuminated, The Cherry Orchard, Bits and Pieces of "Six Easy Pieces", Courtney Crumrin and the Coven of Mystics, and I'm almost done with "Goodbye, Columbus". It's been very Russo-Jewish.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Friday, 16 July 2004 12:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Finished Wives and Daughters and Ruth by E. Gaskell, Hard Times by Dickens, just plunged into Vanity Fair and just bought for my holiday (starting in 5 hours time!!):
Roughing it, M. Twain
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, D. Adamas
Mary Burton, E.Gaskell
and
American Lessons, Calvino

― misshajim (strand), Friday, 16 July 2004 12:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Finished H2G2, Eats, shoots and leaves and 13 tales by 13 masters of horror :-p
Still reading Swami Vivekananda, Five people you meet in heaven, Pale Fire.
What happened to the older threads?

― Fred (Fred), Friday, 16 July 2004 15:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey Jocelyn! I've got a copy of Goodbye, Columbus but haven't read it. Do you recommend it? How's it?

― Fred (Fred), Friday, 16 July 2004 15:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm still working on the novella itself, and have not looked at the other stories. I haven't read any Roth before, but I like how his characters are surprising, in small ways. The writing is not particularly beautiful, but it is direct and effective. I'm fascinated that it was published in 1959, it has both aged and not aged.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Friday, 16 July 2004 15:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it will be too romantic for my tastes. Tell me when you finish it. It's a small book but I would rather spend that time on Wodehouse if it that book is not good. It had won some prize I remember.

― Fred (Fred), Friday, 16 July 2004 16:35 (twenty-one years ago)

fred - goodbye, columbus is great. particularly the novella, which, despite being marketed as a salacious love story (and maybe it was for '59), isn't the least bit mushy. and jocelyn, roth got so much better at creating characters over the course of his career that goodbye, columbus, much as i love it, comes to look like apprentice work. i don't think there's anybody writing today who is as good at creating characters, at capturing voice. i've read and loved nearly all of his books, but try american pastoral, sabbath's theater, the counterlife - or, if you're in the market for something shorter, patrimony.

― David Elinsky (David Elinsky), Friday, 16 July 2004 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I finished the novella over lunch and the ending sounded the right note with me, truthful and sad. I loved the scene with Uncle Leo at the wedding. I believe I will give American Pastoral a look soon.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Friday, 16 July 2004 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

That's it! I'm reading it next.

― Fred (Fred), Friday, 16 July 2004 18:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I've still got 20 pages to go in 'Snow'. (It is very good. Will sombeody else here start reading Pamuk to reassure me that he's as good as I think he is?). Haven't touched the Nabakov or Sebald. I got 'The Big Con' by David Maurer in the library instead, and I'm flying through it. It's about the confidence tricks (the wire, the pay-off and the rag) practiced in America in the 1920's and '30's. (The wire is the confidence trick used in the movie 'The Sting')

― Joe Kay (feethurt), Monday, 19 July 2004 15:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I read a different Pamuk...hmmm...can't remember what it was called. But it was good.

― St. Nicholas (Nick A.), Monday, 19 July 2004 16:01 (twenty-one years ago)

He's written two historic novels (White Castle, My Name is Red), and three set in modern Turkey (The Black Book, The New Life, Snow).
It's the modern ones (especially The New Life) that I really like. The sense of place is really strong, you feel like you are in Turkey. Snow is set in a small town near the Armenian border called Kars. God knows what the inhabitants of this place make of the book.

― Joe Kay (feethurt), Monday, 19 July 2004 16:57 (twenty-one years ago)

"My Name is Red" is the one. I liked it a lot, but I don't read a lot of 'historical fiction,' so it was a nice change of pace for me. If you already knew a fair amount about art history in Turkey, it might not be such great shakes.

― St. Nicholas (Nick A.), Monday, 19 July 2004 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

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