What are you reading at the moment?


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I have just started reading a book that was written by a friend from the next village. It is about building a community. The small village has two busses per week and the only amenity was a 90 year ol

Re. The Ten Commandments.  Their primary purpose was to set a standard, NONE of us can meet.  See Paul's comments in Galations in which he refers to them as a "Schoolmaster" to bring us to Christ.  Yo

I'm pleased you found the programme interesting, NBL.   I usually enjoy watching things like that, but I somehow missed it....  the thing is, though, I believe Jesus didn't stay dead - that's why I've

Like Phil I don’t read a great deal of fiction with my current main interest being WW1 but I am currently having a rest from that and working my way through D H Lawrence ‘The Rainbow’. I’m finding it hard going but it is, in my opinion, his best work. I wish I could write like him. 

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I've read the works of Lawrence in the past and enjoyed them. I've not read any fiction for many years. We have a library at home, it sounds pretentious but it is a room with books. My wife was a teacher so she arrived complete with many tomes. Pride of place goes to the complete works of Dickens which I found in an antique shop. I find Dickens tedious so they've never been read by me but they look impressive! 

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Currently reading "The Gift of Rain"  Tan Twan Eng

On shelf for next read "the Colony" Audrey McGee

 

Dickens I like most of them and have found them to be a fascinating window into the 19th Century and how people lived and sorted out problems (or not).

 

In my opinion Lawrence is one of the greatest poets and a fine novelist up there with Joyce and Woolf. 

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I've recently read a couple of books by P.G.Wodehouse.

 

One was a collection of short stories, which were all really good; funny, clever, and interesting. The other was a full-length novel, which went on a bit, became slightly boring, and seemed really just a long version of the short stories.

 

So the jury's out at the moment.

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34 minutes ago, philmayfield said:

I've read the works of Lawrence in the past and enjoyed them. I've not read any fiction for many years. We have a library at home, it sounds pretentious but it is a room with books. My wife was a teacher so she arrived complete with many tomes. Pride of place goes to the complete works of Dickens which I found in an antique shop. I find Dickens tedious so they've never been read by me but they look impressive! 

Phil, did you get the book I recommended ?

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Currently re-reading Wellington's Redjackets - The 45th (Nottinghamshire) Regiment on Campaign in South America and the Peninsula, by Steve Brown.

 

A very detailed history of the regiment’s involvement in the war in Portugal and Spain against Napoleon.

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14 minutes ago, Jill Sparrow said:

Dickens has pride of place on my bookshelves, along with Thomas Hardy. I also enjoy Anthony Trollope, the eastern philosophers and metaphysical poets. Jane Austen is nowhere to be seen!

 

I'm a big fan of Dickens but I can't get on with Hardy at all.

 

And I also don't get the appeal of Austen.

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I'm reading Tales From Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb.

 

I find the tales and characterisations somewhat akin to Alice in Wonderland and simply randomly compiled. I cannot understand the the huge appeal of these stories or Shakespeare in general.

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Can't agree with you there, Alpha. Shakespeare is about life and I find it full of wisdom but cannot understand why it was and perhaps still is, required study in schools. Anyone under 25 who can identify with much of what Shakespeare has to impart must have had a damned hard life. I'm convinced that forced study of the Bard at too early an age alienates many. I was given Dickens to read when I was five and it turned me against him for a long time. I was too young to comprehend it, if not to read the words.

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I've also never understood why Shakespeare is so highly rated. Mainly because I don't understand what's being said or happening - either reading it in a book or seeing it acted in films. It's like something in a foreign language; I recognise the words but they've been assembled in a random manner.

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We did a bit of ''Shakespeare at school and ive no strong feelings about his work either way..........However whenever the subject comes up i always think about our drama teacher Mr Price......he was a fanatic on him...and used to love standing and reading it to us.......and one day in the school Hall he was reading it from the stage with all the actions.......well he lost his footing on the edge of the stage...fell onto the school 'Piano'' broke wind and rolled off onto the floor'''''''''''':) so so funny...........

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I like most of Thomas Hardy's works and find his poems some of the best; his novels are interesting and reflect his rather pessimistic understanding of the world. Hardy

 played a violin and saved many tunes for posterity,  his father played for a church quire as I do here. Hardy's accounts of quires and their antics are most amusing.

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I've never read any Tolkien - just never got round to it.

 

I first heard of the Lord of the Rings books at school in the early 70s and I assumed they had been written in Victorian times or early 20th century (at that stage I didn't know when Tolkien had lived).

 

I was surprised to discover that although The Hobbit was written in the 1930s, most of the others were only written in the mid-1950s, making them - at that time - only around 20 years old. 

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1 hour ago, siddha said:

Hardy

 played a violin and saved many tunes for posterity,  his father played for a church quire as I do here. Hardy's accounts of quires and their antics are most amusing.

Hence the scene in The Mayor of Casterbridge where Henchard has completed his pledge of 21 years of sobriety, goes to the inn just as the church choir is turning up after choir practice, and forces them to sing the 109th Psalm!  Alan Bates played Henchard in a portrayal which might have leapt straight off the page of the novel and he's particularly brilliant and comical in that scene.

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I fell in love with Tolkien in my teens and passed my books on to my daughter who was also captivated. They can be a bit heavy going as they switch about a bit in different chapters as there are so many characters especially in the Lord of the Rings. If you want to read smaller fables of his try The Adventures of Tom Bombadil or the Farmer of Ham to get you into Tolkien. Love the films.

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