Current Reading - Books best thread

[Sam]

I finished Because Internet a couple of nights ago and yesterday started The New Wilderness by Diane Cook, which was on the shortlist for last year's Booker. It's very post apocalyptic so far, and I'm not sure where it's going yet.

[Lang Spoon]

I really liked her short story collection, but I'm not sure I could take a novel.

[imp]

I really loved Cook's 'Man Vs Nature' collection too - recommended it more than once, I think, on the short story thread. Very excited to hear she has a novel out - keep us updated, Sam.

[Sam]

It's interesting the way things are revealed. We're finding out bits and pieces of the back story sort of around the edges, and I now realise it's not strictly post apocalyptic, or if it is then it's following (or rather during) a rather slower kind of apocalypse than the sort that comes to mind when we read that phrase. I don't want to say too much though because I'd hate to spoil it for anyone who fancies reading themselves. I'm very much enjoying it so far.

[Tony C]

My daughter lent me Bernardine Evaristo's 'Girl, Woman, Other' a few days ago and I'm really enjoying it. Not an original recommendation, I know, and I'm sure it must have been mentioned on this thread already.

[nmrfox]

Speaking of unoriginal, occasionally I'll dip back and get a book that I've not read for years. Whilst I remember some of the storyline, the most obvious ones being the devastating treatment of the Okies in California and Tom being a former prisoner for murder, there was a hell of a lot that I'd forgotten about The Grapes of Wrath and whilst it's a pretty grim and brutal read, it certainly held my attention over the past few evenings.

[Tony C]

Years ago I taught at a school that had Of Mice and Men on its GCSE curriculum. Read it over and taught it for maybe eight years on the run. Never got bored with it, always found something new to like. Steinbeck is a truly great writer.

[imp]

I am devouring 'Sex and Punishment: 4000 Years of Judging Desire' by Eric Berkowitz.

[Forest Gump]

Years ago I taught at a school that had Of Mice and Men on its GCSE curriculum. Read it over and taught it for maybe eight years on the run. Never got bored with it, always found something new to like. Steinbeck is a truly great writer.

I've been meaning to re-read Of Mice and Men for a while. What was your experience of teaching it like? So much of what I read at school (and university, for that matter) went over my head - I don't think any 16 year old is worldly enough to understand half what they read at GCSE.

Mind you I did The Wife of Bath at A-Level, and 'got' even less of that.

It's only now as an adult that I'm starting to really understand and appreciate things I was taught 20 years ago.

[WOM]

Youth is wasted on the young....

[Tony C]

I've been meaning to re-read Of Mice and Men for a while. What was your experience of teaching it like? So much of what I read at school (and university, for that matter) went over my head - I don't think any 16 year old is worldly enough to understand half what they read at GCSE.

Mind you I did The Wife of Bath at A-Level, and 'got' even less of that.

It's only now as an adult that I'm starting to really understand and appreciate things I was taught 20 years ago.

I loved the book on many levels - one of which is that it engaged the kind of boys who would not normally go
near a book, the kids who see classic novels as long, dull, high concept pieces with difficult vocabulary. Just not for them. OMAM is essentially a novella anyway (I believe there is a word count rule to separate them from novels but I’ve never bothered to google it) so it’s relatively short, easy to read with immediately relatable characters and has a great story. There’s not a single word wasted. Steinbeck is a great writer but his editor was a genius. Anyway in terms of class work I taught it at all ability levels and it opens up countless social, political and gender based debates - some at a different more modest level perhaps, but anything that gets disaffected kids interested enough to argue can only be a good thing. It’s a book for absolutely everyone - and very few truly are.

[Sam]

Finished The New Wilderness last night. It isn't an easy book in terms of content (style-wise it's fine), but I liked it a lot.

I've now started A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.

[gt3]

Years ago I taught at a school that had Of Mice and Men on its GCSE curriculum. Read it over and taught it for maybe eight years on the run. Never got bored with it, always found something new to like. Steinbeck is a truly great writer.

You might enjoy this then: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03bdsnt

[gt3]

Just reading The Anarchy by William Dalrymple. Fascinating stuff.

have been sent Notes on A Nervous Planet. Any one read that?

[imp]

gt3 The OTF Books Committee acknowledges the receipt of your enquiry regarding Notes on a Nervous Planet, and will reply in due course. Current traffic on One Touch Books is approximately one post every 17 days, so expect a reply - provisionally - sometime in the middle of next year. We hope that this pace of discourse is agreeable to you, even if the current speed of so-called 'Online' correspondence means the expectation of a more rapid exchange has given birth to a culture of needy impatience among younger generations. We trust that this distasteful development will not spoil your anticipation of an eventual response to your query.

[Sam]

I haven't read Notes on a Nervous Planet, but Matt Haig's novel The Humans starts with a tremendously funny scene – one of the last times I literally had a proper belly laugh to the extent I had to put the book down for a minute while reading – and I've been meaning to read more by him ever since. His latest one, The Midnight Library, sounds very good.

[gt3]

gt3 The OTF Books Committee acknowledges the receipt of your enquiry regarding Notes on a Nervous Planet, and will reply in due course. Current traffic on One Touch Books is approximately one post every 17 days, so expect a reply - provisionally - sometime in the middle of next year. We hope that this pace of discourse is agreeable to you, even if the current speed of so-called 'Online' correspondence means the expectation of a more rapid exchange has given birth to a culture of needy impatience among younger generations. We trust that this distasteful development will not spoil your anticipation of an eventual response to your query.

Is this a comment on the way the book is written?!

[imp]

Ha, no it isn't - just an expression of my general frustration at the lack of activity and debate over on this part of the board. It has, however, now made me curious to check out Notes on a Nervous Planet.

[ad hoc]

If we could wean ourselves off this terrible current reading thread we might stand a chance of an upturn in the forum's fortunes

[imp]

True enough. There are threads on specific genres - short stories, football and music, for example. But I suppose it's easier to just post on here than search out the appropriate thread.

[ad hoc]

I've tried a few times to start threads on particular authors, or genres, but we always seem to end up back here (I'm as guilty of it as anyone). And it;s impossible to find anything here. (This is happening with the "current watching" thread in Film and TV too. I understand the appeal, but fuck it makes the idea of a messageboard pretty unworkable, I reckon)

Anyway, complaining about it won't fix it. I'd petition Snake to lock this, but someone will just start Current Reading II.

[Sporting]

I've tried a few times to start threads on particular authors, or genres, but we always seem to end up back here (I'm as guilty of it as anyone). And it;s impossible to find anything here. (This is happening with the "current watching" thread in Film and TV too. I understand the appeal, but fuck it makes the idea of a messageboard pretty unworkable, I reckon)

Isn't this akin to trying to force what is in reality a pub-conversation website into neat encylopaedia domains (though I do get the frustration: why have football telly watching threads as well as specific threads for different divisions? Or why do people post weather info on Mundane when there's a dedicated thread?)

[ad hoc]

I think in football, for example, it doesn't really matter, as people are discussing actual "current" things, so whether it's in a TV thread or a premier division thread or a this weekend thread, you can find it (and you're unlikely to want to go back and find out what someone said about Burnley vs Southampton in 2019). But when people read a particular book is not really relevant. Very few of us hang around bookshops to buy the first copy of a book and read it on the day it is published. And, if I pick up a book which is new-to-me, I'd like to be able to fairly easily find out if anyone here has also done so at some point in the last ten years (or however long the board goes back now)

[WOM]

We also don't seem to read the way we used to. Remember when we'd all choose a Booker nom and review it? Last couple of times there were a couple of books begging for readers.

Anyway, I'm all for shutting this fucker down and starting a title/author-oriented system.

[San Bernardhinault]

Yeah. This thread and Current Watching are infuriatingly useless. Current Watching would be fine for "I watched an episode of House Hunters last night" but it's used for wide ranges of films and high quality TV. There's no real equivalent of "an episode of House Hunters" in books