BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 » What are you reading at the moment?

SusiGo · October 29, 2014 10:04 pm

Same with me, Davina, my daughter was head over heels and recommended it. Beautifully written and truly heartbreaking. I wanted to watch the film as well.

I just finished "Jahrgang 1902" (The generation of 1902), a German and international bestseller published in 1928. A real discovery. The story of a lost youth that did not participate in the Great War but was nevertheless deeply touched and marked by it.

Last edited by SusiGo (October 29, 2014 10:06 pm)

OnlyinWestwood · October 30, 2014 11:17 pm

I just finished The Shadow of Reichenbach Falls by John R. King. It's fantastic!
Moriarty pushes Sherlock over the Falls, but Sherlock is saved by 2 people. He lost his memory & doesn't know who he is or who's chasing him.
A great read, with some background history of Moriarty.

KeepersPrice · October 31, 2014 12:00 pm

I'm reading a new (I think it's new) Sherlock Holmes pastiche by Anthony Horowitz who wrote "The House of Silk". It's called "Moriarty" and explores what might have taken place immediately after the Reichenbach. The catch phrase after the title is 'Holmes is dead and darkness falls'.

No Holmes or Watson in it but we have two new characters, an American detective, Frederick Chase, and a Scotland Yard detective, Athelney Jones who is a devotee of Holmes' methods. The story drew me right in from the start and I'm already in love with the two detectives - so much like Holmes and Watson. Can't wait to see where this is going.

Davina · November 2, 2014 12:25 pm

The House of Silk is great. Anthony Horowitz is a talented writer.

I am reading Kate Mosse's collection of short stories 'The Mistletoe Bride'. Unsettling images and subjects but very good indeed.

Deilenn · November 3, 2014 8:23 pm

I'm reading a science fiction novel "2010: Odyssey Two" by Arthur C. Clarke. I'm more or less in the middle, and I find it very appealing.
It's the second book of "The Space Odyssey" series. Besides "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "2010", there are also "2061: Odyssey Three" and "3001: The Final Odyssey". I'm obviously going to read those other two books too

besleybean · November 3, 2014 8:30 pm

Well I've entered the Game of Thrones, ladies...I'll let you know if I ever escape!

MartaSt · November 3, 2014 8:37 pm

Good choice! But I have to warn you - it's very addictive, you will read all books in no time

besleybean · November 3, 2014 8:41 pm

Can't say it's grabbing me so far!

Schmiezi · November 3, 2014 8:46 pm

Deilenn wrote:
I'm reading a science fiction novel "2010: Odyssey Two" by Arthur C. Clarke. I'm more or less in the middle, and I find it very appealing.
It's the second book of "The Space Odyssey" series. Besides "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "2010", there are also "2061: Odyssey Three" and "3001: The Final Odyssey". I'm obviously going to read those other two books too

I personally think that 2010 is the best of them, so enjoy!
(Well, now that I think about it, I really need to re-read all of them some time. It's been way too long since I have last read them.)

Neferu · November 4, 2014 6:11 pm

Today I finished "Die Zauberin von Ruwenda" from Marion Zimmer Bradley, Julian May und Andre Norton
So I think I will start the cycle "Das Geheimnis von Askir" folllowed by "Die Götterkriege" from Richard Schwartz again.
I love fantasy novels and this cycle, collecting 10 books now, the 11th will come out at the beginning of December, are my absolut favorit. I´ve read it about 7 or 8 times.

Bronte89 · November 22, 2014 9:50 pm

Christmas with Miss Read.

Last edited by Bronte89 (November 22, 2014 9:51 pm)

Mrs.Wenceslas · November 29, 2014 10:12 pm

Gao Xingjian: Soul Mountain

This Is The Phantom Lady · December 9, 2014 8:24 pm

The 50 Shades triology... and I'm not enjoying it.

But I figured I had to read it before I complain too much about it... my head hurts from too much face-palming though.

besleybean · December 9, 2014 8:34 pm

I admire your integrity...I got as far as watching the trailer for the film, winced and switched it off.

Russell · December 9, 2014 11:08 pm

This Is The Phantom Lady wrote:
The 50 Shades triology... and I'm not enjoying it.

But I figured I had to read it before I complain too much about it... my head hurts from too much face-palming though.

Uuuughh…. Wow, impressive. Although totally get you with the 'ok, let's see for myself what this book is that causes such vitriol and passionate insanity'. I did the same with the whole Twilight series. Yeah, I know. But draw the line at more fan-written inaccurate badly portrayed relationships and writing style of those books. Still gonna stick with it, though?

Oh, but hey, speaking of more pertinent books to our interests, as far as favorite/well-known authors go of Sherlock pastiches, such as Michael Chabon and Mitch Cullin, I know there's probably at least a fraction of you familiar with Anthony Horowitz's well-praised 'The House of Silk'? So badly behind on reading those guys in particular, out of curiosity with how good they sounded of continuing Doyle-style stories, so I haven't read them yet, but saw the other day that's he's coming out with a new one, called 'Moriarty'. Just in case you might be interested.

besleybean · December 10, 2014 6:53 am

House of Silk is brilliant...highly recommended.
Moriarty is sitting right here next to me, waiting to be read!

gently69 · December 10, 2014 7:58 am

Reading this at the moment:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Games-Actors-Non-Actors-Augusto-Boal/dp/0415267080/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418197904&sr=1-1&keywords=Games+for+Actors+and+Non-Actors

I visited workshops for forum theatre twice already and really enjoyed them. Now I want to know more details about it.

Zatoichi · December 10, 2014 5:13 pm

This Is The Phantom Lady wrote:
The 50 Shades triology... and I'm not enjoying it.

But I figured I had to read it before I complain too much about it... my head hurts from too much face-palming though.

And does your inner goddess like the pain? *eyebrow wiggle*
Oh god the book was so stupid, I had to stop after the first 200 pages or so. The graphic description of dull thoughts! The explicit use of bad writing style! Ouch..

Today I spent two hours to read through "The Ascent of Rum Doodle".. it´s funny in an old fashioned way, I enjoyed it.

Russell · December 10, 2014 5:15 pm

Is it? Cool.

Liberty · December 10, 2014 5:52 pm

Russell wrote:
This Is The Phantom Lady wrote:
The 50 Shades triology... and I'm not enjoying it.

But I figured I had to read it before I complain too much about it... my head hurts from too much face-palming though.

Uuuughh…. Wow, impressive. Although totally get you with the 'ok, let's see for myself what this book is that causes such vitriol and passionate insanity'. I did the same with the whole Twilight series. Yeah, I know. But draw the line at more fan-written inaccurate badly portrayed relationships and writing style of those books. Still gonna stick with it, though?

I struggled with 50 Shades too (I found it rather boring), but I'm fascinated by the phenomenon!   When it was at the height of it's popularity, every woman I knew seemed to be reading it, regardless of background.   I'm interested that a book about an aspect of women's sexuality was so popular, famous and widely read.   Has that ever happened before?

This is just my opinion, and I may be misinterpreting the book, but it read to me as - trying to put it politely - women-orientated fantasy soft-porn. Not meaning to demean the book, but I think a lot of the criticisms of it are because people are trying to read it as a piece of literature instead of fantasy fodder. A lot of it just screamed "fantasy" at me - the very ordinary, awkward heroine (to make it easier to insert yourself into that fantasy, if you should wish) paired with the very extra-ordinary, impossibly attractive hero (definitely a fantasy figure) who is besotted with her in the extreme. And then the fantasy situations.   It's not about real life relationships (or real ilfe BDSM). It's about what women might fantasise about (but not necessarily want in real life), and I feel it legitimises those fantasies for women.

Apparently, it was written originally as Twilight fan-fiction. I'm not so familiar with Twilight, but it seems to have some of the same fantasy elements (self-insertion heroine, impossibly attractive and besotted hero) without the sex aspect.

I know it's odd that I'm defending a book that I didn't actually like (and I couldn't bring myself to complete the series, so may have a different view if I'd read them all!), but I do think it's misunderstood. Expecting it to be an accurate portrayal of relationships is like expecting the same of pornography.   Or of rom-coms, etc.   (Did anybody see the film Don Jon which compares pornography and rom-coms? I love that film!).

Last edited by Liberty (December 10, 2014 5:55 pm)