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

DramaQueen · May 27, 2017 8:31 am

There is nothing to "shame" , dear besleybean!
The world is full of great books, so we only can try to read what we would like to.
I love reading, sometimes I reread my favourite books just because of the melancholic mood of missing them. 😊

besleybean · May 27, 2017 10:10 am

I really want to read Forster.
My sister did her dissertation on him.
I read everyday.
But like you say: so many books, too little time.

DramaQueen · July 11, 2017 11:27 am

Now I have certainly a "Wunnicke" -month!

After her wonderful new novel "Katie"- absolutely worth to read, London a.D.1870, chemical experiments and a ghost of the daughter (or sometimes son) of the pirate Capitain Morgan - I started with " The Fox and Doctor Shimamura" and the next one will be "Jetlag"!
💃

besleybean · July 11, 2017 12:11 pm

Thank you, chance to catch up again.
I am reading a Scottish classic:
Not such a famous author, but she is local to this county, so I know all of the places she's writing about.
It's actually two volumes combined, so it's taking me ages!
First off I read the collection of short stories Tales from Angus, by Violet Jacob and now I'm reading the attached novel of hers: Flemington.
It's all Jacobite stuff, so dead exciting.

Yitzock · July 11, 2017 2:28 pm

I always find it cool when I know a place that is mentioned in a book I'm reading. I remember my mum had a couple of those moments when she was reading a series of Swedish mystery novels after she had been on a trip to Sweden. In one of them, there's a police chase down the street right in front of the hotel where she stayed in Stockholm.

SusiGo · July 11, 2017 2:28 pm

I am reading "How to stop time" - not just for obvious reasons but also because I read and enjoyed Matt Haig's "The Humans". I really love this new novel and I can imagine Benedict breaking our hearts in this all over again. A wonderful tale about time and love and loss. I am nearly through and hope so much that in the end all will be well ...

Last edited by SusiGo (July 11, 2017 2:28 pm)

DramaQueen · August 11, 2017 7:19 am

Absolutely unexpected for myself I'm reading a very new German crime novel by Klaus Peter Wolf "Totenstille im Watt". I read an extract being in train and then bought the book immediately at the station as I arrived. Quite pleasant reading, I admit.

besleybean · August 11, 2017 6:28 pm

I'm now working my way through The Oxford library of Classic English Short stories(vol 1 at the mo)and that reminds me...I have today's offering to read!

Yitzock · August 15, 2017 1:23 am

How many volumes are there? Which authors have you encountered so far?

besleybean · August 15, 2017 5:55 am

Only 2 volumes, this first one is 1900-1956.
The more famous authors are:M R James(Have read a collection of theirs).
HG Wells(only thing I've ever read by him, quite liked it).
John Galsworthy(can't even remember that one!)
Dorothy L Sayers( my 1st for her and again I seem to have instantly forgotten it!)
Frank O'Connor(a couple of his, quite quirky)
Somerset Maugham(I've read a collection of his before including one of these...couldn't remember the end of it!)
Hugh Walpole(my first of his and my favourite so far)
Dylan Thomas(my first, but exactly how I imagined his writing to be!...whimsical)
Walter-de-la-mare(Only knew his poetry before and I seem to recall it is as odd as this story was!)
Evelyn Waugh(my first for him, though I think I'd rather read his novels.)
Graham Greene(haven't got to this one yet, but I have read 'The Power and The glory'.)
V.S Pritchett...least I think I know who that is, there are 2 of his to conclude the volume.

Liberty · August 15, 2017 6:24 am

I think we did The Power and The Glory at school. It was probably a bit too mature for a bunch of 14 year olds, or whatever we were then. I preferred Brighton Rock at the time. I used to love Graham Greene, Somerset Maugham and Evelyn Waugh .. haven't read any for years. But I do re-read "The Outing" by Dylan Thomas every now and then as it's one of my favourite short stories. So many great lines!

SusiGo · August 15, 2017 7:05 pm

I just read "The Temple" by Stephen Spender, an interesting autobiographic account of his time in Germany in the late 1920s and early 1930s and his relationship with W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood.
Now I just started "By Gaslight", a novel by Steven Price.

halste · December 12, 2018 5:27 pm

Now I'm reading Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. In this book, the author, based on research on cognitive and social psychology, reveals the secrets of the work of the human brain, describes unconscious prejudices, the properties of intuitive and conscious thinking, the role of emotions in judicious judgments. This book is very interesting and helped me write a critical analysis essay outline, where I was able to analyze and consider those factors that influence the effectiveness of a person in the teamwork.

besleybean · December 12, 2018 5:30 pm

Interesting.
I am curently reading another book of Scottish short stories.
I read quite a bit of Scottish literature and a bit of Scottish history, too!

Yitzock · December 12, 2018 7:59 pm

Cool! Is it contemporary Scottish literature?

besleybean · December 12, 2018 8:02 pm

Yes...well, this volume is from 1995...so yeah, not like classic or anything.

Kittyhawk · December 27, 2018 1:23 pm

Rosemary Kirstein's The Steerswoman series. The second time it's almost better than the first time (and after 25 days of Christmas market I'm soooo in need of intelligent people....)

besleybean · December 29, 2018 7:23 pm

This netbook died for a while...
So I got a bit of reading done!
I eventually finished off Nietzsche!
Then I read Edward Lear's Book of Nonsense and now I am on...
The Call of The Wild. Jack London.
I left a paperback at home, The Water Horse by...well I think it's called that, but I can't find it on Google. By a female writer, I've read another of hers...Yeah, Julia Gregson.
East of the Sun was the other of hers I read.

Last edited by besleybean (December 29, 2018 7:32 pm)

Yitzock · February 12, 2019 3:49 pm

I have been reading Heidi by Johanna Spyri for the past week. I am about a third of the way through. Someone gave me the book as a gift when I was a child but I never got around to reading it. I saw it on my bookshelf so I thought I would read it. A few times I've wondered if I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it as a child. Maybe there will be more as I go along, but so far I'm finding that while there have been some good moments, there are parts that are not that fun to me, and I find most of the characters are rather flat.

besleybean · February 12, 2019 5:09 pm

I read a non-canonical Holmes one, which I didn't enjoy.
Well I will clarify that.
It was Sherlock Holmes and the Sussex Sea Devils by James Lovegrove...I have another of his, too and certainly don't fancy reading it now!
So this was a fantastical, sci fi type thing.
I don't mind reading either of those genres, but not in connection with Sherlock Holmes.
For me, magic and superstition play no part in his world.
I mean the guy is obviously Sherlockian and there were some canoical tropes, well written and presented-but no.
Oh I am now reading Sherlock Holmes for dummies...which I will get back to you on.

Last edited by besleybean (February 12, 2019 5:09 pm)