Does anyone read books anymore?

Finished a book about the summer of 1911.Lots of domestic detail about the top one percent like Diana Manners ,but also stories about strikers and those below stairs.All well researched and full of interesting detail. I want to be a "Soul" and write essays in the manner of Ruskin , or have friends with huge capacity for thought and conversation. .Now I'm reading The Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell so I must feel I can cope with something nasty.I like the heroine Scarpetta. PS love a quote retold in the first book."It doesn't matter what affectionate people do in the bedroom as long as they don't do it in the street and frighten the horses."

I read a collection of David Lodge's articles recently, the Art of Fiction. In one section, he quotes three passages from Ulysses. I've never read it - I've never read any Joyce, but those passages blew me away. So I decided to read Ulysses. Right now I am reading the Odyssey, in preparation. It's excellent. I thought I would hate it, but I don't. It's great... I just wish the font was bigger. The book I read before that was selected carefully from the Staff Picks in Borders(!), was very good, was called Death and the Penguin and was by...[one google search later]... Andrey Kurkov. The thing with my reading is that when I am on a roll with writing, as I have been over the past few months, I find it really hard to get involved with reading novels because I have a habit of imitating (poorly) other people's styles. I see that as a bit of a character flaw, but I don't suppose it's a big deal. Good topic! Enzo.. www.thedevilbetweenus.com

I've just finished The Post Birthday World by Lionel Shriver ( of We Need To Talk About Kevin fame) and I'd be really interested to discuss it with anyone who'd read it as it's a strangely structured and somehow ultimately both satisfying and unsatisfying - I know that doesn't make sense but it might if you'd read it. Do we read? I always have a book (fiction) on the go. I am not happy unless I have one at the bedside and to carry about with me in case of waiting. I don't know what people do if they don't read. I buy them or borrow them off friends (lend them too) as I am rubbish with libraries. I miss a book when I've finished it, I miss being in the characters' heads and that feeling of involvement with another life or lives. But I don't carry on with a book if I don't like it. Life is not long enough for that. Crush

And Enzo that's an interesting point too. I used to feel like you but now everything seems a lot more connected. Reading and writing are a flow for me now - I am confident I don't simulate other people's styles - and I find the writing goes best when the reading is also going well. They are like two halves of the puzzle.

I'm reading a book of Japanese folk tales which is chock full of goddesses and samurai and giant fish. It is especially fun because the compiler (one Richard Gordon Smith) often interjects at the start of the stories with little explanations of how he came to hear them, and apologises for the ones he doesn't think are any good. I'm also reading Spook Country by William Gobson - I don't think very much of it so far.

I've just read all of Blake Morrison's books - When did you last see your father, Things your mother never told you (i think that's the title), Too True and As If. I liked Too True best, a collection of essays/ articles. I loved them all really though; 'As If' i found particularly interesting now we are so far removed from the media circussiness (yes it is a word) of the James Bulger case yet. I find his prose beautiful. A poet that can write prose too (bastard). I gobbled all his books up in the space of a week or so. Enzo - I love Lodge's Art of Fiction too. Perhaps I'm just an article tart these days. Currently about to start (yet) another memoir of WWII, but I have a collection of Thomas Mann shorts on the go. Tonio Kroeger is especially good. Yay, a thread about reading. Yay yay.

www.lorrainemace.com I've just finished Bufflehead Sisters by a new author, Patti J DeLois. She won an Arts Council funded competition and I'm not surprised. Brilliant writing and a completely unique style.

I read an Ali Smith a couple of books ago: Like. She is really a very good writer. The book itself was quite a challenge as the characters were in some ways difficult to inhabit and the book swung violently mid way from one point of view to another and never went back so I missed the first character. That was the point I suppose.

I'm currently reading Don Quixote. It's taking me ages to get through but I think it's great. It constantly makes me laugh although like Ben it's making me doubt my own writing. Ben I've read all the Kurkov books and am a big fan (there are 5 now translated into English). And I also love Ali Smith. I've got loads of books on my shelf waiting to be read but next I think is a book about the history of Penguin, called Penguin Special. Then I've got some short story collections - When The Nines Roll Over and the new McSweeneys and I got some Dickens for Christmas.... http://drewgum.wordpress.com

I have read Alain de Botton's 'Status Anxiety' recently - very good if a little bit lite on the political side. The other day when I was ill I sat and read Krishnamurti 'Freedom from the Known' - interesting, not dogmatic if a little esoteric. Just finished 'Six Degrees' by Mark Lynas & boy are we completely and utterly fucked! Read fast people because time is short! Also reading a collection of Anarchist essays by Kropotkin - very interesting reflections on morality & as ever remarkable how fresh revolutionary essays from the 19th Century remain today. Got another climate change book going by the cheery title 'The Last Generation' waiting at my bedside; ordered Dawkins' 'The God Delusion' today; oh and a little manual catchily enough called 'Roofing Solutions'; looking forward to that one. Reading; I love it! Complete waste of time of course! We are all going to fry! Well except for those of us who drown...... or get eaten in an apocalyptic cannibalistic frenzy..... or incinerated in a methane fireball.... or, well you get the picture.

I recently finished reading (just before Christmas)Fanny Hill, followed by Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov and then Perfume by Patrick Suskind. I also started Tristram Shandy by Lawrence Sterne and A Journal of the Plague Year by Defoe, but found the first one hard to read and the second somewhat boring.

Drew - what Dickens did you get? I heard Christmas Carol on Oneword over the holidays and it reminded me how brilliant Dickens is. I forget. I've downloaded an audio book - Hard Times - which I did at A level a 100 years ago - free but read by a variety of people so slightly off putting. Kropotkin that stuff sounds heavy!

I've got it really bad at the moment Crush. Thankfully I'm reading 'Moonfleet' to my kids at the moment - a bit of light relief.

I'm reading The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies. He's a real writer: the pages are stuffed with atmosphere.

I'm halfway through Madame Bovary. It's not as hard work as I thought it would be. Just finished Slaughterhouse Five, not at all what I expected. I thought it was about the bombing of Dresden but it's as much about alien abduction. I'm going to the US on Saturday. I'm going to settle down on the plane and devour "Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football". Did somebody say nobody reads books anymore?

I remember Moonfleet being read to us at school - that was an exciting tale as I remember. Is there a scene with a well and a diamond or something? Maybe that's another story. Lucky kids.

I read Zapatista Stories over christmas which is a collection of folk tales and communiques written by subcomandante Marcos of the EZLN, really enjoyed it and found the humour of the stories quite refreshing considering the gravity of the situation in Chiapas. In one of the passages Marcos mentions that 'we need to laugh a lot to create a new world, because if we don't, our new world will turn out square and it won't go round' which I think is so true. Also read Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko which I thought was so powerfully written and so innovative in its weaving of contemporary prose and traditional Native American songs and poetry. The only course text I got through over the holidays (I study English and Sports Science) was Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, appreciated the craft and the innovation of her writing, but found it quite dense and difficult to engage with in parts. Poetry wise I've been dipping in and out of the collected poems of Rimbaud and Fully Empowered by Pablo Neruda which I received as a christmas gift, and in between writing essays I am currently reading The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, again by Machado de Assis. ShyAssasin, Brilliant Orange is a great read, you should also try (presuming you haven't already) Futebol: the Brazilian Way of Life by Alex Bellos, absolutely hilarious in parts!

Crush, I read the scene with the well and the diamond last night as it would happen. Fantastic adventure story. In that scene the suspense is fabulous: will the treasure be there? How will the turnkey betray John and Elzivir? Will someone fall down the well? Will the turnkey's belt break or not? Wow! I have already added half a dozen books to my reading list because of this thread, and thanks for reminding me of 'Brilliant Orange' guys. This is a dangerous and potentially very expensive thread! Stop it now!

Ah it is that book Amazing how a scene read aloud when you are a kid can resonate for years. I think I also remember seeing an adaptation on telly (google says a tv mini series 1984) and being disappointed by that very scene - thinking It wasn't like that at all! As a result of this thread - and due to not having a book to read - I picked The Old Curiosity Shop and To Kill A Mockingbird off the bookshelf before I went to bed. Also I will make notes for my next charity shop book foray. Crush

I just finished White Noise by Don De Lillo, which is one of the best books I've ever read: very funny, intelligent, beautifully written. Made me desperately want to copy him. Over xmas, I started the Ted Hughes letters which are fascinating. His personality is so unusual and contradictory: passionate, childlike, academic, open, exclusive, arrogant, loving, cold. It's great. Ali Smith I admire, but I find her writing patchy. Sometimes it really works, sometimes it doesn't. That's what I've found in Other stories and other stories and Hotel World, the only two I've read. Oh, and I read Vertigo by WG Sebald which is quite good but my least favourite of the Sebalds I've read. And I'm almost finished Ben Borek's novel-in-verse about a south London estate: Donjong Heights. This is a stunning book of poetry. It's funny and smart and full of real warmth. I loved reading this xmas. It's the most I've read in years and years. Joe

Unfortunately I only have time to read stuff relevant to my MA. I have just finished a fascinating collection of essays about cognitive and neuro science and the implications for philosophy. Now reading 'Marxism and Morality'by Steven Lukes and have to re-read two of Daniel Dennett's Books on Free Will before the end on the month as I'm writing an essay on the subject due in Feb. Because I can't really spare the time to read novels at the moment, for something less academic and more leisurely I am dipping into Ezra Pound's collected works. jude "Cacoethes scribendi" http://www.judesworld.net

So why aren't you all discussing these on http://www.booktribes.com ?

Well I am not discussing them there because I don't like it as much as here. I can't speak for anyone else. Crush

Agree about "White Noise". The episode about "The Most Photographed Barn In The World" has got to be one of the funniest things I've ever read. It's about 10 years since I last read it and the thought still tickles me.

Mark/Anyone Are you a reader or a writer first?

So Mark, you are not one more than the other? You wouldn't be able to choose if you had to save one from drowning? Artisus? - that comment is too impenetrable for me Crush

I don't think anything in this entire thread matters a whole lot. Interesting though.

Does something have to matter to be interesting? Firstly I wonder how anyone can categorize themselves as 'good' in either. Secondly I don't think it matters at all if anyone is 'good' in either or both but I am interested in how they feel about themselves. What are you reading Artisus?

If the definition of being either a reader or writer first is which of those two things you spend most time doing, then I'm definitely a full-time procrastinator.

Great topic for discussion! I can remember checking out my first book from the public library as a child.My library card was a passport to the imagination that took me on a magic carpet ride through the ages. Whole genres of fiction entertained me at different stages. Science fiction captured my imagination early and firmly. Robert Heinlin, Issac Asimov, Clark and others still capture my interest. J.K. Rowling is only the latest. Whole continents came within my reach. Wilbur Smith, Robert Ruark, and later Clive Cussler, introduced me to Africa. Pearl Buck, James Clavell and many others delved into the mists of the Orient. Collen McCullough did a wonderful job with Australia. My favorite author is James Michener, whose epic series entertained me with the in depth histories of many arreas of the world. Solzhenitsin, Tolstoy, Doestoyevski,Lermontov, Mayakovsky and Pushkin played out the "Russian Experience" for me. Edward Rutherford has several excellent volumes detailing the history of the "Britain." C.S. Forrester captured "Rule Britannia" with his "Hornblower series." Leon Uris, James Joyce, and scores of others, revealed the history of those who came before me in far away Eire. James T. Farrel, William Martin, William Kennedy, Edwin O'Connor and others shined light on the American political process. A list, too numerous to mention, detailed the sprawling history of the emerging American continent. The poets of course examine the human condition. Shelly, Keats, Byron and the Lake poets shine brightly.Even dour Miilton is of interest. In America, Wordsworth, Sandberg, Emerson and others speak from the past. Guinsberg, E.E. Cummings, A.E.Robinson, and many more, take up their tradition in modern times. Like most readers, I am loathe to start "mentioning favorites," lest I unintentionally slight some fine spinners of tales. I thank them all for their craftmanship. They have much entertained me these many years. Anything I write is a pale comparison to those who have come before, bless them every one as Dickens would say:) J.X.M

I don't read. My bad!

'I've had it with these cheap sons of bitches who claim they love poetry but never buy a book.' That quote just popped into my mind. Not sure why.

"I'm one of the few people who have written more books than they've read" - Garth Merengi is the quote that popped into my mind.

I love Garth. I love The Sanch more though. Enzo.. www.thedevilbetweenus.com

Yes, Mark and Gareth, "The most photographed barn in the world chapter" is amazing. That idea of a most photographed barn sends me in to a kind of trance. Mark, I wasn't sure about the final chapter either but, by that point, I was so in love with the book, he couldn't have thrown it away if he'd tried. Great Garth Merenghi quote. That's classic. Joe

I haven't read White Noise but I will add it to my list. I loved Libra by him - about the Kennedy assassination. The Dickens I got was Martin Chuzzlewit, and I have Our Mutual Friend also waiting to be read. Don Quixote - the bit I've just read - he's gone to visit the hermit but he's out. Luckily the hermit's assistant is in. Haha, well it made me laugh at work! http://drewgum.wordpress.com

"So why aren't you all discussing these on http://www.booktribes.com ?" The main reason I'm unlikely to discuss Spook Country on booktribes, is because booktribes has never heard of it.

Conn Iggulden... The gates of Rome, Brilliant. Another side to a 13 year old leader.

I was reading "London Fields" by Martin Amis, but I went off it big time about half way through, so I went and read "High Rise" by JG Ballard which I thought was brilliant. Might go back to Amis, I thought "Money" was great, but I'm not so sure about this one....

I have read two books since Christmas. "The Innocent Man" by John Grisham and "Faces" by Martina Cole. The first I thought a great read about an American miscarriage of justice that almost defies belief. I felt so angry that I found it difficult to continue at times. Even now I can hardly believe that the people responsible for the stitch-up were not themselves prosecuted for contempt of courts. Could it happen here? I wonder! Martina Cole's book I found very hard going. I once said that I would not read anymore of her books but this one was bought as a Christmas present so I felt honour bound to read it. I found it endlessly repetetive both of language and plot, felt as though I had read a lot of it before. Her usage of foul language I felt was also well over the top. That sort of language is OK when coming from the mouths of the characters in the books "That's a given" but does the narrator need to use quite so much? It seemed to me that it was used more for impact and to be seen as outrageous than as part of the story. No this one I felt was not as compelling as her previous books, nor as well written....