What is your current "read"?

LissaC said:
I have mixed feelings about notes. They add a wealth of information, but they also break the pace of reading, turning it more into "academic" reading and spoiling the enjoyment. I remember reading "Romeo and Juliet" with extensive notes and I felt like I wasn't enjoying the text because the notes were always breaking my focus. So I just gave up on the notes and read the play by "feeling", it's actually not super hard to understand the text by "intuition", I'm sure there were things I missed but I enjoyed the reading better. With older books that have a lot of context that's easy to miss, I will research more about the book or specific situations later.
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George MacDonald Fraser used notes extensively in his series of "Flashman" novels but I found that they were not necessarily pertinent to the plot so could be read even after finishing the book.
 
Currently reading this one
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I'm a bit geekish when it comes to bookshelves. Even though it can be a bit of a chore shuffling things along, I keep books in alphabetical order of author. Well, apart from reference books, which we keep separately. This also means that I get to sit next to David Lodge.
 
Duck59 said:
I'm a bit geekish when it comes to bookshelves. Even though it can be a bit of a chore shuffling things along, I keep books in alphabetical order of author. Well, apart from reference books, which we keep separately. This also means that I get to sit next to David Lodge.
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I keep mine by themes, then by authors. On the big one, first shelf is Agatha Christie, below are several other crime fiction authors (G.K.Chesterton, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Frances Brody, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, etc), below are miscellaneous romances. Other books are grouped by popular science, history, mythology. Another bookshelf has a shelf with more crime fiction. Yes I read a lot of crime fiction, count on me to hide a dead body.
 
I'm not big on crime fiction, although I have just acquired a book by Val McDermid. Someone was getting rid of it, so I said I'd have it as I've never read any of her books.

I feel slightly guilty at not having read any because she comes from Kirkcaldy, which is close to where I live. She sponsors a stand at Stark's Park, the home of Kirkcaldy's football team, Raith Rovers. She is also on the board of the football club.

She is not the only well-known crime writer from these parts. Another is Ian Rankin, famous for the Rebus novels. He comes from Cardenden, a small town not far away from here. I've read two or three of his books.
 
Duck59 said:
I'm not big on crime fiction, although I have just acquired a book by Val McDermid. Someone was getting rid of it, so I said I'd have it as I've never read any of her books.

I feel slightly guilty at not having read any because she comes from Kirkcaldy, which is close to where I live. She sponsors a stand at Stark's Park, the home of Kirkcaldy's football team, Raith Rovers. She is also on the board of the football club.

She is not the only well-known crime writer from these parts. Another is Ian Rankin, famous for the Rebus novels. He comes from Cardenden, a small town not far away from here. I've read two or three of his books.
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I'm not sure if I ever read a Scottish crime author, but I'm a huge fan of Alexander McCall Smith, he was born in Rhodesia but studied in Edinburgh and settled in Scotland long ago. His are light, feel good books that I reach for every time I need something to cheer me up. He's a very prolific writer and still active, I still have plenty of his books to enjoy.
 
LissaC said:
I'm not sure if I ever read a Scottish crime author, but I'm a huge fan of Alexander McCall Smith, he was born in Rhodesia but studied in Edinburgh and settled in Scotland long ago. His are light, feel good books that I reach for every time I need something to cheer me up. He's a very prolific writer and still active, I still have plenty of his books to enjoy.
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From the "other" (i.e. western) side of Scotland, there is also William McIlvanney. He wasn't by any means exclusively a "crime" novelist, but his detective Laidlaw is perhaps his most famous creation. Somebody gave him the slightly dubious title of "the creator of Tartan Noir."

Willie's brother Hugh was also a brilliant writer, though in his case as a sports journalist. Sadly, neither of them are with us any more, but they both contributed much to Scotland's catalogue of fine writers.
 
LissaC said:
Not sure if this is the right place to post but just wanted to share my bookshelves, I love seeing photos of bookshelves 🤩
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I'm afraid my bookshelves now consist only of cookery books, some Formula 1 fact books, McDonald Fraser and Tom Sharpe. All the rest are hidden away on my hard drives.
 
Yorky said:
I'm afraid my bookshelves now consist only of cookery books, some Formula 1 fact books, McDonald Fraser and Tom Sharpe.
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And my third hard copy of Joseph Heller's "Catch 22" - I forgot.

My first read of "Catch 22" was on my daily commutes to Huddersfield in '71. I would attempt to secure a front seat on the upper deck of the bus so that other folks wouldn't consider me weird because i was alone and laughing so much.

I have no idea what happened to that copy but I bought another one probably 20 years later when I was flying a lot. That one got left on a flight inadvertently when I was three quarters of the way through it.

I bought the third copy about 10 years ago and haven't yet opened it.
 
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Yorky said:
And my third hard copy of Joseph Heller's "Catch 22" - I forgot.

My first read of "Catch 22" was on my daily commutes to Huddersfield in '71. I would attempt to secure a front seat on the upper deck of the bus so that other folks wouldn't consider me weird because i was alone and laughing so much.

I have no idea what happened to that copy but I bought another one probably 20 years later when I was flying a lot. That one got left on a flight inadvertently when I was three quarters of the way through it.

I bought the third copy about 10 years ago and haven't yet opened it.
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I love Catch 22. I laughed histerically with the scene where he flies too low on the beach and accidentally kills a colleague, I think only people who've read the book will understand this😂
 
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