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Golden Oldies out there...what books are you reading right now?


Guest Jetsun Milarepa

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girlinstory

One of my favourite quotes is a line from an Oscar Wilde play (OK, not a book :P ) "To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness."

Over the weekend they screened 'Pride and Prejudice' again - the one and only Colin Firth version. When the BBC first announced they were going to do it, they said they were going to 'sex it up' and I was absolutely horrified. Then I saw it and Colin Firth IS Mr Darcy :)

Everyone should read The Importance of Being Earnest! Most plays aren't as good on paper as they are on stage, but that is the exception. The first time I read it, I was in a dentist's waiting room - normally enough to reduce me to a cowering blob - and I kept laughing so hard my mom had to take the book away from me.

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Guest Jetsun Milarepa

Oh, it's a classic, girlinstory, it just showcases his amazing wit and intellect.....and the baby was in 'a handbag??!!'....that's the only sentence I can say with an English accent, thanks to that play!

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I am reading "the history of private life" by. ?VIckery. I can't remember her first name,sorry. GOod read about 1700 thru 1800s.

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Guest Jetsun Milarepa

Aqua Blue, is this book about the rise of biographies?

I finished the book about the Invisible Orientation, brilliant! A great handbook/manual for education.

Not reading anything at the moment, maybe I'll head off to the library before work this evening...

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No, it is about home life in England in the 1700 and 1800s. It talks about relationships, having servants, being a servant, decorating the home. She apparently compiled it from letter from that period. I found it very interesting.

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imnotafreakofnature!

Chandrakirti,

I really liked Invisible Orientation, too, it brought out a LOT of great information that, as a newly-discovered ace, I hadn't even thought about yet. And some of it was really heart-rending, like "corrective" rapes that some people go through. :'(

Right now, I'm working my way through Walking Yoga, The Reiki Bible and The Crazy-Makers (about how the food manufacturing industry is damaging our brains. I've never understood how something manufactured can be called food.). Also, off topic because it's not a book, but I've been re-watching The Truth About Cancer, an 11-part documentary by Ty Bollinger available for free on youtube. Talk about eye-opening!! He also has another series, The Quest for the Cures, that I plan to watch when I'm done with this one.

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Guest Jetsun Milarepa

Found a really interesting (to me anyway) book in the local library.

'The Last Englishman' by Roland chambers. It's a biography of Arthur Ransome who wrote 'Swallows and Amazons'. Evidently he was hiding some amazing things about his life during the Russian Revolution....

Anyway, happy reading all!

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Was at the library last night and picked up in a dark, dark wood (yes, all lowercase on the cover) by Ruth Ware, a British author. It's a "psychological thriller"--I read the first couple of pages and it grabbed me, so I'll give it a go.

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Blackthorn

Reading the RSPB book Spotlight on Robins at the moment. Lots of lovely Robin Facts :) - maybe it's an acquired taste....

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imnotafreakofnature!

Finished Walking Yoga and picked up a favorite - Rilke! I loooooooooooove Rilke! But it takes me forever to get through anything of his because there's so much depth. Most people can't say in ten pages what he could say in two sentences! When I first bought Dream-Crowned, one of his books of poetry, it took me days just to get past the first line of the first poem. lol

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imnotafreakofnature!

That quote comes from Rilke's eighth letter in Letters to a Young Poet (the Stephen Mitchell translation - the best of the ones I've read). It's one of his best-known works, and I've read it several times. The one I've just started is Diaries of a Young Poet. It's a journal he kept on a visit to Italy for Lou Andreas-Salome, a married woman he loved his whole life. I've also got other books of his letters, as well as most of his poetry. :) I've also got books about him, like Lost Son and a Rilke daily reader.

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sparklingstars

Now I'm reading Romeo and/or Juliet, by Ryan North. It's a choose-your-own adventure book for adults. You get to decide if you want to be Romeo or Juliet, then you choose different scenarios and turn to the correct page to see what happens next. Needless to say, this is not high-class literature, but it's fairly well written and it's a lot of fun!

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Guest Jetsun Milarepa

Sparklingstars, sounds like a cross between a book and an boar game, bet it's exciting to read/play. If only life could be replayed till it works out perfect!

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Gentle Giant

I just finished "Monkeewrench" by P.J. Tracy. It is a murder mystery where the murders were copied from a video game. This was kind of interesting for a story. But I thought the ending wasn't very good. Didn't make a lot of sense. Also didn't care for the excessive foul language. It's the most I think I've ever read in a book so far! There's some gruesome violence and mentions of sex stuff too. There was a baby/child that was described as being an "asexual hermaphrodite". I think the authors were ignorant though with that and some other subjects for their story.

Chandrakirti, was it you that said you read this book when discussing books in the "Anyone Past 50" thread?

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Guest Jetsun Milarepa

Sorry Gentle Giant, I've never heard of Monkeewrench or P.J. Tracy, but given your assessment of the content and language, I'll be giving it a miss!

I'm struggling to find the time to read my 'Last Englishman' book because all the workload I have right now.

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Gentle Giant

Hmm. I can't remember who it was that read that book too. Yeah, you won't be missing anything if you skip it.

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girlinstory

I'm finally reading The Martian by Andy Weir and really enjoying it. I binged half of it last night and plan to finish the other half tonight.

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YorkshireTyke

Add me to the list of Oscar Wilde fans! I'm a member of the Oscar Wilde Society and recently had the pleasure of having an article published in the society's journal.

At the moment I'm re-reading "Wuthering Heights" for the umpteenth time. My interest in the Brontes was rekindled when I discovered that my great-great grandfather was baptized by the Rev. Patrick Bronte.

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girlinstory

Add me to the list of Oscar Wilde fans! I'm a member of the Oscar Wilde Society and recently had the pleasure of having an article published in the society's journal.

At the moment I'm re-reading "Wuthering Heights" for the umpteenth time. My interest in the Brontes was rekindled when I discovered that my great-great grandfather was baptized by the Rev. Patrick Bronte.

That's awesome! You should post a link if you have one.

One of my favorite memories in the history of ever is when my professor got me permission to study the manuscript of Dorian Gray at the Morgan Library. I wrote my thesis paper on Oscar Wilde's editorial notes. Later, I used a photocopy of the page to design a teapot on Zazzle.

I may or may not be a dork.

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I am reading The Invisible Orientation by Julie Sondra Decker. I have found it very interesting.. A good read and seems well researched.

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Guest Jetsun Milarepa

Wow girlinstory, how amazing to have that connection with the great man!

I've given up reading my present book as it's not my thing....I don't know what my 'thing ' will be at the moment. I tend to grab what stands out and catches my eye. I've found quirky subject matter using that formula!! :D

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am also re-reading Wuthering Heights - I don't know how many times I have read that book, but it always seems fresh and unique.

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Guest Jetsun Milarepa

Ooh! Wuthering Heights, it's full of electricity....

I picked up Ian Rankin's post script to his Rebus books. Rebus is an Edinburgh detective, but he retired. However, he's lured back (as Rankine was, in writing the book) . It's called 'Even Dogs in the Wild'

Another one I look forward to getting started on is Solomon Creed by Simon Toyne, which is a thriller (again). I seem to be gravitating towards the edge of the seat type book right now.

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I recently read a wonderful novel, Star Sand, by Roger Pulvers. Most of the story takes place on a Japanese island during WWII.

I continuously read and reread lots of books by Kenneth Wapnick, PhD. about A Course In Miracles. Also recently read Loving What Is by Byron Katie.

For a long time my reading was mostly Jung or Jungians, and it went very slowly, of course. But since getting a Kindle I read more of a mixture. I have rediscovered Jane Austen and Virginia Woolfe, and want to say thanks to Tanwen for this, I will have to try some Elizabeth Gaskell.

My favourite author is Elizabeth Gaskell - she was a contemporary of Jane Austen but wrote about the working classes as well as the upper class. It can be difficult understanding the passages in dialect in 'North and South' but it's a fantastic story. Or there's Mary Barton - she talks about streets in Liverpool that are still there today.

Or there's Haatchi and Little B - a true story of a boy and his three legged dog - but make sure you have tissues at hand

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Gentle Giant

I just finished reading Death of a Dreamer, A Hamish Macbeth Mystery by M.C. Beaton. I've been reading this series and l like it. So far my favorites of this series are Death of a Nag and Death of a Bore. It's about Hamish Macbeth, a constable in the Highlands of Scotland. It is fun, light reading. I like that it has funny, goofy characters. At first I didn't like the poor grammar of some characters, but it's bothering me less now. There's of course murder in the story and also some romance, mild sex referrences and mild language.

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Guest Jetsun Milarepa

Oh, Gentle Giant! I got really excited when I read this post! That's where I used to live, these are stories based on Skye and Lochalsh area/ Having lived there I can tell you that they see a murder once in a generation, so it's not like 'Midsomer murders'...

It was turned into a UKTV series and the lead played by Robert Carlyle. Takes me right back as some of the characters are really accurate for that area, hence the poor grammar...English is a second language to most people there. Hope you keep enjoying them, I keep remembering the great times I had there (when I'm not remembering the poor weather and midgies).

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Autumn Sunrise

chandra and GG, I also love that area! I've visited Skye more than once, and spent a very happy birthday there (staying in the YHA in Kyleakin :D ) My daughter and I also spent some time exploring Plockton ( the town where a lot of the filming of "Hamish Macbeth" was done). We enjoyed the TV series, but after my daughter acquired the books on which it was (very loosely) based we can both understand why MC Beaton was not happy.

By the way, if you like MC Beaton you might also enjoy the "Agatha Raisin" series. I think the first one is called "Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death" :lol: It's a series of wacky murder mysteries with some beautifully eccentric characters, set in a Cotswold village. The only thing that might be a little annoying to "ace" readers is Agatha's somewhat obsessive quest for a husband, but if you can cope with this I think these books are great fun, and easy reading when you just want to relax :)

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Gentle Giant

Yes, I want to check out the Agatha Raisin stories too. I saw a bunch of those where I got the Macbeth ones from, at a local book exchange place.

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I'd stopped reading for a few years until a friend persuaded me to buy a kindle.
Now I find that I'm reading happily again, mainly because I can alter the size of the typeface.
Recently I've read 'The Danish Girl', as well as various art history and meditation books, and a book about the Green Man carvings in European churches.
'The Danish Girl' is an amazing read, but I was very disappointed by the movie, which turns the painful struggle of a transexual person into a sort of cheap transvestite romp.

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