Bookish Blither

[susie_flo]

Following feedback from some FB pals, I have decided to give The Hunger Games a go.

Now my only dither is what to read first...  

a) A Fairly Honorable Defeat by Iris Murdoch 

b) Very Good Jeeves by Wodehouse

c) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

a) is a tale of evil, academic skullduggery that was recommended by Rosamicula with such flair that I decided I must read it immediately.  I have now read the opening pages and should probably continue before I start something else.  I suspect it will become very good but I was so distracted by the authorial style of the opening that I kept failing to pay proper attention to the information that I was supposed to be taking in and had to re-read it.  Specifically it's because Murdoch uses gossipy conversations between long-standing couples as a way of revealing a huge load of back story about other characters .  My only quibble with it is that they say too much to be entirely believable, along the lines of  "well of course your brother Peter is bound to be upset ever since his wife Jane had an affair with your best friend, John..."    Anyway I'm probably just being picky.  I suspect it's a tale that needs its back story dealt with quickly in order to get going.

b) is a cosy wallowing comfort-blanket of fun and linguistic silliness.  Like a mug of corking hot chocolate on an all wet day.  (Warning: I will undoubtedly become infected with jazz age slang for the duration of this read).  

c) is a trilogy (oh dear) of escapist teenage tosh.  I'm sure I read a funny quote once about people whose book collection consists mainly of trilogies and it wasn't flattering.  But anyway this one is being pimped at me by every corner of the interweb.  Someone out there appears to know that I'm not above reading kids books...  or even trilogies.

Anyway whichever one I go for first, please don't expect rapid feedback.  My reading time is, in itself, a crazed fantasy.  (I am currently averaging about 1 or 2 pages per day...)
 
  

Comments

[ms-siobhan.livejournal.com]

If it's trashy easy to read rubbish but in the process highly satisfying rubbish then I can thoroughly recommend Gossip Girl. Mr Pops has described it as SATC for teenagers - he's right. It is dreadful but I am enjoying it so much!!!

Someone at my writing class mentioned Iris Murdoch the other day - she said The Sea The Sea was one of her very favourite books. I must try to read it as the way she described it made it sound very good indeed but I'm afraid when I've tried to read Iris Murdoch I've found her impenetrable..... I have seen the film though, does that count? ;-)

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

I didn't realise Gossip Girl was a book - I thought it was a telly show!
The Iris that I have started is not impenetrable, but you can date it fairly well from the style of prose.

[ms-siobhan.livejournal.com]

GG is the best tv at the moment - I wallow in its trashy vacuousness and the fact that the man who plays Chuck Bass is such a serious actor that he only talks in a whisper just to prove how serious he is.

[chiller.livejournal.com]

Halfway through Bk 1 of The Hunger Games myself. Eminently readable ripping-yarn-type stuff. It's not awful like Dan Brown or the Twilight Ordeal; if you like a straightforward ripping yarn, that's what you're going to get.

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Ripping yarn is just what the doctor ordered!

[tvted.livejournal.com]

I loved the Hunger Games trilogy. Esp the 2nd book. I couldn't believe it was a teeny series.

No comparision to other books for the yuff of today like Twiglet.