Reading is never off topic is it?

I've been into really quick fast, light, fun reading and I'm right now in the middle of something called Charley's Webb by Joy Fielding. It's not bad and holding me. One of my friends has read each of her books and says she liked most of them.

Jane Eyre sounds like an interesting re-read. I'm always a little reluctant to do that with something I loved for fear it won't hold up and I'll be disappointed.

I should be embarrassed to admit it, but I never did get all the fuss about Jane Eyre. So maybe a re-read is in order. There were several references to The Eustace Diamonds and The Lady in White, so I'm thinking I'll start there.

I'm thinking that I read it as a kid. That makes a big difference in what you believe is greatness.

Well, I read JE in my mid teens - at point were I didn't believe in romance. Lust, desire yes, romantic love - hell no. I could see it was a great novel, well written and all that, but that is about that.

DD is currently contemplating reading "Twilight" just to see what all the fuss is about.

Cheryl

I'm reading "The Devil's Punchbowl" by Greg Iles, and it's like crack....I can't stop! I even took it to bed with me last night - a rarity - and kept reading with the itty bitty night light after DH went to sleep. Would have slept later this a.m., except I wanted some reading time before work. It's a political suspense thriller type - quite graphic, so beware if you don't care for that sort of thing.

sue

I know people can be reluctant to re-read a book loved years earlier, but suggest they not hesitate! Although the plot line and characters' broad stokes are certainly familiar, the lens of a few (or more!) years makes it a new book, and you see different things and pick up more nuances than you imagined were ever there. I remember enjoying To Kill a Mockingbird when first published, and re-read it last year

-- much better, and WOW! Same with The Wind in the Willows, Brighty of the Grand Canyon, Tess of the D'Ubervilles, and Les Miserables. My next re-read will probably be Pride and Prejudice.

I never did care for Jane Eyre. Even in my teens I thought she was a twit. Tried again in my twenties, but no. Still an idiot in my eyes.

Trollope, yes. As an active Episcopalian, I figure I need to re-read the Barchester Towers series about once a decade - like when I get fed up with clergy antics, then I think about the Barchester lot, and think "ah well, plus ca change etc."

I have a friend who "haunts" the secondhand paperback stores, and she usually keeps me supplied with mysteries, of varying quality, but she had gone back to work so the flow has lessened. Having been confined to bed recently, I am working my way through Galsworthy's "Forsyte Saga" at present.

Perhaps this week I can get out to the public library and see if they have anything interesting.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Just started a Charles McCarry spy thriller set in the late 50s and written in the 70s. DM saw it listed in the WSJ among best spy tales so she wanted it. I'm sure a difference from my last "The Forgotten Garden."

I don't think I ever sat down to read Jane Eyre. This admission comes as I'm working on "The Bookshelf" which lists Bronte among the authors "on the bookshelf." Never read "Wind in the Willows" either. Rather when DM tried to read it to me... I "hated" the speaking animals or so she says.

Nancy

Just started a Charles McCarry spy thriller set in the late 50s and written in the 70s. DM saw it listed in the WSJ among best spy tales so she wanted it. I'm sure a difference from my last "The Forgotten Garden."

I don't think I ever sat down to read Jane Eyre. This admission comes as I'm working on "The Bookshelf" which lists Bronte among the authors "on the bookshelf." Never read "Wind in the Willows" either. Rather when DM tried to read it to me... I "hated" the speaking animals or so she says.

Nancy

I did read Jane Eyre when I was very young but never read Wind in the Willows. Apparently it didn't appeal to me. I never read Winnie the Pooh either. Maybe my mother didn't like them.

It's interesting how taste changes over the years. I re-read Gone With The Wind a few years back and was surprised to see how little I thought of it. My take now was it was okay and fast reading.

Lucille

What kind of graphic? Violence? Sex?

Thank you, thank you, thank you....

There are some mysteries I just can't read... Too cozy, too violent, don't like the main character....

I'm waiting for the next Janet Evanovich at the library.C

I almost laughed out loud at that line - it brought a flashback. I so remember DD telling me how much she HATED Tess D'Urbervilles (sp?) when she was required to read it for school. DD, who hasn't been without a book in her hands since first grade, and regularly read books way past her age level- mostly sci-fi/fantasy, but this one was like pulling teeth. "Tess is SUCH a TWIT!" she complained.

She's still a huge reader, but never got into Victorian lit. Still sci-fi/fantasy!

Sue

yes and yes. More violence than sex...and the sexual part of it is really violence-based (fortunately it's limited). It's partly about dogfighting, and those scenes are more visual than I care to read! But the graphic parts are, I must give credit, in service to the story and not overly gratuitous. (IMHO)

sue

Happy ending like Jane Eyre? I have that right now on tape in the car! It was the first book my older sister LIKED that she read in high school. Her most favorite is Wuthering Heights. Her two daughters are named Emily, for Emily Bronte, and Jane for Jane Eyre. :-))) I like to sit in the evenings and listen to Jane Eyre on tape while I stitch. Unlike my sister, though, I prefer books with happy endings! :-) I like Jane Eyre, but HATE Wuthering Heights and especialy hate Romeo and Juliet. :-))) Thirteenth Tale sounds good if it ends well. That's why I like most of the Marion Chesney and Georgette Heyer romances. I don't have to worry about what happens in the middle. I can just enjoy the language and the story (I love the doors that "unclose") and not worry that I'll regret having read the book. Blackstone Audio is having a special sale for our local Library Foundation with ALL audio books only $5.00. I'm hoping to find two copies of Jane Eyre and maybe one of Wuthering Heights. The only drawback is that I have to drive to Ashand to get there. Ashland may be a cute and trendy college town but it's a pain in the @#$%^&* to drive through! I'm hoping I can meet a friend at her house and maybe she'll drive. :-))))

Liz from Humbug

Liz from Humbug

You'll love it then, in fact after you read it, I want to know if you notice the subtle joke on the part of the doctor. And yes it ends well. Not all of the I's are dotted and T's crossed for the plot lines, but the ending is exactly right.

I liked Wuthering Heights better than Jane Eyre. And I hate Romeo and Juliet. Love King Lear, like the sonnets (in small doses). Like the Tempest and some of the other comedies.

I like Chesney and Heyer too. I think I really prefer mysteries because they usually end with the bad guy in jail (hopefully convicted) and the good guys sitting back on their laurels.

Cheryl

Ah -but I love Conan Doyle and Trollope was ok...

I admit I'm not in love with Trollope or the "so called" classics. For me, reading them once was quite enough and watching the various movies keep me happy.

My favorite read is a good detective story, followed by a mystery or sometmes something about international intrigue/espionage. I used to read a lot of science fiction when my DDH was alive, maybe because that was his first love, but I've kind of dropped them.

Now, if it doesn't catch me after 50 pages, I can happily give it up. Years ago I was compelled to finish it, even when I thought it was drivel.

Lucille

"Lucille" wrote .

I am a major Victorian lit fan--Middlemarch is my favourite, but I love Wuthering Heights, and much of Dickens. I think it is the richness of the the books--in more recent writers, I tend to be drawn to people like Salman Rushdie who revel in words and who spin complicated plots with lots of characters. I cannot read Mill on the Floss or Tess of the D'Ubervilles without a box of tissues at hand--and the classic Laurence Olivier Wuthering Heights lends itself to a very satisfying weep. Have you seen the BBC dramatisation of Cranford??? A lovely little story of female friendship.

I can reread Sherlock Holmes any time. I like detective stories and even true crime accounts set in the Victorian era, when there was no CSI and no random gunfire.

I think it is harder today to "get into" books like Jane Eyre because the social conditions have changed so much; it is hard to appreciate the life of a governess, or the constraints a woman might be under. We can be amused by the desire of the girls in Jane Austen's books to get married --seems very much like current chick lit--but it is harder now to appreciate the devastating consequences of not being married on a woman's life (Anne Elliot in Persuasion) and so understand why anyone would marry an idiot like Mr. Collings.

Now I am determined to dig out one of the classic movies, my teapot and a box of tissues tonight. Thanks for the inspirations everyone.

Dawne

Have you tried any of the modern fantasy stories?

Cheryl