Reading is never off topic is it?

Ah, for twitdom - Ethan Frome. The only book that I remember forcing myself to read as it was required for English class. Reading it - long, drawn out, boring, boring, and you want to strangle these people for their own misery. The movie with Liam Neesom - somewhat better. But still. I do remember thinking that Ethan Frome was more torturous to read than Silas Marner "oh, Hepzibah." My only adult experience coming close in torture to sit/read through - the play "Light in the Piazza" - which travelling company was soooo bad that it made "Little Women (the musical that shouldn't have been)" good by comparison. And spawned our own lyrical song taken from the show "she was kicked, kicked, in the head - in the head, kicked in the head, by a pony, shetland pony, shetland pony....." Much to the amusement of the clerk in the Ken Ctr gift shop when we performed for her the other night (before The Color Purple).

Victorian Lit - the books by AS Byatt - I loved these modern takes.

ellice

Are kids still required to read books like Ethan Frome and Silas Marner? They were torture for me at a much simpler, more innocent time. I can't imagine what today's kids would think of them.

Lucille

Mercedes Lackey's 500 Kingdoms series starting with The Fairy Godmother. Also Kushiel's Dart (Carey) is good but has a lot of sex.

Cheryl

I'm writing down these names.

Just so you know, I have no hang ups about books, whether it's sex or violence or whatever. I've read it all.

I'm am an absolute believer in no censorship for the written word (for adults) and figure it's up to an adult to censor themselves.

Lucille

Agreed. I read Ethan Frome just a couple of years ago, and it was boring and depressing.

The one book I couldn't get through in HS and BS'd my way through the report was "Moby Dick." I hated it. Carried the guilt for decades. (Not guilt for hating it; guilt for BSing.) Well, a few years ago I decided to reread it and see if a more adult perspective helped; it didn't. Still too long, too boring, and hated it all over again. (But finished it, by golly! Penance!)

I like Byatt, too, and in adulthood really enjoy Dickens.

"The Forgotten Garden" was very Victorian-littish. Ditto "Shadow of the Wind."

I see "The Time Traveler's Wife" is coming out next month. I loved that book; read it when it first came out. (And therefore have forgotten most of it now, LOL!) That might be a crossover that could appeal to both Victorian lit and fantasy folks. Can anybody else chime in on that thought?

Sue

I can thoroughly recommend any of Terry Pratchett's "discworld" books, just suspend disbelief and enjoy the humour. Here's a guide to the regular characters

Let me add The Dark Hunters series by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Celtica and Llandrian series by Robin D. Owen. And Lynn kurland's "Star of the Morning" books. Diana Gabaldon's new Outlander book "An Echo in the Bone" is due out in September. Much of the Dark Hunters take place in New Orleans and it has been described as "Xena meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer." I find it very much tongue in cheek and laugh out loud funny. Two years ago I would have said I'd never read a book about vampires.

I enjoy fantasy as it helps me forget (temporarily)the fibromyalgia.

Bobbie V.

PS DH has fixed one porch to become a library for my collection of books.

I second Bruce on the Discworld books. They have all kinds of humour from fairly sophisticated parody to really awful puns. The World is richly populated with fascinating creatures, and definitely fun to visit. Dawne, looking down at her Death and Binky mousepad

I've added these to my list. So many books, so little time`````````

This has me thinking that I should climb up and take down my very, very old copies of the Red,Yellow & Blue Fairy books and read them again. I do that every few years, first to dust the pages and second because I love them.

I use those three and my cherished copies of Little Women and Black Beuaty for decoration. They've been with me since I was very little and they have stayed reasonably okay so they must know they're loved.

Lucille

"Susan Hartman" wrote >

Ah, good. Another person who could not do that book; I tried to blame my several failed attempts on being a prairie person with no affinity for the sea, but truth is, that is one boring book. Have you tried Ahab's Wife (author I think Naslund??) My first university English prof was an American ex-pat who spent the entire semester on Huckleberry Finn, which he thought was The Greatest Novel Ever Written and, of course, The Story of America (which impressed us not one bit, this not being America). My god what a tedious semester. Nothing particulary wrong with the book, but he did not convince me it was all that

Dawne

"Lucille" wrote >

Oh, I loved those books soooo much when I was a little girl; I always had one or another out from the library. Now I will have to go online and see if I can find them. I also loved Hans Christian Andersen, especially The Snow Queen, and Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince, which is another story that brings tears to my eyes every time.

Dawne

If you add The Secret Garden (and a very big box of tissues) to that list, plus a coffee pot and a never ending supply of good ground coffee, I could happily live happily locked up for a week.

Oh, I'm with you, Dawne! I collect the works of an Australian children's author called Ethel Turner. She wrote around the turn of the (last) century and her books are wonderful insights into family life, the social climate of the times and the ways in which our society worked (or didn't work) back then. I imagine her books fill a similar niche to the 'Little House' books of Laura Ingalls Wilder or the 'Anne of Green Gables' series by LM Montgomery: just charming gentle stories of other times when life was slower and crises were solved without the internet. :-D

I was given 'David Copperfield' when I was seven and thought it was wonderful! It took me many years to realise the copy I'd been given was a special edition for children and that was why I'd found myself completely unable to cope with Dickens until much, much later.

I've always enjoyed Jane Austen, especially for the ways in which she examines social customs and the ways in which women slotted into a man's world. 'Emma' would be my favourite, probably because she (Emma) is such a dill and doesn't know it.

"Trish Brown" wrote

I will check out Ethel Turner. I loved loved loved the Anne books when I was a girl. A friend of my mum's gave me Anne of Green Gables for Christmas when I was 7, and then a new one in the series every year until I was a teenager, when she began to donate to charity in my name. I owe this woman (Lavinia--there's a name you don't hear these days!) a great deal for opening those doors for me. (My mum didn't "get" either of Lavinia's presents, but they made a lasting impression on me). Just to bring this round to needlework, I have an Anne of Green Gables alphabet sampler somewhere in my stash.

Emma is a great character, and very true to life, as I think we all when we were young go through spells of thinking we know everything and no one else before us ever figured it all out, but my favourite Jane is Sense and Sensibility. I think I was pretty much Marianne when I was young, and she might break out again at any time. I did enjoy the movie very much.

Dawne

And I hope they keep giving you and yours joy for many years to come. DD has read the copy of "Fun and Frolic" that I acquired some where along the years many times now. I hope her children get joy from them too.

Cheryl

Oh, I loved the Secret Garden - red it over and over. IIRC, being a horse crazy girl, Black Beauty was the first "real big girl book" that I read. I can remember reading out loud from it to my grandparents when I was just a tiny kid in kindergarten. Also, Little Women, and of course, the Bobbsey Twine. Ofr many years I had a gorgeous leatherbound set of children's classics that my DGM had gotten at some antique shop for my mother or aunt. For some stupid (STUPID) reason, my mother decided to give the set to her cousin for her girls when I was going away at 15. I'm still angry - as the younger girls (my extended cousins - and none too readerly) were supposed to return the set when they got older - I'm still waiting. It had all the Dickens books, and so many others.

ellice

Many years ago, after I had left home, I bought my own copies of Black Beauty and Heidi and I still read them every couple of years. I never got all that excited about Little Women, but I enjoy that one also every 10 years or so. Of course, once I re-read that one, I also have to settle in to enjoy Little Men and Jo's Boys. :-) I never read The Wind in the Willows as a child either but checked it out from the library a few years ago and enjoyed it thoroughly. After all those Storybook Land rides at Disneyland, I was curious as to just what the story was.

As a word of advice to people who might want to dabble at the classics but don't have or want to take the time to read them, try them on tape or cd. I really enjoyed some of the Dickens books on cassette and I know I wouldn't have had the patience to "read" them in book form. I have also listened to the Odyssey while gardening, To Kill a Mockingbird in mid summer with a tall container of iced tea next to me and even On the Beach, which was wasted on me as a high school student but which I enjoyed on tape - as much as one can "enjoy" a story like that.

Also, if we all enjoyed the same books, there wouldn't be enough to go around. :-)

Liz from Humbug

"ellice" wrote >

My heart goes out to you. My mother decided while I was off on my very brief honeymoon as a teenaged bride (I was legally an adult) to give all of my record albums to the brat down the street as I "wouldn't have time for that nonsense." My every single Rolling Stones album! My Cliff Richard and Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames! My John Lee Hooker!! To a little idiot who loved the Cowsills! I think this incident may explain why I have boxes of my kids' books stashed away. The week I rented the dumpster my DD sorted through all her stuffed animals (although nothing got tossed--the only casualty was a troll doll one of my cats pulled to hair off) and has promised to come and do the same with her books. Meg and Mog may finally leave my basement!!

Dawne

Ah.....The Secret Garden. A favorite of mine too. Made sure I saw the musical based on it when it came around. OTOH was never into horses so I never had an attraction to Black Beauty. But I did love Little Women and all that followed. Even have a couple of the others that DM and DA had as kids. I think they're still in boxes down in the basement. And I've several books of her gothic mysteries. Definitely not for kids.

As for books being given away. DM rues the day DA decided to give all their Nancy Drews to DU's nieces. Of course I never saw them. Instead had to "settle" for the "newer" versions that were updated in the 50s and 60s. However, my 2nd grade teacher (and family friend) gave me a couple originals including Secret of the Old Clock.

Nancy