• Want to help us with this year's BoS Trials?
    Let us know before 30 June. See this thread for details
  • Looking for HSC notes and resources?
    Check out our Notes & Resources page

What are you currently Reading? (1 Viewer)

scarybunny

Rocket Queen
Joined
Nov 7, 2004
Messages
3,820
Gender
Female
HSC
2005
The Great Gatsby.

Mostly because I have to for uni, but it's good so I don't mind.

Should have it finished by the end of the week.
 

chelsea girl

everybody knows
Joined
Oct 12, 2006
Messages
617
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
the lovely bones by alice sebold.

quite good, and very easy which is nice after all the meaty, sprawling, epic novels i've been reading. a read-in-a-day kind of book, but not completely bereft of depth at all.
 

Doctor Jolly

. Per Aspera Ad Astra *
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
1,229
Location
Study Desk
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
chelsea girl said:
the lovely bones by alice sebold.

quite good, and very easy which is nice after all the meaty, sprawling, epic novels i've been reading. a read-in-a-day kind of book, but not completely bereft of depth at all.
quite an extraordinary book too. I would've enjoyed mine better if it had not been in large print.
 
Joined
Jul 26, 2007
Messages
96
Gender
Female
HSC
N/A
chelsea girl said:
the lovely bones by alice sebold.

quite good, and very easy which is nice after all the meaty, sprawling, epic novels i've been reading. a read-in-a-day kind of book, but not completely bereft of depth at all.
yeah I read that...thought it was a pretty forgettable book though (except for the bit about the icicles, strangely)

reading 'The Good Nazi' by Dan van der vat :)
 

chelsea girl

everybody knows
Joined
Oct 12, 2006
Messages
617
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
Tulipa said:
What uni class?

And that's one of my favourite books of all time.

I've just started Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis.
agreed on the great gatsby being one of the best books ever.

and i am jealous that you're just starting glamorama. honestly, i think it might be my favourite BEE book, it is so amazing. the shift in style and plot and ideas from beginning to end is really quite remarkable. probably the best book i've read so far this year.
 

*TRUE*

Tiny dancer
Joined
Apr 30, 2008
Messages
1,654
Location
Couch
Gender
Female
HSC
N/A
Birthday Letters - Ted Hughes
I've been in floods of tears all day. I don't like Hughes :(
 

Doctor Jolly

. Per Aspera Ad Astra *
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
1,229
Location
Study Desk
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
sajad07 said:
Cloudstreet by Homo Winton
haha. My friend tried reading that book. Initially she didn't want to read it, but my teacher gave her the book as a part of wide reading and she didn't want to disappoint. Nevertheless, she had the book for over a term and only progressed as far as page 50. It was hilarious seeing the teacher's face when she gave it back to her saying that she could not read another page after 50.

I, personally, despise ALL of Tom Winton's books. They are all about the ocean and nature - and that stuff bores me.
 

Sastrawan

Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2005
Messages
31
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
The Shark Net, by Robert Drewe. If you've read Cloudstreet (or even if you haven't) you might want to have a look at this. It's a memoir, set in approximately the same time and place as Cloudstreet (50s and 60s Perth), but with a very different style.

If you get sick of Winton's colourful, over-the-top language, Drewe's style is cool, witty and brilliant. He is about 15 years older than Winton, and you can tell he really knows the setting he's writing about. Winton, I find, tends to romanticise and sentimentalise a bit, which is fair enough, considering he never experienced that world first-hand.

Another interesting thing is that Drewe was an acquaintance of Eric Cooke, who in Cloudstreet is the Nedlands Monster. He portrait he draws of Cooke is a very powerful and human, and much more compelling, I find, then Winton's somewhat cursory "He was a man. Just a man. With evil in him."

Winton, I feel, uses his characters and setting as tools to build his overarching thematic purpose, sometimes forcing them into contrived plot turns and unconvincing personality changes to force the message of Unity Above All. Drewe, on the other hand, imposes no such ready-made dogma onto his memories, and so the characters come out, in my opinion, much more true and convincing, because they seem like real people, with all their contradictions, failings and squabbles.

If you got fed up with Cloudstreet, or if you just want to read some good quality Australian literature that isn't all about sentiment and glorification of the bush/coast, try The Shark Net.
 

Doctor Jolly

. Per Aspera Ad Astra *
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
1,229
Location
Study Desk
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
I was thinking of starting to read Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.. is it really good? I'm doing Gothic for Extension English so I think NA would be a good start for wide reading and it could also expand my vocab ;D
 

bleu

Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2007
Messages
129
Gender
Female
HSC
2008
Doctor Jolly said:
I was thinking of starting to read Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.. is it really good? I'm doing Gothic for Extension English so I think NA would be a good start for wide reading and it could also expand my vocab ;D
Yeah, definitly give it a try. I loved it :)
 

bleu

Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2007
Messages
129
Gender
Female
HSC
2008
Just finished The girl with the pearl earing

Started:
Scarecrow by Mathew Reilly
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top