What Are You Reading? January 2013

Nefret · Post by **Nefret** » Tue January 8th, 2013, 10:15 am

Oooh, I like fairy tale novels.

Now... Heretic by Bernard Cornwell

annis · Post by **annis** » Tue January 8th, 2013, 6:13 pm

I enjoyed Snow Child - I have a taste for stories with a fairytale/mythic cast.

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Tue January 8th, 2013, 6:39 pm

The Snow Child was one of my best reads of 2011 - read it just at the end of the year.

Vanessa · Post by **Vanessa** » Wed January 9th, 2013, 10:30 am

The Snow Child is my next read. I enjoy fairytales and retellings of legends.

fljustice · Post by **fljustice** » Wed January 9th, 2013, 7:41 pm

Just hit the half-way mark in A Dance with Dragons. Because we're all down with a bug, haven't made any progress on my exercise/commuting book.

Vanessa · Post by **Vanessa** » Thu January 10th, 2013, 11:19 am

I've just started The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.

sweetpotatoboy · Post by **sweetpotatoboy** » Thu January 10th, 2013, 11:22 am

I have to admit I started reading 50 Shades of Grey and think I'm going to bail at about page 90. When I broke my foot a few months ago, a friend dropped me round her copies of all three books (goodness knows why). Anyway, I had a little window, so I thought I'd dip in and see what all the fuss is about. I don't really have the stomach to go much further...

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Thu January 10th, 2013, 11:56 am

Marmee and Louisa, a bio of Louisa May Alcott and her mother. Fascinating stuff, tho the author has a tendency to repeat her points about how bad it was for women in those days, over and over again. Still very readable. Great for anyone who was a fan of Little Women.

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Thu January 10th, 2013, 12:48 pm

[quote=""sweetpotatoboy""]I have to admit I started reading 50 Shades of Grey and think I'm going to bail at about page 90. When I broke my foot a few months ago, a friend dropped me round her copies of all three books (goodness knows why). Anyway, I had a little window, so I thought I'd dip in and see what all the fuss is about. I don't really have the stomach to go much further...[/quote]

It was obviously a triumph of hype over content and of a book being in the right place at the right time and marketed very cleverly indeed. I thought it was very second rate and in no way a ground breaker. This sort of material has been around for ever and far better written. I have a dear friend who has been writing erotic fiction for Black Lace and others for more than 20 years and her content and quality of writing, while being commercial is streets ahead of this bilge. She finally got her break on the tails of the Fifty Shades books. Her own latest novel entered the Sunday Times Bestseller lists as FS sales began to die off. At least she's earning some good income from it and perhaps picking up more readers. People say that cream rises to the top, but sometimes the crap does too!

Edited to say I'm still busy with John Guy's biography of Thomas Becket - takes me longer to read non fiction than fiction.

Lisa · Post by **Lisa** » Thu January 10th, 2013, 2:08 pm

[quote=""EC2""]bilge[/quote]

That's an amazing word!

I admit I had to look it up. As always, Urban Dictionary has some other entries for it, but I really, really hope you meant this:

Wikipedia wrote:The bilge is the lowest compartment on a ship, below the waterline, where the two sides meet at the keel. The word was coined in 1513. The word is sometimes also used to describe the water that collects in this area.