Belated reading roundup and book meme

[hamsterwoman]

I remembered that I had some books written up for over a month that didn't fit in my last reading roundup post, and I might as well post those because I keep reading more but not writing them up for some reason. But there's no sense in waiting until these fade from my mind even further.

33. Dhonielle Clayton, The Belles -- I actually wasn't going

Comments

[meathiel]

I had to look up how many books there are in Anne Perry's Thomas Pitt series ... 32. So that's the longest series I've read. 😁

[hamsterwoman]

I looked her up on Wikipedia, and wow! not only is there that long series, but she's also written another one almost as long and a couple of shorter ones? Whoa!

[meathiel]

I think I've read all of her books apart from maybe some of the Christmas stories.

[hamsterwoman]

Wow, I think that's more books than I have read by any one author (which would be Pratchett or Kellerman for me).

[zvuv]

You read the Canterbury Tales in the original Middle English? I actually now can't recall if we did too, or if it was an updated version... I think maybe we had both? But we only had to read one book of it, not the whole thing.

I have read Master & Margarita 3 times, with very different reactions. Last time was probably a decade ago? Still have a copy, may go back to it again at some point... It is both amazing and maddening to me. :)

OMG, I loved "tri tolstyaka" but completely forgot about its existence. :) I still for some reason think pink every time I think of this book. (There was something related to that in the book, which I don't quite remember. There was a cake with pink frosting, right? Or something?)

LOL at #44. Yup, that's a bad cover. :)

[hamsterwoman]

I think maybe we had both?

We did both, too :) I got it originally in regular English, IIRC, and then when I took my English major "early modern" sequence class, we got it in Middle English, but with extensive glosses. We only had to read a couple of the tales, but I loved it enough that I read the whole thing.

I have read Master & Margarita 3 times, with very different reactions.I'm really curious to hear more about this, if you well like saying more

[zvuv]

Canterbury Tales: very impressive! back in college, I didn't have the wherewithal to enjoy it, yet. at least not when I read it, freshman year. I suspect maybe by senior year I'd have gotten more out of it

[hamsterwoman]

It was a really fun meme! And I enjoyed reading everyone's answers when it was going around my flist, too.

I've heard really good things about Little Women, and I know there's the new movie being made. Maybe I can convince myself to read it for edification, since L has expressed some interest in watching the movie.

[failte_aoife]

I just checked and Lilian Jackson Browns The Cat Who mystery series also has 'only' 29 books and I skipped the last 2 or 3 so my longest series is also Discworld (and I can't actually remember if I've read Raising Steam...I think after I really enjoyed Going Postal, then read Making Money and sort of enjoyed but also thought that it was essentially the same story with a different wallpaper and then I skipped Steam)

[hamsterwoman]

Oops, apparently I lost track of the comments on this entry somehow, or LJ never told me about the last one -- sorry about that!

.I think after I really enjoyed Going Postal, then read Making Money and sort of enjoyed but also thought that it was essentially the same story with a different wallpaper and then I skipped Steam)Yeah... Going Postal instantly became my favorite Discworld book (and there are a LOT I love, of course). And then I read Making Money, and it was... OK, but everything was a paler shadow of the thing it was in Going Postal. And then I started Raising Steam, and got to about a third of it, and it was just breaking my heart to be enjoying a Discworld book so little, so I stopped. (Thing is, I did read later Discworld books that I appreciated more -- Snuff was good, and The Shepherd's Crown, for all that it was clearly not a finished novel, was I think also good, although it was hard to tell with how hard I was crying. But that Moist and Vetinari energy that made Going Postal golden must've been particularly

[aletheiafelinea]

And yet the school makes people temerairing all the time

[hamsterwoman]

And yet the school makes people temerairing all the time... -.-

True! I guess their end goal is not enjoyment, but it certainly doesn't contribute to it...

I do want to catch up on some of the "classic sci-fi" I've missed -- my current sync read of CJ Cherryh's Cyteen is part of that, and it's been a good thing so far. Maybe Heinlein at some point, and possibly Clarke, too.

Wait, "Anne of Green Gables" wasn't a thing in USSR? Here it had the "every girl loves it" status.

I don't think so... The titles never rang a bell for me, so I don't think it's even a case where the books were popular at an older age than when I left. There were a lot homegrown books about young people, some of them very good, so I guess that's what people enjoyed?

she's C.S.Lewis thing, and her imagination and worldbuilding was giving him run for his money, and sometimes left him far behind, eating dust, I'd say.Never read any CS Lewis either, until a collection of uncharacteristic poems just a few months ago. In general I'm not a huge fan of portal

[aletheiafelinea]

I guess their end goal is not enjoyment
Technically true, but since one of their declared goals is cultivating the habit of reading, they're effectively counterproductive...

@Montgomery
Huh... TIL

There were a lot homegrown books about young people, some of them very good, so I guess that's what people enjoyed?
So were here, many of them with a cult status of their own, but Montgomery still was/is big in cultural terms, on the Winnie the Pooh level.
(Any examples of those USSR books/authors? :) I mostly recall the kid lit, not so much for teens...)

Never read any CS Lewis either, until a collection of uncharacteristic poems just a few months ago.
...Oh. Yeah, she was good, but admittedly used portals a lot.

I've never come across it on, like, lists, but a LJ friend mentioned it to me, an I recced it to a couple of other people, who all ended up enjoying it.
Hehe, that's what I call a properly working friendlist. ;)

[hamsterwoman]

but since one of their declared goals is cultivating the habit of reading, they're effectively counterproductive...

Yep, unfortunately.

(Any examples of those USSR books/authors? :)

The ones I recall, with the caveat that as I never got to the YA lit level while living there, these may well be the classics of my parents' generation, and not what my peers were reading. Though... by the time my peers got to be teens, there was no USSR anymore, I guess, and I think what they were reading was an influx of Western books in translation.

- Lev Kassil's "Konduit i Shwambrania, about a pair of brothers who invent an imaginary country as kids, and then the book follows their lives through the lead-up to the Revolution. This was my father's favorite book as a kid, and I loved it for I think obvious reasons :)

- Respublika ShKID (the movie entry has more detail in English), about a group of boys in a reform school in the 1920s.

- "Doroga uhodit vdal'" by Alexandra Brushtein -- autographical books about pre-revolutionary life (which I