What are you reading now?

[gradus]

Barbara Pym's Some Tame Gazelle, I've not read her before and she had me chuckling on page 1, a discovery for me.

[muzzer]

I intend to find a copy of JG Ballard’s ‘Kingdom Come’ after reading this excellent article by Aditya Chakrabortty:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/18/sickness-britain-novel-20-years-ago-jg-ballard

JR

Ballard is great and I’ve always thought his vision of what humans were capable of was forged in the horrors he experienced in his upbringing in Shanghai.

[muzzer]

Barbara Pym's Some Tame Gazelle, I've not read her before and she had me chuckling on page 1, a discovery for me.

The recent biography is well worth checking out. Her novels are richly comic throughout.

[Petrushka]

It'll soon be time for my annual reading of A Christmas Carol. I first read it as a child in the 1960s but didn't start my annual read until 1984 so this must be somewhere around my 40th by now. And still I find new things in it, not noticed in previous readings.

[adventsnore]

By the way, I’m coordinating a Moby-Dick daily read with my book club, starting 5th January. Here’s info: https://open.substack.com/pub/advent...utm_medium=ios I’ll be sharing plenty of my own and others’ thoughts, and encourage joining in for as much or as little as you wish.

[smittims]

Kafka: The Man who Disappeared (first published as Amerika) . in Michael Hofmann's translation which includes some previously unpublished (in English) fragments.

This, Kafka's first novel , presages some of his famous themes, the hapless principal character caught in a sort of frustrating dream were he cannot get a simple thing right. Kafka of course never went to the USA and I suppose he relied on information by others to capture the atmosphere. I've often wondered whther it presents, to Americans, an accurate portrait of life there, and if not, whether that matters. Certainly I find it just as compelling as his two more famous novels, The Trial and The Castle. .

[LMcD]

'The Small Hand' - a ghost story by Susan Hill.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Just finished Robert Harris's 'An Officer and a Spy' account of the Dreyfus affair. Unusually for me, but probably helped by weather giving little chance to do anything else, I tore through it in about three days. Very recommendable.

Next up, I'll probably give 'Faust' another go, in the original German as it's not much more intelligible in translation, although I'll be on the lookout for more of Zola's Rougon-Macquarts, prompted by the Harris.

[Old Grumpy]

Just completed reading Timothy Popple's Evensong : Notes from the Choir.

Superbly written and really interesting*.

https://quiresandplaces.com/products/evensong-notes-from-the-choir

* At least to me anyway

[Petrushka]

Just started The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller. This was the one on the Booker Prize list that I wanted to read. I'm only 40 odd pages in and enjoying it so far.

[gradus]

How we Fish. Paul Whitehouse and John Bailey's delightful book on angling, a must -read for any lapsed angler like me or anyone who enjoys the Whitehouse/Mortimer TV series.

[Ian Thumwood]

Just finished Robert Harris's 'An Officer and a Spy' account of the Dreyfus affair. Unusually for me, but probably helped by weather giving little chance to do anything else, I tore through it in about three days. Very recommendable.

Next up, I'll probably give 'Faust' another go, in the original German as it's not much more intelligible in translation, although I'll be on the lookout for more of Zola's Rougon-Macquarts, prompted by the Harris.

Try 'le debacle' as a first stop. I think Zola is really uneven. Back in the 1990s, i read alot of them and the well known ones are worthwhile, if a bit samey. In the end they became repetitive and i moved on to other writers.

The new Robert Harris book looks good. My mate is a huge fan and put me on to them. They are entertaining but well researched too. Currently reading 2nd volume of Ricky Riccardi's Louis Arnstrong biography which deals with 1929 to 1947.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Try 'le debacle' as a first stop. I think Zola is really uneven. Back in the 1990s, i read alot of them and the well known ones are worthwhile, if a bit samey. In the end they became repetitive and i moved on to other writers.

'Samey' in what sense? I'm not planning to read the series end-to-end, which I guess could well produce that impression.

In connection with my studies, a fair few years back now, I've already read several of them, including La Débâcle, L'Assommoir, La Bête humaine and Germinal. The latter was of particular interest because I spent my time as an 'assistant' at a school near Valenciennes, and the locals claimed that a mine visible from my lodgings was where Zola had done research for the novel.

[smittims]

The Jean Renoir film of La Bete Humaine is a favourite of mine, not least for the wonderful shots of 1930s French steam trains. .

[Ian Thumwood]

'Samey' in what sense? I'm not planning to read the series end-to-end, which I guess could well produce that impression.

In connection with my studies, a fair few years back now, I've already read several of them, including La Débâcle, L'Assommoir, La Bête humaine and Germinal. The latter was of particular interest because I spent my time as an 'assistant' at a school near Valenciennes, and the locals claimed that a mine visible from my lodgings was where Zola had done research for the novel.

The conquest of Plassans was the point at which i gave up. LBH is the best one. They all follow a similar pattern and i got fed up with them in the end. The ones you list are the better ones , those not published by Penguin were missed for a reason. The low point is supposed to be the one set in a department store.