3WDW Group Read - Check in the 1st!

[glinda]

The first week of the challenge has reached an end. Time to share with the class your triumphs and tribulations. Finish a book? Make a start on something that you've been meaning to get round to for ages? Are the lighter nights an excuse to stay up later reading or do you miss the Winter gloom for curling up with a book purposes? (Alternatively if you're on the other side of the world to me, does the opposite apply this time round?)

Triumphs and tribulations in the comments below!

Comments

[tamsin]

I've started reading a biography about Edith Wharton, but haven't gotten very far yet. Tomorrow I'll spend some time on the bus so I hope to be able to read a chunk then.

[peaceful_sands]

Good luck - hope you enjoy it.

[shanaqui]

I am not reading nearly as much as I'd like. I miss reading voraciously! (I know I still read voraciously by some standards, but...)

I really want to finish Within the Sanctuary of Wings (Marie Brennan) ASAP. Right now it is blowing my mind a little.

[peaceful_sands]

It's great when time, energy and a fantastic book all align correctly. Still just getting the great book is a good start!

[peaceful_sands]

I've finished 'Backlash' by Lynda LaPlante and 'Death of Grass' by John Christopher (also known in some parts of the world as No Blade of Grass). The former was a police procedural - a man is pulled over by the police for erratic driving and they find a body in the back of the van. When they investigate further, more murders begin to come to light.

Death of Grass was written in the 1950s, so in some respects is dated (attitudes towards women would be one notable one). The premise of the story was that a virus hits China killing off their crops and leading to a famine which has reached devastating proportions before the news is leaked outside their borders, by which time the virus has spread to the neighbouring countries as well. As the virus spreads, despite countermeasures being deployed, the virus mutates taking in more and more grass based plants. The story takes place in Britain and is how the country reacts. An architect takes his family and some acquaintances and head for his brother's farm in the country. It's interesting, in the breakdown of society (dystopic/apocalyptic future type of thing), in considering how with all the genetic modification of wheat crops and over dependence of so many of the world's societies on those. I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy fairly recently and this almost felt like it was its predecessor, both in the era in which it was written but also in the state of civilization.

[glinda]

I have utterly failed to read anything at all this week, neither from my shelf nor from anywhere else.

*hangs head in shame*

However I'm going to spend about 17 hours on trains over the weekend so I'm hoping to get a decent amount of reading done on those...

[tamsin]

I hope you find something enjoyable for your train ride!

[glinda]

Thanks, I ended up picking Easy Riders, Raging Bulls for my train journey. I didn't read it all but I got a decent chunk of it read.

[krait]

I fell into a reread instead of tackling something from the To Be Read Pile, but hey - Eifelheim is always worth a reread! I really love how the 'medieval German' sections are handled; the language changes are mostly subtle but really do give a useful reminder of the translation convention (appropriate, since translation and multilingual communication are a big part of any first-contact novel).