The Border Book Club

[Witchy Mummy]

Okay...I thought it would be fun to talk about the books we are reading at the moment, books we have read and books we would like to read. Plus, it's an excuse to tell you about the book I have just finished

I've just finished reading Tommy Steele: Bermondsey Boy. I loved this book. I couldn't put it down. The book charts his early life and how he got involved in Rock and Roll to become a teen idol in 50s Britain. The stories of his childhood were amazing. His young life was full of tragedy living throught the blitz in London. His father was used as a double for Winston Churchill and sounds like a real character. He tells of how he discovered Rock and Roll as it was progresing from Country and Western, while serving in the Merchant Navy. He bought his first guitar in New york and learnt the songs current in the USA. He would then stun everyone back home with this new sound. I'm very much looking forward his second book.

The book I'm about to read is called True Believer by Nicholas Sparks. Toonie gave it to me and said I would love it. It's part love story and part ghost story. I'll let you know what I think of it

[Brooke]

I just read The Notebook by Nicholas Sprarks! It was really good, really, really sad, but I loved it! A really great, easy read.

I'm also reading Hotel California. Not learning much that I didn't already know.

[Lisa]

Me, too. I admire Milton's grand design and flowing elocution. Thanks for the note about William Blake. ? ("Tyger, Tyger...") . I'll have to look for the material connecting him to editions of Milton.

[Lisa]

English Literature II sounds like a fun class! You must get to cover a lot by the time the term winds down! I was thinking that you were going to give a course entirely on Keats(!) Now I can see what you mean.

[sodascouts]

I'd love to teach a course entirely on Keats, but surveys of English Literature are much more popular amongst students! It is definitely fun to teach, though.

[Lisa]

That's a lot of preparation--your class will go well!

[Toonlass]

At present I have several books on the go...depending on whose house I'm at.

At home I have Bill Bryson's, A Short History of Nearly Everything, which I've been reading for ages...because its just so much information to take in that I take a break from it every now and again. One of those times is now, I'm reading Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Fury, which is the latest Sharpe book...I'm only a couple of chapters in, but I'm enjoying it so far.

At my boyfriends house, I have Tom Sharpe's Blott on the Landscape (which I'm nearly through) and QI: The Book of General Ignorance on the go. I love the QI book...great for flicking through to find out something else you thought you knew, but clearly didn't


I read The Notebook a couple of years ago and really loved it, though the film let me down slightly. I think Nicholas Sparks writes such good characters, its easy to feel drawn to them and their stories.

[Molly]

I started reading Stephen King when I was a teenager, and even though some of his more recent novels have been somewhat disappointing, whenever he has something new on the shelves, I always have to give him another chance.

I just finished Lisey's Story which was quite dark and at times got a little too fantastic with his tale of people stepping into and out of another world or kingdom. But within that story is a really touching story about a woman who had recently lost her husband of 25 years. It goes back and chronicles their lives together as she goes through understanding some of his dark secrets and coming to grips with her loss. It tells about how a couple that has been married such a long time develops their own "secret language" and I realized that that's very true!

Now I'm reading a King paperback called "Cell". It's about a day when all hell starts breaking loose and civilization ends as we know it all because of sublime messages coming via cell phones. It's grisley and graphic -pure King! It reminds me of "The Stand."
Any one besides Stephen King trying to tell a story like this and it would seem silly-but he has me thinking twice about putting my cell phone to my ear!

[glenneaglesfan]

Good topic to start, WM. Molly, I read Stephen King's 'Christine' years ago, and still sometimes have nightmares about it. He's a good writer, but I'm not very good with horror fiction. I tend to read non fiction, such as travel writing. I too have Bill Bryson's 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' on my bedside table for reading in short doses, although I've read all his other books quickly and have at times burst out laughing on trains reading some of his stuff! I have recently got into Terry Pratchett and the Discworld series - once you get over the fantasy setting they are very funny commentaries on life (and Death, who is one of the main characters, if you don't know the books).

Brooke, I read 'Hotel California' in the summer (thanks to Molly, who leant it to me). It was a nice easy read and kept my interest up, although I agree there was nothing much new.

WM, the Tommy Steele autobiography sounds fascinating. He was always so cheerful, it's hard to imagine he went through such hardship.

One quirky novel I read recently was 'The Greatest Man in Cedar Hole' by Stephanie Doyon, funny and touching at the same time.

[Freypower]

My husband the devoted Rush fan persuaded me to read Neil Peart's books about his motorbike travels. The first I just finished was The Masked Rider, about a painful ride through Cameroon. I'm now about to start Ghost Rider. Peart lost his daughter in a car crash and his wife to cancer within the space of a year and basically took to the road to deal with his grief.

I have also read all of Bryson's books (I've met him several times & have his autograph) but The Lost Continent is still my favourite.

I bought Cell for my husband for Christmas because he loves Stephen King. I intend reading it myself.

I am basically a classical literature reader though and most recently ploughed my way through War & Peace again. The only faults with it are Tolstoy's diatribes about the workings of history. I am about to revisit The Grapes Of Wrath.