Comments on: Spellbound by Story

By: Selwyn

Selwyn — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:28:55 +0000

For me what makes a great story is that I forget my own name reading it – it has sucked me so completely in that I can’t remember here because I am so fully there. That and almost mentioning characters in conversation like they are real people you know. And a great story has people you would love to have around for dinner and/or serious time with.

Yay for A Town Like Alice! (Though I have to ask, did you know anything of Australia/Australians before reading it? I am so curious to know!) Actually, most of Nevil Shute’s books suck me in. Rose for the ANZAC boys (Jackie French) did too.

Old Man’s War (John Scalzi) was the latest in my Read-to-OHNONONO-it’s-so-late-okay-early-but-I-HAVE-to-finish memories. Glorious, funny scifi.

Karyn, I’m a speed reader too so the sheer number of books I go through means I have borrowed the same book without realising – then been grumpy with myself for wasting my precious reading time =)

By: Giggles

Giggles — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:22:33 +0000

m&m I get lost in non-fiction too. This year a friend challenged me to read 26 non-fiction books, one topic for each letter of the alphabet. I’m absolutely loving it! I’ve read about the Boston Tea Party, the history of corsets, folklore. I have planned to read books about zero, rockets, the Sermon on the Mount. It’s amazing!

My grandpa would never read fiction. He said there was too much non-fiction in the world to read and learn about to spend his time reading fiction. I don’t go that far with it, but non-fiction is amazing!

By: MissMel

MissMel — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:51:06 +0000

Thanks, Shelah, thanks.

By: Thumbs Down on My Relief Society Book Group « Course Correction

Thumbs Down on My Relief Society Book Group « Course Correction — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:38:53 +0000

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By: Karyn

Karyn — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:49:22 +0000

A Town Like Alice-ooh, one of my all-time favorites! I read so much and so quickly that I finally had to start writing down titles after reading them. More than once I’ve checked a book out of the library, brought it home, gotten a few pages in, and realized I’d read it before. Does this happen to anyone else? I also find myself on genre kicks- nonfiction, Western, classic, mystery, or whatever.

By: annie

annie — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:27:02 +0000

Yes, a Segullah Book Club!

I love giving in to a book’s spell. It had fewer consequences when I was younger (I hear you, Tiffany, on the consequences when I reemerge!) but I still love to find a great book & submerge myself in the story’s world. Sometimes I can’t stop thinking about the story even when I’m not reading and feel a loss when I’m finished–signs of a really good read for me.

I love Stegner…I re-read Crossing to Safety and Angle of Repose every few years (Big Rock Candy Mountain also a good one). Also To Kill a Mockingbird and Madeleine L’Engle’s Austen family series (YA). Right now I’m reading Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and The Book Thief and I love them both.

Recent favorites: The Welsh Girl (Peter Ho Davies), anything Barbara Kingsolver, The Lost Garden (Helen Humphreys), The Middle Place (Kelly Corrigan). Olive Kitteridge. The Hunger Games/ Catching Fire. Thanks for all the great reading suggestions!

By: m&m

m&m — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:03:16 +0000

We need a Segullah Book Club, don’t we!

We really should.

By: Cissy

Cissy — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:59:28 +0000

The characters, the characters, the characters. That’s what makes the story for me. Fiction or non-fiction, classic or new, when the characters are interesting, complex, reflective, learning, then I am pulled into their stories. Beautiful language (sometimes lyrical, but mostly just perfectly well-said) coupled with those characters puts the book into my favorites category.

A smattering of my most beloved: A Town Like Alice, Silas Marner, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Anne of Green Gables, The Glass Castle, All Creatures Great and Small, and almost all things Austen or Gaskell.

By: sar

sar — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:45:52 +0000

I was recently introduced to Michael Chabon and I love him. If you have an interest in Jewish themes or like noir, “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” is for you.

By: Justine

Justine — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:54:17 +0000

FoxyJ, I love love love Thomas Hardy. We need a Segullah Book Club, don’t we!