The Book Vipers discussion

I'm going to focus on writers this year

I have already drawn up a reading list, based on writers rather than titles.

I'm blogging now for more than a year. And I have already discussed certain writers in 2015 and will be doing so in 2016 as well. Apart from telling something about a certain writer, I intend to read some of their titles as well. It mostly are authors I have already read some work of.

✔ 1: Graham Greene
2: Hermann Hesse
3: Evelyn Waugh
4: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
✔ 5: Doris Lessing
6: Isabel Allende
7: John Le Carré
8: Heinrich Böll
✔ 9: E.M.Forster
10: John Fowles
11: William Somerset Maugham
✔ 12: Georges Simenon
13: Sandor Marai
14: Mario Vargas Llosa
15: Ivan Toergenjev
16: Sebastian Barry
17: Ruth Rendell
✔ 18: Damon Galgut
19: John Steinbeck
20: Robert Louis Stevenson
21: Wilkie Collins
✔ 22: Truman Capote
23: Henry James
✔ 24: Robert Harris
25: Charles Dickens

Are you allowed to share details of your blog on here? I would like to see it.

Of course

I blog in Dutch, Charlotte. A good friend of mine, who is English, has already complained about the fact that I don't blog in English.

Oh. That's unfortunate as I can't read Dutch. I'm sure your blog is very interesting though.

Charlotte wrote: "Oh. That's unfortunate as I can't read Dutch. I'm sure your blog is very interesting though."

Thanks Charlotte.

Last year January I read my first book by Doris Lessing: The Grass is Singing. Someone in another group recommended Martha Quest. And I indeed picked up Martha Quest a few months later. I found it in a second hand bookshop. It turned out to be the first installment of a series of five books called 'Children of Violence'. After reading 'Martha Quest' I decided on buying the other four books which I found second hand as well.

The Children of Violence series follows Martha Quest on her quest through life. So it are formation novels as it follows Martha on her psychological and moral growth from a young adult till old age. There are quite some overlapses between Martha Quests life and the life of Doris Lessing.

Besides 'Martha Quest' I also read the second installment: A Proper Marriage. Now I have just started: A Ripple from the Storm.

For those wanting to know more: I found this interesting review last year on the internet - https://frisbeebookjournal.wordpress....

In the meanwhile I have read Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories by Truman Capote which I enjoyed a lot.

I'm still reading The Early Stories of Truman Capote, better said, I took a small break from it.

Last year I read In Cold Blood which differs from Capotes short stories although it's clear it's written by the same author. There is more variation though in tone.

At the moment I'm also reading The Quarry by Damon Galgut, a South African author. It's a novel which easily can be read in a day, but for me it seems to work better when I'm slow reading it. It's very different from The Good Doctor I read last year - different in style and tone.

Though it was grim, In Cold Blood is well worth reading

Big fan of in cold blood, such a boring book but written in such a way it becomes gripping.

In Cold Blood is indeed grim and the writing is very gripping. Breakfast at Tiffany's is actually rather funny - rather tongue in cheek.

Paul wrote: "Though it was grim, In Cold Blood is well worth reading"

Right.. I should finish this one.. Kinda stopped in the middle when I had to deliver it back to the library..

Currently reading A Burnt Out Case by Graham Greene. A rather typical book for Greene on faith - although it is just one of the topics. At times a bit slowish but quite enjoyable nonetheless.

At the moment I'm reading A Passage to India by E.M. Forster. This is only the second book I read by Forster. I read Maurice many years ago.

In the meanwhile I finished Dictator by Robert Harris. Dictator is the third book in the Cicero trilogy. A trilogy I can only recommend.

I also read the fourth book in the Children of violence series by Doris Lessing: Landlocked

Also read a book by Georges Simenon: La mort de Belle - The Death of Belle.