Saturday Question: What Are You Reading?

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Portia

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Hello Fellow Fumies,

Every Saturday we have a Question, an idea purloined from Olfactoria’s Travels. Everyone gets to chime in with an answer, chat with other responders and it is a fun event each week. Taking sides never means taking offence and everyone keeps it respectful and light, even though we can sometimes trawl the depths.

The idea is you’ll see it on the weekend or chime in through the week. Hopefully you will come back and see if anyone has responded to your comment and you can reply to them.

Saturday Question: What Are You Reading?

Maybe I’ve bragged about this before but I’ll do it again. When Jin bought me a kindle he also linked it to his credit card. Effectively he has bought me a never ending supply of reading material. It is an incredible gift.

Interestingly though, because I know Jin is paying I am far less likely to indiscriminately buy books than I would be if it were my own money. I know how hard he has to work for every single dollar earned and I feel very naughty when I’m profligate with his money.

My Answer:

Book Depository

The Kindle is currently on The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood. Everyone is talking about the TV series and I wanted to read the book before I watched it. In my head I thought it would take me a couple of nights to read but I’m finding it a hard slog, extremely slow and it hasn’t yet resonated on any level with me. I find myself choosing other entertainments instead. So instead of a couple of nights we are now into week three.

Book Depository

Tara from A Bottled Rose sent me a paperback of The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. It’s the next on my list to delve into. Looks fabulous.

My Saturday Question to you is:

What Are You Reading?

 

 

46 thoughts on “Saturday Question: What Are You Reading?”

  1. Always reading lots of books – I’m a top 40 Goodreads reviewer. 🙂

    Right now, I’m reading Abir Mukherjee’s “A Rising Man” and Emma Viskic’s “And Fire Came Down”. Both of them crime novels with unusual heroes. Viskic’s is a totally deaf PI from country Victoria, and Mukherjee’s is an English captain serving in India in the police.

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  2. Hi Portia! Just thought I would chime in to say that I’m reading the Hamdmaid’s Tale right now for the same reason. I actually watched the first episode of the series and then decided to wait to watch more until I read the book. Maybe that is what has made the book reading so quick for me, I can’t wait to watch more of the show so, I gotta read fast (at least as fast as a mom with a newborn can manage at small stretches!).

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    • Hey Dubaiscents,
      SNAP! Good luck with juggling book and baby. That’s a hard ask.
      So the series must be amazing as they say. Cool.
      Portia xx

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  3. Reading.. one of my other great loves. I’m an avid reader and this year I made a goal to read 100 books in a year. Few months into the year, I brought it down to 50 just to keep it realistic and if I happen to go over, yay!
    I read the handmaids tale back in June. Ok to be honest, I read the book.. 1/3 of the way through I paused and binged the series then went back and finished the book. I know, naughty. But whatevs, I found the book a slow read for me too so don’t feel too bad.

    Ok current read is ‘Russia and the Russians: From Earliest Times to the Present’. I do read mostly on-fiction. Mostly because I like to be self-informed and knowledgable on topics I’m interested in. I do read fiction too though. I just finished ‘What I was Doing While You Were Breeding’- so hilarious! Fun, easy read. Also, ‘Half of A Yellow Son’, I really like the author and I have a few of her books.

    Book depository and their cheap prices fuel my ridiculous spending habits on books. Two books are on their way to me right now. I have dreams of living in a library replica place. Kidding, not kidding.

    Speaking of which, I tried to get into kindle but I couldn’t do it. I am too much in love with the feel of books. The smell, the experience. I highlight and scribble on them as I read too so it feels naked to be without a physical book.

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    • Hey Latai,
      The main plus of a Kindle for me is that I don’t need a light to read it. Jin and I have really different sleeping regimes and being able to read myself to sleep without waking him is a priority.
      Still love my books but this creates so much less drama.
      Portia x

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  5. I read The Handmaids Tale when it first came out many years ago and I swear it scarred me for life. Right now I’m going back-and-forth between Lizzie Ostroms A Century Of Scent, , and some silly slash fiction called The Ruin of The Rake, a rather lurid gay romance bodice er…..waistcoat-ripper! xoxo

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    • Thanks Robert,
      I’m pretty excited about it and Tara has such impeccable taste I know it will new a good read.
      Portia xx

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  7. I’ve got a few books on the go:

    * 4321 by Paul Auster, which I am loving (but reading this in small slices, because it’s a honking great hardback, so stays at home.)

    * A pretty good but slightly over-perky book on sports psychology, to try to figure out some slightly better ways to stop tripping up over my metaphorical feet when preparing for competitions

    * Christopher Brookmyre’s most recent novel, Want you gone. Another of his snappy, cynical, funny, smart thrillers. Just the thing for my morning commute.

    * and I’ve just finished Francis Spufford’s Golden Hill. Spufford amazes me: each of his books is entirely different (I love “the child that books built” and “I may be some time” particularly. This is his first fiction. Hugely entertaining and interesting, high paced novel set in mid 18th century Manhattan.)

    I love my Kindle. It’s stuffed full. I love physical books too. My flat is stuffed full. I just love reading–this access into a million stories, a million minds, a million possibilities and new things to learn. (What a gorgeous gift from Jin.)

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    • Hey Crikey,
      WOW! you are a reader.

      Yes, Jin puts a lot of thought into each present he gives me. This one is particularly good. He also attached his Credit Card to my Opal card (our Public Transport card) one year so I now have all my public transport paid for too. EXCELLENT gifts.
      Portia xx

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      • Oh, absolutely… another amazing gift. How I love those presents that, every day, remind you how loved you are. The small, quiet gestures, not just the flashy stuff (though, hey, also nice!)

        And aye, always been a reader. I get a little twitchy when I don’t have something to read within reach.

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  8. I too read The Handmaid’s Tale when it first came out but I haven’t seen any of the series because I have too many things to watch at the moment. Because of the too much to watch thing, and the way I can happily spend hours perusing the internet and reading whatever I come across, I am not reading actual books nearly as much as I’d like – just not enough leisure hours in the day! The Summer Before the War is being read in very small amounts at a time which is a shame because I’m really enjoying it. It has been stressful summer so I’m giving myself a free pass.

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    • Hey Rosarita313,
      You only have one life. Best that you spend your time doing what you love. As long as no one’s getting hurt why bother with worry.
      Books will still be there when you need them again.
      Portia xx

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    • That’s a big surprise Saffyishere. For some reason I thought you’d be an avid reader.
      Portia xx

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  10. I’m reading “The Long Walk” by Slavomir Rawicz. It’s the true story of a group of men who escape a Siberian Gulag in the middle of winter and trek 4000 miles to freedom.
    The movie “The Way Back” with Ed Harris isn’t nearly as good as the book.

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  11. I just finished Brando Skyhorse’s Take This Man, a compulsively readable true story of a dysfunctional but unique upbringing. As the Fall term starts, my reading will be centered around my study grant topic, electronic communication – no recreational reading for a while!

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    • Hey MaggieCat,
      Good luck with your real deal reading. I hope it’s profitable and also slightly enjoyable.
      Portia xx

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  12. Finished reading a book on policy for work, which fortunately wasn’t too dry. While it’s great that Margaret Atwood’s work is now know internationally, I’ve always found her sci-fi stuff a slog. The Robber Bride from the 80’s is a cracking good yarn, so I’d suggest that, even if there’s no TV show with it…

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  13. I don’t have a kindle but I use the Kindle app on my phone and it it so wonderful to have a whole library of stuff in my bag at all times and use it most when commuting on the train to and from work.

    I just finished ‘The Perfume Collector’ by Kathline Tessaro which was set in the 20’s and 50’s and some of the characters were real perfumers from those times and their (fictional?) muses. Also left me with a craving to smell some vintage My Sin…I believe I hear Surrender to Chance calling my name…

    Lil Xx

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    • Hey Lil,
      I LOVE the Perfume Collector. Super read, loads of frag references and I liked the characters too.
      Portia xx

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    • The Perfume Collector is a great story, a wonderful escape to Paris. It would be fun to have a sampler of scents to sniff while reading.

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  14. I’m currently reading The Beguiled by Thomas Cullinan which has recently been made into a movie starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell and Kirsten Dunst.

    Next on the agenda is The Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, which is also a televised miniseries starring Eddie Redmayne and Clemence Poesey.

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  15. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
    So good!
    I just heard this quote on NPR the other day: You are what you read-Oscar Wilde

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    • Hey Kathy,
      I have heard of this book but never bothered to read it. You’re telling me I should, clearly.
      Thanks.
      Portia xx

      I would change that quote to “You are what you remember reading and understand”
      Sadly I’m a sieve and anything I read becomes a watercolour in the rain type memory very soon after.
      Portia xx

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  16. Ooh I like this one!!! I LOVE Kindle books. I’m currently reading The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, and I love it. I read A Handmaid’s Tail in high school and am SO GLAD that I was “forced” to read it in my youth!!

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    • Hey Koyel,
      Did Handmaid’s tale change the way you saw the world?
      Your current read looks interesting too. Obviously i can’t relate to it because children aren’t my thing but still…..
      Portia xx

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    • I read Handmaid’s Tale when I was much younger, and I’m glad too. Couldn’t read it now, I think it would be too painful.

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  17. I often read via kindle too though at first I resisted e-books. I prefer the feel of paper, but lately when I go to the library or book shop nothing appeals to me. I’ve made note of the books mentioned here so I have everyone’s great ideas to check out.

    Amazon does a good job of promoting their wares via their free kindle offerings each month. They’ve made me into a kindle fan. I’m half way through P.S. From Paris by Marc Levy. It is nicely translated from French, a rom-com type adventure made current with text message style exchanges and online dating to move the story along. Fun stuff.

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    • I love a Rom-Com novel Tiffanie. Easy read is a section on my shelves and has a few of these.
      Yes, the Kindle was a surprise. I was expecting to hate it but Jin also got me a beautiful leather case so it feels a bit like opening a book.
      Portia xx

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  18. I love posts with book suggestions. Every book I have read this year has come from a recommendation, mostly from Tara’s post/s.
    Just finished Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. (An Aussie). Recommended by LJG. Excellent read. Am ploughing my way through It, my first, and definitely last, Steven King. Ploughing be the operative word, as I seem to have read three other books during the ploughing time. ❤️❤️❤️

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    • Heya Val,
      Tara gets the good stuff.
      I remember reading a Syephen King as a kid. Maybe The Dark Tower? Have no memory of the story though, just the cover of the book.
      Portia xx

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  19. I almost finished a Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child One shot. Read in three days on a cruise in Sydney. A quick easy read. I always like a good detective novel.

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  20. Hey Portia, I was poorly over the weekend but glad I’ve caught up on this post.
    Really hope you like The Song of Achilles when you get to it.
    My last book was The Handmaid’s Tale which isn’t a quick read but the TV series is gripping AF.
    Currently reading Caraval and racing through it. A lovely fantasy full of magic in the same vein as The Night Circus. Just the ticket after a dystopian nightmare that’s a little to close to home.
    Love you xxx

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