The Literary Society

I'm still around - I managed to pick up a second hand copy of 'King Lear' (a good edition too ) so that will be part of my half-term reading.
Also re-reading some of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short stories, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and six other stories', Hardy's 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles', James Joyce's 'Dubliners'. At least, that is the plan

I have started to tentatively dip into Mary Wollstonecrafts 'The Rights of Woman'.

Anyone else got half-term 'holiday' (I use the term very loosely) planned?

I envy you, I just can't seem to get a long with pre-C20 literature. I can't enjoy it and I kind of hate myself for it. Maybe I'm a hopeless modernist, that's where my enjoyment of literature begins. With Joyce and Woolf but anything before that and I'm at a loss.

I don't have a holiday as I work but I am in the exciting stage where I've finished a book and I don't have another one immediately waiting to be read so when I get home tomorrow I can peruse my shelves and read something exciting. Maybe Norman Mailer or Kurt Vonnegut or perhaps I could give Ulysses yet another go.

Ever read Richard Yates' 'Revolutionary Road'? I enjoyed it, though it is pretty bleak. It was published in 1960.
Perhaps you just haven't found the books that suit you yet. Do you feel the same way about poetry?

Anyone else got half-term 'holiday' (I use the term very loosely) planned?

I've seen the movie I think I'd enjoy Richard Yates books but seeing as how there's almost an inifinite amount of stuff to read in a very finite life I'm not going to read the book of something I've already seen the film of.

I feel the same way about most stuff to be honest with the exception of architecture. I prefer modern (and modernist) fiction, poetry, art, design, history. I'm not totally ignorant of older stuff, I love Brughel paintings and Byron and classical music but ... I don't know, I just don't enjoy Victorian literature or classical portraits.

Saying that if you go far enough back I start getting interested again with the Greeks and Romans.

My half-term was this week, and I just finished reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding. It was a good read, I especially liked the way it was written. I've just started reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I'm only a few chapters in but I'm starting to love it already. I think the idea behind the story was an excellent one. I'm not really a big fan of romance, but I really feel for Clare and Henry. Not sure if anyone's read it (tbh it's quite a popular book) but I'd recommend it to everyone.

Also borrowed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey from my library; was planning to do a lot of reading this week, but that idea was interrupted by my inability to be able to get out of bed these past few days.

I read 'Lord of the Flies' about a year ago. I really liked the ending *closes mouth before anything more on the subject slips out*.
Book + Bed = Match made in Heaven

No no, please continue with what you were going to say about Lord of the Flies.
I agree with your equation, it's where I like reading best (and also sitting in Starbucks by myself at half 7 in the morning along with a nice cuppa tea ).

Currently reading Light in August by William Faulkner for my English course. Some interesting story ideas and certain sections can be really interesting, but the intermediary bits are fairly boring :/