DECISIONS, DECISIONS??

OK, fellow booklovers. I have a conundrum I've been pondering and need some advice. Finish or not to finish... that is the question. I am reading 2 different books right now and am debating on a third. I want to finish what I started but I just watched the movie Wives and Daughters and I desperately want to read the book now!!! Is it faux pas to start a book and put it aside for another? Am I just being fickle??

I am reading The Wheel of Time series and am on book 5. I am also reading Les Mis and just got the part where Val Jean decides to steal from the priest!!! I am in agony!! What should I do? Any thoughts?

I do this every now and then. In fact, Les Mis is one of the books I've put down before. Not that it wasn't good. I just got distracted by other books. I need to go back and finish it sometime.

If I may offer a thought on The Wheel of Time - you're about to get to some of the best stuff if you're in Book 5. (Granted I think books 1, 11, 5, and 7 are the best, but 5-8 are some really good ones.) So be advised that you'll probably get sucked in even more deeply if you continue. Be that good or bad from your perspective, there it is. You have been warned.

Well can't say that I have read anything else by Austen but I have listened to Pride and Prejudice unabridged as an audio book and really enjoyed it. Jane Austen's humor of the ironic is very amusing.

Well that's more or less the same thing if it's unabridged. Mhm, you gotta love Austen's ironic humor.

I think for me it was getting reacquainted to her writing style. Funny though, I'm re-reading Emma and the feel of it is different then Persuasion, I wonder why....

You think so? I would probably agree, but I don't think Emma's and Persuasion's writing style are too different from each other. But I haven't read Emma in a while, so I can't give a real opinion.
I'm reading Northanger Abbey at the moment, and I was rather surprised at how different the writing style is from Persuasion. But then again, I always consider the Narrator as one of the characters.

Right now, I am reading The Scarlet Pimpernel. It is very entertaining to read, and I love Sir Percy - I think that is the intention

Oh, I read that a few years ago and I remember calling it one of my favorite books back then. I can't remember much about it, I should really re-read it. I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Oh dear, shastas, now you're making me feel guilty for giving up on that series all those years ago. I had just finished the prologue of book 5, I remember, when I put it down and never picked it up again.

I so wish I had more time for reading than I do! Yesterday I was at the school library checking out books for my upcoming research papers (the Capra autobiography and study again, as well as some short stories by Edgar Allen Poe) and I could barely stop myself from getting Daphne du Maurier's Don't Look Now. If I finish Lord of the Rings in the foreseeable future, I may yet. Then today, our chapel speaker talked extensively about the caste system in India, and I was reminded of and wanted to reread Lloyd Alexander's The Arkadians. Too many books, too little time!

*wonders why India would make lys crave The Arkadians instead of The Iron Ring...*

I meant The Iron Ring, silly me.

Obviously it's been far too long since I read either.

I'm slightly disappointed that you weren't able to point out a connection I missed.

(Though, if it makes you feel any better, I was originally thinking that the book you might have been thinking of was The Illyrian Adventure. See, I get my geographical influences mixed up too. )

You think that my mistakes have logical explanations? No, there's no connection there, aside from the fact that they're both written by Lloyd Alexander and I loved them both as a child. Oh, and The Arkadians was sort of on my mind because my mother brought a copy home from a library book sale earlier this year.

I received a message from LivingSocial/Visual Bookshelf the other day and it was just so funny that I had to share it. I only wonder what in my personal collection would give them the idea that I would like this sort of thing.

Being in the top 0.1% of users on LivingSocial has its benefits. As such, we invite you to take part in our Influential Reader program. Based on your collection, we’ve identified a new book that we think you’d be interested in, and we’d like to send you an advanced free copy before it’s released to the public....

Proof by Seduction - Courtney Milan - Books
She was his last chance for a future of happiness...A gifted fortune-teller from a humble background, Jenny can make even the most sophisticated skeptic believe her predictions simply by batting her smoky eyelashes. Until she meets her match in Gareth Carhart, the Marquess of Blakely, a sworn bachelor and scientist. He just didn't know it yet.

Broodingly handsome, Gareth is scandalized to discover his cousin has fallen under the spell of "Madame Esmerelda," and vows to prove Jenny a fraud. But his unexpected attraction to the fiery enchantress defies logic. Jenny disrupts every facet of Gareth's calculated plan--until he can't decide whether to seduce her or ruin her. Now, as they engage in a passionate battle of wills, two lonely souls must choose between everything they “know”...and the boundless possibilities of love.

Excuse me while I recover from reading that for the umpteenth time.

On another, slightly more dour note, I've learned from a conversation I had on LibraryThing that I may have been reading a semi-abridged edition of The Phantom of the Opera for several years now. Apparently until 1990, the only commercially available English translation was by a fellow who found free to edit Leroux's work unmercifully. Blegh.

EDIT, a day later (boy this thread is moving slowly!): I just finished reading the Two Towers section of The Lord of the Rings, and posted some thoughts on the last half-dozen chapters in the Tolkien thread. Now I'm pondering what I'll read once I get through with RotK. I'm thinking of getting Don't Look Now out of the college library, but then again my copies of Bel Canto and The Maltese Falcon are staring at me from my shelf as well. And while I'm home for Thanksgiving I might always pick up my copy of The Iron Ring. Then again, I had planned to get to either Wives and Daughters or Quo Vadis this semester as well. Harumph.

Aaaaaaaand I just posted reviews for The Hunger Games and Catching Fire.

Over the summer I went to Barnes and Nobles, I was just looking even though I have plenty of books I own that I haven't read. Walking through the christian books section I came across "Saints in Limbo" by River Jordan. I picked it up because it intrigued me. I bought it and shelved it until I was ready to read it. Started the book early this month and have just finished it today. Simply amazing!!! One of the best books I've read recently. The author really makes you feel the story. I was part of it, and it's sad that it's finished. She has written three books, this one being the third. I already bought her second book which I will start later today, and once done I will be moving on to her first book.

I highly recommend this book!!
I will update on her other books at a later time when I have them read.

update: just saw on her site that there is a fourth, but it's a different type of book it seems. I'lll leave this one for last.

A couple of days ago I finished the book Emma. I enjoyed it allot. Emma was a character that I didn't like at first but once I got to the end I liked her allot.

Oh... gotta go, more thoughts later.

A couple of days ago I finished the book Emma. I enjoyed it allot. Emma was a character that I didn't like at first but once I got to the end I liked her allot.

Oh... gotta go, more thoughts later.

I agree with what you said about not liking Emma as a person at first but then gradually liking her. and about Mr. Knightly

Yes indeed Mr. Knightly has a great character design.

I'm reading 1984 for the first time. It's a bit slow going in the middle but overall it's very good.

Right now, I am reading The Scarlet Pimpernel. It is very entertaining to read, and I love Sir Percy - I think that is the intention , but so far I can't stand Marguerite

Oh, The Scarlet Pimpernel! That book is one of my mother's absolute favorites...so much so that my brother's middle name comes from one of the characters.
Currently I am about to start reading Detectives in Togas. That's always a good read.

OhmygoodnesslookHERE!!! An interview with Megan Whalen Turner that mentions just how many Attolia books she's planning to write!! And it mentions JS & MN, and has humor, and....

*is floating in the sky*

I really have nothing coherent to say after that...

I finished reading Emma myself two days ago or so- and I come back and find that others have just finished it as well! How wonderful! Anyways, I enjoyed it much more than I previously did when I read it (about two or three years ago, I think. Then I found the plotline a little dull, but I think I can appreciate more character driven books now...)

I also just finished up The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which was quite good. I think it is my favourite of the three novels I've read by the Bronte sisters (if it is fair to compare all three sisters' work, of course).

After that I read The Bark of the Dog Owl by Jonathan Rogers (I believe...) and one thing I wasn't expecting, but quite liked about it was that:

Rivulus and Amira Tair: (on the topic of your spoilers for The Thief

Thank you very much for your explanation! I'm beginning to get a clearer picture now.

@ Amira Tair:

That reminds me of Mystery Off Telegraph Road and maybe other mid-twenties... MOTR is definitely not one of my favourites either. I also know I didn't enjoy the last one written, despite having been to the location of the mystery. But I re-read one of the early ones recently, and was struck by just how amusing the dialogue is, and how much the Bob-Whites reference great literature.

Hmm...I think this particular one was "The Unseen Treasure", or something like that. Perhaps I'll go back and read the first one I have...eventually.

Malkah:

You think so? I would probably agree, but I don't think Emma's and Persuasion's writing style are too different from each other. But I haven't read Emma in a while, so I can't give a real opinion.
I'm reading Northanger Abbey at the moment, and I was rather surprised at how different the writing style is from Persuasion. But then again, I always consider the Narrator as one of the characters.

Actually, now that I'm done Emma, I would agree with you. I think perhaps why the book felt different was because of the difference between Emma and Anne as characters, moreso personality wise I think than moral wise/etc. How did you enjoy Northanger Abbey?