I just started reading The Outsider by Albert Camus (the English translation though - my French is a bit rusty ) and I'm enjoying it so far. I haven't read enough of it to comment on the novel but I like his writing style.

Has anyone else read it?

yep. brilliant book. its the most read book by men (pride and prejudice being the most read book by women)

i think it has to do with wanting to be a rebel to all forms of authority or social sense. the sense of detachment to worldly matters focusing solely on the self to an extent that spurs self discovery and a separate identity from the mass.

er...yeah...something like that

Well, I must have a masculine taste in literature then because I've never been inclined to read Pride and Prejudice! I'm not sure why, I probably should since it's such a classic novel.

I suppose it might be hard for some women to identify with Mersault's apathy and seeming lack of sensitivity. I quite like his character though, is that wrong?! haha

I just finished Ian McEwan's 'Atonement'. Which was amazing. Absolutely brilliant how he manipulates your thinking in time for the final bit...

I'm waiting for his 'Enduring Love' to get in at the local book store.

Nothing wrong with P&P; Jane Austin is a gift to the single girl.

I'm reading Somerset Maugham's short stories at the moment - I had one volume of them but found the other two in a book sale in the student union the other day, yay! I love the way he writes - I'm not normally that much of a fan of short stories, but his are great. His view of humankind is really interesting - he seems detached for the most part, yet there's a real tolerance for our faults and failings.

I have a stack of books by my bed waiting to be read, a whole pile of treats, just havn't had time to read them cos of all the reading for university. Ken Follett's latest is there, plus Khaled Hosseini's two.

I think Austen has been a little done to death lately - I've always loved Elizabeth Gaskell - now there's a 'classic' hehehe - good to see she's becoming a bit more widely known with the television versions of Wives and Daughters and Cranford.

Wouldn't it be great if you could clone yourself and set one of you to doing all the reading you want to do, whilst the other gets on with everything else?

David Gemmell - Hereo in the shadows

the third book about the brilliant assasin named Waylander
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Can't Touch This...

"The Man Without Qualities" by Robert Musil. I never finished it the first time around, so I`ll try again. I think it`s one of those books with a big reputation but which nobody actually reads.

I also took Tim`s advice and read Ray Bradbury. A good book, and the ideas were really interesting but I wasn`t too keen on his writing style.

Oh, and I also `read` "The Gilded Bat" by Edward Gorey, if that counts. Gorey is brilliant!

All the best to everyone in 2008.

George orwell-1984

T.S. Eliot - Selected Poems

Ian Holloways autobiography.

Just got back from the bookshop with a haul of treasure - Diana Athill's Stet and Somewhere Towards The End, Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris and At Large & At Small, and Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy.

I'm hopeless I know but I hate that twitchy feeling I get when I'm coming towards the end of a book and I don't have one to jump into afterwards.

I am a very happy girl with all that choice stuff to get me teeth into but gawd, staff discount has a lot to answer for........

I bought a book on Velazquez in a sale today, although on closer inspection several of the pages appear to have dried bloodstains on them. This might explain why it was so cheap...