# *What book are you reading ?



## ck (Jul 10, 2002)

I'm reading "By Myself" by Lauren Bacall ; it's very good than-you very much.

What about you ?


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## toasty (Jul 10, 2002)

"All families are psychotic" Douglas Coupland. 

Very good so far. Never like Microserfs but Girlfriend in a Coma and Miss Wyoming were great.

Also got "The Dark Room" to finish off - ok..bit dull

And "The count of Monte Cristo" - long haul one but an AMAZING story 

And Calvin and Hobbes..


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## Bond (Jul 10, 2002)

How To Be Good by Nick Hornby


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## Mooncat (Jul 10, 2002)

I’m re-reading for the xth time Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by the sorely missed Douglas Adams.


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## Cerberus (Jul 10, 2002)

I`m re-reading  1984 for about the 3rd time 

Hence i`m lurking on this thread for a bit of inspiration


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## Yossarian (Jul 10, 2002)

J.G. Farrell – The Singapore Grip


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## Largo (Jul 10, 2002)

House of Leaves - Mark Danielewski.
It's a very interesting read.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Jul 10, 2002)

A Cavern of Grey Ice, by J V Jones.  It's books two of the sword of Shadows trilogy, and is shapeing up to be the best fantasy series I've read since Roboin Hobbs Farseer/Liveship books.


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## kea (Jul 10, 2002)

"inventing herself" by elaine showalter - a collection of short biographies of feminists, right through from mary woolstonecraft to the present day (germaine greer et al).

also a children's version of the tales of king arthur's court - i had a sudden urge to brush up on my myths!

and (yes i like to have a few on the go at once  ) the trueman capote reader - a collection of his short stories, travel essays, journalistic bits and bobs and of course breakfast at tiffany's. it's excellent but i kinda dip in and out. i'm liking the travel essays, not something which has ever appealed before but i think capote has converted me!


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## kained&able (Jul 10, 2002)

Che guevera: a revolutionary life By Jon lee anderson.

Enjoying it at the moment its really facisinating.


Dave


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## marty21 (Jul 10, 2002)

tim pat coogan, "wherever green is worn" it's basically about the spread of the irish and their descendents throughout the world...or in posh words the Irish Diaspora, picked it up because I'm part of that process, my parents both left the emerald isle in the late 50s and settled in this country, others from the family went to the us and to canada...it goes back around 500 years as the irish have always wanted to leave and millions have...


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## TheSpinyLobster (Jul 10, 2002)

If not now, when - Primo Levi

Mooncat - Thanks for reminding me of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, I really must read it again.


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## foo (Jul 10, 2002)

The Acid House - Irvine Welsh (is that how you spell his name? )

I'm really enjoying it even though some bits are disturbing. I'm already wary of dismissing people as 'just junkies' tbh and this book brings that position home. He's an excellent writer imo.

The two line short stories were a bit of a surprise. 

edited for spelling


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## baldrick (Jul 10, 2002)

*er...*

...'Hitler: Nemesis' by Ian Kershaw (damn good... got up to 1938 so far!)

and 'Mi revalueshenary fren' by Linton Kwesi Johnson.


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## POTBELLY (Jul 10, 2002)

I'm reading Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell and it's wicked. Just finished Them by Jon Ronson (sp?) and that was really entertaining as well.


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## jd (Jul 10, 2002)

Just finished "Aberystwyth Mon Amour", which is sort of noir gumshoe pastiche set in Aberystwyth.  Seems obvious now doesn't it?  I bought it cos I know that part of Wales well, but it was good fun anyway.

Now reading the Phillip Pullman Dark Materials trilogy.  Escapist fantasy and I can't put the bastard thing down at all.


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## WasGeri (Jul 10, 2002)

> _Originally posted by POTBELLY _
> *I'm reading Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell and it's wicked.
> *



That was one of the last books I read, totally agree.


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## Roadkill (Jul 10, 2002)

After the "favourite character..." thread I've started re-reading more of my old Captain Hornblower books.  I'm on "The Commodore" at the moment.

Which is rather a distraction, since I was reading, and really enjoying, Noam Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent."


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## calum (Jul 10, 2002)

the subtlety of emotions by Aaron Ben-Ze'ev. it's a bit of a textbook but sometimes i need to go back to school on them.

dr johnson's tour of the highlands and journey to the western isles

and colin thubron's in siberia - really cool travel writer going to obscure pplaces with great sympathy for his subjects

and gunther grass's the tin drum but it's hard.... and wierd


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## steve0223 (Jul 10, 2002)

i'm reading a few at the moment depending on what mood im in - 'adventures with The Flea' by Jim Perrin, whos a sort of mad ass climber who writes about travelling around the world. Its cool, but the language is a little too flowerer for my liking, also reading the 'O'Reily pocket guide to CSS', cos i'm a nerd , and last of all 'DMT - The Spirit Molecule' by Rick Strassman. Cheesy title i admit, but its a scientific study of  the psychedelic, DMT. V interesting..


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## Solarblast (Jul 10, 2002)

> _Originally posted by TheSpinyLobster _
> *If not now, when - Primo Levi*


Oooh. What a book. I think it's his only full length novel (the rest are autobiographical, or short stories).  It was the first Levi I read, and I couldn't get enough of it, it so many ways.

Currently, a step down here, I'm reading The Rotters Club by Jonathon Coe.  Not as good as What a Carve Up (which is very good), but good nonetheless.  Makes me laugh on the tube.

Dave.


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## jms (Jul 10, 2002)

the queen and I
and breakfast of champions (again)


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## ChrisC (Jul 10, 2002)

Psychotherapy East and West by Alan W Watts.


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## pennimania (Jul 10, 2002)

The Alexandrian Quartet by Laurence Durrell for about the fifth time, keep dipping into it.

 The Collected Short Stories of Somerset Maugham, brilliant.Again I dip in and out.

 Just completed the Last Summer by Ian Crichton Smith, nostalgic evocative novel about a boy on a remote Scottish island. Too much football. I was amused to notice that on a page where a character said 'fancy not knowing the Gaelic for Indian summer' someone, probably my mother in law, had supplied the missing phrase. Well I did find it among her books. 

 How many of you write or underline in books you read?


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## rorymac (Jul 10, 2002)

I'm reading three at the moment...very sloooowwwwly mind...

Millroy the magician...... Paul Theroux
He's Louis Theroux's dad.
Damn good it is too. 

Fast food nation....*
and
Out of it...*

* Both are in me motor and I can't be arsed to go and get them but they're both big sellers at the moment.
ps and quite rightly so.


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## milesy (Jul 10, 2002)

Viz - The Big Hard Number Two, a compilation of issues 13 to 18.


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## Red Faction (Jul 10, 2002)

Roddy Doyle- The Van.
Set in Ireland during Italia '90- very funny!!


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## Balbi (Jul 10, 2002)

Terry Pratchett - Lords and Ladies (for the five millionth time)


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## rorymac (Jul 10, 2002)

[How many of you write or underline in books you read]?
i do.. 

red faction....classic book  
quote from it..
fuck off back to italy and take t-at cunt cascarino wit- you.....
seriously funny or racist


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## cynical_bastard (Jul 11, 2002)

Just finished Clavdivs the God


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## Part 2 (Jul 18, 2002)

The Business by Iain Banks. Struggling to get into it after a long time away from reading. Smoking too much isn't helping, I keep losing the plot.


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## roxy (Jul 18, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Solarblast _
> *Currently, a step down here, I'm reading The Rotters Club by Jonathon Coe.  Not as good as What a Carve Up (which is very good), but good nonetheless.  Makes me laugh on the tube.
> 
> Dave. *



Just finished What a Carve Up myself! Really funny and a good trip down memory lane to the thatcherite 80s, *shudder*- was left feeling dissatisfied by the revenge though...


at the moment I'm reading Dirty Havana Trilogy by Pedro Juan Gutierrez....it's _rather rude_ as the title suggests but I'm obsessed with all things Cuban...and I'm partial to a bit of rudeness too

And I'm usually halfway through Ham on Rye by Bukowski for when I need a good laugh- if anyone is looking for recommendations, read it!


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## ChrisFilter (Jul 18, 2002)

V.S. Naipaul - A Way in the World


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## soulrebel (Jul 18, 2002)

> [How many of you write or underline in books you read]?


 Yes - but only in non fiction - usually stuff like "cv author x" and "if so, what about theory x" - capitalist authors get hardcore criticised!

Currently - "Mutiny" by Lindsey Collen. Fantastic, very poetic/word-play-loving novel set in a prison in Mauritius. I am trying to alternate between reading a fiction and a non-fiction book - the last non-fiction was "Alas Poor Darwin" by Hilary & Steven Rose.


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## Bond (Jul 18, 2002)

Have just bought the Sandman Library Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman. One of the best Graphic Novel paperbacks you could ever read.


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## jms (Jul 18, 2002)

> _Originally posted by jms _
> *the queen and I
> and breakfast of champions (again) *



but not anymore

I'm now reading captain hornblower and the atropos


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## Bajie (Jul 19, 2002)

_No Logo_  - by Naomi Klein, sure many people on U75 have allready read it. An essential read.

Was sitting in some mall today; a Disney shop one side, Gap on the other and Old Navy to the front. Kind of made me feel sick knowing exactly how their products are produced.

Needless to say, I didnt buy anything.


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## Phaedrus (Jul 19, 2002)

No Logo - BY Naomi Klein - anti consumer culture, branding and anti-globalisation type rant! Quite edifying.


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## Nina (Jul 19, 2002)

Just finished re-reading Catch 22 very early this morning, still as fabulous as ever! 

But now I'm tired 

Bond, interested in what you thought of Hornby's How to be Good? I was disappointed.

I am  reading  'The Weekenders:Travels in the heart of Sudan' various authors including Alex Garland and Irvine Welsh, some Hunter S Thompson and something about emergency rooms which is a bit gruesome and a Paul Coelho.


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## chez (Jul 20, 2002)

Ffyona Campbell, The Whole Story
its a truely amazing and moving story


blurb about the book#

 One of the most famous endurance cheating stories of all-time belongs to Ffyona Campbell, who admitted she cheated during the United States portion of her attempt to become the first woman to walk around the world. 
She admitted to skipping 1,000 miles after she became pregnant by her then boyfriend-handler and found she was unable to keep up the distances her sponsors expected. It was only after she had an abortion at four months that she resumed her normal walking schedule. 

The lie would have gone undiscovered but for one reason -- it haunted her so badly when her celebrated run was over, and she had been hailed as a hero, that she turned to drugs to live with the sense of guilt she felt. 

Eventually she confessed, and later returned to the U.S. to walk the miles she had skipped. "The truth is hard enough to live with, but deceit is even harder. Once you've lied about your achievements, you've created a burden for yourself which you can never, never put down. My lie almost destroyed me."


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## chrissie (Jul 20, 2002)

Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
The War Against Cliche - Martin Amis

Next on the list is Atonement - Ian McEwan


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## exosculate (Jul 20, 2002)

Books I have read recently

Catcher in the Rye - Salinger
Periodic Table - Primo Levi
Darkness at Noon - Koestler
Slaughterhouse 5 - Vonnegut


All fab books and I commend them to the forum

People are reading some great books on here, some I've never heard of and I must investigate them further.

The last book I read was Survivor by Chuck Pahlniuk, anyone read that its a great book ?

Im currently reading the Pooh book of Tao - but my attention is not on it at the moment.


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## zampano (Jul 20, 2002)

> House of Leaves - Mark Danielewski. It's a very interesting read.



it is indeed!!

also try infinite jest by david foster wallace (junior tennis - wtf?, addiction, AA, Mario) - get past the first fifty or so pages (it took me three goes) and you will be hooked - fucking amazing masterpiece

also life after god by douglas coupland - forget the "zeitgeisty, gen x, voice of the counterculture" bollox that is talked about him - this is timeless, pure and heartbreakingly sad


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## manstein (Jul 20, 2002)

De Valera: Long Fellow Long Shadow by Tim Pat Coogan.

Goings on across the Irish Sea.


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## pennimania (Jul 20, 2002)

> _Originally posted by cynical_bastard _
> *Just finished Clavdivs the God *



loved that 10 years or more ago, inspired to read it again.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Jul 21, 2002)

just finised reading


The Odyssey - Homer 
The Barber of Seville and The mariiage of Figaro - Beaumarchais (the origanal scripts)
book on 3D AutoCad (ver 12 so no help) 
The Unadulterated Cat - T Pratchett
Doctor Who the completely useless Encyclopedia and Star trek the completely useless Encyclopedia (very very funny)


and the pile i leave on the toilet... mostly larson


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## Tank Girl (Jul 21, 2002)

Reading "Cider with Rosie" - Laurie Lee at the moment, and I'm really enjoying it, at first I felt the descriptions were a little over the top, but it soon levelled off a bit, and now it just makes me smile whenever I pick it up.

Cheers for the recommendation Banzai


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## Lubi (Jul 21, 2002)

Ive just finished Sea of Silver Light (Tad Williams) book 4, it's a monster and I couldn't put it down for 4 days..... all finished now!

Very satisfying!!


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## Reg in slippers (Jul 22, 2002)

Walter Mosley - RL's Dream


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## dormouse (Jul 22, 2002)

Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

and I've just started the autobiography of Joice NanKivell Loch.  I'd never heard of her but picked up the book in a second hand bookshop because it looked interesting and some of her descriptions made me laugh - so this morning I had a look on the Internet:

'Joice Loch was an extraordinary Australian. She had the inspired courage that saved many hundreds of Jews and Poles in World War II, the compassion that made her a self-trained doctor to tens of thousands of refugees, the incredible grit that took her close to death in several theatres of war, and the dedication to truth and justice that shone forth in her own books and a lifetime of astonishing heroism. 
Born in a cyclone in 1887 on a Queensland sugar plantation, she grew up in grinding poverty in Gippsland and emerged from years of unpaid drudgery by writing a children's book and freelance journalism. In 1918 she married Sydney Loch, Gallipoli veteran and writer, with whom she was commissioned to produce a book on Ireland. After a dangerous time in Dublin during the Troubles, they escaped from possible IRA vengeance to work with the Quakers in Poland. There they rescued countless dispossessed people from disease and starvation and risked death themselves. 
In 1922, Joice and Sydney went to Greece to aid the 1,500,000 refugees fleeing Turkish persecution. Greece was to become their home. They lied in an ancient tower by the sea in the shadows of Athos, the Holy Mountain, and worked selflessly for decades to save victims of war, famine and disease. 
During World War II, Joice Loch was an agent for the Allies in Eastern Europe and pulled off a spectacular escape to snatch over 1,000 Jews and Poles from death just before the Nazis invaded Bucharest, escorting them via Constantinople to Palestine. By the time she died in 1982, she had written ten books, saved many thousands of lives, and was one of the world's most decorated women. At her funeral, the Greek Orthodox Bishop of Oxford named her 'one of the most significant women of the twentieth century'. 

It looks like I could be in for an interesting read!


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## vogonity (Jul 22, 2002)

Currently reading "number9dream" by David Mitchell. 

It places you in the imagination and memory of a young Japanese man venturing to Tokyo to trace his long lost father. Hugely enjoyable.


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## MysteryGuest (Jul 22, 2002)

The Mystery of Consciousness by John R Searle.  Trouble is I keep tinkering with my consciousness at the weekend so it's taking a bit of time to read...


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## Soft as Shite (Jul 22, 2002)

*Someone Help Me!!! * 

I normally pride myself on my excellent diverse and often "high brow" reading habits  !!  But going through a roung patch, I turned to Jilly Cooper to help me through.

I'm now stuck in a Jilly loop of doom....doomed never to read another 'serious' book again.   I re-read Polo, then Man who made Husbands Jealous, then my Mum bought me the new Pandora in hardback, which I devoured in 4 days and I've now stooped to re-reading Appassionatta, truely the worst of her offerings.

I need a book that will not challenge my diminished brain too much, keep me turning the pages, make me laugh and above all, free me from Jilly!  Or I'll start at Riders again and never be free.

Any recommendations?


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## pennimania (Jul 22, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Soft as Shite _
> *Someone Help Me!!!
> 
> 
> ...




  You sound like me. I have been through the whole series more than once- I think Score is the worst but I've read it twice. I can go from Riders to Crime and Punishment and back to Rupert Campbell Black again. Perhaps there is some homeopathic cure for it. let me know if you find one.


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## admirablenelson (Jul 22, 2002)

The Collected Short Stories of JG Ballard

About fifty years worth of writing, mostly dystopian visions of the future, all wonderfully imagined. It's great.


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## Masseuse (Jul 22, 2002)

Greg Bear's "Eaon", and Stephen Baxter's "Time".

Think I'm going through a bit of a sci-fi epic saga phase.


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## Shelly P (Jul 22, 2002)

Numbers In the Dark (and other stories) - Italo Calvino. Interesting assortment of stories spanning the whole of his writing life, but not as good as his longer novellas/novels (which are fantastic!) IMO.


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## bruise (Jul 23, 2002)

"It was a long time since he had kissed a still breathing body..."

I can't believe the book I am reading at the moment. It was a recommendation from someone on U75 and I'm going to track down that old thread, find out who recommended it, and make an appointment at the shrink for them.

If you want the scariest-in-a-completely-level-headed-matter-of-fact-way type book, I don't believe you could find worse than 'Exquisite Corpse' by Poppy Z Brite (who's name alone is brilliant). 

She manages the amazing feat of writing as a whole series of gay men, some of whom are deeply scary indeed, without it being at all (consciously or otherwise) anti-gay (imho - though I'd be interested in other people's opinions).

I was disturbed when one character mentions one of my all-time favourite tracks (Coil covering 'Tainted Love') - it really worries me that I share the same tastes as a... (I won't spoil it)

So - soft as shite, or whoever

If you are looking for sleepless nights, fear, shaking, horror, disgust, the tremours...


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## wiskey (Jul 23, 2002)

Robert Rankin... A Dog Called Demolition and it's taking me forever. It's an ok book, it's just that sometimes I get bored with passages and skip bits.


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## Nina (Jul 24, 2002)

Just started Willy Russell The Wrong Boy. Written as a collection of letters to Morrisey.

Pretty good so far. Not read any Willy Russell for ages.


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## Jo/Joe (Jul 24, 2002)

Currently 'THe Elegant Universe' Brian Greene , about superstring theory, although it explains relativity and quantum mechanics to get you up to speed. Have to admit that it is very interesting to a non-physicist like me.

Also just read 'Straw Dogs' by John Gray,  a philosophy book that trashes a lot of ideas that we as humans like to believe, eg. salvation, progress and philospophies that put the human perception at the centre of everything. We just fuck everything up as we act like bacteria taking over everything. He says we are just animals (and should be content with this), most of what we perceive does not even register with our consciousness (86%) and so on. Very interesting and essential ideas to ground us.


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## Soft as Shite (Jul 25, 2002)

> _Originally posted by bruise _
> *
> 
> If you want the scariest-in-a-completely-level-headed-matter-of-fact-way type book, I don't believe you could find worse than 'Exquisite Corpse' by Poppy Z Brite (who's name alone is brilliant).
> *



I read that a while ago!  It is deeply dsturbing but quite gripping.  I agree that it didn't really jump out as anti-gay, the fact that the characters are gay is just who they are, not a statement about the morals of gay people.  I hope so anyway! 

Chrissie- one of the books I read in between my Jilly fest was "Atonement" by Iain Banks.  I was a bit disappointed, after an excellent start and a promising idea, it just seemed so bleak and uncompromisingly hopeless.  I'd be interested in your views.

I've now broken my Jilly cycle and am reading "An Equal Music" by Vikram Seth.  Quite good, but not really my sorta thing.


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## Mooncat (Jul 25, 2002)

I'm currently reading Permaculture in a Nutshell by Patrick Whitefield.  Its good if youre planing on building such wonderful things as herb spirals and chicken powered greenhouses


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## chez (Jul 25, 2002)

Permaculture in a Nutshell by Patrick Whitefield,

this is my next in my pile of books to read. well into permaculture

I subscribe to the permaculture magazine aswell.  

nice to know theres some fellow permies on the boards mooncat


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## Blagsta (Jul 25, 2002)

Currently reading "Lipstick Traces:  A Secret History of the Twentieth Century" by Greil Marcus.
Only just started, but it seems to be trying to draw comparisons between dada, situationism, political and cultural revolution, punk and the Sex Pistols.  Interesting so far.


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## Mooncat (Jul 25, 2002)

I've just started getting into it Chez.  I don't even have a garden at the moment but I'm putting some money in to a land share with some friends.  

It's fascinating is ‘stacking’ where plants and livestock thrive a lot better together than they would apart.  You can chose your plants in such away that the pest controlling abilities of one plant benefit the whole bed


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## blip (Jul 25, 2002)

> _Originally posted by roxy _
> *
> 
> 
> ...



My mom borrowed this off me, never mentioned what she thought of it though.   I can't bring myself to ask if the evocative passages on unwiped sexual partners and unintentional cannibalism influenced her desision to go to Peru instead.....


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## Swearing Nonna (Jul 25, 2002)

Well I'll have to use the past tense as I've just finished The Pilots Wife - Anita Shreve.

A really gripping read, didn't manage to predict the ending which for me is generally a bonus. I picked it up lunchtime on Tuesday and finished teatime today, trouble is you get left with an empty feeling having finished an enjoyable book. A rumage round my shelves is now on the cards or indeed a rumage through this thread for possibilities.


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## Dubversion (Jul 25, 2002)

in danger of sounding like a ponce (but hey, i have just read the Phillip Pullman kids books so i need some variety)..

Lipstick Traces by Greil Marcus

not an easy read, and he makes some pretty broad claims in places (but he's much more erudite than me so i can never quite work out why he's wrong   )

basically, he takes the emergence of the Sex Pistols as a culmination - conscious or otherwise - of centuries of radical and negationist thought, from the Lollards and ancient French heresy through Marxism and Nietzche to the Situationists and the 60s.....  it's dense but bloody engrossing and is the best short(ish) summary of Situationism i've yet read outside Stewart Home (but he tells fibs...)


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## Blagsta (Jul 25, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Dubversion _
> *best short(ish) summary of Situationism i've yet read outside Stewart Home (but he tells fibs...) *



Met Stewart Home briefly last year, interesting chap.  Never read any of his books though.


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## Dubversion (Jul 25, 2002)

weird one blagsta - wrote my one without noticing your entry about the same book! oops..

worth the effort, isnt it? the way he wrote about "Roadrunner" by the Modern Lovers made my neck hairs stand up and made me dig it out again...

i do really like stewart home, btw, love all his art-trash books and conspiracy theories.. but he's not to be trusted!


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## Furvert (Jul 25, 2002)

sorry if i'm a bit late in the day, but i couldn't help noticing a couple of entries earlier, talking about the joys of being a secret jilly cooper reader.

i too, having sunk the depths of depression (too much george monbiot, and too many cunts on the number 133 bus) decided to dig out my old jilly books for a bit of light relief, and what joy they have brought!

unlike the other two jilly readers, i have no shame what so ever in saying it loud - i'm a jilly fan and proud!

in fact, i may have to cut this message short and get back to my half read copy of 'prudence'. i think ace (dark, brooding with a muscle constantly ticking in his manly cheek) may just be about to give our heroine a right good seeing to...!


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## cynical_bastard (Jul 25, 2002)

Lyonesse by Jack Vance


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## silky (Jul 26, 2002)

Rory-you mean that people actually read books without underlining!


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## Soft as Shite (Jul 27, 2002)

Furvert- you misundertand me!  I am a proud Jilly fan and constantly extol her virtues to my mates (many of them hardly ever read anyway, let alone give our Jilly a chance).  But I can't help fallling into the trap of re-reading her books over and over when I'm down (and you're right, they are a natural cure to depression IMO)!  There's so many books I wanna read, i can't help but feel bad to be reading the same books over and over.

(have you noticed her obsession with wild garlic?  It seems to pop up all over her books when she does her descriptive passages...what's going on?)


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## Furvert (Jul 27, 2002)

soft as shite, forgive me for not recognising your true jilly fandom.

naturally, i can understand your concern with re-reading her books time and time again, but fear not little one, for they too have their own educational function.

for example, if it weren't for the jillster, i would still be pronouncing canapes and antibes incorrectly - the social mortification of it! 

as for the wild garlic, can't say i've spotted that one.  those poor mediterranean prawns do have a hard time of it though...


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## fairygrrl (Jul 31, 2002)

i am reading a book called "the power of myth" right now. it is basically joseph cambell and bill moyers , (who are just big huge throbbing brains with mouths), talking about mythology in different cultures and how it has shaped them and about a million other things that i am nowhere near smart enough to talk about. but i totally, totally recommend it.


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## Nathaniel (Jul 31, 2002)

*Unshrink by Mckeown & Whiteley and Others*

I was sent a free chapter by a friend ( from www.unshrink.org) - It's all about the links between self-fulfillment, insitutional damage to individuals, value creation, and the world economy. Will order on amazon.co.uk and see if the whole book answers the questions that this chapter asks. 

Also reading the Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. They are fantastic!

"I am sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant".. and so it continues. 

A blast for a childrens book.

Also re-reading Asimov's "Earth is room enough" (Why doesn't anyone turn his short stories into blockbuster films?

(Finished Tom Wolfes A Man in Full - Excellent!)


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## Nina (Jul 31, 2002)

Just finished Dave Pelzer's 'A child called It'
My God
The most harrowing book I have ever read.
Felt compelled to continue to the end even though I was nearly physically sick.

...and who says reading's fun eh?

seriously, have a go if you think you're hard enough.


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## Voley (Jul 31, 2002)

Reading '1984' again after the recent thread about it.

I'm enjoying it more the second time. I must've been about 13 or 14 when I last read it. In 1984, probably.


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## Soft as Shite (Jul 31, 2002)

Just finished an "Equal Music" by Vikram Seth.  Not sure i'd recommend it unless you're into classical music + v middle class, though good writing skills.

Just started "The Death of Vishnu" by Manil Suri.  Lovely evokative images of Bollywood, Bangles and Bharma!  I like........


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## Masseuse (Jul 31, 2002)

Just read "Loves executioner" By Irving Yalom - a truly magnificent reading experience.  Psychotherapy case studies treated with great warmth, humour, and compassion.  The scary thing is you will see aspects of yourself in all these "crazy" people.

Very readable, jargon-free, and entertaining while being hugely educational.  

If you guys can tear yourselves away from jilly for a bit!


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## twinkle (Aug 1, 2002)

completely unoriginally i'm reading fast food nation. 

i like it - schlosser quietly draws you in with empathic descriptions of real lives then hits you with the horrible truth. didn't go near these places anyway but now considering taking part in some kind of more pro-active protest.

most interesting. should be on the national curriculum.


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## WasGeri (Aug 1, 2002)

I'm reading a book by Mo Hayder, can't remember the name but it's a murder novel set in Brixton. Quite scary, I read her first one 'Birdman' which was excellent.


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## Nathaniel (Aug 1, 2002)

*Body Floating in the VAT of Blood*

I agree about fast food nation being on the national curriculum - that would interest people in English lessons!! 

I remember one harrowing section:

"At a National Beef plant, Homer Stull climbed into a blood-collection tank to clean it, a filthy tank thirty feet high. Stull was overcome by hydrogen sulfide fumes. Two coworkers climbed into the tank and tried to rescue him. All three men died. 

Eight years earlier, Henry Wolf had been overcome by fumes while cleaning the very same tank; Gary Sanders had tried to rescue him; both men died; and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) later fined National Beef for its negligence. 

The fine was $480 for each man's death."

Awful isn't it.. 

The Unshrink book by Mckeown & Whiteley explains that kind of thing as managers following the creed that "greed is good", "winning at all costs", and "work comes before life".

The problem Unshrink says is that:

"‘Winning at all costs’ is a phrase that can blind participants to
what the costs really are. It hints that winning a particular prize requires ruthlessness and the sacrifice of all other valuable
rewards; that one must trample on others to succeed."

Has anyone found a web site to go with the fast food nation? I can't. The one for unshrink is www.unshrink.org


----------



## pennimania (Aug 1, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Furvert _
> *
> as for the wild garlic, can't say i've spotted that one.  those poor mediterranean prawns do have a hard time of it though... *



  I realise one of the things I love about the books is the way they linger on food -someone's always packing into crusty bread and butter and home made chocolate cake round a scrubbed kitchen table. I always like books that mention food, one of the reasons I like Rumer Godden. Elizabeth David is a damn fine read too - not just a book of recipes.
  Fast Food Nation - I think I'm afraid to start and I never ever even look into McD's.
  I'm not ashamed of reading jilly, but wish I spent more time tackling challenging stuff eg I'm still reading The Alexandrian Quartette which I'm sure I mentioned near the beginning of this thread.


----------



## Rollem (Aug 1, 2002)

*what book are you reading*

1984

again


----------



## Blagsta (Aug 1, 2002)

Still reading "Lipstick Traces", but its a bit heavy going, so I started reading "Manchester, England" by Dave Haslam last night.
Its subtitled "The Story of the Pop Cult City" and is a surprisingly well written and well researched book about the history of Manchester, pop culture and the entertainment industry in the city.


----------



## Alc0p0pz (Aug 2, 2002)

_The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test_ by Tom Wolfe.
Sadly though, I've been 'reading' it for months.
I should read more.
And get out more.


----------



## quamp (Aug 2, 2002)

> _Originally posted by fairygrrl _
> *i am reading a book called "the power of myth" right now. it is basically joseph cambell and bill moyers , (who are just big huge throbbing brains with mouths), talking about mythology in different cultures and how it has shaped them and about a million other things that i am nowhere near smart enough to talk about. but i totally, totally recommend it. *


Yea, they really water everything down in that book. A Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell is a little better.

The book I'm reading now is called A Brief History of Everything by Ken Wilbur. This is a heavy read not for its length, but for the topic discussed. It's a very deep psychological theory presented by the same guy who wrote Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: the Spirit of Evolution. I tend to favor the very deeply metaphysical stuff.  Another book I've read recently was Real Magic by Dr. Wayne Dyer (although like Campbell and Moyers, he waters things down a bit.)

Here's where you can buy A Brief History of Everything: 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...8305616/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-1875937-7737716


----------



## Nina (Aug 2, 2002)

*Re-run*

Brave New World...again

It was on top of the pile ..Oh Ford!


----------



## dwen (Aug 3, 2002)

just finished readiing- the trial by Franz Kafka

Also reading the Tibetan book of the dead very very slowly


----------



## dwen (Aug 3, 2002)

also i've just finished the Dalai Lama's autobiography and Roald Dahl's the wonderful story of Henry Sugar.

I've been reading quite a lot recently


----------



## Roadkill (Aug 3, 2002)

At the moment I'm, reading "Big Chief Elizabeth," by Giles Milton.  It's a history of early attempts to found colonies in America but it's really well written and reads like a novel.  And I've got "The Riddle and the Knight" by the same author to keep me occupied while I'm away.

Then I'm going to start on the Harry Potter series because I read a bit of one while I was on holiday and was surprised to find that I really enjoyed it.


----------



## Masseuse (Aug 3, 2002)

> I'm going to start on the Harry Potter series because I read a bit of one while I was on holiday and was surprised to find that I really enjoyed it.



Oh you lucky bugger having all that Harry Potter stretching out before you!  Can't wait for the next one to come out


----------



## Roadkill (Aug 3, 2002)

I know!  I don't really know what I was expecting it to be like, but she writes really well I think.  Certainly she knows how to tell a good story.  I didn't want to get too into it because it was the last book in the series and I'd prefer to start at the beginning - and in any case Mum wanted her book back!

Definitely looking forward to starting on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.  I mighgt even get it in the airport tomorrow for in-flight entertainment.


----------



## STFC (Aug 5, 2002)

*The Bang-Bang Club by Greg Marinovich & Joao Silva*

"They were four young photographers who covered the township war in South Africa in the early 90's. They worked together, risked their lives together, partied together. Ken Oosterbroek died, shot by a stray bullet while working. Kevin Carter committed suicide a matter of weeks after he won a Pulitzer prize for a photograph of a starving child in the Sudan. In this remarkable book, Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva, the two surviving members of the group, tell their extraordinary and harrowing story."

I picked this up at Heathrow this morning, I have only read a few pages but it looks like an excellent read.


----------



## Emilie (Aug 7, 2002)

I am reading "A book of bits or a bit of a book" by spike milligan. Actually, I finished it 5 hours ago coz it is so short. Now I am bookless!
~*Emilie*~


----------



## sonicdancer (Aug 7, 2002)

*still* reading the epic 5th Jean Auel Novel 

"The Shelters of Stone"

its one of those books that takes ages (765 pages) so I have skimm/speed read at the same time the brilliant :

"Aphrodisiacs and Love magic" The mystic lure of love charms by Pamela Allardice.


----------



## onemonkey (Aug 7, 2002)

I have just finished *The Salmon of Doubt* by Douglas Adams, or rather i haven't because tragically neither did he..

It was a Dirk Gently story that Adams had been working on (well, off and on) for the last ten years of his life.. when he died his editors pieced together a version from files on his laptop.  

What they've come up with is classic Adams surrealism but all too brief.. there's about the first 70 tantalising pages of what would probably have been a 240 page book, in which the holistic detective is hired by someone he never meets for an unspecified job. With nothing better to do he starts following people at random and accidently finds himself in Santa Fe about to meet a rhinoceros called Desmond.. 

which is where it stops  

the book itself also contains a collection of short stories, journalism and letters about life, the universe and some other things besides. A must for all Adams fans.. for the rest of you, who are not YET fans, start by reading *The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy*


----------



## unclekellan (Aug 9, 2002)

ive just finished Fingersmith by sarah waters

and am about to start:
Otherland by tad williams
and
The Night Listener by armistead maupin


----------



## foo (Aug 9, 2002)

I've nearly finished Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (sp)

A sad and beautiful tale. Written with such simplicity. Short sentences that evoke all the unsaid poignant movement between thought and the spoken word. Well worth a read.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Aug 9, 2002)

oooh foo! I've heard this is a good book...I shall seek out a copy. Let's hope I'm more successful than in my attempts to meet you at various Urbanites gatherings....I sought you out and couldn't find you...


----------



## foo (Aug 9, 2002)

lol, Mrs M. I know. Hatboy and I went in search of you....then I lost him too  . If you're going to the next one (bank holiday) we'll definitely have a chat (about the Archers mebbe eh?  )

As for Kitchen. If you want to PM your address I'll send it to you in the post. It's a lovely book imo.


----------



## Emilie (Aug 9, 2002)

I'm hooked on the Adrian Mole books. I think after a while they start to repeat themselves but I like the one where he's in his mid-30s. 
~*Emilie*~


----------



## STFC (Aug 9, 2002)

I must have been about 9 when I read The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4. I loved it, and the TV series. Very funny.


----------



## Spud Murphy III (Aug 9, 2002)

I have 3 books on the go at the moment:

Some short stories by Chekhov.

_Civilisations of Africa: A History to 1800_ by Christopher Ehret. This is a bit textbook-y but a good introduction to a subject I know nothing about. Could do with more pictures!

_Dancing with Dogma_ by Ian Gilmour. Account by a former Tory 'wet' Cabinet minister of the Thatcher years. Scathing in the extreme!


----------



## Masseuse (Aug 9, 2002)

> The Night Listener by armistead maupin



Just finished this Unclekellan and thought it was wonderful.  He's a very humble writer.


----------



## tijuanadonkeyshow (Aug 11, 2002)

Just finished Sour Sweet by Timothy Mo.

Really enjoyed it, its not the sort of thing I'd usually touch with a barge pole but a mates mum was reading it on the beach and I borrowed it just as something to read. Its a fictional but very believable account of a Chinese family in 60s London who get mixed up with the Yakuza through no fault of their own and shifts dramatically from day-to-day family life to extremely violent gangland activities. Cracking book.


----------



## Mr T (Aug 11, 2002)

"Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser...an expose of the fast food industry which is pretty damn eyeopening!


----------



## Nemo (Aug 11, 2002)

I've broken one of my golden rules and am now in the middle of several books:


_'The Silmarillion' - J.R.R. Tolkein
[*]'In Defence of History' - Richard Evans
[*]'The King's Peace' - C.V. Wedgwood
_


Also, because I currently have a job, I've been listening to a lot of books on tape recently, including:


_'The Hundred Days' - Patrick O'Brian
[*]'The Lord of the Rings' - Tolkein
[*]'Scoop' - Evelyn Waugh
_


I also have many more books and tapes in the pipeline.


----------



## MrDisco (Aug 12, 2002)

Stupid White Men, Michael Moore
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser

and now back to my old favourites..

War Fever, JG Ballard
The Disaster Area (ditto)
Terminal Beach (ditto)


----------



## VenalDominance (Aug 12, 2002)

Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton. 


 ... btw, hi .. I'm a newbie


----------



## onemonkey (Aug 13, 2002)

*this one will run and run*

glad to see this thread is turning into this forum's
On the CD player today (contd) 

as evry 1 knew urbanites are a well read bunch!

atm i'm mainly reading:
The Ape and the Sushi Master - Frans de Waal
Georges' Marvellous Medicine - Roald Dahl
Underground - Haruki Murakami


----------



## foo (Aug 13, 2002)

I've just started the Marabou Stork Nightmares' Irvine Welsh. Made me laugh already so I'm optimistic.

I might get it out now, fuck it -  there's no one in the office but me......


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Aug 13, 2002)

*Currently reading*

Plato's _Republic_.


----------



## fen_boy (Aug 13, 2002)

> _Originally posted by foo _
> *I've just started the Marabou Stork Nightmares' Irvine Welsh. Made me laugh already so I'm optimistic.
> 
> *



Believe me you won't be laughing by the end of it. Good book though.


----------



## ck (Aug 13, 2002)

"The Highway Code"

I've started my driving lessons so I've got to do the honours and read this classic !


----------



## herbsman (Aug 13, 2002)

I've just finished Stewart Home - Stone Circle

I'm starting Globalisation and its discontents - Joseph Stiglitz


----------



## andy2002 (Aug 13, 2002)

> _Originally posted by foo _
> *I've just started the Marabou Stork Nightmares' Irvine Welsh. Made me laugh already so I'm optimistic.*



It's typical Welsh – spiteful *and* funny. It's probably his most underrated book. I'm currently reading Bear v. Shark by Chris Bachelder - a brilliant and original satire on the trivial, alienating nature of American media.


----------



## tomsk (Aug 13, 2002)

Eeek!
Marabou Stork Nightmares is twisted but worth it.

Reading Get Shorty  by *Elmore Leonard.* 
Never seen the film, glad I'm reading the book first...tres good.


----------



## Razoredge (Aug 14, 2002)

*The Shadow of the Sun*

I'm reading the Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski, because its the bookgroup choice for this month.( See thread Bookgroup starting in South/central London) This has been a very difficult book for me. Not because of the way it is written, which is a model of clarity, but because it describes with gut-chilling detail the everyday sufferings of some of the most economically deprived people on the planet. It also describes their extraordinary resilience and enduring humanity in conditions which would totally destroy a spoiled and privileged person like me.


----------



## foo (Aug 14, 2002)

> _Originally posted by fen_boy _
> *
> 
> Believe me you won't be laughing by the end of it. Good book though. *



You were right, I'm not laughing now and I'm only on chapter 3........


----------



## Reg in slippers (Aug 14, 2002)

Nabokov,

The Luzhin Defence

an excellent read, 

imho better than his classic Lolita


----------



## Blagsta (Aug 14, 2002)

Just finished "Manchester, England" by Dave Haslam.  Well worth a read, very well researched book about the history of popular culture in Manchester from the 1800's to the present day.  Good social and political observations as well.


----------



## atitlan (Aug 14, 2002)

I've currently got two books on the go ...

"Brave New World" because although I'd read '1984' numerous times I'd never read Huxley - and you can't go through life without having read both, can you?

Also reading 'Mir' by Alexander Besher - a weird sci-fi story set in a world of virtual reality/altered conciousness crossover - oh, and sentient tattoos - don't ask! 

Lined up after that, a break from science fiction:

"Profit Over People" by Chomsky

and

"The Psychedelic Experience" by Timothy Leary


Someone earlier in the thread mentioned 'number9dream' by David Mitchell - his first novel "Ghostwritten" is even better and both are highly recommended.


----------



## Swearing Nonna (Aug 14, 2002)

About to take Kate Atkinson - Emotionally Weird to bed with me.


----------



## Tank Girl (Aug 14, 2002)

How's maribou stork nightmares going foo? I've read it once, and have re-read about half of it now... very twisted and really not all that nice, but a bloody good read.

Since getting back from my holiday, I've not picked up a book since, so I'm STILL reading Cider with Rosie, Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone and Mr Big (the last two, I've been reading since New Year  ) Right, I'm gonna switch this damn computer off and go to bed to read!!


----------



## fudgefactorfive (Aug 15, 2002)

Fiction I've read recently which was great:

*An Instance of the Fingerpost* by Iain Pears. 16th century whodunnit. The same story told four times from four different perspectives - by a liar, a madman, a zealot and then "the truth" - or is it?

*Shiva 3000* by Jan Lars Jensen - bizarre sci-fi set in post-apocalyptic India where the gods are real and walk around messing up people's lives, caste is genetically encoded into your genes and dharma is programmed by a glandular sequencer.

*Revelation Space* by Alastair Reynolds. Fairly Iain Banks-ish but darker and more about people. Hard work to begin with but strangely absorbing if you make it past the first couple of chapters, very original stuff indeed.

Non-fic books I've read recently which, uh, "changed my life" (yawn) are:

*The Tyranny of Numbers* by David Boyle - statistics are not only bollocks but dehumanise us and make bad things worse, in fact, measuring things usually makes them worse - every time there's a "scare" in the media triggered by some report, the figures get worse the next year! The more you measure something, the less useful the result is.

*The End of Work* by some nutter or other. Very depressing catalogue of how the world is getting irretrievably fucked up by automation and suggestions about what to do about it which seem completely flawed to me for reasons are beyond my ability to articulate. Strange reading after The Tyrrany of Numbers - every page has at least ten statistics on it.


----------



## Andy the Don (Aug 15, 2002)

*Currently Reading*

Berlin 1945 - Downfall by Anthony Beaver

History of the Battle of Berlin.

Very horrific.

Will buy the Irvine Welsh, Porn, for my holiday reading..


----------



## onemonkey (Aug 15, 2002)

> Will buy the Irvine Welsh, Porn, for my holiday reading..


will buy porn for my bedtime reading..
no, not the IW novel & i mainly just look at the pictures


----------



## Fuzzy (Aug 15, 2002)

i'm reading Charlotte Gray by sebastian faulks again. read it before the film came out.


----------



## Solarblast (Aug 15, 2002)

> _Originally posted by fudgefactorfive _
> *The Tyranny of Numbers* by David Boyle - statistics are not only bollocks but dehumanise us and make bad things worse, in fact, measuring things usually makes them worse - every time there's a "scare" in the media triggered by some report, the figures get worse the next year! The more you measure something, the less useful the result is.


Interesting.  I read a book recently called *Innumeracy* which argued that the laymans misunderstanding of numbers, particularly in relation to risk, jeapodises sensible decision making on both a personal and political level.  If Tyranny of Numbers really did change the way you see things, try Innumeracy as a counter-weight.


----------



## _pH_ (Aug 15, 2002)

Am off sick at the moment so have been doing loads of reading including:
Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy (very sad)
The Meaning of It All - Richard P Feynman (transcripts of 3 lectures he did in the 60s -  maybe it was just me but this seemed like a load of incoherent nonsense. Not to disrepect his genius in his subject though.)
The Blind Watchmaker - Richard Dawkins (superb, especially the stuff about bats and echolocation. Also contains probably the most understandable description of DNA replication and RNA protein synthesis I've ever read)


----------



## General Ludd (Aug 15, 2002)

Just finished The White Spider which is the classic account of the first ascent of the north first of the Eiger (pitons turn me on). I'm about to start The Name of the Rose and Soul Mountain for my holiday reading.


----------



## neo_monk (Aug 15, 2002)

quantity theory of insanity - will self. he does make me laugh


----------



## fudgefactorfive (Aug 16, 2002)

The Name of the Rose is superb - but his (Umberto Eco's) best book has to be Foucault's Pendulum. It's massively huge, has tiny tiny writing, and has more conspiracy theories per square centimetre than anything else I've ever read. If you're not a paranoid lunatic when you start the book you will be when you finish. I'm also very poor at history and came out of this book with about double my knowledge of European events of the last 500 years.  It also endeared itself to me forever by showing that the designers of hotdog stands were obviously trying to encode information about measurements of the solar system into the design of their hotdog stands.


----------



## Blagsta (Aug 16, 2002)

> _Originally posted by fudgefactorfive _
> *but his (Umberto Eco's) best book has to be Foucault's Pendulum. *



Tried reading this once, thought it was the biggest load of tedious shite ever...


----------



## fudgefactorfive (Aug 16, 2002)

*shrug*


----------



## Lubi (Aug 21, 2002)

Has anyone read:   

Stupid White Men ... and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation! (Michael Moore )

As I want to read it - but its £15.00 and dont really want to pay that much unless I get some feedback!!


----------



## foo (Aug 21, 2002)

I'm just about to start it Lubi - I'll let you know what I think.


----------



## dwen (Aug 21, 2002)

i'm reading:
The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac, truly fantastic book so far, the imagery is quite extraordinary.


----------



## Semi-Naked-Boy (Aug 22, 2002)

recently read "Broken Rails" by Christian Wolmar ....put me off using trains for a bit.

finished reading "Trouble Man", a biography of Marvin Gaye......quite sad but interesting


----------



## tomsk (Aug 22, 2002)

*Stupid White Men*

Just finishing it now, Lubi.
Well worth buying if you like a good rant at all that is Bush, the Democrats, racism, the presidential cabinet and American "democracy" as a whole.

A particular favourite of mine...

Q.1 in Dear George...Chapter Two 
George, are you able to read and write on an adult level? 
It appears to me and many others that you may,sadly, be a functional illiterate. This is nothing to be ashamed of.... But let me ask this:if you have trouble comprehending the complex position papers you are handed as the Leader of the Mostly-Free World,how can we entrust something like our nuclear secrets to you?


----------



## tomsk (Aug 23, 2002)

Just had a thought, Lubi...You could try Amazon as they often have second-hand copies of books...


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 4, 2002)

*The New Rulers of the World - John Pilger*

it's like Noam says on the back cover


> noam chomsky
> "John Pilger's work has been a beacon of light in often dark times. The realities he has brought to light have been a revelation, over and over again, and his courage and insight a constant inspiration."


 true enough, but his accounts of western complicity in indonesia, duplicity in afganistan & criminality in iraq are extremely depressing too. if you don't already think tony bleaagh and george shrub are highly unpleasant liars and murderers, this book cannot fail to convince you. READ IT!


----------



## andy2002 (Sep 4, 2002)

Someone on U75 recommended Christopher Brookmyre to me a few months ago so I picked up 'A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away' and am now about a 100 pages or so into it. It's great, actually, and one of those stories that I suspect is going to keep me guessing as to where it's going for a while yet.


----------



## grubby local (Sep 4, 2002)

Chuck Palahniuk's latest: Lullaby. Think someone mentioned 'Survivor' which I thought was fantastic. Also Sven Lindqvist 'Exterminate all the brutes" where Sven holes himself up in the middle of the Sahara with a laptop containing 'the core of European thought' and has a right old good think about stuff. loving it.
gx


----------



## Reg in slippers (Sep 4, 2002)

*thanks to this forum*

started reading Pynchon

on Entropy and other short stories at present,

looking forward to months of reading with V, GR, etc.


----------



## Rollem (Sep 4, 2002)

*just started reading...*

east of acre lane

(as recommended by the hatted one)


----------



## transparent (Sep 4, 2002)

snow falling on cedars: david guterson

interesting times: pratchett

a history of architecture: spiro kosof

realised last night what pyramid song was all about (you all probably know already but i'm a bit thick)

Early egyptian burials consisted of a subterranean room covered by a wooden roof and then surrounded by a vault like building, which had a wooden boat placed in it so that the dead king could sail to the heavens.

Surrounding this monument is a border of graves of his/her family and friends, build in a similar style to the large vault on a smaller scale.

Pyramid Song:

'All my lovers in here with me
All my past and futures
And we all went ot heaven in a little row boat
There was nothing to fear, nothing to doubt'

The last line being concerned with the Egyptians blind faith in the afterlife. If anyone knows what the 'black eyed angels' are all about, please post up.


----------



## Soft as Shite (Sep 4, 2002)

> _Originally posted by sonicdancer _
> **still* reading the epic 5th Jean Auel Novel
> 
> "The Shelters of Stone"*



Really enjoyed reading about Ayla again- I read it in a week on holiday!  After that, I ended up reading "The Mammoth Hunters" and "The Plains of Passage" again- so entranched I was in pre-history.

Are you enjoying it sonicdancer?


----------



## shortfatdyke II (Sep 4, 2002)

I just got a copy of The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker and I'm reading that at the moment. Really interesting to find out that Pinhead was originally female....


----------



## Masseuse (Sep 13, 2002)

Halfway through "The Undiscovered Self" by Jung.  What a cool bloke.  Written years ago but describes today's social climate to a T.


----------



## @^+ (Sep 13, 2002)

Christ. some good choices here.
So many things i need to check out. 

I'm reading:

*Bad Wisdom* by Bill Drummond & Mark Manning, wherein two former pop/rock/dance nutters and their roadie/manager Gimpo set out on a quest to bring a portrait of Elvis to the North Pole. Once planted in the icey wastes, they are convinced that "the devine Presleyesque vibes would slide down the myriad ley lines and dance across the scattered latitudes, transmitting instant love, peace and global understanding". 
Hilarity ensues. Along with copious farting, drinking, violence, philosophical ramblings, and Nazi Kung Fu Sex Bitches With Rottweilers.

(must re-read Drummond's *45* as it's genius)

also about to get back into comics, starting with *Lazarus Churchyard * by Warren Ellis and D'Israeli, along with back issues of *Doom Patrol, Invisibles, Shade: The Changing Man*, etc..

for anyone interested in reading a comic book that can stand alongside the very best 'serious' literature, check out *Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid On Earth * by Chris Ware. 
Subtle, understated, surreal, emotional, brilliant. 

ant out

http://www.tefosav.co.uk
http://photos.yahoo.com/subterrant


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 13, 2002)

*



			(must re-read Drummond's 45 as it's genius)
		
Click to expand...

 * 

the moment i finished it, i just started at the beginning and read it again..


----------



## Kidda (Sep 14, 2002)

Kirk franklins Autobiography : My Music , My life. Church boy.

really intresting.

and My story : ron kray
im seeing a whole different side to the bloke.


----------



## foo (Sep 14, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Tank Girl _
> *How's maribou stork nightmares going foo? I've read it once, and have re-read about half of it now... very twisted and really not all that nice, but a bloody good read.*



Don't know about you Tanky but I've put that one away for now - I'll pick it up again when I'm in the mood for twisted  

Just finished _The Fourth Hand _ by John Irving. Loved it. He's an excellent storyteller.  

About to start _A Widow for One Year _ by the same author.


----------



## Stinky Monkey (Sep 14, 2002)

I've just finished reading a few books.

Women by Charles Bukowski, which I thought was pretty good. As with most of his books I found it very hard to put down once I started reading it.
I also just read The Monsters in My Tummy and Lenore: Noogies both by Roman Dirge. Both are darkly funny comics. If you have heard of Jonny the Homicidal Maniac and like that sort of thing I'd strongly recommend that you check out Roman Dirge's work.

I am currently reading The Barefoot Doctor's Handbook For The Modern Warrior which, as an introduction to Taoism, I've found to be very accessable. It's nicely written, explains things well and has some good humour in it to keep things flowing along nicely.
I'm also about half way through Charles Bukowski's biography: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life. It's interesting, but very heavy going and I'm not really in the mood for it at the minute.

In my *to read* pile I've just picked up Post Office and Factotum both by Bukowski and both costing me a measly 3 quid each from a shop in Cambridge who's name I've forgotten.


----------



## Hannibal_Smith (Sep 15, 2002)

*Reading*

Just finished 'Dalva' by Jim Harrison - would recommend anything by him; 'The Road Home' and 'Legends of the Fall' stand out.  Maybe more the sort of thing blokes would like rather than women but ...
Also just started 'Heart of the Matter' by Graham Greene and a book on Karl Popper.
Also journals and books for my (teaching) course.


----------



## basher t (Sep 15, 2002)

> _Originally posted by @^+ _
> *I'm reading:
> 
> Bad Wisdom by Bill Drummond & Mark Manning, wherein two former pop/rock/dance nutters and their roadie/manager Gimpo set out on a quest to bring a portrait of Elvis to the North Pole. Once planted in the icey wastes, they are convinced that "the devine Presleyesque vibes would slide down the myriad ley lines and dance across the scattered latitudes, transmitting instant love, peace and global understanding".
> ...


----------



## Roadkill (Sep 15, 2002)

I've just finished re-reading _Jurassic Park_.  I'd forgotten how good it is, especially compared to the film.  It really makes you think.

I've started on _The Lost World_ now.  It's not as good, but still worth reading.


----------



## crashandburn (Sep 15, 2002)

just finished Alastair Reynold's 'Redemption Ark'.  Not bad, but bit of a shame I couldn't remember much from his first 2 as it builds upon the same characters.

But what to start next .... 

reread Trainspotting, then move onto Glue and finally pick up Porno?

take a break and go with Christopher Brookmyre's 'One fine day, in the middle of the night', or

enjoy a bittersweet treat with Douglas Adams 'The Salmon Of Doubt'?

choices, choices ...


----------



## foo (Sep 15, 2002)

I haven't been able to put Irving's A Widow for One Year down this afternoon....... does anyone else have an opinion on him and his novels? Definitely one of my favorite authors.


----------



## Bond (Sep 16, 2002)

Recently finished Adrian Mole: From Minor to Major which collects the first 3 books of Secret Diary, Growing Pains and True Confessions by Sue Townsend as well as finishing the next book The Wilderness years. Those books are always a fun read.

Am reading quite a funny travel book at the moment too called McCarthy's Bar by Pete McCarthy in which he shares his adventures in Ireland.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 16, 2002)

> _Originally posted by foo _
> *I haven't been able to put Irving's A Widow for One Year down this afternoon....... does anyone else have an opinion on him and his novels? Definitely one of my favorite authors.  *



i used to be obsessed with John Irving, read and re-read them all.. then suddenly, and I think it was after Son Of The Circus, i somehow couldn't be arsed anymore. i'm not sure why - maybe they're all a little bit similar in tone and style, and all damn long..

but owen meany and the cider house rules - at the time - were amongst the best books id ever read, and id recommned them to anyone..

for the record, im in one of my insomnia phases and i've read 300 pages of Howard Jacobson's The Mighty Walzer since last night - moving, funny story of a young Jewish table tennis prodigy and compulsive masturbator..


----------



## farmerbarleymow (Sep 17, 2002)

At the moment, as ever, I've got several on the go:

Emergence - by Steven Johnson.  About how self-organising behaviour can emerge from the bottom-up.  Interesting stuff - including stuff about internet communities springing up.

The Pankhursts - by Martin Pugh.  A family history if you like

The Penguin Companion to Food - by Alan Davidson.  A dictionary for foodies.  Wonderful!

Fermats Last Theorem - by Simon Singh.  Good stuff.

It Must Be Beautiful, Great Equations of Modern Science - Ed. Graham Fermelo.  A collection of essays about the great equations.

One book I bought recently but haven't got round to reading yet is The Science of Marijuana, by Leslie L Iverson.  It is a detailed anyalysis of all the research surrounding the subject, and goes into great detail about it.  Fascinating stuff, although I only have looked at the odd page so far.  Just thought a lot of people here might be interested in hearing about this one.    Please let me know if you would like the ISBN

Cheers


----------



## N2Oboy (Sep 17, 2002)

I've just started The Hidden Connections by Fritjof Capra.  I've always thought that you can't look at anything in isolation and I'm hoping that this is going to provide me with some cast iron reasons.
I'm also re-reading my 100 Bullets collections, fantastic stuff.


----------



## Masseuse (Sep 20, 2002)

> for anyone interested in reading a comic book that can stand alongside the very best 'serious' literature, check out Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid On Earth by Chris Ware.



I second that @^+.  Just read Ghostworld which was pretty cool too.

Half way through Ian Banks "Dead Air".  It's ok, but I'm kind of unengaged with it.

However, I'm in the grip of severe Jung mania.  "Undiscovered self" was awesome.  Now on to "Man and his symbols".  Dreams take on a whole new meaning.......

What is "Hidden Connections" N2O boy?  Sounds like it's up my strasse.


----------



## ck (Sep 20, 2002)

I'm now reading "The Answer Is Never" by Jocko Weyland which is a skateboarders look at the history of skateboarding as an art and a sport.

It's a very good read...


----------



## N2Oboy (Sep 20, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Masseuse _
> *
> 
> I second that @^+.  Just read Ghostworld which was pretty cool too.
> ...



Hidden Connections uses systems science to take a holistic look at life from the cellular to social levels.  I've only read the first two chapters so far (the origins of life and cognitive science) but it's shaping up to be very interesting indeed.
Here's the full lowdown 

And if we're talking comics as well, anyone who hasn't read Maus by Art Speigelman should do so as soon as possible.


----------



## Lubi (Sep 20, 2002)

Im reading ...*Soul Music by Terry Pratchett* Very Funny..

Keep catching myself laughing out loud on the train.... good fun!


----------



## Gary Jarvis (Sep 21, 2002)

*The Second World War - a short history*

Found this book in Barnet libraries and I'm hooked. Finding out a lot of stuff I didn't know about WWII like how a division of French soldiers formed a barrier between the retreating British soldiers to Dunkirk and the advancing Germans. The book's author R A C Parker says this was done to protect the British soldiers on their way back to England.

Also shortly after Churchill became Prime Minister. In order to show Hitler the strength of the Allies, a French vessell was bombed with the loss of 1250 French soldiers. I thought I'd misread that bit. 

At Chapter Five The United States enters the war: the origins of the Japanese attack.
What's great about the book is like part of the blurb says 'it examines the causes of the war, how it was won and lost, and its far reaching consequences for humanity.'


----------



## jms (Sep 21, 2002)

Willy Russel
The wrong boy


----------



## basher t (Sep 23, 2002)

i am 3/4 of the way through ulysees by james joyce.
amongst other things, it is absolutley filthy.


----------



## Iris (Sep 24, 2002)

*God of small things*

I'm reading The God Of Small Things, terrific book. It's a best seller and is basically about the political sitatuions in India, BUT in a form of a story. Wonderful, MUST READ!


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 24, 2002)

finished Howard jacobson's The Mighty Walzer (made me cry)
and need to finish up Once More With Feeling by Charlie Skelton and Victoria Coren (lightweight but amusing story about their attempts to make an ethical porn film) before trying to read:

a volume about Van Morrison's 'art'.
London Bones my Michael Moorcock
The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov..

all before I start back at Uni in a couple of weeks...


----------



## Rollem (Sep 24, 2002)

about to start "Down the Highway: The life of Bob Dylan"


----------



## Roadkill (Sep 24, 2002)

Oooh, Rollem, that's meant to be very good - right up there with Clinton Heylin's biog of Dylan.  Can you let me know what you think of it?  

I'm reading _The Warden_, by Anthony Trollope, at the moment.  I really like nineteenth century novelists - I like the style, the way they take the piss out of their own characters, and the way they aren't afraid to look critically at their own society.  

When i've done with Trollope, I've got E.M.Forster's _Maurice_ lined up to read next.  Forster was gay, and Maurice was published posthumously.  The main character is a gay man living in Britain about a century ago, who finds eventual happiness in a loving gay relationship.  What was all too obvious was that Maurice was meant to represent Forster, and the happiness that he never found.  had the book been publiched in 1913, when it was completed (though revised in the 1950s), it would have caused a scandal.


----------



## Soft as Shite (Sep 25, 2002)

*God of small things*



> _Originally posted by Iris _
> *I'm reading The God Of Small Things, terrific book. It's a best seller and is basically about the political sitatuions in India, BUT in a form of a story. Wonderful, MUST READ!  *



I'll second that.  One of my favourite books, so beautifully written from a child's point of view, heartbreakingly beautiful.

Just finished "The Lost Daughter of Happiness" by Geling Yan.  Picked it up on one of those 3 for 2 deals at Waterstones.

It's a love story set about 1860 in San Fransisco, following a famous Chinese prostitute called Fusang.  At once brutal and erotic, it touches on obsessive love, racism and cultural conflict.  Detailed descriptions evoke the historical background to the story, a time that was unsettled and conflicted due to waves of Chinese immigration and cultural change.

The Chinese were viewed as sub-human beings by many Americans, their ability to endure hardship and work for next to nothing disgusted and frightened them, not to mention their diet!  The fact that they would eat (what Americans saw as) anything revolted them, but also unsettled them.  It meant they could survive and multiply regardless of hardship.  

Think this is an important book to read for those interested in Chinese culture and racisim.


----------



## Hollis (Sep 25, 2002)

I'm currently reading 'The Comedians' by Graham Greene.  - Going along nicely at the moment, - the usual depressive characters struggling with failiure etc  in some off-the-beaten track place. 



Bill Drummond's 45 is also a great book. - Kind of spooky though I thought? - Get's beneath your skin..


----------



## Rollem (Sep 25, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Roadkill _
> *Oooh, Rollem, that's meant to be very good - right up there with Clinton Heylin's biog of Dylan.  Can you let me know what you think of it?  *


sure, but i warn ya, i seem to be readig books at an incredibly slow pace of late...


----------



## Roadkill (Sep 26, 2002)

Thanks.


----------



## Roadkill (Sep 30, 2002)

I've just finished _Maurice_.  It's a lovely book - strongly recommended.


----------



## ck (Oct 4, 2002)

"Rum Punch" by Elmore Leonard (the book "Jackie Brown" was based on.)


----------



## Alc0p0pz (Oct 5, 2002)

_Not Fade Away..._ by Jim Dodge.

Not as good as _Stone Junction_, but entertaining anyway.


----------



## Mujahoudini (Oct 5, 2002)

Just finished reading Et Tu Babe by Mark Leyner and Vatican Bloodbath by Tommy Udo in rapid succession.


----------



## pk (Oct 5, 2002)

Finished "Porno" by Welsh about a week ago, before that it was his Trainspotting sequel "Glue" and before that "Maribou Stork Nightmares".

I always buy one of his books before a long train journey, for some reason, it makes the trip seem less like a confinement when dealing with his casual atrocities upon the soul.

Before that "Perfume" by Patrick Suskind, before that a Stephen King called "Wizard And Glass", the fourth and largest addition to his ongoing saga of a gunslinger and an incredible post-holocaust future which allows him to detail his obsession with American trash culture whilst drawing infinite scape of possibility with attractive abstract drug-induced possibilities. 
It's good shit, man.
I have Solzhenitsyn's "Life Of Denisovich" by the bed which I dip into for kicks and bizarrely "Darcy's Utopia" by Fay Weldon for interesting chats with miss pk.
And I got halfway through "Mad Frank" by the very mad "Frankie" Fraser, former patron of Whitechapel's Blind Beggar and unorthodox dentist.
But I realised he was probably just a surplus cunt, and had nothing but the empty tales of a dull mind, so it's still on the shelf. I might pick it up again.

At the moment I am cross-referencing operational manuals between desktop sound studio software and video production shit, which in a funny way always leads to landscapes new and pastures virile but there's nothing like getting a real _mindset_ with a book, where you're riding that tale like a wild hoss...

Books are fantastic.
And I must say it was very nice to meet the book people the other night who know who they are. 

My problem is I watch too much TV.


----------



## vanityvehicle (Oct 5, 2002)

Hollis, The Comedians is a fantastic book. I'm a huge Graham Greene fan.  

And Roadkill - you dirty bastard...  (haven't actually read it, but I'm told it's rather ... _arousing_...)

Halfway through Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which is sort of work-related. It's beautifully written but sometimes drifts into 'and then we did this...' Also 'The Conversion of Europe', a history of the spread of Christianity from 300-1300AD; fuelling my interest in 'dark ages' history, and softening me up for the inevitable reading of Gibbon which will one day follow. Also 'Island Kingdom Strikes Back', an account of the struggle for democracy in Tonga. This is also sort of work-related. Just finished 'The Modern History of Jordan' (more work) and 'An Instance of the Fingerpost' (pure fun).


----------



## Emilie (Oct 5, 2002)

Dale Winton's autobiography. Ordered it from Amazon. Surprisingly interesting actually. 
Also I am reading a book called "the unexplained" about the paranormal side.


----------



## Jessica (Oct 6, 2002)

Now I am reading

Toxin by Robin Cook
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 6, 2002)

is that robin cook the alter ego of derek raymond? if so, let me know what it's like, id be curious to know


----------



## butchersapron (Oct 7, 2002)

Now we're talking - did that thing with Gallon Drunk a few years back - now dead.  Hard as fuck writer - quite unflinching. Top-notch.


----------



## Roadkill (Oct 7, 2002)

> _Originally posted by vanityvehicle _
> *And Roadkill - you dirty bastard...  (haven't actually read it, but I'm told it's rather ... arousing...)*



No, that's the wonderful thing about it - there's nothing explicit in it at all.


----------



## Masseuse (Oct 7, 2002)

I'm reading "Everything You Know is Wrong" by the guys who do the Disinformation website.  Head is spinning with conspiracy.  Dr Jazz, you'd love it!


----------



## s-bunny (Oct 8, 2002)

I'm reading the 19th century 'Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds' by Charles Mackay. It's funny how society repeats the same mistakes over and over.

We're _DOOMED!_


----------



## tomsk (Oct 8, 2002)

Trying to decide between "The Cold Six Thousand" by James Ellroy,and "He Kills Coppers" by Jake Arnott.

Hmmmm...


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 8, 2002)

v disappointed by He Kills Coppers

read it cos id heard it was 'a whole new kind' of crime novel, steeped in the subculture of the times blah blah blah

read like any other crime novel, IMO


----------



## Rollem (Oct 8, 2002)

i quite liked The Long Firm, by jake arnott, but having read the first and last page of he kills coppers i wasnt convinced...

i have given up on reading that bob dylan biography - Roadkill, let me know ifyou wanna borrow it matey 

at the moment i am bookless (well, theres a few i have previously started, and put down, that i could go back to....but you, know they werent that interesting to start with, hence i put them down.....) perhaps a trip to a bookshop is in order (lovely  )


----------



## foo (Oct 8, 2002)

I'm reading 'Emotionally Wierd'. Borrowed from unix.  Took a while to get into it but going strong now. 'Attonement' is waiting for me next.


----------



## mangakitten (Oct 8, 2002)

> _Originally posted by foo _
> *I'm reading 'Emotionally Wierd'. Borrowed from unix.  Took a while to get into it but going strong now. 'Attonement' is waiting for me next.  *



Is that by Kate Atkinson? If it's the one I'm thinking of, it's pretty good, but her other books (Human Croquet and Behind the Scenes at the Museum) are better. 

I am currently re-reading 'Microserfs' by Douglas Coupland while waiting for an order of books from my book club to arrive, at which point I'm going to start From a Buick 8 by Stephen King, who is my favourite writer. 

Oh, and to those Jilly Cooper fans from earlier in the thread - I love Jilly too!


----------



## aurora green (Oct 8, 2002)

"Reasons to be Cheerful"
by Mark Steel.

laugh out loud account of authors' years as a political activist .
Really really funny.


----------



## foo (Oct 8, 2002)

Mangakitten - yes, Kate Atkinson. Sorry, bad form. I should have said who the author was. I too enjoyed Scenes at the Museum and Human Croquet.


----------



## Fuzzy (Oct 8, 2002)

i am reading charlotte gray by sebastian faulks. and no i didnt see the film.


----------



## Loubie (Oct 9, 2002)

Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser.

Ohh....  Makes me mad


----------



## Nina (Oct 9, 2002)

Will Self, Chuck Palchuik (sp?), and Boton. 
Oh, and Dave Gorman.


----------



## JeffBanks (Oct 9, 2002)

currently reading 'Bully' by Jim Shultze (true story, high school murder blahblah).... 

I wouldn't have usually bothered but I saw the film recently and I really wanted to know more about the case. Kinda recommend it, but watch the film instead if you can - the book is basically the entire script with extra bits


----------



## JeffBanks (Oct 9, 2002)

> _Originally posted by mangakitten _
> *I am currently re-reading 'Microserfs' by Douglas Coupland  *



I loved this book!


----------



## hammerntongues (Oct 9, 2002)

Smiley`s People

How Le Carre must miss the Wold War.


----------



## mangakitten (Oct 9, 2002)

> _Originally posted by JeffBanks _
> *
> 
> I loved this book! *



Yeah, I am a fan of most of Coupland's stuff. I love the way all his characters are so, I dunno, nice to each other. But sometimes he gets a bit carried away with slightly silly plots, I think, when focusing on the characters would actually be enough (ie Girlfriend in a Coma).


----------



## Roadkill (Oct 10, 2002)

aurora, Reasons to be Cheerful is a great book, isn't it?  I read the whole thing in an afternoon, it was so good.

Rollem, are you sure you wouldn't mind lending me the Dylan biog?  That's really kind of you.  Can you PM me about it?   

I'm in a gap between proper novels at the moment.  A friend gave me Catch 22 for my birthday and I've read the first few chapters.  It looks really good but I'm not really in the mood for anything that heavy at the moment.  So I'm indulging my craze for naval fiction at the moment, reading the few books in the Captain Ramage series I haven't read yet.  Not nearly as good or as believable as the Hornblower series, but a good read all the same.


----------



## 2tone (Oct 11, 2002)

just finished 'the Consumer' by M.Gira (bloke out of SWANS) seriously fucked up writing indeed.  

Just stepping into 'Manchester Slingback' by Nicholas Blincoe.


----------



## Maggot (Oct 11, 2002)

> _Originally posted by mangakitten _
> *
> 
> Yeah, I am a fan of most of Coupland's stuff. I love the way all his characters are so, I dunno, nice to each other. But sometimes he gets a bit carried away with slightly silly plots, I think, when focusing on the characters would actually be enough (ie Girlfriend in a Coma). *



I have to disagree Manga.  I loved Girlfriend in  a coma.  Although the plot did become unreal towards the end it was still a great story. If you can't get away from reality in a book when can you?

Currently in early stages of Porno by Irvine Welsh looks like being another feast of dark and twisted events.  Spud, Renton, Begbie and Sick Boy are back (although I didn't realise it was Sick Boy at first as he uses his real name).


----------



## mangakitten (Oct 11, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Maggot _
> *I have to disagree Manga.  I loved Girlfriend in  a coma.  Although the plot did become unreal towards the end it was still a great story. If you can't get away from reality in a book when can you? *



Generally speaking, I do totally agree with you - I can't stand gritty, so-called realistic stuff, cos yeah, you get enough of that from real life! But I think that books (films, tv shows, whatever) have to maintain a kind of reality within themselves - so even if it's not something that would happen in real life, it would be something that would happen with the confines that the book has set out for itself. See what I mean? And I thought Girlfriend in a Coma didn't do that - it just got daft. Plus, my other beef was that if he WAS gonna do that storyline, he could have done soooo much more with it... and the characters were cool enough not to actually have to bother with a device like that anyway. See what I mean? 

But having said all that, I did enjoy it and will probably read it again at some point - I just think some of his other books (esp. Microserfs and Miss Wyoming) were better.


----------



## onemonkey (Oct 11, 2002)

*The Rights of Man - Thomas Paine*

Just coming to the end of it. 
Little bit dated (but as much as the passing of 200yrs could make you expect) 
Not as 'revolutionary' as i thought it was going to be, but glad I read it. And would recommend anyone else to do the same (Part 1 at least)


----------



## Red Alex (Oct 12, 2002)

I'm reading Berlin Noir by Phillip Kerr - quite cool.

Alex


----------



## Fledgling (Oct 12, 2002)

Reading "The Severed Alliance" , a history of the Smiths by Johnny Rogan. Also recommend "Last of the Empires" by John Keep (it's about the USSR).


----------



## farmerbarleymow (Oct 12, 2002)

*The Rights of Man - Thomas Paine*



> _Originally posted by onemonkey _
> *Just coming to the end of it.
> Little bit dated (but as much as the passing of 200yrs could make you expect)
> Not as 'revolutionary' as i thought it was going to be, but glad I read it. And would recommend anyone else to do the same (Part 1 at least) *



That reminded me.  I always intended to read that.  Just downloaded the electronic version, so will start reading it tonight.

Thanks.

So many books, so little time...


----------



## noelgetshorter (Oct 14, 2002)

Just finished the new naomi Klein offering Fences and windows, a collection of her speeches and articles from the last 2 years. Just as inspirational as Nologo will make get up and throw a big rock at the nearest mcd's or bank, then you'll sit down again and realsie it did nothing but made you feel better about yourself. 
  Also one flew over the cuckoo's nest, contains two of the most brilliantly drawn characters in literature, RP McMurphy the hilarious brawling Irishman. Of cross the epitome of evil Miss ratched, there is not one shred of humanity in her. And cheif Bromden who can see the combine and how it trys to mold us and shape our lives, Kesey saw it as well but his bus was to quick for it.


----------



## behemoth (Oct 14, 2002)

*The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov.* 

Hence the name Behemoth. After studying literature for years, this is a real breath of fresh air. Never knew modernism could be so funny. How on earth did something like this get written at the height of Stalin's purges? Buy this book today.


----------



## tomsk (Oct 18, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Dubversion _
> *v disappointed by He Kills Copper *



Well I read it the other week (not been around in a few days) and ditto that thought from Dub.

No depth,simplistic attempts at parallel narratives,and written visually as though ol' Jake-y Boy is fishing for an ITV two-part drama...

Still wasn't a complete waste of time.I now know to avoid the others.


----------



## Soft as Shite (Oct 18, 2002)

*"Schooling" by Heather McGowan*

Anyone else read this book?  I'm nearly finished and think it's a really well written book, but I'm just finding it hard to read as it's all stream of conciousness stylee.  You have to work our who's point of view is being described, or who is speaking.  She's not a fan of grammar and the sentences can run on and on. 

I think it's amazing, but can't help feeling like I'm missing out on something and I'm just too thick to appreciate all the complexity.  Would love to study it- there's nothing better than dissecting a book with other people.  I'm sorry I never made the book group- was going through a bad patch and couldn't face it, plus a bit nervous of meeting new people.  I love reading, but not sure I can articulate my thoughts very well.


----------



## Rollem (Oct 18, 2002)

*cotters and squatters: the hidden history of housing...*

...by colin ward

a bit academic but intersting so far (have only read first chapter)


----------



## deejay (Oct 19, 2002)

I try my best to read less then one book at a time but depends on the mood I am in. Lastnight I was making headways into David Icke's Robots Rebellion after reading another one of his books I wanted to read more. Pick on me if you like as I know Icke is considered a loon but I have an open mind and alot of what he says makes sense to me. The world and its people are fucked basically.


----------



## foo (Oct 20, 2002)

Women - Charles Bukowski

fucking hell.


----------



## DotCommunist (Oct 20, 2002)

Re Reading Dune Messiah, my favorite Dune book

The grandios vision, the decadance of religion. The way Herbet creates the character of a dissiluisone muad'dib, And turns him into a a martyr and a bigger hero than he ever was alive.
Herbet was a genius

And Tank Girl all of the laurie lees books are tres good.
I liked cider with rosie best, but the one about him travellimg as a vagabond with a guitar in spain is nearly as good


----------



## J77 (Oct 21, 2002)

Fallen Dragon - Peter F Hamilton.

Took a bit to get going, but now I'm addicted...


----------



## Nina (Oct 21, 2002)

Just finsihed Lullaby by Palahnuik. Very Good. Read it in 6 hours. Short chapters rule 

Now started Coupland Generation X.
Love It.


----------



## zampano (Oct 28, 2002)

*life after god*

good! GOOD! but now read 'life after god' by douglas coupland - beautiful stuff, and then read 'infinite jest' by david foster wallace. there is so much good stuff out there, you just have to keep looking.

the way that 'generation x' has been hijacked as a catch-all byword for apathetic, bovine halfwits is a fucking scandal. most of the book is an optimistic, see-the-beauty-round-you-and-in-you marvel. i love it.


----------



## zampano (Oct 28, 2002)

*read 'infinite jest', please*

sorry, i should've made my point clearer - you will never read a better, sadder, wiser, scarier, funnier book than infinite jest by david foster wallace - it is a mammoth work of fucking genius. dont be put off by the first fifty-or-so pages, hang in there and you will reap your reward. it's about teenage tennis(!), addiction, the selfishness of most love, disfiguration and the godlike Mario - "dont be sad".


read this book - implore! dont be put off by my idiot words, i do it no justice but i'm enthusiastic!!


----------



## Roadkill (Oct 29, 2002)

I'm reading Anthony Seldon's biography of John Major.  I'm not a big fan of Seldon, but this is a really well-researched and sympathetic biog.

Don't know why, but I find the Major years a really interesting bit of British political history.  Maybe it's because it was during his government that I first became properly aware of politics, maybe it's because I've always thought that, disagree with his politics thought I might, Major always seemed like quite a decent man trying to do what he believed to be right while his own party ripped itself to pieces.  Major's autobiography is really interesting too.


----------



## Nina (Oct 29, 2002)

*life after god*



> _Originally posted by zampano _
> *good! GOOD! but now read 'life after god' by douglas coupland - beautiful stuff, and then read 'infinite jest' by david foster wallace. there is so much good stuff out there, you just have to keep looking.
> 
> the way that 'generation x' has been hijacked as a catch-all byword for apathetic, bovine halfwits is a fucking scandal. most of the book is an optimistic, see-the-beauty-round-you-and-in-you marvel. i love it. *



Right. I'm taking your advice. I haven't yet been disappointed by any suggestions on here, so thanks for the tip. 

Just read Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy and started another Will Self (seeing him do a live reading in 2 days) but can't get Coupland out of my head. I might have to read it again


----------



## foo (Oct 29, 2002)

Going to snuggle up warm tonight and start reading Atonement. 
I've been hearing great things about this book so I'm really quite excited.


----------



## offmitits (Oct 29, 2002)

Just finsished reading money - will self. Thought it was a great book, my dad gave it to me to read and having read it I can see why he thought Id like it. Dragged on a little towards the end but most of it is very funny. Wierd thing is a lot of it really shouldnt be funny at all but some how it is.


----------



## sleaterkinney (Oct 29, 2002)

> _Originally posted by foo _
> *Going to snuggle up warm tonight and start reading Atonement.
> I've been hearing great things about this book so I'm really quite excited.  *



I've got that!. Haven't started to read it yet though.

I'm reading The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. Its very good indeed, a bit like copeland but with more substance and less nihilism


----------



## Cerberus (Oct 29, 2002)

I reading shit loads for my Degree course at the moment,inc,

Rights of Man - Thomas Paine
On Liberty - John Stuart Mill

both of which are excellent reads,irrespective of whether you are studying or not.


When i get a break,i`m going to read "Homage to Catalonia" by George Orwell.

Anyone else read it?? what do you think of it?


----------



## mangakitten (Oct 29, 2002)

I've just started 'From a Buick 8', the new stephen king book. King is my favourite writer, though I had started to doubt him as I didn't rate either 'Dreamcatcher' or 'Black House'. So far, though, this seems like a total return to form! Yay!


----------



## slacker (Oct 29, 2002)

I've just properly got back into reading actually, after my A-level reading hangover...

recently I've finished "philosophy-a very short introduction" by Philip Nagel (I think). A top book which explains the central concepts of philosophy in understandable, entirely unarsey terms. Recommend it much. Also have finished "The Blind Assassin" by Margaret Atwood which was a good read, and "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" by Edgar Allan Poe, which was crazy as a very crazy thing. 

Just started "the Van" by Roddy Doyle-very funny stuff, and "Philosophy in the new Century" by Anthony O'Hear, am gradually easing myself into more arsey stuff


----------



## sonicdancer (Oct 30, 2002)

andy mcnab "liberation day" gutsy tense thriller. wicked so far.


----------



## Furvert (Oct 30, 2002)

'the enemy is middle class' by a couple of mad old anarchists called andy and mark anderson.

have to say, it's annoying the hell out of me!


----------



## Masseuse (Oct 30, 2002)

That new Donna Tartt novel.  Don't know if I'll manage to finish it.  It's really shit.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 30, 2002)

cutting between The Ginger Geezer - a very depressing biography of the mighty Vivian Stanshall - and London Orbital by Iain Sinclair (see various other threads in this forum)...





...oh yes, and some college books. honest, guv


----------



## sonicdancer (Oct 30, 2002)

> That new Donna Tartt novel. Don't know if I'll manage to finish it. It's really shit.



sussed that one when I watched an interview with her shes about as interesting as a wet weekend in bognor regis.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 30, 2002)

*



			shes about as interesting as a wet weekend in bognor regis.
		
Click to expand...

 * 


AARRGGHHH! be careful


i used to refer to everything as being like a wet weekend in Swindon.


guess where the Furve took me for my birthday last year?

and no, it wasn't fucking Barcelona..

just be careful I tell you.


----------



## mangakitten (Oct 31, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Masseuse _
> *That new Donna Tartt novel.  Don't know if I'll manage to finish it.  It's really shit. *



Oh dear, that's bad news.  I really loved The Secret History and had been looking forward to this book for about 8 years! Is it really that terrible?


----------



## ewok (Oct 31, 2002)

i have just completed dead air by iain banks which i thought was superb and has rekindled my faith in the man. i really enjoyed wasp factory but havent really got into his other stuff
also outlaws by kevin sampson which was good 
now reading irvine welsh porno - superb return to form.....


----------



## Emilie (Nov 2, 2002)

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
and a book about paranormal stuff


----------



## chrissie (Nov 2, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Emilie _
> *Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
> *



What's that like?  I was thinking of buying it as I need a good read for the train travel to work, but don't want to waste my time on a book I might not like (I have tons of half-read books around already).


----------



## metalguru (Nov 3, 2002)

Just bought and started 2Stoned by Andrew Loog Oldham - second book of biography by Stones early manager. Despite excellent reviews not nearly as good as the first book.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Nov 4, 2002)

Henry Ford and the Jews.

An Australian horror novel called Goodoo Goodoo.


----------



## ck (Nov 4, 2002)

"Rum Punch" (Jackie Brown) by Elmore Leonard.

In the novel , Jackie is Jackie Burke and is a white character.  I thought the fact that she was Black in the film added to it because of her relationship with Ordell (Samuel Jackson)


----------



## tomsk (Nov 4, 2002)

A Drink With Shane Macgowan...so far,sad but somehow warmly unique childhood.Feel like I'm getting a better understanding of him, which is a plus so far cos that's my hope for a bio.

Thumbs up (cheesy style-y) for Roddy Doyle and Elmore Leonard.


----------



## John Quays (Nov 4, 2002)

*Get on the thread, get it out, go away.*

The best thing I ever read was The Tin Drum, Gunter Grass, alluded to elsewhere in this thread.

Am currently reading, 'Au bonheur des ogres' by Daniel Pennac, Dog Years by Grass. 

I keep trying to read A House For Mr Biswas too, but I'm the laziest reader there is. It's weeks since I last picked up a book.

Literature student, as was, you see.

 

Missing out on cultural input through idle nature, JQ


----------



## foo (Nov 6, 2002)

Really getting into Atonement now, carrying it round the house with me.....always a good sign. 

What an excellent writer he is.


----------



## themonkeyman (Nov 6, 2002)

Frank Skinner by Frank Skinner


----------



## jaksragingsmile (Nov 7, 2002)

Been reading American scream, again, the Bill hicks story.


----------



## marshall (Nov 7, 2002)

Just finished 'The Crimson Petal and the White' by Michael Faber.

Awesome 800 page novel set in Victorian London about the rise of a prostitute called Sugar. 
Like Dickens only saucier...can't recommend it strongly enough. 

Hollywood's interested...read it before they fuck it up on film.


----------



## slacker (Nov 7, 2002)

just started "Gulliver's Travels", seems pretty good.
Going to start "White Teeth" by Zadie Smith at some point aswell.


----------



## Loki0454 (Nov 7, 2002)

*read 'infinite jest', please*



> _Originally posted by zampano _
> *sorry, i should've made my point clearer - you will never read a better, sadder, wiser, scarier, funnier book than infinite jest by david foster wallace - it is a mammoth work of fucking genius. dont be put off by the first fifty-or-so pages, hang in there and you will reap your reward. it's about teenage tennis(!), addiction, the selfishness of most love, disfiguration and the godlike Mario - "dont be sad".
> 
> 
> read this book - implore! dont be put off by my idiot words, i do it no justice but i'm enthusiastic!! *



I am sure you have House of Leaves by Mark Danieliewski.
The whole Zampano name totally triggered the memories.
Great book

I havent read Infinite Jest, but will check it out.


----------



## Rollem (Nov 8, 2002)

just started reading *DiY CULTURE: party and protest in nineties britain*, edited by george mckay


----------



## ewok (Nov 8, 2002)

> _Originally posted by jacksragingsmil _
> *
> Been reading American scream, again, the Bill hicks story. *



the man is pure genuis, i dont know whether the book did him full credit, or understands the impact he had especially in the uk on a whole generation of comedians and audiance.


----------



## umeboshi (Nov 9, 2002)

Been comfort-reading bigtime, which means things I've read before, generally, but particularly anything by Jackie Susann , especially Dolores and The Love Machine.


----------



## septic tank (Nov 9, 2002)

Just finished Raymond Chandler's 'The Long Goodbye,' which must be his best. Now onto Dashiel Hammet's 'The Continental Op.'

What? So I'm on a bit of a detective fiction kick (turns collar of trenchcoat up, tips brim of fedora down and shrugs).


----------



## mrkikiet (Nov 11, 2002)

just finished The Corrections, apart from one surreal passage with alfred's poo it was cool. Restored my faith in contemporary fiction.


----------



## Lollybelle (Nov 11, 2002)

*Infinite Jest - as recommended by Zampano*

David Foster Wallace kicks arse, I read Infinite Jest while I was a student because I wanted something huge to read during reading week, thought it was fab.  Only more recently got round to reading some other stuff of his, took 'brief interviews with hideous men' on holiday and would recommend that to anyone, less concentration and effort required than for infinite jest but still just as smart, funny and rewarding.  

My most recent reading has been Fight Club (which rocked, obviously), In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan (gorgeous, weirdly simple yet fantastical tale), and then Fup by Jim Dodge which was recommended by someone else on here, loved it.  And this week I shall mostly be reading Not Fade Away also by Jim Dodge, and 'how late it was, how late', which I'm sure is good but I don't think is really suitable stop-start tube reading, so I'll be saving that for an evening in.  In case you're interested.


----------



## mangakitten (Nov 11, 2002)

I've just started reading 'holding out or giving in' by some girlie woman, which I was hoping was going to be a nice slice of think-free escapism but is actually a huge big pile of poo about some dumb bint being really horrible to everyone she knows. I definately DO NOT reccomend it.


----------



## Roadkill (Nov 11, 2002)

I've finished Seldon now, and I'm looking at my bookshelves contemplating the two Iain Banks novels I bought the other week and wondering which to read first.

_The Crow Road_ or _The Business_?



Hmm, decisions decisions.


----------



## Blagsta (Nov 11, 2002)

Currently reading "Use of Weapons" by Iain M Banks.  Its the first of his sci-fi novels I've read and its bloomin' excellent.  The man has a real way with words, the way he writes about love, loss and regret (unusual in a sci-fi novel) is quite moving (although I'm on a bit of a comedown today, so maybe thats why its moved me so much today...)


----------



## Roadkill (Nov 12, 2002)

I started _The Business_ in the end.  Read four chapters last night and really enjoyed it.


----------



## Phaedrus (Nov 12, 2002)

The Birth of the Clinic: An Archeology of Medical Perception by Michel Foucault. Also, the Woman and the Ape by Peter Hoeg - translated from Danish.


----------



## Reg in slippers (Nov 13, 2002)

*by way of light relief*

am reading

Will Self - Great Apes

quite amusing, even if it is a one trick (lap) pony


----------



## Emilie (Nov 14, 2002)

Woman in Black by Susan Hill. The film is very good so I'm hoping the book will be too.


----------



## beesonthewhatnow (Nov 14, 2002)

The Golden Fool by Robin Hobb, the second book of the new Tawny Man trilogy (this follows on from the Farseer and Liveship books).

I've raved on here about Robin Hobb before, but this is the best yet.  If you like fantasy and haven't read her stuff yet then do, it's the best there is, bar none.  You do need to read them in order though - Start with the Farseer trilogy, then Liveship, then the new Tawny Man series.

My only problem is that I've now got to wait about 12 months for the third and final part......


----------



## Lollybelle (Nov 14, 2002)

Small update - now well into reading Not Fade Away and it's fantastic.  Just go buy it, please - by Jim Dodge, pub. Rebel Inc.


----------



## Swearing Nonna (Nov 14, 2002)

Started Enduring Love - Ian McKewan

After just 2 pages I was hooked!


----------



## onemonkey (Nov 15, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Lollybelle _
> *Small update - now well into reading Not Fade Away and it's fantastic.  Just go buy it, please - by Jim Dodge, pub. Rebel Inc. *


CHANTILLY LACE

Hello, baaaaby!
Yeah, this is the Big Bopper speakin'
Ha ha ha ha ha!  Oh, you sweet thing!
Do I what?  Will I what?
Oh baby, you knoooow what I like!

Chantilly Lace had a pretty face and a ponytail hangin' down
A wiggle in her walk and a giggle in her talk
Make the world go 'round
Ain't nothing in the world like a big eyed girl
To make me act so funny, make me spend my money
Make me feel real loose like a long necked goose
Like a--oh baby, that's a-what I like!

What's that, baby?
But... but... but... oh, honey!
Oh baby, you know what I like!

Chantilly Lace had a pretty face and a ponytail hangin' down
A wiggle in her walk and a giggle in her talk
Make the world go 'round
Ain't nothing in the world like a big eyed girl
To make me act so funny, make me spend my money
Make me feel real loose like a long necked goose
Like a--oh baby, that's a-what I like!

What's that, honey?
Pick you up at eight, and don't be late?
But baby,...I ain't got nooo money, honey!
All right, baby, you know what I like!

Chantilly Lace had a pretty face and a ponytail hangin' down
A wiggle in her walk and a giggle in her talk
Make the world go 'round
Ain't nothing in the world like a big eyed girl
To make me act so funny, make me spend my money
Make me feel real loose like a long necked goose
Like a--oh baby, that's a-what I like!


----------



## Lollybelle (Nov 15, 2002)




----------



## LDR (Nov 15, 2002)

Sleeping where I Fall - Peter Coyote.

Thanks, Ringo.


----------



## onemonkey (Nov 15, 2002)

*Two hundred Pharaohs, Five Billion Slaves*

Great titles but tedious rant of a book. Picked it up at last months Anarchist's Bookfair. Author had written and anti-capitalist screed while working in a call-centre and the tone and presentation of it appealled. 

But having slogged through to the end, I kind of feel that i needn't have bothered, it was basically a long and winding rant about the evils of the new world order, but it really doesn't stand up. Inventive but ultimately it's just 250 pages of paranoia, unsubstantiated finger-pointing and fantasy, giving far too much credit to the idea that rich and powerful people could conspire and work harmoniously together, dragging the whole edifice of the states along to ante up their bank balances and keep 'the workers' toiling forever. 

To illustrate the good and bad points about it, I was impressed by the originality of the photomontage of the pope giving stephen hawking a blow job.. a touch of genius, but the caption was well over the line into madness
_"The Pope and Stephen Hawking achieve orgasm at how reactionary the world has become since they concocted a religious myth about a dying universe riddled with black holes in 1981"_ 

I'm mean honestly!
Everybody knows it was 1979


----------



## lin dze (Nov 15, 2002)

The Pickwick Papers. Dickens.  That homeboy lived in a very different world. Those crew were piss heads, like big time!  And they had ready access to other stuff.  I'ld love to see Mr Pickwick spark up a pipe of opium and hashish with Sam!  It would have made for an interesting read, rather than the horribly constrained morality that the characters have to pay lip service to.  I dig the way Dickens mocks the social conventions though.  I surprised myself by enjoying this old school novel.


----------



## bertifrew (Nov 15, 2002)

i haven't read a book for a while, but the last one i did read was the bourne ultimatum.....by robert ludlum.......brilliant!....when i heard about nthe film i thought 'GREAT' how dissapointed was i?....read the book before you watch that crap movie. They've turned it into a cheap action movie.......


----------



## WelshFreeLoader (Nov 18, 2002)

Things can _only_ get better - John O'Farrell

Eighteen miserable years in the life of a Labour support.

Has to be one of the funniest books I've had the pleasure to read.


----------



## Cartoon Cowboy (Dec 14, 2002)

*Porno - Irvine Welsh*

I was sure there was a thread about this book. I didn't want to read it until I'd finished it and now that I have, it's gone!

It was utterly engrossing. He never lets you off the hook and the depth of emotional honesty was painful at times. There's something about the way he cuts through so ruthlessly to the core of each of the characters that's horrifying and and the same time compelling. There's a strong feeling of _J'accuse!_ coming out of the book from these caustic, hard-as-nails characters who contain this awful clarity to soft-as-shite, comfortable me who encapsulates everything Welsh despises.

Some of the characters were a bit sketched-in. Dianne didn't really make much of a presence but all the ones who were given first person roles were distictive and rounded. It was subtle but you began to know who was speaking very quickly although they weren't introduced. The thing I couldn't get my head around was the accents. It got easier the more I read it but I couldn't hear the voices in my head and it was a struggle at times follow the flow, especially Begbie and Spud. That was just me though, the bits I did hear sounded spot-on.

Next up is either _Atonement_ by Ian McEwen or _Dorian_ by Will Self. Both late birthday pressies. Shit, it's nearly Christmas!


----------



## septic tank (Dec 15, 2002)

Dashiel Hammett, sad to say, couldn't keep my attention, so I moved on to Porno, and I'm completely riveted. Fantastic fucking book, and the London bits bring me right back there. Thankfully, he's moved onto Leith, so the biting pangs of nostalgia are subsiding a bit.


----------



## Roadkill (Dec 15, 2002)

> _Originally posted by WelshFreeLoader _
> *Things can only get better - John O'Farrell
> *



It's good, but _Reasons to be Cheerful_ by Mark Steel is a lot better IMHO.


----------



## Maggot (Dec 15, 2002)

*Porno - Irvine Welsh*



> _Originally posted by Cartoon Cowboy _
> *
> It was subtle but you began to know who was speaking very quickly although they weren't introduced.
> *



The chapter headings told you who was narrating:

Scam # 18,*** was Sick Boy
The Whores of Amsterdam part ** was Renton
'In quotation marks' was Nikki
IN CAPITAL LETTERS was Begbie
In Normal type was Spud

A great book!


----------



## tijuanadonkeyshow (Dec 15, 2002)

1984 - marvellous, surprised I've never read it until now.


----------



## goldenecitrone (Dec 15, 2002)

Straw Dogs by John Gray and Babylon by Victor Pelevin a book about the new Russia with mafia, corrupt advertising agencies and plenty of magic mushrooms


----------



## Nervous Rash (Dec 15, 2002)

Just reading Underground by Haruki Murakami.  It's a series of interviews of people involved in the Tokyo subway gas attack - both the victims and members of the Aum cult.

Not sure what I think of it yet.  The interviews are presnted with no commentary, so it's hard to see if there's anything to learn from it.

To be honest I've liked everything else I've read of Murakami's but this quite different because it's factual.


----------



## black&redflag (Dec 15, 2002)

A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution

by Orlando Figes

bit heavy going but good stuff


----------



## Reg in slippers (Dec 16, 2002)

*at last*

my Pynchon odyssey is over, for now.

V, Gravity's Rainbow, The Crying of Lot 49 - some of the finest literature, Lot 49 being my favourite.

I know that a re-read is in order, perhaps in 18 months.

also picked up Vineland for 10p at a charity shop. A metaphor for American counter culture?

Might make a pig of meself and get Mason-Dixon.

So, for Xmas, what better than some Dickens.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Dec 16, 2002)

Currently on Xenophon, *The Persian Expedition*. Great stuff.


----------



## Reg in slippers (Dec 16, 2002)

*J*

I enjoyed Arrian's Campaigns of Alexander, is The Persian Expedition on par?


----------



## marshall (Dec 16, 2002)

Does anyone here read any Lawrence Norfolk?

Lempriere's Dictionary? Pope's Rhinocerus? No? Can't find anyone else who evens reads his stuff, let alone think he's the finest young(ish) writer in the country...


----------



## souljacker (Dec 16, 2002)

Absolutely LOVED Porno. Great to hear what the old Trainspotting dudes are doing now. I've waited years to hear Begbie threaten to give someone "a burst mooth" again!!! 

I'm currently reading Valhalla Rising by Clive Cussler. My mum bought it for my Birthday. Its quite entertaining in a "yank hero saving the world in an underwater stylee" kind of way. It's a Dirk Pitt novel you know? Like that's supposed to make it any better!!!


----------



## Swearing Nonna (Dec 16, 2002)

The lovely milesy gave me Fast Food Nation for Christmas so I started that on the train yesterday  

As advertised on urban75  

My children should really start to worry about weight loss and malnutrition now.


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 16, 2002)

i'm reading The Most Radical Gesture by Sadie Plant, a critique of Situationism and its relationship to Marxism, postmodernism etc etc etc.

dull as fuck, to be honest. but it's a Uni. thing.


----------



## chez (Dec 27, 2002)

Gandhi- a very short introduction.
by
Bhikhu Parekh


----------



## kained&able (Dec 27, 2002)

stupid white men by micheal moore. Only justs atrted it and i already hate bush more then i did before!


dave


----------



## Tibs (Dec 27, 2002)

I've got two on the go at the moment:  A Crown of lights by Phil Rickman - described by the Sunday Times "as if the Vicar of Dibley had suddenly turned into Cracker" - and it is a cracking read.  Also Lindsey Davis' Last Act in Palmyra - sort of "whodunnits" set in Roman times.  Excellent fun - its one of a series, I'm on about 3or4 and there's loads to come - can't wait


----------



## Bond (Dec 27, 2002)

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy


----------



## wiskey (Dec 27, 2002)

In theory i am reading Ringolevio by Emmet Grogan.... in actuality i am about half way thru but i keep getting too mashed to be able to read by bedtime. but i will pick it up again


----------



## bertifrew (Dec 27, 2002)

My wife bought me john grishams' the summons,frederick forsyths' the veteran(which i have only just noticed is a book of five short stories) and tom clanceys red rabbit.....I don't know about tom clancy fred and john are usualy a good read. i'll probably start withthe veteran.


----------



## Emilie (Dec 29, 2002)

Barry Trotter and the shameless parody- michael greber
Road rage- Ruth Rendell


----------



## foo (Dec 29, 2002)

Nearly finished A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggars.

It's been hard going but definitely worth reading. I feel exhausted by it and had heard that it's funny but found it cringingly painful and upsetting in parts.


----------



## Roadkill (Dec 29, 2002)

I've finally started reading Harry Potter.  I read a couple of chapters of one in the summer and enjoyed it, so now I've started from the beginning.  

_Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone_ took me two days, and I started on _Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets_ last night and I'm already on page 136.  They're addictive!

Actually, I think they're really well written.  She's woven together the old devices of boarding-school stories (which I've always hated) and fantasy novels really well, giving it a certain coherent logic, and a good dose of humour.  I laughed out loud at the part about the "howler" in Book two - something about the idea of a smoking, screaming letter really amused me (I was a little stoned at the time   ).


----------



## danny la rouge (Dec 31, 2002)

Re-reading _To the Lighthouse_ - Virginia Wolf.

And reading _Understanding Power_ - Noam Chomsky (www.understandingpower.com).

I have a bad habit of reading several books at once.  And since two clearly isn't enough, I'm eyeing up my partner's old copy of _The Well of Loneliness_, which I've always abandoned before (anyone made it all the way through?  Should I go for it?), and _The Optimist's Daughter_, by Eudora Welty, again an old copy belonging to my partner, which looks interesting, and which I've always meant to read...anyone got views?


----------



## Valve (Dec 31, 2002)

Just finished reading Edward Said's Orientalism.

Previous to that, I reread Berkeley's Principles and am now going to move on to Hume's Treatise, which I have not read for 2 years or so.

On the side, I have been reading a bit of Robert Anton Wilson; in particular, Quantum Psychology and The Illuminati! Trilogy.


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Dec 31, 2002)

The Magbinion

American Gods - Neil Gaimon

And some book about 14th century french manuscript illumination I can't remember the title of.

Just finished rereading The Hobbit.


----------



## mentalchik (Jan 1, 2003)

Just started reading "Prey" by Michael Crichton,


not read much yet, will let you know if its any good,

have heard some really good reviews and sum really shit


ho hum, same as usual but will make up my own mind


----------



## Roadkill (Jan 1, 2003)

I'm just finishing _Off The Rails_ by Andrew Murray, which is a critique of the privatised railwa system and an argument for renationalisation.  I found it very interesting, but then railways ahve always been a pet subject of mine. 

I seem to have read shitloads recently - over the Xmas period I read _Stupid White Men_, two Harry potter novels and _Off The Rails._  I need to get out more.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 2, 2003)

having made a false start previously, im ploughing through Ringolevio by Emmet Grogan, a brilliant brilliant autobiography about a New York kid who grows up through the 60s and 70s and was involved in so much social and cultural upheaval along the way that he has the ground floor view on it all, and maintained a healthy disgust with hippies!!

and it's where our lovely leo sayer looky-likey got his name too, naturally..

then it's the phil lynott biog for me..!!


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 2, 2003)

Said Aburish - _A Brutal Friendship: The West and the Arab Elite_. 

When I've finished it I'll probably go on to read some books on Ancient Greece, unless I get sidetracked by Akif Pirinçci's _Felidae On The Road_. (I went too deep into a secondhand bookshop in Balham, and had to buy something cheap quickly, before I bought something more expensive...)


----------



## Voley (Jan 2, 2003)

I'm reading Kurt Cobain's 'Journals' at the mo', along with 'Wiseguy' by Nicholas Pileggi, the book that eventually became 'Goodfellas'.


----------



## starfish (Jan 2, 2003)

Sir David Attenborough's Autobiography.


----------



## ck (Jan 3, 2003)

"Private Parts" by Howard Stern


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 3, 2003)

I know a chap who used to be an intern on Howard Stern's show.


----------



## ck (Jan 3, 2003)

really ?  Does intern in The States mean the same as over here   (work experience ?)  

I bet your friend has some crazy stories ?  Last I heard of Howard Stern he went walk-abouts after finishing with his wife and his programme losing masses of listeners.  

Anyone know any more about this ?


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 3, 2003)

> _Originally posted by ck _
> *really ?  Does intern in The States mean the same as over here (work experience ?)  *



To be honest, I didn't think it meant anything over here at all.


----------



## ck (Jan 3, 2003)

You're probably right.  I work for an American company so I suppose I have been brain-washed...


----------



## diwc (Jan 4, 2003)

Reading _The Dice Man_ by Luke Rhinehart (I'm about halfway through).

It's very, well... 'meh'.

[page 9, woo hoo (for those of you with 40 posts/page  )]


----------



## Roadkill (Jan 4, 2003)

Finished the third Harry Potter, _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_, last night, and am now starting on _The World we're In_ by Will Hutton, for which I splashed out at the university bookshop yesterday because it looked rather good.

Read the first chapter in a stoned sort of haze last night - it's very interesting so far.


----------



## veracity (Jan 5, 2003)

Tom Wolfe's 'A Man In Full' very absorbing so far despite being the size of a small house


----------



## ernestolynch (Jan 5, 2003)

I've just finished 'Free at Last!' by Tony Benn and now started 'A Russian Journey' by John Steinbeck and Robert Capa.

So there you go.


----------



## J77 (Jan 6, 2003)

Neuromancer - William Gibson


----------



## ketmania (Jan 8, 2003)

I went looking for a copy of Joe Orton's 
"What The Butler Saw" yesterday, but I ended up buying a copy of his complete plays, because it was only a few pounds more.

So I'll be reading that later today. 

I also ordered a copy of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary today, but it probably won't arrive for a few days (not that I mind; because, by buying online, I got it for £30 cheaper than it would have cost at Waterstones!  )


----------



## WasGeri (Jan 8, 2003)

I'm reading a really crap thriller my mum gave me called 'I'm coming to get you'. It's set in Bristol and it's like one long advert for the Bristol Tourist Board!


----------



## onemonkey (Jan 9, 2003)

*Rogue State - William Blum*

Just got back from a fortnight in NYC and to my horror only read one book the whole time i was away. normally get through one a day when i'm on hols. fortunately it was good un.. 

Rogue State is a survey of America's crimes and misdemeanors over the last fifty years. Advancing the thesis that by judged by its own proclaimed standards.. America is terrorist state. A theme familiar to people here no doubt, but breath-taking quite how wideranging, blatant, avaricious and evil their bullying has been. 

Blum makes a fairly comprehensive case.. listing many many many incidents of American intervention (military, covert, economic) in the affairs of supposedly sovereign nations. (Gutemala, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Serbia, and on and on and on.)

This book will come as an eye opener to anyone who thinks The Shrub is anything new in american foreign policy.. he's just continuing a path well trodden by every previous administration. 

The unrelenting badness is gloomy and shocking and even the most ardent scholar of american transgression will find new horrors. But non of it is soft targets, apologists will find little or nothing that can be excused. 

One of the most depressing books i've ever read but I recommend it to everyone.


----------



## mrkikiet (Jan 9, 2003)

struggling to read The Count of Monte Cristo, made more difficult by the fact i've already read The Stars Tennis Balls by Fry.


----------



## Louloubelle (Jan 9, 2003)

Divine Horsemen - The Living Gods of Haiti; Maya Derren 1953
Accessible, moving, fascinating account of Haitian history culture and religion by the renowned feminist filmaker who became a Voudoun initiate.  Respected by those in the know and worth checking out by anyone interested in anthropology / slavery / history / religion / art.

My Friend Matt and Hena the Whore - Adam Zameenzad 1988
3rd time reading this.  The most most moving, depressing and yet uplifting book I have ever read.  I defy anyone to read it and not cry.


----------



## DaveCinzano (Jan 9, 2003)

*Rogue State - William Blum*



> _Originally posted by onemonkey _
> *Rogue State is a survey of America's crimes and misdemeanors over the last fifty years. Advancing the thesis that by judged by its own proclaimed standards.. America is terrorist state. A theme familiar to people here no doubt, but breath-taking quite how wideranging, blatant, avaricious and evil their bullying has been.
> 
> This book will come as an eye opener to anyone who thinks The Shrub is anything new in american foreign policy.. he's just continuing a path well trodden *



if you dug rogue state (a great little pocket rocket of a book a agree) you might like the one i'm on at the moment. it's 'veil' by bob 'watergate' woodward, and it's about bill casey's tenure as cia director under reagen. woodward had highlevel sources, and whilst he comes over as a bit of a prick, his material is worth it.

basically casey is a consummate anti-communist and thinks nothing of bankrolling right-wing crazies so long as they're sticking it to commies and progressives. my edition is headline p/b, 1988.

if you liked that, try 'cia diary' by renegade cia agent philip agee. it's mindblowing what the us got up to in africa and south america in the 60s and 70s, stuff that isn't really discussed much. the section on ecuador is particularly eyebrow-raising in the context of what's going on in venzuela at the moment...

lastly, 'in god's name' by david yallop, one of my dad's conspiracy lit library - he's gone blind so i'm getting an early inheritance, cheers pa - which is about the financial shenanigans at the vatican bank, and the remarkable reign of the smiling pope john paul the first, who lasted just 33 days before dying mysteriously. also touches on the bologna railway bombing and fascist/state assets like stefano delle chiaie, the p2 masonic lodge, the strategy of tension in italy in the 70s, and roberto calvi, the banker who was found hanging from blackfriars bridge with bricks in his pockets... a suicide, obviously...

happy reading


----------



## Mujahoudini (Jan 9, 2003)

Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut. Its dedicated to Eugene Debs.


----------



## izz (Jan 9, 2003)

Return of the King.


hurrah !


----------



## DaveCinzano (Jan 10, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Geri _
> *I'm reading a really crap thriller my mum gave me called 'I'm coming to get you'. It's set in Bristol and it's like one long advert for the Bristol Tourist Board! *



what's it like geri? i love crappy books that mention places i go every day... i'm a cheap date for bad authors, me. 'bovver' by chris brown was an above-average i-was-a-teenage-football-hooligan autobiog, written with wit and hindsight, with loads of good bristol ref points. apart from that not really come across any bristol books...


----------



## Voley (Jan 10, 2003)

> _Originally posted by izz _
> *Return of the King.
> 
> 
> hurrah ! *



Me too. 

Enjoying it the most of all three 'Lord Of The Rings' books, too.


----------



## Spud Murphy III (Jan 10, 2003)

The Age of Extremes: A History of the Short Twentieth Century 1914-1991, by Eric Hobsbawm.

Am nearly at the end of this one and will be looking out for more books by Hobsbawm. He's generally a good historian, and also a very good writer.

Would like to read a novel for a change but just can't seem to get into them - can only handle short stories!


----------



## Cassius Belli (Jan 11, 2003)

> _Originally posted by cynical_bastard _
> *Just finished Clavdivs the God *



Funnily enough I've just rewatched the I Claudius tv series,Brian Blessed as Augustus is great,his facial expressions can be downright scary or a cack.

Bookwise,I've been re-reading Fieldings Guide:World's Most Dangerous Places.(had to see what it said about Mr Bin Laden,it called him the Ross Perot of Afghanistan!)
Just starting Disaster At D-Day:How Germany Won The War by Peter Tsousas(I think the name is right)
Great Military Blunders(a companion book to the History Channel series)
Back At The Ranch - Kinky Freidman


----------



## Mujahoudini (Jan 11, 2003)

Finished Vonnegut, reading The Tetherballs Of Bougainville by Mark Leyner, a very very funny book.


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## Louloubelle (Jan 11, 2003)

Oooh!
I Claudius the TV series- I watched it as a teenager when it first came out and it left me with a toga fetish!  Everyone looks so damn sexy in those fab outfits,  the plunging cleavages, the strappy sandals etc.  Sian Phillips was supa cool (my first crush on a woman). John Hurt as Calligula and Derek Jaccobi as Claudius were the bomb!  Gripping stories, superbly acted and directed.  Im looking forward to checking it out again sometime soon.  
I saw an interview with the director of The Sopranos recently and he said that the show was hugely influenced by I Claudius.   
IMHO forget Prada & Gucci - bring on the swords and sandals ...hmmmm


----------



## durruti02 (Jan 11, 2003)

Just finished Northern Lights / Dark Materials Trilogy... the best book/s i have read for MANY years....was so desperate to read second book nearly didnt go out nyeve and ended ransacking my sons room at 6 on ny's morn to find the second book!! ...which he didn't have anyway!! !!..the second book is a bit slower maybe deliberately cos the third is a barnstormer..great writing ideas and politics!
 also rebellion by Joseph Roth (i think its Joseph..1925 about german soldier)
 all coupland...and going to try vurt cos yes got bored of Pollen*best*
and A Drink with Shane Mc !!loved it


----------



## @^+ (Jan 11, 2003)

yes, read 'Vurt' - it's brilliant. 

I must read some vonnegut. i must read 'rogue state'. 

I want to check out some michael moorcock. where should i start and what's his best work?

This week i am mostly reading 'Once more, with feeling', by Vicky Coren & Charlie Skelton, following 2 fish-out-of-water English people going to LA and then Amsterdam to make a hardcore porn film. 
I'm reading it for, er, research purposes, and it's very very funny, entertaining and enlightening. The porn stars they interviewed were all surprisingly very intelligent, funny and friendly. Not what I was expecting.


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## smakka (Jan 12, 2003)

> _Originally posted by danny la rouge _
> *I have a bad habit of reading several books at once.  And since two clearly isn't enough, I'm eyeing up my partner's old copy of The Well of Loneliness, which I've always abandoned before (anyone made it all the way through?  Should I go for it?), and The Optimist's Daughter, by Eudora Welty, again an old copy belonging to my partner, which looks interesting, and which I've always meant to read...anyone got views? *




_The Well of Loneliness_ is worth reading, if only to set lesbianism in its historical context - but don't bother if you tend towards depression.  Sarah Waters has written three fab novels which she describes as 'lesbo Victorian romps.'

Eudora Welty - what a great writer, and her stories are so far ahead of their time.  Well constructed and paced, I'd recommend her to anyone interested in the craft of writing.

I'm re-reading _Born Free_ by Laura Hird, a brilliant contemporary novel (pub. Canongate) about the breakdown of a family from Gorgie, Edinburgh.  It's written as a series of monologues from the viewpoints of each member of the family, and although it's gritty realism at its grittiest, it's also engaging and will have you involved with them (although you wouldn't necessarily want to live next to them) and rooting for them to succeed.

Also read _The Madolescents_ by Chrissie Glazebrook which again is a deceptively light read with deep themes about family relationships, mental illness, identity, absent father etc.


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## Emilie (Jan 12, 2003)

Have just started reading a Vicar of Dibley book, which is highly entertaining.


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## ck (Jan 14, 2003)

"Adventures Of A No Name Actor" by Marco Perella which is a forgettable insight into an extra's work...

Worth reading for this bit alone though :

"...everybody has been very careful not to mention anything concerning pigs around Ned."  This , of course , is in deference to his most famous role as the love interest in Deliverance.  They're not even serving pork at meals.  That's why it comes as a considerable surprise when Ned himself brings up the subject.

...In my continuing dedication to toad-licking I bring up the subject of Network and what a fine performance Ned gave in that movie.  Ned proceeds to tell me how he 'really had his man in that part' and how it's one of his favorite roles.  Then I get real dumb.  I ask him what his favorite role is.

 'Oh , I guess the pig thing in Deliverance.'  
I keep on smiling.  Ned continues , 'You know , the squealing wasn't scripted.  That was my idea.  The original script just had us rolling around in the woods.  I thought it needed something so I suggested the squealing.'
'Wow !  You thought it up yourself !'
'Yes.  That's what made the scene memorable ,  I think.'
'Oh , you bet ! Memorable for sure !'
'My career really took off after that movie.  Funny how just one scene can make such a difference.  Because of that scene I bought a farm in Kentucky.'
(Don't say it.  Resist...resist...) 'A pig farm ?'


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## danny la rouge (Jan 14, 2003)

> _Originally posted by smakka _
> *The Well of Loneliness is worth reading, if only to set lesbianism in its historical context - but don't bother if you tend towards depression.  Sarah Waters has written three fab novels which she describes as 'lesbo Victorian romps.'
> 
> Eudora Welty - what a great writer, and her stories are so far ahead of their time.  Well constructed and paced, I'd recommend her to anyone interested in the craft of writing.*


Thanks!  Somebody that reads other people's posts on this thread!  

I always felt I _should_ read Well of Loneliness, but never got very far with it.

btw: Canongate - respect to them for carrying on the trade of publishing new contemporary fiction, when many publishing houses are focussing on the big names only.


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## J77 (Jan 14, 2003)

> _Originally posted by danny la rouge _ * Thanks!  Somebody that reads other people's posts on this thread!  *



I don't think it's the case of not reading other people's posts, simply that the genres read by U75ers seem to be so diverse that it's hard to comment on the posts.

Personally, I like to 'have a nose' at what people are reading through curiousity.

(I'm still on Neuromancer by William Gibson.)


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## Cassius Belli (Jan 15, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Louloubelle _
> *Oooh!
> I Claudius the TV series- I watched it as a teenager when it first came out and it left me with a toga fetish!  Everyone looks so damn sexy in those fab outfits,  the plunging cleavages, the strappy sandals etc.  Sian Phillips was supa cool (my first crush on a woman). John Hurt as Calligula and Derek Jaccobi as Claudius were the bomb!  Gripping stories, superbly acted and directed.  Im looking forward to checking it out again sometime soon.
> I saw an interview with the director of The Sopranos recently and he said that the show was hugely influenced by I Claudius.
> IMHO forget Prada & Gucci - bring on the swords and sandals ...hmmmm *



Yes,yes,yes.And a youngish Patrick Stewart as Sejanus,what a bastard.Coincidences everywhere lately,I watched that series on vid a fortnight ago,and just this week there has been 2 docos on the idiot box about the lost legions of Varus in the Tetuenburg(?) forest.quote Augustus(v angrily):WHERE ARE MY EAGLES!!!


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## Radar (Jan 15, 2003)

> _Originally posted by J77 _
> *
> 
> I don't think it's the case of not reading other people's posts, simply that the genres read by U75ers seem to be so diverse that it's hard to comment on the posts.
> ...



If you like Gibson, try Wetware by Rudy Rucker.

Another good read if you like the genre.


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## Radar (Jan 15, 2003)

> _Originally posted by J77 _
> *(I'm still on Neuromancer by William Gibson.) *



If you like Gibson, try Wetware by Rudy Rucker.

Another good read if you like the genre.

_Buggering double post then you can't delete it _


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## benclarke (Jan 15, 2003)

Trusted mole, by Milos Stankovic.

What an awesome book. He was, er _is_, half serbian and a bit scottish (something like that) and a soldier in the british army, went over to the war in Bosnia with the UN. Then in 97 gets arrested for spying for the serbs. Can't tell you the outcome yet obviously, but some of his accounts of the war are incredible.


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## Idris2002 (Jan 15, 2003)

When I was an extremely anti-social teenager I went through a phase of trying to read literary novels - problem was I didn't have the life experience to understand them properly, and it's only now that I've started to do so.

In the past week I've read Joseph Conrad's _The Secret Agent_ and _Under Western Eyes_ - both very good indeed.

The Secret Agent is about Anarchists, agent provacateurs and the policemen who hunt them. It preaches a very pessimistic and tragic view of society and humanity. Though I enjoyed I think it's let down partially by this. The character Michaelis is portrayed as a sad case, imprisoned for 20 years for his part in a plot to spring a couple of people from gaol, a plot in which a guard was killed, and preaching a totally hopeless and vague humanitarianism.

Thing is, Michaelis is based on one of Conrad's friends - the Irish peasant agitator Michael Davitt. And Davitt was no sad case utopian. He founded the non-violent Land League, whose agitation successfully won land reform in Ireland at the end of the 19th century.

Under Western Eyes, meanwhile, is a much less pessimistic book - but it's also about Russians seen through the eyes of a Pole, so it's not optimistic either. Razumov, a student, is visited in his lodgings one night by a fellow student, Haldin, who has just helped assassinate a Tsarist secret police chief. Things go from bad to worse for Razumov, and even more so for Haldin. . . 

Good books both - give them a look.


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## foo (Jan 21, 2003)

Grey Area - Will Self

I was unsure when reading the first story but now I'm really enjoying reading this and have smiled often. A wry and clever man. The jacket - like my mum's battered old orange penguins. I especially liked the story Incubus, well it has got a 'rood' room in it.   

I like to think of him gleefully storing up shedloads of words before finding stories to fit them.

an excerpt: 

Prologue

The philosopher Freddie Ayer was once asked which single thing he found most evocative of Paris. The venerable logical positivist thought for a while, and then answered, ' A road sign with "Paris" written on it.'


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## Blagsta (Jan 22, 2003)

Reading "Homage to Catalonia" by George Orwell.  Enjoying it so far, especially the explanation of the politics of the time, something I had little knowlege of before.


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## tOka (Jan 22, 2003)

re-reading Allen Carr's "Easyway to stop smoking"
Not really enjoying it, but hope it'll be worth it


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## foo (Jan 22, 2003)

let us know how you get on t0ka - I was speaking to a friend last night who reckons the Carr book is the only way to go. she's gone without smoking for a month now and says it's all down to reading that book. 

I remain sceptical....


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## Arienette (Jan 22, 2003)

survivor - chuck paluhniuk.  great so far.


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## white rabbit (Jan 22, 2003)

> _Originally posted by foo _
> *let us know how you get on t0ka - I was speaking to a friend last night who reckons the Carr book is the only way to go. she's gone without smoking for a month now and says it's all down to reading that book.
> 
> I remain sceptical....  *


 I couple of friends gave up after reading that book over a year ago and they haven't gone back to smoking (cigarettes).


I'm reading The Athenian Murders by José Carlos Somoza. It is written in a pecular way I can't tell if it's being deliberately awkward. I'm only up to page 12 so there's room for it to develop. There are passages such as

"Though your house is nearby, you are a man and I am a woman. I have my position as a _despoina_ a husbandless mistress of a house, and you yours as a man who discusses matters in the Agora and speaks at the Assembly ..."

Very clunky, I thought. Would anyone use a word in a sentence and then explain its meaning? It's not something that would have had to be said explicitly in any case. I don't know if I like it yet but I'll persevere.


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## foo (Jan 22, 2003)

> _Originally posted by white rabbit _
> *I couple of friends gave up after reading that book over a year ago and they haven't gone back to smoking (cigarettes). *



I also know someone who read it and didn't give up so like I said, I'm sceptical. P'raps I should stop watching others and give it a go......?


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## twinkle (Jan 22, 2003)

i'm reading The God of Small Things and it's the bestest book i've read for years. beautiful.


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## Donna Ferentes (Jan 22, 2003)

_The Managerial Revolution_ by James Burnham.


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## ck (Jan 23, 2003)

"The Pilgrimage" by Paulo Coelho.  I read his "Alchemist" novel last year and loved it so I'm checking this one out now...


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## dwen (Jan 23, 2003)

just finished The Red Pony by John Steinbeck

and before that The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

i'm really stuck as to what to read now.... 
I'm thinking of getting Wind up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, has anyone else read it??


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## Cassius Belli (Jan 24, 2003)

Wars Of National Liberation-Daniel Moran

Lost Civilizations Of The Stone Age-Richard Rudgley

Written On The Body:the tattoo in European and American History-Jane Caplan.


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## ajk (Jan 24, 2003)

I did wonder about the Carr "easy way to quit smoking" book, as it appears to ba about a foot thick.  One would assume that an easy way would require less explanation?  Good though, apparently.

Anyway, I'm currently reading Catch-22 (finallly, and enjoying it immensely) and a Tom Clancy novel.  But that's my own private shame, and in any case makes an interesting counterpoint to Heller, or something.


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## Phaedrus (Jan 24, 2003)

Hey AJK, catch 22 is a blast. Clancy another story, but good for his genre.
Me finally reading Fear and loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thomson, so far very interesting. Just finished Small Gods by Terry Pratchet, brilliant.


----------



## superdodgy (Jan 24, 2003)

I'm rereading No Logo at the moment. It's been two years since I read it, so... Still love that book.


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## benclarke (Jan 24, 2003)

> _Originally posted by ajk _
> * Anyway, I'm currently reading Catch-22 (finallly, and enjoying it immensely) and a Tom Clancy novel.  But that's my own private shame, and in any case makes an interesting counterpoint to Heller, or something. *



I just finished that - it is *SO* funny


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## Idris2002 (Jan 24, 2003)

I'm currently reading D.H. Lawrence's _Sons and Lovers_ - and it's absolutely _brilliant_.


----------



## dwen (Jan 24, 2003)

i've just started catch 22 incidentally


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## bingobowden (Jan 24, 2003)

Just finished Last Exit Magic Kingdom by Rory MacLean, a very entertaining Florida travel book.

Now starting on Stupid White Men - Michael Moore.


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## Cassius Belli (Jan 25, 2003)

Been re-reading Faust Among Equals and Flying Dutch by Tom Holt.If you like pythonesque humour I recommend Odds And Gods by Tom Holt,a retirement village for deities run bya strict old biddy.Osiris escapes for a certain reason and Thor,Odin,and another one I can't remember decide to escape as well in their flying steam engine.Totally bizarre and extremely funny,well I thought so.


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## rowan (Jan 26, 2003)

I'm reading the Hobbit again, not read it for donkeys years and decided to read that and LotR again before watching all the films in one go when the last one comes out on video (don't like the cinema!)

Also Road Raging, by Road Alert, don't ask!


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## Emilie (Jan 26, 2003)

I'm currently reading "Girl in the Attic" by Valerie Mendes. Tis very good.


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## Roadkill (Jan 26, 2003)

_Oliver Twist_.

I haven't read any Dickens for years so I thought this was a good place to start.  Besides, I acted the part of Mr Bumble in a local junior dramatic society production of Oliver when I was 13. 

I'm really enjoying the book so far.  It's much easier to read than I remember Dickens being.


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## bathonian (Jan 28, 2003)

*i'm reading...*

currently reading:

War plan Iraq: milan rai.
very good, very informative, top stuff!

Sense and Sensiblility: jane austen.
first austen book, nto too bad, goes on a bit and i'm strugglign to finish the bugger!

SIC: various.
the chumba publication of various activist tales and interviews around the world. very good. brilliant piss taking advert spoofs in it too.


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## Aitch (Jan 28, 2003)

I'm just finishing Sputnik Sweetheart which is based in Tokyo and is beautifully written almost like poetry. Also Dead Famous by Ben Elton which is shite in a pleasant easy to read daft way if you know what I mean


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## souljacker (Jan 28, 2003)

Just starting reading 'Glue', Irvine Welsh. Good so far, but the bit were they torture some guard dogs is a bit <ahem> sick?


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## Rollem (Jan 28, 2003)

*porno*

irvine welsh

some it is just pure filth!


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## Voley (Jan 30, 2003)

Michael Moore - Stupid White Men.

Totally ace.


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## Aitch (Jan 31, 2003)

Ok I've finished the 2 books I was reading and picked up The Beach just because it was lying around really.  So far I'm not that enthralled with the style of writing its a bit basic but its been great to lose myself in the description of Thailand beaches sea sun etc during these cold days. 

Another downer is even though I haven't see the film all I can picture is Leo Dipunio in my head.\

I might go and buy Porno at lunch time the only thing that has put me off getting it is I find reading the Scottish style a bit taxing


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## Aitch (Jan 31, 2003)

Just realised what a contradiction on one hand saying a books style is too basic on the other hand a style is too taxing. 

Never happy me


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## jms (Jan 31, 2003)

some Edgar alan poe thingy...


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## rubbershoes (Jan 31, 2003)

Currently reading Lanark by Alasdair Gray as recommended by our very own Mr Dubversion.

Lanark doesn’t disappoint. Alasdair Gray’s style is an oblique mixture of reality and unreality but if you can get through that the books are great. Someone said that reading his boks makes you feel as though you have taken drugs.There is a an element of playing with your mind like that. In Lanark, the protagonist (called Lanark) has just met the all-powerful figure on the world , who explains that he is powerful because he is  the author of the book.. It’s a bit like that sketch of the hand holding a pencil drawing itself.

Also two thirds of the way through some Kinky Friedman short stories.


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## Poi E (Jan 31, 2003)

David Attenborough's Life on Air. What a guy.  So damn erudite and self-effacing.


----------



## apollo & co. (Jan 31, 2003)

_The Godfather_, Mario Puzo. Book I, Chapter 7.  _Caporegime_ Clemenza just had Paulie Gatto shot to death.


----------



## white rabbit (Jan 31, 2003)

"Get the cannoli"


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## BL2ALLb (Jan 31, 2003)

F.M.Cornford 'Microcosmographia Academia' 'Being A Guide For The Young Academic Politician'.........by Bowes and Bowes of London

It states that Oxford and Cambridge are indistinguishable. Satire condensed.And it adds .........

page 18...........In the same way the British Empire is the outcome of College and School discipline and of the Church Catechism.

Its very old but still rings true ..........basically its a tip book on how stop and prevent any changes so that the Dons can all keep their safe little selfs snug and safe.


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## suzee blue cheese (Feb 1, 2003)

I went out shopping for work clothes in the Sales and came back with lots of and lots of books instead.  Currently dipping in and out of a textbook on Biopsychology by Pinel.  Fascinating stuff - how the brain works, nature of addiction - why we overeat/undereat etc.  Which ties in nicely with Fast Food Nation which I'm also reading...  

I seem to be going through a non-ficton phase - LOL!.  

I have 17 books lined up waiting to be read.  What riches!!


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## BL2ALLb (Feb 1, 2003)

you are just entering a virtual reality of words it was novel awhile back....but there are other mediums to engage excitedly with........maybe ones that dont involve chopping down trees or capitalism...............not in paperback yet tho.


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## Cassius Belli (Feb 1, 2003)

> _Originally posted by rubbershoes _
> *Currently reading Lanark by Alasdair Gray as recommended by our very own Mr Dubversion.
> 
> Also two thirds of the way through some Kinky Friedman short stories. *




There is a doco on Kinky on SBS on Sunday night at 9:55,"The Asshole From El Paso", if any Oz posters are interested in the Kinkster.


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## RubyToogood (Feb 2, 2003)

I've just finished Sweet Thames by Matthew Kneale, which is about a fictitious engineer working on plans for the reconstruction of the sewers in Victorian London, in the midst of (a) a cholera epidemic and (b) his wife's disappearance. It sounded like a great leftfield idea for a book from the back cover. Sadly the ending was bollocks and I didn't think the research was good enough, it was a slightly unfortunate mishmash of fact and fiction. It was a reasonable page turner though.

It was one of the books my mum gave me for Christmas - she also gave me Baudolino by Umberto Eco, which I abandoned about a third of the way through because I wasn't really interested and I didn't like any of the characters. No women in it either.


----------



## Masseuse (Feb 2, 2003)

I'm reading "the Poisonwood Bible" at the mo.  It's by Barbara Kingsolver.  It's brilliant.

It's about an evangelical Baptist preacher who takes his family to the Congo in 1959 to save the Heathens.  Naturally all does not go quite to plan.  Fantastically written with beautiful imagery and a gripping plot.  Highly recommend.


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 2, 2003)

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen - knew i'd get round to this eventually, and im fucking glad i have. funny as all hell, and damned depressing to boot. my kind of book.

i know very little about Parkinson's Disease, but Franzen's descriptions - based, i believe, on his father - are heartbreaking..


----------



## white rabbit (Feb 3, 2003)

Bugger! I wish I'd read up on that a bit more. I bought _The Corrections_ for Christmas for a friend whose dad is in the later stages of MS. 


I'm reading a book I was given as a Christmas present. _Enigma, the battle for the code_ by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore. It's a fascinating tale of the wider struggle to crack the German wartime cypher that includes Bletchley Park but also explains how the efforts of the codebreakers depended heavily on the efforts of so many more who are largely overlooked. And especially the fuck-ups by both sides that could have nearly caused a very different outcome.

I have to say though, that H S-M is a _dreadful_ writer. The text is so turgid, you can spot one of his stock descriptive devices coming a mile off. The cliches are like cold puddles you have to trudge through to follow the tale which is gripping despite its telling. He has the air of someone who has long forgotten how to tell a story in an interesting way. The book is peppered with short anecdotal hooks that he was no doubt very excited by coming across in his research. But on the page they fall flat, delivered in his fusty, donnish style.

I get the feeling that he didn't really have the strength to bring the book to life which is a shame as the story calls for much more _zest_.


----------



## J77 (Feb 3, 2003)

yesterday i read,

Holes - Louis Sacher.

finished it in two sittings, not a dull line throughout


----------



## ViolentPanda (Feb 3, 2003)

Reading two at the moment;

The Social Animal - W.G. Runciman

and

The Parafaith War - L. Modesit Jr.


----------



## Voley (Feb 4, 2003)

Naomi Klein - Fences and Windows.


----------



## rednblack (Feb 4, 2003)

Perdido street station by china mieville, gormenghast on bad acid.
stupid white men-micheal moore, all true.
necronomicon-'simon'-utter mad bollocks, but still interesting.


----------



## Louloubelle (Feb 4, 2003)

Bollocks indeed.  

Necronomicon by 'Simon' exposed as hoax - its official.  The publisher employed a graphic designer to illustrate this book and wrote the text himself.  Earlier versions all hoaxes too.  

Originator, HP Lovecraft, expressed amusement in his correspondence that his invention "The Necronomicon" or Book of Dead Names, by the mad Arab, Abdul Alhazared, a work of fiction and no more, had been supposed to be a real grimoire by many people.  The more he insisted that the book was not real, the less people believed him.  Quite funny really.    

People seem to enjoy reading them so perhaps it doesnt matter.


----------



## jd (Feb 4, 2003)

How the Dead Live, Will Self.  I like it so far.


----------



## DaveCinzano (Feb 4, 2003)

political murder in northern ireland by martin dillon and dennis lehane (1973) - just brushing up on a little light reading


----------



## Louloubelle (Feb 4, 2003)

Life and Deff - sex, drugs, money and god
Russel Simmons with Nelson George

12 Bar Blues - Patrick Neate


----------



## jambandit (Feb 4, 2003)

ringolevio - emmet grogan.....


----------



## Roadkill (Feb 4, 2003)

> _Originally posted by RubyToogood _
> *I've just finished Sweet Thames by Matthew Kneale... *



Kind of surprised to hear that it's not very good, rubes.

I've just started re-reading _English Passengers_, also by Matthew Kneale, and I still think it's one of the best novels I've ever read.  It's about an expedition to Tasmania in 1857, led by a Vicar and amateur geologist, who is convinced that the true site of the Garden of Eden lies there, and that finding it will prove the truth of his theory of "divine refrigeration" and disprove the "slanders" of geologists asserting that the earth is older than the Bible says.  Needless to say, it doesn't all go according to plan, not least because one of the expedition is a highly nasty racial theorist, and the ship they have chartered is fleeing customs and has a large amount of contraband stashed under the cabin floor, which the skipper needs to sell quickly.

I don't know how accurate Kneale's research into Aboriginal language and culture is (one of the main characters is Aboriginal), but the rest of it seems very good, and the story is really well told - it's caustically funny, has some very interesting moral undertones, and the ending is hugely satisfying.


----------



## Cassius Belli (Feb 5, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Louloubelle _
> *Bollocks indeed.
> 
> Necronomicon by 'Simon' exposed as hoax - its official.  The publisher employed a graphic designer to illustrate this book and wrote the text himself.  Earlier versions all hoaxes too.
> ...




Maleus Malefercarum(?) is a good read,about witch- hunters etc.It was supposively their handbook during the 15th century I think it was.


----------



## Louloubelle (Feb 5, 2003)

Maleus Malleficarum or the hammer of the witches.  

http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/

The insrpiration for so many women to be thrown into rivers, pricked with pointy sticks, and burnt at the stake.   

Still goes on in South Africa today, only they dont need a big book in Latin; they just put burning tyres round peoples heads.


----------



## themonkeyman (Feb 5, 2003)

currently reading Ressurection Men by Ian Rankin one of the John Rebus detective novels - reall y good, anyone else read any of these ?


----------



## Masseuse (Feb 5, 2003)

Oooh yes, I love the rebus novels.  Bleedin read em all now so I need him to get a bit more prolicfic.

Nearly finished The Poisonwood Bible.  Holding on to last chapter as I don't want it to end!


----------



## EatMoreChips (Feb 5, 2003)

The Country Under My Skin - Giaconda Belli.

The autobiography of a high-born Nicaraguan who joined the Sandinistas.


----------



## Bomber (Feb 6, 2003)

Patti Smith by Victor Bokris ~


----------



## Muad'ib (Feb 6, 2003)

My War Gone By, I Miss It So   -Anthony Loyd.
Superb.


----------



## Cerberus (Feb 6, 2003)

Down and out in Paris and London - again.....

though trying to read books for pleasure around doing a part - time degree is quite hard..............


----------



## RubyToogood (Feb 6, 2003)

Well it might just be me, Roadkill. If you want it you can have it! (PM me, I might not look at this thread again - if you're not coming down to London soon I can stick it in the post to you.)


----------



## papa lazaroo69 (Feb 7, 2003)

A book called Deviant by Harold Schechter.

Its the horrifying true story of Ed Gein. The guy who Hitchcock based his psycho character on, and parts of the film, "The texas chainsaw masacre" were also based on him.
Its an interesting if not disturbing read, and in contrast the characters you see in the films are by far much tamer than the real life lunatic.


----------



## Cassius Belli (Feb 7, 2003)

Yeah,all those Schechter books are a good read.


----------



## Roadkill (Feb 7, 2003)

Ooooh thanks very much Rubes. 

I'll be at the demo and unsound on 15th, or failing that I'll chuck you a PM with my address when I get back to Hull (about 19th).

I'd certainly like to read it - I'm so impressed by _English Passengers_ (for the second time!) that I'd be keen to see if his other books are anything like as good.


----------



## Rollem (Feb 7, 2003)

*253*

by Geoff Ryman

(which consdiering i travel on the bakerloo line everyday, and the state of the underground at the mo, may not be the best book to read.... )


----------



## souljacker (Feb 7, 2003)

Just started the Vulture, Gil Scott Heron, you jive ass turkeys


----------



## chez (Feb 9, 2003)

anarchism and other essays- emma goldman


----------



## foo (Feb 9, 2003)

Alternating between Fast Food Nation and The Rotter's Club 

guess which one's winning...


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 9, 2003)

isn't the Rotters Club brilliant?

i got furvert a copy cos it's all set where she grew up - actual pubs and streets, and the apparently lovely Lickey Hills.


----------



## foo (Feb 9, 2003)

Yes, it's excellent. and my god is it making me feel nostalgic for the 70s!  

I'm now in love with Benjamin.  

no hope.


----------



## Kidda (Feb 9, 2003)

the lickey hills are fabbbbbb, me and my first boyfriend, steven, simon, simone, one them, well thats the place well, yeah to much information  lickey hills are great tho dub, likeeeee it!!

im reading 
David Blaine : mysterious stranger
and 
[some wierd author bloke] - the ancient art of street performance and ring juggling.


----------



## scarletwoman (Feb 11, 2003)

The Count of Montecristo i think by Dumas
No Logo by we all know who
Cryptic Crimes by some geezer
Blackberry Wine by the woman who wrote Chocolat
Confessions of an Opium Eater by De Quincy

All very good in different ways.


----------



## papa lazaroo69 (Feb 11, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Cassius Belli _
> *Yeah,all those Schechter books are a good read. *



really? This is the first one ive come across, and that was by accident.
What else has he done?


----------



## subversplat (Feb 13, 2003)

I am reading The Complete Ballad of Halo Jones by Alan Moore and Ian Gibson. It's very good.

I just got done reading Sin City by Frank Miller which was also very good. Some of the artwork is fantastic in its surrealism.

Sometimes I read proper books too  Got Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and two Phillip K Dick short story collections (We Can Remember It For You Wholesale and Minority Report) yet to plough through.


----------



## septic tank (Feb 13, 2003)

Just finishing up Graham Greene's The Comedians, a typically dark Greene, marbled with moral ambiguity, about a Brit hotelier returning to Papa Doc Duvalier's Haiti, complete with tontons macoute, CIA skullduggery and, for comic relief, a couple of uptight Unitarian/vegitarian missionaries from Wisconsin who abstain from acidic food and drink so as not to inflame the passions and profess a great love "for the coloured people." Can't say they sound too unfamiliar. There's also a Haitian character very similar to the Vietnamese stringer in The Quiet American who urges the Anglo protagonist to take a stand. Slow in places, but all in all a worthwhile read.


----------



## manstein (Feb 13, 2003)

Just finishing

'At the tomb of the Inflateable Pig' by John Gimlette. 

Its a bemused progression round Paraguay meeting locals, immigrants from years past and the charming Fer de Lance.


----------



## Louloubelle (Feb 13, 2003)

I enjoyed The Comedians very much.  Dont bother with the film though.  almost 3 hours of tedium just to catch about 10 seconds of the wonderful Voudoun drummer Te Ro Ro.  Book definitely worth checking out tho.


----------



## andy2002 (Feb 14, 2003)

Recently finished William 'Neuromancer' Gibson's new one, Pattern Recognition. It's the first novel he's written that isn't set in the future and is easily the best thing I've read of his. I'm now about half way through a murder thriller called 'Holloway Falls' by Neil Cross, which has had me totally gripped from page one.


----------



## hammerntongues (Feb 14, 2003)

Just bought Coastline Joanne Harris, I`ve enjoyed the first 3 and hoping this is as good


----------



## Getauscht (Feb 14, 2003)

VITAL DUST by Christain De Duve


----------



## flypanam (Feb 14, 2003)

culture and anarchy - matthew arnold (got to learn this stuff)

White noise- don de lillo


----------



## oicur0t (Feb 18, 2003)

just read "Are You Dave Gorman?" - Fantastic stuff 

about to reread 2001 again.


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 18, 2003)

Death in the Andes - Mario vargas llosa - am loving it - about the shining path (sendero luminoso) revolutionaries in peru....


----------



## Roadkill (Feb 18, 2003)

Just started on _Sweet Thames_ that Rubes gave me.

I'm actually quite enjoying it so far.


----------



## Voley (Feb 18, 2003)

Nearly finished 'The Godfather' by Mario Puzo. Not a patch on the film:  "Reads like an airport potboiler" said Ernestolynch on another thread and he ain't wrong.

I've also been dull and worthy and have been reading 'Fences and Windows' by Naomi Klein which is all well and good but has frankly been boring the fucking arse off of me.

Thing is, I read 'Stupid White Men' by Michael Moore immediately before and he says a similar message but makes you laugh out loud, too. I know who I prefer.


----------



## Bomber (Feb 19, 2003)

Just started "Malcolm X the Autobiography"  ~   shadow written by Alex Haley whose foreword provides a very readable 'potted history' of the life of Malcolm X.


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 19, 2003)

*hehe*

NVP - shows how different people get different things out of a book....I really quite enjoyed the godfather book and thought stupid white men was a bit crap (really badly wirtten IMHO).


----------



## ck (Feb 19, 2003)

I too loved The Godfather ; especially the part where Michael is in Sicily and get's "struck by a thunderbolt" ; ie falls in love.


----------



## chapman baxter (Feb 19, 2003)

finally got round to Mark Steele's _Reasons to be Cheerful_


----------



## tijuanadonkeyshow (Feb 19, 2003)

East of Eden by John Steinbeck and its just as good as everyones always said it was


----------



## Cassius Belli (Feb 20, 2003)

Rereading "War And Anti-war" by Alvin and Heidi Toffler,I was wondering how much of their "future telling" has come true.
I had read it a number of years ago and with the way the world is at the moment I thought it may be an interesting read again.


----------



## BL2ALLb (Feb 20, 2003)

Marjorie Blameys  FLOWERS of the COUNTYRYSIDE............there is an obituary of the Blue Butterfly..............the British Large Blue......it says it was extinct on these Isles in 1979........+ a reminder that extintion means forever............


----------



## genee_rave (Feb 20, 2003)

i'm reading 'Vermillion Gate' by Aiping Mu
-anyone else read it?

i got it cos it was £3 in fopp but i'm totally gripped (which is rare for me with non-fiction). its basically a history of communist china told by a woman who's parents were revolutionaries but later persecuted


----------



## Monkeygrinder's Organ (Feb 20, 2003)

'Hunger' by Knut Hamsun. It's... OK. Doesn't really get the raving madness that I think it's aiming for.


----------



## dwen (Feb 20, 2003)

I've got distracted from reading catch22 now and am reading Homage to Catalonia, 

<makes note to actually finish books before starting on the next one >


----------



## Fledgling (Feb 21, 2003)

I'm reading Homage as well. Very good book. In fact it's one of the best I've ever read. There is a newer edition which I bought in some socialist bookshop nr British Museum which has letters from Orwell and his family/friends concerning Spain.


----------



## Phototropic (Feb 21, 2003)

Just started "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert M. Prisig which my lovely gave me.

I haven't got far into it but I am already loving it. He has a really beautiful style of writing and way of thinking.

Think I am going to enjoy this book immensly


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 24, 2003)

'zen and the art...' is a gr8 f/ing book.......

 

i'm reading, kafka, the trial......tis good


----------



## Yoj (Feb 24, 2003)

Just borrowed stupid white men off my mate. Can't wait to read it.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 24, 2003)

I have just finished Niall Griffiths' Sheepshagger and was bowled over by the beauty of his writing, especiallyl in his descriptions of the protagonist's bleak and violent childhood. The appalling violence is hard to take sometimes but underlines the tragedy of the story very skilfully.
I have just started Bear Vs Shark by Chris Bachelder and it seems to be an rather cynical Coupland-like take on American culture and mass media - I will reserve judgment until I have finished it but it seems to be shaping up into something as hollow and superficial as its intended targets.
Think I might read The Amber Spyglass next.


----------



## chez (Feb 24, 2003)

War On Iraq, What teambush does nt want you to know. 

scott ritter and william rivers pitt


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 25, 2003)

Shipping News


----------



## marty21 (Feb 25, 2003)

"some luck" ...john (big issue) bird, autobiog, and pretty good...


----------



## tOka (Feb 26, 2003)

"High Society" - Ben Elton.
Just picked it up this evening, and am departing now to bury my head in it.


----------



## Jasond (Feb 28, 2003)

the hunchback of notre dames... oh how wonderful!


----------



## Maidmarian (Feb 28, 2003)

"The Simpsons & Philosophy"

Edited by :

Irwin, Conard & Skoble


----------



## Roadkill (Mar 2, 2003)

_Futility_.

It's now been re-published under the name _The Wreck of the Titan_: it's by Morgan Robertson, written in 1898.  It tells the story of a brand-new passenger ship, the _Titan,_ the largest in the world and believed to be unsinkable, which strikes an iceberg and sinks on its third voyage, with the loss of most of the passengers and crew.  

it's not actually a very good story - just a nineteenth century morality play really -  but it's eerie because it so closely foretells the _Titanic_ disaster.


----------



## mrkikiet (Mar 2, 2003)

heart of darkness by conrad, i was reliably informed that it would explain 'apocalypse now' to me.


----------



## Muad'ib (Mar 2, 2003)

Just finished Anthony Loyd -My war gone by I miss it so. Just started The new rulers of the world- John Pilger.
Both brilliant. Both horrific.


----------



## black&redflag (Mar 4, 2003)

the spanish civil war by anthony beevor


----------



## ViolentPanda (Mar 5, 2003)

"The Illuminatus Trilogy" By Shea & Wilson for about the 5th time (I'm not addicted, I can give it up anytime guv, honest!)

"Introducing Semiotics" 'cos I'm doing an OU soc sci degree and it'll be handy to enhance my (currently) hazy grasp on the ideas behind semiotics.

"The Beast Reawakens" by Martin Lee. Re-reading this after "Was Arafat trained by Nazis?" thread in "P & P" contained a mis-quote which I was able to correct.

And yes, I am one of those sad bastards who reads more than one book at a time!


----------



## kained&able (Mar 5, 2003)

Just finished Kil'n people by David Brin, which is one fo the best books i have ever read.

I'm now reading the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy triology thingy.


dave


----------



## Roadkill (Mar 5, 2003)

_Inventing the Victorians_ by Matthew Sweet.

He's basically trying to take issue with the way we've conceived the Victorians over the last century, and point out that we're a lot closer to them than we like to think.  As he says, many of the cultural phenomena we take for granted now are 19th century creations - the cult of celebrity, moralising tabloid newspapers, trash novels, aggressive advertising techniques etc etc.  

He also points out that Victorian sexuality has been mythologised far too much - the old chestnut about covering the legs of tables to avoid the suggestion of indecency, for example, is unlikely ever to have been done, and the only contemporary reference to it is in a piece taking the piss out of starchy and moralising Americans.

So far it's very good, and well researched, but I'm not enjoying it as much as I expected - something to do with Sweet's style I think; it's not as engrossing as I hoped.


----------



## MadFish (Mar 5, 2003)

I'd recommend Richard Layman for anyone who enjoys a horror yarn with a difference. I've just finished Darkness, Tell Us which is about six students who to the mountains looking for a hidden fortune on the advice of a Ouijia Board. Some wierd happenings throughout the book I can tell you with a good twist at the end.

Before that I read Island (also by the same author) which is about a group of people shipwrecked on an island along with a nutter who is picking them off one by one, men first. Again a good twist for the finale.


----------



## Rollem (Mar 6, 2003)

*basket case*

by carl hiaasen


----------



## KeyboardJockey (Mar 6, 2003)

*What book are you reading ?*



> _Originally posted by ck _
> *I'm reading "By Myself" by Lauren Bacall ; it's very good than-you very much.
> 
> What about you ? *



The Black Jacobins by CLR James -- fantastic book about the slave revolt and independence of Haiti and how the slaves and the mullatoes and some of the whites used the ideas of the French Revolution to free themselves.

Absolutely first class.  I've never read any CLR James before and he truly deserves the title of the Edward Gibbon / Plato of the Carribean.

Also reading Amerika Psycho by Richard Neville all about the poisionous Bushbots controling the USA.


----------



## Swearing Nonna (Mar 6, 2003)

Treated myself yesterday to 'the world according to garp' - John Irving, having enjoyed 'the forth hand' and seen/heard good review of Garp thought I'd give it a bash, 40 pages in and hooked


----------



## foo (Mar 6, 2003)

oh my favourite tottie likes one of my favourite books. Although, you could've borrowed my copy missis.


----------



## Swearing Nonna (Mar 6, 2003)

ah well once you've lent yours out to someone else and it doesn't come home then you can borrow mine 

It's lovely foo, found it difficult to put down last night.


----------



## foo (Mar 6, 2003)

I agree. Isn't his mother fab? It's one of my most battered, hotrocked and coffee stained books - a sure sign that it's much loved .  


They've made a film version which I refuse to watch - I've moaned about it on here before. I mean, Robin Williams as Garf ffs!


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 6, 2003)

It is actually the only Robin Williams film worth watching - it's not a bad film IMHO. I've read the book too and the film (and the actors) doesn't do a bad job of realising the characters. It does have a bit of trouble fitting the plot in but that's to be expected.
Don't let Mork put you off - Glenn Close and John Lithgow are excellent in it.


----------



## rorymac (Mar 6, 2003)

I'm getting very close to finishing Millroy The Magician by Louis Theroux's dad.
It's bloody great so it is.
Don't know what I'll do with myself when it's finished.
<goes back to chapter 2..hey I don't remember that bit >


----------



## foo (Mar 6, 2003)

oh ok then.  

BUT Garf is half Japanese. Why use Robin Williams?


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 6, 2003)

Is he? I don't remember that - I though he was an American pilot but it's been a long time since I read it.
I guess there was a dearth of half-Japanes film stars at the time.
I don't think it's really necessary to be that faithful to the book, anyway.


----------



## foo (Mar 6, 2003)

maybe _I'm_  the one who's wrong Orang Utan.   I haven't read it for a long time but will check when I get home. 

I know I'm being silly but I don't like to watch films of favourite books because I have the story in my head if you see what I mean....?

ok I'll shut up now.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 6, 2003)

I know what you mean - most adaptations are cack cos they're either too ambitious in attempting to be faithful to the plot and end up as sprawling incoherent messes, or they piss off the fans by changing/eliminating essential chararacter and plot details for the sake of brevity. There are a few norable exceptions though. The first ones that spring to mind are Great Expectations (the Lean version of course) and Lord Of The Rings. Give me time and I'm sure I could come up with a few more. I won't even bother listing the failures cis they are legion!


----------



## Swearing Nonna (Mar 6, 2003)

American pilot, very small, compact one  

thing at work said good things about the film.


----------



## foo (Mar 6, 2003)

Before I _really do_ shut up. Is the Great Expectations one the old Black and White one with Alec Guiness and John Mills? If so - I agree. It's lovely.  

so that buggers my theory then 

edit: well where did I get this idea of the japanese pilot then? I really am mad...it's getting worrying, especially as this is one of my favourite books.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 6, 2003)

Yeah - that's the one. Magwitch scared the shit out of me when I was a tot. And Miss Haversham was exactly how I imagined  it.
Don't bother with the modern day Californian version with Gwyneth Paltrow - it's pants.
Just though of another great adaptation - One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest - I'm sure there must be another thread somewhere that discusses succesful adaptations - if there ain't one, maybe I should start one.


----------



## foo (Mar 6, 2003)

Oh gawd. You're right. Jack Nicholsan (sp) et al are brilliant in that film. 

I'm orf!


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 6, 2003)

Trainspotting ain't bad either!


----------



## Swearing Nonna (Mar 6, 2003)

You're not losing it foo. . . fat stew looks at garp's eyes and announces that he's Japanese


----------



## fen_boy (Mar 6, 2003)

I'm reading 

'the life and loves of leo sayer'

by leo sayer.

unix lent it to me.


----------



## Swearing Nonna (Mar 6, 2003)

I used to like you fen_boy    

I used to feel like dancing


----------



## jms (Mar 7, 2003)

The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux- a book with an interesting dedication


----------



## Cassius Belli (Mar 8, 2003)

Saddam Hussein by  various Reuters reporters.


----------



## Nina (Mar 10, 2003)

Just finished Siddhartha Herman Hesse...bloody lovely

and George Orwell's Burmese Days

also bloody lovely


----------



## Lord Camomile (Mar 10, 2003)

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

I'm reading the entire Discworld series in order, it's proving to be quite interesting as I'm finding out things that I had always assumed had happened 'outside' the books (notably what happened to the Librarian).


----------



## PearlySpencer (Mar 11, 2003)

I've just started reading VITALS by Greg Bear. 

From the blurb by Amazon "Reading VITALS, Greg Bear's dark, suspensful, paranoid thriller of high-tech bioterrorism, would be terrifying even without the real world anthrax attacks. But the news stories of late 2001 add layers of resonance to the book"

It's shaping up to be a goodun.


----------



## MadFish (Mar 12, 2003)

Gonna hop on out at lunchtime and grab myself a copy of Prozac Nation or Fast Food Nation, whichever is available first.


----------



## MadFish (Mar 12, 2003)

Well neither book was availiable but I got myself a lovely Photoshop guide instead. Does that count as good reading?


----------



## Roadkill (Mar 13, 2003)

_Hard Work_ by Polly Toynbee.

Excellent book.    Can't say I'm enjoying it exactly, since it's not pleasant reading sometimes, but it's fascinating, and very well written.  I'll have a lot more time for Polly Toynbee after reading this, i think.


----------



## Roadkill (Mar 13, 2003)

Bugger.  Double post.

 

<I finished Hard Work this afternoon anyway.  "Why do People Hate America?" is up for reading next.>


----------



## flypanam (Mar 13, 2003)

Saul bellow - Herzog   (yawn)
Hal draper - Marxs theory of revolution Vol 1
Marshall berman - Adventures in marxism


I've never really tried to read so many in one time, am really gutted that Herzog has turned out to be a peice of well written boring ramblings, if i wanted that i would read Robert harris.

The real shocker thou has to be Berman. Nigel Irritable should get his hands on this and realise what good writing is.
no offence Bri!


----------



## Maggot (Mar 14, 2003)

Miss Wyoming by Douglas Coupland and jolly good it is too!


----------



## Nina (Mar 14, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Maggot _
> *Miss Wyoming by Douglas Coupland and jolly good it is too! *



EXCELLENT I just did book exchange for this 5 mins ago. had heard it wasn't one of his best but there was little else decent reading fodder to be found here...


----------



## souljacker (Mar 14, 2003)

Just finished The Vulture by Gil Scott Heron. Reasonably decent, like the 'black power' stuff in it, good characters but not the greatest story IMHO.

Now starting The Room by Hubert Selby Jr. Rather good so far, the blurb on the back seems to imply it gets pretty sick later on. Cant wait!!!


----------



## Maggot (Mar 14, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Orang Utan _
> *I know what you mean - most adaptations are cack cos they're either too ambitious in attempting to be faithful to the plot and end up as sprawling incoherent messes, or they piss off the fans by changing/eliminating essential chararacter and plot details for the sake of brevity. There are a few norable exceptions though. The first ones that spring to mind are Great Expectations (the Lean version of course) and Lord Of The Rings. Give me time and I'm sure I could come up with a few more. I won't even bother listing the failures cis they are legion! *



Bladerunner: great film and was based on 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' by Philip K Dick. (there always seems to be a question about this in quizzes)


----------



## alco (Mar 14, 2003)

_The Trial_ - Franz Kafka

Two pages into it.


----------



## Mujahoudini (Mar 14, 2003)

The Quarrel Of The Age - a biography of William Hazlitt - a radical freethinking gentleman.


----------



## Random One (Mar 14, 2003)

Just finished Surivivor and started Lullaby, both by Palahniuk. 

Survivor is definietly worth a read, maybe not as good as choke... but then am not sure if u can really compare the two... both very different.


----------



## onenameshelley (Mar 14, 2003)

*Paranoid*

Just finished "Stupid White Men" by Michael Moore. Very very funny, enjoyable book, although if i was paranoid about the U.S. before i read it i most certainly am now. I would recomend it.. i would give it 10 book bus points! (Anyone else remember the book bus coming to their school?)


----------



## Cassius Belli (Mar 15, 2003)

The Uranium Club.
It's the transcripts of hidden tapings made of Werner Heisenberg,Otto Hahn, and the other German scientists who Britain captured during the last days of the European theatre of WW2. These were the scientists who worked on (or looked into the feasibility of) an atomic weapon for Nazi Germany.
I picked up this book yesterday for $2 new,just cos the cover was slightly damaged, so I'm stoked.


----------



## Dr. Christmas (Mar 15, 2003)

*The Cloud Sketcher*

I'm reading _The Cloud Sketcher_ by Richard Rayner. Its set in Finland and America, covering the Finnish Civil War of 1918 and 20s new York. The title is a translation of the Finnish word for Skyscraper: this alone was enough to make me want it. Also I heard bits of it on a _Book at Bedtime_ towards the back end of last year.

It's great in terms of characterisation and plot ad is one that is possible to dip in and out of. I'm one of these people who reads several books at once, more or less in parallel; also reading _A Life_  by Italo Svevo and _D'Annunzio at Fiume_ by Michael A Leeder. This last is a fascinating story about how Italian nationalists seized the port of Fiume after World War One and held it in the teeth of Allied opposition throughout the versailles treaty period. The story is interesting coz I've never heard it before, but I do find the author's obvious sympathies with/ romanticising of a proto-fascist slightly dubious.


----------



## Lord Camomile (Mar 16, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Lord Camomile _
> *Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
> 
> I'm reading the entire Discworld series in order, it's proving to be quite interesting as I'm finding out things that I had always assumed had happened 'outside' the books (notably what happened to the Librarian). *



<edited after I realised what an idiot I am >


----------



## colbhoy (Mar 18, 2003)

I have just finished, consectutively, Shogun by James Clavell - awesome and then Joe Di Maggie: A Hero's Life by Richard Ben Cramer - as good a biography as I have ever read with loads of Marilyn Monroe in it.

I'm now relaxing with Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson.


----------



## mrkikiet (Mar 18, 2003)

i finished Deadkidsongs by toby litt on the train this morning. It's really good, much better than other similar stories i've read, 10-13 yr old boys in gangs, doing war type things.


----------



## Nina (Mar 19, 2003)

Half way through Stupid White Men which I will send to all my friends as a gift immediately!

well worth the read, if you can stand the taste of bile.


----------



## J77 (Mar 19, 2003)

Just read "Gulliver's Travels" - extreme recommendation. If you haven't read it, read it NOW!

Then read "The girl with the butterfly tattoo" by Phillip Pullman on the train - quite good but very much a kid's book (c.f. HDM trilogy).

Am now reading "Latitude" by Stephen Pomfrey. An account of the work on magnetism and C18 science revolving around the work of William Gilbert.


----------



## Rollem (Mar 19, 2003)

> _Originally posted by geordietim _
> *i finished Deadkidsongs by toby litt  *


 i read that, twice. it took me twice to understand what the hell was going on  (obviously didn’t have my 13year old lad’ head on first time round…. deffo recommended read!


----------



## Roadkill (Mar 23, 2003)

_Why Do People Hate America?_ by Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies.

Very interesting, so far.


----------



## Voley (Mar 24, 2003)

I've just finished 'East Of Eden' by John Steinbeck which is, quite simply, one of the best books I've ever read. Can't say more than that, really. It's rare a book leaves me totally satisfied, but this did. The last page is probably the best ending to a story that I've come across. 

Prior to that I read 'Neutral Buoyancy' by Tim Ecott that Pinkychukkles gave me (Ta, mate!  ) an excellent history / personal memoir about scuba-diving. I had no real interest in diving before but I enjoyed this book so much that I'm gonna do a PADI diving course in a few weeks and go check out the undersea world for meself. Ecott is a very vivid writer: some of his descriptions of the beauty of the sea slip into poetry. A great book: highly recommended.

Right now I'm reading 'Atonement' by Ian McEwan which I'm also enjoying a lot. I'm only about half way through it, but it's got a great sense of foreboding and impending doom.

Been very lucky book-wise recently, me.


----------



## foo (Mar 24, 2003)

Good choices there NVP  

I'm reading Beloved - Toni Morrisson. 

Powerful, scary, and strange. If ever you need a reminder of the injusticies of slavery both moral and psychological - this book will jolt you. The way Morrisson weaves language and meaning is incredible. I'm only half way through it but it's always a good sign when I carry a book around with me as I do housework (as I was yesterday)....'though the book ends up a bit of a state


----------



## chegrimandi (Mar 24, 2003)

just finished shipping news.....about to take the plunge and tuck into dostoevsky, crime and punishment so I guess i won't be posting on this thread for a while....hehe.....


----------



## foo (Mar 24, 2003)

Not meaning to sound poncey here cheg but reading Crime and Punishment changed my life....well, my outlook at least. 

A fantastic, phenomenal book.


----------



## chegrimandi (Mar 24, 2003)

> _Originally posted by foo _
> *Not meaning to sound poncey here cheg but reading Crime and Punishment changed my life....well, my outlook at least.
> 
> A fantastic, phenomenal book.  *



cool look forward to it then.....been menaing to do so for ages......just one of those time things innit.....maybe if i stopped watching so much idiot box I might have time to read more......


----------



## drfranni (Mar 24, 2003)

Just finished four (i read too quick) in a series by (I think Alexander McCall WIlliams

They are called "No 1 ladies detective agency" "Tears of a giraffe" "Morality for beautiful girls" and "kalahari typing school for men"

Set in Botswana. Just beautiful books, funny, clever, well-written, educational. The last is the least good (always the way) but generally a laugh


----------



## J77 (Mar 24, 2003)

drfranni - you read so fast, you forget the author?!?  

actually, i was trying to remember the title of the book i'm reading now, it's...

The Tiger and the Well by Philip Pullman.

I tend to read a lot of his books, helps destress after all those sums  (and a strangely large proportion of people have bought me one of his, spooky )


----------



## drfranni (Mar 24, 2003)

*Everyone's a critic*

OK OK it is actually Alexander McCall Smith 

Sorry


----------



## J77 (Mar 24, 2003)




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## sinisterdexter (Mar 25, 2003)

i just got done with Phillip K. Dick's 'The Man In The High Castle'.... ever since reading 'do androids dream of electric sheep' in december I've been going through his whole catalogue - he's incredible!!! best sci-fi writer i've come across =D


----------



## Blagsta (Mar 25, 2003)

You Are Being Lied To published by www.disinfo.com


----------



## Jade (Mar 25, 2003)

> _Originally posted by NVP _
> *I've just finished 'East Of Eden' by John Steinbeck which is, quite simply, one of the best books I've ever read. Can't say more than that, really. It's rare a book leaves me totally satisfied, but this did. The last page is probably the best ending to a story that I've come across.
> 
> *



   I really enjoyed it too, but felt that Steinbeck tends to lose himself in the narration sometimes, i think i'd prefer an edited version, sorry John 
    Just finished "I Claudius" by Robert Graves, amazing, definitely recommended! Also finished "A Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, quite good if you can handle the occasional flying carpet and talking ghosts... Now reading "E" by Irvine Welsh, familiar scenarios but sometimes understanding the Scottish accent transliterated is a bit too much for bedtime reading  
  Favourite book is "Tully" by Paullina Simmons, wow...


----------



## Voley (Mar 26, 2003)

Just finished 'Atonement' by Ian McEwan.

Amazing book. Really enjoyed it. The twist at the end (don't worry - I'm not gonna give it away) was totally unexpected and really blew me away.

First book I've ever read of his but I'm definitely gonna seek out some more. Recommendations, anyone?


----------



## CNT36 (Mar 26, 2003)

Power and Terror by Chomsky and fellowship of the ring


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 26, 2003)

> _Originally posted by NVP _
> *Just finished 'Atonement' by Ian McEwan.
> 
> Amazing book. Really enjoyed it. The twist at the end (don't worry - I'm not gonna give it away) was totally unexpected and really blew me away.
> ...


 Enduring Love is akmost unbearably tense and gripping - the most compelling book I've ever read!


----------



## Calva dosser (Mar 26, 2003)

French Revolutions, in which posy Tatler hack Tim Moore follows the course of The Tour de France with hilarious consequences. Allegedly. Still, know your enemy.


----------



## Rollem (Mar 26, 2003)

*the new rulers of the world*

john pilger


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Mar 26, 2003)

About to start reading Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk, got it today (thanks RO!).


----------



## Voley (Mar 27, 2003)

Thanks, Orang Utan. I'll try and track 'Enduring Love' down. Ta! 

Yesterday I read 'King Of The Ants' by Charlie Higson - you know, the bloke off The Fast Show. The guy that does Swiss Toni.

I was expecting a bit of wry humour but got this ultra-violent British gangster story. Not many laughs, but lots of people getting twatted round the head with a cricket bat!

Quite shocking really. Just goes to show how your preconceptions can be way off, sometimes. After getting over the fact that it clearly wasn't a comedy, I sort of enjoyed it but wouldn't really recommend it that much. 

I finished it in a day - that's a good sign I suppose - but when I put it down I had that 'Hmmmm, what the fuck was all that about, then?' feeling. Odd.


----------



## General Ludd (Mar 27, 2003)

Just starting Travels In Mongolia In 1902 which sounds very interesting. Written by a British consular person (or someone like that) who was sent out there to write a report for parliment and what I've read so far has been great, beautiful writing and a very strange world.


----------



## J77 (Mar 27, 2003)

> _Originally posted by J77 _
> *actually, i was trying to remember the title of the book i'm reading now, it's...
> The Tiger and the Well by Philip Pullman.*


 I have now finished this book, it was actually called "The tiger in the well"  

I think I'll try a more 'grown-up' book now. What do people think is a classic book, with an exciting story-line, without being full of romance 

Also, I may try "Atonement" - recommended by my gf and now NVP 

edit: fuck, i quoted my own post


----------



## Hollis (Mar 27, 2003)

I've just started 'Rumours of a Hurricane' by Tim Lott.  Its getting us all nostalgic for the late 70s/early 80s..


----------



## bubblehead (Mar 27, 2003)

just started Anne Frank Diary, which considering my passion for modern history, I'm surprised I haven't read before...

no jokes about....

Monday: hid 
Tuesday: hid 
Wednesday: hid 
etc...etc....

put it on my reading list as I'm off to amsterdam soon for first time, which considering my passion for narcotics and porn...


----------



## Roadkill (Mar 28, 2003)

_The Last Grain Race_, by Eric Newby.

I've not read a lot of Newby's travel books, but this is excellent.  He signed on as an apprentice in 1938 aboard one of the last big sailing ships to race back from Australia with a cargo of grain.  It's fascinating and hilarious in equal measure, kind of like James Herriot at sea.


----------



## Ice (Mar 28, 2003)

just finished " The Partner" - not bad (entertaining)
also just finished "see no evil" by Robert Baer - very interesting book.

starting the NSA book --- can not remember the name.. inside the walls or something...
also starting a Kennedy Nixon book.


----------



## Voley (Mar 29, 2003)

'The Woman Who Walked Into Doors' - Roddy Doyle.

It's gas. Ya gobshite.


----------



## Voley (Mar 30, 2003)

*'The Woman Who Walked Into Doors' - Roddy Doyle*

Just finished 'The Woman Who Walked Into Doors'.

Very powerful stuff and certainly not the barrel of laughs that I'd come to expect from reading 'Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha' and 'The Snapper'.

It's a great book. I love the way that Roddy Doyle can present really difficult issues (domestic violence and alcoholism, in this case) but still inject that wicked Dublin humour. 

He also does this brilliant thing where he writes these lengthy, highly descriptive, slightly surreal passages (one was written from the perspective of a woman coming out of unconsciousness following a beating from her husband) and then follow it up with a brief, brutal line like 'He hurt me and hurt me and hurt me.'  Really powerful writing.

I've read some cracking books over the last few weeks.


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Mar 30, 2003)

> _Originally posted by sinisterdexter _
> *i just got done with Phillip K. Dick's 'The Man In The High Castle'.... ever since reading 'do androids dream of electric sheep' in december I've been going through his whole catalogue - he's incredible!!! best sci-fi writer i've come across =D *




I can't stand sci-fi in general, but a friend insisted that I read "A Scanner Darkly", so reluctantly I agreed.
It's a wonderful novel, and incredibly moving in places. The sci-fi trappings I could take or leave, but he invests the central themes of loss, paranoia and addiction with so much emotion that I barely noticed them.
The plot's basically about the control of troublesome sections of society through state-sponsered drugs.
At the end of the novel there's a long list of Dick's friends, and how many died or were disabled through their various addictions (more or less all of them). The pain really comes through on the page. There's a good unrequited love sub-plot, and several vast creative leaps.

I'd imagine that a fair few peeps here have already read his stuff, but if you haven't then I'd certainly recommend him, and A Scanner Darkly in particular.

Oh, and dick jokes gratefully accepted


----------



## foo (Apr 2, 2003)

I am a happy bunny. Considering the last couple of weeks have been some of the worst I can remember for a long time this is a fucking good thing!  

I am now reading 'The World According to Garp' 

again.  

I own it as a treasured possession that is actually unreadable it is so tatty. The last time I read it my  19 year old was a toddler. 

The one time in my life I didn't read much was a period when I was in my teens - I was never in and was having a very 'lively' time. Then this book happened to me and I remember my friends hassling me to go out one night but I had to stay in to read my book. This, for me,  was unheard of! 

Anyway - Garp was the first fictional character I truly fell in love with. And his mother too. Irving portrays their 'faults' with as much affection as their attributes. They are whole people. Lovely singular individuals.  

Unix bought a copy the other day because she'd read and loved The Fourth Hand and was looking for something else by John Irving. 

So I now have her copy and opened it last night......and.... 'Garp bit Bonkie'  

I am happy.


----------



## J77 (Apr 2, 2003)

The map that changed the world by Simon Winchester.

Can't really remember but it's pretty good, about the 'first' geologist William Smith and how he single-handedly walked Britain mapping out the geology and along the way disproving the established age of the earth of 4004 years (from Genesis).

I've only just starting reading it but it's good so far. Starts with him leaving a debtor's prison...

My second 18th century science book in a row. Will definitely have to read a novel next...


----------



## Voley (Apr 3, 2003)

I read a John Irving book once. 

'The Hotel New Hampshire'. Had a character in it that spent most of the book dressed up as a bear. Yes, a bear. And, what's more, no-one noticed until she took the head off.  

Call me cynical but I found this just the teensy-weensiest bit implausible.

And then concuded that the book was a load of old toss.


----------



## foo (Apr 3, 2003)

Well hello there mr traveller!  

I agree about The Hotel New Hampshire actually. I couldn't get through it. Might give it another go though...


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Apr 4, 2003)

> _Originally posted by NVP _
> *I read a John Irving book once.
> 
> 'The Hotel New Hampshire'. Had a character in it that spent most of the book dressed up as a bear. Yes, a bear. And, what's more, no-one noticed until she took the head off.
> ...



Nah, they were  _pretending_ not to notice. The bear's head would only come off when the bear was damn good and ready to take it off herself.

In the film version the bear is played by Nastajsa Kinski, if that's any help


----------



## Voley (Apr 5, 2003)

Well it were still shite.  

It must've been funny trying to pitch that movie.

Director: Great! We've got Nastassia Kinski in the movie.
Movie Exec: Great! Will she get her kit off?
Director: Errr, no, actually she's gonna spend most of the movie dressed as a bear.


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Apr 5, 2003)

Director: Oh, and she snogs Jodie Foster.

Movie Exec: Aaaaand, ACTION!


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 5, 2003)

Just finished Irvine Welsh's Porno and Martin Amis' Koba The Dread.
Now reading Dickens' Pickwick Papers and on my in-shelf I have Paul Auster's latest, Arundhati (sp?) Roy's The God Of Small Things and some history book called 1633 or something (can't remember the exact year but it's a world history of a particular year in the 17th century).

I can't be bothered to give you a review at the moment cos it's a sunny day. I will when I am at work and getting paid to do this instead of paying to this like I am now.


----------



## jms (Apr 5, 2003)

The Wasp Factory

friggin weird...


----------



## diwc (Apr 6, 2003)

I've read three books in the past week (lots of transit time to work  )

Choke & Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk.

Also, Enders Game by Orson Scott Card.

I really enjoyed all three.


----------



## triad (Apr 6, 2003)

This is my first posting so I thought I'd choose the thread with 550 replies to start with!!!  
I've just finished reading Big Sur by Jack Kerouac.  Despite being quite dark and having dire warnings about it being unsuitable for sensitive people it is the only novel that ever had me in gales of laughter, if only because it was so twisted (i wonder what the neighbours were thinking?). 
If anyone else has ever read this book I'd really appreciate hearing their feedback about it - no one else i know has read anything more than 5 years old recently.  Alternatively, if you are prone to fits of depression READ IT! it could be the best/worst thing that happens to you.


----------



## Voley (Apr 7, 2003)

Just started 'Run With The Hunted', an anthology of Charles Bukowski's.

It's wonderful: although I've read quite a bit of it before, I'm really enjoying it. The guy that's compiled it has done a good job, imo. The poems fit neatly with the prose and the stories have a vague sense of being in order.

I've been really, really pissed an awful lot lately, so I can relate to Bukowski quite a bit at the mo'.

Great book.

I've bought 'Crime And Punishment ' Dostoyevsky, too, on foo's recommendation. If it's no good I'll blame her.


----------



## Roadkill (Apr 7, 2003)

Noam Chomsky - _Pirates and Emperors, Old and New._


----------



## foo (Apr 8, 2003)

> _Originally posted by NVP _
> *I've bought 'Crime And Punishment ' Dostoyevsky, too, on foo's recommendation. If it's no good I'll blame her.  *



heh! I'm trying to picture you on a blazing hot beach with a pena colada in your hand coping with the trials and tribulations of Raskolnikov....

It's not the sunniest of tales J. You have been warned.


----------



## chegrimandi (Apr 8, 2003)

*foo*

hey, finished crime n punishment last week - foo - I don't think it will be changing my life but fucking hell its a good read....real page turner and just amazing......that Raskolnikov....didn't have the sunniest of times did he, eh, eh......sort of identified myself a bit with him...sort of flawed genius type hehehe p ), anyway no seriously utter barnstormer........
anyway now moved onto 'Description of a struggle' - anthology of contemporary East European Prose - some are really good - some I don't really get as are quite allegorical and me history isn't up to scratch to interpret.......


----------



## foo (Apr 8, 2003)

Nice one cheg. I think I was going a bit over the top when I said it changed the way I think.   It did make me really question stuff though, and many issues highlighted in the telling of his story have remained with me. 

Glad you got through it!


----------



## foo (Apr 8, 2003)

Just finished The World According to Garp.   (again).

A wonderfully funny, sad, thoughtful, insane, delightful, intelligent monster of a story.  

One of my all time favourites, and this coming from a person who avoids listing favourites of  _anything_.


----------



## Voley (Apr 8, 2003)

> _Originally posted by foo _
> *heh! I'm trying to picture you on a blazing hot beach with a pena colada in your hand coping with the trials and tribulations of Raskolnikov....*



Replace 'pena colada' with 'penis' in the above sentence. That's how I misread it first time! 

'Kin 'ell! I didn't think it was _that_ kind of book. 

Now what would Freud make of all that, eh?


----------



## foo (Apr 8, 2003)

LOL!!   

Are you enjoying the life and times of that cheerful chappie Raskolnikov then? And am I spelling his name right? 

p.s give Garp a go J. Go on! Don't be put off by the Hotel New Hampshire. Gwaaaan. I dare ya!


----------



## rubbershoes (Apr 8, 2003)

I’m halfway through Super-Cannes by JG Ballard. Like all his stuff that I’ve read it has a dark edge to it and is superbly written. Reading his books makes me realise why I could never be a writer.


----------



## nuffsaid (Apr 8, 2003)

Well, I'm stalled on Amis's 'London Fields' for a couple of years now, also stalled on Philip K Dick's 'Valis', couple of months - because I found the delights of 'The Fermata' - fantastic, right out of my own head - which is a bit worrying.


----------



## J77 (Apr 8, 2003)

Read "The comfort of strangers - Ian McEwan" on the train today. Nervy shit. Reminded me of the old tales of the unexpected - when I was young enough to be scared by them. Must now read something nice quite rapidly.....

However, am about to start "Handmaiden's tale - Margaret Atwood"

Second thoughts, will read "Life of Pi"


----------



## proud american (Apr 8, 2003)

I've just finished a book that my girl gave me when she finished it.  I literrally just finished before I sat down.  OOps, no pun intended.  It's called "Fall on your knees" by Ann-Marie MacDonald.  Man, I feel like I just ran a marathon.  Let me give you my review:

What the....Holy Jeez...IyIyIyIyIy...Wow.Wow.Wow

This book is good.  My girl gave it to me who got it from my mother and it's from the Oprah Book Club.  This would usually mean three strikes against it as far as I am concerned.  But man, this book is fantastic.  Pick it up and then good luck putting it down.  What a last couple of chapters.


----------



## Cassius Belli (Apr 9, 2003)

Art And Propaganda by Toby Clark. Interesting.


----------



## Voley (Apr 9, 2003)

> _Originally posted by foo _
> *Are you enjoying the life and times of that cheerful chappie Raskolnikov then?  *



Not yet. I'll be wallowing in Bukowski's lovely drunken poetry for a day or two yet.


----------



## fried_cheese (Apr 10, 2003)

I'm reading Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski at the moment, for the second time. Its a fantastic book, surreal and amazingly written....I could say more but I think I woud get carried away


----------



## chegrimandi (Apr 11, 2003)

When we Were Orphans....kazuo ishiguro.....


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 11, 2003)

> _Originally posted by chegrimandi _
> *When we Were Orphans....kazuo ishiguro..... *




Great book - though I found it so compelling I rushed through it and had to read it again to appreciate the subtleties, cos it's not just a detective novel - it has Big Ideas if you know what I mean.


----------



## chegrimandi (Apr 11, 2003)

he's a cool writer....have you read The Unconsoled....its bizarre and brilliant.....


----------



## J77 (Apr 11, 2003)

Have now started "Life of Pi" which, so far, I am finding pleasantly entertaining


----------



## comicstripgirl (Apr 11, 2003)

A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. Really good. Frida is/was a very inspiring and interesting  person.


----------



## Fledgling (Apr 11, 2003)

Today I read Of Mice and Men but I've seen the film so I knew what happened

However, will start Grapes of Wrath tomorrow


----------



## Monkeygrinder's Organ (Apr 11, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Fledgling _
> *
> However, will start Grapes of Wrath tomorrow *



That is my favourite book ever. It takes a little getting into but is so, so worth it.


----------



## Voley (Apr 12, 2003)

*Dostoevsky - Crime And Punishment*



> _Originally posted by foo _
> *Are you enjoying the life and times of that cheerful chappie Raskolnikov then? *



Certainly am.  Really good writing: very dark and disturbed.

Weirdly enough, it has a lot of the same themes as Ian McEwan's 'Atonement'. And it was only a couple of pages back that I was raving about what a fine book that is!

Coincidence? Or something more sinister? Call Dr Jazzzz !


----------



## Voley (Apr 12, 2003)

You ever read 'Under Western Eyes' by Joseph Conrad, foo?

I think you'd like it. 'Crime And Punishment' reminds me of it a lot, particularly the opening few chapters.

I did it for me 'A' Level English Lit., which is normally the kiss of death for any book but, amazingly, I still enjoyed it.


----------



## chez (Apr 12, 2003)

A parrot in the pepper tree by chris stewart. its the sequel to driving over lemons.

I love these type of books that fuel my aspiration to buy a smallholding somewhere and do the whole self sufficiency thing


----------



## girlypop (Apr 12, 2003)

I'm reading _Women with Men_, a collection of 3 longish short stories by Richard Ford. Can't say I'm very impressed but it's okay.


----------



## legwarmer (Apr 13, 2003)

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

I had to leave all my books in the UK when I moved over here (gave them to a friend) and was gutted as I have built up a good collection over da years. Then today I found a copy of this in a market for $5. Staring right at me it was...urging me to buy it. So I did. Started reading it before being side tracked by U75 just now. Hmmm


----------



## Roadkill (Apr 13, 2003)

_Take it like a Man_ - the autobiography of Boy George.  

I've wanted to read it for a while, browsed bits of it in various bookshops, and now longdoggy's lent me his copy.  It's hilarious: he's just _sooo_ catty!


----------



## red rose (Apr 13, 2003)

> _Originally posted by legwarmer _
> *Lord of the Flies by William Golding
> 
> *



Dear god people read that book willingly?

I suppose I wouldnt hate it so much if I didn't have to study it for my Englsih coursework and exam.

Currently I am reading The Dark Matter trilogy, I'm in the second book.


----------



## Ice (Apr 14, 2003)

The lost Language of Crains.. Starting it tonight!!!

thanks Pseudo


----------



## PearlySpencer (Apr 14, 2003)

Finally got around to reading the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. Managed to get all three out of the library at once. I'm halfway through the first - Red Mars, and it's shaping up to be a real treat.


----------



## chegrimandi (Apr 15, 2003)

The Woman of Rome - Alberto Moravia.....

just about to start


----------



## Fledgling (Apr 15, 2003)

The Grapes of Wrath continues, so far so good. 

gemma james, I had to read Lord of the flies for GCSE ages ago, didn't like it. But then anything you read at school will be ruined and made as boring as possible, I still haven't recovered from my distrust of poetry brought about by the tripe fed to us while studying GCSE english.  

Hey ho, I'll read some more Grapes


----------



## oicur0t (Apr 17, 2003)

just read East of Wimbledon by Nigel Williams. Not bad at all. But I went to school in wimbledon so I was gonna like it anyway.


----------



## LaBrava (Apr 19, 2003)

Just finishing 'Hard boiled wonderland & the end of the World' ~ Haruki Marukami ............  first I 've read of his and it is bloody fantastic !

 LaBrava


----------



## Janine (Apr 19, 2003)

I just picked up 2 books today, _The Museum At Purgatory,_ by Nick Bantock,is described as "... an afterlife way station where artists & collectors comb over their lives, trying to discover whether they are headed for Heaven or Hell." 
And an art history book, _Vermeer_ , by Lawrence Gowing.


----------



## MoKa (Apr 19, 2003)

Just finished 'Perfume' by Patrick Suskind last week.  It was unlike anything I've ever read.  I would definitely recommend it.  Read the Amazon Reviews 

I'm not sure what to follow that up with.  I have a few already on the go but because of the 'childhood books' thread, I just bought a couple of the Paul Zindel books (Pigman, Pigman's Legacy) that I think I read when I was younger, so may read them first.  

Alternatively, Sarah Waters Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith and Affinity - got them all when she was in Glasgow doing a reading recently.

Or I might go back and read The Colour Purple again, since I met Alice Walker a few weeks ago in New York.  She is an amazing woman - she has such a sense of 'peace' about her I felt happy just sitting watching her talk to others.

So many choices... so little time to myself!!


----------



## tOka (Apr 19, 2003)

Just started "Killing Pablo" by Mark Bowden.
I was having trouble getting into "the Hobbit", so plumped for this


----------



## Voley (Apr 20, 2003)

I've just finished 'Killing Pablo', too. Very good, I thought - all about the hunt for Pablo Escobar and how the American and Colombian governments were prepared to turn a blind eye to human rights in order to kill him. Pretty well written, I thought.

I've also read 'Dispatches' by Michael Herr, a correspondent for 'Esquire' during the Vietnam War. Amazing stuff - really harrowing (as you'd imagine) but also funny in places. He comes across a bit like the crazy photographer Dennis Hopper played in 'Apocalypse Now'. He describes the madness of being stoned out of your mind in the middle of a war really well.

I'm struggling with 'Crime And Punishment' a bit, now. I can see where it's going theme-wise but the laboured 19th Century language is beginning to get on my tits. I shall persevere, though.


----------



## J77 (Apr 23, 2003)

I'm about 3/4 through "Enduring Love - Ian McEwan".

What an excellent book     (so far...)

Don't want to give any plot away - read it!!!

ps. will edit if end is below par - but i don't think this will be the case


----------



## bosco (Apr 23, 2003)

i'm on Last Exit to Brooklyn at the moment. read it years ago and it's still fantastic. 

also a print out of The Manual by the KLF. very funny.


----------



## Phaedrus (Apr 23, 2003)

Just started 'One Dimensional Man' by Herbert Marcuse. Difficult and long-winded, but a very interesting critique of contemporary society. A must for anyone interested in (critical) social theory.


----------



## Cassius Belli (Apr 24, 2003)

"Toxic Sludge Is Good For You" - John C Stauber.
It's a look at P.R campaigns,everything from Pres elections to the Atoms For Peace program.Somewhat of a depressing read,but nothing that is a shock if you are a cynic/realist.


----------



## Fledgling (Apr 24, 2003)

"For Whom The Bell Tolls", Ernest Hemmingway. I hope this will  be good, read chapter 1, must get into it.


----------



## Rollem (Apr 24, 2003)

*the men from the boys*

philip collins


----------



## mentalchik (Apr 25, 2003)

"Line Of Polity" by Neil Asher


----------



## swelegant (Apr 26, 2003)

I'm reading Donna Tartt's new book, A Little Friend/The Little Friend.. can't remember the exact title  No where near as good as her first book, which is disappointing.


----------



## J77 (Apr 26, 2003)

have now finished "enduring love". 

what an excellent book!  

may move on from the macewans for a while now... handmaidens tale possibly.


----------



## souljacker (Apr 29, 2003)

Just finished Post Office by Charles Bukowski, which is pure fucking class!

Now reading Requiem For A Dream, Hubert Selby Jr.


----------



## J77 (Apr 29, 2003)

Bored of the Rings - it's boring...


----------



## KeyboardJockey (Apr 29, 2003)

*IBM and the Holocaust by Edwin Black*

Reading the above at the moment.  First class book detailing all the dealings between the Nazi's and IBM.  What is really scary is that the movements of the Jews, and peoples racial / social charactaristics could not have been tracked as accurately without IBM equipment.  Watson the head of IBM at the time was constantly sucking up to the Nazi's and had full knowledge of the Nazi's plans for the Jews.

Cracking book on an aspect of modern history that the capitalists would rather be brushed  under the carpet.


----------



## Ann Tigonie (Apr 29, 2003)

I often have a couple of books on the go at once...it depends on my mood which book I read....

At the moment I'm reading:

The lady in the Van......Alan Bennett
Medieval Women 450-1500......Henrietta Leyser
The Mythic Journey....Liz Greene & Juliet Sharman


----------



## Dr Morose (Apr 29, 2003)

Hidden Agendas by John Pilger, slightly dated by WTC, Afghanistan and Iraq, but still very, very informative

got into an argument on the tube with a stockbroker on the tube who called me an armchair communist  because of it

fool, when the revolution comes, all men will have leather reclining sofas!


----------



## Roadkill (May 6, 2003)

Bump to rescue this thread from page 3 obscurity!

Last night my brain was mushed and I was in the mood for light, nostalgic entertainment.  So I read about ten Thomas the Tank Engine books.


----------



## Roadkill (May 6, 2003)

<double post>


----------



## chegrimandi (May 6, 2003)

e.m forster......the longest journey


----------



## Elpenor (May 6, 2003)

Just finished reading Ian Banks - Complicity, now starting on Graham Greene - The Honorary Consul.


----------



## proud american (May 6, 2003)

I'm finishing up Chapter 23 on Dearborn/Passtrak Life and Health Insurance License Exam Manual.  You all think you are entertained with your books you should spend weeks studying annuities!  I can't wait to be done with this.  Oh yeah, I just finished Catch-22 for the umpteenth time.  I love it once again.


----------



## white rabbit (May 6, 2003)

Just finished The Rules of Attraction by Brett Easton Ellis. I loved the film and like the way it subtly dovetails with American Psycho. "No one _knows_ anybody". Very dark and cynical.

Now I'm reading High Art Lite by Julian Stallabrass. A critical evaluation of "Young British Artists" such as Emin and Hirst and their media entourage.


----------



## tomsk (May 7, 2003)

Hunter S. Thompson - Hells Angels


----------



## Lollybelle (May 7, 2003)

Gravity's Rainbow.  I'm struggling.   Quite excited that there's a new Margaret Atwood advertised though, just in time for my holiday... excellent!


----------



## rubbershoes (May 7, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Lollybelle _
> *Gravity's Rainbow.  I'm struggling.   *



I didn’t manage to finish it either Lolly. At the moment I’m reading Guerrillas by VS Naipaul


----------



## souljacker (May 7, 2003)

> _Originally posted by tomsk _
> *Hunter S. Thompson - Hells Angels *



Very good book! Just don't do what I did and read Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail afterwards, unless you have a sadistic desire to read, in length, about the way the US election system works.


----------



## MoKa (May 7, 2003)

Currently reading 'David And Della' by Paul Zindel and have the Pigman books on order at Amazon to hit next.

I'm researching and my current topic is Teen fiction so I also have a Sweet Valley High and a couple of 'Buffy' books to read.

Woohooo   

Maybe I'll find the meaning of life in a SVH book that I missed 20 years ago when I read them as a 14 year old!


----------



## tomsk (May 7, 2003)

> _Originally posted by souljacker _
> *Very good book! Just don't do what I did and read Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail afterwards, unless you have a sadistic desire to read, in length, about the way the US election system works. *



Cheers for the advice! 
Am enjoying the book very much - his writing is descriptive and real.Can almost smell those oily leathers... 

Saw a documentary a while back on the time Thompson spent with Sonny Barger et al while writing the book - he had some hairy moments.One incident saw him fighting with one of the Angels.Had to admire him tho', despite being shit scared he still fought back.

Just adds and edge IMO...


----------



## mrkikiet (May 7, 2003)

reading Tibor Fischer, Under the Frog, very funny so far.

If anybody is interested in South Africa and apartheid generally and hasn't read Rumours of Rain by Andre Brink, you have got to go out and get it. It is a brilliant piece of work, dealing with the collapse of certainties for White Afrikaans South Africans during the 1960s.


----------



## ViolentPanda (May 7, 2003)

"Wherever Green is Worn" - Tim Pat Coogan.

Very interesting take on the historical diaspora of the Irish.


----------



## Voley (May 8, 2003)

Finally finished 'Crime And Punishment' which wasn't quite as good as I'd been led to believe. Yes, I'm looking at *you*, foo.  I thought it had said all it needed to by about halfway through. After that it just seemed to be running over the same ground. But I do have difficulty with 19th century novels as a rule: so many of them are just so long-winded. I constantly find myself going 'oh, just fucking get on with it'. Short attention span, MTV Gen-X'-er that I am, obviously. 

Best book I've read by a mile recently is 'A Confederacy Of Dunces' by John Kennedy Toole. Really, genuinely, laugh-out-loud funny.  The main character, Ignatius P. Reilly, is the most brilliantly pompous character I've ever come across. He's forever coming out with stuff like 'Fortuna alone knows what further monstrous effronteries will be visited upon my person' if his mum suggests that he ought to get a job.  Ace book: Really, really highly recommended.

Read 'The Business' by Iain Banks, too. Reasonably entertaining but not his best. My problem with Iain Banks is that I always expect his books to be as good as 'The Wasp Factory' or 'Complicity'. And they're not, sadly.

Also read 'Purple Cane Road' by James Lee Burke. A cut above your average crime novel. Worth reading for his beautiful descriptions of America's Deep South as well as the intricate plot.

Some great stuff amongst all of that lot : I'm gonna exchange all of them when I get to Bangkok tomorrow.


----------



## Voley (May 8, 2003)

> _Originally posted by souljacker _
> *Very good book! Just don't do what I did and read Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail afterwards, unless you have a sadistic desire to read, in length, about the way the US election system works. *



Definitely good advice. Although HST writes well about Nixon et al, it's very dated now. 'The Great Shark Hunt' anthology is well worth having, though. The 'Great Shark Hunt' story itself is a beaut - up ther with 'Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas' for me. 'The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent And Depraved' is another bit of his best writing from the same book. As is 'The Police Chief' and, oh, loads of others. 

Glad you're enjoying 'Hells Angels', tomsk. I loved it, too. Somehow he manages to make a sociological study into a really great story.

I'm a bit of a fan of HST, as you might've gathered.


----------



## mrkikiet (May 8, 2003)

> *Best book I've read by a mile recently is 'A Confederacy Of Dunces' by John Kennedy Toole. Really, genuinely, laugh-out-loud funny.  The main character, Ignatius P. Reilly, is the most brilliantly pompous character I've ever come across. He's forever coming out with stuff like 'Fortuna alone knows what further monstrous effronteries will be visited upon my person' if his mum suggests that he ought to get a job.  Ace book: Really, really highly recommended.
> 
> *



indeed, that is absolute class, just a shame that it wasn't published before O'Toole took his own life. The hotdog sellinig, pure genius.


----------



## Fledgling (May 8, 2003)

> _Originally posted by tomsk _
> *Hunter S. Thompson - Hells Angels *



Have you read Fear and Loathing..... then, and if so is it any good? 


I have just read Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee, outstanding is all that springs to mind so I'm going to read A Moment of War by Lee now. 

And I had time to read "Bright Lights, Big City" by Jay McInerney which was too short and rather overdramatised but still interestingly observational.


----------



## souljacker (May 8, 2003)

Speaking of 'A confederacy of Dunces', this book is mentioned repeteadly in American Scream, the Bill Hicks biog. However, the author says it is written by Ignatius T Reilly. I went off to the library to see if they had it. They did, but not by Ignatious Reilly. So I walked off confused. I'll have to go back and get it now, duh!

Oh, and by the way, Fear and loathing in Las Vegas is IMHO, a top book.


----------



## Voley (May 9, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Fledgling _
> *Have you read Fear and Loathing..... then, and if so is it any good?  *



'Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas' is one of my favourite books ever. It's much more than just the hilariously excessive drug-crazed nightmare that a lot of people seem to think it is. HST has a lot to say on the death of 60's counterculture and the general state of American morality. While ripped off his tits on acid, naturally. 

Souljacker - it's well worth that trip back to the library.


----------



## punkyfish (May 9, 2003)

Atonement by Ian McEwan. 
First book of his that I've read and its good


----------



## Roadkill (May 9, 2003)

I've just finished _The Last Journey of William Huskisson_ - about how Huskisson, the MP for Liverpool, was hit by _The Rocket_ at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, in 1830.  It's kind of part-biography, part-history of the railway, and part-narrative of what happened that day.  It was really interesting, actually.  Very well written, too.


----------



## Mad_Sk8er (May 9, 2003)

Just finished Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5, a fucking brilliant book (tho i think i just about still prefer Cats Cradle.) Vonneguts got an incredible writing style, really distinct. 

In the middle of reading:

*Homage to Cattalonia, Orwell (ive got a bit bored of it to be honest, its quite repetetive and theres so much out there to read...)

*The Silent Takeover, Noreena Hertz. Global Capitalism from the point of view of a camberidge economics proffesor. Quie convincing, but not convinvg enough  

*Yes Utopia! Ron Cook. Just started reading it, seems quite optimistic from the outset, but i havent got deep enough into it.


----------



## Mad_Sk8er (May 9, 2003)

> _Originally posted by NVP _
> *Read 'The Business' by Iain Banks, too. Reasonably entertaining but not his best. My problem with Iain Banks is that I always expect his books to be as good as 'The Wasp Factory' or 'Complicity'. And they're not, sadly. *



The wasp factory??  its terrible!! i know its all one big love/hate thing, but how can anyone like the book? its not as gory as Ian likes to think, its not that horrible, its soo predictable, its not a good book!!

Ian M Banks rocks, Look to Windward is one of my favourite books ever


----------



## Epona (May 10, 2003)

I am currently reading Tishomingo Blues by Elmore Leonard.  I recall enjoying it, but alas got distracted by a fortnight of social engagements and catching up on missed sleep, and now I can't remember what was going on so I think I might have to start it again!


----------



## J77 (May 11, 2003)

the emporer's new mind - roger penrose


----------



## Voley (May 11, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Mad_Sk8er _
> *The wasp factory??  its terrible!! *



Well, each to their own and all that, but I reckon it's one of the most original books I've ever read. 

Really made me laugh, too. In a sort of 'Oh God that's so sick I really shouldn't be laughing' way. Which is often the best.


----------



## houdini (May 13, 2003)

I've just finished Dirty Havana trilogy,like someone else earlier - it's really filthy,totally un-p.c.,but i thought it was great.
  Read a brilliant,really disturbing book callled "no bones" about this young girl growing up in Belfast at the height of the Troubles.Highly recommended.
 Has anyway ever read any Jim Thompson...he wrote the Grifters...Pop 1280.....my favourite writer.Some of his books are amazing.
  Stopped reading political books a while ago.......need something to take me away from mundanity.......oh trying to read The Master and Margarita as well......


----------



## hammerntongues (May 13, 2003)

thumbs up for Dirty Havana trilogy nearly finished it in the first week of reading, makes a change to read a dirty, and lets be honest , real dirty book that is well written. Strange to think tyhat most this was all going on in the last 10 years  whilst Cuba opened up and tourists flooded in.

Was it originally in Spanish ??


----------



## Voley (May 15, 2003)

'Understanding Thai Buddhism' by ML Manich Jumsai. Some of it makes sense; quite a bit of it doesn't. I might have to come back to it in my next life. 

Also just started 'Catch 22' for the second time because so many people keep going on about how good it is. I started reading it years ago and thought it was boring but I'm giving it another go.


----------



## Throbbing Angel (May 15, 2003)

American Scream - The Bill Hicks Story
by 
Cynthia True


----------



## ck (May 15, 2003)

Closely following on from Ego Trip's "Rap Lists" , I am now reading their "Big Book Of Racism".

Being as my ear is nowhere near to the ground as it used to be , I was unaware of the existence of the (now defunkt) Hip-Hop bible that is "Ego Trip".  I have since bought a load of back issues but i can highly recommend either of these books ; the first if you have even an inch of interest in Hip-Hop / Rap , and the second if you have no hang-ups about the crazy world of race relations.  
Both are highly researched and well written , with a very tongue-in-cheek look at their subjects.


----------



## mrkikiet (May 15, 2003)

thai buddhism is a very very weird beast.

just finished Under the Frog by Tibor Fischer, absolutely class, dealt with a very serious subject with humour and feeling.

Malcolm Lowry: Under the VOlcano now the last day of an alcoholic, gripping stuff....


----------



## easy g (May 15, 2003)

at the moment i'm reading:

If nobody speaks of remarkable things

by

Jon McGregor

only about 30 pages in but worth the price of admission for the opening chapter alone
It seems to take ordinary life as its source and is moving me on each page


----------



## naughtyboy (May 16, 2003)

Death In The Afternoon by Hemingway


----------



## Roadkill (May 16, 2003)

_The Best Democracy Money Can Buy_, by Greg Palast.

It's angry, opinionated, and based on some sterling research with some startling conclusions.



> Hey, wipe that smug grin off your face.  This is Britain's finest hour of self-congratulation, chuckling over your big, dumb American cousins handling democracy like a three-year-old dumping a bowl of noodle soup on his head.  Such delicious condescension from a perople with an unelected House of Lords made up of genetic fossils and used public relations flaks.
> Before you get too pleased with yourself, just remember this.  P{resident Dubya may be two cows short of a full herd, but he's clocked that Britain is an island somewhere off the coast of Ireland where he can stick his Star wars radar, Texas power companies and Frankenstein seeds and no-one named "Tiny Blair" is going to tell him no."



And that's just the first couple of paragraphs.    I knew I was going to enjoy it from that point on!


----------



## flypanam (May 16, 2003)

dipping into Daniel Bensaid's 'A Marx for Our Times' Its heavy going as you would expect from a lecturer in philosophy in France.
The general gist is to recover the marx of critical inquiry from the deterministic marx of stalinism.

Also reading at last the 'Borribles'


----------



## exosculate (May 16, 2003)

Hard Work

by Polly Toynbee

Just read this. And would highly recommend this book. Its about low pay/poorly housed Britain and the struggle to survive. I think its weak on analysis of solutions, but its wonderful for its description of the problems.

If you are interested in this kind of stuff then in my view its a must read.


----------



## Roadkill (May 16, 2003)

_Hard Work_ is an exellent book, IMHO.

Better still, though, is the American book Polly Toynbee got the idea from - _Nickel and Dimed_ by Barbara Ehrenreich.  It's a real eye-opener.


----------



## exosculate (May 16, 2003)

Roadkill

I have that on my list of books to buy. I did have a quick look at this book in the shop a few weeks ago. And read a bit of it as you do. I think the position of the working poor in USA is actually much worse, which is really saying something cos it aint great here.

Actually I think I might start a thread about Polly's book.


----------



## oddjob (May 16, 2003)

Reading Ian Rankin - The Falls & Roddy Doyle - Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha


----------



## starfish (May 17, 2003)

Just started reading Michael Moores Stupid White Men.


----------



## Klaatu (May 18, 2003)

Let's see....  Surely I'm not the only one who tries to read 3-4 books at once?

The latest *Granta* (#81) (Best of Young British Novelists-2003)(utterly lovely, short, vignette-like pieces). *Great* bedside or bar-stool reading!

*A Peace to End All Peace*, by _David Fromkin_
(terrific background to Middle East, starting with divvying-up of Ottoman Empire after the Great War). Bernard Lewis' stuff is good, but difficult to get through, as it's rather dry.

*NOT Out of Africa*, by _Mary Lefkowitz_. Maybe only of interest to Americans, subtitled "How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History."

And this is only the "A-list" on my "current-reading" shelf!

_(Would love to get feedback from other readers of these books. PM me!)_


----------



## han (May 18, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Mad_Sk8er _
> *The wasp factory??  its terrible!! i know its all one big love/hate thing, but how can anyone like the book? its not as gory as Ian likes to think, its not that horrible, its soo predictable, its not a good book!!
> 
> Ian M Banks rocks, Look to Windward is one of my favourite books ever *



The Wasp Factory? Predictable?!

I nearly had a heart-attack of surprise at the end of that book!

You must be one tripped out mothafucka to find that book predicatble!


----------



## oddjob (May 18, 2003)

> _Originally posted by han _
> *The Wasp Factory? Predictable?!
> 
> I nearly had a heart-attack of surprise at the end of that book!*



The Wasp Factory is one of the best books I've read (twice), and definitely not predictable 

Ian M Banks book has to be The Player of Games


----------



## durruti02 (May 18, 2003)

just finished my latest James Lee Burke....stories of a ex alchoholic lousiana cop who 's aways losing his badge battling with the old racist clans, polluting companies, the New Orleans mafia and psycho ex contra scumbags ...Roubicheaux must be the coolest cop in books ( and dont tell anyone on  the politics threads i said that! )..he is not only hard as fuck he is politically correct...his adopted daughter is a refugee from the contras, while much the writing is so cool/beautifull in its descriptions of the south/the bayou etc 

and a question!!! ive got 3/4 of the way thru Girlfriend in a Coma...( i think couplands last 3 books..miss wyoming, all families and this have been really top class fantastic brilliant!)...and it is brilliant..but i dont want to go on!!...she has just come round..and it sort of seems that is enough!! should i continue..???answers without telling me there is some fked up twist please!!
thank u!


----------



## Throbbing Angel (May 23, 2003)

just finished American Scream






just bought *Once More, with Feeling: How We Tried to Make the Greatest Porn Film Ever*__by
Victoria Coren & Charlie Skelton






Reviews:

'An eminently readable account of utter filth. Just my cup of tea.' Griff Rhys Jones

 'Funny, insightful and not at all unpleasant. Well, okay, maybe a little bit unpleasant but you can always avert your gaze.'
 Jonathan Ross 

'This is the Springtime For Hitler of porn. It's a gripping adventure, and obviously the funniest book you'll read all year.' 
Caitlin Moran

 'Strangely avoiding the obvious title Hansel and Gretel in Porno Hell, Victoria and Charlie have succeeded in writing a book they are not old enough to read. Certainly I wasn't.' 
Clive James

 ‘Exceedingly funny’ Tatler

'I haven't started it yet, leave me alone'  Throbbing Angel


----------



## Orang Utan (May 23, 2003)

> _Originally posted by durruti02 _
> 
> and a question!!! ive got 3/4 of the way thru Girlfriend in a Coma...( i think couplands last 3 books..miss wyoming, all families and this have been really top class fantastic brilliant!)...and it is brilliant..but i dont want to go on!!...she has just come round..and it sort of seems that is enough!! should i continue..???answers without telling me there is some fked up twist please!!
> thank u! [/B]



Continue!!
You're right - it does have a massive fucked up twist - very apple pie but shocking nonetheless


----------



## durruti02 (May 23, 2003)

cheers orangutan!!!!! i'll carry on ...i've come over all excited now!!!!


----------



## Gumbert (May 24, 2003)

Huey P Newton's "Revolutionary Suicide"...

I'm at the bit after the trial, were he's been thrown in the slammer for manslaughter after being shot by a racist pig. Some great examples of collective initiative against the system..

" Let us go on outdoing ourselves; a revolutionary man always transcends himself or otherwise he is not a revolutionary man, so we always do what we ask of ourselves or more than we know we can do".


----------



## Elpenor (May 28, 2003)

The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks.

About to get No Logo and the Road to Nab End out of the Uni library though.


----------



## Voley (May 31, 2003)

Durruti: Yeah, James Lee Burke is a really good crime writer. I read 'Purple Cane Road' recently and liked the beautiful descriptions of Louisiana as much as the twisting plot.

Roadkill: "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy' is also a great book. Greg Palast really cuts through the shit.

I've just finished 'Surviving The Killing Fields' by Haing S Ngor. Utterly horrific. And it's all about places that I've just visited so seems horribly real to me right now. Seen the movie, read the book, visited the mass grave. 

Nearly finished 'Catch 22' now, too, which I've enjoyed a lot more this time round. Particularly as I mentally picture Yossarian as *our* Yossarian iyswim.


----------



## General Ludd (May 31, 2003)

Demanding The Impossible: A History Of Anarchism - Peter Marshall


----------



## tOka (Jun 1, 2003)

Just about to finnish "Killing Pablo", by Mark Bowden.

A detailed cronology of the hunt for El Doctor.
tis heavy going, with the mirriad of dates and Columbian names, but highly interesting.


----------



## WasGeri (Jun 1, 2003)

I've just finished reading two very exciting thrillers by Patricia Cornwell that my mum gave me - not sure what to read next, it's a choice of 'Blood of Spain' or 'Barca, a people's passion'. Spanish cicil war or Spanish football, can't decide...


----------



## pk (Jun 2, 2003)

"Special Agent" by Candice DeLong.

An interesting insight into the FBI from a retired agent.

A lot of it's total flag worship bollocks but the accounts are real.

It's gripping stuff.


----------



## Nina (Jun 2, 2003)

Just finished Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. Phew. Totally booked out now.

Before that
Life of Pi...Yann Martell (Beautiful and very gentle)
Cheese Monkeys...Chip Kidd (weird ending)
To Kill a mocking bird...one of very few books that have A Good Ending.

will now decide wots next...


----------



## J77 (Jun 2, 2003)

Have been travelling for 28 hours today (and yesterday I guess), in which time I've nearly read...

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (sp?)

It's well good so far...


----------



## RedDragon (Jun 2, 2003)

Today’s library books:

Jim Grimsley - Boulevard
Johnny Rogan - Morrissey & Marr
Jim Crace - Quarantine
Alexander Walker - Audrey


----------



## jms (Jun 2, 2003)

World's end by Paul Theroux

will shortly be moving onto Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov


----------



## Shippou-Sensei (Jun 2, 2003)

i have my love hina colection sitting by the loo for my own and others viewing plesure







also got my Chobits V01 there

also found my old copy of Matilda (Roald Dahl) just the other day when looking for something to read in the bath ... was plesently supprised that i still found it a good read

movie kinda sucked pants though


----------



## Clintons Cat (Jun 3, 2003)

*Most current Top*

Hi i am new to the forum here are some of the books i have read/reread in the last 18 months and would reccomend to others.-

"Them",Jon Ronson

"Eye Witness Bloody Sunday" by Don Mullen.

"Babi-Yar" By A Anatoli. 

"Saddam's War" By John Bulloch and Harvey Morris

"One Palestine Complete",by Tom Sergev

"The Taliban" by Ahmed Rashid 

"Backfire: A History of How American Culture Led Us into Vietnam and Made Us Fight the Way We Did" by Loren Baritz

"Revelation Space" By Alister Reynolds

"One Flew Over The Cookoos Nest" By Ken Kessy 

"Ad Nauseum" (The Onion Year Book)

Hoping to get a copy of "stupid white men" by michael Moore soon




> Huey P Newton's "Revolutionary Suicide"...
> 
> I'm at the bit after the trial, were he's been thrown in the slammer for manslaughter after being shot by a racist pig. Some great examples of collective initiative against the system..
> 
> " Let us go on outdoing ourselves; a revolutionary man always transcends himself or otherwise he is not a revolutionary man, so we always do what we ask of ourselves or more than we know we can do".




Can I most humbly suggest you also search out ?

"Soledad Brother" By George Jackson 

and 

"Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton" by Bobby Seale.

Both great books.


----------



## Stupidfish (Jun 4, 2003)

I'm on three books at the moment, been reading Nick Hornby's 31 Songs for ages, and I bought Stupid white men on the weekend and I'm already about halfway through. Also re-reading Iain Bank's The Crow road, which I do yearly, as I'm strange like that.


----------



## chazegee (Jun 4, 2003)

'Awaydays' by Kevin Sampson.

A good 'slice' of football violenve first thing in the morning.


----------



## jayeola (Jun 4, 2003)

william borroughs - naked lunch. some of it's going waaaayy over my head.

The homo-erotic dreams of a strung-out junky?

What's actually real in this book? I think he has a medical background and he's gay. This much I can work out. The rest is gibberish.


----------



## chegrimandi (Jun 5, 2003)

errr Dark Star Safari- Theroux- 

about Africa- don't like his writing stlye-comes across as quite patronising and arrogant, but it's intersting because I'm learning stuff.


----------



## haggy (Jun 5, 2003)

William Burroughs "gibberish" - how dare you?  I've read most of Burrough's stuff and Nakd Lunch about half a dozen times.  It can look difficult on the page, but if you ever to get to hear recordings of the great man reading - a wry, dry-as-a-bone voice like sandpaper - you start to realise how funny his stuff is.  But he has serious stuff to say about authoritarianism, too.

Get Citiies of the Red Night if you like gay anarchist pirates, Place of Dead Roads if you like gay American gun-slingers, and The Westernlands if you like gay ancient Egyptians.

I could on about him for ever.  Norman Mailer famously said Burrough's was conceivably possessed of genius.  How right he was.

ATM, reading Q, by Luther Blissett - a kind of anarchist Name of the Rose set in Reformation Europe.

Biggest & best this year : Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace.

And for consistently having something profound and amusing to say about ordinary working life : Magnus Mills - The Scheme for Full Employment

Sadly, my favourite novel of all time is Gravity's Rainbow by T Pynchon.  I'm just so sorry it could never be made into a film, and if it ever was I'm not sure I'd ever want to see it.


----------



## jms (Jun 5, 2003)

21 stories by Graham Greene

it starts off with a really horrible one about a gang of boys who destroy someones house from the inside out..

wah

weird..but cool


----------



## Elpenor (Jun 5, 2003)

Isn't that the one featured in Donnie Darko?

Chegrimandi - I find Theroux quite arrogant too.


----------



## chegrimandi (Jun 5, 2003)

> _Originally posted by spooky fish _
> *Isn't that the one featured in Donnie Darko?
> 
> Chegrimandi - I find Theroux quite arrogant too. *



good! glad its not just me.....fair do's the guy has done a lot of travelling blah blah but he is pretty scathing about backpackers/other travellers and stuff, he also has a chip on his shoulder about being old etc. Dunno interesting guy but...not sure...Am enjoying the book though..I think once I've finished the book I will get stuck into some African history books as its fucking interesting, and this book has aroused my curiosity so not all bad I guess....


----------



## Bond (Jun 5, 2003)

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams


----------



## mrkikiet (Jun 6, 2003)

i have just given up on microserfs. very very very dissapointing. and i was praising him (Coupland) to the heavens above ben elton the other week, now i'm not so sure.

Under the volcano again now.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 6, 2003)

Oh please Elton is a talentless no mark.
Microserfs is an unfortunate blip but Coupland shits all over Elton.


----------



## mrkikiet (Jun 8, 2003)

> *Oh please Elton is a talentless no mark.
> Microserfs is an unfortunate blip but Coupland shits all over Elton. *



that, my friend is almost exactly what i was saying. but i can't find the relevant thread, sorry.

Brighton Rock, by mr Greene. Pinky is a legend and good revision avoidance.


----------



## Nina (Jun 9, 2003)

Hmmm, Microserfs is the only Coupland I have left to read. Generation X was the pinnacle IMO...nothing else seemed to reach those heights.

Just started The Autograph Man Zadie Smith....feeling I may need an Intro to Judaism book before I continue...


----------



## Masseuse (Jun 9, 2003)

Microserfs is my favourite Coupland!

I'm reading Disgrace by Coetzee, and Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything.


----------



## foo (Jun 9, 2003)

Montaigne - Essays.

This is one of the few books from my college days that I still pick up every now and then. I find his work warm, honest and his tireless search for Truth is inspiring.


----------



## Jangla (Jun 9, 2003)

Will Self - How the Dead Live

Very, very, very strange read indeed!  Mildly depressing too as it starts by following the final days of a woman being ravaged by cancer as she contemplates her life and the lives of her two daughters (one's middle-class-wanna-be-higher-class and the other's a junky), before delving into an bizarre take on the after life.  It's now lost me a little as I think it's taking up the subject of re-incarnation...but I can't be sure.


----------



## J77 (Jun 9, 2003)

back on the mcewans...

atonement

what a class book this is, am about to embark on part 3...


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 9, 2003)

Still reading The God Of Small Things - enchanting but tragic book.
I am going to take Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance and Adam Hothschild's King Leopold's Ghost on holiday with me.


----------



## nuffsaid (Jun 9, 2003)

Just finished 'The Fermata' by Nicholson Baker - got it because someone mentioned here on these boards a while back. About a guy that can stop time, the perfect fantasy I thought. All he does for those who don't know it is go around and take womens clothes off,   shouldn't laugh but, well. 

Apart from being pretty pornographic in places it was extremely thoughtful, very funny, and at a deeper level a commentary on the stalling and confronting of death.

Need to start something else now.


----------



## huey2 (Jun 10, 2003)

Just finished Grahm Greene's The Honorary Consul, before tht The Comedians and before that The End of the Affair (not stuck in a rut or anything!)

Watching the Quiet American made me realise how spot on he was as a political commentator (he wasn't very welcome in the US), with his warnings against violently meddling in other states' affairs.

Also he shows an interesting relationship with religion. I think he was someone who didn't want to believe.


----------



## Elpenor (Jun 10, 2003)

I recently read The Honorary Consul too, it was pretty good. 

Agree with you about his political commentary, if America had known as much about South America as Greene did, well who knows eh?

He was a Catholic I believe, and I think he might have recieved some formal instruction in the faith but I can't remember. Greene is someone I'm keen to read a biography of him this summer, can anyone recommend one?


----------



## foo (Jun 10, 2003)

Just finished Possessing the Secret of Joy - Alice Walker

again!   

It's very Jung influenced but is an amazing story of an african girl called Tashi (who appears briefly in The Colour Purple). The wider story is that of cultural relativism & alienation surrounding the issue of female circumcision. It's a beautiful interesting and very sad book.


----------



## Rollem (Jun 11, 2003)

*maya angelou*

i know why the caged bird sings

(again.  )


----------



## foo (Jun 11, 2003)

Have you read any of the others Rollem? I think I've got most of them so if you want to borrow them, let me know.


----------



## Roadkill (Jun 11, 2003)

I've just re-read _House of Cards_ by Michael Dobbs.

Feckin' brilliant political thriller, really well written and compulsive reading IMO.  I read the whole lot in two evenings.  Shame they messed about with the ending in the TV version.


----------



## souljacker (Jun 11, 2003)

William S Burroughs, Junky

Inspired by Haggy's rather excellent post
http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44904


----------



## Xtine (Jun 11, 2003)

i just finished a bio of baseball great/clown Casey Stengel.  what fun!
i started Mae West's autobio, Goodness had Nothing to do With It on the plane to NYC and haven't finished it yet. dunno how many times i've read it; it's brilliant and very funny just like she was.


----------



## haggy (Jun 11, 2003)

just started WG Sebald's Rings of Saturn.  Beautifully written musings on esoterica while wandering the coast of Suffolk (which is always a good thing to do).

He died a few years ago  - a German professor living in England.

Does anyone know anything about his other stuff?


----------



## Rollem (Jun 12, 2003)

*niall griffiths*

sheepshagger


----------



## Monkeygrinder's Organ (Jun 15, 2003)

I just bought 'The Life of Pi' this afternoon. Looks pretty good so far.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jun 15, 2003)

"The Ambient Century: from Mahler to trance - the evolution of sound in the electronic age" by Mark Prendergast.


----------



## Voley (Jun 15, 2003)

Finished 'Catch 22' which really isn't the incredible work of genius that so many people reckon, imo. It's a pretty funny book with some genuinely good laughs in it, a good eye for irony and doing that lurching-from-humour-to-horror thing. No more, no less. *Lights blue touch paper and retires* 

Also finished 'The Quiet American' - Graham Greene, which I loved. Really liked the cynical vermouth-sipping, opium-smoking journo main character, whose name escapes me right now. This is the first Graham Greene that I've ever read and I'm definitely going to read more. Recommendations, anyone? 'Brighton Rock', perhaps?

I'm about two-thirds of the way through 'The Crow Road - Iain Banks. Really very good - not sure why I've never read this one before.  

And after that I've going to get started on this big stack of books that Han lent me. 

Oh yeah, btw, I read 'Generation X' and thought it was a load of old shite.


----------



## huey2 (Jun 16, 2003)

> _Originally posted by NVP _
> *
> Also finished 'The Quiet American' - Graham Greene, which I loved. Really liked the cynical vermouth-sipping, opium-smoking journo main character, whose name escapes me right now. This is the first Graham Greene that I've ever read and I'm definitely going to read more. Recommendations, anyone? 'Brighton Rock', perhaps?
> *



It might be worth looking back through these pages; after I posted, I noticed that Greene seemed to crop up all over the place. Is he the most cited author?


----------



## Elpenor (Jun 16, 2003)

> _Originally posted by NVP _
> *
> 
> Also finished 'The Quiet American' - Graham Greene, which I loved. Really liked the cynical vermouth-sipping, opium-smoking journo main character, whose name escapes me right now. This is the first Graham Greene that I've ever read and I'm definitely going to read more. Recommendations, anyone? 'Brighton Rock', perhaps?
> ...



I'm about to read Generation X, as I'm on the last chapter of No Logo, my current book. I'll see what I think. I think I tried to read it when I was 13 but gave up.

Greene: Definitely Brighton Rock, I'd also suggest Stamboul Train and The Confidential Agent as being easy to read. Travels With My Aunt is a later, more comical work, which is really accessible. IMO of course


----------



## ck (Jun 16, 2003)

"Trainspotting" by Irvine Welsh.  After finally accepting that the person who "borrowed" my copy of this book way back when I was at college won't be giving it back , I have just got round to borrowing it from the library...


----------



## rubbershoes (Jun 16, 2003)

I gave up on VS Naipaul’s _Guerrillas_ . I love his writing but this one just didn’t grab me. So I’ve gone for the lightweight  _Are you Dave Gorman? _ by Dave Gorman. 

Very funny


----------



## Voley (Jun 16, 2003)

> _Originally posted by spooky fish _
> *Greene: Definitely Brighton Rock, I'd also suggest Stamboul Train and The Confidential Agent as being easy to read. Travels With My Aunt is a later, more comical work, which is really accessible. IMO of course  *



Ta!


----------



## chemical_girl__ (Jun 16, 2003)

i havent ever posted on this thread before, so i thought i would................ 'captain corelli's mandolin'. im not that far in, but i definitely like the airy style of the writing....... actually, i might go find some sunshine to sit in and read soon.........


----------



## Melodic blink (Jun 16, 2003)

I'm just about to finish Dr Janov's 'The Primal Scream'.  Very interesting about crying, raging and emotions out, being the cure to many a disease.


----------



## J77 (Jun 16, 2003)

The Plague by Albert Camus (sp?)

It's pretty revolting in so far and I've could 2/3's of the book to go


----------



## tomsk (Jun 17, 2003)

Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser (just starting this,preparing to be irate)

The Primal Wound:Understanding the Adopted Child - Nancy Newton Verrier


----------



## LDR (Jun 17, 2003)

East of Acre Lane - I don't know how popular it is round here but I'm finding really shite to be honest.


----------



## onemonkey (Jun 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by chemical_girl__ _
> *i havent ever posted on this thread before, so i thought i would................ 'captain corelli's mandolin'. im not that far in, but i definitely like the airy style of the writing....... actually, i might go find some sunshine to sit in and read soon......... *


 no you should read it on the tube just like everyone else


----------



## chemical_girl__ (Jun 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by onemonkey _
> *no you should read it on the tube just like everyone else  *



lol....... i'll just take a two hour bus and train trip to london and hop on the tube then!


----------



## Voley (Jun 18, 2003)

Just finished 'The Crow Road' - Iain Banks. Liked it a lot: the main character, Prentice, reminded me of myself a bit when I was a student. And my family are all fucking bonkers, too. 

Just started 'Siddhartha' by Hermann Hesse, that Han very kindly lent to me. Enjoying it a lot so far.


----------



## Thixo (Jun 19, 2003)

I'm reading Kate Atkinson's 'Not the End of the World' -- great stuff, very light. It's a collection of short stories, just what is required for these warm, short nights. (I don't seem to be able to manage long novels if it's not cold and miserable outside.)

I'm glad you liked 'The Crow Road', NVP -- definitely Iain Banks's most feel-good non-Culture novel.


----------



## oddjob (Jun 19, 2003)

> _Originally posted by foo _
> *The Acid House - Irvine Welsh (is that how you spell his name? ) *



Try 'filth' by the man welsh


----------



## oddjob (Jun 19, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Part2 _
> *The Business by Iain Banks. Struggling to get into it after a long time away from reading. Smoking too much isn't helping, I keep losing the plot. *



This is going to be long and laborious 



> _Originally posted by dwen _
> *Also reading the Tibetan book of the dead very very slowly *



Get on with it you fucking procrastinator



> _Originally posted by spooky fish _
> *The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks. *



getting there



> _Originally posted by NVP _
> *Just finished 'The Crow Road' - Iain Banks. Liked it a lot: the main character, Prentice, reminded me of myself a bit when I was a student. And my family are all fucking bonkers, too.*



a trend here
 

this guy is seriously good 



> _Originally posted by jms _
> *The Wasp Factory*



I'm reading ian rankin, all of them


----------



## transparent (Jun 20, 2003)

Reading The Bridge at the moment (yet another Banks). He grew up in one of the Queensferrys underneath the Forth Rail Bridge and you can feel every single detail of the place and how much he loves it.

He fecks the whole thing up with these twisted dream sequences manipulating the bridge, and drifting in and out of consciousness.

His imagination is pretty incredible....enjoying this one (especially since I can catch the bridge out the window    )


----------



## Rollem (Jun 20, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Scott _
> *East of Acre Lane - I don't know how popular it is round here but I'm finding really shite to be honest. *


 its slow moving scott, but I thought it was quite good. maybe it’s down to exposure to the setting? 

am now reading “grits” by niall griffths


----------



## Waterfall (Jun 20, 2003)

I've just finished Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake. The future it portrays seems frighteningly possible. It was a little bit thin towards the end, and it wasn't hard to work out what was going to happen, although I suppose some of it was intentional. I'd recommend it. I'm now reading The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick.


----------



## jambandit (Jun 20, 2003)

I keep meaning to start 'A Brave New World' but I just dont seem to be getting round to it.  I used to read about 10 books a month or so but I havent read anything for quite a while.  Hmm.... I might go and start it now.


----------



## onemonkey (Jun 20, 2003)

> _Originally posted by jambandit _
> *I keep meaning to start 'A Brave New World' but I just dont seem to be getting round to it.*


 yes i know what you mean! 


or are you referring to the book?


----------



## onemonkey (Jun 20, 2003)

just finished Carter beats the Devil by Glen David Gold..

liked it was refreshing and easy to read after many months of reading college books & papers. 

it follows the life of Charles Carter, son of a rich san fransisco family who become a stage magician in the 'golden age of magic'.. the 1890's to 1930's, the time of Houdini.. just one of the many reallife characters that cross his path.

long and tangled tale, lovingly researched and painted with period detail. so much so that the john buchan style plot seems at time merely an afterthought or perhaps an excuse for the author himself to engage in sleight of hand and misdirection.

wont be to everyone's taste, i'd recommend starting off but if you begin to flag or lose interest then find another book because it has the same atmosphere & style all the way through

come to think of it , I was reminded of Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, which is a much better book so maybe you should read that instead.

1mnky


----------



## jambandit (Jun 20, 2003)

> _Originally posted by onemonkey _
> *yes i know what you mean!
> 
> 
> or are you referring to the book?  *



Pobably a bit of the both....hmm....


----------



## Rebelda (Jun 20, 2003)

I just finished re-reading Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass (the final book from his Nothern Lights trilogy) and it had me in floods of tears yet again!

Beautiful, beautiful book. Gripping trilogy. Unfortunately there are plans for films.


----------



## onemonkey (Jun 20, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Rebelda _
> *Beautiful, beautiful book. Gripping trilogy. Unfortunately there are plans for films.  *


  
yep.. hollywood would fuck it up proper..
but BBC might make a good job of it..

on which topic i see a movie of HHGTTG is being mooted again.. pointless.. it simply can't be done without Peter Jones.


----------



## Rebelda (Jun 20, 2003)

> _Originally posted by onemonkey _
> *HHGTTG*



???


----------



## BassJunkie (Jun 20, 2003)

LA Confidential - James Ellroy, pretty good like Raymond Chandler really...

rereading Lonesome Traveller by Kerouac cus he De Man

and Charles Dickens - travels round America - he makes a good travel writer!


----------



## Bond (Jun 20, 2003)

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte


----------



## mrkikiet (Jun 21, 2003)

> _Originally posted by onemonkey _
> *just finished Carter beats the Devil by Glen David Gold*



I read that while in a hospital bed doped up to the eyeballs. It made for some very interesting dreams.

I've just started on ulysses, i'm not entirely sure why.


----------



## LDR (Jun 21, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Rollem _
> *its slow moving scott, but I thought it was quite good. maybe it’s down to exposure to the setting?  *



I think it's more to do with the style it's written in.  I feels like to me like it's been written by a school kid.  I''ve given up on it.  I read about the first half of it and then thought bollocks.  I've also brought his other book 'Brixton Rock' too.  I hope that it's better.

Am now re-reading 1984 by Mr Orwell.  Much more my thing.


----------



## Roadkill (Jun 21, 2003)

_Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_ 

Need you ask?


----------



## Kidda (Jun 21, 2003)

Im reading 
Stalking Fiona by Nigel Williams


----------



## EbonyLC (Jun 22, 2003)

...So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish - Douglas Adams...


----------



## Elpenor (Jun 22, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Rebelda _
> *??? *



Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Currently reading The Road To Nab End by William Woodruff.

And borrowed my brothers copy of Fast Food Nation whilst I was at home as well.


----------



## Elpenor (Jun 26, 2003)

The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter.

I studied this at A-Level but hadn't picked it up for 4 years. I'm remembering why I loved it so much.

I believe the genre is called magic realism, and there's loads of allegorical stuff in there too. If I could find my English notes I could probably dig some out more bullshit about it!

Anyway, its fab. And its set in South London too!


----------



## Jangla (Jun 26, 2003)

The Science of the Discworld II (surprisingly complex science in it!)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - yes, I know, I know!


----------



## oddjob (Jun 26, 2003)

I'm reading Harry as well, it's good 

Makes a change, that when you get to page 21, there's a Dementor


----------



## Roadkill (Jun 26, 2003)

I'm reading Potter for the second time.  

Read it in a stoned, pill comedown haze in 24 hours solid at the weekend and didn't really take it all in, so now I'm taking my time over it.

First time through I didn't think it was as good as the fourth one.  i'm beginning to revise that view...

God I'm sad.


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Jun 27, 2003)

> _Originally posted by spooky fish _
> *The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter.*



Fantastic, isn't it? I still prefer Nights at the Circus or Wise Children, but pretty much anything she wrote does it for me. Shame she went so soon...


----------



## chegrimandi (Jun 27, 2003)

'Confessions & other Religious Writings' by Tolstoy.......


*mutters rudely at the Potter readers*


----------



## Pickman's model (Jun 27, 2003)

read h.p.

now returning to proper books, think it'll be achilles' shield next.


----------



## emotional (Jun 27, 2003)

A biog of Peter Cook by Harry Thompson. He is one of the very very few people I would call a genius and hero

("What is the worst job you ever had?")


----------



## Gumbert (Jun 27, 2003)

Reading through Greg Palast's- Best Democracy Money can Buy.

A journey through Bush's money grabbing inhuman multinational corporate freinds. Skanky, greedy, avaricious m'f*ckers... 

Everyone should get a copy!


----------



## Kidda (Jun 27, 2003)

(what is) Evil by Peter Vardy

Filth by I.Welsh


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Jun 27, 2003)

'Freaky Dancin': Me and the Mondays' by Bez.
Double top good.


----------



## Clintons Cat (Jun 27, 2003)

Wildes Last Stand by Phillip Hoare


Outlining Maude Allens unsuccessful attempt to clear her name in court for Lewd and Immoral Behaviour,made against her by Independant MP,Self Publicist and Newspaper Proprietor Noel Pemberton Billing.in 1918

The Previous Year,The Dancer Mata Hari had been shot by the french as a spy.This maybe helped ferment the anti-decadence sentiment that swept through europe and characterised the final years of the war and helped the rise of fascism both in Germany,Italy and the flegling British Union of Fascists headed by Mosley with their hatred of the Avant Garde in music,art and theatre.

Maude Allen unwittingly became the victim of Billings Conspiricy theory known as the "Cult Of Wilde" that accused 47,000 members of the establishment and armed forces of Treason,Sodomy and Lesbian Acts which jepodised Britains War Effort.

Maude Allens reputation was ruined by unsubstantiated rumours of a lesbian relationsip with Wife of former prime minister Asquith (whose tabloid accusations of influence over her husband bear striking resemblence to the "wicked witch" rhetoric of modern day)

made during the trial and the whole of her action was overshadowed by questions over the Morality of Oscar Wilde whose play salome she was appearing in,thus the deliniation between Actress and Character became blurred to the point of indistinction.So much so that the infamous "Bosie" Lord Alfred Douglas,Wildes former Lover and instrument of his downfall was called to testify about Wildes morality or alleged lack of it and the alledged nature of the play and its authors intent.


A good read and a fascinating snapshot of voxpop wartime britain
which has echoes in todays modern society with its own preoccupations with Decadence,immorality,the influence of Homosexuals in government (aka Tabloid "Gay Mafia" accusations) and Prohibitions on openly gay members of the Military.


----------



## Masseuse (Jun 27, 2003)

The Lives of Animals by J.M. Coetzee.

Really fascinating examination of rationality, emotion, reason, ethics and the relationship between humans and animals.

Anyone on the verge of vegetarianism - or indeed baffled by vegetarianism would find this an entertaining and enlightening read.  Provides a balanced view of the issues surrounding animal rights.  Highly recommend


----------



## hovis (Jun 28, 2003)

Sartre: The Reprieve


----------



## Swearing Nonna (Jun 28, 2003)

John Irving - The cider house rules.

I'm struggling with it, got lost somewhere after the 1st 3rd but trying to finish the damm thing. I'm quite disappointed as I've really enjoyed a couple of his other books but this one is far too long winded.


----------



## Xtine (Jun 29, 2003)

Serpent in the Sky by John Anthony West.


----------



## chez (Jun 29, 2003)

two on the go at the moment

Pay it forward- Catherine Ryan Hyde

Stupid White Men- Michael Moore (have got around to reading this at last)


----------



## feyr (Jun 30, 2003)

A beautiful mind, by Sylvia Nasar. its amazing and much better than the film


----------



## transparent (Jun 30, 2003)

Fury by Salman Rushdie, was put off by his writing style at first, very pretentious (by my standards anyway   ), but there's definitely potential, bit of a grower.


----------



## haggy (Jun 30, 2003)

I've usually got a few things on the go at once:

A Frolic of His Own - William Gaddis.  My second time and its hilarious

Ulysses - although I always find this hard going and may not finish it (again)

V - Thomas Pynchon (for the 5th time - marvellous)

Fictions - JL Borges


----------



## Soft as Shite (Jun 30, 2003)

Been away a while, but been doing lots of reading....!

I went on a bit of a Charles Bukowski feast and read his biography: "Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life" - worth it for the brilliant photos.  Then read "Ham on Rye" and "Postoffice" too.  I love his crisp writing and black humour.

JG Ballard "High Rise"- more twisted than Super Cannes and Cocaine Nights....

"Norweigan Wood" by Haruki Murakami- given to me by Onemonkey and painfully exquisite.

Just ordered:

 "The Myth of Monogamy, Fidelity and Infedility in Animals and Humans" by David Barash

"Vurt" by Jeff Noon and 

"Naive. Super" by Erland Loe 

all second hand from Amazon.....why have I never used this before?!!! So cheap!


----------



## Nina (Jul 1, 2003)

Everything is illuminated...Jonathan Safran-Foer.

Great name, great book (so far)...shame he's a year younger than me. It really grates me when great writers are sooo young  

very funny and worth a look.


----------



## Janine (Jul 1, 2003)

_Dia:Beacon_ , the book published to mark the opening of the new museum of the Dia foundation, in Beacon, NY. Absolutely wondrous place - and book!


----------



## haggy (Jul 1, 2003)

that jonathan safran froer is dead good.

some of these new american writers are sound, only spoiled by the fact that they are younger than me.  David Foster Wallce and George Saunders are well worth getting into.  i just read the former's A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again.  If you ignore the essay on tennis the pieces at the agricultural fare and the Caribbean cruise are brilliantly observed and very funny w/out being "clever".  And the essay on how TV has influenced American Lit is bang-on.  He sees himself as anti- POMO, which is fine in my book.  George Saunders only has two short story collectiosn out.  Weird stuff set in futuristic theme parks - which is where i guess he sees USA going.  Again, LOL funny.

A good introduction to some of this stuff is a collection called The Burned Children Of America. Its got an intro by Zadie Frost, but don't let that put you off.  Its got stuff by Wallace and Saunders and David Eggar, etc  No William T Vollmann though.  I guess he's getting to be too old!


----------



## chemical_girl__ (Jul 2, 2003)

lolita by vladimir nabokov


i'm only a short way in, and im willing to stick to it if someone convinces me that it is worth it, but its boring me and i dont like it

i like books that i can relate to, the feelings and characters, if not the situations............. and lets face it, humbert is a nasty piece of work, and consequently everyone he describes is scorned and shown in a bad light.

nor can i even empathise with his paedophilia, or even put his desparate temptation in a guise i can understand.

i appreciate nabokov's skill, but im considering giving up (which i never do)



do i stick to it, or ditch it?


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Jul 2, 2003)

Stick it out, Chemical girl, it's the second greatest novel ever written (after 'Pale Fire'). The first time I read it I was 18, and I think for the first 50 pages or so I was feeling a little queasy at having to exist in Humbert's disturbing little world. This will fade as the novel progresses, don't worry. Humbert is one of the greatest unreliable narrators in literary fiction, a self-deluding genius incapable of understanding the concepts of 'right' or 'wrong' in relation to anything but himself.
Nabokov's use of language is, as ever, astonishing, and in it's own way 'Lolita' is a tragic, touching love story. Nabokov's greatest achievement: by the end of the novel the reader finds him/herself empathizing (against their better nature) with the tragically misguided, selfish figure of Humbert. He's not a sympathetic character by any means, yet Nobokov almost makes him so.
Do yourself a favour, stick it out.
And then read 'Pale Fire' or 'Ada'.


----------



## J77 (Jul 3, 2003)

Have just finished The Plague by Albert Camus. This book was amazing - if you can get through the sickening first few chapters. Basically, I thought it had everything - all emotions and a very good example of how against suffering, we can behave humanely. It think it was written just after the second world war and lots of the scenes seem very warlike. Of course, if you're well clever you'd be reading the French version but the English translation was excellent.


----------



## bass (Jul 3, 2003)

Oranges... is right about Lolita - fantastic stuff.  

Currently reading 'Bonfire of the Vanities'  by Tom Wolfe (excellent) and 'The Great Game' by Peter Hopkirk - a bit full of dashing officers and their derring do for my taste.  Still, I'm currently in China and the choice of books in English is, erm, limited...


Bass


----------



## Power (Jul 3, 2003)

just read 'stairway to heaven' the new updated zeppelin biography, written by 'i'm a complete tosser and illiterate fuckhead'

what a fucking crock of shite.

reasonably large book, managed to read it in three minutes, with one eye shut, standing on my head, underwater with a squint. 

very painful.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 3, 2003)

With the peeps on Camus and Nabokov, esp Nabokov.

My current reading is King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hothschild.
It's about the murderous King of the Belgians' annexation of the Congo. Shocking reading.


----------



## Power (Jul 3, 2003)

non, especially camus.

that's camooooo....







gets funnier everytime...


----------



## Fledgling (Jul 4, 2003)

I've just read "I can't stay long" by Laurie Lee. 

I'm reading "Cannery Row" by Steinbeck. 

That's 5 Laurie Lee books this year, excellent author.


----------



## Nina (Jul 4, 2003)

Just finished this Safran Foer book at 3am. Waaah. I cried like a baby. Just beautiful.

it's just gotta be read.

'Everything is illuminated' it's called.

The boy done good


----------



## Miss Caphat (Jul 5, 2003)

I've been reading 'Tender Is The Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald at work. For the first 1/2 of the book I was really enjoying it.....beautifully written, such unique descriptions of people and events...but more and more it seems like some navel-gazing soap opera about overprivleged Americans of the 1920's and their boring (ooh, shockingly decadent) shenanigans. I really am starting to wonder whether there is a point to it at all. 


 


  time for a new book?


----------



## Voley (Jul 7, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Orangesanlemons _
> *'Freaky Dancin': Me and the Mondays' by Bez.
> *



I love that book. Had me crying with laughter on numerous occasions.

It's a miracle the lad's alive. Quite how he _remembered_ any of it is beyond me.


----------



## pinkychukkles (Jul 7, 2003)

Just finished _Down And Out In Paris And London_ by George Orwell

a sobering read, especially as I'm really fed up in my job...makes you think how lucky and priveliged you are.

aah NVP, Bez's book is on my list of Books To Read, however I've just had a bumper amount of books delivered from Amazon as they're offering free p&p if you order over £39... got some nice juicy titles to feast my eyes upon. 

<slobber drool>


----------



## pinkychukkles (Jul 7, 2003)

ahh books just arrived:

William Dalrymple _The Age Of Kali_
Travel book about his journeys on the indian sub-continent

Paul Martin _Counting Sheep_
science book about sleep

George Orwell _Animal Farm_
I've yet to be disappointed with anything I've read of Orwell

Steven Pinker _The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial Oh Human Nature_
Another science book, hmm maybe I should be at school again...

Martin Rees _Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape The Universe_ 
I've got a couple of Martin Rees books now and he manages to explain complicated err stuff pretty well, some of it is still over my head but I doubt I will get any clearer explanations for a layman like myself. 

Karl Jansen _Ketamine: Dreams And Realities_ 
another drug book to add to my growing pile of drug literature...

T.E. Lawrence _The Seven Pillars Of Wisdom_ 
white man in an arab world...quite a weighty tome, this one will keep me busy for awhile.


----------



## beesonthewhatnow (Jul 7, 2003)

Currently reading:

The New Harry Potter one
Fences and Windows, Naomi Klein


----------



## Cassius Belli (Jul 7, 2003)

Illustrated History Of World War Three-Dr J Bradley

Centuries Of Darkness- Peter James, Egypt's dark age 1200-800B.C

Messianic Revolution-David S Katz & Richard H Popkin, subtitled Radical religious politics to the end of the second millennium.(Christian that is).


----------



## Elpenor (Jul 7, 2003)

Fast Food Nation as my brother gave me his copy.

Homage to Catalonia as I'm on my hols near there.

And debating whether or not to get some more stuff to read on holiday from the library tomorrow.


----------



## pinkychukkles (Jul 7, 2003)

If you liked _Fast Food Nation_ by Eric Schlosser then you'll like his latest release which I recently finished, _Reefer Madness_.

The title is a little misleading because it is not totally about US state's war on drugs, but also examines the plight of illegal migrant workers and often contradictory attitudes that prevail against the pornography industry. In short, looking at the underground in the States and drawing conclusions about what that says of mainstream US society. 

top read.


----------



## devit (Jul 7, 2003)

The book - right by my side but not touched yet - is "In seach of Schrodinger's cat" by John Gribbin...  the blurb "... is a fascinating and delightful introduction to the strange world of the quantum - an essential element in understanding today's world"

I haven't even read page 1 yet, it scares me  

Not going to be a light read I feel...


----------



## mrkikiet (Jul 8, 2003)

i started 'three men in a boat ' by jerome k jerome last night. It's really lighthearted and fun, although probably not aimed at the more left wing anarchist sentiments out there...


----------



## sojourner (Jul 8, 2003)

just finished Embers by Sandor Marai - found the narrative, or rather, monologue, deeply fascinating.

before that, The Good Women of China, by Xinran...would recommend this to all...wonderful, courageous, inspiring, disturbing...and about time!

bit stuck now tho...after reading a post about Lolita on here, i might try again with that (got a bit stuck/sick re the paedophilia)...or maybe Hitchhikers Guide, hmmm...or perhaps Shakey, neil young biog...

ed for sp


----------



## Voley (Jul 9, 2003)

Just finished 'Siddhartha' by Hermann Hesse.

Loved it. Possibly the most uplifting, optimistic book I've ever read. 

Ta, Han.


----------



## proud american (Jul 9, 2003)

"Lies my teacher told me"

Everything your American History Textbook Got Wrong

It's a fascinating read.  definetly kinks the brows.


----------



## Nina (Jul 9, 2003)

Hanif Kureishi"s Gabriel's Gift.

about a 15 year old's way of dealing with the break up of his parents. Very tender and amusing....and bought back some of my own experiences. Really hits the spot.

Think I might be addicted to Kureishi..he just gets better.

Am panicking now as only have one book left to read and stuck in a place with no english books. ARRGGHH. 

(also thought Siddhartha was amazing NVP!)


----------



## bezzer (Jul 9, 2003)

all the lees... 

cider with rosy - Laurie lee 

To kill a mocking bird - Harper lee 

cider with rosy- absolutely gorgeous biographical book about a boy growing up in a Cotswold village after the first world war...full of nostalgia and happy funny memories, lovely stuff.   

To kill a mocking bird- remember reading this at school and it bored the socks of me, but have decided to give it another go, since so many peeps have said it was a good book. in fact I think it had more to do with me hating school and GCSE English lit, than disliking the book.


----------



## haggy (Jul 9, 2003)

I took a few days off work last week and read Mother London by Michael Moorcock.  I'd read it b4 when it came out, but reading it again 15 years later...   fucking excellent.

King Of The City is good too - in a similar vein and - I think - actually touted as a sequal, tho there are real characters in it and its more up to date (if you can call 70's rock has beens up to date)

Still ploughing thru Gaddis' A Frolic of his Own and still laughing.


----------



## chemical_girl__ (Jul 9, 2003)

> _Originally posted by sojourner _
> *bit stuck now tho...after reading a post about Lolita on here, i might try again with that (got a bit stuck/sick re the paedophilia)*



well, i did stick to it, and it is really well worth it!

oranges, u were totally right, i completely agree!

i have learnt so many new words, and i like to think i know a few anyway........ i love nabokov's use of expression, and the strange, stilted, musical metaphors!


brilliant! go with lolita!


----------



## sojourner (Jul 9, 2003)

> _Originally posted by chemical_girl__ _
> *well, i did stick to it, and it is really well worth it!
> 
> brilliant! go with lolita! *



reet then, i will then, it's just that beginning bit is so bleeuurrghhh...but if i can get through marabou stork nightmares i can make it through that!

cheers!


----------



## sojourner (Jul 9, 2003)

> _Originally posted by NVP _
> *Just finished 'Siddhartha' by Hermann Hesse.
> 
> Loved it. Possibly the most uplifting, optimistic book I've ever read.
> ...



do u know, i've had this book on my shelves for a good 5 years now, and not once had a flick through, never mind a serious read...must put it on my list, it's had quite a few mentions on here


----------



## chemical_girl__ (Jul 9, 2003)

> _Originally posted by bezzer _
> *To kill a mocking bird- remember reading this at school and it bored the socks of me, but have decided to give it another go, since so many peeps have said it was a good book. in fact I think it had more to do with me hating school and GCSE English lit, than disliking the book. *



i read this last summer, of my own accord, cause i wanted to know what all the fuss was about............ and im still wondering 



ok, the second part is pretty good........... but i just thought the first half was dull, long-winded and pretty much pointless. ok, lee was laying the scene........... but it doesnt take that long!

and the idea of illustrating prejudice through a trial......... yes, influential with regards to 'snow falling on cedars' etc, but 'a passage to india' was the original.

the book was just nostalgia and reminiscence, and though it is well written, i didnt think very interesting!


----------



## chemical_girl__ (Jul 9, 2003)

err well, beings it's the point of this thread....... im off on a 20 day driving holiday tomorrow, so am taking -

a clockwork orange - anthony burgess, and

sophie's world - jostein i-cant-remember

to read in the car with me!


----------



## Voley (Jul 9, 2003)

Just started 'Last Night A DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey' by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton.

Only just started it but so far it's a right load of old crap. 

The writers reckon that DJ's fulfill the role of modern-day shaman's; amazing beings capable of inducing transcendence in their devotees. Hmmm. They're not just blokes that play records, then.  

I'm gonna persevere but I'm only three chapters in and I'm already filled with loathing.


----------



## devit (Jul 9, 2003)

NVP, keep reading... I really enjoyed it, more when it got to the point of 70s disco onwards., disco to house music, the drugs etc. It only goes down hill again with stories of the shitty <so called> "superstar" DJs. Most of 'em are wankers  

there maybe some jealousy on my part in the last statement


----------



## bezzer (Jul 9, 2003)

chemical_girl__ 



a clockwork orange - anthony burgess, a heavy book to take on the road. I don’t think I could read it twice. Books like nineteen eighty-four, clockwork orange and brave new world, I find far too disturbing and bleak. In retrospect, given the choice I wish that I had never read them in the first place. 

Anyhow just starting to read – to kill a mocking bird – will try to keep an open mind to the second half…but I did just have a quick look at – a passage to India – on the Amazon (looks good). So if it bores my socks off for a second time, I might just give E M Forster. A go…  

cheers


----------



## starfish (Jul 9, 2003)

Ive just started reading Rubicon Beach by Steve Erikson.


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Jul 9, 2003)

> _Originally posted by chemical_girl__ _
> *well, i did stick to it, and it is really well worth it!
> 
> oranges, u were totally right, i completely agree!
> *









'Eyyyyy...'

Glad you enjoyed it, chemical girl.
Just finished 'How The Dead Live' by Will Self. The usual Self word-play and leaps of the imagination, but there's real warmth and beauty in this one. He writes it like he actually cares, and it's all the better for it.


----------



## Power (Jul 10, 2003)

> _Originally posted by bezzer _
> *chemical_girl__
> Anyhow just starting to read – to kill a mocking bird – will try to keep an open mind to the second half…but I did just have a quick look at – a passage to India – on the Amazon (looks good). So if it bores my socks off for a second time, I might just give E M Forster. A go…
> 
> cheers  *



persevere...put passage to india out of your mind whilst reading it, if you can, and concentrate on when and where this book was written, and the implications of it then. not just the big stuff in the book (not giving anything away speak.. )but also the little things, like the kids reactions realtive to the grown-ups.

enjoy.


----------



## haggy (Jul 10, 2003)

> _Originally posted by starfish _
> *Ive just started reading Rubicon Beach by Steve Erikson. *




oh boy oh boy

let us know what you think of it.  i can't get enough of him.
The Sea Came in At Midnight and Days Between Stations are astonishing.....


----------



## Voley (Jul 10, 2003)

> _Originally posted by astral1 _
> *NVP, keep reading... I really enjoyed it, more when it got to the point of 70s disco onwards., disco to house music, the drugs etc.  *



Yeah, it does perk up a bit after the first few chapters. I'm onto the bit about Northern Soul at the moment and that's genuinely well-researched and well-written.

I cringed when I read the following though: 'The DJ created rock 'n' roll'.  It wasn't the people in the bands, then? Just the bloke that played the record on the radio? Lordy.


----------



## Power (Jul 10, 2003)

that book just encourages coldblooded murder of all dj's.


----------



## Soft as Shite (Jul 10, 2003)

Just finished "Naive. Super" Erland Loe (Norweigen Novelist)

The narrator drops out of his MA to find out the meaning of his life and whether his place in the world matters.  He spends his time hammering on one of those children's hammer and peg things and making lists, becoming obsessed with time and whether it exists/ matters.

It will inspire you to make your own lists and heal yourself through fun and games.......sounds good?

lovely little uplifting novel


----------



## Voley (Jul 11, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Power _
> *that book just encourages coldblooded murder of all dj's. *



It's not _all_ bad then.


----------



## Power (Jul 11, 2003)

> _Originally posted by NVP _
> *It's not all bad then.  *


----------



## Voley (Jul 13, 2003)

Given up with all that DJ's Are The New Gods nonsense and am about halfway through 'Colarine' by Neil Gaiman.

It's very good: a seriously spooky fairy-tale-cum-surreal-nightmare-thingy all from the perspective of this cool little kid. 

It's advertised as a kid's book but I'm not sure I'd give it to a child to read. It's all ever-so-slightly disturbing. Reminds me of Grimm's Fairy Tales a bit and Alice in Wonderland too. But with added weirdness. 

Not my usual thing but me sister recommended it and I'm enjoying it a lot.


----------



## Nina (Jul 14, 2003)

I REALLY enjoyed 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.....for me one of  few books with a good ending. 

I didn't enjoy 'A passage to India' anywhere near as much, smacked too much of Orwell's Burmese Days for me.

Try 'Burmese Days' if you fancy a good India/British colonial bastards story. Very touching. Great stuff.

Anyhow, I'm on Fury by Rushdie. Pretentious old bollocks about not very much in the first 50 pages but now I'm near the end...it's getting much better.

Eureka! I have staying power


----------



## Random One (Jul 14, 2003)

I've been trying to read Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk for the past  4 months!!! Just can't get into it properly, it's just not as enticing as Choke or (to a lesser extent) Survivor.


----------



## Nina (Jul 14, 2003)

Random one, just set aside 6 hours and go at it! I thought it was lush....could really see it being turned into a movie...

Have to get my hands on Survivor. Loved Choke too. Is that the one where he refers to his penis as 'my dog'? 

'Me and my dog' and his sperm as 'little soldiers'

Cracked me up, thought that was just great.  

His new book out soon. Rewrite of Rosemary's Baby. Can't wait... just wish I could pronounce his surname


----------



## Random One (Jul 14, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Nina _
> *Random one, just set aside 6 hours and go at it! I thought it was lush....could really see it being turned into a movie... *



Think i might try that.

Survivor is being turned into a film i think. When u read it ul see why too. Yeah Choke is the one where he refers to his penis as his 'dog'. 

I loved Choke it was really provocative, but not with the content but in his style of writing. From the very first page u get into this ''fuck you im gonna read this, hit me with everything u got'' kinda mode, coz of the way palahniuk basically tells u not to carry on reading coz u wont like it.

I think Choke would make an excellent film, but can see why Survivor is the safer option for a film.

Survivor takes a bit of effort to get through, especially the mid-section but it makes sense why that is, when u get to the end of it. Definitely worth the effort


----------



## Random One (Jul 14, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Nina _
> *... just wish I could pronounce his surname *



hehe. i always say it is pala-nook. have no idea how its supposed to be said though!


----------



## Nina (Jul 14, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Random One _
> *.
> 
> I loved Choke it was really provocative, but not with the content but in his style of writing. From the very first page u get into this ''fuck you im gonna read this, hit me with everything u got'' kinda mode, coz of the way palahniuk basically tells u not to carry on reading coz u wont like it.  *



Ooh, had forgotten about that. That was a real classy start to a book. 

I say Palah neeook but your way is much easier,...will go with Mr P for now I reckon. or 'that bloke who wrote Fight Club'


----------



## Random One (Jul 14, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Nina _
> *
> I say Palah neeook but your way is much easier,...will go with Mr P for now I reckon. or 'that bloke who wrote Fight Club'   *



Hehe! Mr P sounds good to me

Oh and btw To kill a mockingbird is a very good read.  Reading as a text for exams kind of killed it for me. But the second time round it was much more enjoyable. Althought the first quarter is a bit of a drain, too much descriptive text imo.

I started passage to India, but was to slow for me.


----------



## Nina (Jul 14, 2003)

...and there is no way Mr P's Choke could be a movie...all that unglamorous fucking and pocketless trouser shuffling! Censors would ruin it. 

I'll shut up now, cos this is a book thread after all



I say go with Burmese days....just amazing literature from 'The God known as Orwell' 

(oops, said I'd shut up. DAMN!)


----------



## Random One (Jul 14, 2003)




----------



## Julie (Jul 14, 2003)

I just read Stupid White Men. While I've been informed recently that US right-wingers find him a "commie", propogandist, bullshit artist making a fortune at disenfranchised people's expense    I really admire him. The book was a page turner. Very, very interesting reading.


----------



## chegrimandi (Jul 14, 2003)

yeh Stupid White men is good as a readable intro to the issues...delve more Julie if you are interested.....

 

at moment reading Looking on Darkness by Andre Brink....(thanks Cancer Research 99p!!)...South African about apartheid etc....just got into it today.....weather set fair for tmw...park beckons book in hand!!


----------



## Gumbert (Jul 14, 2003)

Just finished Mark Steel's a stand up history of the French Revolution: Viva La Revolution.

In which he concentrates on the central characters of Danton, Marat, Robespeirre, Desmoulines, and the gullotine. He also blasts the officially historians like Simon Scharma for their lies or omitions. I've now got more on the girondins, jacobins and my favourites the san-cullotes(sp) Plus his humour is evident throughout.





> One thing that also applied to the peasantry was the _corvee_, which involved them spending one day a week building and maintaining local roads. This system was introduced throughout France in 1737, as the desire for roads was growing. And no doubt anyone who objected was told,'We can't go back to the days of state handouts if we expect a modern day transport system, so there is no alternative to a public/ peasant partnership.'


  Great read.


----------



## chegrimandi (Jul 14, 2003)

given my location gumbert may have to check that book out!!


----------



## proud american (Jul 15, 2003)

"Your Mother Naked"

by
Sheeza Bigun


----------



## pbman (Jul 15, 2003)

Currently reading Ann Coulters new book Treason.

And every think you thought you knew about Joe McCArthy is a lie.  LIberals have done to him and his reputaion, exacly what they acuse him of doing.

How's that for irony.


----------



## Julie (Jul 15, 2003)

> _Originally posted by chegrimandi _
> *yeh Stupid White men is good as a readable intro to the issues...delve more Julie if you are interested.....
> 
> 
> ...



I am chegrimandi - any suggestions?


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 15, 2003)

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry - only on the 5th page but I'm charmed already


----------



## jamies (Jul 15, 2003)

I'm reading my mate's mum's book called After Breathless...it's shit, quite frankly.  Will put a brave face on it though when telling her what I thought of it.

Jamie


----------



## ICB (Jul 16, 2003)

Use of Weapons - Iain M Banks, having recently read Player of Games, Consider Phlebas and State of the Art - good stuff, I'm going to read them all 

Also reading The BFG by Roald Dahl and LotR by JRRT to my boys most evenings.


----------



## jamies (Jul 16, 2003)

The best book i've read in ages:









> REALLY enjoyed 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.....for me one of few books with a good ending.



Re Nina: To Kill A Mockingbird is a great book, the language is stunning and the entire novel is so visual, you can feel the warm breezes 

Jamie


----------



## J77 (Jul 16, 2003)

Great Expectations - Charlie Dickens

I'm on the second part of Pip's tale, and so far, it's a brilliant book...

Better than HP anyway


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 16, 2003)

just finished toby litt's deadkidsongs, which i thought was absolutely brilliant, but the ending bothers me.

is it just an elaborate version of an 'it was all a dream' storyline cop out?

i can see that in a way it's maybe belittling their escapades - at the end of the day there's no way those things would really happen, and it shows their fantasies for what they were?

but it still seems a bit weak somehow..



anyway = 

now i'm simultaneously reading Shakey - the rather hefty Neil Young biog - and Nelson Algren's Man With The Golden Arm, because it's been on my shelf for about 4 years and last night it actually fell on my head when i was finishing deadkidsongs (im not making this up) so i took that as a sign


----------



## sojourner (Jul 16, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Dubversion _
> *
> now i'm simultaneously reading Shakey  *



i bought that couple of weeks ago, but its been gathering dust since...i think its going to be more of a dip-into-now-n-then kinda book for me tho...great pics tho!

am about to start on charlotte gray, sebastian faulks...if it's anywhere NEAR as brilliant as birdsong i'll be happy as a happy thing can be


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 16, 2003)

> _Originally posted by sojourner _
> *
> am about to start on charlotte gray, sebastian faulks...if it's anywhere NEAR as brilliant as birdsong i'll be happy as a happy thing can be *



Nooooo! It's sub-Mill & Boon insipid sappy rubbish - Birdsong is a classic, but Charlotte Gray will taint your memory of it. Don't bother, please, you'll regret it.


----------



## flypanam (Jul 16, 2003)

At the mo i'm reading

August Nimitz - Marx and Engels Contribution to the democratic breakthrough.  Excellent stuff.

and will be starting soon

Monica Ali - Brick Lane


----------



## wiskey (Jul 16, 2003)

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett.

Its light reading. and nothing more, its humerous in places and light enough to miss a page and it really not matter.

so shuddup all of you


----------



## Julie (Jul 17, 2003)

The Rise and Rise of Kerry Packer.

Yet another Australian media magnate without a conscience.


----------



## liampreston (Jul 17, 2003)

Re-reading The Blind Assassin at the moment.


----------



## Ted (Jul 17, 2003)

'Island' by Aldous Huxley: making steady progress with that one.

Just finished 'Carter beats the Devil', entertaining but read too much like a prospective Hollywood movie script, all in all a little too polished and shamefully put on a level with 'The Woman in White' by Collins in the Telegraph literary review. Have they no soul.


----------



## liampreston (Jul 17, 2003)

I'm convincing myself that this time I can read "The Blind Assassin" and understand the ending.....


----------



## sojourner (Jul 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Orang Utan _
> *Nooooo! It's sub-Mill & Boon insipid sappy rubbish - Birdsong is a classic, but Charlotte Gray will taint your memory of it. Don't bother, please, you'll regret it. *



ooohhhhhhh.......   what dya have to go n say that for? i was really lookin forward to it.  well, obviously, being a stubborn cow,  im gonna read it anyway.  i may well have a different perception of it than u. bloody hope so anyway.  not that i take any notice of critics, but most of the reviews iv read about it have been raving about it. ill let u know...


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 17, 2003)

Tell us what you think about it afterward but everyone I know who read it was disappointed by it - the heroine is so pathetic - Birdsong was so impressive, it was quite a shock to read something so mediocre. Sorry to put you off but I didn't want you to waste any of your precious time!


----------



## sojourner (Jul 17, 2003)

OU - aww thanks for the concern...ill let ya know


----------



## Monkeygrinder's Organ (Jul 19, 2003)

'India- A History' by John Keay. Thought it was about time I read something about it that didn't start with the British arriving.


----------



## Ciara (Jul 19, 2003)

'The Trial' by Franz Kafka. Not the best book ever but pretty good. Was gonna attempt to read it in German but then got some sense.


----------



## Dr. Christmas (Jul 20, 2003)

Currently reading 'The Prince of Wales', new novel by John Williams of cardiff dead fame. It;s atypical JW book so far.

Recently also: the History of the British Empire by Lawrence James (right wing old nostalgic so and so). And I;ve got Joseph Stieglitz on Globlisation next on the bookshelf...


----------



## Xtine (Jul 20, 2003)

Tutankhamen by Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt.  non-fiction.
still struggling with Serpent in the Sky by John Anthony West.  can't tear thru that - have to pause and digest after almost every page.


----------



## chemical_girl__ (Jul 20, 2003)

i found a clockwork orange a bit.... confusing. im not sure what the point is......

bezza, maybe i just missed the point, but i certainly didnt think it was as profound as 1984 or brave new world........



i think -- burgess is trying to explore what human nature is; how much we are in control of it, how much is mere programming, what affects how we are, and whether there is some divine reason behind our actions.......

which ok, does sound quite profound....... but i didnt think burgess was arguing for any side in particular, which wpuld have been nice. i mean, i dont wanna be told what to think, but it needs SOME angling........ and the slang style - it's refreshingly honest, and i appreciate the stark contrast between the style and the subtext, but i think it detracts from it, more than anything. and alex is soooo violent - it just alienates the reader from the questions burgess is asking......



pretty good, but not that great.


----------



## Klaatu (Jul 21, 2003)

*latest reading*

Like most of you, I'm probably reading more than one thing at a time, but my latest passion is *Moby Dick*, by Herman Melville.

Found a beautiful, small (near pocket-sized, so I can take it everywhere) hardcover edition (published in Hungary) for US$5, in a used-book store (in Birmingham, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit). Quite a steal, I think.

Had seen the classic Gregory Peck/Richard Basehart (50's) film many times since childhood, of course, and read the "Classics Illustrated" (comic-book, sorta), but never read the *actual, original book*.

First thing I noticed is what fine *sentences* this man wrote! If I were a teacher of English...Melville's name would be rolling off my lips.


----------



## Klaatu (Jul 21, 2003)

*Required reading*

How many of you are like me, and have found that so many of the things (no, not just the "classics" they made you read in school) that some folks say you *must read* are utter tripe?

For example, as much as I love his other stuff (Midnight's Children, Imaginary Homelands--by all means, read *this* one), I just *cannot* get very far into Salman Rushdie's _Satanic Verses_, which earned him a fatwa, and is probably what he's best known for! Has *anyone* actually *read* this?

And what about writers like Pynchon, where you need a guidebook just to *read* _the_ goddamned book?

Tell me I'm not alone, please!


----------



## bezzer (Jul 21, 2003)

chemical_girl__ 


Well it’s been a few years since I have read it, but reading your description I would probably agree. But there is something which goes beyond the nature and nurture debate, its more involved than an open question on morality. Burgess understood fear from adolescent group violents too the unempowering feeling of being under the surgeons knife, and he used that fear to paint a future of terrifying consequence. It’s a very dark book that falls heavily on the side of human nature.        

Even though it does this, it still asks the all the  nurture questions, look at the kind of society that Alex lives in? Look at his peer group? Their values and  Completely destructive aspirations? The book deliberately does not answer any of these questions; it’s not a very political book… and because of this, I think it outlines something a little bit more sinister? Or prejudicial?


----------



## rednblack (Jul 21, 2003)

> _Originally posted by wiskey _
> *Night Watch by Terry Pratchett.
> 
> Its light reading. and nothing more, its humerous in places and light enough to miss a page and it really not matter.
> ...



the day it becomes a sign of a good book if you miss a page without it mattering is the day literature will have died.


----------



## onemonkey (Jul 21, 2003)

*call me fishmeal.*



> _Originally posted by Klaatu _
> *Like most of you, I'm probably reading more than one thing at a time, but my latest passion is Moby Dick, by Herman Melville.
> 
> First thing I noticed is what fine sentences this man wrote! If I were a teacher of English...Melville's name would be rolling off my lips.*


 Some months ago -- never mind how long precisely -- having little or no money in my purse and nothing to interest me in contempory fiction, i thought i would take up a one pound wordsworth classic edition of moby dick... 

and to cut a long story short, i was swallowed up by it. 

great book, great whales!


----------



## onemonkey (Jul 21, 2003)

*Required reading*



> _Originally posted by Klaatu _
> *How many of you are like me, and have found that so many of the things (no, not just the "classics" they made you read in school) that some folks say you must read are utter tripe?
> 
> For example, as much as I love his other stuff (Midnight's Children, Imaginary Homelands--by all means, read this one), I just cannot get very far into Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses, which earned him a fatwa, and is probably what he's best known for! Has anyone actually read this?
> ...


sure it's a common experience, people have varying tastes.. look at the Great books that were a disappointment thread 

as if to illustrate the point i disagree completely with your examples!!

i really enjoyed satanic verses, i thought it was much lighter than midnight's children or shame.. lighter in the sense of levity, although grantedly lighter in the sense of gravity too. mc & shame are both more 'serious' in topic and tone.  
& at least you attempted to read satanic verses before criticising it which is a lot more than any of the ayatollas ever did 

and only yesterday i started re-reading Vineland by Thomas Pynchon.. i picked it up to compare and contrast it to this months book club choice White Noise by Don DeLillo.. (the two authors are often compared, especially for these two books.)
I wasn't overly enraptured by DeLillo but Vineland is as delightful as i remember it from way back when.. but then it also happens to be a fair bit more accessible than gravity's rainbow and about a billion times clearer than V ! 

if you were prepared to give TP a 2nd chance i'd recommend Vineland as a way back in.

personally, I hate LOTR & Dickens.. & i never got more than a few pages into jane austen the first few times i attempted to read her but now (having seen the tv adaptations) i 'get' the jokes & can cope with the style. 

oh and the bonfire of the vanities ought to be burnt


----------



## liampreston (Jul 21, 2003)

Don Quixote - tried to read it, really tried, but got bogged down and gave up....


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Jul 21, 2003)

As far as Rushdie goes I thought 'The Satanic Verses' was over-rated. 'Shame' is still my favourite by a long way, and I'd say the tone was lighter and more playful than TSV, despite the historical subject matter.
I'm thinking about tackling 'Gravity's Rainbow' again. I kept getting migranes a quarter of the way in last time; it was like reading Richard Toll's unreadable novel in Amis's 'The Information'. I enjoyed 'V' and 'Lot 49', but jaysus GR's a dense, inpenetrable work.
Oy onemonkey! 'Bonfire Of the Vanities' is magnificent!

'A Man in Full' is probably worthy of burning tho'


----------



## lyra_k (Jul 21, 2003)

> 'A Man in Full' is probably worthy of burning tho'  [/B]



Oi!

I loved 'A Man in Full'...especially the fantastically improbable ending.


----------



## lyra_k (Jul 21, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Orang Utan _
> *Tell us what you think about it afterward but everyone I know who read it was disappointed by it - the heroine is so pathetic - Birdsong was so impressive, it was quite a shock to read something so mediocre. Sorry to put you off but I didn't want you to waste any of your precious time! *



I suppose I was fortunate in a way...I read Charlotte Gray first, and loved it, then Birdsong, which naturally blew me away.

I'd definitely say CG is worth the time it takes to read it, even if it isn't quite as stunning as Birdsong.


----------



## Shippou-Sensei (Jul 21, 2003)

i have just read most of the love hina series ... i was supprised at how  good it was ... i always know it would be good after watching the tv adaptation but the origanal books had much better plot and humor ... and far far more adult in places

 can't wait for the last two


----------



## haggy (Jul 21, 2003)

i re-read pynchon's V again a few weeks ago.   its one of those i re-read every few years - like Gravity's Rainbow - because its a new experience every time.  i picked up some reader's notes guides to Pynchon's stuff a while back and they're great reading all of their own and very useful to getting you into the many threads woven into the text.  easily the best author of the c20 IMO.   Mason & Dixon has seen him hitting form again after the disappointing Vineland.

currently reading Gimme Danger - a biog of Iggy Pop - and Treasure Island (which i never read as a kid).

incidentally, there's a new edition of Orwell's 1984 in Waterstones atm which has an introduction by Pynchon.  The fact this yank knows so much about british politics is remarkable, i think.  but then viz GR for a bizarre knowledge of english candy!


----------



## Fledgling (Jul 21, 2003)

I finshed "The Moon is Down" but I'm not ure if I want to read "East of Eden", it's long. Started it, good so far.


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Jul 21, 2003)

> _Originally posted by lyra_kitten _
> *Oi!
> 
> I loved 'A Man in Full'...especially the fantastically improbable ending.   *



'fantastically improbable ending' = 'shit, I'm 700 pages in with no end in sight. Kill it!'

To be fair I enjoyed the background stuff and character portraits. It's just that after 'Bonfire' everyone expected something a little bit special, and I think Wolfe's plotting let him down a bit. AMIF seemed to be more research-based than story-based, and AS FOR THAT ENDING!!!!


----------



## onemonkey (Jul 21, 2003)

> _Originally posted by haggy _
> *incidentally, there's a new edition of Orwell's 1984 in Waterstones atm which has an introduction by Pynchon.  The fact this yank knows so much about british politics is remarkable, i think.  but then viz GR for a bizarre knowledge of english candy! *


 i've found a few excellent author's on the basis of a thomas pychon preface, recommendation or introduction.. 

steve erickson who seems to have slidden into obscurity. (yes, it _is_ a real word.. and a real ugly one.)

and the awesome jim dodge.  see here  (pynchon did an intro to Fup)

if you like pynchon, jim dodge will almost certainly poach your apricots. 
they are often accused of being the same person..


----------



## haggy (Jul 21, 2003)

yeah, he also did the liner notes for the lotion lp full isaac.

never heard he was mistaken for jim dodge b4, though


----------



## Cloo (Jul 22, 2003)

Yes, I have finally embarked on *War and Peace*! And by 'eck, it's a damn good read, I must say.


----------



## Elpenor (Jul 22, 2003)

Whilst on holiday I read Homage to Catalonia, which was excellent, and Fire In The Blood, an account of modern Spain by Ian Gibson also good.

I also found that the previous tenants of where I was staying had left a number of books, including You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers, which I absolutely loved, and Border Crossing by Pat Barker, which was good if a little predictable, almost reading as if it was written for TV. Maybe its been/being/to be filmed.

Finally I found The Memory Box by Margaret Forster which I'm still reading and looks OK, I also brought back Oxygen by Andrew Miller.


----------



## ck (Jul 23, 2003)

> NVP : Just started 'Last Night A DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey' by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton.  Only just started it but so far it's a right load of old crap.
> 
> The writers reckon that DJ's fulfill the role of modern-day shaman's; amazing beings capable of inducing transcendence in their devotees. Hmmm. They're not just blokes that play records, then.



I'm reading that at the moment and must be up to where you were when you wrote this , but I'm really enjoying the read.  It's very informative , and a lot of research has gone into it.

Although you are obviously right in pointing out  that a DJ is someone who just plays records , but the point behind the book is that it shows how we have come to where we are now ; where DJ's are rock stars in their own right. 
 This argument has come up time and time again , and although I'm never one to momentously stroke a DJ's ego , I know fine well the power of mixing certain records together can have , and as is pointed out in the book itself , the DJ is no new thing as is often the mentality which exists now.
The book is trying to show the instigators of the DJ culture and although you may be against someone being thought of as the be all and end all of tune selection , you can't deny the power of dance music culture which now exists.


----------



## Power (Jul 23, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Cloo _
> *Yes, I have finally embarked on War and Peace! And by 'eck, it's a damn good read, I must say. *



lipsmackingly so.


----------



## umi (Jul 23, 2003)

the conquest of bread, its quality anarchist thought


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 24, 2003)

just finished Simon Armitage's Little Green Man

excellent book - quite a light read, but moving in places, very evocative both of growing up in the 70s and the kind of mid-30 something mind-set, and very dark too.


about to start Jonathan Coe's What A Carve Up OR Dosteovsky's Crime & Punishment depending on which one i put in my bag this morning (randomly. i do this sometimes if i can't make my mind up  ) and i;m still skipping through Shakey


----------



## mr_eko (Jul 24, 2003)

Bill Bryson - A Short History of Nearly Everything about halfway through this excellent book.  I think this is the book everyone thought Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time would be.


----------



## Nina (Jul 25, 2003)

Just started Jonathan Franzen  The Corrections after many hearty recommendations.

Hope I'm not disappointed.


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 25, 2003)

you won't be.

"hold onto your hat, it's going to be a bumpy ride"


----------



## Elpenor (Jul 29, 2003)

Laurie Lee - As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning.

Enjoying it so far.


----------



## Soft as Shite (Jul 30, 2003)

Dubversion- go with What a Carve Up!

One of my favourite books- poignant, black humour for anyone who wants to see the ruthless rich and powerful get their cumuppence (sp?)


----------



## Lady Muck (Jul 30, 2003)

I'm reading Sleepy Head by Mark Billingham. It's his first novel, but I did it the wrong way round and read the second one - Scaredy Cat - first. Anyway, they're both excellent and I can highly recommend them to anyone who likes a good edge-of-the-seat thriller.


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 30, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Soft as Shite _
> *Dubversion- go with What a Carve Up!
> 
> One of my favourite books- poignant, black humour for anyone who wants to see the ruthless rich and powerful get their cumuppence (sp?)
> ...



just finished it (two days in bed with a bug can certainly speed up your reading  ) and enjoyed it but found it a bit uneven, sometimes frustratingly so. the stuff with michael was beautifully written, the stuff with the Winshaws sometimes childishly farcical (i know that farce was a background to it and all, but sometimes it was just too OTT) and it just all felt a bit unbalanced, especially when everyone meets at the end and Coe is trying to maintain the two styles...

but still a very good book.


----------



## ebony4 (Jul 30, 2003)

How many of you write or underline in books you read? [/B][/QUOTE]  Not me! Why do people insist on writing in books, it can make it very hard to read. Just use a sheet of paper.


----------



## Voley (Jul 30, 2003)

I'm reading 'Let's Get Lost' by Craig Nelson at the moment.

It's pretty good: a well-written, funny book all about his travels around the world. He describes the feeling of total awe you get at places like the Taj Mahal really well.

He hates other travellers, too, so I like him a lot. 

ck - No, I don't deny any of those things but I think they overplay it *a lot * in that book. So much so that it's totally bored the arse off me and I'm now reading something else.


----------



## Hierlekin (Jul 30, 2003)

Read "The Picture of Dorian Grey" and came to the conclusion it really should've been called "The Portrait of Dorian Grey"
Oh well. No half bad.


----------



## Emilie (Jul 30, 2003)

Currently reading:
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I've been on the same page for over a month tho. Thanks to the mainstream media I already know the plot, so I can't be arsed reading it tbh.


----------



## rubbershoes (Jul 31, 2003)

> _Originally posted by NVP _
> *Just started 'Last Night A DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey' by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton.
> 
> Only just started it but so far it's a right load of old crap.
> ...



Don’t take what they say too seriously. It’s not a sociological treatise


----------



## haggy (Jul 31, 2003)

Just read Simon Ford's Hip Priest - Mark E Smith and the Fall.  
rather odd back to back with Gimme Danger - the Iggy Pop biog.

Both very good, and have had me digging out my old Stooges and Fall lp's.  I checked out Grotesque again last night, the second very best Fall lp after Hex Enduction Hour.  Have to say MES is consistently better as a lyricist/songwriter than Mr Pop.

Also read "the Verbals" - interview with Iain Sinclair - which is interesting if your intersted in the same obsessions as he is.

Finally, having temporarily exhausted any new books, I've started Neil Stephenson's Cryptonomicon again.  Brilliant stuff.  Has he published anything since this came out?


----------



## Roadkill (Jul 31, 2003)

Just started *No Logo* on the train back yesterday.  Now I see why everyone's been making such a fuss about it for the last four years - it's an excellent book.


----------



## Relahni (Jul 31, 2003)

Have started reading Billy by his wife Pamela Stephenson.  It's not my kind of book at all - don't usually read biographies and don't really like Billy Connolly. But at the bargain price of 30p from Rugby's Sue Ryder shop I thought it was worth it.! 

It's pretty good so far.


----------



## Ms T (Jul 31, 2003)

I've just started The Human Stain by Philip Roth.  It's been highly recommended by lots of people so I hope it doesn't disappoint.

Recently, I've loved Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold and Annie Proulx's new one, That Old Ace In the Hole.

Oh, and I'm on a one-woman campaign to promote the Number One Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith.  I can't praise these highly enough.


----------



## Aitch (Jul 31, 2003)

Just finished Porno by Mr Welsh excellent from start to finish,  not sure what to read next though


----------



## little loaf (Jul 31, 2003)

i wanted to read Porno but was terrified that my mum'd find it and jump to the wrong conclusions.

just finished 'twelve' by nick mcdonell - i thought it lived up to the serious hype it got.  i certainly couldn't put it down, and it was incredibly impressive considering he was at the tender age of 17 when he wrote it.  maybe it's about time i started writing my own first novel...


----------



## Gumbert (Jul 31, 2003)

Just read 'Birdsong', need I say more..

Starting 'The Road to Nab End' by William Woodruff.. Apt for me seeing as I grew up inthe town of Blackburn.


----------



## oddjob (Jul 31, 2003)

still reading a harry, but awaiting for the next ian rankin 

due out about the time of the oban games me thinks 

and he's signed it as well, personally 

well he does know my mum 

hi mum


----------



## Elpenor (Aug 1, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Gumbert _
> *Starting 'The Road to Nab End' by William Woodruff.. Apt for me seeing as I grew up inthe town of Blackburn. *



Fantastic book. I couldn't believe the poverty described. Recommended it to my grandad who grew up in Lancashire in the 20's too.

Now reading A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. I hope it's as good as I've heard it is.

Also on the lookout for Dead Air by Iain Banks, but this is dependent on being lucky and finding it in the library.


----------



## little loaf (Aug 1, 2003)

I loved 'A Heartbreaking Work...'  - I think it might be the kind of book you either love or you hate.  Like Marmite, but not as smelly.  Dave Eggers has written a new one (which I haven't read yet but is on my list) called 'You Shall Know Our Velocity'.

...argh...so many books...


----------



## Rollem (Aug 1, 2003)

ive started reading attonement, after many many people telling me i'll love it

have only read two chapters, and to be fair, and a bit bored. the language is a bit flowery (although having just finished "grits" anything would probably appear flowery!  )

am gonna stick with it though (and have resisted the urge to read the last page first!)


----------



## Ms T (Aug 1, 2003)

Stick with Atonement.  Everyone thinks the first bit is a bit rubbish, but it really is good if you persevere.


----------



## Power (Aug 1, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Rollem _
> *ive started reading attonement, after many many people telling me i'll love it
> 
> have only read two chapters, and to be fair, and a bit bored.*



that's because it's utter drivel. i would suggest carrying out a small controlled explosion on that threadbare tome will bring much more enjoyment than any attempt at reading it would.

god help you.


----------



## Nina (Aug 2, 2003)

Just been and spent far too much cash on Bukowski, Angela Carter, Elizabeth Wurtzel and a Graham Greene ready for my 3 weeks lazing on a beach...starting tomorrow. Can't wait


----------



## Roadkill (Aug 2, 2003)

I've just been to a charity shop near me that's very good for books.  I've picked up:

Robert Goddard - Dying to Tell
James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Thomas Hardy - Far from the Madding Crowd
E. Nesbit - The Railway Children
Anthony Trollope - The Small House at Allington ('cos I'm working my way slowly through the Barsetshire series)

So, once I've finished *No Logo* and the book on the Battle of Trafalgar I picked up out of boredom yesterday and got really into, there's my reading for the next few weeks sorted.


----------



## chemical_girl__ (Aug 2, 2003)

recently finished the color purple by alice walker.............. i liked it, but it was nowhere near as good as i'd been led to believe......... too angry and militant, too feminist, too contrived and emotionally manipulated........ maybe thats just cuz ive got the opinion of a young woman from the noughties, but cant help that.......

so now im on the plague by albert camus....... im on the 2nd part, and i am finding it hard to get into the characters, but i like what camus is doing..........


----------



## Power (Aug 2, 2003)

camoo...


----------



## charlotte (Aug 2, 2003)

just this minute finished rules of attraction by breet easton ellis? the american psyho writer. pretty good.
also reading voyage of the dawn treader by c.s.lewis, and age of extremes by eric hobsbawn for my degree in sept cos i lost what is history? by e h carr before i read it


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 3, 2003)

just started 45 by bill drummond.

for the third time.

because it's so beautiful you don't want it to end.


----------



## mrkikiet (Aug 3, 2003)

what a carve up. in know all books are contrived but this one felt a little excessively so. I enjoyed it anyway.

I just finished 39 steps. a detective thriller by John Bucham, which, despite being a Wordsworth classic was poor. do those 'wordsworth' or other classic actually mean anythin at all? i ask you.

I've started a passage to india, which has me gripped.


----------



## Mab (Aug 3, 2003)

Iain M. Banks : Feersum Endjinn just started.

Shipping News by Annie Proulx

Duncton Tales by William Horwood for later.

Taking a break from "The buying of the president" profit over people" etc etc.  I need stories to "take me away", must wind down


----------



## Voley (Aug 5, 2003)

Re-reading 'Heart Of Darkness' - Joseph Conrad. Love it. 

Rollem - stick with 'Atonement'. Ace book.


----------



## corporate whore (Aug 5, 2003)

East of Eden, John Steinbeck. Epic, so far...

Apparently, this was the first book recommended by Oprah Winfrey in her recently relaunched book club - it sold more copies in two weeks than it had in the previous 20 years.


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Aug 6, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Dubversion _
> *just started 45 by bill drummond.
> 
> for the third time.
> ...



I love that book, 'A Christmas Carol' and 'Gimpo's 25' in particular. The format's beautiful too: IMHO more books should be 7" single size.
You'll probably know this: did 'Bad Wisdom' the soundtrack ever emerge in any form, or was it all just Drummond's fantasy? I'd quite fancy hearing Bill 'n' Zed's take on Radio Mafia...


----------



## Fledgling (Aug 9, 2003)

> _Originally posted by corporate whore _
> *East of Eden, John Steinbeck. Epic, so far...
> 
> Apparently, this was the first book recommended by Oprah Winfrey in her recently relaunched book club - it sold more copies in two weeks than it had in the previous 20 years.
> ...



I too am ploughing through this and finding it rather good. I have recently been on holiday and as opposed to plumping for Archer, I read a load of Steinbeck. 

The Red Pony is overrated. 

And well done on Laurie Lee, classic


----------



## 2 Hardcore (Aug 9, 2003)

Last two books I read were both Niall Griffiths -  'Sheepshagger' and 'Stump'. I love Griffiths' use of language. 'Sheepshagger' in particular was riveting.
About to start 'Tommy's Tale' by Alan Cumming for some light relief!


----------



## WasGeri (Aug 9, 2003)

I've just started reading Frank Skinner's autobiography. It's funny


----------



## kris (Aug 9, 2003)

Confessions of a Philospher by Bryan Magee and when it gets too difficult  A Centuary of Spurs


----------



## haggy (Aug 10, 2003)

the wind-up bird chronicle, again.  more darker than his other fiction, I think, like it could be filmed by David Lynch.

has anyone read any of murukami's non-fiction?  is it any good?


----------



## Nina (Aug 10, 2003)

I think I must have missed something with Murukami...recently everyone seems to be raving. I'll try one again soon and just see if I was having a brainfreeze at that time.

just started Prozac nation...Elizabeth Wurtzel.

Is making me realise i am not depressed...just having a bit of a hard time and that I really had no idea what having depression was like


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 12, 2003)

Papillon - Henri Charriére - real Boys' Own adventure stuff.

A great antidote to the grim horrors of A Fine Balance.


----------



## mrmule (Aug 12, 2003)

The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ 

dunno what it's like yet.... anyone else read it?


----------



## chegrimandi (Aug 12, 2003)

Disgrace- J.M. coetzee

douglas coupland, girlfirend in a coma....

both pretty good (just finished disgrace and caning through coupland)


----------



## Rollem (Aug 12, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Ms T _
> *Stick with Atonement *


 nope, too much like hard work. have put it to one side and am reading "reefer madness" by eric schlosser......which is about right for my brain capacity in this heat


----------



## bubblehead (Aug 12, 2003)

just read The Pianist which was incredible and deeply moving and now switched dramatically to John Harris' 'The Last Party - Britpop, Blair And The Demise Of English Rock'. Top read so far and so many memories


----------



## Pie 1 (Aug 12, 2003)

Geoff Dyer's 'Yoga for people who can't be bothered' 
Excellent collection of short travalogues/ musings from one of my favourite writers.


----------



## rubbershoes (Aug 13, 2003)

I’ve finally dived into The Corrections. From the first few pages it ahs gripped me. OK so Jonathan Frantzen is a bit of a clever clogs with his array of show-off literary techniques but at the moment I’m lying back and enjoying the ride


----------



## onenameshelley (Aug 13, 2003)

Just started Dorian by will self so far so good. The cover is raising eyebrows on the train too.


----------



## Ciara (Aug 13, 2003)

Have to read 'Birdsong' for school and although I wasn't that enthralled at the beginning it's a really good book.


----------



## proud american (Aug 13, 2003)

"Who stole my toothbrush" by Ima Brit.  A scintillating read that I had a hard time putting down.  It takes a crooked bite out of your subconscious fears.


----------



## Roadkill (Aug 13, 2003)

Just started _Fanny Hill_, or _Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure._  The publisher got locked up for it in 1750-something.

It's funny as fuck.  I've never seen so many euphemisms for the penis before.


----------



## zora (Aug 13, 2003)

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, by Douglas Adams. Found a copy of The Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul in a charity shop the other day, and it proved to be (and I say it in the words of onemonkey) Completely Excellent. And Dirk Gently...is, too.


----------



## zora (Aug 13, 2003)

edited due to double posting (funny ongoings with the back button).
sorry.


----------



## chez (Aug 14, 2003)

Rebuilding community, experiences and experiments in Europe.
edited by Vithal Rajan


----------



## Nina (Aug 14, 2003)

Just started Angela Carter   The Bloody Chamber
Very atmospheric...great writing.


----------



## Fledgling (Aug 14, 2003)

Wel, I finished East ofEden. I like it, apart from the fact that it dragged a bit towards the end. 

So today I read The Pearl (I appear to be having a bit of a Steinbeck burst). This wasn't as good. 

What do I read now? 
1. On the Road
2. Travels With Charley 
3. Burning Bright
4.Don Quixote
5.Ulysses


----------



## Elpenor (Aug 15, 2003)

Don't read Travels With Charley, it's pretty crap.

Not read the others.

I finished Dave Eggers' A heartbreaking work of staggering genius and it totally blew me away, I thought it was absolutely fantastic.

Now reading Reefer Madness by Eric Schlosser which is pretty good, it's certainly more easy to read than Fast Food Nation, and (so far) less polemic. Still on the drugs section though.


----------



## fubert (Aug 15, 2003)

I am currenty reading "Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" by Gregory Macquire.


----------



## Nina (Aug 15, 2003)

> _Originally posted by rubbershoes _
> *I’ve finally dived into The Corrections. From the first few pages it ahs gripped me. OK so Jonathan Frantzen is a bit of a clever clogs with his array of show-off literary techniques but at the moment I’m lying back and enjoying the ride *



It's very good.....highly recommend to anyone else thinking of going with this. Don't be put off with the 600and odd pages or the 100 page long chapters..it's an amazingly gripping read.


----------



## sojourner (Aug 15, 2003)

okay - well i started charlotte gray by sebastian faulks, with high hopes after having been blown away by birdsong...someone on here (OrangUtan??) said it wasn't as good...and do u know?  it wasn't - it was fuckin shite...banal, vapid, storytelling talent gone reet down the drain....was a real shock to think that sf could have written both of these books....

read 'a child called it' and 'the lost boy' by dave pelzer last week - at a time when i was v low, and poss the best stuff to read when ur felling like that, cos it just makes u think 'so i think IV got problems'...

started 'tipping the velvet' by sarah waters but struggling through its awfulness, so decided to bin it and start julian copes 'repossessed' - 'head on' was pretty fuckin marvellous so am looking forward to this


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 15, 2003)

Don't Read This Book If You're Stupid by Tibor Fischer - a novella and some short stories.

dark, biiter and funny - and very amusing descriptions of brixton


----------



## cornflake (Aug 15, 2003)

i've got this annoying habit of reading shit loads of books at the same time and never quite managing to finish any of them:

69 things to do with a dead princess - stewart home - on p. 45 

cancer ward - aleksander solzhenitsyn - p. 227

and the ass saw the angel - nick cave - p. 119

the plague - camus - got to p. 16 and abandoned it

kill me again - punk biography thingy - p. 43 - fantastic! oral history of new york/uk punk movement, real page turner.


----------



## oddjob (Aug 15, 2003)

> _Originally posted by cornflake _
> *69 things to do with a dead princess *



not reading anything just now.

ian rankin signing his new book 'hide and seek' monday, and on the shelves thursday.

so by then it shall be read


----------



## Klaatu (Aug 16, 2003)

*latest reading*

Not sure this qualifies as a "book," but during recent Great Blackout of 2003,
I read most of the latest (#82) *Granta*: "Life's Like That."
Like to read short stuff, and Granta in my mailbox every quarter sends me into paroxysms. Highlights in this issue:

"The Smoking Diaries" by Simon Gray
"An Education" by Lynn Barber
"The Tutor" by Nell Freudenberger
"Passover in Baghdad" by Tim Judah

Also reading "The Man Who Stole Portugal" by Murray Teigh Bloom. True story of a massive currency counterfeiting scandal
in the 20s. Found it remaindered several years ago at a Border's.

Oh yes, for next blackout, I'm buying a "camp light" (propane).
Flashlights, candles, and those little clip-on "reading lights" just don't cut it for hours of reading in the absence of electricity.


----------



## Klaatu (Aug 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Roadkill _
> *Just started Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure.  The publisher got locked up for it in 1750-something.
> 
> It's funny as fuck.  I've never seen so many euphemisms for the penis before.   *



You're absolutely right. Author was John Cleland, IIRC.

This brings back memories. _*Fanny Hill*_ was *the* forbidden book to read
when I was in ninth grade (1963)! I remember my history teacher
finding it in a fellow student's book bag and thundering:
"*Do your parents know you're reading this?*"

Kid's reply: "Yes, but I promised to give it back when I was finished."


----------



## Klaatu (Aug 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by cornflake _
> *the plague - camus - got to p. 16 and abandoned it
> *


Same here. I think we both did the right thing.


----------



## jms (Aug 17, 2003)

Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake

and

Twenty One Stories - Graham Greene

and soon

Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer SNOW GOONS - Bill Watterson


----------



## Power (Aug 18, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Klaatu _
> *Same here. I think we both did the right thing. *






oh my god....







you've just dis'd camus....


----------



## Nina (Aug 20, 2003)

Just finished Bukowski's Post Office. Funny and sad. A must for anyone who's ever had a tedious bureaucratic job. The last 3 pages were utter utter wank though, shame.

Just started Brighton Rock, Graham Greene. My my, that  boy could write like a demon.


----------



## Fledgling (Aug 20, 2003)

I have nearly finished George Orwell's A Clergyman's Daughter. 

I'm trying to find a copy of The Road to Wigan Pier, but I'm no buying it first-hand.


----------



## onenameshelley (Aug 20, 2003)

I loved both Brighton rock and the Clergyman's daughter both very enjoyable. Just finished Dorian by Will Self very good book, now i am off to read some James Patterson cack.


----------



## chemical_girl__ (Aug 21, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Klaatu _
> *Same here. I think we both did the right thing. *



im a stubborn person when it comes to books............. but i got too fed up in the 2nd part..........

so i read north and south by elizabeth gaskell (bloody nice book, chaps!), and felt the deficiencies of camus' characterisation, or lack thereof, even more acutely......

returned to the plague for a few pages, then stopped for good.......... now im halfway through one flew over the cuckoo's nest by ken kasey and thoroughly enjoying it! 



i'll return to camus in a few years............ probably.


----------



## Roadkill (Aug 22, 2003)

_The Railway Children_ by E. Nesbitt.

It's a really nice, light, enjoyable little story.


----------



## Power (Aug 22, 2003)

> _Originally posted by chemical_girl__ _
> *i'll return to camus in a few years............ probably. *



i would have thought that with the current climate now is a really good time to delve into 'the plague'.

a book emphasising a moral accountability at the heart of all public choices is very relative to what's going on in the world at the moment, methinks. most of us know we could and should be making certain choices. most of us know, or at least have an idea that certain horrors are unfolding in our name, but just how many of us question it? how many actually try and make a difference?

a moral obligation?

camus' ideal of a personal nobility born of honourable actions, is simply about the ordinary person doing the extraordinary for no other reason than common decency. something which is just a relevent today, as when he wrote it, post nazi europe.

it's a pretty damn good essay on morality.



[steps off of soapbox and returns to being in friday mode]


----------



## chegrimandi (Aug 22, 2003)

The Good Women of China....Xinran


very sad.....but good...


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 22, 2003)

Literary Outlaw - The Life Of William Burroughs by Ted Morgan.

700 fucking pages. but if anyone is worth 700 pages, i guess Lonesome Cowboy Bill is.

so far, so excellent - informative but reads like a novel (without ever stretching your credulity).

saves me having to bother with most of Burrough's actual books


----------



## onenameshelley (Aug 22, 2003)

Alice in Wonderland

And then after that i plan to read "weapons of mass deception" should be good.


----------



## Fledgling (Aug 23, 2003)

Well, I just started "On The Road" and "Globalisation and its Discontents", which is turning out to be rather good. 

I have a big reading list which include Ulysses and Don Quixote.


----------



## manstein (Aug 23, 2003)

Just re-reading 'Shogun' by James Clavell and then its 'The Count of Monte Cristo' the greatest plot of the lot


----------



## chemical_girl__ (Aug 23, 2003)

power - that was what the plague was meant to be about??

i guess i can see that moral responsibility is a big theme inh the book..... and i dont deny that camus is skillful in getting his messages across........

but i think that you are being a little too optimistic about what these messages are......

my main problem was that i couldnt _emotionally connect_ with the book. the characters dont connect with each other and have purely selfish motives for everything they do, even down to manipulating syntax for personal gain.......... i acknowledge his skill, but he certainly does not seem to acknowledge human decency or the tiniest scrap of selfishness............




(in other news, ive finished 'one flew over the cuckoos nest', and its brilliant!)


----------



## medicineman (Aug 23, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Klaatu _
> *Same here. I think we both did the right thing. *



La Peste, Albert Camus - read it in French and thought it was wonderful... Kesey, too, excellent, as is Robert M. Pirsig, Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs.... the list is long.

I've just finished _Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas_ (Hunter S. Thompson), _A Life Inside_ (Erwin James - and highly recommended), am part way through Lear's _Nonsense Verse_ and Solzenitchyn's _The Gulag Archipelago_. That's hard work!


----------



## silentNate (Aug 23, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Fledgling _
> *Well, I just started "On The Road" and "Globalisation and its Discontents", which is turning out to be rather good.  *



Just bought "Globalisation and it's Discontents", have to get round to reading it by the sounds of things....
Just finished 'Sleb' by Andrew Holmes and _absolutely_ loved it, not sure that it's humour will be appreciated by U75 boarders but the Robbie _spoof_ character is spot on. Bear in mind that the twist at the end is deadly


----------



## Power (Aug 25, 2003)

> _Originally posted by chemical_girl__ _
> *power - that was what the plague was meant to be about??
> 
> i guess i can see that moral responsibility is a big theme inh the book..... and i dont deny that camus is skillful in getting his messages across........
> ...




hi chemical girl

the characters are meant to be selfish. that's the point. every one of them reacting to the plague in their own individual selfish ways. it's the eventual realisation that it isn't just about themselves as individuals, but about everyone uniting that eventually brings the story together. 

to turn a blind eye to the horror, for whatever selfish reasons, will not make the horror go away. 

the book is a very good statement about human indifference to human suffering, which i do believe is unfortunately very relevant today.

anyway, just coz it's a good moral story, doesn't mean anyone should therefore automatically like it. one man's floor is another man's ceiling.

but i'm definitely with you on 'cuckoo's nest'


----------



## Ciara (Aug 25, 2003)

I'm re-reading Capt. Correlli's Mandolin for school but I'm just not finding the time to read it  Great book though


----------



## ViolentPanda (Aug 25, 2003)

Currently reading;
"The Media and the Kosovo Crisis"
and 
"The Illuminatus Trilogy".

Oddly enough, they go really well together!


----------



## RPH (Aug 25, 2003)

Peter Biddlecombe _French Lessons in Africa_

British businessman travels around francophone Africa. A very interesting and funny read. Recommended (although as it was written ten years ago now I'd suppose a fair amount of it is now out of date).


----------



## Nina (Aug 25, 2003)

Milan Kundera...The unbearable lightness of being.

Oscar Wilde... A portrait of Dorian Gray.

Unfortunately it was 'pick four books, buy the two that are cheapest ' 

I hate it when book shop purchasing comes down to money.

Cheaper than a TV licence though


----------



## chemical_girl__ (Aug 25, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Nina _
> *Oscar Wilde... A portrait of Dorian Gray.*



ooh, this is fabulous! i read it about 5 years ago, almost new to the world of classics, and loved it....... i'll have to reread it for a uni module, so will probably have an even higher opinion of it after i have!


----------



## chemical_girl__ (Aug 25, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Ciara _
> *I'm re-reading Capt. Correlli's Mandolin for school but I'm just not finding the time to read it  Great book though *



i read this book straight after i got my exams out of the way..... and was so impressed i was gonna start a new thread as homeage..... but it got lost somehow so i thought 'ok, my private musings r obviously meant to stay that way......

this book is more than great, it is unspeakably beautiful......... and the one and only book to make me cry, not just feel like it......

if i am ever able to write something as good, my life will have been fulfilled!!


----------



## Fledgling (Aug 25, 2003)

Now reading "Globalisation and its Discontents" by Joesph Stiglitz. 

Also started Don Quixote


----------



## Rollem (Aug 26, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Fledgling _
> *Also started Don Quixote *


 one of my fav books  (yet strangely i dont own a copy  )


----------



## J77 (Aug 26, 2003)

Hard Times.

The first book took a bit to get going.

The second was much better.

The third has great promise for a climatic finish.


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Aug 27, 2003)

> _Originally posted by spooky fish _
> *Now reading Reefer Madness by Eric Schlosser which is pretty good, it's certainly more easy to read than Fast Food Nation, and (so far) less polemic. Still on the drugs section though. *



Just finished this today. Personally prefered 'Fast Food Nation', purely because it was more focused. The drugs/illegal workers/pornography themes of RM weren't linked together comprehensively enough for my liking and the end result read a little too much like a collection of unrelated essays thrown together.
That said, the pornography section (relating the rise and fall of Reuben Sturman, 'the Walt Disney of porn') was absolutely fascinating, worth the price alone.


----------



## J77 (Aug 27, 2003)

Well, have just finished Hard Times.

The views of my above post still hold. By the end Dickens had got into truely impressive soap-opera form but I still think the first book dragged a bit.

Still enjoyed it though 

I'm going to lay off the classics now and read some sci-fi:

Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds


----------



## Throbbing Angel (Aug 27, 2003)

Jennifer Government  by Max Barry

READ THE FIRST CHAPTER HERE ! 


...as some of you will know from the Nation States game, is a futuristic dystopian world where companies like Nike et al have more sway than the Govt.

Very good read, makes me wanna go out and buy Syrup, his first novel.

Very dark in places (Nike promote their new $2500 trainers with a campaign where someones hired to murder kids who buy the trainers to boost their public profile)


Excellent critique of Globalization & the Money mad market men on tomorrow (today?)

Naomi Klein (No Logo) liked it anyway, so did I


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 27, 2003)

well, i left my william burroughs brick at work, so in the interim i read "The Girls Guide To Hunting & Fishing" by someone who's name i forget (i've been ill, ok   ) which was actually excellent. rather than the bland chicklit the cover threatens, it was sad, wise, funny and often very insightful. why they had to lumber it with such a generic dreadful cover i don't know, they're doing it a terrible disservice. 

i also read Kurt Vonnegut's Slapstick or Lonesome No More because i haven't re-read one of his for ages, and it was lying around. not one of his best, which is a bit of a meaningless statement because 'not one of his best' roughly equates with 'shits all over his contemporaries' as far as i'm concerned.

now back to the Burroughs, mind... i'm daunted..


----------



## RPH (Aug 29, 2003)

Motley Crue _The Dirt_

brilliant stuff


----------



## WasGeri (Aug 29, 2003)

I'm reading Barca: A People's Passion. I've only read the first chapter so far, I find non-fiction hard going if I am tired after work.


----------



## mrkikiet (Aug 29, 2003)

i've just finished A Star called Henry by Roddy Doyle. Some nice moments, particularly the seizing of the GPO, but left me feeling a little dissapointed.

i'm reading White Noise by Don Delillo now. The CHief Protagonist is a founding member of a department of Hitler Studies, it surprises me that this isn't already a course that can be taken...


----------



## Bajie (Aug 29, 2003)

Nearly finsihed "UVF" - by Jim Cusack & Henry McDonald. 

Its a history of the modern Ulster Volunteer Force, with a section on the original UVF. 

Very good read for anyone who wants to increase their knowledge of the Loyalist paramilitaries.


----------



## flimsier (Aug 30, 2003)

You are the G8, we are 6 billion by Jonathan Neale, subtitled "the truth about the Genoa protests"

I actually left it in Pizza Hut this evening, but got it back about three hours later.

Got really into it yesterday when it took me 2 1/2 hours to get to the East London drinks.


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 30, 2003)

> _Originally posted by geordietim _
> *i'm reading White Noise by Don Delillo now. The CHief Protagonist is a founding member of a department of Hitler Studies, it surprises me that this isn't already a course that can be taken... *



i keep trying with delillo... started white noise, started underworld. couldn't finish either...

how is it?


----------



## mrkikiet (Aug 30, 2003)

i was struggling with it, but then yesterday i had a good couple of hours crack at it and started enjoying it and actually wanting to know more. Certainly for the first 70 pages I was a bit 'couldn't care less' and trying to find fault with it. but now....


----------



## goldsoundz (Aug 30, 2003)

I'm reading "Twelve-Step Fandango" by Chris Haslam at the moment - was attracted by the quote from Christopher Brookmyre on the cover, as he's a favourite of mine.  Only three chapters in so far though...


----------



## Masseuse (Aug 30, 2003)

Bataille's Mother, and Mistress Edwardia (or something, can't remember title properly now).  Existential rudeness.

Nietzsche Reader.  A revelation!  Nietzsche is such a poet!  But also sends you a bit mad.


----------



## flypanam (Sep 5, 2003)

Carson McCullers - The heart is a lonely hunter.

written in the 1940's its a story of people who are hopelessly lonely. 

So far its beautiful.


----------



## Rollem (Sep 5, 2003)

*rumours of a hurricane*

tim lott


----------



## haggy (Sep 5, 2003)

i managed to get over to Maldon at the weekend.  Great second hand bookshop there.  So I've been reading lots in the last few days:  

found a few Sven Hasell novels.   Read all this stuff when I was a kid. Its hard to get hold of now unless you are prepared to go out of yr way (which I'm not) so it was nice to come across them.

A collection of EF Benson's ghost stories.  I love all this old stuff : MR James, Le Fanu, Hope Hodgson.  Every character is a man of  means, having a small private inheritance.

Found another copy of Magnus Mills' Restraint of Beasts, to replace the one I lent out and didn't get back.  Couldn't resist reading it again.

Just started Ackroyd's biography of William Blake.  I like his novels (except First Light, which is crap) and loved the London Biography.  The Blake is excellant already.  Just learnt that as a young man he was a participant/observer of the Gordon Riots.


----------



## Hen House (Sep 7, 2003)

Currently steaming my way through The Stand, by Stephen King.

Blimey the film was good, but this is something else...


----------



## tomsk (Sep 7, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Orangesanlemons _
> *Personally prefered 'Fast Food Nation', purely because it was more focused. *



Haven't read Reefer Madness so can't compare, although agree that I found Fast Food Nation focused and coherent. It took the first hundred pages or so to really hook me in tho' and in that sense it could be "difficult".

Just finished...
Dry Bones That Dream - Peter Robinson (ok,nothing special)
and Hells Angel - Sonny Barger

Currently deciding between...
The Beauty Myth - Naomi Klein
or
Moon - Tony Fletcher (Bio on Keith Moon)


----------



## newharper (Sep 8, 2003)

*Books*

Well I'm reading The Commanders by Bob Woodward that i found in a Charity shop. It Deals with US military policy in the first @ years of Bush 1's presidency- Panama and Gulf war 1.
The Gangs all there.
 
Very interesting and readable
newharper


----------



## onenameshelley (Sep 8, 2003)

Bird Man the many faces of Robert Stroud. Bought when i went to Alkatraz in the summer. Not too bad so far but we shall see.


----------



## pinkslippers (Sep 8, 2003)

just finished Ben Elton-high society, and am about to start a book called, erm its something like 'this is your life', or something like that but i cant remembere who it is by?


----------



## onenameshelley (Sep 8, 2003)

> _Originally posted by pinkslippers _
> *just finished Ben Elton-high society, and am about to start a book called, erm its something like 'this is your life', or something like that but i cant remembere who it is by? *



I quite liked High Society, it wasnt as funny as some of his other books but not bad.


----------



## Elpenor (Sep 9, 2003)

Tim Lott - Rumours of a hurricane.

Liking it so far, hopefully my mum is too, as I bought it for her birthday last month.


----------



## AntoninArt (Sep 9, 2003)

I read an article saying that all marketing execs now are studying "No logo" from Naomi Klein...

I am starting "Baudolino" by Umberto Eco. Isnt it funny that he's described as semiotician, philosopher and novelist?

One's description that impressed me was Cornelius Castoriadis, he was an economist, psychoanalyst, philosopher and social thinker...wow!!

Did anyone read any book by Martha Nusbaum? I am really curious about her work..


----------



## Masseuse (Sep 9, 2003)

Jimmy Corrigan, Smartest Kid On Earth - Graphic novel.

Francis Ponge - Selected Poems.


----------



## ICB (Sep 9, 2003)

Still on my IM Banks fest, now onto "Against a Dark Background", then I've just got "Inversions" left.

Antonin - Eco's describable as a few other things as well, this piece by Blackburn takes apart his pretension in hilarious style

SB can also be found taking Martha Nussbaum to the cleaners on tnr dot com but you'll need to set up a (free for a month) subscription first


----------



## Gumbert (Sep 9, 2003)

I finished "Road to Nab End" by William Woodruff last month. 

It chronicles his childhood in Blackburn between 1912 to 1930. The bits that get me, as a Blackburner, is the sheer poverty felt by the weavers. Food is described as a luxury. But the beauty shines through in the comradery of the local people through the most difficult times. A classic!

I know the street names and the schools that he's shuttled between. As I've grown up and leafletted the houses he grew up in for the Socialist Alliance. 

Just started his second autobiography "Beyond Nab End". It's living up to expectations so far. Although I think I should post it on the U75 political books thread 

My dad was telling me that youngsters before William Woodruffs time were sent down mines in Blackburn. Over 200 or so were killed in Bburn mines, beleive. Eight to twelve year old ffs!

Bastards


----------



## AntoninArt (Sep 9, 2003)

Thank you, ICB, very interesting link.

What do u make of the Routledge key guides books? In Cultural Theory, the authors consider Habermas, Derrida and Rorty as the most influential contemporary thinkers.


----------



## rennie (Sep 10, 2003)

Im reading Jihad vs Mcworld!!! 

i have deep feelings against this dichotmy of religion vs capitalism, a variant on Huntington's now infamous clash of civilisation. frankly, it's too neat, over generalised as smacks of Dubaya's us vs them worldview. 
Interesting bit under the globalisation/capitalism section tho. The use of the Arabic/Islamic term Jihad i find very difficult to accept, even insulting. it's a fetishisation of Islam and a condensation of ethinc/local/religious nationalism with the growing trend in Islamic militancy. Are there no Christian fundamentalists out there?


----------



## chegrimandi (Sep 10, 2003)

The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoyevsky.

Guess I won't be posting on this thread for a while then!


----------



## Hollis (Sep 10, 2003)

John Major 'The Autobiography'.  I tell you, its a cracker. Citizen's Charter, Back to Basics, Black Wednesday, The Bastards... its all there!


----------



## Power (Sep 10, 2003)

> _Originally posted by chegrimandi _
> *The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoyevsky. Guess I won't be posting on this thread for a while then!   *



it's a beautiful thang.

(i mean the book, not the fact that you won't be posting...  )


----------



## Apathy (Sep 10, 2003)

just read 'porno' by irvine welsh and loved it

only started reading books a few months ago, go thru a few and i've got the book bug now...

porno and the great train robbery are my fav's up to now

btw, can some on post a pic of 'second prize' from trainspotting cos i can't remember his face and its doing my head in.


----------



## 41132n (Sep 10, 2003)

I want to cut and paste this thread into my brain as there are so many excellent reading suggestions .

Just finished 'Northern Lights' by Phillip Pullman and it was brilliant ,imhumbleo. I can't wait to get to Dublin Airport this evening as it will be the first opportunity to get to a bookshop since I finished NL.

Also reading : 

 'Hereticus' by Dan Abnett , he of 2000AD scripting

'Nam' by Mark (?) Baker - made me realise that in the same situation I may have acted the same way [ a chilling thought ]

'Vietnam' by Stanley Karnow - have just reached the point of the US intervention

and when I get home

'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' by Douglas Adams

I wish he had lived to finish the story in 'The Salmon of Doubt'


----------



## bass (Sep 11, 2003)

Also (slowly) reading Brothers Karamazov - bet you finish before me Chegrimandi!

Bass


----------



## PastorOfMuppets (Sep 11, 2003)

> _Originally posted by bass _
> *Also (slowly) reading Brothers Karamazov *



i read that too!! took bloody ages mind... a bit harder work than Crime and Punishment. The Idiot is good as well.

have you seen the dodgy hollywood film version with William Shatner?!?


----------



## Rollem (Sep 11, 2003)

*the catcher in the rye*

j d salinger


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 11, 2003)

Haruki Murakami -- Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of The World. 

A highly imaginative thriller about the subconscious. Brilliant.


----------



## mrkikiet (Sep 11, 2003)

i've been on a minor Kureishi binge, Gabriels Gift and The Buddha of Suburbia, whilst continuing to do battle with A Passage to India. I just can't get into this book, annoying, as I studied Indian History as part of my degree.

The Buddha of Suburbia is an infinitely superior book to GG by the way.


----------



## ck (Sep 12, 2003)

"You'll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again" by Julia Phillips


----------



## Voley (Sep 13, 2003)

Just picked up 'Enduring Love' by Ian McEwan.

Can't tell you what it's like as I've just picked it up. I haven't actually read any of it. Now I've put it down again as it's quite hard to type with a book in your hand. Well you have a fucking go then you clever sod.  

Drunk? Me? Fuck off. I'll have the fuckin lot of yers.


----------



## Fledgling (Sep 15, 2003)

On the Road 

But I'm about a third of the way through and not much of it has yet been on the road, it has been a bit boring. 

I put down Travels with Charley, this was very uninteresting, a bit Steinbeck lite if you ask me.


----------



## pilchardman (Sep 15, 2003)

The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford.

It's shite, so I wouldn't bother if I was you.


----------



## Elpenor (Sep 15, 2003)

The Human Stain by Philip Roth.

Its not bad, but I'm quite unenthusiastic about it at the moment, I need a few free hours to get into it.

So far, I think the film (out next year) will suck, I can't see Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman portraying the characters too well.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Sep 15, 2003)

Kevin Toolis, _Rebel Hearts_.

Wasn't expecting it to be nearly as good as it is.


----------



## DaveCinzano (Sep 15, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Justin _
> *Kevin Toolis, Rebel Hearts.
> 
> Wasn't expecting it to be nearly as good as it is. *



i remember being similarly impressed by it. toolis is a fairly good writer at that length.

have you read sally belfrage's 'the crack'? it was called something different in the yankee edition. kind of in the same vein, though with a touch of the bea campbells about it.

just read nigel fountain's 'underground', about the uk underground magazine scene from 1966-74, all oz and it and friends/frendz etc. it's interesting, but he's imo a shit writer, mentioning surnames of people well before he's actually expalined who they are, he gets basic details wrong, and makes sweeping generalisations all over the shop. 

also done milos stankovic's 'trusted mole', about his time in bosnia attached to the british un contingent. very good. heartily recommend it - don't worry, it's not war porn. 

also on the go: hilary wainwright (red pepper editor)'s book (so dull i can't even remember its title), misha glenny's book on the balkans (cheers flypanam!) which is really detailed, very interesting, but HUUUGE, nearly finished the sdp brick i've been reading for donkey's (just got up to owen going it alone, the muppet), ian hargreaves' somewhat shit book on modern journalism, ian dunkerley (??)'s book on el salvador, some german fella's book on the rise of the nazis ('the german dictatorship', good on the unification of germany, prussian militarism, the junkers, anti-semitism etc), and 'the battle for bermondsey', peter tatchell's very readable account of fighting against right-wing bureaucratic labour party machine in sarf london, which touches on t dan smith in the north east (remember alun armstrong in 'our friends in the north'?) as well as the docklands carpetbaggers (very 'long good friday'!)...

all in all i've got a fair few on the go really.

oh, and i picked up a copy of peter hain's 1974 book 'radical regeneration', in which he calls for extra-parliamentary direct action, community politics, developing the libertarian left etc... and it's signed!


----------



## J77 (Sep 16, 2003)

> _Originally posted by NVP _
> *Just picked up 'Enduring Love' by Ian McEwan. *


 An excellent choice 

Am back on a sci-fi number at the moment, 'Redemption Ark' by Alastair Reynolds.

I think it was British SF book of the year, tho' I don't know what year...

It's pretty good so far


----------



## Roadkill (Sep 16, 2003)

Two books that I haven't read in a very long time...

_Voyage of the Dawn Treader_ by C.S. Lewis, which I found in a charity shop for 50p.  I'm really enjoying it so far.

_Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac,_ by Richard Carpenter.  I used to love the []i]Catweazle[/i] books when i was about ten and I've wanted to read them again for a long time, but I'd had no luck finding copies.  Then Rubes very kindly lent me her copy of "Magic Zodiac."  I enjoyed it, in a strange sort of way.  It's not as good as I remember it being, but still amusing.  Now, all I need is a copy of the first book...


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Sep 16, 2003)

I just tried to read _The Player Of Games_ by Iain M Banks. I lasted about six pages. I've got no stomach any more for SF novels where the characters have stupid names.


----------



## Termite Man (Sep 16, 2003)

I'm currently reading 'The Sagas of the Icelanders ' which is , a book filled with sagas about icelanders ( from aroun 800 -1200 ad ) which covers the timespan of the unification of Norway by King Harald and the settlement of Iceland ( a lot of original icelanders were leaving Norway because they didn't support Haralds army and he pretty much drove them away or killed them otherwise ) 

Damn good book


----------



## farmerbarleymow (Sep 16, 2003)

Currently reading _Samuel Pepys - The Unequalled Self_ - a biography by Claire Tomalin.  

A great book - what a life that man had.


----------



## chemical_girl__ (Sep 17, 2003)

just finished -

_tess of the durbervilles - thomas hardy_ 

i was kinda curious about hardy, and what i'd heard (that he was bleak and brilliant) was true!

poor tess!! but what a bitter man hardy must have been............


----------



## Masseuse (Sep 17, 2003)

Straw Dogs, can't remember who by.  John Graham I think.

Examines human as animal, relationship between man and animal etc.

It's quite interesting but a bit dry.


----------



## dormouse (Sep 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by farmerbarleymow _
> *Currently reading Samuel Pepys - The Unequalled Self - a biography by Claire Tomalin.
> 
> A great book - what a life that man had.  *


I'm currently working my way through his diaries - I think they would be my Desert Island book.  And they only cover a very small part of his life!


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 17, 2003)

a new record - FOUR at once:

still reading that endless Burroughs biog

Mark Prendergast's The Ambient Century

John O'Farrell's Global Village Idiot

and 

Lloyd Bradley's Bass Culture


----------



## liampreston (Sep 17, 2003)

John O'Farrell's Global Village Idiot



Thank heavens for that - a book I have read and enjoyed. Well compendium (hah! spelling bee......) of articles but in book form. Top read, all the same.


----------



## rubbershoes (Sep 17, 2003)

Only a Factory Girl by Rosie M Banks

and then I’ll go onto The Woman who Braved All by her


----------



## haggy (Sep 17, 2003)

The Revolution of Everyday Life - Raoul Vaniegem.

I have always wanted to try this out.  Thought it'd be difficult, but its not  bad, although I have to read most of the sentences twice; and for a political philosophy its remarkably poetic.


----------



## Ciara (Sep 17, 2003)

'Beloved' by Toni Morrison and I'm finding it a bit hard to get into to be honest.


----------



## Voley (Sep 18, 2003)

Started reading 'Enduring Love'by Ian McEwan now and it's really, really good.

I'm only about three chapters in but there's already been a hideous tragedy described in weirdly dreamlike terms, some stuff about morality and altruism, a theme developing about the struggle between science and religion, a bit of canoodling, the hint of another immense tragedy on the horizon and the beginnings of what looks like a great story about a religious stalker. Oh yes.  

It's only the second book I've ever read of his but I can see a bit of a McEwan binge coming on.


----------



## mrkikiet (Sep 18, 2003)

i can't get into Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer.

A Passage to India is another that I am still going with.


----------



## haggy (Sep 19, 2003)

> _Originally posted by geordietim _
> *i can't get into Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer.
> 
> A Passage to India is another that I am still going with. *



passage to india is a great novel.  the 'passage' in the caves is inspired.

Everything is Illuminated is a funny and deeply moving novel, imo.
i was reminded of The White Hotel and also parts of Rodinsky's Room by Rachel Lichtenstein/iain sinclair.  It's not often that the holocaust is managed in such an approachable (and contemporary) way.


----------



## foo (Sep 19, 2003)

Just finished Enduring Love - Ian Mcwotsit earlier sitting in the sun.  

My favourite of his so far. I thought it was supposed to be only  women writers who were good at writing about feelings    and the raggle taggle disjointed stuff that happens to connect in peoples' lives. In this book he's brilliant when writing about the misunderstandings and stubborn wierdness that can happen between people - our desperation to vindicate ourselves, and the snowball effect. If you see what I mean. I'm rushing as usual so this probably won't make too much sense! 

I'm impressed & I think he writes decoratively, without being whimsical (a skill i don't have!)   and his storytelling seems crafted without being pretentious. 

Definitely recomend it.


----------



## soulrebel (Sep 21, 2003)

A Social History of Madness by Roy Porter


----------



## AlarmedResident (Sep 21, 2003)

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Boudin. It is so true. Kitchens are just like how he says. 
This is a great site. I can see me spending way to much time here.


----------



## Nina (Sep 22, 2003)

Just finished Oscar Wilde's  A Picture of Dorian Gray.
Fantastic! and I'm not much of a classics person really.


----------



## liampreston (Sep 22, 2003)

Just starting Oryx & Crake.........


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 22, 2003)

> _Originally posted by liampreston _
> *Just starting Oryx & Crake......... *



you should read Psychotic Reactions & Carburettor Dung by Lester Bangs. or The Dark Stuff by Nick Kent. Or Shots From The Hip by Charles Shaar Murray.

y'know, MUSIC JOURNALISM.

anyway, i'm starting Owning Up - The Collected Volumes of George Melly's autobiography, which was a birthday gift from furvert. the man's a lovely flamboyant old fruit and he's had a fascinating life


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 22, 2003)

had a quiet sunday polishing off a few books..

Pinball 1973 - Haruki Murakami  - his first novella - his trademark style, atmosphere and oddness are already there - but there isn't enough of a story to keep them coherent.. probably why he doesn't want it to be made available in english but for the fan it is worth the (very short) read.. it's available in electronic samizdat if you search on google. 

Faust (part 1) - Goethe - I've long been fascinated by the myth of Faust - don't see how anyone can lose their faith in god but retain a respect for the devil.. (i've said it before  and i'll say it again - satanism has got to be the most stupid religion - against some strong competition!) sadly neither Goethe's version of the story nor Kit Marlowe's seem to address this question. Goethe's version is more intimate than Marlowe's & his Mephistopheles is more malevolent.. but sadly the translation i read can't compete with Kit & i doubt it does much justice to the original. 

oh and this..

Simple heuristics that make smart


----------



## chemical_girl__ (Sep 22, 2003)

after picking up, and swiftly putting down, a rather yawnsone copy of oaradise lost, and an artless book by john le carre, i'm now halfeay thru -

*keep the aspadistra flying - george orwell* 

and im thoroughly enjoying it.......... in terms of characterisation and ease to engage with it, it surpasses 1984.


----------



## Finchy (Sep 22, 2003)

stupid white men - michael moore


----------



## foo (Sep 22, 2003)

Xinran - The Good Women of China. 

Harrowing, and awful tales of women's lives during the Cultural Revolution - stories told to the journalist Xinran who then wrote this book. 

I'm having the same (minor) problem as I do when reading JT LeRoy's books -  I know the material is important, as is the intention behind the telling of the stories, yet the style of writing irritates. It probably shouldn't matter, but I don't think it's very well written. I can't quite put my finger on what grates - a bit sensationalist perhaps? As with LeRoy, this keeps putting me off but I will persevere because the subject is so interesting and important.


----------



## Masseuse (Sep 22, 2003)

That sounds heavy foo.

I'm reading a bit of Vonnegut - Sirens of Titan.


----------



## foo (Sep 22, 2003)

have you read the sequel?


----------



## Masseuse (Sep 22, 2003)

No.  Is there one?   

Or is this foohumour


----------



## chazegee (Sep 22, 2003)

E.A.R.L.

The autobiog of D.M.X.

Tremendous

the mans a great liar


----------



## jms (Sep 22, 2003)

NOT TITUS SODDING GROAN ANYMORE!

Bloody hell

that was a book and a half

So now Im reading the Wasp Factory by Iain Banks


----------



## foo (Sep 22, 2003)

Titus Groan is a wonderful name though isn't it? And The Wasp Factory will make you itch chaz  


Massy - me being fookin hilarious again luv.  x


----------



## Masseuse (Sep 22, 2003)

Sorry foo, difficult to tell!


----------



## chazegee (Sep 22, 2003)

I dug up a wasp's nest once.. 

Ouch mcGouch

187 stings


----------



## foo (Sep 22, 2003)

I'm going to call my bike Titus Groan I've decided. 

Most apt. 



edit: lol, only you would do that chazman...


----------



## Power (Sep 23, 2003)

> _Originally posted by jms _
> *So now Im reading the Wasp Factory by Iain Banks *




great little book, but you'll be disappointed when the slight earth tremor makes the house collapse killing them all inside, and ending the book right there.

shocking.


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 23, 2003)

had another go at getting into High Society by Ben Elton but after grinding through another 30 pages or so, this time i'm not going to bother going any further.. seems to be a completely pointless book. 

it was like trying to eat a whole pack of rice cakes.. it's vaguely palatable for the first one and half but then it just becomes more and more of a chore. By a third of the way through the last thing you'll ever want is another rice cake.

Strange because the writing style is fluent, the subject matter & perspective on it were agreeable.. but it is a terrible book.

but everything is so monotonous, there is nothing addictive about the book whatsoever, the plotting so primitive and the characters so one-dimensional that i felt absolutely no curiosity about what happened next, turning each page was laborious.

it's typical ranting, crusading Ben Elton without any humour and no grand imagination.. it is a work of hackery.

all the characters are garish stereotypes, vain politicians, hipocritical journalists, shallow  drug addled celebs, upright policemen vs bent coppers, drug dealers more stupid and selfish than outright evil, poor unfortunate heroin addicts.. yes people like these do exist to some extent but to write a book which pushes such stereotypes so relentlessly and unremittingly is both lazy and incredibly cynical.. it merely perpetuates what it claims to hate.

and everything that happens to them is driven by the blunderbus narrative logic worthy of the worst straight to TV movie you could imagine.

When i first heard of the book, i assumed it was an novel set in a near future where all drugs had been legalised.. now if Ben Elton had turned his imagination & humour to that then he might have had some chance of writing a book i could have read.. 

Sadly he didn't but what does he care?


----------



## Rollem (Sep 23, 2003)

*sylvia plath*

the bell jar


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 23, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Power _
> *great little book, but you'll be disappointed when the slight earth tremor makes the house collapse killing them all inside, and ending the book right there.
> 
> shocking. *


 especially now you've told him that's what happens


----------



## oddjob (Sep 23, 2003)

Just been given a copy of Ian Rankin's 'Watchman' to read, and give opinion on. Fuck, I love my job


----------



## onenameshelley (Sep 23, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Russ5 _
> *Just been given a copy of Ian Rankin's 'Watchman' to read, and give opinion on. Fuck, I love my job
> 
> *



Ooooh let us know if its any good i have everything that he has written so far.

Lucky git where can i get a job like that


----------



## Power (Sep 23, 2003)

oh shit, didn't think about that.

sorry...

thank fuck i didn't tell him that the nice french policeman that the sweet school teacher has befriended is actually really the evil handgliding russian serial killer that they are all trying so desperately to avoid and he's going dismember her body after taking her for a cheese and choritzo picnic in the mountains


----------



## Belushi (Sep 23, 2003)

Just picked up Jeremy Paxman 'The Political Animal'

Looks quite entertaining, Paxo mocking politicians as a breed.


----------



## foo (Sep 23, 2003)

*sylvia plath*



> _Originally posted by Rollem _
> *the bell jar *



I hope you're feeling happy and fulfilled Rollem - you need to be to cope with The Bell Jar. 

That book did my head in -  although it was years & years ago. I've gone off Silvia Plath since actually. I'll probably get strung up for this but when I attempt to read Plath nowadays I just want to shake her. Especially her poetry.



nasty foo.


----------



## Voley (Sep 23, 2003)

I agree. 

I hated 'The Bell Jar', too.

I couldn't help thinking that Sylvia Plath would've really liked The Smiths. And that's never very endearing, is it?


----------



## oddjob (Sep 23, 2003)

> _Originally posted by onenameshelley _
> *Ooooh let us know if its any good i have everything that he has written so far.
> 
> Lucky git where can i get a job like that *



I'm proof reading the next edition 

the 'uncorrected book proof, not for sale'

fuck i love my job

edit: he first wrote watchman in 88, could never get my hands on it before for at least a 20.


----------



## Rollem (Sep 23, 2003)

am only about 50 pages in (shes just been poisoned by crabmeat) and am enjoying it so far....am filled with dread now!


----------



## foo (Sep 23, 2003)

> _Originally posted by NVP _
> *I couldn't help thinking that Sylvia Plath would've really liked The Smiths. And that's never very endearing, is it? *



 heh. Spot on NVP.   

Tediously self obsessed? Who Silvia? 

surely not.... 



edit: Rollem, give the Alice Walker I lent you a go next -  Possessing the Secret of Joy. An amazing book (imo)   x


----------



## Gumbert (Sep 23, 2003)

Just finished the sequel "Beyond Nab End" William Woodruff.

Well, erm, starts off okay with his journey into the unknown east end of London as a 16year old sprite but then....

It all becomes this mishmash of sentimental bollox of Oxford and hanging around with the ruling class gits. He chats with Harold Wilson on the steps of Balloil college ffs. Fuckin sold out that sod woody.... 

Not his fault really though I suppose. His politics were always meandering. But you don't help the workers like me by teaching the ruling class about our movements!

Nuff said....

The first is a masterpeice in its own right though.....


----------



## Rollem (Sep 24, 2003)

foo, will do. After sylvia has depressed me  

<makes mental note to remember she has a few of foo’s books that she needs to give back!   >


----------



## Perillous (Sep 24, 2003)

Ian McEwan's - Atonement, which is warming up nicely


----------



## foo (Sep 24, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Rollem _
> *<makes mental note to remember she has a few of foo’s books that she needs to give back!   > *



Hey, keep 'em as long as you want (you slightly odd person   ) 

Books are for reading and sharing imo. I think Possessing the Secret of Joy is a fascinating book - a really good story but also incredibly thought provoking: it deals with the horrendous pracitise of female genital mutilation, the problems surrounding cultural relativism, and the absolute power of age old Traditions and how they can crush a persons' psyche and autonomy.


----------



## Bajie (Sep 24, 2003)

Now just finishing "Brits - The war against the IRA" by Peter Taylor.

After reading the book about the Ulster Volunteer Force, its the continuation of trying to tackle my monumental ignorance on Ulster and the troubles.


----------



## haggy (Sep 25, 2003)

Again, Rubicon Beach by Steve Erickson.   seriously moving.

The American Dream is both wonderful & fucked...


----------



## pennimania (Sep 25, 2003)

> _Originally posted by dormouse2 _
> *I'm currently working my way through his diaries - I think they would be my Desert Island book.  And they only cover a very small part of his life! *



I fell in love with M Pepys about 8 years ago. Cannot believe I lived so long without reading his diaries. What a joy they are  

I have read the whole lot plus the companion and the index. It took me about 6 months.Now I dip into them again and again.

1666-7 are the best I reckon. definitely a desert island book. I took a volume to Glastonbury this year.


----------



## twistedAM (Sep 25, 2003)

'God, Guns and Rock n Roll' by Ted Nugent

was after his "Kill It N Grill It" Cookbook but what the hell.

Not a patch on The Dirt but he's quite a decent writer.


----------



## Masseuse (Sep 25, 2003)

The Sexual Life of Catherine M.

Thus far I am finding it difficult to engage with.  Somehow the intellectual approach to sex just makes sex so _unsexy._


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 25, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Masseuse _
> *The Sexual Life of Catherine M.
> 
> Thus far I am finding it difficult to engage with.  Somehow the intellectual approach to sex just makes sex so unsexy. *


 sex with ~5,000 random strangers seems a little unsexy to me 

but it takes all sorts


----------



## Fledgling (Sep 26, 2003)

I have almost given up with "on the road", pretty boring. 

And as for "travels with Charley", well...........

So I read "Decline of the Englsih murder and other essays" by Orwell, better. 

I think I might try tofnid a copy of The Road to Wigan Pier.


----------



## Fedayn (Sep 26, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Rollem _
> *i quite liked The Long Firm, by jake arnott, but having read the first and last page of he kills coppers i wasnt convinced...
> 
> i have given up on reading that bob dylan biography - Roadkill, let me know ifyou wanna borrow it matey
> ...



Keep goin' with 'He kills Coppers' Rollem, it's well worth it. A good read well worth gettin' into.


----------



## J77 (Sep 26, 2003)

The Story of Lucy Gault.

edit: by William Trevor

I'll let you know what I think of it when I've done...


----------



## Nina (Sep 27, 2003)

Christopher Hitchens Regime Change....reasons why war with Iraq was the right thing to do

and for when I'm too tired to take the politics...light hearted accompianment  Augusten Burrows. Running with scissors.


----------



## Masseuse (Sep 27, 2003)

They Could've Been Contenders - Jim McNeill.

Got the boxing bug again lately.  This book tells the stories of great fighters who, for various reasons, never got the opportunity to fight in a world championship bout.  Some fascinating characters about.


----------



## oddjob (Sep 27, 2003)

*Watchman - Ian Rankin*



> _Originally posted by onenameshelley _
> *Ooooh let us know if its any good i have everything that he has written so far.*



About half way through it, and it's soooooo good. Typical Rankin, so many twists and turns.

The next edition is coming out 31/12/03, isbn: 0 75286 033 X for hardback and 0 75286 034 8 paperback. Priced at £14.99/10.99

And if you find any mistakes, blame me


----------



## Voley (Sep 27, 2003)

Has anyone read Martin Amis' new book yet?

Only I read a slightly-less-than-favourable review of it the other day that said reading it was 'like hearing that your favourite uncle's been caught wanking in a school playground'. 

<edit: coherence>


----------



## Voley (Sep 27, 2003)

I'm still reading 'Enduring Love'. 

It's great - the stuff about little misunderstandings in relationships is totally spot on.

And the stalker's a fucking nutter!


----------



## Elpenor (Sep 28, 2003)

> I'm still reading 'Enduring Love'.



Currently being made into a British film with Daniel Craig and Samantha Morton, filming has just finished at the Getty Estate in Wormsley, Buckinghamshire. Finished product expected some time next year I believe.


----------



## Masseuse (Sep 28, 2003)

Now dipping into The Calendar - David Ewing Duncan.

Fascinating history of the calendar!


----------



## Voley (Sep 28, 2003)

Sounds thrilling, Masseuse. 

Finished 'Enduring Love' now: almost totally satisfying from start to finish. Not often you say that, is it?


----------



## Roadkill (Sep 28, 2003)

I've started re-reading the Chronicles of Narnia.

I think I've only read _The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe_ and _Voyage of the Dawn Treader_ before, and those about ten years ago, so I'm sort of discovering them for the first time.  The religious symbolism's a bit too heavy for me - they're too overtly Christian -  but they're beautifully written little books.

So far I've got through _The Magician's Nephew_ and I finished _The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe_ this afternoon, so I'm looking forward to the next one.


----------



## marty21 (Sep 28, 2003)

i've got 3 i'm dipping into at the mo...

jeremy paxman, the political animal, very interesting anecdotal stuff about mps

henning mankel, the lioness, top quality swedish detective novel 

and ethan hawke - ash wednesday - sort of american road trip stuff - which i'm also enjoying...


----------



## Masseuse (Sep 28, 2003)

Oh I really like Ethan Hawke.


----------



## haggy (Sep 30, 2003)

Notebook for Visitors From OuterSpace - Kathryn Kramer

The Poetics of space - gaston bachelard


----------



## onenameshelley (Sep 30, 2003)

Just finished Bad Men by Michael Connolly, bloody brilliant i was so scared by the grey girl i wouldnt go to the loo last night.


----------



## J77 (Sep 30, 2003)

Have just finished "The Story of Lucy Gault" by William Trevor.

What an excellent book. I think it missed out on the Booker prize due to "A life of Pi" (but I could have the year wrong). While Pi is a good book, I think Gault is in a different league.

Firstly, it's a real page turner but with tragedy around every corner. Kind of reminded me of a Dickens style book - everytime you think something cheerful's going to happen, you're kicked in the gut 

I really liked the way the book followed the different lifes of the people involved and their connections. In this respect, it reminded me of some McEwan books I've read - those IM fans on here should give Gault a read 

I'm not that good at expressing my views on a book but I would highly recommend this one


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 30, 2003)

Dream Science - Thomas Palmer

Obscure-ish, out of print novel of the supernatural (publishers designation not mine).. got it on the flimsiest of recommendations.. a contributor to this list liked a lot of my favourites and raved about palmer so figured it might be my cup of tea.. and so it was.

Rockland Poole, the protagonist, is trapped in fragmentary parallel worlds - almost like dreams he can't wake up from but perhaps it's a criss-crossed series of afterlifes that move further away from reality.. every so often he crosses back to the 'real world'

a good idea well executed and which allows the author to develop and explore ideas of introspection, perception &  solipsism at much greater length than other fantasy style books where far more effort is expended on the imagineering of alternate realities.. for the most part the other worlds here are very mundane but it is the characters knowledge that they are not 'real' that creates the atmosphere.  for the most part the book is about what is going on in Poole's head and the psychology is detailed and nuanced. 

alas the last third of the book doesn't quite live up to the initial idea and edifice that has been created.. it was almost as if the author had painted himself into a corner and could not come to a neat resolution.. he resists a deus ex machina escape but the footprints of his retreat spoil the otherwise consistently created "reality".. 
which draws your attention to another failng of the book, the main character is a little to introspective and accepting of the unreal fates he experiences.. there is noticably no reflection on the theology of the situation or any attempt by him to make sense of his new existence.

still the same could be said of most people in this world 

on the whole a good find.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 30, 2003)

Hey Nostradamus - Douglas Coupland
stunning return to form...


----------



## Voley (Sep 30, 2003)

Just started 'Scepticism Inc.' by Bo Fowler.


----------



## Hollis (Oct 1, 2003)

I just started that 'Man and Boy' by Tony Parsons.  I've got this feeling its not going to be very good?


----------



## Perillous (Oct 1, 2003)

Just started Andrew Miller's "Oxygen", which I got for 59p in Help the Aged.


----------



## Structaural (Oct 1, 2003)

Straw Dogs - John Gray (excellent thoughtful book)
Scaredy Cat - Mark Billingham (alright crime thriller - passes the time on the train)
Platform - Michel Houellebecq (cynical, whore obsessed, bigoted but strangely enjoyable)

and the latest Iain Banks but I haven't started that yet (Dead Air).


----------



## mrkikiet (Oct 1, 2003)

i'm still reading Everything is Illuminated. 

I have had a complete change of heart about it. I now think it is really good. Everyone, and i mean EVERYONE, should read it. It is both funny and poignant, like all good books should be.


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 1, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Hollis _
> *I just started that 'Man and Boy' by Tony Parsons.  I've got this feeling its not going to be very good? *



You're very perceptive


----------



## Power (Oct 1, 2003)

he knew you were going to say that.


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 1, 2003)

Border Crossing - Pat Barker - halfway through this and it is beautifully written and full of humanity, as you'd expect from the writer of the Regeneration Trilogy  - after reading Gitta Sereny's Cries Unheard and Blake Morrison's As If as well, it makes my blood boil to learn how children who have commited despicable crimes are treated by the courts in this country.

I have just finished:
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold - very well written but overly sentimental - not sure about the ending either
Life Of Pi - Yann Martel - very charming and quirky but certainly not deserving of the Booker Prize.
Y: The Descent Of Men -  Steve Jopnes - anecdote strewn mess but very entertaining nonetheless
Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre - now THIS should win the Booker - Douglas Coupland meets JD Salinger on the Jerry Springer Show - a very frustrating read in many ways but ultimately very sweet and uplifting, and simulataneously, a cynical and searing satire.

Still on the shelf:
The Autograph Man - Zadie Smith
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
something else that's also very bookgroupy but I can't remember


----------



## Masseuse (Oct 1, 2003)

The Accursed Share (vol 1)- Bataille.

Reading this makes me feel I have a wonderful secret.    I don't know how to even begin describing it - but it's the first time I've found a study of economics so enthralling!

"If one has the courage to read my book....."  starts the intro.  I like that kind of hyperbole in a writer.

Trying to get to grips with the Coupland.... kind've enjoying it, but it's a bit "so what".


----------



## J77 (Oct 2, 2003)

Read 3/4 of The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan last night (had to sleep at one point ).

Slightly disturbing, yet strangely addictive.

Don't know how it's going to finish but I hope it doesn't just fade away...


----------



## mentalchik (Oct 2, 2003)

Just finished "Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman,




absolutely brill imo



already read American Gods, gonna go read some more of his books !


----------



## Termite Man (Oct 2, 2003)

> _Originally posted by mentalchik _
> *Just finished "Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman,
> 
> 
> ...



I haven't got round to reading Neverwhere yet . American Gods is a great book and so are all the Sandman comics as well .

Neil Gaiman is just great 

I'm currently reading a book called Nam - which real life accounts of incidents that happened to soldiers in Nam . I'm also reading The Sagas of the icelanders which is fairly self explanatory and the third book that I'm reading is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury !


----------



## Sooty (Oct 2, 2003)

Have just started "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond.  Only on page 21 - and my head is in bits already!!!


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 2, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Sooty _
> *Have just started "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond.  Only on page 21 - and my head is in bits already!!! *



Very good book - great ammunition against racists who like to argue that the West is more advanced because of the white race's superior intellect


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 2, 2003)

i started that - possibly the only 'popular science' book i've ever read cos i'm a gimp when it comes to science, and i was really enjoying it but then i lost it.

maybe i should start again..


----------



## Sooty (Oct 2, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Orang Utan _
> Very good book - great ammunition against racists who like to argue that the West is more advanced because of the white race's superior intellect



Yes it seems that it will be good for that.  I just hope I can understand it enough to be able to use the points when I do have an arguement against a racist.  

I'm use to reading books by Stephen King and Bill Bryson and this is my first "proper" book.  I'm gonna have to carry a dictionary around with me I reckon.  Wish me luck!


----------



## Nina (Oct 4, 2003)

> _Originally posted by geordietim _
> *i'm still reading Everything is Illuminated.
> 
> I have had a complete change of heart about it. I now think it is really good. Everyone, and i mean EVERYONE, should read it. It is both funny and poignant, like all good books should be. *



*Phew*
glad you had a turn around. It's one of the best books I've read in ages.

Just finsihed Augusten Burroughs...Running with Scissors. Great story of homosexual boy growing up in psychotic dysfunctional family. If you like Franzen's Corrections or Coupland's slightly less inspriing 'All families are psychotic' you should give this a go.

Am now half way in to Brian Keenan's An Evil Cradling about him being a hostage in Beirut. Wanted to read this book for the last 9 years and finally got my hands on it. So far, it's excellent and kept me entertained on my 10 hour train journey yesterday.


----------



## Perillous (Oct 6, 2003)

> _Originally posted by J77 _
> *Read 3/4 of The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan last night (had to sleep at one point ).
> 
> Slightly disturbing, yet strangely addictive.
> ...



I've just read 2 of his books in a row, Atonement and Child Out of Time (or Child In Time?) and I know what you mean about him fading away.  Although really engrossing, but they both had rather strange endings, which I wasn't quite happy with.  Still glad I read em though.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 6, 2003)

Owning Up - The Collected George Melly autobiographies.


----------



## Fozzie Bear (Oct 6, 2003)

I read one of the Melly biogs and Revolt Into Style and thought they were pretty groovy, dub.

Just finished:

"Sex Pistols" by Fred and Judy Vermorel

Very good indeed. More on this soon.

Just started:

"The Origins of Modern Leftism" by Richard Gombin


----------



## Fozzie Bear (Oct 6, 2003)

> _Originally posted by NVP _
> *Just started 'Scepticism Inc.' by Bo Fowler. *



I got into a massive argument about this when I took it as holiday reading one year because we went with a load of mates and it turned out that one of them had just finished the C of E's Alpha Course and another of them had started going to church as well, which was news to everyone else.

Anyway, no prisoners were taken.


----------



## Calva dosser (Oct 6, 2003)

Just finished High Society. (Ben Elton)

Bollocks from start to finish. At least we now know he failed to shag Julie Burchill at some stage in his meteoric plunge into ill-researched sloppy shite.


----------



## foo (Oct 6, 2003)

I'm in the middle of three books right now. Bloody irritating habit - & I don't know why I do it. Does anyone else do this?

Douglas Coupland - Life After God. Ok so far.

Jenette Winterson - The Power Book. Odd so far. 

Siri Hustvedt - What I loved. Dull so far. 

P'raps none of the books are gripping me particularly, so I keep dipping into them at different times - consequently getting a bit confused....


----------



## Lollybelle (Oct 6, 2003)

Noooo...!  I just read What I Loved and thought it was brilliant!  Properly chock-full of ideas and a really 'wide' read - loads of detail and yet spanning an entire lifetime.  

And the Power Book - well, I've never read anything of Jeanette Winterson's and not been really moved by it, I think she's got an amazing skill for drawing the reader in.  

Hope both of them start to appeal a bit more... 

I also just finished Life of Pi - I really liked that.  It passed the test of getting me to take it on the tube rather than have my walkman on.  

Currently I'm reading 'Memoirs of a Survivor' by Doris Lessing, apparently it was also a Julie Christie film but I haven't seen it.  It's very weird so far, but I think there's some dark secrets yet to be revealed.


----------



## foo (Oct 6, 2003)

Hello Lolls. xx 

I loved Life of Pi too. I'll give the What I've Loved a bit longer. I think I've got to decide on one to read - and leave the others alone. I was wondering where a character had gone earlier, until I remembered it was in a different book!  

The Jenette Winterson is going to win for now I think. I can't see where she's going with the it....and I'm intrigued. 

ooh Memoirs of a Survivor. An excellent book Lolly! I'd forgotten all about it.


----------



## Lollybelle (Oct 6, 2003)

hello back foo! xx


----------



## marty21 (Oct 6, 2003)

full dark house - christopher fowler - british gothic stuff

and will shortly read

a question of blood - ian rankin

Politics  - Adam Thirlwell


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## Blagsta (Oct 6, 2003)

Simon Schama - A History of Britain 3000BC - 1603AD


----------



## chez (Oct 6, 2003)

Timeless Simplicity- Creative living in consumer society- John Lane


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## sparkling (Oct 6, 2003)

I seem to have a few books on the go all at once.  The Seals wife which is a bit slow and gentle at the moment.  
I picked up a copy of the all the Adrian Mole diaries from the Oxam book shop in Saffron Walden so am reading that to make me laugh.

A couple of poetry books and the Robber wife by watshername you know the Canandian author who writes good books?


----------



## xerxes quisada (Oct 6, 2003)

I'm reading the Count of Monte Cristo.

Not really the sort of book I'd normally read but a classic tale of drug abuse, fighting and subtefuge.

Much better than I thought it'd be.

An Evil Cradling is a must read book. Though it did give me an irrational fear of foreign teaching jobs and cupboards.


----------



## J77 (Oct 6, 2003)

Just read 'The Cement Garden' by Ian McEwan.

Very short book and my initial reaction was, what was the point?

Nowhere near the same league as some of his other books.


----------



## WasGeri (Oct 6, 2003)

I'm reading an excellent book at the moment, it's called 'Travelling Light' by Katrina Kittle. It's written from the perspective of a woman whose brother is dying from Aids. My mum lent it to me and warned me I would cry all the way through. I haven't yet though.


----------



## Roadkill (Oct 7, 2003)

I've taken a break from Narnia (now on the 6th of 7 books) to read _Dark Winter - The Story of the Hull Triple Trawler Tragedy_ by Stuart Russell.

In January-February 1968, three Hull trawlers disappeared or sank in the space of a few weeks.  Of the total 59 men on board, only one survived.  There was a massive but only partly successful campaign to improve safety at sea in the wake of the disaster.  Stuart Russell was a journalist with the Hull Daily Mail at the time.  A very sad story, but fascinating reading.


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## Orang Utan (Oct 7, 2003)

> _Originally posted by spooky fish _
> *Also on the lookout for Dead Air by Iain Banks, but this is dependent on being lucky and finding it in the library. *



Don't bother - it is embarrassingly bad - like some sad fat old uncle trying to impress the youngsters by being hip. Banks has so badly lost it. I seem to be experiencing a very sharp curve of increasing disappointment here. His first three are masterpieces and The Crow Road ain't bad either but ever since Crow Road, he has been increasingly shite. In fact he gets worse the more hip je tries to be. I've got more to say on this but no time at the moment. More about Dead Air tomorrow.


On a positive note - I also recently read All Points North by Simon Armitage - it was reet good.


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## foo (Oct 7, 2003)

> _Originally posted by foo _
> *The Jenette Winterson is going to win for now I think. I can't see where she's going with the it....and I'm intrigued.  *



Well, I'm intrigued no more. The only place Winterson was going was even more up her own arse.  Nice idea, but irritating use of language and I could almost feel her desperate attempt at being 'clever' in every line. 

So I'm back to Life After God - D. Coupland. 

I want to keep reading but I wouldn't say its enjoyable. It's made me well up a couple of times. Poor fucking bloke.   I keep wanting to tell him that life doesn't have to be seen with his bleak vision...but of course, for him, it does. Excellently written, and it makes me selfishly glad that I managed to crawl my way out of similar depths - and thank fuck, I can still see wonderment in the world. 

I haven't finished it yet but I'd definitely recomend this book from what I've read so far.

edited: to get the blokes name right.


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## Rollem (Oct 7, 2003)

well, ive finished 'the bell jar' (sylvia plath) - yes i'm a slow reader  - and have to say, foo and nvp, i thought it was quite good. got a bit eratic in places, but that's how it should be i guess. so you're wrong    

about to start 'girlfriend in a coma', by douglas coupland...


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## Dubversion (Oct 7, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Rollem _
> *well, ive finished 'the bell jar' (sylvia plath) - yes i'm a slow reader  - and have to say, foo and nvp, i thought it was quite good. got a bit eratic in places, but that's how it should be i guess. so you're wrong
> *



i read that in one night, on a speed binge when i was about 16.

just as i finished, i came downstairs cos i heard a noise and found my mother lying on the floor with the phone in one hand and a bottle of tranquilisers in the other and the emergency services operator going 'hello.. hello..'


strangely, ive never felt the urge to read it again..


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## foo (Oct 7, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Rollem _
> *about to start 'girlfriend in a coma', by douglas coupland... *



I've got that on a pile ready to read but I think I'll read something in between as I'm coping with Life After God at the moment and might fancy something a bit lighter. 

I did used to rate the Bell Jar when I was younger Rollem. I just don't any more. Long and boring explanation that I won't bother with here.  

When are you going to read the fucking Alice Walker one then bird?  


xx etc.


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## Rollem (Oct 7, 2003)

*fuck dub*



erm, yeah...


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## atitlan (Oct 7, 2003)

Just started "The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles" by Ronald Hutton which is meant to be a fairly academic examination of pre-Christian religion in Britain and pretty sceptical of reinvented new-age Paganism.


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## Dubversion (Oct 7, 2003)

*fuck dub*



> _Originally posted by Rollem _
> *
> 
> erm, yeah... *



with hindsight, that post of mine seemed a bit attention seeking 

it wasn't, it's just a thing that happened which would attain its true degree of headfuck in the mind of someone else who'd just finished the book, if that makes sense


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## Donna Ferentes (Oct 7, 2003)

_The Oxford Illustrated History of the Greek and Hellenistic World_ and _Tony Miles : It's Only Me, England's First Chess Grandmaster_ by Geoff Lawton.


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## Calva dosser (Oct 8, 2003)

*Dead Air-Ian Banks*



> _Originally posted by Orang Utan _
> *Don't bother - it is embarrassingly bad - like some sad fat old uncle trying to impress the youngsters by being hip. Banks has so badly lost it. I seem to be experiencing a very sharp curve of increasing disappointment here. His first three are masterpieces and The Crow Road ain't bad either but ever since Crow Road, he has been increasingly shite. In fact he gets worse the more hip je tries to be. I've got more to say on this but no time at the moment. More about Dead Air tomorrow."
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## Elpenor (Oct 8, 2003)

Might give Dead Air a miss then.

Currently reading London Orbital by Iain Sinclair, finding it a bit 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 at the moment.

As for The Human Stain which I finished last week, its OK, but I've read better, and it was a bit of a drain to read. 75 page chapters don't make for a light read before bedtime.

I found it similar (although inferior) to J M Coetzee's Disgrace, could be interesting reading the two of them in unison.


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## Calva dosser (Oct 8, 2003)

Actually, to be fair, Dead Air is worth reading because of the most colon cramping description of that morning after, "did I 'phone,text, e-mail her?" moment


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## zora (Oct 8, 2003)

Anyone here into kids' picture books?

From the creators of the funny book The Gruffalo, Axel Scheffler and Julia Donaldson, comes the lovely The Snail And The Whale.
They tell in pacey rhymes and cheerful pictures the heartwarming story of ...err...the snail and the whale who travel the world together. 

I recommend that everyone grabs a mug of cocoa and goes to read it in their local bookshop (it will only take you 10 min.) and comes back with a big smile.




re: Dead Air. I can see what you mean, but I still quite enjoyed reading it. Possibly because the only other book by Iain Banks  I've tried to read (and gave up on halfway through) was The Business...?


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## Orang Utan (Oct 8, 2003)

> _Originally posted by zora _
> *Anyone here into kids' picture books?
> 
> *



Not really, but I like The Story Of The Little Mole Who Knew It Was None Of His Business, about a little mole who wakes up with a poo on his head and goes off to find who's responsible - cue load of animals pooing to prove it's not them. It might or might not be relevant to reveal that the authors are German.




MORE INFO HERE 

itExtraordinary Chickens isn't for kids, but has some great pics of freaky chickens in


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## zora (Oct 8, 2003)

*



			Not really, but ...
		
Click to expand...

 * 

Sounds like you are into them to me  

A little bit.

Good to hear that you like the Little Mole.


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## onemonkey (Oct 9, 2003)

> _Originally posted by zora _
> *Anyone here into kids' picture books? *


 well this is awesome but it doesn't really count does it? 






we always liked "dinosaurs and all that rubbish", "canonball simp" and going way back "the very hungry caterpillar"

which is a good excuse to quote funniest bit of Stupid White Men by Michael Moore.  In his open letter to GWB asking him if he can read to an adult level...



> All the signs of this illiteracy are there - and apparently no one has challenged you about them. The first clue was what you named as your favorite childhood book. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", you said.
> Unfortunately, that book wasn't published until a year after you graduated from college."


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## Nina (Oct 9, 2003)

Just started The trial of Henry Kissinger by Hitchens.
Quite apt since I've been in Asia so long witnessing the after math of death and destruction.

Also half way through Memoirs of a Geisha. It's depressing but feels a bit better now I've realised it isn't a true story. So sad  In fact, the last month seems to have been full of harrowing books.

Think I need something lighter next.


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## onenameshelley (Oct 9, 2003)

still reading 12 step fandango, which is not too bad but i appear to be going through one of those phases where i just cant settle to read anything. I hate those times where i become unable to concerntrate on reading


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## simon_gill (Oct 9, 2003)

*Book*

Im reading Dreamcatcher by Stephen King.


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## andy2002 (Oct 9, 2003)

I've been reading 'Easy Riders, Raging Bulls' for the past two or three weeks. It's very indepth and detailed so I'm really taking my time over it. Some great stories in there about the likes of Warren Beatty, Dennis Hopper and Robert Altman. Hilarious and scary.


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## Maggot (Oct 9, 2003)

> _Originally posted by onenameshelley _
> * but i appear to be going through one of those phases where i just cant settle to read anything. I hate those times where i become unable to concerntrate on reading  *



I had one of those earlier this year (and I know why). It was quite frustrating.

Am now enjoying Stupid White Men which Onemonkey mentioned above. I also have a whole pile of books which people bought/lent me when I was in hospital still to get through. I wish I was a faster reader.


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## mango5 (Oct 9, 2003)

To the Victor the Spoils - Colin MacInnes
Impossible Saints - Michele Roberts
Wizard of Oz Screenplay
The River of Time - David Brin (short stories)

Half way through all of these - always have a few on the go


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## ck (Oct 10, 2003)

"Designed by Peter Saville"

Astounding.  Although I'd never normally take a coffee-table sized book outside the house , I lugged this about all week and read it on the way to and from work.


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## oddjob (Oct 10, 2003)

commonsense, by tony benn

interesting


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## Thimble Queen (Oct 11, 2003)

*reading....*

neverwhere by neil gaiman for like the millionth time!


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## 2 Hardcore (Oct 11, 2003)

'Charlie Big Potatoes' by Phil Robinson. Only started it last night, so too early for critical comment, but looking good.


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## 2 Hardcore (Oct 11, 2003)

> _Originally posted by onenameshelley _
> *still reading 12 step fandango, which is not too bad but i appear to be going through one of those phases where i just cant settle to read anything. I hate those times where i become unable to concerntrate on reading  *



Stick with it, it's worth it! Well I enjoyed it, anyway


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## Nina (Oct 12, 2003)

Martin Amis London Fields.


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## Dubversion (Oct 12, 2003)

well, i yesterday managed to read all 300 pages of Footnote by Boff from Chumbawamba, which is a brilliant look at his life and well readable even for non-fans - thoughtful, funny, sad in places, and just damn good (so cheers to fozzie bear for that  )

back on the george melly autobiography, which is even better than i expected, his navy years were great- his attempts to weather the rough-arsed atmosphere of the navy whilst lying in his hammock reading books about Surrealism, his honesty about how self-consciously pompous he was, are brilliant.. on to his jazz years now. did george melly know EVERYBODY?


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## Blagsta (Oct 12, 2003)

Iain Sinclair - Lights Out for the Territory


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## Dubversion (Oct 12, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Blagsta _
> *Iain Sinclair - Lights Out for the Territory *



genius, isn't it? but don't you just wonder how some people got to be so fucking smart?


----------



## Blagsta (Oct 12, 2003)

Only bought it today, I'm on page 8, so I'll tell you in a couple of days...


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## zora (Oct 12, 2003)

Meant to be reading the bookgroup book, Nights At The Circus by Angela Carter, but got interrupted by Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country.
Also on my bedside table but on the back burner at the mo: The House At Pooh Corner and Chomsky's Rogue States.


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## Blagsta (Oct 13, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Blagsta _
> *Only bought it today, I'm on page 8, so I'll tell you in a couple of days... *



Well I'm now on page 78 and its pretty fucking engrossing.  His style of prose, how he fluidly goes from one concept, line of thought or reference to another, sometimes seemingly at a tangent, but always connected, is almost hallucinatory.


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 13, 2003)

I can't get with Sinclair - I never finished Lights Out - found his prose a little to allusive to things I know nothing of and therefore rather difficult to get a handle on.


Just got these out the library:
Pattern Recognition - William Gibson - this looks cool - set NOW and in London.
Red Dog - Louis De Berniere - I have been pining for a pet recently, but this will have to suffice.
Asylum - Patrick McGrath - I loved Martha Peake, so I hope this will match it in its Gothic portrayal of derangement and doomed love.


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## zora (Oct 13, 2003)

Slight thread derailment: On Sunday I also _listened to_ the _audiobook_ of Jim Dodge's FUP - a magical tale involving a whiskey swilling 99year old gambler, his grandson and a big very  hungry duck.


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## onemonkey (Oct 14, 2003)

> _Originally posted by zora _
> *Slight thread derailment: On Sunday I also listened to the audiobook of Jim Dodge's FUP - a magical tale involving a whiskey swilling 99year old gambler, his grandson and a big very  hungry duck. *


 Jim Dodge rocks n rolls.. sadly his books are as rare as duck's teeth.. there are only four of them the tiny tale of Fup Duck, (which unlike Tiny is tiny), a slim volume of poetry with more than a hint of zen about it. Of his two big books, *Stone Junction* is gripping in its own unusual way but *Not Fade Away* is utterly brilliant.

witness this post


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## onemonkey (Oct 14, 2003)

i'm now reading more of The Meaning of Things by A C Grayling..

mainly because he hasn't yet repsonded to my letter


----------



## kool_benny (Oct 15, 2003)

*does it count if I finished it yeterday??*

Dispatches, by Michael Herr - awesome tales of his time with the 'grunts' in Vietnam as a war correspondant. 

He then got involved in Apoacalypse now and Full metal jacket, and I can see why!


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Oct 15, 2003)

Also, does it count if you're reading them for review?


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## Rollem (Oct 15, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Rollem _
> *about to start 'girlfriend in a coma', by douglas coupland... *


 am about half way through, and am completely engrossed.


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## Lollybelle (Oct 15, 2003)

I'm reading 'A Town Like Alice' by Nevil Shute, which seems to be full of vaguely racist language but it was written in the 50s so I suppose it's of its time.  It's a lovely story so far, heroism and crucifixions no less, I reckon I'll probably bawl at some point.


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## Dubversion (Oct 15, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Rollem _
> *am about half way through, and am completely engrossed. *


 i've mentioned this before, but even if girlfriend... wasn't a great book (and it's a fucking great book  ), it would still be worth attention for the look on Mark Lawson and Tony Parsons face when Tom Paulin went into raptures about it on the late Review.

he was fucking frothing at the mouth. 

this is a man who generally doesn't like anything new enough to have involved electricity in its creation..


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Oct 15, 2003)

That's kind of what's so great about Paulin. He's not only rigorously honest (compare Tony Parsons who'll say anything if it sounds provocative enough) but he brings to bear, on contemporary works, a sensbility that's steeped in the appreciation of Milton and Sophocles. When you have critics (step forward Miranda Sawyer) who give the impression of never having read a book that's older than they are then it's particularly important to have a figure like Paulin who understands that literature has a rather greater purpose than to supply the background to what-the-media-set-in-London-are-talking-about-this-week.


----------



## Mr Retro (Oct 15, 2003)

Good as Gold by Heller, got a loan of it recently and started it last night. It's started a bit slowly though.


----------



## higster (Oct 16, 2003)

Good as Gold is good, but not as good as Catch 22, though as Heller said, what is?

Apart from struggling through If On a Winter's Night a Traveller, by Italo Calvino, I'm sailing through The Clock Winder, by Anne Tyler. I think I'll have read all her books when I finish it - I think she's remarkable.


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## onemonkey (Oct 16, 2003)

> _Originally posted by higster _
> *Good as Gold is good, but not as good as Catch 22, though as Heller said, what is? *


 our very own yossarian, yossarian recommends Something Happened..  

I'm kind of reading A portrait of the artist as an old man, which is kind of good.

but I'm kind of inclined to agree with JH, there aren't many books as good as Catch 22.. Slaughter House 5 isn't bad , Tin Drum is great & the last u75 book group choice The Good Soldier Svejk is as close as you can get to a Catch 22 for WW1  - although i suspect it has lost a lot of it's bite in translation.


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## shoddysolutions (Oct 16, 2003)

Sophie's World by Jostein Gaardner (I think)

A potted history of philosophy in the form of a (Platonic?) dialogue between a 15-year-old girl and a mysterious stranger. About a third of the way through it at the moment, and I'm engrossed.


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## Roadkill (Oct 16, 2003)

I tried to read _Sophie's World_ when I was about 15 and couldn't get into it at all.     I've found my old copy at my Dad's house, though, and it's sitting on my bookshelves waiting for me to get round to giving it another try...


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## shoddysolutions (Oct 16, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Roadkill _
> *I tried to read Sophie's World when I was about 15 and couldn't get into it at all.     I've found my old copy at my Dad's house, though, and it's sitting on my bookshelves waiting for me to get round to giving it another try... *



I'm really getting into it because I'm studying psychology at the moment, and the themes that run through the book are the building blocks of the other stuff I have read.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Oct 16, 2003)

> _Originally posted by onemonkey _
> *our very own yossarian, yossarian recommends Something Happened.. *


I recommend not bothering.


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## onemonkey (Oct 16, 2003)

i'm studying psychology too.. which is why i need to break up all those experiments and questionnaires with a little thought and wider reflection.. philosophy fits the bit.. quite liked Sophie's World but not sure how much philosophy one would actually learn in reading it.

i'm reading The Meaning of Things by AC Grayling-  more dipping into it because it is a loose collection of mini essays and polemics on... well... the meaning of things.. Mercy, Fear, Love, Sin, Memory, Ambition, Age, all sorts.

Based on his saturday guardian column, and you can see him skimming over some stuff in journalistic shorthand, but it's thoughtful and thought provoking, worth a look.

roadkill & shoddy, you might also be interested in this little project of mine:

phil.onemonkey.org


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## Dubversion (Oct 16, 2003)

> _Originally posted by shoddysolutions _
> *Sophie's World by Jostein Gaardner (I think)
> 
> A potted history of philosophy in the form of a (Platonic?) dialogue between a 15-year-old girl and a mysterious stranger. About a third of the way through it at the moment, and I'm engrossed. *



see, we were given this to read as part of a philosophy degree course, which seemed a bit odd somehow.

i guess the easy way you're led into inquiring into things 'philosophically' (ahem) is interesting, but to be honest i thought the whole concept (learn about Kant with a little girl) was a bit bogus really


----------



## onemonkey (Oct 16, 2003)

still infinitely preferable to learning about Kant with Kant, he was an appalling writer. Hume is bad enough but Kant ack ack ack..


----------



## onemonkey (Oct 17, 2003)

breakfast for champions is now my new favourite Vonnegut novel..  

i'm laughing out loud while reading it. well.. more of a broad smile breaking through into a suppressed chuckle.. i am british, after all we don't laugh out loud in public unless we've previously been told it's okay .. sorry!

oh and we apologise far more than we need to too.. sorry!

oh damn, sorry!  argh! s..


----------



## shoddysolutions (Oct 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Justin _
> *I recommend not bothering. *



I'll second that ... _nothing_ happens, really.


----------



## wildwildlifer (Oct 17, 2003)

*Ignatius P O' Reilly*

renewing acquaintance with

"Confederacy Of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
a candidate for funniest book of all time
interesting story behind it as unpublished during author's life. He committed suicide and mother found the book under his bed!
thank the lord or someone

also recently got into  John Burnside 'Living Nowhere' which i really rated
anyone else got any suggestions for others of his?


----------



## oddjob (Oct 17, 2003)

*philosophy*

I think i'll add kierkgaard; 'the sickness unto death' to my philosophy reading

 

nice one


----------



## Voley (Oct 17, 2003)

*Ignatius P O' Reilly*



> _Originally posted by wildwildlifer _
> *renewing acquaintance with
> 
> "Confederacy Of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
> ...



Totally agree. Genuinely laugh-out-loud funny pretty much all the way through.

IP Reilly really is the business. His Mum asks him to get a job and he comes out with stuff like 'Fortuna alone knows what other monstrous effronteries you intend to visit upon my person, Mother!'


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 17, 2003)

my mate jared (comrade suave from PROD) lived in noo orlins for a while, and they have a great big statue of ignatius j reilly there.

rocking


----------



## jms (Oct 17, 2003)

Nineteen-Eighty-Four


----------



## kool_benny (Oct 18, 2003)

> _Originally posted by jms _
> *Nineteen-Eighty-Four *



Loved it


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## CyberRose (Oct 18, 2003)

I've developed a bit of a taste for John le Carre books lately. I read Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy (1st in the Karla Trilogy) then I just finished The Constant Gardener (which you'll all love as its about a nasty pharacuetical company doing nasty stuff in the third world and how a Foreign Office worker, who's wife was mudered by said company, goes on a quest to bring its down fall)

Now I'm readin The Honourable Schoolboy (2nd in the Karla Trilogy)

After I've read the 3rd book in the Karla Trilogy (Smiley's People), I guess it'll be back to the Discworld novels!!!


----------



## Ciara (Oct 18, 2003)

All Quite on The Western Front


----------



## mrkikiet (Oct 19, 2003)

finished Everything is Illuminated. quality.

now i'm reading: Flaubert's Parrot but Julian Barnes, and Rabbit, run by Updike.


----------



## Pie 1 (Oct 19, 2003)

Currently utterly engrossed in Jonathan Raban's new one - Waxwings. I've been a long time fan of his, but even by his standards , Waxwings is supurb - I haven't enjoyed a book this much for a while , it's great


----------



## Sooty (Oct 20, 2003)

Have moved away from Guns, Steel and Germs for the time being.  Am now reading "For Whom the Bell Tolls".  So far so good.


----------



## kool_benny (Oct 20, 2003)

ah!
I was looking to read that, off to spain soon so thought it would be a good 'un.


----------



## Sooty (Oct 20, 2003)

I haven't learnt much about Spain yet or about the war....but then again I am only on page 46!   

I'm off to Spain for a long weekend on Thursday so hopefully I'll be a bit further along in my book by then.


----------



## Roadkill (Oct 20, 2003)

_Broken Rails_ by Christian Wolmar.

Story of rail privatisation, and what a disaster it's been.  More detailed than Andrew Murray's book but more liberal in its opinions.  Very, very interesting though.


----------



## ChrisC (Oct 20, 2003)

TihKal by Alaxander Shulgin.

http://www.erowid.org for more details.


----------



## pinky (Oct 20, 2003)

i'm a late starter on this one.......

i'm 60 pages into watership down at the age of 28, having never read it or seen the film before

i have the box of kleenex ready & am dreading the sadness that awaits me


----------



## kool_benny (Oct 20, 2003)

1 chapter into Crime and Punishment.

Wasn't sure if I was going to get into it or not, but it's great so far!


----------



## J77 (Oct 21, 2003)

Just finished "The English" by the Paxman - this was quite good attempt at summarising the nation in a few hundred pages but I always had an impression that his viewpoint was very limited.

Am now reading "Look to Windward" by Iain M. Banks because I heard him talking about SF on R4 and was stuck at Paddington for an hour, went into WHS and bought it. It's quite good - I never really liked his 'normal' books (drop the M) so had reservations at first...


----------



## Masseuse (Oct 21, 2003)

Elizabeth Costello by J M Coetzee.

Incorporates "The Lives of Animals" novella in this one.  Darn good read so far.


----------



## foo (Oct 21, 2003)

Just finished Girlfriend In A Coma. Excellent!  

After being heartbroken by Life After God, and loving this one - I'm going all out in search of more of his books.


----------



## easy g (Oct 23, 2003)

yea I finished Life After God last night...

what a beautiful, tender heartbreaking book


----------



## bass (Oct 23, 2003)

I'm patting myself on the back for finishing Brothers Karamazov - was very good, but very very long.  Am now reading Paul Theroux moan his way around Africa in Dark Star Safari.  I've read all his travel books and he gets more cantankerous with each one - quite funny though.  Also just starting 'Women In Love' (DH Lawrence) for lots of stuff about shagging with no actual shagging (lots trains going into tunnels and long teapot stems - doesn't do it for me)...

Bass


----------



## Elpenor (Oct 23, 2003)

> _Originally posted by bass _
> * Am now reading Paul Theroux moan his way around Africa in Dark Star Safari.*



I hope it's good, I bought it for my Dad as abirthday present last week. I hope he isn't whinging too much, I only got it as my Dad spent a lot of time in Africa doing VSO, and I couldn't think of anything else.

Currently reading Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut and Whatever Happened To The Tories by Ian Gilmour. Both shaping up well at the moment.


----------



## onemonkey (Oct 23, 2003)

took a quick break from Breakfast of Champions (which i don't want to end) to re-read Life, the Universe and Everything

"The regular early morning yell of horror was the sound of Arthur Dent waking up and remembering where he was."


----------



## Xtine (Oct 24, 2003)

The Cthulhu Mythos by August Derleth. 
i want to work for Dr Shrewsbury.


----------



## Nina (Oct 25, 2003)

ah, onemonkey...Breakfast of Champions is truly a clever clever book.

Just finished Martin Amis London Fields and feeling very fucking proud of myself since it's dragged on for 2 long weeks.

Some good characterisation, a few comic lines but on the whole I found it disappointing.

Will now treat myself to a BRAND NEW book...hopefully Palahnuik's Diary or Will Self's Dorian.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 25, 2003)

finally finished George Melly's autobiography last night, and then cos i couldn't sleep i ploughed through Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd.

debut novel by an acclaimed graphic designer, set in a 50s US university about kids learning graphic design with a very demanding teacher.

first 200 pages are a great read (if a bit thin character wise) but the last 100 it just goes tits up, i'm afraid. ALMOST a great book.

just started Stiffed by Susan Faludi because if i don't, furvert will sulk..


----------



## MysteryGuest (Oct 25, 2003)

Just finished The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills.

The last sentence made me break out in goosebumps, laugh and kind of recoil in horror at the same time.  It's an unforgettably brilliant book, very minimal but highly resonant with oblique hidden meaning.  And last sentence...


----------



## bluestreak (Oct 25, 2003)

i read that a couple of years ago and couldn't see what all the fuss was about.  i must have completely missed the point because i've never found anyone else who didn't like it.

i'm currently reading ted hughes' birthday letters.  it's a rare poetry collection that can simply be read one at a time in order but this one is absolutely amazing.  it's been knocking around my places for a couple of years now and i've never got round to reading any of it.  thoroughly recommended.

just finished reading james kelman's how late it was, how late.  very good indeed, really dark, honest, and completely brilliant characterisation. completely 'real' too, i think.


----------



## Voley (Oct 25, 2003)

> _Originally posted by bluestreak _
> *
> just finished reading james kelman's how late it was, how late.  very good indeed, really dark, honest, and completely brilliant characterisation. completely 'real' too, i think. *



Very good book. I might have to go and have a re-read of that one, too.

I've just started 'Pimp - The Story Of My Life' by Iceberg Slim.

The opening paragraph should give you an idea what it's like:



> Dawn was breaking as the big Hog scooted through the streets. My five whores were chattering like drunk magpies. I smelled the stink that only a street whore has after a long, busy night. The inside of my nose was raw. It happens when you're a pig for snorting cocaine.



Reminds me of Jane Austen a bit.


----------



## Roadkill (Oct 25, 2003)

Just started on _Downsize This_ by Michael Moore.

_Stupid White Men_ is much better.


----------



## Nina (Oct 26, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Dubversion _
> *finally finished George Melly's autobiography last night, and then cos i couldn't sleep i ploughed through Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd.
> 
> debut novel by an acclaimed graphic designer, set in a 50s US university about kids learning graphic design with a very demanding teacher.
> ...



Dubversion...can u explain to me what the end of that Chip Kidd book was all about?...I haven't a clue!


----------



## Maggot (Oct 26, 2003)

> _Originally posted by foo _
> *Just finished Girlfriend In A Coma. Excellent!
> 
> After being heartbroken by Life After God, and loving this one - I'm going all out in search of more of his books. *



I recomend Miss Wyoming.

Shampoo Planet and Microserfs aren't as good IMHO.


----------



## silentNate (Oct 26, 2003)

Beware: Maggot is _sooooooooo_ wrong... 'Microserfs' is a great book, 'All families are psychotic' also very good...
'Girlfriend ina coma' was my favourite til he (Coupland) started slagging it off in interviews!!!!


----------



## lyra_k (Oct 27, 2003)

About 100 pages into A Star Called Henry - Roddy Doyle.

Unrelenting grimness; pretty much what you'd expect from Mr Doyle, but a page-turner and has me bawling my eyes out.

Had it for ages and forgot to read it, found it when unpacking boxes of books - result!


----------



## Fozzie Bear (Oct 27, 2003)

Just finished: 

Richard Gombin - The Origins of Modern Leftism

(pretty good skinny Pelican job, on the situationists, council communists, socialism or barbarism etc. Translated from da french innit).

Stewart Home - Defiant Post

(one of his early pulp polymorphously-perverse-anarcho-skinhead "he fell backwards spitting out gouts of blood and the occasional tooth" jobs, which originally cost a packet cos it was a hardback but I got it for a fiver at the anarchist bookfair off Haven. Anyway - it does the trick if you like that sort of stuff (and I do!) but you wouldn't pay 12 quid for it).

Just starting:

Humanist Philosophers' Group - Religious Schools: the case against. 

(pamphlet from the British Humanist Association. A bit polite and theoretical for my unrefined tastes).

A load of random stuff from the bookfair.

Still reading:

David Keenan - England's Hidden Reverse

(cos I borrowed it from Dubversion and don't want to drop it in a puddle)


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 27, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Maggot _
> *I recomend Miss Wyoming.
> 
> Shampoo Planet and Microserfs aren't as good IMHO. *


mentalist.


miss wyoming was the beginning of the psychotic soap opera period (taken to its horrible conclusion with All Families...)

a period redeemed by the lovely Hey Nostradamus


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 27, 2003)

*SPOILER*



> _Originally posted by Nina _
> *Dubversion...can u explain to me what the end of that Chip Kidd book was all about?...I haven't a clue!  *



it's about him not having a clue how to write 


he just seemed to run out of plot steam and bottle it, which is a shame cos up until p200 or so it was an enjoyable (if flimsy) read.

did  he actually have gay feelings for Sorbeck, and did he do more than just take polaroids?
and what really happened to Hilly?
fuck knows, but i did finish it at5am so i was a bit confused anyway.


----------



## rennie (Oct 28, 2003)

still ploughing thru war and peace... absolutely amazing vivid descriptions but boy is it heavy on the shoulder?!! 

i get stares from all quarters everytime i pull it outta my bag on the tube or in the pub.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 28, 2003)

> _Originally posted by reNnIe _
> *i get stares from all quarters everytime i pull it outta my bag on the tube or in the pub.   *




thats just cos you're right funny looking


----------



## rennie (Oct 28, 2003)

... i was hoping it had somethin to do with the book rather than me oh so gorgeous self!


----------



## mrkikiet (Oct 28, 2003)

> _Originally posted by silentNate _
> * 'Microserfs' is a great book,....'Girlfriend ina coma' was my favourite til he (Coupland) started slagging it off in interviews!!!!  *



Microserfs is a dreadful book. end of.

Why does what Coupland think of his books affect what your opinion of them is? 

I started the Master and Margarita last night. I suspect it may end up joining my pile of partially read books destined never to be finished.

and yes, i agree, the ending of Chipp Kidd was dissapointing. also the Cheese Monkeys, hmmmm?


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Oct 28, 2003)

> _Originally posted by geordietim _
> *
> I started the Master and Margarita last night. I suspect it may end up joining my pile of partially read books destined never to be finished. *


If it does, you will really, really miss out. Stick with it.


----------



## Belushi (Oct 28, 2003)

Just about to start Adam Hoschild 'King Leopold's Ghost' about  Belgian Congo atrocities in the Nineteenth Century and which has been very highly recomended to me.


----------



## BEARBOT (Oct 28, 2003)

lets see.... 
this week im reading "surreal lives" concerning the surrealists 1917-1945
plus STILL reading "good soldier svejk" by jaroslav hasek
and "zig zag zen" a history of buddhism and psychedelics

these are manging to hold my interest and meet my exacting standards


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 28, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Belushi _
> *Just about to start Adam Hoschild 'King Leopold's Ghost' about  Belgian Congo atrocities in the Nineteenth Century and which has been very highly recomended to me. *



Was that me? It is indeed a fantastic read but won't endear you to the Belgians (if anything would)


----------



## Belushi (Oct 28, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Orang Utan _
> *Was that me? It is indeed a fantastic read but won't endear you to the Belgians (if anything would) *



It was indeed mate


----------



## Nina (Oct 29, 2003)

I've decided with the Cheese Monkeys...he was just trying to be stylish and it just didn't work.

I'm halfway through Chuck Palahniuk's latest 'Diary'. It's supposed to be based on the Rosemary's Baby story but to be honest it reminds me of The Wicker Man.

So far it's typical him, a fast cynical and negative read.
Very good


----------



## (empty) (Oct 31, 2003)

By now i'm reading Murphy (1938) from Samuel Beckett and also Premier Amour (1970) from Beckett too... Must be Beckett time for some reason in my head.


----------



## WasGeri (Nov 1, 2003)

I've just started to read my Paul Robeson biography. Chapter two, and I am already angry about the way he was treated.


----------



## jms (Nov 1, 2003)

Having rather overdone things on the Orwell front, I am now reading nothing

Gormenghast is sitting rather menacingly on my bedside table, saying "Reeead me" and Im thinking "nooo, its not worth bothering"

maybe some day..

I'll probably just read Lirael by Garth Nix next

or maybe that Jan Mark thing I've had stored up

oh the choice 

I am rather looking forward to "Lyra's Oxford" though...


----------



## chez (Nov 2, 2003)

domain- James Herbert, have n't read a cheesy horror novel for years but really enjoying this.


----------



## Paxman (Nov 2, 2003)

Solar Lottery by Philip K Dick - fantastic book considering it was written in the 50`s


----------



## Kernow bys vyke (Nov 2, 2003)

Just finished John McEnroes autobiography which was good but nowt special, certainly not as good as Frank Skinners autobiog which was one the funniest books I've read. Soon to start on The Wasp Factory which I hear is excellent.


----------



## foo (Nov 2, 2003)

Asterix And The Big Fight & Asterix And The Great Divide.   

Chuckling away as I read these childhood faves while I cook up a big pot of soup and dumplings.  

Lovely stuff!


----------



## white rabbit (Nov 2, 2003)

Yellow Dog, Martin Amis. Birthday pressie. Haven't got far enough in yet to make a judgement.


----------



## fortytwo (Nov 2, 2003)

I just finished Light by M John Harrison. I knew it had been up for some awards earlier in the year, so I went looking for it. Reading the back cover, it seemed like my style -so I bought it. Of course the story bears no relation to what was on the back cover, and I was disappointed with the whole thing. It serves me right, all the critics from the literary press had orgasms over it (which was apt considering the contents) but I should have known better, I never seem to like their recommendations.

42


----------



## Nina (Nov 3, 2003)

Just finished John Colapinto   About the Author. God fast thrilling read about a writer with writer's block who discovers his dull flatmate has written a novel! The flatmate dies, so he steals the novel to publish as himself...with some nasty consequences...

Now halfway through Alice Sebold  Lovely Bones

It's just beautiful.....give it a go. You need a box of tissues though if you're a bit on the sensitive side, like me.


----------



## mrkikiet (Nov 3, 2003)

the bang bang club by greg marinovich. life as a photographer in Johannesburg during the state ponsored violence of the early 1990s, 'tis good.


----------



## onemonkey (Nov 3, 2003)

finished Breakfast of Champions  - fan-fkin-tastic!

started Death & the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov

A Kiev writer and his pet penguin gets tangled up with the ukranian mafia after the obituaries he has been hired to write about prominent local politicians finally start seeing their way into print. very black comedy with a twist of penguin.


----------



## bluestreak (Nov 4, 2003)

just finishing the man who mistook his wife for a hat by oliver sacks.

very interesting indeed.  lots of insight into the way brain injuries affect people and perceptions and whatnot.  thoroughly recommended.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 4, 2003)

i have a big pile of great and new and unread and redeeming books to read.

but instead i'm reading His Dark Materials again


----------



## DaveCinzano (Nov 4, 2003)

> _Originally posted by geordietim _
> *the bang bang club by greg marinovich. life as a photographer in Johannesburg during the state ponsored violence of the early 1990s, 'tis good. *



it's co-written with fellow snapper joao silva. 

fucking excellent book about outsiders getting drawn into the hostel wars, when state-sponsored agents were stirring up 'black-on-black' violence in the townships between zulus and xhosa (roughly speaking), in an attempt to stymy the dismantling of apartheid and the transition to democracy.

also has powerful passages on the failed attempt by awb loons to invade the bophutswana (sp?) 'homeland' - you'll remember the gruesome pics of the time of a fat nazi in too-tight khaki shorts and gunshot wounds half-fallen out of his car. well, these are the guys who took those pictures.

also works well as a war correspondent's memoir, alongside tim page and michael herr.


----------



## mrkikiet (Nov 4, 2003)

> _Originally posted by bristle-krs _
> *it's co-written with fellow snapper joao silva. *


 indeed. 


> *fucking excellent book about outsiders getting drawn into the hostel wars,*


in all honesty though, they chose to get drawn in. it was their decision, as shown by the fact some of them did leave when it got too much.  they also were prepared to travel round the world photographing conflict



> *you'll remember the gruesome pics of the time of a fat nazi in too-tight khaki shorts and gunshot wounds half-fallen out of his car. well, these are the guys who took those pictures.*


 i was a bit young then, but weren't the really significant pictures the ones of them actually being shot that some film camera-man had taken? Marinovich wasn't there at the time of the execution but got some good follow ups as other photographers fled.

that vulture picture is gruesome.


----------



## easy g (Nov 4, 2003)

In the middle of Hey Nostradamus by Coupland and being blown away again

thing is I'm kind of loathe to read some of his other stuff in case it 'spoils' the 2 books that have touched me so much.. 

read Magnus Mills - 'The Scheme for Full Employment' last week and thoroughly enjoyed it..quite light hearted, very little England, a book that is sleek and pared to the bone but with ideas there as well, there is something I like a lot about his work.


----------



## STFC (Nov 4, 2003)

He Kills Coppers by Jake Arnott, loosely based on the story of Harry Roberts. A very good read, better than The Long Firm in my opinion. 

Read this bit on the train this morning, it made me smile:



> Mick realised that all these people were against so many things. Against the state, the police, the rich. Against animal testing, whaling, nuclear weapons, pollution. Against capitalism, Thatcher, Reagan. Against racism, imperialism, fascism, sexism, heterosexism. But, above all, they were against each other. They were always squabbling among themselves. Always arguing about the best course of action but never getting round to doing anything. Mick knew what he had to do.


----------



## soulrebel (Nov 4, 2003)

Peter Kropotkin - The Conquest Of Bread. For once i am reading a political theorist i (mostly) agree with...


----------



## zora (Nov 4, 2003)

> _Originally posted by onemonkey _
> *finished Breakfast of Champions  - fan-fkin-tastic! *



Agreed! Thanks for getting me hooked on it on that long journey from Essex to Brixton.   Finished it last night.

I'm now reading a proof copy of a book by David Peace called GB84 which is set in, surprise, 1984 and is about the miners' strike. Looking very interesting so far. (I generally quite like my history/politics nicely wrapped in a good novel, even if I'm reading non-fiction more often these days than I used to.)


----------



## Elpenor (Nov 4, 2003)

Breakfast of Champions is obviously the urbanite book of choice, as I've been reading it myself, and am similarly loving it too.


----------



## DaveCinzano (Nov 4, 2003)

> _Originally posted by geordietim _
> *in all honesty though, they chose to get drawn in. it was their decision, as shown by the fact some of them did leave when it got too much.  they also were prepared to travel round the world photographing conflict*



totally, that's exactly what i was getting at, they always had the option to walk.



> _Originally posted by geordietim _
> *i was a bit young then, but weren't the really significant pictures the ones of them actually being shot that some film camera-man had taken? Marinovich wasn't there at the time of the execution but got some good follow ups as other photographers fled.*



i remember some stills that were in the independent magazine at the time, the kevin carter one of the bearded guy trying to surrender, and some others i think. marinovich was there early enough to snap the corpses.


----------



## bluestreak (Nov 5, 2003)

i remember those from my youth too - i tore the pages out of the independent magazine and stuck them on the wall in my bedroom.

highly inspirational.


----------



## white rabbit (Nov 5, 2003)

[edit. _on second thoughts ..._]


----------



## DaveCinzano (Nov 5, 2003)

> _Originally posted by bluestreak _
> *i remember those from my youth too - i tore the pages out of the independent magazine and stuck them on the wall in my bedroom *



spooky 

me too...


----------



## rubbershoes (Nov 5, 2003)

_The war zone_  - A jolly tale of incest


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 5, 2003)

> _Originally posted by rubbershoes _
> *The war zone  - A jolly tale of incest *




is that the one tim roth made the movie of? a laff-riot, that one...


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Nov 5, 2003)

> _Originally posted by onemonkey _
> *started Death & the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov
> 
> A Kiev writer and his pet penguin gets tangled up with the ukranian mafia after the obituaries he has been hired to write about prominent local politicians finally start seeing their way into print. very black comedy with a twist of penguin. *


I have a Claim To Fame on that one, as a friend of mine used to work in the same Kyiv office as the author's girlfriend. Or something like that.


----------



## Iam (Nov 6, 2003)

I'm just about to start The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy, who's rapidly becoming a firm favourite of mine.

In future though, I'm gonna try and buy books in the right order. My order of reading Ellroy's LA Quartet will be 3rd, 2nd, 1st then 4th


----------



## Masseuse (Nov 6, 2003)

I am reading Hurricane - The Life and Times of Alex Higgins.  He's a nutter.  

Next is Ronnie - about Ronnie O'Sullivan.

And then I have two volumes of Steve Davis to get through.

I have decided to investigate the phenomenon and psyche of the snooker player.


----------



## BEARBOT (Nov 6, 2003)

Iam..u are in for a treat with "the black dahlia" im not a fan of james ellroys hard boiled detective fiction(just not my genre)but TRUE CRIME..now we are talkin turkey! i especially love when he discribes/evokes his misguided teenage years as a "sulphate fuelled serial panty sniffer" ...this is probably THEE greatest true crime book ever...are people almost starting to forget about "in cold blood" since this came out???
ellroy is also up there with ed sanders "garbage people" about manson and that other book about erm "the real black dalhia" erm published by gods own "AMOK press" beleive it or not it IS well written..sure its sordid and sleazy and cheap but that is the reality of this world and we are all runnin around like chickens tryin to distract ourselves and prove otherwise.. erm see ya in "chinatown" kids


----------



## rubbershoes (Nov 6, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Dubversion _
> *is that the one tim roth made the movie of? a laff-riot, that one... *



Dat’s the one. I haven’t seen the film but will dig it up after I’ve finished the book


----------



## Masseuse (Nov 6, 2003)

Does Cliff Thorburn have an autobiography out?  Or that other canadian snooker player?   Bill Werbenick?


----------



## milesy (Nov 6, 2003)

not currently reading anything, but have just ordered Ben Richards latest novel "The Mermaids and the Drunks" and can't wait for it to arrive as I have loved all his other books, even to the point of re-reading a few of them which is something I very rarely do.


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 6, 2003)

> _Originally posted by BEARBOT _
> *Iam..u are in for a treat with "the black dahlia" im not a fan of james ellroys hard boiled detective fiction(just not my genre)but TRUE CRIME..now we are talkin turkey! i especially love when he discribes/evokes his misguided teenage years as a "sulphate fuelled serial panty sniffer" ...this is probably THEE greatest true crime book ever...are people almost starting to forget about "in cold blood" since this came out???
> *



The Black Dahlia is fiction. It is part of the LA Quartet (The Big Nowhere, White Jazz and LA Confidential are the others). It was based on the unsolved murder of actress Elizabeth Short. It is also a kind of tribute to his mother who was also murdered horribly and the killet nevr caught.
I think the book you read was Ellroy's My Dark Places, in which he describes his mother's murder. It is a brilliant book and one of the most painfully honest memoirs I have ever read - sometimes you are shocked at the things Ellroy is willing to admit to, such as the panty-sniffing! It must have been a cathartic experience for him to write it.


----------



## BEARBOT (Nov 6, 2003)

yes..you are right..it was "my dark places" that impressed me so much..i got confused about various james ellroy titles cos i hadnt slugged down any coffee..just went straight to the computer upon awaking 

ps..im sure it might be hard for many of us to write something so honest about ourseleves..let alone agree to have it published!


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 6, 2003)

I dunno - there's a few people on here who would give Ellory a run for their money.......


----------



## onemonkey (Nov 6, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Masseuse _
> *And then I have two volumes of Steve Davis to get through.*


 Two volumes about Steve Interesting Davis?! 

Give me a break.


----------



## Perillous (Nov 6, 2003)

Just opened Praxis by Fay Weldon, but I'd just like to say how much I'm enjoying this thread!  I'll never be stuck for something to read ever again - cheers everyone


----------



## chegrimandi (Nov 6, 2003)

just finished The Face of War by Martha Gellhorn - 

she is a brilliant war correspondent, this is an anthology of some of her work and its superb....but sad.....


----------



## Rollem (Nov 7, 2003)

*smoke screen*

by robert sabbag


----------



## Nina (Nov 7, 2003)

The Hours

Michael Cunningham.

Surprisngly bad.
I'm thinking of giving up 50 pages in, which I never do with books  

Just too many long sentences I think...which means by the time I get to the end, I can't remember what the beginning of the sentence was about.


----------



## mrkikiet (Nov 7, 2003)

continuing on my South African tip. Waiting for the Barbarians by Coetzee. superior to Disgrace so far...


----------



## (empty) (Nov 8, 2003)

i keep with samuel beckett - malone muert (malone is dying)
And Mother from Maximo Gorky.. heheh russian writers forever!


----------



## newharper (Nov 9, 2003)

I just found ' things can only get better' by Jon o' Farrell in a Charity shop this morning, already about half way through and it's laugh aloud funny as well as being a great diatribe against thatch.


----------



## metalguru (Nov 9, 2003)

A Liar's Autobiography by Graham Chapman, picked up in Camden Market for £3 yesterday.

An interesting account of promiscuous gay sex recalled through a havy haze of alcohol by a Monty Python.

Apparently Douglas Adams helped with the writing of this book.

Example:

"But I never felt happy about a place unless I scored...I had more to drink and decided to cross Sunderland off the map. ..On my way past the reception desk I said, "Good grief, there's no one to go to bed with...where are all the young men round here? This is absolutely dreadful. I went to bed and fell drunkenly onto the bed alone.

I woke up at 5 o'clock in the morning to find the nightporter in bed with me, nude. He wasn't particularly my choice of person, but under the circumstances, he was welcome. He had let himself in with a pass key, and faithful to the hotelier's code, put customer satisfaction first."


----------



## Maggot (Nov 9, 2003)

> _Originally posted by newharper _
> *I just found ' things can only get better' by Jon o' Farrell in a Charity shop this morning, already about half way through and it's laugh aloud funny as well as being a great diatribe against thatch. *



If you enjoyed that I recommend Reasons to be Cheerful by Mark Steel, which is also about growing up as a lefty during the last Tory era. He is more left wing than O'Farrell and the book covers a longer period. I could really relate to it as he grew up in North Kent too. I never knew SWP members had such a great sense of humour!


----------



## silentNate (Nov 9, 2003)

Just posting to agree with 'Maggot' that Mark Steel's book is very much funnier and more politically rewarding than John O'Farrels book...


----------



## ringolevio (Nov 9, 2003)

Got a few on the go, but these are the two I'm reading most atm...


French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour De France by Tim Moore

Panorama: Fifty Years of Pride and Paranoia by Richard Lindley


----------



## oddjob (Nov 9, 2003)

set in darkness, by ian rankin


----------



## newharper (Nov 10, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Maggot _
> *If you enjoyed that I recommend Reasons to be Cheerful by Mark Steel, which is also about growing up as a lefty during the last Tory era. He is more left wing than O'Farrell and the book covers a longer period. I could really relate to it as he grew up in North Kent too. I never knew SWP members had such a great sense of humour! *



Thanks, I'll look out for it. 
I've heard him on thr radio quite a lot and can imagine, but are you sure about the SWP and humour?


----------



## easy g (Nov 10, 2003)

right...

just finished Hey Nostradamus and before that Life After God

loved them both..awesome..

wot next for me by Mr Coupland??


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 10, 2003)

generation x and girlfriend in a coma are the best of the rest.

shampoo planet and microserfs are very good, but not great.

miss wyoming is ok, and all families are psychotic is the only book of his i couldn't finish (i'm so glad he's back on form)


----------



## chegrimandi (Nov 10, 2003)

> _Originally posted by (empty) _
> *i keep with samuel beckett - malone muert (malone is dying)
> And Mother from Maximo Gorky.. heheh russian writers forever! *



good choices empty! Couple of things, pseudonym Gorky means bitter......nice Grandad he had innit....if you like Mother you should tuck into the autobiographical trilogy (you may have allready done this I guess) of MY CHILDHOOD (1913-14) followed by MY APPRENTICESHIP (1916)and MY UNIVERSITIES (1922), 

more misery, drudgery and potato gruel.....


----------



## Furvert (Nov 10, 2003)

i'm reading 'bring on the empty horses' - the 2nd of david niven's autobiographies, and top it is too! 

at the risk of being a predictable old bag, i have to say - after reading about some of the exploits of the old hollywood set, sounds like film stars were a lot more fun in those days!


----------



## Nina (Nov 10, 2003)

Have given up with 'The Hours' and taken it back to the library.

Gonna start Rohinton Mistry Family Matters today.

never read any of his stuff, so we'll see.


----------



## onemonkey (Nov 11, 2003)

reading the december book group choice the corrections which i can't talk about cos it'll spoil the surprise of our get together.. 

also reading Faust, Part II by Goethe.. & fear i may have missed something along the way.. 

part I was a simple tale of boy meets devil, boy meets girl, devil helps boy seduce girl ruining several lives along the way..

part II is proving more confusing.. Faust barely figures in the first few scenes and the whole thing is in rhyming couplets reminscent of cinderella or mother goose. 

_Grace we bring as flower of living;
Let fair grace be in your giving._

still, it took him fifty years to write it so presumably it gets better..


----------



## haitu (Nov 12, 2003)

Millenium -- The Look of the Century


----------



## WasGeri (Nov 12, 2003)

I just finished my rather excellent Paul Robeson biography...next up is 'Everything', a book about the Manic Street Preachers, and once I've finished that I've got 'Seabiscuit' to read.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Nov 12, 2003)

just finished The Dark Fields by Alan Glynn 

Imagine a drug that makes your brain function with perfect efficiency, tapping into your most fundamental resources of intelligence and drive, releasing all the passive knowledge you'd ever accumulated. A drug that made you focused, charming, fast, even attractive. Eddie Spinola is on such a drug. It's called MDT-48, and it's Viagra for the brain-a designer drug that's redesigning his life.


----------



## EbonyLC (Nov 12, 2003)

Just started The Vision by Dean Koontz.


----------



## Roadkill (Nov 12, 2003)

Courtesy of Longdog I'm reading _The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy._

Haven't laughed so much at a book in quite a while.


----------



## 2 Hardcore (Nov 12, 2003)

Just finished 'Twelve', by Nick McDonnell. His first novel, only 19. I'll certainly be reading his second when it comes.


----------



## Pickman's model (Nov 13, 2003)

i've nearly finished "martin mcguiness: from guns to government" by liam clarke and kathryn johnston. very interesting: but the bibliography leaves a lot to be desired; the authors have a habit of saying something interesting and then moving on to something else without fully exploring what they've said; and their hostile attitude to macguiness colours much of the book. they seem to have come to their task with their conclusions already determined. maybe martin mcguiness isn't everyone's cup of tea, and clarke and johnston appear to have written the state approved version of events. the binding's crap too.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 13, 2003)

it's awful late and i've just finished His Dark Materials.. again.

and it's as moving and powerful and important the second time. and i have so much admiration for phillip pullman for trusting kids enough to give them such stuff to deal with, to not patronise them and to respect them enough to give them something to chew on.

and if the Telegraph or the the Mail or whoever did describe him as the most dangerous author in Britain, that's because they're scared of what a kid could take away from those books.

awestruck. again..


----------



## Voley (Nov 14, 2003)

I've just started re-reading the big, 4 volume version of 'The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy' after watching a thing about it on 'The Big Read'.

Really enjoying it, too. I was quite young when I read it the first time round and missed some of the subtler humour. Some of the more obvious jokes have had me laughing out loud, too. 

'It hung in the air like a brick doesn't'


----------



## souljacker (Nov 14, 2003)

Just started reading Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski. About 6 chapters in and it is very very good indeed. I have to say that Mr B is the greatest writer of the 20th Century.


----------



## Yu_Gi_Oh (Nov 14, 2003)

I'm reading Slapstick(Or Lonesome No More) by Kurt Vonnegut.  I really do think the man is a genius! 
Also I'm attempting Just Six Numbers by Martin Rees to get a better grasp on Quantum Physics because that is really exciting me right now, conversely it was Kurt Vonnegut who introduced me to the idea of string theory in his book Slaughterhouse 5(I recommend this highly, makes great comparative reading with Catch 22.) when I was just a wee lass, my poor mum couldn't comprehend the new questions of reality!
  Yay! Reading is my greatest indulgence after ganja, glad other people do it too.


----------



## Voley (Nov 14, 2003)

> _Originally posted by souljacker _
> *Just started reading Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski. About 6 chapters in and it is very very good indeed. I have to say that Mr B is the greatest writer of the 20th Century. *



That's a cracking book, souljacker. One of his best, imo. I read 'Run With The Hunted' - an anthology of all sorts of his stuff -in the Summer and came away thinking he was one of the world's greatest writers, too.


----------



## easy g (Nov 14, 2003)

nearly finished Girlfriend In A Coma - Douglas Coupland

loved it so far..I feel like I could read his stuff forever!

anyway already lined up is...

Well - Matthew McIntosh

anybody read it? Huberty Selby Jr seems to love it according to the blurb...


----------



## Iam (Nov 14, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Dubversion _
> *it's awful late and i've just finished His Dark Materials.. again.
> 
> and it's as moving and powerful and important the second time. and i have so much admiration for phillip pullman for trusting kids enough to give them such stuff to deal with, to not patronise them and to respect them enough to give them something to chew on.
> ...



Just bought these. Expecting good things...


----------



## General Ludd (Nov 15, 2003)

The Little Prince.


----------



## cynical_bastard (Nov 15, 2003)

I just started Ronald Reagan-My Memories of Office. I just finished it as well


----------



## newharper (Nov 15, 2003)

> _Originally posted by cynical_bastard _
> *I just started Ronald Reagan-My Memories of Office. I just finished it as well *



yerwhat


----------



## Holster (Nov 16, 2003)

Am reading 'Vanity Fair', Thackery at the mo. Possibly one of the wittiest books ever written. Anyone agree? Hope the soon-to-be-released film lives up to its greatness.


----------



## Nina (Nov 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by souljacker _
> *Just started reading Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski. About 6 chapters in and it is very very good indeed. I have to say that Mr B is the greatest writer of the 20th Century. *



Cool. I've just seen this in the book shop for a mere 3 quid. I didn't get it because I'd heard nothing except Bukowski's Post Office was any good.
Think I'll give it a go.


----------



## Nina (Nov 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by 2 Hardcore _
> *Just finished 'Twelve', by Nick McDonnell. His first novel, only 19. I'll certainly be reading his second when it comes. *



You've got to be kidding   That is the shittest book I've read this year.

That boy needs to get a life before he picks up another pen.

That's just my opinion of course


----------



## 2 Hardcore (Nov 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Nina _
> *You've got to be kidding   That is the shittest book I've read this year.
> 
> That boy needs to get a life before he picks up another pen.
> ...



IMHO, he has real storytelling skills; he doesn't need to _get _ a life, but to _live_ it - he's only 19, and is being true to himself and his generation, writing about things which have meaning, interest or relevance to him as a 19-year old student. 
Maturity and life experience will no doubt inform any work yet to come.
I think he has potential, anyway.


----------



## oddjob (Nov 17, 2003)

'set in darkness' ian rankin

i wonder how good they actually are if you're not scottish 

i know the pubs more than anything, sad 

mahers down tollcross


----------



## Dimension Line (Nov 17, 2003)

My mum just bought me a book called 'Being Dharma: The Essence of the Buddha's Teachings' by Ajahn Chah. It is really very interesting, although some of it I don't fully understand yet.


----------



## oddjob (Nov 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Dimension Line _
> *My mum just bought me a book called 'Being Dharma: The Essence of the Buddha's Teachings' by Ajahn Chah. It is really very interesting, although some of it I don't fully understand yet. *



you should always buy your own books, or use the library


----------



## candyman (Nov 18, 2003)

*The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay*

...by Micheal Chabon

His use of language to create images is excellent, and his attention to fine detail is superb but does sometimes knock on anorak/anal's door.


----------



## colbhoy (Nov 18, 2003)

Just started Koko by Peter Straub, pretty good so far. I recently finished Mystery by same author.


----------



## Elpenor (Nov 19, 2003)

Currently re-reading Vile Bodies, inspired sort of by it being filmed as Bright Young Things. Better than I remembered it, enjoying it more than Decline & Fall (which I must have read 5 or 6 times) 

Anyone know if the film's any cop?


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 19, 2003)

not settled on a new big book, so im flicking through The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bass Culture by Lloyd Bradley and England's Dreaming by Jon Savage.

again


----------



## onemonkey (Nov 20, 2003)

taking a break from Goethe's outright fruity Faust II  (someone German please tell me it is amazing in Deutsche cos i feel certain something has been lost in translation.  )

so instead i've been reading Quarantine by Greg Egan, having had him recommended to me as a cognitive-science fiction writer. I was also told he takes an idea and pursues it relentlessly and beyond the lengths that he needs to. I sort of see it. It contains two neat ideas and it pushes them as far as they will go.

firstly, in 2034 suddenly there appears an impenetrable Bubble round the solar system, cutting us off from the rest of the universe.. no one knows why or what alien race put it there.. after some panic and bewilderment life continues much as it always did.. give or take a few theologies and cults. 
secondly, the story is set 33 years later where neural modification is commonplace.. not merely seemlessly putting computing power inside your head but actually rewiring your neurons to make you believe different things, act in different ways.
the plot that draws these together- a detective is hire anonymously to trace a mentally retarded woman who has vanished from a secure mental institution. 

it is, alas, not a gripping page-turner but it is exceptionally clever and well thought-out (ignoring minor plot holes)


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 20, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Dubversion _
> * Bass Culture by Lloyd  *



I read this for the history but couldn't finish it cos it was so badly written - a pity cos it's the only comprehensive history of Jamaican music I have spotted.


----------



## Roadkill (Nov 20, 2003)

I've just finished _Goodnight Mister Tom_, by Michelle Magorian.  I read it at school, but hadn't looked at it for about ten years before I found it in a charity shoip at the weekend.  What a lovely story.


----------



## Belushi (Nov 20, 2003)

Just about to start Robert Service 'Russia: Experiment with a People' about Russia since 1991.


----------



## easy g (Nov 20, 2003)

Nearly finished...

All families are psychotic - Douglas Coupland

not heartbreakingly beautiful like the others by him I've read in the last few weeks but still raises a smile in these troubled times


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 20, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Orang Utan _
> *I read this for the history but couldn't finish it cos it was so badly written - a pity cos it's the only comprehensive history of Jamaican music I have spotted. *





 

gobsmacked!

i thought it was brilliantly written. not particularly tidy or succinct, i'll grant you.

but his love for the music and his enthusiasm and passion shine through, unlike, say, the David Katz Lee Perry book which was the dryest load of wank i've ever read.

Bradley knows and loves this stuff, and though he gives dancehall short shrift (as has been discussed here before), for the most part he just makes you want to run off and listen to it all.

surprised you didn't like it, Orang Utan.


----------



## thewaiter (Nov 20, 2003)

Picked up a pile of 2nd hand penguin classics so I'm reading Las Casas's Account Of The Destruction Of The Indies (lots of stuff about wild dogs trained to eat people, god told them to do it or something) and Dante's Divine Comedy: Part 1 - Hell


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 20, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Dubversion _
> *
> 
> gobsmacked!
> ...



Maybe I should give it another chance, but I remember being really irked by Bradley's style and thinking he badly needed a good editor.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 20, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Orang Utan _
> *Maybe I should give it another chance, but I remember being really irked by Bradley's style and thinking he badly needed a good editor. *



you've probably got a point, it can be a bit messy in places, but that felt to me like he was just getting carried away by his own enthusiasm, which makes a change from most music books which are either just hagiographies or so damned academic and dry..


----------



## small town girl (Nov 20, 2003)

I have just finished Ian McEwan's "Atonement" and I must say it is absolutely mind-blowing.One of the most powerful,disturbing,even devastating novels I've ever read. I was crying my eyes out when I finished it. Can't  recommend it highly enough.


----------



## Dr Evil (Nov 20, 2003)

I am reading Book 4 of David Eddings The Malloreon called Sorceress of Darshiva 
Id you like Science fantasy and have never read David Eddings then you must read these.
The Delgariad is the start to the story and I am on Book 1o of 12 and will be very sad when it is all over


----------



## Loco (Nov 20, 2003)

Currently reading "Lost Light" by Michael Connelly.... I'm actually ploughing through all of Peter Robinson's books at the moment, but I've decided to intersperse them with various odds and sods.


----------



## newharper (Nov 20, 2003)

Just about to start rereading 'A Confederacy of Dunces' by John Kennedy Toole  and am really looking forward to a real treat, I haven't read it for a few years now and I'm due.


----------



## timebomb (Nov 21, 2003)

Just finished The Great Gatsby, wasn't bad. I bought The Catcher in the Rye at the same time as well, but the removal men have boxed it up by mistake already so I'm without anything now.


----------



## bluestreak (Nov 21, 2003)

just finished Carter Beats The Devil, by Alan David Holt (I think that's his name) which is a very readable fictional account of a stage magician's role in Warren Harding's death.  Very good indeed.  I've started to re-read Coupland's Girlfriend In A Coma and although I'm only a few chapters in I'm immediately taken at the quality of the writing.  Wonderful.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 21, 2003)

> _Originally posted by bluestreak _
> *I've started to re-read Coupland's Girlfriend In A Coma and although I'm only a few chapters in I'm immediately taken at the quality of the writing.  Wonderful. *



i've found this with a couple of coupland's books - the stories are so compelling you get swept along and you're not always aware of how brilliant and evocative his writing is, takes a second go..


----------



## cevets (Nov 21, 2003)

*The Bonds That Make Us Free, Terry Warner*

I am about a third of the way into this book and it is already having a profound effect on how I think about myself and my relationships with others.

The most important concept so far:  Any time one is rationalizing (to themselves or to others) an action or behavior, then it is likely that the action or behavior was motivated by pride or selfishness or thoughtlessness.


----------



## Nina (Nov 22, 2003)

Just starting..

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things

Jon McGregor I think the author is.

He is from my home town so it got a bit of fuss in the press here last year. Also a book with no speech in it. Interesting.

Hope it lives up to the ranks of Rohinton Mistry's Family Matters which I finished yesterday. Just beautiful.


----------



## TremulousTetra (Nov 22, 2003)

Just read “Darwin” by Michael white and John gribbin.  I found it are really excellent read, with a thematic rather than a strictly chronological examination of Darwin and his work.  Having said I really enjoyed the book, there was a shock and disappointment on the last page.

Before that I read “the clash of fundamentalisms” Tariq Ali.  I picked it up and didn’t like it, As he seemed to just be talking about his childhood instead of the analysis I expected.  But once I picked it up again it was a brilliant read.  Though it does analyze a little bit the U.S. administrations faults, It mainly concentrates on the way third world leaders have colluded in the U.S.’s exploitation of third world.  Recommend.

“An English man in auschwitz” by Leo greenman.  Not the most gripping ever read, but I got the end.

Mark Steel “viva la revolution”.  A really funny and accessible account of the French revolution.  I would read it again, and recommend it to anyone even if they don’t have much interest in politics history, As the story and humor carries it along.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Nov 22, 2003)

Just finished "Nicholas van Hoogstraten: Killer Millionaire", which was interesting, and made a big point about the cowardice of officialdom which let him get away with so much for so long.
Currently read "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" by Max Weber and "Crime and Banishment: Nuisance & Exclusion in Social Housing" by Elizabeth Burney.


----------



## dwen (Nov 22, 2003)

just finished life after god by douglas coupland and started london orbital by iain sinclair...


----------



## Pickman's model (Nov 23, 2003)

"confessions of a thug" by philip meadows taylor.

from the blurb on the back:


> Philip Meadows Taylor's _Confessions of a Thug_ (1839) is the most influential novel about India before Kipling's _Kim_ and was one of the best-selling crime novels of the nineteenth century. In the course of a confession to a white 'sahib' the imprisoned Ameer Ali recounts his life as a devoted follower of Thuggee, a secret cult practising ritual mass murder and robbery. Taylor uncovered evidence of the crimes committed by bands of Thugs as a Superintendent of Police in India during the 1820s. Introducing a new standard of ethnographic realism* to western fiction about India, _Confessions of a Thug_ is a strikingly vivid, chilling and immensely readable thriller.


it is very interesting!
_____
*


----------



## jambandit (Nov 23, 2003)

am reading fear and lothing in las vegas..... and it all came true last night..... which was unexpected.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 24, 2003)

> _Originally posted by dwen _
> *just finished life after god by douglas coupland and started london orbital by iain sinclair... *



are you me?

two of the best books ever, IMO..



i'm starting Mother London by Michael Moorcock. i was a Moorcock obsessive in the 80s (it was the acid, i think) and i wolfed down both his clever and intricate stuff like the Jerry Cornelius stories, as well as the deliberately hammy fantasy stuff (inter-connected as it all was).

but somewhere along the line he's reinvented himself as a mmore 'serious' writer and as another of the 'hidden London' set, alongside Sinclair, Ackroyd et al, and this is the first thing of his i've read since the 80s so i'm looking forward to it.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 24, 2003)

> _Originally posted by jambandit _
> *am reading fear and lothing in las vegas..... and it all came true last night..... which was unexpected. *



where the hell did you find a whacked out Barbra Streisand fan? and have you let her go yet?


----------



## chegrimandi (Nov 24, 2003)

nearly finished This Side of Brightness by Colum McCann - have really enjoyed it - its a pretty easy read.....about homeless in New York, people living in the underground tunnels beneath the city....recommend to anyone....


----------



## Bond (Nov 24, 2003)

LOTR Return of the King - JRR Tolkien



Can't wait for the movie this xmas.


----------



## mrkikiet (Nov 24, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Roadkill _
> *I've just finished Goodnight Mister Tom, by Michelle Magorian.  I read it at school, but hadn't looked at it for about ten years before I found it in a charity shoip at the weekend.  What a lovely story.   *



i just noticed this comment. Goodnight Mister Tom is one of my favourite books ever. It brings out the true softy in me.

ON a slightly different note i'm reading Eurotrashed, an ever so slightly sensational account of the hooligan problem in Europe.


----------



## dwen (Nov 24, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Dubversion _
> *are you me?
> 
> two of the best books ever, IMO..
> ...



well i did get life after god after reading your thread about douglas coupland... i thought it was good though i didn't really think the various scenarios about being blown up were that effective....


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 25, 2003)

it's this bit that gets me - i'd argue it's the saddest thing i've ever read:


"Sometimes I think the people to feel the saddest for are people who are unable to connect with the profound - people such as my boring brother-in-law, a hearty type so concerned with normality and fitting in that he eliminates any possibility of uniqueness for himself and his own personality. I wonder if some day, when he is older, he will wake up and the deeper part of him will realise that he has never allowed himself to truly exist, and he will cry with regret and shame and grief.

And then sometimes I think the people to feel saddest for are people who once knew what profoundness was, but who lost or become numb to the sensation of wonder - people who closed the doors that lead us into the secret world - or had the doors closed for them by time and neglect and decisions made in times of weakness".


----------



## J77 (Nov 25, 2003)

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding.

The start was a bit of a drag but now Tom's been introduced it's getting interesting...


----------



## cailinmaith (Nov 27, 2003)

read: 'on the road' by Jack Keroac, really well written, and a great story.
and: 'The teachings of don juan' by carlos castaneda.
about a native american and all his knowledge about sorcery.


----------



## newharper (Nov 27, 2003)

'Give me 10 seconds' by john Sergeant

very funny, and the guy has the knack of being in the right place, starting from being in the crowd when Martin Luther King made his ' I have a dream' speech.


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 27, 2003)

I am reading The Political Animal by Jeremy Paxman - I like Paxman even though he is a smug wanker - it's populist anecdote driven material but he gets to the heart of the absurdities of British democracy. His distaste for the New Labour and the Tories is obvious and he can be be quite withering in his put downs (as evidenced in Newsnight and Unviersity Challenge)
Just read:
A Short History Of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson 
Bryson can be extremely maddening - Down Under really pissed me off cos he gleefully rails off unsourced anecdotes as unimpeachable fact - he doesn't often let truth get in the way of a good yarn and can actually be quite offensive in his light-hearted depiction of real people's unfortunate fatal accidents - so I was quite surprised by this - he utilises his skills very well here - his stories are actually sourced this time and he explains complex scientific theorys without making our head explode - I was especially taken with the section on particle physics cos I had attempted to read Hawking before and was as baffled as Calvin being explained it by Hobbes.
Another great thing Bryson does is hail the scientists who didn't quite make the Hall Of Fame - he reveals how competitive and backstabbing the scientific world is and, of course, provides us with some first class anecdotes.
His final analysis is gloomy - we're very lucky we're here and we'll be even luckier of we survive for much longer, for soon enough we'll be hit by a mega earthquake/volcanic explosion/ice age/meteorite and that will be that for us all.

I have also just read Patrick McGrath's Asylum. He is a bit overblown, and like Sebastian Faulkes, I suspect he doesn't have as much insight into the female psyche as he thinks he does - it's a very Gothic portrayal of a doomed love affair between a psychiatrist's wife and a paranoid shizophrenic patient at a mental hospital and is possibly the most depressing book I have ever read - still, it is beautifully written but shallower than it makes itself out to be.

I have also just read The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith and The Book, The Film, The T-Shirt by Matt Beaumont, but the less said about them the better. I might post more about the Smith book in a seperate post tomorrow because I really feel that Smith has been ridiculously over-hyped and someone needs to say that the emperor has no new clothes.

In my in-pile: 
Pattern Recognition -William Gibson
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

Looking forward to these!


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 27, 2003)

> _Originally posted by newharper _
> *'Give me 10 seconds' by john Sergeant
> 
> very funny, and the guy has the knack of being in the right place, starting from being in the crowd when Martin Luther King made his ' I have a dream' speech. *



I read that too - he is quite a lucky chap isn't he? Just as well, considering his Laughtonesque visage - what happened to him anyway? I haven't seen him on ITN for a while.


----------



## marty21 (Nov 27, 2003)

"did you get the vibe" kelly james enger, it's sort of sex in the city in chicago, not my normal thing, but i am enjoying it, partly because i know the author, she's american and we used to...you know...


----------



## oddjob (Nov 27, 2003)

Can reindeer fly?

again, cos it 's so good for explaing


----------



## golightly (Nov 27, 2003)

Just ploughing through Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson - a real thumper of a book with tiny writing about code breaking, information theory, the Second World War and the Pacific Rim.  Leant to me by my incredibly well-read girlfriend (puts me to shame).

I have to say my favourite bit was the description of eating very crunchy cereal with very cold milk.  One of my fetishes that is.


----------



## onemonkey (Nov 28, 2003)

you'll be delighted to know that Quicksilver, a 900 page prequel has just been published.. set in the time of Newton & Leibnitz featuring ancestors & antecedents of the cryptonomicon cast and conspiracies.. 

got it but haven't started it yet.. like with the cereal its arguable that best bit is the moment of anticipation before the first mouthful..


----------



## mango5 (Nov 28, 2003)

Ah yes, Quicksilver.  I'm 2/3 of the way through it.  Finding it quite hard work so alternating with other things.  But I always think Neal Stephenson is worth the effort.  Strange kind of prequel, but I won't spoil it for you....


----------



## hierophant (Nov 29, 2003)

'Quarantine' is about a fast in the desert.

 'Cities of the red night' says love is an ancient virus;

 'The narrow road to the deep north' is mysterious and real,

 and a collection of jorge luis borges has one piece called 
 'Inferno 1, 32' which i read in early october and which has been very powerful since. it's got an unforgettable leopard in it.

  jim crace william boroughs and basho wrote the others.


----------



## jms (Nov 29, 2003)

Money by Martin Amis

it's odd

but it's funny
and it's good


----------



## Nina (Nov 29, 2003)

Slaughterhouse Five

Kurt Vonnegut


----------



## newharper (Nov 29, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Orang Utan _
> *I read that too - he is quite a lucky chap isn't he? Just as well, considering his Laughtonesque visage - what happened to him anyway? I haven't seen him on ITN for a while. *



Hey i don't know, I was going to go into a smug  pose here,about how I don't watch ITV  till I remembered about  the rugby- but then, I hated their coverage so much I e-mailed them once a week to complain.

I've now sworn never to watch them again, but as I don't watch 
them in the first place, does this have any relevance.


----------



## Elpenor (Dec 2, 2003)

Time to bump this thread 

A 2 hour commute means I'm reading loads at the mo. Gone through Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh, Morvern Callar by Alan Warner and Life After God by Douglas Coupland. Liked 'em all.

Now getting my teeth into Girlfriend In A Coma, which I'm enjoying a lot. At the rate I'm reading I'll have finished it by thursday


----------



## Biscuit Tin (Dec 3, 2003)

*What book are you reading*

I am nearly half way through "Veronica Decides To Die" by Paulo Coelho sounds negative, I know, but it's caught my interest and I'm enjoying it.


----------



## Iam (Dec 3, 2003)

*What book are you reading*



> _Originally posted by Biscuit Tin _
> *I am nearly half way through "Veronica Decides To Die" by Paulo Coelho sounds negative, I know, but it's caught my interest and I'm enjoying it. *



I've read that. Despite being quite depressing subject matter it was actually very interesting. I couldn't help feeling something was lost ever so slightly in the translation, though...


----------



## General Ludd (Dec 3, 2003)

The Anarchists In The Spanish Civil War Volume 1 - Robert Alexander
Several academic books on Quantum Mechanics.


----------



## LDR (Dec 3, 2003)

I've just started Catch-22.  It's all about a guy called Yoss.

Yoss gave the book to Missuz Scott for her birthday.  Coincidence?


----------



## swelegant (Dec 4, 2003)

I'm about 3/4 of the way through The Joy Luck Club. Parts of it niggle me, but over all, it's quite an enjoyable book.


----------



## dogDBC (Dec 4, 2003)

I finished 'Vernon God Little' (DBC Pierrre) last night.  It was a stunning read.  A real treat of a novel.  

I only bought it because of an extract that I'd read last weekend.  I liked the style and set aside everything I'd heard about the Booker (and Pierre's somewhat unconventional financial dealings (!))  and grabbed it on Tuesday night. Bliss.  Caulfield, move over.

Thanks to Waterstone's 3 for 2 offer I'm sorted through until Monday I reckon.

Also purchased 'Twelve', Nick McDonnel and the third part of John Simpson's autobiog. 'News from No-Man's Land'.

I need to get back to 'Everything is illuminated' though 'cos the owner of this wants it returned.  Unfortunately, I ran out of spliff a quarter of the way through it...  I was spleened at this, do not dub me stoner...


----------



## Swearing Nonna (Dec 4, 2003)

I bought a couple of cheap books yesterday. Checked what was available on the shelves at home and decided I couldn't bear re-reading another book so for £3 each I got:

Catcher in the rye - JD Salinger 

Lanark - Alasdair Gray

Started Catcher in the Rye yesterday, early days yet.


----------



## easy g (Dec 4, 2003)

just finished Northern Lights by Phillip Pulman...feel like im flying by the seat of my pants

stuck into The Subtle Knife now....


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 4, 2003)

Now Dig This - The Collected Writings of Terry Southern.

strange fella


----------



## Fozzie Bear (Dec 4, 2003)

Just finished:

Jonthan Franzen - The Corrections (thought it was pretty damn fine, but then I hardly ever read fiction)

David Toop - Ocean of Sound (on ambient music - pretty good, tho I must confess to skimming the more arty classical bits)

Just started:

Polly Toynbee - Hard Work (her account of going to live on low wages. Essentially "poverty porn" for well off Guardian readers, but quite good on statistics and stuff. Plus a weird insight into a world where people normally pay hundreds of quid to eat in restaurants on a regular basis and are horrified at the prospect that perhaps some of the rest of us are not able to).

Jon Savage - England's Dreaming (on the Sex Pistols)

Big up Hackney Libraries.


----------



## Nina (Dec 4, 2003)

yeah the library seems to be working for me too.

Just got Graham Greene The End of the Affair.

Finished Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five yesterday...actually, I was a little disappointed.


----------



## dogDBC (Dec 4, 2003)

Fozzie - the Polly Toynbee one sounds interesting.

Mrs Dog has just arrived back and given me prezzie:  'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' Lynn Truss - a lot of chat about this in the media.

I want 'Toast' by Nigel Slater as well.  Sod it, I'll pick it up tomorrow...


----------



## Jeow (Dec 4, 2003)

I finished "Ignorance" by Milan Kundera today, and before that, the ubiquitous Life of Pi (but it _is_ good...)

easy g - NL (and the other 2) is probably my favourite book


----------



## Yossarian (Dec 4, 2003)

Dervla Murphy - Muddling through in Madagascar.

Excellent travelogue about a middle-aged woman and her daughter travelling through Madagascar, the south of which sounds like one of the most surreal places on Earth.


----------



## jayeola (Dec 4, 2003)

"Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson. Recommended to me last week. Getting into it as I have got a most seriuos cold <sniffle>


----------



## grubby local (Dec 4, 2003)

I've just read Bob Geldof's 1986 autobigraphy 'Is that it?', suprisingly gripping and  in parts a little disconcerting when you know what happened next (ie after 1986).

Now on to Robert Fisk's 'Pity The Nation: Lebanon at war' which takes it's title from a Kahlil Gibran poem: "Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another with trumpetings again".

Am doing Thomas Mann's Death in Venice (I know it's only about three words long, but i'm only one-and-a-half words through it).

gx


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 6, 2003)

got three on the go:

robert service's biography of lenin;

mario vargas llosa'a "the war of the end of the world";

poul anderson's "three hearts and three lions".

though i imagine i'll have finished the anderson by tomorrow.


----------



## newharper (Dec 6, 2003)

Just found 'Scoop', one Ive meant to catch up with for a very long time.


----------



## oddjob (Dec 6, 2003)

just about half way through ian rankin's 'beggars banquet'

i bet him, ian banks, and irvine welsh are good mates


----------



## chegrimandi (Dec 7, 2003)

> _Originally posted by easy g _
> *just finished Northern Lights by Phillip Pulman...feel like im flying by the seat of my pants
> 
> stuck into The Subtle Knife now.... *



I've seen loads of people reading this fucker and it just looks like any other sci-fi snore.....am I wrong? It also looks like all those other phenomenon books, like harry shitter, books that are a 'must read'....but easy I would trust your judgement so I'm intrigued....



um 100 years of solitude by that colombian bloke I can't remember his name...


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 7, 2003)

cheg - i can't abide sci fi or harry potter.

but pullman's books are in a different fucking league.

this is radical stuff, for kids especially. the Republic Of Heaven. Gay angels. the works.

trust us on this... you'll have to get used to the fact that it is written in the 'fantasy' idiom - talking animals and the like - but it all works beautifully. and the pay off is phenomenal.


----------



## Janine (Dec 7, 2003)

_Vermeer_ , a monograph by Sir Lawrence Gowing.


----------



## chez (Dec 7, 2003)

Hannahs gift
Maris Housden

A heart wrenching story about a three year olds battle against cancer
a remarkable story, remarkably told.


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 8, 2003)

> _Originally posted by dogDBC _
> *  'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' Lynn Truss - a lot of chat about this in the media.
> 
> *



I'm gonna look out for this - I bet Justin would love it - come to think of it - where is he? He hasn't posted for a while


----------



## mrkikiet (Dec 8, 2003)

youth by coetzee, after not being very keen on him at first i am really growing to his writing.

justin dissappeared after a set-to on P&P, i think.


----------



## Rollem (Dec 8, 2003)

"do not pass go" by tim moore. tells the tale of the monopoly board, and the 'real life' of the streets / places chosen.

in fairness i only bought it to read what it said about the old kent road  i dont even like the monopoly game....but i'm only three chapters in and have to say, its a pleasant surprise so far


----------



## jd (Dec 8, 2003)

Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson) is feckin great...hard-ish work (for a novel) but tremendously good and worth it.  Despite NS being Bill Gates' best mate or something.

I've just bought Quicksilver, a new Stephenson book.  Also a Peter Cook collection called Tragically I was an Only Twin, and some other ones that I might keep or give away at xmas - Vernon God Little and Everything is Illuminated.  3 for 2 innit.


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## Bond (Dec 8, 2003)

The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings - Edgar Allan Poe

The Raven is still one of my most favourite poems


----------



## oddjob (Dec 8, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Bond _
> *Edgar Allan Poe: *



poor bastard is dead

the spookyest


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## Bond (Dec 8, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Russ5 _
> *poor bastard is dead
> 
> the spookyest *



Um yes, is public knowledge that he died in 1849. Unless there's another that died very recently of course


----------



## oddjob (Dec 8, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Bond _
> *Um yes, is public knowledge that he died in 1849. Unless there's another that died very recently of course  *



poe is the sabre


----------



## J77 (Dec 10, 2003)

Thought I'd bump this long lasting thread by saying that I've just started the 2nd volume of Tom Jones, which bizarrely starts half way through one of the books...

Bigger than Lord of the Rings, this one...


----------



## Roadkill (Dec 11, 2003)

I've got two books on the go at the moment: one is _The Restaurant at the End of the Universe_ by Douglas Adams, which I'm working slowly through.  It's good, but often I don't fnd myself wanting to read it when I'm in the mood to read something.  IYSWIM.  

I'm also reading _The Battle of the Atlantic_ by John Costello and Terry Hughes.  I must have had this years: it's got my name and my old class at school when I was 13 written inside the front cover, but until now I'd never got round to reading it.  It's really good, actually: it's easy to read and informative and it's got a lot of eyewitness accounts and comments which bring the subject to life a bit.


----------



## alco (Dec 11, 2003)

> _Originally posted by chegrimandi _
> *um 100 years of solitude by that colombian bloke I can't remember his name...  *



Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Haven't read _Hundred Years of Solitude_ yet but _Of Love and Other Demons_ is excellent.

And me, not reading anything atm. Gave up on _Crime and Punishment_ halfway through 'cos I thought it was boring.


----------



## ziconess (Dec 12, 2003)

Don't forget 'Love in the time of cholera' alco 




Am currently reading 'The rediscovery of man' a group of short stories by Cordwainer Smith.

Started brilliantly but has gone off track a little but has some cracking tales, best being 'The lady who sailed the soul' magical stuff 


Have the new Alistair Reynolds to read next but will try & resist until christmas


----------



## bluestreak (Dec 12, 2003)

i've just finished reading 100 years of solitude.   stunning, absolutely stunning.  

just started on an iain sinclair but stil am not sure what is going on even though the actual writing stuns me with his magnificence.  have been distracted though, re-reading the sandman books....  those are good too....


----------



## Salo (Dec 12, 2003)

Summer Lightening by PG Wodehouse. It's always sunny at Blandings Castle.
Just finished Pimp by Iceberg Slim. grittiest book I ever did read.


----------



## jms (Dec 12, 2003)

Im not scared by Niccolo Ammaniti

bloody good it is too


----------



## DaveCinzano (Dec 12, 2003)

still ploughing through misha glenny's 'the balkans', courtesy of flypanam.

also chugging along: 'the long war' by james dunkerley on the el salvador death squads etc.

the pythons' autobiography is a good read, but fucking awkward to read in bed as it's about six miles tall.

schott's miscellany is a fascinating collection of otherwise useless information.

buried under all these i still have phillip agee's 'cia diary', though i've stalled in quito for a long time.

currently on my in pile: book on guatemala and the dirty war, 'the story of pi', some john le carre, mark twain and charles dickens, books on northern ireland (martin dillon's 'political murders', tony geraghty's 'the irish war', kevin toolis's 'rebel hearts'), and i have dibs on some ripperology (stephen knight, colin wilson, dan farson etc) when i stay at my folks'. 

should be a long xmas...


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## wiskey (Dec 12, 2003)

in my absense from urban i have read the tales of the city books by Amistead Maupin

Tales of the city
More tales of the city
Further tales of the city
Babycakes
Significant Others
Sure of you

half way through the last one now and i think they have exhausted themselves somewhat.

not sure what to read next but i'm being (gently) pressured to try and read a comic book . . . so i might give that a go

wiskers


----------



## Good Intentions (Dec 13, 2003)

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce

I picked this up for buggerall at a second-hand bookstore, decided to give Joyce a go.  So far its very interesting, definitely unconventional.  I think I'll grow to like it.

Of course, I just got 'No Logo' for my birthday, so that might interrupt...


----------



## bass (Dec 13, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Lord Ersatz _
> *Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
> 
> Wait til you get to the 50 page sermon on Hell.
> ...


----------



## mrkikiet (Dec 13, 2003)

i started and finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt yesterdy. i literally could not put it down i like it when that happens.


----------



## Ciara (Dec 13, 2003)

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Ithink!) It's amazing - really, really gripping and quite an unusual take on the normal run-of-the-mill murder/crime book


----------



## Fenian (Dec 14, 2003)

complex system theory and development practice, by samir rihani.  sees history not in linear terms and advances view that life in developing world (and indeed developed world) should be complex adaptive system.


----------



## Roadkill (Dec 14, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Lord Ersatz _
> *Of course, I just got 'No Logo' for my birthday, so that might interrupt... *



I found No logo in a charity shop this summer.  I think I'd expected to be a bit disappointed by it after all the publicity it got, but I thought it was very good indeed.


----------



## Elpenor (Dec 16, 2003)

Currently getting into Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, which I'm finding intriguing so far. Having to get the dictionary out for a lot of the descriptive passages, as I don't seem to know much about the interior design of the English country house  Still, it's enjoyable, and different to other stuff I've read by Waugh. Might have to track down the TV series down at a later point.

Also have The Secret History by Donna Tartt out of the library, another recommendation from my thread of the year


----------



## sarcastic food (Dec 16, 2003)

Spooky Fish I don't know how you get the time.


----------



## Nina (Dec 16, 2003)

Just finished Graham Greene's End of the Affair.

Another bloody lovely book by that man.

Not sure what to start now. I need something small to carry on the bus. Thinking of starting Phillip Pullman but by the sounds of the thread, it may take a while to get into.


----------



## mrkikiet (Dec 16, 2003)

i'm reading the picture of dorian gray. it's small and would fit in your pocket.


----------



## mentalchik (Dec 16, 2003)

Im re-reading The Scar by China Mieville,




its brill


----------



## calvin (Dec 16, 2003)

I'm just starting kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto-i know i should have read it before now and i'm also reading how it ended by jay mcinery!

very bret easton ellis i must say


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 16, 2003)

Crackpot - The Obsessions Of John Waters

_includes such classic chapters as 'The Pia Zadora Story', 'Why I Love The National Enquirer' and 'Why I Love Christmas'_ 

excellent


----------



## PearlySpencer (Dec 17, 2003)

Okay lowering the tone as usual I've just got a biography of Sean Penn by Nick Johnstone out from the library. Anyone read it, what's it like? Penn interests me cos he seems to have his head screwed on despite his job and the media shite that comes with it.


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 17, 2003)

nick johnstone is a great biographer/writer IMO, so if there's a good story in Penn, this book should tell it.


----------



## moon (Dec 17, 2003)

Just starting 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle' by Haruki Marakami, though I'm not sure its really my kind of thing.

I keep getting distracted by 'Ripe for picking' by Annie Hawes too, having just finished her excellent 'Extra Virgin' BTW I thought I would mention that these are travel books set in Italy...I know what some of your minds are like!!


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by HHJ Wonderland _
> *Just starting 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle' by Haruki Marakami, though I'm not sure its really my kind of thing.
> 
> *



i read about half of it, and sort of enjoyed it while being thoroughly baffled for the most part. then i put it down and never quite got round to it again.

not sure what that says about me or the book - love to know what you think


----------



## mains (Dec 18, 2003)

I'm reading 'The Rider' by Tim Krabbe (bloke who wrote 'The Vanishing').  Justin mentioned it on another thread and I'm quite impressed so far.  Mixture of cycle racing autobiography, anecdotes and a fictional bike race over a fictional area of France.  Very bleak humour at times.


----------



## Roadkill (Dec 18, 2003)

_HMS Ulysses_ by Alistair MacLean.

Alistair MacLean wrote any amount of crap, but a few absolutely brilliant novels, and _HMS Ulysses_ is one of them.  He was on the Murmansk covoys during the war I think, so he knew what he was talking about: that's maybe why _HMS Ulysses_ is so vivid and startling.  I've read it many times before, but every time I come back to it, it seems to get better.


----------



## Nina (Dec 19, 2003)

60 pages into Pullman's Northern Lights.
I thought it was supposed to be a kid's book   

I'm 27 and finding it a bit scary


----------



## Maggot (Dec 19, 2003)

> _Originally posted by mains _
> *I'm reading 'The Rider' by Tim Krabbe (bloke who wrote 'The Vanishing').  Justin mentioned it on another thread and I'm quite impressed so far.  Mixture of cycle racing autobiography, anecdotes and a fictional bike race over a fictional area of France.  *


 Yeah, but you'd be interested in _any_  book about cycle racing though  .


----------



## Roadkill (Dec 25, 2003)

I'm just finishing _The Victorian Underworld_ by Donald ... er ... someoneorother.  It's very interesting.

Apparently, some clever fuckers managed to steal nearly *half a ton* of gold bullion off a mail train from London to Folkestone in the 1850s - and they did it so cleverly that no-one was any the wiser until the bullion chests were opened when they got to their destination in France.  The thieves weren't caught until years later, when one of them was done for another crime and the secret got out via his former mistress.  Fascinating stuff.  I'm sad like that.


----------



## Celt (Dec 26, 2003)

Had started reading the ragged trousered philanthropist, was enjoying it, put it _'in a very safe place'_ while I was decorating. 

Can anyone tell me where that safe place was


----------



## flimsier (Dec 26, 2003)

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is a great novel.

I just got Dude, Where's my country for Xmas. Looking forward to one or two laughs and some anger (with the system and the author)... but will enjoy it!


----------



## ViolentPanda (Dec 26, 2003)

Currently smiling my way through "That Old Ace in the Hole" by Annie Proulx.


----------



## Masseuse (Dec 26, 2003)

"On belief" by Slavoj Zizek.

The pagan and futile search for divine and human perfection.  A particularly good exploration of western buddhism and the religious experience of cyberspace.

And much more compelling than I've just made it sound.


----------



## Masseuse (Dec 26, 2003)

Oh, I mostly like the above book because he's dead bombastic and outrageously opinionated.

I like that in a bloke!


----------



## General Ludd (Dec 26, 2003)

I Couldn't Paint Golden Angels - Albert Meltzer


----------



## sparkling (Dec 26, 2003)

In the WH Smiths sale I bought the Office scripts part 1 on Christmas eve and finished it today.  Even though I have watched the series umpteen times it was still so funny it made me laugh out loud.

Now reading a novel about poets introducing Dante to America at the same time a mad murderer is going around.  Its all a bit pants really and the language in which the book is written is so overthe top I will probably give up on it.


----------



## silentNate (Dec 26, 2003)

Reading a Xmas gift from sB, 'The Political Animal' by Jeremy Paxman. Quite good actually, nice anecdotes...


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 26, 2003)

> _Originally posted by sparkling _
> *Now reading a novel about poets introducing Dante to America at the same time a mad murderer is going around.  Its all a bit pants really and the language in which the book is written is so overthe top I will probably give up on it. *


 i got that for xmas. i'll give it a go, cos *i* think it looks quite interesting.


----------



## sparkling (Dec 26, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Pickman's model _
> *i got that for xmas. i'll give it a go, cos i think it looks quite interesting. *



I'm sticking with it at the moment but like I said the language in which its written seems a bit overblown.  Maybe its a style thing and I'll get used to it.


----------



## Laidback_Dave (Dec 26, 2003)

I've got three books to read.

1) One about the apparent "suicide" of Kurt Cobain
2) Prozac Nation - Elizabeth Wurtzel
3) Kingdom of Fear - Hunter S Thompson


----------



## (empty) (Dec 27, 2003)

I'm finishing Mother from Máximo Gorki
And have started Murder in Mesopotamia from Agatha Christie, quite classic!! eheheh


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 27, 2003)

David Mitchell's Ghostwritten - Number 9 Dream was excellent and this is shaping up to be the same.


----------



## General Ludd (Dec 27, 2003)

The Magus - John Fowles


----------



## Dr. Christmas (Dec 28, 2003)

_The Land of the Leal_ by James Barke. The book is about a rural family in Scotand and their lives from the 1820s-1930s: the big themes of country vs. city, agriculture vs. industry, gentry vs. teneted labourers, are all done brillinatly.

If any of you liked _A Scots Quair_ then you should read this- IMO almost as good.

Next up is a collection of james kelman's essays called _And the Judges Said_ which looks pretty compelling, too.


----------



## sparkling (Dec 28, 2003)

Have just given up on previous book temporarily and have just started the Committments trilogy by Roddy Doyal.  It is so funny I am laughing out loud.  Does anyone know where I can get a dvd or video of this?


----------



## Janinski (Dec 30, 2003)

Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas - Tom Robbins, found it at a book market, slowly working through his back catalogue.  

Another laugh out loud look at the world.  Not as good as Jitterbug Perfume, my fave by him. 

Any other Robbins fans out there?


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 30, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Janinski _
> *Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas - Tom Robbins, found it at a book market, slowly working through his back catalogue.
> 
> Another laugh out loud look at the world.  Not as good as Jitterbug Perfume, my fave by him.
> ...



Not me


----------



## General Ludd (Dec 30, 2003)

I Spit On Your Graves - Vians

Got a bit of time of (ish - 30 hour weeks) so I'm trying to cram in as much reading as possible before world goes mad again I don't have any time to read.


----------



## Roadkill (Dec 30, 2003)

_The Victorians_ by A.N. Wilson.


----------



## Voley (Dec 30, 2003)

Dude, Where's My Country - Michael Moore.

Looks good so far.


----------



## chez (Dec 31, 2003)

> Dude, Where's My Country - Michael Moore.



ditto, just finished chapter 3, gonna photocopy it and give it to everyone I know and leave copyies in random places. It needs to be read.


----------



## foo (Jan 1, 2004)

Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre. 

Nearly finished. I was expecting to dislike this but was curious so gave it a go. I'm now trying to finish reading it as I'm cooking which is always a good sign for me (not so good for the book!  ).  

Apart from a couple of times when I had to put the book down as it was all just a bit much, I'm enjoying it. It reminds me of other books I've read but is still fresh enough to keep me interested. He has the ability to write a sentence using extremely ugly language, yet somehow he makes that sentence beautiful.

I wonder, has anyone else read this - and if so, what do you think of it?


----------



## lyra_k (Jan 2, 2004)

> _Originally posted by meanoldman _
> *Got a bit of time of (ish - 30 hour weeks) so I'm trying to cram in as much reading as possible before world goes mad again I don't have any time to read. *



You do realise that people who have to work full time in _jobs_ are usually pretty busy 40-60 hours a week too, don't you?   



> _Originally posted by chez _
> *ditto, just finished chapter 3, gonna photocopy it and give it to everyone I know and leave copies in random places. It needs to be read. *



I felt that way about "Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them) - A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" by Al Franken, which I just finished.

If anything it's more disturbing than anything I've seen or read by Michael Moore (and it's a bit less tabloidy), because it concentrates on the media and bias, and the complete willingness of Republicans to tell absolute blatant lies about major issues, because they're clever enough to understand that the initial soundbyte is what sticks in people's minds.  You put it down feeling rather battered and hopeless living in a society where they can get away with it.


----------



## Olly (Jan 2, 2004)

any human heart - william boyd


----------



## bluestreak (Jan 2, 2004)

just finished reading Hey Nostradamus by Douglas Coupland.  of the high quality, detachment and beauty that i've come to expect from the man.  very sad and perplexing too.

gonna read some account of early vikings in america next.


----------



## Hollis (Jan 2, 2004)

Read abit over Christmas - 

Nick Hornby '31 Songs' - excellent plus great picture of Jimmy Page on p24.


Jane Austin 'Persuasion' - about half way through & enjoying it.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 2, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Janinski _
> *Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas - Tom Robbins, found it at a book market, slowly working through his back catalogue.
> 
> Another laugh out loud look at the world.  Not as good as Jitterbug Perfume, my fave by him.
> ...



yep. went through a mad phase where i read them all in about a month. 

only one i haven't read is Fierce Invalids, but it's on the pile ready. my favourite is probably Skinny Legs and All, but i reckon they're all good.


----------



## jayeola (Jan 2, 2004)

finished "crypticomnicon" by neal stephenson. 

half way through practical programming in c by steve oualline


----------



## Blagsta (Jan 3, 2004)

Joseph Heller - Catch 22


----------



## mrkikiet (Jan 3, 2004)

martin amis - the information


----------



## Clintons Cat (Jan 3, 2004)

rereading "Captive State" by George Monbiot


----------



## wandermermaid (Jan 4, 2004)

a biog of Mae West, and a book of Lorca plays. though not both at the same time exactly


----------



## Vulpine (Jan 4, 2004)

reading raise "high the roof beam, carpenters" and seymour an introduction" by J. D. Sallinger at the moment, planning on reading catch 22 next.


----------



## Random One (Jan 4, 2004)

Invisible monsters by Chuck Palahniuk


----------



## Maggot (Jan 4, 2004)

*Tom Robbins*



> _Originally posted by Dubversion _
> *yep. went through a mad phase where i read them all in about a month.
> 
> only one i haven't read is Fierce Invalids, but it's on the pile ready. my favourite is probably Skinny Legs and All, but i reckon they're all good. *


 Reading Fierce Invalids at the moment and it's of his usual high standard. Skinny Legs and Cowgirls are my favourites.

The only thing which puzzles me is why crutches figure so largely on the cover of my copy. The central character, Switters, uses a wheelchair and stilts but not crutches.


----------



## newharper (Jan 5, 2004)

Bomber by Len Deighton.

A fictionalised 24 hours in WW2 of what it's like to bomb and be bombed, apparently.  seems pretty evenhanded so far.


----------



## Masseuse (Jan 5, 2004)

The Memory of Birds in Times of Revolution by Breyten Breytenbach.

I had to get it because I fell in love with the title.  It's dead good.


----------



## foo (Jan 5, 2004)

A Word Child - Iris Murdoch. 

Bugger, she was a clever woman!! And she writes as a man brilliantly imo. 

I'm going to be knackered at work today 'cos I couldn't put this down last night. 

Definitely recommend it.


----------



## Random One (Jan 5, 2004)

Noam Chomsky-Power and Terror;post-9/11 talks and interviews


----------



## ringolevio (Jan 5, 2004)

The Name of The Rose by Umberto Eco.

Again.


----------



## chazegee (Jan 5, 2004)

Middlesex

Finding it a bit of a struggle

I blame space penguins


----------



## butterfly child (Jan 5, 2004)

Sahara - Michael Palin.

I've been reading it on the toilet, but seeing as I've been sitting on the toilet a lot lately ( ) I've actually been reading it a fair bit.

It's quite hard going though (in more ways than one!)


----------



## easy g (Jan 5, 2004)

David Nobbs:

The Fall & Rise Of Reginald Perrin

finished that yesterday and am half way through...

The Return Of Reginald Perrin

completely missed the tv series but am loving the books...wow wot an everyman!

Is the series as good as the books??


----------



## Furvert (Jan 5, 2004)

alias grace by margaret atwood.


----------



## baldrick (Jan 5, 2004)

felix holt: the radical - george eliot


----------



## LDR (Jan 6, 2004)

I've got three on the go at the moment.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Weapons of Mass Deception by Sheldon Rampton & John Stauber

Life of Pi by Yann Martel


----------



## aqua (Jan 6, 2004)

have on 'well I tried to start it' lists:

Life of Pi
No Logo
some fantasty thingy that I can;t remember the name of
Pulman Trilogy first book

Currently reading Year 1000

Its taken about 6mths to get back into reading  I seem to go in waves with it, heres hoping I can clear the back log


----------



## Roadkill (Jan 6, 2004)

> _Originally posted by easy g _
> *
> Is the series as good as the books?? *



IMO it's better.

I didn't like the books very much (although it's ten years since I read them) but I watched the first series again quite recently and loved it.


----------



## easy g (Jan 6, 2004)

I see you can get the lot for around £30 on dvd..might be my new years present to myself


----------



## Roadkill (Jan 6, 2004)

Yeah, I got series one for my Dad for £10 on DVD.  Unfortunately, I don't think it's out on VHS, or I'd go and get a copy for myself.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Jan 6, 2004)

I'm reading three at the moment, hopping between them as I go....it's the Asa Briggs trio of Victorian Things, Victorian Cities and Victorian People. I've read them before but they are extremely good and worth reading again.


----------



## Athos (Jan 6, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Scott _
> *I've got three on the go at the moment.
> 
> Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
> ...



3 Books concerning fictional subject matter, then?


----------



## corporate whore (Jan 6, 2004)

I'm reading Do Not Pass Go, by Tim Moore. It's an attempt to figure out Monopoly ended up using the London streets it did. Anyone ever been to Vine Street? Why Marylebone and not Waterloo? No Tottenham Court Road? 

The Waddington employee who was charged with sorting out the streets (born in Brixton, fact fans!) came down from Leeds with his secretary (nudgenudge) and settled on the streets and utilities we all know and have acquired from a drunken uncle on Boxing Day. 

Moore retraces Waddnington bloke's steps and tries to figure out what it was about the chosen places that so attraacted him to them. Is developing into a nice snapshot of London in the 1930s.

DISCLAIMER: this is not as dull as it may sound...


----------



## Rollem (Jan 6, 2004)

the good women of china - xinran


----------



## chegrimandi (Jan 6, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Rollem _
> *the good women of china - xinran *



thats a top book, the stories are incredible........ 

two on the go, 100 years of solitude, gabriel garcia whathisface

vive la revolution by Mark Steel, enjoying both.


----------



## bigbry (Jan 6, 2004)

Since Christmas I've read two books (had them for Xmas) - first read "It's Not About The Bike" by Lance Armstrong in which the bike racing is sedcondary to the guy's fight against cancer.  Last night I finished "A Short History Of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson which tries to put the history of the earth, universe, etc from the Big Bang ntil now in a simplified form - struggles to maintain it's thread at times but eminently readable in Bill Brysons humurous style

I'd recommend both !


----------



## rubbershoes (Jan 7, 2004)

Just finished Claire Tomalin’s biography of Samuel Pepys. My mum gave it to me for Xmas and I thought it would be a bit turgid despite winning the Whitbread last year. 

It's a real cracker though. It brings Pepys to life and also told me a lot about 17th century history that I didn’t know. Well written and interesting - you couldn't ask for more


----------



## foo (Jan 7, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Rollem _
> *the good women of china - xinran *



Shocking book, especially when reading the most recent accounts.  tbh, I got pissed off with the writing style - but a very important book nonetheless.  

Is it right that xinran was unable to publish it in China so had to come over here?


----------



## Monkeygrinder's Organ (Jan 7, 2004)

'The Master and Margarita' by Mikhail Bulgakov. I'm not too sure what it's all about, but I like the writing style and it has some brilliant imagery. And you can buy it new for £3.99.


----------



## fractionMan (Jan 7, 2004)

I recently read about 3/4 of the 'The Master and Margarita'  before losing interest.  Shame really.  I'm now reading some Iain M Banks book.  I've also just read 'desolation road' which was a mighty good sf book.


----------



## Rollem (Jan 7, 2004)

> _Originally posted by foo _
> *tbh, I got pissed off with the writing style - but a very important book nonetheless.
> *


 its not so much the writing style, more the fact that its tanslated i think foo  dont know about it being unable to be printed in china, but wouldn't be surprised. have read a fair few chinese "women" books, and am shocked everytime. and we think we've got problems being women in the west


----------



## mains (Jan 7, 2004)

> _Originally posted by bigbry _
> *Since Christmas I've read two books (had them for Xmas) - first read "It's Not About The Bike" by Lance Armstrong in which the bike racing is sedcondary to the guy's fight against cancer.  *



I had a glut of cycling books for christmas.  I've read the LA book and you're right, his cancer is the main focus; there are some truly harrowing passages not least his wifes IVF treatment.  My problem with the book overall though is that his arrogance rears its ugly head near the end, he is ungracious in victory and cuts no slack whatsoever to his opponents, particularly Jan Ullrich who he makes out to be some kind of anti christ.

If you enjoyed that and can handle another cycling book then I recommend 'Flying Scotsman' by Graeme Obree, again his (unfinished) battle with depression and attempted suicides is the main focus but there is light in there, a fascinating read.

But for me the daddy of cycling books is 'Rough Ride' by Paul Kimmage, a savage if not bleakly humourous expose of the merry go round that is professional cycling.  The focus is on drug use and he pulls no punches whatsoever, highly recommended.


----------



## easy g (Jan 7, 2004)

just started Miss Wyoming today by Douglas Coupland after a 4 day binge on Reginald Perrin


----------



## foo (Jan 7, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Rollem _
> *its not so much the writing style, more the fact that its tanslated i think foo  dont know about it being unable to be printed in china, but wouldn't be surprised. have read a fair few chinese "women" books, and am shocked everytime. and we think we've got problems being women in the west  *



Nah, don't think it was that which grated, as I've read quite a few books in translation. Chekhov springs to mind - I love his work. I think it was the 'journo style' tbh. I prefer writing with more feeling/depth. Saying this, perhaps the book worked precicely _because _ it was written in this way. Dunno <shrug> lol, I've been doing a lot of shrugging today  

I agree with what you say about we Western women thinking we've got problems. Puts our grievances into perspective doesn't it?! I had to put the book down a couple of times in stunned horror, especially when reading the contemporary stories. Somehow this kind of stuff seems easier to deal with when it's 'distant history'.


----------



## Begbie (Jan 7, 2004)

Just start reading The Dark Heart of Italy


----------



## Miss Potter (Jan 7, 2004)

I've just started reading "Sickened" by Julie Gregory, which is about her childhood being ruined because her mother suffered from Munchausens by Proxy


----------



## Ciara (Jan 7, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Furvert _
> *alias grace by margaret atwood. *



Ooh - I quite liked that.
At the moment I'm reading 'Vanity Fair' which is a bit of a plod but I'm getting there.


----------



## Nina (Jan 7, 2004)

Just finished Hanif Kureishi's Intimacy which I found very depressing. 

Now into Bukowski's Ham on Rye which is just brilliant.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Jan 8, 2004)

> _Originally posted by corporate whore _
> *I'm reading Do Not Pass Go, by Tim Moore.  *


I knew him when he was a little boy....he was always witty, even then......genuinely funny chap. I've heard him compared to Swift after his first book, which was perhaps a tad OTT, but he's funny and he can certainly write well.


----------



## Lollybelle (Jan 8, 2004)

Just finished a holiday reading binge, which took in:

Symposium by Muriel Spark - sparkling wit, a top quick read.

Don't tell me the truth about Love by Dan Rhodes - you've gotta love Dan Rhodes, these are kinda macabre love stories apparently vaguely based on the Brothers Grimm - I'd also recommend Anthropology, his book of tiny short stories about crazy girlfriends.

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor - beautiful, poetic rendering of students and their neighbours in a northern town, it reminded me a bit of Pop by Kitty Aldridge.

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer - the blurb is all true, it's a fantastic, witty read that comes across like a new kind of novel - and the guy is only a tiny bit older than me!

and Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre - a top, funny and enjoyable read, I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting.


----------



## Rollem (Jan 8, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Lollybelle _
> *
> If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor - beautiful, poetic rendering of students and their neighbours in a northern town, it reminded me a bit of Pop by Kitty Aldridge.
> *


 oooh lolly, this has been sat in my "wish list" on amazon for a while, you've just convinced me to press buy


----------



## chegrimandi (Jan 8, 2004)

> _Originally posted by foo _
> *Nah, don't think it was that which grated, as I've read quite a few books in translation. Chekhov springs to mind - I love his work. I think it was the 'journo style' tbh. I prefer writing with more feeling/depth. Saying this, perhaps the book worked precicely because  it was written in this way. Dunno <shrug> lol, I've been doing a lot of shrugging today
> 
> *



I've read the book and heard her interviewed a couple of times and I think the detached (ish) style is just her trying to give full value to the womens stories and not put a spin etc on them....it could have come across as interfering/patronising to write more emotively IMHO, anyhow irrespective of the style the stories needed telling and she's done that so........thats the important thing isn't it?


----------



## DaveCinzano (Jan 8, 2004)

never got a chance to go through my pa's ripperology books, but did pick up martin short's 'inside the brotherhood', which carries on from stephen knight's earlier 'the brotherhood', the groundbreaking expose of freemasons and all that shenanigans.

unfortunately short is a thoroughly inelegant writer, quick to use cliches and hackneyed stock phrases, and not a great explainer either - and more than anything he is a terrible advocate. his arguments are facetious, paradoxical, contradictory, half-formed, over-extrapolated and sometimes downright nonsensical. a real contrast to the passionate fluency of knight.

that said, it still contains a lot of interesting information, and there are some tempting threads i might follow up.

over xmas also read 'dude where's my country?' (better written than s.w.m. but with all the same flaws) and 'the left in history' (pub. pluto books, author willie something-or-other), which was a rather good overview of socialism, social democracy and other leftist traditions. there were mistakes and errors in analysis but it seemed broadly accurate in the areas i was familiar with, so i felt enlightened in the areas i was not - definitely a good starting point to reading into those subjects.


----------



## Swearing Nonna (Jan 8, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Furvert _
> *alias grace by margaret atwood. *



I read this last year, I've enjoyed every book I've read of her's but found this one harder going.

Pages away from finishing Lanark - Alasdair Gray


----------



## mrkikiet (Jan 8, 2004)

We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families by Philip Gourevitch.

Everyone with even the slightest interest in Africa, particularly Rwanda/Burundi should have read this. If you haven't beg steal or borrow a copy. It shows all sorts, including the blindness of humanitarian aid agencies, as well as the enormity of the genocide in Rwanda, for which the Belgians can be partly thanked.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 8, 2004)

> _Originally posted by geordietim _
> *We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families by Philip Gourevitch.
> 
> Everyone with even the slightest interest in Africa, particularly Rwanda/Burundi should have read this. If you haven't beg steal or borrow a copy. It shows all sorts, including the blindness of humanitarian aid agencies, as well as the enormity of the genocide in Rwanda, for which the Belgians can be partly thanked. *


I read this too - very depressing reading indeed.
I would also recommend The Shadow Of The Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski - no less edifying but beautifully written.


----------



## dormouse (Jan 8, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Orang Utan _
> *I would also recommend The Shadow Of The Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski - no less edifying but beautifully written. *


Seconded.  (I think this was one of the U75 book group's reads?)


----------



## Elpenor (Jan 8, 2004)

Just finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

Really liked it, but I think I might have heard a bit too much hype on it. Not to say it wasn't fantastic though. Loved all the classics references though!

Now reading House of Cards by Michael Dobbs, good paperback for the bus


----------



## mr whippy (Jan 9, 2004)

just finished "watchman" and"a question of blood" by ian rankin. like rebus, but watchman is better IMO.

interviewed rankin a couple of days ago. thoroughly good bloke with a lot of good things to say about reading, literature and life.

now i'm reading "red rabbit" by tom clancy. never read one of his books before but thought i should just to see what it is ilke.

IMO it is badly written clunky sterotyped america-is-great lame-arsed claptrap.

i'm going to burn it hen i finish it and never read another word of his purile filth.


----------



## Skin (Jan 9, 2004)

I can only read biography, Barefoot Doctor and peoples published diaries.

I cannot cope with other peoples fantasy worlds. 
My inner dialogue evaporates on any attempt to read fiction.

 I can however listen to a book at bedtime on Radio 4.
A much better way to read IMO.

Its "Far from the madding crowd" at the mo which Im having read at me.


----------



## mr whippy (Jan 9, 2004)

*biography*

skin - try reading From The Land Of Green Ghosts by Pascal Khoo Twee it's his autobiography.

starts with life in the hills of burma - he's from the paduang longneck tribe - then to uni in mandaly and the uprising in 1988 where he flees to the border and ends up studying english at cambridge uni.

it's a most compelling read. i interviewed him last year, he's a top bloke and now lives in london where he works as a human rights activist for burma.

Red Dust by ma jian is great too.


----------



## mr whippy (Jan 9, 2004)

*also...*

...try Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the China He Lost...

first bio on the guy for 30 by Johnathan Fenby who has been editor of the observer, south china morning post, guardian, retuers etc etc... damned good read


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 9, 2004)

The Blank Slate - Stephen Pinker - a new contribution to the ongoing nurture/nature debate. Certainly a lot of food for thought in here. Pinker tries to see through the politically loaded arguments and reclaim the argument for human nature from the extremists. Just started it though.


----------



## GushingRussian (Jan 13, 2004)

High society by Ben Elton

It's the first B.E. book I've picked up and surprisingly good.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 13, 2004)

> _Originally posted by GushingRussian _
> *High society by Ben Elton
> 
> It's the first B.E. book I've picked up and surprisingly good. *



You gotta be joking - haven;t read that one but the others I have read are shocking


----------



## rubbershoes (Jan 13, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Skin _
> *I can only read biography....and peoples published diaries.
> *



Claire Tomalin's book on Samuel Pepys sounds ideal for you. A biography of a diarist. Great book


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 13, 2004)

still ploughing through Stephen Miller's excellent Johnny Cash biograph, but also dipping into the McSweeney's music special, reading the odd - very odd - short from Tibor Fischer's Don't Read This Book If You're Stupid, and too many music magazines


----------



## easy g (Jan 14, 2004)

*The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides*

A third through...not sure yet though but quite enjoying it...well you know what i mean


----------



## A. Spies (Jan 14, 2004)

The greek sophists by someone I can't remember, which is both interesting and boring at the same time. It's good to know about the other side from socrates etc, and I'm glad I've read chapters once I have done. But it's hardly what I'd call enjoyable reading.

1984 - Orwell, I've never read this before yesterday when I found it in MVC for like three quid, fucking excellent book. Massacred it in about 24hrs, the endings brilliant.


----------



## Bajie (Jan 14, 2004)

A History of the Guyanese Working People, 1881-1905 by Walter Rodney. In 1 week I havent got very far yet, too many long hours working seems to make my brain cease to function.


----------



## foo (Jan 15, 2004)

Unix Tottie said:
			
		

> I read this last year, I've enjoyed every book I've read of her's but found this one harder going.



Yeh, I couldn't be bothered to finish Alias Grace which is a shame because like you Unix, I usually enjoy Atwood's books. 

I've just finished A Word Child (crap misleading title imo) Iris Murdoch. Such a complicated story in terms of the psychology of the characters. She writes extremely well about the complexity of emotions and motives. Every page is packed - and I felt exhausted a couple of times!   

Next up. Five Boys* - Mick Jackson. I tried this before but got bored three pages in. As I can't find anything else to read I'll give it another go.

* I think this belongs to you Unix?


----------



## g force (Jan 15, 2004)

My gf recommened reading The Life of Pi - i'm about half way through and so far pretty unmoved by it. Not that it isn't a _good_ book just i'd been led to expect more    Hate it when that happens


----------



## Pickman's model (Jan 15, 2004)

g force said:
			
		

> My gf recommened reading The Life of Pi - i'm about half way through and so far pretty unmoved by it. Not that it isn't a _good_ book just i'd been led to expect more    Hate it when that happens


we read that in the book group. there's a twist! also, parts of it reminded me of edgar allan poe's "the narrative of arthur gordon pym".


----------



## Pickman's model (Jan 15, 2004)

just finished "lenin" by robert service, and on to "religion and the decline of magic" by keith thomas. my plan this year's to read all the 'improving' books i've amassed, so after "religion..." it's straight to "demonic and spiritual magic from ficino to camponella" by walker. (can't remember if it's camponella or something else, tho  )


----------



## g force (Jan 15, 2004)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> we read that in the book group. there's a twist! also, parts of it reminded me of edgar allan poe's "the narrative of arthur gordon pym".



Yeah I was told there was a twist which tbh is the only reason i'm still reading it. I'll probably get to end and decide I love it like a do with a few books - maybe it's a slow burner.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 15, 2004)

easy g said:
			
		

> *The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides*
> 
> A third through...not sure yet though but quite enjoying it...well you know what i mean




I've just started Middlesex which is very enjoyable.

Foo - you're right to dump Five Boys - it's rubbish


----------



## foo (Jan 15, 2004)

I'm so glad I read Life Of Pi before reading any of the hype and before knowing it was a Booker prize winner. All the guff written about winners sometimes ruins the freshness of reading imo. 

I enjoyed it.


----------



## eme (Jan 15, 2004)

*Tartt.....*

I held off reading her first book as it was so hyped I dare not open it...but am in the middle of Little Friend which is brilliant! one of those 'Oh I can't wait til I've got some time to carry on reading' books.... so much so I almost missed my tube stop this am trying to finish a chapter!....



> All the guff written about winners sometimes ruins the freshness of reading imo.



exactly!

mind you after LF I might give Secret History a go too...


----------



## foo (Jan 15, 2004)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Foo - you're right to dump Five Boys - it's rubbish




Ah. ok. I shan't bother then.  


I need something new to read!!!!!!!!


----------



## foo (Jan 15, 2004)

chegrimandi said:
			
		

> I've read the book and heard her interviewed a couple of times and I think the detached (ish) style is just her trying to give full value to the womens stories and not put a spin etc on them....it could have come across as interfering/patronising to write more emotively IMHO, anyhow irrespective of the style the stories needed telling and she's done that so........thats the important thing isn't it?



I didn't see your reply till now cheg  

I think I read it just after a spate of books by wordy imaginative people like McKewen (sp) so her style got on my nerves. I do take your points though, and think you're right.


----------



## foo (Jan 15, 2004)

eme said:
			
		

> exactly!



Speaking of winners. Have you read Vernon God Little eme? If so, what did you think?

And anyone else of course.


----------



## rebel warrior (Jan 15, 2004)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> just finished "lenin" by robert service, and on to "religion and the decline of magic" by keith thomas. my plan this year's to read all the 'improving' books i've amassed, so after "religion..." it's straight to "demonic and spiritual magic from ficino to camponella" by walker. (can't remember if it's camponella or something else, tho  )



'Religion and the decline of magic' is a class book and no mistake.  With all your interest in witches and the supernatural tho pm, am surprised you are only just on to it now?


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 15, 2004)

foo said:
			
		

> All the guff written about winners sometimes ruins the freshness of reading imo.




So so true - I read Vernon God Little without its dust jacket, so I knew absolutely nothing about the story or the author and I am sure I enjoyed it more than I would have if I'd known about the author's colourful past and the novel's Booker nomination.


----------



## eme (Jan 15, 2004)

> Have you read Vernon God Little eme?



is that the one by the french guy who pisses people off being all (anti?*) intellectual?

no I haven't but may well do... liked the cut of his jib from what I can remember....  also if it's out in paperback... I have an aversion to hardbacks and to dustjackets too!! dunno why...

 

can't recall which!


----------



## marty21 (Jan 15, 2004)

staliongrad - anthony beavor - nearly finished it - exellent, will move on to his berlin book afterwards

d-day - stephen ambrose - just started it

having a bit of a ww2 period at the mo - mrs21 is also hoovering them up


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Jan 15, 2004)

The Making of the Atomic Bomb


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 15, 2004)

eme said:
			
		

> is that the one by the french guy who pisses people off being all (anti?*) intellectual?


Nope - that's not the fella - that sounds like Michel Houellebecq

DBC Pierre is the nom de plume of a Mexican-Australian whose name I forget - DBC stands for Dirty But Clean


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 15, 2004)

Johnny Canuck2 said:
			
		

> The Making of the Atomic Bomb


  what are you planning?


----------



## Elpenor (Jan 15, 2004)

Currently I'm reading Graham Greene's volumes of autobiography - A Sort Of Life, and Ways Of Escape. Once I've read four or five novels by an author I usually get the thirst to find out more about them (if I like their work). I've been keen on Greene for years so I guess this a logical progression. I'm still in his early 30's, so he's not travelled in Africa or done any of his secret work yet, but his recollections are quite interesting, and 'bite-sized' which is good as I tend to read on the bus.

When they're done I have Heligoland by someone or other and The Leopard by Lampedusa out of the library, a rare pre-1900 book for me too.


----------



## Pickman's model (Jan 15, 2004)

rebel warrior said:
			
		

> 'Religion and the decline of magic' is a class book and no mistake.  With all your interest in witches and the supernatural tho pm, am surprised you are only just on to it now?


read the bits about witchcraft years back, but i haven't read it from front to back before.


----------



## rebel warrior (Jan 16, 2004)

Well I am currently reading the following...
-To kill a mocking bird - Harper Lee.
- Web of Deceit - Mark Curtis.
- Staying Power: A History of Black People in Britain - Peter Fryer


----------



## foo (Jan 16, 2004)

eme said:
			
		

> I have an aversion to hardbacks and to dustjackets too!!



Me too    Quite a handy aversion to have seeing as hardbacks are so bleedin' expensive! 

I've got Vernon God Little in paperback - it's been out a while I think. I'm not sure what I think of the book tbh. A bit Catcher In The Rye, but I may be being unfair with that comparisson. I like it, and don't like it. Amazing use of language (ugly words convey beautiful images) and the 'parental knife' thing running through the book is excellent. I imagine it was written about the same kind of American culture that's shown in Steel Magnolias. Those women!   

Worth a read imo.


----------



## eme (Jan 16, 2004)

> I imagine it was written about the same kind of American culture that's shown in Steel Magnolias. Those women!



they also feature quite heavily in Little Friend too!
am intrigued now about the Vernon God Little book now.... handy this thread innit?


----------



## foo (Jan 16, 2004)

heh, I spied Little Friend on a (not so little) friend's table the other day so I might go and borrow it. 

Yep, this thread is fab. If only I could join in with the book group. Ah! That's a point. I may scoot over there to see what you lot are reading at the moment so I can once again be one of your virtual members!


----------



## Masseuse (Jan 16, 2004)

Oh Gosh, I HATED Little Friend!  The first book in a long long time that I just couldn't finish, and I got 3/4 of the way through.    

Loved Secret History tho.


----------



## foo (Jan 16, 2004)

"Oh Gosh!" ???

You being Joyce Grenfell again today eh Massy?

  


<scarpers>


----------



## eme (Jan 16, 2004)

> Oh Gosh, I HATED Little Friend! The first book in a long long time that I just couldn't finish, and I got 3/4 of the way through.
> Loved Secret History tho.



it's weird that cos it seems like people who've read both of her books only like one or the other!


----------



## MysteryGuest (Jan 16, 2004)

Mark's Little Book about Kinder Eggs - Mark Pawson, London 1990

I'm now on my fourth reading of this obscure, mysterious classic, that seems to contain half-glimpsed endless labyrinthine corridors of meaning anew each time I immerse myself in it.

It is actually an all-time classic.


----------



## girasol (Jan 16, 2004)

diwc said:
			
		

> Reading _The Dice Man_ by Luke Rhinehart (I'm about halfway through).
> 
> It's very, well... 'meh'.
> 
> [page 9, woo hoo (for those of you with 40 posts/page  )]



Just finished reading that! For the second time - First time was about 8 years ago.  It's a very funny book! But, contrary to popular belief, following the dice is actually a pretty stupid idea *with hilarious effects*.  I'm surprised (and glad) it never made into film...

Now reading Kiss me, Judas.  Very painful read, as main guy has his kidney stolen by some kidney stealing woman...  ouch!  (Sorry, can't remember who wrote it and haven't got book on me)


----------



## Erich Zann (Jan 16, 2004)

1984

Absolutely superb first page.  The most memorable opening to any book I can recall.  Everyone should read this and brave new world.  Dystopia vs Utopia.  Both pretty bad.


----------



## ringolevio (Jan 16, 2004)

Lenny Bruce - How to Talk Dirty and Influence People

This is - surprise, surprise - an autobiography by LB which I've had knocking about for a while. Don't know *that* much about him apart from he was a gobby, 'offensive,' social satirist who pissed off the cops and took loads of drugs.

Sounds fair enough to me.  Well, apart from the overdose, of course.

Only a hundred pages in but enjoying it so far - a funny man quite happy to mock himself.


----------



## lyra_k (Jan 16, 2004)

ringolevio said:
			
		

> Don't know *that* much about him apart from he was a gobby, 'offensive,' social satirist who pissed off the cops and took loads of drugs.



He was a genius.   Incidentally he's just received an official 'pardon' (gee, thanks   ) for his conviction for obscenity or whatever it was that he was convicted of.

I'm reading Disgrace by J M Coetzee; it's the first time I've read him, an I'm loving his detached style so far.


----------



## ringolevio (Jan 16, 2004)

lyra_kitten said:
			
		

> He was a genius.   Incidentally he's just received an official 'pardon' (gee, thanks   ) for his conviction for obscenity or whatever it was that he was convicted of



Yeah, I think he's pretty cool. 

He was granted a posthumous pardon last month - as you say, woohoo  - for an obscene performance in '64; I think they particularly objected to his use of the term 'cocksucker,' heh heh.

He said: well, there's a lot of them about.

And there *were * a load of cops in the audience that night.


----------



## chegrimandi (Jan 16, 2004)

Hegemony or Survival, Americas Quest for Global Dominance : Noam Chomsky,

only 20 pages in.......seems allright so far....


----------



## Doctor Crimson (Jan 16, 2004)

Hunter S. Thompson "Kingdom of Fear"

The most disorganised autobiography ever written, but has some absolutely fantastic passages about bizarre goings on in the hills of Colorado and plenty of FU Dubya.


----------



## stdPikachu (Jan 16, 2004)

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, for the second time.

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson


----------



## Nina (Jan 17, 2004)

Just finished Charles Bukowski Ham on Rye which was brilliant.

Now I'm starting the second part of the journey into Philip Pullman land...
hope it's as good as the first book!


----------



## Miscellaneous (Jan 17, 2004)

Bent Coppers, and a PACE Guide to Section 60     

Manda
xxxxxx


----------



## chez (Jan 17, 2004)

Taken on Trust- Terry Waite
How he managed to remain so strong and philosophical throughout his whole capture including 4 years of solitary confinement I'll never know. an amazing man.


----------



## Kameron (Jan 17, 2004)

*Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson*

The fantastic prequel to the Cryptonomicon. Bigger than a brick and totally captivating.


----------



## mrkikiet (Jan 21, 2004)

Looking on Darkness by Andre Brink, I really enjoyed Rumours of Rain and this seems to be pretty good as well.


----------



## ill-informed (Jan 21, 2004)

I'm reading 'Mysticism and the new physics' by Michael Talbot.

Very interesting.


----------



## easy g (Jan 21, 2004)

Jailbird - Kurt Vonnegut

cracking so far, compassion, earthy cynicism and humour


----------



## ringolevio (Jan 21, 2004)

Bob Ortega - In Sam We Trust

Re-reading this excellent chronicle/exposé of Sam Walton and Wal-Mart.


----------



## newharper (Jan 21, 2004)

Just found a copy of a book called Aberystwyth Mon Amour by Malcolm Pryce.

The reviews on the back got me interested,

' transposing the ambience of Chandler's noir LA to modern day Aber.. is a surreal idea , but price pulls it off'

'very black and very funny indeed... mixes satire, farce, fantasy and comic strip in a world where The Famous Five meets Raymond chandler'

First sentence.

The thing I remember most about it was walking the enrire length of the Prom that morning and not seeing a druid.

the 'tec's first client Myfanwy Montez.

After 3 pages I think I'm hooked.


----------



## Swearing Nonna (Jan 21, 2004)

The Jester - James Patterson

It's a kinda historical crime novel - small chapters which just keep you hooked.


----------



## rubbershoes (Jan 21, 2004)

Just finished the Book of Illusions by Paul Auster. It’s good but didn’t grab me as much as some of his others. So saying the plot still dragged me along on the usual Auster rollercoaster of trivial events with bizarre ramifications. He’s still a great writer


----------



## nimue (Jan 21, 2004)

Hi 
Ive just finished Animal Farm George orwell. Just started Captive State by George Monbiot well worth reading I think anyone else read it?


----------



## hendo (Jan 21, 2004)

Claire Tomalin Life of Pepys. Essential for everyone who loves London, Sex, Politics and the Seventeenth Century.


----------



## souljacker (Jan 21, 2004)

Just finished Women by Charles Bukowski which is his usual high quality (although not as good as Post Office or Ham On Rye).

About to start On the Road by Kerouac. I just need to read the ludicrously long introduction and I'll be off.

Bit of a Beat feel to my reading at the moment. I've got Naked Lunch lined up for afters.


----------



## Dante (Jan 21, 2004)

"The Righteous" by Martin Gilbert...

its basically the stories of the people who saved jews from the Nazi's, very interesting though incredibly depressing when it lists the numbers and ways people died... More a list than anything else, but worth the effort


----------



## Redstone (Jan 21, 2004)

Just started 'Crime and Punishment' by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Naughty Ruskies getting their cummupence.


----------



## Elpenor (Jan 21, 2004)

Finished my Graham Greene autobiographies, which were very interesting - all about his experiences in Cuba, Vietna, Liberia, and working as a spy! and reading Heligoland by Shena Mackay. It seems quite good so far, and at least it's lighter than some of the other stuff I'm reading


----------



## Flavour (Jan 21, 2004)

I'm reading "Run" by Douglas E. Winter, a leanord-esque crime thriller, and "The Chrysalids" by John Wyndham for fun, and "Emma" by Jane Austen for college.

Personally, i think Austen is shite, to much "being in love" without any of the juicy dirtiness or sex. Goddam Austen.


----------



## chez (Jan 22, 2004)

souljacker said:
			
		

> Just finished Women by Charles Bukowski which is his usual high quality (although not as good as Post Office or Ham On Rye).
> 
> About to start On the Road by Kerouac. I just need to read the ludicrously long introduction and I'll be off.
> 
> Bit of a Beat feel to my reading at the moment. I've got Naked Lunch lined up for afters.



I have tried to read naked lunch 3 times but can never get more than about 30 pages in   maybe I'm not reading it in the correct state


----------



## Flavour (Jan 22, 2004)

try reading easier burroughs books first... likw junky

naked lunch is far to random and spontaneously mad to just jump into


----------



## DaveCinzano (Jan 22, 2004)

ringolevio said:
			
		

> Lenny Bruce - How to Talk Dirty and Influence People
> 
> This is - surprise, surprise - an autobiography by LB which I've had knocking about for a while. Don't know *that* much about him apart from he was a gobby, 'offensive,' social satirist who pissed off the cops and took loads of drugs.
> 
> ...



i read this a couple of years back after picking up a copy in a greasy spoon caff-cum-second hand bookshop on orpington high street 

you really get a sense of his manic, jazz style, and he's not afraid of painting himself in a sometimes thoroughly unpleasant light. his stuff on his family is particularly well nuanced, and he writes so fondly of his wife even though he knows he treats her badly. definitely a, um, dated attitude to women throughout...

currently i have been reading clive ponting's 'tragedy and farce', about the british civil service and whitehall in general. his 'right to know' was fascinating - the inside story of his high-profile trial under the osa for leaking documents proving the government was lying to parliament over the sinking of the belgrano during the falklands war - but this one is not quite as well pitched, and relies far too much on the crossman and castle diaries, and on susan crosland's biography of her husband tony. oh well, still worth reading.

also read magnus linklater & some other observer journo's 'not with honour', about the westland fiasco that saw the resignations of heseltine and brittan from the thatcher cabinet over disagreements and doubledealing. definitely worth reading for the high level access to senior figures from westland, sikorsky, the government and the city, as well as other players.

now back to the third reich book. i'll finish it some day...


----------



## rubbershoes (Jan 22, 2004)

hendo said:
			
		

> Claire Tomalin Life of Pepys. Essential for everyone who loves London, Sex, Politics and the Seventeenth Century.




an outstannding book .I never knew I was interested in Pepys until I started reading that book.It really puts you in among the filth of seventeenth century London


----------



## marty21 (Jan 23, 2004)

berlin - the fall by anthony beavor (just finished stalingrad by the same writer - fantastic book)

d-day - steven ambrose -

seem to be reading a lot about ww2 at the mo....mrs21 kicked it off with stalingrad and i've been playing catch up as she reads them...

might have to dig out by sven hassel collection next


----------



## mrkikiet (Jan 23, 2004)

i continue to duck and dive between books.

finished Morvern Callar yesterday. it did nothing for me, again.

started Vernon God Little, and Brink is ongoing.


----------



## Maggot (Jan 23, 2004)

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

Quite heavy going after reading novels, but utterly fascinating and shocking! Preaching to the converted in my case, but I'd love to see what McDonald's customers make of it.


----------



## zora (Jan 24, 2004)

'The Shape of Water' by Andrea Camilleri. It's an Italian crime book with the typical ingredients: a simpatico detective who is well into his food, not too concerned about petty crime but coming up against the big political forces and corruption etc. A very pleasant read for a lazy saturday afternoon.

Recently finished 'Across the nightingale floor' by Lian Hearn which was recommended to me by friends whose taste in books I often share as on the same level as Philip Pullman. But it didn't really engage me and I found it quite cliched.Anyone else heard anything about it or read it?


----------



## Apathy (Jan 24, 2004)

Finished Vernon God Little - decent!


----------



## butterfly child (Jan 24, 2004)

Do Not Pass Go...

and

Sahara...

and

numerous travel books...


----------



## jayeola (Jan 25, 2004)

practical c programming - steve oualline


----------



## Roadkill (Jan 25, 2004)

Alistair MacLean - _The Golden Rendezvous_

Pure, trashy escapism, but brilliant anyway.  One of MacLean's best, IMO.


----------



## metalguru (Jan 25, 2004)

Rumours of a Hurricane - Tim Lott

Good and insightful account of the effect of the Thatcher zeitgeist during the 80s, though by its very nature a bit of a downer.

Puzzled by the various quotes on the cover referring to the comedy element. It's a serious book, with no comedy as far as I can see


----------



## Pickman's model (Jan 25, 2004)

"the prisoner in the opal" by a e w mason, an occult detective story;

will be on to "the necromancers" by r h benson, about, er, necromancy, in about twenty minutes.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 26, 2004)

Preston Falls by David Gates - saw an excellent review of another book of his and then happened upon this second hand, very very good so far. kind of mid-life crisis American angst, but very bitterly funny and NOTHING like fucking American Beauty.


----------



## easy g (Jan 26, 2004)

not the bloke from Bread is it!!


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 26, 2004)

thankfully not, although i did worry.


----------



## easy g (Jan 26, 2004)

pheww 

<relaxes....>


----------



## soulrebel (Jan 27, 2004)

I have just re-read my (new) favourite graphic novel, Alan Moore's "V for Vendetta", which makes reference to "V" by Thomas Pynchon, who i seem to recall being mentioned somewhere in this thread... could i get a brief summation of what it is about by any chance?

Couple of quick comments on some authors also mentioned:

Alice Walker - IMO "The Color Purple" and "Possessing The Secret of Joy" are both good, but the former just _slightly_ overdoes the sentimentality and the latter just _slightly_ overdoes the Freudian/Jungian stuff (would be interesting to see what Louloubelle thinks of this book).

On the other hand, i wholeheartedly recommend her first 2 novels, "Meridian" and "The Third Life Of Grange Copeland"... not that i don't recommend the other 2, they are all great books, but "Meridian" was her high point IMO and it has been downhill from there. Having said that, Walker's downhill is still far better than 90% of other authors' uphill... i would still rank her among the Great American Novelists, if slightly eclipsed by the more consistent Toni Morrison.

Sylvia Plath - i read "The Bell Jar", but TBH i wasn't as moved as i thought i would be - my main reaction was "well if this is as bad as depression gets, i have had depression all my life, even the bits of my life i consider to be the good bits"... the state of mind she described just seemed ordinary to me...

Her poetry is fucking hard hitting tho IMO.

Bleh, forgot which other books i was going to comment on... well, it is 4am


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 27, 2004)

soulrebel said:
			
		

> "V" by Thomas Pynchon, who i seem to recall being mentioned somewhere in this thread... could i get a brief summation of what it is about by any chance?



HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 27, 2004)

.. and indeed 'ARF!!'


----------



## chegrimandi (Jan 27, 2004)

just started 'Cat and Mouse' by Gunter Grass.....I haven't tried one of his novels yet...hope they are as good as everyone says.....


----------



## Nina (Jan 27, 2004)

Just finished Pullman's part 2 and gone straight into part 3. Jesus, It's fucking addictive....I'm even trying to sneak quick glances at work when the boss isn't looking  

Looking fwd to reading the thread when I've finished.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 28, 2004)

chegrimandi said:
			
		

> just started 'Cat and Mouse' by Gunter Grass.....I haven't tried one of his novels yet...hope they are as good as everyone says.....




as wanking scenes go, Cat & Mouse is one of the best,


----------



## rubbershoes (Jan 28, 2004)

I’m reading Starman – the story of Yuri Gagarin by someone or other. It’s pedestrian in a _he went there and  he did that _ sort of way. The only analysis of him as a person is through a lens of soviet heroism.

I should have been warned off by a review on the back – “this book was worth writing and is worth reading” Hardly very effusive is it?


chegri -be careful. Gunter Grass is sooo addictive. His style of writing is highly individual. Cat and mouse sort of follows on from the Tin Drum , but it doesn't matter if you read them out of order. Anyone for a game of Pickled Herring 1-2-3 some time?


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 28, 2004)

The Tin Drum is brilliant - that image of the horse's head filled with eels fills my nightmares


----------



## onemonkey (Jan 28, 2004)

I was once describing that type of fishing to a friend on a boring train journey.. the woman sitting next to us turned distinctly green


----------



## chegrimandi (Jan 28, 2004)

rubbershoes said:
			
		

> I’m reading Starman – the story of Yuri Gagarin by someone or other. It’s pedestrian in a _he went there and  he did that _ sort of way. The only analysis of him as a person is through a lens of soviet heroism.
> 
> I should have been warned off by a review on the back – “this book was worth writing and is worth reading” Hardly very effusive is it?
> 
> ...



shit I've got Tin Drum sitting on the shelf as an Xmas present but its a big fucker so I thought I might ease my way in with a shorter novel first...kinda limbering up but would you say I should read Tin Drum first?


----------



## Roadkill (Jan 29, 2004)

I've just started _Drive On!  A Social History of the Motor Car_ by L.J.K. Setright.

So far I've discovered that Setright's a rabidly right wing, bumptious, pro-car crusader with a superbly lively writing style and a vast knowledge.  I've a feeling I'm going to end up disagreeing with a lot of what he says, but I'm going to enjoy reading it anyway.



edit: I misjudged Setright.  "Rabidly right wing" was grossly unfair.  He's a bloke of strong views, most of which I disagree with - such as his views on oil (it's not finite, apparently), speed limits (he doesn't agree with them) and public transport (he doesn't like it) - but he's got some very interesting things to say, especially about the way government and social expectations have shaped car design and use.  It's a good read.


----------



## Fenian (Jan 29, 2004)

"the fear of freedom" by erich fromm


----------



## easy g (Jan 29, 2004)

Deadeye Dick - Kurt Vonnegut

and so it goes


----------



## rubbershoes (Jan 29, 2004)

Read them in any order chegri. It doesn’t really matter


----------



## Jangla (Jan 29, 2004)

The Brentford Chainstore Masacre - Robert Rankin


----------



## Rollem (Feb 3, 2004)

metalguru said:
			
		

> Rumours of a Hurricane - Tim Lott
> 
> Good and insightful account of the effect of the Thatcher zeitgeist during the 80s, though by its very nature a bit of a downer.
> 
> Puzzled by the various quotes on the cover referring to the comedy element. It's a serious book, with no comedy as far as I can see


great book, i thought.

the humour is there, you just got to be open to it


----------



## ViolentPanda (Feb 3, 2004)

The Immoralist - Andre Gide


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 3, 2004)

Just picked up W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz - know very little about it but my dad told me it changed the way he thought about reading and literature.


----------



## mrkikiet (Feb 4, 2004)

My Traitor's heart, Rian Malan. A very honest account of being a boer in SOuth Africa during the 1980s, unputdownable (is that a word?).


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 4, 2004)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Just picked up W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz - know very little about it but my dad told me it changed the way he thought about reading and literature.


This is ace - 10 pages in and I'm gripped by it - no paragraphs though


----------



## mrkikiet (Feb 4, 2004)

haven't you just quoted yourself? good to see your opinions haven't changed too much overnight, or that you haven't finished it yet


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 4, 2004)

geordietim said:
			
		

> haven't you just quoted yourself? good to see your opinions haven't changed too much overnight, or that you haven't finished it yet


I hadn't started it last night though! Is it bad form to quote yourself if you have something to add?


----------



## mrkikiet (Feb 4, 2004)

i'm not sure. i guess not. pleased your enjoying it anyway

i tend wait until i have got a fair bit into a book before i post it up so I have some idea of what it's like.


----------



## chez (Feb 4, 2004)

Human Instinct- Robert Winston

really enjoying this, have n't read any popular science for a while but might get back into the genre.


----------



## Relahni (Feb 5, 2004)

Looking for a fight by David Matthews.

Pretty good so far - about a journo who trains to be a professional boxer for one fight.


----------



## Rollem (Feb 6, 2004)

Lollybelle said:
			
		

> If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor - beautiful, poetic rendering of students and their neighbours in a northern town


finally got round to starting this book. only 15 pages in or so, but agree with the above statement so far...


----------



## onemonkey (Feb 6, 2004)

one of my new year's resolutions was to keep a note of the books i read this year, here's what i got through in january:

_Don't Panic - Neil Gaiman_ 
A good book for Douglas Adams/HHGTTG anoraks - recently revised edition, Neil Gaiman's typically crystal clear style with lots of gentle in-jokes for the enthusiasts.
_A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole_ 
slightly ruined by over-hype, it was funnee but ultimately the irredeemable grotesqueness of Ignatius J. Reilly riles too much. 
_After the Quake - Haruki Murakami_ short book of short stories all somehow related to or inspired by the Kobe earthquake.. some good, some average - an elephant vanishes is a better collection.
_Attention - Harold Pashler (ed.)_ 
summary of psychological research on attention - inevitably mostly boring - but the connectionist chapter was reet gradely.
_Company for Henry - P G Wodehouse_
typical wodehouse - feckless toffs and eccentric americans tootling back and forth from town to country house while purloining paperweights (C17 french!) while others fall in love.. utterly excellent - Wodehouse is a genius.
_When We Were Orphans - Kazuo Ishiguro_
u75 jan bookgroup choice - an implausibly plotted, poorly characterised faux 1930's detective-story-that-isn't.. and compared to Toole & Wodehouse, (say) it's written  in a very workmanlike fashion.  
_Inner Vision - Semir Zeki_
His thesis is that "art is the brain of the beholder not his eyes" - fair enough but the book is neither fish nor fowl.. and fails to convince you that he is saying anything new or all that interesting. (but i may just be bitter because he wouldn't give me a job.)
_Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man	 - Joseph Heller_
Joseph Heller was getting on a bit when he wrote this tale of old age, writers block and failing libido.. clever and witty rather than funny and bitter.
_Confessions of a Dangerous Mind - Chuck Barris_
CIA hitman & the TV producer who invented Blind Date & the Gong show (a talent show for the talentless) - someone should have shot him! - actually they tried and failed.. an entertaining biography but not one in which you  will find anything you actually wanted to learn
_Mad Pride	 - Pete Shaunessey (ed.)_
tales from survivors of the mental health system, it's a wonder how they kept the little sanity they start out with.
_Postmodern Pooh - Frederick Crews_
Frederick Crews has a frighteningly large brain, he dislikes the pomposity and ignorance of postmodern literary theory and in deeply malicious and mischevious style he parodies some of the worst offenders as they might read Pooh.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 6, 2004)

Do you have a job?    That's a lot of books! Show-off!


----------



## onemonkey (Feb 6, 2004)

quit my job in december!!
now i'm a full-time part-time stewdent


----------



## Blagsta (Feb 7, 2004)

Just finished Catch-22, just started Naked Lunch.


----------



## Pigeon (Feb 7, 2004)

Dan Fesperman - The Small Book of Great Sorrows

Sort of detective novel set in post-war Bosnia.

S'good.


----------



## Snakefeather (Feb 7, 2004)

I just started reading "All Tomorrow's Parties" by William Gibson. I read "Neuromancer" and found it gripping, evocative, but totally oblique. "All Tomorrow's Parties" is far more accessible but less evocative in its style and prose. 

Neither book seems to me to evoke the same kind of "dark future" qualities as the more cinematic and otherwise mostly-superficial (e.g. "Ghost In The Shell", various anime, roleplaying games, et cetera) examples of the cyberpunk genre that Gibson seems to have inspired, if that makes sense. I'm not sure if I'm not just not quite reading his work from the right viewpoint or what. I think maybe the point where he was innovative passed shortly after "Neuromancer", and what he's saying has become such common iconography that it's lost on me. 

I also read "Johnny Mnemonic" in a compilation whose title I've forgotten, and it seemed totally pointless to me. Nothing significant happens in it, the protagonist does almost nothing for himself, and the ending just resonates with "Ah, well, never mind, eh?". In fact. everything of his I've read so far breaks all of the rules that editors teach each other about how stories should be written, including the rare sensible ones. From the viewpoint of somebody who gets abuse from these people all the time for breaking the same rules, this annoys me.

Not that I harbour any kind of resentment towards Gibson for this. Or others, like Lovecraft for instance (off the top of my head). It just annoys me that editors who claim to love this kind of literature are such hypocrites about other people's. The rules they apply are totally arbitrary until an author owned by somebody else breaks them in public, and then he's a genius. But nobody else is allowed to do it.

/bitter rant


----------



## Ciara (Feb 8, 2004)

Well I've started 'The Great Gatsby' and things are looking good so far (she says being all of six pages in)


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 9, 2004)

*Martin Millar - Love & Peace With Melody Paradise*

more out of loyalty really, used to love his stuff. this is quite sweet, but i'm not sure i'm enjoying having him actually in the book, and trying to maintain some kind of ironic distance from all the hippy nonsense 

his early stuff - Lux, Alby Starvation etc - wasn't quite as twee, somehow..

got Wiseblood by Flannery O'Connor on the top of the pile for when i finish this..


----------



## Isambard (Feb 9, 2004)

Just re-read the "Good Soldier Svejk" by Jaroslav Hasek over the weekend.
Thoroughly recommend it.

Irreverant of authority, anti-war and anti Hapsburg imperialism.
In places VERY funny / farcical.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 9, 2004)

Just starting TSOG: The Thing That Ate The Constitution.  It’s nice to see a Robert Anton Wilson book that isn’t a film script, dictionary etc, for the first time in years.   It’s still quite bitty, being as far as I can see a collection of stuff from his website, although it also looks like it has a theme and will fit together as I go through it.  Plus he seems to be on typically droll, sarcastic form, but _warm_ with it (does that make sense?).  I know people have said this before, but he'd make a great granddad.


----------



## onemonkey (Feb 10, 2004)

grtho said:
			
		

> Just re-read the "Good Soldier Svejk" by Jaroslav Hasek over the weekend.
> Thoroughly recommend it.


the whole thing, all 800 pages of it??   you read fast!! 

have to agree it is great.. the catch 22 of the WW1.


----------



## Termite (Feb 10, 2004)

Anarchism and Other Essays by Emma Goldman....highly recommended


----------



## wiskey (Feb 10, 2004)

currently reading a collection of comic fantasy stories from the past 100 years  its facinating and has renewed my entusiasm for short sharp stories.


----------



## Rollem (Feb 10, 2004)

about to start life of pi.....


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 13, 2004)

It's pay day so I've just gone on a book bonanza and have come back with these: 
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time - Mark Haddon 
Eats, Shoots & Leaves - Lynne Truss (Justin would love this)
The Little Friend - Donna Tartt 
Jennifer Government - Max Barry


----------



## mrkikiet (Feb 13, 2004)

heart of darkness.


----------



## Nina (Feb 14, 2004)

I'm a few chapters in to Alice Sebold Lucky.
It's not gripping me. Shame. I really enjoyed Lovely Bones

Maybe I'm just booked out after the Pullman trilogy bonanza reading session.


----------



## IntoStella (Feb 16, 2004)

Simultaneously, N.P. by Banana Yoshimoto, which I had to put aside for a bit because I was feeling really depressed for other reasons. It is deeply sad (in a very sweet kind of way) and is based around a series of intricately related suicides. There's also a lot of incest and other weird stuff going on. It's both a very gentle and very disturbing book. 

So to buck myself up a bit I borrowed Tim Moore's Frost on My Moustache off Mrs Magpie. Like all his books, it's extremely funny.


----------



## Random One (Feb 16, 2004)

i started Big Fish.


----------



## dormouse (Feb 16, 2004)

Just started Travels with a Tangerine, Tim Mackintosh-Smith - following in the footsteps of Ibn Battutah.  Haven't got beyond Tangier yet... but it's pretty good so far.


----------



## fractionMan (Feb 16, 2004)

Yet more Iain M Banks.  Against a dark background this time.


----------



## souljacker (Feb 16, 2004)

Just finished Michael Moore, Dude wheres my country. Totally wasted on me as I knew most of the stuff in there anyway. Hopefully lots of yanks will read it because it's aimed at them.

I'm going to try On the Road again now. Hopefully I'll actually be able to finish it this time

Also reading Cisco CCNA self study books for an upcoming exam. But you don't really want to know that do you.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Feb 18, 2004)

"The Dawn of the French Revolution" by Mandel Pio Correa


----------



## Fenian (Feb 18, 2004)

"the spirit of terrorism" by jean baudrillard


----------



## oi2002 (Feb 18, 2004)

Just finished Kurt Jurgen's Storm Of Steel, numbing stuff, beats the pants off all the British WW I memoirs.

Now reading The Speckled People by Hugo Hamilton, sadly hilarious account of a 50s Dublin German/Gaelic speaking childhood.


----------



## flypanam (Feb 18, 2004)

oi2002 said:
			
		

> Now reading The Speckled People by Hugo Hamilton, sadly hilarious account of a 50s Dublin German/Gaelic speaking childhood.



I used to know Hugo hamiltons daughter, lovely woman named jimmy*

Reading
Light- M John harrison so far its a good read 

and

neil hardings- lenins political thought volume 1


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 18, 2004)

souljacker said:
			
		

> I'm going to try On the Road again now. Hopefully I'll actually be able to finish it this time






			
				truman capote said:
			
		

> "that's not writing - that's just typing"





i'm reading Confederacy Of Dunces again, because it makes me laugh.


----------



## Walter Mitty (Feb 18, 2004)

Clifford the big red dog by Norman Bridwell.  Its a bit hard going and I'm struggling to finish it, I mean the finding Clifford stuff what the fucks that about?  Anyone understand here it?


----------



## mrkikiet (Feb 18, 2004)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> i'm reading Confederacy Of Dunces again



there is no need to justify re-reading this book.

i am jumping on the Life of Pi bandwagon, late. I'm also reading The Silent Takeover by Noreena Hertz.


----------



## PursuedByBears (Feb 19, 2004)

Godless Morality by Richard Holloway, Bishop of Edinburgh.  Bit hard to get into but rewarding.  I've never really read anything on ethics before and it's a good introduction to the subject of whether morality derives from the "creator" or changes according to changes in society.


----------



## rosa (Feb 19, 2004)

I spent valentines night in the most appropriate way imaginable-getting pissed and reading Touching From A Distance by Deborah Curtis (Ian Curtis' biography,by his wife).first time i've read a book all the way through in one go in ages. Turns out he was a racist Tory arsehole who treated his wife like shit,but he was also an undiagnosed schizophrenic.tragic really.

and i still want atmosphere by joy division playing at my funeral.


----------



## WasGeri (Feb 19, 2004)

I'm reading Seabiscuit: The true story of a long shot who became a legend

(it's a biography of a racehorse).


----------



## Nina (Feb 22, 2004)

Orwell's 'Down and out in London and Paris'.
so far tragic and humourous.
Is there a 'u' in humourous?
eh?  
That man was the God. Total respect.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Feb 22, 2004)

The Walkaway by Scott Phillips


----------



## Clintons Cat (Feb 22, 2004)

*A Users Guide To The Brain-John Ratey*,Associate Clinical Professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Recommended


----------



## foo (Feb 22, 2004)

Just finished What I Loved - Siri Hustvedt. 

Slow going (painstakingly so) at first which made me put it down a few times but as Lolly told me to persevere, I did. And I'm glad I did. This is a good tale of our times imo - so much packed in self image, family, misunderstandings, lies, and the desperation parents feel to believe in their children. The portayal of the 'sociopathalogical' Mark was incredible - and very unnerving. 

I'd recommend it.


----------



## golightly (Feb 22, 2004)

Just reading The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling, which I'm sure quite a few of you have read before, but I'm really enjoying it.  Basically it focusses on the US security services and phone companies attack on hacker groups in 1990.  Nicely balanced, I think.  Sterling doesn't take sides, but shows that both groups can be equally heroic or stupid.  It's good to get some historical perspective on the current situation of bulletin boards, file sharing, viruses and trojans, and the electronic underground.


----------



## Blagsta (Feb 22, 2004)

*golightly*

Yeah read that a couple of years ago.  Interesting book.

Still trying to plough through Naked Lunch at the moment, its hard going though.
Also dipping in and out of "The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics" by Richard Davenport-Hines.  Its a good book, but I seem to have a bit of a mental block with history books, I find them slow going.


----------



## rubbershoes (Feb 23, 2004)

mr spork said:
			
		

> Godless Morality by Richard Holloway, Bishop of Edinburgh.  Bit hard to get into but rewarding.  I've never really read anything on ethics before and it's a good introduction to the subject of whether morality derives from the "creator" or changes according to changes in society.



As he's a bishop I should imagine he'll say morality is external and derives from gawd. It would be a bit odd for a bishop to say otherwise.


----------



## Loki (Feb 23, 2004)

N = 2 super Yang Mills theory with _SU(2)_ gauge group and a single quark hypermultiplet in the fundamental representation - Andreas Gustavson and Mans Henningson.

Some very touching equations.


----------



## Roadkill (Feb 23, 2004)

I found a copy of _The BFG_ in a charity shop over the weekend so, being a bit pissed and not in the mood for anything too challenging, I read half of it last night.

Road Dahl = genius.  IMO.


----------



## Elpenor (Feb 23, 2004)

Microserfs by Douglas Coupland, from a market in Brighton.

Whilst it's OK, I get the feeling I'm about 10 years too late on this one...   

Still at least I understand a bit of the computer babble now that the general public have caught up


----------



## SubZeroCat (Feb 23, 2004)

Ive just finished reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
It was a long and thorough but compelling and fantastic book
I didnt want to stop reading it!

i definitely recommend it, it makes excellent reading


----------



## chez (Feb 23, 2004)

Pot Planet- Adventures in Global Marijuana Culture.

fun, informative 
a cross between a travelogue and a cannabis fact book


----------



## Strumpet (Feb 24, 2004)

Just started re-reading His Dark Materials - Phillip Pullman.

Oh god I love this trilogy. It completely draws me in. 
I am eating, sleeping and breathing it at the moment, same happened the first time round.


----------



## pilchardman (Feb 24, 2004)

rubbershoes said:
			
		

> As he's a bishop I should imagine he'll say morality is external and derives from gawd. It would be a bit odd for a bishop to say otherwise.


Prepare for oddness, then.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Feb 24, 2004)

golightly said:
			
		

> The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling



A great book. I read it with 'Approaching Zero' by Paul Mungo and Bryan Clough, which covers some of the same ground and has good stuff on phone phreakers and the early 90s Bulgarian virus writers.


----------



## Tracy (Feb 24, 2004)

Prescription For Murder - The True Story of Doctor Shipman. 

Very good read examing his childhood, education, how he killed and why he killed. I come from Hyde originally and it's just crazy thinking that Britain's biggest serial killer was there.   

I even met him as he was my god daughter's doctor.


----------



## Fledgling (Feb 24, 2004)

George Orwell: A Life 
By Bernard Crick 
Half way through
Exhaustive yet intriguing
It goes on
Must read more


----------



## Dirty Martini (Feb 24, 2004)

Just finished 'Reefer Madness and Other Tales from the American Underground' by Eric Schlosser. Lots of research, well-written, very entertaining - but just a bit thin, like some old magazine features strung together in fact.

I'm a good way through 'Yonder Stands Your Orphan' by Barry Hannah, mad Mississippi-set gothic comedy, great fun.


----------



## guinnessdrinker (Feb 24, 2004)

currently reading "a short history of bosnia" by Noel Malcom. it seems that some people do not like the book view of bosnian history as its reaches the 20th century. any good criticism?


----------



## ck (Feb 25, 2004)

"High Concept.  Don Simpson and the Hollywood culture of indulgence" by Charles Fleming.

Fascinating and frightening insight to the Hollywood scene when coke was not of the diet variety if you see what I mean...


----------



## mrkikiet (Feb 25, 2004)

Atomised by Michael Houellebecq.

gripping tale of two contrasting half brothers.


----------



## zora (Feb 26, 2004)

Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood. 

Demi-monde glamour, working-class squalor and the rise of fascism in early 1930s Berlin. It is a novel with a distinctly autobiographical feel, with the main character even bearing the same name as the author.


----------



## oi2002 (Feb 26, 2004)

Power And Glory:
Jacobean England and the making of the King James Bible.
By Adam Nicolson.

Outstanding.  Great work of popular history.

... and of course the Book Itself, bronze age poetry indeed.  Spoiled a little by all the God Bollox though.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Feb 27, 2004)

"Stefano Delle Chiaie: Portrait of a "Black" Terrorist" by Stuart Christie. An interesting chronology of neo-fascist terrorism in Southern Europe from the post-war period through to the 80s.


----------



## Loki (Feb 27, 2004)

The Art of Coarse Drinking, Michael Green (again).


----------



## golightly (Feb 27, 2004)

'Wolfbane' by Frederick Pohl & C M Kornbluth.  Sci Fi hogwash but fun.

If I play my cards right I won't have to buy a book for the next 10 years. My girlfriend has a virtual library of books of all kinds of topics.

-


----------



## jbob (Feb 27, 2004)

Natsume Soseki "Kokoro". Beautiful, beautiful book about "the devices by which men attempt to escape from their fundamnetal loneliness".

Proto-existentialism from an author considered to be one of Japan's finest authors.


----------



## mrkikiet (Feb 28, 2004)

Gunter Grass - Too far afield.

i started it a while ago but wasn't really ready for it, hopefully i will be now


----------



## foo (Feb 28, 2004)

White Noise - Don De-wotsit. 

well I would be reading it if members of the public didn't keep coming up and asking me questions. 

What do they think I'm doing? Working?


----------



## Part 2 (Feb 28, 2004)

Just finished Coraline by Neil Gaiman, a kids book but very scary stuff. I'd recommend it to anyone. He has a wild imagination and it's written such that it moves at a very fast pace, kids and adults will love it I think.

Also reading:

The Talented Mr Ripley, also quite scary and more disturbing than the Jude Law film, though I liked that too.

The Invisibles, comic book thingy.

Jimmy Corrigan The Smartest Kid On Earth, as bizarre as ever. Not picked it up for a few weeks.

This is the first time I've read multiple books at once but I'm doing okay so far. I know where I'm up to with them all and they're quite different books so suit different times to read them.


----------



## mango5 (Feb 28, 2004)

Just finished H G Wells The Time Machine, Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen and the Groundwater Diaries by Tim Bradford.  Thanks to citydreams for the tip


----------



## tobyjug (Feb 28, 2004)

Off Mice and Men, John Steinbeck.


----------



## laptop (Feb 28, 2004)

Re-reading _Life, a User's Manual_ by Georges Perec. Just re-read _Look to Windward_ by Ian X Banks. Must get something new...


----------



## Roadkill (Feb 29, 2004)

Paul Kennedy - _The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers_.


----------



## durruti02 (Feb 29, 2004)

Perdido Street Station!!! awesome!!! by china mieville or something like that!


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 3, 2004)

I've just finished 'Yonder Stands Your Orphan' by Barry Hannah. Magnificent stuff - hilarious and moving, Mississippi setting addictive. A large cast of characters, all of them superbly drawn, even the minor ones. Every line brings you up short. George Saunders fans would love this imo.

This is his most recent novel. Has anyone come across his stuff before? It seems quite a lot of it is difficult to get hold of - I can't work out why.


----------



## Masseuse (Mar 3, 2004)

Philip Roth - Portnoy's Complaint.  Never read any Roth before, thought it was about time.


----------



## mrkikiet (Mar 3, 2004)

Coetzee - Life and times of Michael K.  

every book of his i read i wonder more and more why he was given the Booker for disgrace, which is far far far from his best work. the only reason i can think of is that the judges empathised with the principal character more in Disgrace than they could with those found in his other books.


----------



## Masseuse (Mar 3, 2004)

mrkikiet said:
			
		

> Coetzee - Life and times of Michael K.
> 
> every book of his i read i wonder more and more why he was given the Booker for disgrace, which is far far far from his best work. the only reason i can think of is that the judges empathised with the principal character more in Disgrace than they could with those found in his other books.



Oh, I rather liked Disgrace - but I agree I've found his other works more compelling.  Loved Elizabeth Costello.  I shall have to track down Michael K then - didn't that one win the Booker too?


----------



## Loki (Mar 3, 2004)

Dude, Where's My Country?  Michael Moore


----------



## IntoStella (Mar 3, 2004)

The Tin Princess by Philip Pullman, having devoured the rest of the series  -- the Ruby in the Smoke, The Shadow in the North and the Tiger in the Well -- within a few days. See fenian's Philip Pullman thread.


----------



## MooChild (Mar 3, 2004)

Just finished Rogue States by Noam Chomsky, currently reading Behold a Pale Horse by William Cooper.


----------



## MarkMark (Mar 3, 2004)

"The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat" - Oliver Sacks


----------



## onemonkey (Mar 4, 2004)

*february*

here's what i read last month:

_If nobody speaks of remarkable things - Jon Macgregor_
A debut novel set in a suburban street in some northern town, revolving around the events of one sunday afternoon and the aftermath. the 'prose poem' moments most usually grate but otherwise it would be unkind to malign a highly commendable and modestly readable first novel. 

_The Mathematical Brain - Brian Butterworth_
A psychologist surveys our mathematical abilities - well almost - we don't really know much about the whys and wherefores of maths skills so mainly he looks at our most basic arithemetic and some of the suprising things ever so rarely that can go wrong with it. It succeeds as an Oliver Sacks type book but fails to paint a bigger picture or explain what it describes.

_Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience - Mark Johnson_
A worthwhile intro to the topic that i mainly read to suck up to Prof Johnson and his cronies.. nonetheless, it is excellent on the research into development of Cognition, in particular in brings very up to date with the most plausible modern stance on what regrettably is called the 'nature-nuture' debate.. the neurophysiological chapters are excellent.

_Introduction to Connectionist Modelling of Cognitive Processes - McLeod, Plunkett & Rolls_
superb connectionist textbook - really gets to the heart of modelling and the motivations behind it.. excellent worked examples/exercises to run through using the provided software.. didn't really understand connectionism in any more than a theoretical way until i had read this hands-on primer.

_Love among the chickens	- P G Wodehouse_
An early Wodehouse, written in 1906 when he was first finding his comic voice and inimitable style. All the usual elements are there - though the timing and execution of the jokes has yet to attain the stamp of genius. 

_I, Lucifer - Glen Duncan_ 
Cunning, crackling and blackly comic. A highly ambitious 1st novel attempting to be a first person account by Lucifer himself.  it carries off the wit, intelligence and erudition of the dark prince and even does well in capturing the malevolence and seduces you into feeling that maybe Satan is misunderstood. 


_Mother London - Michael Moorcock_ 
Moorcock has an effortless fluency in his writing that brings alive the neglected corners of London. The story follows the meanderings of three 'lunatics' from the moment the bombs start falling in the Blitz upto the mid 80's of Thatch, the book too meanders not seeking to tell a tale but to weave together descriptions of Londoners-London and to paint portraits of the outsiders who are at home in such an diverse and unusual city. I wasn't here then but it really feels like he's talking about the same town i experience every day-- fantastic!


_Three - Georges Perec_
Three short tales by oddball french genius Perec  including The Exeter Text which uses no vowels other than 'E' - using up all the ones he had left over after excluding them from his novel 'A Void', an eye-wetting read.. and the mind boggles at the job the translator achieved!


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 4, 2004)

You're very brainy, Onemonkey


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 4, 2004)

"Modern Nature" - Derek Jarman.

post-diagnosis diaries.

too much fucking gardening.


----------



## laptop (Mar 4, 2004)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> _Mother London - Michael Moorcock_
> 
> _Three - Georges Perec_
> Three short tales by oddball french genius Perec  including The Exeter Text which uses no vowels other than 'E' - using up all the ones he had left over after excluding them from his novel 'A Void', an eye-wetting read.. and the mind boggles at the job the translator achieved!



Gave my mum _Mother London_ - reckon she can handle it by now. 

Have you read Douglas Hofstadter on translation - with reference to Perec - in _Le Ton Beau de Marot_? 

I've just started _Politics of Nature_ by Bruno Latour - out next month in translation. Provoking... "under the pretext of protecting nature, the ecology movements have retained the conception of nature that makes their political struggle hopeless. "Nature" is made... precisely to eviscerate politics"


----------



## Masseuse (Mar 4, 2004)

Recently finished Graham Greene's "End of the Affair" - recommended by fellow poster - ta very much.  Very moving and great in the headfuck department.

Been ploughing through Zizek's "Enjoy your Symptoms" - an exploration of Lacan through Hollywood and popular culture.  Fucking great stuff.  "Enjoy your symptoms" is now my phrase of the moment.


----------



## chegrimandi (Mar 5, 2004)

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath


----------



## Iam (Mar 5, 2004)

Just bought the new Richard Morgan book, Market Forces, but I'm gonna have to wait a bit to read it, cos I'm still reading James Ellroy's L.A. Noir.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Mar 5, 2004)

Ive just finished Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, then read The Impressionist by Hari Kunzri, now reading some silly french book


----------



## zora (Mar 6, 2004)

Berlin Blues by Sven Regener (the singer / songwriter of the famous German band Element of Crime, in case you didn't know...). And it's lovely and hilarious.


----------



## onemonkey (Mar 6, 2004)

SubZeroCat said:
			
		

> then read The Impressionist by Hari Kunzri


so are you coming along to this months book group then?

gwan!


----------



## ion (Mar 6, 2004)

I just finished Dark Elf series by R.A. Salvatore [again]. They're very good.

Might go on to read Icewind Dale now, same author.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Mar 6, 2004)

Ooh defo onemonkey
Except this months is the day after St Patricks day and im Irish you see, so dont expect me to come out with anything intelligible.............


----------



## SubZeroCat (Mar 6, 2004)

As for the reading list ive read The God of Small Things, its amazing, read it

and has anyone read The Sexual Life of Catherine Millet?

Ooh im looking forward to this book group thingy


----------



## atitlan (Mar 6, 2004)

Just started "Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell.  I loved "Ghostwritten" and really liked "number9dream" so I'm expecting good things from this one too.


----------



## Moggy (Mar 6, 2004)

Just finished 'The Sacred Art Of Stealing' by Christopher Brookmyre.
Fucking fantastic  
Just bought a copy of Human Punk by John King which i'll be getting stuck into soon hopefully   
Moggy.


----------



## Flavour (Mar 6, 2004)

just read Harold Pinter's "The Homecoming" in one sitting last night

What a fucking amazing playwright.

Now i'm gonna start jane austen's emma, seen as i have to do an exam on it for my a/s level in the summer


----------



## Gwyn ha Du (Mar 6, 2004)

'Hunger' by Knut Hamsun.

It's about a starving writer and his very eccentric behaviour whilst living in abject poverty.

Everyone says it's a classic, wouldn't go that far, but I'm enjoying it anyway.


----------



## newharper (Mar 7, 2004)

The Origins of the Second World War by A J P Taylor.

finished the updated preface, and into the second chapter: very readable and debunks a lot of the myths we have been pedalled. It was written in 1960/61 so I'll have to find out the rebuttals from some history buffs.


----------



## onemonkey (Mar 7, 2004)

SubZeroCat said:
			
		

> Ooh defo onemonkey
> Except this months is the day after St Patricks day and im Irish you see, so dont expect me to come out with anything intelligible.............


don't worry about not saying anything intelligible.... we rarely do.. 

be more worried about your ability to join in the drinking.. 

seeya


----------



## MysteryGuest (Mar 7, 2004)

Moggy said:
			
		

> Just finished 'The Sacred Art Of Stealing' by Christopher Brookmyre.
> Fucking fantastic



I read that in January.  Good innit?  imo Brookmyre is a very funny and cutting writer, and does top-quality sarcasm.  And that's a superbly original idea for a bank heist.  Judging by Amazon reviews, however, it Looks like his new one Be My Enemy isn't up to much so I'm going to give it a miss.   I'd recommend Kingdom of the Blind, which I read right through the middle of a huge pill comedown because I actually, for the first time in my life, literally couldn't put the bugger down.  I'd also recommend One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night and his first novella Quite Ugly One Morning, which has a truly unforgettable opening scene - completely gross and yet 100% deadpan droll at the same time.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Mar 7, 2004)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> don't worry about not saying anything intelligible.... we rarely do..
> 
> be more worried about your ability to join in the drinking..
> 
> seeya



Im Irish. Nuff said methinks


----------



## Moggy (Mar 7, 2004)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> I read that in January.  Good innit?  imo Brookmyre is a very funny and cutting writer, and does top-quality sarcasm.  And that's a superbly original idea for a bank heist.  Judging by Amazon reviews, however, it Looks like his new one Be My Enemy isn't up to much so I'm going to give it a miss.   I'd recommend Kingdom of the Blind, which I read right through the middle of a huge pill comedown because I actually, for the first time in my life, literally couldn't put the bugger down.  I'd also recommend One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night and his first novella Quite Ugly One Morning, which has a truly unforgettable opening scene - completely gross and yet 100% deadpan droll at the same time.



Yeah, i was thinking about ordering One FIne Day In The Middle Of The Night and Quite Ugly One Morning for amazon this week, and obviously since they must be good i think i'll do just that! 
Hehe, banks heists will never be the same!    
Moggy.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 7, 2004)

atitlan said:
			
		

> Just started "Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell.  I loved "Ghostwritten" and really liked "number9dream" so I'm expecting good things from this one too.


Ooh crikey - looking forward to reading this - didn't realise it was out yet - not sure if I can afford the hardback, but Mitchell is so good, I'm not sure if I can wait.


----------



## gnoriac (Mar 7, 2004)

JUles Verne's 20000 Leagues Under the Sea. Someone left it lying around in the hotel.


----------



## In Bloom (Mar 7, 2004)

_The Chomsky Reader_ by Noam Chomsky - A collection of Chomsky's writings, including a lot of previously unpublished stuff, really interesting


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 9, 2004)

been ill, so read:

Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre. which i enjoyed, but didn't think he was very good at pacing. his odd, impressionistic descriptions were excellent for the most part but i found that they clogged things up a little when things were getting faster moving. but it's a minor criticism, because when the descriptions were appropriate (most of the time) they were phenomenal.

now reading Inappropriate Behaviour (Prada Sucks & Other Demented Descants) a collection of very funny, very iconoclastic sort-of-feminist writing (including 'Why I Hate Gwyneth Paltrow' and 'What To Wear In A War Zone')

very good


----------



## smile injection (Mar 9, 2004)

goodbye to all that - robert graves

damn english lit books


----------



## Nina (Mar 10, 2004)

Polished off 'Devdas' by Saratchandra Chattopadhyay at the weekend. Nice Bengali fable. 

Now am into Donna Tartt's 'The Little Friend'. So far so good. Have heard it's a bit slow and too long. Hmmm

Thinking of Eugeniedes 'Middlesex' but not sure...can anyone recommend it?


----------



## SubZeroCat (Mar 10, 2004)

Yes i can, i really enjoyed reading Middlesex. Its long but you dont want it to end

At the mo i'm reading The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

So far so good


----------



## mentalchik (Mar 10, 2004)

Just read Holes - Louis Sachar in the bath this afternoon,



really enjoyed it too !


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 11, 2004)

Eric Hobsbawm's Age Of Extremes: A Short History Of The 20th Century.

and i will finish it. i will (grits teeth determinedly)


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 11, 2004)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Eric Hobsbawm's Age Of Extremes: A Short History Of The 20th Century.
> 
> and i will finish it. i will (grits teeth determinedly)



I've had that for two years. Haven't even opened it yet


----------



## Relahni (Mar 11, 2004)

War - Laurence Freeman 

Great book or short stories/arguments etc.  Read a couple of war experiences last night on in Hiroshima and the other in London during the Blitz.

It's a great book and would recommend it.


----------



## File Not Found (Mar 11, 2004)

Excellent book about food and historical cultural attitudes to it called _In the Devil's Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food_ by Stewart Lee Allan. Very good. 

Random fact: President Mitterand's last supper was a tiny wild song bird called an ortolan, which you catch, keep in a box for several days whilst forcefeeding it millet, grapes and figs, then drown in cognac, which all seems a bit sadistic in a highly decadent and complicated way. You eat it whole, unboned, with a cloth over your head: the French say it's the total business, and some have equated the current ban on killing ortolans with the Death of Culture.


----------



## dormouse (Mar 11, 2004)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> "Modern Nature" - Derek Jarman.
> 
> post-diagnosis diaries.
> 
> too much fucking gardening.


Oooh, I really liked that!  But then I like gardening.  Even though I'm not very good at it.

I'm now in the middle of 'Chroma'.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 11, 2004)

Nina said:
			
		

> Now am into Donna Tartt's 'The Little Friend'. So far so good. Have heard it's a bit slow and too long. Hmmm
> 
> Thinking of Eugeniedes 'Middlesex' but not sure...can anyone recommend it?



The Little Friend is very very good - I thought it might be a bit slow too but it is very involving indeed - haven't finished it yet but I thoroughly recommend it.
Middlesex is a good read too, but don't believe the hype.


----------



## soulrebel (Mar 12, 2004)

EM Forster - A Passage To India

Thought it would be some Orientalist bullshit (having just re-read Said's "Orientalism", i saw Forster's name mentioned and remembered i had "A Passage To India" and hadn't read it) but i am actually quite enjoying it - it feels very much ahead of its time in both style and sensibilities in fact, almost reminds me of Louis de Bernieres or even Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Need to read fucking LOADS of hardcore political theory stuff between now and June tho...


----------



## SubZeroCat (Mar 14, 2004)

My english teacher recommended A Passage To India for our post colonial writing reading list. 

Your post, soulrebel, reminds me that i should read it. And i will!
I'm currently reading The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi (ive already said that in another post............)
Its really funny and well written


----------



## Pickman's model (Mar 14, 2004)

been rereading a few books: "east of ealing", "the antipope" by ian rankin, and tacitus' "annals of imperial rome".


----------



## Traitor Ohio (Mar 15, 2004)

Currently I'm re-reading for the hundreth time is the Adrian Mole books, which I have read many a time before. Even though I know what happens I still find something new in them. 

Traitor O.
----------


----------



## Roadkill (Mar 15, 2004)

K. Theodore Hoppen - _The Mid-Victorian Generation, 1846-1886_

I'm not reading all of it: it's part-work part-pleasure so I'm skipping the bits that don't much interest me or aren't relevant, but either way it's superb.  It's very readable, very comprehensive and very informative - just the way I like my history books.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 15, 2004)

Just started reading Nelson Mandela's The Long Walk To Freedom cos it's about time I did, but saw Douglas Coupland's Hey Nostradamus in the shop for £3.99, so I think I might be reading that instead.


----------



## Pickman's model (Mar 15, 2004)

have you had a glance at mandela's first book? something about walking, but forget exact title.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 15, 2004)

I thought his autobiogarphy WAS his first book - it does have walk in the title


----------



## ViolentPanda (Mar 15, 2004)

Free At Last: Benn Diaries -  Tony Benn
Winter's Heart - Robert Jordan


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 15, 2004)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Eric Hobsbawm's Age Of Extremes: A Short History Of The 20th Century.
> 
> and i will finish it. i will (grits teeth determinedly)


look, i tried.

i really did.

i just can't concentrate that much any more 


so now i'm reading a pile of old Idler magazines


----------



## pinky (Mar 16, 2004)

I'm currently reading 'Overnight to Innsbruck' by Denyse Woods & I am loving every second of - first book that has really grabbed me in ages....I am on the edge of my seat dying to find out what happens next, it's as gripping as any thriller & such a well written story.....

about 1/4 of the book left & at the mo i have it kinda half hidden under my keyboard so i can sneak a few pages when no-one is looking....


----------



## rennie (Mar 16, 2004)

I've just started reading "From Beirut to Jerusalem" by Thomas Freedman, the NY Times correspondent in Lebanon during the war... interesting reading about one's society and city under constant bombing... so far ive got thru one chapter where he's trying to "describe" Beirut during the civil war and ends up constructing this image of order and chaos, fury, kindness and a total abscence of any semblance of order... a bit how i remember it... of course it's sligtly patronising coming from an american journalist, but it's good to know how you're being perceived, no?


----------



## mango5 (Mar 17, 2004)

Jusr finished _The Time Ships_ by Stephen Baxter, a sequel to H.G.Wells _The Time Machine_.  Also _Alice Through the Looking Glass_ and John Brunner's _Shockwave Rider_ which I can't recommend highly enough. A pre-cyberpunk novel that is "remarkably prescient" according to this round up of Brunner's best known work.


----------



## ringolevio (Mar 18, 2004)

Homecoming - Earl Hamner Jr

This is a Christmas tale from Spencer's Mountain, Virginia; set in the Depression of the 30s, and was the book which inspired the TV series The Waltons.

Only half-way through, but really enjoying it so far.


----------



## marty21 (Mar 18, 2004)

i've got a ww2 thing going on, by my bed is "berlin the fall, by anthony beavour, and i'm carrying around "D-day", by stephen ambrose...enjoying both...


----------



## zora (Mar 18, 2004)

I'm just reading There's A Boy In The Girls' Bathroom by Louis 'Holes' Sachar.

Quite similar to Holes in that it starts off pretty depressingly with a friendless kid in lots of trouble, but getting more cheerful, optimistic and happy without ever being cheesy.


----------



## starfish (Mar 18, 2004)

Bill Hicks, Love All The People, which i just got today.


----------



## chez (Mar 18, 2004)

My Permaculture Magazine

its only published 4 times a year so I try and read it slowly because as soon as I have finished one issue I am can't wait for the next.

the best definition I have heard for permaculture is revolutuion disguised as organic gardening


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 22, 2004)

Waterstones' 3 for 2 deal dragged me in on Saturday. i'm about a 1/4 of the way through Drop City by TC Boyle which is brilliant so far, about the dark side of the 60s commune dream. and then after that i've got Holes by Sachar and GB 84 (a fictionalised account of the miners' strike) to look forward to.


----------



## mrkikiet (Mar 22, 2004)

Brett Eastion Ellis - The Informers

not his greatest.


----------



## J77 (Mar 23, 2004)

Just finished Tom Jones by Fielding - an exhausting read, but ultimately worth it 

Now it's time for some light SF reading:

Virtual Light by William Gibson.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 23, 2004)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> GB 84 (a fictionalised account of the miners' strike) to look forward to.


I think I went to the opening for this. It's David Peace ain't it? He writes detective thrillers set in the North around the timeof the Yorkshire Ripper - a friend has been bugging me to read him for ages. Let us know how you get on with it - this looks a lot more ambitious than his other work.


----------



## PursuedByBears (Mar 23, 2004)

Now reading The Dice Man by Luke Reinhart.  I'm about 12 chapters in and I'm still not sure what I think of it.  It reminds me a lot of American Psycho (although less graphic).


----------



## corporate whore (Mar 23, 2004)

Am reading Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll by Ian Balls, a biography of Ian Dury (no shit, I hear you cry).

It's good - done with the mighty fella's approval. Polio sounds fucking horrific.

Loadsa stuff I didn't know - he wasn't even from bleedin' Essex! Innit!


----------



## bezzer (Mar 23, 2004)

Learning to Use Statistical Tests in Psychology - Judith Greene

Discovering Statistics Using SPSS for Windows - andy Field  

its "lovely stuff"  

hmm kinda


----------



## rubbershoes (Mar 23, 2004)

mr spork said:
			
		

> Now reading The Dice Man by Luke Reinhart.  I'm about 12 chapters in and I'm still not sure what I think of it.  It reminds me a lot of American Psycho (although less graphic).



The Diceman was written along time before American Psycho, I think.

 I don’t see a great deal of similarity between the books myself. The dice man is meant to be a comedy for a start and there aren’t a whole bundle of laughs in American Psycho.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 23, 2004)

Whjat are you talking about it? American Psycho is full of laughs. It's a comic masterpiece. Patrick Bateman is only marginally more annoying and objectionable (and therefore hilarious) than Ignatius J Reilly.


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 23, 2004)

rubbershoes said:
			
		

> The Diceman was written along time before American Psycho, I think.
> 
> I don’t see a great deal of similarity between the books myself. The dice man is meant to be a comedy for a start and there aren’t a whole bundle of laughs in American Psycho.




and whereas Patrick Bateman is an absurd awful character, you appear to be supposed to sympathise with the Dice Man character, despite him being a rapist amongst other things. there's some VERY dodgy messages in that book. like a lot of 60s free-love nonsense, to be honest...


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 23, 2004)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> American Psycho is full of laughs. It's a comic masterpiece



Agreed, a great comic novel


----------



## mrkikiet (Mar 23, 2004)

diceman was written waaaaaaaaaaaaaay before american psycho.

i thought diceman was pretty limited. i'm not sure you were supposed to sympathise with Rhinehart, i got the impression he was meant to feel superior to you because he had escaped from norms of behaviour?


----------



## wiskey (Mar 23, 2004)

i bought a copy of gullivers travels yesterday in the second hand bookshop because i've never read it.

so i'm going to start that . . . soon


----------



## chegrimandi (Mar 23, 2004)

just finished the Bell Jar by Slyvia Plath....bit depressing and sad, but readable enough....was a bit disappointed tbh....

just started some biography about Franco....who had a big oedipus complex apparently....


----------



## girasol (Mar 23, 2004)

mrkikiet said:
			
		

> diceman was written waaaaaaaaaaaaaay before american psycho.
> 
> i thought diceman was pretty limited. i'm not sure you were supposed to sympathise with Rhinehart, i got the impression he was meant to feel superior to you because he had escaped from norms of behaviour?



I don't think he tried to appear superior at all...  To me he just looked completely stupid, but situations he got in were very funny indeed.  In my mind the author was just taking the piss out of his own main character.

I thought The Dice Man was a million times funnier and more interesting than American Psycho.  When I read Psycho I remember skipping loads of pages cause I hated the way he described everything in such painful detail - and I'm not talking about his crimes, I'm talking about his clothes, food, etc...

The Dice Man was written in 1969 I think, and American Psycho in early 90s?


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 23, 2004)

Iemanja said:
			
		

> I hated the way he described everything in such painful detail - and I'm not talking about his crimes, I'm talking about his clothes, food, etc...



but that's in many ways the cleverest part of the book - that kind of sociopathic, anally obsessive attention to detail is the crux of the character..


----------



## Blagsta (Mar 23, 2004)

Robert Sabbag - Snowblind


----------



## chooch (Mar 23, 2004)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> i'm about a 1/4 of the way through Drop City by TC Boyle which is brilliant so far, about the dark side of the 60s commune dream.



Currently reading _a friend of the earth_ and read _the tortilla curtain_ a while back. Both very fine.
Like some of his fancier sentences. Quite ornate without being too guitar solo.


----------



## Sorry. (Mar 23, 2004)

Roger Magraw's History of the French w/c, volume ii. He's one of my tutors, it's a very boring, badly written book.

I have an essay due.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 24, 2004)

Going back to American Psycho, all that detail is there to show how much of an utter cock Bateman is  - something that seems to make his crimes almost superfluous. I think the film adaptation shows this very well.


----------



## onemonkey (Mar 24, 2004)

bezzer said:
			
		

> Discovering Statistics Using SPSS for Windows - andy Field


that's pretty good (for a stats book!)




			
				dubversion said:
			
		

> then after that i've got Holes by Sachar


 that is a superb kids books.. the worst thing about it is that it is over so quickly.. i challenge you not to read it all in one sitting...


----------



## chez (Mar 24, 2004)

A farm of our own- a spiritual journey running a smallholding. Graham R Irwin


----------



## girasol (Mar 24, 2004)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> but that's in many ways the cleverest part of the book - that kind of sociopathic, anally obsessive attention to detail is the crux of the character..



I know, but it just got on my nerves!!!!!    Where's my axe?


----------



## Elpenor (Mar 24, 2004)

Well I finally finished Microserfs.

As is quite common when I read Coupland's books, I found them hard to grasp at first, and with this one struggled with his format - the diary, the computer code, the random words etc. I found it was sometimes deliberately a bit _too_ geeky, god know knows what it must have been like to read when it first came out, 10? years later I at least have heard of modems, Linux, the internet and the other computer jargon he uses.

That said, I found that 80-90% through I had a kind of epiphany, when I suddenly grasped the message he is trying to put across. I found this with Generation X too, although that wasn't until the final chapter I think. 

Have got Scoop! by Evelyn Waugh to read now, the first of the Christmas books to be picked up   have managed the introduction so far


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 24, 2004)

chooch said:
			
		

> Like some of his fancier sentences. Quite ornate without being too guitar solo.



beautifully put!


----------



## bluestreak (Mar 24, 2004)

i thought that microserfs was wonderful, a beautifully written and touching novel.  excellent.

i've just finished reading julie osuki (?) 's When the emperor was divine.  it's about the american treatmentment of japanese citizens during the second world war, and is a delicate and moving piece of writing.

currently working through roddy doyle's 'the van'  one of those books that you really enjoy without knowing why.  not a hell of a lot has happened, but it paints such a vivid picture of peolpe's lives and his characterisation and sense of humour are great.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 24, 2004)

Iemanja said:
			
		

> When I read Psycho I remember skipping loads of pages cause I hated the way he described everything in such painful detail - and I'm not talking about his crimes, I'm talking about his clothes, food, etc...



Here's hoping you didn't miss the chapter on Huey Lewis and the News


----------



## Reg in slippers (Mar 25, 2004)

*that's a particularly fine chardonnay you're drinking*

however, to change topic

just finished Martin Amis' Other People

the ending really pissed me off - an awoken from a dream type device, 

pity because the book would have been so much better if he'd cut the last chapter out


----------



## Masseuse (Mar 25, 2004)

Noddy and Big Ears go shopping.


----------



## Ms T (Mar 25, 2004)

I'm really enjoying Fingersmith by Sarah Waters at the moment.  It's a great page-turner, and a little bit racy to boot!  Not sure what genre it is -- basically a Victorian thriller with a bit of lesbian love-action thrown in for good measure.


----------



## flypanam (Mar 25, 2004)

Richard matheson - i am legend.

excellent read, its your classic horror/scifi vampire novel. Robert neville is the last living man on the planet he is both predator and prey.

well worth the 5.99 i paid for it


----------



## rubbershoes (Mar 25, 2004)

I've just finished Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor. I hadn't realised what a crap military leader Hitler was. If he had let his generals make their own decisions, who knows what would have happened.

I've started on some frothy nonsense by Michael Frayn as light relief


----------



## stop esso (Apr 2, 2004)

join me danny wallace
 verry good


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 2, 2004)

finished Drop City by Boyle, which was mostly fantastic but the ending lacked a certain something..

now onto Holes, which is very much so far, so great!


----------



## Pickman's model (Apr 2, 2004)

"the back jacobins", by c l r james. it's about the slave uprisings which gave haiti its independence.

very interesting!


----------



## Pickman's model (Apr 2, 2004)

rubbershoes said:
			
		

> I've just finished Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor. I hadn't realised what a crap military leader Hitler was. If he had let his generals make their own decisions, who knows what would have happened.


yeh, read that a while back - thought it was very good.


----------



## Kidda (Apr 2, 2004)

just finished Frank Skinner By Frank Skinner, was weird because i know half of the places/people he was talking about, even the bloke who shagged the college goat 

next on to 

Inside the firm by Tony Lambrianou, ive read his brothers version of events, and most of the books the Krays put out, i full expect this one to make him out like he was a hard done by angel.


----------



## Roadkill (Apr 2, 2004)

An Evil Cradling, by Brian Keenan.  He was the Irish bloke taken hostage in Lebanon in the '80s along with John Maccarthy and Terry Waite.


----------



## ill-informed (Apr 3, 2004)

Masseuse said:
			
		

> Noddy and Big Ears go shopping.


   

Well i don't know whether i should tell anyone but i just finished reading David Ickes latest book, tales from the time loop. Certainly his best book to date and a very, very enjoyable read, very disapointing when i finished it. But a very positive conclusion.

Now i tink i'll finish a book i started last year 'the hero with a thousand faces', which is pulling together all myths and fairy stories etc to say a single story.


----------



## Jaygo (Apr 3, 2004)

Starting the book:
MANDATE DAYS British Lives in Palestine 1918-48 by A J Sherman


----------



## Karma (Apr 3, 2004)

1/3 of the way through 'How babies think'....which is non-fiction. It's based on research on the developing minds of babies and its dead interesting.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Apr 3, 2004)

In the middle of "Dishonest Broker: The US role in Israel & Palestine" by Nasser Aruri. very good so far.


----------



## Dethloc (Apr 4, 2004)

I am currently re-reading the " Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. This is my 3rd time through it.. For some reason it inspires me to try more at everything.


----------



## Furvert (Apr 4, 2004)

*dubversion posting - why can't i log out?*




			
				Dethloc said:
			
		

> I am currently re-reading the " Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. This is my 3rd time through it.. For some reason it inspires me to try more at everything.



ah, ayn rand. the (un)acceptable face of social darwinism. enlightened self-interest my arse.



i finished Holes in about 4 very enjoyable hours (and i've just rented the DVD) and then ploughed through 12 by Nick McDonell, who i assume is some kind of teeny-tyro.. wasn't bad, it tried a bit too hard to be Dougla Coupland, Brett Easton Ellis and JD Salinger all at once, and the ending was lame, but it had its moments. it's constant - rather self-conscious - referencing of Camus' The Plague reminded me i hadn't read that yet, so it's off the shelf. but i don't know if it will actually make it into my hands.


----------



## Belushi (Apr 4, 2004)

Just about to start Norman Davies 'Rising '44' about the Warsaw Uprising.


----------



## Ciara (Apr 4, 2004)

'Wuthering Heights'

I was a bit sceptical when I started and I felt it would be a bit of a disappointment but I'm really enjoying it. It's pretty compulsive which sounds like a cliche but I don't care!


----------



## Dr. Christmas (Apr 4, 2004)

Pushkin's collected short stories. Some brilliantly witty observations of the decadence of Tsarist Russia- stories like _The Blackamoor of Peter the Great_, _The Queen of Spades_, and _The Captain's Daughter_


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 4, 2004)

Dethloc said:
			
		

> I am currently re-reading the " Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. This is my 3rd time through it.. For some reason it inspires me to try more at everything.


Isn't that supposed to be filled with dodgy fascist ideology or am I thinking of something else?


----------



## mango5 (Apr 4, 2004)

_Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years_ by Bruce Sterling.  synopsis here.  And _The Scheme for Full Employment_ by Magnus Mills


----------



## Dethloc (Apr 4, 2004)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Isn't that supposed to be filled with dodgy fascist ideology or am I thinking of something else?



I do not know what other people get out of it, but what I have got out of it personally is as follows..


Most people in life can be bought, they will give up on their dreams for the all mighty dollar. People make judgements not by expierencing or being apathic but would rather follow the crowd. To me in " The Fountainhead " Howard Roark doesnt do this, he loves what he does and will continue doing it reguardless of what life has to throw at him and he does it his way no matter what.

It is hard to explain but I see in myself the potential to cave in and be what society thinks I should be. But my innerself wants me to be more and not to compromise or give up on the things in life I want to accomplish or am passionate about. I guess in reading about the character I find something that is as hard as stone about an ideal. I find that comforting to know that the struggle however vain or fruitless, is worth it just for the struggle.

So I do not know if the book gave this to me or that if I am reading to much into it or I maybe i am just a little bit crazier than I thought.


----------



## J77 (Apr 5, 2004)

Star of the sea.


----------



## Elpenor (Apr 5, 2004)

Are You Experienced?

Quite funny. Not been travelling myself, but met enough of the "you can do Laos in 2 days" types to appreciate the humour... much still relevant about the gap year lonely planet crowd I suspect...


----------



## IntoStella (Apr 5, 2004)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Started it this morning.

Astonishing.


----------



## onemonkey (Apr 6, 2004)

*here's what I read in March..*

_Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett_
TP takes on war, the military and misogyny on his own terms and after his own now famous style. The setting is of course Discworld and the technology of the day, is approximately C18 in old money, but as always the parallels and satires apply very well to the present day. The one criticism being that he is just a bit too jolly to give these bastards the savaging they deserve.

_Expecting someone taller - Tom Holt_
TH's first book, Wagnerian gods, Rhinemaidens, Nieblung and a unprepossessing accidental hero called Malcolm. I was pleasantly surprised by it, normally I am quite mocking of Tom Holt, and while it is second division stuff (when compared to the greats of English comic fiction) it has its moments and his heart is in the right place.

_Rethinking Innateness - Elman, Bates, Johnson, Karmiloff-Smith, Parisi, Plunkett_
A ground breaking collaboration that aimed to mark a break with boring old ideas of nature and nurture and to develop an approach to and outlook on cognitive neuroscience that is properly informed by the very latest thinking in neurophysiology, connectionist simulation and developmental psychology.

_Luminous - Greg Egan_
Another one of his head spinning, neuron tangling collections of cognitive science fiction short stories. Almost better than his extended books, so many different ideas introduced and delivered with enough detail to get you thinking but not so much as to do it all for you.

_The Impressionist - Hari Kunzru_ 
U75 march bookgroup choice.. wrote about this one earlier

_The Sexual Outlaw - John Rechy_
A cockumentary (if you will) on the ins & outs of gay cruising and hustling in mid 70's Los Angeles. Mostly a mixture of unrelenting sex-hunting, vain insecurity and posing and monstrously unjust legal persecution by the police. But with occasional moments of true tenderness, passion and poignancy.

_The Act of Creation - Arthur Koestler_
Arthur Koestler must have eaten whole shoals of fishes in his time, and surely has to wear his baseball caps on the widest popper; He's one sharp cookie. As this sweeping survey of the creative impulse in arts and sciences ably demonstrates. The breadth and depth of his learning are illustrated with countless quotations and insightful analysis of the works of diverse creative geniuses. Joyful and inspiring (if a little sweeping in its theorising!)

_Reefer Madness - Eric Schlosser_
The author of Fast Food Nation (which taught me that chipped potatoes really are made cartoon style with a water cannon and a tennis racket ) returns to take a meticulously researched look at marijuana, soft fruit and pornography - the perfect ingredients of a quiet night in.


----------



## Shmu (Apr 6, 2004)

I'm currently reading Michael Ondaatje's Coming Through Slaughter. Really enjoying it. Have recently been finding it difficult to get into reading, but this has gently drawn me back in.Sort of light and deep at the same time. Anyone else read this?


----------



## ck (Apr 8, 2004)

Time Out's guide to New York (the 1994 edition !)

Getting ready for my trip over there at the end of the month.  I'm sure a lot of the information is irrelevent now , but the general geography of the city is more or less the same so I'm sure it will help me prepare for my trip.
Incidentally , I have NEVER read a guidebook before going somewhere new ; I'm that excited about going to NYC though thatr I thought I'd do some homework up-front.


----------



## Poi E (Apr 8, 2004)

John Ralston Saul's "Voltaire's Bastards." Devastating stuff. Screws the left, screws the right, has made be profoundly depressed and enlightened. Written about 10 years ago and the more events come to pass, the more relevance his questioning has.


----------



## Col_Buendia (Apr 8, 2004)

Jonathan Coe's _The House Of Sleep_, and I'm loving it... read his _What a Carve Up!_ years ago, and it has always stuck in my head as a fantastic book.

And then at work, I'm supposed to be reading Emma Goldman's _The Social Significance of the Modern Drama_. As well as Augusto Boal's _ Theatre of the Oppressed_


----------



## miss direct (Apr 8, 2004)

I'm reading the bookseller of Kabul. 
Just finished John Simpsons "strange places, questionable people", and a book about an Australian guy who travelled from London to Sydney overland. Forgot the name but it was a good read. 

I like to read travel books and non fiction rather than fiction. Any recommendations would be welcome.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 8, 2004)

miss direct said:
			
		

> I like to read travel books and non fiction rather than fiction. Any recommendations would be welcome.



Have you read 'Hunting Mr Heartbreak' or 'Badlands' by Jonathan Raban? Both are travel books of a sort. The first takes in NYC, Alabama and Seattle, the second describes a trip through Montana. Both are excellent, and as much about him as about the places he visits.


----------



## Lin (Apr 8, 2004)

The Mothman Chronicles - John Keel and half way through From Potter's Field - Patricia Cornwell .... again but no doubt the wrong person will still die at the end of it


----------



## mrkikiet (Apr 8, 2004)

Lady Chatterley's Lover, by a certain D H Lawrence and a copy of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has just come into my possession.


----------



## Psychonaut (Apr 9, 2004)

ive just finished catcher in the rye - just found out it was originally banned in the US, which shocked me beacuase it seemed so subtle - people must've been _really_ up-tight in the 50's!

 about to start Heinlein's 'the moon is a harsh mistress'. its a sci-fi novel but said to have powerful political overtones - i think the descriptions of clandestine hierarchies were used by one of the 60s 'acid families' who were plotting to spike the water supplies.


----------



## Tom A (Apr 9, 2004)

I am currently working my way through Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.


----------



## Dimension Line (Apr 9, 2004)

Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens


----------



## Chester Copperpot (Apr 9, 2004)

*This Is Your Life >>>*




			
				rorymac said:
			
		

> I'm reading three at the moment...very sloooowwwwly mind...
> 
> Millroy the magician...... Paul Theroux
> He's Louis Theroux's dad.
> ...



The last book i read was This is your Life by John O Farrell, i have to say i find him incredibly entertaining, and am wincing laughing with every page, 
That'll be two cappucini please, i also read The Best A man can get, wonderful truly insightful, and just damn funny... 
P.s tis nance posting under bren here


----------



## jeff_leigh (Apr 9, 2004)

The Walkaway -  Scott Phillips


----------



## Blagsta (Apr 9, 2004)

Hunter S Thompson - Kingdom of Fear


----------



## onemonkey (Apr 9, 2004)

A_KeeleLeveller said:
			
		

> I am currently working my way through Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.


I wouldn't call that working!


----------



## IntoStella (Apr 10, 2004)

Just finished Timoleon Vieta Come Home, by Dan Rhodes. I _loathed _ it. It is sentimental, sick and cruel (a good example, perhaps, of sentimentality and brutality being two sides of the same coin). The author has one trick, which he plays over and over and over again, ad nauseam -- literally. 

I can't remember when I have ever before finished a book and wanted to give the author a good, hard punch up the froat. 

To borrow a phrase from Pickman's Model's formidable verbal armoury: putrid tripe.


----------



## IntoStella (Apr 10, 2004)

The Doctor said:
			
		

> The last book i read was This is your Life by John O Farrell, i have to say i find him incredibly entertaining, and am wincing laughing with every page,


Have you read Things can only get Better? It was like reliving my life as a young, starry eyed Labour party campaigner during Thatcher's evil reign. 


(I'm a lot more left wing than I was  )


----------



## dlx1 (Apr 10, 2004)

Don't read many books, But looking at Dave Gorman google whack


----------



## Geezah (Apr 10, 2004)

The Samurai Garden

Based in the early 1930's and seen throught the eyes of a young Chinese boy sent to convalese at his families summer home in Japan into the care of the  gardener, just before the Japanese invade China...


Interesting tale that tells more than one story, Son and Father relationship, Adolesence, good historical back drop that has been well researched, good plot. 

Actually a better book than my review would have you believe.


----------



## Dr. Christmas (Apr 11, 2004)

_The White Lioness_ by Henning Mankell.

Mankell is a great detective writer- his main character, Inspector Wallander, is a kind of Swedish John Rebus. 

This one's about mixes a senseless and apparently motiveless murder of a Swedish estate agent together with a plot to assasinate Nelson Mandela. Top stuff.


----------



## mickskyvitch (Apr 11, 2004)

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant,again.


----------



## starfish (Apr 12, 2004)

The Chrysalids by John Wyndham.
Thanks peeps


----------



## SubZeroCat (Apr 12, 2004)

Sputnik Sweetheart by someone who's name i can't remember....
Its quite good


----------



## baby face (Apr 12, 2004)

Im reading *mccartheys bar * which is funny as and have just fineshed *sandra gregorys - forget u had a daughter * which i highley recomend, proper shocking tale of girl who trys smuggling from thailand , gets caught and tells u all about the conditions of thai jails and then hollaway and other british jails.
Its well    and  

First time ive been on this thread and just noticed how many pages there are, mental.


----------



## IntoStella (Apr 12, 2004)

Beyond Good and Evil.


----------



## Pickman's model (Apr 12, 2004)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> Beyond Good and Evil.


a decent read! have you tried that 'the antichrist'?


----------



## IntoStella (Apr 12, 2004)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> a decent read!


A good choice for my 11th book.


----------



## WasGeri (Apr 12, 2004)

I'm reading Wild Swans by Jung Chang. It's a rivetting read.


----------



## Dr. Christmas (Apr 13, 2004)

A couple of new books on the go this week:

1. _Independent People_ by Haldor Laxness, an Icelandic novel about battle between material and spiritual free will;

2. _Cubism&Culture_ by Mark Antliff and Patricia Leighten, about the socio=-political context of Cubism in Paris before/after WW1;

3. _El Greco_, the catalogue to the amazing current exhibition at the NG.

This always happens to me. i come up to London and spend vasts sums of money on books.


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 14, 2004)

i just couldn't be arsed with _The Plague _ i'm afraid. i read the first 30 pages about 4 times then just put it back on the pile... 

and picked up Eccentric London by Benedict something, which is a curate's egg of a book. His humour and excitement is quite infectious, but often at the expense of knowing quite what the real story is...

and just borrowed How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered The World by Francis Wheen, which i'm looking forward to a lot..


----------



## innit (Apr 14, 2004)

starfish said:
			
		

> The Chrysalids by John Wyndham.
> Thanks peeps




I <heart> John Wyndham.  One of my all time favourites.

Trouble with Lichen is brill too


----------



## oi2002 (Apr 14, 2004)

Just finished Will Self's Dr Mukti.  Oh dear.  I doubt he's lost it entirely 3/10.

Started White Mughals, by William Dalrymple.  Scholarly piece of Raj history.  Covering a small cosmopolitan social set in Hydrebad C. 1795.  

East India Company men taking up Islam.  Indians smoothly moving in British society.  And this is were the Duke of Wellington cut his teeth! Very far from the racist imperialism of the Victorians.  Stylishly written and constantly suprising.


----------



## mango5 (Apr 15, 2004)

I've been getting through 'em lately.  _Villa Incognito_ by Tom Robbins, _Pattern Recognition_ William Gibson.  Now working through _The London Pigeon Wars_ by Patrick Neate.

I have to sneak new books home without anyone seeing


----------



## bass (Apr 15, 2004)

Currently having a bit of a reading binge.  "The Naked and The Dead" by Norman Mailer (which I like one day, hate the next) as well as a Paul Theroux travel book where he´s in China (been there quite recently, but everything I read about it is just wrong, this is OK though), and les Elements Particulaires by Houellebeq.  I think he needs to get out a bit more.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 15, 2004)

bass said:
			
		

> les Elements Particulaires by Houellebeq.  I think he needs to get out a bit more.



Is that also called Atomised? I hated that book. Get out a bit more is not wrong -- I don't think I've read a more self-obsessed novel in years.


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 16, 2004)

The Crimson Petal & The White - Michel Faber - fucking hell, this is good


----------



## twinkle (Apr 16, 2004)

bass said:
			
		

> Currently having a bit of a reading binge.  "The Naked and The Dead" by Norman Mailer (which I like one day, hate the next) as well as a Paul Theroux travel book where he´s in China (been there quite recently, but everything I read about it is just wrong, this is OK though), and les Elements Particulaires by Houellebeq.  I think he needs to get out a bit more.



what's that paul theroux book called bass?

i'm re-reading lord of the flies. love it


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 16, 2004)

I would guess the Theroux book is called something like Riding The Iron Rooster - I read it years ago and it's one of his best.


----------



## rennie (Apr 16, 2004)

im reading "Breakfast of Champions" by Kurt Vonnegut, recommended to me by my cuz in Chicago... so far so good... boyfriend finds it hysterically funny, i am not too sure... paerhaps i have no humour?


----------



## rennie (Apr 16, 2004)

SubZeroCat said:
			
		

> Sputnik Sweetheart by someone who's name i can't remember....
> Its quite good




Haruki Murakami is the author. good book but not my fav. have you read any other books by the same guy? amazing writer!


----------



## bass (Apr 16, 2004)

Yep, the Paul Theroux book is "Riding The Iron Rooster".  It is one of his best, though "The Happy Isles of Oceana" is still my favourite.  Still haven´t got round to going there!  And yes, Les Element Particulaires is Atomised.  They also translated the equally self obsessed "Extension de la Domaine de la Lutte" as "Whatever".  Maybe they couldn´t be arsed.


----------



## Dr. Christmas (Apr 17, 2004)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> The Crimson Petal & The White - Michel Faber - fucking hell, this is good



That was one of my books of 2002. An amazingly panoramic historial reconstruction of victorian London. Took him the best part of 20 years to write, too...


----------



## rednblack (Apr 17, 2004)

reNnIe said:
			
		

> im reading "Breakfast of Champions" by Kurt Vonnegut, recommended to me by my cuz in Chicago... so far so good... boyfriend finds it hysterically funny, i am not too sure... paerhaps i have no humour?



i love the book, but dont find it hysterical.

i'm currently reading finnegans wake by james joyce, it's difficult going but worth the effort so far


----------



## Charlie Drake (Apr 17, 2004)

I'm not normally one for fiction but I've just finished reading the _His Dark Materials_ trilogy by Philip Pullman. Highly recommended if you're a fantasy geek  You can stick yer Terry Pratchett's up yer arse - this is very good storytelling. 
I'm going to read _Dark Operations_ a book about the Real IRA when it comes out in paperback


----------



## Loki (Apr 17, 2004)

_A Short History of Nearly Everything_ - Bill Bryson


----------



## smile injection (Apr 17, 2004)

Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

second time of reading it but that was about a year ago so looking forward to reading it again


----------



## red rose (Apr 17, 2004)

I hated the ending of that book, its such a nice story, the preface says how its a true story

then theres a disclaimer at the end that says none of its real


----------



## smile injection (Apr 17, 2004)

I know   I was convinced it was true...then I read the back...


----------



## Roadkill (Apr 18, 2004)

Alexander Kent - Enemy in Sight!


----------



## DotCommunist (Apr 18, 2004)

Our Story by Reg and Ron Kray


----------



## Pickman's model (Apr 18, 2004)

Charlie Drake said:
			
		

> I'm going to read _Dark Operations_ a book about the Real IRA when it comes out in paperback


i wouldn't bother, if i were you. i got it a month or two back, and soon realised i'd picked up a pile of pony. there is a good book to be written about rira: this, though, isn't it.

next time you see a copy have a good look at it. the people who've written it don't seem too keen on notes or bibliographies and when i've seen the book discussed on other boards the general view has been that yr money is best saved for something better.

if yr after reading it, i'd suggest "organising" it - or read it in the bookshop. absolutely no point parting with money for it.


----------



## bmd (Apr 18, 2004)

Charlie Drake said:
			
		

> I'm not normally one for fiction but I've just finished reading the _His Dark Materials_ trilogy by Philip Pullman. Highly recommended if you're a fantasy geek  You can stick yer Terry Pratchett's up yer arse - this is very good storytelling.
> I'm going to read _Dark Operations_ a book about the Real IRA when it comes out in paperback




I hate the way Terry Pratchett has stamped fantasy with a certain reputation, if you notice fantasy is consistently in the ST best sellers list but it's never taken seriously. 

Try Tad Williams' - Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy (the trilogy, bane of the genre imo and don't even get me started on The Wheel Of Time) it is one of the best stories I have ever read, bar none.


----------



## Magic Mutley (Apr 20, 2004)

Reading The President of Good and Evil, by Peter Singer.  It's an examination of the ethics of Bush, from a moral philosophers point of view.  He does a pretty good job of ripping him apart, tho it's a bit like shooting fish in a bucket.  Reading it slowly cos it makes me want to shout and throw things.


----------



## posyet (Apr 20, 2004)

Nearly finished reading "an unexpected light " by Jason Elliot, about his travels in Afganistan pre taliban takeover days.
Written with sympathy and respect for the Afgan people he portrays a beautiful evocative landscape even though the country has been wracked by 20 years of war,and its people are shown to be courageous, hospitable, honourable and kind .They don't share the same value system of the west and are all the better for it.
This book is a gem and I'd recommend it to anyone.


----------



## goldenecitrone (Apr 21, 2004)

Just finished 'the life of pi' by Yann Martel, an excellent book. Also read 'the language instinct' by Steven Pinker which convinced me if I wasn't already convinced that we do have an inate grammar and that the language instinct has evolved through natural selection like the rest of us.


----------



## Nina (Apr 22, 2004)

Half way through The Bookseller of Kabul. Must admit it's not as stimulating as I'd hoped. Maybe it just lost something in translation.
It's getting more interesting now and a bit sad too   

Just bought The Wombles from Oxfam. Awwww, For a quid I could not resist


----------



## Mab (Apr 23, 2004)

chegrimandi said:
			
		

> Hegemony or Survival, Americas Quest for Global Dominance : Noam Chomsky,
> 
> only 20 pages in.......seems allright so far....




Me too. My brother was in town and just lent it to me. I am on pg.19. I really like page one, regarding the biologist's viewpoint.

 I believe many of us have thought the same thing--are we a mistake--biologically. I have thought this for years, though I do not voice it much because people get freaked-out.


----------



## chegrimandi (Apr 23, 2004)

Andre Gide: La Symphonie Pastorale & Isabelle....

just bought it from a second hand shop....never read any gide before....


----------



## Roadkill (Apr 24, 2004)

Sebastian Faulks - Birdsong.  Fantastic book: really enjoying it so far.   


edit: I shouldn't comment on books after only reading the first couple of chapters.    Having got 3/4 of the way through it now, I have to say that _Birdsong_ is one of the most remarkable, moving, powerful books I've ever read.  It's not a book I'm "enjoying," in the sense of it being an amusing read - it's too sad and gory for that - but it's compulsive reading.


----------



## Louloubelle (Apr 24, 2004)

Airtight Willie and Me by Iceberg Slim

The best book of his I've read so far, but I'm glad i read the others first.

Heartbreaking and written with insight and compassion missing from his earlier works.  When I read the chapter about Black Sue I wondered whether she was the shadow side of his mother, the recepticle for all the sadistic and vengeful fantasies he saved his mother from when he bacame a pimp and started to abuse women. 

Only reading a chapter every few days.  Tough going.  

Also I have an audio tape of heart of Darkness by Conrad.  I've been listening to 30 mins or so every other night before sleeping, but I end up thinking about it for at least another half hour so I think I might change strategy.


----------



## jms (Apr 24, 2004)

I finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time by Mark Haddon this morning

best thing Ive read in ages
very..clarifying, I suppose is the word
one of those books which leaves you with a profound feeling...a new experience, a different way of seeing things

Im sure it will remain prominent in my thoughts for some time


----------



## Fledgling (Apr 24, 2004)

Have read a lot recently, but short books. 
Gulliver's travels
For the Good of the Cause
The Wayward Bus
To a God Unknown

And some Discworld! Woohoo, needed something a bit light-hearted so read Soul Music and Small Gods. 

At present looking at some of Steinbeck's early work with The Pastures of Heaven and looking to read "In Dubious Battle".


----------



## Bajie (Apr 25, 2004)

At present going between

Loyalists - Peter Taylor
A decent account of the Loyalist 
death squads/terrorists/gangsters/stout defenders of the community (take your pick of which one is reality, though I think its a combination). Though it does not go far enough indepth in places.

&

New Baby Care Book - Dr Miriam Stoppard
Very 1980's in places, especially the illustrations, good book for nervous first time parents like me though.


----------



## baby face (Apr 25, 2004)

*Cloud garden*
Its about a couple of travelers that try and cross the darein gap and get kidnapped by gorillas, looks good so far.


----------



## Antelope (Apr 25, 2004)

A little while ago, I read 'A Secret History of the IRA' by Ed Moloney.  It's a fascinating insight into how Gerry Adams dragged the IRA into the peace process - without the IRA realising what was happening!

I have just finished 'An Equal Music' by Vikram Seth, which is one of the best novels I have ever read.  Extremely moving.


----------



## Xtine (Apr 25, 2004)

i'm actually reading a bestseller, which doesn't happen very often.   
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World.
of course.


----------



## Strumpet (Apr 25, 2004)

Artemis Fowl trilogy - Eoin Colfer

This is so much fun! I love the authors sense of humour.
This book is wonderful, captivating, witty, exciting. Full of amazing inventions and magic and unforgettable characters. 

Perfect for us grown-up kids


----------



## Magic Mutley (Apr 26, 2004)

Just finished Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Dunno, I kind of enjoyed it, but it never really grabbed me...


----------



## Psychonaut (Apr 30, 2004)

stranger in a strange land by Heinlein (uncut version)


----------



## (empty) (May 2, 2004)

I'm reading half of Mia Couto's Books. He is going to be next next Nobel prize writer of Portuguese language.


----------



## ChrisFilter (May 2, 2004)

no mercy by redmond o'hanlon


----------



## ChrisFilter (May 2, 2004)

baby face said:
			
		

> *Cloud garden*
> Its about a couple of travelers that try and cross the darein gap and get kidnapped by gorillas, looks good so far.



gorillas or guerillas? if it's the former, sounds cool!


----------



## jms (May 3, 2004)

Im not reading anything just now

can someone reccomend me something?


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 3, 2004)

jms said:
			
		

> Im not reading anything just now
> 
> can someone reccomend me something?



'Civilwarland in Bad Decline' by George Saunders (short stories), you'll love them.

'The Things They Carried' by Tim O'Brien (Vietnam short stories)

'Austerlitz' by WG Sebald (magnificent)


----------



## SubZeroCat (May 3, 2004)

Just read Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

It was really good, very funny, poignant and horrific but also a good quality read


----------



## Masseuse (May 3, 2004)

The Sorrows of Young Werther - Goethe.  Every sentence is a little gem.  But oh the trials of poor young Werther!


----------



## Louloubelle (May 3, 2004)

jms said:
			
		

> Im not reading anything just now
> 
> can someone reccomend me something?



I just read this again yesterday, superior pulp fiction with psychoanalyticaly informed charater development (this 1962 book must have inspired both Fight Club, The Butcher Boy and The Sopranos) and explores how adolescents get involved in crime (of great interest to me), don't want to give away too much, but a seriously good page turner penned by a great author with a tragically short life.  I can only imagine what he could have gone on to achieve had he lived to a ripe old age.

Would recommend to all.  

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...002-0913087-6055230?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

edited to say would recommend to all adults, not a kid's book.


----------



## Ciara (May 3, 2004)

The Villa, the Lake, the Meeting: Wannsee and the Final Solution by Mark Roseman. I bought it when I went to Wannsee with the school last year and it's the lead-up to and the minutes of the meeting where Heydrich, Eichmann etc. decided what to do about Jews in Nazi Germany. Quite chilling really.


----------



## bingobowden (May 4, 2004)

I've just started Swimming Underground: My Years In The Warhol Factory by Mary Woronov.


----------



## Mab (May 4, 2004)

I watched a recent interview with Mary Woronov and I had forgotten she had a major role in "Eating Raoul". I'd like to read this book too. I adore the Velvet Underground. I wish Niko was still alive--that voice!


----------



## foo (May 4, 2004)

Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre. 

Even better on second reading. I had to go back to it because his use of language is stunning. I'm confused as to how he does it.


----------



## Shippou-Sensei (May 4, 2004)

Brakto, I (1986) PROLOG Programming for Artificial Intelligence Third edition Harlow: Addison-Wesley Publishers Limited

References listed using the Harvard system

can you tell i've been working a bit hard on the ol report ....
and after the degree i'm considering ceramonially burning this book


----------



## J77 (May 4, 2004)

Just finished Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor.

I don't know too much about Irish history but I hope the book gives a fairly accurate view.

The English landlord/Irish tenant parts reminded me of The Story of Lucy Gault which, imo, was slightly better written (and still my book of 2003).

SotS is worth reading though - 7 out of 10ish...


----------



## Clintons Cat (May 4, 2004)

Facing Ali by Stephen Brunt,

Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole


----------



## Hellsbells (May 4, 2004)

Just read High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. Pretty good. Saw the film version on telly the other night - AWFUL! It really really bugs me when movies ruin books. 
Currently reading The Distance Between Us by Maggie O'Farrell & am very impressed so far. 
BTW, this is my 1st post & I'm Helen. I couldn't find anywhere on the boards where I could introduce myself properly. Any suggestions?


----------



## Orang Utan (May 4, 2004)

Welcome Helen - introduce yourself in the Community forum, but be prepared to skin up or provide hobnobs (you'll see )

BTW I thought the film High Fidelity wasn't too bad an attempt at adapting the book cos it is not slavishly faithfull to it - hate all Hornby's other stuff though


----------



## Hellsbells (May 4, 2004)

Well I did only see bits of the film & the bits I saw really annoyed me. It didn't come across as funny to me atall and the characters just seemed completely wrong and not how I'd pictured them. 

I haven't read any of his other books. 

Will be off to community forum in a bit.


----------



## Roadkill (May 4, 2004)

Hi Helen.  Welcome to u75.  

Having finished _Birdsong_ at the weekend - and rated it as one of the best books I've read for ages - I've started on a Robert Goddard novel called _Set in Stone_.  IMO Robert Goddard's novels are often a bit samey in terms of structure - they all start with someone having a mystery posed to them by something that happens in their life, in this case the sudden death of the main character's wife, and then being sucked into some deep plot that forces them to confront their own past and some shadowy enemy - but they're always a good read.  Even though you know there's going to be some epic plot twist ('cos every one of his books does) that's going to destroy all the theories you've built up so far about who's doing what, it's always just subtle enough to be unexpected.  Goddard's novels are basically just escapism and they're all much of a muchness, but they're always intelligent  and well-written enough to keep them interesting.


----------



## Mab (May 5, 2004)

Kinsales said:
			
		

> "The Righteous" by Martin Gilbert...
> 
> its basically the stories of the people who saved jews from the Nazi's, very interesting though incredibly depressing when it lists the numbers and ways people died... More a list than anything else, but worth the effort




I have just come across  another Sir Martin Gilbert book " Continue to Pester Nag and Bit". Focusing on Winston Churchill.

My being Canadian I would appreciate any insight.


----------



## Dubversion (May 5, 2004)

i'm jumping between 
Francis Ween's How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the Earth, which is enjoyable but flawed.

Paolo Hewitt's The Looked After Kid which is about growing up in care and is very moving and insightful but makes me a bit twitchy because unless he was a preternaturally precocious kid, there's no way he had that much insight at such young ages


and Bass Culture by Lloyd Bradley, which i always seem to be dipping in and out of.


----------



## thoughtfulcraig (May 6, 2004)

You have very good taste Dubversion! Francis Wheen and Bass culture are two titles sat on my shelf, they remain unread at the mo but...

Am currently reading _Emergence_ by Steven Johnson.
Its about collective intelligence and power and change coming from the bottom up. Things like why a brain is conscious when no single neuron is. But its also about how people can change goverments and power structures and how cities evolve and communities start. I'm only a couple of chapters in, could be a really heavy book, but it seems to be well written and clear, I'll tell more when Ive finished.

I've just finished _'Duende'_ by Jason Webster. Its an autobiography stroke travelouge (compared to Chatwin in reviews). Hes a bored young Englishman who heards to Spain in search of Duende, the heart of flamenco. Duende is passion, that close your eyes get goosebumps on your skin type of feeling you get from good music!! Its a great book, well written, interesting (he spends some time in Madrid, living with Gypsies, stealing cars and doing coke.) and a little inspiring, although some parts, some stories seem maybe a bit embellished, a bit too unbelieveable, but it doesn't detract at all. Well recommended.

Sorry if thats a bit long for a first post! They wont all be that long..


----------



## Pingu (May 6, 2004)

just started "hatful of sky" by mister pratchett


i like the diskworld stuff as it helps me escape from reality for a few hours.

ok so its a bit mainstream but hey I like em.


----------



## Dubversion (May 8, 2004)

thoughtfulcraig said:
			
		

> I've just finished _'Duende'_ by Jason Webster. Its an autobiography stroke travelouge (compared to Chatwin in reviews). Hes a bored young Englishman who heards to Spain in search of Duende, the heart of flamenco. Duende is passion, that close your eyes get goosebumps on your skin type of feeling you get from good music!! Its a great book, well written, interesting (he spends some time in Madrid, living with Gypsies, stealing cars and doing coke.) and a little inspiring, although some parts, some stories seem maybe a bit embellished, a bit too unbelieveable, but it doesn't detract at all. Well recommended.
> 
> Sorry if thats a bit long for a first post! They wont all be that long..



i heard him on Robert Elms talking about this, and it sounded amazing. he's just written one about Moorish culture in spain too, i might check that one too...


----------



## Blagsta (May 8, 2004)

Peter Ackroyd - London: The Biography


----------



## golightly (May 8, 2004)

'A Wild Sheep Chase' by Haruki Murakami.


----------



## Shelly P (May 8, 2004)

Flipping between Margaret Atwood's _Oryx and Crake_ - good, but not as immediately gripping as _The Handmaid's Tale_ (in my opinion), and Lorna Sage _Moments of Truth: Twelve Twentieth-Century Women Writers_ -- highly recommended.


----------



## Mab (May 9, 2004)

thoughtfulcraig said:
			
		

> You have very good taste Dubversion! Francis Wheen and Bass culture are two titles sat on my shelf, they remain unread at the mo but...
> 
> Am currently reading _Emergence_ by Steven Johnson.
> Its about collective intelligence and power and change coming from the bottom up. Things like why a brain is conscious when no single neuron is. But its also about how people can change goverments and power structures and how cities evolve and communities start. I'm only a couple of chapters in, could be a really heavy book, but it seems to be well written and clear, I'll tell more when Ive finished.
> ...


What a beautiful commentary. You have my attention and I will look into these books. Thankyou


----------



## jayeola (May 9, 2004)

neal stephenson's snow crash. At p76 at the mo and very funny Read his `crypticomnicon` - fantastic  book!


----------



## oddjob (May 9, 2004)

chasing the dime


----------



## superdodgy (May 10, 2004)

Reading Bridget Jones's Diary because all my friends are going on and on and on and on about it. Like it.


----------



## ViolentPanda (May 10, 2004)

Currently absorbing "In Search of the Immortals: Discovering the World's Mummy Cultures" by Howard Reid. Creepily interesting.
also pottering through "Understanding Social Policy" by Michael Hill.


----------



## chegrimandi (May 10, 2004)

Tin Drum - Gunter Grass


----------



## Pol (May 10, 2004)

Larry McMurtry - Lonesome Dove

classic book, loving it


----------



## oddjob (May 11, 2004)

thats weird. was given 'bridget jones diary' on video today.


----------



## Orang Utan (May 11, 2004)

How is it weird? Nearly everyone has read it.


----------



## red rose (May 11, 2004)

I just finished hitch hikers guide to the galaxy again and should be starting the rest of the 'trilogy' as soon as possible, because I absolutely love the lot.


----------



## Elpenor (May 11, 2004)

The Iliad (on the bus in the morning). Last read it on a selection of Cretan buses 5 years ago, so a nice contrast.

In The Footsteps of Alexander The Great by Michael Wood after catching the last two episodes on BBC4 over the past two nights.


----------



## Pickman's model (May 11, 2004)

finishing off "web of deceit: britain's real role in the world", then onto "god of small things" so have read it for the book group.


----------



## Cambazola (May 11, 2004)

Struggling my way through T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom, as I have been on and off for the past year.


----------



## jayeola (May 11, 2004)

ck said:
			
		

> "The Highway Code"
> 
> I've started my driving lessons so I've got to do the honours and read this classic !




  An absoloute classic. I'll be joining you soon!


----------



## jayeola (May 11, 2004)

Nemo said:
			
		

> I've broken one of my golden rules and am now in the middle of several books:
> 
> I also have many more books and tapes in the pipeline.



How do you aquire these audio books? Do you listen to them in the car whist you drive to work or on headphones?


----------



## Roadkill (May 12, 2004)

Last Seen Wearing, by Colin Dexter.

I like the Inspector Morse TV series so I thought I'd give one of the books a try.  Enjoying it so far.


----------



## hunnychild (May 12, 2004)

Just finished Vernon God Little (so very good) and am now about 5 very short chapters into the Gormenghast trilogy. It's a monster of a tome so I'm not sure if I'll get through all three books, but it's compelling reading so far.


----------



## Mab (May 12, 2004)

I am re-reading Charles Bukowski's "Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness (1972). A book of short stories.

I enjoy reading it on my bus rides, but it happened again. I cound not contain myself and burst out laughing hysterically and got off the bus to avoid further embarrassment. Although I noticed others were laughing with me.

I best read it at home. It is too funny,


----------



## onemonkey (May 12, 2004)

bit late but Here's what i read in April:

_Damsel in Distress - P G Wodehouse_
Another seemingly effortless piece of Wodehouse brilliance. It is reassuring to know that he actually spent ages rewriting drafts, refining his lines and polishing his sparkling wit.

_Dreaming War	- Gore Vidal_
A collection of essays about American Imperialism, blood for oil, other US outrages from WWII onwards.. Including an insiders account of the in junta in Guatemala at the bidding of United Fruit Company.

_Time Travelling with Science and the Saints - George Erickson_
A short book on how the church has always stood in the way of scientific progress and burnt, broken or banned many great men and their works. Ultimately, it's a little flimsy. Arthur Koestler's Sleepwalkers is better on Bruno, Gallieo, etc. 

_Context is Everything - Susan Engel_
Memory is process not storage. I said more here

_Exercises in Rethinking Innateness - Kim Plunkett & Jeffrey Elman_
Hands-on companion to Rethinking Innnateness. Any cognitive psychologist who still doubts the central importance of connectionist models to cognitive theory is a fool. 

_The Man in the High Castle - Philip K Dick_
What if Germany & Japan had won WWII? America would have an Eastern West-coast occupied by Japan & a Western East-Coast full of Germans. 

_The Feeling of What Happens - Antonio Damasio_
Finally got round to reading this neurological speculation on the nature of consciousness. Happy with the broad way he was going but found his writing style very flat, unmemorable and uninspiring.

_The Blank Slate - Steven Pinker_
Finally finished it. The two years it took me to get round to the ending is an indication that this is good not that gripping. The writing is better than Damasio but the book is a broad. Chapters on Art and on Gender were the best.

_The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time -	Mark Haddon_
There is this boy. He is called Christopher. Apparently he's autistic but he seemed perfectly normal to me.


----------



## theBEAST666 (May 12, 2004)

Mental Health Act Manual by Richard Jones.
Enthralling read.


----------



## theBEAST666 (May 12, 2004)

I read Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time too recently. Quite liked it. Didn't think it did justice to autism though. Interesting none the less.


----------



## killer b (May 13, 2004)

rapunzell said:
			
		

> I best read it at home. It is too funny,


rubbish. you carry on reading it on public transport - brighten up other people's days as well as yours.   

i'm reading:
Chomsky & Herman: Manufaucturing Consent - it was a set text for the first 2 years of my course & i always found it v. interesting (if a little disturbing). am now plowing through from start to finish. the chapter on vietnam is fascinating, as the history books don't seem to give you the full story - seems the vietnam war was started with even less pretext than iraq.   

Jane Austen: Emma - pure genius. amazing how fresh and relevant austens work remains today - first i've read of hers, but it won't be the last.


----------



## onemonkey (May 13, 2004)

killer b said:
			
		

> Jane Austen: Emma - pure genius. amazing how fresh and relevant austens work remains today - first i've read of hers, but it won't be the last.


WORD 

Although the first time i tried to read Austen, I only managed about four or five pages (that's eight or nine sentences!) The language was just too entangled for my simple scientists brain, so many sub-clauses and conditionals, passives and subjunctives. By the time I'd got to the end of the fourth subclause I'd be so lost that I'd have to go back to the beginning. 

But then I realised that I write essays in a similarly extended and entangled fashion so I forgave her, had another go and absolutely loved it. (I think seeing the BBC's Pride & Prejudice helped make her accessible too.)


----------



## marty21 (May 13, 2004)

i'm reading "underground london" by Stephen Smith, about the stuff that goes on beneath us...very interesting...


----------



## Nina (May 13, 2004)

Just tried to start Primo Levi's Periodic Table. Found it impossible so have given up.

Moved on to The English Patient. So far so good. Have heard great things about it.

Just finished Douglas Coupland's Hey Nostradamus! The guy is back on top form. Just beautiful


----------



## oddjob (May 13, 2004)

michael connelly in chronological


----------



## Orang Utan (May 19, 2004)

Page 2? Jeez, this thread is slipping!

I am reading James Frey's A Million Little Pieces - so far it is a stunning addition to the addiction memoir canon - I've just got past a horrific description of unanaesthetised dental surgery - it has already made me complain that I have a speck of dust in my eye -  this is shaping up to be as good as the kudos that plaster the book lead us to believe it is. More when I finish it.

<Is this the first time this book has been mentioned? I cannae find owt on a forum search>


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (May 20, 2004)

Shake Hands With the Devil, by Romeo D'Allaire, the canadian general who commanded the UN force in Rwanda.

After he came back, he proceeded to fall apart over the next few years, becoming an alcoholic, then trying to kill himself. He finally got back together, and wrote this book. The ghost writer assisting him killed herself partway through writing the book.


----------



## Dubversion (May 20, 2004)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I am reading James Frey's A Million Little Pieces - so far it is a stunning addition to the addiction memoir canon - I've just got past a horrific description of unanaesthetised dental surgery - it has already made me complain that I have a speck of dust in my eye -  this is shaping up to be as good as the kudos that plaster the book lead us to believe it is. More when I finish it.



odd, i keep reading really shit reviews of it, so it's interesting to hear a good one. i was tempted when it came out - he sounded like an intriguing bloke - but all the press seems to have him painted as some macho dickhead with a Hemingway complex, like Ted Nugent does rehab or something


----------



## Orang Utan (May 20, 2004)

I can see why they say that - but there's no self-pity, no whining and no self-justification, so you cannot help but admire him - I have to say that I suspect he novelised his story somewhat cos certain conversations are relayed verbatim and I don't think you would recall in such detail, especially if you were strung out on tranks in rehab at the time.


----------



## Orang Utan (May 20, 2004)

Another thing that endeared me to him is that I was reading the new Dave Eggers book and thinking, 'what is this shit?' Frey's book caught my eye and I read the first three pages and ditched the Eggars. I was looking for info on Frey on the net yesterday and found an interview with him in which he said that he wrote the book after reading Eggers and thinking, 'what is this shit?'


----------



## Roadkill (May 20, 2004)

Just finished _Five Hundred Mile Walkies_ (Mark Wallington), which I've read many times before but it always makes me laugh.  I might start another Colin Dexter novel later today...


----------



## Pieface (May 20, 2004)

Just been given Not Fade Away by Jim Dodge. 

The best opening I've read in a while:

"The day didn’t begin well. I woke up at first light with a throbbing brain-core headache, fever and chills, dull pains in all bodily tissues, gagging flashes of nausea, a taste in my mouth like I’d eaten a pound of potato-bugs, aching eye sockets, and a general feeling of basic despair."

Made me laugh out loud on the tube. With relief that I currently _didn't_ feel like that and fear that it wouldn't be long 'til I did.

  I like.


----------



## oddjob (May 20, 2004)

dixie city jam

james lee burke

so good


----------



## harticus (May 20, 2004)

Love all the people, Its a compilation of bill hicks's stand up routines, letters, interviews poems ETC.


----------



## maya (May 20, 2004)

Kay Redfield Jamison : Touched With Fire

 ..about famous artists and writers who did suffer from manic-depressive/bipolar illness...interesting,a bit dense/academic in places but very informative..


----------



## Elpenor (May 20, 2004)

On a whim got Fight Club and 25th Hour out of the library today, whilst returning some stuff.

Read a lot of Michael Wood's In The Footsteps Of Alexander The Great - think I preferred the TV series tbh


----------



## killer b (May 21, 2004)

i'm on 'the long goodbye' by ramond chandler, and intend to follow it up with the rest of his marlowe books.  

i love raymond - the elegance of his prose is second to none, and raises his novels from simple genre fiction to true art. genius, no two ways about it.


----------



## General Ludd (May 21, 2004)

Heart Of Darkness.


----------



## Dubversion (May 22, 2004)

killer b said:
			
		

> i'm on 'the long goodbye' by ramond chandler, and intend to follow it up with the rest of his marlowe books.
> 
> i love raymond - the elegance of his prose is second to none, and raises his novels from simple genre fiction to true art. genius, no two ways about it.



"he was looking sharp and he didn't care who knew it"



marvellous stuff.. apparently, even chandler didn't know what The Long Goodbye was about..


went to Dulwich School, doncha know?


----------



## atitlan (May 22, 2004)

I'm currently reading Farenheit 451, never read it before and from what I've read so far it well up there with 1984 and Brave New World.

I've just got past the fire chief's speech, most of which rings so true about today's world it's scary.


----------



## Pickman's model (May 23, 2004)

finishing george galloway's rather mediocre book "i'm not the only one". then onto a biography of kruschev and then stasiland.


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 23, 2004)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> and then stasiland.



I'd be interested in knowing what this is like.


----------



## Pickman's model (May 23, 2004)

it's the next bookgroup book, so why not read it and come along? if yr in london, that is...


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 23, 2004)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> it's the next bookgroup book, so why not read it and come along? if yr in london, that is...



  Not in London til next year (fingers crossed), but will do the bookgroup when I am


----------



## J77 (May 24, 2004)

Read Vernon God Little last week.

Nice refreshing read. Very clever insight on society.

Made me despise journalists even more


----------



## bluestreak (May 24, 2004)

i've just finished reading andrew martin's bilton, which is very funny indeed, a nice bit of social satire.

now i'm re-reading holidays in hell by p j o'rourke.  i'm a big fan of o'rourke, even though i tend to disagree with a lot of his politics.  he and i often have the same view on the world but from different angles.  he's unashamably biased though, and it's that lack of shame that often makes him good.


----------



## rubbershoes (May 24, 2004)

bluestreak said:
			
		

> i've just finished reading andrew martin's bilton, which is very funny indeed, a nice bit of social satire.



A good book but it could have been so much more. It’s a book in need of a good editor


----------



## Brainaddict (May 24, 2004)

Hmm, Jim Dodge. I just read Stone Junction. The first half of the book was good, then it really went downhill. Hippie crap partly. The ending was complete crap I thought.


----------



## j26 (May 24, 2004)

I'm currently on Demanding the Impossible - A History of Anarchism

I'm up to the major French thinkers at this stage.

Excellent read so far.  It gives a good taste of the major anarchist thinkers
(Must learn more about the Cynics & the Ranters   )


----------



## hovis (May 25, 2004)

Devils by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

I'm a very slow reader though and I've got a big pile of books to read after that.


----------



## Spandex (May 25, 2004)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> and then stasiland.






			
				Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I'd be interested in knowing what this is like.



I read this a while ago, so my memory is a bit vague about it (like most things  ). I was interested throughout as I knew so little about the Stasi/life in the GDR. The style can be a bit overbearing as it is quite autobiographical, with quite a bit on the author's life as she goes around talking to people about their experiences with the Stasi. Still, it was quite moving in places and worth a read, if you interested in that sort of thing.

I'm still wading through The Complete Sherlock Holmes (completely brilliant), but have taken a break to re-read The Electric Cool Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe atm.


----------



## playghirl (May 27, 2004)

Currently reading
I served the king of England by
Bohumil Hrabil

andIf this is a man

Primo Levi
currently on a foreign authors thing!


----------



## Fenian (May 31, 2004)

The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-Time
Mark Haddon

Very funny, gut-wrenchingly moving, so much so that I have had to put it down at times - a treat.


----------



## bmd (May 31, 2004)

Tommy by Richard Holmes.

Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that
An' "Tommy, 'ow's your soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes"
When the drums begin to roll.


----------



## oi2002 (May 31, 2004)

Just finished re-reading Mao On Guerrilla Warfare.  Made we quite nostagic for 70s Belfast.

Now half way through Reading Lolita In Tehran, Azar Nafisi.  Excellent.  If your interested in Iran, Literature, or Women&Islam I'd recommend it.


----------



## Dubversion (Jun 1, 2004)

well my holiday reading went well..

thoroughly enjoyed Stoned by Andrew Loog Oldham - he's clearly an arse, but a fascinating and honest one.

was less pleased with Stewart Home's 69 Things To Do With A Dead Princess. in trying to write 'properly' his mannerisms (the repetition, the deliberately banal lists of food etc) just irritate rather than being part of the whole style of the thing.. 

the best bit was that in the apartment we rented there was a bookcase for people to leave/trade holiday reading, so now in amongst the Grishams and Sven Hassel's there's Stewart Home.. 


and  now halfway through Violent london by Clive Bloom, very interesting stuff but some of the editing is a bit off leaving some statements seeming unintentionally (i assume) ambiguous..


----------



## AntoninArt (Jun 1, 2004)

The dog listener by Jan Fennel

Faust by Goethe


----------



## Bomber (Jun 2, 2004)

New Rulers of the World ~ John Pilger 
Michael Parkinson on Cricket 
Shutter Island ~ Dennis Lehane


----------



## Rollem (Jun 2, 2004)

maya angelou - gather together in my name (about a year after reading part 1  )


----------



## little loaf (Jun 2, 2004)

AntoninArt said:
			
		

> Faust by Goethe



i hope you're not reading it in german...am struggling at the moment with Duerenmatt's play 'der Besuch der alten Dame' and Odon von Horvath's 'Jugend Ohne Gott' for my German A2 exams.  yuck.

i shouldn't be reading anything other than exam-related shtie at the moment, apparently, but nonetheless i am being A Rebel and reading Monica Ali's 'Brick Lane'.  i think it's amazing for a first novel, although it's lagging a wee bit in the middle now.  she has an amazing talent for original similies and descriptions of people (i've never been good at describing people).  it's really good.


----------



## Masseuse (Jun 2, 2004)

"Living with the Dead" - an autobiographical account of life with The Grateful Dead, by their roadie.

Very entertaining read so far.  The Grateful Dead are totally daft.  

Just read "Cosmic Trigger" volumes one and two, by Robert Anton Wilson.  Completely nuts and the most fantastic stuff I've read in years.


----------



## In Bloom (Jun 2, 2004)

Wilhelm Reich - _The Mass Psychology of Fascism_

I'm not even through the first chapter and I'm already baffled, @myself


----------



## AntoninArt (Jun 2, 2004)

No, Little loaf, i am reading it in portuguese but strangely its a bilingual edition ( german-portuguese) and the price was accordinly unfortuantely...the good point is that it has illustrations by Delacroix...


----------



## Kidda (Jun 3, 2004)

finally got round to reading

'Dude wheres my country' by Michael Moore 

almost finished it,  im bored with it, cant find where the 'comic genius' parts are meant to be, and starting to think Moore is a bit of a wooly cunt


----------



## Rollem (Jun 3, 2004)

Kidda said:
			
		

> almost finished it,  im bored with it, cant find where the 'comic genius' parts are meant to be, and starting to think Moore is a bit of a wooly cunt


lol! i tried to read a mates copy. found it dull and didnt bother finsihing it. think mm is becoming a bit or a bore himself....


----------



## Pickman's model (Jun 3, 2004)

i thought it was an interesting read, though.

even though moore does try too hard, imo, to raise a chuckle.


----------



## Hellsbells (Jun 3, 2004)

I just finished reading The Last Girl by Stephan Collinshaw. I only picked it up b'cos I spotted that a writer I like (Helen Dunmore) had praised it on the back cover blurb. But I'm glad I gave it a go. 

It's a pretty good read. Set in Lithuania, & narrated by an elderly poet who has been traumatised by some event in his past involving a young Russian girl and a baby. The book delves into the 2nd world war, persecution of jews, communism etc etc - and parts of it are as you would expect, quite disturbing. In particular the books climax - the poet's ultimate betrayal of the woman he loved.


----------



## kaya (Jun 3, 2004)

Just starting The Forsyte Saga, though with the pile of work I have for uni will probably take me several years to finish!    Never mind. Anyone else read it?

Oh, and I am reliably informed by my housemate's brother that the new Motley Crue autobiog. is the best book in the world. Ever


----------



## Kidda (Jun 3, 2004)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> i thought it was an interesting read, though.
> 
> even though moore does try too hard, imo, to raise a chuckle.







			
				Rollem said:
			
		

> lol! i tried to read a mates copy. found it dull and didnt bother finsihing it. think mm is becoming a bit or a bore himself....




He trys to appeal to the american public to much without pissing them off, someone should just explain you cant please everyone all the time and so he should just get on with it. Some of the information is interesting, but its just all that 'we shouldnt fight the right we should pity them bollocks' coupled with his how to appeal to a conservative shite and then when i read all that 'mumbia probably didnt kill that guy' and 'your children do not have a right to privacy' i nearly threw the bloody thing out of the bus window.


----------



## corporate whore (Jun 4, 2004)

Stuart Maconies' _Cider With Roadies _ - You know what to expect: dry, wry northernisms, an overwhelming Morrissey fetish, four days in a van with Napalm Death. An easy, entertaining read, for anyone who's ever bought the NME and thought 'how difficult could it be...'


----------



## Nina (Jun 5, 2004)

Erica Jong. Fear of Flying. 1970's feminism. The lead character is turning into Bridget Jones and annoying the fuck out of me.
Also,
Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance.


----------



## Pickman's model (Jun 6, 2004)

reading noam chomsky's new book, _hegemony or survival_. very interesting.


----------



## Addy (Jun 6, 2004)

Tihkal.

Pihkal was excellent.


----------



## sonicdancer (Jun 6, 2004)

An unexpected light by Jason Elliot its about travels in Afghanistan, its probably the best first book by an author you will read this year, its very interesting. He went there when he was a teenager and fought with the mujahadeen against the russians.


----------



## Pickman's model (Jun 6, 2004)

not meaning to be perverse or owt! but was this jason elliott from tipton?


----------



## Fenian (Jun 6, 2004)

sonicdancer said:
			
		

> An unexpected light by Jason Elliot its about travels in Afghanistan, its probably the best first book by an author you will read this year, its very interesting. He went there when he was a teenager and fought with the mujahadeen against the russians.


He may have fought against my brothers-in-law then
 
Read the John Hammond "Curious case of the dog in the night-time" (or had I already said that?) now on Chomsky's latest - great wordsmith!


----------



## Dubversion (Jun 7, 2004)

reading furvert's copy of Che's The Motorcycle Diaries. then i'll check the movie..


----------



## zora (Jun 7, 2004)

I just finished *Buddha Da* by Anne Donovan and loved it. The best (engaging, gripping, moving) book I've read in a while. 
It's about a man -a painter/decorater and father of a teenage daughter- who gets interested in buddhism, gets into meditating, goes veggie, goes celibate,stops drinking and the inevitable rift this causes between him and his family and mates. 
It's told from his wife's, his daughter's and his perspective and it's all written in Glaswegian - a bit tricky to read at first, but once you've got into it the characters really come to life. A wonderful book.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 7, 2004)

Just started Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress Of Solitude - looking good so far - vivid descriptions of a childhood in 70s Brooklyn - something weird's going to happen though.


----------



## Structaural (Jun 8, 2004)

Just about to start 'The Colour of Money' by Geoff Dyer.
It's set in Brixton and published in 1989.


----------



## Elpenor (Jun 8, 2004)

Brave New World. Very good so far


----------



## Haller (Jun 8, 2004)

Roy Clewes: To Dream of Freedom
History of the Free Wales Army - reading it in memory of the Welsh hero Denis Coslett, who died last month. 
Fe Godwin Ni Eto.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Jun 9, 2004)

I’m on a bit of a readathon at the moment:

Just finished:
Brian Clegg - A Brief History of Infinity

A good overview.  Don’t know why however, as with so very many other pop maths/science books, there is that spiel about not being scared of equations, but he promises he’ll keep them to a minimum nonetheless, etc, etc…  (a) if you’re not that up on maths you’re not going to understand anything anyway, so you may as well use equations and (b) equations are lovely.  My main gripe is with Clegg’s explanation of Weierstrasse’s way of dealing with series limits, which tbh made little sense to me.  I got a strong sense of something glossed over without being made clear.  But the rest of it features the usual entertaining mix of human interest and maths, well balanced imo.


Lee Herring - Talking Cock
Good-natured, very witty book about nobs. 


Charles Willeford - The Shark-Infested Custard
Trashy amoral, amusing pulp.


Currently reading:

Lust - Simon Blackburn
A very warm, compassionate, lucid, and insightful rehabilitation of one of the seven deadly sins.  The production standard on this book is sky high and it’d make somebody a lovely present. STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.

Next up:

The Art of the Infinite: Our Lost Language of Numbers - Robert & Ellen Kaplan
A strange, poetically written book that nonetheless covers a lot of proper maths stuff I did in my 1st year of A level maths, so it’s also a bit of a nostalgia trip.  My maths is a bit rusty but this should be a good way of oiling it.

then at some point

Jung (ed) - Man and His Symbols, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconsciouss


----------



## SubZeroCat (Jun 9, 2004)

L' Etranger by Albert Camus


----------



## Rollem (Jun 10, 2004)

liza's england - pat barker


----------



## g force (Jun 10, 2004)

"If nobody speaks of extraordinary things"

Sorry, haven't checked theis thread in a while to see if anyone else is reading/has read it - any views? I loved the start it was beautiful in a poetic way but now I can't decide if I love/hate this book.


----------



## Masseuse (Jun 10, 2004)

The Other Side of Truth - an excellent children's book about two Nigerian children seeking asylum in England after their mother has been killed by the government in revenge for their father's activism.

And still reading Living With The Dead - a very funny account of life on the road with the Grateful Dead.


----------



## Rollem (Jun 10, 2004)

*do you mean "if nobody speaks of remarkable things"?*




			
				g force said:
			
		

> "If nobody speaks of extraordinary things"
> 
> Sorry, haven't checked theis thread in a while to see if anyone else is reading/has read it - any views? I loved the start it was beautiful in a poetic way but now I can't decide if I love/hate this book.


i loved it. the trick is not to expect anytyhing remarkable from it


----------



## g force (Jun 10, 2004)

Yep that's it! Damn you've ruined it!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## Pickman's model (Jun 10, 2004)

finished "hegemony or survival" by noam chomsky, now reading "orwell's victory" by christopher hitchens.


----------



## red3k (Jun 11, 2004)

The Dice Man - Luke Reinhart - big pile of shit
The House of Sleep - Jonathan Coe - jolly good
Anything by Terry Pratchett - fab
Anything by Michael Moore - excellent


----------



## crissy (Jun 11, 2004)

stupid white men - Michael Moore
Assassins Quest - Robin Hobb
Various revision books


----------



## magneze (Jun 11, 2004)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> finished "hegemony or survival" by noam chomsky, now reading "orwell's victory" by christopher hitchens.



I read hegemony or survival recently, scared the shit out of me. A great book - really makes you realise how screwed up the world is.   

Currently reading Jasper Fforde - Lost in a good book, which is a bit like Douglas Adams on mushrooms    or something ...


----------



## Roadkill (Jun 11, 2004)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon.

Excellent so far.


----------



## spliff (Jun 11, 2004)

Found in a second hand bargain bin 10pence.

*HARLEY EARL* by Stephen Bayley 1990

Apart from his name being so _American_ to me, I mean he does sound like a Sheriff on a motorbike, he probably had a bigger impact on American culture than Wyatt Earp or Dennis Hopper.

He designed cars in the fifties with tailfins, two-tone colour and mucho chrome. He designed them with obsolescence in mind. He felt a car should be a symbol, a possession rather than just a means of transport.

So each year he would design something with bigger tailfins, more lights etc. The idea being those that could afford would buy new sending their older cars down the food chain. In fact everything that I'm against.

He designed and built cars that looked more like rocket-ships than anything NASA ever managed. Much more Buck Rogers stylee.

Anyway you don't need to read it now. I've given you a large synopsis.

If you're keen   ISBN 0 586 08882 2  Grafton Books 1992

Edited to add: Oh! Look I just found this website which has pictures.


----------



## kropotkin (Jun 11, 2004)

I'm reading "Age of Extremes" by Eric Hobsbawm. 
It is a history of what he calls "the short twentieth century", from 1917 to 1991. It is really very very good.


----------



## lagerlout (Jun 11, 2004)

Northern Lights - Philip Pullman - lovin' it so far, its got me all excited!


----------



## Iam (Jun 13, 2004)

Carl Hiaasen - Basket Case

Odd, journo-crime novel, but strangely compelling. Lent to me by a lass who is currently ploughing through my James Ellroy collection as a "different kind of US Crime book". Certainly is that.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Jun 13, 2004)

As well as L'Etranger by Albert Camus, I'm also reading The Menstrual Cycle by Anne E. Walker. Its really interesting


----------



## Brainaddict (Jun 13, 2004)

Pickman's Model what is Orwell's Victory like? Can't stand Hitchens but it's an interesting title.


----------



## chez (Jun 13, 2004)

High Tide: News from a Warming World by Mark Lynas

an account of how global warming is already having a profound effect on communities around the world. A real spur to action.


----------



## Bomber (Jun 14, 2004)

Electric Don Quixote ~ The definitive Frank Zappa ~ Nick Slaven


----------



## captainmission (Jun 14, 2004)

the owl service by Alan Garner 

picked up free from a book stall at a gig. It's rubbish but quite enjoyable with it.


----------



## J77 (Jun 14, 2004)

*THE EARTHSEA QUARTET by Ursula Le Guin*

Very nice start to the book 

A bit like a Harry Potter for adults


----------



## WasGeri (Jun 14, 2004)

I am reading 'Into the whirlwind' by Eugenia Ginzburg. She was a Communist Party member in the USSR who was falsely accused and sent to a hard labour camp for 18 years. Pretty good so far.


----------



## maldwyn (Jun 14, 2004)

Santa Evita by Tomas Eloy Martinez
The bizzare after-life of Eva Peron's embalmed body


----------



## red rose (Jun 14, 2004)

Are you Dave Gorman?  By Dave Gorman, I don't think its as funny as the TV series but then I saw that first so I would think that way...  it is very funny though.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Jun 14, 2004)

Oooh I want to read that book!

I bought it for my (now ex) boyf last year but he never read it (stupid, ungrateful, almost-illiterate bastard)

Shouldve kept it for myself


----------



## dweller (Jun 15, 2004)

I am getting towards the end of

 The wind up bird chronicle by Haruki Murakami

and it has been a fantastic read. Brilliantly translated by Jay Rubin, 
 I don't know how true it is to the original Japanese, 
 but the writing is stunning throughout.
  I will continue to iritate my friends and anyone I get chatting to
 by raving on about this book. I love it.


----------



## hovis (Jun 15, 2004)

The curious incident of the dog in the night time  

But there is another thread about that...


----------



## rubbershoes (Jun 15, 2004)

red rose said:
			
		

> Are you Dave Gorman?  By Dave Gorman,


I read that a few months ago. It was surprisngly funny. I've just finished Things Snowball by Rich Hall, which was also surprisingly funny. 

I don't know why i'm always surprised that books by comedians are funny


----------



## rubbershoes (Jun 15, 2004)

captainmission said:
			
		

> the owl service by Alan Garner



Is that in the same series as The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen. I remember those from from when I was a kiddie. Good books


----------



## red rose (Jun 15, 2004)

SubZeroCat said:
			
		

> Oooh I want to read that book!
> 
> I bought it for my (now ex) boyf last year but he never read it (stupid, ungrateful, almost-illiterate bastard)
> 
> Shouldve kept it for myself




Well gergl wants to borrow it next but you're welcome to it after that.

You gotta be careful with it though cos its autographed


----------



## stereotypical (Jun 16, 2004)

Dead Famous by Ben Elton, quite good like


----------



## magealita (Jun 16, 2004)

*currently*

currently reading two books:

Illusions: Adventures of A Reluctant Messiah -Richard Bach

The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation - Chogyam Trungpa


----------



## upsidedownwalrus (Jun 16, 2004)

dweller said:
			
		

> I am getting towards the end of
> 
> The wind up bird chronicle by Haruki Murakami
> 
> ...



Yes - a great book that.  I read it last year and thought it was ace.

I love all the stuff about being stuck down wells...

Agreed about the translation too, sometimes I find translated works a bit 'stiff', but that one was very well done.  Apparently the author worked directly with the translator.


----------



## Vixiha (Jun 18, 2004)

My brother loaned me two.  I'm reading _Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them _ - Al Franken.  Next will be _Stupid White Men_ - Michael Moore.


----------



## soulrebel (Jun 18, 2004)

now my exams are over i can read fiction again 

so after going to local library yesterday, currently reading "The Disposessed" by Ursula K Le Guin, cued up to be followed by "Wide Sargasso Sea" by Jean Rhys and "the Man In The High Castle" by Philip K Dick... then i might start re-reading one of my old favourites like maybe "Meridian" or "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"...


----------



## Elpenor (Jun 18, 2004)

The Comedians by Graham Greene


----------



## bluestreak (Jun 18, 2004)

i'm currently reading angela carter's the infernal desire machines of dr hoffham.  it's very good indeed.  real sinister fairy tale stuff.  highly symbolic.  of course, i'm 100% convinced i know what it's symbolic of, but...


----------



## J77 (Jun 18, 2004)

I was contemplating the other day of going through this thread to rediscover all the books I've read since July 2002.

I may just do it...

Maybe on Monday 

Good reference though


----------



## Hocus Eye. (Jun 18, 2004)

Just reading Revolution and Counter-revolution in England, Ireland and Scotland 1685-60 by Brian Manning who died earlier this year - he will be missed - he made that period of history a damn sight more exciting than when I 'learned' about it at school.  Currently have a anthology of short stories in the bathroom - "Welcome to Camelot" and one of the Tony Benn diaries in the sitting room and TV Nation by Michael Moore in the bedroom.  

Drives Hocus Eye nuts as he keeps falling over them.

1984 next on list as just spotted it again

Mrs Hocus Eye


----------



## G. Fieendish (Jun 20, 2004)

Currently Reading -
John Brunner's _"The Sheep Look Up" _ 
Or how The U.S.A collapses within the space of a year, due to ecological/ pollution related consequences....
Personally, on rereading this, I'm _amazed _ that no one's bought the film rights for this....  
But then _again...._
Yours,Grimley


----------



## Corax (Jun 20, 2004)

Bill Bryson's history of everything & Bunker 13 (-Catch 22 written by Hunter S Thompson   )


----------



## MysteryGuest (Jun 20, 2004)

I am reading 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke

Or rather I should be coz this is the 2001st reply to this thread.

But I'm not.

Sorry.




edited to add note to self:

Should've waited two more posts before doing this, then it would've been your 2001st post.  Ho hum.


----------



## Lakina (Jun 20, 2004)

I'm half way through The Secret History by Donna Tartt.  Seriously good book.  Its about some students.  They're rich, they're smart, and they kill people.

Characters seem much more real than people I know.


----------



## Pickman's model (Jun 20, 2004)

nearly finished _storm of steel_, ernst junger's classic autobiographical account of the first world war.


----------



## golightly (Jun 20, 2004)

Just started 'Travels with Myself and Another' by Martha Gellhorn.  Basically, a travelogue where the author bitches around the World.  Very funny.


----------



## hovis (Jun 21, 2004)

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

Really good so far, a bit like Marquez's 110 years of solitude in places, and a bit like Rushdie in others. It is incredibly funny.


----------



## Corax (Jun 21, 2004)

Lakina said:
			
		

> I'm half way through The Secret History by Donna Tartt.  Seriously good book.  Its about some students.  They're rich, they're smart, and they kill people.
> 
> Characters seem much more real than people I know.



Just finished that.  Highly recommended.


----------



## STFC (Jun 22, 2004)

Currently reading 1984 and thoroughly enjoying it. Always thought it might be a bit heavy going, but I have found the narrative surprisingly easy to read (although the extracts from _the book_ slow it down a bit). Orwell is a master at drawing the reader in, raising your hopes that Winston will beat the system while knowing all the time that the system will eventually crush him. I am definitely going to read some more Orwell once I've finished 1984.


----------



## onemonkey (Jun 22, 2004)

*My May reading list*

A lot less than normal this month & late to boot due to my preoccupation with cramming for my exams.

_Psychopathology - John Stirling & Jonathan Hellewell_
A Scottish Higher level textbook giving a whistlestop tour of some psychological disorders; schiz, depression, eating disorders, etc. Necessarily brief but the final chapter giving examples of poor exam answers and how they might be improved gave me a scare since one of the C-grade Higher essays was better than some of more panicked my degree essays!

_The Cognitive Neuropsychology of Schizophrenia - Chris Frith_
More a monograph than a book. Uta Frith's husband lays out his theory that schizophrenia is consequence of faulty monitoring. The voices in your head appear not to originate there, attention and thought are confused. AN interesting theory that has entirely been corroborated in the 10-15 years it's been around, but which extending the pioneering approach of Tim Crow has focused attention on the cognitive components of schizophrenia.. regaining ground from the medical obsession with disease and cure.

_I'm not scared - Niccolo Ammaniti_
One hot summer in rural southern Italy a little boy discovers something so scary it doesn't seem real. And then the weather gets hotter and things get worse..

_Flour Babies - Anne Fine_
Aww, not Flour Babies, SIr! That has to be the worst science project ever! (Especially for a 'problem' class of 11 year old boys.) And yet it does something funny to the most problematic of them all, Simon Martin, whose father walked out when he was six weeks old. He will look after his 6 pound flour baby for the whole fortnight - well, he'll try!
A worthy winner of the Smarties prize that i'd been meaning to read for years.

_Autism (2nd Edition) - Uta Frith_
A survey of the state of the art in autism research by Chris Frith's wife. Blunted by being dumbed down slightly for a general readership and padded out with slightly spurious historical anecdotes (I really don't think Kaspar Hauser was autistic.) Nonetheless, it covers well the three complementary cognitive theories of autism; weak central coherence (see the trees not the wood), executive dysfunction (poor planning of actions) & mind-blindness (the effortless ordinary mindreading we take for granted).
Between the two of them, the Friths show that there's still life in the theory that autism is a early onset equivalent of schizophrenia with attendant developmental consequences. (If you never learn what 'normal' is you never go mad.)
- if only they'd asked about it in the exams


----------



## Shirl (Jun 22, 2004)

Lakina said:
			
		

> I'm half way through The Secret History by Donna Tartt.  Seriously good book.  Its about some students.  They're rich, they're smart, and they kill people.
> 
> Characters seem much more real than people I know.



I also loved that book and her second book, 'The little Friend' is really good too.
I'm reading Beautiful Shadow by Andrew Wilson. It's a biography of Patricia Highsmith. I have never really read a biography before because I've never fancied them but I want to know more about Highsmith.I buy every book of hers that I see and I've enjoyed them all, the way she makes you feel that Ripley is a good guy is amazing. Her other charactors too, she makes you really care about the ones that you shouldn't. I think if I'd met her I would have really liked her.


----------



## captainmission (Jun 22, 2004)

Defacement by Michael Taussig- Really bizzare collection of essays about subcomadate marcos, monarchists beheading a staue of the queen in austrailia, lying spanish anarchists, Santa and scheming women in terra del fuego. About ideology apparently. Really insightful and often quite funny and all.


----------



## Dubversion (Jun 22, 2004)

reading and loving Paul Morley's Words & Music.

at the moment he's talking about the twin poles of Alvin Lucier's I Am Sitting In A Room and Kylie's Can't Get You Out Of My Head, and how different the book would have been if he'd used two different books.

nonsense, clearly, but eloquent and engaging nonsense. even when Morley goes off on one - and god knows, he does - it's always a good read....


----------



## mentalchik (Jun 22, 2004)

Will be starting KPAX, the trilogy, by Gene Brewer,

have'nt seen the film yet !


----------



## blend (Jun 23, 2004)

I'm reading a H.P. Lovecraft Omnimbus. Scary stuff, last time I read anything of his i had nightmares     

When I finish that it its probably gonna be the Illuminatus! trilogy by Robert Shea.


----------



## IntoStella (Jun 23, 2004)

Muriel Spark's novella The Abbess of Crewe -- a beautifully, incisively-written satire on Watergate with not a slack word or phrase in it. It's just 100 pages long  but in the hands of a lesser writer would have been a good 250.


----------



## Pickman's model (Jun 23, 2004)

blend said:
			
		

> I'm reading a H.P. Lovecraft Omnimbus. Scary stuff, last time I read anything of his i had nightmares
> 
> When I finish that it its probably gonna be the Illuminatus! trilogy by Robert Shea.


which hpl are you reading? cos there's quite a few anthologies about - i've loads. 

good stuff, mind you. especially "the dunwich horror", "the festival", "pickman's model" o), "the shadow out of time" and "dreams in the witch house".

and "the rats in the walls" and "the nameless city". in fact, all of them.


----------



## Pickman's model (Jun 23, 2004)

also, blend, you may be interested in lovecraft's poetry, there's a compilation (the ancient track?) with it all. including the excellent "fungi from yuggoth". &  s t joshi's bringing out a five volume edition of his nonfiction, the first two volumes are out (literary criticism & amateur journalism, if memory serves).


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Jun 23, 2004)

The Destruction of Lord Raglan, by Christopher Hibbert (Penguin Books 1961). Really good. I think Hibbert is a great historian...also half of the duo that edited my favourite reference book.....The London Encyclopaedia. Editors: Ben Weinreb & Christopher Hibbert, published by Macmillan


----------



## Rollem (Jun 23, 2004)

about to start reading "provincial daughter" by r.m. dashwood - not my usual style of read, but will see how i get on...


----------



## playghirl (Jun 23, 2004)

Murphy By Samuel Beckett...as all my friends know I havent beeen able to get into him...however I have found in Murphy a Beckett I can get into.


----------



## Pickman's model (Jun 23, 2004)

weinberg, robert. stalin's forgotten zion: birobidzhan and the making of a soviet jewish homeland. an illustrated history, 1928 - 1996 (berkeley, ca: university of california press, 1998)


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 23, 2004)

Brixton Library has surprised me cos I managed to get hold of:
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered The World by Francis Wheen
Perfect holiday reading


----------



## belboid (Jun 23, 2004)

i was considering looking up that Francis Wheen, sounds quite interesting, and he writes well, even if he is a bit pompous sometimes.

Bill Hicks - Love All the People: Letters, Lyrics, Routines, bloody marvellous
Time Out - Rome, poor plot development, but when it's good it's great.


----------



## Idris2002 (Jun 23, 2004)

*Black Skin, White Masks* by Frantz Fanon. Fecking excellent it is too, even if some of its a bit dated.


----------



## crissy (Jun 23, 2004)

My friend passed me a book called Rock and Roll Sucide by PP Hartnett, 

Its really very good


----------



## Strumpet (Jun 24, 2004)

Wanted a light, amusing , easy read and found it in "The Bad Mother's Handbook". Not finished it yet but it's just what I neeed for the moment.


----------



## LadyofScott (Jun 24, 2004)

*what am I reading*

Hopps the bunnie runs away by my daughter age 8

ok, so I'm kid oriented what can I say


----------



## Delia (Jun 24, 2004)

I just finished reading 'Hammer of the Gods', the Led Zep bio.   I got a little bored in the middle, it was just a blur of touring and it all seemed the same. 

Overall a pretty good read!


----------



## loud 1 (Jun 24, 2004)

band of brothers by steven ambrose.

suprisingly the series based on the book does it perfect justice.

the beeb site is here...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/bandofbrothers/

for the first time for me,it made no differance wether i read the book first or watched the series..


both breath taking.


----------



## playghirl (Jun 24, 2004)

Today I  am reading The Prodigy by Hermann Hesse. It is Hesses indictment of conventional education. It is of interest to me obviously as I also am in education.


----------



## Pickman's model (Jun 24, 2004)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> weinberg, robert. stalin's forgotten zion: birobidzhan and the making of a soviet jewish homeland. an illustrated history, 1928 - 1996 (berkeley, ca: university of california press, 1998)


finished that!

Holland, Tom. Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic (London: Abacus, 2003)


----------



## MightyAphrodite (Jun 24, 2004)

bill clinton my life  

ok i was curious!!

ive got it in .lit form if anyone wants to read it


----------



## atitlan (Jun 26, 2004)

I've got two books on the go at the moment:

"Northern Lights" by Philip Pullman (with the rest of the trilogy to follow)

and 

"What is Good?" by A C Grayling - which is a history of the philosophical view of what it means to live a good life, with a bias towards the humanist perspective.


----------



## G. Fieendish (Jun 26, 2004)

Currently, I'm reading _Space Family Stone_ by Robert Hienlien (Has'nt it dated though...) & _Pattern Recognition_ By William Gibson....
Grimley


----------



## baby face (Jun 26, 2004)

Just literlay fine4shed *The damage done* by _Warren fellows_ , atrue story about a bloke who smuggled herion through Tailand and got caught. Dont care what any1 says he dident disurve the shit he got in that prison, read it its a proper eye opener


----------



## Pickman's model (Jun 26, 2004)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> finished that!
> 
> Holland, Tom. Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic (London: Abacus, 2003)


put that down to read 

Hibbert, Christopher. King Mob (Stroud, Gloucs.: Sutton, 2004)

which i finished yesterday, very interesting book about the gordon riots of 1780; and

Levin, Ira. Rosemary's Baby (London: Bloomsbury, 2002)

the novel the film was based on (i think!). about 2/3 of the way through...


----------



## zora (Jun 27, 2004)

*The Master and Margarita * by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Now I don't know what any of it means   but this story of the devil and his not so little helpers causing havoc in Moscow kicks some serious ass.     

Anyone else's read it and been blown away?


----------



## killer b (Jun 27, 2004)

zora said:
			
		

> *The Master and Margarita * by Mikhail Bulgakov.
> 
> Now I don't know what any of it means   but this story of the devil and his not so little helpers causing havoc in Moscow kicks some serious ass.
> 
> Anyone else's read it and been blown away?


yup - tis awesome.

i believe the rolling stones' "sympathy for the devil" is inspired by mr bulgakov.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Jun 28, 2004)

A book about Albrecht Durer.


----------



## Brainaddict (Jun 28, 2004)

zora said:
			
		

> *The Master and Margarita * by Mikhail Bulgakov.
> 
> Now I don't know what any of it means   but this story of the devil and his not so little helpers causing havoc in Moscow kicks some serious ass.
> 
> Anyone else's read it and been blown away?



Indeed.  Hail Mikhail! I think I also only understood half of what it meant, but that only means I can re-read in 5 or 10 years and get loads more out of it. Kick ass it does. Anyone for a cigar?


----------



## hovis (Jun 28, 2004)

The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith


----------



## J77 (Jul 2, 2004)

Just finished the first book of the Earthsea Quartet:

*A Wizard of Earthsea*,

am now on the *Tombs of Atuan*.

Highly recommended read


----------



## Hollis (Jul 2, 2004)

'Decision in Normandy' by Carlo D'Este

It goes something like "At 0800 'A' Squadron, 4th CLY and 'A' Company, 1st Battalion The Rifle Brigade pass through Villers-Bocage. At 0905 lead elements of the Yeomanry reach Point 213 accompanied by an advance party of the infantry from 'A' Company.."


----------



## Pickman's model (Jul 2, 2004)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> Holland, Tom. Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic (London: Abacus, 2003)


finished that!

now reading:

Hugo, Victor. Les Miserables (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982)


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jul 2, 2004)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> Hugo, Victor. Les Miserables (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982)



Anthony Burgess claimed to have read that five times, including once in one sitting and once in a Catalan translation.

Btw, i was going to buy a cheap HP Lovecraft collection today, can't remember what it was called but one of the stories was about an expedition to Antarctica. Worth it? (Have no idea what to look for).


----------



## Pickman's model (Jul 2, 2004)

that'll be "at the mountains of madness", probably with "the case of charles dexter ward" in it, too.

i'd suggest you get something like the "hp lovecraft omnibus vol ii: dagon and other macabre tales" (london: grafton, 1985) or the "hp lovecraft omnibus vol iii: the haunter of the dark and other tales" (london: grafton, forget date).

if you go to forbidden planet on shaftesbury ave they have some (fairly) cheap american imports, like "the dreamquest of unknown kadath" or "the tomb and other macabre tales". but there's also a couple of "best of" anthologies they stocked last time i was there which may be the best place to start.

off to search for titles, back in a minute.


----------



## Pickman's model (Jul 2, 2004)

see this link 

the arkham house books are beautiful hardbacks, but dear!  about £20. 

the ballantine/del rey ones are imo best, as they're cheaper and i like the cover art. 

"The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre" is the second lovecraft book i bought, and contains many of my favourite tales, like "the shadow out of time" and "the call of cthulhu", and is probably a good place to start.

have a look, and enjoy! hpl's the top author for horror, and has yet to be surpassed, imho.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jul 2, 2004)

Thanks for the link and info, PM. Will get to it!


----------



## stuff_it (Jul 3, 2004)

Rading 'Bass Culture: When Reggae was King


----------



## Nina (Jul 3, 2004)

Mark Haddon's Curious Incident....was impressed with the style but the first half of the book definitely held all the power. 

Then, Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover. Was quite impressed with a mans ability to write about a womans emotions wrt casual relationships. 
He didn't get it all spot on though   

Now, can only face 'The Wombles' as some nasty bug has wiped out my brain. 

Have DBC Pierre and 100 years of solitude waiting in my rucksack for my hols


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 3, 2004)

Nina said:
			
		

> Have DBC Pierre ...waiting in my rucksack for my hols


Is that by Vernon God Little?


----------



## Pickman's model (Jul 3, 2004)

popped out without "les mis" cos wouldn't fit in pocket, so reading 
Kershaw, Alister. A History of the Guillotine (London: Tandem, 1965)


----------



## Rocket Romano (Jul 3, 2004)

Meandering through the last of the Bill Bryson titles and mixing it in John McCarthy (MCCarthys Bar) and some CSI serialisations...have a thing against just reading one book, got give Waterstones and Amazon some money to play with


----------



## Old Gergl (Jul 3, 2004)

Are YOU Dave Gorman. Good light relief.


----------



## Nina (Jul 3, 2004)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Is that by Vernon God Little?



Yup.
Or the other way around


----------



## Tegrov3 (Jul 3, 2004)

Easy riders Raging bulls by Peter Biskind....book about Hollywood in the 60's/70's taking me ages though..
..after that I've got Kelly and Victor by Niall Griffiths to look forward to amazing writer..Read Sheepshager and Grits so far (Both books cross over and focus on welsh identity)...bit like Irvine Welsh he writes in dialect.


----------



## mrkikiet (Jul 4, 2004)

zoe heller: notes on a scandal. 
so far so good.


----------



## tom796 (Jul 4, 2004)

Jack Kerouac, _On The Road_ (long overdue)

and then ...

Thomas Cahill, _How the Irish Saved Civilisation_


----------



## General Ludd (Jul 4, 2004)

Colin Thubron - In Siberia


----------



## J77 (Jul 5, 2004)

Just finished the second book of the Earthsea Quartet:

*Tombs of Atuan*,

am now on the *Farthest Shore*.

Again, highly recommended read


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Jul 5, 2004)

'The Child that Books Built' by Francis Spufford. It's excellent.


----------



## stereotypical (Jul 5, 2004)

Generation X : Douglas Coupland


----------



## Nina (Jul 5, 2004)

ooh, Stereotypical, savour each moment...it's a lovely book.

I'm ready Henry Miller Tropic of Cancer.
It's beautifully written with great description but I'm finding it hard to join the dots.
Will perservere..

... as always


----------



## bosco (Jul 5, 2004)

The Voice Of Modern Hatred - Encounters with Europe's New Right 
by Nicholas Fraser

so far it's very interesting and quite scary. easy enough to read too.


----------



## Louloubelle (Jul 5, 2004)

Guardians of the Flutes - Idioms of Masculinity 
a very disturbing anthropology book about male initiation rites in guinea 

If I hadn't seen a TV programme on these people myself I would have been very sceptical that a community of people that treat their children like this exisits, but it does.  I think this is the only time I've felt grateful for the intervention of Christian missionaries.


----------



## Elpenor (Jul 6, 2004)

The Power And The Glory by Graham Greene, having finished The Comedians.

Also read The Rough Guide to Cult Football on the loo, as it was left behind in my new house. Quite interesting, and Fantasy Football nicked quite a few of the jokes...


----------



## Louloubelle (Jul 6, 2004)

Elpenor said:
			
		

> The Power And The Glory by Graham Greene, having finished The Comedians.



the comedians is a great book, made more terrifying by the fact that so much of it reflected the reality of what was happening in Hiati.  Made into a crap film with Liz taylor IMMIC, the only redeemeing feature of which was that it included rare footage of the legendary Hatian drummer Ti-Roro (not to be confused with the Haitian murderer Ti Roro who was burned alive by an angry mob not that long ago).  I plan to read more Greene when I have the time.


----------



## Elpenor (Jul 6, 2004)

Yeah I love his stuff Louloubelle. I've purposely packed away all my books (bar Ulysses) so I can knuckle down and read as much of his work this summer. I got the idea of reading it after the turmoil in Haiti earlier this year - it seems disorder is a frequent visitor to Haiti...

His autobiography is pretty good too - tales of Russian roulette in Berkhampstead


----------



## Louloubelle (Jul 6, 2004)

Elpenor said:
			
		

> Yeah I love his stuff Louloubelle. I've purposely packed away all my books (bar Ulysses) so I can knuckle down and read as much of his work this summer. I got the idea of reading it after the turmoil in Haiti earlier this year - it seems disorder is a frequent visitor to Haiti...




sadly true

you might enjoy this

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...002-2666141-2487238?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

good on history, religion and art in haiti


----------



## smile injection (Jul 6, 2004)

Oranges aren't the only fruit - Jeanette Winterson
and random Ben Elton books


----------



## BEARBOT (Jul 6, 2004)

hi louloubelle...
i just took out the maya deren book about haitian voudou (which you link to above)from hackney central library..cant wait to read it!...ive enjoyed her films..so now maybe i can learn something about a subject so misrepresented..


----------



## Louloubelle (Jul 6, 2004)

BEARBOT said:
			
		

> hi louloubelle...
> i just took out the maya deren book about haitian voudou (which you link to above)from hackney central library..cant wait to read it!...ive enjoyed her films..so now maybe i can learn something about a subject so misrepresented..



I'm sure you will enjoy it hon
let me know how you get on


----------



## Maidmarian (Jul 6, 2004)

Just finished "The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night Time" by Mark Haddon.

Started  " Oryx & Crake" by Margaret Atwood !


----------



## maya (Jul 6, 2004)

Cain's children by Torkel Brekke  (on violence in religion from ancient times until 2002..haven't finished yet but interesting so far..
John Colapinto: As Nature Made Him- the boy who was raised as a girl(based on the true story of identical twin David Reimer,who after a botched circumcision as a baby was castrated and raised as a girl,an experiment that failed tragically...


----------



## starfish (Jul 6, 2004)

Have started reading Birdy by William Wharton. I promise that i will actually finish this one.


----------



## chez (Jul 7, 2004)

Reefer Madness
by Eric Schlosser


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jul 7, 2004)

chez said:
			
		

> Reefer Madness
> by Eric Schlosser



Good book, could have been longer. I thought the strawberry picking chapter was a bit weak, though.


----------



## chez (Jul 7, 2004)

only read about 30 pages so far but enjoying it. I knew the US was heavy handed with pot smoking but still shocked at the severity of some of the  sentences. A life sentence for 0.16g which is 0.005644 of an ounce of pot


----------



## mrkikiet (Jul 7, 2004)

M. Amis - Yellow Dog


----------



## Hawkeye Pearce (Jul 7, 2004)

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley.

And its scaring the shit out of me


----------



## DrRingDing (Jul 7, 2004)

starts well.....but I'm sure it'll get tough going soon enough


----------



## MysteryGuest (Jul 7, 2004)

Tom Frilling - Out Of Print (Unpublished Verlag AB Stockholm, 1977)

“If you have to ask, you’ll never know”


----------



## magneze (Jul 7, 2004)

Just finished: Michael Moore - Dude Where's My Country
About to start: DBC Pierre - Vernon God Little


----------



## Elpenor (Jul 7, 2004)

Hawkeye Pearce said:
			
		

> Brave New World - Aldous Huxley.
> 
> And its scaring the shit out of me



I loved that, especially the opening few chapters. Just read it myself...

Reefer Madness is dead good too, especially the bit about the Disney of porn


----------



## General Ludd (Jul 7, 2004)

The Making Of The English Working Class - E. P. Thompson. 
Very very good. Need to brush up on my 18th century Christian sects though.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Jul 7, 2004)

A book about Greek historians.


----------



## americanhippiec (Jul 8, 2004)

Re-reading the Song of Ice and fire books by Goerge R.R. Martin. They are brilliant, but since he has now missed the third publication date listed on Amazon.com for the fourth book in the series, I am about to burn the copies I have out of frustration.


----------



## laptop (Jul 8, 2004)

meanoldman said:
			
		

> The Making Of The English Working Class - E. P. Thompson.
> Very very good. Need to brush up on my 18th century Christian sects though.



You know about _The World Turned Upside Down_ by Christopher Hill? Oh good. 

I just read _The Book of Ash_ by James Flint. It's not out yet: I shall receommend it when it is


----------



## upsidedownwalrus (Jul 8, 2004)

Just finished Ian McEwan's Atonement, which I really enjoyed, although to start with I thought it was a load of rubbish.  Once I got into it it was excellent.


----------



## Kameron (Jul 8, 2004)

Digital Analysis Using Benford's Law by Mark Nigrini


----------



## oddjob (Jul 8, 2004)

i'm waiting for 'shite's unoriginal miscellany'

this is the review



edit: lol, exploding golf ball


----------



## laptop (Jul 8, 2004)

Kameron said:
			
		

> Digital Analysis Using Benford's Law by Mark Nigrini



Oh, if you're going to be like that, _Modularity_ edited by Schlosser and Wagner. 

My head hurts. 

Or parts of it, anyway...


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Jul 9, 2004)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> popped out without "les mis" cos wouldn't fit in pocket, so reading
> Kershaw, Alister. A History of the Guillotine (London: Tandem, 1965)


Spooky! I've just acquired a copy of that.......


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 9, 2004)

Mrs Magpie said:
			
		

> Spooky! I've just acquired a copy of that.......


Funny, one of my mental images of you is the lady doing her knitting at the guillotine.


----------



## Kidda (Jul 10, 2004)

Just finished 'Ricky' the autobiography of Ricky Tomlinson, was really shocked to find out he used to be in the NF, though wasnt too shock to read about how the unions fucked him over whilst he was inside, unfortunatley. 

before that read 'Prisoner 70437' but i cant recall the author, it was a polish to english translation of a diary made by a jewish prisoner of war who ended up in one of the cattle cars being transported between concentration camps. heartbreaking. 

at the moment im reading 'The Hobbit' and 'Do or Die' issue 10


----------



## DrRingDing (Jul 10, 2004)

"Servlets and JavaServer Pages"

..and i can't take much more


----------



## onemonkey (Jul 13, 2004)

*what i read in June..*

_The Psychology of Language - Trevor Harley_
An excellent introduction to psycholinguistics. It covers lots of ground that is of interest to psychologists & less so to linguists. So that's stuff on speech production and perception (fun with phonemes) lots & lots of reaction time experiments, some elegant computer models of language acquistion & mercifully few versions of Chomsky's ever evolving theory.

_The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman_
It took me a long time to get round to this after failing to find a single joke in the Northern Lights.. there wasn't one here (or not that I noticed) but it did eventually become gripping enough for me to persevere with it.

_The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman_
Having ploughed effortlessly though part two, it seemed sensible to perpetuate my motion over into the final installment. I was rewarded with the first jokes in 1000 pages, albeit merely some asides from a snide & sarcastic angel. Rewarding too was to finally see the ingenuity of his alternate theology that with some subtlety and originality meshed well across his universe. How nice to have him kill God with no fanfare. Not entirely sure of the title, as this item plays a very minor role in the plot.

_The God of Small Things - Arunduti Roy_
The urban75 book group choice for May which took me a little time to finish, partly due to exams but more due to an absense of curiosity.. for everything that happened was so heavily foreshadowed and so unsurprisingly enacted that the actual reading to the end often seemed like a wearisome formality.

_Stasiland - Anna Funder_
The urban75 june book group choice, a rare foray into reportage.. Stories of the Stasi collected after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The style has a somewhat pedestrian sunday supplement feeling but the astounding subject matter makes up for this.

_Adolf Hitler: My part in his downfall - Spike Milligan_
The first paragraph made me laugh more than any other single book i've read this year. After that the Milliganisms continue at a fairly unrelent pace in this honest & endearing account of his first three years of the war (before he saw frontline service).

_Post Office - Charles Bukowski_
Every day that Chinaski works in the post office seems to take him a year to trudge through and yet somehow, in the passing of just a few of these endless days, 12 years of his life take place too. This was the first of Bukowski's 'highly autobiographical' novels and happily it enabled him to escape the walking nightmare it describes.

_Underground - Haruki Murakami_
Interviews with survivors of the Tokyo subway sarin attack & some members of the cult. It is nominally the only non-fiction work by this great novelist, but mostly it is in the words of the individuals themselves & Murakami acts only as interviewer, editor & organiser of the project. The book succeeds in using an unprecedented event to reveal the ordinary everyday psyche of the Japanese. No more clearly shown than in the fact that almost everyone in the attack carried on into work, despite dizzyness, streaming noses, hacking coughs and almost total loss of vision.


----------



## STFC (Jul 14, 2004)

Down and Out in Paris and London.

Having recently read both 1984 and Animal Farm I am on a bit of an Orwell-fest at the moment.


----------



## Iam (Jul 14, 2004)

The Star Fraction, by Ken McLeod.

Sort of futurist, post revolutionary apocalypse sci-fi type affair. Not bad at all, but not quite as brilliant as I was told it was... first in a series of four, though, so maybe it gets better...


----------



## miss direct (Jul 14, 2004)

I'm reading my lovers lover by maggie someone?

It's ok but getting on my nerves a bit. 

I also just read angels by marian keyes (it was free in a magazine) which was quite good.


----------



## Shanksy (Jul 15, 2004)

im reading, do not pass go by tim moore. My was free too from buying boxes of cereals! Full of really interesting facts and history about london, where ive just spent 2 years living before moving back north, and i keep reciting them to my friends who seem absolutely disinterested. Think you really need to know some knowledge of london and its roads to get read it.


----------



## maya (Jul 15, 2004)

s-bunny said:
			
		

> I'm reading the 19th century 'Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds' by Charles Mackay. It's funny how society repeats the same mistakes over and over.
> 
> We're _DOOMED!_


 ...hey,i just read that! ..interesting book!  

 ..currently switching  between lots of books,heavily on the "philosophy/history" side of things: 
 * "Eichmann in Jerusalem" by Hannah Arendt,(about one of the men responsible for the Third Reich's "final solution"and the trial against him,about the paradox and perceptions of guilt) 
 *"Fatherland" by Robert Harris (crime story set in the parallel future where Hitler won the war),
 *"Europe,a History" by Norman Davies
 *"The Surgeon Of Crawthorne:A Tale of Murder,Madness and the Oxford's   English Dictionary" by Simon Winchester
 *"In Defence Of Witches:a historical reportage" by Jan Guillou

 ...and of course the loo library with shelf stocked full of old magazines,comics and paraphernalia...hours of entertainment!


----------



## Elpenor (Jul 16, 2004)

Hey Nostradamus! by that man Douglas Coupland, finally. Only read the first few pages so far, it keeps reminding me of the film Elephant by Gus Van Sant, probably because they both feature a shooting ....


----------



## Fledgling (Jul 16, 2004)

"Orwell: The Life" by D J Taylor.


----------



## zora (Jul 16, 2004)

STFC Loyal said:
			
		

> Down and Out in Paris and London.
> 
> Having recently read both 1984 and Animal Farm I am on a bit of an Orwell-fest at the moment.



Don't miss out on Homage to Catalonia, then.  

I've just started reading To Kill a Mockingbird; a colleague whose opinion I value very much recommended it warmly to me today.


----------



## Nina (Jul 16, 2004)

Zora, you'll love it.

TKAM is the first book that comes to mind when I think of 'Books with good endings'. They're aren't many.


I'm still halfway through Henry Miller.....Tropic of Cancer.


----------



## Barking_Mad (Jul 16, 2004)

The Bang Bang Club - Greg Marinovich & Juan Silva

A story about photojournalists in apartheid South Africa - getting killed in some cases.


----------



## mrkikiet (Jul 17, 2004)

Barking_Mad said:
			
		

> The Bang Bang Club - Greg Marinovich & Juan Silva
> 
> A story about photojournalists in apartheid South Africa - getting killed in some cases.


this is very very good. they're all somewhat unhinged.


----------



## maya (Jul 17, 2004)

zora said:
			
		

> I've just started reading To Kill a Mockingbird; a colleague whose opinion I value very much recommended it warmly to me today.



 ..yes! ..that's definately an excellent book, remember it made a big impression at the time i read it -over 10 years ago!   

..and it must've been where the Boo Radleys got their name from!


----------



## jayeola (Jul 17, 2004)

juts finished Philip K Dick's "Do androids dream of electric sheep?". Not bad actually. Quite liked the thought of ppl missing real animals after "WWT". 

Question is - this MERCER bloke? Was he really and android? And what as with all of this stone throwing during the empathy process?


----------



## mrkikiet (Jul 19, 2004)

i started Terra Incognito by Sara Wheeler last night, about the Antarctic.


----------



## kyser_soze (Jul 19, 2004)

Read Pattern Recognition last week...pretty good if not as sci-fi-y as Gidsons normal output...


----------



## ewok (Jul 19, 2004)

Sorting out billy - jo brand.  Pretty good so far, some great characters and only one of them is a struggling female stand up comedian !!


----------



## Rollem (Jul 19, 2004)

finding myself - toby litt


----------



## j26 (Jul 19, 2004)

Based on advice here I started _Clockwork Orange_ .  Difficult book to read at first.  You need to get in on the dialect he uses, and it is pretty graphic, so iif you have an active imagination you will be repulsed by the images your mind comes up with (or at least you should be repulsed), but it is an excellent book once you get into it.


----------



## mollyemo (Jul 19, 2004)

A Question of Blood -- Ian Rankin

Unfortunately I've had to put it down recently because I've been quite too busy.


----------



## Wyn (Jul 19, 2004)

I'm reading Nymphomation by Jeff Noon. I bought it from Bookmongers in Coldharbour Lane at a very reasonable price   
I've just finished Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. After reading the more emotional/relationship based The Robber Bride it was a welcome return to the political/dystopian style of The Handmaid's Tale.


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Jul 20, 2004)

"Not On The Label" by Felicity Lawrence.

It's all very Guardian (she's a journo for the paper), but full of good stuff on the way food is produced and sold in this country and Europe. Will possibly make you feel guilty every time you pop into the supermarket for a bit of cheap chicken or a loaf of 20p bread.
I liked it, and it made me fucking angry. A "Fast Food Nation" for Brits.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 20, 2004)

Just finished:
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered The World by Francis Wheen
How To Be Alone by Jonathan Franzen
Dude, Where's My Country by Michael Moore
and have just started Reefer Madness by Eric Schlosser
Think the next one is going to be Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood, but looking for suggestions for good meaty reads


----------



## J77 (Jul 20, 2004)

Just finished the third book of the Earthsea Quartet:

*Farthest Shore*,

am now on the last book *Tahuna*.

Once more, a highly recommended read


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 20, 2004)

read Magnus Mills' The Scheme For Full Employment in one 3 hour coach journey to Bournemouth.

afraid it bored me rigid - i only finished it because my other book (Jim Crace's Six, which i've started and which seems pretty good) was in the luggage hold.


----------



## milesy (Jul 20, 2004)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> read Magnus Mills' The Scheme For Full Employment in one 3 hour coach journey to Bournemouth.
> 
> afraid it bored me rigid - i only finished it because my other book (Jim Crace's Six, which i've started and which seems pretty good) was in the luggage hold.



aww that's a shame. i've not read it yet, am a great fan of his other stuff though. you're the second person i've heard say that it's not up to much.


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 20, 2004)

milesy said:
			
		

> aww that's a shame. i've not read it yet, am a great fan of his other stuff though. you're the second person i've heard say that it's not up to much.




my mate said the same - he LOVED three to see the king. also, there's not actually much of a book - they're obviously trying to keep each title a uniform size, so there's actually only half a page of large text on each page


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 20, 2004)

Didn't think much of Mills' latest offering either - it seems Mills has taken his obsession with work too far.


----------



## milesy (Jul 20, 2004)

so nobody likes magnus mills' new book. and to top it all i saw one of my neighbours reading it. and she smells of wee and throws her fag butts into the communal garden and doesn't smile or say hello. i don't like her much. maybe i won't bother with the book then.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Jul 20, 2004)

by Arthur V. Evans and Charles L. Bellamy


----------



## oddjob (Jul 20, 2004)

*'lost light' by m connelly*

just about to start it.

wish i'd read them in sequence


----------



## Kameron (Jul 20, 2004)

The Story of O
by Pauline Réage

as light relief when I get to bogged down in
"An HR Guide to Workplace Fraud and Criminal Behaviour"
by M.J. Comer & T.E. Stephens


----------



## Pickman's model (Jul 20, 2004)

Kameron said:
			
		

> The Story of O
> by Pauline Réage


is much better than



> _
> "An HR Guide to Workplace Fraud and Criminal Behaviour"
> by M.J. Comer & T.E. Stephens_


sounds.

although i'm not too keen on the film, i had a different impression of how it would have looked.


----------



## KeeperofDragons (Jul 22, 2004)

Just started State & Revolustion & am going to be looking for 1848 by John Saville (sp) (when I get paid) recommended by Paul Foot at a meeting about the Chartist movement at this year's Marxism, this being one of my historical interests next to the english civil war

KeeperofDragons


----------



## flypanam (Jul 22, 2004)

i've just started Jonathan Neale's 'Whats wrong with America? How the rich and powerful have changed America and now want to change the world' its very very good. starts with the fact that the rate of profit has fallen over the last 30 years and how the anti wat movements and women, gay and black liberation movements scared the shit out of the establishment. The chapter on the war on drugs is an eye opener. he states that prison rate is a form of social control. well worth the read.

The other book i'm reading at the moment is 'The Dante Club' by matthew pearl. For a historical crime novel with a literary bent its very good.


----------



## Ciara (Jul 22, 2004)

I've just finished 'A Very Long Engagement' by Sebastien Japrisot and although it wasn't quite what I expected I really enjoyed it. I've always liked war novels - not too sure why - and this one was very well-written and an interesting twist on the usual war-based books.


----------



## stavros (Jul 22, 2004)

Sue Townsend's "The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 and 3/4" for about the 20th time. Oh, and Tim Moore's "French Revolutions" where a regular and quite funny journalist rides the route of the mighty Tour De France in the build up to the big race. Read that before too.


----------



## oddjob (Jul 22, 2004)

*incompetence*

isbn: 0575074191


----------



## maya (Jul 25, 2004)

.." THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE POTATO" !     *

[..don't ask why/how,and no-i didn't buy it myself-but it turned up out of nowhere and i needed a bus read!..although now it's kind of starting to get interesting...!]


----------



## dervish (Jul 25, 2004)

Black House - Stephen King and Peter Straub.

Takes a while to get into, but I think it could well be one of the best he's done, it's a continuation (of a sort) of the Talisman.


----------



## Elpenor (Jul 26, 2004)

Shampoo Planet - Douglas Coupland.

Weirdly the day before I started reading this I was discussing how much time a lot of people spend on their hair with a friend, practically quoting one of the first chapters


----------



## mrkikiet (Jul 27, 2004)

barca - a people's passion by Jimmy Burns.


----------



## Lakina (Jul 27, 2004)

'Tender is the Night' by F Scott Fitzgerald.  It is one of the worst written books I have ever come accross.  It is bad.  With knobs on.  The prose is tripe.  The characters are unengaging.  Its been a battle to make it to the penultimate chapter.

I wonder if the last chapter will make me change my mind?


----------



## Traitor Ohio (Jul 27, 2004)

*High Society - Ben Elton*

I have been reading this book (High Society) over and over again, it is an utterly fantastic piece of novel writing. The plot is predictable yet so enthralling and also deeply engaging, it makes it hard to put it down for a single minute without wanting to read it again. Fantastic, well recomended for Ben Elton fans.


----------



## Iam (Jul 27, 2004)

I'm just starting a second Ken Macleod book, Cosmonaut Keep.

Not related to the one I read the other week, instead this is the start of a different 4 book series.

Hoping it will be more gripping than the other, which wasn't particularly, for all it's mix of politics and sci-fi.


----------



## Kaisa (Jul 27, 2004)

last book i finished was The Face by Dean Koontz. I only bought it because it needed a book on a train and Virgin trains have a selection of about 4 books. It was possibly the worst book i've ever read. I'm quite surprised that I bothered finishing it.

Currently reading Vernon God Little. 

The best books i've read recently are Philip Pullmans Dark Materials.


----------



## rubbershoes (Jul 27, 2004)

Stalin- The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore. I can see why Ernie likes Stalin. He was quite  a charming and intelligent man   whist still being completely ruthless and seemingly uncaring about causing millions of deaths by his policies


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 27, 2004)

Traitor Ohio said:
			
		

> I have been reading this book (High Society) over and over again, it is an utterly fantastic piece of novel writing. The plot is predictable yet so enthralling and also deeply engaging, it makes it hard to put it down for a single minute without wanting to read it again. Fantastic, well recomended for Ben Elton fans.


Have to disagree with you here.
I've read Stark, Popcorn and Dead Famous (was given them) and I'm not giving him another chance - they are quite pacey but they are neither funny nor well written and his observations on the world lack depth and are maddeningly trite - it's as if Adrian Mole had took up novel-writing.

Anyone see Maybe Baby last week? Oh dear.


----------



## mrkikiet (Jul 27, 2004)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Have to disagree with you here.
> I've read Stark, Popcorn and Dead Famous (was given them) and I'm not giving him another chance - they are quite pacey but they are neither funny nor well written and his observations on the world lack depth and are maddeningly trite - it's as if Adrian Mole had took up novel-writing.


never have i read anything i agree with more. this elton bandwagon annoys me a lot. sorry i'm still reading the same book i was above but felt the need to post.


----------



## chegrimandi (Jul 28, 2004)

just finished the Tin Drum by Gunter Grass what a mentalist fantastic insane book....

I would thoroughly recommend it.....took a bit to get through, dunno why as it is pretty readable but I kept getting sidetracked.

   

going to start L'Assommoir by Zola now.


----------



## cemertyone (Jul 28, 2004)

Chomsky..."Understanding Power"...its a fucking great read.....


----------



## DaveCinzano (Jul 28, 2004)

'the tailor of panama' by john le carre.

i think it's spiffing so far


----------



## kyser_soze (Jul 28, 2004)

RE-reading 'All Tomorrows Parties' by William Gibson.

And getting a lot more out of it this time round.


----------



## Nina (Jul 30, 2004)

Half way through DBC Pierre - Vernon God Little.
Really interesting- the lead character is great. 

Reminds me of a cross between 'The Simpsons' and 'To Kill A Mockingbird'.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jul 31, 2004)

Currently reading "The Undying Fire" by H.G. Wells.


----------



## bluestreak (Aug 1, 2004)

george orwell's down and out in paris and london.  very good indeed.


just finished a tripe whammy of randomly picked books from my shelf.

jd salinger's catcher in the rye
martin amis' night train
sean hughes' the detainees.

what a bunch of life affirming books for when i was miserable.  full of suicide, brutality and the pointlessness of human existance.


----------



## sparkling (Aug 1, 2004)

Brick Lane...but its making me feel very restless.


----------



## Louloubelle (Aug 2, 2004)

The Kiss: A memoir by Kathyrn Harrison 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380731479/102-6474368-0629743?v=glance

a memoir of the author's 4 year incestuous affair with a father she had never know until she was 20 years old.  

beautifully written, no actual sex scenes, but the power of the writing is incredible and makes the affair seem understandable in the context of her loneliness, her mother's depression, her eating disorder and self harming.  

I saw a programme on genetic sexual attraction (where family members who have been seperated early in life fall in love / lust with each other when they eventually meet) and this book is a powerful and brutally honest account of such an experience.


----------



## jms (Aug 2, 2004)

down and out in paris and london


----------



## innit (Aug 2, 2004)

sparkling said:
			
		

> Brick Lane...but its making me feel very restless.



Why's that, Sparkling?  I've been meaning to read it but haven't got around to it yet.


----------



## hovis (Aug 2, 2004)

innit said:
			
		

> Why's that, Sparkling?  I've been meaning to read it but haven't got around to it yet.



Me too!

Just read Ignorance by Milan Kundera, I think it is better than The Unbearable lightness of being, it seems more connected. It gave me nightmares though, all those deep observations, but that's good, it made me think.

Might read Brick Lane next... ?


----------



## souljacker (Aug 2, 2004)

Just started Norman Mailer, The Fight. Not normally a sports writing fan but fancied giving it a go. Slightly easier read than Kafka 'The trial' which I've just given up on.


----------



## Bomber (Aug 3, 2004)

*'Duende' by Jason Webster*. A sort of travelogue abut one mans search for the heart of Flamenco music. Pretty good read as well !!


----------



## The Boy (Aug 3, 2004)

Catch-22


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 3, 2004)

Norman DAVIES Rising '44: 'The Battle for Warsaw' (London: Pan, 2004)


----------



## bluestreak (Aug 3, 2004)

peter ackroyd's london, a biography again.  one of my favourite books and about time it got a second view.


----------



## rubbershoes (Aug 3, 2004)

souljacker said:
			
		

> Slightly easier read than Kafka 'The trial' which I've just given up on.



The Trial rocks

You have to give it another go some time. Have you read any of his short stories. If not, try them first so you get an idea how his mind works


----------



## Kidda (Aug 3, 2004)

The Football Factory, John King.

quite good so far


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 4, 2004)

"Last Night A Dj Saved My Life" - i'll get bored by the time it starts talking about Brandon Block, but the history of the first radio DJs (especially those playing 'race music') is fascinating, as is the history of the first club djs (and it WAS jimmy saville, no kidding)...


----------



## Masseuse (Aug 4, 2004)

The Long Round by Dominic Calder Smith.  The life stories of the men defeated by Tyson in world heavyweight bouts.

Respect to Pinklon Thomas


----------



## milesy (Aug 4, 2004)

"white teeth" by zadie smith. so far, it's fab


----------



## sparkling (Aug 4, 2004)

innit said:
			
		

> Why's that, Sparkling?  I've been meaning to read it but haven't got around to it yet.




I think the feelings of the book is about hidden sadness, restlessness, inability to promote change etc...but then I have not finished the book and already since I said that last comment things are changing.  It was making me feel very frustrated and almost oppressed though at the weekend...or maybe that was just me.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Aug 4, 2004)

Drinking With Pepys by Oscar A. Mendelsohn. Macmillan & Co 1963
It's quite a slim volume but immensely entertaining. Mendelsohn takes references to booze in Pepys's Diary and expands and explains about what Pepys was drinking, how it was made, and about drinking paraphenalia of the time........


I'm also reading a book that Stobart lent me about the death of Princess Di........less said about that the better really...........


----------



## mrkikiet (Aug 4, 2004)

just finished Marching Powder by Rusty Young, classic caught drug dealer trying to justify himself to everyone, including himself and basically failing. Tails off towards the end.


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 4, 2004)

bluestreak said:
			
		

> peter ackroyd's london, a biography again.  one of my favourite books and about time it got a second view.


i was annoyed that it says the poll tax riot was in the eighties. which it plainly wasn't.


----------



## chez (Aug 5, 2004)

Ancient wisdom, modern world.- Ethics for the new millennium. Dalai Lama


----------



## Callavera (Aug 5, 2004)

At the moment it's Minima Moralia by Theodor Adorno in an effort to fill some of the cultural gaps I have.  As I have to walk by his memorial everyday I thought I might as well read some of his stuff


----------



## onemonkey (Aug 5, 2004)

*july reading list*

Heres' what I read in July:

_Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson_
Truly monumental, the first 900 pages of his 3 tome Baroque Cycle. Vagabonds, spys and savants swash &amp; buckle, philosophick &amp; politick their way through the Northern Europe of 1660's &amp; 70's in company of Newton, Leibnitz, Louis XIV &amp; William of Orange. His grasp of historical detail is breath-taking (as far as I may judge. The plot blends fact and fiction with such fiendish subtlety that probably only he &amp; Enoch Root konw how he did it.

_The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark_
I had always wondered what this iconic book was about and so seeing it on someones shelves (and since it was so short) I saw for myself. Except I am not entirely clear what it wanted to say. A diverting read but populated by caricatures not characters.

_Will you please be quiet, please? - Raymond Carver_
Likewise, I wondered what the fuss was about the saviour of the American short-story. Now I know. His scenes are common-place, he works mininalistically in miniature.  Sketching in the lightest of strokes the tiniest but most significant minutiae of every day lifes. Genius.

_Orlando - Virginia Woolf_
It wasn't shit, but in the end I didn't like it. As I explained earlier

_The Newtonian Casino - Thomas Bass_
A motley deck of physics and computing geeks use up an inordinate amount of their free time to try an build a computer to predict the path of a roulette ball. Easily done but of course to be any use it has to fit in the sole of your shoe &amp; this was  in the 1970's &amp; early 80's before most of us even knew what a computer was and they were usually no smaller that a Winnebago. Ultimately they waste far more time and effort on this project, whilst up the road Bill Gates &amp; Steve Jobs &amp; so on are making the real millions. A cautionary tale. 

_The Anatomist - Federico Andahazi_
An anti-dogmatic novel set in the Renaissance about one learned man discovering the clitoris and the Catholic establishment trying to hide it again. I said more previously

_The Suicide Kit - David L. Hayles_
Short stories that I imagine are supposed to be dark and witty. But while they can shade almost to very bleakest black there is little comedy. His humour falls disappointing fla. He perhaps ought to reread Alexei Sayle, Tibor Fischer &amp; even god help us Will Self to see how macabre can be done with true joie d'vivre. Hmm.. maybe that's why it's called the Suicide Kit.

_Fear &amp; Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S Thompson_
It's funny because it's true! And because Raoul Duke has a wicked way with words and firm grasp of the absurd.. Though it is a damning indictment of me that I got more enjoy of reading this book last weekend than I did re-enacting (quite accurately) parts of it this. Adrenochome is needed!

_The Man who Tasted Shapes - Richard Cytowic_Nothing to do with Hunter S. Thompson though strong psychedelics do recreate some sense of what synaesthesia is like (or so i'm told.) Sadly, Cytowic lacks the storytelling ability of Dr Thompson or Dr. Oliver Sacks or of course of Luria. His descriptions of the vivid multi-sensory world of people who hear in colour or taste in shape isn't vivid or multi-sensory and his own ego is somewhat overbearing. His later chapters of speculative psychology are astute to appreciate importance of the limbic system but  too flimsy to resemble a research program.

_Grammars of Creation - George Steiner_
As Rousseau said of St. Augustine, Steiner is so far up his own arse that it is any wonder that he can't see beyond the end of his own nose and talks nothing but shit. I hated this book from the opening page but read it to the end to indulge my indignation. He is the worst kind of intellectual, filling page after page with empty eloquence, meandering from one allusion to another, littering the way with lofty name-droppings and opaque & untranslated quotes in the original french, german or latin. On a typical page he might mention Aristotle, the Bible, the Bard, Bacon, Luther, Newton, the new physics & Derrida. He does not explain why they are relevant to his 'thesis', that should be obvious to 'le tout monde'! He doesn't tell you what they said much less why but expects you to have read, remembered and interpreted the whole Classical Canon exactly as he so clearly has. So one may learn nothing from his book that you didn't know already _except_ his opinion on the Grammars of Creativity. _Except_ that his opinions are much much less than the sum of their parts. Pompous preening cunt! 

_The Magic Toyshop - Angela Carter_
As an early work by the author of the superlative Nights at the Circus, it is less linguistically & sytlistically exhuberent but it seems more personal. I don't know how autobiographical the 15 year old heroine is. Clearly her sorry situation is a fantastical invention but her reactions as she comes of age feel very real.

it was a good month


----------



## miss direct (Aug 5, 2004)

In preparation for going to Bosnia, I've been reading "my war gone by, I miss it so" by Anthony Lloyd. He's a British guy who randomly decided to go to Bosnia in the middle of the war and ended up being a photo journalist. It was interesting but pretty depressing.


----------



## atitlan (Aug 5, 2004)

Currently reading "Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla" by Marc Seifer

... an excellent biography of an often overlooked genius and one of the fathers of the modern world.


----------



## Stigmata (Aug 5, 2004)

I'm reading The 1001 Nights during breaks at my (night) job. Surprisingly hilarious, especially the Tale of the Hunchback with it's arab take on religious stereotypes.


----------



## tobyjug (Aug 5, 2004)

Currently re-reading The Ascent of Man, Jacob Bronowski.


----------



## Louloubelle (Aug 6, 2004)

Julia and the Bazooka by Anna Kavan 

a collection of short stories by one of the greatest and most overlooked writers ever IMO

Anna Kavan was a depressed heroin addict who managed to convey the frightening reality of her inner world in a series of beautiful short stories.  The bazooka in the title story is the syringe that was heronly constant companion 

Kavan's books are out of print and hard to get hold of, but I would recommend them very highly

some people find Kavan's stories too 'real' too disturbing, probably not a good read if you are prone to depression or if you didn't like say Sylvia Plath's work

review here: http://www.redmood.com/kavan/julia.html

about Anna Kavan http://www.creative.net/~alang/lit/Anna-Kavan.sht


----------



## Flashman (Aug 6, 2004)

Round Ireland with a Fridge - Tony Hawks
Gormanghast - Peake


----------



## Hollis (Aug 6, 2004)

'Shout! - The True Story of the Beatles' by Philip Norman.

All the stuff about the early days & the deals etc is excellent.. although the most interesting 'character' in the story has to be Brian Epstein.


----------



## Blagsta (Aug 6, 2004)

Martin Amis - London Fields


----------



## Roadkill (Aug 6, 2004)

Just finished _Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality_, by Simon LeVay.  It's a fascinating book: I've learned loads from it.


----------



## Elpenor (Aug 6, 2004)

Orangesanlemons said:
			
		

> "Not On The Label" by Felicity Lawrence.
> 
> It's all very Guardian (she's a journo for the paper), but full of good stuff on the way food is produced and sold in this country and Europe. Will possibly make you feel guilty every time you pop into the supermarket for a bit of cheap chicken or a loaf of 20p bread.
> I liked it, and it made me fucking angry. A "Fast Food Nation" for Brits.




Reading this now, just started the Chicken chapter. Bleurgh!!   Reminds me a fair bit of Fast Food Nation, but with added yuck factor. Chickens being showered in faeces during the processing


----------



## han (Aug 6, 2004)

Alan Titchmarsh (!) - How to be a Gardener

Lovely book explaining to beginners how to grow tings. Ahhh


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 6, 2004)

Zoe Heller's Notes On A Scandal - pretty lightweigh but it's funny and perceptive about human relations and it has a fantastic monster of an unreliable narrator.


----------



## Elpenor (Aug 10, 2004)

Miss Wyoming by Douglas Coupland.


----------



## oddjob (Aug 12, 2004)

Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin


----------



## kyser_soze (Aug 12, 2004)

Maul by Tricia Sullivan.

If any ladies have read it, or can point me in the direction of any feminist crits of it I'd be appreciative.

Elpenor - what do you think of it? MW ALWAYS makes me cry when I read it. And have you read All Families Are Psychotic and Hey Nostradamus!?


----------



## kyser_soze (Aug 12, 2004)

> Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson
> Truly monumental, the first 900 pages of his 3 tome Baroque Cycle. Vagabonds, spys and savants swash &amp; buckle, philosophick &amp; politick their way through the Northern Europe of 1660's &amp; 70's in company of Newton, Leibnitz, Louis XIV &amp; William of Orange. His grasp of historical detail is breath-taking (as far as I may judge. The plot blends fact and fiction with such fiendish subtlety that probably only he &amp; Enoch Root konw how he did it.



So this is the first book in a trilogy the way Necronomicon was supposed to be the first book in a trilogy?

Quicksilver IS a fucking great book tho...


----------



## ringolevio (Aug 12, 2004)

Body of Secrets: How America's NSA and Britain's GCHQ Eavesdrop on the World by James Bamford.

Again.


----------



## Elpenor (Aug 12, 2004)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> Elpenor - what do you think of it? MW ALWAYS makes me cry when I read it. And have you read All Families Are Psychotic and Hey Nostradamus!?



Hmm, it left me a bit unsure what to think to be honest. I liked some sections, but it was a bit patchy. I liked the bit about Susan Colgate disappearing after the plane crash the best.It felt quite like a thriller though, which is why I guess I finished it in 2 days. Yeah read those two, AFAP I found a bit below par, but I loved Hey Nostradamus.

Now reading Put Out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh...


----------



## (empty) (Aug 12, 2004)

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (D. Quixote) Portuguese version
The Picturegoers by David Lodge (Penguin Books)


----------



## kyser_soze (Aug 13, 2004)

Elpenor said:
			
		

> Hmm, it left me a bit unsure what to think to be honest. I liked some sections, but it was a bit patchy. I liked the bit about Susan Colgate disappearing after the plane crash the best.It felt quite like a thriller though, which is why I guess I finished it in 2 days. Yeah read those two, AFAP I found a bit below par, but I loved Hey Nostradamus.
> 
> Now reading Put Out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh...



Ah, guess I'm just a real sucker for a twisted, perverse romance...come to think of it given that I think True Romance is the most, well romantic film ever that fits....


----------



## DaveCinzano (Aug 13, 2004)

ringolevio said:
			
		

> Body of Secrets: How America's NSA and Britain's GCHQ Eavesdrop on the World by James Bamford.



that's an interesting book, especially the bits about sharon...

i'm reading 'the tailor of panama' by john le carré, it's jolly decent


----------



## kyser_soze (Aug 13, 2004)

ringolevio said:
			
		

> Body of Secrets: How America's NSA and Britain's GCHQ Eavesdrop on the World by James Bamford.
> 
> Again.



Have you read Blowback - the History of the CIA?

Great book, by turns horrifying, thrilling and hysterically funny.


----------



## maya (Aug 19, 2004)

Azar Nafisi : "Reading Lolita In Teheran" 

 ..very good..about a (secret) women's reading group in Iran and their exposure to european novels,their discussions/opinions about the books..etc.. (haven't finished it yet- but so far it comes highly recommended!)


----------



## kyser_soze (Aug 19, 2004)

Interface By Neal Stephenson and Frederick George

It's about a Presidential candidate who after suffering a stroke is implanted with a chip that cures his aphasia and feeds poll data straight into his brain...


----------



## ViolentPanda (Aug 19, 2004)

"The Knights of Bushido: A Short History of Japanese War Crimes" by Lord Russell of Liverpool.


----------



## chez (Aug 20, 2004)

Big Sur
by Jack Kerouac


----------



## Elpenor (Aug 20, 2004)

Evelyn Waugh - Scoop (not read since 12)

Douglas Coupland - Girlfriend In A Coma (not read since last December)


----------



## dweller (Aug 20, 2004)

True History of The Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

this is a brilliant fictional autobiography of Ned Kelly.
 highly recommended


----------



## onemonkey (Aug 23, 2004)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> So this is the first book in a trilogy the way Necronomicon was supposed to be the first book in a trilogy?
> 
> Quicksilver IS a fucking great book tho...


no it is a very well integrated trilogy.. just finished second volume (actually books 3 & 4 in the sequence) And it follows on almost exactly from the end of quicksilver.. following all the same characters, newton, leibnitz, daniel waterhouse, Jack shaftoe & eliza & enoch root

& the third volume - the sytem of the world follows on from the end of this one. (not published for another month dammit)

You could argue that _Crypto_nomicon is the fourth volume in this sequence, having many of the same themes and following the ancestors of many of these characters.. I reckon a sequel to cryptonomicon may eventually appear -  I certainly hope so


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 23, 2004)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> So this is the first book in a trilogy the way Necronomicon was supposed to be the first book in a trilogy?
> 
> Quicksilver IS a fucking great book tho...


the _necronomicon_ is slightly different...


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 23, 2004)

Necronomicon FAQ


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 23, 2004)

Anthony READ The Devil's Disciples: The Lives and Times of Hitler's Inner Circle (London: Pimlico, 2004)


----------



## maya (Aug 23, 2004)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> Anthony READ The Devil's Disciples: The Lives and Times of Hitler's Inner Circle (London: Pimlico, 2004)



 BTW,on topic with Hitler,WW2 etc... saw a book last week called "The Occult Inspirations Of The Third Reich",or summat... are they just taking the piss at clueless booklovers,or is it any truth/substance to those theories?   ..anyone??


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 23, 2004)

there were all sorts of myths and nonsenses employed by the inner circle of the Third Reich, either to shore up their more disgusting ideas, or based on a genuine believe in the whole master race thing. they had explorers all over the far and middle east, measuring skulls and nicking artefacts...


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 23, 2004)

This is all covered expertly by James Herbert in The Spear.


----------



## maya (Aug 23, 2004)

-cheers, will have look..


----------



## goldenecitrone (Aug 23, 2004)

Just read ´Yellow dog´ by Martin Amis. Excellent. His descriptions of the porno trade in Fucktown are hilarious.


----------



## Blagsta (Aug 23, 2004)

Chilling Out: The cultural politics of substance consumption, youth and drug policy by Shane Blackman


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 23, 2004)

maya said:
			
		

> -cheers, will have look..


NOOOOO! Don't read it! It's shite. I was jesting.


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 23, 2004)

Just started Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood - looks damn fine


----------



## maya (Aug 23, 2004)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> NOOOOO! Don't read it! It's shite. I was jesting.


 *LOL*!-i'm going for the "Occult inspirations  for the..etcetc" anyways,so don't worry...!  
 (as in "reading it inside the book store...not actually spending my money on it.."?!)  

 ..besides,i'm already busy with my oh-so-exciting,paperback copy of Thomas Hobbes' "Leviathan" that i'll have to read for my course @ uni...!(and to make matters worse,it's in 17-th century english!..my dictionary can't cope and i'm already on chapter 2...!*siggghhhhh*..  ) oh,how i'll love to finish this damn examen philosophicum to actually get on with my cultural studies/history of ideas MA!


----------



## Yossarian (Aug 23, 2004)

I've just finished Ringolevio by Emmett Grogan. Plenty of interesting ideas about property in there...


----------



## sparkling (Aug 23, 2004)

Bought two books today as I have next week off and thought I might catch up with some reading...must go slow and not finish them before the weekend.

The Good Women of China, Hidden voices: Xinran,  which looks interesting and Candlemoth by Roger Jon Ellory...just started the latter.

Anyone else read either of these and if so views?


----------



## maya (Aug 23, 2004)

sparkling said:
			
		

> Hidden voices: Xinran


 haven't had time to start it yet but just popping in to say that to my knowledge it has gotten excellent reviews...(but as of course all taste is subjective we'll have to make up our own minds on that one)..looks interesting,though!


----------



## golightly (Aug 23, 2004)

Just finished the Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov.  Interesting premise.  Shame that the writing is so piss poor.  I know it was written in the 50's, but the constant sexism was really driving me nuts.


----------



## Idris2002 (Aug 23, 2004)

_The Slow Burning Fuse_

by John Quail.

Subtitled 'the lost history of the British anarchists' it does exactly what it says on the tin.

Well worth a look.


----------



## Cid (Aug 23, 2004)

O some Edgar Allan Poe collection called 'Tales of mystery and imagination' - nice light holiday stuff...


----------



## kyser_soze (Aug 24, 2004)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> the _necronomicon_ is slightly different...



Sorry - should have read _Cryptonomicon_...bloody weed haze...


----------



## zora (Aug 24, 2004)

The Fountain At The Centre Of The World by Robert Newman. 

According to the blurb something like the companion novel to No Logo. I can't say I've really gotten into it so far. The style's a bit all over the place but I suppose the author means well...


----------



## onemonkey (Aug 24, 2004)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> Sorry - should have read _Cryptonomicon_...bloody weed haze...


neal explains why the sequel to cryptonomicon has been delayed.



			
				Neal Stephenson said:
			
		

> “I had been working on a future storyline connected to Cryptonomicon, but in attempting to write it I realized I needed to go back instead. So I did that, and it ended up taking seven years! The 'Baroque Cycle' project was never envisioned to be as big and long as it turned out to be. There's a line from Tolkien where he says, 'This tale grew in the telling.' I'm reluctant to quote that directly because it sounds like I'm copping an attitude, but that's what happened with this: it started out smaller and got bigger. I never slogged. I enjoyed every minute of writing it. Of course, I badly wanted to get to the end, but when I did, I was sad it was over. At various points along the line, I tried various superstitious tactics; at one point I said, 'I'm not gonna cut my hair until this thing is done.' I finally wound up on Christmas Eve 2003. A couple of weeks later I felt this overpowering need to have short hair again, so I just kept whacking until there was nothing left. And I plan to keep it that way.”


----------



## han (Aug 24, 2004)

I've just finished reading 'An Evil Cradling' by Brian Keenan (what a jolly read!  ...acutually,  it's very inspiring and positive).

And am currently reading 'Pimp' by Iceberg Slim - his true story of his pimping days in the 1930's - and it's fantastic. Unputdownable.


----------



## Rollem (Aug 24, 2004)

have just started reading " a million little pieces" by james frey


----------



## finnbird (Aug 24, 2004)

Rollem said:
			
		

> have just started reading " a million little pieces" by james frey


...whereas I've just finished it.  Amazing.  Made me laugh, cry, nearly vom at times....    

And the style JFrey had adopted for his book was spot on - at first a tad difficult to follow (page or two) but as soon as it clicked it took the experience of reading a book onto another level.  I have recommended the book to everyone.


----------



## Rollem (Aug 24, 2004)

excellent. am enjoying it so far (about 1/5 of the way in) and agree it took a while to get used to his style, but think its excellent (though the whole root canal work without any pain relief made me feel green in the tum to say the least  )


----------



## LostNotFound (Aug 24, 2004)

Just read "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time". Picked it up in WHSmiths as a train journey read, but I really liked it. Provides a fascinating insight into the mind of an autistic 15 yr old boy.. really quite life-affirming


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 24, 2004)

i read sax rohmer's "the green eyes of bast" last night.

interesting murders...


----------



## ringolevio (Aug 24, 2004)

Yossarian said:
			
		

> I've just finished Ringolevio by Emmett Grogan. Plenty of interesting ideas about property in there...



It's free 'cause it's yours, mate.


----------



## Crispy (Aug 25, 2004)

golightly said:
			
		

> Just finished the Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov.  Interesting premise.  Shame that the writing is so piss poor.  I know it was written in the 50's, but the constant sexism was really driving me nuts.



Gah. I know what you mean. It's really hard to read 'old' sci-fi. The technology somehow seems familiar or fuuristic, but everyone still has servants or ditzy female secretaries etc.

And you're right, Asimov can't write for toffee.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Aug 25, 2004)

My heads been stuck in nutrition books lately, read The Woman Who Walked Through Doors by Paddy Doyle. Sad, slightly reminiscent but funny and a good read.


----------



## West68thStreet (Aug 25, 2004)

SubZeroCat said:
			
		

> read The Woman Who Walked Through Doors by Paddy DoyleQUOTE]
> It's The Woman who walked INTO doors, which is sort of the point. God what a pedant- forgive me.
> Reading 3 muso books in a row- Love & Poison, about Suede, by the Lovely Dave Barnett who I remember used to hang around all the early gigs and pull groupies cos his hair was a little bit like Brett's- fickletastic- The Last party, a Britpop postmortem, see other post- now I'm on Songs that saved your life- a pathologically picayune trawl through the making of each and every Smiths track ever recorded. I'm in anorak heaven. But, most thrillingly, just read the opening chapter of Middlesex (forgotten author's name) about the transexual Greek person- best opening pages to a novel ever?? COuld be


----------



## upsidedownwalrus (Aug 25, 2004)

I'm reading "Foucault's Pendulum" which isn't as hard work as I expected, indeed its rather interesting, talking about the Knnights Templars and suchlike.

Before that, read "Junky" by William Burroughs...


----------



## Barking_Mad (Aug 25, 2004)

I'm currently reading the autobiography of the photojournalist Don McCullin entitled 'Unreasonable Behaviour'. He photographed some of the most well known wars and human tragedies of the past 40 years. It's funny, sad, heartbreaking and heartwarming all in one and it's also a testament to him and his fellow professionals who put their lives on the line to bring back photographs from some of the most dangerous places on earth.

The story about his time spent in a Ugandan jail under the rule of Idi Armin is horrific. The bravery, or stupidity, of moving beyong US lines in Vietnam so he could take photos of US troops running toward him are pure madness and the story from Biafra with the emaciated 'black' albino boy holding an empty tin of corned beef are totally and utterly heartbreaking - as is the photo.

If you've any interest in photography, journalism, politics or humanity it's a must read.


----------



## maya (Aug 25, 2004)

West68thStreet said:
			
		

> ack ever recorded. I'm in anorak heaven. But, most thrillingly, just read the opening chapter of Middlesex (forgotten author's name) about the transexual Greek person- best opening pages to a novel ever?? COuld be


 i think it's by (sp?) Jeffrey Eugenides...


----------



## Firky (Aug 25, 2004)

Howling at the Moon, Walter Yetnikoff, David Ritz. 

Not exactly a literary work of art, but its easy to read and quite amusing in places. good book to put next to the karzie.


----------



## maya (Aug 25, 2004)

Need some light entertainment to wake up my brain in the morning,@the bus: so far have crammed my bag full of old pocket books (mostly crime novels),
 * *Colin Dexter's "Inspector Morse"-books*
 * *Agatha Christie : "Death On The Nile"+"And Then They Were None"*
 * *Karin Fossum : "Dear Poona"*
 * *Alexander McCall Smith :"The Ladies' no.1 Detective Agency"*
 * *André Bjerke : "The Lake Of The Dead"*

(...Constantly switch between books when they start to bore me,so am starting to mix up the different plots/characters quite a bit...but thats only amusing,really...even getting to the point when i'm sitting there thinking:-"oh,now i'm really annoyed that mr.X doesn't speak up,'cause he seemed to be very annoyed about this sort of thing,why doesn't he stop them from doing this?"..etc.,-then i remember that that particular character was in one of the _other_ books! doh.     )


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 25, 2004)

I read one of those McCall Smith books one afternoon in Brixton Library a while back cos I was locked out of my flat - I was delighted with it, but as with many detective stories, I completely forgot about the moment I put it down.


----------



## Stigmata (Aug 25, 2004)

Just been on holiday. Read Michael Moore's 'Dude, Where's My Country' (yes, I went to the US) and an HP Lovecraft anthology. Oh, and some of Samuel Pepys' diary.


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 25, 2004)

i don't seem to be able to concentrate at the moment. so i'm buying even more trashy music magazines than usual (i mean for fuck's sake, i bought Touch the other day... i'm sure their ideal readership is a 36 yr old bloke from Bournemouth  ) 

so i'm still technically reading 'Last Night A DJ Saved My Life' but it's hit the really boring stuff about the 70s disco scene and how much speed everybody did...


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 25, 2004)

I like the disco bit! Made me want to time travel


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 25, 2004)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I like the disco bit! Made me want to time travel



me too.. to Wigan Casino....


----------



## Elpenor (Aug 26, 2004)

Evelyn Waugh - Sword of Honour Trilogy.

Also keen to check out Francis Gilbert - I'm a Teacher, Get Me Out Of Here, which I have on order from the library.


----------



## Upfront (Aug 26, 2004)

i'm reading freud, the origins of religion.  it is a fascinating look at ancient clans and how religion is thought to have emerged.  i recommend 'totem and taboo' to everyone.  also go to isle of arran and to british museum and life looks altogether more understandable,well abit!


----------



## maya (Aug 26, 2004)

I'm reading

 " Q " by Luther Blissett 
(that may,or may not,have been inspired by Thomas Pynchon's "V"...  ,but that's a whole new topic in itself...my guess is that it is...but will have to reach the end of the first chapter before i can say for sure... don't read the reactionary and despickable "The DaVinci Code",read "Q" instead,it's lots better!  )


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 26, 2004)

Marguerite YOURCENAR, Memoirs of Hadrian (London: Penguin, 1986)


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 26, 2004)

just bought Tom Hodgkinson's How To Be Idle, which i've been looking forward to for a while....


----------



## WasGeri (Aug 26, 2004)

maya said:
			
		

> I'm reading
> 
> " Q " by Luther Blissett



The footballer?


----------



## Flashman (Aug 26, 2004)

Geri said:
			
		

> The footballer?



Do you mean Martin Luther? Played for Glasgow Rangers I think....


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 26, 2004)

luther blissett is a shared name thing, it's a very weird phenomenon centred on using the name Blissett as an anonymous/cooperative identity. very big with the italian anarchists in Bologna etc (where i believe there is still a Radio Luther Blissett). see also: Association of Autonomous Astronauts. Stewart Home/Karen Eliot/John Gray. etc etc etc. Fozzie Bear will be along in a minute to explain it better. 

and the Luther Blissett behind Q is indeed a three man team of italians, i believe.... there's also the anarchist Luther Blissett Three Sided Football League......

you don't know what heady psychogeographical games you're letting yourself in for if you start googling Luther Blissett 



> An Introduction To Three-Sided Football
> (Note: Three-sided football is used as a valueable training exercise. This introduction is by East London AAA)
> 
> It appears that the first person to come up with the idea of 3-sided football was Asger Jorn, who saw it as a means of conveying his notion of trialectics - a trinitarian supercession of the binary structure of dialectics. We are still trying to discover if there were any actual games organised by him. Before the London Psychogeographic Association organised its first game at the Glasgow Anarchist Summer School in 1993, there is little evidence of any games being played.
> ...


----------



## Groucho (Aug 26, 2004)

Still Searching for the Big City Beats by Evan Evans and Glen    . 

It's about two London based Welsh poets whose lives temporarily spiral out of control...though really it's a homoerotic love story. Been compared to Trainspotting.


----------



## spinky (Aug 29, 2004)

Groucho said:
			
		

> Still Searching for the Big City Beats by Evan Evans and Glen    .
> 
> It's about two London based Welsh poets whose lives temporarily spiral out of control...though really it's a homoerotic love story. Been compared to Trainspotting.



I've never heard of that book but if it's anything like Trainspotting I'll have to give it a look. I totally love everything that Irvine Welsh has written...sadly there's not too many authors like him about


----------



## Epona (Aug 29, 2004)

spinky said:
			
		

> I've never heard of that book but if it's anything like Trainspotting I'll have to give it a look. I totally love everything that Irvine Welsh has written...sadly there's not too many authors like him about


 It's a great book well worth a read - 2 lads from the welsh valleys in London to seek fame meet downward spiral of drugs and crime type thing.

If I could find my copy I'd post up the ISBN number but fuck knows where it is amongst the chaos that we grudgingly call our front room 

Currently reading my way through James Patterson - everything he's ever written.  I'm a sucker for a crime novel, especially if it's from a forensics point of view...


----------



## maya (Aug 30, 2004)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> luther blissett is a shared name thing, it's a very weird phenomenon centred on using the name Blissett as an anonymous/cooperative identity. very big with the italian anarchists in Bologna etc (where i believe there is still a Radio Luther Blissett).



--yep, it's an "art anarchist collective"-thing...!    [was covered in a short article in The Wire some years(?)ago,if my memory is trustworthy...!]
well,anyway.

...In usual fashion, i start the week switching between cheap paperbacks..:


 **" A User's Guide To The Millenium " by J.G. Ballard* (essays and recensions from the late 70's to 2000-ish...seems pretty good so far)
 **" Oryx And Crake " by Margaret Atwood*
 * *"Cains children, religion and violence from the Old Testament To Modern **Times" by Torkel Brekke *(Textbook in comparative religion,with examples of organised violence from all major world religions,including buddhism(!)
 * *"A Sunday By The Pool In Kigali" by Gil Courtemance* (painful novel based on the genocide in Rwanda 1994,written by a Canadian journalist who was an eyewitness to the massacres...  )

 ..seems like it's going to be a well dystopian week for me,then...!   
(suits me fine right now,as we're getting heavily into Hobbes @uni lectures...*sic*)


----------



## J77 (Aug 31, 2004)

Just read *A child in time* by Ian McEwan and *Oryx and Crake* by Margeret Atwood.

Liked them both


----------



## Elpenor (Aug 31, 2004)

The Corrections by Jonathon Franzen. Only 70 pages in but pretty good so far...


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 31, 2004)

Elpenor said:
			
		

> The Corrections by Jonathon Franzen. Only 70 pages in but pretty good so far...





it gets soooo much better as well 


(i'm jealous of people reading it for the first time, to be honest!)


i'm just finishing How To Be Idle, which is excellent.... and now i'm going to have to read Oscar Wilde's The Soul Of Man Under Socialism cos ... Idle references it so often..


----------



## tom796 (Aug 31, 2004)

Hanif Kureishi _The Buddha of Surburbia_

roughly half-way through, and really enjoying it




> Before crossing the river we passed over the slums of Herne Hill and Brixton, places so compelling and unlike anything I was used to seeing that I jumped up, jammed down the window and gazed out at the rows of disintegrating Victorian houses.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Aug 31, 2004)

tom796 said:
			
		

> Hanif Kureishi _The Buddha of Surburbia_
> 
> roughly half-way through, and really enjoying it



Yeah I read that, its really good.

I went to the library today and took 7 books out:
First Time by Lara Harte
The End of a Family Story by Peter Nadas
Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand
Healing Power of Foods by Sunita Pant Bansal
Zeroes + Ones by Sadie Plant
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
Fury by Salman Rushdie

Reading is


----------



## ChrisFilter (Aug 31, 2004)

all far too highbrow and big wordy for me.. The Dragon Reborn: Book 3 of the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan for me.. I am Rand.. gogogogo


----------



## mrkikiet (Aug 31, 2004)

I found Last NIght a DJ saved my life, far too dry to really enjoy and take it all in.

currently reading Why do People hate America by Sardar and Davies, and A Good Man in Africa by William Boyd.

i've been away from this thread for a long time.


----------



## (empty) (Sep 1, 2004)

finished  Cão como nós (dog as we) - Manuel Alegre.

Re-reading Noites Brancas (white nights) - Fiódor Dostoiévski.


----------



## Hollis (Sep 1, 2004)

Currently reading 'Fighter Boys' by Patrick Bishop an account of the Battle of Britain (that's 1940   ).


----------



## Elpenor (Sep 2, 2004)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> it gets soooo much better as well
> ..



And it has   

It's a good book that makes you sympathetic to unlikeable characters...


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 2, 2004)

If you like Franzen, How To Be Alone is worth a shufti.

Talking about unlikeable characters, anyone got any recommendations of books with unlikeable characters humanised by fantastic writing such as Franzen?
Eg Dostoyevsky's Notes From Underground

Maybe it should be on another thread but the threads I start always sink like a stone cos they seem to be of no interest to anyone but myself. Funny that.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 2, 2004)

finished How To Be Idle and now reading Mark E Smith/Mick Middles ' The Fall' - which promises to be interesting but Middles seems like a bit of a knob, and he's far too intrusive in the text..


----------



## zora (Sep 2, 2004)

*The Corrections*




			
				Elpenor said:
			
		

> It's a good book that makes you sympathetic to unlikeable characters...



Isn't it just!


----------



## Mab (Sep 3, 2004)

I would very much like to read "Unreasonable Behaviour". I did not know about his book; thankyou. I also greatly admire James Nachtwey. 

Groucho's suggestion  "Big City Beats" I must find.

After finishing another Chomsky:Hegemony Or Survival, I went for something a bit off the wall that a friend lent me.

"Bloodsucking Fiends": This girl "wakes up under an alley dumpster with a badly burned arm, an aching neck, superhuman strength, and a distinctly Nosferatuan thirst." 

She never asked to become a vampire though. "Going from the nine to five grind to an eternity of nocturnal prowlings is going to take some doing."

This character named C. Thomas Flood comes in. "A would-be Kerouac from Incontinence, Indiana, Tommy (to his pals) is biding his time night-clerking at a Safeway. Oh and that "frozen turkey bowling" in the supermarket at night.

Everything changes when he meets the beautiful, undead redhead that walks through the door.

Bloodlust, blood loss, romantic and really funny.


----------



## han (Sep 3, 2004)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> i'm just finishing How To Be Idle, which is excellent.... and now i'm going to have to read Oscar Wilde's The Soul Of Man Under Socialism cos ... Idle references it so often..



Oooh - I've been meaning to read that Idle book. Sounds good.

I'm reading 'To Kill a Mockingbird', which I've never read before, and it's excellent. Beautifully written.


----------



## miss direct (Sep 3, 2004)

Ive survived the last 2 weeks with just one book called McCarthys Bar, which to be honest, I thought was pretty boring, aside from a few amusing moments. One of the first things I will do when back in England is go to the library.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 3, 2004)

On holiday I read

*Vertigo* by WG Sebald
*Anarchism * by George Woodcock
*Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere * by Jan Morris

And I've just bought *The Radetzky March * by Joseph Roth. Central European melancholy presently suiting my mood  

The Sebald is fantastic, the third I've read. I have to space them out because there are no more. What a loss. (Any other fans out there?)

The Woodcock is fascinating but suffers from timidity.

The Morris is generally wonderful. Read the last few pages sitting by the seafront in Trieste itself ...


----------



## andy2002 (Sep 3, 2004)

Just started 'Jennifer Government' by some Aussie bloke whose name I can't remember. It's set in the near future where giant corporations have pretty much taken over and people's surnames are dictated by who they work for (e.g. John Nike, Jennifer Government etc). I'm only about 50 pages in but it's very funny.


----------



## Major Tom (Sep 3, 2004)

"Saddam Hussein" Andrew Cockburn & Patrick Cockburn
"PR! A Social History of Spin" Stuart Ewen
"Things Snowball" Rich Hall
very funny  

"Alice in Wonderland" Lewis Carrol
haven't read it since I was a kid - quite quite strange


----------



## Mab (Sep 4, 2004)

han said:
			
		

> Oooh - I've been meaning to read that Idle book. Sounds good.
> 
> I'm reading 'To Kill a Mockingbird', which I've never read before, and it's excellent. Beautifully written.





The book is a beautiful classic and you must see the film version. Gregory Peck plays Atticus.


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 5, 2004)

Stuart CHRISTIE, Granny Made Me An Anarchist: General Franco, the Angry Brigade and Me (London: Scribner, 2004)


----------



## magneze (Sep 5, 2004)

Just finished DBC Pierre's "Vernon God Little". I highly recommend it. You really care about the main character in the end, and it's a great story. Bet there's a film in the pipeline - I think it'd make a good one.

Just started: Paul Roberts - The End Of Oil - an investigation into the energy economy and what potentially might happen when fossil fuels run out.


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 6, 2004)

P's M - why are all the books you read are posted in that horrible font you get in bibliographies?


----------



## Masseuse (Sep 6, 2004)

The Healing Power of Dolphins.

Dolphins are very nice.


----------



## nadoya (Sep 6, 2004)

_'Culture and Imperialism'_ - Edward W. Said

Nuff said.


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 6, 2004)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> P's M - why are all the books you read are posted in that horrible font you get in bibliographies?


i like it like that.


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 6, 2004)

Diarmuid MacCulloch, Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490 - 1700 (London: Penguin, 2004)


----------



## J77 (Sep 6, 2004)

I am reading Catch 22.


----------



## liberty (Sep 6, 2004)

Brick Lane


----------



## citydreams (Sep 6, 2004)

liberty said:
			
		

> Brick Lane



Just in time for the festival?


----------



## zora (Sep 9, 2004)

As light relief from the current bookgroup read 'Oblomov' (but staying with the Russian theme...) I've read 'Militaermusik' by Waldimir Kaminer.
(Kaminer is a russian born now berlin based pop author; runs the Russendisko club night in berlin, a book of short stories of the same title has been translated into english -  'Russian Disco').
'Militaermusik' is about a childhood and youth in Moscow between 1967 and 1990, ending with the narrator and his friend leaving the Soviet Union for the west; very funny and absurd.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 9, 2004)

DOUGLAS COUPLAND - ELEANOR RIGBY!

i'm so excited...


----------



## Errol's son (Sep 9, 2004)

Shopping - The power of British Supermarkets

Bit of a text book and if you are wary of supermarkets this book doesn't tell you that much you shouldn't already know.  But it reads better than most books on this topic, at least I think, so is not bad IMO.


----------



## el_spammo (Sep 9, 2004)

The Cave by Jose Saramago.  My first portuguese novel and tis a treat so far.  "An ageing potter lives in the shadow of the Centre, a nebulous, constantly expanding conglomerate that provides his livelihood...."

The Dictionary of Challenging Words.  Been reading this on and off for months.  fave words....'defenestration' - the art/act of throwing somebody out of a window; 'crepuscular' - active at twilight.  Lovely.

Most brilliant books I've read this year (and I've read lots) : 
A Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Attwood 
The Bone People, Keri Hulme


----------



## mentalchik (Sep 9, 2004)

LostNotFound said:
			
		

> Just read "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time". Picked it up in WHSmiths as a train journey read, but I really liked it. Provides a fascinating insight into the mind of an autistic 15 yr old boy.. really quite life-affirming





Just read this too, borrowed it from my mum, really enjoyed it, interesting and quite funny too in places !


----------



## rennie (Sep 9, 2004)

mentalchik said:
			
		

> Just read this too, borrowed it from my mum, really enjoyed it, interesting and quite funny too in places !




great book. i could almost imagine the boy walking around west london! top read. 

im reading Jihad vs McWorld right now... not liking it. why does it always have to be a dichotomy? us vs them, good vs bad...


----------



## maya (Sep 9, 2004)

zora said:
			
		

> (Kaminer is a russian born now berlin based pop author; runs the Russendisko club night in berlin, a book of short stories of the same title has been translated into english -  'Russian Disco').



 ...i've got 2X cds w/a selection of his "Russendisko" hits, didn't really like the music that much, if anyone wants it PM me and i'll sort you out either a copy or the original cds (am not going to play them again anyway)..!!


----------



## ViolentPanda (Sep 9, 2004)

For a bit of light relief I'm reading Ann Coulter's "Slander" at the same time as Al Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them".


----------



## Elpenor (Sep 14, 2004)

I finished The Corrections, which was nothing short of brilliant. All those characters, many of them really unlikable, and yet I felt empathy. And the ending!

Read a classic kids detective story by Erich Kastner called Emil and The Detectives, which I had loved as a kid whilst on holiday, and I'm plowing my way through The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer which I found whilst packing my stuff up yesterday   

Don't like seeing this thread down on page 3 though


----------



## MysteryGuest (Sep 15, 2004)

Boring Postcards


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 15, 2004)

Death & The Penguin - Andrej Kurkov
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
Stone Junction - Jim Dodge
er...Oblomov......


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 15, 2004)

el_spammo said:
			
		

> Most brilliant books I've read this year (and I've read lots) :
> A Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Attwood
> The Bone People, Keri Hulme


read ernst junger's _storm of steel_ earlier this year, which was one of the highlights of my 2004 reading thus far.


----------



## chegrimandi (Sep 15, 2004)

just finished L'Assommoir by Zola which is a fucking depressing but brilliant depiction of a life of working-class poverty and descent into alcoholism in Paris....

just about to start Catch-22....looking forward to it....at a bit of a loss how I haven't read it yet but anyway!


----------



## Elpenor (Sep 15, 2004)

Deciding between either A Confederacy of Dunces or On The Road...


----------



## maya (Sep 16, 2004)

Elpenor said:
			
		

> Deciding between either A Confederacy of Dunces or On The Road...


  ..the choice is easy!


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 16, 2004)

Elpenor said:
			
		

> Deciding between either A Confederacy of Dunces




unparalled genius





			
				Elpenor said:
			
		

> On The Road...



"that's not writing, it's just typing" - Truman Capote


----------



## mrkikiet (Sep 16, 2004)

the unbearable lightness of being.

i saw this going against Fischer 'under the Frog' on BBC4 Big read and decided i needed to read it. but it's not really interesting me.


----------



## jms (Sep 16, 2004)

just finished catcher in the rye

starting cannery row soon


----------



## Errol's son (Sep 16, 2004)

Are You Experienced? by William Sutcliffe

A late 90s amusing satirical jobby about a guy who goes to India.  Very funny in places.


----------



## TeeJay (Sep 17, 2004)

...and good to read in freshers week.


----------



## MadFish (Sep 17, 2004)

Gangster's Moll by Marilyn Wiseby. She is the daughter of Tommy Wiseby, one of the Great Train Robbers. It is, for the main, crap but has enough little bits to keep reading till the end iyswim.


----------



## aqua (Sep 17, 2004)

Life of Pi


----------



## Dr. Christmas (Sep 17, 2004)

Just finished _Absolution_ by Olaf Olafsson which was a tad disappointing after the rave reviews some people gave it, though maybe worth it just for the sheer selfishly poisonous nature of the main character.

Next on the shelf is _War & Peace_ by Tolstoy. Be a while before I post on here again, then....


----------



## Hollis (Sep 17, 2004)

Errol's son said:
			
		

> Are You Experienced? by William Sutcliffe
> 
> A late 90s amusing satirical jobby about a guy who goes to India.  Very funny in places.




Yeah.. the first half of that is excellent.. you can tell he's got alot of stuff to get off his chest about gap year travellers..


----------



## TeeJay (Sep 17, 2004)

Just started "The English - A portrait of a people" by Jeremy Paxman. So far it is very light and easy-to-read, so I should get through it quickly, in time for "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail" (Hunter S Thompson) - the October bookclub choice and "The Master and Margarita" - both of which I have just ordered on Amazon. I also have "The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific" (Paul Theroux) and "The Reprieve" (Sartre) just started/about to start: both books I have been lent through the bookclub swapping/lending thingy. These should keep me going for the next six to eight weeks since I don't read every day. I should really go and get a job so that I would read on the train to work and during my lunch break!


----------



## ck (Sep 17, 2004)

"Words And Music" by Paul Morley.    fantastic !!


----------



## maya (Sep 17, 2004)

ck said:
			
		

> "Words And Music" by Paul Morley.    fantastic !!



 i didn't like it,really... but it was entertaining to see his fixation with kylie's arse...
 anyway. it irritated me that he kept claiming how he was the greatest music writer ever,when he clearly doesn't even reach up to the smelly,boots-wearing knees of others who i really rank highly...   he implodes up his own arse... but hey,all taste is subjective,i guess....   !   !


----------



## Celt (Sep 17, 2004)

I'm reading The Da Vinci Code - havn't enjoyed a novel so much for a long time  

Having said that I _should_ be reading/learning the script of 'oh what a lovely war' which I'm in rehersal for.


----------



## TeeJay (Sep 17, 2004)

maya said:
			
		

> ...he implodes up his own arse...


Thats sounds like it could be ... erm ... interesting.

(I almost said "fun"  )


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 17, 2004)

maya said:
			
		

> i didn't like it,really... but it was entertaining to see his fixation with kylie's arse...
> anyway. it irritated me that he kept claiming how he was the greatest music writer ever,when he clearly doesn't even reach up to the smelly,boots-wearing knees of others who i really rank highly...   he implodes up his own arse... but hey,all taste is subjective,i guess....   !   !



i did love WOrds & Music. but only because half the reason i like Morley is precisely because he is full of shit


----------



## twinkle (Sep 18, 2004)

love in the time of cholera by gabriel garcia marquez.. i read something the other day which described it as the best love story since romeo and juliet.


----------



## RubyToogood (Sep 18, 2004)

I've just finished "The Far Side of the World" by Patrick O'Brian. They read an extract from it on radio 4 last week, and it was so gripping I ran straight out to the library to get the book and find out what happened next.

I'd never heard of the author before - it's basically a rip-roaring naval yarn, and another of his books was the basis for the film "Master and Commander". He has a very detached, understated style which makes the dramatic events he writes about all the more vivid.

It was a bit slow getting started but after that it was terrific.


----------



## innit (Sep 18, 2004)

I've just finished Valley of the Dolls... I was really enjoying it until I got to the last fifty pages.  What a horrible ending


----------



## General Ludd (Sep 18, 2004)

I'm in a 3 week gap between summer employment and university starting again so I'm madly reading everything. Just finished The Making Of The English Working Class (E.P. Thompson), half way through Reading Capital Politically (Harry Cleaver) with a view to rereading Volume 1 of Capital (Marx) over Christmas and have just found an online copy of Deschooling Society (Ivan Illich) so have printed that out and will attempt to read that. Also trying to finish off In Siberia (Colin Thuberton) and about to start Purple *some flower with an odd name* by someone who've I've forgotten the name of as a bit of lighter reading. Books are ace.


----------



## RubyToogood (Sep 18, 2004)

Here's the reading I heard on the radio.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Sep 18, 2004)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> half the reason i like Morley is precisely because he is full of shit




Same here!  Brilliant pretension - it's very hard imo to pull of that kind of bullshit with a bit of a twinkle in your eye, and Morley does it consummately well.  It's verbal play, and it's highly enjoyable.


----------



## maya (Sep 19, 2004)

..i'm torn between the options of reading Hamsun's "Hunger",or to stuff myself with lovely [freshly baked] chocolate cookies that a friend will bring me in a minute... difficult,innit?    

*sigh*...so much for "high culture"....
(shhh,just don't tell anyone.)

(bugger...)


----------



## Jo/Joe (Sep 19, 2004)

eat yer cookies, then read Hunger. It's excellent


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Sep 19, 2004)

Political Parties and Party Systems by Alan Ware. There's a fantastic plot twist at the end!


----------



## maya (Sep 20, 2004)

Jo/Joe said:
			
		

> eat yer cookies, then read Hunger. It's excellent


 have already read it..i'm norwegian,mind..!   (just re-reading it for my uni course,like...  ) lol. but weird to think of,he's one of the earliest examples of modernistic writing,and because he didn't write in english he isn't as well known as he should be..and he never got the credit for that...anyway,a fantastic film has been made from that book in the late 1960s i think...amazon might have it,or ask your local cinema bar thingie to put it up! well worth it...if you can stand reading subtitles! hehe.


----------



## arattebury (Sep 20, 2004)

*Midnight All Day - Hanif Kureshi*

Short stories - about relationships. Amazingly written


----------



## colbhoy (Sep 20, 2004)

Tai-Pan by James Clavell. It is the second Clavell for me, have read Shogun. By God, the man can write a story - superb!!!


----------



## Fenian (Sep 20, 2004)

"Peace Under Fire: Israel, Palestine and the International Solidarity Movement" (various) foreword by Edward Said.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Sep 20, 2004)

Thought I would read all the pages of this thread until I realised it had been going on for two years! I don't have that much stamina I'm afraid.

Currently reading (under duress) *Feel* the Robbie Williams Biog. Not as bad as I thought it would be. Got to finish it by tomorrow afternoon for a radio prog. _the pressure, the pressure!_.

Recently read: 

*One Hundred Strokes of the Brush Before Bed - Melissa P.* - fantastic look at the sexploits of a Sicilian teenager - autobiography.

*The Secret Purposes - David Baddiel*. I would't bother with this one actually - he has tried too hard to write a literary prize-winner, but he inna-gonna.

*The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath* - again, just coz.

A few on my list for the near future:

*Philip Roth's American Trilogy (American Pastoral, I Married a Communist* (I did!) *and The Human Stain*. Heard a lot about him, especially with the release of his new one.

*Mailman by J Robert Lennon* - supposed to be hilarious.

*Eleanor Rigby - Coupland* - but only if I can get my hands on a free copy (I do manage to get lots of free books, I'm a blagger).

Too many more to list. Post too long. Fingers hurt...


----------



## Cerberus (Sep 20, 2004)

Just finished *The Last Party - John Harris* an absorbing retrospective of Britpop, music in the nineties and New Labour`s attempt to cash in on it. Highly recommended..


Just started - *On Violence - Hannah Arendt* in preparation for the start of a new term at college. also re-read *Machievelli`s Prince* a few weeks back for the same reason....a more enlightening read second time around..

Read a couple of Stienbeck novels on holiday - *The Pearl * and *Cannery Row*


----------



## Crispy (Sep 21, 2004)

I just devoured 'Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman?' by Richard Feynman, in two sittings (well, four if you count the walks to bus stops)

The man is definitely one of a kind. Los Alamos Bomb researcher, safe cracker, bongo player, ladies' man (I wouldn't let him out with my daughter  ), Noble prize winner, teetotaller and champion of clear thinking in science.

Funny as all fuck, too. 

Oh and one time, he took low doses of ketamine whilst lying in a flotation tank, and taught himself to have out-of-body experiences.


----------



## ck (Sep 21, 2004)

maya said:
			
		

> i didn't like it,really... but it was entertaining to see his fixation with kylie's arse...
> anyway. it irritated me that he kept claiming how he was the greatest music writer ever,when he clearly doesn't even reach up to the smelly,boots-wearing knees of others who i really rank highly...   he implodes up his own arse... but hey,all taste is subjective,i guess....   !   !



Agreed ; it's the only part of it which annoys me , but the style of the writing itself is so clever.  I couldn't work it where he was going when I started reading it and all of a sudden , hey I was in...
I show it to people and many of them who are slightly older than me say "Oh Paul Morley" , like I know who he is.


----------



## Elpenor (Sep 21, 2004)

maya said:
			
		

> ..the choice is easy!



Liking A Confederacy of Dunces so far, read a bit on the train yesterday morning before I fell asleep.

Cheers for the pointer maya and Dub


----------



## maya (Sep 21, 2004)

Elpenor said:
			
		

> Liking A Confederacy of Dunces so far, read a bit on the train yesterday morning before I fell asleep.
> 
> Cheers for the pointer maya and Dub



 he only wrote two books,though!


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 21, 2004)

Elpenor said:
			
		

> Liking A Confederacy of Dunces so far, read a bit on the train yesterday morning before I fell asleep.
> 
> Cheers for the pointer maya and Dub




we're like a good cop/good cop double act 


and careful with Confederacy... if you didn't already want to go to New Orleans, you will by the end of the book (even if it's just to see the statue of Ignatius  )


----------



## maya (Sep 21, 2004)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> and careful with Confederacy... if you didn't already want to go to New Orleans, you will by the end of the book (even if it's just to see the statue of Ignatius  )



- 'ts right.

- they're pretty chaotic around there atm,after the hurricane struck and all,though!


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 21, 2004)

maya said:
			
		

> he only wrote two books,though!




yeh, i've got Neon Bible but never got round to reading it.


i'm really worried about the forthcoming Dunces movie - good director, scriptwriter and cast, but they've completely fucked up the casting of Ignatius.

this is the general perception of Ignatius:








this is will ferrell, who's been cast as Ignatius:







which is ludicruous.

the CORRECT actor would have been Mike McShane - fat, pompous and overbearing:






he'd have been perfect


----------



## maya (Sep 21, 2004)

movie adaptations of books are always a let-down,though...


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 21, 2004)

maya said:
			
		

> movie adaptations of books are always a let-down,though...




not always, just usually (IMO) - Far From The Madding Crowd, for example, was a great movie...


----------



## maya (Sep 21, 2004)

oh,but then again i'm too young to be a proper cinephile...mebbe after some years i'd caught up with the neverending piles of old arty vcr/video tapes just waiting/screaming to be watched...


----------



## ck (Sep 22, 2004)

but Will Ferrel is the man !


----------



## Yoj (Sep 22, 2004)

Planet Simpson. Definitive guide to the world's favourite family.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 22, 2004)

ck said:
			
		

> but Will Ferrel is the man !




possibly, but he's just not my man Ignatius 

he's either going to have to eat a fuck of a lot of pies, or wear a fat suit. and if he wears a fatsuit, it will reduce the film to farce, which isn't the point./


----------



## Elpenor (Sep 23, 2004)

Liking ...Dunces a lot having a read a huge chunk last night. At this rate I might be needing another book to read at the weekend


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 23, 2004)

Fucking hell, how good is Jim Dodge?
Stone Junction is a storming read.
One Monkey: gearing up for Not Fade Away now!

BTW 
Oliver Hardy needs to be dug up and cloned cos he would have been ideal for Ignatius


----------



## maya (Sep 26, 2004)

the world refugee log for 2004 ...  
    depressing reading really...


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Sep 26, 2004)

Still that crappy 'Political Parties and Party Systems'. Yawn.

I've just started Richard and Judy favourite 'Gathering Light' by Jenifer Donnelly for my wednesday night reading group. 40 odd pages in so far and it seems alright.


----------



## newharper (Sep 28, 2004)

was my birthday last week and the kids got me Bryson's Idiots guide to Science, ( of which I was in dire need), and my mate got me the new Seymour Hersh, which, while I imagine it won't tell me much that one don't know in principle, may start to give the chapter and verse that will crucify these soi-disant Xians.


----------



## Mation (Sep 28, 2004)

The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill


----------



## sajana (Sep 28, 2004)

The script of " The Shawshank Redemption" 
Such a simple script, such a great film.


----------



## Errol's son (Sep 28, 2004)

Just read Full Tilt by Devra Murphy, a travel book about an Irish lady who cycles from Dublin to Delhi in the 1960s. The book concentrates on Persia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India mainly. An old book but still good.

Also have just read Videonight in Kathmandu, an 80s travel book about the westernised East. Quite good IMO.


----------



## magneze (Sep 28, 2004)

I've just finished "The End of Oil" by Paul Roberts. Highly recommended - it's a very readable study of the energy economy, what might replace the current system and how it might be achieved.

I'm now starting Jasper Fforde's "The Well of Lost Plots" for some lighter reading.


----------



## citydreams (Sep 29, 2004)

Sheepshagger, by Niall Griffiths is a wonderful book.  

The anti-hero grabs you by your lapels and dribbles down your neck, grinning, nodding.  His breath stinks, and the tic on his shoulder disgusts you, but you want to see where he's going and what he's going to do next. 

A taut psychological thriller for a modern generation.  The pages capture the essence of humanity, then sticks it in a pipe and smokes it.   

Enjoy it while you can.


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 29, 2004)

Sheepshagger is fantastic - if you liked that, you should see Dead Man's Shoes, the new Shane Meadows films - on a similar tip.


----------



## Blagsta (Sep 29, 2004)

Simon Ford - Wreckers of Civilisation: The Story of COUM Transmissions & Throbbing Gristle


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Sep 29, 2004)

Errol's son said:
			
		

> Just read Full Tilt by Devra Murphy, a travel book about an Irish lady who cycles from Dublin to Delhi in the 1960s.


I love Dervla Murphy...she's still writing too....dunno about the pedalling.....


----------



## laptop (Sep 29, 2004)

_Radiant Cool_.

Finished the fictionalised bit. 

Anyone want to tell me the epistemological punchline now  ?


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 29, 2004)

back in one of phases where i can't read books but i keep buying them.. so while i'm flicking through another wanky music mag, my pile of new and unread books tottering by my bed includes

Jonathan Coe - The Closed Circle

Richard Brautigan - The Abortion: A Historical Romance (finding Brautigan books is so criminally rare that when i bought one for someone as a birthday gift i had to buy myself one too)

Jonathan Coe - A Touch Of Love

Stuart Christie - Granny Made Me An Anarchist


so as soon as i put down this copy of Mojo, i'll be digging into one of this. probably...


----------



## SubZeroCat (Sep 30, 2004)

I liked The Rotters Club by Jonathan Coe, he's good

I'm reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 30, 2004)

SubZeroCat said:
			
		

> I liked The Rotters Club by Jonathan Coe, he's good




ah, well The Closed Circle is the follow-up, and rumour has it that it's even better  - i'll let you know..


----------



## Flavour (Sep 30, 2004)

just finished "starter for ten" by david nicholls, very funny

now reading, "the triumph tree", a collection of scottish poetry from 500-1300AD


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 30, 2004)

I was told by someone who knows that The Close Circle is a terrible disappointment.

Touch Of Love is ace though - should be read in conjunction with Enduring Love.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Sep 30, 2004)

Flavour said:
			
		

> now reading, "the triumph tree", a collection of scottish poetry from 500-1300AD




Wow that sounds really interesting   

I strongly recommend Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Best book I've read in a long time, I'm actually going to read it again. Its a bit randomn, extremely discriptive and the story is formed of many layers so its kind of hard to follow but its also hilarious and tragic. Its great


----------



## Dandred (Sep 30, 2004)

Just started the Godfather, I've always meant to read it but never got round to it untill now. I've aslo just bought "A heart of darkness" which should be a good read.


----------



## Cid (Sep 30, 2004)

A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson - great book, easy to read summary of all things scientific. Well worth a look for anyone that found science at school unbearably dull.


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 30, 2004)

*August 2004 Reading List*

Books I read _last_ month & which it has taken me a long time to get round to summarizing.. 

_Le Ton beau de Marot - Douglas Hofstadter_
DH is the worst kind of nerd churned out by the American school system. A pathological need to over-achieve in every field and mistaking cleverness for wisdom. We all know him as a physics/computer science geek but here spends 700 pages trying to persuade us that he is renaissance man, so swept up in his love of languages - he speaks so so many! - and literature - he loves this little poem so so much that he simply had to translate it! And what profundity we encounter when trying to capture in one language the ideas of another. Yes, maybe but in any language Hofstadter is a nerd.

_The Confusion - Neal Stephenson_
There's nothing confusing about it; several intricately woven plots expertly braided into the true history of the 1680's & 90's (historians may have a name for this period, I have a name for historians) following seamlessly onwards from the previous doorstopper Quicksilver. This one is a little less concerned with Natural Philosophers and a lot more messing about on boats, which get very messy, his detailed descriptions of the gruesome conditions on Barbary slave galleys or on skurvy transpacific crossings is unconfortable but gripping. One gets less of a sense of any over-arching theme behind this work (hence the title?) than that before but I suspect it sets us up well for the forthcoming final volume 'The System of the World' - Which I predict will feature the South Sea Bubble prominently.

_Vineland - Thomas Pynchon_
I first read this 14 years ago and it has defined my kind of novel ever since. In fact, I continue to find new favourite authors on the basis of Pynchon recommendations on their covers. Coming back to Zoyd Wheeler and company, I feel I've travelled a little farther and the zany unpredictability of his work has been surpassed by the authors he has found me. Jim Dodge and Haruki Murakami keep you guessing in more inventive ways but they both behind Pynchon in the cleverness of his sentences. 

_Drinking, Smoking & Screwing - Sara Nickles (ed.)_
An idiosyncratic collection celebrating certain vices of which I am two/thirds fond. Some seek to justify their 'crimes', others revel in the naughtiness and more still just get out the bottle, fire up or get down. The rude poems were the best bits. 

_Cyrano de Bergerac - Edmond Rostand_
Of course this dramatisation of the life of this C17 poet, soldier, duellist and iconoclast is highly entertaining, but it is not entirely accurate. If anything the truth is even more remarkable. If only there was a witty and intelligent book that told the real story!!! 

_Things Snowball - Rich Hall_
After the fashion of his stage persona, he demonstrates by turns laidback serenity & scowling anger. It helps to hear his voice as you read because it's hard to categorize the contents cos they are not exactly stories and they are not exactly stand-up routines but it did succeed in causing me involuntary laughter. So it's all good.


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 30, 2004)

citydreams said:
			
		

> Sheepshagger, by Niall Griffiths is a wonderful book.
> 
> The anti-hero grabs you by your lapels and dribbles down your neck, grinning, nodding.  His breath stinks, and the tic on his shoulder disgusts you, but you want to see where he's going and what he's going to do next.
> 
> ...


okay then, I'm borrowing that


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Oct 2, 2004)

Just finished Richard and Judy favourite 'A Gathering Light' for Hanley library's reading group. Not too bad if you want something to talk about at dull suburban coffee mornings.

Still perservering with the hideous 'Political Parties and Party Systems'. Political science really is tosh.


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Oct 4, 2004)

AT LAST. I have finished Political Parties and Elections. Now it's Peter Mair's selection of classic writings, in 'The West European Party System'. 

Please believe me. If you have an interest in politics a Political Science course is sure to rip it from you.

Oh,and I'm reading Bulgakov's 'The Master and Margarita' on them packed bus rides to Keele.


----------



## Elpenor (Oct 5, 2004)

Just about to start U.S.A by John Dos Passos. A mere trifle of modernism, only 1100 pages long   .

Recommended by my dad.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 5, 2004)

Elpenor said:
			
		

> Just about to start U.S.A by John Dos Passos. A mere trifle of modernism, only 1100 pages long   .
> 
> Recommended by my dad.



I read Manhattan Transfer by the same author instead, great stuff.


----------



## Elpenor (Oct 5, 2004)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I read Manhattan Transfer by the same author instead, great stuff.



Thats on the list too, but just had an email from the library saying Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland is waiting for me to collect it


----------



## meems (Oct 5, 2004)

i'm finally reading 'the curious incident of the dog in the night-time' - mark haddon, and i'm quite impressed. 

i like that the total lack of emotion in the narrative (1st person being a 15 year old kid with asperger's syndrome in case you haven't all heard the kerfuffle about it, if indeed kerfuffle is a word) makes your emotional reaction to it stronger - well it does me anyway.

has anyone read it? the gameshow riddle has been bothering me for days, i can see it's the right answer, i just can't come to terms with it! although it's not quite as annoying as the riddle in the labyrinth....    

.x.


----------



## maya (Oct 7, 2004)

i have to read "Faust" by Goethe for my course, but the cod-classical verse is tiring me....


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 7, 2004)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> _Vineland - Thomas Pynchon_
> I first read this 14 years ago and it has defined my kind of novel ever since. In fact, I continue to find new favourite authors on the basis of Pynchon recommendations on their covers.



I loved Vineland. Most of my mates hated it, though. For Pynchon recommends, you've read George Saunders, right?


----------



## maya (Oct 7, 2004)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I loved Vineland. Most of my mates hated it, though. For


  ..Vineland is the _only_ Pynchon book i still haven't read!   cheers,i'll try and dig it out from the library now...


----------



## ck (Oct 7, 2004)

"Nine Lives" by Goldie.  It's an interesting read for me from the point of view that I was sooo into Metalheadz and had a lot of respect for him way back when.  I've since come to the impression that he's an arrogant fuck , but his story is full of passion and commitment to various artistic avenues.  (I'm obvioulsy not referring to his role in Eastenders...)
He does spill his guts about many issues and subjects and although he's obvioulsy a pivotal figure in the d n b scene , I'm somewhat dubious about some of the claims he makes such as that he discovered Adam F (if my memory serves me correctly he recorded on "Section 5" before being on Metalheadz (?)


----------



## citydreams (Oct 12, 2004)

Paul Coelho - "Eleven Minutes" a novel

"For I am the first and the last. 
I am the venerated and the despised. 
I am the prostitute and the saint. 
I am the wife and the virgin. 
I am the mother and the daughter. 
I am barren and my children are many. 
I am the married woman and the spinster. 
I am the woman who gives birth and she who never procreated. 
I am the consolation for the pain of birth. 
I am the wife and the husband. 
And it was my man who created me. 
I am the mother of my father. 
I am the sister of my husband. 
And he is my rejected son. 
Always respect me... for i am the shameful and the magnificent one." 
  -  Hymn to Isis, third or fourth century BC, discovered in Nag Hammadi

Can a person accept love for what it really is?  Coelho's observations took me to the very limits of my beliefs on pleasure and pain.  I've learnt a lot from reading this book - but the strange thing is that I think I knew it already.


----------



## tobyjug (Oct 12, 2004)

Workshop manual for a K75S BMW motorcycle.


----------



## mentalchik (Oct 12, 2004)

Reading "The Algebraist" by Iain M Banks !


----------



## Poi E (Oct 12, 2004)

The Koran.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Oct 12, 2004)

I finished Gerard Keegan's Famine Diary the other day, set in 1847, this man went from Sligo to Dublin and then shipped off to Canada during the famine. Awful, sad stuff    Good read, but a tad depressing.


Dunno what to read now


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 12, 2004)

Finally got started on Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon.
Wow.


----------



## Elpenor (Oct 12, 2004)

Being daunted by the size of USA by John Dos Passos I'm reading Manhattan Transfer by him instead, and I'm finding it quite good so far. Loving some of the language he uses too.


----------



## haggy (Oct 12, 2004)

I have started reading Hugh Walpole's Portrait of a Man with Red Hair, 1925, I think, which is great stuff. Really eerie...

Just got my hand s on the latest Neil Stephenson, the System of the World, the final part of the Baroque Cycle.  This places Cryptonomicon in the 18thC.
The first two were amazing.  Can't wait til Xmas when I can find the time to get stuck into it...


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 13, 2004)

The Invisibles by Grant Morrison.

and yes, i KNOW it's a comic. but it's a bloody good comic


----------



## killer b (Oct 13, 2004)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> The Invisibles by Grant Morrison.
> 
> and yes, i KNOW it's a comic. but it's a bloody good comic


isn't it?

i'm on anna karenina right now. slow going, but only because there seems to be a profound insight into the human condition in each paragraph, and you got to take time to digest.

fucking marvelous, it is.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 13, 2004)

i 've just bloody found out that most of the Invisibles series hasn't been compiled, which means i'll probably never get to read it all.

i bloody HATE comics


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 14, 2004)

Michel Houllebecq (sp?) - Platform..


so: will it turn me into a raging Islamophobe or not?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 14, 2004)

No, but it might bore you to death, going by 'Atomised' ...


----------



## WasGeri (Oct 14, 2004)

I'm reading Stuart Christie's book, 'Granny made me an anarchist - General Franco, The Angry Brigade & me' which I borrowed from butchersapron. It's a pretty interesting book.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 14, 2004)

Geri said:
			
		

> I'm reading Stuart Christie's book, 'Granny made me an anarchist - General Franco, The Angry Brigade & me' which I borrowed from butchersapron. It's a pretty interesting book.





cool, so am i, side by side with Platform


----------



## Pickman's model (Oct 14, 2004)

i thought that "the christie file" was much more informative on the angry brigade period.


----------



## Pickman's model (Oct 14, 2004)

David WIDGERY, The Left in Britain 1956 - 1968 (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976)


----------



## Errol's son (Oct 14, 2004)

Mrs Magpie said:
			
		

> I love Dervla Murphy...she's still writing too....dunno about the pedalling.....



She's a nutter...!

I liked the way the police gave her a gun to take...


----------



## Jo/Joe (Oct 14, 2004)

Montaigne 'Essays'. Time I finished it.


----------



## big_c (Oct 14, 2004)

I enjoyed Atomised more than Platform, but I thought both were well written/translated
 and they certainly gave me some interesting things to ponder.
Also the Islamophobia is hardly rampant, and religion in general seems to get a bashing so that's ok then.  

My flatmate is going to lend me Lolita at some point which I've been keen to read but could never to bring myself to buy
without worrying that the shop-person would think I'm a perv.  
....well more of a perv than I actually am.


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Oct 15, 2004)

Just finished lefty sci-fi maestro Ken MacLeod's Newton's Wake. Good 2/3s way through and then starts to fall apart. Pity really as giving the Jucheists an uber-tech twist works really well.

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie now. And a load of academic books about the Greens.


----------



## maya (Oct 16, 2004)

..that dave eggers shortstory collection thingy...


----------



## Voley (Oct 16, 2004)

Just started reading 'Himalaya' by Michael Palin, the book of the telly programme.

Well, I say 'reading' - I've only looked at the photos so far. They're brilliant. If the book's half as good as them, it'll be great.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 16, 2004)

maya said:
			
		

> ..that dave eggers shortstory collection thingy...





any good?


(realises he still hasn't read You Shall Know Our Velocity)


----------



## WasGeri (Oct 16, 2004)

Do people write down all the books they read on this thread? I don't, I only admit to the ones that are cool.


----------



## Blagsta (Oct 16, 2004)

Kind of got a few on the go at the moment...

Re-picked up Peter Ackroyd's biography of London that I never finished.
Started Iain Sinclair's "Downriver".
Dipping into the disinfo.com Book of Lies guide to magick and the occult.
Dipping into the Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought.
Also got Stuart Christies "Granny Made me an Anarchist" to read...


----------



## Miscellaneous (Oct 16, 2004)

I'm reading a book about E and the dance cultre, Its quite an insightful read.

i'm aslo reading a book by the Dalai Lama too. Another excellent book IMo.


----------



## magneze (Oct 16, 2004)

80sHair Revival said:
			
		

> Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie now. And a load of academic books about the Greens.


That's a great book. One of my all time favourites. Hope you like it.


----------



## Blagsta (Oct 16, 2004)

Oh, I've also got "Drug USe & Cultural Contexts Beyond the West" ed. Ross Coomber and Nigel South to read as well.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Oct 16, 2004)

I'm re-reading Angela's Ashes but I can't be arsed cos Ive just read a book on the famine in Ireland in 1847 and all the atrocities and its getting rather depressing now. However, my dad has nearly finished an apparently hilarious book about a man who goes around Ireland with.....a fridge   

(we have too many Irish based books.....)


----------



## Random One (Oct 16, 2004)

Just finished reading Man and Boy by Tony Parsons. nothing fantastic but it was an easy read and leaves u feeling kind of ...nice..thats the best word for it.


----------



## Voley (Oct 16, 2004)

SubZeroCat said:
			
		

> However, my dad has nearly finished an apparently hilarious book about a man who goes around Ireland with.....a fridge



Pete McCarthy, I think? I've not read that one but his other two books were brilliant. 

Sadly passed away last week.


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 16, 2004)

Nope, that's Tony Hawks


----------



## Voley (Oct 16, 2004)

Oops. My mistake.

Any good?


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 16, 2004)

Dunno - I ain't read it! Not really my cup of tea.


----------



## Voley (Oct 16, 2004)

He crops up on Grumpy Old Men every now and then, Tony Hawks. 

Pretty funny, if I remember right.


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 16, 2004)

Yeah, he was the bloke in that novelty single Stutter Rap by Morris Minor and the Majors.


----------



## Voley (Oct 16, 2004)

I've gotta be thinking about a different bloke, then.

That record was _shite !!!_


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 16, 2004)

No, it's the same bloke, I assure you!


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 16, 2004)




----------



## Dubversion (Oct 16, 2004)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Yeah, he was the bloke in that novelty single Stutter Rap by Morris Minor and the Majors.




yep. definitely him

and what a remarkable resemblance he bears to Newsnight correspondent Mark Urban


----------



## Roadkill (Oct 16, 2004)

Bob Dylan - Chronicles, vol 1.  Fascinating book - Dylan's a fantastic writer.  As the review said, Dylan's New York was a magical place of all-night parties, crazy places and wonderful people.  It takes a writer of Dylan's class to bring it to life though: the old boy proves he can write prose just as well as songs.


----------



## maya (Oct 17, 2004)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> any good?
> 
> 
> (realises he still hasn't read You Shall Know Our Velocity)



 ..haven't decided yet... a sudden flash of guilt told me to put the book down and go read for my exam instead...like the good and dutiful student girl i am...


----------



## Nina (Oct 20, 2004)

I'm re-reading Murakami's Norwegian Wood. Taking it to Japan with me this weekend   

Also taking The Character of Rain by Amelie Nothomb. Been given it by a friend, sounds interesting. It's about Japanese people believing all children, until the age of 3, are gods.

Sounds nice


----------



## newharper (Oct 22, 2004)

Bobby Fischer goes to war.

So far it seems a wonderful cross-study of personal paranoia and cold war same.


----------



## newharper (Oct 22, 2004)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Dunno - I ain't read it! Not really my cup of tea.



not my beverage of choice either, but 'Playing Moldovia at Tennis' 

probably not the  exact title.

is a reasoned analysis of a deeply f@cked up 'country'


----------



## Bond (Oct 22, 2004)

Finished The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks not all that long ago. The conclusion of the book was certainly well worth the read. Also can't help but admire Bank's dark humour during some of the more gruesome parts of the story.

Am currently reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon.


----------



## IntoStella (Oct 22, 2004)

Al-Qaeda -- Jason Burke. Fantastic. Praised to the rafters by both Chomsky and the Evening Standard!


----------



## chegrimandi (Oct 22, 2004)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> Al-Qaeda -- Jason Burke. Fantastic. Praised to the rafters by both Chomsky and the Evening Standard!



nice one IS forgot the name of this, almost bought it a moth or so again in Waterstones, but decided not to at the time coz I was a bit skint, now I have some dosh going to get it but had forgotten the name of it and couldn't locate it in Waterstones when went back there.

Cool, cheers


----------



## KellyDJ (Oct 22, 2004)

Just finished THE DA VINCI CODE.

Brilliant book, read it in 3 days (that's good for me )


----------



## Termite Man (Oct 22, 2004)

I've just started reading 'The Man Who Fell to Earth' which I bought from the book shop opposite the Albert in Brixton . First time I've been in there but it is a damn good bookshop so I expect I'll be a regular visitor now !


----------



## dogmatique (Oct 22, 2004)

I popped in there for the first time this week also... can't believe I've never been in there before!

And I picked up a new copy of Ghostwritten by David Mitchell for 2 quid! (Fantastic book by the way...)


----------



## Termite Man (Oct 22, 2004)

dogmatique said:
			
		

> I popped in there for the first time this week also... can't believe I've never been in there before!
> 
> And I picked up a new copy of Ghostwritten by David Mitchell for 2 quid! (Fantastic book by the way...)




I got about 7 or 8 books for £30 , considering some of them were graphic niovels as well I was fucking impressed with how cheap it was , and the smell of a second hand bookshop can only be beaten by the smell of a second hand record shop !


----------



## Elpenor (Oct 23, 2004)

Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland.

He's trying a bit hard to get in the 2004 cultural references, but otherwise ok so far. I'm about half way through and whilst he is as readable as ever, it's lacking a killer edge at the moment I think


----------



## Stigmata (Oct 23, 2004)

England in the Later Middle Ages, by M. Keen. Not exactly gripping stuff. He even makes the plague sound tedious.


----------



## Dandred (Oct 24, 2004)

Gullivers travels by Jonathan Swift, I'm going to start it when I'm finished on here


----------



## maya (Oct 24, 2004)

Dandred said:
			
		

> Gullivers travels by Jonathan Swift, I'm going to start it when I'm finished on here


 ...y'know that's where they got the name "yahoo" from?  

(classic book,had a bit difficulties w/the archaic language,though,being a non-native english speaker)


----------



## TeeJay (Oct 24, 2004)

Just finished "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72" (Hunter S Thompson) - this month's u75 bookclub book, and I am about to start reading "The Master and Margarita" (Mikhail Bulgakov) after having it recommeded by several u75 people, before I get hold of next month's bookclub book (Death and the Penguin).


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Oct 24, 2004)

I'm still fighting Vintage Paw over Midnight's Children. I'll never get it finished in time for my next book group meeting.


----------



## KeeperofDragons (Oct 24, 2004)

Hope & History - Gerry Adams

KoD


----------



## Pickman's model (Oct 24, 2004)

Andrey KURKOV, Death and the Penguin. (London: Vintage, 2003)


----------



## laptop (Oct 24, 2004)

maya said:
			
		

> I'm reading
> 
> " Q " by Luther Blissett
> (that may,or may not,have been inspired by Thomas Pynchon's "V"...  ,but that's a whole new topic in itself...my guess is that it is...but will have to reach the end of the first chapter before i can say for sure... don't read the reactionary and despickable "The DaVinci Code",read "Q" instead,it's lots better!  )



Just started it last night... hmm. 

Is it on a mission to educate people about the roots of modern Europe, I'm wondering at the moment... can think of worse ways of doing that.


----------



## golightly (Oct 24, 2004)

80sHair Revival said:
			
		

> I'm still fighting Vintage Paw over Midnight's Children. I'll never get it finished in time for my next book group meeting.



I'm reading that now.  Just got to the bit just before Partition.  I've been meaning to read this book for years.


----------



## killer b (Oct 24, 2004)

TeeJay said:
			
		

> Just finished "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72" (Hunter S Thompson) - this month's u75 bookclub book, and I am about to start reading "The Master and Margarita" (Mikhail Bulgakov) after having it recommeded by several u75 people, before I get hold of next month's bookclub book (Death and the Penguin).


campaign trail is fucking ace innit... gives you a much deeper understanding of the yank political system than any number of learned articles.

and have you noticed, the names of the politicians and advisors are all the same as they are today - has the republican party discovered the secret of eternal life?


----------



## Snakefeather (Oct 24, 2004)

I'm about halfway through "House on the Borderland" by William Hope Hodgson.  Magnificent piece of cosmic horror, a big inspiration for Lovecraft.  Very atmospheric and evocative.  Also very British - lots of stiff upper lips and brandy.  The guy did seem to be getting paid by the comma though.


----------



## silly_me (Oct 25, 2004)

Im readin "Addict". Biography by a re-formed Drug Addict.


----------



## marty21 (Oct 25, 2004)

just picked up "the corrections" jonathen franzen, again, got 2/3 through it and got bored of it and abandoned it, will try and finish it this time...


----------



## DrRingDing (Oct 25, 2004)

Just this minute finished reading "The Victorian Internet" reading for my course yet very interesting comparisons of the Telegraph system and todays Internet


----------



## marty21 (Oct 25, 2004)

DoUsAFavour said:
			
		

> Just this minute finished reading "The Victorian Internet" reading for my course yet very interesting comparisons of the Telegraph system and todays Internet



that sounds interesting...but i must stop buying books...


----------



## LDR (Oct 25, 2004)

I just about finished "a million little pieces" by James Frey.

It's brilliant.  It's about a young chap who has really hit rock bottom with drink and drugs and he ends up in rehab.  I've found it quite moving.

Anyone else read it?

<Actually it has a thread devoted to it already.>


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 25, 2004)

Sill ploughing through Crytonomicon - kinda reminds me of Gravity's Rainbow cos I'm slowly beginning to lose interest.


----------



## Bleep (Oct 25, 2004)

Niall Ferguson's Empire. I'm in a history orientated rush of reading right now. Just finished Robert Hughes "The Fatal Shore" again. One to read if you're ever thinking about going to Australia.


----------



## Pickman's model (Oct 25, 2004)

Giuseppe MAZZINI. The Duties of Man and Other Essays. (London: J M Dent & Sons, 1907)


----------



## killer b (Oct 25, 2004)

marty21 said:
			
		

> just picked up "the corrections" jonathen franzen, again, got 2/3 through it and got bored of it and abandoned it, will try and finish it this time...


i wouldn't bother... franzen seems to think it's a virtue to make all his characters as unsympathetic as possible. he's wrong. read something you'll enjoy instead.  

i'm reading a guide to using dreamweaver. loving every second of it, honest.


----------



## Elpenor (Oct 26, 2004)

Jonathon Coe - The Rotters Club.

Finished Eleanor Rigby very quickly. Liked it.


----------



## jayeola (Oct 26, 2004)

Robot Dreams - Issac Asimov


----------



## maya (Oct 28, 2004)

was supposed to go to a book reading earlier this evening ,which was from a recently translated Brautigan book, and the reader/translator is one of my favourite authors, but i've got a nasty cold and feel super worn out so didn't go... still feel a bit regretful about it,tho'...well,can always buy the book now that it's been re-lanuched....


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 28, 2004)

killer b said:
			
		

> i wouldn't bother... franzen seems to think it's a virtue to make all his characters as unsympathetic as possible. he's wrong. read something you'll enjoy instead.




fecking heathen!!

The Corrections is the best american novel i've read since the Eggers debut...


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 28, 2004)

maya said:
			
		

> was supposed to go to a book reading earlier this evening ,which was from a recently translated Brautigan book, and the reader/translator is one of my favourite authors, but i've got a nasty cold and feel super worn out so didn't go... still feel a bit regretful about it,tho'...well,can always buy the book now that it's been re-lanuched....





ooh, which brautigan?


----------



## beergut100 (Oct 28, 2004)

3 books on the go right now.

The African Experience by Roland Oliver - a history of Africa.

Being Me and Also Us by Alison Stallibrass - about the pioneering Peckham Health Centre set up in South London in the 1930s.

Inside Right by Ian Gilmour - a history of British conservatism.


----------



## maya (Oct 28, 2004)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> ooh, which brautigan?


  i'm trying to translate the title into english, but end up with something like " to lead war against the mundane marathon prose",which can't be right...  

..oh,and last autumn they translated "dreams about babylon" aswell..
 (and they stock his entire production in english,to a reasonable price too!  i think i love them...small indie bookstores rocks!!  )


----------



## Mab (Oct 31, 2004)

maya said:
			
		

> was supposed to go to a book reading earlier this evening ,which was from a recently translated Brautigan book, and the reader/translator is one of my favourite authors, but i've got a nasty cold and feel super worn out so didn't go... still feel a bit regretful about it,tho'...well,can always buy the book now that it's been re-lanuched....




This happened to me a while back and I was very disappointed. I know it is not the same, but did they tape it? The author I wanted to see was taped. Not the same but I was glad to have it.


----------



## Shippou-Sensei (Oct 31, 2004)

just read  Full Moon Wo Sagashite   

as i said in a review   i have to stop readin romances with love trianles  they always end in tears.... MINE 

i cried ....  but not as much as when i read Video Girl Ai


----------



## Kameron (Nov 1, 2004)

Random One said:
			
		

> I loved Choke it was really provocative, but not with the content but in his style of writing. From the very first page u get into this ''fuck you im gonna read this, hit me with everything u got'' kinda mode, coz of the way palahniuk basically tells u not to carry on reading coz u wont like it.



I'm nearing the end of this book now and decided to see what U75 had to say on the subject. This pretty much sums up the way I feel about the book, I'm loving it, every chapter he tosses (sic - bad choice of words) another idea at you and says deal with that one. Some girl on the tube this morning was very shocked as she was reading over my shoulder, I heard the intake of breath and everything 

Great book but if you want to bend someone's mind always give then Poppy Z Brite's Exquisite Corpse first.


----------



## Pickman's model (Nov 1, 2004)

Kameron said:
			
		

> Great book but if you want to bend someone's mind always give then Poppy Z Brite's Exquisite Corpse first.


you've mentioned this before, and i would be very interested in reading it.


----------



## marty21 (Nov 1, 2004)

orwell the life, dj taylor

nicked it off mrs 21 who bought it on saturday...really enjoying it...


----------



## Pickman's model (Nov 1, 2004)

Hugh THOMAS, Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire. (London: Phoenix, 2004)

very interesting, but too many notes! and they don't seem to be that well thought-out. also, the production's not all it should be.


----------



## Bomber (Nov 1, 2004)

I'm just about to start either , 'Shutter Island' by Dennis Lehane or 'White Trash' by John King ?


----------



## newharper (Nov 2, 2004)

'Bobby Fischer goes to war', not exactly literature but a "gripping" read all the same.


----------



## jayeola (Nov 2, 2004)

The World We're in  - Will Hutton. Third chapter so far. Ran't about why UK should join Europe and counter-act the rise [and eventuall fall], of US Imperialism.


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 2, 2004)

Da Vinci Code - what a load of shite, if entertaining shite.
Brown writes like Adrian Mole doing Cussler


----------



## citydreams (Nov 2, 2004)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Da Vinci Code - what a load of shite, if entertaining shite.
> Brown writes like Adrian Mole doing Cussler





I'm reading 'Eucalyptus' by Australian Murray Bail.

The single-father of a beautiful daughter sets a challenge - whoever can name all the species of eucalyptus trees on his estate can win his daughter's hand in marriage...

A mosaic of love stories, Eucalyptus is an Australian fairy tale. Along with its stories, it includes narratorial digressions -- on eucalypts, but also on aspects of Australian history, culture, and national identity.


----------



## jayeola (Nov 2, 2004)

That bookshop oppiste the ALbert is great. I've boought most of my techie stuff from there. Good political and science fiction sections too. Normally the first place I go to on my regular Brixton Market shopping ritual.


----------



## maya (Nov 2, 2004)

"introduction to descartes for dummies"...(yeah,i know...don't ask...   sigh)


----------



## Elpenor (Nov 2, 2004)

Jonathon Coe - The House Of Sleep, the only thing that grabbed me in the 2 minutes I had in the library...


----------



## Bond (Nov 5, 2004)

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. Very interesting book so far,  revolving round science, religion and the atomic bomb. This is the first book I've read by Vonnegut as he's always been highly reccomended to me.

Am also reading a wonderful autobiography by one of my heroes: Patrick Macnee (who played John Steed in the TV series The Avengers). Being a huge fan of the show it gives a brilliant insight into how The Avengers came to be, from behind and front of the scenes and the impact the show had worldwide.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 5, 2004)

I've just finished The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth -- last decades of the Austro-Hungarian empire, funny and very moving. Highly recommended.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 7, 2004)

I'm reading 'Russia Under The Old Empire' by Richard Pipes
'The Emigrants' by W G Sebald


----------



## oi2002 (Nov 7, 2004)

Palace Walk, by Naguib Mahfouz.

1st part of the Cario Trilogy.  I've been reading to much non-fiction on the Arab world.  An Egyptian recommended Mahfouz as background reading.  Mahfouz deserved his Nobel, the book's truly magnificent.


----------



## Elpenor (Nov 9, 2004)

About to start Alan Hollinghurst's Booker Prize Winning The Line Of Beauty


----------



## maya (Nov 9, 2004)

Elpenor said:
			
		

> About to start Alan Hollinghurst's Booker Prize Winning The Line Of Beauty


 funny that, i got that in "the pile", then lent it to my mate, who are getting really immersed into it now i think, because when i asked her last week whether she'd finished it yet so i could get it back, she was being incredibly vague and mumbled something about... really good,um,yeah maybe soon,um,no,err,not yet...


----------



## J77 (Nov 10, 2004)

I'm still reading Catch-22...

It's mind-numbingly dull 

I may even have to put it down mid-read 

Imo, it's rubbish.


----------



## maya (Nov 10, 2004)

J77 said:
			
		

> I'm still reading Catch-22...
> 
> It's mind-numbingly dull
> 
> ...


 ah, but think of the conversation value!  
..you can show off that you're well-read, as well as connecting the theme to current events, ca save a whole evening that... and you might manage to pull as well!


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 10, 2004)

J77 said:
			
		

> I'm still reading Catch-22...
> 
> It's mind-numbingly dull
> 
> ...




you're so WEIRD


----------



## milesy (Nov 10, 2004)

i've still not finished White Teeth.

I'm a bit crap really.


----------



## maya (Nov 10, 2004)

..as soon as i've finished the philosophy/etics essays supposed to be handed in this friday, i'll start reading:

* Elfride Jelinek : The Piano Teacher

...which i'm looking forward to read,i suspect it's really really good.(always meant to see the film when it came,but couldn't bear it as it was by haneke,and his films are always painful to watch,so it wasn't really tempting to sit 2 hours into a masochistic feast..but reading is different!)


----------



## J77 (Nov 11, 2004)

maya said:
			
		

> ....and you might manage to pull as well!


Surely that would require in-depth knowledge of Pride and Prejudice... 



			
				Dubversion said:
			
		

> you're so WEIRD


Thanks


----------



## oddjob (Nov 13, 2004)

city of bones by michael connelly


----------



## Stobart Stopper (Nov 13, 2004)

Chav! (A user's guide to Britian's new ruling class) by Mia Wallace and Clint Spanner.


----------



## maya (Nov 13, 2004)

Stobart Stopper said:
			
		

> Clint Spanner.


 i very much doubt that that is his real name...


----------



## Pickman's model (Nov 13, 2004)

Mark CURTIS, Unpeople: Britain's Secret Human Rights Abuses (London: Vintage, 2004)


----------



## Stobart Stopper (Nov 13, 2004)

maya said:
			
		

> i very much doubt that that is his real name...



It's a great book though.

Why did the Chav stare at the orange juice carton?

Cos it said "Concentrate."


----------



## Pickman's model (Nov 13, 2004)

Stobart Stopper said:
			
		

> It's a great book though.
> 
> Why did the Chav stare at the orange juice carton?
> 
> Cos it said "Concentrate."


strangely you can go through that book, substituting the word "trot" for chav and it still makes sense!


----------



## marty21 (Nov 13, 2004)

still reading george orwell's biography, but also james herbert, domain, read the first two of the rats trilogy about 20 odd years ago, about time i completed the trilogy...


----------



## Stobart Stopper (Nov 13, 2004)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> strangely you can go through that book, substituting the word "trot" for chav and it still makes sense!


  

What is a Trot's favourite wine?

I wanna go Lakeside.  

Nah!


----------



## Pickman's model (Nov 13, 2004)

Stobart Stopper said:
			
		

> What is a Trot's favourite wine?
> 
> I wanna go Lakeside.
> 
> Nah!


clearly to do a papersale.


----------



## Groucho (Nov 13, 2004)

Gustav Meyrick *The Golem*

And I fought, like a mad thing, against the numbing sleep of frost-bite that was trying to smother me with its fleecy, stifling pall.
"Those letters in my room -her letters. If I die in this place, they will find them." The words kept dinning themselves into my ears...and she believed in me!! I was her only hope of salvation! Help!  


and

Louise Michel - rebel lives series


I have seen criminals and whores
And spoken with them. Now I inquire
if you believe them, made as now they are
To drag their rags in blood and mire
Preordained, an evil race?

You to whom all men are prey
Have made them what they are today


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Nov 14, 2004)

Life of Pi.


----------



## Groucho (Nov 14, 2004)

Stobart Stopper said:
			
		

> What is a Trot's favourite wine?
> 
> I wanna go Lakeside.
> 
> Nah!


Well maybe it works.... I go two or three times a month. 
Denise Van Outen loves Lakeside and everyone knows she's a closet Trot.
Socialist Worker is on sale in Lakeside WHSmiths and you can get Socialist Review, International Socialist Journal, New Left Review etc from Borders Bookshop.


----------



## J77 (Nov 15, 2004)

C-22 has been dropped...

Am now reading * The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time *


----------



## isvicthere? (Nov 15, 2004)

"Thus spoke Zarathustra" by Friedrich Nietzsche. I wrote a 5000 word assessed essay on it in German when I was a student. Just revisiting it after a gap of 22 years.

But this time I'm wimping out and reading it in English.


----------



## chooch (Nov 15, 2004)

J77 said:
			
		

> I'm still reading Catch-22...
> It's mind-numbingly dull


   It's mind-ticklingly brilliant. 
Just finished _The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch_, again. And now reading  _The Serial_, Cyra McFadden, on urbanite recommendation.

Edit: I like.


----------



## oddjob (Nov 16, 2004)

cassell's humorous quotations: 
isbn 0304357200  p. 92

an uneasy conscience is a hair in the mouth


----------



## oddjob (Nov 16, 2004)

Groucho said:
			
		

> Well maybe it works.... I go two or three times a month.
> Denise Van Outen loves Lakeside and everyone knows she's a closet Trot.
> Socialist Worker is on sale in Lakeside WHSmiths and you can get Socialist Review, International Socialist Journal, New Left Review etc from Borders Bookshop.


----------



## lollipop (Nov 16, 2004)

hello im new here

am currently reading A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, is very good, kinda follows a guy through his rehab.........emotional stuff.......


----------



## thestraightman (Nov 16, 2004)

The political animal by Paxman
God I love the sneering cunt


----------



## pagan (Nov 16, 2004)

I've just finished The Shipping News by Annie Proux.
I'd been put off reading it by the tepid film starring Kev Spacey but thought I'd give it a go after reading That Old Ace in the Hole (which is just brilliant in the way the author captures the turn of phrase of  rural Texans). 
If you've seen the film of The Shipping News, try to forget it and read the book.
I've just started Ivanhoe by Walter Scott.........


----------



## chooch (Nov 18, 2004)

Now rereading Hrabal's _too loud a solitude_ and skipping through a fairly dull thing on neoliberalism and farming...


----------



## rennie (Nov 18, 2004)

Reading lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi... the story of a university teacher and her student  caught in the middle of a revolution they did not agree with. great stuff!


----------



## girasol (Nov 18, 2004)

The Eyre Affair...  It has some nice visuals and interesting moments, but it's just not hitting the spot for some reason...  I will read the next two though!


----------



## chegrimandi (Nov 18, 2004)

just finished catch 22, I can't believe I've got to 26 without reading it!!

fucking stupendously good read. amazing..


----------



## marty21 (Nov 18, 2004)

christopher fowler, the water room


----------



## Kidda (Nov 18, 2004)

Just finished ''The Psychic adventures of Derek Acorah'' which surprisingly was quite good. was a book i didnt actually want to put down.

Now finally getting round to reading The curious incident of the dog in the night time, after having it since the start of the summer. 

very good so far


----------



## colbhoy (Nov 18, 2004)

I'm reading a borrowed copy of McCarthy's Bar by Pete McCarthy - pretty fun in a Bill Bryson kind of way. 

Only found out last week when I looked up his web-site that he died on 06/10, aged 51 - very sad, cannot understand how I missed this news when it happened. Spoke to my friend who I had borrowed the book from and he didn't know either.


----------



## colbhoy (Nov 18, 2004)

colbhoy said:
			
		

> pretty fun in a Bill Bryson kind of way.



Pretty funny...


----------



## happytobe... (Nov 18, 2004)

Bob Dylan, Chronicles-volume one.

It's very good.He's amazing. My dad bought it for me for my birthday


----------



## Bajie (Nov 18, 2004)

Unpeople: Britain's Secret Human Rights Abuses ~Mark Curtis

It's allright, I don't really like the writing style. I bought it mostly because it had a chapter on the Brit and American gouverments actions to de-stablise Guyana so as to get rid of Cheddi Jagan and the PPP, communist's apparently, ho ho ho.


----------



## kalidarkone (Nov 19, 2004)

The road to Shambala-James Redfield
The impossibility of sex-Susie Orbach
The magicians Nephew-C.S Lewis


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 19, 2004)

happytobe... said:
			
		

> Bob Dylan, Chronicles-volume one.
> 
> It's very good.He's amazing. My dad bought it for me for my birthday



Nice one, I've just started that as well, and enjoying it. I thought there'd be more of a fuss about it but it seems to have slipped out without much comment.


----------



## Machen (Nov 19, 2004)

Henry Giroux : The Mouse That Roared

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0847691101.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

James Demeo : Saharasia

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0962185558.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg


----------



## STFC (Nov 19, 2004)

Mad Dog - The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair and 'C' Company by David Lister and Hugh Jordan.


----------



## steeplejack (Nov 19, 2004)

About to re-start Robert Musil's _The Man without Qualities_


----------



## happytobe... (Nov 19, 2004)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Nice one, I've just started that as well, and enjoying it. I thought there'd be more of a fuss about it but it seems to have slipped out without much comment.


yeah i know. I only found out it was out because of my dad. It's a really good read, I'm surprised there wasn't a fuss too.
His writing is so good, like his lyrics so I guess it makes sense.


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Nov 19, 2004)

I'm on Captain Corelli's Mandolin at the mo. Total class it is.

Far better than 'Small Parties in Western Europe', my previous read.


----------



## The Disappeared (Nov 19, 2004)

Just started Che Guevara A Revolutionary life about 750 pages to go


----------



## killer b (Nov 19, 2004)

iceberg slim - trick baby. ace - the dialogue is a touch wordy for some hustling gangsta types, but it seems all the better for it.


----------



## golightly (Nov 19, 2004)

Cosmonaut Keep by Ken Macleod.  Good but not as clever as it thinks it is I reckon.


----------



## Elpenor (Nov 20, 2004)

Just finished The Line Of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst which I thought was excellent. 

Unsure what to read next - fancy a bit of non-fiction at the moment.


----------



## crissy (Nov 21, 2004)

Interview with a vampire 

Not sure whether i prefer it to the fil or not


----------



## chegrimandi (Nov 22, 2004)

just started al qaeda by jason burke - have high hopes for it it's supposed to be excellent, it is also the first 'new' book I've bought for ages!


----------



## flypanam (Nov 22, 2004)

alexander rabinovitch (sp) the bolsheviks come to power
g chowdhury principles of modern information retrieval


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Nov 22, 2004)

flypanam said:
			
		

> g chowdhury principles of modern information retrieval


Fucking A!

I'm reading _Essential Classification_ by Vanda Broughton myself.

And _Capital _ by Karl Marx. (Well, "getting around to it".)


----------



## ICB (Nov 22, 2004)

Desolation Island - P O'Brian - 4 down, 16 to go, I may read another author, in 2007


----------



## surplus (Nov 22, 2004)

the Qur'an, translated by Muhammad Abdel Haleem


----------



## Elpenor (Nov 22, 2004)

Briefly looked at a very predictable, and new blokish look at cult films over the weekend. It was raining, and I was in the library waiting for it to stop.

And got out a book about Talking Heads, proving quite interesting so far


----------



## Kidda (Nov 23, 2004)

Kidda said:
			
		

> Now finally getting round to reading The curious incident of the dog in the night time, after having it since the start of the summer.



really good that  bit predictable and didnt think the ending was a good as it could have been, but its a good book. 

now about to start 

Dead Men's wages '_the secrets of a London conman and his family'_ by Lilian Pizzichini


----------



## Bajie (Nov 23, 2004)

surplus said:
			
		

> the Qur'an, translated by Muhammad Abdel Haleem


What's the plot?


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Nov 23, 2004)

Eita said:
			
		

> What's the plot?


Well, according to David Blunkett...


----------



## Bleep (Nov 23, 2004)

_What Ho!_ - an anthology of Wodehouse.


----------



## surplus (Nov 23, 2004)

Eita said:
			
		

> What's the plot?



It confirms all that God sent before.


----------



## Pickman's model (Nov 23, 2004)

Edvard RADZINSKY, Stalin (London: Sceptre, 1997)

&

Virginia WOOLF, Mrs Dalloway (London: Penguin, 1992)


----------



## flypanam (Nov 23, 2004)

Justin said:
			
		

> Fucking A!
> 
> I'm reading _Essential Classification_ by Vanda Broughton myself.
> 
> And _Capital _ by Karl Marx. (Well, "getting around to it".)



is the essential classification any good?


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Nov 23, 2004)

flypanam said:
			
		

> is the essential classification any good?


I think so, but I don't do enough classification to know whether it really helps or not. I can tell you that in the same series, Bowman's _Essential Cataloguing_ is pretty indispensible.


----------



## flypanam (Nov 23, 2004)

fair play,

i'm in library school in Aberystwyth and need a couple of decent book tips.


----------



## Pickman's model (Nov 23, 2004)

you've got the bloody national library of wales down the road, why can't you find something interesting there?


----------



## Stavrogin (Nov 23, 2004)

The Poetry and Poetics of Constantine P. Cavafy (Aesthetic visions of sensual reality), Anton, John, Harwood, London: 1995

And that's the troof!


----------



## flypanam (Nov 23, 2004)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> you've got the bloody national library of wales down the road, why can't you find something interesting there?



cant take the books out can i?


----------



## Fledgling (Nov 24, 2004)

Well apart from the course books which are about economics in the main I have been reading the Spanish Labyrinth by Gerlad Brenan. This is a first rate account of the prelude or origins to the Spanish Civil War, especially for the genrela observer. However it has a wealth of detail so am reading slowly to get best out of it. Also read a couple of Discwolrd novels, but these are not as entertaining as they once were.


----------



## citydreams (Nov 24, 2004)

"Zade" - by Heather Reyes

What happends when where once you felt love is now only desperation, a hunger for the nourishment of the body, the bitter aftertaste of memories..  Feeling suicidal?  Zade places a gun against her young head and pulls the trigger.  What happens next depends on how much you want to live....   

Great - the substance of dreams!!


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 24, 2004)

i finally finished Houllebecq's Atomised, which in places i loved but - being mostly pissed up on booze when i read it - i'm still not sure i understood how it turned into a Robert Heinlein book at the end..

now reading (by complete contrast) Tim Moore's Do Not Pass Go, which is pleasantly funny more than sidesplittingly hilarious...


----------



## maes (Nov 24, 2004)

I just re-read 'my summer of love' by helen cross, cause the film coming out reminded me that i loved the book when i first read it 4 years or so ago...

fucking fantastic read - i laughed, i cried, it stopped me from sleeping cause i couldnt stop reading it. 

if anyone wants to borrow it, they can (form an orderly cue people )

i'm now reading 'a million little pieces' by james frey and and 'so the wind won't blow it away' by richard brautigan


----------



## citydreams (Nov 24, 2004)

maestrocloud said:
			
		

> I just re-read 'my summer of love' by helen cross, cause the film coming out reminded me that i loved the book when i first read it 4 years or so ago...



The film was a bit boring...
no reference to miners strike or nuclear attacks or serial killers 
but, Mona was brilliant!


----------



## citydreams (Nov 24, 2004)

maestrocloud said:
			
		

> i'm now reading 'a million little pieces' by james frey



<forms orderly queue>


----------



## magneze (Nov 24, 2004)

Recently finished Jasper Fforde's "The Well of Lost Plots". A nicely surreal book set in a fantasy "Bookworld". Very inventive, although gets stretched a little too far in parts.

I'm currently about 1/2 way though Kevin Sampson's "Awaydays" which is about 70's football hooligans. Good so far, very readable, touches of Irvine Welsh but sufficiently different in style. Well worth a read.

I've also been dipping into "Understanding Power" which is a collection of talks held with Noam Chomsky about all sorts of political discussions. Quite interesting and also very readable due to the chatty style, which I guess is because of the transcript nature of the book.

Need more books ... soon ... any recommendations?


----------



## citydreams (Nov 24, 2004)

Magneze said:
			
		

> Need more books ... soon ... any recommendations?




http://urban75.net/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=2352008&postcount=491


----------



## newharper (Nov 25, 2004)

'The Time of my Life'

by Dennis Healey.

Seriously recommended as a snapshot of postwar history as well as of the labour party. Also well written and funny.

As a protagonist of realpolitik without losing all humanity hard to beat.

Edit for spelling.


----------



## maes (Nov 25, 2004)

citydreams said:
			
		

> <forms orderly queue>



give me a week or so and it's yours


----------



## BEARBOT (Nov 25, 2004)

i'm currently reading "tropical truth" by caetano veloso..i love his band os mutantes (60s psychedelic but also very brazilian)but didnt know all about him as political leader against brazils military regime..he comes across as very
grave/"man with a mssion evene at 18"..still im learning about brazilian music/history which is cool..just a taster for some thing i want to explore more!

also studs turkel..american left wing social historian..he just lets people talk really and you find yourself an intimate into previously hidden worlds..im reading "will the circle be unbroken?" by studs..its people describing their experiences with death, thoughts on death etc..like all of his books its very comforting as it finds the similarities in our humaness    he makes me feel better about this sometimes horrible world  

thanks for posting about book group curry on 16 dec city dreams..think ill be there


----------



## souljacker (Nov 25, 2004)

I'm half way through The Grapes of Wrath and it's bloody excellent.

It's one of those classics that I've always looked at and thought, "Naah, it looks dull" but it isn't at all. Very descriptive and some wonderful characters.


----------



## maes (Nov 25, 2004)

maestrocloud said:
			
		

> i'm now reading 'a million little pieces' by james frey



This is fucking heavy going   heartbreaking...

& commuters look at you funny when they catch you sobbing into your novel on the central line in rush hour


----------



## Stanley Edwards (Nov 25, 2004)

The Scale Hunters Beautiful Daughter - Lucius Sheperd. Collection of short fantasy stories. Some are a bit Nam (as in Viet recollections) but, the title story is magical. There's also a story about an island infested with hallucinagenic spiders which is pretty good.

Maestrocloud - I like your tag line. Hadn't noticed it before  Be very wary of drunken men looking for new bestest mates!


----------



## KeeperofDragons (Nov 25, 2004)

The Myths of Zionism by John Rose  

A pressie from Hocus - he knows just what I like


----------



## districtline (Nov 26, 2004)

im currently in berlin and has decided to take a dive into german literature, so i've just got my hands on:

kurt tucholsky - rheinsborg
heinrich mann - der untertan

two of the best germans apparently, exciting 

read 'veronica decides to die' by paulo coelho yesterday. a bit like the alchemist, but with even less substance. i know, it shouldn't be possible but...


----------



## mentalchik (Nov 27, 2004)

Still struggling with Iain M Banks, The Algerbraist...........


never wanted to put his others down...........this one's a bit


----------



## Peechy (Nov 27, 2004)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 27, 2004)

maestrocloud said:
			
		

> This is fucking heavy going   heartbreaking...
> 
> & commuters look at you funny when they catch you sobbing into your novel on the central line in rush hour


I read that scene at the dentists on the bus and it had me exclaiming out loud 'oh my fucking god' like some dumb Yank. I got some strange looks and I had to restrain myself from showing everyone the book to explain why I was being so weird.


----------



## killyouridols (Nov 27, 2004)

kingdom of fear by hunter thompson


----------



## Dandred (Nov 27, 2004)

Peechy said:
			
		

> The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.



I liked that, i though it was raelly cool


----------



## upsidedownwalrus (Nov 29, 2004)

mentalchik said:
			
		

> Still struggling with Iain M Banks, The Algerbraist...........
> 
> 
> never wanted to put his others down...........this one's a bit



i used to love his earlier books (Walking on Glass, The Bridge, Complicity, SOng of Stone, and scifi like COnsider phlebas) but some of his recent stuff hasn't really appealed.  There was that one about 9/11 which just looked a bit crap, really.  I didn't bother with it.


----------



## oddjob (Nov 29, 2004)

paranoia 

joseph finder


----------



## circumspect (Nov 29, 2004)

Im living in japan now, so as a result im reading - absolutely any western fiction I can get my hands on...sad, i know, but i need a bit of escapism. In the last 4 weeks Ive read - 
Magaret Atwoods Oryx and Crake (thought provoking but WOT A COP OUT ENDING),
Coupland's Girlfriend in a Coma (Ditto - these 2 books are weirdly and unexpectedly similar)
Life of Pi
Unbearable Lightness of Being (AKA the unbearably banal philosophising of the Author - or maybe it was so revolutionary when it first came out that everyone copied his ideas and they became hackneyed? i dunno)
Carol Shields Unless
DCB Pierres's Vernon God Little  - interesting, a good read
Donna Tartt's The Secret History - this is FANTASTIC< the best book Ive read in ages, truely gripping and intense and also layered and textured and intellectual...and everyone I  lent it to loved it too.
And now Im reading Philip Roth's Human Stain...as with American Pastoral, Im floundering a bit in the prose style...dunno if ive got the stamina..
any  other recommendations? and does anyone happen to fancy sending me some books for free? just a thought...


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 4, 2004)

Just started reading Alan Moore - The Watchmen (never read any graphic novels apart from Maus, so best see what all the fuss is about) - lot less po-faced than I'd imagined - it's actually pretty funny! Not sure about the whole rightwing vigilante thing but I've a feeling Moore's going to turn it on its head. Still can't get over the inherent silliness of superheroes and their costumes though, but at least Moore has his tongue in his cheek in that respect.
Also reading Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone for book group, seems quite thrilling so far.
Also must get round to reading Patrick Neate's The London Pigeon Wars - Brixton was mentioned in the blurb, so I had to pick it off the shelf


----------



## rennie (Dec 4, 2004)

Naguib Mahfouz's nobel prize winning "Awlad Haritna"... not sure how to translate that


----------



## kea (Dec 6, 2004)

Isambard Kingdom Brunel by L.T.C. Rolt. v interesting biog of a great engineering genuis.
then i'm gonna read The Map That Changed The World by Simon Winchester - about the founder of the science of geology 
also, The Great Arc by John Keay - about the mapping of the indian subcontinent.


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 13, 2004)

Giles Foden's The Last King of Scotland.. very excellent so far, renders Amin as a very believable charming psychopath


----------



## Mation (Dec 13, 2004)

I'm just about to finish Small Island by Andrea Levy, but I had to stop because I've been sitting here blubbing and I couldn't see the page. A white English butcher's daughter takes in a haughty Jamaican schoolteacher and her ex-RAF husband as lodgers just after WWII. Very funny and moving.


----------



## killer b (Dec 13, 2004)

just starting on flann o'brien's "at swim two birds". i love o'brien, so it should be jolly.


----------



## IntoStella (Dec 14, 2004)

In the past few days

Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami
The Orchard on Fire, Shena Mackay
Slaves of New York, Tama Janowitz


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 14, 2004)

a merritt, "burn witch, burn"


----------



## IntoStella (Dec 14, 2004)

Magneze said:
			
		

> Recently finished Jasper Fforde's "The Well of Lost Plots".


Did you read The Eyre Affair first? The other ones (Lost in a Good Book and Something Rotten) are brilliant too. I'm a big fan.


----------



## Elpenor (Dec 14, 2004)

The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night Time - Mark Haddon

as I thought it was about time I started reading what everyone else has raved about. Liking it so far, my mate works with people with Aspergers and he tells me it is 100% accurate.


----------



## Nina (Dec 14, 2004)

I've just finished Rohinton Mistry A Fine Balance.

Jeez, that was one harrowing book! Beautiful in usual Mr Mistry style though.

I'm now looking at the pile of new potentials but everything is appearing a little too grim and bleak.


----------



## chooch (Dec 17, 2004)

Just finished _Jennifer Government_, and just rereading _Language, Thought and Reality_ by Benjamin Lee Whorf.


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 18, 2004)

got several on the go at the moment:

i'm finishing the moonstone, by wilkie collins, and comrades, by robert harvey, and i'm also reading (david) hume's essays and montaigne's essays.


----------



## treefrog (Dec 18, 2004)

_Paula_ by Isabel Allende. It's a bit strange, but worth reading.


----------



## paganlovegod (Dec 18, 2004)

book 3 of the wheel of time


----------



## steeplejack (Dec 18, 2004)

Xmas reading ahoy!

Still chewing through _The Man without Qualities_, which is superb, and next in line are:

Alain Robbe-Grillet, _Repetition_

C.E. Schorske, _Fin de Siecle Vienna: Politics & Culture_

Politkovskaya, _Putin's Russia_, came heartily recommended by some on these boards....

....I'll get back to you sometime, er, next year...


----------



## blinky_bill (Dec 18, 2004)

m


----------



## doilookbothered (Dec 18, 2004)

am reading 1) eleanor rigby by douglas coupland (at work)
2) scar tissue by anothony keidis (at home)
i really should synchronize my book transportation a bit more


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Dec 19, 2004)

Andrew Loog Oldham's '2Stoned'. Fractured and less coherent than 'Stoned', obviously, but still a fascinating read.

'Putin's Russia' next I think.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Dec 19, 2004)

steeplejack said:
			
		

> Politkovskaya, _Putin's Russia_, came heartily recommended by some on these boards....


Review in today's _Guardian_.


----------



## Ciara (Dec 19, 2004)

Rozi said:
			
		

> _Paula_ by Isabel Allende. It's a bit strange, but worth reading.



Ooh - I've read that though I had just read another two of her books in a short space of time so it was a bit overkill. Also 'House of Spirits' is semi-autobiographical apparently so it was all a bit samey.

I'm reading Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser and really enjoying it - after doing a very male-dominated history course (the usual Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Henry VII) at school it's nice doing a bit of my own reading about different stuff i.i. women in history.


----------



## Kidda (Dec 19, 2004)

Google Whack by Dave Gorman

brilliant so far


----------



## Rainingstairs (Dec 20, 2004)

"wind up bird chronicle" haruki murakami
various assortment of poets depending on my mood...


----------



## MissyGee (Dec 20, 2004)

I'm just finished 'The Last Godfather:  The Life and Crimes of Arthur Thompson' by Reg McKay...

Don't normally go for this kinda book, but I really enjoyed it!


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 20, 2004)

Cows - Mathew Stokoe
The Adventure Of English - Melvyn Bragg
Still reading The Watchmen but finding it a bit dull after a while.


----------



## Elpenor (Dec 21, 2004)

I read The Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan, which was quite fun, the other night when I woke up at 3am and couldn't get back to bed.


----------



## jayeola (Dec 22, 2004)

coming to the end of "Diamond Age", by Neal Stephenson. Top geezer


----------



## Dandred (Dec 22, 2004)

Great Expectations fucking ace, just got past the first major twist but i'd sussed it way before


----------



## silentNate (Dec 22, 2004)

Superman: True Brit.
Graphic novel set round idea of what would have happened if Superman's spacecraft had crashed in Western-Super-Mare, wtritten by John Cleese and a veiled attack on the tabloids 
Very funny


----------



## ColGonk (Dec 22, 2004)

*.*

Confederecy of Dunces. For about the 100th time, it is one of my all time favourites. I enjoy the sense of closeness with the characters. It's not 'deeply' written, but, each character gets their chance to shine in the book. I'm truely surprised it's as yet not been moviafied or at least brought to the stage, where, I think it would work fantastically well. If you've not read it try to find the time, the guy Ignatius Reily is a monster dose of theology, geometry and decency, that and yellowed undershorts, masterbating over his dead dog, has occassional trouble with his valve and modern day humanity and life in general. She must be lashed!?! Strumpet!


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Dec 22, 2004)

Ian Kershaw's Adolf Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis. Bloody brilliant, every bit as good as the first volume. No more biographies of Hitler need ever be written.

And Paul Lichterman's 'The Search for Political Community' for an essay. Quite jolly too.


----------



## Hawkeye Pearce (Dec 22, 2004)

Motorcylce Diaries - Ernesto Guevara, bloody mind blowing book so far.  A fine piece of writing even if you had no idea who Che was.  Also very inspiring.


----------



## j6ango1977 (Dec 22, 2004)

Just finished reading 'Crazy From the Heat' by Dave Lee Roth. Very good Rock autobiography


----------



## Stigmata (Dec 22, 2004)

HP Lovecraft's Omnibus 2; Dagon and other Stories

Also the History of the University of Oxford, by some historian (for my dissertation)


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 22, 2004)

Stigmata said:
			
		

> HP Lovecraft's Omnibus 2; Dagon and other Stories


top book!  have you read 'herbert west : reanimator' yet?

i hope yr enjoying it?


----------



## Stigmata (Dec 22, 2004)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> top book!  have you read 'herbert west : reanimator' yet?
> 
> i hope yr enjoying it?



I'm only as far as 'The Doom of Sarnath'. All good. 'Polaris' has been my favourite so far with its twist at the end. So far nothing to match 'The Dreams in the Witch-House' or 'The Music of Erich Zann' though.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Dec 22, 2004)

Stigmata said:
			
		

> Also the History of the University of Oxford, by some historian (for my dissertation)


Jesus Christ.


----------



## Stigmata (Dec 22, 2004)

Justin said:
			
		

> Jesus Christ.



I know, I know. I'm researching the early history of Mendicant Friars in England, and they founded a few Oxford colleges. I'm finding medieval Oxford far more agreeable than it's pretentious modern incarnation.


----------



## miss direct (Dec 23, 2004)

This thread always makes me feel thick. Oh well. 

I have got A Hundred and One Days which is by Asne Seierstad, who wrote the Bookseller of Kabul, and Honeymoon in Purdah, to read on my christmas break.


----------



## baldrick (Dec 24, 2004)

Anthony Swofford - Jarhead: a soldier's story of modern war.

The guy who wrote it was a sniper in the marines during the 1991 gulf war, utterly fantastic and terrifying.  everyone should read it.  only got a few pages left now


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Dec 25, 2004)

Geoffrey de Ste Croix - _Class Struggle in The Ancient Greek World_.



> _Romans often pretended that their empire had been acquired almost against their own will, by a series of defensive actions, which could be made to sound positively virtuous when they were represented as undertaken in defence of others, especially Rome's 'allies'. Thus according to Cicero, in whom we can often find the choicest expression of any given kind of Roman hypocrisy, it was in the course of 'defending their allies', _sociis defendendis_, that the Romans became 'masters of all lands' (_De Republica_, II.23/35). The speaker in the dialogue, almost certainly Laelius (who often represents Cicero's own views) goes on to express opinions - basically similar to the theory of 'natural slavery' - according to which some peoples can actually benefit from being in a state of complete political subjection to another......in fairness to Cicero, we must not fail to notice that on several occasions in his letters and speeches he knows a real awareness of the hatred Rome had aroused among many subject peoples by the oppression and exploitation to which she had exposed them._- p.331


----------



## Sunspots (Dec 26, 2004)

I recently bought _'The Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia'_ by Danzig Baldaev & Sergei Vasiliev.

Baldaev spent most of his life working in the Russian prison system, and this is a  fascinating collection of criminals' tattoos and their secret meanings.  Extremely dark stuff, but as they say, every picture tells a story...


----------



## golightly (Dec 26, 2004)

Camberwell Tales by Peter Ackroyd.  One of my favourite authors.  Cheers Jezza


----------



## chaz (Dec 26, 2004)

*books*

stephen kings "insomnia"
and louise rennilton "confessions of georgia nichols"


----------



## Elpenor (Dec 29, 2004)

Justin said:
			
		

> Geoffrey de Ste Croix - _Class Struggle in The Ancient Greek World_.



I read a bit of that during Class Civ A Level - heavy duty to say the least.


----------



## on_the_fly (Dec 29, 2004)

I am currently reading *BORED OF THE RINGS*  its very very good indeed.

From the witty names DILDO BOGGINS to them getting fucked on E and shrooms !


ROFLFAO !


almost 1/2 way through and not stopped laffing yet !


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 29, 2004)

I read Nigel Slater's Toast on the way home from Leeds yesterday - it made me cry    Very moving account of Slater's childhood, based around the associations he makes around his memories of food he ate when he was growing up.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Dec 29, 2004)

DaRkGoD said:
			
		

> From the witty names DILDO BOGGINS to them getting fucked on E and shrooms !


Personally I find the word _Bilbo_ reminds me of _Henry V_.




			
				Elpenor said:
			
		

> I read a bit of that during Class Civ A Level - heavy duty to say the least.


Heavy? Marvellous stuff, I reckon. Here's some more:

_An educated slave of Plutarch's who knew his master's treatise On freedom from anger (Peri aorgesias, usually referred to by its Latin title De cohinbenda ira) protested, while being flogged, that Plutarch was being inconsistent and giving in to the very fault he had reprobated. Plutarch was quite unabashed. Insisting he was perfectly calm, he invited the slave to continue the argument with him - in the same breath ordering the flogger to continue applying the lash._


----------



## Shippou-Sensei (Dec 30, 2004)

just purchased "kareshi kanojo no jijou"  volumes 1-8   FLCL volume 2   Magister Negi Magi volumes 1 and 2  and Miyuki-chan in wonderland

this should keep me going for a while


----------



## Roadkill (Dec 30, 2004)

Tony Benn's diaries - the single-volume version.

Maybe it's because this version is so heavily abridged, but I'm finding it a bit random and bitty and difficult to get into.  i'm not finding Benn as engaging a character as I expected either.  I'll try one of the full-length editions when i've finished this one and see if the fuller diaries are any better.


----------



## Dandred (Dec 31, 2004)

Treasure island, really really good


----------



## djtrees (Dec 31, 2004)

*two in one*

I stole a book from a mates the other day called "Powder" by kevin sampson I was only interested in it because its based in liverpool..ish and though it might be relatively enlightening what with him being The Farms manager. 

OOOOh how wrong was I even though me mate said it was shite i had to read it and jesus was he right it is possibly the worst book I have ever attempted to read, terrible plot, terrible writing, horrible characters....but I cant put it down. What is wrong with me? I hate it but dont want it to end! please save me!!!


On an altogether different tip today I bought kelly + victor by niall griffiths who is a fantastic writer as his previous books have shown (grits & sheepshagger) and this bad boy is no different. 

Boy meets girls but with added fucked upness. As Im only half way through I dont want to jinx it but I recommend it highly


phew thats all...honest


----------



## scumbalina (Dec 31, 2004)

The Tesseract, follow up to Alex Garland's The Beach. Seems cool so far..


----------



## steeplejack (Dec 31, 2004)

djtrees said:
			
		

> On an altogether different tip today I bought kelly + victor by niall griffiths who is a fantastic writer as his previous books have shown (grits & sheepshagger) and this bad boy is no different.
> 
> Boy meets girls but with added fucked upness. As Im only half way through I dont want to jinx it but I recommend it highly



Kevin Sampson is one of the most uneven writers ever. I think his first book, _Awaydays_, was pretty good, but I couldn't agree more that _Powder_ is terrible. His Scouse gangland books are utterly uneven; _[Outlaws_, the first, is excellent, but I think he wrote _Clubland_ whilst going through an internet porn phase- it can charitably be described as pisspoor.

_Grits_ is possibly one of the most under-rated novels of the 1990s- it;s an absolutely fantastic book. _Kelly + Victor_ needs a strong stomach to sit through though-- be interesting to hear what you think of it.


----------



## IntoStella (Dec 31, 2004)

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou


----------



## newharper (Dec 31, 2004)

just reread Candide, shit translation, cracking read, especially in the light of the Tsunami.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Dec 31, 2004)

newharper said:
			
		

> just reread Candide, shit translation


Not Wordsworth Classics by any chance?


----------



## vogonity (Dec 31, 2004)

Just finished I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe - the first Wolfe book, fiction or non-fiction, which I could have happily not bothered to finish. His powers of description are still among the best, but the story was disappointing, the characters thin and the ending his weakest ever.

Now starting on Fictions by Borges following wide recommendations.


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 31, 2004)

Ian Kershaw, Hitler, 1889 - 1936: Hubris (London: Penguin, 2001)


----------



## Shmu (Jan 1, 2005)

Just have to say "thank you" to Lemony Snicket for freeing me from Harry Potter boredom.

I find it hard to get time to read my own books these days and reading to the children can become a chore, but at the moment, we are doing "The Bad Beginning" and we have had a lovely Christmas break, chilling together with this well-written, charming book. Have to finish it before we can see the film - house rules.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 1, 2005)

vogonity said:
			
		

> Just finished I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe - the first Wolfe book, fiction or non-fiction, which I could have happily not bothered to finish.


Hostile review


----------



## dynamicbaddog (Jan 1, 2005)

Till Death by Ed Mcbain, my favourite crime author, got a load of his early stuff off e-bay before Christmas.


----------



## Dr. Furface (Jan 2, 2005)

Ham on Rye - Charles Bukowski
Chronicles Vol 1 - Bob Dylan
Feel - Robbie Williams


----------



## Firky (Jan 2, 2005)

post office (again) - bukowski
and the plague (again) - camus


----------



## Firky (Jan 2, 2005)

Dr. Furface said:
			
		

> Feel - Robbie Williams


----------



## IntoStella (Jan 2, 2005)

Shmu said:
			
		

> Just have to say "thank you" to Lemony Snicket for freeing me from Harry Potter boredom.


I'm sorry but Lemony Snicket is rubbish.  Well written?   Dreadful cliched stuff. Sorry. 

Just reread Charlotte's Web by EB White. Awww.


----------



## anfield (Jan 2, 2005)

_Hitler My Part In His Downfall_ - *Spike Milligan*

just finished..._Enemy Within - History of the British Communist Party_ *Francis Beckett*


----------



## In Bloom (Jan 3, 2005)

Just started _The Spanish Civil War_ by Anthony Beevor, is good stuff so far


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 3, 2005)

Yeah, but the baddies win in the end.


----------



## J77 (Jan 4, 2005)

*The Backroom Boys: The Secret Return of the British Boffin* by Francis Spufford.

Brilliant read about why the British are the best at everything


----------



## treefrog (Jan 4, 2005)

*Book of Illusions* by Paul Auster. maestrocloud lent it to me, started it last night. Seems quite good so far...


----------



## maya (Jan 5, 2005)

starting to read  *"Kallocain" by Karin Boye*,
 a dystopian sci-fi novel about a totalitarian state/mind control, in the vein of Orwell's "1984" and Huxley's "Brave New World"...written in 1940.
-it is said to be good... this is the only novel she wrote i think, she was first and foremost a poet, her poems were really good.


----------



## danae (Jan 5, 2005)

John Steinbeck, A Russian Journal, with photographs by Robert Capa, 1948.


----------



## IntoStella (Jan 5, 2005)

Samir Amin -- The Liberal Virus. 

Superb.


----------



## Throbbing Angel (Jan 5, 2005)

'The Restraint of Beasts' by Magnus Mills (again, s'v.good!!!!)


----------



## Joyceboy (Jan 5, 2005)

I've just started *'A Big Boy Did It & Ran Away' * by Christopher Bookmyre - and it has started very well, just hope it lasts....


I've just finished *'Vernon God Little*' which was absolutley excellent, recommended to anyone. Refreshing & vibrant storyline & brilliant & original use of language.


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Jan 5, 2005)

I'm reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Treasure Island; and Hitler 1936-45: Nemesis.

I'm supposed to be writing an essay on Green political communities too.


----------



## baldrick (Jan 5, 2005)

robert sabbag - smokescreen

bit unimpressed, really.  obviously smuggling is inherently cool, no matter if you've read exactly the same story in 'snowblind': man likes getting high, gets into smuggling so he can get high on the best stuff, meets lots of colombians, smuggles loads of drugs and gets rich, a move goes wrong and gets poor, repeat for 200 pages until the guy gets out of the business (well, i haven't got to that bit yet, but i imagine it's the case   ).

there are a few good parts in the narrative (mostly the "move goes wrong and gets poor" bits), but mostly it's fairly dry description of 70's drug smuggling and unless you're really interested in the mechanics of shifting planeloads of drugs without getting caught, i wouldn't bother.

next up: chomsky - hegemony or survival.

still reading (for about the 10th time) anthony swofford - jarhead: a soldier's story of modern war, probably the best book i've read all year.


----------



## kyser_soze (Jan 5, 2005)

Just finished:

The Algerbraist, Iain M Banks
Mary Shelley Biog, Muriel Spark

Currently reading:

Cannabis, Micheal Booth

The Algerbraist rocks, and any Culture fans should read it. It's a bit flabby in places (like Phlebas) but introduces his new, non-culture universe of the Mercatoria and sets up what I hope will be the first of several stories set in this universe.


----------



## maya (Jan 5, 2005)

*War! by knut nærum*
-a political satire on the Iraq war, in which norway goes to war against the netherlands after a diplomatic dispute involving a rather random and mundane quarrelling-accident between competing ice-skaters...


----------



## Divisive Cotton (Jan 5, 2005)

Still reading Q by Luther Blisset! I've become quite interested in this historical period now and have just ordered Reformation by Diarmaid MacCulloch which covers the period from 1500 - 1700 quite well apparently.


----------



## Hollis (Jan 5, 2005)

Bob Dylan - Chronicles - its superb!


----------



## jms (Jan 5, 2005)

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathon Swift


----------



## quoque (Jan 6, 2005)

hmm, have you got the book in front of you?
i'm reaading deadkidsongs by toby litt. youthful violence






			
				jms said:
			
		

> Gulliver's Travels by Jonathon Swift


----------



## chegrimandi (Jan 9, 2005)

just finished Intimacy by Hanif Kureishi....

its a bit um bleak about relationships    but a good read nonetheless, v.honest....


----------



## han (Jan 9, 2005)

I'm reading 'Touching the Void' - amazing true climbing story of survival....and 'Mi Moto Fidel' - a travel book about this bloke motorcycling around Cuba...and 'Automated Alice' - this month's U75 bookgroup book 

All ace!


----------



## madzone (Jan 9, 2005)

I'm reading Mists of Avalon again. I'm nearly finished but it won't be a problem as I'm so cognitively challenged at the moment that by the time I've read it I'll have forgotten what it was about and be able to read it again


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 9, 2005)

jms said:
			
		

> Gulliver's Travels by Jonathon Swift


Brilliant book, but you do have to keep an eye on the footnotes to follow it properly.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 10, 2005)

Throbbing Angel said:
			
		

> 'The Restraint of Beasts' by Magnus Mills (again, s'v.good!!!!)


Candidate for best title ever, looks like a possible quote from Shakespeare or someone, but upon reading it, the explanation for the title turns out to be be more straight forward. Fantastic book.

Just read Cows by Matthew Stokoe, which is the sickest, nastiest book I've ever read - it's just so so wrong.
On the go:
The Adventure Of English by Melvyn Bragg - entertaining but rather schoolmasterly.
Ricky - Ricky Tomlinson - only just started this, but seems refreshingly honest for showbiz autobiography
How To Be Idle - Tom Hodgkinson - brilliant, more justifications for staying in bed, citing some very respectable sources.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 10, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> How To Be Idle - Tom Hodgkinson


I was going to read it but I can't be bothered.


----------



## oisleep (Jan 10, 2005)

Nationalisms: the nation state and nationalism in the 20thc, Montserrat Guibernau

Seems like a fairly gently, easily read introduction to the main theories behind it all


----------



## marshall (Jan 10, 2005)

My First Two Thousand Years - Viereck and Eldridge

It's the autobiography of The Wandering Jew - and it's great, first read it 20 years ago, but picked it up again yesterday and it's still a real oddity.


----------



## Herbert Read (Jan 10, 2005)

*Book*

Granny made me an anarchist by Stuart Christie

Worth reading funny, witty and scary that an 18 year old glasweigian could attempt to murder general franco in 70s spain and survive.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 10, 2005)

Sympathetic review


----------



## purplekitty (Jan 10, 2005)

I've just finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.
Couldn't put it down once I'd started it.
I thought it was a beautiful, brilliant, flawed love story.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 10, 2005)

Herbert Read said:
			
		

> Granny made me an anarchist



How? Did she knit him from wool?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 10, 2005)

I'm reading the Christie book too. I've found it a bit leaden so far, but I've just got to the Spain chapter so it's picking up.

Just finished How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered The World by Francis Wheen. An entertaining enough rant, but there's nothing new and it's very unfocused. A columnist's book I guess.


----------



## j6ango1977 (Jan 10, 2005)

Just started reading 'Planet SImpson' a Thesus on how 'The Simpsons' has defined our society. seems a cool read up to now


----------



## jayeola (Jan 11, 2005)

Eric Stevens Raymond (ESR), The Art of Unix Programming.

forgot to add...
Oh yeah, I've finished reading "Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson. QUite a good book. So far he's been a consistently good sci-fi writer. Diamond age, snow crash and crypticomnicom.... are there any others?


----------



## J77 (Jan 11, 2005)

The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart.

It's good.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Jan 11, 2005)

Jarhead by Anthony Swofford.

Its interesting but not amazing.


----------



## Brainaddict (Jan 11, 2005)

The New Puritans - book of short stories came out a few years ago. Some of them are good, some not. It's a gimmick collection - some 'manifesto' at the beginning for a new purity in writing. Whatever.

I think I should warn people that if I go in for a medical trial tomorrow I'm going to be on this thread (well, every thread) a lot - I read almost a book a day on another trial...


----------



## smile injection (Jan 11, 2005)

Managed to finish Post Mortem by Ben Elton and One Child by Torey Hayden, (true story about a disturbed child helped by a teacher...pretty moving) in 3 days

this is why I am going to fail my exam


----------



## MightyAphrodite (Jan 11, 2005)

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents: America the Book
A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction


by:Jon Stewart 

hes quite funny.


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Jan 11, 2005)

My bookclub decided to read War and Peace.  200 pages later.....

<sigh>


----------



## Firky (Jan 11, 2005)

nick mason - inside out


----------



## diond (Jan 11, 2005)

*Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction*. I don't care, I've got all the books since *The Secret Diary.*


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 12, 2005)

finally finished Giles Foden's last King of Scotland, which was great.

then read Jonathan Coe's Touch Of Love, which was shite, frankly./. but a very early book so i guess he just got much better at it 

and now i'm just getting into Rupert Thomson's Five gates Of Hell. an odd experience for me because i've never heard of the book or even the author and i don't know a thing about it, even what genre it is, and usually i'm full of preconceptions..


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 12, 2005)

Yuwipi Woman said:
			
		

> My bookclub decided to read War and Peace.  200 pages later.....


I got this as a book prize at school when I was seventeen.

I've still not read it.


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Jan 12, 2005)

My book group have got to on the go:

'Veronika Decides to Die' - Paulo Coelho

and in major contrast,

'Crime and Punishment' - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I've been wanting to read this big daddy for yonks, but was always put off by its forboding reputation. Bollocks I'm 100 pages in and it's one of the best books I've read. Fantastic writing and very accessible.


----------



## ch750536 (Jan 12, 2005)

Firky said:
			
		

> nick mason - inside out



Any good?

I met him at an inside out party once, case of 'nice kidney, shame about the colon'.


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Jan 12, 2005)

Justin said:
			
		

> I got this as a book prize at school when I was seventeen.
> 
> I've still not read it.



A hundred pages later, I'm thinking it's going to be an ok read.  Once I got over being intimidated I was fine.  Stay away from the Barnes and Noble (Constance Garnett trans.) edition.  I switched to the Signet edition and have been better off.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 12, 2005)

Yuwipi Woman said:
			
		

> (Constance Garnett trans.) edition.


Ah, "Nonsense Constance". I've twice failed to wade through her mudlike rendering of _The Idiot_.


----------



## jd (Jan 12, 2005)

jayeola said:
			
		

> Eric Stevens Raymond (ESR), The Art of Unix Programming.
> 
> forgot to add...
> Oh yeah, I've finished reading "Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson. QUite a good book. So far he's been a consistently good sci-fi writer. Diamond age, snow crash and crypticomnicom.... are there any others?



Cryptonomicon isn't a sci-fi book by any stretch... he seems to have a number of styles.  Zodiac is quite good, a sort of environmental thriller, bit more like Snow Crash than Cryptonom.  There's also Quicksilver and others in the series, about the Enligtenment.

Oh, and Interface, about world power and brain implants.


----------



## djtrees (Jan 12, 2005)

*Kelly + Victor*




			
				steeplejack said:
			
		

> Kevin Sampson is one of the most uneven writers ever. I think his first book, _Awaydays_, was pretty good, but I couldn't agree more that _Powder_ is terrible. His Scouse gangland books are utterly uneven; _[Outlaws_, the first, is excellent, but I think he wrote _Clubland_ whilst going through an internet porn phase- it can charitably be described as pisspoor.
> 
> _Grits_ is possibly one of the most under-rated novels of the 1990s- it;s an absolutely fantastic book. _Kelly + Victor_ needs a strong stomach to sit through though-- be interesting to hear what you think of it.


Yeah i really liked it I was going to put enjoyed but I don't think that's the right word. It was weird reading it after the Sampson one which although not the same was set in similar places and kind of had similar characters, but was done really really badly, whereas Kelly + Victor got everything spot on.


----------



## kalidarkone (Jan 12, 2005)

OOH Northen lights-Philip Pullman -Its ace!!! nearly finished, cant wait to get the next one!!!  

I happiest when I have a book I cant put down!!!


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Jan 12, 2005)

Justin said:
			
		

> Ah, "Nonsense Constance". I've twice failed to wade through her mudlike rendering of _The Idiot_.



I'm glad I'm not the only one.  I understand that the edition of W&P to get is the "Marr" translation.  This was done by a man who actually knew Tolstoy and they communicated on it's proper meaning.

I wonder how much damage "nonsense constance" has done.  Most of the editions of russian classics that I've seen have been from her.  No wonder everyone thinks they are difficult.


----------



## behemoth (Jan 12, 2005)

Anyone else read _The Line of Beauty_ by Alan Hollinghurst?


----------



## liberty (Jan 12, 2005)

The Curious Incident


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 13, 2005)

Thomas Frank - _What's The Matter With America?_


----------



## clandestino (Jan 13, 2005)

pickwick papers. 

i'm enjoying it immensely so far. such eloquent sarcasm!


----------



## sandman (Jan 13, 2005)

I found Henry Beard's _X-treme Latin_ very funny!
How do you say in Latin:_Your mother is so fat, when she's in town, Rome has eight hills?_  or _Wassup?_  or (I love this one-it strikes a dulcet tone!) _Due to global warming, my homework spontaneously combusted!_


----------



## Harold Shand (Jan 13, 2005)

Frederick Exley. A Fan's Notes

Love the sound of X-treme LAtin.

My favourite Latin phrase is "mea mater est mala sus"

which means "My mother is a wicked pig" or "Run, mother, the pig is eating apples". Neat, huh?


----------



## sandman (Jan 13, 2005)

Harold Shand said:
			
		

> Frederick Exley. A Fan's Notes
> 
> Love the sound of X-treme LAtin.
> 
> ...


Poor mother!
She cops some bad lines!
Why is that?  Why are there no "bad, fat, ugly, farty father" jokes?
At least I don't know any... probably because I'm a father?


----------



## MarkMark (Jan 13, 2005)

The Childrens Stories of Oscar Wilde


----------



## Elpenor (Jan 13, 2005)

behemoth said:
			
		

> Anyone else read _The Line of Beauty_ by Alan Hollinghurst?



Yes. I have.

Currently finding it hard to concentrate on reading so been rereading a few things by Evelyn Waugh (Scoop, Put Out More Flags). Funny and easy to read.


----------



## al-balad (Jan 13, 2005)

"Total Immersion" by Terry Laughlin  - which is nothing to do with one of the the London "acid" techno sounds, but is in fact a book which is supposed to help me swim better. I *will* do that triathlon one day... <sigh>


----------



## Brainaddict (Jan 13, 2005)

Just read Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut - not one of his best, but okay, and definitely one of his most depressing.

Just started LIfe: A users manual by Perec. I'll have it done within a month, I swear.


----------



## sandman (Jan 14, 2005)

Brainaddict said:
			
		

> Just read Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut - not one of his best, but okay, and definitely one of his most depressing.
> 
> Just started LIfe: A users manual by Perec. I'll have it done within a month, I swear.



Good luck with that one, Brainaddict!
It's a hard and meaningless slog!  Just could not allow myself the waste of time and brain space for it! I found it was clogged with just too many incomprehensible and valueless sentences...

Has anyone read anything by Proust? Perec reminded me of him. Also an enormously difficult book(s) which take you around a meaningless and vacuous existence, through the tool of memory, sparked off by the dunking of a biscuit in a cup of tea.  Great idea but after that little episode it was like reading through the fog of some sleep disorder, or drugs or something.  Kept losing my spot and found out that it didn't matter!  Volumes and volumes of "so what?"

But if you're thinking about reading it don't let me put you off it.  It has been considered as a legitimate and great (even) piece of Literature  and one which should be read with care.  It's just that I found that I don't particularly care...


----------



## Brainaddict (Jan 14, 2005)

lol sandman, I appreciate the warning - I also find there are some books where I don't care enough these days. We shall see.


----------



## Swearing Nonna (Jan 14, 2005)

MarkMark said:
			
		

> The Childrens Stories of Oscar Wilde



awww The Selfish Giant - it was my fav story to read the kids when they were little   

Just finished Whistling for the Elephants - Sandi Toksvic - it was ok, not a great read.

About to start The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks


----------



## polly (Jan 14, 2005)

mango5 said:
			
		

> Now working through _The London Pigeon Wars_ by Patrick Neate.



Ooh me too. Not sure about it yet though, preferred the others so far but like the bird language and all the references to west London, being somewhat parochial... 

Also about to embark on Stalin by Robert Service, but somehow it never seems to be the right time...not when there is a kitchen floor to scrub


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 14, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> finally finished Giles Foden's last King of Scotland, which was great.
> 
> then read Jonathan Coe's Touch Of Love, which was shite, frankly./. but a very early book so i guess he just got much better at it
> 
> and now i'm just getting into Rupert Thomson's Five gates Of Hell. an odd experience for me because i've never heard of the book or even the author and i don't know a thing about it, even what genre it is, and usually i'm full of preconceptions..


That Idi Amin book is class. Hos other one Ladysmith ain't bad too, but it's hard to sympathise with the beleaguered residents' plight.
Is Touch Of Love the very short one about the stalker?
If so, it was a bit pony for Coe, but still pretty good.
I've read Thompson's Book Of Revelation, which is pretty disturbing stuff about a bloke's kidnapping by a group of strange women.


I've just read Cows by Matthew Stokoe, which is probably the vilest, most offensive novel I've ever read. 
I'm now reading The Adventure Of English by Melvin Bouffant Bragg - anecdotes galore but rather school masterly.
Also got Ricky Tomlinson's autobiography for Xmas so I'm gonna dip into that soon. 
I'm also reading How To Be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson which is ace cos it gives me lots of emotional and intellectual ammo in my self-justification for being a lazy dissolute slob.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 14, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I'm also reading How To Be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson which is ace cos it gives me lots of emotional and intellectual ammo in my self-justification for being a lazy dissolute slob.



excellent book. i've got a few more - Why Work? and another Idler spin-off called the Idler's Companion. 

that, and all but two issues of the Idler itself of course


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 14, 2005)

I've never read it, could never be arsed to go to central London to find it.
Oh the irony.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 14, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I've never read it, could never be arsed to go to central London to find it.
> Oh the irony.



hence the fact they went out of business twice at least 

the irony isn't lost on them, i'm sure


----------



## colbhoy (Jan 14, 2005)

Just started Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, wanted to read it for years and got it for Christmas. Promising so far.


----------



## sandman (Jan 15, 2005)

colbhoy said:
			
		

> Just started Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, wanted to read it for years and got it for Christmas. Promising so far.


An excellent book.  Stuck with me for...over 40 years.  There's a scene where a priest talks to a young man and asks him if he, the priest had caused that young man any damage.  The moment I walked into my first class as a teacher, that scene smacked me on the forehead.  How much damage would I be causing these poor kids; and now that I'm retired and people approach me and ask me if I remember them and chat with me, I get to ask the same question:"Have I caused you any damage?"   My relief when they say "no" is palpable... until they add, "except to me brain, a bit!" But then they laugh!
Read it, Colbhoy! 
Some wonderful advice in there! Rosasharn?  Was that her name? (Rose of Sharron?)
You MUST read also, of course, Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men and whatever else you can find from that era, the best that America had ever had, in terms of Lit.
Cheers!
George


----------



## colbhoy (Jan 15, 2005)

sandman said:
			
		

> You MUST read also, of course, Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men and whatever else you can find from that era, the best that America had ever had, in terms of Lit.
> Cheers!
> George



I have actually read both of these, Of Mice and Men is a classic (studied it at school - so not all school reading was a chore!).  

Thanks for your response.


----------



## steeplejack (Jan 15, 2005)

Yuwipi Woman said:
			
		

> I'm glad I'm not the only one.  I understand that the edition of W&P to get is the "Marr" translation.  This was done by a man who actually knew Tolstoy and they communicated on it's proper meaning.



Louise & Aylmer Maude's translation is the one Tolstoy finally approved of, according to Wordsworth Classic's edition of _War & Peace_...

...Constance Garnett was a Bloomsbury Group snobbish charlatan, anyway, no? As I remember the Bloomsburies spent so much time being 'affected' by the 'beautiful states of mind' that Dostoyevsky/Tolstoy left them in, that when they came to articulating said 'beautifulo state of mind' it turned out to be specious and relativistic drivel....


----------



## sandman (Jan 15, 2005)

Has anyone mentioned James Joyces'  "Ulysses?" and if not why not?  How can you read any other book before you read that one?  

I've read all the stuff by Tolstoy (I think) and by Dostoyevsky but never come across Marr's or Louise & Aylmer Maude's or Constance Garnett's translation.

What thoughts have you of Moravia? I know that's going back a bit and his books might seem a little stodgy and arduous by modern standards but in my time one savoured all the intellectual foreplay before one got to the "climax" or peak of the plot.  One demanded a long journey through the mazes of each character and through the mazes of all the characters and their thoughts before the book ended.  The "Empty Canvas" was one of the first "modern lit." books I read at the time.  This is after the Zolas and Dostoyevskys and Dickenses and Gides and Balzacs, Tolstoys, etc were swept under the bridge of adolescence.

I've just picked up again a book which, unfortunately, you might find hard to purchase. Wu Ching-Tzu's _The Scholars_.  It's an absolutely stunning, mesmerising book about a man who's trying to pass his Chinese Language exams (pictograms by the thousands) during the Ming Dynasty (14th-17th C) so that he may enter the great Mandarin institutions.
Simply brillant.  The first printing was in '57 and the one I've got is of '73.  This one was printed in the People's Republic of China and the translators are Yang Hsien-Yi and Gladys Yang.  It is, as they say, one of those "unputdownable" books and really worth the search.  I found mine in a second-hand bookshop.
Good luck.


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Jan 18, 2005)

I've just finished Paulo Coehlo's Veronika Decides to Die. Yawn. The guy is obsessed with getting his eponymous heroine to masturbate! Weird.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 18, 2005)

Ah, it's a little better than that as I recall. As often in fiction though (see for instance Martin Amis' _Night Train_) the reason for the suicide attempt is very far from convincing.


----------



## akirajoel (Jan 18, 2005)

Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle.

Really, really good so far. Used to be really into Vonnegut and i'm starting to wonder why i ever went away...

Its cool working in a bookshop - getting discounts...


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 18, 2005)

sandman said:
			
		

> Has anyone mentioned James Joyces'  "Ulysses?" and if not why not?  How can you read any other book before you read that one?



is that not a rather grandiose, if not actually patronising, statement?


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 18, 2005)

akirajoel said:
			
		

> Its cool working in a bookshop - getting discounts...


It also works if you have a mate working in a bookshop!



			
				Dubversion said:
			
		

> is that not a rather grandiose, if not actually patronising, statement?


Not with the attached smiley, surely?


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 18, 2005)

Justin said:
			
		

> Not with the attached smiley, surely?



the 'cool' smiley wouldn't imply irony or anything though, surely?


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 18, 2005)

It did seem to imply a lack of complete seriousness. Possibly an inaccurate smiley choice?


----------



## Jenerys (Jan 18, 2005)

I'm reading Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad at the mo

Finding it very hard to see any similarity between it and Apocalypse Now. Except there being a guy called Kurtz in it


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 18, 2005)

LilJen said:
			
		

> I'm reading Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad at the mo
> 
> Finding it very hard to see any similarity between it and Apocalypse Now. Except there being a guy called Kurtz in it



there is a correlation, but Coppola was fairly loose with it..


----------



## sandman (Jan 18, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> is that not a rather grandiose, if not actually patronising, statement?


Dub, I'm beginning to feel that my sense of humour is considerably different to the members of this forum.  Somehow my sarcasm is turned into "patronising" or "condescending" or something else equally as odious.  
Let me assure you that nothing is further from the truth.
...It's a joke  
...I would have thought that "Ulysses" is such a particular type of book which would require an "aquired taste."   Difficult syntax, difficult expression, hugely broad compass. Not everyone's cup of tea.  I would have loved to discuss it though but I think I'll stay clear of any discussions for a while, at least until I get to know folks a bit better!


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 18, 2005)

text does not always convey humour well, sandman. the 'tone' you hear in your head as you type may not come across

smilies help, but not if you use the wrong one


----------



## kyser_soze (Jan 18, 2005)

LilJen said:
			
		

> I'm reading Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad at the mo
> 
> Finding it very hard to see any similarity between it and Apocalypse Now. Except there being a guy called Kurtz in it



Travelling up the river, the journey for both central characters being not just a journey into the 'heart of darkness' of Kurtz, but also themselves, the whole issue of the 'White God of the Natives'...God, my A-Level Eng lit is coming back to me...

Currently reading 'Hegemony or Survival. America's Quest for Global Dominance' by Mr Chomsky...bit of an updated/condensed version of Deterring Democracy, but a lot more accesible than DD IMVHO.


----------



## Elpenor (Jan 18, 2005)

Got American Psycho in my bag. Not got it out of my bag on the bus yet though.

Also got a guide to the Kennet and Avon canal out of the library in preparation for my walking it nonstop next week.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 18, 2005)

If you _do_ stop, do you have to go back to the beginning and start again?


----------



## kyser_soze (Jan 18, 2005)

G'wan...get it out, go straight to 'Bethany' and start making satisfied noises...


----------



## Elpenor (Jan 18, 2005)

Justin said:
			
		

> If you _do_ stop, do you have to go back to the beginning and start again?



More than likely I'll be in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night so the plan is not to stop.


----------



## behemoth (Jan 18, 2005)

Elpenor said:
			
		

> Yes. I have.
> 
> Currently finding it hard to concentrate on reading so been rereading a few things by Evelyn Waugh (Scoop, Put Out More Flags). Funny and easy to read.


That was a reply to my question about "The Line of Beauty" by Alan Hollinghurst.

I though it was a great satire on a certain attitude and section of society in Thatcher's Britain. Although far from being a definitive account, as many people worked very hard and did OK for themselves.

My problem came when discussing it with my new reading group who are "of a certain age". The woman next to me kept going on about how she couldn't read beyond the first disgusting gay sex scene.

Should I be more tolerant to an older generation's prejudice? Or just try to find a different group more on my wavelength? Couldn't help wondering why they read it in the first place.


----------



## rubbershoes (Jan 19, 2005)

Currently reading _The Big Thaw_ by Donald Harstad. 

Who?

Donald Harstad is  a policeman in Iowa and the book is a police thriller, set in Iowa.They're dealing with some nutjob survivalists. It's surprisingly interesting considering it's very detailed about police procedure. 

Just finished  _Enduring Love_ by Ian McEwan. Very good but the last page almost ruins it


----------



## Pie 1 (Jan 19, 2005)

I've just finished Generation X for the 1st time. Loved it & was releived at how relevent most of it still felt.

Just about to take a deep breath and start Don DeLillo's Underworld.


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Jan 20, 2005)

I'm now reading short sci-fi stories collected in 'Alternate Empires'. They're alright.


----------



## kyser_soze (Jan 20, 2005)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> I've just finished Generation X for the 1st time. Loved it & was releived at how relevent most of it still felt.
> 
> Just about to take a deep breath and start Don DeLillo's Underworld.



Good to hear you liked Gen X Pie - has it given you a taste for more of Couplands stuff or are you already a fan?

And good luck with Underworld...I'm thinking about making a second attempt later this year...


----------



## Pie 1 (Jan 20, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> Good to hear you liked Gen X Pie - has it given you a taste for more of Couplands stuff or are you already a fan?



Becoming a fan fast. 
Girlfriend In A Coma was the taster, which I thought was without question, the mutts nuts.


----------



## chooch (Jan 20, 2005)

Just finished a fairly unimpressive environmental screed called _Powerdown_- decent analysis in parts, daft prescriptions in parts: could almost hear the satisfied grunts as he condemned the unholy to an existence that's solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.
Now reading Luther Blissett _Q_. Liking it a lot.


----------



## kyser_soze (Jan 20, 2005)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> Becoming a fan fast.
> Girlfriend In A Coma was the taster, which I thought was without question, the mutts nuts.



I must be the only Coupland fan in the WORLD who doesn't like 'Girlfriend...'

Miss Wyoming probably my fave...hmm..I feel an appeciation thread coming on...


----------



## chooch (Jan 20, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> I must be the only Coupland fan in the WORLD who doesn't like 'Girlfriend...'


My least favourite too.


----------



## bluestreak (Jan 20, 2005)

really.  i love it.

the one i like least was all families are psychotic. but i still like it.

currently trying to read kit marlowe to try and get my brain working again.  but reading elizabethan plays isn't very easy sometimes.


----------



## Jenerys (Jan 20, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> Travelling up the river, the journey for both central characters being not just a journey into the 'heart of darkness' of Kurtz, but also themselves, the whole issue of the 'White God of the Natives'...God, my A-Level Eng lit is coming back to me...


Yeah, can kind of agree with the heart of darkness of Kurtz, tho most of that is implied - 'cept all the heads on sticks of course   

But of themselves? Kyser, If you remember more from your Eng Lit classes, would love to hear it, cos I am studying right now in relation to a class I am taking on Violence. And it makes no sense to me right now


----------



## IntoStella (Jan 20, 2005)

Finished Foucault's Pendulum last night. It has been giving me very odd dreams. 

About to start Jonathan Coe's The Rotters' Club


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 20, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> I must be the only Coupland fan in the WORLD who doesn't like 'Girlfriend...'
> 
> Miss Wyoming probably my fave...hmm..I feel an appeciation thread coming on...




i've already started about 3 appreciation threads.. and didn't really like Miss Wyoming, my second least favourite after the dreadful All Families are Psychotic (the only one i actively disliked).. 

for me it probably runs

Life After God
Girlfriend In A Coma
Hey Nostradamus
Generation X
Microserfs
Eleanor Rigby
Shampoo Planet
Miss Wyoming
All Families Are Psychotic

or something like that.. but all apart from the last are fantastic one way or another


----------



## kropotkin (Jan 20, 2005)

Reading "Storming Heaven: Class Composition and Struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism" at the minute. Quite interesting, despite the irritating academicese language.


----------



## kyser_soze (Jan 20, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> i've already started about 3 appreciation threads.. and didn't really like Miss Wyoming, my second least favourite after the dreadful All Families are Psychotic (the only one i actively disliked)..
> 
> for me it probably runs
> 
> ...



What's Elenor Rigby like? I've been tempted but...

I'm just a bog softy at heart, which is why I like Wyoming so much, and agree with you on Nostradamus - the first section especially. First time i read it I was THERE under the table waiting to be shot.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 20, 2005)

Just grabbed Anna Funder's Stasiland, Haruki Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase, and Alasdair Gray's Lanark.

IS - you'll love The Rotters' Club.
Anyone read the 'sequel' yet?
I think it's called The Closed Circle or summat.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 20, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Alasdair Gray's Lanark.



just never really got that... made it to the end, but i was left a bit 





			
				Orang Utan said:
			
		

> .
> Anyone read the 'sequel' yet?
> I think it's called The Closed Circle or summat.



got it, but not started yet.. might wait till after the rotters club is on tv this month..


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 20, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> got it, but not started yet.. might wait till after the rotters club is on tv this month..


  It's on the telly?


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 20, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> It's on the telly?



yes, they've started trailing it already. brilliant book.. very odd for furvert and ouchmonkey, because it was so unbelievably specific to where they grew up - Lickey Hills etc.


----------



## Elpenor (Jan 20, 2005)

Elpenor said:
			
		

> Got American Psycho in my bag. Not got it out of my bag on the bus yet though.



Finding this hard to put down at the moment. Glad I got it out of the bag 

I thought The Closed Circle wasn't as good as The Rotters Club, but still liked it. Looking forward to the TV adaptation.

And Coupland rules. Anyone noticed that 'Elizabeth Dunn' (the main character in Eleanor Rigby) is also one of the names that Microserfs is dedicated too, and also the name of the Thora Birch character in The Hole. That third part may be coincidence, but the Coupland connection surely can't...


----------



## agata (Jan 21, 2005)

I m reading "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" - Hunter S. thompson ---Brilliant!!!!!!!!!


----------



## Brainaddict (Jan 21, 2005)

NOtes from underground - dostoyevsky - having trouble dealing with the whining tone at the moment but will persevere.


----------



## IntoStella (Jan 22, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> IS - you'll love The Rotters' Club.
> Anyone read the 'sequel' yet?
> I think it's called The Closed Circle or summat.


 You will never guess what I've done. I am SO. STUPID. My brain has officially turned to mush.

Started reading The Rotters' Club and realised with a horrible sinking feeling, about half a page in, _that I have already read it_.  

God, I must be losing my mind. I am sure I don't own a copy (well, it would be two copies now), so I can only imagine that I borrowed it from the library not long after it came out, in 2001 or early 2002. What a twonk. 

Still, all is not lost. I am happy to read it again and glad I've got a copy. Also, it's good to refresh my obviously rubbish memory before reading The Closed Circle. I only wish my copy didn't have the TV series tie-in cover. I hate those. 

(In truth I've done this before. I have two copies of Nicola Barker's Five Miles From Outer Hope but at least I got those cheap from charity/second hand shops.)

BTW Anyone read Murakami's Kafka on the Shore yet?  Is it out? 

PS Orang Utan -- will ya quit it with liking the same books as me?  Lanark is AWESOME.  A huge influence on Iain Banks, I reckon.


----------



## Brainaddict (Jan 22, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> You will never guess what I've done. I am SO. STUPID. My brain has officially turned to mush.
> 
> Started reading The Rotters' Club and realised with a horrible sinking feeling, about half a page in, _that I have already read it_.
> 
> God, I must be losing my mind.



I've only done this about twenty times. My brain has always been mush 



Edited to clarify that no, it wasn't the Rotters' Club every time


----------



## Elpenor (Jan 22, 2005)

Currently balancing American Psycho with The Perfect Distance - the story of the Seb Coe / Steve Ovett rivalry. Fascinating stuff about two equally brilliant and vastly different athletes.


----------



## Zimri (Jan 22, 2005)

Hitlers War - Germanys Key Strategic Decisions 1940-1945

Damned history coursework


----------



## Shmu (Jan 23, 2005)

Tend to get a bit behind the times and don't have time to check this entire thread, so maybe this one's been raised earlier...

But, I just read "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time". Best book I've read in ages, although serious problems not crying on the train. Anyone else read this? Could anyone not think it's fantastic?

After this, made the terrible mistake of grabbing "Forget you had a daughter" at the train station - no choosing time, as running for a train and needing something because of a 7 hour journey. Once I'd started reading it, it was like a prison sentence in itself - so horribly nightmarish, that I couldn't put it down until the poor woman had been released from prison, but it really brought me down (shit writing style and structure too). Don't read this book - although I even feel bad posting this, as I wish this woman all the good fortune in the world.


----------



## nadoya (Jan 23, 2005)

Curious Incident - great book, good holiday read, although, having said that, my mum read it when we were last on holiday and she now goes around accusing everyone or suspecting herself of being autistic. 

Hmmph.

Currently reading 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' - James Joyce, and some Hemingway short stories. 

Not sure how I feel about Hemingway - I know he's the master of 'lean text', but I think perhaps I like my books with a little less restrain. I just feel sometimes like he's wasting far too much energy not telling his reader what he wants to say. I suppose he should be applauded for perfecting selfish writing - and I mean that as a good thing - he seems to write for no audience at all.


----------



## marty21 (Jan 23, 2005)

the new dirk bogarde biography, very interesting stuff..


----------



## maya (Jan 23, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> I only wish my copy didn't have the TV series tie-in cover. I hate those.


...Yeah,me too...it's intensely annoying/embarassing...


----------



## Shmu (Jan 23, 2005)

nadoya said:
			
		

> Curious Incident - great book, good holiday read, although, having said that, my mum read it when we were last on holiday and she now goes around accusing everyone or suspecting herself of being autistic.



Yeah, definitely has this drawback - my middle boy has similar food attitudes to young Christopher and a similar lack of control of his reactions to things and although there are so many aspects of him that are distinctly un-autistic, I keep having moments of doubt...

Not sure if that's the nature of the book or the nature of finding out about any pyschological or physical conditions though.


----------



## Shmu (Jan 23, 2005)

baby face said:
			
		

> have just fineshed *sandra gregorys - forget u had a daughter * which i highley recomend, proper shocking tale of girl who trys smuggling from thailand , gets caught and tells u all about the conditions of thai jails and then hollaway and other british jails.
> Its well    and



Just did a quick search to see if anyone else had read this, as I wanted to know what you thought. 

The book traumatised me - I couldn't put it down, not because it was good, but because I couldn't bear not to have the happy ending, but the process of reading it was gruelling and it haunted me for a while afterwards.

I think it affected me so badly because it really was a case of "there but for the grace of (no) God, go I". It's just the sort of stupid thing I might have done in my late teens in search of an "experience".


----------



## Brainaddict (Jan 23, 2005)

just read South of the Border, West of the Sun by Murakami - quite liked it for its anti-romanticism.


----------



## catch (Jan 23, 2005)

Just finished: Arshinov's History of the Makhnovist Movement

Just started: The Third Revolution, Popular Movements in the Revolutionary Era (vol. 1), by Murray Bookchin


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Jan 24, 2005)

Just starting Percival Everett's 'Glyph' about a baby who reads poststructuralist philosophy. V. good so far. (Check out 'Erasure' by the same author, it's bloody brill).


----------



## milesy (Jan 24, 2005)

"all crews - a journey though jungle/drum and bass culture" by brian belle-fortune. a wicked book aboout jungle drum n bass and all it's facets written by someone who started off as a punter but got quite heavily involved in it all. totally recommend it to anyone who is interedted in the music and the scene. it's an updated version, the book originally only covered up until 1998/1999 but it now covers the scene right up until the late part of 2004.

i got in on friday and have very nearly finished it, which for me is a rare thing to do. i've been trying to read "white teeth" for the last six months and am not even half way through


----------



## sorearm (Jan 24, 2005)

Freedom in Exile by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The bookseller of Kabul, and starting The buddah of suburbia after only reading half years ago (its so goddam funny and still reads 'fresh', turns of phrase are very clevery done ha h)


----------



## smile injection (Jan 24, 2005)

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, good but rather depressing


----------



## steeplejack (Jan 24, 2005)

having finished the _Man without Qualities_, I;ve got a few pages left of politkovskaya on Putin to finish. After that, it's the next in my weirdly developing Austro-Hungarian novel season:


----------



## IntoStella (Jan 24, 2005)

The Name of The Rose, which, serendipitously, I found a copy of behind Mrs M's sofa.


----------



## IntoStella (Jan 24, 2005)

Brainaddict said:
			
		

> just read South of the Border, West of the Sun by Murakami - quite liked it for its anti-romanticism.


I haven't been able to find a copy of that anywhere -- could I borry it off you? 

I could lend you some other Murakami if there's any I've got that you haven't read.  Have you read Hard Boiled Wonderland?


----------



## Pickman's model (Jan 24, 2005)

just finished a biography of omar khyyam, onto sally ledger and scott mccracken (eds) cultural politics at the fin de siecle (cambridge: cambridge university press, 1995)


----------



## IntoStella (Jan 24, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> just finished a biography of omar khyyam


Oh cool. 

(Waits for someone to make obvious 'so good he bought the company' joke).


----------



## onemonkey (Jan 24, 2005)

Brainaddict said:
			
		

> just read South of the Border, West of the Sun by Murakami - quite liked it for its anti-romanticism.


all that time on your hands and that the best you can do for a book review ?  

and what did you think of Life: A user's manual. ?




			
				IntoStella said:
			
		

> BTW Anyone read Murakami's Kafka on the Shore yet? Is it out?


it is out but i am too busy with homework to be able to read it 

something to look forward to for february


----------



## onemonkey (Jan 24, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> just finished a biography of omar khyyam


ooh, is it worth borrowing? 

if so, can i borrow it?


----------



## Pickman's model (Jan 24, 2005)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> ooh, is it worth borrowing?
> 
> if so, can i borrow it?


i'll show it you at the next bookgroup.


----------



## treefrog (Jan 24, 2005)

*The Right Stuff* by Tom Wolfe

I am a closet space junkie and Pete Conrad is my idol. OK, him and Yeager, but Conrad especially. What do you mean you've never heard of him?


----------



## Bucephalus (Jan 24, 2005)

ck said:
			
		

> I'm reading "By Myself" by Lauren Bacall ; it's very good than-you very much.
> 
> What about you ?


_The Algebraist_ by Iain M. Banks (a non-Culture SF novel).


----------



## MarkMark (Jan 24, 2005)

The Magicians Nephew. CS Lewis.
(Book #1 of the Narnia Chronicles)


----------



## Brainaddict (Jan 24, 2005)

Bucephalus said:
			
		

> _The Algebraist_ by Iain M. Banks (a non-Culture SF novel).


 that's on my shelf - is it any good compared to the culture stuff?

just finished LIfe: a users manual

it has been a companionable read


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Jan 25, 2005)

Finished Percival Everett's 'Glyph' yesterday.

Now reading Kim Stanley Robinson's 'Green Mars'


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 25, 2005)

MarkMark said:
			
		

> The Magicians Nephew. CS Lewis.
> (Book #1 of the Narnia Chronicles)


Depends how you count them, doesn't it? The order in which they were written or the order in which they come according to the sequence's internal chronology.

It's not a pedantic point as I'm not sure in which order CS Lewis thought they should be read.



			
				IntoStella said:
			
		

> You will never guess what I've done. I am SO. STUPID. My brain has officially turned to mush.
> 
> Started reading The Rotters' Club and realised with a horrible sinking feeling, about half a page in, _that I have already read it_.
> 
> ...


I've done this any number of times. I bought two copies of _Middlemarch_, on each occasion thinking something to the effect of "oooh, only one ninety-nine" - it was in Wordsworth Classics - "I must get this". Second time round I got home and found I'd already thought the same thing once before.

Also did it with _Pride and Prejudice_ and other books besides.


----------



## Pie 1 (Jan 27, 2005)

Managed to post twice somehow.


----------



## Pie 1 (Jan 27, 2005)

I've just got Ian McEwan's new novel, 'Saturday' I'm about 50 pages in and I'm enjoying every sentance. The writing is supurb and very very confident. It's on top form so far.


----------



## Pickman's model (Jan 27, 2005)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> I got Ian McEwan's new novel, 'Saturday' I'm about 50 pages in and I'm enjoying every sentance. The richness in the writing is supurb and very very confident. It's on top form so far.






			
				Pie 1 said:
			
		

> I got Ian McEwan's new novel, 'Saturday' I'm about 50 pages in and I'm enjoying every sentance. The richness in the writing is supurb and very very confident. It's on top form so far.


i read you the first time!


----------



## kyser_soze (Jan 27, 2005)

Just finished Hegemony or Survival and has the shit scared out of me (thanks Noam) and started 'Cocaine' by Dominic Streatfield this morning...and got two sets of raised eyebrows on the tube too


----------



## Pickman's model (Jan 27, 2005)




----------



## Dubversion (Jan 27, 2005)

been on a book buying binge (at the ICA  ) so just rummaging through the granta film edition (good piece on Cassavetes), and now about to read a Jonathan Glancey book about London called Bread & Circuses.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 27, 2005)

Why buy books when you can buy a £200 woolly limited-edition Saddam Hussein doll instead?


----------



## MarkMark (Jan 27, 2005)

re: narnia chronicles



			
				Justin said:
			
		

> Depends how you count them, doesn't it? The order in which they were written or the order in which they come according to the sequence's internal chronology.


He wrote book 1 after book 2, but his prefered order is how I'm reading them (and it has a big "1" on the spine)


----------



## Pickman's model (Jan 27, 2005)

Justin said:
			
		

> Why buy books when you can buy a £200 woolly limited-edition Saddam Hussein doll instead?




hmmm.....


----------



## Pie 1 (Jan 27, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> just rummaging through the granta film edition (good piece on Cassavetes)



 Andrew O'Hagen's piece on his time as a critic is good too.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 27, 2005)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> Andrew O'Hagen's piece on his time as a critic is good too.




ah yes - How I Learned To Stop Worrying & Hate Miramax!


----------



## Elpenor (Jan 27, 2005)

Finished my Ovett  / Coe story book. Alright, but the author, Pat Butcher (?) clearly fancied it as an opportunity to show off how smart he is. Ovett clearly the better all-round athlete though.

Almost finished American Psycho. I'm not sure which bits I've found more disturbing - the murders, rape and torture or the chapter in praise of Genesis...


----------



## Lonely Soul (Jan 29, 2005)

foo said:
			
		

> The Acid House - Irvine Welsh (is that how you spell his name? )
> 
> I'm really enjoying it even though some bits are disturbing. I'm already wary of dismissing people as 'just junkies' tbh and this book brings that position home. He's an excellent writer imo.
> 
> ...



im thinking of picking up this book, and also Porno.

but is acid house just short stories or an actual novel?


----------



## behemoth (Jan 30, 2005)

*The Wee Book of Calvin* by Bill Duncan.

Hilarious. Describes itself as an antidote to the self-help psycho-babble books from California. In among the memories of North East Scotland are such useful sayings as _Let the laddie play with the knife. He'll learn_, or _Hope is the dream o a foolish man_. An ideal read if you are in danger of becoming too happy.


----------



## laptop (Jan 30, 2005)

Kurt Vonnegut's _Timequake_. Not his best, but I'm liking it. 



> Trout asserted at the clambake that our war would live forever in show biz, as other wars would not, because of the uniforms of the Nazis.
> 
> He commented unfavorably on the camouflage suits our own generals wear nowadays on TV, when they describe our blasting the bejesus out of some Third World country because of petroleum. "I can't imagine," he said, "any part of the world where such garish pajamas would make a soldier less rather than more visible.
> 
> "We are evidenily preparing," he said, "to fight World War Three  in the midst of an enormous Spanish omelet."


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Jan 31, 2005)

The Ivasion of Canada, by Pierre Berton. It's about the war of 1812.


----------



## fishfingerer (Jan 31, 2005)

The Cassini Division by Ken MacLeod. An entertaining load of bollocks about socialists planning to obliterate some post-humans in space somewhere.


----------



## Nina (Jan 31, 2005)

a million little pieces by James Frey.

A memoir of his drug and alcohol rehab.

It's proving difficult to put down!


----------



## Pickman's model (Jan 31, 2005)

addictive?


----------



## dirtysanta (Jan 31, 2005)

orwells 1984. I read it a few years ago. Starting reading again. Cant put it down.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 31, 2005)

MarkSteele's Vive Le Revolution. which - since i don't have Pickman's passion for weighty historical tomes - suits me just fine. i've learnt stuff and it's mildly amusing.

queue here >>> to tell me i'm an ill-educated Trot stooge.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 31, 2005)

I'm reading Britain BC by Francis Pryor -- prehistory of Britain and Ireland. Not my field at all but I'm enjoying it.

I've tried ploughing my way through Lost For Words by John Humphrys, which I got for xmas, but it's as tedious as all hell.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 31, 2005)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I'm reading Britain BC by Francis Pryor -- prehistory of Britain and Ireland. Not my field at all but I'm enjoying it.


Is he the chap who did the telly series? Holds interesting but tendentious opinions about what happened after the Romans left. I ought to read it.


----------



## MarkMark (Jan 31, 2005)

and finally onto.... _The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe_


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 31, 2005)

Justin said:
			
		

> Is he the chap who did the telly series? Holds interesting but tendentious opinions about what happened after the Romans left. I ought to read it.



He's done telly but I've never seen the series in question. I think he does Time Team as well.

I've just got to the Mesolithic so there's a fair way to go before the Romans. In fact, Britain BC only goes up to the Romans' arrival. He's got pretty strong opinions and does seem to make some debatable assumptions and leaps of logic, but I'm no expert myself.


----------



## Elpenor (Feb 1, 2005)

Catcher In The Rye which I last read for GCSE's. Didn't enjoy it as much this time.

Heart of Darkness, finally. Keep comparing it to bits in Apocalypse Now which I guess is inevitable. Looking good so far.


----------



## Brainaddict (Feb 1, 2005)

Just read Super-Cannes and thought it was shite - the character is completely unbelievable.


----------



## upsidedownwalrus (Feb 2, 2005)

I'm reading a book called "A heartbreaking work of staggering genius" which I'd never heard of before, until my housemate lent it to me.  Its pretty good so far.


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Feb 2, 2005)

I've just finished J.G. Ballard's 'Concrete Island', about a bloke who gets stranded on - you guessed it - a traffic island (well, or sorts). V.good and strangely plausible.

I've got Crime and Punishment on the back burner while I read Harry Turtledove's 'Settling Accounts: Return Engagement'. Great concepts but the man cannot string a sentence together.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Feb 2, 2005)

80sHair Revival said:
			
		

> I've got Crime and Punishment on the back burner while I read Harry Turtledove's 'Settling Accounts: Return Engagement'. Great concepts but the man cannot string a sentence together.


Yeah, and Turtledove has the same problem!


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 2, 2005)

RenegadeDog said:
			
		

> I'm reading a book called "A heartbreaking work of staggering genius" which I'd never heard of before, until my housemate lent it to me.  Its pretty good so far.



the trick with this book is to persist through the mid-section which you'll probably think drags a bit. eggers admits this himself. but it's totally worth it, i promise. the most breathtaking ending to a book i've ever read.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 2, 2005)

It can't be that breathtaking cos I can't remember it


----------



## Brainaddict (Feb 2, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> It can't be that breathtaking cos I can't remember it


 ditto


----------



## Lollybelle (Feb 2, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> the trick with this book is to persist through the mid-section which you'll probably think drags a bit. eggers admits this himself. but it's totally worth it, i promise. the most breathtaking ending to a book i've ever read.



You know, I can't remember for the life of me a single thing that happens in that book, let alone the end, even though I know I liked it.  

I just finished "You shall know our velocity" and really enjoyed it too, bet I'll have forgotten that one too in a year or so but I love his style of writing so it'll be good to read again.  I think he's a genius, actually, the novels are excellent but those short stories of his in the Guardian were great too, I thought they consistently crammed a lot of cleverness and feeling into a short space.

The link to them is here:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/shortshortstories/0,14414,1178980,00.html


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 2, 2005)

His parents die. 
He looks after his little brother.
He starts a magazine.
That's about it.
Seriously overrated book.


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 2, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> His parents die.
> He looks after his little brother.
> He starts a magazine.
> That's about it.
> Seriously overrated book.




oh behave, any book ever written could be condensed into 4 lines like that, pretty much. that's not a critique, it's a glossing..


----------



## foo (Feb 2, 2005)

I'm with Dub on this. 

A superb book.


----------



## foo (Feb 2, 2005)

Lolly - he looks just like that Jeremy fella! (who was recently on BB)

yum.   

edit: thanks for that link Lolly - I'm printing the stories out to read later.


----------



## ICB (Feb 2, 2005)

Just finished The Ionian Mission
Just purchased Treason's Harbour

happy days


----------



## Random One (Feb 2, 2005)

A Suitable Boy- by Vikram Seth

Leaves you feeling all warm (except for all the post partition politics!)


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 2, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> oh behave, any book ever written could be condensed into 4 lines like that, pretty much. that's not a critique, it's a glossing..



Granted, but I thought the book was the most self-indulgent I've ever come across and saying so in the intro doesn't make it any less so.


----------



## IntoStella (Feb 4, 2005)

80sHair Revival said:
			
		

> I've just finished J.G. Ballard's 'Concrete Island', about a bloke who gets stranded on - you guessed it - a traffic island (well, or sorts). V.good and strangely plausible.


If you liked this you'd like High Rise..

Also, The Atrocity Exhibition, which is often mistakenly read as a collection of short stories. I wish I had this illustrated Re:Search edition.  


I'm reading the new Haruki Murakami novel, Kafka on the Shore, and it's absolutely wonderful. Haven't had time to read much so NO SPOILERS!


----------



## Bronwen (Feb 4, 2005)

*Bookalas Bookalby*

31 Songs by Nick Hornby.

Can't decide if it's his best or worst. Perhaps it's just middleing.

Also re-reading Heller's Catch-22. Can't beat it...


----------



## onemonkey (Feb 4, 2005)

Brainaddict said:
			
		

> ditto


ditto too 

was there an ending? 

I kinda of remember the appendix where he goes over the reaction to it and readers questions (extending the self-indulgence further  ) 

and i thought the bit about the whale showed promise but if i recall the poor beast was either dwarf by his ocean deep ego or beached in the shallowness of his south coast insight 

It probably wasn't _that_ bad. but i foolishly read it with high expectations and that coloured my perceptions.


----------



## onemonkey (Feb 4, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> Haven't had time to read much so NO SPOILERS!


and you better keep it that way 

gonna get my copy this evening


----------



## Pickman's model (Feb 4, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> If you liked this you'd like High Rise.
> 
> I'm reading the new Haruki Murakami novel, Kafka on the Shore, and it's absolutely wondeful. Haven't had time to read much so NO SPOILERS!


----------



## IntoStella (Feb 4, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

>


Why  ?


----------



## chegrimandi (Feb 14, 2005)

Unpeople: Mark Curtis....


----------



## chooch (Feb 14, 2005)

Stuart Kaufmann _Investigations_
Clever geezer.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Feb 14, 2005)

The World the Railways Made by Nicholas Faith.


----------



## killer b (Feb 14, 2005)

peter weiss, "The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade"

what a play. makes me want to take up amateur dramatics (almost)...


----------



## Sweaty Betty (Feb 14, 2005)

Scar Tissue - Biography of Anthony Keidis (chilli peppers)
Brilliant!!!!!


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 14, 2005)

thoroughly enjoyed Vive Le Revolution and am now on Dave Eggers' You Shall Know Our Velocity, which i have very very high hopes for.


----------



## Herbert Read (Feb 14, 2005)

Soleda Brother George Jackson

Buy this loan it but definiteley read it, inspiring, sad and amazing. Makes you want to off pigs!


----------



## steeplejack (Feb 14, 2005)

New Art New World by Margaret Garlake. All about developments in the 'British' art world between 1945- c.1960. very interesting and some quite combative analysis. A good companion to Peter Hennessy's excellent Never Again: Britain 1945-51 which is one of the best accounts of the Attlee governement & developing postwar society.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Feb 14, 2005)

Herbert Read said:
			
		

> Soleda Brother George Jackson


Do you mean Soledad Brother?


----------



## Badgers (Feb 15, 2005)

Just finishing..............

Roddy Doyle - A Star Called Henry

But highly recommending.............. 

Redmond O'Hanlon - Into the heart of Borneo!!


----------



## j6ango1977 (Feb 15, 2005)

Now reading 'The Dice Man' - Luke Rhinehart. a bit shocking


----------



## Flavour (Feb 16, 2005)

Just finished "Stalingrad" by Antony Beevor. Now reading "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, but only cos it's part of my course. Jane Austen is a twat.


----------



## maya (Feb 18, 2005)

"FEVER": obscure compilation of swedish(!) music journalism. not as boring as it sounds. pretty good, actually.


----------



## anfield (Feb 18, 2005)

Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan. Great book about a 16 year-old Brendan Behan who goes to prison in Liverpool after being arrested for IRA activities. Just finished A Drink With Shane Macgowan. Also very good.


----------



## Jessica (Feb 18, 2005)

Is this thread ever going to die?


----------



## maya (Feb 18, 2005)

Jessica said:
			
		

> Is this thread ever going to die?


..._no_!  
-certainly not!...i've still yet to read it all...
...and i intend to do so. one beautiful day.
and write down the titles. like a proper anorak.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Feb 18, 2005)

Flavour said:
			
		

> Jane Austen is a twat.


Put that book down, you don't deserve to read it.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Feb 18, 2005)

As Dr Johnson said;
A child should not be discouraged from reading any thing that he takes a liking to, from a notion that it is above his reach. If that be the case, the child will soon find it out and desist; if not, he of course gains the instruction; which is so much the more likely to come, from the inclination with which he takes up the study.


Perhaps if Flavour returned to Austen when he's a little older, he'll understand it then?


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 18, 2005)

I must be some kind of weirdo then, cos I loved Austen at the age of 17.


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 18, 2005)

i enjoyed austen at about that age, but the thought of reading it now produces something between panic and intense ennui...


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Feb 18, 2005)

No _life_ in Austen.


----------



## oddworld (Feb 18, 2005)

Smack By Melvin Burgess , only on chapter 1 but so far so good


----------



## newharper (Feb 24, 2005)

Just finished " A Year in the Merde" by Stephen Clarke. 

This is a very funny fictionalised 'year' of a brit living in Paris and how he comes to terms with this.


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 24, 2005)

The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene...

Possibly the best written book that explains the history of C20 physics and string theory in terms anyone can understand.

Every single page sends my head just a little bit nutty, but OMG it's SO good. It's like literary acid in the way it alters your perception of the universe.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Feb 24, 2005)

Holmes, S, _Upon the distinction between the ashes of the various tobaccos_.


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Feb 24, 2005)

I'm almost finished with War and Peace. 

That bastard Tolstoy killed my favorite character 1,200 pages into the book!  What kind of mean fuck does that?!!!!


----------



## steeplejack (Feb 24, 2005)

Aye, that was a sair death for Prince Nikolai. A horrid demise for the cad Anatole Kuragin, too. What a book. Still blown away by it months and months after finishing it.

Have you got round to starting it yet, Justin?


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Feb 24, 2005)

Never likely to...


----------



## steeplejack (Feb 24, 2005)

A pity.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Feb 24, 2005)

Yeah, I know.


----------



## ICB (Feb 24, 2005)

Hothouse by Brian Aldiss
Taking a quick break from the A/M series.


----------



## steeplejack (Feb 24, 2005)

Well, anyway, I'm still ploughing on with the _Good Soldier Svejk_ which is hilarious, and beautifully illustarted with Josef Lada'scartoons alongside the narrative:







After that, I'm ordering AJP taylor's History of the hapsburgs. I seem to have developed an unaccountable interest in Austria-Hungary in the last few months.  Anyway, i want to know a bit more about Vienna before going there in April with Mrs SJ.


----------



## Japey (Feb 24, 2005)

Just finished Man on Earth, by John Reader.  It's an anthropology book about how different groups have adapted their culture to fit in with their environment.  It's a cliche which I don't often use but, "this book has changed the way I look at the world."


----------



## J77 (Feb 28, 2005)

Well, I read *The Dice Man* - brilliant book - not to be taken too seriously though, I think.

Am now finishing *Touching the void* by Joe Simpson - am storming through it -  exciting stuff.


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 28, 2005)

J77 said:
			
		

> Well, I read *The Dice Man* - brilliant book - not to be taken too seriously though, I think.



It depends when you read it. When I read it at 17 the Dice Life seemed to offer a guilt free, easy decision making process through life.

Finished 'The Elegant Universe' which I heartily recommend for mind bending, yet e-z read physics, halfway through 'On' by Adam Roberts (and have bought the rest of his sci-fi) and have just started re-reading 'Dune' - felt it was time to go back to the original to put the rest of the books in focus...


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Feb 28, 2005)

Aristotle - _Second book of the "Poetics"_


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Mar 1, 2005)

Finished Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber' yesterday, and Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' today. The latter is f'kin brilliant and I cannot recommend it enough.

Just started reading Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' and halfway through Ernest Mandel's and George Novack's 'The Revolutionary Potential of the Working Class', to give meself some time off the political science shite.


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 2, 2005)

just coming to the end of Eggers' You Shall Know Our Velocity.

there's no doubt he's an amazing writer in terms of his language, images, ideas, but this one just didn't have the oomph (sp?) of Heartbreaking Work.... 

there were sections that just took my breath away but as a book it just didn't hang together that well..


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Mar 2, 2005)

80sHair Revival said:
			
		

> Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' today. The latter is f'kin brilliant and I cannot recommend it enough.


The best thing I've ever read, I'd say.


----------



## districtline (Mar 2, 2005)

'politics' by adam thirlwell. the hype's unbelievable; the book's shite.

meaningless and incredibly tedious. aargh.


----------



## maya (Mar 2, 2005)

"middlesex" by jeffrey eugenides...

...i don't know, my attention span is really fucked these days, so i just flickered though the pages and read some passages at random...   (now i know the ending so i'm not bothering with starting to read it yet again "properly"!!)


----------



## WasGeri (Mar 2, 2005)

I'm reading Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. It's a kind of quirky horror novel, which I think could be made into a great film (although I'm only half way through).


----------



## KeeperofDragons (Mar 2, 2005)

At the moment I'm taking a brake from science fiction & delving into the relms of non ficton, Y: The Descent of Men

KoD


----------



## ViolentPanda (Mar 2, 2005)

Toying with Paul Krugman's "The Return of Depression Economics" atm, alongside Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War" (again).


----------



## districtline (Mar 3, 2005)

ViolentPanda said:
			
		

> Toying with Paul Krugman's "The Return of Depression Economics" atm, alongside Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War" (again).




have you read krugman's other one, the great unravelling? very good.


----------



## Elpenor (Mar 3, 2005)

Read Brett Easton Ellis's Less Than Zero last night, and now getting my teeth into part 1 of a biographyof Evelyn Waugh


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Mar 3, 2005)

ViolentPanda said:
			
		

> Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War"


From which Alan Moore borrowed the ideas for the second book of _The Ballad of Halo Jones_. (Well, there and Michael Herr's _Dispatches_.)


----------



## maya (Mar 3, 2005)

Elpenor said:
			
		

> and now _getting my teeth into_ part 1 of a biography of Evelyn Waugh


...you're going to _eat_ it?   -just ask me for a meal if you're _that_ skint!


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 4, 2005)

Will Self - "Dr Mukti & Other Tales Of Woe" - i always prefer his short stories so i'm looking forward to this.


----------



## foo (Mar 4, 2005)

I've just been given this to read, Dub

spoooky!


----------



## Wilf (Mar 4, 2005)

Albert Melzer's autobiog - 'I couldn't paint golden angels' - vastly interesting as a life, but not very excitingly written.  Also in the middle of road to wigan pier


----------



## steeplejack (Mar 4, 2005)

4thwrite said:
			
		

> Albert Melzer's autobiog - 'I couldn't paint golden angels' - vastly interesting as a life, but not very excitingly written.  Also in the middle of road to wigan pier



Will finish _Svejk_ this weekend and then onto _Return of the Dancing Master_ by Henning Mankell alongside the AJP Taylor mentioned above.

Mankell is a kind of Swedish Ian Rankin and I always enjoy his detective books.


----------



## maya (Mar 4, 2005)

*Berlin: the Downfall, by Anthony Beevor... have been in the pile for ages, i'm finally catching up with it...

 also:
*Alan Moore: Voice Of the Fire
*Octave Mirbeau: the Torture Garden
*??? - Tape Delay (80's industrial culture overview)
*J.G.Ballard: Myths of the Near Future
*Roald Dahl: Charlie and The Chocolate Factory
*Bertran Besigyen (sp?): And you die so slowly you think you're alive (poetry)


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Mar 4, 2005)

Finished War and Peace!

Read Defender by C.J. Cherrah for mind candy.

Started Perfume by Siskine.


----------



## maldwyn (Mar 4, 2005)

Paul Theroux, *The Pillars Of Hercules*, a smug American rims the Mediterranean. Very funny in places, this from the Spanish leg …


> I knew only two things about Spanish politics - that General Franco ruled Spain as a dictator from 1937 until 1975, when he died. On his deathbed, so the story goes, he heard the grieving crowds crying out, “Adios, great general!” and he said, “Where are they going?”


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Mar 4, 2005)

4thwrite said:
			
		

> Also in the middle of road to wigan pier


Careful, you'll get run over...


----------



## Strumpet (Mar 4, 2005)

The HIghway Code...


----------



## Elpenor (Mar 4, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> ...you're going to _eat_ it?   -just ask me for a meal if you're _that_ skint!



It's been in all my sandwiches all this week!


----------



## Cenedra (Mar 4, 2005)

Just finished The Mists of Avalon    again
Currently reading A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Mar 4, 2005)

Just finished Margaret Atwood's 'Handmaid's Tale' and Amir Abedi's 'Anti-Political Establishment Partie'. Lots of statistical jiggery-pokery in that one. Lovely!

Now moved on to Diana Athill's 'Make Believe' and Hans-Georg Betz 'Right-wing Populist Parties in Western Europe'. Inspiring stuff!!!


----------



## J77 (Mar 7, 2005)

^ Handmaid's Tale is wicked  Try her other books - loved Oryx and Crake.

I feel I should for some reason but offer no apology...

I'm reading:

*The Da Vinci Code*

and loving it 

Definitely one to fly through - read 200 pages of it while getting up yesterday


----------



## Ryazan (Mar 7, 2005)

80sHair Revival said:
			
		

> Just finished Margaret Atwood's 'Handmaid's Tale'


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Mar 7, 2005)

J77 said:
			
		

> I'm reading:
> 
> *The Da Vinci Code*


I assume everybody's reading it unless they specifically state otherwise


----------



## Ryazan (Mar 7, 2005)

I'm not.


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 7, 2005)

Justin said:
			
		

> I assume everybody's reading it unless they specifically state otherwise




not if you fucking paid me


----------



## J77 (Mar 7, 2005)

Oops, may have opened a can... 

Anyway, it is quite good.

Though at the moment it _seems_ like a cheap piece of fiction based on Holy Blood and its followers 

At £3.73 from tesco, you can't go wrong


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Mar 7, 2005)

You could have got a pizza for that and some beer to wash it down with.


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Mar 7, 2005)

Justin said:
			
		

> You could have got a pizza for that and some beer to wash it down with.



The DaVinci Code is to literature as pizza and beer is to cuisine.


----------



## WasGeri (Mar 7, 2005)

Now reading 'Chimes of Freedom - the politics of Bob Dylan's art' which is pretty good (although so far I've only read about Woody Guthrie, not Dylan himself!)


----------



## Rollem (Mar 7, 2005)

"freaky dancing" by bez


----------



## chez (Mar 7, 2005)

Yuwipi Woman said:
			
		

> The DaVinci Code is to literature as pizza and beer is to cuisine.



sometimes all you crave is cold beer and pizza though and this is coming from a self confessed foodie


----------



## EastEnder (Mar 7, 2005)

I am currently reading Time Ships by Stephen Baxter, and Before the Beginning by Martin Rees.


----------



## chez (Mar 7, 2005)

Ash Wednesday- Ethan Hawke

Been meaning to read this for years. Really enjoying it, suitably steamy, funny and gritty.


----------



## maya (Mar 7, 2005)

Pendulum by Amir D. Aczel


----------



## Skim (Mar 7, 2005)

I read Douglas Coupland's Hey Nostradamus! the other week, the first novel I've read in a long time. I enjoyed it – I always enjoy reading Coupland, there's such a beautiful simplicity in his imagery and description. Nothing's really topped Girlfriend in a Coma for me, though.

Now I've moved to Nick Cohen's 'Pretty Straight Guys', which is a critique of New Labour. It's a bit flaky in parts, sometimes it goes off-topic a bit, but it's a fairly entertaining read.


----------



## J77 (Mar 8, 2005)

Yuwipi Woman said:
			
		

> The DaVinci Code is to literature as pizza and beer is to cuisine.


But us intellectuals need to relax the mind after a hard day's thinking.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Mar 8, 2005)

districtline said:
			
		

> have you read krugman's other one, the great unravelling? very good.


It's on the shelf, waiting!


----------



## chooch (Mar 8, 2005)

Reading _The Therapy of Avram Blok_ on the recommendation of various Urbanites. Liking it, so thanks


----------



## Vintage Paw (Mar 8, 2005)

I am reading the obligatory *Crime and Punishment*. Actually, I think I will log off and read some more now


----------



## Fledgling (Mar 9, 2005)

I'm trying to read The First Circle, but I can't snack read (i.e. a chapter or so a night). I think I'm a binge reader. I read about 100 pages in a day then leave it for a while then come back and read a bit, then leave it then come back and have a mammoth final 150 page read. 

Anyone else do this? 

Anyone else like Solzhenitsyn and think Cancer Ward is a fantastic novel?


----------



## MightyAphrodite (Mar 9, 2005)

dan brown - digital fortress


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Mar 10, 2005)

Fledgling said:
			
		

> Anyone else like Solzhenitsyn and think Cancer Ward is a fantastic novel?


I read it when I was at school and liked it alot.


----------



## Nina (Mar 10, 2005)

Just finished Mitch Albom Five People you Meet in Heaven.

Very fast read and felt like it was written for young adults really.

Was alright.


----------



## Hellsbells (Mar 10, 2005)

Nina said:
			
		

> Just finished Mitch Albom Five People you Meet in Heaven.
> 
> Very fast read and felt like it was written for young adults really.
> 
> Was alright.



Yeah, I just read this too. It was okay. Very simplistic and kind of empty, in a way. I was quite disapointed.


----------



## kyser_soze (Mar 10, 2005)

> I read Douglas Coupland's Hey Nostradamus! the other week, the first novel I've read in a long time. I enjoyed it – I always enjoy reading Coupland, there's such a beautiful simplicity in his imagery and description.



Yeah, there's a bit in the first section where she's under the table and the gunmen pull it up and start shooting I had to put the book down it was so well written you really feel like you're there. That it was intercut with the prayers of the Columbine victims made it even more affecting.

I'm currenlty reading Adam Roberts sci-fi - so far I've read On, Salt, Polystom, Worldwall and I'm now reading Stone...still not sure if he'll become an all time fave but he's a strangely affecting writer - his style is quite sterile and distant but strangely gripping, and he's definitely up there with Big Sci Fi conceptually (WorldWall for example - a power generating system buckles the quantum strata under the earht causing gravity to switch through 90 degrees so it pulls 'across' rather than 'down' and has distored the earth's shape...Stone is the best I've read so far...


----------



## mentalchik (Mar 10, 2005)

The Hyperion Omnibus - by Dan Simmons


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Mar 11, 2005)

Read Marx's '18th Brumaire' yesterday, and Lenin's 'The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky' today. Now having a bash at Clive Barker's 'Imajica'.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Mar 12, 2005)

Yeah, that 80's Hair Revival guy reads far too much   

I am _still_ reading *Crime and Punishment*. Yes. Still.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Mar 13, 2005)

Raskolnikov did it


----------



## colbhoy (Mar 13, 2005)

I am reading 2 books at the moment:

Celtic Minded - Joseph M Bradley, a collection of essays by various historians/journalists/football fans on the religion, politics, society, identity of Irish imigrants in Scotland, focusing on their love of Celtic FC. Fascinating stuff. 

Also, picked up The Witches by Road Dahl which my 8 year old daughter has just finished and am really enjoying it! Have read about two thirds of it in 2 days. It means I can share my thoughts on it with my daughter who is chuffed to bits that I am reading it!!


----------



## foamy (Mar 13, 2005)

*once in a house on fire*

i just finished "Once in a house on fire" by Andrea Ashworth.
It had rave reviews when it was first published in 1998 but i didn't enjoy it much. there wasn't much variety from all the domestic violence.
Has anyone else read it?
What did you reckon?

I'm picking my books to take on holiday now...
Autograph man - Zadie Smith
The Little Friend - Donna Tartt
Our lady of the forest - David Guterson


----------



## Vintage Paw (Mar 15, 2005)

Justin said:
			
		

> Raskolnikov did it



Aw, you spoilt it now   

Just kidding. I finally finished it.   

Now reading Louis De Bernieres' *Birds Without Wings*. Not as good as *Captain Corelli's Mandolin* but still very obviously written by De Bernieres. My favourite quote so far:



> Some people said that when God took the cart of vices around the world, He stopped for a rest in Arabia and the Arabs stole it.



 

foamy - I love *The Little Friend* - is possibly better than her other one. Bastard of an ending though, I kept rereading the last chapter thinking I must have missed something. 

I have read Guterson's other 2 as well. *Snow Falling on Cedars* is absolutely brilliant, but *East of the Mountains* blows, as they say. Haven't read his new one though, so be sure to post what you think of it.


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Mar 15, 2005)

Almost done with "All Tomorrow's Parties" by William Gibson.  Is he always that choppy????

Next on the list is "Zorba the Greek", followed by "On the Road" by Kerouac.


----------



## kyser_soze (Mar 16, 2005)

Now reading 'The Way of the Weasel', Scott Adams follow up to 'The Dilbert Principle'...and OMG it's funnier and more accurate if that were possible...

'All Tomorrow's Parties' is the last in Gibbys 2nd trilogy isn't it? The one with Laney in the cardboard box? 

I thought Idoru was the best of the three TBH...And If I were you I'd steer clear of Pattern Recognition unless you want to read a book which combines the stories of Marly Krushkova,Virek, Case and Bobby Newmark into one single book...


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Mar 16, 2005)

Yes, its Laney in the cardboard box. 

I'm about 100 pages into it and I'm not really seeing a plot.  Perhaps Mr. Gibson is not to my taste.  I hope there is a least a payoff later.


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Mar 17, 2005)

Now reading Marx's 'Poverty of Philosophy' aswell. Decided to give all of Chaz and Freddy's main works a go. Yep there's a lot but if you send just an hour a day I should get through the lot in a couple of years


----------



## kyser_soze (Mar 17, 2005)

Yuwipi Woman said:
			
		

> Yes, its Laney in the cardboard box.
> 
> I'm about 100 pages into it and I'm not really seeing a plot.  Perhaps Mr. Gibson is not to my taste.  I hope there is a least a payoff later.



TBH it kinda helps if you've read Virtual Light and Idoru first...there is a plot but it's extended over the three books...


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Mar 17, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> TBH it kinda helps if you've read Virtual Light and Idoru first...there is a plot but it's extended over the three books...



I got a friend to loan me the other two.  I'm chucking this one for the moment and starting over at the beginning.


----------



## Thimble Queen (Mar 17, 2005)

Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass....


----------



## KeeperofDragons (Mar 17, 2005)

Just started Free-Born John today (still on me non-fiction kick)

KoD


----------



## colbhoy (Mar 17, 2005)

Have just started The Cider House Rules by John Irving.


----------



## spartacus mills (Mar 17, 2005)

'Chance' by Joseph Conrad


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Mar 17, 2005)

colbhoy said:
			
		

> Have just started The Cider House Rules by John Irving.



Dr. Larch is a great character.  I think you'll enjoy the read.


----------



## colbhoy (Mar 18, 2005)

Yuwipi Woman said:
			
		

> Dr. Larch is a great character.  I think you'll enjoy the read.



I'm sure I will, I've read World According to Garp and A Prayer for Owen Meany so I know he can write. There is nothing quite like starting a book that you know you are going to love and which is going to hook you until the last page.


----------



## corporate whore (Mar 19, 2005)

'Hawksmoor' by Peter Ackroyd


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Mar 20, 2005)

Bloody finished Clive Barker's Imajica at last! 1136 page long fairy tale with gore and weird sex, hmmmm.

Now taking a peep at Alan Sykes' The Radical Right in Britain.


----------



## Iam (Mar 21, 2005)

I've just finished Richard Morgan's _Woken Furies_, the third in a series of futuristic Sci-Fi novels. Absolutely gripping, as good as the first two, if not better for being more familiar with the settings and character.

If you've read the others, get this one. You won't be disappointed.


----------



## rennie (Mar 21, 2005)

I'm currently racing thru Eats, Shoots and leaves by Lynne Truss... great stuff!


----------



## districtline (Mar 23, 2005)

i've found what seems to be a brilliant book in the basement at the uni library, 'george grosz and the communist party'. 

the relationship between berlin dada, art and politics. all very interesting stuff


----------



## sparkling (Mar 24, 2005)

Small Island by Andrea Levy.  I'm really enjoying it.  So far we've gone to Jamacia, England and India and I love the way the story moves through different people.


----------



## Derek Raymond (Mar 24, 2005)

*My Life and Thoughts by Alexander Herzen*

I'm reading this - never heard of him till I read a book called The Russian Thinkers by Isaiah Berlin. 

Herzen was an aristocrat with a heart. He was born into the upper classes, the illegitimate son of a wealthy landowner, but it didn't take long for his rebellious side to make an appearance. He was imprisoned several times before eventually being exiled to Hanwell in West London. (Fate worse than death?)

This book is an account of his life. What makes it interesting is that through his descriptions of his life he charts the progress of those that layed the foundations of revolution in Russia. Marx, Wagner, Mill, Bakunin, Garibaldi, Kropotkin - he was friend and associate of all these men. 

He had some pretty cool ideas himself. 

He hated anyone who justified their actions with ideology of any kind - that the means (violence in the present justified with visions of Utopia - take note Bush and Blair!) were NEVER justified by the ends...

The ISBN is 0520042107 University of California Press 

Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in revolutionary ideas and their development. (I read the Devils by Dostoevsky just before)


----------



## John Quays (Mar 24, 2005)

_Rates of Exchange_, by Malcolm Bradbury.

Not a character in the world historical sense, you understand...

Hilarious stuff, then there's a bit of Thomas De Quincey for the complicated side of my mind.   stay away from the opium now readers!


----------



## jayeola (Mar 24, 2005)

Sage, R.G.; Group, Waite: The Waite Group's Tricks of the Unix Masters.
Sams; Englewood Cliffs 1987.  Good book. Few differences between the file sytem that this geezer describes and that of my Linux distro. Great overview of the *nix filesytem hierachy. Loads of useful scipts with line-by-line explanation. Bought it for £2 from a shop in Brick Lane Market.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Mar 24, 2005)

At the moment:

George Pelecanos - Shoedog.  Me like.  


Got a couple of James Crumleys lined up next (Last Good Kiss and another one I can't remember the name of offhand).


I'm also dipping into the complete Grimm fairy tales.  Mentalist, often stunningly violent, eldritch, winky-wonky, peculiar, oneiric and generally really rather odd!  Me also like.  
	

	
	
		
		

		
			






edited to add:


Derek Raymond?  I thought you were dead!


----------



## goldenecitrone (Mar 24, 2005)

This Easter I shall be mainly reading Thomas Mann: Death in Venice.


----------



## Derek Raymond (Mar 24, 2005)

Rumours, Morrie, Rumours...


----------



## haggy (Mar 25, 2005)

the crust on its uppers


----------



## tangerinedream (Mar 25, 2005)

Pigeon Wars - Can't be arsed with it - nice story but the writing irritates me
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle mainainence - liking this

Just read Catch 22 and it IS a classic without doubt.

Also just enjoyed White teeth. It's very observant and very human - You can tell Zadie Smith like D.F. Wallace, some of the detail is extraordinarily closely observed, like his writing

And remembered Graham Greene exists which is nice and read Our Man in Havanna. Which was like a gentle George Orwell. 

Also reading the due back date on my library books which is 8th march and it's fecking bank holiday weekend. Damn. Fine City here I come. (well I'm already there i suppose)


----------



## kyser_soze (Mar 25, 2005)

Dilbert - The Way of the Weasel

Genius - even better than 'The Dilbert Principle'


----------



## Ryazan (Mar 25, 2005)

Just about to finish 20 Letters To A Friend by Svetlana Alliluyeva.


----------



## Pingu (Mar 25, 2005)

Bill watterson:-
calvin and hobbes :weirdos from another planet (I am revisiting my calvin and hobbes collection)


----------



## golightly (Mar 25, 2005)

Ringolevio by Emmett Grogan.  Had to be done really.  Anyhow, really enjoying it so far; it's really engaging.  It's amazing what he'd done and I've only got to the bit where he's 15!


----------



## Mation (Mar 25, 2005)

Just finished Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami, and Timoleon Vieta Come Home by Dan Rhodes.    

Just started Chaging Planes by Ursula le Guin. Only a couple of pages in but it's very preachy already.


----------



## oi2002 (Mar 25, 2005)

Anne Applebaum's history of the Soviet Gulag, very slowly.  

Very depressing, the Soviet's could not even run an efficient labor camp.  I'm reminded more of the lazy barbarity of the slave trade, than the racial hygene campaigns of the Nazis.


----------



## Ryazan (Mar 25, 2005)

Efficient or not, wouldn't it have been better if they had not existed at all?


----------



## maya (Mar 25, 2005)

Ryazan said:
			
		

> Efficient or not, wouldn't it have been better if they had not existed at all?


yeh, that was the point of the book i think, she argued in a very well-researched and convincing way that the whole gulag system was infact driven by a need for  increasing influx of new labourers, so that it was just as likely that the majority of the REAL political dissidents were shot outside of the camps, and that the people ushered into the camp system were in many cases just ordinary people victimised by a random and insane system, sometimes 12-year olds were punished  for minor or "suspected" offenses by being given 10 years, and people died in the camps like flies...

the economical stability of stalin's russia depended on these labour camps, she argues, so that in the end it didn't matter whether the prisoners were "guilty" of anything or not, they just needed more workers...


----------



## Ryazan (Mar 25, 2005)

Yeah, I haven't read that book, but have read other sources that make out that at some points in Stalin's reign arrests by the NKVD were less to do with finding political offenders than more about finding enough people to fill labour shortages in order to fulfill quotas during the Soviet Union's industrial development. Ordinary people charged and sentenced for fabricated crimes in order to act as slave labour building a "socialist" paradise.  very cynical and cold to the bone, when being aware of the human cost of the USSR'S development into a huge power.  Terrible to think of the indifference the State had for those providing for it with their lives.


----------



## maya (Mar 26, 2005)

yeah, just reminds us how any totalitarian regime is a threat to human dignity and humanist values... 
now in the time of "empire" and conflict and fundamentalism and religious nutters on all sides and from all cultures who wants to have their say in politics, etc. it's pretty damn scary and very relevant reading...
sometimes people love power more than their fellow humans...


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Mar 28, 2005)

Polished off Lewis Carroll's 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' last night, and just this minute closed Marx's 'The Poverty of Philosophy'. Both quite jolly in their own ways. If only social theorists now made clever use of dry wit like our Chazza did.

Now reading David Peace's 'GB84' and tomorrow start Glaser and Strauss's 'Grounded Theory'. Joy of joys.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Mar 29, 2005)

_Necronomicon_ - Abdul Alhazred.


----------



## belboid (Mar 29, 2005)

David Thomson - The Whole Equation. A history of Hollywood - “the murder and the majesty, the business statistics and millions of us being moved, the art and the awfulness.”

Great stuff so far!


----------



## Sorry. (Mar 29, 2005)

just ordered _Confessions of a Union Buster_ by martin levitt, and _ globalisation and its discontents_ by Josepth Stiglitz. Good load of whistleblowin'


----------



## Scaggs (Mar 29, 2005)

Just finished 'The time travelers wife' by Audrey Niffenegger. (shite)

Now halfway through Howard Sounes biography of Bukowski (interesting)


----------



## oisleep (Apr 3, 2005)

construction of nationhood by adrian hastings

claims nations and nationalism are primary driven by christianity, and in particular the creation of written languages through the translation of the latin bible into local vernaculars and the protestant return to the old testament ideals of polity, people and land

really hammers people like gellner, hobsbawm and anderson who claim nationalism and nations are products of modernity


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Apr 3, 2005)

The Discovery of Grounded Theory by Glaser and Strauss has just been polished off by yours truly. Still reading GB84, The Kraken Wakes, begun Starter for Ten, and working through Survey's in Social Research.Phew!


----------



## steeplejack (Apr 4, 2005)

_The faustian bargain_ by Jonathan petropoulos. very interesting historical narrative about the 'art world's' interaction with the political world in the Third Reich.


----------



## districtline (Apr 4, 2005)

just started reading "the sale of the century" written by a canadian financial times journo in russia about the development (ie sell out of) in russia after the fall of stalinism. saw it in the book shop and went straight to the library and loaned it. im a russia period atm


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 4, 2005)

just finished Roth's Portnoy's Complaint (again) and now i'm reading bits of Mainlines, Blood Feast and Bad Taste by lester Bangs


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 5, 2005)

Just finished rereading Gulliver's Travels.

Finished Plain Pleasures, a collection of short stories by Jane Bowles. I'd read her (only) novel, Two Serious Ladies, a few years back and loved it. The stories are in the same vein -- beautifully controlled and naturally strange. A great writer who wrote very little.


----------



## J77 (Apr 5, 2005)

As the pope just died and as it was only £3.73, I'm reading...

*Angels and Demons* by Mr Brown

It's as badly written as the DVC but exciting nonethelesss


----------



## Numbers (Apr 5, 2005)

Killing Pablo - Mark Bowden.  The hunt for and killing of the richest, most powerful criminal in history.  Good read alright.

Also reading White Mischief, tis about the cultural history of the cola. 

Both are right riveting reads.


----------



## shoddysolutions (Apr 5, 2005)

Atomised by Michel Houllebecq

I was put off by negative press when it came out, but so far it's pretty damn good. A brutal but refreshingly honest critique of contemporary Western culture, in the from of a biographical novel.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Apr 5, 2005)

**milesy posting**

weewees for dummies


----------



## dynamicbaddog (Apr 5, 2005)

The Beat Hotel by Barry Miles
It's about writers like Ginsberg, Burroughs etc. in Paris during the late fifties/early sixties.
Am only half way thru the introduction at the moment, so can't say if it's any good but it looks promising.


----------



## foamy (Apr 5, 2005)

*i like big books and i cannot lie...*

just back from a week on holiday so i've had plenty of time to read!
i read:
Cherry - Mary Karr.
This was good, better as an autobiography of a young girl than Andrea Ashworths Once in  a house on fire

Jigs and Reels - Joanna Harris
short stories hich were mainly good and lighthearted. something simple for the beach

Our Lady of the Forest - David Guterson
I really enjoyed this. It was as good as Snow Falling On Cedars.

The Little Friend - Donna Tartt
still reading this. the descriptions of everything are so rich that it's taking me ages to read!

just bought Hunter S Thompsons Rum Diary as i heard a lovely quote of his the day he died...

my finest book moment was my mum's comment on reading DVC, which she had agressively stuck up for when i trashed it even though she hadn't read it! she said "it was obviously written for teenagers". gonna bask in my glory of being right that it's actually a bit rubbishy!


----------



## The Lone Runner (Apr 5, 2005)

foamy said:
			
		

> The Little Friend - Donna Tartt
> still reading this. the descriptions of everything are so rich that it's taking me ages to read!



I read this last year - it is excellent! Don't know anybody else who has read it(it's much better than her other book Secret History)
Am about to start reading The Colour Purple which my Mum got me for my birthday last month.


----------



## grosun (Apr 5, 2005)

The Lone Runner said:
			
		

> I read this last year - it is excellent! Don't know anybody else who has read it(it's much better than her other book Secret History)
> Am about to start reading The Colour Purple which my Mum got me for my birthday last month.



Oh man, truth! _Secret History_ was really good too, but _The Little Friend_ had way more breadth. Took me a while to read, 'cos her prose is pretty dense, but well, well worth the effort; it's still with me months later. Loads of images keep coming back.


----------



## madzone (Apr 5, 2005)

I started reading Little Friend but found the child death thing too painful. Maybe one day I'll be able to read it - hope so.


----------



## MightyAphrodite (Apr 5, 2005)

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction


(again  )


----------



## winterinmoscow (Apr 6, 2005)

Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate. For the umpteenth time!


----------



## kyser_soze (Apr 6, 2005)

Re-reading Billy Gibson's 'Pattern Recognition' and enjoying it a lot more second time around.


----------



## maya (Apr 6, 2005)

_Giacomo Oreglia : "Traitors"_ (very interesting essay collection on society's attitudes towards "the traitor", be it political or otherwise...)

and, erm, _"male and female representation in western philosophy"_ (don't remember the authors name)

and:
_Per Petterson: "In The Wake"_ (very moving, fictional story but based on how the author lost his parents and family to the sinking of the ship Scandinavian Star)
_
Donald Boström: "Inshallah" (about the palestinian people's experiences of the occupation)

Susan Sontag: "On Regarding Others"(essays)

Anna Funder: "Stasiland"(re-reading this, didn't finish it last time but it's been in the pile)_


----------



## lighterthief (Apr 6, 2005)

The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki.  Very interesting book exploring why, in many circumstances, collective decisions by dumb people are more accurate than individual ones by smart people.  Bit US-centric, but recommended.


----------



## miss direct (Apr 7, 2005)

I just finished Call me Elizabeth

It's the true story of a middle class, Kent mother of six who becomes an escort to get her family out of debt. It was an eye opening read, but the ending was disappointing.


----------



## stroober (Apr 7, 2005)

The Count Of Monte Cristo

Alexander Dumas

Classic


----------



## Hollis (Apr 7, 2005)

I am reading "The Bomber War:  Arthur Harris and the Allied Bombing Offensive 1939-45" by Robin Neilands.  A detailed defence of the bombing campaign and ol' "Bomber".


----------



## goldenecitrone (Apr 7, 2005)

Just finished ´Any Human Heart´ by William Boyd. A jolly good read.


----------



## chooch (Apr 7, 2005)

_Not not while the giro_- James Kelman short stories from ages back. Really very good.


----------



## Leica (Apr 7, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> _
> Susan Sontag: "On Regarding Others"_


Regarding the Pain of Others?
What do you think of it?


----------



## kyser_soze (Apr 7, 2005)

Hollis said:
			
		

> I am reading "The Bomber War:  Arthur Harris and the Allied Bombing Offensive 1939-45" by Robin Neilands.  A detailed defence of the bombing campaign and ol' "Bomber".



Have you read the Hastings book on Harris?

Tis a ver good read.


----------



## Hollis (Apr 7, 2005)

Got that at home to read!


----------



## EatMoreChips (Apr 7, 2005)

Just finished Philip Roth's The Plot Against America which wasn't really very good - I think he got bored in the middle. Just started Foucault's Pendulum by that nice Umberto Eco.


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Apr 7, 2005)

Just finished Starter for Ten by David Nicholls. Very funny, and a must for all graduates hankering after their mis-spent uni years.


----------



## Ducklin (Apr 8, 2005)

*Yank Genius*

Bad Chilli by Joe R Lansdale.  Rereading most of this yank genius' work.

Letting Loose the Hounds a collection of short stories by Brady Udall. If you want to know how to write shorts this is the one.

Couldn't finish the tedious Being Good by Nicki Hornby. Who gives a shit about boring middle class priviledged Islington types? I fucking don't. 

Plus chucked a copy of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons across the room after twenty pages of putting up with naff cliched characters and dreadful pompous storyline.


----------



## internetstalker (Apr 8, 2005)

i'm reading: Super system.  by Doyle Brunsun



it's a poker book, so don't tell Idaho or dozzer. coz i'm playin' them at poker on sunday!!


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Apr 11, 2005)

Just finished GB84 by David Peace. A right bleak piece of writing it is too. Will be having a stab at Percival Everett's 'American Desert' next.


----------



## ruffneck23 (Apr 11, 2005)

Dont know if anyone has said it but Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts , if no-one has said it id recommend it , best thing ive read in a long long time


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Apr 11, 2005)

_The Confessions of Ayn Rand_


----------



## qwerty777 (Apr 11, 2005)

Catch 22 ......... Again .


----------



## Roadkill (Apr 12, 2005)

_Shopped_, by Joanna Blythman.  It's a critique of supermarkets and their impact on British eating habits, farming and retail.  I've never been that keen on supermarkets and usually tried to support independent shops: having read this I'm going to try and stop using supermarkets altogether.  Scary stuff, in places...


----------



## rubbershoes (Apr 12, 2005)

This is Serbia calling by Matthew Collins. It's the story of a pirate radio station that managed to keep going through the Milosevic years. too early to say if it's any good yet


----------



## MysteryGuest (Apr 12, 2005)

The Final Country - James Crumley

If you like American crime fiction at all you should check this (imo natch).  Utterly brilliant writing, with a couple of mentalistic twists right at the end.  I've really liked the 3 previous Crumley novels I read but this one really stands out as being a particular corker.


----------



## milesy (Apr 12, 2005)

roger red hat.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 12, 2005)

I'm dipping into 'The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby' and 'The Pump House Gang'. 

But, exactly!


----------



## JE:5 (Apr 12, 2005)

I actually managed to get off my arse while the computer was broke and got myself a library card, I am reading Kafka on the shore by Haruki Murakami.


----------



## rubbershoes (Apr 12, 2005)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I'm dipping into 'The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby' and 'The Pump House Gang'.



woweeeeeeee. literature's version of Roy Lichenstein

I like the fact that his words not only tell the story but also provide the soundtrack IYSWIM.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 12, 2005)

rubbershoes said:
			
		

> woweeeeeeee. literature's version of Roy Lichenstein
> 
> I like the fact that his words not only tell the story but also provide the soundtrack IYSWIM.



He's a great stylist. There's some depth there, though. No one in early/mid 60s America was able to articulate things about what was going on around them (as opposed to turning an American eye on _other_ cultures) in quite the same sustained way. What had gone before, in the 50s, was this earnest, professorial state-of-young-people-today anthropology (though a lot of the most interesting pieces are about the older generation trying to catch up, all those ageing hipsters and West Side matrons).

He calms down a bit by The Right Stuff, which is a stone-cold masterpiece.

I've steered clear of his novels for some reason. Maybe it's time.


----------



## sparkling (Apr 12, 2005)

Scaggs said:
			
		

> Just finished 'The time travelers wife' by Audrey Niffenegger. (shite)
> 
> )



I'm just starting and was not impressed, however a friend promised it got better...now I am not so sure whether to continue or not.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Apr 12, 2005)

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, lent to me by LD Rudeboy. Apparently it made maestrocloud cry.


----------



## numbers_banned (Apr 12, 2005)

Purple Cane Road by James Lee Burke


----------



## arfy (Apr 12, 2005)

Love All The People-Bill Hicks
All Points North-Simon Armitage
The Speed Queen-Stewart O'Nan (not started this one yet)


----------



## katana (Apr 12, 2005)

I'm currently reading "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad. Slow as hell - not enjoying it at all.


----------



## kyser_soze (Apr 12, 2005)

Keep going - at least when you've finished it you don't have to lie when asked what classics you've read!! Or you could just buy an A-Level English study guide and blag it.

ARFY - is that love all the people any good? I read American Scream and thought it was a bit workmanlike - good but no insights you can't get from seeing his standup.

Oh, and is Dellilos 'Underworld' worth reading?


----------



## chooch (Apr 13, 2005)

_Machine Dreams_ by Jayne Anne Phillips. Can't remember who recommended it, but thanks. Great so far.


----------



## arfy (Apr 13, 2005)

Yes Love all the people is pretty good , my only criticism would be that it repeats itself quite a few times by printing the scripts from different shows even though some are very similar , but that is only a minor quibble .Most of the materiel you may be familiar with but it can still make you laugh out loud and doesn't seem to date at all( some of his gulf war/Bush stuff sounds like it could have been written yesterday). All in all if you like Bill Hicks you will like this , it also gives a good account of the arguments with David Letterman and some good background into Bill's early life 

I've just got a copy of "American Scream-The Bill Hicks Story" by Cinthia True but I Haven't started this yet,off to Amsterdam tomorrow so this will have to wait


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Apr 13, 2005)

Just done Percival Everett's 'American Desert'. Far out stuff about a guy who gets decapitated on his way to commit suicide..... and sits up in his coffin 3 days later.

Now on The Bookseller of Karbul for the ode reading group. Apparently it's very boring.


----------



## The Hoary Truth (Apr 13, 2005)

*The Rape of Sita* by Lindsey Collen
 the most immersive story I've read in ages, and it's prompted me to read *The Rape of Lucrece* (Shakespeare).  It has made me actively ponder the nature of the patriarchal society, which has to be a good thing.

 Also trying hard with Wordsworth, but it seems he only works when one can feel sun on the face and cool grass against the calf, it becomes difficult to synchronise when you're hiding inside from another greyish day.


----------



## numbers_banned (Apr 13, 2005)

The Diceman by Luke Rhinehart. This book is so good


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 14, 2005)

reading Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland.. got distracted when i started it last year. definitely continuing the return to form started with Hey Nostradamus. not his best but bloody good.. just for things like.. "Loneliness... is the gun that shoots the bullets that make us dance on a saloon floor and humiliate ourselves in front of strangers"


----------



## Ryazan (Apr 15, 2005)

Aelita, Or The Decline Of Mars by Alexi Tolstoi.

Full of fascinating imagery, but the movie of 1924 is excellent in it's own right; even if the struggle of revolting Martian slaves against an evil monarchy was deliberately and blatantly orcheastrated to mirror the Russian revolution according to Bolshevik spin.

But that aside, I think all lads can relate to the trials of trying to find the girl of their dreams, but nothing quite as extraordinary as an alienated, daydreaming Muscovite engineer constructing a ship that will take him to Mars so he can stubbornly search for her, only to end up in the midst of a dangerous social struggle.  Not usually a fan of Sc-Fi, but a wonderful book.


----------



## IntoStella (Apr 15, 2005)

chooch said:
			
		

> _Not not while the giro_- James Kelman short stories from ages back. Really very good.


I've got a copy of that -- it was left in my flat. I'll give it a go.

I am currently reading (ahem) The Hairdressers of Saint Tropez, by Rupert Everett, and despite the uber-kitsch cover and being written by an actor, it's surprisingly good. He has a wickedly bitchy turn of phrase and describes the  bizarre menagerie of characters beautifully. Honest.


----------



## Iam (Apr 15, 2005)

Bob Dylan - Chronicles, Vol. 1


----------



## dum dum (Apr 15, 2005)

I'm reading Masoud the diaries of an Iranian rebel.A light,happy read my mother in law bought me.


----------



## rennie (Apr 15, 2005)

I've just started Strangers in the house by Raja Shehadeh, a Palestinian human rights activist... so far so sad... he's describing the fall out from his family leaving Jaffa when the state of Israel was described n seeking refuge-permanently it turns out- in their summer house in Ramallah.
I've worked with Palestinian refugees before and i've always been struck by their bitterness  in knowing that their homes, memories, histories,ancestors, lives are gone, forever. so close and yet so far.


----------



## upsidedownwalrus (Apr 15, 2005)

A book called Soul Mountain.  A pretty decent (so far) Chinese book which is banned over here for being too experimental or something.


----------



## tangerinedream (Apr 15, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> "Loneliness... is the gun that shoots the bullets that make us dance on a saloon floor and humiliate ourselves in front of strangers"


----------



## tangerinedream (Apr 15, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> Oh, and is Dellilos 'Underworld' worth reading?



Yes, but you need a bit of patience. have you read any other Delillo? - It is a big book and not the most fluid of reads, it goes in fits and starts. The first 40 pages are so beautiful, then you hit a dull bit, then the next bit is beautiful and so on.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Apr 16, 2005)

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind : An Unauthorized Autobiography
by Chuck Barris


----------



## on_the_fly (Apr 16, 2005)

Im reading :-

High Fidelity - Nick Hornby


Wicked film and brilliant book !


----------



## 80sHair Revival (Apr 16, 2005)

Just done The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham. Absolutely bloody brilliant! Easily on a par with The Day of the Triffids. It's about time both of them got a serious celluloid makeover....


----------



## maya (Apr 19, 2005)

45 by Bill Drummond
-almost shed a tear on the end of the Tammy Wynette bit, the part where she was singing really out of tune with the track in the studio and they were sitting there feeling sad for her, knowing how great she was and what a fraud he felt himself, etc.  maybe it was just my moodiness tonight but it really got me.

also reading Bad Wisdom by him.
and "the Victorian Internet".


----------



## chegrimandi (Apr 20, 2005)

Emile Zola: Germinal - fucking fantastic so far.


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 20, 2005)

another book i started and then forgot about - 
Jonathan Glancey's London: Bread & Circuses.

from the Guardian's architecture writer, it's a brilliantly written little essay about how the life is being sucked out of London and what could be done to save it.


----------



## art of fact (Apr 20, 2005)

i've been on the 2nd page of Choke by Chuck Palahniuk for 3 weeks...


----------



## arattebury (Apr 20, 2005)

just started A Holinghurst In the line of Beauty - Hope it is as good as the swimming pool library


----------



## maya (Apr 20, 2005)

a book about Genghis Khan, but i'm buggered if i can remember the title/author of it..


----------



## mwgdrwg (Apr 20, 2005)

A Ray Mears book I got off the mum in law for my birthday. I now know how to build an igloo.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 24, 2005)

Just started Under The Volcano by Malcolm Lowry.


----------



## spartacus mills (Apr 24, 2005)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Just started Under The Volcano by Malcolm Lowry.



That's a wonderful book. If you enjoy it you'll also need 'Dark as the Grave Wherein my Friend is Laid' (or something like that). The diaries also have lots of useful info and background re- UtV.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 24, 2005)

spartacus mills said:
			
		

> That's a wonderful book. If you enjoy it you'll also need 'Dark as the Grave Wherein my Friend is Laid' (or something like that). The diaries also have lots of useful info and background re- UtV.



I'm enjoying it a lot so far. I did read Ultramarine, his first book I think, years ago for my A level extended essay and liked it -- then kind of forgot about Lowry. Cheers for the tips


----------



## Iam (Apr 25, 2005)

Murder Incorporated, by Geoff Moore, a Canadian chap I chat to about music and baseball on another board.

Good book, lots of little music in-jokes.


----------



## rubbershoes (Apr 25, 2005)

Just finished _How to lose friends and alienate people _ by Toby Young. I’ve been meaning to read it for a few years and am glad I made time for it.

He’s a bit of a tosspot (as he would probably be the first to admit) but has some interesting things to say about shallowness, the role of celebrities in modern life and the difference between UK and US attitudes .

Well worth a read


----------



## chooch (Apr 25, 2005)

Non fiction- just finishing a very good thing called _Principles of Sustainability_ by Simon Dresner.  
Fiction- starting _Hangover Square_ by Patrick Hamilton.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 25, 2005)

chooch said:
			
		

> Fiction- starting _Hangover Square_ by Patrick Hamilton.



Wa-hey!


----------



## LDR (Apr 25, 2005)

I've just started "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy.

I've only started it today on the way in to work and I'm loving it and have read already about 10% of it.  It reminds me of the writing style in "The life of Pi" by Yann Martel a wee bit.


----------



## Derek Raymond (Apr 25, 2005)

*20,000 Streets Under The Sky*




			
				Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Wa-hey!



This is on TV on BBC 4. I don't have fucking BBC 4 though so I havn't seen it. The book is a favourite though - brings 1930s London alive. Lots of drinking. Seedy. Superb. 

"_The thundering of the wind in his dream was the passing of a lorry in the Euston Road outside._"


----------



## sacx (Apr 25, 2005)

Just starting _Papillon_ by Henri Charriere. It's one of my favourite films so should be interesting to see how book and film match up.


----------



## rubbershoes (Apr 25, 2005)

sacx said:
			
		

> Just starting _Papillon_ by Henri Charriere. It's one of my favourite films so should be interesting to see how book and film match up.




there's a lot, lot more in the book. 

<fingers his charger>


----------



## chooch (Apr 29, 2005)

_Madness- a history_ by Roy Porter, because of a fizzle of memory from a thread here.


----------



## sacx (Apr 29, 2005)

chooch said:
			
		

> _Madness- a history_ by Roy Porter, because of a fizzle of memory from a thread here.



LOL Pump me up and out chooch


----------



## maldwyn (Apr 29, 2005)

Derek Raymond said:
			
		

> This is on TV on BBC 4. I don't have fucking BBC 4 though so I havn't seen it. The book is a favourite though - brings 1930s London alive. Lots of drinking...



I enjoyed the adaptation, it's going to be repeated on BBC2 in September.


I'm currently reading: _The Last of The Gentlemen Adventurers _ by Edward Beauclerk Maurice
As a sixteen-year-old he signs a five year contract with the Hudson Bay Company and ends up in Baffin Land, lots of fascinating insights into Innuit folklore and culture.


----------



## circumspect (Apr 29, 2005)

im reading "the master and margarita" , finally; its been my partners favorite book for years...not sure about Russian writing really...bit darkly surreal...but the conversations with satan at the beginning were brilliant.
tied in pretty well with Constantine which i just watched. tho obviously Keanu and Bulgakov arent really on the same plain   .

oh and just wanted to say, The Da Vinci Code really is the shittest 'good book' ever, isnt it??


----------



## foo (Apr 29, 2005)

Just finished Love - Toni Morrisson. 

wow. 


This woman can write!


----------



## MysteryGuest (Apr 29, 2005)

Just finished Hell to Pay by George Pelecanos    Fucking hell, it's been a while since I was so comprehensively and utterly blown away by a crime fiction novel.

Am now reading Last Car to Elysian Fields by James Lee Burke - much more brooding, slow-burn, sensual, elegant, top quality writing again.


----------



## maya (Apr 29, 2005)

Just finished 45 and is starting Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Apr 29, 2005)

East of Eden - Steinbeck

Followed by some trashy SF book involving archangels--a bit of mind candy

Then, The Count of Monte Christo - Dumas


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 29, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell



This is my current favourite ever book


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 29, 2005)

Rip It Up & Start Again by Simon Reynolds.

absolutely excellent so far..


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 29, 2005)

Yeah my flatmate's reading that - I can't wait for him to finish it so I can have a go.


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 29, 2005)

someone pretentious yesterday:




> Simon ‘Ardkore’ Reynolds’ Rip It Up & Start Again... is fast becoming the best music book I’ve read in a long time (since Lloyd Bradley’s Bass Culture, I suspect). What’s great about this book is that rarely has such a volume been so necessary (as Reynolds points out, there’s a huge gap in collected music writing or journalist overviews for this period, ironic because it was the period when music journalism was probably at its most febrile and essential) and also that Reynolds has kept his tendency to lapse in rather arcane theorising to a minimum compared with his previous books (which isn’t to say I haven’t enjoyed them all). I suspect this is – at least in part – because bands like Scritti Politti and The Pop Group have already done all the theorising for him, and then some….
> 
> What’s interesting so far (and to be honest I’m only about 1/3 of the way through – as a book to read on the bus it makes a pretty good housebrick) is Reynolds’ insistence (rightly) on redrawing a lot of the accepted lines of chronology and influence for the 70s, his attempt to demonstrate that punk was an aberration, a blip, rather than any kind of Year Zero, and that what came after punk was unavoidably related to a lot of the stuff that came before (Reynolds smartly pivots this on Lydon / Rotten’s Capital Radio appearance in 1977 where he played or namechecked all manner of heretical 70s prog/art rock artists alongside the expected reggae).




so there you go. fucking ponce.


----------



## gaijingirl (Apr 29, 2005)

Just finished Small Island.. which was really good... all about immigration from Jamaica after the 2nd world war... set in both Jamaica and Earl's Court..

..currently reading The Kite Runner.. also very good, set in early 70s Afghanistan... the Russians are coming..


----------



## Stigmata (Apr 29, 2005)

I have to pick what to read next. Two main choices: Dracula (Bram Stoker) and Time Out Of Joint (PK Dick). Any suggestions which to read first?


----------



## maya (Apr 29, 2005)

Stigmata said:
			
		

> I have to pick what to read next. Two main choices: Dracula (Bram Stoker) and Time Out Of Joint (PK Dick). Any suggestions which to read first?


- Dracula!  horror galore


----------



## maya (Apr 29, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> This is my current favourite ever book


and i heard about it thanks to you!   actually


----------



## colbhoy (Apr 30, 2005)

Just started reading Noble House by James Clavell. Set in 1960's Hong Kong. If it is anywhere near as good as Shogun and Tai-pan them I'm in for a treat!


----------



## eeyore (Apr 30, 2005)

hello peeps. Just wanted to recommend "They Would Never Hurt a Fly - war criminals on trail in the Hague" by Slavenka Drakulic. Portraits of the defendants from the infamous to the unknown. Disturbiing but powerful, asking difficult questions about what turns an supposedly everyday guy into a mass killer.


----------



## Ryazan (May 1, 2005)

This I Cannot Forget- The Memoirs of Nikolai Bukharin's Widow by Anna Larina.

Forced labour beginning at the age of 23 for association to an "enemy of the people".


----------



## Random One (May 1, 2005)

The Norton History of Astronomy and Cosmology i hate exam time


----------



## bmd (May 1, 2005)

Heroin Century - Tom Carnwath & Ian Smith. It covers just about everything and anything relating to heroin, very good so far.


----------



## rachamim18 (May 1, 2005)

*Rachamim's current list...*

Only reading 2 currently...

1] " al 'A'ish fi - l - haqiqa" by Naguib Mahfouz. It is in Arabic but has reputedly been translated into English after it won the Nobel. It is a unique form of historical fiction and is about the short and very tumultuous life and reign of the Pharoh Akhenaten. Akhenaten attempted to completely overhaul the Egyptian religious pantheon and incorpoarate some of its elements into a montheistic faith. Of course this cause a variety of things but his regin was short due to a premature death from illness and shortly after his death the old guard was restored. the book is written from the perspective of an upper class youth who finds himself enthralled with the story that took place shortly before his birth. He then seeks out the late pharoe's contemporaries in a quest for the full story. it is take on perspective and on how people that expeience the same thing will never  have identical takes on it.

2]" Napoleon's Buttons: 17 Molecules That Changed History" by Penny Le Court and Jay Burreson. A non-fiction book about organic compounds and their effect on life as we know it. The authors link all the compounds by linking their profound changes on our lives. Pretty interesting stuff.


----------



## spartacus mills (May 2, 2005)

I'm reading 'Q' by 'Luther Blissett'. Wonderful book and, yes, I know there's a dedicated appreciation thread.


----------



## maya (May 2, 2005)

"Arctic Dreams" by Barry Lopez.
-About, er, the Arctic...


----------



## SubZeroCat (May 3, 2005)

Ive just finished 'A Million Little Pieces' by James Frey.

It was a true story and a tragic one, and it made me cry


----------



## meems (May 3, 2005)

snow blind, by robert sabbag - seriously fucking good

oh and the aeneid but that's not through choice


----------



## jacobs steel (May 4, 2005)

I'm reading 'Witch Hunt' by Jack Harvey, then it'll have to be 'Bleeding Hearts' and 'Blood Hunt'   Really good.


----------



## mentalchik (May 5, 2005)

Re-reading Consider Phlebas - Iain M Banks again !


----------



## maya (May 5, 2005)

a book about Sami culture and "The Philosophy of Evil", by L. Svendsen


----------



## Echo Beach (May 7, 2005)

I'm kind of in reading limbo at the moment, but I have been picking up and reading fragments of Wyndham's 'The Chrysalids' over the last week. It's really good.


----------



## Nina (May 8, 2005)

Fast Food Nation.

I know, I know, I'm a bit late.

It's thoroughly depressing. I was expecting more about food but the stuff on American employment is just depressing and has lowered my opinion of American government even further.


----------



## *the summoner* (May 8, 2005)

re-reading _Strangers_ by Dean Koontz. Generally I'd use Koontz books as toiletpaper*, but this one's not so bad. He'll never be a Stephen King though.

*Not really, I'm a lady.


----------



## KarmaBum (May 9, 2005)

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Written in secret during Stalin's reign. 

Only at page 20 by very clever very enjoyable.

Back page says "Magnificent ... a gloriously ironic gothic masterpiece .. had me rapt with bliss"


----------



## maldwyn (May 11, 2005)

Ghost Riders, by Richard Grant.  A fascinating look at the history of nomadic america, from Indian tribes to tramps, hobos, and hippies. I loved it, made my feet itch.


----------



## MightyAphrodite (May 11, 2005)

the bible.


----------



## METH LAB (May 11, 2005)

Is that the one with the skitsophrenic and his beard and he tells everyone he's the son of god and they all belive him like? lol

Peace


----------



## MightyAphrodite (May 11, 2005)

METH LAB said:
			
		

> Is that the one with the skitsophrenic and his beard and he tells everyone he's the son of god and they all belive him like? lol
> 
> Peace




yes , the end is fuckin exciting though!!!.....i think bruce willis should play john the baptist in the film. 


(ive read it before)


----------



## indicate (May 11, 2005)

Just finished Vonnegut's _Slaughterhouse-Five_.  I've now read it twice - he can be deceptively simple.

I have also recently finished Carlo Ginzburg's _Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries_.  It was an interesting read, but dry in spots.  Ginzburg brings up some great points about the disunity between the agrarian classes and the educated upper class.

Randall Balmer's _Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory_ is an interesting look at the evangelical subculture in America.  I still don't quite understand this large faction of my society, but it is certainly greater now that I have had this insight into the subculture.  I feel it is a fairly good introduction/look into the mindset of a group that has become a large player in US politics, especially with the advent of the religious Right.

Now, I am giving myself a break to study for final exams...


----------



## SonOfGoatboy (May 11, 2005)

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Up for the Booker. It's okay, well constructed.
 Vanity Fair by William Thackeray. This is brilliant. Loving it and I've got 400 pages left1

 Just finished The Persian Expedition by Xenophon. War story with epic speeches. Bit dry but quite impressive.


----------



## killer b (May 11, 2005)

julian maclaren-ross: collected short stories - funny as fuck wartime tales from a dissipated posh bloke.


----------



## rennie (May 11, 2005)

I just started reading a book my mom got me for Xmas... it's by a Lebanese author who lives in Paris, Huda Barakat. It's called Letters from a stranger and it's about the experience on migration/living in a foreign country.

so far so painfully right!


----------



## Pickman's model (May 11, 2005)

just finished that at the court of the red tsar by simon sebag montefiore. quite a decent read!


----------



## Ryazan (May 16, 2005)

Good book, particularly the detail as to his relationship wiith Beria.


----------



## BL2ALLb (May 17, 2005)

Reading The Common Stream by Rowland Parker.........
so far it seems hardcore porn does not reside by brooks, so its refreshing.


----------



## Kidda (May 18, 2005)

'Freaky dancing, Me and the mondays' by Bez 

almost finished it, found it to be really good, except its a bit annoying reading it sometimes when it seems blatently obvious he hasnt actually written it. Plus the whole homophobic thing, left a strange taste in my mouth.


----------



## Virtual Blue (May 18, 2005)

Eleanor Rigby - Doug Coupland. So far - mildly disappointing...

I can't stand the words cosmic or god anymore...


----------



## Echo Beach (May 20, 2005)

I've just finished reading The River of Gods by Ian McDonald. I think I found it mildly disappointing, or could it be I'm finally leaving behind my science fiction fixation?

I'm going to start reading F Scott Gerald's 'Tender is the Night' on the recommendation of Michael Howard


----------



## Dubversion (May 20, 2005)

Virtual Blue said:
			
		

> Eleanor Rigby - Doug Coupland. So far - mildly disappointing...
> 
> I can't stand the words cosmic or god anymore...



aw, give him a break. it's not his best by any means, but it's still bloody good.

i'm reading England Is Mine by Michael Bracewell. it's a tad pompous, but a nonetheless excellent read exploring the whole fallacious Arcadian notion of being 'English' through Powell & Pressburger, Mark E Smith & Morrissey


----------



## Random One (May 20, 2005)

I started reading On Liberty by J S Mill for my exams and wasn't looking forward to it but it has turned out to be an ok read so far.


----------



## belboid (May 20, 2005)

Chronicles Volume 1  - Bob Dylan. Given it away as a pressie three times, about time I got round to reading it myself!

The Secret History - Donna Tartt - been lent this twice, and started it once, but didn't get very far, so making another go at it.  damned good start, dunno why I didn't read more last time.


----------



## Dubversion (May 20, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> aw, give him a break. it's not his best by any means, but it's still bloody good.
> 
> i'm reading England Is Mine by Michael Bracewell. it's a tad pompous, but a nonetheless excellent read exploring the whole fallacious Arcadian notion of being 'English' through Powell & Pressburger, Mark E Smith & Morrissey



look, i was pissed when i wrote that, ok?


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 20, 2005)

belboid said:
			
		

> Chronicles Volume 1  - Bob Dylan. Given it away as a pressie three times, about time I got round to reading it myself!



It's a strange book.


----------



## belboid (May 20, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> look, i was pissed when i wrote that, ok?


you made it sound really good to me! Englishness as defined by a Hungarian, a piss-head and a wanker!  perfecto 




			
				Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> It's a strange book.



I should hope so!!


----------



## rennie (May 20, 2005)

I'm about to start reading Le rouge et le noir by Stendhal... alwasy wanted to since the first time I read about one of the characters, Julien Sorel, in reading class at 14! about bloody time!


----------



## Mab (May 21, 2005)

Some guy in a pub handed me "Haiti: The Breached  Citadel" by Patrick Bellegarde-Smith. It looks "heavy" and good.

Two other books were recommended that night.  Has anyone read "Good Muslim Bad Muslim" by Mehmood Mamdani who also wrote about the Rwanda genocide?

Being one of those "animal rights peeps" he also suggested "Dominion":"The Power Of Man, The Suffering Of Animals, And A Call To Mercy" by Matthew Scully "A decent  southern baptist fundamentalist case for vegetarianism" this really nice man told me.

I want to know if anyone has read any of these. Thanks.


----------



## Hollis (May 23, 2005)

Finally got around to: 'Biggles and the Rescue Flight' by Capt. W.E. Johns..

Its the sort of stuff ernie could get into:

".. 'Forty' - was slim and dark, with finely cut features which revealed clearly his aritocratic lineage and Norman ancestors.  Rip, with his flaxen hair and blue eyes, was of the heavier Saxon type.."

Anyway, so far they've knicked acouple of Sopwith Camels and flown 'em across to France.  Biggles has shot down 1 hun.


----------



## milesy (May 23, 2005)

"la la la" by kylie minogue and william baker


----------



## Pie 1 (May 23, 2005)

I've just finished and thougherly, thougherly enjoyed every page of Jonathan Coe's What A Carve Up!


----------



## joustmaster (May 23, 2005)

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
its very funny. the kind of life i would like. if i wasn't so addicted to all this modern rubbish


----------



## oisleep (May 23, 2005)

made in yugoslavia by vladimir jokanovic

fiction story based around true events in the croat town of osijek around the start of the croat/serb war, bit of a typical story so far about bunch of youths, some serbs some croats, and how they grow apart/together as the war unfolds


----------



## The Lone Runner (May 23, 2005)

have just started 
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
by
Haruki Murakami
hope it's as good as the other things I've read by him


----------



## pk (May 24, 2005)




----------



## spartacus mills (May 24, 2005)

'Women' - Charles Bukowski


----------



## maya (May 24, 2005)

i'm starting yet again...'Berlin' by Anthony Beevor.
...it seems like fate want me to never finish this book.
not because it's bad or anything, quite the contrary-
it's just that whenever i start reading it, i'm overwhelmed by an intense fatigue and have to put it down after just a few chapters...it must be the smell of the cheap paperback ink or the tiny text in the shrunk format irritating my eyes or something...it is very very sad. i'm supposed to have read this already, lots of people are talking about it...i have to fake my knowledge- this is a catastrophe for my intellectual growth...a new maya would've been born...the well-informed, politically savvy interlocutor...now it will never come to be... 

i mjust hide in the corridors of elevated conversation...i must hang my head in shame and humiliation...that is the pain of the unsuccessful politics-reader...


----------



## Spud Murphy (May 24, 2005)

War Against the Weak by Edwin Black. History of the eugenics movement in America.

The Black Jacobins by CLR James. History of Toussaint Louverture and slave rebellions in the Caribbean.


----------



## SubZeroCat (May 24, 2005)

Aaargh I bought Cosmopolitan out of boredom someone please give me some decent, well written literature before I turn into a handbag eeerrrghhuuugh


----------



## maya (May 24, 2005)

SubZeroCat said:
			
		

> Aaargh I bought Cosmopolitan out of boredom someone please give me some decent, well written literature before I turn into a handbag eeerrrghhuuugh


well, it obviously have begun its deteriorating impact- stifling your ability to use proper punctuation and grammar, something to make the non-teachers around here proud...  (what *word* is "eeeerrrghhuuugh", you young rascal hoodie, eh?  -as punishment please open the oxford enhlish dictionary at once, and inhale the sweet smell of punctuation and synonyms...you must inject the antidote of grime lingo now, before it's too late!...the future of english correctness depends on you!!...you must not let the nigels and tarquins down, now!)
...beware, you might end up as bad as me, writing novels in text spk...and that would be a treachery to the entire human race... 

(*the bit about novels is fake, btw- i just wanted to make and impact and be bitchy at the same time...well, enough)


----------



## ginger_syn (May 24, 2005)

Unseen:- 
Door To Alternity.. Nancy Holder & Jeff Mariotte. secod in a Buffy/Angel crossover series
Reason and Nature in 18th Centuary Thought..R.W.Harris.
new book to read ..The Runes of the Earth..Stephan Donaldson.
also i'm reading over a period of years, Clive Baker's Imajica , I've broken through to chapter two, and feel that in a month or two i can try a few more pages.


----------



## Ryazan (May 25, 2005)

The Dethronement of Stalin.

Krushchev's speech to the 20th Party Congress of the CPSU 1956.

Compelling reading, given the mixed morality of Kruschev and his motives for slagging Joe off.  His harsh tone in his attacks at the Stalin regime's excesses during the Yeshovshina are far from decent in their portrayal of events and there was no attacking but instead a defence of the agricultural policies of the early 1930's.  And we all know what happened in the Ukraine.


----------



## Mab (May 25, 2005)

spartacus mills said:
			
		

> 'Women' - Charles Bukowski




Nice one! Another fav is "Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness (1972). I was laughing so hard I got off the bus.

Yeah Spud Murphy, I would like that read. Thanks


----------



## spartacus mills (May 25, 2005)

'Women'




			
				Mab said:
			
		

> Nice one!



I've not read any Bukowski before. It's laugh-out-loud in places!


----------



## Dubversion (May 26, 2005)

Simon Ford's The Situationist International: A User's Guide.

bought this because he's usually a great writer, but it's a bit sparse, textwise, for a £17 quid book.


----------



## IntoStella (May 27, 2005)

Mikhail Bulgakov's wonderful The Master and Margarita -- see maximilian ping's thread  here.


----------



## Pickman's model (May 27, 2005)

Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977)


----------



## ViolentPanda (May 27, 2005)

Ahmed Rashid - "Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia"


----------



## Leica (May 27, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977)



I like your referencing style.


----------



## majorleague (May 27, 2005)

The Book of Clouds  by John A. Day.


----------



## Echo Beach (May 27, 2005)

Ernest Mandel's 'Intro to Marxist Economic Theory', followed by Marx's 'Wage Labour and Capital', and then Jon Bellamy Foster's 'Marx's Ecology' bringing up the rear (notice a theme creeping in to this selection?). On top of this I'm squeezing F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'Tender is the Night' in.


----------



## jacobs steel (May 28, 2005)

The 'Wasp Factory', by iain banks


----------



## newharper (May 28, 2005)

The Prize by Daniel Yergin  a history of oil. 
good and easy to read into the bargain, though only got as far as the start of the 20th C. so far, so the more interesting stuff from a plolitical pow is about to start.  
My Year of Meat by Ruth L. Ozeki.  fun so very limited far.


----------



## oisleep (May 28, 2005)

through the embers of chaos, by dervla murphy, account of an irish granny who cycles round the balkans in the early and late 90's, goes all over serbia, croatia & bosnia on her pushbike, staying with locals and the like, pretty good general historical account of the region mixed with tales from locals she meets


----------



## IPRN (May 28, 2005)

In the hospital this week, so -  An Easy Thing - Paco Ignacio Torres, Calito's Way - Edwin Torres, A Suitable Amount Of Crime - Nils Christie, The Perpetual Prisoner Machine - Joel Dyer (Haven't finished this yet), With The Poor People Of The Earth - Alan O'Toole, nearly finished the third part of Stuart Christie's autobiography, and about to start Nestor Makhno, Anarchy's Cossak.


----------



## Pickman's model (May 28, 2005)

Stanley J Weyman, Under the Red Robe (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1945)

read that last night, story set in france in 1630 where bloke has to capture someone for richelieu and after a variety of mishaps gets his man and the girl.

it's ok, nothing special, but it's got a good opening.


----------



## FridgeMagnet (May 28, 2005)

joustmaster said:
			
		

> Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
> its very funny. the kind of life i would like. if i wasn't so addicted to all this modern rubbish


Hmm - I remember reading that when I was a kid, and slagging it off, because it was full of people doing bugger all except drink wine. At the time that seemed like a bad idea to me. Nowadays my point of view has undoubtedly shifted.


----------



## iona (May 28, 2005)

jacobs steel said:
			
		

> The 'Wasp Factory', by iain banks



i got that today, i've just finished it! its pretty good


----------



## Orang Utan (May 31, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977)



I was set that text in the Gothic module of my Eng Lit course - can't remember anything about it.


----------



## IntoStella (May 31, 2005)

Oryx and Crake -- Margaret Atwood.


----------



## Belushi (Jun 2, 2005)

Peter Carey 'True History of the Kelly Gang'

Haven't read a novel in three years, but after a couple of false starts I've managed to get into this.


----------



## Ryazan (Jun 3, 2005)

Vera Zasulich- a biography

and,

The Unmentionable Nechaev- a key to Bolshevism


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 3, 2005)

Just finished Simon Reynolds' Rip It Up and Start Again which is fucking brilliant.
Now on Granny Made Me An Anarchist by Stuart Christie, for book group.
Found Citizens by Simon Schama in a bin, as well as Knut Hamsen's Hunger, so will start on those too. My Dad's been badgering me to read Citizens for ages and I need to know more about the French Revolution cos my current knowledge is limited to the 14th of July, 'liberté, egalité, fraternite' and guillotines.
Also just bought Jonathan Coe's The Closed Circle.


----------



## roney (Jun 3, 2005)

started 'the pilgrimage' by paul coelihio this morning- seems grand
halfway thogh 'spiritual journy' ( or summa like that) by malcl mugger9dge(fav of Viz fans)
''laptop dancing and th enanny goat mambo' buy ssport d jouranlist om Hu,phries..not bad ata ll,

and so on..


----------



## zora (Jun 3, 2005)

Picked up pretty much at random *Ali Smith's Supersonic 70s* (one of Pengin's little 70's birthday books) containing 5, 6 short stories/extracts from her books which are   and    - as you can see words fail me to describe her style; the blurp calls it her 'exquisite lyricism and playful voice' though that does sound a tad too sweet for me; what I found astonishing is the sober and realistic feel to the stories whilst using quite elaborate metaphors and elements of the surreal.

Will definitely be reading more by her.


----------



## Ryazan (Jun 3, 2005)

roney said:
			
		

> started 'the pilgrimage' by paul coelihio this morning- seems grand
> halfway thogh 'spiritual journy' ( or summa like that) by malcl mugger9dge(fav of Viz fans)
> ''laptop dancing and th enanny goat mambo' buy ssport d jouranlist om Hu,phries..not bad ata ll,
> 
> and so on..



wtf?


----------



## tangerinedream (Jun 4, 2005)

About halfway through Choke (Chuck Palahniuk) which I'm enjoying greatly as I have done all of his work. He seems to bridge the gap between Bret Easton Ellis's hideous imagery and Dellilo's or Foster Wallaces love of the absurd and wonderful situation. And I seem to be sounding pretentious.   

Also reading 'The lone man' by Bernardo Atxaga, which I'm also enjoying in a very different way. There is a strange style about this book which I can't put my finger on. It's very strong on description and memory yet the dialogue is very sparse and almost wooden. I thought at first this was due to the translation but it seems deliberate. It's not a negative actually. It seems to aid understanding of the plot and lets you focus on other things, sort of what's not said being more important than what is said.


----------



## Dubversion (Jun 4, 2005)

my Italy book stash is massive, and i doubt i'll read even one of them, but it's

Tobias Jones - The Dark heart Of Italy
Jon Snow - Shooting History
TC Boyle - Riven Rock
Toby Litt - Beatniks
Peter Guaralnick - Careless Love (The Unmaking of Elvis)


which should do it


----------



## maya (Jun 4, 2005)

Ryazan said:
			
		

> wtf?


hey, it's not nice taking the piss out of 'new age'-dyslexics, i think s/he was being genuine!  

(-although coelho IS pretty shit, i must admit...you could find more 'depth' and 'insight' in the leaves of a fucking teapot, ferchrissakes!)


----------



## Belushi (Jun 4, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Just finished Simon Reynolds' Rip It Up and Start Again which is fucking brilliant.



Can I have a lend? (bet someones beaten me to it!)


----------



## golightly (Jun 4, 2005)

Critical Mass or how one thing leads to another by Philip Ball.


----------



## dormouse (Jun 4, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Tobias Jones - The Dark heart Of Italy


Definitely recommended if you're going to Italy.  The title's a bit misleading - it's not that negative or depressing - the author loves Italy despite its flaws.


----------



## JE:5 (Jun 4, 2005)

The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion and Rock'n'Roll  by Simon Reynolds and Joy Press


----------



## Ryazan (Jun 4, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> hey, it's not nice taking the piss out of 'new age'-dyslexics, i think s/he was being genuine!
> 
> (-although coelho IS pretty shit, i must admit...you could find more 'depth' and 'insight' in the leaves of a fucking teapot, ferchrissakes!)



What is a "new age" dyslexic?


----------



## Fledgling (Jun 4, 2005)

FridgeMagnet said:
			
		

> Hmm - I remember reading that when I was a kid, and slagging it off, because it was full of people doing bugger all except drink wine. At the time that seemed like a bad idea to me. Nowadays my point of view has undoubtedly shifted.



It's a great book, really helped laucnh Steinbeck properly. I liked its fun and yes it is about sitting around drinking wine but hey that's the way maybe they know something we don't! Went to Pacific Grove, I think Tortilla Flat may now be covered in rich arse houses but I couldn't find it I had a bus to catch. 

Reading Journey Without Maps by Graham Green. Great stuff, about Liberia. Also reading a bit of the old Simon Schama (Vol2) and Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor. All good, all interesting, all releif from revision.


----------



## *factotum* (Jun 4, 2005)

just read freaky dancin' by bez.
you're all too highbrow for me!


----------



## tangerinedream (Jun 5, 2005)

Now finished Choke and as with all Palahniuk's work I got the sense of a highly contrived ending and felt initially cheated and then sort of accepted the ending and thought 
*how did he get all of that in one book?* (as well as feeling like he deliberately bring his stuff to a contrived filmlike ending for a clever reason...)
I know he's very fashionable and all that (well probably sooo 5 yrs ago to be honest but..) I have read three of his books in the last 6/7 months and he keeps on suprising me. I found bits of this book absolutely hilarious as well, which I didn't so much w/ Lullaby or Fight Club. 
anyone suggest who to read in a similar vein?


----------



## Ryazan (Jun 6, 2005)

Fledgling said:
			
		

> It's a great book, really helped laucnh Steinbeck properly. I liked its fun and yes it is about sitting around drinking wine but hey that's the way maybe they know something we don't! Went to Pacific Grove, I think Tortilla Flat may now be covered in rich arse houses but I couldn't find it I had a bus to catch.
> 
> Reading Journey Without Maps by Graham Green. Great stuff, about Liberia. Also reading a bit of the old Simon Schama (Vol2) and *Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor*. All good, all interesting, all releif from revision.



Brilliant read.


----------



## IntoStella (Jun 6, 2005)

Just read Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and am now reading The Treatment by Daniel Menaker, which is quite, quite brilliant. I had never heard of him; I bought it from Brixton library's throw-out shelves for 10p and it's a real find. It's mostly about a man's experiences in therapy and the exchanges he has with his analyst are absolutely hilarious.


----------



## Louloubelle (Jun 6, 2005)

Esther Ranten's Autobiography 

(very likely to be meeting her soon, so thought it would be a good idea to read it)

It's actually rather good and very well written 

Also reading the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - would recommend highly


----------



## marty21 (Jun 6, 2005)

"friday night lights" h.g. bissinger

it's about a journalist who spent a year in a small town in texas, following the  fortunes of the high school football team (non fiction btw) read about 20 pages so far, very interesting, he did it in 88 and i lived in america around that time which is part of the reason i bought it, (also the 3 for 2 offer at borders, i needed a 3rd  )


----------



## spartacus mills (Jun 6, 2005)

'The World Turned Upside Down' - Christopher Hill.


----------



## IntoStella (Jun 6, 2005)

Louloubelle said:
			
		

> Esther Ranten's Autobiography
> 
> (very likely to be meeting her soon


You have my deepest sympathy.


----------



## sparkling (Jun 6, 2005)

Have just finished Time Travellers wife which I thought was crap and am now half reading Angels and thingy's by the Davinci Code man which is also crap but the other half of me is reading Bad Birdwatching which is fairly crappy but at least does not pretend to be otherwise.

I need something good to read.


----------



## Louloubelle (Jun 6, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> You have my deepest sympathy.



I used to not like her at all, from watching that's life as a kid, so cheesy, but she comes accross really well in her book, I think she's a good person and am very much looking forward to meeting with her (all being well)


----------



## IntoStella (Jun 6, 2005)

sparkling said:
			
		

> I need something good to read.


You really do, don't you?


----------



## stroober (Jun 6, 2005)

The Origin Of Species - Charles Darwin


The butler did it


----------



## Virtual Blue (Jun 6, 2005)

The Corporation - Joel Bakan. So far so good.


----------



## Echo Beach (Jun 6, 2005)

I've started reading Small Island by Andrea Levy for my book group. I've had to prepare myself or this one, not being too keen, but so far I've been pleasantly surprised.


----------



## anfield (Jun 6, 2005)

Flitting between...

_The Long Firm_ by Jake Arnott - about the 1960's criminal underworld which was dramatised on the BBC recently. A really good read.

Almost finished Ronnie O' Sullivans autobiography (interesting in parts but a bit whingy), and a few chapters of Michael Owen's autobiography (the treble, world cup etc).

_The Snapper_ - Roddy Doyle. Funny and spot-on characterisation from Mr Doyle. Not really sure of the point of the storyline though (girl gets pregant, tells her family and friends - and that's pretty much it).

Also got a Mario Puzo book, _The Family_, which I might read if I can be arsed.


----------



## IntoStella (Jun 7, 2005)

Am also reading the autobiography Who On Earth is Tom Baker? because I forgot to take my book home last night.

And it's bloody brilliant.


----------



## belboid (Jun 7, 2005)

As I appear to have lost my mates copy of Dylan's Chronicles   I've started on Simon Louvish's The Therapy of Simon Blok.

Not sure so far - style is a little irritating, tho I may well get used to it.  But the spelling in it!  Utterly awful - _pupill, doodies_  (for doodles) and one more - in the first ten pages!  That better improve...


----------



## KellyDJ (Jun 7, 2005)

Needful things - Stephen King.

One of his stronger books without a doubt.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 7, 2005)

KellyDJ said:
			
		

> Needful things - Stephen King.
> 
> One of his stronger books without a doubt.



Not sure about that - he's been rubbish for so so long - Carrie, Salem's Lot and The Shining are his best and the last reasonable effort was Misery. IMO, naturally.


----------



## Iam (Jun 7, 2005)

Just bought and about to start:

_The Magicians' Guild_, by *Trudi Canavan*.

Which has been highly recommended to me by a friend...


----------



## KellyDJ (Jun 8, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Not sure about that - he's been rubbish for so so long - Carrie, Salem's Lot and The Shining are his best and the last reasonable effort was Misery. IMO, naturally.



I agree with a lot of his latest stuff but this isn't exactly new.  1991 me thinks.


----------



## goldenecitrone (Jun 8, 2005)

Bertrand Russell 'In Praise of Idleness'


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Jun 8, 2005)

belboid said:
			
		

> But the spelling in it!  Utterly awful - _pupill, doodies_  (for doodles) and one more - in the first ten pages!  That better improve...


I'm glad Daisy Ashford's spelling was left alone......

a good read.....


http://www.stonesoup.com/ash2/ash1.html


----------



## Masseuse (Jun 8, 2005)

Having a Steinbeckian turn with Cannery Row and Travels With Charlie.


----------



## Echo Beach (Jun 10, 2005)

I'm reading The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi.

I'm not sore about a 20 year old having had her first novel published. At all. Especially when I've yet to put pen to paper. No. No jealousy here.


----------



## Ryazan (Jun 10, 2005)

Awwww....


----------



## Ryazan (Jun 10, 2005)

Only One Year- Svetlana Alliluyeva (Stalina)


----------



## citydreams (Jun 10, 2005)

goldenecitrone said:
			
		

> Bertrand Russell 'In Praise of Idleness'



When was Bertrand ever idle?


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 10, 2005)

citydreams said:
			
		

> When was Bertrand ever idle?


He did sit down a lot


----------



## madzone (Jun 10, 2005)

The Last Family in England.

It's a bit cack tbh 

I was struggling with David Baddiels new one so I stuck this one in my trolley at the supermarket.


----------



## Ryazan (Jun 10, 2005)

Masseuse said:
			
		

> Having a Steinbeckian turn with Cannery Row and Travels With Charlie.



What's all the fuss about Steinback?  I am not criticising everyone who likes him, but I have never seen the fascination in his work.


----------



## citydreams (Jun 10, 2005)

What have you read of his?  I've got a huge soft spot for Grapes of Wrath - one of the best endings ever.


----------



## Ryazan (Jun 10, 2005)

Nout, just haven't been that bothered to.

Just haven't seen any attraction.


----------



## DrRingDing (Jun 10, 2005)

Mao Tse-Tung: Guerilla Warfare (Grrrrr!)


----------



## Pete the Greek (Jun 10, 2005)

half way through Susan Faludi's "Stiffed"

Jolly good stuff.

Also have recently started "Scapegoat" by Andrea Dworkin. A bit heavy going, but i'm determined to make it to the end.


----------



## citydreams (Jun 10, 2005)

Ryazan said:
			
		

> Nout, just haven't been that bothered to.
> 
> Just haven't seen any attraction.



I think my attraction is that he's writing from a period of history that is still fresh in psychogeographical terms (just about everyone knows the song Route66), about a time of change in which the characters facing the consequences of their own actions and those that they have no control over come across as more real than I could have imagined myself given the challenges facing them.  In my opinion his ability to make characters come alive on the pages is just about unbeatable.  His attention to detail is unnerving and underneath it all he manages to bring with him the humour that can be found in even the most despairing of situations without ever being slapstick.


----------



## mrkikiet (Jun 11, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Also just bought Jonathan Coe's The Closed Circle.


what did you make of this?
i've just finished it and was pretty dissapointed, it was all a bit Ben Elton.

now reading David Copperfield.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 11, 2005)

mrkikiet said:
			
		

> what did you make of this?
> i've just finished it and was pretty dissapointed, it was all a bit Ben Elton.


Well yes - the plot has such momentum that you cannot fail to be impressed by it, but it seems as superficial as the Blairist 'third way' and image fetishism that Coe is trying to satirise. Coe makes a few perceptive political points about modern Britain, but they seem rather trite and hackneyed compared to The Rotters Club and he fudged the neo Nazi business. I guess it works well as a melodrama but not so well as a satire.


----------



## Nina (Jun 11, 2005)

Just finished Sarah by J T Leroy, which was strangely enchanting.

I'm reading a mix now.

Chasing Che by Patrick Symmes. American journo follows the trail of The 2 G's across South America. 

Hunter Thompsn - The Great Shark Hunt. That man was mad!   

Better Sight Without Glasses Harry Benjamin 

The AA Guide to Cuba


----------



## chooch (Jun 11, 2005)

Primo Levi- the periodic table
and Philip Roth- american pastoral. 
Not yet confusing the two, which is good.

Just finished a biography of thelonous monk, which was reasonably well-researched, very badly written and quite dull. Can't help feeling he deserved something a bit more artful.


----------



## Ryazan (Jun 12, 2005)

Mirrors on Moscow-  Louise Bryant.


----------



## IntoStella (Jun 13, 2005)

Finished Daniel Menaker's The Treatment, which is one of the most brilliant books I have read in a long time —  I loved it —*and then read Poor Things by Alasdair Gray, which is also fab. 

Just started Margaret Atwood's Surfacing.


----------



## maya (Jun 13, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> Just started Margaret Atwood's Surfacing.


have you read any of her poetry, IS? -is it as good as her novels?

just finished "Oryx & Crake" & enjoyed it, although the ending was a bit weak-
saw a good documentary on her last week, very interesting author.


----------



## IntoStella (Jun 13, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> just finished "Oryx & Crake" & enjoyed it


 I expect you did -- it's quite mad, just like you.  


> although the ending was a bit weak-


 Yeah, the nearer I got to the end, the more I anticipated that not much was going to happen. It's a bit JG Ballard like in that respect.  Not that that is at all a bad thing. It's also rather like the Handmaid's Tale in that the narrative ends with a cliffhanger -- do they live happily ever after or not? More to the point, do they _live_ or not? 

Not read her poetry yet.


----------



## KellyDJ (Jun 14, 2005)

Nina said:
			
		

> Hunter Thompsn - The Great Shark Hunt. That man was mad!



yep - read Fear and Loathing in Las Vagas not too long ago.  Bloody mental book


----------



## *factotum* (Jun 14, 2005)

the virgin suicides- jeffery euginedes.
very good. the film stayed pretty damn true to it too, which is rare.


----------



## STFC (Jun 14, 2005)

Chickenhawk by Robert Mason. Very engrossing account of a US Army helicopter pilot's experiences during the Vietnam war.


----------



## Flavour (Jun 14, 2005)

Adolf Hitler - _Mein Kampf_

it's not very good so far, he keeps interrupting the god-damn plot to talk about Jews


----------



## STFC (Jun 14, 2005)

Flavour said:
			
		

> Adolf Hitler - _Mein Kampf_
> 
> it's not very good so far, he keeps interrupting the god-damn plot to talk about Jews



I've always been curious about reading Mein Kampf, but don't want to look like some sad, bedsit dwelling white supremacist at the till in Waterstones!


----------



## Flavour (Jun 14, 2005)

I got it delivered by play.com

The introduction of the book tries to justify you buying its all "we know mein kampf is an evil piece of shit, but history students need to read it. its really shit, hitlers a shit writer, what a load of cack, dont know why you bothered... anyway, Mein Kampf!"


----------



## Echo Beach (Jun 14, 2005)

I've just finished an academic book on cults, and now I'm looking at a collection edited by Jeffrey Williams called 'PC Wars'. This is about the (US) right's attack on the academic left, and is so far very good IMO.


----------



## anfield (Jun 14, 2005)

Just started _Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia_.


----------



## mARV (Jun 14, 2005)

Currently I'm reading Charles Bukowski's 'Women'. It's a brilliant and easy read, thought quite misogynistic and sexist at times. It seems to be semi-autobiograpical, however I think it might exaggerated at times a little too much. Quite different from the likes of Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs, though it does share an affinity for free flowing narratives with those writers.


----------



## IntoStella (Jun 15, 2005)

I'm continuing my Margaret Atwood fest with 'Surfacing', which is wonderful.


----------



## twisted_angel (Jun 15, 2005)

Lady killers by Martina Cole, i was given it by the cleaner at work, not usually my sort of thing, but helps me sleep.


----------



## BadlyDrawnGirl (Jun 15, 2005)

'The Collins 2004 Road Atlas Of Great Britain And Northern Ireland'. 

With extended motorway coverage and in-depth information on places of historical and geographical interest.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 15, 2005)

acid priest said:
			
		

> 'The Collins 2004 Road Atlas Of Great Britain And Northern Ireland'.
> 
> With extended motorway coverage and in-depth information on places of historical and geographical interest.


I've read that - don't think much of the plot, but the places are so _real_


----------



## cevets (Jun 15, 2005)

*I am reading . . .*

Freakonomics by Levitt & Dubner

The World is Flat by Friedman

Wicked by Gregory Maquire

Perdido Street Station by Mieville


----------



## zora (Jun 16, 2005)

A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby, my favourite of his since High Fidelity.


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 16, 2005)

mrkikiet said:
			
		

> what did you make of this?
> i've just finished it and was pretty dissapointed, it was all a bit Ben Elton.
> 
> now reading David Copperfield.



I'm on the last 50pages of David Copperfield - its my first Dickens and I've found it quite good indeed. Tragic/comic in equal measure - long too and to be honest I'd have been better reading it on a holiday!.

As for Jonathan Coe - have you read Timm Lott - white city Blue? . The Line of Beauty by alan hollinghurst the Booker winner grips the Thatcher years brilliantly!


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 16, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> I expect you did -- it's quite mad, just like you.     Yeah, the nearer I got to the end, the more I anticipated that not much was going to happen. It's a bit JG Ballard like in that respect.  Not that that is at all a bad thing. It's also rather like the Handmaid's Tale in that the narrative ends with a cliffhanger -- do they live happily ever after or not? More to the point, do they _live_ or not?
> 
> Not read her poetry yet.




it has been said that Atwood can't "finish" a novel - Alias Grace , Cat's Eye spring to mind.


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 16, 2005)

Echo Beach said:
			
		

> I've started reading Small Island by Andrea Levy for my book group. I've had to prepare myself or this one, not being too keen, but so far I've been pleasantly surprised.




A  fantastic book in every respect !!


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 16, 2005)

Belushi said:
			
		

> Peter Carey 'True History of the Kelly Gang'
> 
> Haven't read a novel in three years, but after a couple of false starts I've managed to get into this.




Good choice - better than Oscar and Lucinda much better.


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 16, 2005)

arattebury said:
			
		

> just started A Holinghurst In the line of Beauty - Hope it is as good as the swimming pool library




I was stunned by the quality and immediacy of this book - it's in my top ten favourites , not a place gained lightly or with little thought.

A must read in every respect!


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 16, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> This is my current favourite ever book



I was dissappointed with Cloud Atlas - it didn't live up to the sum of its parts. The different styles the Brave New World and David Lodge homages made it appear that he was trying too hard. Many reviews called it ground breaking - re defining the novel but others and I agree with them saw that it had been done before - the unreliable narrative, the multi time zone ( Ok noone had gone sci fi plus!) .

Number9dream is meant to be actually better . Cloud atlas was a favorite for the Booker but "The line of Beauty " which won was much better by far as was Bitter Fruit by Achmat Dangor.


----------



## exosculate (Jun 16, 2005)

I'm at work said:
			
		

> I was dissappointed with Cloud Atlas - it didn't live up to the sum of its parts. The different styles the Brave New World and David Lodge homages made it appear that he was trying too hard. Many reviews called it ground breaking - re defining the novel but others and I agree with them saw that it had been done before - the unreliable narrative, the multi time zone ( Ok noone had gone sci fi plus!) .
> 
> Number9dream is meant to be actually better . Cloud atlas was a favorite for the Booker but "The line of Beauty " which won was much better by far as was Bitter Fruit by Achmat Dangor.




I think Cloud Atlas is pants too. I had high hopes for it. And cannot be bothered reading beyond chapter 2.


----------



## tangerinedream (Jun 16, 2005)

Just finished 'remains of the day' - Kazuo Ishiguro. Which I enjoyed in a very low key easy to read way and found quite poignant. 

I'm also reading 'Theatre Studies - A guide to AQA Theatre Studies (A2) which isn't very thrilling. But it's the only book I've got that I havn't read at the moment. Time for a trip to the library I think!


----------



## Echo Beach (Jun 16, 2005)

I finished PC Wars today - the first time I've read a book in about a day for ages. Now I'm embarking on Harry Turtledove's 'Homeward Bound'. Sadly I got hooked on the concept underlying the previous 7 books in this series a while back (what if reptilean aliens invaded during WWII?). But the abysmal writing, cardboard characterisation, and it's utter trashiness is guaranteed to mush my brain by the time I reach that last page.


----------



## JE:5 (Jun 16, 2005)

Count Zero - William Gibson


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 17, 2005)

exosculate said:
			
		

> I think Cloud Atlas is pants too. I had high hopes for it. And cannot be bothered reading beyond chapter 2.




Its worth pressing on with but it won't add up to the sum of its parts, some bits are extraordinarily well written and worth reading but others......

Oh and the "twist" is pants


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 17, 2005)

tangerinedream said:
			
		

> Just finished 'remains of the day' - Kazuo Ishiguro. Which I enjoyed in a very low key easy to read way and found quite poignant.
> 
> I'm also reading 'Theatre Studies - A guide to AQA Theatre Studies (A2) which isn't very thrilling. But it's the only book I've got that I havn't read at the moment. Time for a trip to the library I think!



I read Remains of the Day -the booker winner and Artist of a floating world the Whitbread winner by Kashiro Isiguro back to back in one volume and was delighted . How on earth a Japanese man appears to capture the essence of 30's stately home life is beyond me.

I read When we were orphans recently but it wasn't as good as these two.


----------



## KellyDJ (Jun 17, 2005)

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis Bernieres


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 17, 2005)

I'm at work said:
			
		

> I was dissappointed with Cloud Atlas - it didn't live up to the sum of its parts. The different styles the Brave New World and David Lodge homages made it appear that he was trying too hard. Many reviews called it ground breaking - re defining the novel but others and I agree with them saw that it had been done before - the unreliable narrative, the multi time zone ( Ok noone had gone sci fi plus!) .
> 
> Number9dream is meant to be actually better .


Ghostwritten is even better.


----------



## kropotkin (Jun 17, 2005)

-^^ that's a wicked book.

I'm reading "Resurrections from the dustbin of history" by Simon Louvish (cheers Random), and "Nestor Machno- Anarchy's Cossack; The Struggle for Free Soviets in the Ukraine 1917-1921" by A. Skirda


----------



## maya (Jun 17, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Ghostwritten is even better.


ghostwritten is the best of the 3, imo.


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 17, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> ghostwritten is the best of the 3, imo.



having not enjoyed Cloud Atlas - I shall only read the other Mitchell books if they turn up easily - I get all my books from charity shops. I'd certainly look at them but with some trepidation - that said they do have good reviews.

I've just started Rumours of a Hurricane by Tim Lott - I thought it would be light after finishing David Copperfield!


----------



## Ryazan (Jun 17, 2005)

Red Cavalry arrived this morning.


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 17, 2005)

I've been reading modern novels for only 2 years after having read Military Autobiographies & Histories for 20+ yrs . On the internet there are lots of online Book forums and I usually read a book then post my own amateur thoughts and reviews - I'm not a reviewer just an avid reader . I've only just read my first Dickens.

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens  

My first outing with Dickens and I quite enjoyed it, I wanted to read David Copperfield after reading Orwell's essay on Dickens quite some time ago. Whether or not this is the best place to start with Dickens I'm not sure but it certainly is said to reflect Dickens life more closely. A kind of semi autobiographical novel then with some massaging here and there. I had expected for some reason a sombre novel - not at all, it's actually very funny, laugh out loud in a few places. Its very very long though nearly a 1000 pages, that said they flew by even though I have been so busy I could only manage a few pages at a time - I wished I had saved it for my holidays, it is a perfect holiday read. A huge flowing story encompassing David Copperfield's almost entire life from childhood and early poverty, wicked stepfathers and a gradual rise to status and fortune.  Its more than a damn good story, its also a snapshot of early Victorian life - the formal manners, the poverty, the quaint lifestyles and the sadly quite wet women. Thank goodness for the emancipation of women - all that swooning!! 

It was a thoroughly enjoyable read indeed, it does lose some pace later on but it soon recovers and the plot twists and turns really make for quality reading even if the twists are a little too much like good coincidences! The first three quarters are particularly gripping and the parts with Copperfields childhood are outstanding - his problems with housekeeping and servants are hilarious!. Being an old classic I'm sure its size may put some new readers off - I didn't know what to expect but all this time reading modern novels made me think it would be slow and difficult to read - not at all, I loved it - It could have been written yesterday its so fresh and lively. My Penguin paperback version from 1975 has a detailed index of notes to the text to explain some early Victorian sayings and explanations as well as 23 original illustrations from "Phiz" that add quite a humorous note to the text. All in all for a Dickens first time I'm delighted, it's just a pity I could have saved it for my main holiday it deserves quality reading time devoted to it!


----------



## chooch (Jun 18, 2005)

kropotkin said:
			
		

> I'm reading "Resurrections from the dustbin of history" by Simon Louvish (cheers Random)


Snap. Laughed a good few times, nodded some more times. Liking it...


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Jun 18, 2005)

Ant by Charlotte Sleigh. 
Really enjoying it, especially when I'm reading it outside and an ant crawls by. Also any mention of Ants causes me to think fondly of Jock McGrim....

http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/titles/animal_ant.html


----------



## oisleep (Jun 19, 2005)

Roadkill said:
			
		

> _The Victorians_ by A.N. Wilson.



just started this today, seems quite interesting so far


----------



## liberty (Jun 19, 2005)

I started to read The lovely bones.. Not sure if I will carry on after 1st chapter though


----------



## wtfftw (Jun 19, 2005)

Winters Heart by Robert Jordan. Book 9 in the wheel of time series. I do love epic fantasy. Also the computer has been broken so I've had to find other ways to pass the time.


----------



## spartacus mills (Jun 19, 2005)

'Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail' by Christopher Dawes. Can a punk rock legend find what Monty Python couldn't....


----------



## WasGeri (Jun 19, 2005)

liberty said:
			
		

> I started to read The lovely bones.. Not sure if I will carry on after 1st chapter though



It's definitely worth carrying on with, although the ending was a bit of a disappointment, in my opinion.


----------



## arfy (Jun 19, 2005)

I've just started 'Gulag' by Anne Applebaum (I think that's the author's name)

finished re-reading 'Hey Nostrodamus !' by Douglas Coupland a couple of days ago. Thought this was even better second time round.

Read '45' by Bill Drummond last week and loved it , so I have borrowed a copy of Reposessed by Julian Cope off a mate , to read on holiday in Cornwall in a couple of weeks.

I also recommend 'Raw Spirit' by Iain Banks, I think this is his first non-fiction book , it's mostly based around the whiskey industry in Scotland and although I have no real interest in, or knowledge of the subject , I loved this book .

Also read recently;

'Words and Music'-Paul Morley (gave up on this half way through)

'What's our name ? Everton' .A diary of following Everton home and away during season 2004-2005, this is pretty good ,written by a friend of a friend of mine who writes an Everton fanzine (when skies are grey).Probably not of much interest to anyone who's not an Everton fan though !


----------



## oddworld (Jun 19, 2005)

liberty said:
			
		

> I started to read The lovely bones.. Not sure if I will carry on after 1st chapter though



I put it down as well , really wanted to read it but couldnt get into it.

'Notes on a scandel' is very good - Zoe Heller

About a teachers affair with a school pupil


----------



## Shirl (Jun 19, 2005)

oddworld said:
			
		

> I put it down as well , really wanted to read it but couldnt get into it.
> 
> 'Notes on a scandel' is very good - Zoe Heller
> 
> About a teachers affair with a school pupil



Don't give up on The Lovely Bones you two. Someone recomended it to me and I bought it to be polite. When I read the blurb I thought it didn't sound like my kind of book. I read it anyway and once into it, I loved it, honestly, it's well worth another try. Trust me


----------



## citydreams (Jun 19, 2005)

Market Forces, by Richard Morgan

Ignore the back cover, or the fact that it might only be found in the science-fiction corner.  Morgan's 3rd novel runs his usual dogged grit into the pathway of an up and coming Conflict Investments executive.  This is a roller coaster of epic proportions.  Set in London 100 years after the Domino Recessions the hero/anti-hero has to chose between a socialist ideology or cold-blooded capitalism where the mercantilist ethic is _turn up with blood on your wheels or don't turn up at all_.


Who's reading Woken Furies then?


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Jun 20, 2005)

Mrs Magpie said:
			
		

> Ant by Charlotte Sleigh.
> Really enjoying it, especially when I'm reading it outside and an ant crawls by. Also any mention of Ants causes me to think fondly of Jock McGrim....
> 
> http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/titles/animal_ant.html


There is an increasing list of people who have idly picked this book up at my house, started to read the first few pages, been amazed and who now want to borrow it when I've finished...I practically had to wrestle it back from the grip of IntoStella (first on the list).


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 20, 2005)

Geri said:
			
		

> It's definitely worth carrying on with, although the ending was a bit of a disappointment, in my opinion.



Ghost ring any bells??

I was dissappointed TBH


----------



## IntoStella (Jun 20, 2005)

Mrs Magpie said:
			
		

> There is an increasing list of people who have idly picked this book up at my house, started to read the first few pages, been amazed and who now want to borrow it when I've finished...I practically had to wrestle it back from the grip of IntoStella (first on the list).


S'true. She had to break three of my fingers.  

I'm reading the exquisitely written Proofs by George Steiner.


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 20, 2005)

oddworld said:
			
		

> I put it down as well , really wanted to read it but couldnt get into it.
> 
> 'Notes on a scandel' is very good - Zoe Heller
> 
> About a teachers affair with a school pupil



Well recieved last year on the Tv - one of the Radio4 book programmes did it too. I have it on my TBR pile - just got to get round to it.

Reading Rumour of a Hurricane by Tim Lott at the moment.


----------



## Iam (Jun 20, 2005)

citydreams said:
			
		

> Market Forces, by Richard Morgan
> 
> Ignore the back cover, or the fact that it might only be found in the science-fiction corner.  Morgan's 3rd novel runs his usual dogged grit into the pathway of an up and coming Conflict Investments executive.  This is a roller coaster of epic proportions.  Set in London 100 years after the Domino Recessions the hero/anti-hero has to chose between a socialist ideology or cold-blooded capitalism where the mercantilist ethic is _turn up with blood on your wheels or don't turn up at all_.
> 
> ...



Not right now, but I have done.

For me, Market Forces is not as good as the Kovacs series. Still good, but not as good.


----------



## indicate (Jun 20, 2005)

I've been reading Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.  I do like his writing style, but I must say that I prefer Slaughterhouse Five.


----------



## J77 (Jun 21, 2005)

Just read Saturday - it's good how he's brought the entire life stories of the different characters into Perowne's one day but it's far from his best.

In fact, the first few chapters are rubbish; the end is much more McEwan like.


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 21, 2005)

Have you read McEwans "Enduring Love"? it came out as a film on DVD recently with Samatha Morton and welsh bloke from "Notting Hill" - The book was OK but I have yet to see the film


----------



## J77 (Jun 21, 2005)

I'm at work said:
			
		

> Have you read McEwans "Enduring Love"? it came out as a film on DVD recently with Samatha Morton and welsh bloke from "Notting Hill" - The book was OK but I have yet to see the film


One of my favourite McEwan books - that, Atonement, Comfort of Strangers and A Child in Time are all modern day classics, imo.


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 21, 2005)

I've read Amsterdam as its on the Booker list - I've been trying to read all the Booker , Whitbread and Orange prize winners. I need Child in Time as it won the whitbread. Atonement I have read mixed reviews about - but you would reccomend it?


----------



## J77 (Jun 21, 2005)

Haven't read Amsterdam - it's in the bookshelf but my gf warned me it's not one of his best - would did you think? May pick it up one day.

Atonement is excellent - highly recommended.

A C in T, and C of S are both brilliant as shorter books - the latter is very creepy (as is the very weird Cement Garden).


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 21, 2005)

I read Amsterdam as my first McEwan and personally I was delighted - more of a short story really , good twists etc.Worth a look to compare with the others. 

The problem is the huge TBR pile - and growing larger.


----------



## Echo Beach (Jun 21, 2005)

I finished Homeward Bound by Harry Turtledove. What twaddle. The dialogue was simply awful, characterisation was soggy cardboard at best (all the women characters could do was think about their mutual jealousy and kids), and I've never come across so much repetition in a novel. Really this 596 page monster could easily have been condensed down to 180 pages. If other Urbanites have been following his World War/Colonisation series then it's wortg a look just to finish off the series. But others should stay clear of his books until he has a certificate to prove he's attended creative writing classes.   

Now I've started Jung Chang and Jon Halliday's much hyped 'Mao: The Unknown Story'. I just wish I knew more about the topic so I could at cast a more critical eye over the piece (though I'm far from a Mao fan myself).


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 22, 2005)

In the absence of a dedicated book review thread I'll post this here though I'm not sure if this is ok. I've posted this on dedicated book sites. I have no literary qualifications of any sort and the review is just really my own thoughts.Please tell me if it isn't appropriate to post here:-

Rumour of a Hurricane by Tim Lott  

Strange to think of a decade which I remember well and fondly is now sufficiently in the past to be written about as a phenomena – the 80’s. There are lists of social, political and cultural events that make up the 80’s and these are well known to TV programme makers when they need to evoke that era. For a novel writer it must seem that ticking all these boxes can bring about a feel for the age. This is true but Tim Lott here appears to have managed to go a little further than that in evoking the attitude of the time – something more than the Harry Enfield character “loadsamoney”. Charting the seemingly ordinary life of a working class man from inner city London and his wife from the late 70’s to the early 90’s he manages to chart the massive social change that occurred during that decade. So much more happened than just Margaret Thatcher the Yuppies and the Stock Market crash – these are pointer used by the media. Real social change happened during those years – the UK changed in the 80’s giving us the foundation for the modern society we have today. 

Only the fullest understanding of these changes will allow a reader to fully appreciate how the author has written the story, sadly I fear that only UK residents will be able to appreciate the narrative. On the surface, with all the aforementioned boxes ticked, it seems the narrative lacks depth. The 70’s style working class man struggles to make the changes he needs to live in the 80’s, all the certainties of the earlier years are swept away – the unions fail, social changes with the “Right to buy” (the right to purchase your council owned house) come along with the pressure on family life and the temptation of easy credit.  I think that Tim Lott really managed to get under the skin of the working man, he really understands the lack of comprehension of the modern age that many early middle aged folk greeted the 80’s, leaving, for me, a generation unable to bridge the gap to the modern times ahead. It’s more of a rise and fall story that could be put on any era but the 80’s appear to have given many ordinary people the ability to rise and fall in an almost Victorian way. For every success story there are tragic stories of failure. I enjoyed the narrative immensely and the authors homework on the 80’s has paid off (except in the Christmas scene – Wade whimsy figures belong to 1975 not 1980) in that he is able to mould the various happenings around the narrative without them intruding. There is obviously a need to have some understanding of the 80’s beyond the stereotypes – Alan Hollinghursts “The Line of Beauty (Booker winner 2004) achieved this above and beyond the call of duty and for me made the perfect 80’s “retro” novel. Rumour of a Hurricane should be up there with Jonathon Coe’s “What a carve up” on the 80’s. In a decades time I’ll bet these novels will be re discovered – I foresee a race for authors to write the definitive 80’s novel or at least one that sums up the mood of the time. I for one loved this novel, the 80’s for me a time of change and self discovery – this managed to sum up the mood of the time and certainly helped me to grasp the full potential of the novel. I’d recommend this for everyone.


----------



## tastebud (Jun 22, 2005)

Dirty Havana Trilogy- Pedro Juan Gutierrez.
~it's pretty filthy, in parts.


----------



## articul8 (Jun 22, 2005)

thought about reading that - definitely will now


----------



## jacobs steel (Jun 23, 2005)

In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead by James Lee Burke  

Top class read


----------



## EatMoreChips (Jun 23, 2005)

Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion by Andy Worthington. Fun fun fun all the way to the bit where the police beat everybody up (again).


----------



## KellyDJ (Jun 24, 2005)

Geri said:
			
		

> It's definitely worth carrying on with, although the ending was a bit of a disappointment, in my opinion.



I 2nd that.  It had the makings of a good book but the ending def let it down.


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 24, 2005)

KellyDJ said:
			
		

> I 2nd that.  It had the makings of a good book but the ending def let it down.




Ghost anyone??


----------



## madzone (Jun 24, 2005)

I've just started Cloud Atlas by someone or other. It seems quite good so far.


----------



## Strumpet (Jun 24, 2005)

Just bought The Da Vinci Code so looking forward to getting my teeth into it.

(yes yes I know im behind    )


----------



## Echo Beach (Jun 24, 2005)

I quite fancy The Cloud Atlas, but it's never in the library    

Still ploughing through Mao: The Unknown Story. Mao wasn't a very nice man.


----------



## madzone (Jun 24, 2005)

Echo Beach said:
			
		

> I quite fancy The Cloud Atlas, but it's never in the library


I buy books from Tesco    I'll be finished it in a couple of weeks. I'll send it on to you if you want. I always feel a bit guilty about buying books from Tesco so it would help to alleviate the guilt.


----------



## IntoStella (Jun 24, 2005)

Echo Beach said:
			
		

> I quite fancy The Cloud Atlas, but it's never in the library
> 
> Still ploughing through Mao: The Unknown Story. Mao wasn't a very nice man.


Or maybe it isn't a very nice book.


----------



## maya (Jun 24, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> Or maybe it isn't a very nice book.


he thought that "fucking a virgin each day" would keep his body pure and health fresh  
these girls were usually forced in bed w/the old tyrant scrotum


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 24, 2005)

Echo Beach said:
			
		

> I quite fancy The Cloud Atlas, but it's never in the library
> 
> Still ploughing through Mao: The Unknown Story. Mao wasn't a very nice man.




I'd give Cloud Atlas a miss - its not as good as the sum of its parts . Try The Electric Michelangelo by Sarah hall also shortlisted for the Booker at the same time as CA . its a better book by far.  

I still have Jung Changs "Wild swans" on the TBR pile .


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 24, 2005)

Ignore her - Cloud Atlas is the mutt's nutts!


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 24, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Ignore her - Cloud Atlas is the mutt's nutts!



 Her? 

The problem with CA is the different styles throughout try to make the whole narrative into a new kind of novel genre - but it doesn't work the mix and match style, Brave Newworld / Soylent Green meets David Lodge /Kingsley Amis (just two examples) mean that just as it settles  down we are away to another style . The US 70's conspiricy thriller style didn't work at all and the tentative almost tacked on link twixt all the characters made the whole thing a little dissappointing.

For me whilst I was reading it I thought at one point it was possibly one of the best books I had read then I got do a dull part and it was excruciating - both emotions in one book - not good for me I'm afraid. His earlier books as said in this thread are much better.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 24, 2005)

Are you on an OU course?


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 24, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Are you on an OU course?



Goodness no - I wish I had the self discipline to perhaps to Eng Lit as an OU course but I hated school and lack self disicpline. I'm chilling out watching BB6 and trying to decide if its worth going to the gym or going outside and reading "What a carve up " by Jonathon Coe . 

To be honest what eating me up at the mo is this - I need the last book in the 70's Paul Scott's The Raj Quartet - "Division of the spoils" I get all my books from charity and 2nd hand shops so all the other 3 books are in the 70's Granada paperback , I want the same cover. I need this book to make the four for my holiday in a few weeks .


----------



## Echo Beach (Jun 24, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> Or maybe it isn't a very nice book.



Noooooo it's a very interesting book, thoroughly researched and stuff, though it's dodgy in the sense that it reduces modern Chinese history to Mao's will to power. But well worth a look.


----------



## muser (Jun 25, 2005)

*Stefan Zweig*

Anything by this author is good. If anyone has read any of his books and can recommend something with the same sense of purpose and urgency written in another author's hand, could you please reply. I was told Wolfgang Koeppen was good, and although he did engage me, and the book had its moments. It lacked the subtlety of zweig.

Thank you in advance.


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 25, 2005)

muser said:
			
		

> Anything by this author is good. If anyone has read any of his books and can recommend something with the same sense of purpose and urgency written in another author's hand, could you please reply. I was told Wolfgang Koeppen was good, and although he did engage me, and the book had its moments. It lacked the subtlety of zweig.
> 
> Thank you in advance.




Joseph Roth ?? but FFs don't quote me on that. Zweig committed suicide after finishing one of his books didn't he?


----------



## anfield (Jun 25, 2005)

Just got _The Rum Diary_ by the late Hunter S Thompson. Only about 25 pages in but enjoying it.

I find Hunter's work refreshing, and his outlook pretty inspiring apart from the whole shooting himself - _apparently_ - in the head bit.


----------



## boohoo (Jun 25, 2005)

Nearly finished Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse. First book for ages that I have not got bored of. Was reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas but though I like the writing style, I was struggling to stay interested with the rest. Will finish it though......soon.


----------



## spartacus mills (Jun 25, 2005)

About half way through 'Heart of the Matter' by Graham Greene.


----------



## Kidda (Jun 26, 2005)

On book 3 (the Horse and his boy) of the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S Lewis

its amazing what you pick up as an adult when you re-read your kids books.


----------



## mazzamom (Jun 26, 2005)

Love rereading the chronicles. I'm reading Sunset song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon for the billionth time.


----------



## corporate whore (Jun 26, 2005)

Just finished Sweet Thames, a Cholera-era thriller, by Matthew Kneale, and am now racing through Destination: Morgue!, the latest from James Ellroy.

Both excellent, in their own ways..


----------



## I'm at work (Jun 27, 2005)

corporate whore said:
			
		

> Just finished Sweet Thames, a Cholera-era thriller, by Matthew Kneale, and am now racing through Destination: Morgue!, the latest from James Ellroy.
> 
> Both excellent, in their own ways..




Have you read English passengers by Kneale?? briliant read indeed!


----------



## corporate whore (Jun 28, 2005)

Nope, but was thinking about a delve into his back catalogue. Cheers for that!


----------



## muser (Jun 28, 2005)

*Zweig*




			
				I'm at work said:
			
		

> Joseph Roth ?? but FFs don't quote me on that. Zweig committed suicide after finishing one of his books didn't he?



I'm at work, yes he did. He and his wife. They fled Nazi europe and went to live in south america. Guilt for having survived, and not doing (in their own minds) enough to help persecuted jews still in europe led them to take their own lives.
I'm at work I don't mean to be rude, but have you read any of his work. I think someone who has read his work will be better placed to recommend something else.


----------



## muser (Jun 28, 2005)

*I'm at work*




			
				I'm at work said:
			
		

> Joseph Roth ?? but FFs don't quote me on that. Zweig committed suicide after finishing one of his books didn't he?



Sorry I'm at work, I just went onto amazon and I think you hit the nail on the head with this recommendation.


----------



## souljacker (Jun 29, 2005)

Alexi Sayle-Overtaken

Strangely dark book, but funny too. Alexi has such a brilliant way with wit. Highly reccomended as is the short stories one he did, Barcelona Plates.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jun 29, 2005)

Chippindale and Horrie, _Stick It Up Your Punter_.


----------



## onemonkey (Jun 29, 2005)

exams are over so i can indulge in a little light reading.. so currently racing through some of Richard Morgan's techno-gore sci-fi... reading _Broken Angels_, sequel to the ultra-violent _Altered Carbon_

although i have to say it is anything but a little light reading.. nearly at the end and i nearly fainted on the tube this morning as one character started pulling tendons from his shattered arm, whilst another was being ritualistically executed by nanotech vivisection.


----------



## I'm at work (Jul 3, 2005)

I've just finished "What a Carve up!" by Jonathan Coe and I was delighted to be honest . I like these satirics looks at the 80's - I wonder if the first years of the 21st century will provoke such good satire?

I've blogged it 

http://urbanbookreview.blogspot.com/


----------



## jeff_leigh (Jul 3, 2005)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson


----------



## Echo Beach (Jul 3, 2005)

I'm reading The Retreat of Social Democracy by John Callaghan. Not a bad account of the vacuity of New Labour.


----------



## Badger Kitten (Jul 3, 2005)

_Pretty Straight Guys_ by Nick Cohen, superb carve -up of New Labour, top polemics and a kick in the bollocks to 'most  everything politicians come out with these days. Highly recommended.


----------



## fishfingerer (Jul 3, 2005)

Bought 5 books today.

Espedair Street - Iain Banks.
Loyalists - Peter Taylor
The Vikings - Else Roesdahl
The Ancient Celts - Barry Cunliffe
Carthage - Ross Leckie

Started on Loyalists.


----------



## lizzieloo (Jul 3, 2005)

"The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sacks

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0330294911/202-5343482-6854214


----------



## walktome (Jul 4, 2005)

The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice. Then I am going to read Miss Wyoming by Douglas Coupland. Then hopefully anything of Hubert Selby Jr.'s.


----------



## IntoStella (Jul 4, 2005)

The Magus. Wow wow wow wow wow. Wow. Wow. Wowowowowowow. Wow.

WHY DID I NOT READ THIS BEFORE? I spent the whole w/e reading it. About 50 pages from the end. Can't wait to get home tonight and finish it. 

NO SPOILERS!!!! 

Now I  know where some of AK's favourite phrases originate from, especially "gum chewing, contraceptive carrying yanks", and ''mantis woman". 

If I could find enough books like this I'd never go to the pub.


----------



## MoKa (Jul 4, 2005)

I've recently finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and am just finishing off 'Feel' by Chris Heath (Robbie Williams' authorised biography).  

Both great reads.  Can't put the RW Biog down.

Sorry they're a bit low-brow for this forum!


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 4, 2005)

after a Glastonbury/comedown hiatus, back into TC Boyle's Riven Rock, which is genuinely one of the most astonishing books i've read for years. every bloody sentence is a killer...


----------



## kyser_soze (Jul 5, 2005)

'Haunted' by Chuck Palahniuk...'Guts' is the first proper short story in it an gives you a pretty good idea of the horrors that await you...if you read Guts in the Observer you'll know exactly what I mean...

Fucking great book tho


----------



## jeff_leigh (Jul 5, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> 'Haunted' by Chuck Palahniuk...'Guts' is the first proper short story in it an gives you a pretty good idea of the horrors that await you...if you read Guts in the Observer you'll know exactly what I mean...
> 
> Fucking great book tho



i heard a while back Chuck Palahniuk did a reading of one of his books somewhere in new york and people were fainting was it this book?


----------



## exosculate (Jul 5, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> 'Haunted' by Chuck Palahniuk...'Guts' is the first proper short story in it an gives you a pretty good idea of the horrors that await you...if you read Guts in the Observer you'll know exactly what I mean...
> 
> Fucking great book tho




I've got a first edition proof of that book, still haven't read it though.


----------



## I'm at work (Jul 5, 2005)

MoKa said:
			
		

> I've recently finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and am just finishing off 'Feel' by Chris Heath (Robbie Williams' authorised biography).
> 
> Both great reads.  Can't put the RW Biog down.
> 
> Sorry they're a bit low-brow for this forum!




Not so The curious Incident - a clear Whitbread winner , a superb piece of writing working on many levels indeed. A top quality read indeed in my view and far better than the book it lost the Booker prize to - Vernon God little by DBC Peirre - a book that rode to fame on the back of the "Michael Moore" effect and dissappeared from veiw equally as quickly.

A book is a book is a book - thats it . Remember Charles Dickens Classic Pickwick Papers were written as a serial in a popular news magazine of its time. Bit like Hello!!


----------



## Echo Beach (Jul 5, 2005)

I've just finished 'A Sunday at the pool in Kigali' by Gil Courtemanche and now I've plumped for something far jollier - 'Around the World in 80 Days'. Problem is I can't stop viewing the characters as animals!


----------



## dynamicbaddog (Jul 5, 2005)

MoKa said:
			
		

> I've recently finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime



I read that last week, was'nt it brilliant?!, best book I've read so far this year  

at the moment I'm reading a creepy thriller calledBoy In The Water by Stephen Dobyons, - described on the back cover as _Stephen King with a PhD_


----------



## kyser_soze (Jul 6, 2005)

jeff_leigh said:
			
		

> i heard a while back Chuck Palahniuk did a reading of one of his books somewhere in new york and people were fainting was it this book?



Yeah - readings from the 'Guts' short story. Which is about a guy called Saint Gut-Free recounting 3 increasingly nasty stories of masturbatory mutilation, ending with his tale of using a swimming pool drain being used to 'assist' him and how it disembowels him. All written in CPs signature style.

When it appeared in the Observer one of my mates threw up halfway through reading it and it's the last thing I've read since 'Bethany' in _American Psycho_ that I actually had to put down halfway through reading it.

Fucking great tho.


----------



## walktome (Jul 6, 2005)

Oh man, I just went to a Chuck Palahniuk reading a couple of weeks ago where he read Guts. No one fainted, but one guy fell off of his chair and broke it. It was pretty funny. Some people walked out too. I love Chuck Palahniuk. The New York Times is keeping track of how many people have fainted so far this tour. As of Toronto, I think it was 68. But like I said, that was a couple of weeks ago.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 6, 2005)

jeez, what a load of pussies!


----------



## walktome (Jul 6, 2005)

Yeah honestly, it's a great story.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 6, 2005)

I've read it but can't say it made me feel faint.


----------



## oi2002 (Jul 7, 2005)

The Boys Crusade by Paul Fussell.  

If you liked Band Of Brothers and thought it was an authentic account of the G.I's lot, you are wrong, read this short historical account.  Bunch of badly lead untrained terrified kids trudging reluctantly toward Belsen.


----------



## Agent Hosen (Jul 7, 2005)

Just finished "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt.  It was so good.  Like a psychological thriller but without any "whodunnit" nonesense.  You know who done it from the very beginning, you just can't find any reason why...It's a juicy read, and a deft look into the dark side of human nature.


----------



## MoMo27 (Jul 8, 2005)

Holy Cow by Sarah MacDonald, for anyone who's been to India it just states the obvious, but then she was only 21, and Australian


----------



## Echo Beach (Jul 8, 2005)

New Times edited by Stuart Hall and Martin Jacques. I was told blood-curdling stories about the Marxism Today crowd when I was a young and zealous communist. Judging by this so far I'm not surprised, because coming to grips with the changes within contemporary capitalism points to conclusions away from the useless politics of the "revolutionary" sects.


----------



## E.J. (Jul 8, 2005)

Just started reading GB 84 - By David Peace (has anyone else read this book btw?). It's a book about the miners strike.


----------



## chooch (Jul 9, 2005)

Just finishing _the plot against america_. It's a corker.


----------



## IntoStella (Jul 9, 2005)

The Ebony Tower -- John Fowles.  Unfortunately it's an old TV tie in edition with a picture of Toyah Willcox on the front. Argh!


----------



## IntoStella (Jul 9, 2005)

Agent Hosen said:
			
		

> Just finished "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt.  It was so good.  Like a psychological thriller but without any "whodunnit" nonesense.  You know who done it from the very beginning, you just can't find any reason why...It's a juicy read, and a deft look into the dark side of human nature.


You'd quite likely enjoy The Magus if you liked this.

In fact, there is a  page on John Fowles's official website where readers have made recommendations of novels that reminded them (in a good way) of The Magus.
Among them are The Secret History, Le Grand Meaulnes (a predecessor of and huge influence on the Magus) and Murakami's The Wind Up Bird Chronicle.  I'd highly recommend any of those that you haven't read from personal experience.


----------



## rennie (Jul 9, 2005)

Le Grand Meaulnes is great stuff!


----------



## Echo Beach (Jul 9, 2005)

After my dalliance with Willy Fogg I'm now reading 'The Red Prussian' - a cold war hatchet job on Marx by Leopold Schwarzschild. I remember first hearing about the book in Meszaro's 'Marx's Theory of Alienation' where he rips it to shreds, so I thought it might be good for a laugh.

Apparently Marx was a selfish child who didn't keep in touch with any of his school mates when he left. Ooooh the rascal!


----------



## Pickman's model (Jul 9, 2005)

Echo Beach said:
			
		

> After my dalliance with Willy Fogg I'm now reading 'The Red Prussian' - a cold war hatchet job on Marx by Leopold Schwarzschild. I remember first hearing about the book in Meszaro's 'Marx's Theory of Alienation' where he rips it to shreds, so I thought it might be good for a laugh.
> 
> Apparently Marx was a selfish child who didn't keep in touch with any of his school mates when he left. Ooooh the rascal!


i saw a copy of that for sale in freedom, but it was a bit dear so i didn't buy it.

got francis wheen's interesting biog, though.


----------



## Pickman's model (Jul 9, 2005)

i read sven hassel's "liquidate paris" and stephenson's "kidnapped" recently, and now i'm reading "on murder as one of the fine arts" by thomas de quincey.


----------



## jacobs steel (Jul 10, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> stephenson's "kidnapped"



Are you sure you've got the right author there?

I've just started 'Bitterfoot' by James Lee Burke.


----------



## LostNotFound (Jul 10, 2005)

origami design secrets in a few days hopefully!

the algebraist currently, not enjoying it yet ..


----------



## Ryazan (Jul 10, 2005)

The Lover-  Marguerite Duras.


----------



## spartacus mills (Jul 10, 2005)

Ryazan said:
			
		

> The Lover-  Marguerite Duras.



Ahh, I've been tempted to try one of hers. Do you recommend it?


----------



## chooch (Jul 10, 2005)

_christie malry's own double entry_. Enjoying its bile a lot.


----------



## Echo Beach (Jul 10, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> i saw a copy of that for sale in freedom, but it was a bit dear so i didn't buy it.
> 
> got francis wheen's interesting biog, though.



Yeah I read that and thought it was very good. I loved his accounts of Marx's repeated piss ups and stuff, whereas in this one Schwarzschild's determined to portray Marx as someone concerned only with accruing wealth and power. Fantastic!


----------



## Echo Beach (Jul 10, 2005)

I've also started Dicken's Great Expectations and v impressed so far. But come this saturday I'll be reading Harry Potter (shudder) in snatched installments. I'm only doing it out of academic interest, honest!


----------



## jannerboyuk (Jul 10, 2005)

Mort by Terry Pratchett at the moment but also picking at Against A Dark Background by Iain M Banks.


----------



## spartacus mills (Jul 11, 2005)

chooch said:
			
		

> _christie malry's own double entry_. Enjoying its bile a lot.



That's a great book. I really must get some more BS Johnson...


----------



## Bajie (Jul 11, 2005)

Just started reading 

Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya
Caroline Elkins


----------



## AllStarMe (Jul 12, 2005)

Ive just finished reading a book called "The Other Woman" by Jane Green. Nothing particularly groundbreaking, just your average "chick lit" type book, but I enojyed it.

Fancy reading something a bit more meaty now though...


----------



## IntoStella (Jul 12, 2005)

jacobs steel said:
			
		

> Are you sure you've got the right author there?


 Are you going for the pedanticist of the month award? You knew perfectly well he meant Robert Louis Stevenson. Didn't you?   

I'm reading the new Jasper Fforde, for which I have been waiting a year,  and I have to say...

it's not.....


very......


good........

This has put me in an incredibly bad mood.


----------



## Roadkill (Jul 12, 2005)

I'm just coming to the end of the His Dark Materials trilogy (Philip Pullman).  I think they're excellent.

Of course, the last one (_The Amber Spyglass_) has to be out of the way by Saturday, all ready for the new Potter...


----------



## IntoStella (Jul 12, 2005)

Roadkill said:
			
		

> I'm just coming to the end of the His Dark Materials trilogy (Philip Pullman).  I think they're excellent.
> 
> Of course, the last one (_The Amber Spyglass_) has to be out of the way by Saturday, all ready for the new Potter...


YAY!


----------



## onemonkey (Jul 12, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> Are you going for the pedanticist of the month award? You knew perfectly well he meant Robert Louis Stevenson. Didn't you?


yes but it was Pedant's Model posting.. he'd do the same for us! 

pedanticist - like it!


----------



## elf-literate (Jul 12, 2005)

reading 2 at the moment.

The wheel of time books by Robert Jordan - think better lord of the rings

and

Rifles by Mark Turban - factual boom on the life and battles of the Rifle corps in the Napoleonic wars


----------



## Stigmata (Jul 12, 2005)

elf-literate said:
			
		

> The wheel of time books by Robert Jordan - think better lord of the rings



Have you read George RR Martin's Ice & Fire series? They're bloody brilliant.

Right now i'm reading the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, course-related stuff.


----------



## kropotkin (Jul 12, 2005)

Reading "Iron Council" by China Mieville- quite good so far

"The Revolutionof Everyday Life" by raoul Vaneigem- pretentious crap.


----------



## bluestreak (Jul 12, 2005)

today i am re-reading spike milligan's mussolini: his part in my downfall.  which is funny and poignant.  much more human than most war memoirs.


----------



## mrkikiet (Jul 12, 2005)

orwell-coming up for air. pretty good.

i'm a big fan of penguin classics, silver covers do it for me...


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jul 12, 2005)

On holiday I read *A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry* -- a good oldfashioned liberal novel, deliberately melodramatic and a great story.

I then ditched the other books I'd brought and read *Flash and Filigree by Terry Southern*. Bizarro LA 1958, beautifully written, very very funny, with great set pieces. Like a film Hitchcock would have made if he'd been hip, drugged and American.


----------



## elf-literate (Jul 12, 2005)

Stigmata said:
			
		

> Have you read George RR Martin's Ice & Fire series? They're bloody brilliant.
> 
> Right now i'm reading the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, course-related stuff.



Can't say i've heard of them.

I've been told that Robin Hobbs books are good.

So many reccomendations, so little (free) time.


----------



## Echo Beach (Jul 12, 2005)

I've just started Carl Bogg's 'The Socialist Tradition: Crisis and Decline'. Seems alright and very fashionably post-Marxist.


----------



## JLN88 (Jul 12, 2005)

Just finished the Da Vinci code, which was ok, Dan Brown isnt the best writer ever though, next up hopefully ill find some clssics like 1984 or Motorcycle diaries.


----------



## MightyAphrodite (Jul 12, 2005)

Live from Golgotha-The Gospel According to Gore Vidal


----------



## spartacus mills (Jul 12, 2005)

MightyAphrodite said:
			
		

> Live from Golgotha-The Gospel According to Gore Vidal



I read that one a few years ago. Funny as fuck!


----------



## kazza23 (Jul 12, 2005)

Just finished "The sweet smell of psycosis" by Will Self.  Read it in a day in the garden in the sun.  Glad I got it out of the library coz I hate spending 8 quid on a book that lasts me 3 hours.  Good book though.


----------



## jacobs steel (Jul 12, 2005)

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz


----------



## chooch (Jul 15, 2005)

_Hooligan- a history of respectable fears_. Yet another urban recommendation, so thanks.


----------



## I'm at work (Jul 15, 2005)

I've just finished Rites of passage by William Golding , the 1980 Booker winner and the first a seafaring trilogy now featured in a BBc2 drama on wednesday. It was pants to be honest , dull uninspiring and I couldn't have cared if the ship sank . I'm annoyed that I killed myself to get the two other books in the trilogy .

I've started Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - I've only a couple of hetic weeks before my holiday so it'll last me just fine so I can start the RaJ Quartet on the Holiday.


----------



## Structaural (Jul 15, 2005)

Finished Illuminatus and Da Vinci Code on holiday, they were alright.. a good yarn, easily read. The characters seemed a bit stupid though - I was getting the codes well before them, shouting 'Apple!' at the pages  I can see both books being made into films - they read like screenplays.

Also got round to reading Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein which I found very rewarding, if a little long winded in places...

Now reading Agent of Evolution by Ken Booth about Bill Hicks - only on chapter 3. There seems to be more to it than Cynthia True's book, though a couple of anecdotes ended up in her book... I'm enjoying it...


----------



## jugularvein (Jul 15, 2005)

swann's way by proust. ooooo it's taking it's time. good though if you can get past the first 30 pages


----------



## foo (Jul 15, 2005)

the grandmothers - Doris Lessing. a book of short stories.

damn, she's clever.


----------



## exosculate (Jul 15, 2005)

foo said:
			
		

> the grandmothers - Doris Lessing. a book of short stories.
> 
> damn, she's clever.




She's brilliant.


----------



## foo (Jul 15, 2005)

isn't she just. i wish i had a brain like hers!


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 15, 2005)

I'm at work said:
			
		

> I've only a couple of hetic weeks before my holiday so it'll last me just fine so I can start the RaJ Quartet on the Holiday.



If you like the Raj Quartet (which I'm sure you will), read Staying On afterwards - brought a manly tear to my eye


----------



## yummie (Jul 15, 2005)

The Golden Notebook is brilliant!


----------



## Iam (Jul 15, 2005)

elf-literate said:
			
		

> Can't say i've heard of them.
> 
> I've been told that Robin Hobbs books are good.
> 
> So many reccomendations, so little (free) time.



Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy is excellent.

I've got George RR Martin's "The Game of Thrones" on my shelf, but I've not read it yet.

I'm currently reading:

Silverthorn, by Raymond E. Feist.


----------



## Echo Beach (Jul 15, 2005)

Just about to dive into Callinicos's 'An Anti-Capitalist Manifesto'. It's for my MRes dissertation and not pleasure, before you ask.


----------



## citydreams (Jul 15, 2005)

foo said:
			
		

> the grandmothers - Doris Lessing. a book of short stories.
> 
> damn, she's clever.



I think I started out on the wrong foot with Dorris - I tried reading "briefing for a descent into hell" as a holiday read


----------



## Pickman's model (Jul 15, 2005)

Guy ENDORE, The Werewolf of Paris (London: Panther, 1963)


----------



## DrRingDing (Jul 15, 2005)

IBM and the Holocaust by Edwin Black.


----------



## Pickman's model (Jul 15, 2005)

DoUsAFavour said:
			
		

> IBM and the Holocaust by Edwin Black.


read that, very interesting.


----------



## DrRingDing (Jul 15, 2005)

It's fucking frustrating these things some how manage to squeeze past the public eye. But hardly suprising.


----------



## Pickman's model (Jul 15, 2005)

DoUsAFavour said:
			
		

> It's fucking frustrating these things some how manage to squeeze past the public eye. But hardly suprising.


most people are too busy trying to live their lives to uncover the filth below the horizon.


----------



## proud_american (Jul 15, 2005)

one flew over the cuckoos nest
hegemony and survival-naom chomsky


----------



## Pickman's model (Jul 15, 2005)

proud_american said:
			
		

> hegemony and survival-naom chomsky


decent read, again very interesting.


----------



## proud_american (Jul 15, 2005)

yes it is,i started it,went on holiday for a month and wished i had taken it with me.


----------



## IntoStella (Jul 15, 2005)

I'm reading the much-publicised Vesuvius Club by the League of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss and a fine homoerotic romp it is too.


----------



## Pickman's model (Jul 15, 2005)

not read it, but it sounds fun!


----------



## IntoStella (Jul 15, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> not read it, but it sounds fun!


Oh, it is.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jul 15, 2005)

I'm at work said:
			
		

> I've just finished Rites of passage by William Golding , the 1980 Booker winner and the first a seafaring trilogy now featured in a BBc2 drama on wednesday. It was pants to be honest , dull uninspiring and I couldn't have cared if the ship sank



I think that's Golding's best book!


----------



## evilfish (Jul 15, 2005)

I'm reading both Animal Farm and Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jul 15, 2005)

I'm reading evilfish's first posting.

I'm also reading _In Search Of The Dark Ages_ by Michael Wood.


----------



## ska invita (Jul 16, 2005)

BBC's "Yes Minister" in diary form from a second hand book shop - bastard civil servants!


----------



## ricbake (Jul 16, 2005)

HP + HBP

............................ That poor post man


----------



## AllStarMe (Jul 16, 2005)

Ive just started "The Yes Man" by Danny Wallace and its very very funny!


----------



## citydreams (Jul 17, 2005)

evilfish said:
			
		

> I'm reading both Animal Farm and Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett



Terry Pratchet did not write Animal Farm! 

It was James Herbert innit!


----------



## ruffneck23 (Jul 17, 2005)

citydreams said:
			
		

> Terry Pratchet did not write Animal Farm!
> 
> It was James Herbert innit!




I hope your takin the piss......... George Orwell is the guilty party


----------



## onemonkey (Jul 18, 2005)

ruffneck23 said:
			
		

> George Orwell is the guilty party


he certainly is.. he should be ashamed of himself... 

at least if the film is anything to go by.


----------



## onemonkey (Jul 18, 2005)

i am starting *Don Quixote* today.. wish me luck


----------



## Flavour (Jul 18, 2005)

Yevgeny Zamyatin - We


----------



## IntoStella (Jul 18, 2005)

citydreams said:
			
		

> Terry Pratchet did not write Animal Farm!
> 
> It was James Herbert innit!


I thought it was Johnny Morris.


----------



## walktome (Jul 18, 2005)

I am reading Death of a Salesman right now. I don't normally read plays. It's pretty good so far.


----------



## Jairzinho (Jul 19, 2005)

Just finished reading 'The Unlimited Dream Company' by JG Ballard- a fascinating if slightly perverse read. Now moved on to 'Aesthetic Theory' by Theodor Adorno. Its a bit heavy so far.


----------



## Stigmata (Jul 19, 2005)

Justin said:
			
		

> Chippindale and Horrie, _Stick It Up Your Punter_.



That's not a real book you charlatan!


----------



## Pickman's model (Jul 19, 2005)

Stigmata said:
			
		

> That's not a real book you charlatan!


  

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671017829/infoline0f-21/026-2649627-2459662


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jul 19, 2005)

Stigmata said:
			
		

> That's not a real book you charlatan!


Afraid it is, as Mr Model demonstrates. The fakes are earlier on in the thread.


----------



## onemonkey (Jul 19, 2005)

Justin said:
			
		

> The fakes are earlier on in the thread.


people don't lie on this thread do they? how low could you get? 

btw - i've just _finished _ Don Quixote..


----------



## citydreams (Jul 19, 2005)

as in you skipped ahead and just read the last few pages?  that's cheating


----------



## Pickman's model (Jul 19, 2005)

there are no rules to reading a book.


----------



## Stigmata (Jul 19, 2005)

Justin said:
			
		

> Afraid it is, as Mr Model demonstrates. The fakes are earlier on in the thread.



   

You think you're so brainy... i'll git you one these days!


----------



## BennehBoi (Jul 19, 2005)

Headcrusher by Garros-Evdokimov, very fun read.


----------



## Strumpet (Jul 19, 2005)

Potter of course...


----------



## Echo Beach (Jul 20, 2005)

Just done 'The Red Prussian' by Schwarszchild. The guy obviously had little understanding of Marx's opus, but that said his hostility to his subject actually makes this quite an entertaining biography in all. Particularly the portrayals of the 1848 revolutions and counterrevolutions are quite vivid.

Now I'm reading Great Expectations for my reading group, and Gidden's utterly vacuous 'The Third Way and its Critics' for my dissertation.


----------



## yummie (Jul 20, 2005)

Easy summer reading: ruth rendell's the rottweiler


----------



## kyser_soze (Jul 20, 2005)

Just about to finish _Haunted_ which I've thoroughly enjoyed 

Might go back to a couple of chapters in 'Amazing Universe' that I didn't get last time (Chalabi spaces, doughnut shaped realities) while waiting to borrow a copy of Potter (waiting til the pback comes out before buying it tho)


----------



## IntoStella (Jul 20, 2005)

By day, re-reading Kurt Vonnegut's Galapagos. 


By night, Harry Potter and the Huge Great Profit


----------



## onemonkey (Jul 20, 2005)

i've been wondering if i can read the whole of harry potter over people's shoulders on public transport..


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 20, 2005)

Is it worth bothering if I've never read any other HP books?
I saw the first film and thought it was a bit shit, but I loved the Pullman trilogy.


----------



## Strumpet (Jul 20, 2005)

LOL onemonkey.   

Orang Utan I'd say you need to have read the other HP books first and if you loved Pullman (I did too BIG TIME) I think you'll enjoy HP.


----------



## onemonkey (Jul 20, 2005)

if you are going to read them at all start at the beginning.. not to everyone's taste but only take a day or two each


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 20, 2005)

Strumpet said:
			
		

> LOL onemonkey.
> 
> Orang Utan I'd say you need to have read the other HP books first and if you loved Pullman (I did too BIG TIME) I think you'll enjoy HP.




not sure that's true - i loved His Dark Materials, Harry Potter made me want to gouge my eyes out.


----------



## Strumpet (Jul 20, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> not sure that's true - i loved His Dark Materials, Harry Potter made me want to gouge my eyes out.



Lol. Ok but Im biased sorry


----------



## walktome (Jul 20, 2005)

San Francisco: A Cultural and Literary History by Mick Sinclair


----------



## tastebud (Jul 21, 2005)

Going Sane by Adam Phillips.
So far I am impressed. That is, with the first page and the last page.


----------



## onemonkey (Jul 21, 2005)

well watch out.. adam philips is normally a pointless pompous fool 

Don Quixote is going well..

Also reading Rum Diaries by HS Thompson - his only novel and not what i was expecting at all.. much calmer and more reflect than his own life!


----------



## tastebud (Jul 21, 2005)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> well watch out.. adam philips is normally a pointless pompous fool


it would appear that i quite like pompous fools.


----------



## oooomegrapes (Jul 21, 2005)

got 2 on the go at the moment

mr nice.......niccccce   

and the new marian keyes one, which is officially shite, just say no kids


----------



## El Sueno (Jul 21, 2005)

Just finished 'Marching Powder' by Rusty Lee, the story of an inmate in Bolivia's San Pedro prison.

Just starting 'Betty Blue' by Philippe Djian, which is a pretty dark first-person narrative.

Also still plodding through 'A Brief History of Nearly Everything' by Bill Bryson. Not quite as funny and interesting as I thought it'd be...


----------



## walktome (Jul 21, 2005)

I like the Rum Diary, it was his first book.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 22, 2005)

walktome said:
			
		

> I like the Rum Diary, it was his first book.



I think not


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 22, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I think not




wasn't it his first written, but published late? something like that..


----------



## Bunniverse (Jul 22, 2005)

I'm rereading 
Winter's Tale 
by Mark Helprin

First read it in 1985. Returned to it again a few yrs later. And here I am again!!


----------



## butterfly child (Jul 22, 2005)

I'm not reading anything at the moment, just finished the last two Harry Potter books.

Actually, I am dipping in and out of a book called "How to talk to anyone" or something, which is giving me handy tips for hiding my ridiculous shyness


----------



## steeplejack (Jul 22, 2005)

I'm currently reading three things on and off

_The Kalevala_ (Oxford World Classics ed.)- interesting and some truly mad stories

_The Death of Ivan Ilyich_, Leo Tolstoy

_Stubbs & the Horse_- catalogue of the current national gallery show


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 22, 2005)

from THe Salon:



> "'The Rum Diary' is the potential high water mark of 20th century literature," Hunter S. Thompson wrote in a 1961 letter to his friend and fellow aspiring novelist William Kennedy, referring to the novel he was working on at the time. "It is a novel more gripping than 'The Ginger Man,' more skillfully rendered than 'The Sergeant,' more compassionate than 'A Death in the Family,' and more important than 'Lie Down in Darkness.'" Thompson was a journalist in his early 20s at the time, having left New York City to take a string of reporting jobs in Puerto Rico. Nearly a decade away from the so-called "gonzo" reporting on the Hell's Angels and Las Vegas that would make him a national institution, he was prone to such desperate overstatements. But after spending decades languishing on various publishers' desks (although portions of the novel have appeared elsewhere), a reworked "Rum Diary" has finally appeared, in its modest but youthful glory. While Joyce and Faulkner -- and even Agee -- might have a bone to pick with that "high water mark of 20th century literature" business, it's a remarkably full and mature first novel. Thompson never did tell a lie that didn't have a hint of the truth to it.



published in 1998, written in the early 60s and well before Hells ANgels.


----------



## onemonkey (Jul 22, 2005)

yep.. it's not _that_ good... well written and thoughtful but lacking the passion, madness and wit of his journalism.

and i don't think he wrote any other fiction


----------



## Major Tom (Jul 22, 2005)




----------



## oooomegrapes (Jul 22, 2005)

El Sueno said:
			
		

> Just finished 'Marching Powder' by Rusty Lee, the story of an inmate in Bolivia's San Pedro prison.
> 
> Just starting 'Betty Blue' by Philippe Djian, which is a pretty dark first-person narrative.
> 
> Also still plodding through 'A Brief History of Nearly Everything' by Bill Bryson. Not quite as funny and interesting as I thought it'd be...


rusty lee??? wasnt she a tv chef with a ridiculous laugh.........whod have thought it eh??


----------



## IntoStella (Jul 22, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> it would appear that i quite like pompous fools.


----------



## foo (Jul 22, 2005)

two on the go....

The Witch of Exmoor - Drabble and the Rotter's Club (again) Coe. got both in my bag and keep switching books while I wait for a meeting....

Anyone who remembers any of the 70s (esp if you were a teenager) should read The Rotter's Club - it's fab.


----------



## maya (Jul 22, 2005)

-a brilliant overview of asian history (ancient->modern), which got nicked from the café table at some point where i wasn't paying attention, and i hadn't even got _halfways_ through! _-bastards!_   

library next...


----------



## EatMoreChips (Jul 22, 2005)

Depending on which room I'm in:

Last Night A DJ Saved My Life - Bill Brewster & Frank Broughton
Food for Fitness: Eat Right to Train Right - Chris Carmichael
Assata - Assata Shakur


----------



## foamy (Jul 22, 2005)

just finished:
*vernon god little by dbc pierre - hard to get into but good in the end.
*the bride stripped bare by anonymous - really enjoyed
*the family way by tony parsons - trashy holiday read
*the rum diary by hunter s thompson - very cool. want to read more of his stuff now.
and a little book of short stories by roald dahl called a taste of the unexpected. - very funny!

so, what shall i read next?


----------



## walktome (Jul 22, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> wasn't it his first written, but published late? something like that..



I know he was 22 when he wrote it, I'm pretty sure I remember reading it was the first book he wrote.


----------



## tastebud (Jul 22, 2005)

lonely planet: central europe   
~ & i'm very pleased to be!
haven't picked it up for a year, but have been dying for the need to!


----------



## onemonkey (Jul 22, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> it would appear that i quite like pompous fools.


touché  





			
				Vixen said:
			
		

> lonely planet: central europe
> ~ & i'm very pleased to be!


----------



## tastebud (Jul 22, 2005)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> touché


  
finally got there!


----------



## maya (Jul 23, 2005)

George Orwell- In Defence of English Cooking (Penguin 70th Anniversary Series)


----------



## deja_vu (Jul 27, 2005)

well I'm reading 'The Return of the Bunny Suicides' by Andy Riley which technically can't be read, as it has no words in it.. though is worth a look for the rather humourous illustrations of bunnies who just can't bare to go on, and take to killing themselves in rather inventive ways. 

Though for a bit of intellectual stimuli I'm reading the rather horriible 'The Ladykiller' by Martina Cole, a book that has put me off peeping into my local sex shop, indefinitely.


----------



## I'm at work (Jul 27, 2005)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I think that's Golding's best book!



I have the others of the trilogy too   

I think his best reamins "The Lord of the Flies" - I read it a few months ago after reading it in class decades ago. I was stunned by its quality , many only remeber it from school and reading it again as an adult I was delighted with the quality!


----------



## I'm at work (Jul 27, 2005)

Flavour said:
			
		

> Yevgeny Zamyatin - We




great choice - the basis for all the Dystopian novels like Brave New World and 1984


----------



## IntoStella (Jul 28, 2005)

Murakami, A Wild Sheep Chase.

I've read 'em all now  except After the Quake and the non-fiction Underground about the Tokyo sarin attacks, which might be particularly interesting to read after recent events in London.


----------



## lighterthief (Jul 28, 2005)

A Woman In Berlin (anonymous).

It's a diary kept by a German woman as the Red Army invaded Berlin.  Deals with some quite heavy issues, as you might expect, so for lighter moments I am reading DR & Quinch's Guide to Life (Alan Moore, Alan Davis).


----------



## liberty (Jul 28, 2005)

The Appleby House.... It's ummm interesting


----------



## onemonkey (Jul 28, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> Murakami, A Wild Sheep Chase.
> 
> I've read 'em all now  except After the Quake and the non-fiction Underground about the Tokyo sarin attacks, which might be particularly interesting to read after recent events in London.


I know what you mean.. i've still got Kafka on the Shore to go.. been saving it for a while as special retirement treat.. can start it soon... but then i'll be bereft of any further murakami 

Funnily enough I think After the Quake is more relevent to the London events than Underground.. the former is about an event so shocking it shakes people out of their normal Japanese reserve.. whilst the sarin attack was so surreal and confusing that those effected actually seemed to become 'more japanese'

I have both, i'll try to get them to you sometime soon


----------



## gaijingirl (Jul 28, 2005)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> I know what you mean.. i've still got Kafka on the Shore to go.. been saving it for a while as special retirement treat.. can start it soon... but then i'll be bereft of any further murakami
> 
> Funnily enough I think After the Quake is more relevent to the London events than Underground.. the former is about an event so shocking it shakes people out of their normal Japanese reserve.. whilst the sarin attack was so surreal and confusing that those effected actually seemed to become 'more japanese'
> 
> I have both, i'll try to get them to you sometime soon



I read the sarin attack one too... it was incredibly interesting as so many Aum members were also interviewed... I used to see Aum people a lot in Japan and I sort of had a morbid fascination about them (and cults in general)... also went through a period of being fascinated by The Family...

Anyway... rambling now.. it's a good book but obviously completely different to his fiction..


----------



## gaijingirl (Jul 28, 2005)

I'm currently reading Kazuo Ishiguro's _Never let me go_ which is ok so far.. I can never figure him out.. all his books seems so different to each other...


----------



## chooch (Aug 1, 2005)

Italo Calvino- why read the classics; 

a collection of essays


----------



## Kidda (Aug 1, 2005)

just about to start the first harry potter book to see what all the fuss is about.

it better be worth it


----------



## onemonkey (Aug 1, 2005)

am speeding  though 'happy birthday Jack Nicholson' - a collection of short but wonderful pieces by Dr. Hunter S Thompson

and meandering at a more leisurely pace through the Faber Book of London.. a fantastic anthology that has proved to me that this is my city!

thanks to the other two members of the book group inner circle for these gems


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 2, 2005)

some piss poor collection of Tom Wolfe essays which i'm tempted to throw out the window to be honest.,


----------



## maya (Aug 3, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> some piss poor collection of Tom Wolfe essays which i'm tempted to throw out the window to be honest.,


don't think the coppers outside your window would take it very well to get hit in the head by trash like that... 

today i'm reading (well, WAS reading, on the bus earlier: )
..."Fatherland" by Robert Harris. never got through page 10 last time,
this time i'll read it through no matter what...
a "what if?" dystopic crime thriller (i can't make myself say "novel") about a servant of the (here: victorious) Third Reich who in 1964 slowly discovers the dark secrets of the holocaust and the true nature of the regime he's serving...
alledgedly. i will try to plod through the first few chapters today. i hope.


----------



## Belushi (Aug 3, 2005)

After succesfully reading my first novel in three + years last month I'm now reading Orhan Pamuk 'My Name is Red' which is excellent so far.


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 3, 2005)

Dogs Of God by Pinckney Benedict. fucking excellent..

southern Gothic hillbilly violence and drama. big influence on Sparklehorse..


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 3, 2005)

you seem to get through books very quickly, dubversion.


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 3, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> you seem to get through books very quickly, dubversion.




what on earth gives you that idea, bearing in mind it took me about 3 weeks to read my last novel (the Boyle one).


----------



## maya (Aug 3, 2005)

i've just re-started Murakami.  
i just opened the book at random and read some passages here and there,
and not _a single_ bad page in sight...!
i'm glad some authors continue to glow in this way.


----------



## IntoStella (Aug 4, 2005)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> I know what you mean.. i've still got Kafka on the Shore to go.. been saving it for a while as special retirement treat.. can start it soon... but then i'll be bereft of any further murakami
> 
> Funnily enough I think After the Quake is more relevent to the London events than Underground.. the former is about an event so shocking it shakes people out of their normal Japanese reserve.. whilst the sarin attack was so surreal and confusing that those effected actually seemed to become 'more japanese'
> 
> I have both, i'll try to get them to you sometime soon


I'm reading After the Quake now. I think you're right about how the characters are affected by the Kobe earthquake  -- and the ongoing media coverage of the carnage -- in relation to July 7 and its aftermath. 

Anyway, it's no problem, I'll just start again with Hard Boiled Wonderland and work my way through them all again.

I'd like to borrow Underground though, ta.

Very self disciplined of you, saving Kafka on the Shore for a rainy day. I read it straight away.


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 4, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> what on earth gives you that idea, bearing in mind it took me about 3 weeks to read my last novel (the Boyle one).


yr post re t wolfe.


----------



## IntoStella (Aug 4, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> i've just re-started Murakami.
> i just opened the book at random and read some passages here and there,
> and not _a single_ bad page in sight...!
> i'm glad some authors continue to glow in this way.


Look maya, I know you're some sort of uber postmodernist, or mad , but trust me on this one: start at the beginning and do that old skool linear thing, hmmm? 

Which one are you reading?


----------



## maya (Aug 4, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> Look maya, I know you're some sort of uber postmodernist, or mad , but trust me on this one: start at the beginning and do that old skool linear thing, hmmm?
> 
> Which one are you reading?


  
 Norwegian Wood


----------



## Echo Beach (Aug 5, 2005)

Finally finished Great Expectations, which was liberally interspersed with a couple of Socialist Party books. And now I'm on The Rise and Fall of TD Lysenko by Zhores Medvedev.


----------



## IntoStella (Aug 5, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> Norwegian Wood


 Oh_ I _ see. You're just flicking through it to find the dirty bits.

Just chuck it down the stairs and see where it falls open.


----------



## dormouse (Aug 5, 2005)

Just started 'The Gatekeeper' by Terry Eagleton - autobiography - enjoying it so far but the reviews of 'hilarious' and 'makes you laugh out loud' don't really do it justice: it's quite thought-provoking too (at least to me).

Next will be 'An Intelligent Person's Guide to Genetics' - no idea about this one.  Not sure what made me pick it up.

Libraries are wonderful things.


----------



## anfield (Aug 7, 2005)

Reading the _Ragged Trousered Philanthropists_ by Robert Tressell. Previous attempts failed at the first hurdle because of the shear size of the book, but now I'm engrossed in it. A great piece of working-class literature and currently working in the building industry I can see there are still similarities today.


----------



## Wide Eyed Angel (Aug 7, 2005)

on the road - jack kerouac.  finally took the plunge, i'm liking it, very good for long bus journeys


----------



## maya (Aug 7, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> Oh_ I _ see. You're just flicking through it to find the dirty bits.
> 
> Just chuck it down the stairs and see where it falls open.


..."dirty bits"?  
..._which_ dirty bits?  

...erm, have i missed something?  
only to page 100 yet, mind...


----------



## upsidedownwalrus (Aug 8, 2005)

I've just started Brighton Rock, which seems better so far than the rather pointless last Grahame Greene Book I read, Our Man In Havana.

Best book I've read this summer by a mile though is Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks  - the best war book I've ever read easily, completely spellbinding stuff.  I couldn't put it down during my 30 hour train journey from Kunming back to Wuhan...


----------



## astral (Aug 8, 2005)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, seems to be taking me a rather long time to get through this one.


----------



## Random One (Aug 8, 2005)

I'm reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (2nd part too Hitchikers Guide) which is a nice easy read just like the first part


----------



## onemonkey (Aug 8, 2005)

re-reading random one? 
if not i envy you your first time 

I'm reading Adventures in the Skin Trade, an unfinished prose piece by Dylan Thomas.. it is much more dated than Under Milk Wood and slightly more obscure than portrait of the artist as a young dog..


----------



## Brainaddict (Aug 8, 2005)

astral said:
			
		

> The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, seems to be taking me a rather long time to get through this one.


 I'm not surprised.
I prefer to refer to it as:
The Unbearable Wankness of Being Milan Kundera


----------



## belboid (Aug 8, 2005)

Wobblies: A Graphic History







blooming great stuff, tho the last seventy years are a little depressing.


----------



## IntoStella (Aug 8, 2005)

Brainaddict said:
			
		

> I'm not surprised.
> I prefer to refer to it as:
> The Unbearable Wankness of Being Milan Kundera


I couldn't even sit through the film.


----------



## Roxy641 (Aug 8, 2005)

*Which books*

The current Harry Potter book (third of the way through
it)
1st Farscape book
Various Doctor Who books...

Roxy641


----------



## belboid (Aug 8, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> I couldn't even sit through the film.


I thought the film had its moments (well, there`s one I can remember )


----------



## Kidda (Aug 9, 2005)

Kidda said:
			
		

> just about to start the first harry potter book to see what all the fuss is about.
> 
> it better be worth it



and it was  really liked it. 

went out and got the 2nd and 3rd (already have the 4th upstairs for some reason) after work so im just about to start on

Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets: J.K. Rowling


----------



## Waterfall (Aug 9, 2005)

King Rat by China Mieville.

Picked it up after reading recommendations here and elsewhere. 150 pages in and it's swinging between the sublime and the ridiculous.


----------



## Echo Beach (Aug 9, 2005)

Continuing this year's John Wyndham fest with The Midwich Cookoos.


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 9, 2005)

well the Pinckney Benedict novel was a real let-down (after the excellent short stories i'd read  ) so i've joined the Norwegian Wood gang.


----------



## izz (Aug 10, 2005)

Please forgive me for not reading through the entire thread but i would like to add my vote to the doubtless many others for The Lovely Bones. 

Most excellent and i heartily recommend it.


----------



## Emsy Babe (Aug 10, 2005)

I've read lovely bones, really good book!
At the moment im reading Dreamcatcher- Steven King. good book so far.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Aug 10, 2005)

'Atlas Shrugged' Ayn Rand

I'm going to _finish_ this book even if it kills me!

BB


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 10, 2005)

ugh - why? horrible right wing shite


----------



## Boogie Boy (Aug 10, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> ugh - why? horrible right wing shite



I'm just one of those types that _has_ to finish a book once I have started it, and it doesn't help that the text is _very _ _very_ small  either. Reading this reminds me of how I felt when reading 'Moby Dick' - which DID get thrown across the room as soon as I had read it.

BB


----------



## Throbbing Angel (Aug 10, 2005)

this week: Flauberts Parrot
Last week: remains of the day
next week: The Leopard
2 weeks ago: The hour of the star [shite!]


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 11, 2005)

John Parker, At the Heart of Darkness: Witchcraft, Black Magic and Satanism Today (London: Pan, 1993)


----------



## IntoStella (Aug 11, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> John Parker, At the Heart of Darkness: Witchcraft, Black Magic and Satanism Today (London: Pan, 1993)


 What's that one about, then?



I am re-reading Disturbia by Christopher Fowler. I _love  _ Christopher Fowler*.  But I am definitely going senile. I did it again: bought it in Oxfam (at least I didn't pay full whack) and then realised on page two that I had already read it. Entertaining enough to re-read, though.

*Except Psychoville, which is really rubbish.


----------



## IntoStella (Aug 11, 2005)

Boogie Boy said:
			
		

> I'm just one of those types that _has_ to finish a book once I have started it, and it doesn't help that the text is _very _ _very_ small  either.


 I admire your self-discipline, I must say.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Aug 11, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> I admire your self-discipline, I must say.



Some have called me just plain sad!

BB


----------



## Higbo (Aug 11, 2005)

Dare to be a Daniel - Tony Benn.


----------



## maya (Aug 11, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> What's that one about, then?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


- i can't get hold of any more of his books up here in ******! 
it's a _disgrace_...! 
(perhaps i shall marry a bookseller just to get one?  )
(or move to UK just to get more excitement in my life... )


----------



## IntoStella (Aug 12, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> - i can't get hold of any more of his books up here in ******!
> it's a _disgrace_...!
> (perhaps i shall marry a bookseller just to get one?  )
> (or move to UK just to get more excitement in my life...)


Don't  you come over here raiding my bookshelves, you!!


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 12, 2005)

i read 'disturbia' in may, following a recommendation. it was interesting and quite well written, but i found a couple of glaring errors - iirc there was some confusion between golders green and muswell hill. and i wasn't particularly impressed by the ending. but there you go...


----------



## Belushi (Aug 12, 2005)

'A Fine Balance' Rohintan Mistry. Beautifully written and absorbing story of four different lives at the time of the state of emergency in 1970's India.


----------



## Wide Eyed Angel (Aug 12, 2005)

'big fry' barry fry's autobiography, seems like the man's had something of a colourful career so far!


----------



## Hollis (Aug 12, 2005)

"The War in Burma 1942-45" - Julian Thompson.. I'm trying to speed read the thing in afew days before meeting some veterans on Wednesday.  Well.. that's the plan.


----------



## MikeMcc (Aug 12, 2005)

Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (again), having just finished Red Mars and the (OK I admit it!) the new Harry Potter.  After Blue Mars, I've got A Short History of Nearly Everything lined up.


----------



## holden caulfield (Aug 13, 2005)

POTBELLY said:
			
		

> I'm reading Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell and it's wicked. Just finished Them by Jon Ronson (sp?) and that was really entertaining as well.



if you like the book then you should watch land and freedom by ken loach which is basically a film version of the book without acknowledging it, but as you'll see the coincidences between plots are just too many to be mere accident. enjoy


----------



## tangerinedream (Aug 13, 2005)

I've just finished "the 5 people you meet in heaven" which i didn't find as miraculous as people suggest it is. Perhaps I'm too much of a grim mood though. 

Going to start "Hey Nostradamus" now.

also reading "the age of reason" which I'm thinking a lot of thus far.


----------



## maya (Aug 14, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> Don't  you come over here raiding my bookshelves, you!!


...what...?  ..._me?_...no way!
...i'm staying _right_ where i am, me-
*cough*
_< storms in, nicks ALL of IntoStella's Jilly Cooper books &legs it >_


----------



## Ryazan (Aug 14, 2005)

I, Phoolan Devi.

An OKish autobiography about a remarkable vengeful woman who suffered and then some at the lowest end of the Indian Caste system.  "Versions" of her life still have controversy, even after her assasination.

http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/users/sawweb/sawnet/roy_bq1.html


----------



## cyberfairy (Aug 14, 2005)

the bookseller of kabul-interesting read but full of awful cliches etc-remember there was some controversy about it when it came out but can't remeber what...want ian mcewen's Saturday but 15 reservations on it at library


----------



## IntoStella (Aug 14, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> i read 'disturbia' in may, following a recommendation. it was interesting and quite well written, but i found a couple of glaring errors - iirc there was some confusion between golders green and muswell hill. and i wasn't particularly impressed by the ending. but there you go...


 I take your point, though Fowler is usually a damn sight better than most writers in the horror genre. 

Wouldn't know about Muswell Green/Golders Hill.  

I'm rereading Murakami's Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, which delivers up new insights on a second reading, as all good literature should. Absolutely wonderful.


----------



## IntoStella (Aug 14, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> _< storms in, nicks ALL of IntoStella's Jilly Cooper books &legs it >_


 Damn! And I was just about to start rereading  _Riders_.


----------



## walktome (Aug 15, 2005)

Islands In The Steam by Ernest Hemingway. I only have the last part left to read.


----------



## Ryazan (Aug 15, 2005)

Never read anything by him.  read anything else by him?  Is he any good by your opinion?


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 15, 2005)

The Earth - Richard Storey - pop science book about the history of the geology of Earth


----------



## tangerinedream (Aug 16, 2005)

Just read - 'Do androids dream of electric sheep' which in retrospect I can't believe I'd never read before.


----------



## golightly (Aug 16, 2005)

tangerinedream said:
			
		

> Just read - 'Do androids dream of electric sheep' which in retrospect I can't believe I'd never read before.



Just reading "I am alive and you are dead: A Journey into the Mind of Philip K. Dick" by Emmanuel Carrere.  Essential reading if you are a 'Dickhead' apparently.


----------



## tangerinedream (Aug 16, 2005)

It's the first thing I've read by him I think. I vaguely remember reading something by him years ago and not liking it. I'll definately read more now though. 

I've just returned from the library with

'The human factor' Graham Greene
'The coma' Alex Garland
'You shall know our velocity' Dave Eggers
'The dwarves of Death' Jonathan Coe

I know I like Graham Greene, I liked Alex Garland (didn't everyone) about 6/7 yrs ago and the other two, I know I havn't read anything by them.


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 16, 2005)

tangerinedream said:
			
		

> I liked Alex Garland (didn't everyone) about 6/7 yrs ago .




no i bloody didn't!   dreadful bollocks.




			
				tangerinedream said:
			
		

> and the other two, I know I havn't read anything by them.



the Eggers is OK, but compared to Heartbreaking Work it's very flawed indeed.
Coe's a genius, pretty much, but i haven't yet read that one


----------



## Jo/Joe (Aug 16, 2005)

Deep Simplicity by John Gribbin


----------



## tangerinedream (Aug 16, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> no i bloody didn't!   dreadful bollocks.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Well I definately liked 'the tesseract', but I've no recollection of what it was about at all. 'The beach' I can happily accept is shit. 'The coma' looks very short, so I'll be interested to see if my older self is more critical of Garland or not., not to much to trawl through.  

I heard the Radio 4 dramatisation of 'What a carve up!' and thought it was fantastic. I stopped listening to it, so I could read the book, but the library don't have it.

The Eggers book is seriously cool looking - the story starts on the outside of the front cover, how could i resist it   ( [roboticvoice]must adopt more literary approach[/roboticvoice])


----------



## districtline (Aug 17, 2005)

just finished dorian by will self which i started last year and then read another few pages of it in june and then let it rest until today. the idea is really good and it starts off okish but then it just deteriorates and he cant really carry it through to the end. may try another self novel soon, any recommendations on which one?

also borrowed "where have all the intellectuals gone?" by frank furedi and the first half was really interesting, and delightfully anti-postmodernism  

i did borrow "after the quake" by that murakami too because everyone was talking about him a few pages back   

oh and i've just seen that he's the man behind the "tony takitani" movie that i saw last week and found really really good (and lovely, albeit sad).


----------



## tangerinedream (Aug 17, 2005)

districtline said:
			
		

> just finished dorian by will self which i started last year and then read another few pages of it in june and then let it rest until today. the idea is really good and it starts off okish but then it just deteriorates and he cant really carry it through to the end. may try another self novel soon, any recommendations on which one?
> 
> also borrowed "where have all the intellectuals gone?" by frank furedi and the first half was really interesting, and delightfully anti-postmodernism
> 
> ...



I've read a collection of short stories by self which was.... ok. It wasn't particulaly gripping or interesting and after the third one I sort of felt like he was writing the same story over and over again. All terribly clever, yet somehow not.


----------



## liberty (Aug 17, 2005)

Booty Nomad.. It's very funny


----------



## IntoStella (Aug 18, 2005)

districtline said:
			
		

> i did borrow "after the quake" by that murakami too because everyone was talking about him a few pages back
> 
> oh and i've just seen that he's the man behind the "tony takitani" movie that i saw last week and found really really good (and lovely, albeit sad).


Oooh, that sounds interesting. Tell us more.

PS Why isn't this thread a sticky? I'm fed up with hunting for it.


----------



## IntoStella (Aug 18, 2005)

*A pedanticist writes, pt 94.....*




			
				tangerinedream said:
			
		

> 'The dwarves of Death' Jonathan Coe


A brilliant book but annoyingly titled because the plural of dwarf is, of course, dwarfs, no matter what Walt Disney might have you believe.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Aug 18, 2005)

<gets out the gloy gum>


----------



## indicate (Aug 18, 2005)

tangerinedream said:
			
		

> Going to start "Hey Nostradamus" now.



That is a great read.  I really enjoy Coupland's books.

I just finished rereading Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall.  I found it much better the second time around - perhaps because the first time I had to read it for school. 

I started High Fidelity several days ago and I am really liking it so far.


----------



## Ryazan (Aug 18, 2005)

About to a start Stalin's Loyal Executioner: People's Commissar Nikolai Ezhov, 1895-1940


----------



## IntoStella (Aug 18, 2005)

Mrs Magpie said:
			
		

> <gets out the gloy gum>


Yay. Now I can find it easily in my lunchbreak.  Thanks!


----------



## colbhoy (Aug 18, 2005)

Just started reading If You Could See Me Now by Peter Straub. It's good so far. I've read a couple of his and they were excellent.


----------



## maya (Aug 19, 2005)

-_"The Wilderness Survival Guide"_.
...i now know the all-important skills of surviving various post-apocalyptic scenarios,
moreover exactly _how_ to fend off aggressive grizzly bears,
and make fire from a handkerchief rag and bits of string when lost in unfriendly woods in the middle of the night with packs of wolves lurking your steps,
plus how to gnaw off your arm and eat it if you're trapped between two large rocks in the barren mountainside...indispensable information,
and very "_now_"...  
_< gets trend-chic hat and vodka glass >_   
_< -skol! >_


----------



## Wide Eyed Angel (Aug 19, 2005)

by the light of my father's smile - alice walker


----------



## astral (Aug 19, 2005)

Brainaddict said:
			
		

> I'm not surprised.
> I prefer to refer to it as:
> The Unbearable Wankness of Being Milan Kundera




Finally finished it  not a book to try and read while stoned 

moved on to The Motorcycle Diaries.


----------



## Epicurus (Aug 19, 2005)

I’m reading a book I found in a 2nd hand book shop, it is called “English Social History” written by G. M. Trevelyan published 1946.

Being Brazilian I am finding it very funny but I’m sure it isn’t meant to be


----------



## jugularvein (Aug 19, 2005)

i'm reading 'Introduction to Management' by Richard Pettinger. 

previous book was 'No Logo' by Naomi Klein. 

mmmmmm.


----------



## Isambard (Aug 20, 2005)

Just re-reading for the umpteenth time

The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek.

READ THIS BOOK!

"his message was tha war is not just merely cruel, unjust and obscene but ludicrous" - Saunday Times.

From a central European history point of view very interesting and in places almost slapstick!


----------



## Reg Perrin (Aug 20, 2005)

I've just read "The Curious incident of the Dog and the Fork" and "A year in the Merde" I recommend them both!! I'm forced on principle not to read "The Da Vinci Code" as just too many people were reading it whilst I was on holiday.


----------



## cyberfairy (Aug 20, 2005)

'going gently' by david nobbs (writer of reginald perrin books) made me cry and laugh. wonderful book-ooh just seen above poster..spooky


----------



## Echo Beach (Aug 20, 2005)

Hey I've read Going Gently too. V good (I can't remember who the murderer was tho!).

I've just done Peter Taaffe's 'A Socialist World is Possible' - his history of the CWI. Unintentionally hilarious in places. I'm also ploughing through the book he wrote with Tony Mulhearn, 'Liverpool - a City that Dared to Fight'. I was expecting a load of self serving rubbish but actually it's quite good.


----------



## sparkling (Aug 21, 2005)

Recently finished 'we need to talk about Kevin' which was compelling whilst being very disturbing.

Now happily reading 'birds without wings'


----------



## j6ango1977 (Aug 21, 2005)

Reading 'Motley Crue - The Dirt'. Absolutely awsome read


----------



## Ryazan (Aug 21, 2005)

About to begin my new copy of Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw.  Haven't read it in ages.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Aug 21, 2005)

Still reading 'Atlas Shrugged' by Ayn Rand, managed to get to page 815, and I should hopefully get it finished tonight.

Never again! Ever.

BB


----------



## gonetoosoon (Aug 21, 2005)

*emile zola*

germinal, slow start, but in english which helps.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Aug 21, 2005)

and


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Aug 21, 2005)

I normally have my nose in a textbook, but I've just started reading Ahpra Behn's 'Love-letters Between A Nobleman And His Sister'. I'm taking it to France with me for holiday reading.


----------



## Velouria (Aug 21, 2005)

Reading 'The Cuckoo's Egg' by Clifford Stoll which is an excellent (and a bit technical tho he glosses over a lot ) account of his year-long chase after a German hacker. Good book 

I did just finish Iain M Banks' 'The Algebraist', which was quite a good book 

Post number 1,999


----------



## jrj2020 (Aug 21, 2005)

im reading 'The Monstrous Regiment' by Terry Pratchett for the fourth time. Its truly excellent (as are all Pratchetts!)


----------



## IntoStella (Aug 22, 2005)

I just read a couple of small anthologies in the wonderful Penguin 70s series -- 9th and 13th by Jonathan Coe and Noise by Hari Kunzru, who I had not read before. Very interesting. In fact, one of the stories gave me a really terrible nightmare last night. 

There are loads more of this series that I want and at £1.50 a pop they're worth picking up by the armful.


----------



## haggy (Aug 22, 2005)

just finished re-reading de lillo's 'white noise', and confirmed for myself that it is his best; and moreover has something over jon franzen

also dipped into le fanu's 'in a glass darkly', mainly for 'camilla', but i think i'll spend a bit of time on the other pieces, too

and also re-reading patrick wright's 'journey thru ruins', which is a must if you live in hackney


----------



## rubbershoes (Aug 22, 2005)

Just finished _Dog Soldiers _ by someone who's name escapes me. I picked it up thinking it was something else ( I never read the blurb on the back).

It was a  rather poorly written tale of amateur drug smuggling in the Vietnam war. The only reason i stuck with it was its anachronism. It's partly the 60s american counterculture slang and characters (groovy freaks), partly the attitudes. 

4/10


----------



## Combustible (Aug 22, 2005)

Waiting desperately for 'A Feast For Crows' which is the fourth book in the amazing 'A Song of Fire and Ice'

In the mean time I'm reading Foundation by Asimov which is interesting but a little dry and Homage to Catalonia.  I don't think many can beat Orwell for sheer clarity of writing.


----------



## Valve (Aug 22, 2005)

just finished burrough's 'junky',
working through hilary kornblith's anothology "naturalised epistemology",

was considering some of will self's books- any reccomendations?


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 22, 2005)

The only thoroughly enjoyable one is Great Apes.


----------



## Ryazan (Aug 22, 2005)

Combustible said:
			
		

> Waiting desperately for 'A Feast For Crows' which is the fourth book in the amazing 'A Song of Fire and Ice'
> 
> In the mean time I'm reading Foundation by Asimov which is interesting but a little dry and Homage to Catalonia.  I* don't think many can beat Orwell for sheer clarity of writing*.



I can think of a one.....


----------



## maya (Aug 22, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> I just read a couple of small anthologies in the wonderful Penguin 70s series -- 9th and 13th by Jonathan Coe and Noise by Hari Kunzru, who I had not read before. Very interesting. In fact, one of the stories gave me a really terrible nightmare last night.
> 
> There are loads more of this series that I want and at £1.50 a pop they're worth picking up by the armful.


oooh, i want those ones aswell!  
...time for some jet-set book shopping soon, methinks...
(i can't get hold of *any* decent books in this fucking country- grr   )


----------



## Ryazan (Aug 22, 2005)

Christmas at Stalingrad is good, as is The Trial of Lady Chatterley great books from that series.


----------



## Derian (Aug 22, 2005)

And "Where I was" James Kelman. Great series, those Pocket Penguins


----------



## spartacus mills (Aug 22, 2005)

Finished 'Hawksmoor' by Peter Ackroyd last night. Just started on Iain Sinclair's 'Down River'.


----------



## Dead Cat Bounce (Aug 22, 2005)

Just about to finish A Mad World , My Masters by John Simpson. A book which had me crying with laughter and crying with tears the next chapter.

A friend has just given me The Russians In Israel , The Ordeal Of Freedom (Naomi Shephred) which they recomended.


----------



## Ryazan (Aug 22, 2005)

Now that Pygmalion is over with I am about to begin the autobiography of Diana Mosley- A life of Contrasts.  Having read also her sister Jessica's memoirs- Hons and Rebels, I am sure this book too will confirm my classism rather than contradicting it.


----------



## Lost Zoot (Aug 23, 2005)

Shopie's world...


----------



## rubbershoes (Aug 23, 2005)

Dead Cat Bounce said:
			
		

> Just about to finish A Mad World , My Masters by John Simpson. A book which had me crying with laughter and crying with tears the next chapter.



have you read his first one  called something like _Unlikely people, remarkable places_. It's even better


----------



## maya (Aug 23, 2005)

i'm reading "The Hotel On The Rooftop Of The World" by Alec Le Sueur, as recommended by Flavour  
-not a book i'd read twice, but hysterically funny and very entertaining...


----------



## Dead Cat Bounce (Aug 23, 2005)

> have you read his first one called something like Unlikely people, remarkable places. It's even better



Not read it but it's now down on the list.


----------



## Heffaloo (Aug 24, 2005)

I am reading _The Spine of the World_, by R.A. Salvatore.  


It is awful.







Really, really awful.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Aug 24, 2005)

I have finished 'Atlas Shrugged' (at last), having managed to work through some of the tiresome dialogue, the stilted sex scenes, and the 'objectivist philosophy'.

BB


----------



## Ryazan (Aug 24, 2005)

Never, ever again?

hasn't converted you into a Tory then?


----------



## I'm at work (Aug 24, 2005)

mrkikiet said:
			
		

> orwell-coming up for air. pretty good.
> 
> i'm a big fan of penguin classics, silver covers do it for me...



Coming up for Air - my most favourite Orwell novel . perfect. 

It is as relevant today as it was then, beautifully crafted and written . A great reading choice, have you read his semi autobiographical "Down and Out in Paris and London"? .


----------



## I'm at work (Aug 24, 2005)

spartacus mills said:
			
		

> Finished 'Hawksmoor' by Peter Ackroyd last night. Just started on Iain Sinclair's 'Down River'.



Hawksmoor - brilliant . Look on the net for all those wierd London churches, freaky!!.
Have you tried Dan Leno & the Limehouse Golem ? a fantastic book again with all those London settings .


----------



## stonerz (Aug 24, 2005)

Catch 22,
 pretty cool(nothing better than a bit of comedy in the midst of death and destruction) but im kind of eager to finish it, 
read the first couple chapters of the Earthsea saga and im kind of in the mood for an alternate reality (with the help of alternate mind state substances)


----------



## BEARBOT (Aug 24, 2005)

hey boogie boy..thats amazing you completed "atlas shrugged" i thought it was torture to read and tossed it away when i tried it out when i was about 19..her "pro business" (to put it in a polite way)attitude really wound me up somethin chronic. when i picked up the book i didnt really know much about it other than that she was supposedly "a modern philosopher" 

dont worry im not attacking you   but i do find it wierd the way some people will stick with a book they LOATHE just cos they feel they have to complete whatever book they start.

im here to say..life is too short..burn the sucker and dance around the flames


----------



## Boogie Boy (Aug 24, 2005)

BEARBOT said:
			
		

> hey boogie boy..thats amazing you completed "atlas shrugged" i thought it was torture to read and tossed it away when i tried it out when i was about 19..her "pro business" (to put it in a polite way)attitude really wound me up somethin chronic. when i picked up the book i didnt really know much about it other than that she was supposedly "a modern philosopher"
> 
> dont worry im not attacking you   but i do find it wierd the way some people will stick with a book they LOATHE just cos they feel they have to complete whatever book they start.
> 
> im here to say..life is too short..burn the sucker and dance around the flames



I'm just sad I guess, once I start reading something I always have to finish it, I often wait for the page to arise that suddenly makes the whole effort worth while, and it did not happen with this book ('Moby Dick' is another great example of this). I can imagine that if money is your principal measure of success this book would probably help ameliorate any sense of guilt that might arise as an individual exploited and destroyed other human beings to achieve their desires. And woe to anyone who is less intelligent, or less endowed with the features or aspects of character that the society that this author appears to wish for demands.  

A quite depressing book in many respects.   

Do you have any recommendations for my next read???

BB


----------



## Random One (Aug 24, 2005)

i just finished "the restaurant at the end of the universe" and now feel the need to get the next book in the Hitchikers guide series...half way through it i though 'hmm dont think il get the next one just yet' but douglas adams is a bastard and has ended both books so far almost mid chapter and so you REALLY wanna know what happens next...*goes to buy the next one on play.com*


----------



## I'm at work (Aug 24, 2005)

At the moment I nearly at the end of the Raj quartet - four books "The jewel in the Crown" "The Day of the Scorpion" "The towers of silence" "A Division of the spoils". I took them all on holiday and got through three and started the fourth. I've now nearly finished and I have to say it has been a stunning read - a huge sweeping story the takes in the history of the closing years of the British empire in India. Before that I read John Steinbecks superb "The Grapes of Wrath" - I've put my review on the Book Blog - 

http://urbanbookreview.blogspot.com


----------



## BEARBOT (Aug 24, 2005)

boogie boy..i can't believe you read "moby dick"....im not knocking it, just dont think i could get thru it...
 melville wrote "bartleby the scrivner" didnt he? now THERE'S a book..it's just a tad anti work

im currently reading  obscure beat writer herbert hunke, he was a street junkie and pals with burroughs and ginsberg. he writes in a naturalistic fashion about his life..im a sucker for that style..especially if the persons life has been "colourful"


----------



## Boogie Boy (Aug 24, 2005)

BEARBOT said:
			
		

> boogie boy..i can't believe you read "moby dick"....im not knocking it, just dont think i could get thru it...
> melville wrote "bartleby the scrivner" didnt he? now THERE'S a book..it's just a tad anti work
> 
> im currently reading  obscure beat writer herbert hunke, he was a street junkie and pals with burroughs and ginsberg. he writes in a naturalistic fashion about his life..im a sucker for that style..especially if the persons life has been "colourful"



You sound very much like someone I met at Rampart the other day........you wouldn't happen to like photography too?


BB


----------



## I'm at work (Aug 24, 2005)

BEARBOT said:
			
		

> boogie boy..i can't believe you read "moby dick"....im not knocking it, just dont think i could get thru it...
> melville wrote "bartleby the scrivner" didnt he? now THERE'S a book..it's just a tad anti work
> 
> im currently reading  obscure beat writer herbert hunke, he was a street junkie and pals with burroughs and ginsberg. he writes in a naturalistic fashion about his life..im a sucker for that style..especially if the persons life has been "colourful"



I quite liked Moby Dick - its not Pc and the cetology is way out of date but you'll have to agree it fantastically well written . On the BBC book board there is a hardcore group who love Moby Dick - I'm in it! , its like Marmite love it or loath it no half measures!


----------



## Boogie Boy (Aug 24, 2005)

I'm at work said:
			
		

> I quite liked Moby Dick - its not Pc and the cetology is way out of date but you'll have to agree it fantastically well written . On the BBC book board there is a hardcore group who love Moby Dick - I'm in it! , its like Marmite love it or loath it no half measures!



I hated it, absolutely hated it. But I love Marmite?

BB


----------



## I'm at work (Aug 24, 2005)

Boogie Boy said:
			
		

> I hated it, absolutely hated it. But I love Marmite?
> 
> BB




Believe me - you'll find no ambiguity about Moby dick , "oh it was allright I suppose" is soemthing you'll never find attached to MB.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Aug 24, 2005)

I'm at work said:
			
		

> Believe me - you'll find no ambiguity about Moby dick , "oh it was allright I suppose" is soemthing you'll never find attached to MB.



I can well understand that, but then life would be pretty boring otherwise. I loved 'Q' by Luther Blissett, and that seems to separate people equally in to those that love and those that hate.

BB


----------



## I'm at work (Aug 24, 2005)

Boogie Boy said:
			
		

> I can well understand that, but then life would be pretty boring otherwise. I loved 'Q' by Luther Blissett, and that seems to separate people equally in to those that love and those that hate.
> 
> BB



John Bergers "G" appears to be the same - love or loath - is it somrthing to do with single digit titles??


----------



## BEARBOT (Aug 24, 2005)

i really want to read "Q" online BB..its been mentioned before by citydreams and stupidly i didnt bookmark the link..do you or anyone eles have it..? thank q from ms bearbot

i havent been down to rampart in awhile, last time was for that party with infernal noise brigade( sort of an american "rhythms of resistance samba band" and the lost film festival..but the person you met sounds like someone i never meet but would love to


----------



## BEARBOT (Aug 24, 2005)

that BBC book board sounds interesting....is proust something people are meant to love or hate? i read "swanns way" and while it wasnt a revelation like i had been led to beleive, i didnt find it a chore to read.

never read "G" but saw a play by john berger recently..he seemed to working the psychogeography territory a la iain sinclair... is "G"  in that vein?


----------



## Red Faction (Aug 24, 2005)

just ordered 'A Savage Enquiry' off amazon
Inquiry(sp?)
supposed to be really good
all my uni lecturers say is worth reading
cos she worked at Barts + the London


----------



## mrkikiet (Aug 24, 2005)

the little prince - antoine de saint-exupery


----------



## articul8 (Aug 24, 2005)

Ted Hughes' "Birthday Letters" poems about Sylvia Plath.  Top stuff


----------



## isvicthere? (Aug 25, 2005)

"The consolation of philosophy" by Boethius.


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 25, 2005)

M. Clery's "Journal of the Terror", with a supplement of Abbe Firmont's Memoir of the Last Hours of Louis XVI (London: Folio Society, 1955)


----------



## MarkMark (Aug 25, 2005)

Steppenwolf - Herman Hesse


----------



## MarkMark (Aug 25, 2005)

mrkikiet said:
			
		

> the little prince - antoine de saint-exupery



that's a fab story!


----------



## MysteryGuest (Aug 25, 2005)

Raymond Chandler - The Lady in the Lake


It's like being in a film noir!  And they all smoke like chimneys!  Not a book I'd recommend to anybody trying to give up smoking, but I ain't arf enjoying it.  Interesting to see just how much Chandler's influenced crime fiction.


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 25, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> It's like being in a film noir!  And they all smoke like chimneys!  Not a book I'd recommend to anybody trying to give up smoking


Murakami neither


----------



## maya (Aug 25, 2005)

Atwood, again- "The Blind Assassin".


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 25, 2005)

left my proper book at home so read half of Gideon Defoe's The Pirates And Their Adventures With The Scientists at lunchtime. fucking marvellous. hope to finish the other half later whilst travelling about.


----------



## I'm at work (Aug 25, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> Atwood, again- "The Blind Assassin".




Great Choice - have you read Oryx & Crake? I loved it though some thought it unfocussed. I put a review of it on the urban book blog http://urbanbookreview.blogspot.com/


----------



## ViolentPanda (Aug 25, 2005)

"In Green and Red: The Lives of Frank Ryan" by Adrian Hoar.


----------



## IntoStella (Aug 26, 2005)

I'm so happy.

I have got a newish Nicola Barker -- Clear.

I LOVE Nicola Barker. I want to have her babies. 

Only she could base an absolutely brilliant novel around David Blaine's absurd dangly box thing. 

She is a total, total genius.


----------



## maya (Aug 26, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> I LOVE Nicola Barker. I want to have her babies.


and i thought you liked me! 
_< sulks >_


----------



## exosculate (Aug 26, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> I'm so happy.
> 
> I have got a newish Nicola Barker -- Clear.
> 
> ...




Who is that?


----------



## exosculate (Aug 26, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> and i thought you liked me!
> _< sulks >_




Yes how dare she prefer someone I've never heard of over Maya.


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 26, 2005)

She's a woman who writes books.
I've read Wide Open, which is great - truly bizarre


----------



## exosculate (Aug 26, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> She's a woman who writes books.
> I've read Wide Open, which is great - truly bizarre



I guessed that bit.


----------



## DialT0ne (Aug 27, 2005)

the prince.


----------



## walktome (Aug 27, 2005)

Whose Song? and Other Stories by Thomas Glave


----------



## Badger Kitten (Aug 27, 2005)

_Birds Without Wings_ by Louis de Bernieres, much better than _Captain Corelli's Mandolin,_. It's about Anatolia and all very historical and tragic.


----------



## spartacus mills (Aug 27, 2005)

I'm at work said:
			
		

> Hawksmoor - brilliant . Look on the net for all those wierd London churches, freaky!!.
> Have you tried Dan Leno & the Limehouse Golem ? a fantastic book again with all those London settings .



Yeah I've been looking up all the Hawksmoor churches. I want to visit hem all now!
Not read the book you mentioned - I'll give it a try. The only other Ackroyd I've read was 'Chatterton'.


----------



## greenman (Aug 27, 2005)

Agree on Hawksmoor.  Chatterton is hanging around waiting to be read.  I also like Iain Sinclair - Ackroyd's inspirer.  His "Lights Out For The Territory" is amazing, and I've also got Sinclair's Lud Heat waiting to be read on the back of Lights Out and Ackroyd's Hawksmoor.
At the moment I'm reading The Island of The Day Before by Eco, and dipping into Hamlet's Mill, the Golden Bough and The Golden Age of Myth and Legend. Yes, I'm on a myth and astronomy trip at the moment.


----------



## Uma (Aug 27, 2005)

*Alpine Armchair reader*

I read lots of climbing books which were sparked off by reading Touching the Void.  Bloody gripping read and well written too.  Get the DVD out if you can. I am now in the middle of reading Life and limb by Jamie Andrew.  If anyone enjoys climbing, these books are inspiring.


----------



## DialT0ne (Aug 28, 2005)

harry potter bleatch


----------



## Wide Eyed Angel (Aug 28, 2005)

the world and other places - jeanette winterson.  only started yesterday but especially being a sort of short stories format makes it very easy to read, and being good stuff obviously helps too!


----------



## I'm at work (Aug 28, 2005)

*The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott*

Four impressive books make the Raj quartet, "The Jewel in the Crown" (480pgs)  "The Day of the Scorpion" (495 pgs) "The Towers of Silence" (397pgs) "A Division of the Spoils" (720pgs). A lot to read - over 2000 pages - but of such quality, such perfectly interlocking storylines spread over the four books . Characters and situations in the first book carry through to the last in a beautifully natural way. The huge cast of characters become familiar over the four books so as a reader you get so involved, so engrossed that you really begin to care about these people. Such superb intricate detail is described throughout the novels that the beauty and magnificence of India is brought to life. Set in India during the British Empire - The Raj - it spans a time from the early 30's throughout the war to Independence of India and the partition in to Pakistan and India. It’s a series of events told from several different perspectives both British and Indian. We get intricate backgrounds of the many characters in scrumptious detail then intricate plotting that intrigues and entertains. It is both warm and heartrending yet through provoking as it explores the many facets of the Indian Empire ruled by really only a handful of British civilians and soldiers. We are taken into their lives and we see all sides to them as they try to react to events and history unfolding around them. 

Each of the four novels could be read as a stand-alone novel but to really appreciate what the author Paul Scott (who died in 1978) was trying to achieve a back-to-back read of all four is necessary. I was lucky having spent many months finding these novels in matching covers then being able to read them as a holiday read all together. We are taken in the storyline through a series of key events small and large that shapes the lives of those concerned against a backdrop of war and forthcoming Indian independence. Forbidden relationships between a white British woman of the ruling Raj class and an educated Indian who has been to the best British boarding school have a tragic outcome and set in turn a series events that follow key characters around India till independence. Key events and characters dip in and out of the novels - someone in the first novel may reappear in the third yet it all happens seamlessly and not at all contrived. The massive groundwork done in the first novel is carried through to fruition in the final three works. The first novel (The Jewel in the Crown) is told a lot of the time in flashback giving the tragic events that unfold a view from several different perspectives. This admittedly slows the pace somewhat in this first novel but the strength of the narrative and the beauty of the descriptive passages carries the day. Having set the tragic scene we move on a short while in the second novel (The day of the Scorpion) and introduce a lot of the later characters on which the consequences of the first novels outcome rest. This is a truly fantastic read setting out the early life of many of the characters - young men and women whom the fall of the British empire in India would affect the most. A whole exotic world of hill station life and people going out to India form England is recreated here all of it now passed into history. The author gets right into the mind of the characters with all the certainties and doubts of the British empire that come apart at the seams when war breaks out in the far east. A gripping and entertaining novel it was a superb unforgettable read that I could not put down - never dull for a moment the story and evocation of life in India just flowed of the pages. The third novel (The Towers of Silence) brings in extra but vitally important characters that are themselves on the periphery of Raj life which was hopelessly class ridden yet held together only really by the idea that white British people were chosen almost by god to rule India. Yet not having the "correct" background or money meant there were layers within white society that were hardly acceptable - this novel explores these concepts in riveting detail. Moving yet amusing in places this really gets to grips with the whole Raj experience of Empire and the different classes of people who administered it. Yet whilst it explores these levels of snobbery it also links all the other characters stories together so when in the final novel the strands come together it all becomes clear. The fourth and final novel "A Division of the Spoils" is concerned with the coming Independence of India and its partition. The people whose lives have been spent in India ruling and administrating face the twilight of the British Raj with uncertainty as the Muslims and Hindus that make up India's population battle it out in dreadful intercommunity slaughter. With all the previously certain things in their lives turned upside down the problems affect ruling Indians too in the princely states whose existence was guaranteed by British rule. Political intrigue and betrayal as well as a coming together of threads fist started in the first novel all occur in this the final novel. For me this last novel cleared up many of the uncertainties but still left a few enigmas. By far the most gripping of all the novels mainly because of the finalisation of the story the many twists and turns of the saga carried on right until the end. At no time throughout the books could I have foreseen the outcome or the reasoning behind it. 

Power, Love, Sex, Betrayal, War, wasted lives, dashed hopes all set in an exotic world long forgotten, a powerful moving gripping saga that I feel has been overlooked in recent years dealing as it does with the largely forgotten British Empire in India. At no time does this glorify Empire - in fact it is damning in its criticism of both sides of the racial divide, the central tenet of the whole work is absurdity of those in the British community who see their role in India far too seriously, as if God had ordained them to rule and the tragic consequences of this to themselves and those around them. Altogether a superb read rich in detail, beautiful narrative and a wonderful sense of an on going story. A beautiful touch was the inclusion early in the third book of a couple of ancillary characters that later went on to be the basis of Paul Scott's Booker prize winning book Staying On six years later along with other characters form the Raj Quartet. I'll recommend the Raj Quartet for a superb holiday read - it is available as a large all in one volume, I read mine as the Granada paperbacks from the early 80's that were republished to compliment the 14 part TV series "The Jewel in the Crown".


----------



## jeff_leigh (Aug 28, 2005)

I'm at work said:
			
		

> The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott



i thought the title of this thread was What book are you reading ?  not give us a thesis


----------



## haggy (Aug 28, 2005)

its a bit daft cos i haven't really got the time, but i started reading perec's 'life:a user's manual' again.

stunning...


----------



## hippogriff (Aug 28, 2005)

Virginia Woolf

biography by Hermione Lee


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 28, 2005)

Robert Conquest, Stalin: Breaker of Nations (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1991)


----------



## Ryazan (Aug 28, 2005)

There are better biographies out there about the man of steel.

Montfiore's is far superior to Conquest's anti-communist rant.  Robert Service has a good biography of Stalin out too.


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 28, 2005)

other books about stalin i've read in the last year:

edvard radzinsky stalin (london: sceptre, 1996)
martin amis koba the dread (london: vintage, 2003)
donald rayfield stalin and his hangmen (london: penguin, 2005)
robert service stalin: a biography (london: macmillan, 2004)
dmitri volkogonov stalin (london: phoenix, 2000)
simon sebag montefiore stalin: the court of the red tsar (london: phoenix, 2004)


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 28, 2005)

& i've ronald payne's biography to read in a bit too.


----------



## Ryazan (Aug 28, 2005)

I saw Volkogonov on sale in Moscow last month for  200 roubles.  Might try that one out over here.

Have you read Let History Judge?  By Roy Medvedev.


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 28, 2005)

no.


----------



## Ryazan (Aug 28, 2005)

Neither have I, although a copy has been looking at me on a bookshelf in my local library for some time now.


----------



## I'm at work (Aug 28, 2005)

jeff_leigh said:
			
		

> i thought the title of this thread was What book are you reading ?  not give us a thesis




Doh !! Sorry I didn't mean to post the whole review here - I've written it out then pasted it to the various groups I use. Here I usually say what I read then post a link to the http://urbanbookreview.blogspot.com/ . I was at the gym earlier and I though " I remember going to urban75 and not the blog "

Ho Hum

4 great books though - startlingly good indeed . Reminded me a lot of Suitable Boy with its vast saga like epic. A work of art really - I wonder if the early 80's "Jewel in the Crown " TV series fixed it in folks mind and left the books forgotten. To be honest if a lot of modern work I read doesn't even get near the quality of writing that Paul Scott managed time after time.


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 28, 2005)

Ryazan said:
			
		

> Neither have I, although a copy has been looking at me on a bookshelf in my local library for some time now.


have you read that 'short course on the history of the cpsu (bolshevik)' (london: lawrence & wishart, 1941)?


----------



## Ryazan (Aug 28, 2005)

No I haven't.  Have you?


----------



## Kidda (Aug 28, 2005)

Harry Potter and the goblet of fire

not as easy to read on the bus/in the bath, than the previous three, but still quite good


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 28, 2005)

Ryazan said:
			
		

> No I haven't.  Have you?


only bits'n'bobs.


----------



## Ryazan (Aug 28, 2005)

Is it online?


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 28, 2005)

Ryazan said:
			
		

> Is it online?


yes.

http://www.marx2mao.com/Other/HCPSU39NB.html

but i have the book.


----------



## Ryazan (Aug 28, 2005)

ABE is pretty good for finding old Soviet publications.  I got a copy of Kruschev's 1956 secret speech by the Manchester Guardian for about a quid plus postage


----------



## Pickman's model (Aug 28, 2005)

there's a good bookshop down the shopping centre in the elephant for russian history - which is where i got the short course for £1.50.


----------



## Ryazan (Aug 28, 2005)

I don't have access to much in terms of finding poltical books in my area, as I live in a crap place for that kind of thing*.  But with the PC I can search on ABE and other sites for the stuff I need, providing it is for a reasonable price.  I aint no snob, so special hardbound first editions are not my cup of tea.  As long as it is in good nick and I can read it without the pages falling out I am fine.  And of course, that it will last a few more readings than just the once.

*Although there is some bloke who has his own archive in my town, an ex CPGB member and he has thousands of old books, pamplets and other things, and is selling a small portion of it, but I don't se him that often, he is too busy.


----------



## Ryazan (Aug 28, 2005)

My mother too gives me bits of propaganda from her collection of Communist literature.


----------



## maya (Aug 28, 2005)

Aldous Huxley: The Perennial Philosophy

and some book about psychological experiments...


----------



## walktome (Aug 28, 2005)

Hooking Up by Tom Wolfe


----------



## boohoo (Aug 30, 2005)

One more, with feeling by Victoria Coren and Charlie Skelton

About two people attempting to make a porn movie - very good read so far!!!


----------



## Boogie Boy (Aug 30, 2005)

Just picked up 'The Arabian Nights: Tales From A Thousand And One Nights' - translation by Sir Richard Burton. I have wanted to read this since reading some of the material written by Lewis regarding the concept and treatment of 'race' within Islam. 

Wish me luck!

BB


----------



## Ozric (Aug 30, 2005)

They came and ate us - Armageddon II: The B-Movie by Robert Rankin, fucked up but funny.


----------



## midlandsmuse (Aug 30, 2005)

This is my second post... the quiver is going.

Anyway, I'm reading Cock and Bull by Will Self. Two short stories, one about a woman who grows a penis and then rapes her husband and the other about a man who grows a vagina behind his knee and is then seduced by his male doctor.

I mean, how can you not read a book like that.


----------



## J77 (Aug 31, 2005)

Wuthering Heights - top book!

Also read HP a while back.


----------



## Valve (Aug 31, 2005)

finished burrough's 'junky'; now on to keroac's 'lonesome traveller'. also read david sedaris' 'dres your family in...' the other day-- good quick read, couple hours or so.

thinking about taking a look at orwell's 'down and out in paris + london'-- worth it, anyone?


----------



## rubbershoes (Aug 31, 2005)

midlandsmuse said:
			
		

> This is my second post... the quiver is going.
> 
> Anyway, I'm reading Cock and Bull by Will Self. Two short stories, one about a woman who grows a penis and then rapes her husband and the other about a man who grows a vagina behind his knee and is then seduced by his male doctor.



it's not his best IMO. I think he's better at short stories . *Cock & Bull * are really novellas rather than short stories aren't they?

Actually the* Book of the Dead * is one of my favourites so bang goes my idea about him not being able to do novels


----------



## IntoStella (Aug 31, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> there's a good bookshop down the shopping centre in the elephant for russian history - which is where i got the short course for £1.50.


Have you ever read Graham Stephenson's History of Russia 1812-1945?

If so (and there is a very good reason why I ask) do you own a copy?


----------



## Louloubelle (Aug 31, 2005)

Velvet Claw
A Natural History of Carnivores 
top book, highly recommended


----------



## girasol (Aug 31, 2005)

J77 said:
			
		

> Wuthering Heights - top book!
> 
> Also read HP a while back.



One of my favorites books!  

I started reading 'Them' by Jon Ronson yesterday...  Looks interesting, but I have a long way to go yet.


----------



## chegrimandi (Aug 31, 2005)

La Bete Humaine - Zola.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Aug 31, 2005)

_Basil D'Oliveira : cricket and conspiracy, the untold story_ - Peter Oborne


----------



## jacobs steel (Aug 31, 2005)

The Da Vinci Code, seems pretty good thus far


----------



## Ryazan (Aug 31, 2005)

Donna Ferentes said:
			
		

> _Basil D'Oliveira : cricket and conspiracy, the untold story_ - Peter Oborne



You sad sad man.


----------



## I'm at work (Aug 31, 2005)

Just finished "Staying On" by Paul Scott - a stand alone Novel that won him the 1978 Booker prize but really a sequal and final closing chapter in the superb Raj Quartet that I finished last week. I've reviewed it on the urban book blog - feel free to comment - http://urbanbookreview.blogspot.com/ - its a superb read even if you haven'e read the awsome Raj Quartet. Sadly Paul Scott died in 1978 - this is a superb memorial to him .


----------



## cyberfairy (Aug 31, 2005)

I'm reading 'grasshopper' by barbara vine (ruth rendall) bit of a book snob and keep the thrillers hidden under cleverer stuff but really enjoy them and this one is very well written but a bit scary and i'm sleeping on my own tonight so will be hearing murderers in the shrubbery all night long


----------



## zeask (Aug 31, 2005)

Weaveworld  by Clive Barker


----------



## spanglechick (Aug 31, 2005)

Currently Reading: Portnoy's Complaint - is a bit crap, to be honest - I loose patience with all this 60's New York stream of consciousness stuff - it's a bit "Dice Man" for my tastes.
Recently read: the latest Alexander Mc Call Smith (sneaking suspicion his books are just easy-readers for the self consciously literate, but mindlessly enjoyable, like a laura ashley sofa).
The latest Harry Potter - which I will defend to the hilt (best so far) - although probably not at book group, where I imagine it wouldn't be popular...
And the most amazing book about overeating / dieting etc, by William Leith, Called "The Hungry Years - Confessions of a Food Addict"  - which I unhesitatingly reccommend to anyone food addict or not.


----------



## I'm at work (Sep 1, 2005)

To continue reading on an Indian theme I've started Passage to India by EM Forster. I think I should have read this first then the Raj Quartet then Suitable Boy not the other way round.

Ho Hum


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Sep 1, 2005)

Ryazan said:
			
		

> You sad sad man.


You say so why? You are aware of who Basil D'Oliviera was and why his story is important?


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 1, 2005)

spanglechick said:
			
		

> Currently Reading: Portnoy's Complaint - is a bit crap, to be honest - I loose patience with all this 60's New York stream of consciousness stuff - it's a bit "Dice Man" for my tastes.



HERETIC! 

re-read this for about the 3rd time recently, and i'm still in awe of how he manages to build and maintain that almost hysterical pitch throughout, as things get more and more fucked up.. 

and to compare it to The Dice Man? shudder.....


----------



## spanglechick (Sep 1, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> HERETIC!
> 
> re-read this for about the 3rd time recently, and i'm still in awe of how he manages to build and maintain that almost hysterical pitch throughout, as things get more and more fucked up..
> 
> and to compare it to The Dice Man? shudder.....



But it's so *dull!* 

I truly think most stream of consciousness writing (or writing that seems that way) is - well - masturbatory.  Fittingly enough...

... but then, what do I know?  I like Harry Potter...


----------



## Virtual Blue (Sep 1, 2005)

Jack Kerouac´s The Dharma Bums - great book apparently but another I can't get into.


----------



## Ryazan (Sep 1, 2005)

Donna Ferentes said:
			
		

> You say so why? You are aware of who Basil D'Oliviera was and why his story is important?



Cricket mate. Not that I understand the game anyway. I don't know about his life in detail, but being at the centre, or one centre at least of controversy surrounding the sporting boycott of Aparthied era South Africa, it might be quite interesting.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Sep 1, 2005)

Well precisely.


----------



## exosculate (Sep 1, 2005)

Virtual Blue said:
			
		

> Jack Kerouac´s The Dharma Bums - great book apparently but another I can't get into.




Nice book, describing interesting things, but not a good writer in my view.

It sounds like he wrote it in one sitting, which he pretty much did.


----------



## tastebud (Sep 1, 2005)

spanglechick said:
			
		

> Currently Reading: Portnoy's Complaint - is a bit crap, to be honest - I loose patience with all this 60's New York stream of consciousness stuff - it's a bit "Dice Man" for my tastes.


holy moly!
it's one of the best books i have ever read.
can't wait to get it back, actually!


----------



## Brainaddict (Sep 1, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> HERETIC!
> 
> re-read this for about the 3rd time recently, and i'm still in awe of how he manages to build and maintain that almost hysterical pitch throughout, as things get more and more fucked up..
> 
> and to compare it to The Dice Man? shudder.....


 if i have read i married a communist and found it to be tedious and pointless, should i avoid portnoy's complaint?


----------



## Sunspots (Sep 1, 2005)

Having watched 24hr news channels all day, I'm about to re-read Rudolph Wurlitzer's _Quake_.  

Set amid the ruins of an American city following a natural disaster, it's about what happens to people's behaviour when normality breaks down... 

Bleak, nihilistic stuff.


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 2, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> HERETIC!
> 
> re-read this for about the 3rd time recently, and i'm still in awe of how he manages to build and maintain that almost hysterical pitch throughout, as things get more and more fucked up..
> 
> and to compare it to The Dice Man? shudder.....


i prefer money by martin Amis..

actually i am reading that it now.. it's not great and nothing like as subtle as portnoy's complaint but it has a lot more pace..

in a similar vein i've just finished Closing Time which is great.. catch 22 seems like an impossible book to write a sequel to but i can't see how Joseph Heller could have done anything better than this.


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 2, 2005)

and i don't think the Diceman is that bad a book.. the book itself is so-so what i get very fucked off about is all the idiots who think of it as a 'cult classic'

it is neither.


----------



## dumbo (Sep 2, 2005)

*What book are you reading?*

 I'm reading Harry Potter's newest, isn't everybody?


----------



## tastebud (Sep 2, 2005)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> i prefer money by martin Amis..


and i *hated* that.
didn't even finish it...


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 2, 2005)

Brainaddict said:
			
		

> if i have read i married a communist and found it to be tedious and pointless, should i avoid portnoy's complaint?




not at all - i've found almost all Roth i've read since to be pretty dull, but Portnoy's (his first book? correct me if i'm wrong) is just stunning IMO


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 2, 2005)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> i prefer money by martin Amis..



i don't see the connection, i love both books but can't see any link


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 2, 2005)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> and i don't think the Diceman is that bad a book.. the book itself is so-so what i get very fucked off about is all the idiots who think of it as a 'cult classic'
> 
> it is neither.




i don't think i said it was a bad book, i quite enjoyed it at the time of my life when you're supposed to read books like that. and i agree that a lot of people missed the point. Anyway, connoisseurs realise that Adventures of Wim ("Brave men hide") was the better Reinhart book.

i just thought it was ridiculous to compare it to Portnoy's Complaint.


----------



## I'm at work (Sep 2, 2005)

Sunspots said:
			
		

> Having watched 24hr news channels all day, I'm about to re-read Rudolph Wurlitzer's _Quake_.
> 
> Set amid the ruins of an American city following a natural disaster, it's about what happens to people's behaviour when normality breaks down...
> 
> Bleak, nihilistic stuff.



I'd read Grapes of Wrath - about US citizens turned in refugees in their own country after disastrous drought - very apt I read it a few weeks ago and reviewed it here 

http://urbanbookreview.blogspot.com/


----------



## I'm at work (Sep 2, 2005)

Valve said:
			
		

> finished burrough's 'junky'; now on to keroac's 'lonesome traveller'. also read david sedaris' 'dres your family in...' the other day-- good quick read, couple hours or so.
> 
> thinking about taking a look at orwell's 'down and out in paris + london'-- worth it, anyone?




Very worth it - I used to read it every year on my holidays!! a fantastic book indeed.


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 2, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> i don't see the connection, i love both books but can't see any link


where do you think amis stole his knowingly self-conscious 1st person narration from?

at least thats was i always assumed..


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 2, 2005)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> where do you think amis stole his knowingly self-conscious 1st person narration from?
> 
> at least thats was i always assumed..




I think that's a helluva leap, to be honest...


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 2, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> I think that's a helluva leap, to be honest...


mart makes no secret of his worship of great american authors.. bellow, nabakov & (i think) roth.. and at various points he has aped their styles..

it is a long time since i read PC but something about money reminded me about it.. maybe it's just the new york setting and the out of control narrator? i am qute superficial though i pretend not to be!


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 2, 2005)

i just don't see Amis considering Rheinhart part of that particular pantheon.. it's 15 years or so since i read either, so i could be wrong


----------



## anfield (Sep 2, 2005)

Finally finished _Ragged Trousered Philanthropists_. A hell of a slog. It's a good read, but twice as long as it needs to be and I found the ending a bit of a dissapointment.

Next on the reading list is _Our Flag Stays Red_ by Phil Piratin and then probably Raskolniov's account of Kronstadt in 1917.


----------



## fucthest8 (Sep 2, 2005)

"Running with Scissors" by Augusten Burroughs

Fascinating, disturbing, yet humourous account of one mans' very weird upbringing.

“My mother began to go crazy. Not crazy in a let’s paint the kitchen bright red! sort of way. But crazy in a gas oven, toothpaste sandwich, I am God sort of way.”


----------



## kyser_soze (Sep 2, 2005)

Non-fiction, Chuck Pahlahniuk. Never read his stuff before and Haunted got me into his style.

Book that prooves that real life is weirder, less consistent and has more tragedy, joy and unbeleiveable coincidences than ever appear in fiction.


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 2, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> i just don't see Amis considering Rheinhart part of that particular pantheon..


agreed.. i was saying that mart aped roth.

rheinhart is just another pirsig


----------



## spanglechick (Sep 2, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> i just thought it was ridiculous to compare it to Portnoy's Complaint.


Ridiculous?  I should explain...

It's many years since I read dice man - so I'm not making a literary comparison, as I'm sure I don't have that clear a memory of such things - it's the feeling of irritation that i felt then that seems so familiar when reading Rortnoy's complaint.  I mean maybe the Roth book gets better - i've only read half - but I just feel like I don't want to hear any more of the fairly smug, first person narrative - maybe, more than I thought, I'm repelled by unsympathetic protagonists.  And then there's this treatment of sex - maybe it's because of their time - but both books seem to have this attitude of "I'm so extreme in my sexuality" - when all they are is pretty much veering towards mysoginy (sp?) .  

I mean, dice man leapt to mind for pretty subjective reasons (my reaction to it), and for shallow ones (setting, idea of psychiatry, alternative sexual practices,) so maybe it wasn't the most appropriate comparison, but i don't think it's ridiculous.  I'm not comaparing it with Dickens or Chaucer ffs.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Sep 2, 2005)

anfield said:
			
		

> Finally finished _Ragged Trousered Philanthropists_. A hell of a slog. It's a good read, but twice as long as it needs to be and I found the ending a bit of a dissapointment.
> 
> I loved that book. Which edition did you read, as there are aparently two versions - a heavily edited text and a 'full' version.
> 
> BB


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 2, 2005)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> agreed.. i was saying that mart aped roth.
> 
> rheinhart is just another pirsig



ah, the way you quoted me made it look like you were relating amis to reinhart.


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 2, 2005)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> agreed.. i was saying that mart aped roth.
> 
> rheinhart is just another pirsig


No offence but can't you do this on a new thread, called "Which male Brit/US author is farthest up his own arse?" or something?


----------



## Fledgling (Sep 2, 2005)

Well, I'll rise to that idea. 

I've been busy reading a few good books. 

Brighton Rock
The Plague
Cold Comfort Farm
Journey Without Maps
1421: The year China discovered the world

On the list now is my latest attempt to read Don Quixote and get past page 400. Here we go!!!!!!!!!


----------



## maya (Sep 2, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> No offence but can't you do this on a new thread,
> called "Which male Brit/US author is farthest up his own arse?" or something?


...i thought _all_ of them were?


----------



## oneflewover (Sep 2, 2005)

Fledgling said:
			
		

> Cold Comfort Farm



A lovely feel good book, smiles all the way through


----------



## walktome (Sep 3, 2005)

Mi Moto Fidel by Christopher P. Baker


----------



## Rohen (Sep 3, 2005)

Empty World by John Christopher  Ps if anyone has a copy hold on to it as they are worth 30 times their cover price these days


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 5, 2005)

oneflewover said:
			
		

> A lovely feel good book, smiles all the way through


One of my very, very, very favourites.

I also recommend Bassett by Stella Gibbons if you can find a copy.


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 5, 2005)

I had a very bookish weekend. I read Philip K Dick's The Man in the High Castle, which was one of the few of his books that I had somehow omitted to read; followed by Jonathan Coe's The Closed Circle. After that I finished Simon Armitage's contribution to the Penguin 70s series, King Arthur in The East Riding, which I cannot recommned highly enough. The Tyre is one of the most beautifully written and  funniest short stories I have ever read. It's £1.50. Go and buy a copy. 

Now I'm reading Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate, which I am enjoying enormously. 

In between all that I'm rereading Murakami's Sputnik Sweetheart (which on second reading is clearly at least partly an homage to Fowles's  The Magus) and am about to start Patrick Hamilton's Hangover Square. 

How do I find the  time to go to the pub?!


----------



## DrRingDing (Sep 5, 2005)

Ecstacy Reconsisdered: Nicholas Saunders.


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 5, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> How do I find the  time to go to the pub?!


take the book with you?


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 5, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> take the book with you?


 I do, actually. It's true.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 5, 2005)

i finished Norwegian Wood, which was utterly utterly heartbreaking.

so i'm reading Houllebecq's Platform to cheer myself up


----------



## anfield (Sep 5, 2005)

Boogie Boy said:
			
		

> I loved that book. Which edition did you read, as there are aparently two versions - a heavily edited text and a 'full' version.
> 
> BB



Think I must have read the full version - it was over 600 pages long.


----------



## I'm at work (Sep 5, 2005)

I've just finished A Passage to India by EM Forster - superb , real modern feel to it given it was written in 1924. 

http://urbanbookreview.blogspot.com/  - I done a small review here


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 6, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> i finished Norwegian Wood, which was utterly utterly heartbreaking.


this time i am in _complete_ agreement 


finished money so back to don quixote for me


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 6, 2005)

I'm at work said:
			
		

> I've just finished A Passage to India by EM Forster - superb , real modern feel to it given it was written in 1924.


haven't read that one 

Howard's End is one of my all time favourites but I wasn't too chuffed with Room with a View so never got round to P to the I.


----------



## parallelepipete (Sep 6, 2005)

'But n Ben A-Go-Go' by Matthew Fitt

Post-global warming sci-fi written in Scots! (Found it in the local library by accident) I've caught myself reading it aloud, trying to recreate the Clyde accent of 2090! (which fails miserably, since I'm from Hants  )


----------



## maya (Sep 6, 2005)

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami,
Dissolving Modernity by some pompous professor,
and 
The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood


----------



## Here we go (Sep 6, 2005)

parallelepipete said:
			
		

> 'But n Ben A-Go-Go' by Matthew Fitt
> 
> Post-global warming sci-fi written in Scots! (Found it in the local library by accident) I've caught myself reading it aloud, trying to recreate the Clyde accent of 2090! (which fails miserably, since I'm from Hants  )



Any good? i was looking at that the other day, but it was £10.99!


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 6, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami,


Yay. _Excellent_ choice, madam.





> The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood


I went to borrow this off a friend the other day and he'd bloody sold it.  Selling books is evil.


----------



## tastebud (Sep 6, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> so i'm reading Houllebecq's Platform to cheer myself up


cheeky monkey!


----------



## Cerberus (Sep 6, 2005)

Slick by Daniel Price

& 

The Stars tennis Balls by Stephen Fry



Both pretty decent..well keeping me amused anyway


----------



## Thunderponce (Sep 6, 2005)

Reading "Goats" by Mark Poirer -he is the best author you've never heard of.


----------



## Badgers (Sep 7, 2005)

Just starting 'The Curious Incedent of the Dog in the Night Time' by Mark Haddon


----------



## foo (Sep 7, 2005)

Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe 

i've been meaning to read this for ages...it's a bit of an epic! someone said it was made into a film - anyone know who's in it or if it was any good?


----------



## kyser_soze (Sep 7, 2005)

foo said:
			
		

> Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe
> 
> i've been meaning to read this for ages...it's a bit of an epic! someone said it was made into a film - anyone know who's in it or if it was any good?



The film comes under the heading of 'guilty pleasure' to watch - it's by Brian de Palma and stars Bruce Willis, Tom Hanks and Melanie Griffiths as the three leads and deviates substantially from the book in a number of areas...but I quite like BdPs camera style and can ignore most of it's somewhat massive faults 

What it comes down to is 'Can you imagine Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy, Master of the Universe'?


----------



## foo (Sep 7, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> What it comes down to is 'Can you imagine Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy, Master of the Universe'?



er.......Tom Hanks as Sherman? 

good god, no!!!   



edit: for now, i'll just stick with the book i reckon.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 7, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> cheeky monkey!



i bought it.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 7, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> The film comes under the heading of 'guilty pleasure' to watch - it's by Brian de Palma and stars Bruce Willis, Tom Hanks and Melanie Griffiths as the three leads and deviates substantially from the book in a number of areas...but I quite like BdPs camera style and can ignore most of it's somewhat massive faults
> 
> What it comes down to is 'Can you imagine Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy, Master of the Universe'?



yeh, i never thought it was THAT bad 

i mean, he turned it into a 'yuppie in peril' movie, but it's not a TERRIBLE yuppie in peril movie.


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 7, 2005)

haven't seen the film but i think the book is shite..

Tom Wolfe is so clearly a polemical journalist who desperately wants to be a polemical novelist.. he's trying too hard.

and bonfire of the vanities is a pale version of the real stories you get in Liar's Poker, Barbarians at the Gate and books like that.


----------



## kyser_soze (Sep 7, 2005)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> haven't seen the film but i think the book is shite..
> 
> Tom Wolfe is so clearly a polemical journalist who desperately wants to be a polemical novelist.. he's trying too hard.
> 
> and bonfire of the vanities is a pale version of the real stories you get in Liar's Poker, Barbarians at the Gate and books like that.



Yeah but BotV is supposed to be a gonzo variation on Vanity Fair to an extent. I kinda agree with you on the journo/novelist comment (have you read 'Electric  Kool Aid Acid Test'?) but I'd not describe him as a polemicist - certainly not like Pilger for example. At least TW is readable...

FINALLY found someone else who's read loads of the WSJ journo books on 80s Wall Street - have you read Den of Thieves as well? Written by James B. Stewart too...


----------



## jodal (Sep 7, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> yeh, i never thought it was THAT bad
> 
> i mean, he turned it into a 'yuppie in peril' movie, but it's not a TERRIBLE yuppie in peril movie.


 American Psycho is a pretty damn great 'yuppie in peril' book/film imo. Didn't much like BotV (the film), but then I saw it ages ago. KEep meaning to try the book though.


----------



## Brainaddict (Sep 7, 2005)

Tom Wolfe is one of the most overrated writers ever I think. There are certain things he is competent at but nothing he is brilliant at and his conservatism casts a pall over much of his writing.


----------



## kyser_soze (Sep 7, 2005)

> and his conservatism casts a pall over much of his writing.



Did you read the piece in Guardian weekend on Wolfe and the other gonzo journalists? Hunter S Thompson (an unlikely friend of Wolfe) said pretty much the same thing - too conservative to participate in his subject matter, and too radical to be accepted by the 'establishment'

It was Wolfe's writing that really changed US journalism and ushered in the Gonza approach tho, credit to him for that.


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 7, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> FINALLY found someone else who's read loads of the WSJ journo books on 80s Wall Street - have you read Den of Thieves as well? Written by James B. Stewart too...


is that the dennis levine one? yeah.. those books are far more scarey than american psycho could ever hope to be.. (but then american psycho is basically all played for laughs, isn't it?)

Nick Leason's book is quite good too.


----------



## kyser_soze (Sep 7, 2005)

Yeah, also 'starring' Mike Milken and Ivan Boesky, he of the infamous 'Greed is OK' speech at Harvard which became 'Greed is Good' in Oli Stone's 'Wall Street'

Haven't read Leeson's book tho...might have to dig it out. I'm waiting for the first really good ones about Enron and Tyco...


----------



## Valve (Sep 7, 2005)

orwell- 'down and out in london & paris'
will self- 'Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys'
bookchin- 'Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism - An Unbridgeable Chasm'


----------



## Valve (Sep 7, 2005)

IHB said:
			
		

> Just starting 'The Curious Incedent of the Dog in the Night Time' by Mark Haddon



a fun, quick read- quite believable.


----------



## Nina (Sep 8, 2005)

Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. 

It's a strange little book. I have to be in an open-minded imaginative mood to be able to enjoy it.


----------



## Ryazan (Sep 8, 2005)

Never read it, but will think about giving it a try.


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 8, 2005)

Nina said:
			
		

> Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita.


It's WONDERFUL.

I loved it. My boss didn't get on with it at all. There's a thread about it somewhere.


----------



## maya (Sep 8, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> Yay. _Excellent_ choice, madam.I went to borrow this off a friend the other day and he'd bloody sold it.  Selling books is evil.


Yeah...  
Like many of Atwood's books, in the start it seems a bit slow and same-y,
but once you "get" your head round the different narratives, it's un-putdownable...  
And she has a beautiful way with language...
Why _she_ didn't get the Nobel Price last year and a horrible austrian thrash-chicklit author did instead, i'll _never _be able to understand


----------



## anfield (Sep 8, 2005)

Nina said:
			
		

> Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita.



I read _The Heart of a Dog_ by Bulgakov. Mad little book.


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 8, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> Yeah...
> Like many of Atwood's books, in the start it seems a bit slow and same-y,
> but once you "get" your head round the different narratives, it's un-putdownable...
> And she has a beautiful way with language...
> Why _she_ didn't get the Nobel Price last year and a horrible austrian thrash-chicklit author did instead, i'll _never _be able to understand


Who?  

Tell you what pissed me off yesterday. I saw a new edition of Love In a Cold Climate in Books Etc.  And the bastards had designed the cover and written the blurb to make Mitford's superbly acerbic satire of the upper classes between the wars appear to be a vacuous piece of fucking chicklit. 

That is SO. WRONG. Here's potentially a thread in this -- write blurbs to your literary faves to make them sound like contemporary chick/bloke lit crap.


----------



## maes (Sep 8, 2005)

War & Peace


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 8, 2005)

maestrocloud said:
			
		

> War & Peace


Go on, write us a chicklit blurb for it.


----------



## tastebud (Sep 9, 2005)

last night / this morning i read _fup - jim dodge_. what a funny, incredible, lovely book! although when it finished i almost threw it at the wall... i had just got myself wrapped up in it & it suddenly finished!

now i am reading: _regeneration - pat barker_ borrowed from my dad / sister (?). we'll see... it was an impulsive _grab_ when i left their house t'other day.


----------



## rennie (Sep 9, 2005)

I'm reading part1 of the Cairo trilogy. excellent stuff.


----------



## parallelepipete (Sep 9, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> now i am reading: _regeneration - pat barker_ borrowed from my dad / sister (?). we'll see... it was an impulsive _grab_ when i left their house t'other day.


An awesome trilogy - make sure you borrow "The Eye in the Door" and "The Ghost Road" as well. It hardly reads like fiction at all, it's so well researched.

I'd never heard of William Rivers before reading them, but WWI should have had more people like him around.


----------



## El Sueno (Sep 9, 2005)

I finished Betty Blue, now I'm re-reading Watchmen (the graphic novel, Alan Moore) - counts as a book doesn't it? I keep hearing they're making a movie out of it but I dunno.


----------



## tastebud (Sep 9, 2005)

parallelepipete said:
			
		

> An awesome trilogy - make sure you borrow "The Eye in the Door" and "The Ghost Road" as well. It hardly reads like fiction at all, it's so well researched.
> 
> I'd never heard of William Rivers before reading them, but WWI should have had more people like him around.


brilliant! i do trust my sisters taste & this is her kind of thing... so should be a good one!
cheers! i'll get the others!


----------



## mangakitten (Sep 9, 2005)

I've just started the Bad Seed by William March which I picked up in a charity shop originally thinking it might be something to do with Nick Cave and then decided to buy anyway. It seems to be a bit like the Omen, but with a girl. It's intruiging so far.


----------



## kyser_soze (Sep 9, 2005)

El Sueno said:
			
		

> I finished Betty Blue, now I'm re-reading Watchmen (the graphic novel, Alan Moore) - *counts as a book doesn't it?* I keep hearing they're making a movie out of it but I dunno.



Only to those desparately insecure about the comic artform that they feel it needs 'recognition' as 'proper' literature...


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 9, 2005)

Dave DeWitt & Paul W. Bosland, Peppers of the World: An Identification Guide (Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 1996)


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 9, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> Dave DeWitt & Paul W. Bosland, Peppers of the World: An Identification Guide (Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 1996)


----------



## El Sueno (Sep 10, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> Only to those desparately insecure about the comic artform that they feel it needs 'recognition' as 'proper' literature...



Well I'm not bothered so long as there's pretty pictures.


----------



## stereotypical (Sep 10, 2005)

Im reading Fitzgeralds 'The Great Gatsby' at the mo.  Its pretty good, his writing style is brilliant (a hell of a lot better than the last book I read, The Da Vinci Code   )


----------



## spartacus mills (Sep 10, 2005)

Just starting 'London Orbital'. I seem to be reading loads of Iain Sinclair stuff lately.


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 10, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> and i *hated* that.
> didn't even finish it...


Me too.
Re Roth: I've never read ANY of his books, Updike and Bellow neither - never been attracted to their books - they seem to be, er, too _American_ for my tastes - this may be a misconception, but I never think I'll be interested in the neuroses of white middle-class American academics.


----------



## marty21 (Sep 10, 2005)

len deighton - berlin : game


----------



## oi2002 (Sep 10, 2005)

Zia Sadar: Desparately Seeking Paradise - Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim

Excellent autobigraphical book. Very informative on the difficulties of being a progressive Muslim and rather funny.


----------



## Echo Beach (Sep 10, 2005)

I've just finished Richard Morgan's ultra ultra violent 'Woken Furies'. Quite fun if you treat the book as the lit equivaent of a B movie.

Now I'm plugged into David Mitchell's 'The Cloud Atlas', and 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'. This is my first Conan-Doyle and I was not expecting Holmes to be such an arrogant arse, much less the opening phronology gags!


----------



## tastebud (Sep 10, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Me too.


dreadful, dreadful style.
my _then_ boyfriend told me i would hate it, and by christ he was right.
he said to read other books by him but i haven't bothered.
->you should definitely read portnoys complaint though. it is fantastic and flipping hilarious! great first thing in the morning on a depressing tube journey!


----------



## liberty (Sep 10, 2005)

The camel in the courtyard


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 10, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> dreadful, dreadful style.
> my _then_ boyfriend told me i would hate it, and by christ he was right.
> he said to read other books by him but i haven't bothered.
> ->you should definitely read portnoys complaint though. it is fantastic and flipping hilarious! great first thing in the morning on a depressing tube journey!


I like his other books, it's just Money I hate. So he was right again!


----------



## Iam (Sep 10, 2005)

I'm just getting to the end of Robin Hobb's _Fool's Fate_.

Also, I've just been getting started on _Can't Stop, Won't Stop - A History of the Hip Hop Generation_ by Jeff Chang, which is really good.


----------



## MightyAphrodite (Sep 10, 2005)

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction

(again) ....the man slays me...i cant help it .....


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 10, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> last night / this morning i read _fup - jim dodge_. what a funny, incredible, lovely book! although when it finished i almost threw it at the wall... i had just got myself wrapped up in it & it suddenly finished!


yup..   it is frustrating that so far jim dodge has only written 2 and bit novels and one vol of poems 

_fup_ is fucking good..
_stone junction _is good for stoners but nonetheless rocks

and _not fade away_ will never fade away




			
				The Big Bopper said:
			
		

> Hello, baaaaby!
> Yeah, this is the Big Bopper speakin'
> Ha ha ha ha ha! Oh, you sweet thing!
> Do I what? Will I what?
> ...


----------



## tastebud (Sep 11, 2005)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> Originally Posted by The Big Bopper
> Hello, baaaaby!
> Yeah, this is the Big Bopper speakin'
> Ha ha ha ha ha! Oh, you sweet thing!
> ...


i like it!


----------



## lucky_7 (Sep 11, 2005)

I just finished Henry Millers Tropic of Cancer & was fascinated by it. I wish I'd read it when I was 16 or something - its opens up new understanding and is a involving read.

About to start Tender is the Night by Fitzgerald.


----------



## walktome (Sep 11, 2005)

My dad brought home a biography on Janis Joplin today, Scars of Sweet Paradise, and I'm excited to read it. Tomorrow I start commuting to university so this book came just in time. Plus, I love biographies to death, I find them so interesting most of the time.


----------



## oneflewover (Sep 12, 2005)

Just flying through Wilt In Nowhere - Tom Sharpe

Bit formulairic (sp?) but still fun


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 12, 2005)

I'm reading Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which I bought for the ridiculous price of £3.76 in Tescos. 

Neil Gaiman has hailed it as the greatest novel about magic for 70 years. I don't know about that* but I am thoroughly enjoying it and will be doing so for some time as it is over 1000 pages long! After a weekend spent mostly reading (again) I'm halfway through.  

If you like Neil Gaiman, you are pretty much guaranteed to like this.

*I'm sure Mr Model will have something to say on the subject.


----------



## dynamicbaddog (Sep 12, 2005)

Just getting stuck into John Irving's melancholic 700+ page 'Until I Find You'  .I'll tell you what I think of it when I've finished it, (around Christmas time I expect  )


----------



## maya (Sep 12, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> I'm reading Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell,


- wha...i've just started reading that, last week!  
IS, you must be my telepathic/british literary twin!   

and i read mitford last summer! (  )
- ooh, spooky!


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 12, 2005)

Hello Queen maya!


----------



## golightly (Sep 12, 2005)

'How to become a virgin' by Quentin Crisp.  Curiously a couple of people remarked on it when I was reading at work during my lunch break.  Who knows, maybe they think I'm gay now.


----------



## maya (Sep 12, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Hello Queen maya!


hello my glorious king! 


(-what's the mood in fair london today?
we're a bit freezing, a bit drunk, but okay- *hic*   )


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 13, 2005)

I still be drunk from last night - I have lovely bloodshot eyes - I went to some cricket freebies last night and got destroyed - woke up in a strange bed


----------



## maya (Sep 13, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I still be drunk from last night - I have lovely bloodshot eyes - I went to some cricket freebies last night and got destroyed - woke up in a strange bed


nice   

- well, WE got rid of our despickable prime minister!- yay!  
*hic*


----------



## tastebud (Sep 13, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> woke up in a strange bed


tell us more...


----------



## rennie (Sep 13, 2005)

Brick lane... a suprisingly good read.


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 13, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> tell us more...


There's nothing juicy about it, I'm afraid


----------



## tastebud (Sep 13, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> There's nothing juicy about it, I'm afraid


right you are...


----------



## Boogie Boy (Sep 13, 2005)

Having a wee break from the 'Arabian Nights', thought I would give 'Satanic Verses' another read. So far so good, much better as a second read.

BB


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 13, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> right you are...



Is that  because I didn't pull, or because you're not getting any juicy goss?


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 13, 2005)

1974 - David Peace 
Salt - A World History - Mark Kurlansky 
The Iron Dream - Adolf Hitler AKA Norman Spinrad


----------



## Virtual Blue (Sep 13, 2005)

Seven Tales of Sex and Death - Patricia Duncker.

Best book I read this year.


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 13, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> I'm reading Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which I bought for the ridiculous price of £3.76 in Tescos.
> 
> Neil Gaiman has hailed it as the greatest novel about magic for 70 years.


that's quite a recommendation..

i own a copy but i am not too sure who has it at the moment


----------



## Brainaddict (Sep 13, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> I'm reading Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which I bought for the ridiculous price of £3.76 in Tescos.
> 
> Neil Gaiman has hailed it as the greatest novel about magic for 70 years. I don't know about that* but I am thoroughly enjoying it and will be doing so for some time as it is over 1000 pages long! After a weekend spent mostly reading (again) I'm halfway through.
> 
> ...


I just finished this. It's an interesting book but I'm not quite sure what to think of it (very rare for me   ). It's *way* too long, over-researched and under-edited in one sense, but it does have that quality of good fantasy books that it can immerse you in an alternative world.

Did anyone else think that she *must* be familiar with hallucinogens to create her interestingly strange version of magic? Some of the magic scenes actually reminded me of trips I have had...


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 13, 2005)

Brainaddict said:
			
		

> I just finished this. It's an interesting book but I'm not quite sure what to think of it (very rare for me   ). It's *way* too long, over-researched and under-edited in one sense.


I agree. It's all very well but there's just so MUCH of it.

Maybe in this world of Harry Potter, publishers think people want 'value for money' in the form of books as thick as a breezeblock.  But Lord of the Rings it ain't. I can't help thinking some judicious pruning would not have gone amiss  (and I am still only half way through). She could have worked some of the ideas in the copious footnotes into something else, perhaps short fiction. It gets a bit tiring reading all that script in minuscule type. 

More to the point, I am nervous of reading it in bed in case I fall asleep and drop it on my nose.

I am also not entirely sure about the Pickmanesque spelling of words such as 'shew',  'chuse' and 'scissars'.


----------



## jms (Sep 13, 2005)

To Kill A Mockingbird (for school)

Bill Bryson - Down Under (for myself)
TKV


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 13, 2005)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> that's quite a recommendation..
> 
> i own a copy but i am not too sure who has it at the moment


it's not with me.


----------



## dormouse (Sep 13, 2005)

reNnIe said:
			
		

> Brick lane... a suprisingly good read.


I thought that too... unlike White Teeth which I'd always somehow equated it with and didn't particularly like.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 13, 2005)

Pie Eye has been recommending the Jonathan Strange book so i might give it a shot. i'm just coming to the end of Houllebecq's Platform which is entertainingly 'wrong'.


----------



## bluestreak (Sep 13, 2005)

i've been reading mr norrell and jonathon strange for a few days now and i'm finiding absolutely enchanting.  exactly the sort of book that i wish i had written.


----------



## rennie (Sep 13, 2005)

dormouse said:
			
		

> I thought that too... unlike White Teeth which I'd always somehow equated it with and didn't particularly like.



Haven't read it and don't intend to either.


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 13, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Pie Eye has been recommending the Jonathan Strange book so i might give it a shot.'.


so that's where it is


----------



## colbhoy (Sep 13, 2005)

I'm reading L.A Requiem by Robert Crais. Picked it up in a book sale at work. It is excellent, I have read one of James L Burke books, the highly rated crime writer and think Crais is better.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 13, 2005)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> so that's where it is




i don't think she has it, which is why i was planning to buy it.


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 13, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> i don't think she has it, which is why i was planning to buy it.


you can borrow mine if we can find it.. i think it was last seen in the grubby hands of that filter child


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 13, 2005)

I am currently reading Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan.. yet more brain melting hyperphysics and Strong A.I.  

not the most gripping but again dazzlingly inventive..


----------



## killer b (Sep 13, 2005)

matthew sweet's 'imagining the victorians' - a pretty entertaining debunking of loads of myths about our 19th century predecesors, with loads of rauckus(sp?) tales.


----------



## tastebud (Sep 13, 2005)

still reading _regeneration_ but have also started _oryx and crake_ by margaret atwood.


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 13, 2005)

Both are fantastic - good choices!


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 13, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Both are fantastic - good choices!




btw, how come you weren't on University Challenge last night?


----------



## tastebud (Sep 13, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Both are fantastic - good choices!


ace! 
and earlier on the thread someone recommended the other pat barker books, which i would imagine my dad/sister have and am really looking forward to. so far, so good.


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 13, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> btw, how come you weren't on University Challenge last night?



You've lost me there


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 13, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> ace!
> and earlier on the thread someone recommended the other pat barker books, which i would imagine my dad/sister have and am really looking forward to. so far, so good.



The others are great too and not just the WW1 novels - she's one of my favourite writers - few novelists have her humanity and can show how people can do such evil, yet remain so uncynical about humanity.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 13, 2005)




----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 13, 2005)

Ah! Did we win the final then?


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 13, 2005)

nope, because all the questions were about Detroit techno and Jones only knew about the Sheffield stuff. you let them down!


----------



## flimsier (Sep 13, 2005)

Monday Mourning by Kathy Reichs. Same old same old.


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 13, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> nope, because all the questions were about Detroit techno and Jones only knew about the Sheffield stuff. you let them down!



Oh well - don't like those cunts anyway, esp Jenny Haddon - she got the hump with me cos I kept pointing out her appalling spelling in her newsletters


----------



## Echo Beach (Sep 13, 2005)

Finished Cloud Atlas, yay! Great book and I highly recommend it 

Now I'm going through HG Well's 'The War in the Air', and it's quite fun though not the same as his classics.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 14, 2005)

finished Platform. what a cheery little number that was..



> "For the West, i don't feel hatred; at most i feel a great contempt. I know that every single one of us reeks of selfishness, masochism and death. We have created a system in which it has simply become impossible to live; and what's more, we continue to export it."



cheer up - it might never happen


----------



## tangerinedream (Sep 14, 2005)

Mac fucking beth. 

It's doing my head in, I hate reading Shakespeare, the only way I can understand it is to actually produce it or watch a good production of it. I don't have time to think about how i'd produce it and it's making me cross I keep getting confused. The book I have explains perfectly obvious terms and not stupid elizebethan words. I'm only up to act 1 sc3 as well.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 14, 2005)

yay! i've just found a Toby Litt book - Corpsing - that i forgot i had and haven't read. just right for washing away the Houllebecq.


----------



## mangakitten (Sep 14, 2005)

I finished The Bad Seed, and it was brilliant. Very dark ending. I've now started Archer's Goon by Diana Wynne Jones, which my fella has been trying to make me read for years, and which I have to concede is very good so far. I hate it when that happens.


----------



## Piero (Sep 15, 2005)

Just finished Kadare's Broken April, Primo!!!


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 15, 2005)

Started and enjoying 'Not Fade Away' by Jim Dodge


----------



## Wide Eyed Angel (Sep 15, 2005)

out by natsuo kirino.  thoroughly enjoyable darkish tale of a bunch of japanese women that help out a woman that's just murdered her husband


----------



## Brainaddict (Sep 15, 2005)

okay, I've got to get hold of platform now. I loved atomised and that quote rocks.


----------



## Brainaddict (Sep 15, 2005)

I'm reading 'My name is red', by Orhan Pamuk - seems good so far.


----------



## fractionMan (Sep 15, 2005)

Angels and Insects.  By some bloke or other.  Not bad so far.

*more insightful books reviews later*


----------



## chico enrico (Sep 15, 2005)

Bizarre Dwarves  :d


----------



## scanner (Sep 16, 2005)

Just finished "Public Enemies" by Bryan Burrough. 1930s America, excellent.
Now on "The Girl With The Long Back" by Bill James.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 16, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> yay! i've just found a Toby Litt book - Corpsing - that i forgot i had and haven't read.



... and it's great. I love Litt's books, and he's put an excellent spin on the thriller format in this one


----------



## flimsier (Sep 16, 2005)

The Myths of Zionism by John Rose.


----------



## bluestreak (Sep 16, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> ... and it's great. I love Litt's books, and he's put an excellent spin on the thriller format in this one



i read that a few years back and can remember being quite impressed.


----------



## jnaylor (Sep 16, 2005)

I picked up Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell for 1/2 price at Waterstones - what a bargain at £4... however, it's a pretty daunting so I haven't managed to peel of the plastic bag and open the cover yet.


----------



## tastebud (Sep 16, 2005)

Brainaddict said:
			
		

> okay, I've got to get hold of platform now. I loved atomised and that quote rocks.


platform is great! i didn't enjoy atomised as much though. still good, but platform is well, _...gosh!!_  
i am thoroughly enjoying _oryx and crake_.


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 16, 2005)

jnaylor said:
			
		

> I picked up Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell for 1/2 price at Waterstones - what a bargain at £4... however, it's a pretty daunting so I haven't managed to peel of the plastic bag and open the cover yet.


 Just don't drop it on your foot. Mine was 24p cheaper than yours.


----------



## bluestreak (Sep 16, 2005)

jnaylor said:
			
		

> I picked up Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell for 1/2 price at Waterstones - what a bargain at £4... however, it's a pretty daunting so I haven't managed to peel of the plastic bag and open the cover yet.



it's worth it - i'm now half way through and thoroughly happy.


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 16, 2005)

Honore de Balzac, The History of the Thirteen (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975)


----------



## Stobart Stopper (Sep 16, 2005)

This one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...881994/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/202-5088701-3108644

bought it for my son for hi sbirthday but I am reading it myself.


----------



## DrRingDing (Sep 16, 2005)

A History of Nepal - John Whelpton.


----------



## Ryazan (Sep 17, 2005)

About to read The Russian Civil War by Evan Mawdsley.


----------



## hamfest (Sep 18, 2005)

Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks


----------



## fractionMan (Sep 19, 2005)

Quicksilver by Neal stephenson.


----------



## Brainaddict (Sep 19, 2005)

hamfest said:
			
		

> Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks


 hmm, read that a few months ago. all very worthy, but the romantic stuff seemed cliched and overall it didn't inspire me to read more of his stuff.


----------



## Wide Eyed Angel (Sep 19, 2005)

'the wasp factory' by iain banks, first time for a long time, certainly that i can remember that i'm re-reading a book


----------



## belboid (Sep 19, 2005)

hamfest said:
			
		

> Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks


shit, evil, load of old wank.  Throw it away now and save yourself some time that you will never get back otherwise.

I didn't like it, by the way


----------



## Major Tom (Sep 19, 2005)

The House of Dr Dee by Peter Ackroyd - its about the third or fourth novel I've read by Ackroyd. Seems like the usual sort of thing so far. Not bad.


----------



## Brainaddict (Sep 19, 2005)

belboid said:
			
		

> shit, evil, load of old wank.  Throw it away now and save yourself some time that you will never get back otherwise.
> 
> I didn't like it, by the way


 I can understand why you'd think it shit, but why evil?


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 19, 2005)

It is one of my most (in fact very few) strictly kept rules that I will not give Sebastian Faulkes books houseroom on principle. Ugh! I LOATHE Sebastian Faulkes. He is the Sting of middlebrow-lit.


----------



## tangerinedream (Sep 19, 2005)

Tom Stoppard - The real thing (a play)

It's about some hateful people, but it's clever enough not to be hateful. Quite enjoying it. First thing I've read of his since Rozencrantz and Guidenstein are dead.


----------



## belboid (Sep 19, 2005)

Brainaddict said:
			
		

> I can understand why you'd think it shit, but why evil?


because I am led to believe that Mr Faulks is in league with the devil.  The pseudo-parallel with the miners strike really got on my tits.


----------



## MightyAphrodite (Sep 19, 2005)

*The Notebook* _(again!!!)_

*From Publishers Weekly
In 1932, two North Carolina teenagers from opposite sides of the tracks fall in love. Spending one idyllic summer together in the small town of New Bern, Noah Calhoun and Allie Nelson do not meet again for 14 years. Noah has returned from WWII to restore the house of his dreams, having inherited a large sum of money. Allie, programmed by family and the "caste system of the South" to marry an ambitious, prosperous man, has become engaged to powerful attorney Lon Hammond. When she reads a newspaper story about Noah's restoration project, she shows up on his porch step, re-entering his life for two days. Will Allie leave Lon for Noah? The book's slim dimensions and cliche-ridden prose will make comparisons to The Bridges of Madison County inevitable. What renders Sparks's (Wokini: A Lakota Journey of Happiness and Self-Understanding) sentimental story somewhat distinctive are two chapters, which take place in a nursing home in the '90s, that frame the central story. The first sets the stage for the reading of the eponymous notebook, while the later one takes the characters into the land beyond happily ever after, a future rarely examined in books of this nature. Early on, Noah claims that theirs may be either a tragedy or a love story, depending on the perspective. Ultimately, the judgment is up to readers?be they cynics or romantics. For the latter, this will be a weeper.*



im a weeper .....great   

the film is sadder than the book....i would read the book in a day then watch the film that night but im scared i may damage my ducts!!!!


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 20, 2005)

MightyAphrodite said:
			
		

> *The Notebook* _(again!!!)_
> 
> *From Publishers Weekly
> In 1932, two North Carolina teenagers from opposite sides of the tracks fall in love. Spending one idyllic summer together in the small town of New Bern, Noah Calhoun and Allie Nelson do not meet again for 14 years. Noah has returned from WWII to restore the house of his dreams, having inherited a large sum of money. Allie, programmed by family and the "caste system of the South" to marry an ambitious, prosperous man, has become engaged to powerful attorney Lon Hammond. When she reads a newspaper story about Noah's restoration project, she shows up on his porch step, re-entering his life for two days. Will Allie leave Lon for Noah? The book's slim dimensions and cliche-ridden prose will make comparisons to The Bridges of Madison County inevitable. What renders Sparks's (Wokini: A Lakota Journey of Happiness and Self-Understanding) sentimental story somewhat distinctive are two chapters, which take place in a nursing home in the '90s, that frame the central story. The first sets the stage for the reading of the eponymous notebook, while the later one takes the characters into the land beyond happily ever after, a future rarely examined in books of this nature. Early on, Noah claims that theirs may be either a tragedy or a love story, depending on the perspective. Ultimately, the judgment is up to readers?be they cynics or romantics. For the latter, this will be a weeper.*


 Sorry but that sounds to me like the kind of plot that writes itself - no brainwork required - with a lot of manipulative sentimentality heaped in. I can see absolutely no point in reading stuff like that. 

I wish I could bring myself to WRITE stuff like that, for then I would be a rich woman.


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 20, 2005)

re quote in IS post: i can't bring myself to read stuff like that.


----------



## maya (Sep 20, 2005)

.


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 20, 2005)

Maya, you become more cryptic daily.


----------



## rennie (Sep 20, 2005)

I just started a novel written by a north african woman called Nedjma (star in Arabic) one a woman's sexual awakening.


----------



## chooch (Sep 22, 2005)

_54_ Wu Ming. 
Bit of a clunky translation so not a patch on _Q_ so far.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 22, 2005)

finished (breathlessly) Toby Litt's excellent Corpsing (with one of the most utterly unsettling sex scenes ever  <shudder> ) and now i'm throwing myself excitedly into Not Fade Away by Jim Dodge cos it was a birthday present (and everybody else seems to be reading it too  )...

also dipping into a collection of Charlie Brooker's Screen Burn columns, which is cracking


----------



## onemonkey (Sep 22, 2005)

satan wants me - Robert Irwin 

fictional diary of would be hippy black magician in london in the summer '67  - it is not much of a page turner but i am loving the intelligence, the style and often extremely understated humour.


----------



## walktome (Sep 22, 2005)

Visions of Gerard by Jack Kerouac, then I have Screwjack by Hunter S. Thompson, I wouldn't be surprised if I finished both today, they're both pretty short.


----------



## tangerinedream (Sep 22, 2005)

tangerinedream said:
			
		

> Tom Stoppard - The real thing (a play)
> 
> It's about some hateful people, but it's clever enough not to be hateful. Quite enjoying it. First thing I've read of his since Rozencrantz and Guidenstein are dead.



finished this and was a bit disapointed, it didn't really seem to go anywhere - some great bits of dialogue though. I think i could read it again though. I suspect it might be better read, than actually produced, good be a stunning radio play with the right director and cast.


----------



## cyberfairy (Sep 22, 2005)

tangerinedream said:
			
		

> finished this and was a bit disapointed, it didn't really seem to go anywhere - some great bits of dialogue though. I think i could read it again though. I suspect it might be better read, than actually produced, good be a stunning radio play with the right director and cast.


the famous gardener in  stoppard's 'arcadia' whch i realy wasn't fond of after reading it for my english degree, constable brown (no, that's wrong, sounds like a detective daytime series on living tv) designed the gardens for my old uni, bath spa...very lovely gardens


----------



## MightyAphrodite (Sep 22, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> Sorry but that sounds to me like the kind of plot that writes itself - no brainwork required - with a lot of manipulative sentimentality heaped in. I can see absolutely no point in reading stuff like that.
> 
> I wish I could bring myself to WRITE stuff like that, for then I would be a rich woman.



i cant help it....im soppy  ....


and not completely cynical yet....maybe when im more of a cynic i'll read war and peace everyday!!


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 22, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> and now i'm throwing myself excitedly into Not Fade Away by Jim Dodge cos it was a birthday present (and everybody else seems to be reading it too  )...



Finished it last night. I liked it very much on the whole, and the San Fran bits best of all I think. It cruises in places, but the writing's stays sharp most of the time. Great dialogue.

Everyone does seem to be reading it at the moment. Is there a film coming out? 

Now I'm onto Last Exit To Brooklyn, one of those I never got round to when everyone else did.


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 23, 2005)

Bob Darke, The Communist Technique in Britain (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1952)


----------



## Balbi (Sep 23, 2005)

Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, _Good Omens_


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 23, 2005)

TheLostProphet said:
			
		

> Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, _Good Omens_


 Good book.


----------



## Ryazan (Sep 24, 2005)

The Women's Liberation Movement in Russia- Feminsm, Nihilism & Bolshevism  1860 - 1930 

Richard Stites.


----------



## ovaltina (Sep 24, 2005)

trolleybuses in north west london by the london trolleybus preservation society. not so much reading it as looking at my bookshelf and wondering what it's doing there.


----------



## Echo Beach (Sep 24, 2005)

Edward Abbey's 'The Monkey Wrench Gang' and now I'm reading 'Methods in Social Movement Research'. Nice combination


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 25, 2005)

Donald Rayfield, Stalin and His Hangmen: An authoritative portrait of a tyrant and those who served him (London: Penguin, 2005)


----------



## rubbershoes (Sep 25, 2005)

Cries Unheard - Gita Sereny


----------



## Iam (Sep 25, 2005)

Duncton Wood by William Horwood.

Lent to me by my housemate as I'd run out of "non-serious" things to read. About moles. I wasn't expecting much, but it's actually quite diverting and enjoyable. There are five more books, too.


----------



## chegrimandi (Sep 26, 2005)

just started the walter mosley Omnibus - Walter Mosley....

seems good so far....


----------



## foo (Sep 26, 2005)

Toast - Nigel Slater

a lovely book.


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 26, 2005)

Aleister Crowley, The Holy Books of Thelema (York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, 1988)


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 26, 2005)

rubbershoes said:
			
		

> Cries Unheard - Gita Sereny



Fantastic book - required reading for tabloid editors


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 26, 2005)

foo said:
			
		

> Toast - Nigel Slater
> 
> a lovely book.


It made my eyes wet


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 27, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> It made my eyes wet


yr not meant to take the book orally, or things like that will happen.


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 27, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> It made my eyes wet


You're some sort of cookery book _pervert_, aren't you, utan?


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 27, 2005)

It's not a cookery book - not even Nigel could make a whole recipe book about toast 
His description of his mum's death made me have a bit of grit in my eyes.
You got the pervert bit right though


----------



## Mooms (Sep 27, 2005)

Emily Maguire    Taming the beast


----------



## Sunray (Sep 28, 2005)

I am voicing a dissatisfaction with this thread.  Its a random list of book titles.

I like the DVD thread because people express an _opinion_ in that as they have _finished_ watching the DVD

Shall we have a 'What book have you just finished' thread?


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 28, 2005)

Sunray said:
			
		

> I am voicing a dissatisfaction with this thread.  Its a random list of book titles.



that's not really true, though. lots of people on this thread offer their thoughts, enthusiasms and recommendations as they go along. others list the title. exactly like the DVD thread.


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 28, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> yr not meant to take the book orally, or things like that will happen.


I don't think he did take it _orally_ -- that's why it made his eyes water.  

I don't think people should feel obliged to post a critique, synopsis or anything else of what they are reading. I am interested in what people are reading even if they only put the title/author. Sometimes people are a bit shy to offer up their opinions, especially as newcomers to the thread or the site.  Then someone else who has read the book might come along and start up a conversation about it. I think that's good. Unless it's about one of those midlife crisis blerk bozos.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 28, 2005)

Finished Last Exit To Brooklyn. Liked it.

Reading Invisible Man (Ellison). Liking it.


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 28, 2005)

PS I am reading the new Terry Pratchett and I DON'T CARE!!! Laugh if you want.


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 28, 2005)




----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 28, 2005)

Gustave Flaubert, Salammbo (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977)

Dorothy Macardle, The Irish Republic: A Documented Chronicle of the Anglo-Irish Conflict and the Partitioning of Ireland, with a Detailed Account of the Period 1916 - 1923 with a Preface by Eamon de Valera (London: Corgi, 1968)


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 28, 2005)

Francesco Maria Guazzo, Compendium Maleficarum (New York: Dover, 1998)


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 28, 2005)

Are you reading all these cover to cover, Pickman's?


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 28, 2005)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Are you reading all these cover to cover, Pickman's?


 No, he just reads the titles. 

In the bookshop.

That's how he can afford so many books.


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 28, 2005)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Are you reading all these cover to cover, Pickman's?


yes.


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 28, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> No, he just reads the titles.
> 
> In the bookshop.
> 
> That's how he can afford so many books.


----------



## DrRingDing (Sep 28, 2005)




----------



## DrRingDing (Sep 28, 2005)

^^^^nice scarf


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 28, 2005)

Nepal's Moist Rebellion??


----------



## mrkikiet (Sep 28, 2005)

kerouac - on the road


----------



## Ryazan (Sep 28, 2005)

DoUsAFavour said:
			
		

>


----------



## Sunray (Sep 29, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> that's not really true, though. lots of people on this thread offer their thoughts, enthusiasms and recommendations as they go along. others list the title. exactly like the DVD thread.



No, the DVD thread they have completed the watching the DVD and most people give their opinion.  Then other people give their opinions if they agree/disagree, (gran starting to suck eggs now?).  Getting it all piece meal isn't very good from a discussion perspective.  There have been many times I've read a decent book and thought I'd post a little review on here and after reading the all these book titles, I've not bothered.  Don't think a book is ever worth a new thread.

Having waded through the last 10 pages of this thread, the most comment that a book gets, past its title, is a single word?  Great, brilliant, good etc.  Slightly ironic don't you think?


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 29, 2005)

this is from the previous page:




			
				Dubversion said:
			
		

> finished (breathlessly) Toby Litt's excellent Corpsing (with one of the most utterly unsettling sex scenes ever  <shudder> ) and now i'm throwing myself excitedly into Not Fade Away by Jim Dodge cos it was a birthday present (and everybody else seems to be reading it too  )...
> 
> also dipping into a collection of Charlie Brooker's Screen Burn columns, which is cracking



so, not a 'one word' comment, and not 10 pages ago  


edit: actually  i only quoted mine because i knew it was there, but one the last page there are at least 10 more expansive comments on the books than just the one word you claim.


----------



## Stanley Edwards (Sep 29, 2005)

Spanish Steps - Travels With My Donkey. Tim Moore.

Possibly the uncoolest title here but, bloody funny. Original, highly witty account of one man and his donkey's Santiago pilgrimage. Surprisingly touching. Bit more than just a travel book. Highly recommended.

Also, just read Gazza - My Story. Possibly the second uncoolest title on this thread. Surprisingly interesting and very honest. To honest perhaps?

With Nails - Richard E Grant autobiography. Possibly unfashionable enough to be uncool but, very funny. 

I'm devouring books at a rate of three a week at the moment. No TV or, Internet at home. No TV for 9 months! It is very good for you. Until you run out of books and start trying to write. That's very bad.


----------



## fanta (Sep 29, 2005)

This one:

The Likes of Us - A Biography of the White Working Class


----------



## Divisive Cotton (Sep 29, 2005)

DoUsAFavour said:
			
		

>



I've got a copy of this - boringly academic...


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 29, 2005)

Stanley Edwards said:
			
		

> Spanish Steps - Travels With My Donkey. Tim Moore.
> 
> Possibly the uncoolest title here but, bloody funny. Original, highly witty account of one man and his donkey's Santiago pilgrimage. Surprisingly touching. Bit more than just a travel book. Highly recommended.


He is absolutely brilliant. I have read all his books. I highly recommend French Revolutions and Frost on my Moustache, but they are all very, very funny.





> With Nails - Richard E Grant autobiography. Possibly unfashionable enough to be uncool but, very funny.


 Gah. REG makes my toes curl. I was praying fervently that he would get eaten on Celebrity Shark Bait, but alas. If he had gone "WOW!" once more I would have taken a crowbar to the telly.


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 29, 2005)

further to the books i'm reading, enumerated in earlier posts, i have today finished

John Stevens, Not for the Faint-Hearted: My Life Fighting Crime (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005)


----------



## chooch (Sep 29, 2005)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Reading Invisible Man (Ellison). Liking it.


I liked it. Just found it in a box of old stuff as it happens.


----------



## Ryazan (Sep 30, 2005)

DoUsAFavour said:
			
		

>



Incidentally may I recommend Madame Mao- The White-Boned Demon by Ross Terrill?

A decent biography of Mao's bit of fluff (after his 2nd wife) Jiang Quing- showing her transformation from a crap actress, to a vindictive, spiteful, bullying, power-crazed, and ultimately suicidal, bitch.  With bits of her part in the Cultural Revolution thrown in to illustrate the fact that she was one nasty piece of work.


----------



## Pickman's model (Sep 30, 2005)

Professor T K Oesterreich, Possession, Demoniacal and Other Among Primitive Races : In Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern Times (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1930)


----------



## Col_Buendia (Sep 30, 2005)

John Fowles, The Collector.

Much more twisted than I expected, and I couldn't put it down, despite it being such a shudder-inducing story.


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 30, 2005)

Col_Buendia said:
			
		

> John Fowles, The Collector.
> 
> Much more twisted than I expected, and I couldn't put it down, despite it being such a shudder-inducing story.


I have not read it yet but I have heard it is pretty disturbing. Presumably you have read The Magus?

What about Mantissa (which I must admit I hurled aside with great force)?


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 30, 2005)

Ryazan said:
			
		

> Incidentally may I recommend Madame Mao- The White-Boned Demon by Ross Terrill?
> 
> A decent biography of Mao's bit of fluff (after his 2nd wife) Jiang Quing- showing her transformation from a crap actress, to a vindictive, spiteful, bullying, power-crazed, and ultimately suicidal, bitch.  With bits of her part in the Cultural Revolution thrown in to illustrate the fact that she was one nasty piece of work.


Funny how women are so often singled out for a particularly vicious kind of vilification in situations like these. No doubt she put Mao up to the whole thing.  There's almost invariably a woman to blame in there somewhere. 

Coming soon:  _Mrs Stalin -- It Was All Her Fault. The Bitch_. 

Bit of fluff, eh?  



> vindictive, spiteful, bullying, power-crazed, and ultimately suicidal, bitch


 And how would you describe her male comrades?

Can't help wondering if the misogynistic vitriol is really the book's or yours.


----------



## Ryazan (Sep 30, 2005)

Shut up.  I haven't singled her out because she was a woman, but she was one nasty piece of work.  She does have significance, and rather ignoring women, as they usually are, subsumed into the lives of their male contemporaries, she need s amention.  She wasn't merely part of Mao The Events, but made quite a few bad judgements herself.  Her part in the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" was frankly awful.

And how have I said it was all her fault?  Stop taing a giant leap forward in assuming my attitude towards women, and perhaps make yourself aware of such as what had happeened in China.

Well, Nadezhada Alliluyeva can't have been completely ignorant of the Ukraine famine, so perhaps she could be frowned upon for that, and she was a bit of a snitch apparently while a student in Moscow, but she did shoot herself I guess, in part, through despair at having such a brute of a husband.


----------



## Bob_the_lost (Sep 30, 2005)

Just gone through "Pandora's Star" again, in preperation for the squel that should come out soon.

Think i'll go back and finish war and peace in the mean time.


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 30, 2005)

Ryazan said:
			
		

> Shut up.


 _You _ shut up, you woman-hating dickwad.

God I pity you. What a way to live.


----------



## Ryazan (Sep 30, 2005)

How can disliking one particular women make me a hater of all women?


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 30, 2005)

Ryazan said:
			
		

> She wasn't merely part of Mao The Events, but made quite a few bad judgements herself.


 And that makes her a vicious, spiteful blah blah blah bitch does it? Your lack of self awareness is _pathetic_.


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 30, 2005)

Ryazan said:
			
		

> How can disliking one particular women make me a hater of all women?


 Your stinking attitude to women shines out of you _all the time _ for all to see.


----------



## Ryazan (Sep 30, 2005)

So she can be excused for her actvities, her actions leading to imprisonment and the ruination of other people, including other women?  She can be excused because she is a woman?  

Now that would be some kind of chivalrous chauvinism.   Women _aren't _ responsible adults are they.


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 30, 2005)

Ryazan said:
			
		

> So she can be excused for her actvities, her actions leading to imprisonment and the ruination of other people, including other women?  She can be excused because she is a woman?
> 
> Now that would be some kind of chivalrous chauvinism.   Women _aren't _ responsible adults are they.


An entirely irrelevant straw man. 

It was the way you were getting a stiffy out of calling her  a lot of misogynistic names that makes me sick to my stomach. 

And as I said, what about the rest of the 'gang', where is your bile for them?

I don't doubt that in truth you DON'T think women are responsible adults. You think they are _ bits of fluff,_ don't you?


----------



## Ryazan (Sep 30, 2005)

Oh for god's sake!

It was meant in good humour the fluff bit.  She was crap, or at best mediocre, but used power for ill.


----------



## Ryazan (Sep 30, 2005)

And I didn't get a single twinge from writing that post.  Stop assuming.


----------



## IntoStella (Sep 30, 2005)

Ryazan said:
			
		

> Oh for god's sake!
> 
> It was meant in good humour the fluff bit.  She was crap, or at best mediocre, but used power for ill.


 Which makes her a vicious, spiteful, etc etc bitch?


----------



## Ryazan (Sep 30, 2005)

her actions in the Cultural Revolution , in my opinion, do, yes.

Quite a sad character too.  Even more sad is his second wife searching for children in the countryside, left during the Long March.


----------



## Bob_the_lost (Sep 30, 2005)

And here was me thinking this sticky was about books


----------



## jigsaw (Oct 2, 2005)

*concrete jungle*




			
				admirablenelson said:
			
		

> The Collected Short Stories of JG Ballard
> 
> About fifty years worth of writing, mostly dystopian visions of the future, all wonderfully imagined. It's great.



'concrete jungle' sucked me in, felt like i had merged into this jg ballard story line/dream


----------



## J77 (Oct 3, 2005)

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (or is that the other way around?)


----------



## Col_Buendia (Oct 3, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> I have not read it yet but I have heard it is pretty disturbing. Presumably you have read The Magus?
> 
> What about Mantissa (which I must admit I hurled aside with great force)?



Presumed wrong, I'm afraid! Only read The French Lieutenant's Woman before. The Collector is pretty disturbing in a way that makes the unthinkable seem quite ordinary. Yet is a strangley gripping read - apols for the cliches!


----------



## jigsaw (Oct 3, 2005)

ck said:
			
		

> I'm reading "By Myself" by Lauren Bacall ; it's very good than-you very much.
> 
> What about you ?



reading the 'METRO'  
thats  a  good title! 
listening too, lardy dardy music!
i'm being stalked!/
over ground, faces appear before me.
secret eyes,,secret ways,
my, yes, are able to see thee outrider!
do it to yoursel
pain the ture, thought enough!
splay your self canvass- across, outline your frame
enjoy the situation, getin it on
up to no good, 
need to paint in the coutryside!
 skinny looking detrimentals!
 or eh/
love ya 'Barry'


avu;-)


----------



## In Bloom (Oct 4, 2005)

_The Corporation_ by Joel Bakan.  Only halfway through the first chapter so far, pretty decent so far.  Strikes me as a little inconsistant though, Bakan is extremely cynical about corporations (and rightly so), but fails to apply this cynicism equally to the state.


----------



## humble (Oct 4, 2005)

Mooncat said:
			
		

> I’m re-reading for the xth time Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by the sorely missed Douglas Adams.


is Douglas Adams a brother of my friend Gerry?


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Oct 5, 2005)

'Lunar Park' by Bret Easton Ellis. 

Fantastic so far, really developing nicely. It's a... mock autobiography with horror elements. Highlight so far is a cracking cameo by Jay McInerney. Um. More when I've finished it.


----------



## kyser_soze (Oct 5, 2005)

Is Lunar Park good?

Think I'm gonna wait for the paperback...


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Oct 5, 2005)

Excellent so far, laugh-out-loud funny in places. I love the idea of someone idly picking it up and reading it as a straight autobiography. Guest appearances so far from 'Patrick Bateman', Keanu Reeves, an evil voodoo bird and (of course) a mountain of coke and booze.


----------



## Wyn (Oct 5, 2005)

My Nine Lives - Ruth Prawer Jhanvala


----------



## Major Tom (Oct 5, 2005)

Black Vinyl White Powder by Simon Napier Bell. 

Julie Burchill gave it a rave review but I'm not so sure. It's full of mistakes - Napier-Bell obviously wasn't that interested in the music side of things. More drugs and sex - although he does admit it in the book. His morals are a bit suspect too - he was quite happy to set the Wham! in China concert up while being fully aware of the human rights abuses there - he even attended a show case trial where petty criminals were taken to a field afterwards and exectued by a bullet to the head.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 5, 2005)

Major Tom said:
			
		

> Black Vinyl White Powder by Simon Napier Bell.



Have you read 'You Don't have To Say You Love Me' by SNB? That's quite entertaining if you like reading about late nights in the Bag O'Nails with B-list 60s pop stars.


----------



## Rollem (Oct 5, 2005)

"a million little pieces" by james frey

i started reading this towards the end of my pregnancy....then baby came and interupted!!

just found the book again (having thought i through it out!!) and am thoroughly enjoying it again....


----------



## stroober (Oct 5, 2005)

The Good German by Joseph Kanon

Its a bit of a pager turner after starting slowly

sort of whodunit in Berlin 1945


----------



## Pickman's model (Oct 5, 2005)

Charles Tilly, The Politics of Collective Violence (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)


----------



## Ryazan (Oct 5, 2005)

Brother Number One- a political biography of Pol Pot by David Chandler.

Haven't read it in a while.  Someone who lived with me saw me reading it once, and as is usual with a lot of things to do with the Khmer Rouge I was assumed to be in support of them.  Even though this particular blokes ignorance would not let him see that my communist mother is no Maoist.     I had been "indoctrinated" by my mother apparently.    Of course, according to this bloke, lower class people are below any form of critical intelligence whatsoever, only indoctirnation.


----------



## Dhimmi (Oct 5, 2005)

Seven Pillars of Wisdom - T.E. Lawerence
quite heavy prose style to start but an incredible tale surprisingly relevent right now.


----------



## geminisnake (Oct 6, 2005)

A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett. I don't 'do' serious books.


----------



## herman (Oct 6, 2005)

Just about to pick up "Quite Right Mr Trotsky" by Denver Walker for another read.


----------



## spartacus mills (Oct 7, 2005)

'Last Chance to See' by Douglas Adams. He's not an author I'd usually bother with but a friend lent it me and, fwiw, I'm enjoying it.


----------



## KeyboardJockey (Oct 7, 2005)

The Jewish War - by Josephus.

Fascinating first hand account of the war between the Jews and the Romans prior to the birth of Jesus from some one who fought on both sides for reasons of personal safety


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Oct 7, 2005)

Well, finished BEE's Lunar park (and spent an interesting hour going through the various associated mock websites and biogs).

Enjoyable, although it didn't quite live up to the promise of the first few chapters. The final half was a fairly straight homage to Stephen King, which I wasn't really expecting. The writing style and subject matter was very Amis-y in places too - started off as Money, then reverted to an odd mixture of The Information and Night Train. With spooky bits.
Also couldn't help noticing how writing in the past tense for the first time changes BEE's 'voice' completely, adding a maturity that doesn't quite sit right.
So: nice idea that almost works. Good, but not great.

Next up: Roth, 'The Plot Against America'.


----------



## Echo Beach (Oct 7, 2005)

Social Movements: An Introduction by Donatella della Porta and Mario Diani _AND_ The Plot Against America by Philip Roth.


----------



## Pickman's model (Oct 8, 2005)

Philip Bobbitt, The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History (London: Penguin, 2003)


----------



## Ryazan (Oct 8, 2005)

You do some reading Pickmans.


----------



## Pickman's model (Oct 8, 2005)

yes.


----------



## Ryazan (Oct 8, 2005)

I'm sure you could conquer 15-1 if it was still on the telly.


----------



## Pickman's model (Oct 8, 2005)

probably.


----------



## rednblack (Oct 8, 2005)

Ryazan said:
			
		

> Of course, according to this bloke, lower class people are below any form of critical intelligence whatsoever, only indoctirnation.



swp member was he?


----------



## Ryazan (Oct 8, 2005)

No, an ageing gay hippy (true).  used to live with the bloke.  Complete twat.


----------



## spartacus mills (Oct 8, 2005)

"Ajax, the Dutch, the War: Football in Europe During the Second World War" by Simon Kuper


----------



## walktome (Oct 9, 2005)

No Mud On The Backseat by Gerald Clark


----------



## Ryazan (Oct 9, 2005)

Reading George Sand- A Woman's Life Writ Large by Belinda Jack.  I like women with a big set of balls.


----------



## chooch (Oct 10, 2005)

A B.S. Johnson omnibus- just starting _Albert Angelo_.


----------



## spartacus mills (Oct 10, 2005)

chooch said:
			
		

> A B.S. Johnson omnibus- just starting _Albert Angelo_.



Ah, can I have it after you?


----------



## chooch (Oct 11, 2005)

spartacus mills said:
			
		

> Ah, can I have it after you?


If you like. It'll take me a while mind.
Great so far btw.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 11, 2005)

finished the excellent Not Fade Away last night - onemonkey and pie eye were right about me loving that one.

had all sorts of big plans for my next book but a bad run at work means my brain is jelly so Tristram Shandy and the like can wait. i might just read back issues of The Wire for a bit


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 11, 2005)

chooch said:
			
		

> A B.S. Johnson omnibus- just starting _Albert Angelo_.


----------



## chooch (Oct 11, 2005)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

>


cough


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 11, 2005)

chooch said:
			
		

> cough



 Ta


----------



## pootle (Oct 11, 2005)

I've just started reading "Queen Bees and Wannabees" a pop psychology about why teenage girls are such horrors.  "Mean Girls" was based on it


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 11, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> finished the excellent Not Fade Away last night - onemonkey and pie eye were right about me loving that one.



Did you think it faded away in the last quarter of the book? I felt Dodge didn't really know where to go towards the end. Didn't spoil it though, I still liked it a lot.

Doublegone Johnson's recounting of the Job story was the one of the highlights for me


----------



## Roadkill (Oct 11, 2005)

_The World the Railways Made_, by Nicholas Faith.  Most enjoyable, exuberant whistlestop tour of the impact of railways on the world.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Oct 11, 2005)

Francis Pryor - _Britain AD_.


----------



## Shmu (Oct 11, 2005)

John Lanchester's The Debt to Pleasure.

I'm loving it.

Easy to read, but with depth and subtlety and great sense of place. And very funny.


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Oct 11, 2005)

Shmu said:
			
		

> John Lanchester's The Debt to Pleasure.
> 
> I'm loving it.
> 
> Easy to read, but with depth and subtlety and great sense of place. And very funny.



Ah, the Debt to Pale Fire...

I enjoyed it actually, a real page-turner. There aren't that many culinary why-do-its out there; it's always nice to find a good 'un! Mr. Philips was pretty decent too (Reggie Perrin meets Ulyses), and after i've finished with Roth's The Plot Against America i've got Lanchester's Fragrant Harbour waiting in the wings. Looking forward to it.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 11, 2005)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Did you think it faded away in the last quarter of the book? I felt Dodge didn't really know where to go towards the end. Didn't spoil it though, I still liked it a lot.
> 
> Doublegone Johnson's recounting of the Job story was the one of the highlights for me




i was surprised by the ending - i guess i expected something a bit more triumphant - but i think it actually fits. don't know if i think it fades at the end, i just think the psychosis gets hold.. which also fits


----------



## spartacus mills (Oct 11, 2005)

Originally Posted by spartacus mills
Ah, can I have it after you?




			
				chooch said:
			
		

> If you like. It'll take me a while mind.
> Great so far btw.



You are a lovely person.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 11, 2005)

having perused my tottering piles of as yet unread novels, i settled on Dirty Havana Trilogy by Pedro Juan Gutiérrez. partly because i've heard it's very good, partly because i'm ridiculously libidinous at the moment.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 11, 2005)

well that's what i WAS going to read next, but the last person i loaned it too totally fucked the spine up and a bunch of pages fell out while i was in the bath and got soaked.

for fuck's sake


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 12, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> well that's what i WAS going to read next, but the last person i loaned it too totally fucked the spine up and a bunch of pages fell out while i was in the bath and got soaked.
> 
> for fuck's sake



That's your story - you spunked all over the pages didn't you?


----------



## Belushi (Oct 12, 2005)

Ian Ousby 'The Road to Verdun' fascinating account of the 'Stalingrad' of WW1 and its importance to the French and German psyche.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Oct 12, 2005)

Just finished 'Muhammad' by Karen Armstrong and 'Muhammad' by Maxime Rodinson, and I know which one I prefer. The thing that strikes me is the fact of how accepting of Islamic historical orthodoxy both books are (even the Rodinson work which can certainly be regarded as critical). Has anyone else found this?

BB


----------



## Pickman's model (Oct 12, 2005)

Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep (London: Penguin, 2005)


----------



## IntoStella (Oct 12, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep (London: Penguin, 2005)


 That's a bit racey for you, isn't it??


----------



## Pickman's model (Oct 12, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> That's a bit racey for you, isn't it??


what, you're presumably thinking of the bit where carmen sternwood's found naked and drugged in the same room as a dead arthur gwynne geiger?


----------



## tastebud (Oct 12, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> well that's what i WAS going to read next, but the last person i loaned it too totally fucked the spine up and a bunch of pages fell out while i was in the bath and got soaked.
> 
> for fuck's sake


  that was me!!   
i think it happened on the beach in italy. i believe i fell asleep in it.
apologies.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 12, 2005)

hmmph


----------



## IntoStella (Oct 12, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> what, you're presumably thinking of the bit where carmen sternwood's found naked and drugged in the same room as a dead arthur gwynne geiger?


No, more that it makes a change from

An Ontological Historiography of Observance of the Dessication Process in Liquid Wall Coverings, Professor Norbert Spong, Neasden University Press, 1952.


----------



## tastebud (Oct 12, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> hmmph


soz. 
it's crap i tell you.. crap!

you'll enjoy it for a bit though.. no question there. 

i have to say anyone i have spoken to about it got fed up half way through too.


----------



## chooch (Oct 12, 2005)

spartacus mills said:
			
		

> You are a lovely person.


That's what I keep telling people 
PM yer address and I'll send it on when I'm done- about halfway through now.


----------



## spartacus mills (Oct 12, 2005)

Just started ''Landor's Tower'' by Iain Sinclair.


----------



## Sesquipedalian (Oct 13, 2005)

Germinal. - Zola.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 13, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> soz.
> it's crap i tell you.. crap!
> 
> you'll enjoy it for a bit though.. no question there.
> ...



would have been good to be able to reach my own conclusions


----------



## kyser_soze (Oct 13, 2005)

Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley. S'alright - quite sweet and quaint really.


----------



## jodal (Oct 13, 2005)

I'm on a Hemmingway tip at the moment so am reading For Whom The Bell Tolls will reread The Old Man and The Sea after that and reread Kilmanjaro after that.


----------



## I'm at work (Oct 13, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley. S'alright - quite sweet and quaint really.




Loved this - I had been looking for it and my wife kindly ordered it for me , when it came it was a reprint in A4 size softcover , the print is slightly larger than A5 so there is a 30mm white border all round each page!. it's like reading a manual for the pc or windows!

A good read!


----------



## I'm at work (Oct 13, 2005)

I have had a really hectic last 5 weeks so I've only managed Bhowani Junction and The Decievers both 50's novels by John Masters. They were made into films too - Bhowani Junction in 1956 starring Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger and The Decievers in 1988 with Peirce Brosnan.

At the moment I'm taking a break from Indian themed novels with "Birdsong" by Sebastion Faulks. Its really very good indeed, I had read some off reviews but I find it excellent.


----------



## chooch (Oct 13, 2005)

I'm at work said:
			
		

> "Birdsong" by Sebastion Faulks. Its really very good indeed, I had read some off reviews but I find it excellent.


Do you not find there to be elements of smugness and cuntery?


----------



## I'm at work (Oct 13, 2005)

Shmu said:
			
		

> John Lanchester's The Debt to Pleasure.
> 
> I'm loving it.
> 
> Easy to read, but with depth and subtlety and great sense of place. And very funny.



A fantastic book indeed - thank goodness I don't eat fungus!!

His later novel Mr Phillips is superb too.


----------



## Pickman's model (Oct 13, 2005)

William Godwin, Things As They Are; Or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982)


----------



## I'm at work (Oct 13, 2005)

Wyn said:
			
		

> My Nine Lives - Ruth Prawer Jhanvala



Have you read Heat and Dust by her? superb .


----------



## I'm at work (Oct 13, 2005)

foo said:
			
		

> Toast - Nigel Slater
> 
> a lovely book.



Fantastic book - underated and sadly found in the food section of soem bookshops - I reckon he could have won an award for the quality of it!


----------



## I'm at work (Oct 13, 2005)

chooch said:
			
		

> Do you not find there to be elements of smugness and cuntery?



Could you be more defined?

I'm only part way through but its perfectly good , the WW1 part at the momnet is very well written . I have strict requirements wherever 20th century armed combat finds its way into novels, it must be accurate . There can be no excuse for anything less as there are 100's of books on the subject especially autobiographies.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 14, 2005)

Just finished Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. American existentialism and racial politics, and a great portrait of New York. I'm not sure Ellison makes the narrator's shift from conventional Southern student to NY's leading black Marxist entirely convincing; he seems to be in a rush to get him to the city without fully exploring where he comes from or the subtle changes he undergoes in the South. But it's a firecracker, very atmospheric, with an absolutely contemporary evaluation of liberal guilt and gaucheness. I'm sure it'll stay with me for many years to come.

Next up is Of Love and Hunger by Julian Maclaren-Ross or The Bandini Quartet by John Fante, haven't decided which.


----------



## felixthecat (Oct 14, 2005)

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini. Fabulous book - the man is a wonderful storyteller and I would recommend it to anyone.


----------



## chooch (Oct 14, 2005)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Just finished Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.


It's a corker. Must reread it soon.


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Oct 14, 2005)

Just finished Roth's 'The Plot Against America'. It was enjoyable, but not up there with his best. I didn't think the two elements of the plot (memoirs of a Jewish child growing up in thirties Newark and the Nazi plot itself) were stitched together that well, and until the final fifty pages there wasn't that much development. Still, it was a Roth, and as such it was very, very good.

Struggling through Zola's 'Nana', but I suspect I've got a lousy translation. Will read Lanchester's 'Fragrant Harbour' as light relief.


----------



## IntoStella (Oct 14, 2005)

chooch said:
			
		

> Do you not find there to be elements of smugness and cuntery?


  

I'm rereading Tim Moore's very funny Spanish Steps, inspired by the post about it here the other day. 

I'm going through a bit of a nothing-too-difficult stage. 

Also, Jonathan Strange is still mouldering. I don't have the strength to lift it.


----------



## sparkling (Oct 14, 2005)

Everything is illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer.  Only just started it but it looks good, kind of quirky and fun but I think it will have deep stuff as we go on.


----------



## walktome (Oct 14, 2005)

I finally got my hands on Chronicles by Bob Dylan. Good.


----------



## colbhoy (Oct 15, 2005)

I'm reading Cocktail Time by P G Wodehouse. My dad brought it down and said I would enjoy it. It wouldn't be my choice but I try and read books if someone takes the trouble to think of me and lend me it.

I'm glad he did, I am enjoying it very much.


----------



## Zinedine* (Oct 15, 2005)

I'm reading The Promise of Happiness by Justin Cartwright. I wanted something exciting to read.only read the first 50 pages and it seems ok so far.


----------



## rich! (Oct 15, 2005)

I've just pulled L.Sprague de Camp's "The Reluctant King" trilogy off the bookshelf, and am re-reading it for the third or fourth time.

A little gem of a fantasy trilogy: witty without being "funny", subtle, erudite without posturing, and with suitable heroism, bloodthirstyness and weird deities.


----------



## soulman (Oct 15, 2005)

walktome said:
			
		

> I finally got my hands on Chronicles by Bob Dylan. Good.



It's really good!

Today I bought Wolves Eat Dogs by Martin Cruz Smith. It's the latest in the Renko series.


----------



## Valve (Oct 16, 2005)

against method- paul feyerabend
evolution + revolution- intro to the life + thought of kropotkin- graham purchase
only A beginning- an anarchist anthology- ed. allan antliff


----------



## jodal (Oct 16, 2005)

Orangesanlemons said:
			
		

> Just finished Roth's 'The Plot Against America'. It was enjoyable, but not up there with his best. I didn't think the two elements of the plot (memoirs of a Jewish child growing up in thirties Newark and the Nazi plot itself) were stitched together that well, and until the final fifty pages there wasn't that much development. Still, it was a Roth, and as such it was very, very good.



I recently read this and was let down too. I always have such high hopes for when his new books come out but recently I've been let down. 'The plot...' was no different. Disappointing.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 17, 2005)

Just finished Of Love and Hunger, Julian Maclaren-Ross.

Vacuum-cleaner salesmen, 1939, south coast resort, pubs, chancers and spivs, cakes with pink icing, doomed love affair, Larry Heliotrope, mush, buckshee and tosheroons. It's a brilliant novel, funny and moving, a great read and I recommend it.


----------



## maya (Oct 17, 2005)

Valve said:
			
		

> against method- paul feyerabend


...student?


----------



## nino_savatte (Oct 17, 2005)

Wilhelm Reich - _The Function of the Orgasm_


Titter ye not!


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 17, 2005)

Just bought the Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell doorstep - I need a big read at the mo.
Also had a Murakami splurge - Borders were doing 3 for 2, so I got Kafka On The Shore, Dance Dance Dance and The Elephant Vanishes


----------



## belboid (Oct 17, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> ...student?


its a good book!  tho not as good as Kuhn of course....


----------



## rich! (Oct 17, 2005)

nino_savatte said:
			
		

> Wilhelm Reich - _The Function of the Orgasm_
> Titter ye not!


It's not a bad book, tho' he is a bit overblown.
I found a copy of his last one a year or two ago - "Death of Christ" or similar. Only managed 1/2 of it - it's still sitting reproachfully in the in-tray.

Anyway, having finished the de Camp, I'm having a go at Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy again: now *there's* an author who understands the footnote.


----------



## oneflewover (Oct 17, 2005)

Just started to re-read, Land Of Lost Content, the story of the Luddite Revolt by Robert Reid. 

The Luddites, now there was a cause.


----------



## Pickman's model (Oct 17, 2005)

Frank Ongley Darvell, Popular disturbances and public order in regency England - being an account of the Luddite and other disorders in England during 1811-1817 and the attitude and activity of the authorities (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1934)


----------



## nino_savatte (Oct 17, 2005)

rich! said:
			
		

> It's not a bad book, tho' he is a bit overblown.
> I found a copy of his last one a year or two ago - "Death of Christ" or similar. Only managed 1/2 of it - it's still sitting reproachfully in the in-tray.
> 
> Anyway, having finished the de Camp, I'm having a go at Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy again: now *there's* an author who understands the footnote.



I'm already 2 chapters in and some things I can accept and others are well, simply, barking.


----------



## IntoStella (Oct 17, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Just bought the Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell doorstep - I need a big read at the mo.
> Also had a Murakami splurge - Borders were doing 3 for 2, so I got Kafka On The Shore, Dance Dance Dance and The Elephant Vanishes


I could have lent you all of those.  

I STILL can't get back into Jonathan Strange. As they didn't used to say: "When I put it down, I couldn't pick it up again."


----------



## Major Tom (Oct 17, 2005)

Movies From Manhattan by Julian Fox
Its a Woody Allen biography. Gives me an excuse to watch all his movies again


----------



## Valve (Oct 17, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> ...student?


nope, not anymore-


----------



## chooch (Oct 17, 2005)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Just finished Of Love and Hunger, Julian Maclaren-Ross.


Really fancy this. Soulseek?


----------



## districtline (Oct 18, 2005)

just read:

per hagman - att komma hem ska vara en schlager
brecht - die dreigroschenoper
hans fallada - kleiner mann was nun? (very good)

now reading:

george monbiot - the age of consent
dbc pierre - vernon god little
kafka - amerika
and some honecker biography.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Oct 18, 2005)

districtline said:
			
		

> now reading:
> 
> george monbiot - the age of consent
> dbc pierre - vernon god little
> ...


What, two with each eye?


----------



## kyser_soze (Oct 19, 2005)

Dark Sun by Richard Rhodes, a history of the development of the hydrogen fusion bomb.


----------



## pianistenvy (Oct 21, 2005)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> Dark Sun by Richard Rhodes, a history of the development of the hydrogen fusion bomb.



Love is Colder than Death - a biog of Rainer Werner Fassbinder


----------



## chooch (Oct 21, 2005)

Just started james Kelman- _You have to be careful in the land of the free_. A corker so far...


----------



## \\-(*o*)-// (Oct 22, 2005)

Sanin, by Mikhail Artsybashev (1907).  A cynical tale of sex and death during the the twilight years of Imperial Russia.


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Oct 22, 2005)

"Fragrant Harbour" by John Lanchester. Got on really well with this (much better than "Mr. Phillips"), although I could have done without the first narrative tbh. Read if you have the slightest interest in Hong Kong and SE Asia.


----------



## foo (Oct 24, 2005)

i spent the weekend emmersed in a lovely book - The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

it's a story about books (i love those!), a mystery and a thriller with great characters and plot - and i keep being reminded of a Dickens novel....can't figure why at the mo


----------



## Bazza (Oct 25, 2005)

foo said:
			
		

> i spent the weekend emmersed in a lovely book - The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.



Superb book...Was the best book I read this year until I read Memoirs of a Geisha. 

Now I'm reading 'The Dice Man' by Luke Rhinehart which is about a NY Psychiatrist who becomes so bored with the monotony of daily life that he allows every decision to be ruled by the throw of a dice. So far, he's obeyed every throw despite the consequences. He then adopts this as a form of therapy for some of his patients and it soon becomes a cult.

The book can be hilarious in places, however, I worry I could be tempted to pick up the dice and try the same!


----------



## fractionMan (Oct 25, 2005)

I'm still reading quicksilver.  It's pretty good too.


----------



## echo (Oct 25, 2005)

reading 'confessions of a bad mother' at the mo and i now realise that i am not the only crap mother around and maybe my kids will survive to adulthood without being emotionally scarred


----------



## spartacus mills (Oct 25, 2005)

chooch said:
			
		

> A B.S. Johnson omnibus- just starting _Albert Angelo_.



And now I'm reading it. Thanks Chooch.


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Oct 25, 2005)

Bazza said:
			
		

> The book can be hilarious in places, however, I worry I could be tempted to pick up the dice and try the same!



Of course you're going to try it, everyone does. It can be quite liberating, but don't be too silly...

Oh, and avoid "The Search For the Diceman". It's more of the same, only nowhere near as funny or interesting.


----------



## chooch (Oct 25, 2005)

spartacus mills said:
			
		

> Thanks Chooch.


My pleasure. 
Two-book bravado: also just starting Vikram Seth _the golden gate_ on a Dirty Martini recommendation.


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 26, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> I could have lent you all of those.
> 
> I STILL can't get back into Jonathan Strange. As they didn't used to say: "When I put it down, I couldn't pick it up again."



Have you had another go?  I'm about half way through it and haven't tired yet, though it is _just_ a well-crafted story really and not much else to it.


----------



## Fuzzy (Oct 26, 2005)

i'm reading the Piers Morgan autobiography at the moment. quite interesting even if before i didnt really like the bloke. still dont much but the book is an interesting expose of the grubby world of tabloid journalism.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Oct 26, 2005)

'The Tao Of Islam' Sachiko Murata.

Not exactly something that you read in a linear way - but very thought provoking and quite readable.

BB


----------



## Pickman's model (Oct 26, 2005)

Loretta Napoleoni, Insurgent Iraq: Al Zarqawi and the New Generation (London: Constable, 2005)


----------



## Valve (Oct 27, 2005)

mikhail bakunin-- the political philosophy of bakunin ed. g.p. maximoff
michael albert-- parecon


----------



## mrkikiet (Oct 27, 2005)

Alistair Cooke: Letter from America  1946-2004 

nice little read a letter and get off the train or go to bed book.


----------



## soulman (Oct 27, 2005)

Fuzzy said:
			
		

> i'm reading the Piers Morgan autobiography at the moment. quite interesting even if before i didnt really like the bloke. still dont much but the book is an interesting expose of the grubby world of tabloid journalism.



and the grubby world of new labour politics and spin.


----------



## gosub (Oct 28, 2005)

Finished Neil Stephenson's Baroque trilogy this month, which was enjoyable and would recomend, a bit like David Glen Gold's "Carter beats the devil" taken to the nth degree. Reading THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA by Philip Roth which I'm enjoying very much (actually enjoying probably isn't the right word but will be reading more of him)


----------



## rusalki (Oct 28, 2005)

well this is my first post... so hi everyone!

The books I'm reading now:

*ANANSI BOYS Neil Gaiman*

(I love Gaiman)

and I'm finishing this 

*BETWEEN THE LIVING AND THE DEAD Eva Pocs* 

it is a book about the witchcraft beliefs and the trials in early modern Hungary.


----------



## Echo Beach (Oct 29, 2005)

I'm currently reading Molly Andrews' 'Lifetimes of Commitment' alongside the brilliantly absurd 'Lunar Park' by Brett Easton Ellis.


----------



## chooch (Oct 29, 2005)

chooch said:
			
		

> Vikram Seth _the golden gate_


Which was fucking brilliant. Nothing to read now except repeat repeats. _Vurt_ maybe...


----------



## districtline (Oct 29, 2005)

john gray - al qaeda and what it means to be modern (horrible marxism analysis in there...)

? - why do people hate america? tried that one a few years back but never got through it but got inspired by that other thread so decided to loan it and try again.


----------



## Here we go (Oct 29, 2005)

I'm reading ian banks 'the wasp factory'. I'm not finding it quite as gruesome as all the reviews on the cover made out. Very fucking funny in some places.


----------



## bmd (Oct 30, 2005)

Iron Council by China Miéville, the authors name may put some people off, kinda sounds like a romance writer but it's actually a very good science fantasy/steampunk type thing. Won the Arthur C Clarke award this year which was what tempted me to have a look. 

I'm about half way through, loving it so far.


----------



## IntoStella (Oct 31, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Have you had another go?  I'm about half way through it and haven't tired yet, though it is _just_ a well-crafted story really and not much else to it.


Aye.

Trouble is, now I'm going to have to backtrack a hundred pages or so. Anybody want to do a digested version, Grauniad stylee? In the style of the original?


----------



## Echo Base (Oct 31, 2005)

I am TRYING to read Quicksilver by Phil Stevenson.
But i cant get "into" it.


----------



## kyser_soze (Oct 31, 2005)

Echo Base said:
			
		

> I am TRYING to read Quicksilver by Phil Stevenson.
> But i cant get "into" it.





I'm re-reading Cryptonomicon so as to get back into his ultra-dense style of writing. I started Quicksilver on the way back from Thailand last year and for a number of reasons - it still reminds me of a traumatic relationship, it's hardback and therefore weighs about a kilo so isn;t really train friendly - I'm gonna get the paperbacks and go through the whole Baroque trilogy (Quicksilver, The Confusion, The System of the World) in an extended read...

What I want to know is when is he gonna write the sequel to Cryptonomicon...


----------



## Roadkill (Nov 2, 2005)

Eric Hobsbawm - _On History_.


----------



## baldrick (Nov 2, 2005)

Ryuzard Kapucinski (sp? ) - Imperium.  excellent.  only got a few pages left now.

also Richard Davenport-Hines - The pursuit of oblivion: a social history of drugs.  also excellent, but considerably more than a few pages left


----------



## belboid (Nov 2, 2005)

Ida Mett -The Kronstadt Uprising

I think I've read it before, but it was a long long time ago...


----------



## MarkMark (Nov 2, 2005)

Pete McCarthy - McCarthy's Bar

Great book too, I can't believe it's taken me this long to get round to it


----------



## Rollem (Nov 2, 2005)

the time traveller's wife, by audrey niffengger


----------



## Bomber (Nov 2, 2005)

Just about to start 'In Cold Blood' by Truman Capote after spotting it in Oxfam for £1.49


----------



## bellator (Nov 6, 2005)

*Jane Austin*

Well I am reading Pride and Prejudice at the mo-never thought I would be into it but am really quite enjoying it. Am finding it both funny and enlightening! Bloody good read.


----------



## chooch (Nov 8, 2005)

Just starting Patrick Hamilton- _the slaves of solitude_ and making steady progress through Amartya Sen- _development as freedom_, again.


----------



## tastebud (Nov 8, 2005)

_the blind assassin_ - margaret atwood. started it a while ago but never finished it. i love margaret atwood.


----------



## bushphobia (Nov 8, 2005)

Bond said:
			
		

> Have just bought the Sandman Library Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman. One of the best Graphic Novel paperbacks you could ever read.


Man i loved that series. Did you get the recent(ish) sandman spin-off of short storeis, each centering around one of the endless?


----------



## walktome (Nov 9, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> _the blind assassin_ - margaret atwood. started it a while ago but never finished it. i love margaret atwood.



I like Margaret Atwood a lot too, haven't read the Blind Assassin though.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 9, 2005)

so bored by my last book i can't even remember what it's called, so now i'm on

Conrad Williams - London Revenant

which is pretty good. it's a bit overripe in places, but - as the cover blurb says - it does seem to straddle the divide between Iain Sinclair style London psychogeography and a more fantasy element (but not too much thank fuck).

yes, pretty good so far. i remember Blagsta raving about this last year.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Nov 9, 2005)

'The Autobiography of Malcom X' Malcom X with Alex Haley

BB


----------



## G. Fieendish (Nov 11, 2005)

_The Chrysalids - John Wyndham_


----------



## Teepee (Nov 11, 2005)

Narcissus and Goldmund - Hermann Hesse


----------



## vogonity (Nov 11, 2005)

IntoStella said:
			
		

> Murakami, A Wild Sheep Chase.
> 
> I've read 'em all now  except After the Quake and the non-fiction Underground about the Tokyo sarin attacks, which might be particularly interesting to read after recent events in London.


Those are the two I've read by him - fascinating stories in After The Quake. Underground is riveting. Which of Murakami's novels would you recommend to a starter?


----------



## Throbbing Angel (Nov 11, 2005)

'Unbearable lightness of being'


----------



## MysteryGuest (Nov 11, 2005)

Alexandre Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo


A rip-roaring story indeed, with extra booable baddies and much aristocratic intrigue, maidens, counts, diamonds, etc etc.  But above all loads and loads of stories, and stories within stories.  It reminds me a bit of Robert Irwin's Arabian Nightmare in this respect.  I'm presently nearing the end, and am having a find time watching the Count's inexorable revenge starting to make its destructive presence keenly felt - it's compelling watching it all unfold, slowly but unstoppably.  Hadn't realised it was quite such a novel of revenge.  Most enjoyable.


----------



## milesy (Nov 11, 2005)

douglas coupland - "eleanor rigby"


----------



## jodal (Nov 11, 2005)

Brokeback Mountain (Script) - Based on short Story by Annie Proulx (sp?)


----------



## spartacus mills (Nov 11, 2005)

Will Self - The Quantity Theory of Insanity. 
A mixed bag of short stories.


----------



## MiddleMonkies (Nov 11, 2005)

The new well-tempered sentence by Karen Elizabeth Gordon---it's a book on punctuation and it's wonderful


----------



## Barney Bee (Nov 11, 2005)

Yoga for people who can't be bothered to do it - Geoff Dyer


----------



## vogonity (Nov 11, 2005)

Kafka's The Trial, which I'm enjoying.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Nov 12, 2005)

A People's Tragedy - Russian Revolution 1891- 1924 by Orlando Figes, given to me about a year ago just getting round to reading it


----------



## harpo scruggs (Nov 15, 2005)

Darkest Fear by Harlan Coben, excellent author


----------



## walktome (Nov 15, 2005)

Tomorrow I'm starting Dora by Sigmund Freud for my narrative class.


----------



## Ryazan (Nov 15, 2005)

jeff_leigh said:
			
		

> A People's Tragedy - Russian Revolution 1891- 1924 by Orlando Figes, given to me about a year ago just getting round to reading it



It is good, for a one volume history.


----------



## Ryazan (Nov 15, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> _the blind assassin_ - margaret atwood. started it a while ago but never finished it. i love margaret atwood.



You might like Slavenka Drakulic too, then.


----------



## chris34 (Nov 15, 2005)

Tail end Charlies by John Nichol and Tony Rennel

Its about tail gunners in bombers during WWII, sounds boring but its really interesting, what the poor buggers went through, and what they and the rest of the bombers did to Germany. Some sad stories..


----------



## steeplejack (Nov 15, 2005)

Alfred Doblin- _Berlin Alexanderplatz_


----------



## Louloubelle (Nov 15, 2005)

I'm juggling:

qualitative data analysis - a user friendly guide for social scientists (work related) 

Unlawful Carnal Knowledge - The True Story of the Irish X Case
Just started this, it's a true account of a sexualy abused 14 year old girl seeking an abortion in the UK, it's a book re legal history 

also on my next to read list 
The Mamie Papers
the correspondence depicting the developing friendship between an impoverished one eyed, jewish, morphine addicted prostitute, Mamie Pinzer, and a wealthy philanthropic 'lady', Fanny Quincy Howe, at the start of the 20th century.  I've meant to read this for ages but haven't had the time


----------



## MysteryGuest (Nov 15, 2005)

harpo scruggs said:
			
		

> Darkest Fear by Harlan Coben, excellent author




Yeah I've read a couple of his (on the recommendation of an urbanite actually) - one of the page-turningest page-turner writers I've ever come across.  Welcome to the boards btw.


After I've finished The Count of Monte Cristo (it's all coming down bigtime right now in the last few chapters btw, all very dramatic indeed, dead exciting and stuff), I'm moving on to:


What I Did in My Holidays - Essays on black magic, satanism, devil worhip [sic] and other niceties by the inimitibule Ramsey Dukes!  Haven't read anything by this highly diverting chap for a while now, but imo he's a bit of a national treasure.  Dead witty and original and all thought provoking and that.


----------



## harpo scruggs (Nov 15, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> Yeah I've read a couple of his (on the recommendation of an urbanite actually) - one of the page-turningest page-turner writers I've ever come across.  Welcome to the boards btw.



You're not wrong there, polished it off in one sitting   I've read most of his books, very addictive to the last page. Now I'm reading Sunset Limited by James Lee Burke, another cracking author imho   Thanks for the welcome btw


----------



## districtline (Nov 16, 2005)

steeplejack said:
			
		

> Alfred Doblin- _Berlin Alexanderplatz_



me too!


----------



## MysteryGuest (Nov 16, 2005)

harpo scruggs said:
			
		

> You're not wrong there, polished it off in one sitting   I've read most of his books, very addictive to the last page. Now I'm reading Sunset Limited by James Lee Burke, another cracking author imho   Thanks for the welcome btw




I *heart* James Lee Burke - I congratulate you on your taste, sir!


----------



## oooomegrapes (Nov 16, 2005)

glamorama - brett easton ellis


im having problems getting into it, hard going


----------



## Fledgling (Nov 16, 2005)

Have been reading a few books and just finished Finn Familly Moomintroll. Reading Fiesta by Hemmingway and was reading Myth of Sisyphus by Camus but a bit heavy after work so I've re-started the Fall. Also planning to read the Spanish Cockpit by Franz Borkenau. Loads of stuff to read!


----------



## harpo scruggs (Nov 17, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> I congratulate you on your taste, sir!



No sir/madam, I congratulate you on yours!

The Narrows by Michael Connelly


----------



## spartacus mills (Nov 17, 2005)

'The Century of Revolution' by Christopher Hill.


----------



## Stella Artois (Nov 18, 2005)

*House of Leaves*




			
				Largo said:
			
		

> House of Leaves - Mark Danielewski.
> It's a very interesting read.



Its a cool book. what do you reckon to it? Hardly met anyone who read it whichis abig shame.


----------



## Stella Artois (Nov 18, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Have you had another go?  I'm about half way through it and haven't tired yet, though it is _just_ a well-crafted story really and not much else to it.



Give it a go. At least its a half decent and unusual story that ain't chick lit. For a modern novel that's from a first novelist thats pretty good going.


----------



## Stella Artois (Nov 18, 2005)

*Rivethead: tales from the assembly line*

Read it a hundred times and it never fades. If you ever get the urge to know about capitalism, alienation, breakdown and the American Way this is the best book. Read it and weep. There's no progress without struggle. And it's fuckin' funny.


----------



## Pickman's model (Nov 18, 2005)

in the last few weeks, i've read:

raymond chandler, the high window;
raymond chandler, the little sister;
raymond chandler, the lady in the lake;
raymond chandler, the long goodbye;
raymond chandler, the killer in the rain.

oh, and emerson, the conduct of life.


----------



## IntoStella (Nov 18, 2005)

Stella Artois said:
			
		

> Give it a go. At least its a half decent and unusual story that ain't chick lit. For a modern novel that's from a first novelist that's pretty good going.


 I *never* read chick lit, O near namesake  . Whether I'm into you or not remains to be seen.  

(I realise your reply was to orang but his post was in response to my terminal attack of ennui on about page 680 of Jonathan Strange.)


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 18, 2005)

Stella Artois said:
			
		

> Its a cool book. what do you reckon to it? Hardly met anyone who read it whichis abig shame.




my ex was a big fan, and i do own it and have tried to read it. but the thought of sitting on the bus with a pen, paper, mirror etc puts me off


----------



## crass_kitten (Nov 18, 2005)

Disco Bloodbath (a.k.a Part Monster) by James St James. Just finished reading it for the second time, I love this book but it's a short read, good for the train journey home.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 19, 2005)

finished London Revenant, which wasn't as well put together as it thought it was, if that makes sense, but still a decent read.

Picked up London Orbital again because i know i'll enjoy it, but i seem to rarely have the right mindset to read anything as densely written as Sinclair's stuff.


----------



## Hollis (Nov 20, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Picked up London Orbital again because i know i'll enjoy it, but i seem to rarely have the right mindset to read anything as densely written as Sinclair's stuff.



I have tried a number of times to read 'London Orbital'.. its impossible!!   


Anyway.. I'm reading 'First Light' by Geoffrey Wellum' - a first hand account of the Battle of Britain.. 

Frankly Iain Sinclair should dream of writing such stuff...


----------



## spartacus mills (Nov 20, 2005)

Hollis said:
			
		

> I have tried a number of times to read 'London Orbital'.. its impossible!!



Eh? I read it recently and found it to be his most accessible book of all.


----------



## cymrukid (Nov 21, 2005)

Just finished 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay'. The most well written book I've read in a long time.


----------



## BadlyDrawnGirl (Nov 21, 2005)

'The Collins Roadmaster Atlas Of Great Britain & Ireland 2006 - With Extended Motorway Coverage'.   

A fascinating read, although I'm not sure who wrote it.


----------



## fractionMan (Nov 21, 2005)

acid priest said:
			
		

> 'The Collins Roadmaster Atlas Of Great Britain & Ireland 2006 - With Extended Motorway Coverage'.
> 
> A fascinating read, although I'm not sure who wrote it.


Some bloke called Collins probably.


----------



## oooomegrapes (Nov 21, 2005)

just finished eleanor rigby by  douglas copeland......good stuff


----------



## Stanley Edwards (Nov 21, 2005)

'I'll go to bed at noon' - Gerard Woodward.

First book I've read for a while that's worth a mention. A little bit 'The Ice Storm' comes to North London intially but, then develops into much, much more. Superb gentle character building.

The story of a not so 'dysfunctional' family in 70's Britain and the way alcohol effects/destroys their lives. Very funny. Very sad, extremely touching and all to bloody relevant still today!.


----------



## purves grundy (Nov 23, 2005)

Too Loud A Solitude, by Brohumil Hrabal. Most odd...


----------



## Stanley Edwards (Nov 23, 2005)

purves grundy said:
			
		

> Too Loud A Solitude, by Brohumil Hrabal. Most odd...



Excellent. One of my all time favourite authors. Highly recommend finding a copy of 'The Death of Mr Baltisberger and other stories' if you haven't already read it.

Love his twisted sense of humour.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 23, 2005)

i'm saving London Orbital for Xmas / NYE - it really deserves concentrated reading.

but i did a big bookswoop on Bookmongers yesterday and came away with

Jim Dodge - Fup / Stone Junction
TC Boyle - 1 novel, two short story collections
Jonathan Letham - Fortress of Solitude
Chris Petit - Robinson
Richard Miller - Snail (a totally bizarre book i read years ago and lost so can't wait to read again)..


----------



## tastebud (Nov 23, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Jim Dodge - Fup


Very good.


----------



## milesy (Nov 23, 2005)

i've just finished douglas coupland's "hey nostradamus" and i enjoyed it very much indeed. i love the way he tries to explore deep ideas but without making the book too complex or eggheady. i'm gonna start on "shampoo planet" next.


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 23, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Jonathan Letham - Fortress of Solitude


Let me know how you got on with this - I only got 100 pages in before I ditched it


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 23, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> i'm saving London Orbital for Xmas / NYE - it really deserves concentrated reading.


And you'll certainly get the chance for that at Xmas/NYE


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 23, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> And you'll certainly get the chance for that at Xmas/NYE




a week kicking back in the North East, and flights etc to Barcelona should do it.

i'm not COMPLETELY stupid


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 23, 2005)

milesy said:
			
		

> i've just finished douglas coupland's "hey nostradamus" and i enjoyed it very much indeed. i love the way he tries to explore deep ideas but without making the book too complex or eggheady. i'm gonna start on "shampoo planet" next.




if you haven't read Girlfriend In A Coma, go for that ASAP


----------



## tastebud (Nov 23, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> if you haven't read Girlfriend In A Coma, go for that ASAP


I concur.


----------



## kyser_soze (Nov 23, 2005)

milesy said:
			
		

> i've just finished douglas coupland's "hey nostradamus" and i enjoyed it very much indeed. i love the way he tries to explore deep ideas but without making the book too complex or eggheady. i'm gonna start on "shampoo planet" next.



YAY!!! Another Coupland convert!!

I'd recommend Miss Wyoming next rather than GIAC (Dub and I had a debate on this in an earlier section of this thread) but they're all great - he's a brilliant writer.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 23, 2005)

Miss Wyoming isn't all that, IMO.. not as bad as the execrable All Families Are Psychotic (the only Coupland that is actually 'bad', as opposed to 'not as good) but still far from his best


----------



## onemonkey (Nov 23, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Jim Dodge - Stone Junction


a tricky one.. i liked it but thousands didn't


----------



## onemonkey (Nov 23, 2005)

i'm reading Zen & the brain..

a surprisingly accesible account of the potential neurophysiological changes that meditation _might_ cause in the brain. 

not too convinced by the cosmic oneness nonsense though


----------



## Biddlybee (Nov 23, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Jim Dodge - Fup / Stone Junction


Definitely a good choice with those 2 - Stone Junction is one of my fave books - I'm always reccommending it to people but no-one ever seems to read it (they're missing out!)
Almost done with The Corrections - and it's definitely got a lot better.


----------



## kyser_soze (Nov 23, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Miss Wyoming isn't all that, IMO.. not as bad as the execrable All Families Are Psychotic (the only Coupland that is actually 'bad', as opposed to 'not as good) but still far from his best



You just lack the necessary sappy romance gene to appreciate the wonderfulness that is Wyoming Dub 

Kinda agree with Psychotic tho...I could never get past the 'sister as astronaut' bit...


----------



## j.w. Gilmore (Nov 23, 2005)

*What Book Are You Readin?*

 I am reading and writing books right now.  One of the best that I have read in a long time is On Being Loves Warrior.  It is a book about reclaiming personal power and using spiritual techniques to break free of the brainwashing done by society.  A lot of radical ideas are included, like people are able to choose forthemselves and dont need anybody to tell them what is right and wrong. Things like that.

j.w. Gil






			
				rorymac said:
			
		

> I'm reading three at the moment...very sloooowwwwly mind...
> 
> Millroy the magician...... Paul Theroux
> He's Louis Theroux's dad.
> ...


----------



## milesy (Nov 24, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> if you haven't read Girlfriend In A Coma, go for that ASAP



cheers, althoguh that was actually the first coupland book i read, a few years ago  

i've just started "shampoo planet"


----------



## fishfingerer (Nov 25, 2005)

The Star Fraction - Ken McLeod. I started reading it in the pub yesterday but I'll have to start again cos I don't have a clue what's going on.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 25, 2005)

just started Robinson by Chris Petit. all very Soho drinking dens and Derek Raymond so far - and i'm liking it - but i suspect it will all change before long.


----------



## DRINK? (Nov 25, 2005)

Journey to the centre of the Earth - JV ...still as good as the first time


----------



## stroober (Nov 25, 2005)

Just finished - the bookseller of Kabul - very good

now reading - want to play? by PJ Tracey


----------



## West68thStreet (Nov 25, 2005)

Just finished 'Confessions of a Gnostic Dwarf' by David Madsen (very good), now reading 'Memoirs of an Ex-prom Queen' by ALix Kates Shulman (even better). Also reading Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson which is indescribably fascinating.


----------



## Zenith (Nov 25, 2005)

"Do androids dream of electric sheep" for the third time. 1st time when blade runner came out, then age 16. Now much later & its different every time.

Oh and the "wasp factory" at the same time (my brain hurts).


----------



## Pickman's model (Nov 25, 2005)

henry charles lea, materials towards a history of witchcraft (vol i)


----------



## walktome (Nov 26, 2005)

Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman


----------



## Stella Artois (Nov 27, 2005)

*what book are you reading*

Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis. It aint American Psycho but its fairly hilarious.


----------



## harpo scruggs (Nov 28, 2005)

Zenith said:
			
		

> Oh and the "wasp factory" at the same time (my brain hurts).



Great book, try The Crow Road, also good.

I'm reading The Chamber by John Grisham


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 28, 2005)

Talk To The Hand - Lynne Truss - this book is currently irritating me. I can't help with agreeing her about the decline of public conduct and customer services, but her book is not going to have the desired effect on me because she is so wrongheaded about some things that you want to annoy her by being rude to her if you ever encounter her just to spite her. Grumpy bitch.  

Also reading Down And Dirty Pictures by Peter Bisking - slightly disappointing follow up to Easy Riders, Raging Bulls but still jam packed with juicy anecdotes and monstrous egos.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 28, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> just started Robinson by Chris Petit. all very Soho drinking dens and Derek Raymond so far - and i'm liking it - but i suspect it will all change before long.



this is a BRILLIANT book


----------



## Brainaddict (Nov 28, 2005)

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon - enjoying it very much so far. I love Pynchon's writing style, even when he's being so deliberately opaque that you can't possibly tell what he's rabbiting on about


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Nov 28, 2005)

Brainaddict said:
			
		

> The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon - enjoying it very much so far. I love Pynchon's writing style, even when he's being so deliberately opaque that you can't possibly tell what he's rabbiting on about



I love 'Lot 49'. It bears an incredibly light touch for Pynchon - short, sweet but so dense with ideas and possibilities that it rewards a dozen re-reads. It should also be a set text for conspiraloons everywhere, but that's another story.

Pynchon apparently hates it and regards it as the weakest thing he's ever written, a step backwards from even his late short stories. I'm not sure how he came to that conclusion. I think it's a wonderful novel.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Nov 28, 2005)

Charles Bukowski - post office


----------



## belboid (Nov 28, 2005)

Orangesanlemons said:
			
		

> I love 'Lot 49'. It bears an incredibly light touch for Pynchon - short, sweet but so dense with ideas and possibilities that it rewards a dozen re-reads. It should also be a set text for conspiraloons everywhere, but that's another story.


it actually was a set text on my Philosophy of Mind course (i think it was PoM, cant think what else it might be)


----------



## Valve (Nov 29, 2005)

lamb, munevar, preston- the worst enemy of science: essays in memory of paul feyerabend 

preston- feyerabend: philosophy, science and society


----------



## foamy (Nov 29, 2005)

just read 'disgrace' by J.M Cotezee (sp?) which i really enjoyed

now reading 'surfacing' by Margaret Atwood which i'm not finding so enjoyable and easy to get in to...


----------



## Monkeygrinder's Organ (Nov 29, 2005)

foamy said:
			
		

> now reading 'surfacing' by Margaret Atwood which i'm not finding so enjoyable and easy to get in to...



I've had an open copy of 'Oryx and Crake' by my bed for months, and I've restarted it a couple of times. I can't get into it at all, I'll start and finish another book and then try again.


----------



## tastebud (Nov 29, 2005)

Monkeygrinder's Organ said:
			
		

> I've had an open copy of 'Oryx and Crake' by my bed for months, and I've restarted it a couple of times. I can't get into it at all, I'll start and finish another book and then try again.


i really really liked it.

i am just finishing the blind assassin and am sad to do so.


----------



## foamy (Nov 29, 2005)

Surfacing seems like a good book but the words arent going into my head very easily and i have to keep re-reading the sentences, maybe its something to do with being full of cold?!
going to keep trying though as i hate half reading books


----------



## tastebud (Nov 29, 2005)

foamy said:
			
		

> Surfacing seems like a good book but the words arent going into my head very easily and i have to keep re-reading the sentences, maybe its something to do with being full of cold?!
> going to keep trying though as i hate half reading books


if her other sruff is anything to go by i'd say it was just the cold, but i haven't actually read that one. i might start reading cat's eye later on this evening.


----------



## walktome (Nov 29, 2005)

The Turn of the Screw, I'm almost done.


----------



## Pickman's model (Nov 29, 2005)

walktome said:
			
		

> The Turn of the Screw, I'm almost done.


is there a final twist?


----------



## Monkeygrinder's Organ (Nov 29, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> i really really liked it.
> 
> i am just finishing the blind assassin and am sad to do so.



It's not that it's _bad_ as such, just that for some reason I can't really get into it.


----------



## Lock&Light (Nov 29, 2005)

I'm enjoying "BODYGUARD OF LIES" by Anthony Brown. I was given the book by a friend, and therefore have to accept that it is a Dutch translation but it's contents fortunately rise above that.


----------



## Throbbing Angel (Nov 29, 2005)

today=Another Country, James Baldwin

tomorrow= A house for Mr Biswas, V Naipaul


----------



## purves grundy (Nov 30, 2005)

Stanley Edwards said:
			
		

> Excellent. One of my all time favourite authors. Highly recommend finding a copy of 'The Death of Mr Baltisberger and other stories' if you haven't already read it.
> 
> Love his twisted sense of humour.


Cheers, after what I read in 'Too Loud...' I'll definitely seek it out. Twisted, tragic, hilarious. Really enjoyed it.

Returning to earth with Jason Burke's book on Al-Qaeda now.


----------



## PrinceToad (Nov 30, 2005)

Keynes _The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money_

It's a pretty good deconstruction of so-called "classical" or "neo-classical" economics, which is now back in fashion.

Set myself a "_reading project_" of the main works of economics. _Wealth of Nations_ and _Capital_ done. Next is perhaps what? Marshall's _Principles of Economics_, Ricardo's _Principles of Political Economy_, or Rosa Luxembourg's _Accumulation of Capital_? What do you think?

Also reading Richard Labeviere's _Dollars for Terror_, but being pretensh, reading it in French _Les Dollars de la Terreur_, so it takes me longer. Best book I've read yet on Islamic terrorist groups.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 30, 2005)

Throbbing Angel said:
			
		

> tomorrow= A house for Mr Biswas, V Naipaul



That's a cracking read, full of great setpieces. Grumpy, but very funny.

I'm 80 pages into Cloud Atlas and enjoying it a lot.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 30, 2005)

now reading "The Skeleton At The Feast - The Day of The Dead In Mexico" by Elizabeth Carmichael and Chloe Sayer, a brilliant account and explanation of the history and meaning of the Day of the Dead, and lots of the folk art around it. fascinating stuff


----------



## tastebud (Nov 30, 2005)

cat's eye - margaret atwood.

pretty similar style to the blind assassin thus far. which is good but kind of annoying as i just finished the blind assassin.


----------



## mrkikiet (Nov 30, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> now reading "The Skeleton At The Feast - The Day of The Dead In Mexico" by Elizabeth Carmichael and Chloe Sayer, a brilliant account and explanation of the history and meaning of the Day of the Dead, and lots of the folk art around it. fascinating stuff


have you read Under the Volcano by Lowry (i think)? It's centred round The Day of The Dead and it's pretty good.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 30, 2005)

mrkikiet said:
			
		

> have you read Under the Volcano by Lowry (i think)? It's centred round The Day of The Dead and it's pretty good.




i've always meant to, and should add it to the list


----------



## spartacus mills (Nov 30, 2005)

mrkikiet said:
			
		

> have you read Under the Volcano by Lowry (i think)? It's centred round The Day of The Dead and it's pretty good.



I've read that 2 or 3 times. I highly recommend it. It's also worth reading Lowry's selected letters and 'Dark As the Grave Wherein My Friend is Laid' (or something like that!). Both will add to your appreciation of UtV.


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 1, 2005)

about to start Fortress Of Solitude by Jonathan Letham.


----------



## foamy (Dec 1, 2005)

just started 'god of small things'. i seem to be on a booker prize themed reading list


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 1, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> about to start Fortress Of Solitude by Jonathan Letham.


Good luck!


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 2, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Good luck!




well so far (30 pages or so), it's incredible - some of the most vivid writing i've read in ages.. what went wrong with it in your opinion?


----------



## MysteryGuest (Dec 2, 2005)

The Hive by Bee Wilson


It is all about bees!  


Bees are amazing.


----------



## chooch (Dec 2, 2005)

Philip Roth- _the human stain_. Liking it a lot so far. The bastard can write when he fancies it.


----------



## John Quays (Dec 2, 2005)

Scenes from Provincial Life by William Cooper

Pre-war whimsy and a stab at the proper English novel.   

Or just read Lucky Jim again and again, I guess!


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 6, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> well so far (30 pages or so), it's incredible - some of the most vivid writing i've read in ages.. what went wrong with it in your opinion?



I dunno, it was a bit too vivid maybe IYSWIM - it could be that my mind just wasn't on it. I've loved his other books.


----------



## stroober (Dec 6, 2005)

Now on the complete works of Kafka


----------



## tastebud (Dec 6, 2005)

Half way through Ian McEwan - 'Atonement'. Rather lovely!


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 6, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I dunno, it was a bit too vivid maybe IYSWIM - it could be that my mind just wasn't on it. I've loved his other books.




i do know what you mean, it's brilliantly descriptive but consequently the pages don't exactly fly by


----------



## maya (Dec 6, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> about to start Fortress Of Solitude by Jonathan Letham.


is that by the same bloke who painted the picture discussed earlier?


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 6, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> is that by the same bloke who painted the picture discussed earlier?




no, a mere 'e' out. which is a fucking weird coincidence


----------



## maya (Dec 6, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> no, a mere 'e' out. which is a fucking weird coincidence


...oh.  i thought the author was called "leth*e*m" really, and that you were just spelling it wrong   (was just about to steam in and point that out)


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 6, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> Half way through Ian McEwan - 'Atonement'. Rather lovely!


Well written but I just hated every single overpriviledged character in it. Almost enough to turn me into a class warrior


----------



## MysteryGuest (Dec 6, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> ...oh.  i thought the author was called "leth*e*m" really, and that you were just spelling it wrong   (was just about to steam in and point that out)




You're right maya.    The author's called Jonathan Lethem.


----------



## Iam (Dec 6, 2005)

George RR Martin's _A Clash of Kings_, the second part of god-knows how many (five and counting, so far) in the _Song of Fire and Ice_ series.

Much better than the first one was.


----------



## kyser_soze (Dec 6, 2005)

The Snow, by Adam Roberts.

Very good so far - the world is buried under 3 MILES of snowfall when an experiment involving electron sheaths carried out by the US and EU goes horribly awry, and the resulting post-apocalyptic society.

I've read all his books so far and recommend them - his writing style is maybe a little ponderous but he's proper high-concept/heavy science (academic at UCL, physics IIRC).


----------



## astral (Dec 6, 2005)

Bella de Jour's book.  I used to enjoy her blog, but I'm not too sure about the book.


----------



## tastebud (Dec 6, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Well written


Definitely. It took a while to actually get into the _story_ but I was captured by his writing style. Now I am quite enjoying the story too.


----------



## golightly (Dec 6, 2005)

Coincidentally, "The bus we loved" by Travis Elborough.  I was having my last ride on a scheduled routemaster bus on Sunday.  I got the book from ex-wife, which just goes to show that I can be mature about my ex's.


----------



## Stanley Edwards (Dec 7, 2005)

Frances Stoner Saunders - Hawkwood (diabolical Englishman)

Bloody Hell! What a bastard. What a great book. Excellent info on life during the 14th Century and totally believable, well researched facts and theory about a hard fucker from Essex rising to power in Italy.

I've read a few books (fact and fiction) set in medieval Europe recently. This is by far the most vivid and detailed about life and mostly death in extreme times. Notably, what others don't point out are the winners that come from times of famine, disease and war. This book does. Horrible parallels with modern times.

Great book.


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 7, 2005)

Stanley Edwards said:
			
		

> Frances Stoner Saunders - Hawkwood (diabolical Englishman)
> 
> Bloody Hell! What a bastard. What a great book. Excellent info on life during the 14th Century and totally believable, well researched facts and theory about a hard fucker from Essex rising to power in Italy.
> 
> ...


if y'r interested in the period, you could do worse than read barbara tuchman's book "the distant mirror".


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 7, 2005)

S E Finer, The History of Government From the Earliest Times Vol. I: Antient Monarchies and Empires (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997)


----------



## jeff_leigh (Dec 7, 2005)

Private Dancer - Stephen Leather


----------



## Boogie Boy (Dec 7, 2005)

I picked up 'M/F' by Anthony Burgess, which so far is proving to be a bit impenetrable.

BB


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Dec 7, 2005)

F. Scott Fitzgerald's "This Side Of Paradise". I think that's it now, I've read everything he's ever written, the unprolific, early-dying, pisshead bastard. 

How many sodding books has Terry Pratchet had published?


----------



## maya (Dec 8, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> You're right maya.    The author's called Jonathan Lethem.


perhaps him and the painter actually ARE the same person, then?  

...writing successful novels while dabbling in occult re-hashings of boschian excess on the side,
with the hidden agenda to subvert american literature _mit _the kabbala and inner thoughts about devouring women's flowers "red like wine"?
- i think _yes_.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Dec 8, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> perhaps him and the painter actually ARE the same person, then?




No, the painter's Latham.  Do try to keep up.


----------



## maya (Dec 8, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> No, the painter's Latham.  Do try to keep up.


i like it when you try to suppress your wrath in that immaculate english way  
_do _try to keep it up, i'm cheering you on!


----------



## chooch (Dec 8, 2005)

Just finished Joseph Roth _the radeztky march_. Very very good. 
Just starting something called _critical mass- how one thing leads to another_.
All a bit _complexity for fuckwits_ so far.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Dec 8, 2005)

Harry Potter and the Tablet of Acid.  And the Space Bunnies that Live in the Clock.


----------



## maya (Dec 8, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> Harry Potter and the Tablet of Acid.  And the Space Bunnies that Live in the Clock.


  
try borges: the library of babel instead.
...or dr. seuss


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 8, 2005)

*i've just bought this*

*The Occult Tradition: From the Renaissance to the Present Day * 
David S. Katz 



> Is the universe alive? Are there hidden connections within it, revealed in history and in sacred texts? Can we understand or even learn to control these secrets? Have we neglected an entirely separate science that works according to a different set of principles? Certainly by the time of the Renaissance in Europe, there were many thinkers who answered in the affirmative to all of these questions. Despite the growth of modern science and a general disenchantment of the world, the 'occult' or 'esoteric' tradition has evolved in the West, manifesting itself in such diverse groups as the Freemasons, the Mormons, Christian Scientists, the Theosophists, New Age, and American Fundamentalism. Paradoxically, the turn to science and the triumph of evolution in the nineteenth century produced an explosion of occultism, increasing its power as a kind of super-science. Gothic, fantastic, and supernatural fiction flourished, while Spiritualism emerged as a serious inquiry into the possibility of contacting the dead. After all, if you could communicate with the living at great distances, why should a similar teletechnology not be possible to the other world? Disciplines had not yet hardened, and the borders were as yet undefined between parapsychology and psychology, between mythology and anthropology. Mesmerism became hypnotism, and the subconscious came to be recognized as more than a medium's stomping ground. This book describes the growth and meandering path of the occult tradition over the past five hundred years, and shows how the esoteric world view fits together.



because i don't believe a word of it but i'm fascinated by the massive cultural influence the true occult (ie not weekend pagan) has.. from Alan Moore to Stewart Home, from Psychic TV to the KLF..


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 10, 2005)

in which case you may like to look at the athlone history of magick and witchcraft in europe vol vi - the twentieth century; ronald hutton's triumph of the moon, a history of modern pagan witchcraft; at the heart of darkness: witchcraft and satanism today (well, in 1993).


----------



## scalyboy (Dec 10, 2005)

Novel - 'Antic Hay' by Aldous Huxley - comedic characters in 1920s London, good fun.

Biography of Emanuel Swedenborg - his trips to hevean n hell, most intriguing, plus analysis of psychotic patients' experiences for comparison - are they in contact with the same spirits that Swedenborg encountered?

And finally a spot of philosophy - 'Ethics and Infinity' - interviews with Levinas ( mind you I can understand less than half of this - and I thought interviews would be OK for clarity since Levinas would be forced to use ordinary language, oh dear not really)


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 10, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> *The Occult Tradition: From the Renaissance to the Present Day *
> David S. Katz
> 
> 
> ...


not forgetting yeats or conan doyle.


----------



## Calva dosser (Dec 10, 2005)

re-reading  'Egil's Saga' - attributed to Snorri Sturlusson c1230
"Complete is the valiant man's
Vengeance on the King:
Wolves and eagles walk
Wading through his kin......

I love it when a good revenge comes off


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 11, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> not forgetting yeats or conan doyle.


or crowley.


----------



## cyberfairy (Dec 11, 2005)

The latest (I think) Onion Annual-U.S And Them
Saw it in little bookshop for a fiver and friend bought it for me...
'Mudslide Kinda Fun Until The Dying Part'


----------



## mrkikiet (Dec 12, 2005)

Propaganda by Berneuys 

and 

The sportswriter by Richard Ford


----------



## Random One (Dec 13, 2005)

chronicles of narnia


----------



## tastebud (Dec 14, 2005)

arthur golden - memoirs of a geisha. 

i started it a few months back and couldn't really get in to it. after ian mcewan's simple and delicate, but rather beautiful writing style, i'm not overly enthused, but it might be a good story. anyone read it?


----------



## maya (Dec 14, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> arthur golden - memoirs of a geisha.
> 
> i started it a few months back and couldn't really get in to it. after ian mcewan's simple and delicate, but rather beautiful writing style, i'm not overly enthused, but it might be a good story. anyone read it?


i started it, but couldn't get through it


----------



## tastebud (Dec 14, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> i started it, but couldn't get through it


for what reason though? you didn't enjoy it?


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 14, 2005)

I've always been put off by that book - from my observations on the tube, it is always being read by the same people who read The Da Vinci Code or an 'adult'-version Harry Potter. 
I know that sounds snooty, cos it is.


----------



## tastebud (Dec 14, 2005)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I've always been put off by that book - from my observations on the tube, it is always being read by the same people who read The Da Vinci Code or an 'adult'-version Harry Potter.
> I know that sounds snooty, cos it is.


i agree, but two of my ex-french literature student friends liked it so i thought i'd give it a go.

me = snooty too.


----------



## Bazza (Dec 14, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> arthur golden - memoirs of a geisha.
> 
> i started it a few months back and couldn't really get in to it. after ian mcewan's simple and delicate, but rather beautiful writing style, i'm not overly enthused, but it might be a good story. anyone read it?



Me! I bloody loved it. Defo one of the best books I read this year and wouldn't usually go for this sort of thing. 

Starts off slowly but I really got into it. The way the author describes the settings through the eyes of the Geisha was great. Almost felt like I was there myself. 

The film's supposed to be rubbish though. 

I'm reading The Treatment by Mo Hayder at the moment. Not read a horror for a while and I like to mix it up a bit. Turns out it's set in Brixton......slow start so far. 

Whilst I'm ranting....I thoroughly enjoyed The Insider by Piers Morgan. Took no time to read.


----------



## maya (Dec 14, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> for what reason though? you didn't enjoy it?


no it was ok i guess, just that the copy i'd borrowed was in a language i'm not especially good at and so it probably felt more tedious than it actually was (if that makes sense)


----------



## tastebud (Dec 14, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> no it was ok i guess, just that the copy i'd borrowed was in a language i'm not especially good at and so it probably felt more tedious than it actually was (if that makes sense)


hmm. i'm unconvinced so far.

it seems a bit clumsy writing wise. i am going to need to find a fantastic book for the next nine days and i don't think this one will be it.


----------



## maya (Dec 15, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> hmm. i'm unconvinced so far.
> 
> it seems a bit clumsy writing wise. i am going to need to find a fantastic book for the next nine days and i don't think this one will be it.


yeah, don't bother with it- i thought of it as the archetypal "book club"-book, if you know what i mean...
i'm sure you won't miss anything by skipping this one...


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 15, 2005)

I was always a bit sus about an American man writing in the voice of Japanese geisha....


----------



## rennie (Dec 15, 2005)

Volume 2 of Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo trilogy. The first one was superb... he writes in a very descriptive style and I oculd almost see the characters moving in front of me. 

the second volume is called Palace of Desire.


----------



## tastebud (Dec 15, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> yeah, don't bother with it- i thought of it as the archetypal "book club"-book, if you know what i mean...
> i'm sure you won't miss anything by skipping this one...






			
				Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I was always a bit sus about an American man writing in the voice of Japanese geisha....


yep. it's complete toss: one of the worst books i have read in a while. i now need something utterly amazing to read to cancel it out. i have an evening in with six mince pies. i may read philip roth. or ian mcewan.


----------



## districtline (Dec 15, 2005)

jack kerouac - on the road.

no time to read anymore


----------



## walktome (Dec 16, 2005)

districtline said:
			
		

> jack kerouac - on the road.
> 
> no time to read anymore



I just finished re-reading that today. I want to go back to San Francisco RIGHT NOW.


----------



## Leica (Dec 19, 2005)

I am reading Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides. The story about the refugees and their journey in the first fifty pages is similar to the story of my family.


----------



## districtline (Dec 19, 2005)

walktome said:
			
		

> I just finished re-reading that today. I want to go back to San Francisco RIGHT NOW.



i want to go travelling!   

(still not finished with the book though)


----------



## foo (Dec 19, 2005)

The Autograph Man - Zadie Smith. 

i hope it's better than White Teeth...


----------



## Valve (Dec 19, 2005)

from existentialism to rationialism- robert solomon


----------



## boozeroony (Dec 19, 2005)

Wartime Britain 1939-1945 - Juliet Gardner

Nowhere near as dry as the title would suggest, loads of contemporary diary extracts 
give it a personal perspective.


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 19, 2005)

foo said:
			
		

> The Autograph Man - Zadie Smith.
> 
> i hope it's better than White Teeth...



It's worse


----------



## jodal (Dec 19, 2005)

Leica said:
			
		

> I am reading Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides. The story about the refugees and their journey in the first fifty pages is similar to the story of my family.


 Hopefully not too similar.


----------



## maya (Dec 19, 2005)

*-i'm reading...*

Jackie Wullschlager's biography of Hans Christian Andersen.
...which is okay enough, i've just decided to switch to reading his collected fairytales instead, because they're much better and i love the mood/doom/gloom of them, now when it's dark winter and cold outside and everything...


----------



## MysteryGuest (Dec 19, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> Jackie Wullschlager's biography of Hans Christian Andersen.
> ...which is okay enough, i've just decided to switch to reading his collected fairytales instead, because they're much better and i love the mood/doom/gloom of them, now when it's dark winter and cold outside and everything...




Yay!  


I've got the complete unabridged Brothers Grimm, which I like to dip into for a little folk tale gnarly weirdness now and again.


NorthWest Europeans have learnt to enjoy our winters...  


<moves pipe to other corner of mouth, pensively>


----------



## maya (Dec 19, 2005)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> <moves pipe to other corner of mouth, pensively>


...ah- is that a meer schaum pipe perchance, sir holmes?  
*_peers out window at the howling hounds of the moor and shadows drawing closer_*


----------



## MysteryGuest (Dec 19, 2005)

hmmm....


<looks very pensive indeed>


this opium is positively nang, my dear watson


<passes out>


----------



## Leica (Dec 19, 2005)

jodal said:
			
		

> Hopefully not too similar.


Well there wasn't a marriage between siblings if that's what you mean.


----------



## D (Dec 19, 2005)

I'm reading On Beauty by Zadie Smith and I'm due to return The Way of Acting by Tadashi Suzuki to the library, er, yesterday.


----------



## Strumpet (Dec 19, 2005)

The new Adrian Mole. Funny and simple. Just whats needed right now.


----------



## spanglechick (Dec 19, 2005)

the lost art of keeping secrets by eva rice.

it's beautifully observed in its 1950s upper class observation... liking it so far.


----------



## May Kasahara (Dec 20, 2005)

Have just started (at last!) 'A Feast For Crows' by George R R Martin. Glad to see it starts as it means to go on, with lust and death in the first few pages.


----------



## chooch (Dec 20, 2005)

Chris Petit- Robinson


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 21, 2005)

James Packer, Bexley Pubs: The History of Your Local (Bexley: Bexley Libraries and Museums, 1995)


----------



## Calva dosser (Dec 21, 2005)

Just finished 'Amsterdam' Ian Mcwhatever he's called. Next. 

People pounce on other Scottish authors, like Iain Banks and Irvine Welsh if their standard imperceptibly drops. But McEwan goes on churning out this formulaic stuff without a murmur. 

Good for comedowns when you've got 4 hours to kill though. IMO natch.

Fuck me, I'm defending Sweaties. It must be Chrimbollox.


----------



## tastebud (Dec 21, 2005)

Calva dosser said:
			
		

> Just finished 'Amsterdam' Ian Mcwhatever he's called. Next.
> 
> People pounce on other Scottish authors, like Iain Banks and Irvine Welsh if their standard imperceptibly drops. But McEwan goes on churning out this formulaic stuff without a murmur.
> 
> ...


i really liked that book.


----------



## Calva dosser (Dec 21, 2005)

Didn't dislike it, but isn't he supposed to be shit-hot or something?


----------



## Jo/Joe (Dec 21, 2005)

Of Mice and Men. Incredible within pages.


----------



## tastebud (Dec 21, 2005)

Calva dosser said:
			
		

> Didn't dislike it, but isn't he supposed to be shit-hot or something?


he is really amazing imo, but yes, that book is nowhere _near_ as good as some of his other stuff. read enduring love and atonement. they are amazing.

in fact i might read enduring love again soon.


----------



## Calva dosser (Dec 21, 2005)

Heard a fantastic radio version of one of his books once, ex- students in Scottish university town, all very torturous, gruesome murder when they were young, then the copper wot done it starts bumping 'em off one by one when they're middle-aged. Any bells?

With hindsight I DO like McEwan, just a bit sniffy tonight.


----------



## tastebud (Dec 21, 2005)

Calva dosser said:
			
		

> Heard a fantastic radio version of one of his books once, ex- students in Scottish university town, all very torturous, gruesome murder when they were young, then the copper wot done it starts bumping 'em off one by one when they're middle-aged. Any bells?
> 
> With hindsight I DO like McEwan, just a bit sniffy tonight.


no bells, but i am _very_ tired tonight. the cement garden was super too. iirc it was a film as well, although i could've just made that up.

you are right though: amsterdam is nothing more than 'okay'.


----------



## Calva dosser (Dec 21, 2005)

Ah yes, Cement Garden. Charlotte Gainsborough?. You get some sleep, I take back all I said about Macca


----------



## tastebud (Dec 21, 2005)

Calva dosser said:
			
		

> Ah yes, Cement Garden. Charlotte Gainsborough?. You get some sleep, I take back all I said about Macca


i can't sleep yet, unfortunately.

<goes onto amazon instead>

<emails mummy to update xmas list>


----------



## spanglechick (Dec 21, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> James Packer, Bexley Pubs: The History of Your Local (Bexley: Bexley Libraries and Museums, 1995)


you drunk in many of bexley's pubs?  ms derian, ms shells and i could give you a tour, like....


----------



## chooch (Dec 22, 2005)

chooch said:
			
		

> Chris Petit- Robinson


Really quite dark.
Now on to John Cheever- _Bullet Park_.


----------



## maya (Dec 22, 2005)

a bit of Michael Moorcock.


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 22, 2005)

Peter Humfrey & Martin Kemp, eds, The Altarpiece in the Renaissance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990)


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 22, 2005)

spanglechick said:
			
		

> you drunk in many of bexley's pubs?  ms derian, ms shells and i could give you a tour, like....


ok then.


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 22, 2005)

chooch said:
			
		

> Chris Petit- Robinson




aha, finished that a couple of weeks ago. very odd but effective book


----------



## Dirty Martini (Dec 22, 2005)

chooch said:
			
		

> Now on to John Cheever- _Bullet Park_.



Great book, thoroughly strange.

I finished Cloud Atlas, which I enjoyed. A real performance, especially the centrepiece. I thought it began to unravel a bit in the last third. It's no masterpiece -- the themes are too weak, its attempts to say something about imperialism and slavery unconvincing -- but good reading and very moving in parts. He's got style.

Now onto 'Memory and the Mediterranean' by Fernand Braudel, a survey from prehistory to the end of the Roman Empire. Alongside it, Tristram Shandy, shamefully abandoned more times than I can remember but I'm determined this time.


----------



## chooch (Dec 22, 2005)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Now onto 'Memory and the Mediterranean' by Fernand Braudel, a survey from prehistory to the end of the Roman Empire. Alongside


Should be entertaining. I've read bits and bobs of him in translation. Very sweeping.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Dec 22, 2005)

chooch said:
			
		

> Should be entertaining. I've read bits and bobs of him in translation. Very sweeping.



Pretty sweeping. Good for general information


----------



## I'm at work (Dec 23, 2005)

I'm reading my way through the Booker Shortlist having got it for my birthday. I've read The Sea , George and Arthur , Never let me Go, The accidental and now I'm on "On Beauty " by Zadie Smith.

Its readable but I'm only 80 pages in so its early days yet.

For what its worth "Never let me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro is much better then the winner _ The Sea by John Banville.


----------



## spartacus mills (Dec 23, 2005)

Just reaching the end of 'On the Road' by Kerouac.


----------



## chooch (Dec 23, 2005)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Great book, thoroughly strange


Is that. Enjoyed it very much. Unravels pleasingly.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Dec 24, 2005)

"All You Need to Know About the Design and Repair of Russian Cameras" by Isaak Maizenberg.


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 24, 2005)

Anthony Smith, Blind White Fish in Persia (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1953)


----------



## zog (Dec 24, 2005)

Revolutionary Priest by Fr. Camilo Torres and  The Pursuit of Oblivion by Richard Davenport-Hines


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 24, 2005)

zog said:
			
		

> Revolutionary Priest by Fr. Camilo Torres


is that the one out of the pelican latin american library?


----------



## chooch (Dec 24, 2005)

Just started, and finished, B.S. Johnson- _the unfortunates_ which was fairly heartbreaking. Now reading some interminable history of pre-revolutionary Russia and _not fade away_.


----------



## tastebud (Dec 24, 2005)

_Kafka on the Shore_ - Murakami. Which I'm enjoying thus far. I did start to wonder if it was wrong to buy someone a book and then take it from them almost as soon as they unwrapped it.. ? I did buy him quite a few others though. Oh and he _destroyed_ four of mine.


----------



## maya (Dec 24, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> _Kafka on the Shore_ - Murakami. Which I'm enjoying thus far. I did start to wonder if it was wrong to buy someone a book and then take it from them almost as soon as they unwrapped it.. ? I did buy him quite a few others though. Oh and he _destroyed_ four of mine.


just read it, and loved it!
have enjoyed all the murakami i've read so far...


----------



## tastebud (Dec 24, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> just read it, and loved it!
> have enjoyed all the murakami i've read so far...


yep. i am greatly impressed with the first thirty or so pages. good books are like good people: you can usually decide whether you like them from the off.

btw, on the subject of books: i was _sooooo_ tempted by the blythe doll book that has just come out. i almost had an _orgasm_ flicking through it in the bookshop today. if i had more disposable income i would have purchased it immediately.


----------



## maya (Dec 25, 2005)

Vixen said:
			
		

> btw, on the subject of books: i was _sooooo_ tempted by the blythe doll book that has just come out. i almost had an _orgasm_ flicking through it in the bookshop today. if i had more disposable income i would have purchased it immediately.


...is it the one w/a pic of her in a hooded jacket on the front cover?
i have that and don't read it anymore,
if you donate a small sum to the server fund i'll send it off to dub (you're mates, right?) and ask him to pass it on to you!

(you have to wait a bit until i've actually found it, somewhere inside the tower/pile of unopened flatmove boxes, though!)


----------



## zenie (Dec 26, 2005)

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) for Dummies


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 26, 2005)

A J Ayer, The origins of pragmatism : studies in the philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce and William James (London: Macmillan, 1974)


----------



## maya (Dec 26, 2005)

Robert Chaimbers: The King In Yellow.


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 26, 2005)




----------



## anfield (Dec 26, 2005)

_Who's Afraid of Tom Wolfe? How New Journalism Rewrote the World_ by Marc Weingarten


----------



## chooch (Dec 26, 2005)

chooch said:
			
		

> _not fade away_.


Good that. 
Now running out of words fast but have _the transmigration of timothy archer_ for emergencies.


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 27, 2005)

D J Cunningham, Contribution to the Surface Anatomy of the Cerebral Hemispheres. With a chapter upon cranio-cerebral topography by V. Horsley, etc. (Dublin: Irish Royal Academy, 1892)


----------



## maya (Dec 27, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> D J Cunningham, Contribution to the Surface Anatomy of the Cerebral Hemispheres. With a chapter upon cranio-cerebral topography by V. Horsley, etc. (Dublin: Irish Royal Academy, 1892)


"light reading", eh?


----------



## Boogie Boy (Dec 27, 2005)

'Utopia' Thomas More

Very very very interesting.


BB


----------



## Jaysun44 (Dec 28, 2005)

The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac..I love his books


----------



## Valve (Dec 28, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> A J Ayer, The origins of pragmatism : studies in the philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce and William James (London: Macmillan, 1974)



"Ayer, then 77, confronted Mike Tyson harassing Naomi Campbell and demanded that Tyson stop. Tyson said: "Do you know who the fuck I am? I'm the heavyweight champion of the world," to which Ayer replied: "And I am the former Wykeham Professor of Logic. We are both pre-eminent in our field. I suggest that we talk about this like rational men." (Rogers, 344)"

ahhh, AJ.


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 29, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> "light reading", eh?


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 29, 2005)

afraid Orang Utan was right about Fortress Of Solitude.. it was almost TOO well written, felt like walking through beautifully-wrought treacle.

just polishing off the second Biskind - Down & Dirty Pictures -then going to switch back and forth between the aforementioned Occult book and William Goldman's Princess Bride.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Dec 29, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> "light reading", eh?



The question to ask is does he actually read the books he posts up or does he merely note the titles as he places them on a shelf..........


BB


----------



## maya (Dec 29, 2005)

Boogie Boy said:
			
		

> The question to ask is does he actually read the books he posts up or does he merely note the titles as he places them on a shelf..........
> BB


well i dunno, but i love that font...!


----------



## Boogie Boy (Dec 29, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> well i dunno, but i love that font...!



It is a very 'serious' font isn't it?

BB


----------



## walktome (Dec 30, 2005)

By some weird coincidence I seem to be reading a lot of musicians' (auto)biographies right now. First I finally started reading a book a friend lent me months ago, Neil and Me, written by Neil Young's father Scott Young. Then I bought Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis and finished that in about three days. Then my sister bought my dad Brother Ray (Ray Charles' autobiography) for Christmas so I promptly borrowed it. I'm only a few chapters into it but I find it annoying how it's written the way Ray Charles speaks (spelling things such as "till" or "bout" or "cept"). Other than that though it seems good.


----------



## spartacus mills (Dec 30, 2005)

Just started 'Tainted Love', the new Stewart Home book.


----------



## Reno (Dec 30, 2005)

_The Crimson Petal and the White_ by Michael Faber. I read _Under the Skin_ by him earlier this year and I really liked that.


----------



## Barking_Mad (Dec 30, 2005)

Bob Dylan - Chronicles Vol 1.

Good stuff.


----------



## LDR (Dec 30, 2005)

DMT - The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman.  Doing some research you see. 

I'm also reading Lovesick Blues: The Life of Hank Williams by Paul Hemphill which Yoss and etnea brought me for my birthday.


----------



## onemonkey (Dec 30, 2005)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> just polishing off the second Biskind - Down & Dirty Pictures -then going to switch back and forth between the aforementioned Occult book and William Goldman's Princess Bride.


i'm couldn't finish Biskind because i had been expecting it to be like William Goldman's Adventures in the Screen Trade

it was not


----------



## Biddlybee (Dec 30, 2005)

Been trying to read The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts (Louis De Bernieres) for weeks and just can't get into it, so started on _Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide_ by Gerard Prunier.


----------



## Streathamite (Dec 30, 2005)

I'm reading _Is it just me or is everything shit?_ - perfect antidote to all that revolting yule-sent sentimentality, and just the book for a grumpy old cynic like me.


----------



## LDR (Dec 30, 2005)

BiddlyBee said:
			
		

> Been trying to read The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts (Louis De Bernieres) for weeks and just can't get into it.


I gave up on that too.  One of the most boring books I've read in a long time.


----------



## meurig (Dec 30, 2005)

Enduring Love by Ian McEwan. Recommended, even if his attempts at philosophising are a bit over-egged in parts.


----------



## miss giggles (Dec 30, 2005)

I'm reading Lunar park by Bret Easton Ellis  

I'd definately recomend it. I've only just started reading it, but I'm finding it difficult to put down.


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Dec 30, 2005)

miss giggles said:
			
		

> I'm reading Lunar park by Bret Easton Ellis
> 
> I'd definately recomend it. I've only just started reading it, but I'm finding it difficult to put down.



It starts brilliantly, but then... oh well, you'll soon find out.

Am reading Roth's "The Human Stain". Can't go wrong with a Roth.


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 31, 2005)

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Studies in Occultism (Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press, 1998)

i'm also having a pop at: 

Francis Yates, The Occult Philosophy in the Elizbethan Age (London: Routledge, 2001)


----------



## oi2002 (Dec 31, 2005)

Easter 1916, The Irish Rebellion by Charles Townsend

I'd recommend this one for anyone interested in Ireland.  It does not give a flattering portrait of the Easter week rebels, Padraig Pearse comes off particularly badly, as silly a murderous pedant as the WWI era produced and even the level headed Connolly emerges as easily lead and grossly irresponsible.  Heroic perhaps but dreamers quiet unlike the efficient Collins and slippery Dev that replaced them. The almost erased Bulmer Hobson gets a fair go for once as does Redmond's desperate gamble on Home Rule.  Carson and the UVF are properly placed in an all Ireland context as a precursor to Republican militarism.   

London gets slapped down even harder, describing English attitudes to Ireland as ignorant, arrogant and baffled; that's still true today, just listen to the unworldly guff that preening oaf Hain spouts. 

The sober conclusion includes the view of Lenin that the Irish had their revolution too soon.  Garret Fitzgeralds accurate assesment that the hasty anglo-phobic faith and fatherland nationalism of the likes of Pearse lead inevitably to an Ireland of two states that enshrined sectarianism and truncated both Irish identities.  Hobson's traditionalist Fenian view that the rising should await popular support is perhaps vindicated, espeacially as the threat of Irish conscription in 1918 achieved this.  I'm left thinking Home Rule was great missed opportunity and that the great European madness of WWI injured Ireland more than I'd realised.


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 31, 2005)

oi2002 said:
			
		

> Easter 1916, The Irish Rebellion by Charles Townsend
> 
> I'd recommend this one for anyone interested in Ireland.  It does not give a flattering portrait of the Easter week rebels, Padraig Pearse comes off particularly badly, as silly a murderous pedant as the WWI era produced and even the level headed Connolly emerges as easily lead and grossly irresponsible.  Heroic perhaps but dreamers quiet unlike the efficient Collins and slippery Dev that replaced them. The almost erased Bulmer Hobson gets a fair go for once as does Redmond's desperate gamble on Home Rule.  Carson and the UVF are properly placed in an all Ireland context as a precursor to Republican militarism.
> 
> ...


yeh, i've seen good reviews of this, but i'm waiting for it to come out in paperback.


----------



## liberty (Dec 31, 2005)

Harry Potter and the Half blood prince


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 31, 2005)

liberty said:
			
		

> Harry Potter and the Half blood prince


----------



## maya (Dec 31, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> Francis Yates, The Occult Philosophy in the Elizbethan Age (London: Routledge, 2001)


i read that for my uni course- 
very interesting and yates were up there among the most skilled researchers imo,
read it back to back w/mircea eliade... 

blavatsky on the other hand, is/were utter, utter toss, though (_and_ a fraud!)


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 31, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> blavatsky is/were utter, utter toss though (and a fraud)


  



oh well. i'll read something else then.


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 31, 2005)

Dawn Perlmutter, Investigating religious terrorism and ritualistic crimes (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2004)


----------



## maya (Dec 31, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> oh well. i'll read something else then.


  btw, imagine my surprise when yesterday leafing through some books at the local leftie store, a v.young bearded man _snatched_ the last remaining copy of frazer's "the golden bough" off the shelves, just before i was going to get it...respect!   

so that's what i had planned on reading today:
Frazier: The Golden Bough...


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 31, 2005)

got it.


----------



## maya (Dec 31, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> got it.


...it wasn't _you_, was it!?    
grr


----------



## Pickman's model (Dec 31, 2005)

maya said:
			
		

> ...it wasn't _you_, was it!?
> grr


no, i bought my abridg'd ed'n some years ago after leafing through the unexpurgat'd vers'n in the library of the folklore society.


----------



## maya (Dec 31, 2005)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> in the folklore society library.


  
*feels envious*


----------



## spartacus mills (Jan 1, 2006)

Just skimmed through: Eckhart Kent, The Bible is a Surrealistic Masterpiece (Madrid: Escarabajo 1927)  

Just starting Ed McBain's 'Cop Hater'. I've never read any of his stuff before.

Here's the complete list of books wot I read in 2005:

01. M.R. JAMES - Collected Ghost Stories
02. IAN MCEWAN - The Cement Garden
03. J.K. HUYSMANS - En Route
04. WILLIAM GOLDING - Free Fall
05. J.G. BALLARD - Rushing to Paradise
06. B.S. JOHNSON - Christie Malry's Own Double Entry
07. KENNETH GRANT - Against the Light
08. MONICA ALI - Brick Lane
09. JONATHAN AMES - I Pass Like Night
10. JOSEPH CONRAD - Chance
11. TONI MORRISON - Love
12. ANDRE GIDE - The Immoralist
13. NEMA - Maat Magick
14. MARK HADDON - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
15. LUTHER BLISSETT - Q
16. CHARLES BUKOWSKI - Women
17. CHRISTOPHER HILL - The World Turned Upside Down
18. CHRISTOPHER DAWES - Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail
19. GRAHAM GREENE - The Heart of the Matter
20. CHRISTOPHER HILL - God's Englishman
21. SCHOFIELD AND MITCHELL-JONES - The Bats of Britain and Ireland
22. PAT MOSELEY - Serving Under Ruperra
23. IAN SINCLAIR - White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings
24. PETER ACKROYD - Chatterton
25. IAN MCEWAN - The Child in Time
26. PETER ACKROYD - Hawksmoor
27. IAIN SINCLAIR - Downriver
28. IAIN SINCLAIR - London Orbital
29. DOUGLAS ADAMS - Last Chance to See
30. SIMON KUPER -    Ajax, the Dutch, the War
31. IAIN SINCLAIR - Landor's Tower
32-34. B.S. JOHNSON - ANTHOLOGY:
                                  - Alberto Angelo
                                  - Trawl
                                  - House Mother Normal
35. WILL SELF - The Quantity Theory of Insanity
36. CHRISTOPHER HILL - The Century of Revolution
37. JACK KEROUAC - On the Road
38. STEWART HOME - Tainted Love


----------



## Teepee (Jan 1, 2006)

Just finished 'Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury, I'm about to start on Aldous Huxley's 'Point Counter Point'


----------



## colbhoy (Jan 2, 2006)

spartacus mills said:
			
		

> Just starting Ed McBain's 'Cop Hater'. I've never read any of his stuff before.



I love McBain. Haven't read Cop Hater though.

I am currently reading eight Men Out by Eliot Astinof. It tells the story of the 1919 Chicago White Sox who threw baseball's World Series.


----------



## spartacus mills (Jan 2, 2006)

colbhoy said:
			
		

> I love McBain. Haven't read Cop Hater though.



It's the first of the 87th Precinct series. Pretty good so far.


----------



## chooch (Jan 2, 2006)

LD Rudeboy said:
			
		

> One of the most boring books I've read in a long time.


Aye. Cuntery by a cunt. 
Now reading Terry Southern _flash and filigree_.


----------



## Fledgling (Jan 2, 2006)

oi2002 said:
			
		

> Easter 1916, The Irish Rebellion by Charles Townsend
> 
> .



Good review, I am interested in Irish history but have not really read much on the subject, save a chapter of Tim Pat Coogan's rather lenghty account of the nation, although the first chapter dealt with the rising rather well. If this is one of the better books to read I'll get hold of it. At present though I still have loads of books I haven't read, my brother bought me a couple of Camus books so I'm reading The First Man, an excellent biography and really insightful. Also reading The Fall and just finished at long last Gerald Brenan's The Spanish Labyrith, the best account of Spain to be had for Civil War studies.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Jan 3, 2006)

Our Land Before We Die; the story of the Seminole Negro.


----------



## Larry O'Hara (Jan 3, 2006)

Pickman's model said:
			
		

> oh well. i'll read something else then.



that Blavatsky was a fraud doesn't make her uninteresting--a key source for some New Age wankery (as you might say) & also the likes of Icke.


----------



## Pie 1 (Jan 4, 2006)

Got given Umberto Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Lorna for Xmas and I've decided, after reading the 1st hundred pages, to take it back & exchange it.

The first opening section started to become a tad smug & then the second section has just decended into a self satisfied, obscure quote wankfest, crammed with the sort of intelectual snobbery that only an academic with their head truly inserted up their backside is capable of.  

Pictures are lovely though!


----------



## Bazza (Jan 4, 2006)

The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith

Really enjoying this a lot more than I thought. Only picked it up as I had nothing to read for my train journey. 

I aim to read at least a book every two weeks (or 26 in total) this year...so far, I'm on track!


----------



## Brainaddict (Jan 4, 2006)

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

It's easier to read than I expected, as long as you don't expect a traditional plot.


----------



## kyser_soze (Jan 4, 2006)

Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds...pretty decent so far...


----------



## Jenerys (Jan 4, 2006)

Jan Wong's China - her follow up to Red China Blues - an excellent read so far


----------



## Pickman's model (Jan 4, 2006)

the black book of st augustine


----------



## Pickman's model (Jan 4, 2006)

Brainaddict said:
			
		

> The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
> 
> It's easier to read than I expected, as long as you don't expect a traditional plot.


yeh, it's some scores of pages before he even gets born, in't it?


----------



## Stanley Edwards (Jan 4, 2006)

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke.

An Olde Worlde, other worlde book about magic.


----------



## spartacus mills (Jan 4, 2006)

'The Leopard' by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.


----------



## Rollem (Jan 5, 2006)

snow flower and the secret fan - lisa see


----------



## Shandril19 (Jan 5, 2006)

spartacus mills said:
			
		

> Here's the complete list of books wot I read in 2005:



I started a book log in August of '05.   I'm very much looking forward to being able to give a complete re-cap of my reading in 2006.


Anyway....  just finished Memoirs of a Geisha - Golden   and  The Bonesetter's Daughter - Amy Tan.

Currently reading The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber.   Not really enjoying it too much, but I read fast enough that I might as well finish it.


----------



## maya (Jan 5, 2006)

i have to read half a book by Petrarca (renaissance italian monk/wise man-type who got killed during the Black Death, apparently-   ),

but the fact that the _only_ available copy is in French, which i've just got _basic _skills in, doesn't make the reading any easier...i'm about to give up!


----------



## starfish (Jan 6, 2006)

I got Robert Fisks, The Great War for Civilisation for Christmas & am working my way through that.


----------



## ck (Jan 6, 2006)

"Strangeland" by Tracey Emin.  Really easy read ; first thing I've read in ages and I've nearly finished it after starting it on Monday.

Good X-mas present from my sister I'd say ; it's actually something I wanted !


----------



## dessiato (Jan 6, 2006)

Currently re-reading Sex Lives of Cannibals, can't remember the author's name though. It's a great,true, story about a couple moving from mainland US to a very small island in the Pacific.


----------



## YouSir (Jan 6, 2006)

Robert Anton Wilson - Prometheus Rising

Getting in touch with my inner fnord.


----------



## districtline (Jan 6, 2006)

alan hollinghurst - the line of beauty
geschichte der deutschen literatur, band 6 - von 1945 bis zur gegenwart


----------



## MysteryGuest (Jan 6, 2006)

Brainaddict said:
			
		

> The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
> 
> It's easier to read than I expected, as long as you don't expect a traditional plot.




Ah I think it's wicked, and really funny too.  I read it back in the early 90s and keep meaning to read it again coz it's full of brilliant mad funny ideas and good stories.


----------



## oi2002 (Jan 7, 2006)

Paleo-con Scott McConnell  reviews The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq by George Packer





> The issue of how the Iraq War began will likely engage future historians as much as the beginning of World War I. It still remains, in a way, a mystery: Packer poignantly cites Richard Haass, the former director of policy planning at the State Department, as saying he will go to his grave not knowing why the United States invaded Iraq. “A decision was not made—a decision happened, and you can’t say when or how.”


Packer has written the most convincing explantion of how a dazed and confused DC blundered towards Baghdad.  A questionable venture made hopeless by the neocon dogmatism of some of the main actors.  If you read one book about Iraq this year pick this one.

I'm reading Night Draws Near by Anthony Shadid which gathers together many interviews with Iraq's to explain why removing a savage dictatorship has failed to liberate Iraq from its long history as some in DC dreamed.  From the early 70s the country moves from a secular country of near European prosperity. To battered exhaustion in the WWI like Iraq-Iraq war. Saddam then clings to power by fighting hopeless wars, setting his divided people to squablilng and increasingly towards the Mosque. 

As the M1As massed on it borders Iraqis still dreamed of nationhood but they were barely a nation anymore.  The harsh ideologies of the Iranian revolution were already flooding into Basra.  The Pentagons Iraqi exiles knew only the gilded Iraq they left in the 70s.  Iraq's fanciful freemarket liberators tellingly thought looting was what freedom looked like, deeply averse to nation building that they came with no plans to do it and so blinkered by ideology that even dire necessity could not make them settle to that unwelcome task.


----------



## Leica (Jan 7, 2006)

Anna Seghers, _Der Aufslug der toten Mädchen_ (1945).


----------



## Boogie Boy (Jan 7, 2006)

'The Case Books Of Simon Forman' A.L Rowse

A bloody good read.

BB


----------



## J77 (Jan 9, 2006)

Read *The Wind Singer* by  William Nicholson, which was a bit much of a children's book for me.

Am now finishing *Cloud Atlas* by David Mitchell, which I'm enjoying very much


----------



## stroober (Jan 9, 2006)

the trial - kafka


----------



## belboid (Jan 9, 2006)

Just finished Peel's Margrave of the Marshes - a jolly entertaining read, and really quite interesting.

Now have two on the go, as they're both books of essays, Michael Powell: International Perspectives on an English Film-maker, edited by Ian Christie, first few are excellant and very interesting comments and insights into the masters' works.  And then theres The Sound and the Fury: 40 Years of Classic Rock Journalism - A Rock's Back Pages Reader - which is what it says on the ....dust jacket. Some of the best rock writing from, mmmm, the last 40 years....


----------



## Tank Girl (Jan 9, 2006)

I got a belated birthday present at the weekend, 3 books set in china, I'm undecided which one to start with first.

they are ....

to the edge of the sky - anhua gao
the binding chair - kathryn harrison
falling leaves - adeline yen mah


if anyone's read any of them, which would you recommend?


----------



## foo (Jan 9, 2006)

a friend recommended The Binding Chair to me Spanks. she's lending it when she's done - soon, i hope. 

are you sure none of those are 'tube' books? <stern look>


----------



## MysteryGuest (Jan 9, 2006)

Tank Girl said:
			
		

> 3 books set in china




Strange imagery for a second there.    No doubt partly caused by the fact that "set" is, by quite some way, the most overworked word in the English language.  Look it up if you don't believe me.  My edition of Chambers 1998 has a few pages of small type given over entirely to various meanings and senses of this little word.


----------



## Tank Girl (Jan 9, 2006)

foo - I certainly do hope that they're tube books 

and MG, I'm not clever like what you are


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 9, 2006)

read and mostly enjoyed Down & Dirty Pictures (skipped the Sundance stuff in the end, but the Miramax stuff was great).

now flying through The Princess Bride, which is bloody marvellous.


----------



## belboid (Jan 9, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> read and mostly enjoyed Down & Dirty Pictures (skipped the Sundance stuff in the end, but the Miramax stuff was great).


ooh blimey, I got given that for christmas n all.....but I've left it round someone elses house and keep forgetting to go back and pick it up - especially as they probably dont even reralise who the book belongs to...


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 9, 2006)

belboid said:
			
		

> ooh blimey, I got given that for christmas n all.....but I've left it round someone elses house and keep forgetting to go back and pick it up - especially as they probably dont even reralise who the book belongs to...




it is good, very good. the Sundance stuff is - IMO - initially interesting but then becomes very routine (Redford loses interest, sacks everyone, everyone sulks) but the Weinsteins are just great value, and it's fun to hear a) what a total cunt Tarantino is and b) how much Kevin Smith kisses Weinstein's arse


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 9, 2006)

Didn't the journalese grate a little?
He lays it on a bit thick - lots of ludicrously extended (and mixed) metaphors and inappropriate magazine article style writing.
It's nowhere near as good as Easy Riders, Raging Bulls - it gets far too bogged down in the minutae of marketing and production of pictures - an essential part of it, granted, but Easy Riders contained more about the actual pictures produced, and was all the more readable for it. 
Still, it's got lots of scenes with Harvey losing it and frothing at the mouth which more than makes up for the shoddiness of the writing.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 9, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Didn't the journalese grate a little?
> He lays it on a bit thick - lots of ludicrously extended (and mixed) metaphors and inappropriate magazine article style writing.
> It's nowhere near as good as Easy Riders, Raging Bulls - it gets far too bogged down in the minutae of marketing and production of pictures - an essential part of it, granted, but Easy Riders contained more about the actual pictures produced, and was all the more readable for it.
> Still, it's got lots of scenes with Harvey losing it and frothing at the mouth which more than makes up for the shoddiness of the writing.



oh god, yes. some of the writing is dreadful - almost amusingly so - but i got really good at skimming it


----------



## Badgers (Jan 9, 2006)

So far have read the first three of the 'Flashman Papers' and am amazed that these never came to my attention before.............

Hilarious and full of history! 

Flashman (1969)
Royal Flash (1970)
Flash for Freedom! (1971)
Flashman at the Charge (1973) 
Flashman and the Tiger 
Flashman in the Great Game (1975)
Flashman's Lady (1977) 
Flashman and the Redskins (1982)
Flashman and the Dragon (1985)
Flashman and the Mountain of Light (1990)
Flashman and the Angel of the Lord (1994)


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 9, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> oh god, yes. some of the writing is dreadful - almost amusingly so - but i got really good at skimming it


I couldn't bring myself to skim anything


----------



## foamy (Jan 9, 2006)

i've finished reading 'the food of love' by Anthony Capella which in itself wasn't groundbreakingly prize winningly good but it had some excellent sides to it...
1) it taught me a lot of very bad italian swear-phrases
2) it taught me a lot about italian, and specifically roman cooking
 

now, under the recomendeation of my housemate i've started 'Love' by Toni Morrison.......

i've just realised i'm very jealous of the book group but theres no way i could get through the books at the rate they do  stupid work. why cant i be a lush for a living?


----------



## Sesquipedalian (Jan 9, 2006)

*Marmaduke !!!!!*

London Fields - Martin Amis.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 9, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> i've just realised i'm very jealous of the book group but theres no way i could get through the books at the rate they do  stupid work. why cant i be a lush for a living?



you seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that most of them ever read the bloody things


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 10, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> you seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that most of them ever read the bloody things


I've been a member for over a year now and have read less than half of them   
I just moan about the choices and enjoy the company


----------



## SonOfGoatboy (Jan 10, 2006)

I've just finished 'The Crimson Petal and the White' by Michael Faber. Fantastic stuff; modern victoriana, lots of sexual politics and intrigue. Meaty.
Just starting 'Kingdom of Fear' by Hunter S Thompson. Should be fun.


----------



## rennie (Jan 11, 2006)

Notes from a defeatest by Joe Sacco. a collection of his early drawings... some i like some i hate.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 11, 2006)

just finished the fantastic Princess Bride in the bath.

now torn between the Peel autobiography, the Occult book or a collection of TC Boyle short stories..


----------



## chooch (Jan 11, 2006)

Christopher Hill- _the world turned upside down_ and _England's turning point_.


----------



## districtline (Jan 11, 2006)

paolo hewitt, mark baxter - the fashion of football.

bought it today, only read the first 40 pages so far but seems like a good read.

still got loads of half-read books to get through before my move in three weeks time.


----------



## spartacus mills (Jan 11, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> Christopher Hill- _the world turned upside down_ and _England's turning point_.



I read 'The World Turned Upside Down' last year. Marvellous book.
Just started 'The Question of Zion' by Jacqueline Rose.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Jan 11, 2006)

'An Introduction To The Hadith' John Burton (Edinburgh)

If only they had used a different font!

BB


----------



## ck (Jan 11, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I couldn't bring myself to skim anything



one I start skimming , it's a sign to me that I won't finish the book.

Started "To Kill A Mockingbird" today. It features throughout "Capote" and Catherine Keener is great as Harper Lee.  (This spurned me to pick up the copy I've had since day dot...)


----------



## Strumpet (Jan 12, 2006)

Am about to dive into Emerson.....Ralph Waldo....never read him before, should be interesting.


----------



## Pieface (Jan 12, 2006)

The Virgin Suicides.

I _loved _ Middlesex - I think he's a writer with great ideas who manages to draw you into the humanity of every tale brilliantly.  I honestly think he could invent a monster evil serial killer character and get you onside in a page.

Just like Milton    

Well maybe not just like Milton but he rocks.  The book is pretty different to how I remember the film - the male viewpoint is more defined and I feel like a lot more of Sofia Coppola went into the film than I previously thought, in terms of nostalgia (I think it would have been the same era as her childhood) and giving the viewer freedom to interpret the characters more.  There's just too _much _ internal life in the book to ever translate to screen coherently - she did a good job imo.

Could be wrong, mind - I need to watch it again.

But yeah - Jeffrey Eugenides - read him


----------



## Rollem (Jan 12, 2006)

Tank Girl said:
			
		

> I got a belated birthday present at the weekend, 3 books set in china, I'm undecided which one to start with first.
> 
> they are ....
> 
> ...


i haven't read "to the edge of the sky" but the other two are great, impo

i preferred "falling leaves" out of the two though  if that helps?

if you like them, i have other recommendations of smillar _set _ books, you can raid my "library" 


just started reading "ursula, under" by  ingrid hill


----------



## maya (Jan 12, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> I _loved _ Middlesex - I think he's a writer with great ideas who manages to draw you into the humanity of every tale brilliantly.  I honestly think he could invent a monster evil serial killer character and get you onside in a page.


sorry, glad you liked it- but just adding my opinion:

i had _really high_ expectations for that book, but didn't manage to like it-
mostly because i felt it (for me) was one of those books where the author _tries_ too hard, so the characters didn't come alive enough to feel "believeable"-
if it had been a TV drama, i wouldn't mind- but with books i need to get sucked into the reading, rather than admire the writing and think: "yeah, this author is really clever (but i feel something's missing)"


----------



## Pieface (Jan 12, 2006)

Shit - I found them very believable!  That's why I think he's so good - he made quite extreme characters come alive rather than remain as cartoons.

But - having read more at lunchtime I'm talking rubbish about the nostalgia quota upping in the film - book's dripping with it.


----------



## belboid (Jan 12, 2006)

ck said:
			
		

> one I start skimming , it's a sign to me that I won't finish the book.
> 
> Started "To Kill A Mockingbird" today. It features throughout "Capote" and Catherine Keener is great as Harper Lee.  (This spurned me to pick up the copy I've had since day dot...)


must see Capote, does it cover the story that he actually wrote Mockingbird, while she did the vast majority of the work on In Cold Blood?


----------



## maya (Jan 12, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> Shit - I found them very believable!  That's why I think he's so good - he made quite extreme characters come alive rather than remain as cartoons.


sorry, perhaps it's the language barrier for me?
i've always found English to be a very "flat", dry and "unemotional" language,
compared to my mothertongue- 
imo a lot of words and phrases in English can sound so extremely clichéd, because of that "flatness" of the language
(and perhaps also because of bad pop lyrics, hollywood films, popcultural dominance/invasion, aswell?)

English is not a good language for expressing emotions/feelings i think,
whereas more detached/observational/intellectual ways of writing suits English very well and does not sound so good in translation into more "emotional" languages.

(for the same reason fantastic literature in my own language loses its greatness when translated into English- often it seems amateurish because the style doesn't "cross over" well.)

so i tend to often get annoyed by this tendency in (especially) some american writers who i find to be too "chatty" and clever and just without "depth"...
of course this is just a personal opinion and its great if other people disagree,
taste is a personal thing after all.


----------



## Bomber (Jan 12, 2006)

Having neglected the written word for many months now I am about to begin a reading odyssey through a pile of books that I acquired but never read ...

  First up ~ Accordion crimes ~ E. Annie Proulx to be followed by David Nowell's 'Too Darn Soulful', which is basically a look at the Northern Soul scene.


----------



## Pieface (Jan 12, 2006)

Heh - and you posted all that without mentioning "Lost in Translation" once   

I would never truely understand this unless I mastered another language well enough to compare - and judging from the way you write, you're well able to.  It must be fascinating to be multi-lingual and be able to get this extra dimension from books - I can only go on English unfortunately   

But I think this:




			
				maya said:
			
		

> (and perhaps also because of bad pop lyrics, hollywood films, popcultural dominance/invasion, aswell?)



is a valid point - especially when these songs and films take emotions and situations that are supposed to be sublime/extreme and manage to make them prosaic through repetition and cliché.   Perhaps the fall-out from this is the detached/observational/intellectual style of writing.  But then bad lyrics are nothing new to this day and age - we've been writing badly about emotions for centuries     I'm not sure I could stomach more - making me a true Brit I guess.....

Does your mother tongue have a much larger vocabulary with more nuances of meaning?

(I have no idea if this is a factor in the difference you see - it just interests me as cliché is borne of repetition and maybe lack of variety in our vocab is the problem.  It could be a cultural difference.)


----------



## maya (Jan 12, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> especially when these songs and films take emotions and situations that are supposed to be sublime/extreme and manage to make them prosaic through repetition and cliché.   Perhaps the fall-out from this is the detached/observational/intellectual style of writing.


yeah, i think so too-
even though it seems we are slowly moving away from extreme "generation x"-irony and into more subtle ways of writing (?)  




			
				PieEye said:
			
		

> Does your mother tongue have a much larger vocabulary with more nuances of meaning?


oddly, it's got a much smaller vocabulary, actually!  
but it's got more words for emotional states and moods,
more synonyms and nuances for describing things in different ways imo...(?)

but in all writers and languages you will of course have laziness,
so i think that perhaps is the main factor of clichés- the lack of will/effort to experiment and take risks etc.- so you'll find bad writing everywhere, i reckon!!


----------



## walktome (Jan 13, 2006)

Dispatches by Michael Herr. I'm reading it for my narrative class and so far I really, really like it. It's my favourite book for that class so far (Frankenstein was my old class favourite).


----------



## Flashman (Jan 13, 2006)

Just finished that Dog in the Night-Time, I'm not one for contemporary novels ordinarily (there's so much to catch up on from the past) but I enjoyed this. Now on Porterhouse Blue, which is _okay_, Sharpe promises much but never really delivers for me. Blott was similarly okay, but, and I know this won't be popular, I've enjoyed the tv adaptions    of both more than the books to be honest.


----------



## Pieface (Jan 13, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> yeah, i think so too-
> even though it seems we are slowly moving away from extreme "generation x"-irony and into more subtle ways of writing (?)



I agree - which is why I don't think Brett Easton Ellis is going to have a career unless he changes his mantra a bit - although his last one got better reviews so perhaps he has.   I really can't take any more jaded "is this it?" novels, which makes me either optimistic or naive    

Or both


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 13, 2006)

i have put my book about the occult to one side while i read of the fantastic book about José Posada that Pie Face bought me for Christmas.


----------



## jodal (Jan 13, 2006)

Great book. Wasn't Herr a consultant on Platoon or some other great Vietnam War movie? I think you'll find that he was.


----------



## walktome (Jan 13, 2006)

He was the coauthor of Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket. I'm going to see Apocalypse Now soon.


----------



## Louloubelle (Jan 13, 2006)

The Adolescent Psyche - Richard Frankel 
good stuff on psychotherapy with adoclescents by a Jungian analyst - he's a lovely bloke I met him a few years back but this is the first time I've given myself time to read his book

When Illness Strikes the Leader The Dilemma of the Captive King - Robert Robins Jerrold Post
Very, very interesting book about what happens when kings, presidents and prime ministers become seriously / terminally ill, how they react to their illness (including denying it and taking risks they might otherwise not take in order to leave their mark on history) and how their advisors end up behaving in dysfunctional ways out of loyalty and anxiety, fascinating political psychology that can be applied to organisations.  Very insightful

The Hidden Persuaders - Yance Packard
Re-reading this book to brush up on the psychology behind advertising, a classic and very interesting book


----------



## foamy (Jan 13, 2006)

walktome said:
			
		

> Dispatches by Michael Herr. I'm reading it for my narrative class and so far I really, really like it. It's my favourite book for that class so far (Frankenstein was my old class favourite).



i loved that book. but it gave me nightmares!


----------



## Jo/Joe (Jan 13, 2006)

The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov. Fantastic and magical.


----------



## chooch (Jan 13, 2006)

Jo/Joe said:
			
		

> The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov. Fantastic and magical.


Bulgakov's on the list but oddly never seems to get to the top.


----------



## Pickman's model (Jan 14, 2006)

john ashton, _the devil in britain and america_ (london, 1896)


----------



## Throbbing Angel (Jan 15, 2006)

Gwendoline Riley's  "Sick Notes"


----------



## tastebud (Jan 15, 2006)

Jo/Joe said:
			
		

> The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov. Fantastic and magical.


Ditto!


----------



## onemonkey (Jan 15, 2006)

Jo/Joe said:
			
		

> The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov. Fantastic and magical.


i noticed the other day that i seem to have three copies of that.. if anyone wants one (or two) let me know 

update:
both spoken for


----------



## walktome (Jan 16, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> i loved that book. but it gave me nightmares!



It hasn't given me any nightmares so far, I find it fascinating, in a horrifying way.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 16, 2006)

halfway through the absolutely fantastic Virgin Suicides. a brilliant brilliant book, Eugenides strikes a wonderful tone throughout.


----------



## Pickman's model (Jan 16, 2006)

R F Hoddinott, Early Byzantine Churches in Macedonia and Southern Serbia (London: Macmillan, 1963)


----------



## Hollis (Jan 16, 2006)

Piers Morgan "The Insider"

God am I enjoying it..


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 17, 2006)

Hollis said:
			
		

> Piers Morgan "The Insider"
> 
> God am I enjoying it..


Haha, so I'm not the only one to indulge in such a guilty pleasure


----------



## spartacus mills (Jan 17, 2006)

Jimmy McDonough - "The Ghastly One: The Sex-Gore Netherworld of filmmaker Andy Milligan"


----------



## districtline (Jan 17, 2006)

hunter s thompson - fear and loathing in las vegas


----------



## mrkikiet (Jan 18, 2006)

ray loriga - Tokyo doesn't love us any more


----------



## Philbc03 (Jan 18, 2006)

Alice Seabold - The Lovely Bones (2002) 

and

Rosemary Hennessy and Chrys Ingraham - Materialist Feminism (1997)


----------



## pianistenvy (Jan 18, 2006)

Love is Colder Than Death - a Fassbinder biography. Tis quite a good read (coming from someone who only really reads tabloids)


----------



## chooch (Jan 18, 2006)

John Lanchester- _the debt to pleasure_
and James Holstun- _ehud's dagger_; a biggish tome on class struggle in the English Revolution.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 19, 2006)

Shakespeare -- 'Venus and Adonis' and the sonnets

Just started and loving 'Albert Angelo' by BS Johnson. Salty and strange.

Still picking up and occasionally cursing 'Tristram Shandy'.


----------



## Pieface (Jan 19, 2006)

Joan Didion - the Year of Magical Thinking

I've been getting more contemplative about my and others' mortality recently (facile thing to say but there you go) so I really wanted to read this book.  Joan's husband died in dec 2004 weeks after their daughter went into an induced coma due to a brain condition.  The book's about that period, her grieving process and also a memoir of sorts to her relationship with John.

It strikes me as brave obviously, but I'm also glad it's the first book of it's type that I've read, as it doesn't have any truck with the spiritual approach (so far).  

Her approach is thorough and literary - _whenever there's a problem, read up on it, knowledge is control_ is her approach to strife.  While there are moments of clarity, that angle is revealed as mostly futile but her frankness is astonishing.

Haven't finished it yet but I couldn't recommend it highly enough and although it sounds brittle and highbrow it's very emotive read, bits of it have torn me apart.


----------



## citydreams (Jan 19, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> John Lanchester- _the debt to pleasure_



hehee.. are you enjoying it?  my copy came with a hospital menu as a book mark.


----------



## Tooter (Jan 19, 2006)

STFC Loyal said:
			
		

> "They were four young photographers who covered the township war in South Africa in the early 90's. They worked together, risked their lives together, partied together. Ken Oosterbroek died, shot by a stray bullet while working. Kevin Carter committed suicide a matter of weeks after he won a Pulitzer prize for a photograph of a starving child in the Sudan. In this remarkable book, Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva, the two surviving members of the group, tell their extraordinary and harrowing story."
> 
> I picked this up at Heathrow this morning, I have only read a few pages but it looks like an excellent read.



That is a great book...really made me aware of the issues in South Africa...quite grim in places tho...


----------



## Boogie Boy (Jan 19, 2006)

stroober said:
			
		

> the trial - kafka



I've just started that - not quite sure what to make of it so far. I'm a tad underwhelmed by the writing.


BB


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Jan 20, 2006)

A very good biography of Mary Shelley by Muriel Spark....thanks IntoStella...it's great.


----------



## colbhoy (Jan 20, 2006)

I have just started The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving. Still in the first chapter (for those that know Irving, they are long chapters!). It's shaping up pretty well so far.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Jan 20, 2006)

Battle Royale - Koushun Takami , well enjoying it so far should have read this before watching the movie though


----------



## cyberfairy (Jan 20, 2006)

'Lost Pubs Of Bath'- got it today in Waterstones.Was going to get 'Saturday' by Ian Mcewen but have waited so long to find it at charity shop and know the minute i buy it new, will see it for 50p and be cross.
'Lost Pubs Of Bath' by Andrew Swift and Kirsten Elliot is fantastic so far and  of interest to people not even living in Bath...a big fat book with lots of amazing before and after photos, detailing  real history down my road in glorious impassioned detail-murders,eccentric landlords and characters, tragic stories, hysterical ones, contains many prints of how Bath used to look and  pretty much a wonderful depictation of a world being lost to developers and chains


----------



## trashpony (Jan 20, 2006)

I am reading my mate's new novel 

It's ace


----------



## chooch (Jan 20, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Just started and loving 'Albert Angelo' by BS Johnson. Salty and strange.


Fucking great too. I prefer _house mother normal_ though, by a whisker.



			
				Boogie Boy said:
			
		

> I'm a tad underwhelmed by the writing.


Or the translation?



			
				citydreams said:
			
		

> hehee.. are you enjoying it?


Yep. Fun so far. Had me scrabbling for the dictionary once or twice, which is very rare.


----------



## maya (Jan 21, 2006)

*!!?*

i've just re-read Middlesex, and feel i have to (albeit still somewhat reluctantly) admit i was clearly very wrong about my earlier slating of the book-  
it _is _a fine piece of writing, and i shan't be as quick with my judgements in the future...it's not the best ever, but it's a great book in every sense.  

touché


----------



## Flavour (Jan 21, 2006)

london fields.

i hope it gets better than the first 3 chapters. this is supposed to be amis's best book.


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Jan 21, 2006)

It is. Certainly up there with Money anyway.


----------



## mrkikiet (Jan 21, 2006)

Tooter said:
			
		

> That is a great book...really made me aware of the issues in South Africa...quite grim in places tho...


another vote for this book, it's excellent. they were all slightly deranged.

currently reading/attempting - el hombre que invento manhattan by Ray Loriga.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Jan 21, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> Fucking great too. I prefer _house mother normal_ though, by a whisker.
> Or the translation?
> Yep. Fun so far. Had me scrabbling for the dictionary once or twice, which is very rare.



Fair point - I'm reading the Penguin classics edition, but even allowing for the fact it could have just been translated in a particularly 'dry' way I am finding it uninspired, but I shall read through until the end and perhaps it will seem worth it. Reminds me of the reaction I felt whilst reading 'Heart Of Darkness' and 'Moby Dick'.

BB


----------



## MysteryGuest (Jan 21, 2006)

I am about to start reading Misadventures by Sylvia Smith.  I certainly like the look of this book, and I am sure I will find it a very interesting way to pass the time.


----------



## Valve (Jan 21, 2006)

jean baudrillard- the system of objects


----------



## rennie (Jan 23, 2006)

I just finished reading The girls of Riyadh (banat al riyadh in Arabic)... it's a series of emails a young Saudi girl sent to her fellow countrymen and women in 2004 detailing the love lives, hopes and bitter reality of 20 something Saudi women. 

very good if not groundbreaking. Not sure it will get translated into English as it's written in an informal style and contains much Saudi dialect.

if you can read Arabic, give it a shot!!!


----------



## jiggajagga (Jan 23, 2006)

" A Planet for the President"

A parody of the present day ultra-rightwing Pres and a poodle PM. He gets given the ultimate idea of how to solve the worlds terrorism problems!
Just change the names of those you know are in power now and it still reads good! Very up to date, its even got a hurricane that causes the Pres problems in it!!
Darkly funny in places but frightening as well. You get a feeling some of these discussions might  *JUST* have happened already!!!


----------



## eels (Jan 24, 2006)

*The  piano teacher.*

The  piano teacher.The  piano teacher.The  piano teacher.The  piano teacher.The  piano teacher.The  piano teacher.The  piano teacher.The  piano teacher.The  piano teacher.The  piano teacher.The  piano teacher.The  piano teacher.The  piano teacher.The  piano teacher.


----------



## belboid (Jan 24, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> it is good, very good. the Sundance stuff is - IMO - initially interesting but then becomes very routine (Redford loses interest, sacks everyone, everyone sulks) but the Weinsteins are just great value, and it's fun to hear a) what a total cunt Tarantino is and b) how much Kevin Smith kisses Weinstein's arse


got it back the other day, and have got as far as Tarantino making Pulp Fiction.  Great stuff so far, I didn't really realise how recently Sundance had become such an 'important' festival.  The Harvey & Bob stuff is just friggin cracking, two true gents!

And they were right about Cinema Paradiso.....


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 24, 2006)

belboid said:
			
		

> got it back the other day, and have got as far as Tarantino making Pulp Fiction.  Great stuff so far, I didn't really realise how recently Sundance had become such an 'important' festival.  The Harvey & Bob stuff is just friggin cracking, two true gents!



the Sundance stuff does get really dull though, it's the same argument for a decade. 




			
				belboid said:
			
		

> And they were right about Cinema Paradiso.....





ah, i quite like it


----------



## belboid (Jan 24, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> ah, i quite like it


buyt only in the shortened version - am I right?


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 24, 2006)

belboid said:
			
		

> buyt only in the shortened version - am I right?




nooo, director's cut 

well, i used to live in a village just like the one in the movie so it kinda resonated (mumbles and walks off)


----------



## belboid (Jan 24, 2006)

lordy!  i'd never have had you down as _that_ soppy


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 24, 2006)

I loved it too - I am very soppy though - the kiss reel had me sobbing like a Mike Leigh heroine


----------



## pootle (Jan 24, 2006)

I'm reading "My Sister's Keeper"  you lot probably won't like it cos it was on Richard and Judy's Bookclub.

I however am enjoying it as a moderately trashy read.  I have resolved to spend less time watching the goggle box and more time reading and listening to music.


----------



## tastebud (Jan 24, 2006)

Saturday by Ian McEwan. So far, so good.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Jan 24, 2006)

'A Room With A View' E.M Forster

I just hope this is better than 'The Trial'. 

BB


----------



## Pieface (Jan 24, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> i've just re-read Middlesex, and feel i have to (albeit still somewhat reluctantly) admit i was clearly very wrong about my earlier slating of the book-
> it _is _a fine piece of writing, and i shan't be as quick with my judgements in the future...it's not the best ever, but it's a great book in every sense.
> 
> touché




Fuck you read fast   

and....*ner* etc


----------



## rennie (Jan 24, 2006)

I am reading An Eyey in the Sun, the second book by Ahdaf Soueif in a as many months. it's very BIG but so far is very interesting... it tells the story of an Egyptian family over three generations, between Cairo and London.

it starts off in 1979 and then goes back in time. 


I need to lay off the Egyptian stuff after this. I am becoming typecast.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 24, 2006)

Haruki Murakami - Dance Dance Dance - yay!
David Crystal - The Stories Of English - I found the Old English section a bit mind-numbing but it's now fascinating.


----------



## DeadManWalking (Jan 25, 2006)

Haven't read all this thread so don't know if anyone has mentioned 'Stuart - a life backwards' by Alexander Masters.  I finished it a couple of days ago and has to be one of the best books I've read for a while.  A tragic biography of a homeless drug addict, alcoholic.  It may sound dark but there is light and definitely raises issues that aren't always that obvious.

Highly recommended.


----------



## spartacus mills (Jan 25, 2006)

'Lucky Jim' - Kingsley Amis


----------



## Giles (Jan 25, 2006)

I'm part-way through the "His Dark Materials" trilogy. Mainly at the suggestion of my little sister. It's quite involved and surprisingly good for what is "billed" as a kids book....

Giles..


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 26, 2006)

Giles said:
			
		

> I'm part-way through the "His Dark Materials" trilogy. Mainly at the suggestion of my little sister. It's quite involved and surprisingly good for what is "billed" as a kids book....



ah,  but it is still fundamentally a book for kids to appreciate, which is why it's so marvellous. Pullman insists - rightly IMO - that kids can take on all sorts of interesting and complicated concepts provided they're allied to a cracking good story and involving characters. Rather than being spoonfed inanity like certain other popular childrens books read by adults that i could mention


----------



## chooch (Jan 26, 2006)

Just reread Simon Louvish _resurrections from the dustbin of history_ inbetween some other stuff. A very enjoyable yarn.


----------



## Doctor Carrot (Jan 26, 2006)

I've just read _The Game_ by Neil Strauss, this is the second book i've read by him and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It's about him joining a group of pick up artists which at the time was a fairly tight knit comunity online.  He goes from being hopeless with women to a real lady killer, it also follows one of the pick up artists named Mystery (they all have nicknames) and how he rose to become the greatest pick up artist in the comunity. Bloody good read.


----------



## tastebud (Jan 26, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> i've just re-read Middlesex, and feel i have to (albeit still somewhat reluctantly) admit i was clearly very wrong about my earlier slating of the book-
> it _is _a fine piece of writing, and i shan't be as quick with my judgements in the future...it's not the best ever, but it's a great book in every sense.
> 
> touché


My line-manager has just finished reading it and said it was _amazing_. She's going to lend it to me, I think.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 26, 2006)

i'm about to start this too, just about to finish the Virgin Suicides and it blew me away


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 26, 2006)

Finished Albert Angelo, terrific book. Now onto Trawl, the second in the BS Johnson trilogy.

Anyone who hasn't read BSJ and wants some 60s London melancholia (and a nice early take on 'fictional' psychogeography) should do so.


----------



## Belushi (Jan 26, 2006)

'Pompeii' by Robert Harris, dont think so much of the story so far (strikes me to have been written with a movie in mind) but very well researched and I'm learning a lot about the Roman aquaduct system.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Jan 26, 2006)

Sylvia Smith - Misadventures

Sample chapter:


1979 - Sam

_Sam was a fifty-five year old sales rep.  We were both employees of the same clothing company.  I was thirty-four and private secretary to the Managing Director_


As I entered the showroom I heard Sam talking to the Sales Director.  He was explaining why he'd been late for an appointment with a client the previous evening.  He said, 'I broke down in my car last night'.  I interrupted and asked 'Didn't you have a hankie?' which brought some humour to the situation.





I love this book.


----------



## anfield (Jan 26, 2006)

_Hell's Angels_ by Hunter S Thompson

_The Baghdad Blogger_ by Salam Pax

Will probably dip in and out of Kropotkin's _Fields, Factories, & Workshops_.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 26, 2006)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> Sylvia Smith - Misadventures


Who is she? 
At first I thought you meant the stunna from Ice Cold In Alex, but that's Sylvia Syms innit?


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 26, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Who is she?
> At first I thought you meant the stunna from Ice Cold In Alex, but that's Sylvia Syms innit?










*swoon*


----------



## Belushi (Jan 26, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Who is she?
> At first I thought you meant the stunna from Ice Cold In Alex, but that's Sylvia Syms innit?



I thougth Joan Sims was more your cup of tea


----------



## Mrs Miggins (Jan 26, 2006)

I've just started reading Bleak House.
Avoided the recent TV series because I've been meaning to get round to reading it for some time.
Haven't read any Dickens since I was a kid and I'm totally blown away by it so far!


----------



## bluestreak (Jan 26, 2006)

seneca - on the shortness of life.

makes me feel all calm


----------



## trashpony (Jan 26, 2006)

Belushi said:
			
		

> 'Pompeii' by Robert Harris, dont think so much of the story so far (strikes me to have been written with a movie in mind) but very well researched and I'm learning a lot about the Roman aquaduct system.



I agree completely. I liked the aquaduct stuff


----------



## Azrael23 (Jan 26, 2006)

Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Its good.


----------



## chooch (Jan 26, 2006)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> the master and margarita...i noticed the other day that i seem to have three copies of that.. if anyone wants one (or two) let me know. update: both spoken for


Much appreciated. Enjoying it so far.


----------



## Giles (Jan 26, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> ah,  but it is still fundamentally a book for kids to appreciate, which is why it's so marvellous. Pullman insists - rightly IMO - that kids can take on all sorts of interesting and complicated concepts provided they're allied to a cracking good story and involving characters. Rather than being spoonfed inanity like certain other popular childrens books read by adults that i could mention



Well, I've read the first 2 books so far, and it's a good read. I think the last one is going to be the best, though.

Giles..


----------



## onemonkey (Jan 27, 2006)

Rogers & McClelland(2004)
Semantic Cognition - A Parallel Distributed Processing Approach


----------



## Pickman's model (Jan 27, 2006)

Nikolas Coupland, Dialect in Use: Sociolinguistic Variations in Cardiff English (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1988)


----------



## dynamicbaddog (Jan 28, 2006)

Just finished Until I Find You by John Irving, it was 820 pages and took me over 4 months to get through, but it was worth it, highly recommended.


----------



## Nina (Jan 28, 2006)

Just finished Mitch Albom - Tuesdays with Morrie.

Really simple and really beautiful.


----------



## LDR (Jan 28, 2006)

My friend Leonard - James Frey

It carries on from where "One Million Little Pieces" left off and it's just more of the same really.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 28, 2006)

did he make this one up as well?


----------



## LDR (Jan 28, 2006)

The thing is when I first read "One Million Little Pieces" I thought it was a fictional story.  My Good Lady Wife pointed it out to me that it was *supposed * to be his memoir.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 28, 2006)

yeh, i guess if it's an engaging read it doesn't entirely matter if it's fictionalised, although it's still a bit out of order.


----------



## LDR (Jan 28, 2006)

It's bloody disgraceful really but I still liked the book.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 30, 2006)

I read an article in the Sunday papers on which Frey claimed that he originally pitched the book to the publisher as a work of fiction, but they suggested that it should be marketed as a memoir, so it's not clear that he deliberately misled anyone.


----------



## J77 (Jan 30, 2006)

Just read *Cloud Atlas* - enjoyed the 'Letters from...' story the most 

Am now reading *Waterland by Graham Swift*.

So far, it's been a very light and easy read; nice descriptions, but growing up near the Fens, I think in real-life they're much bleaker.


----------



## cowbite (Jan 30, 2006)

I'm trying to get through the Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. It was a set text at uni but I just couldn't get past the first couple of chapters. The release of a Cock and Bull Story made me think I'd like to have another go. I'm actually enjoying it so far, although I have to admit there are some passages of it that still baffle me. I think the difference between my reading now and at uni is that now it doesn't matter if there are bits I don't "get", I can carry on reading without worrying that my possible misreadings will ruin my essay


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 30, 2006)

I just picked up Richard Matheson's I Am Legend from my flatmate's pile of new books - looks like I'll read it before him! It's dead short anyhow.


----------



## Philbc03 (Jan 30, 2006)

I Am Legend is dead good. Almost made me want to go out and read more vampire novels. Almost.

Currently on the go are Willy Russell's 'The Wrong Boy' (2000) and .... Marx's 'Capital'


----------



## foo (Jan 30, 2006)

nearly finished Elenor Rigby - Douglas Coupland.

god, that man is brilliant.


----------



## walktome (Jan 30, 2006)

Link. And he's apparently going to design an urban park here.


----------



## spartacus mills (Jan 30, 2006)

'Nights at the Circus' - Angela Carter.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 30, 2006)

foo said:
			
		

> nearly finished Elenor Rigby - Douglas Coupland.
> 
> god, that man is brilliant.




.. and's that the double truth, ruth!


----------



## foo (Jan 31, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> .. and's that the double truth, ruth!





i gobble up everything Coupland does, with relish and amazement.

i want more!


----------



## Relahni (Jan 31, 2006)

Big questions in science - edited by Harriet Swain.


----------



## mrkikiet (Jan 31, 2006)

Saturday - Ian Mcewan
It's the first book for a while that I haven't been able to put down. I would recommend it.


----------



## foo (Jan 31, 2006)

mrkikiet said:
			
		

> Saturday - Ian Mcewan
> It's the first book for a while that I haven't been able to put down. I would recommend it.



i started this, and put it down.

i couldn't get in to it but i'll give it another go at some point.


----------



## mrkikiet (Jan 31, 2006)

foo said:
			
		

> i started this, and put it down.
> 
> i couldn't get in to it but i'll give it another go at some point.


i can understand that, there was a point when i nearly put it down. But, I was on a plane and had nothing else to read so i continued.


----------



## andy2002 (Feb 2, 2006)

mrkikiet said:
			
		

> Saturday - Ian Mcewan
> It's the first book for a while that I haven't been able to put down. I would recommend it.



I'm about 120 pages or so into this and not sure what I think of it. It's an easy, enjoyable read but I'm starting to find the lead character rather irritating and I'm not sure where McEwen's going with this whole pro/anti Iraq war theme (probably somewhere I'm not going to like). We shall see...


----------



## tastebud (Feb 2, 2006)

I just finished it (_Saturday_) this morn. 'Twas great! In fact.. I'd seriously recommend it!

<edit: you're right about the main character though.. and just wait till you get to the debate/argument he has with his daughter. you'll like him even less then, i think.>

I'm now reading _Something Happened_ by Joseph Heller. 
Fucking amazing! If you haven't read it and work in an office READ IT. Exactly what you need to suit your mood on a dreary cold morning when you're on the tube with a hangover.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Feb 2, 2006)

'Rap Attack' David Toop

(Again)

BB


----------



## walktome (Feb 3, 2006)

I read Dead Girls by Nancy Lee yesterday and now I am reading Schindler's List.


----------



## andy2002 (Feb 3, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> I just finished it (_Saturday_) this morn. 'Twas great! In fact.. I'd seriously recommend it!
> 
> <edit: you're right about the main character though.. and just wait till you get to the debate/argument he has with his daughter. you'll like him even less then, i think.>



I have around 80 pages to go and at this stage am not really enjoying it very much. I just don't like any of the characters – Henry, Daisy, Theo, Grammaticus are all just awful smug creatures. I actually want something horrible to happen to all of them.


----------



## Flashman (Feb 3, 2006)

The Damnation Game - Clive Barker. Re-reading it as I read it in the '80s. Can't remember if it was this shit back then. Why bother? I don't know.


----------



## tastebud (Feb 3, 2006)

andy2002 said:
			
		

> I have around 80 pages to go and at this stage am not really enjoying it very much. I just don't like any of the characters – Henry, Daisy, Theo, Grammaticus are all just awful smug creatures. I actually want something horrible to happen to all of them.


that's what someone said about the characters in _atonement_. it didn't really have that effect on me, i have to say. perhaps i'm more tolerant than i thought! i really enjoy the way he writes so perhaps that overrides the hatred for the middle-class smug spoilt characters in his books. i surprise myself actually as i do see what you mean.


----------



## andy2002 (Feb 3, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> that's what someone said about the characters in _atonement_. it didn't really have that effect on me, i have to say. perhaps i'm more tolerant than i thought! i really enjoy the way he writes so perhaps that overrides the hatred for the middle-class smug spoilt characters in his books. i surprise myself actually as i do see what you mean.



I think the book has some lovely moments – the pages where Henry goes to visit his mum are particularly evocative and moving. But I'm finding it very difficult to get over my dislike of the characters (I actively loathe Daisy despite her opinions on the war being the same as mine) and McEwan's desire to show off what a clever chap he is by flaunting all the research he's done into neurosurgery. If you're going to write about a neurosurgeon, of course you have to know what you're talking about but its constant referencing just seems a bit pointless and forced to me.


----------



## foo (Feb 3, 2006)

andy2002 said:
			
		

> . I just don't like any of the characters – Henry, Daisy, Theo, Grammaticus are all just awful smug creatures. I actually want something horrible to happen to all of them.



my thoughts too. the unbearable smugness of the characters irritated me too much. i do think he's a good writer though, and have enjoyed some of his other books so i may try Saturday again... 

i've just started a japanese ghost story. (can't remember the name at the moment cos i'm at work). it's pretty good so far though.


----------



## tastebud (Feb 3, 2006)

andy2002 said:
			
		

> I think the book has some lovely moments – the pages where Henry goes to visit his mum are particularly evocative and moving. But I'm finding it very difficult to get over my dislike of the characters (I actively loathe Daisy despite her opinions on the war being the same as mine) and McEwan's desire to show off what a clever chap he is by flaunting all the research he's done into neurosurgery. If you're going to write about a neurosurgeon, of course you have to know what you're talking about but its constant referencing just seems a bit pointless and forced to me.


He is a bit too precise/ott yes, and I do wonder how accurate this is for the thoughts of a middle-aged successful neurosurgeon. I hadn't thought about it as showing off on McEwan's part, but I guess it could be.

I thought his loving marriage and accounts of his relationship with his wife made for a refreshing change, I liked the fact that I could relate to the political stuff - it brought back a lot of memories, I guess - and the beautiful way he writes.

I especially loved one of the references to evolution; man needing sleep but fearing being eaten; resolved at the present time by central locking. I think stuff like that makes up for the slightly spoilt and objectionable characters.

I definitely didn't have any strong feelings towards any of the characters, no but I didn't really expect to.


----------



## andy2002 (Feb 3, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> I especially loved one of the references to evolution; man needing sleep but fearing being eaten; resolved at the present time by central locking. I think stuff like that makes up for the slightly spoilt and objectionable characters.



I'd be the first to admit it's beautifully written and that the book is certainly full of the kind of diverting, thoughtful passages you mention. I might try another of his books after I finish Saturday and see if I like it any better.


----------



## tastebud (Feb 3, 2006)

andy2002 said:
			
		

> I'd be the first to admit it's beautifully written and that the book is certainly full of the kind of diverting, thoughtful passages you mention. I might try another of his books after I finish Saturday and see if I like it any better.


enduring love is wonderful. as is atonement. although with atonement you might find yourself disliking the characters - i didn't actually cos i'm a sucker for love/romance (i actually got my closing line for emails to my bf when he's away from that book  ) - but can see why one might.


----------



## happytobe... (Feb 3, 2006)

I'm reading High Society by Ben Elton.  Was recommended to me by a friend.  I'm about half way through, am enjoying it and am also reading it quite regularly.  (Haven't got really into a book in quite a while, bar Harry Potter but the only reason I read them these days is 'cos it's got kind of compulsive regardless of quality and I want to know what happens at the end.) 

I wouldn't necessarily say I'm enjoying High Society, well I am. but some of it's quite...strong?I'm not sure what the right word is. Anyway, good book so far so I'm giving it the thumbs up


----------



## D'wards (Feb 3, 2006)

Reading Shogun by James Clavell - is great and compelling but really really long. 
Even if i read 20 pages a day (my average) it'll take a couple of months.


----------



## onemonkey (Feb 4, 2006)

The Birthday of the World - Ursula le Guin

first of hers i had ever read.. collection of short stories set on far flung planets ages after a human diaspora.. all manner of very different societies, genders and moralities and yet all of them are in some way essential like us. 

very impressive.


----------



## laptop (Feb 4, 2006)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> The Birthday of the World - Ursula le Guin



Must try to find that.

I think you should try to find her _Malafrena_ - similar themes in some ways to _The Disposessed_ but closer to Planet Earth.

I've just finished _Violent London_ - anyway, I've stopped dipping into it. 

Some seriously impressive sentences; I have several whole new views of the Gordon Riots; but... oy! It's hard to read a book that so badly needs editing - "_No!_ This paragraph belongs _there_, three pages back! And... who the fuck are you talking about? Who was Jeremiah Dubb? Explain _now_!"

Right. Back to the rest of _Mason and Dixon_. Fucking ecellent.

And then maybe I'll finish _Q_. 

An interesting series of nested interrruptions


----------



## chooch (Feb 4, 2006)

laptop said:
			
		

> _Mason and Dixon_...
> ..._Q_.


Corkers both, but I'd be inclined to throw in a little light bollocks. 

Still wading through _Ehud's Dagger_. And solidly progressing through _the Master and Margarita_. 
In moments of laziness, also skipping through through an Iain M Banks doorstop _The Algebraist_ and _Seeing is Believing_ by that geezer that wrote _Easy Riders and Raging Bulls_.


----------



## siarc (Feb 4, 2006)

laptop said:
			
		

> Right. Back to the rest of _Mason and Dixon_. Fucking ecellent.
> 
> And then maybe I'll finish _Q_.



how far have you read?  a few weeks ago i left it about half way through when it was getting dull.  too many provincial early americans and an overabundance of cartographicke folderol.  the intermission spent in england was excellent though, some of the little detours (eg the oriental pygmies) come across like gogol.


----------



## chooch (Feb 4, 2006)

siarc said:
			
		

> an overabundance of cartographicke folderol.


Aye. Makes it tricky to read quickly, but I don't think it's as dense as _Gravity's Rainbow_. My laziness certainly skews my rating of his books- _The Crying of Lot 49_ seems to be widely hated and _Vineland_ ignored. But I like 'em.


----------



## laptop (Feb 4, 2006)

siarc said:
			
		

> an overabundance of cartographicke folderol.



Not to speak of astronomickal gimcrackery 

More than 3/4 the way through. There seem to be more diversions and _divertissements_. I'd recommend picking it up again. 

Though I do keep wondering whether there's some structural joke I'm missing... since Seamen Bodine keeps re-appearing, is the Line the re-temporalised _Agregat 000_, or something?


----------



## jeff_leigh (Feb 4, 2006)

just started  Exquisite Corpse - Poppy Z Brite recommended by cyberfairy on another thread


----------



## Philbc03 (Feb 6, 2006)

Just started Washington Irving's 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories' (1820) ... and still reading Capital.


----------



## ck (Feb 6, 2006)

John Steinbeck's "Of Mice And Men"


----------



## andy2002 (Feb 6, 2006)

Finished Ian McEwan's "Saturday" over the weekend and thought its last 80 or so pages were pretty much excellent, with the ending particularly strong. I still hate most of the characters though.


----------



## theantlion (Feb 6, 2006)

The Jim Corbett Omnibus


----------



## pootle (Feb 6, 2006)

I'm reading "How I Used to Live" which is actually a kids book, but who cares.


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 6, 2006)

laptop said:
			
		

> I've just finished _Violent London_ - anyway, I've stopped dipping into it.
> 
> Some seriously impressive sentences; I have several whole new views of the Gordon Riots; but... oy! It's hard to read a book that so badly needs editing - "_No!_ This paragraph belongs _there_, three pages back! And... who the fuck are you talking about? Who was Jeremiah Dubb? Explain _now_!"



yeh, i had the same problem. interesting and well researched but it kind of splurged onto the page


----------



## han (Feb 6, 2006)

I'm reading Kate Adie's autobiography, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance..


----------



## tastebud (Feb 7, 2006)

i've started middlesex. it's okay so far. can't really say much more than that yet..


----------



## dolly's gal (Feb 7, 2006)

stuart - a life backwards

it's excellent! _and_ it won a guardian award last year (nonethefrigginless!) so it must be good   

nah, it's ace - recommend highly


----------



## foo (Feb 7, 2006)

andy2002 said:
			
		

> Finished Ian McEwan's "Saturday" over the weekend and thought its last 80 or so pages were pretty much excellent, with the ending particularly strong. I still hate most of the characters though.



having finished the strange japanese ghost story (probably not the best choice of reading when currently an insomniac...), i tried Saturday again. and failed. yep, the unbearable smugness again. twice tried, i'll give it away as i know i won't bother with it again. 

i'm now in between dipping in to Solid Foundation - David Katz a book about reggae abs bought me for my birthday and the Kite Runner - Khaled Hossseni. i'm enjoying both so far....


----------



## Boogie Boy (Feb 7, 2006)

I've just finished 'Tamburlaine Must Die' by Louise Welsh, and to be honest it has to be the shoddiest writing I have have the misfortune to read for some time. I came away with the strong impression that half way through writing the book (or rather novella) she lost interest in the material, and could not be bothered to develop any themes or ideas to sustain or interest the reader. This was a shame as the material available regarding Marlowe and his fellow dramatists is considerable. Despite this Welsh appeared to think that a few short references to work written by Marlowe would sustain the interest of the reader, or even (being cynical) lend the writing an air of intellectual authority or credibility.  

Lazy. Lazy. Lazy.  

She should read 'A Dead Man In Deptford' by Burgess.

BB


----------



## milesy (Feb 8, 2006)

"misadventures" by sylvia smith, courtesy of MysteryBookRecommender. it's very funny, and cool in a zen-like fashion, but i feel a bit guilty about laughing because i'm not sure if the author (if she actually exists) intended her journals to be funny in their matter-of-factness. i feel a bit like a...smug guardian reader, enjoying someone else's simplicity in an ironic "isn't it _quaint_" kind of way. sorry MG, please don't beat me up again 

after this i will be reading valley of the dolls.


----------



## I'm at work (Feb 8, 2006)

I haven't posted for a while but I've read through and have again been impressed with the eclectic reading choices made by everyone here. When will aspects of the media realise there are many readers out here rahter than just saying that fewer people read anymore.

As for me I finished the somewhat dissappointing Booker Shortlist though I was impressed with Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry. I had great plesaure in reading The Moors Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie - I'll reccomend this right now if you like Rushdies style. I thought then a few shorter works would be good , The Birthday Boys by Beryl Bainbridge followed by Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome , both superb the latter being hilarious and as good today as it must have been in 1898.

At the moment I'm half way through The British Museum is Falling Down by David Lodge.


----------



## big footed fred (Feb 8, 2006)

Thoughts, quotes and poems on
Happiness
by Rakesh Aggarwal isbn 0-95522-160-9


----------



## foo (Feb 8, 2006)

still plugging your mate's book then fred?


----------



## jeff_leigh (Feb 8, 2006)

Stone Junction - Jim Dodge


----------



## dynamicbaddog (Feb 8, 2006)

The Mugger - Ed McBain


----------



## thefuse (Feb 9, 2006)

i just read fierce dancing by cj stone on a 16 hour flight.
really enjoyed it but mostly because his story criss crosses my own
 ive been writing a book for years and i couldnt believe how close his story was to mine so thanks to my mate simon for realising that and lending it to me.
i lost faith in my own writing after spending years believing it was what i should do and the project nearly got shelved for good but ive sent it to someone to read through and am awaiting his feedback


----------



## pootle (Feb 10, 2006)

So I resolved this year to read more and watch less telly, and last night I actually turned off the tv to finish a book.  And it gave me really, really bad nightmares. AND it was a children's book (How I Live Now)

Harumph. Telly has never given me nightmares.   

Anyway.  I've jst started reading "Everything Is Illuminated".  If that gives me nightmares, I'm never reading anything more complex than Miffy or Viz again.


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 10, 2006)

Being unable to sleep last night (again) i read about 150 pages of Murakami's South Of The Border, which was excellent. (40 pages to go, when i go back to bed in a bit). 

I'm confused by Murakami, a bit. I tried WInd Up Bird Chronicles but really lost patience with it about 1/2 way in and gave up.

But South Of The Border, whilst not as astonishing and heartbreaking (so far) as Norwegian Wood, has a similar mood and style (although Pie Eye is right about the translation being a bit shonky). 

So of the remainder (ie not those 3) that i haven't read, which ones are closer in style to Norwegian Wood and South of the Border, and which more like Chronicles?


----------



## onemonkey (Feb 10, 2006)

*murakami for a nobel*

i just re-read _a wild sheep chase_ and it's in mold of wind up bird  but  it wasn't quite as great as i remember it.. but then my first encounter with it was my first encounter with him so it's newness had a great effect... think the 'sequel' dance dance dance might be better 

iirc _sputnik sweetheart_ is a lot like south of the border.. i like both of them a lot and thought in many ways they were a progression from norwegian wood.

the next thing to try in my view is either of his two collections of short stories _An Elephant Vanishes_ or _After the Quake_

you can find his early out of print novella _pinball 1974_ on the web.

haven't read _kafka on the shore_ yet


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 10, 2006)

finished SOuth.. just now. It's a sad sad ending. And his wife's 'speech' is heartbreaking. Perhaps not as good as Norwegian Wood, and i didn't expect the fairly bleak, compromised ending. But it does make sense


----------



## maya (Feb 11, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> finished SOuth.. just now. It's a sad sad ending. And his wife's 'speech' is heartbreaking. Perhaps not as good as Norwegian Wood, and i didn't expect the fairly bleak, compromised ending. But it does make sense


- hey!  - no spoilers!


----------



## maya (Feb 11, 2006)

*Robert Silverberg(?)- The Book Of Skulls*

1970's Sci-Fi, although actually verging more on fantasy imo- as it seems to be atypical/lacking any specific "science fiction" elements...

the writing's a bit dated (irritating how obsessed he's about Eli's self-loathing of his Jewishness, but as the author seems to come from the same background himself i don't think it was meant to be derogatory/racist in any way, more a kind of portait of teenage insecurities and angst, i suspect?)

anyway, a good trick is the way he switched between the four main characters and their respective worldview/use of language changes with who's telling the story, also it's good to get the same events more than once, told through the eyes of different people...

there's a more disturbing thing going on, much to do with the almost universal fear of death and desire for eternal life, the attractiveness of religious cults-
perhaps a criticism of the mechanisms which draws young "searching" people into the arms of authoritative leaders...

i still haven't come to the ending, but i'll just say it draws you in and you get curious about what direction it's going to take, what the (inevitable tragic/bleak) ending is going to be...


----------



## ck (Feb 12, 2006)

"One Hundred Years of Solitude"  
Gabriel Garcia Marquez 

one of my Fathers favorites...


----------



## spartacus mills (Feb 12, 2006)

Read 'Doll' by Ed McBain on Friday. Now flying through a little local history book.


----------



## Leica (Feb 12, 2006)

I'm reading a first-hand account of the first expedition across Antarctica (Ernest Shackleton, South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage), illustrated with the amazing photographs of Frank Hurley.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Feb 13, 2006)

Brewer's Rogues, Villians and Eccentrics by William Donaldson (now sadly dead author of the Henry Root Letters). It is really achingly funny as well as informative...only gripe is that it has some glaring mistakes eg it's Jess Yates, not Jeff Yates and Harriette Wilson, not Harriet Wilson.


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 13, 2006)

finished off the Peel book, Margrave of The Marshes.. there's a noticeable drop in interest at the point he died and his wife/kids picked up the story (circa 1965 or so) but all things considered, they did a decent job of maintaining the same mood and irreverence. 

he was a curious character - a sentimental old twat in some ways (to the point of being a bit obsessive)  - and it's a great read, especially the early  part which he wrote which i found myself reading in his voice in my head, so ingrained is it in my brain...

Started reading Underground by Murakami, his series of interviews with the victims and perpetrators of the 1995 Tokyo sarin attacks. I'm afraid i found the long series of interviews with the victims rather repetitive and lacking in interest and i've skipped to the section interviewing Aum members. Which makes me feel guilty as all hell, because Murakami's stated intention was to give a voice to the victims and redress the balance that always follows such things where the attackers have a personality and the victims are just  numbers.

ho hum


----------



## siarc (Feb 13, 2006)

coming towards the end of _mason and dixon_ and liking it a lot and lamenting the decreasing amount of thomas pynchon left unread


----------



## I'm at work (Feb 13, 2006)

This Sporting Life by David Storey , I picked this up after reading Saville by this author , the Booker winner.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Feb 13, 2006)

Salway - _History of Roman Britain_


----------



## Philbc03 (Feb 13, 2006)

Virginia Woolf - Orlando (1928)

And still Capital .....


----------



## CharlieAddict (Feb 13, 2006)

Reading two books - both John Steinbecks.

To a God Unknown and Cannery Row.


----------



## Nassarian (Feb 13, 2006)

Catch 22


----------



## tastebud (Feb 14, 2006)

On Sunday I read _Sputnik Sweetheart_ and today I'm reading _After the Quake_. I'm gonna have to take a small Murakami break after this, I think. I'm starting to interpret my world in the way one of his protagonists would. I reckon this could ultimately develop into schizophrenia so I should be careful.


----------



## chooch (Feb 14, 2006)

siarc said:
			
		

> lamenting the decreasing amount of thomas pynchon left unread


What you got left?

Reading _Tricksta_ as some relief from dense tomes- now finished. Liked it a lot.  

Next up _Norwegian Wood_ and some drab environmentalism.


----------



## spartacus mills (Feb 14, 2006)

Just started 'Germinal' by Zola.


----------



## 5t3IIa (Feb 15, 2006)

I'd wholeheartedly recommend Motherless Brooklyn and especially Fortress of Solitude both by Jonathan Lethem.

I have another 2 of his books waiting to be started but I can't _bear_ to yet as I am still recovering from FoS - it's so well written and I was so utterly absorbed that a shock tear nearly SPRANG from my eye across teh tube at one stage  

There are some crappy meaningless reviews on this amazon page   
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/202-6355258-5704623

Am currently reading various Sat and Sun supplements on the tube for my Lethem comedown


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 15, 2006)

5t3IIa said:
			
		

> and especially Fortress of Solitude both by Jonathan Lethem.




i tried. God knows i tried. It is wonderfully written, but it's OVER-written. it was taking me so long to wade through all his wonderful descriptions. i... just.. kind.. of.. stopped.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Feb 15, 2006)

Finished 'Trawl' by BS Johnson, the second in the omnibus. It gets stronger, but hasn't got the invention of 'Albert Angelo'. I did want to slap him hard at several points.

Now 50 pages into 'Stone Junction'. I liked 'Not Fade Away' a lot, and am enjoying this one too, I guess. The parade of impossibly interesting and kindly truckdrivers and modernday outlaw shamans with cool, hardbitten oneliners is getting a bit wearying tho, tbh.


----------



## Leica (Feb 15, 2006)

Dubversion re:Murakami - are you not at all bothered by so many references to the Beatles?   

Seriously now, I don't understand why people like Murakami so much. I have read the Wind-up Bird but I didn't think it was anything exceptional.


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 15, 2006)

Leica said:
			
		

> Dubversion re:Murakami - are you not at all bothered by so many references to the Beatles?



i'll cope. Douglas Coupland doesn't make it easy for me, either..




			
				Leica said:
			
		

> Seriously now, I don't understand why people like Murakami so much. I have read the Wind-up Bird but I didn't think it was anything exceptional.




well i didn't much care for that either, really. But Norwegian Wood - which i'm starting to think is actually very unlike most of his output - just killed me, so i feel i need to give him a good try


----------



## 5t3IIa (Feb 15, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> i tried. God knows i tried. It is wonderfully written, but it's OVER-written. it was taking me so long to wade through all his wonderful descriptions. i... just.. kind.. of.. stopped.





Oh that's a shame. I liked it and _felt_ it so much that I worried that I was skittering over it too much and not squeezing every morsel out of it. 

A History of the Underground next for me


----------



## Leica (Feb 15, 2006)

I tend not to trust authors who produce one huge novel per year (with the exception of writers who do journalistic work and really have something to say, like Steinbeck for example).

I don't want to sound too negative or argumentative though, so to counterbalance my comments on Murakami I recommend a different Japanese author, Tanizaki.

Edited to add:
The best part of the Wind-up Bird was the story of the zoo doctor in Manchuria. It was well-researched and showed a side of Japanese history not often discussed. The story is worth a book by itself. If only he had made a small novella out of that story and left the rest in his drawer.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 15, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> i tried. God knows i tried. It is wonderfully written, but it's OVER-written. it was taking me so long to wade through all his wonderful descriptions. i... just.. kind.. of.. stopped.



hehe - I did warn you.

Try As She Climbed Across The Table - that's short, simple and mind-blowing


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 15, 2006)

Re Murakami - a fella on another forum who has overdosed on Murakami made this very succinct observation that his books are all the same: "successful but lonely, whisky drinking, chainsmoking jazz buff meets etheral mysterious girl. girl has dark history or is imaginary or dead. a weird animal appears. something horrible happens. man ends up sad. the end"


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 15, 2006)

bearing in mind that he was at university during the student riots and then opened a jazz club, his characters aren't much of a stretch either


----------



## Leica (Feb 15, 2006)

He needs to think about the relationship between quantity and quality.


----------



## omlette (Feb 15, 2006)

Read Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go last week after I got it as a late Christmas present and was captivated by it, am trying to get into The Unconsoled now and finding it slightly hard going.  It was the only other Ishiguro that was in stock at the library, but I have Remains of the Day on hold.


----------



## chooch (Feb 15, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Finished 'Trawl' by BS Johnson, the second in the omnibus. It gets stronger, but hasn't got the invention of 'Albert Angelo'. I did want to slap him hard at several points.


Aye. See what you make of _house mother normal_. Toss up for me between that and _albert angelo_ for what I've liked best of his stuff, with _trawl_ bottom and _the unfortunates_ and _christy malry's_ somewhere in the middle- in that merely very good zone.


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 15, 2006)

Leica said:
			
		

> He needs to think about the relationship between quantity and quality.




i'm not sure i buy that - i mean, Norwegian Wood was about 1986 or so? and that's twenty years ago. i'm sure he's not written that prolifically since
bear in mind that i think a lot got translated and published here in a short period. doesn't mean that's when they were written.

(goes to check)


----------



## Markyd (Feb 15, 2006)

just started Hey ho lets go Story of the Ramones.

Just finished Face Dean Koontz . I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 15, 2006)

> Hear the Wind Sing (1979)
> Pinball, 1973 (1980)
> A Wild Sheep Chase (1982)
> Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985)
> ...



it's not madly prolific, really.. less than 10 books really, in 20 years.


----------



## Leica (Feb 15, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> i'm not sure i buy that


I'm going to sound mean but he is about 50 years old and he's published about 10 very long novels. Compare this output to someone like Malcolm Lowry. What could he possibly have to say that takes thousands of pages to deliver?


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 15, 2006)

Leica said:
			
		

> I'm going to sound mean but he is about 50 years old and he's published about 10 very long novels. Compare this output to someone like Malcolm Lowry. What could he possibly have to say that takes thousands of pages to deliver?




you're verging very close to contradicting your stance on that Elvis thread, but i'll let it go 

there's no virtue in being prolific OR unprolific. Every artist surely find his own way?

I mean, i adore Terence Malick, but making 4 films in 30 years doesn't automatically make his films 3 times as good as someone who made 12 films in 30 years.


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 15, 2006)

and this is a bit of a weird discussion, because like you i actually didn't enjoy Wind Up Bird Chronicles


----------



## Leica (Feb 15, 2006)

Perhaps it's because I didn't like his book then and its mammoth size. I think he talks too much. As I said, the zoo doctor story was really good, why did he have to write everything else around it? There's some prolific writers I enjoy reading, but he's not one of them.

I am a bit sensitive to Elvis yes, but I'm not sure I want to talk about it


----------



## foo (Feb 16, 2006)

Angela Carter - Burning Your Boats 

a collection of short stories by that wonderful woman - and i'm loving it.


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 16, 2006)

having unpacked and shelved 25 big boxes of books last night, i was drawn towards one of the smallest i have - Fup by Jim Dodge. Loving it so far.


----------



## Kameron (Feb 16, 2006)

Ovid: The Love Poems
Translated by A. D. Melville

I've been meaning to read Ovid for ages but with no real intention of actually doing so but everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a mission, and for my sins they gave me one. Brought it up to me like room service... I was going to the worst place in the world, and I didn't even know it yet. Weeks away and hundreds of miles up that river which snaked through the war like a main circuit cable and plugged straight into Kurts.

Except the war is British literature, Kurts is Chaucer and we aren't weeks and miles but centuries and hundreds of volumes away but then .... stretch any analogy and it'll break but claiming poetic licence at this point may be a bridge to far.

For the record I am really enjoying it as well


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 16, 2006)

Just bought:
Saturday - Ian McEwan - I'm hoping his writing will overcome the nausating feeling I get when reading about his insufferably overpriviledged characters.
Stuart - A Life Backwards - Alexander Masters 
Collapse - Jared Diamond - I'm looking forward to this one the most. His Guns, Germs & Steel blew my mind.


----------



## tastebud (Feb 16, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Just bought:
> Saturday - Ian McEwan


You're gonna hate it.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 16, 2006)

I read the first couple of pages last night and it seemed pretty compelling in the same way Enduring Love was. BUT it's about a rich squash-playing neurosurgeon. Hmmm.


----------



## Klaatu (Feb 17, 2006)

*Latest Read*

*"The Blood of the Lamb"* by Peter de Vries. Highly recommended. Tragedy told with great humour. Short read, < 250 pp. De Vries is the source of "nostalgia ain't what it used to be," and "deep down, he's really shallow."

On to "*Expelled from Eden--a William T. Vollman Reader*," author of "*Rising Up, Rising Down*" (a history of violence). This guy's only 40-something, but has written a zillion books. Sometimes compared to Thomas Pynchon, but don't let that put you off! Of course, if you *were* able to get through *Gravity's Rainbow*....


----------



## tastebud (Feb 17, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I read the first couple of pages last night and it seemed pretty compelling in the same way Enduring Love was. BUT it's about a rich squash-playing neurosurgeon. Hmmm.


yep and yep.

i still really enjoyed it though.


----------



## Klaatu (Feb 17, 2006)

*Review of Jared Diamond's "Collapse."*

Orang Utan, I read "*Guns, Germs, and Steel*" also, and was interested in "*Collapse*" too, until I read this less-than-flattering review at bookslut.com:

Review of "Collapse"

Klaatu


----------



## Cockles&Whelks (Feb 17, 2006)

Wolves Eat Dogs - Martin Cruz Smith.

4th in the Arkady Renko novels (the first being Gorky Park).

Murder investigation set around the Chernobyl reactor and it's surrounding village.  Good slow burn stuff with some intresting facts about the incident and it's aftermath.

Review:- http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/crime/0,6121,1450283,00.html


----------



## ViolentPanda (Feb 18, 2006)

"On Historical Materialism" by Franz Mehring
and
"Aleister Crowley: A Magick Life" by Martin Booth.


----------



## Masseuse (Feb 18, 2006)

Meetings With Remarkable Men by Gurdjieff.

He treks around the East pissed on calvados, fending off kurdish sheepdogs and getting into fights with sailors whilst getting involved in innumerable scams whilst searching for enlightenment.

My kind of spiritual leader.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Feb 19, 2006)

Rum Punch -  Elmore Leonard


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 20, 2006)

read Jim Dodge's wonderful 'Fup' in about 90 minutes and loved it. Skimmed through old favourite The Idler's Companion and i'm now getting into After The Plague, a collection of short stories by the totally underrated TC Boyle.


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 20, 2006)

'The System of the World', book 3 in Neal Stephenson's Baroque cycle.

And fucking ace it is too!

Anyone read 'Blink' yet?


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 20, 2006)

Klaatu said:
			
		

> Orang Utan, I read "*Guns, Germs, and Steel*" also, and was interested in "*Collapse*" too, until I read this less-than-flattering review at bookslut.com:
> 
> Review of "Collapse"
> 
> Klaatu



Not the 1st review I;'ve seen that says it's way too long and dwells on too many examples - I had the same view on GG&S.

Altho Collapse is in paperback now, so it's both portable and cheaper!


----------



## Philbc03 (Feb 20, 2006)

Read Yuri Malov's Brezhnevite apologia 'The Communist Party in Socialist Society' (1987) and Peter Taaffe's 'Empire Defeated' (2004) over the weekend. The latter was quite pacy and interesting for what could have been a plodding book. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a quick primer on Vietnam.

Now I'm reading Kathleen Ann Goonan's 'Light Music' (2002), and Capital ....


----------



## pinky (Feb 20, 2006)

Just finished the AMAZING 'The Kite Runner; by Khaled Hosseini - absolutely superb.

Now starting 'The Wasp Factory' by Iain Banks


----------



## subversplat (Feb 22, 2006)

I just finished The Contortionists Handbook by Craig Clevenger (yes, I only read it based on the accolades from Irvine Welsh and Chuck Palahnuik  ) and I thought it was a stonking good read, up until the ending which all seemed a bit rushed and , like he wanted to wrap the thing up but forgot the sellotape.

Still, I'm now going to get his second book from the library and read that, because I think he's got definite potential.

I'm really into this sort of contemporary noir type fiction (Palahnuik, Welsh, Easton Ellis and now Clevenger) so can anybody recommend me some other authors that write a similar novel?


----------



## Mation (Feb 22, 2006)

Flowers for Algernon. Bit dated, but affecting nonetheless.


----------



## Pie 1 (Feb 22, 2006)

Stasiland - Stories from behind the Berlin Wall by Anna Funder.

Thougerly engaging: facsinatingly grim & tenderly written with stories heartbeaking for their lack of self pity.

Extremely worthwhile.


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 22, 2006)

gave up on trying to systematically read the Boyle short stories (i have an issue with short story collections, especially by writers as excellent as Boyle, in that i immerse myself in one character or narrative for 20-odd pages then i'm supposed to move onto the next one, and i can't quite do it that easily).

So i'm now brandishing a copy of Stone Junction by Jim Dodge, because he's very good


----------



## andy2002 (Feb 22, 2006)

Slowly working my way through a big, thick George Pelacanos trilogy featuring his Washington DC electronics salesman turned private eye Nick Stefanos. Really enjoying it.


----------



## maya (Feb 22, 2006)

Norman Cohn: The Pursuit Of The Millennium: Revolutionary Millennarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages


----------



## Dirty Martini (Feb 22, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> So i'm now brandishing a copy of Stone Junction by Jim Dodge, because he's very good



I'm about three-quarters of the way through it and enjoying it more as it goes on. There's a good discussion to be had about this book, and about Dodge, at some point


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 22, 2006)

andy2002 said:
			
		

> Slowly working my way through a big, thick George Pelacanos trilogy featuring his Washington DC electronics salesman turned private eye Nick Stefanos. Really enjoying it.




If it's the one with A Firing Offense in, I've read it and it's wicked.  (Though the one I've got features four stories, I've just noticed.)


----------



## jeff_leigh (Feb 22, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> So i'm now brandishing a copy of Stone Junction by Jim Dodge, because he's very good



thought you'd already read that Dub?


----------



## Diamond (Feb 22, 2006)

Slowly working my way through 'Life and Fate' by Vasily Grossman. It's kinda like a Soviet War and Peace, except with Stalingrad as its centre point rather than Napoleon's Russian Campaign.

Rushing through Mathew Parris' 'Chance Witness' autobiography too. He comes across as quite vain and not terribly likeable but there's some interesting stuff on late/post colonial Southern Africa.


----------



## andy2002 (Feb 22, 2006)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> If it's the one with A Firing Offense in, I've read it and it's wicked.  (Though the one I've got features four stories, I've just noticed.)



Yep, it's that one - finished A Firing Offense and am now working my way through Nick's Trip which, if anything, I'm enjoying even more.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 22, 2006)

andy2002 said:
			
		

> Yep, it's that one - finished A Firing Offense and am now working my way through Nick's Trip which, if anything, I'm enjoying even more.




duh... it _is_ three stories - I can see the spine from where I'm sitting now and the third story (Down by the River...) has a long title that is split into two lines... 


Anyway - Nick's Trip... yes it is a corker actually.  I ain't saying too much, but towards the end I was practically sick with tension - it's powerful stuff.    Quality writing too.


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 23, 2006)

jeff_leigh said:
			
		

> thought you'd already read that Dub?




nah, read Not Fade Away before Christmas and Fup last week.


----------



## zora (Feb 23, 2006)

Finished 'On Beauty' by Zadie Smith a couple of days ago, which I loved.

I then picked up E.M.Forster's 'Howards End' (On Beauty is intended as a 'Homage' to it), not really expecting to get into it - but I'm loving it, too. Not least for its interesting observations on aglo-german relations pre-WWI and one of its main characters, Mrs Munt.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 23, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> nah, read Not Fade Away before Christmas and Fup last week.


I have to say, Jim Dodge is very you IYKWIM, which is probably why people think you've already read him!


----------



## Philbc03 (Feb 23, 2006)

Now on Erich Maria Remarque's 'All Quiet on the Western Front' (1929).

And Capital.


----------



## tastebud (Feb 23, 2006)

The Lonely Planet Guide to India. How f*cking exciting!


----------



## maya (Feb 23, 2006)

A.E. Chalmers: What Is This Thing Called Science?


----------



## onemonkey (Feb 23, 2006)

The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver..   I like it but it's still a bit too early to decide if i love it.. partly because i am fearful that something very unpleasant is always just about to happen.


----------



## Fledgling (Feb 24, 2006)

Maggie by John Seargant. Bought it at Heathrow for the extremly long and arduous flight (and the extremly long and arduous Heathrow). Actually OK but this is the closest I get to light summer entrainment. Hey it's summer down under so that counts, and this is better than his previously overated chummy autobiography; there is far too much lauding by close colleagues eager to revies these memoirs. But it name drops like crazy, though non-economic bods should like the simple ERM stuff.


----------



## I'm at work (Feb 24, 2006)

I've just finished Gift of Stones by Jim Crace - it was superb in every way . When was the last time you read a book set in a bronze age village??

If you see this - get it , a better book I haven't read for a long time.


----------



## Stanley Edwards (Feb 24, 2006)

The Graft, Martina Cole.

I've hit the bottom of someone elses bookshelf!

Essex is a very bad place


----------



## Dirty Martini (Feb 24, 2006)

Finished Stone Junction.

It's a funny one. Dodge writes beautifully, perhaps almost too much so -- very smooth and controlled. He has total mastery of the characters and of plot. The book makes an interesting contrast to Pynchon's Vineland, which came out the same year I think -- similar themes, similar feel, very much the last gasp of the predigital age, nostalgic and defiant at the same time. But where Pynchon has the paranoid style, Dodge's is ecstatic, which means that everything's a little too perfect. All the good characters are good -- they speak the most articulate American prose, they all cook well and have access to the most exquisite ingredients, the finest booze, the best drugs, and the set-ups always work. Get trained up, become a master of disguise in six months; get trained up, become America's finest young gambler in six months. Give away loads of money, and come down on the cartoon characters that are the baddies in the most satisfying way possible. It's what we all dream of. Want to give away the 10,000 bucks you just won on a throw of the dice in the casino (again)? Done, just like that. More money is given away in Stone Junction and Fade Away than in the whole of American literature 

I dunno, it's almost as if the author's looking round for some sort of approval for his worldview. It's a world that he keeps telling us is complex, but his writing is all about smoothing out the edges, coming up with solutions that satisfy the kind of reader Dodge imagines is his. Pitting an impossibly fascinating bunch of outlaws and alcemists against a world of fakers in the way that Dodge does it says nothing about the world. It promises to, but fails.

I may be missing the point badly here. I liked the book, picked it up whenever I had a free few minutes, but it's a Northern Californian's fantasy about how the world should be -- not free of money, for example, but free to let you give it away, guilt-free, to the downtrodden and the meek. The world's going to shit, but in the meantime there's the finest wines known to humanity, tons of money to be made, and the picturesque roads of the Western United States to be driven. All perfectly 

And the last 30 pages clunk audibly, like they did in Fade Away.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 24, 2006)

I think it all goes tits up when he finds the diamond - I don't think Dodge is a great finisher of books


----------



## Dirty Martini (Feb 24, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I think it all goes tits up when he finds the diamond - I don't think Dodge is a great finisher of books



Yep, or perhaps when Jenny Raine gets introduced through her diaries. _Hear_ that ending being engineered into place.

Or a great starter of books. He hasn't written anything for 15 years, has he?

Anyway, now rereading 'Carpenter's Gothic' by William Gaddis. Scrappy, dogeared, magnificent.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 24, 2006)

I'm a bit intimidated by the thought of reading Gaddis


----------



## Dirty Martini (Feb 24, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I'm a bit intimidated by the thought of reading Gaddis



I have to confess I haven't read JR or The Recognitions (yet, I hope), they're fucking huge. But Carpenter's Gothic is great -- a lot shorter, not intimidating at all, catches the rhythm of verbal frustration beautifully. Has that great American knack of making the banal seem super-real and very funny. It's back in print now after a few years.

So many to read. Gaddis, Gass, Elkin, etc.


----------



## walktome (Feb 24, 2006)

The last book I read was The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff.


----------



## Clintons Cat (Feb 25, 2006)

walktome said:
			
		

> The last book I read was The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff.



Nice,it beats The Gospel According To Peanuts into a crooked hat.


This Week I Have Mostly Been Reading  Essays From the Minister of Defense By Huey P Newton
 

And The Fire Next Time By James Baldwin


----------



## oi2002 (Feb 25, 2006)

_"A Problem From Hell": America in the age of Genocide_ Samantha Power.  

Worthy but not worth a Pulitzer.  Wriiten by a patriotic interventionist American appalled at her countries inaction against and rather distressingly frequently support for genocidal regimes.  

The Rwanda section is shaming, with DC pressuring other countries not to intervene, she fails to mention London was instrumental in this as well.  She only briefy touches on Biaffra and barely mentions Bangledesh.  

The extreme reluctance of Americans to get involved militarilly in humanitarian missions may surprise some who've watched the Iraq war given the voluable post-facto use of this as a justification.  It's rather ironic that Saddam at his most genocidal had the American farming lobbies vigourous support.

I came away thinking that the genocide convention that she defends has actually been a bit of a disaster too shackled in American minds to the unique circumstance of the holocaust to be useful.

It has some sharp insights.  It had not struck me before how the Lincoln memorial and the Vietnam wall are next to the Holocaust memorial in DC which perhaps says something about America's victim dominated mental landscape.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Feb 26, 2006)

I've just started 'Modern Muslim Intellectuals And The Qur'an' (Oxford) - , examining varied contemporary approaches and responses to the Qur'an. It isn't exactly light reading, but so far it has been quite enjoyable and thought provoking.

BB


----------



## Bauhaus (Feb 26, 2006)

The Hobbit.


----------



## Cheesypoof (Feb 26, 2006)

smile, you're travelling by henry rollins, and over the weekend, ulysses which is admittedly proving very difficult, lol.


----------



## chooch (Feb 27, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Carpenter's Gothic is great


Must try that. 
I'm reading _the virgin suicides_. Enjoying it plenty- found myself snorting a few times over perfect sentences.


----------



## Pie 1 (Feb 27, 2006)

Just finished John Le Carre's Absolute Friends (I do love a bit of the spymaster every now & then). Grest fun. 
He's really still got it actually, and delivers a coherent & suprisingly angry polemic of recent events in it as well.

Just started Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Down...


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 27, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> I'm reading _the virgin suicides_. Enjoying it plenty- found myself snorting a few times over perfect sentences.



brilliant isn't it? what i loved about it is that - as opposed to, say, Fortress of Solitude, where the 'flair' of the writing actually slows things to a crawl, Eugenides can dazzle with some perfectly formed descriptions without ever sacrificing flow.


----------



## foamy (Feb 27, 2006)

i'm reading brighton rock but have got stuck half way through, is it worth continuing?


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 27, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> i'm reading brighton rock but have got stuck half way through, is it worth continuing?




fuck, yeh


----------



## chooch (Feb 27, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Eugenides can dazzle with some perfectly formed descriptions without ever sacrificing flow.


Aye. Perfect rhythm guitar, not otiose fretwankery. 



			
				foamy said:
			
		

> i'm reading brighton rock but have got stuck half way through, is it worth continuing?


Yep. Best yet to come.


----------



## foamy (Feb 27, 2006)

cheers, i was really into it for the first half but then put it down and now its really hard going getting back into it.
might go to brighton for the weekend to finish it off then knock off a few rival gang members


----------



## Abjekt (Feb 27, 2006)

Reading "Taking The Train" by Joe Austin. It's about the "graffiti problem" in New York in the 1970s onwards and the ridiculous steps the mayor took to try and stop it. S'good.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 27, 2006)

Just like a stick of rock - you can't eat it all at once because it'll make you sick


----------



## starfish (Feb 27, 2006)

Still reading Robert Fisks Great War for Civilisation, about half way through. Its a challenge, nearly 1400 pages long. Thats like 4 or 5 normal books to me.


----------



## exosculate (Feb 27, 2006)

I'm re-reading The Bell Jar


----------



## fishfingerer (Feb 28, 2006)

Last books read: 

I.Turgenev's Fathers and Sons. Load o'cobbla.  
A.Skirda's Anarchy's Cossack. Truly awe inspiring. 
U.Le Guin's The Dispossessed. Unputdownable.  

Now halfway through Thomas Hardy's Jude The Obscure.


----------



## Julie (Feb 28, 2006)

The Conspiracy Club - Jonathan Kellerman. Love a forensic/psych/thriller.


----------



## Philbc03 (Feb 28, 2006)

Now reading Ian McEwan's 'The Cement Garden' (1978). Strong stomach necessary if incest ain't your bag.


----------



## Abjekt (Feb 28, 2006)

Just started a book which is a collection of articles written about hip hop throughout the 1980s and 1990s called "And It Don't Stop".


----------



## rennie (Feb 28, 2006)

I started the constant gardener two days ago. so far so good. a fast read but very compelling!


----------



## I'm at work (Feb 28, 2006)

I've just finished Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson. A working knowledge of drugs helps especially old fashioned Acid..


----------



## I'm at work (Feb 28, 2006)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> Just finished John Le Carre's Absolute Friends (I do love a bit of the spymaster every now & then). Grest fun.
> He's really still got it actually, and delivers a coherent & suprisingly angry polemic of recent events in it as well.
> 
> Just started Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Down...




Never let me go?? 

Fantastic book - should have won the Booker , best of the list IMHO.


----------



## spartacus mills (Feb 28, 2006)

Now on 'The Little Friend' by Donna Tartt.


----------



## walktome (Feb 28, 2006)

I'm about to begin The Return of Martin Guerre for school.


----------



## maya (Mar 1, 2006)

walktome said:
			
		

> I'm about to begin The Return of Martin Guerre for school.


ha, you must go to a good school,  
_we_ never had to read _anything_,
and half my classmates came out illiterate...!  

BTW i'm just re-reading:

Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels (a lovely old, illustrated edition)


----------



## Philbc03 (Mar 1, 2006)

Now on Percival Everett's collection of short stories, 'Damned if I Do' (2004). 

If you've never read any Everett make sure you check out Erasure (2001). It is an excellent novel and a biting polemic against academia's preoccupation with multiculturalism and identity theorising. Utterly unmissable.


----------



## foamy (Mar 1, 2006)

Yay! finished brighton rock 
enjoyed it but the ending left me wanting more....

now, whats next?


----------



## chooch (Mar 2, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> now, whats next?


_Brighton Rock 2: Pinkie's Revenge _


----------



## Rollem (Mar 2, 2006)

barcelona plates - alexi sayle

second time reading this. read about 5 years ago, but having brought it in to lend to a colleague, i flipped through the pages on the tube and found myself reading it again


----------



## madamv (Mar 3, 2006)

just finished Hidden Camera by Zoran Zivkovic.  Which makes me a ponce apparently, hurrah or boo not sure.

just started Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Coupland.  Does that unponce me?


----------



## bellator (Mar 3, 2006)

*Book*

Just finished Fathers and Sons by Turgenev. Thinking about reading the Colour Purple next.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 3, 2006)

madamv said:
			
		

> just finished Hidden Camera by Zoran Zivkovic.



Any good?


----------



## madamv (Mar 4, 2006)

It was excellent.  So visual.  His writing (or a least the translation of his writing) is very emotive and descriptive without being too flowery. ITMS.

I started a thread about it cause I wanted to talk to someone who has read it.

Hurry up then


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 4, 2006)

madamv said:
			
		

> It was excellent.  So visual.  His writing (or a least the translation of his writing) is very emotive and descriptive without being too flowery. ITMS.
> 
> I started a thread about it cause I wanted to talk to someone who has read it.
> 
> Hurry up then



Ah, OK


----------



## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Mar 4, 2006)

Instructions for making porridge.


----------



## Tank Girl (Mar 4, 2006)

milesy wrote that.


----------



## Zinedine* (Mar 4, 2006)

I'm just about to make myself a cup of tea or a glass of Irn Bru (can't decide yet) and sit down will Ian McEwans Saturday.

is it any good? I have never read any of is stuff yet


----------



## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Mar 4, 2006)

Tank Girl said:
			
		

> milesy wrote that.


He wrote my co op porridge instructions? 

I've just realised it says 'book' in the title, sorry.


----------



## thought (Mar 4, 2006)

The Indigo Children - Lee Carroll
Re-Reading The Tempest - William Shakespear
The Life of Edgar Hoover - Anthony Summers
The War with Cape Horn - Alan Villiers

It depends which book I pick up


----------



## jeff_leigh (Mar 5, 2006)

The Master and Margarita ( cheers onemonkey)


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Mar 5, 2006)

Guns Germs and Steel


----------



## Philbc03 (Mar 6, 2006)

Iron Council by China Mieville (2004) and Radicals Against Race by Brian Alleyne (2002).


----------



## scanner (Mar 6, 2006)

The Insider by Piers Morgan, terrific stuff, a good insight to how the press works.


----------



## Kidda (Mar 6, 2006)

Scared of the kids; curfews crime and the regulation of young people

by Stuart Waiton

just about to start it, it looks quite good


----------



## dlx1 (Mar 6, 2006)

Network Infrastructure Design,  

makes my god son got to sleep


----------



## atitlan (Mar 6, 2006)

Just finished "The time traveller's wife" by Audrey Niffenegger - very enjoyable.  

Just started "The Years of Rice and Salt" by Kim Stanley Robinson


----------



## maya (Mar 6, 2006)

atitlan said:
			
		

> Just started "The Years of Rice and Salt" by Kim Stanley Robinson


i'm waiting for some books by him in the mail (rubbish local bookstore won't stock him  ),
what's his writing style like?  
i've been really excited about him after conversation w/the literati...

as there's so many examples of apolitical (sometimes even reactionary) science fiction writers, it felt like a breath of fresh air to find someone who's concerned about current issues and not afraid dealing with "difficult" stuff...
also he must be a godsent hero for the environmentalist crowd  
...must find out more


----------



## atitlan (Mar 6, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> i'm waiting for some books by him in the mail (rubbish local bookstore won't stock him  ),
> what's his writing style like?



You don't say which books you're waiting for, but from those I've read ...

I find him very easy to read.  He doesn't try to be overly clever in the structure of the story and is good at hooking you into the sweep of the storyline. He's better than many science fiction writers at characterisation, so you do tend to feel that most of them are real people.  

KSR is given to long descriptive passages on landscapes - especially true if you've picked Antarctica or the the Mars Trilogy to read (in the Mars books especially this really helps to make you feel like you're there).  He is definitely a political writer 'Green Mars' covers the formation of a constitution for an independent Mars and the problems of Earth not wanting to let go.  His portrayal of corporations will also strike a chord with anyone used to U75's usual opinion of them.

He is also environmentally savvy.  Global warming and its consequences turn up in the mars trilogy and in his recent novels Forty Signs of Rain and Fifty Degrees Below.

Hope you enjoy the books you've got on order


----------



## maya (Mar 6, 2006)

atitlan said:
			
		

> You don't say which books you're waiting for, but from those I've read ...
> 
> I find him very easy to read.  He doesn't try to be overly clever in the structure of the story and is good at hooking you into the sweep of the storyline. He's better than many science fiction writers at characterisation, so you do tend to feel that most of them are real people.
> 
> ...


...ah, that sound promising!  
thanks


----------



## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Mar 7, 2006)

The Biggest Secret by David Ike.

I love the way he opens by saying 'all my friends begged me not to include the lizards, but I thought the world had to know the whole truth'.

Tee hee.


----------



## CharlieAddict (Mar 7, 2006)

life of pi - yann martel.

crap pace so far. i keep falling asleep. my friends say i should stick at it but man, this is a boring as fuck book.


----------



## walktome (Mar 8, 2006)

I had to read that a year or two ago and I really didn't enjoy it all that much, despite everyone else raving about it.


----------



## Tinker_bell (Mar 8, 2006)

I've just started reading 'Kathy's Story: A Childhood Hell Inside the Magdalen Laundries' by Kathy O'Beirne and Michael Sheridan.

Now, i was nearly in tears just reading the prologue and i know the suffering that these children went through is going to really upset me, as it would anyone, but i take the view that as these people actually _lived _ with such horrific abuse, the least i can do is read about their story...

Has anyone else read this?


----------



## kazza23 (Mar 8, 2006)

I am reading Johnothan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Suzanne Clarke.  Its great, spells, magic and old english manners.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 8, 2006)

Tinker_bell said:
			
		

> I've just started reading 'Kathy's Story: A Childhood Hell Inside the Magdalen Laundries' by Kathy O'Beirne and Michael Sheridan.
> 
> Now, i was nearly in tears just reading the prologue and i know the suffering that these children went through is going to really upset me, as it would anyone, but i take the view that as these people actually _lived _ with such horrific abuse, the least i can do is read about their story...
> 
> Has anyone else read this?


Nope, but I've seen the film The Magdalen Sisters which is all about the Laundries - a disgraceful par of Ireland's/RC's history and shockingly recent too.
A friend of mine's mother was in one and it's heartbreaking hearign what she went through.


----------



## chooch (Mar 8, 2006)

William Gaddis _carpenter's gothic_.


----------



## pootle (Mar 8, 2006)

Tinker_bell said:
			
		

> Now, i was nearly in tears just reading the prologue and i know the suffering that these children went through is going to really upset me, as it would anyone, but i take the view that as these people actually _lived _ with such horrific abuse, the least i can do is read about their story...
> 
> Has anyone else read this?



No...there was a film based on people's experiences in those places though.

There something that makes me uneasy about people's experience of neglect and/or abuse being marketed to me though...stuff like the above and the Dave Pelzer Child Called It.  I don't know what it is.  Maybe it's a bit voyeuristic? I don't like seeing such matter as "entertainment"

I mean, if it's upsetting you Tinker Bell, why read it?     I had to give up on reading "Stalingrad" because it just upset me...


----------



## kyser_soze (Mar 8, 2006)

Double Vision by Tricia Sullivan. I read her debut effort, Maul and thoroughly enjoyed it's feminist take on sci-fi (very different from other fem sci-fi writers), but so far with DV...not too sure TBH. 

I also started reading Monkey by Wu Ch'eng-En (trans. Arthur Waley) and it's excellent so far...


----------



## Tinker_bell (Mar 8, 2006)

pootle said:
			
		

> I mean, if it's upsetting you Tinker Bell, why read it?     I had to give up on reading "Stalingrad" because it just upset me...



I knew someone would ask me that.  The way i feel about it is the authors of this book desperately want their story to be heard and i feel like it would be, i don't know, almost an injustice to them if i didn't read it to the end - like turning a blind eye and pretending it didn't happen...  I don't know if that makes sense - it's just how i feel.


----------



## pootle (Mar 8, 2006)

Tinker_bell said:
			
		

> I knew someone would ask me that.  The way i feel about it is the authors of this book desperately want their story to be heard and i feel like it would be, i don't know, almost an injustice to them if i didn't read it to the end - like turning a blind eye and pretending it didn't happen...  I don't know if that makes sense - it's just how i feel.



It kind of makes sense to me, but if it makes sense to you, than even better!   I wasn't having a go or anything, I was just genuinely intrigued.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I see what you are getting at.


----------



## Tinker_bell (Mar 8, 2006)

pootle said:
			
		

> It kind of makes sense to me, but if it makes sense to you, than even better!   I wasn't having a go or anything, I was just genuinely intrigued.
> 
> Actually, the more I think about it, the more I see what you are getting at.



Oh no, i know you weren't getting at me matie


----------



## pootle (Mar 8, 2006)

Ooh, and I'm reading "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" atm.  I can't decide if it's lovely or mawkish though.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 8, 2006)

Re: upsetting books. I don't believe books should just be for entertainment, but for edification too. We need to know about the dark side of the human spirit even if it's upsetting. The more we avoid it the more upsetting and surprising it is when we encounter it.


----------



## anfield (Mar 8, 2006)

_Breakfast At Tiffany's_ - Truman Capote

_Miami and the Siege of Chicago_ - Norman Mailer


----------



## andy2002 (Mar 9, 2006)

Hard Revolution – my fourth Pelecanos novel in a row.


----------



## CharlieAddict (Mar 9, 2006)

couldn't finish life of pi, can't read things i don't enjoy.  

now reading tortilla flat - john steinbeck.


----------



## RETRO78 (Mar 9, 2006)

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley


----------



## foo (Mar 13, 2006)

the book group lot reminded me of that cheerful chappie Dostoevski   

so i'm reading Notes From the Underground again. i haven't read it for over 10 years, but i'm loving it.   

i always remember this Dostoevski line....

"Man only likes to count his troubles, but he does not count his joys"

ain't that the truth.


----------



## onemonkey (Mar 13, 2006)

finally finished The Big Book of Concepts.. since none of you will want to read it isn't a spoiler to tell you that it's good on empirical data but in the end a bit weak on a coherent theoretical framework for concept and category learning & knowledge.. i suspect the guy is a bit too old school to be comfortable with connectionist models 

now reading Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf.  i like.


----------



## pootle (Mar 13, 2006)

I've just started Eleanor Rigby by (possibly my favourite author) Douglas Coupland.


----------



## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Mar 13, 2006)

Still on David Ikes book, sadly it's got too stupid now.

It was quite fun at first but now it has sunk into the babblings of a mad man. The trouble is he has mixed some fun and interesting ideas that have enough backing to give them a little cred, with utter mentalist noncence.


----------



## tastebud (Mar 13, 2006)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> finally finished The Big Book of Concepts.. since none of you will want to read it isn't a spoiler to tell you that it's good on empirical data but in the end a bit weak on a coherent theoretical framework for concept and category learning & knowledge.. i suspect the guy is a bit too old school to be comfortable with connectionist models


Pah! That's often the problem IMO.   (Tunnel vision due to massive ego problems - especially pertinent with cognitive theorists, I find. Don't end up like that OM)!

Does it have any of Fodor's theories in it BTW? - he's a complete pain in the arse. Why do cognitive people have to over complicate stuff that could easily be written in a more basic format? (They don't fool me, that's for sure)!


----------



## onemonkey (Mar 13, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> Does it have any of Fodor's theories in it BTW? - he's a complete pain in the arse. Why do cognitive people have to over complicate stuff that could easily be written in a more basic format? (They don't fool me, that's for sure)!


mercifully free of fodor thankfully.. 

though that doesn't mean they aren't still a little scared of him.. even my supervisor says that in some sense (a dull, abstract philosophical sense) Fodor has got a point.. i don't think that is true... but i haven't found a good debunking of him.. and i wonder if i should even bother wasting my time looking for it (or worse yet attempting to write it!!! )


----------



## tastebud (Mar 13, 2006)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> mercifully free of fodor thankfully..
> 
> though that doesn't mean they aren't still a little scared of him.. even my supervisor says that in some sense (a dull, abstract philosophical sense) Fodor has got a point.. i don't think that is true... but i haven't found a good debunking of him.. and i wonder if i should even bother wasting my time looking for it (or worse yet attempting to write it!!! )


What I can understand makes sense but I just tire of the over-complicated way he (and others) write about this stuff. Makes it impossible to follow unless you're apart of the 'cognitive world'. And let's face it, what 'normal' person is! -  

Let me know if you do find something better than him though - or write it (You could always try to explain it to me in simple terms, I could record you, and Hey! Presto! A cure for my insomnia ).


----------



## Grego Morales (Mar 15, 2006)

_The Atrocity Exhibition_ By JG Ballard. 

Bloody hard work!


----------



## Rollem (Mar 16, 2006)

granny made me an anarchist - stuart christie


----------



## Boogie Boy (Mar 16, 2006)

Just finished 'Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell'. And I hated it. HATED IT. An absolutely pointless exercise with a paper thin plot weighed down by silly attempts at creating an alternative and credible supporting historical framework. Why? Why? Why? It didn't help! This 1000 odd page drivel could (and should) be cut down to a third of the size!

And also just finished 'The Dumas Club' by Arturo Perez-Reverte, which was much much better!

BB


----------



## sojourner (Mar 16, 2006)

atitlan said:
			
		

> Just finished "The time traveller's wife" by Audrey Niffenegger - very enjoyable.



Ooo, I've just finished this too, and absolutely loved it.  Concepts and philosophies of time, fantastic story telling, interesting narrative technique - am gutted I've finished it now.

So - time to move onto something completely different - No Irish No Blacks No Dogs, J Lydon - finally got around to buying it!


----------



## sojourner (Mar 16, 2006)

CharlieAddict said:
			
		

> couldn't finish life of pi, can't read things i don't enjoy.



I couldn't finish this either - bored me to tears.  I've just given it to a mate to see if she fares better with it.


----------



## foamy (Mar 16, 2006)

reading 'When we were orphans' by Kazuo Ishiguro, it's a tret to read on the tube and i'm really looking forward to reading 'Never let me go' next 

also have 'Small Island' on the next book to read pile, anyone read it? any good?
my mum recommended it but sometimes her tastes can be a bit...um... dodgy


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 16, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> also have 'Small Island' on the next book to read pile, anyone read it? any good?
> my mum recommended it but sometimes her tastes can be a bit...um... dodgy



My mum liked it.


----------



## walktome (Mar 17, 2006)

I just finished Property by Valerie Martin and I've been reading The Te of Piglet and The Dharma Bums.


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 17, 2006)

just finished Stone Junction by Jim Dodge, and I'm afraid I just didn't enjoy it as much as I tried to convince myself I had. Fup and Not Fade Away were great, but to be honest this was a bit of a mess, but not in a good way. The first half was great, but as it carried on it started to read like a dodgy fantasy book in places and a bad airport thriller in others. It really lost its way. He's a great writer, but perhaps not over 400+ pages.

So now i'm going to read Under The Volcano by Lowry because people are always banging on about it and because it's set during the Day Of The Dead.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 17, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> So now i'm going to read Under The Volcano by Lowry because people are always banging on about it and because it's set during the Day Of The Dead.



Ah, that one's staring guiltily at me from the pile. I stopped 100 pages in. Failure to concentrate properly.


----------



## Rollem (Mar 17, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> also have 'Small Island' on the next book to read pile, anyone read it? any good?
> my mum recommended it but sometimes her tastes can be a bit...um... dodgy


i liked it (but then, i'm a mum )

light read material


----------



## Philbc03 (Mar 17, 2006)

Rollem said:
			
		

> i liked it (but then, i'm a mum )
> 
> light read material



I've read it aswell. It's rate.


----------



## mrkikiet (Mar 17, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Ah, that one's staring guiltily at me from the pile. I stopped 100 pages in. Failure to concentrate properly.


try again. i reckon it needs at least two goes. guarantee that you will enjoy it.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 17, 2006)

mrkikiet said:
			
		

> try again. i reckon it needs at least two goes. guarantee that you will enjoy it.



I know I should do. It wasn't that I wasn't enjoying it, more that I couldn't tune into his singular style for long enough periods at a time.


----------



## spartacus mills (Mar 17, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Ah, that one's staring guiltily at me from the pile. I stopped 100 pages in. Failure to concentrate properly.



It's one of my all time favourite books.

I'm reading Three Plays by Sean O'Casey.


----------



## maya (Mar 18, 2006)

Natasha's Dance, a cultural history of Russia by ???

a book on Islam by Ziauddin Sardar (sp?).


----------



## Leica (Mar 18, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> So now i'm going to read Under The Volcano


If you like it, have a look for the John Huston film - also very good.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Mar 18, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> So now i'm going to read Under The Volcano by Lowry because people are always banging on about it and because it's set during the Day Of The Dead.





Oh that reminds me - it's mentioned in the book I've just finished reading - Out of It: A Cultural History of Intoxication by Stuart Walton.  Good, quite wordy - I spotted a "metonymically" in there - and like all pro-legalisation stuff, prone to occasionally being a bit rose-tinted-specs (his description of ketamine effects/use would be entirely unrecognisable to someone who's sampled the delights of the squat party), but he puts his case well and I enjoyed his articulate style.  So that's a thumbs up from me.


----------



## maya (Mar 19, 2006)

The Granta book of India...nice anthology.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 20, 2006)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> Oh that reminds me - it's mentioned in the book I've just finished reading - Out of It: A Cultural History of Intoxication by Stuart Walton.  Good, quite wordy - I spotted a "metonymically" in there - and like all pro-legalisation stuff, prone to occasionally being a bit rose-tinted-specs (his description of ketamine effects/use would be entirely unrecognisable to someone who's sampled the delights of the squat party), but he puts his case well and I enjoyed his articulate style.  So that's a thumbs up from me.


I liked that too, especially when he says that a person locked in a padded cell would resort to holding their breath to get out of it, such is our drive to feel different from normal IYKWIM.
My dad told me he suspected I would like drugs as I got older when he observed me enthusiastically playing the stick game when I was wee.
(The stick game involves spinning around very fast whilst holding a stick at arm's length, then stopping and dropping the stick and attempting to jump over the stick)


----------



## tastebud (Mar 20, 2006)

Halldor Laxness - The Atom Station.

I also started Ian McEwan - The Comfort of Strangers. He's certainly improved a great deal as a writer over the years. I'm pretty intrigued though.


----------



## CharlieAddict (Mar 20, 2006)

the fall - albert camus.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 20, 2006)

That reminds me - I got round to reading Saturday - not nearly as insufferable as Atonement - my god he can write but I wish he'd write about people who weren't rich Mercedes-driving cunts.


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 20, 2006)

Leica said:
			
		

> If you like it, have a look for the John Huston film - also very good.




i might actually move straight to the film, to be honest


----------



## tastebud (Mar 20, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> That reminds me - I got round to reading Saturday - not nearly as insufferable as Atonement - my god he can write but I wish he'd write about people who weren't rich Mercedes-driving cunts.


Yeah   BA's reading my copy at the mo' and really likes it too. I'm jealous. I think it's possibly McEwan's best yet.


----------



## sleaterkinney (Mar 20, 2006)

finished - Moondust by Andrew Smith - Very good book indeed, esp if you're a bit into science. It was so good I went out and bought another copy so I could finish it after I lost the first one.

just got - The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, Not really into sci-fi, but will give this one a go.


----------



## mrkikiet (Mar 20, 2006)

just finished ballard-millenium nights, alright, felt like he was trying a little bit too hard to be on the pulse of everything happening in contemporary britain.
still going with the very short introduction to the Spanish Civil War


----------



## Thimble Queen (Mar 20, 2006)

Kingdom of Fear Hunter S Thompson


----------



## Leica (Mar 20, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> i might actually move straight to the film, to be honest


Fair enough... perhaps at some point you will think that the time is right to give the book another chance. I kept it for about a year before going past the first page.


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 20, 2006)

Leica said:
			
		

> Fair enough... perhaps at some point you will think that the time is right to give the book another chance. I kept it for about a year before going past the first page.




i think it's everyone telling me it took 3 goes (including the bastard who wrote the introduction) that makes me want to give up. That, and the opening sentence of chapter 3 

anyway, get thee to the Capote thread, we need to argue


----------



## maya (Mar 20, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> Halldor Laxness - The Atom Station.


that's SO beautifully written!  
(at least in the original version)
...have you read the first chapter yet?
just his words alone on the page, made me cry


----------



## jodal (Mar 20, 2006)

Doyle Brunson - _Super System_

Bloody hell its a big book. Thankfully its got pictures and large font.   

I've also got _Super System 2_ to read afterwards.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 20, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> that's SO beautifully written!
> (at least in the original version)
> ...have you read the first chapter yet?
> just his words alone on the page, made me cry


That's weird - I'd never heard of him til last week and now I'm seeing him being mentioned all over the place.
My mum's reading The Fish Can Sing - translated by the second most famous Icelandic person, Magnus Magnusson, fact fans.


----------



## maya (Mar 20, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> That's weird - I'd never heard of him til last week and now I'm seeing him being mentioned all over the place.


that's just because you Anglo-centric folks aren't paying enough attention to the obscurities of the non-englishspeaking worlds, innit-    

IIRC, his most famous books are also _extremely_ boring,
so steer well clear of the books (trilogy?) which are called smth like "Brekkukot saga" or summat...  ! it bore me to tears.

however, "Salka Valka" and "The Atom Station", on the other hand, (_especially_ the latter) are among the most beautiful books i've _ever_ read...  (!)

...author(ships) can be strange sometimes!

apparently he's their [Iceland's] modern Shakespeare...


...talking about Iceland, i'm very fond of Einar Már Gudmundsson, who wrote "Angels Of The Universe", among others...


----------



## foamy (Mar 20, 2006)

this week i will be mostly reading
Saturday by Ian McEwan
enjoying it so far but the text was a bit too rich for my poor little brain on the commute this morning


----------



## Philbc03 (Mar 20, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> this week i will be mostly reading
> Saturday by Ian McEwan
> enjoying it so far but the text was a bit too rich for my poor little brain on the commute this morning



What is it about everybody reading bloody Saturday at the moment? Me too!

At least Cat, my wife isn't. She's on John Kennedy Tooles' 'Confederacy of Dunces'.


----------



## foamy (Mar 20, 2006)

I dont know, what is it?
i love seeing people on the tube reading books i've read, today i saw a woman reading Cloud Atlas and i just wanted to tell her she was in for the long yet unrewarding haul


----------



## jeff_leigh (Mar 20, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> I dont know, what is it?
> i love seeing people on the tube reading books i've read, today i saw a woman reading Cloud Atlas and i just wanted to tell her she was in for the long yet unrewarding haul




yeah i remember once in the dentist waiting room some woman was reading The Possessed  and had an urge to say " Stavrogin commits suicide in the end"


----------



## walktome (Mar 21, 2006)

Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje.


----------



## forked brain (Mar 21, 2006)

The Rule of Four by Caldwell and Thomason


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 21, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> I dont know, what is it?
> i love seeing people on the tube reading books i've read, today i saw a woman reading Cloud Atlas and i just wanted to tell her she was in for the long yet unrewarding haul


You'd be wrong though -    (Cloud Atlas was a very rewarding read for me, but not as good as Ghostwritten)


----------



## citydreams (Mar 21, 2006)

Just finished Peter Carey's "Bliss" (awwww....)   and gone straight out and bought Jack Maggs.   

*snarls*


----------



## CharlieAddict (Mar 21, 2006)

steppenwolf - hernan hesse, so far so good. great writing.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 21, 2006)

I've just finished Carpenter's Gothic by William Gaddis. It's a great novel -- not an easy read, but very rewarding. A vicious satire on the relationship between religion and politics in the US. References tele-evangelism, Reagan's attack on the 'evil empire', the teaching of creationism in the southern states, America's surrogate wars against the Soviet Union in Africa, etc. Written in 1985, but replace Africa with the Middle East and it could have been written yesterday.

A convoluted, deliberately stagey plot (the action takes place exclusively in a Carpenter's-Gothic-style house on the Hudson River). World events arrive in the form of phone calls (hundreds of them) and newspapers. Plenty of shocking twists. Strange, frequently beautiful rhythmic prose. 

'... she watched them out only long enough to see the books tumbled into the leaves as he came off the step, to see wind flapping the raincoat stooped picking them up as though they'd been flung in that boisterous climb of school out for the day and even the laughter she couldn't hear now, getting the door closed against it, turning away so that when the car made the turn down the hill, the wave of a hand leavetook the blind windows of simply a house.'

I commend it to this thread.


----------



## tastebud (Mar 21, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> that's SO beautifully written!
> (at least in the original version)
> ...have you read the first chapter yet?
> just his words alone on the page, made me cry


Yeah, I'm pretty impressed with the first few pages actually.
(It's the English version BTW. Did you read the Icelandic version?)


----------



## maya (Mar 21, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> Yeah, I'm pretty impressed with the first few pages actually.
> (It's the English version BTW. Did you read the Icelandic version?)


no, i read the ********* version.  _*taps nose*_

but i reckon his language will "carry over" into beauty in any form, anywhere!


----------



## tastebud (Mar 21, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> *********


Aha. Gotcha'_!_

Off topick: I wanna go to Iceland *sooooo* much!

Anyway, I finished Ian McEwan & it was disturbing. I'm mighty glad that he moved away from his darker stuff; _not_ appreciated at bedtime.
Still very well written in parts though.


----------



## maya (Mar 21, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> Off topick: I wanna go to Iceland *sooooo* much!


i went to reykjavik last year, it was brilliant, but _*too fucking cold!! *_


----------



## Stanley Edwards (Mar 22, 2006)

Becoming Strangers  - Louise Dean.

Sort of a charming tale about things that happen when you're old and on your last holiday or, on your last holiday because you're dying prematurely and your wife never loved you??? Dunno. Lost on me this one. Found it a bit patronising to it's characters. Perhaps it was supposed to be  


Are you Experienced ? - William Sutcliffe.

A shallow travel novella for a shallow generation. Thankfully, the author knew what he was doing. It's quite funny. I've read similar that are just bloody annoying.


The Graft - Martina Cole.

Brutal paedo gangster novel. All the more brutal for it's simplicity. But, why do people want to read about an ugly world they supposedly live on the periphery of? Didn't like it but, I read it! Then again, I have been known to glance the pages of a spent Daily Mail and wonder why people want to be scared  


Possibly the uncoolest reading on the Urban book list. Not my choice. Someone recommend a good book please.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 22, 2006)

Stanley Edwards said:
			
		

> Not my choice. Someone recommend a good book please.



I think you'd enjoy 'Of Love and Hunger' by Julian Maclaren Ross (Penguin Classics). Very funny, a bit moving.


----------



## tastebud (Mar 23, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> i went to reykjavik last year, it was brilliant, but _*too fucking cold!! *_


it's also bloody fucking expensive! was planning to go this year (& two years ago or so, actually); the flights are one thing but the cost of stuff when you get there is simply kur-razy!
(the workers are really well proteacted by unions - p'raps why it's so expensive for visitors..?)
anyway i left the book at my other job yesterday, so today i've gone back to _east of eden_ by steinbeck. i'd be interested to know if john steinbeck has _ever_ written a non-depressing book*!*


----------



## maya (Mar 23, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> it's also bloody fucking expensive! was planning to go this year (& two years ago or so, actually); the flights are one thing but the cost of stuff when you get there is simply kur-razy!
> (the workers are really well proteacted by unions - p'raps why it's so expensive for visitors..?)


well, after the nightlife of ******, where beer prices make a month's wages = a night out, i don't think i even _noticed!!_   lol

...go if you want to go vix, but perhaps a good idea to save some extra money months/weeks in advance! (-don't want to be stranded in a reykjavik bar with not enough cash to pay the bill, eh?   )

BTW back on topic:

...i'm still on "the Granta Book Of India", but generously interspersed with some ultra-highbrow articles on politics/kunst in Le Monde Internationale (that make my brain hurt! but in a good way...), and a SF anthology thingy, called "The Best Of SF" or something, very mixed quality writing so far...Fave must be the already established authors who've chucked out some memorable short stories...


----------



## tastebud (Mar 23, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> well, after the nightlife of ******, where beer prices make a month's wages = a night out, i don't think i even _noticed!!_   lol


Really? Gosh!   




			
				maya said:
			
		

> ...go if you want to go vix, but perhaps a good idea to save some extra money months/weeks in advance! (-don't want to be stranded in a reykjavik bar with not enough cash to pay the bill, eh?   )


I have actually just booked flights to Turkey & India so I'm set for a while.. p'raps next year.


----------



## maya (Mar 23, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> Really? Gosh!


well, so i did exaggerate a _little_ bit...  
but it _sure is_ expensive!   



			
				Vixen said:
			
		

> I have actually just booked flights to Turkey & India so I'm set for a while.. p'raps next year.


...yay!  you lucky gal!  
(can i get a tiny souvenir thingy from india? oh, come on- can i?   )
*joke

India is...i don't know...i've always been fascinated with it, that and the Far East...dunno why...the "ancient" feel to a country...lots of culture and traditions...the romanticist "orientalist" love of the Other...
or simply the music, people or the food...the philosophies...the attitudes...anything


----------



## tastebud (Mar 23, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> well, so i did exaggerate a _little_ bit...
> but it _sure is_ expensive!
> 
> ...yay!  you lucky gal!
> ...


Yep. Me too! Since I was about twelve - you verbalised my feelings about it quite well there *gets excited again* - Well seeing as you're _lovely_ I will try to remember to get you an elephant keyring or something.. I have your address after all.
----
Anyway back to books. Yesterday, because I didn't want to drink all night, I read Margaret Atwood's new book: _The Tent_. Personally, I absolutely loved it. I felt like I was inside her head. Subsequently read the reviews of the book & they are not so positive. True, it's completely self-indulgent but at her time of life, who can blame her!
It was one of the best things I've read for a while..


----------



## sojourner (Mar 24, 2006)

Just finishing Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg, and boi (in-joke   ) did THAT kick my head into overkill.  One of those books that was waiting for me to read I think. I started it with one idea in my head that I wanted to investigate, and came out the other end having had one mini identity crisis and with a hunger to read more transgender literature.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Mar 24, 2006)

just started Mort


----------



## maya (Mar 24, 2006)

re: Atwood, i had a similar "a-_ha!_"-moment when i first picked up her (pretty recent) novel "The Blind Assassin", the first few pages i didn't like her style at all, then i warmed to it, then i _loved_ it-  

the "stories within stories"- format seemed unnecessarily complicated at first, then when you grasped the basics of who was who and what happened when, it became _unputdownable_...
although some of the "other" characters never came alive that much to me, the _fantastic_ heroine and narrator of the story is one that i'll probably remember forever...the twist at the ending (-_why_ didn't i see it coming? in fact i didn't!-) is especially moving, and make you realise how much she's had to sacrifice in her life- ultimately, it seems, for _nothing_ in return...

i had to sit for a _long tim_e with the book in my knee after i'd finished, letting the ending _really_ sink in...that's what they call "great impact", i believe...
i'm now seeking out everything she's ever written, just to get more of that beautifully stylized language which (i confess) seems to be her strongest point over plot, but what a language!
it's been a long time since i could just twitch my toes in sheer delight over such wonderfully phrased sentences...many of which i had to read twice, just to make sure the music of them wasn't something i've just made up in my own mind...
...sigh.  _*melts*_


----------



## walktome (Mar 25, 2006)

I've always liked Margaret Atwood, aside from reading her in school my dad also has some of her books.

Right now I'm reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (finally). I've seen the movie enough times, it's about time I read the book. I'm going to be writing an essay on it for class, which I find hilarious.


----------



## sojourner (Mar 25, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> i'm now seeking out everything she's ever written,



I can highly recommend Surfacing and Alias Grace


----------



## tastebud (Mar 25, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> re: Atwood, i had a similar "a-_ha!_"-moment when i first picked up her (pretty recent) novel "The Blind Assassin", the first few pages i didn't like her style at all, then i warmed to it, then i _loved_ it-
> 
> the "stories within stories"- format seemed unnecessarily complicated at first, then when you grasped the basics of who was who and what happened when, it became _unputdownable_...
> although some of the "other" characters never came alive that much to me, the _fantastic_ heroine and narrator of the story is one that i'll probably remember forever...the twist at the ending (-_why_ didn't i see it coming? in fact i didn't!-) is especially moving, and make you realise how much she's had to sacrifice in her life- ultimately, it seems, for _nothing_ in return...
> ...


Yep! I feel exactly the same way about The Blind Assassin. I think it's certainly my favourite of her books - that I've read so far.
I too seek to read everything she's ever written before I get too much older.. 
I love Alias Grace and Oryx & Crake too (some of her other stuff not *as* much, but still extremely enjoyable) but definitely think The Blind Assassin wins. You couldn't help but fall in love with the protagonist and that's quite often the case with her books - this kind of erases any feelings re the plot not being particularly strong, for me.

Maya, you should really read her new book, I have a feeling you will enjoy it immensely too (though there are shortcomings, she's amazing & they cease to matter).


----------



## Grego Morales (Mar 25, 2006)

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. I've never really read any Sci-fi before, but I think I'll read more after this.


----------



## mrkikiet (Mar 25, 2006)

alain de 'tremendous insight' botton - consolations of philosophy. considerably better than the art of travel in that there is some interesting stuff in it, that isn't his own feelings and thoughts. But, his writing style annoys me.


----------



## spartacus mills (Mar 26, 2006)

'100 Strokes of the Brush Before Bed' by Melissa P.


----------



## madamv (Mar 26, 2006)

Just finished Sparklefish's hysterically funny *Starter for ten - David Nicholls*.   I rarely laugh out loud to comedians or books, this one had me in fits.   Lovely style of writing.  Having just read Girlfriend in a Coma and Eleanor Rigby back to back, I wanted some chick lit but couldnt stomach it when choosing.  This was my next best choice and although it was easy to read, it wasn't chick lit.   

Now on Bodies - Jed Mercurio.  Definately back to the concentration whilst reading!!

BTW Vixen, you may like to check out Felicity Kendals autobiog.  Her early years were spent in India touring with her Fathers theatre company.  A lovely read.


----------



## tastebud (Mar 26, 2006)

madamv said:
			
		

> BTW Vixen, you may like to check out Felicity Kendals autobiog.  Her early years were spent in India touring with her Fathers theatre company.  A lovely read.


   - Will check that out in July, cheers -


----------



## anfield (Mar 27, 2006)

_*Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72*_ by Hunter S. Thompson


----------



## baldrick (Mar 27, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> Yeah   BA's reading my copy at the mo' and really likes it too. I'm jealous. I think it's possibly McEwan's best yet.



you are joking?   ian mcewan used to be one of my favourite writers, but i think he's completely lost the plot lately.  atonement and saturday - both beautifully written, but dull. dull. dull. 

the child in time, the innocent - fantastic mcewan books.

saturday, atonement - disappointing mcewan books.


----------



## tastebud (Mar 27, 2006)

baldrick said:
			
		

> you are joking?   ian mcewan used to be one of my favourite writers, but i think he's completely lost the plot lately.  atonement and saturday - both beautifully written, but dull. dull. dull.
> 
> the child in time, the innocent - fantastic mcewan books.
> 
> saturday, atonement - disappointing mcewan books.


Hmm I disagree. I couldn't put Saturday down. Perhaps you were expecting it to be something it wasn't.

As for Atonment, it was brilliant albeit far longer than it should have been.

I think Enduring Love is the best one. I don't like his 'darker' stuff so much. Whilst he writes them well, they *bother* me a bit - but that's probably because I'm a wuss.

As for the two you just mentioned, I haven't actually read them. I will do at some point though. I did really like The Cement Garden - I think that was the first one of his I read (when I was about 18) - but In Between the Sheets was a bit crap.

Different people, different tastes, I guess..


----------



## mentalchik (Mar 27, 2006)

Just about to start Stephen King's new book "Cell" !


----------



## lizz9911 (Mar 27, 2006)

James Patterson's _Hide and Seek_.

BTW: I bought it used at my local library for 25 cents!


----------



## foamy (Mar 28, 2006)

Ash Wednesday by Ethan Hawke
just started it, it's not earth moving but certainly a good read for the tube


----------



## CharlieAddict (Mar 28, 2006)

tender is the night - f. scott fitzgerald.


----------



## madamv (Mar 28, 2006)

Life after God - Douglas Coupland.....  Odd set out but its got my attention.


----------



## D (Mar 28, 2006)

Just finished Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides and Letters to a Young Artist by Anna Deveare Smith.  I'm now onto Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams (the play, natch).


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 28, 2006)

madamv said:
			
		

> Life after God - Douglas Coupland.....  Odd set out but its got my attention.




my favourite book of all time. Left me in bits


----------



## MysteryGuest (Mar 28, 2006)

The Book of Dave, university of milesy press.


----------



## madamv (Mar 28, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> my favourite book of all time. Left me in bits



Oh no!  And I know you have read _some_ books.

P'raps I should back off now


----------



## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Mar 29, 2006)

Behold a pale Horse. William Cooper.

More conspiracy nonsense
Mind you if what he is saying is true, we are all fucked pretty soon.


----------



## Rollem (Mar 29, 2006)

stuart: a life backwards - alexander masters


----------



## Nina (Mar 29, 2006)

All the names

Jose Saramago.

Must say, 50 pages in and I ain't hooked yet. His sentences are ridiculously long....


----------



## Sid's Snake (Mar 29, 2006)

"Posting On Bulletin Boards: the Laughter and the Tears"

Douglas Finnegan Jr, University of South Minota Press.


----------



## Lazy Llama (Mar 29, 2006)

"Frek and the Elixir" by Rudy Rucker

Very strange SF, with a plot based around GM and reality TV-like branecasting (and yes, that is how he spells it).

I've read lots of his others and this is the weirdest. Fantastic imagination to come up with some of the ideas.


----------



## Iam (Mar 29, 2006)

A Feast for Crows, by George RR Martin.

Book four of an ongoing series and a mighty tome it is as well. Good read and getting better.


----------



## maya (Mar 30, 2006)

Nina said:
			
		

> Jose Saramago.
> 
> Must say, 50 pages in and I ain't hooked yet. His sentences are ridiculously long....


case of "languages that don't cross over very well in translation",
see also: french vs. english,  baroque vs. rational sentence structure...

(p.s.- all french philosophers are UNREADABLE for that very same reason- pointless chitchat/endless wordmasturbation...or perhaps it sounds different in french...) 

in the case with Saramago (he's portuguese, isn't he?), it _could_ also be that he's perhaps a bit boring(?)


----------



## Boogie Boy (Mar 30, 2006)

Just started 'The Three Muskateers' by Dumas. Started to read it on the tube and had a guy next to me say 'You look like a Muskateer'.

Made me smile.


BB


----------



## maya (Apr 1, 2006)

*A Canticle For Leibowitz- by Walter M. Miller, Jr.*

sci-fi story written in the mid-1950's, about a new (post-atomic) Dark Age,
where generations of angry hordes have put down every scientist and intellectual (angry about the horror and destruction they caused with the Bomb),
and "simpletons" and illiterate hunter-gatherers populate the continents,
with the exception of a few monasteries that's been allowed to hold onto religious tradition and the study of Scriptures and illuminated manuscripts...

a long time ago, at the time of the post-atomic Deluge, a man called Leibowitz (a scientist) was accepted into the Brotherhood of monks, and swiftly became one of the most popular among them- he made the Order into one whose chief goal was to travel around and gather the few remaining books that hadn't been destroyed in the mob's great Simplification, and these should be saved and copied by the monks for generation after generation,
to preserve the last bit of knowledge...

amusingly, it seems like many of these "manuscripts" were actally technical manuals and circuit diagrams...  
(which the monks didn't understand, but faithfully reproduced illuminated manuscripts of)
i haven't read the rest yet, but i think i can see where this is heading...


----------



## Lazy Llama (Apr 1, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> *A Canticle For Leibowitz- by Walter M. Miller, Jr.*
> 
> amusingly, it seems like many of these "manuscripts" were actally technical manuals and cord diagrams...
> i haven't read the rest yet, but i think i can see where this is heading...


It is very good... and there's a sequel written quite a bit later called "Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman" which is well worth reading if you enjoy the first one.
_
‘Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels--bring home for Emma.’_


----------



## maya (Apr 1, 2006)

Lazy Llama said:
			
		

> It is very good... and there's a sequel written quite a bit later called "Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman" which is well worth reading if you enjoy the first one.
> _
> ‘Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels--bring home for Emma.’_


yeah, i like it a lot,
the language is appalling, though-
but since it's written about 1953, he's forgiven-

imo american authors are often substandard in their language,
compared to british authors...american english is like a different language,
and one with less subtlety and vocabulary...not always, of course-

but there seem to be a habit of heaping wild praise upon US authors that's successful, many of whom i honestly don't rate at all, and see as merely mediocre...but that't not noticed over there...they seem to think that these people are "brilliant"...  

that said, science fiction isn't actually famous for its literary highbrow qualities, anyway...  
it's part of the charm...


----------



## Yu_Gi_Oh (Apr 1, 2006)

I'm reading 'Perdita' by Paula Byrne and its driving me mad.

Its about Mary Robinson, an actress/poet/lover to many famous rich blokes in the 17th/18th century.  All that really happens is that she falls in love, acts/rights a play/book/poem and then gets all ill, goes abroad or to Brighton to recover and then comes back to do it all again.  Most of the time she's pretty skint too.

It has become very predictable and yesterday I prefered staring into space while waiting for my train rather than reading it.


----------



## bertifrew (Apr 1, 2006)

bill Bryson...neither here nor there.

very witty


----------



## anfield (Apr 2, 2006)

*Havana Red* by Leonardo Padura. Has anyone else read his stuff? I saw him at a book reading in the world museum in Liverpool yesterday. A great character who has lived in Havana all his life, and apparently counts Fidel amongst his fans.


----------



## foamy (Apr 2, 2006)

motherless brooklyn - this time i'm going to read the book _and_ go to book group


----------



## Philbc03 (Apr 3, 2006)

Demo by Alison Miller (2005).

Umming and arrring about writing a review of it.


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 3, 2006)

abandoned the things i'm 'supposed' to be reading and gone for TC Boyle's East Is East instead, because it's a lot of fun (although brilliantly written) and I just seem to love Boyle's books.


----------



## rusalki (Apr 4, 2006)

*The stone raft * by *Josè Saramago*.  From Portugal the land of the disquieted people.

I've almost finished it - then I think I'll start *The Broom of the System  * by *D.F. Wallace. *


----------



## tastebud (Apr 4, 2006)

I'm reading: The Land of Green Plums - Herta Müller. I like it so far. Interesting style.


----------



## Nlogax (Apr 4, 2006)

"Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them:  A Fair And Balanced View Of The Right" - Al Franken


----------



## citydreams (Apr 4, 2006)

The Poetics of Space - Gaston Bachelard

- requires us to go beyond our experience in time to attain the level of daydreams, where time ceases to quicken memory and space is everything....


----------



## maya (Apr 4, 2006)

citydreams said:
			
		

> The Poetics of Space - Gaston Bachelard
> 
> - requires us to go beyond our experience in time to attain the level of daydreams, where time ceases to quicken memory and space is everything....


i liked it...  very poetic...
(are you reading it in french?  )


----------



## citydreams (Apr 4, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> i liked it...  very poetic...
> (are you reading it in french?  )



non, mais je pense que I'm going to give up and read the Poetics of Reverie instead


----------



## maya (Apr 4, 2006)

citydreams said:
			
		

> non, mais je pense que I'm going to give up and read the Poetics of Reverie instead


yeh, bit wordy innit   

(- those frenchies, eh?   )


----------



## belboid (Apr 4, 2006)

20,000 Streets Under the Sky - Patrick Hamilton - a story of unrequited love in the London backstreets in the thirties.  Stunningly good.  On BBC4 in a couple of weeks I dicover too.


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 4, 2006)

belboid said:
			
		

> 20,000 Streets Under the Sky - Patrick Hamilton - a story of unrequited love in the London backstreets in the thirties.  Stunningly good.  On BBC4 in a couple of weeks I dicover too.




keep meaning to read this, Smart Bob is always banging on about it on Radio London


----------



## belboid (Apr 4, 2006)

Do, really really do. I reckon you'd really like it.  It blew me away how good it is.


----------



## Sid's Snake (Apr 4, 2006)

Hangover Sq was terribly depressing

Poor Bone


----------



## rennie (Apr 4, 2006)

Burmese Days by George Orwell... I just started it but it looks good. the way he cynically deconstructs his characters is very very engaging.


----------



## Sunspots (Apr 4, 2006)

*Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson.* 

The screen adaptation of this book is one of my favourite films.  

As for the book itself, there doesn't actually seem to be that much to the writing, until you stumble across the two or three profoundly honest sentences contained in each short story.  Redemption...   

A very easy read indeed; so easy in fact that even I, 'Mr First Five Pages', will finish this one!


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 4, 2006)

belboid said:
			
		

> 20,000 Streets Under the Sky - Patrick Hamilton - a story of unrequited love in the London backstreets in the thirties.  Stunningly good.  On BBC4 in a couple of weeks I dicover too.



Aye, great stuff. Mordant wit I think they call it.


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 4, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> abandoned the things i'm 'supposed' to be reading and gone for TC Boyle's East Is East instead, because it's a lot of fun (although brilliantly written) and I just seem to love Boyle's books.




i love Boyle. He describes an avant garde composer's work as 'slow death in the metronome factory' which is fucking priceless


----------



## andy2002 (Apr 4, 2006)

About 100 pages into A State Of Denmark by Derek Raymond. England under fascism, its people cowed by misinformation and fear – and an exiled journalist fuming impotently on the sidelines in Italy. Nicely set-up, looking forward to what happens next...


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 4, 2006)

I keep meaning to read Boyle. I've only read half the one about dope growers. Is Tortilla Curtain any good?


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 4, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I keep meaning to read Boyle. I've only read half the one about dope growers. Is Tortilla Curtain any good?




 not read that one, it's on the shelf.

have read

Drop City - loved it
Riven Rock - best book I read last year
East is East - excellent so far.

and a bunch of short stories which are always good value


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 4, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> not read that one, it's on the shelf.
> 
> have read
> 
> ...



Ta, I've heard good things about Drop City in particular


----------



## ck (Apr 4, 2006)

"Snowblind" by Robert Sabbag.  I only found about this after reading a snippet in a book entitled "Sampled" given away free with Arena back in 1997 (it's taken me this long to get round to reading that)

So far so good.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Apr 4, 2006)

A Scanner Darkly -  Philip K Dick


----------



## BadlyDrawnGirl (Apr 4, 2006)

The Yellow Pages.


----------



## spartacus mills (Apr 4, 2006)

ck said:
			
		

> "Snowblind" by Robert Sabbag.  I only found about this after reading a snippet in a book entitled "Sampled" given away free with Arena back in 1997



So did I! Great book.

I'm just finishing ''Predicate: The Dunblane Massacre 10 Years After'' by Peter Sotos. Grim.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 5, 2006)

I finished The Unfortunates by B S Johnson a couple of weeks ago. A book in a box, you read the unbound chapters in any order you like except for the first and last. It's a good gimmick and a lot of fun, but I don't know what he achieves for the reader apart from that. An elegiac and moving story, and one that BSJ couldn't help retelling in various guises throughout his life. All his fiction is a more or less successful attempt at memoir.

So, worth it, if you can get hold of a copy. Originals (1969) sell for silly money, as does the 1999 reissue 

I've also reread James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824). It's an amazing novel -- murder, Satan, killing in the name of radical religion, some great samples of the Scots language, very dark humour.

Now I've got Confessions of a Murderer Told in One Night by Joseph Roth because the only other book of his I've read, The Radetzky March, is brilliant, and because of the similarity with Hogg's theme.

I thought about reading The House Gun by Nadine Gordimer, but her need to describe _everything_ forensically, technically, has put me off. Anyone read anything of hers?


----------



## sleaterkinney (Apr 5, 2006)

sleaterkinney said:
			
		

> just got - The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, Not really into sci-fi, but will give this one a go.


Just finished this, It's a really good book, he manages to weave the sci-fi stuff into concepts that are around today and make it seem more believable and is very good at bringing the characters to life. I'm sorta pre-disposed to this stuff anyway as I'm a techie but I would be interested to hear from someone who isn't what they thought of the book.


----------



## Cheesypoof (Apr 5, 2006)

'Smile, you're travelling' by Henry Rollins about his travels in Africa and part of his coffee shop series.


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 5, 2006)

I've also been meaning to pick up a TC Boyle but don't know where to start - any recommendations?


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 5, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I've also been meaning to pick up a TC Boyle but don't know where to start - any recommendations?




Riven Rock is the best i've read - quite hefty but a fantastic story, quite moving and brilliantly written. It's about an American heir and industrialist with a morbid and violent reaction to women who is incarcerated for most of his life in a grand Californian mansion house and follows the lives of his wife and his attendants and medical staff. Which doesn't sound promising but it is 

Drop City is a kind of 'death of the hippy dream' book about some heads who get driven out of the West Coast to live in Alaska in the woods and see their dreams turn sour. Funny, cynical, very involving..

East is East is about a mixed-race Japanese guy driven by prejudice at home to jump ship off the States and go into hiding on a small Georgian island home to a village of ex-slaves and an artists colony. Very very funny indeed, written with real wit and energy.. 

there ya go. I'd heartily recommend all of those


----------



## tastebud (Apr 5, 2006)

i have a tc boyle book at home. it's short stories but i can't remember what it's called. something 'claw'? has anyone read it? is it worth reading? - i need something good. i'm getting pretty angry with my current book. it makes me think of a diary written when drunk, which took me by surprise at first but is now just pissing me off.

completely selfish author. yes, it might be fun to write but isn't fun to read.


----------



## walktome (Apr 6, 2006)

Maggie Cassidy by Jack Kerouac. It feels like I've read so much Kerouac in the past three or so years, and I guess I have.


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 6, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> i have a tc boyle book at home. it's short stories but i can't remember what it's called. something 'claw'? has anyone read it? is it worth reading? -



it's called Tooth & Claw. Haven't read it, it's pretty new, but the reviews were good


----------



## trashpony (Apr 6, 2006)

I am reading a marvellous book called The Spell by Alan Hollinghurst. He's a brilliant writer and this book is just wonderful.

It's about a group of gay men between the ages of early 20s and late 40s. It's about love, dynamics between people, ageing and the 90s. It also has the best account of someone's first e I've ever read. 

And it's fucking funny too


----------



## Leica (Apr 6, 2006)

Rachel Seiffert, _The Dark Room_


----------



## foo (Apr 6, 2006)

in the middle of two right now, and enjoying them both. 

The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen and The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman - Angela Carter. 

i've read the Carter before but giving it another go because although i remember loving it the first time, i can't remember the story very well.

and as it's in my bag and work is slack for the next hour.......


----------



## gypsy??? (Apr 6, 2006)

I am reading Daniella Westbrook autobiography

So far so good


----------



## Louloubelle (Apr 6, 2006)

Just finished reading 
Sickened: The True Story of a Lost Childhood by Julie Gregory

very well written memoir of a women who was abused by her parents, particularly her mother who made her ill so she could get attention from doctors.

Just started Murder in the Heart by Alexandra Artley
A true crime account of how 2 sisters were driven to murder by domestic violence, it's had mixed reviews so I'm interested in checking it out.


----------



## madamv (Apr 6, 2006)

acid priest said:
			
		

> The Yellow Pages.


  

For my birthday I have been given Clive Barker - Weaveworld.   I have also got Clement Freud Autobiog on its way.

Still reading Coupland ATM.  All good, not had much time to read this week.


----------



## roxyfoxy (Apr 7, 2006)

gypsy??? said:
			
		

> I am reading Daniella Westbrook autobiography
> 
> So far so good



I want to read that, how good is good ? is there much more to no? as Danny loves the poke and has sold numerous stories over the years and TV documentary


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Apr 7, 2006)

Captives: Britain, Empire and the World 1600-1850


----------



## roxyfoxy (Apr 7, 2006)

Im reading, well one of the many i have on the go

*Cocaine True Cocaine Blue   By Eugene Richards*

When it came (Amazon) it wasnt what i had expected it to be. It is an in-depth and intimate look at three troubled communities in America. It is brutal and shows how drugs are destroying lives. The pictures throughout the book are horendous, and as he states beyond our wildest nightmares. I think he won an award for best photographic book. Huge A4 book worth it just for the photos alone.


----------



## foo (Apr 7, 2006)

Louloubelle said:
			
		

> Just finished reading
> Sickened: The True Story of a Lost Childhood by Julie Gregory
> 
> very well written memoir of a women who was abused by her parents, particularly her mother who made her ill so she could get attention from doctors.
> ...



jesus. 

you go for some reet fluffy reading material Lou


----------



## Louloubelle (Apr 7, 2006)

foo said:
			
		

> jesus.
> 
> you go for some reet fluffy reading material Lou



tis true 
I'm not really interested in 'happy' books
I hardly ever read fiction 
I've had sone 'interesting' experiences in my own life am I'm interested in how other people respond to extreme trauma and pressure


----------



## foo (Apr 7, 2006)

yeh, i've had some 'interesting' experiences too. i guess i choose another option, denial. hence being _furiously_ happy  -  most of the time 

have you tried I Choose To Live - Sabine Dardenne? 

i've got it in my bookshelf but haven't read it. a friend said it's very courageous and unsentimental.


----------



## Louloubelle (Apr 7, 2006)

foo said:
			
		

> yeh, i've had some 'interesting' experiences too. i guess i choose another option, denial. hence being _furiously_ happy  -  most of the time
> 
> have you tried I Choose To Live - Sabine Dardenne?
> 
> i've got it in my bookshelf but haven't read it. a friend said it's very courageous and unsentimental.




no I haven't, although I'm very familiar with the case
Possibly the only case that brings out the conspiracy theorist in me, looks like the police and government and all kinds of powerful figures were involved in covering up child abuse 

I'll put the book on my 'to read' list 

I started on Murder in the Heart yesterday and I've stopped for a bit, as I'm feeling a bit down about it and about some other stuff that happened yesterday 

I sometimes wish I could stop reading thse horrific memoirs and true crime accounts but I do think that they can help me to understand people's responses to trauma, which is I think an important understanding to have if you can bear to think about it (I can't always) 

I'm going to put D'Angelo and lewis taylor on the CD player, think happy thoughts, and get on with some work


----------



## milesy (Apr 7, 2006)

"the big book" by argos.


----------



## hippogriff (Apr 7, 2006)

Arcadia for All
The Legacy of a Makeshift Landscape
_Dennis Hardy and Colin Ward_

fascinating story of the development of "plotlands" in SE England


----------



## Prof.Rosseforp (Apr 7, 2006)

Just finished "Song of Sussannah", the 6th in Steven King's Dark Tower series.  Dissapointed.  Relatively new to this board and not sure about the spoiler policy so won't go into detail but a big let down after the first 5, which I enjoyed so much.

Now looking at a pile including the last in The Dark Tower series (which 1 week ago I would have said would definitely be the next one, but now I'm feeling some trepidation), Hamilton's "Judas Unchained", Banks' "The Algebraist", and Reynolds' "Pushing Ice".


----------



## spartacus mills (Apr 11, 2006)

Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam


----------



## waverunner (Apr 12, 2006)

Lee Child - One Shot.

waverunner *hearts* Jack Reacher...


----------



## Fledgling (Apr 12, 2006)

trashpony said:
			
		

> I am reading a marvellous book called The Spell by Alan Hollinghurst. He's a brilliant writer and this book is just wonderful.
> 
> It's about a group of gay men between the ages of early 20s and late 40s. It's about love, dynamics between people, ageing and the 90s. It also has the best account of someone's first e I've ever read.
> 
> And it's fucking funny too



Have you read The Line of Beauty by him? 

We read that as part of the (in)famous manc bookclub started on urban. Very moving and at times funny novel. But quite long, and the second half is perhaps more amusing. An excellent account of the 80's seen through the eyes of a young homosexual guy but had some great satire on the Thatcher period complete with typcast Tory MP. I'd never have read this if someone else hadn't recommended it and I might go for another of his works, the Swimming Poll Library. Id never read any "gay" fiction before as this is what the novel would be misguidedly placed under. It's more than romance or satire though. 

I've been on a bit of a book binge cos I'm trying to save money and reading is cheap entertainment. I've been reading the Castle and the Trial by Kafka and a book of criticism on the caslte as I was taken up by Kafka's themes. Also just read Farewell to Arms by Hemingway and Birdman, a scary crime novel by Mo Haydar. Birdman's pretty horrific and was lent to me by fellow poster mancboy. Read most of it in three days, it's not hard to read but entertaining and follows a haunted detective try to uncover the mystery surrounding a serial killer. 

But finished it last night and I'm now reading the Ragged Trousered Philanphropists. Big book, but essential reading I'd say. This is also for the manc bookclub on urban, check it out in northern forum, new members both physical and virtual welcome.


----------



## tastebud (Apr 12, 2006)

Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince.

I love it but at the same time find it deeply unsettling, with thoughts of racism & date rape as themes in the book. This book seems to be worse than the others in this sense. Also violence; extreme violence being okay, or at least only mildly frowned upon.

If she wants to send an educational message about these issues she should put a bit more thought into it, I think. I still really enjoy HP though, it just makes me read the book in a more adult fashion, when I would prefer to go into child-mode when I read it.


----------



## trashpony (Apr 12, 2006)

Fledgling said:
			
		

> Have you read The Line of Beauty by him?



No - that's the only one I haven't read. I highly recommend both the Swimming Pool Library and the Folding Star. The Folding Star is absolutely beautiful - about romance between two men in Flanders in the late 18th century. His writing is exquisite I think


----------



## Fledgling (Apr 13, 2006)

trashpony said:
			
		

> No - that's the only one I haven't read. I highly recommend both the Swimming Pool Library and the Folding Star. The Folding Star is absolutely beautiful - about romance between two men in Flanders in the late 18th century. His writing is exquisite I think



The line of beauty has some great chapters in it, the novel is long, about 5-600 pages and doesn't really get going until about 130 pages in but definitely worth the read. I'll try and track down the swimming pool library sometime, I think the line of beauty picks up where swimming pool library left off, well according to Wookey.


----------



## andy2002 (Apr 13, 2006)

Finished Derek Raymond's "A State Of Denmark" yesterday. It's set in England under fascism and, although magnificent, is one of the bleakest novels I've ever read in my life. Highly recommended.


----------



## Sid's Snake (Apr 13, 2006)

The Innovations Catalogue


----------



## anfield (Apr 13, 2006)

_The Great Shark Hunt_ - Hunter S Thompson


----------



## MysteryGuest (Apr 13, 2006)

_Alan Querdilion opened his eyes … and found himself living in a nightmare.  The Nazis had won the War and the Third Reich stretched from the Urals to the Atlantic.  Central Europe was a vast hunting preserve, ruled with savage authority by Count Hans von Hacklenberg, Master of the Reich’s Forests.

The Count’s passion was hunting and at night the sound of his horn echoed eerily through the moonlit forest as his weird hunting pack closed in on its prey.  A pack of half-naked cat-girls, the inhuman creations of insane surgery, their hands sheathed in iron claws, their bellies starved of meat.  And the quarry, as Alan discovered too late, is … himself._


It was a recommendation from my half-brother.  Years ago when I took him to see Laibach at the QEH, he commented that their use of the sound of a hunting horn reminded him of this book.  I think it’s entirely possible that NSK/Laibach are aware of that link. _Unheimlich_ is the word here, I think.


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 13, 2006)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> _Unheimlich_



bless you.


----------



## foamy (Apr 13, 2006)

Margrave of the Marshes....  
(has tempted me away from motherless brooklyn which i now dont reckon i'll finish before the meeting  )


----------



## MysteryGuest (Apr 13, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> (has tempted me away from motherless brooklyn which i now dont reckon i'll finish before the meeting  )




I'll have it if you don't want it   

(it's just marty21 _told_ me I had to read it and if I didn't he would give me a chinese burn   )


----------



## MysteryGuest (Apr 13, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> bless you.




badumpen-tischen


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 13, 2006)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> badumpen-tischen




it's ze way i sprechs them


----------



## foamy (Apr 13, 2006)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> I'll have it if you don't want it
> 
> (it's just marty21 _told_ me I had to read it and if I didn't he would give me a chinese burn   )




i am gonna read it though, i am, i am!!!


----------



## laptop (Apr 13, 2006)

Just finished the Borribles trilogy. 

Had it thrust at me by a friend - always a bit suspicious of such zealotry - but I ended up reading it in three nights.

Astonished to discover there's only one mention on urban75. Two years ago.


----------



## Sid's Snake (Apr 13, 2006)

Martin Rees: Our Final Century

and the sublime, _sublime_ - yet utterly _horrible_

John Gray: Straw Dogs

Has anyone read this great, nasty, _mutherfucka _ of a book?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 13, 2006)

laptop said:
			
		

> Just finished the Borribles trilogy.



Looks interesting...


----------



## Nina (Apr 15, 2006)

Just started Bret Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero. Was this his first book?

So far I'm expecting it to be a piss poor version of/ precursor to the much better Gen X by Coupland. I'll keep ya posted.

Got 4 books for less than a tenner in Oxfam yesterday. Well chuffed


----------



## laptop (Apr 16, 2006)

I'm re-reading _The Crying of Lot 49_. 

Oddly, there are whole passages that appear familiar verbatim - and others that   I'm delighted to find, as new...


----------



## siarc (Apr 16, 2006)

just starting gravity's rainbow
i tend to avoid things which are too canonical/obvious
which is stupid, evidently


----------



## zenie (Apr 16, 2006)

Only Anarchists are Pretty by Nick O'shea.

The early days of the Pistols.

It cost me 3 quid in fopp so I'm not holding out much hope but you never know


----------



## MysteryGuest (Apr 16, 2006)

The most difficultest book of complicated scientifical political sociologicistic difficultness ever in the whole world _ever_.  With lots of sums in as well.


----------



## chooch (Apr 16, 2006)

_The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes_, Geoffrey Rose. Fascinating, if occasionally irritating.


----------



## coronet (Apr 16, 2006)

*What book are you reading?*




			
				ck said:
			
		

> I'm reading "By Myself" by Lauren Bacall ; it's very good than-you very much.
> 
> What about you ?




I'm reading Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel.

Superb book fronm the fifties about using zen to discipine the mind.


----------



## Sid's Snake (Apr 16, 2006)

coronet said:
			
		

> I'm reading Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel.
> 
> Superb book fronm the fifties about using zen to discipine the mind.



Great book. 

Started me off on years of mindless practice. 

I wasn't even upset when I found out Herrigel was a total fucking fascist and the book was almost certainly a early, if well written example of new age fraudery - you see, it, really, doesn't, matter


----------



## Chemical needs (Apr 16, 2006)

Just finished David Mitchell's 'Number 9 Dream' and it wsa quite good


----------



## Boogie Boy (Apr 16, 2006)

'The Count Of Monte Cristo' Dumas. Having enjoyed 'The Three Muskateers' (book one especially) I decided to try another of his works. 

BB


----------



## onemonkey (Apr 17, 2006)

recently finished _the poisonwood bible_ which was bleak, beautiful, brilliant and disturbing 

and just finished Les Enfants Terrible which was just plain disturbing.

now breezing through William Goldman's Adventures in the Screen Trade.. which is great fun


----------



## Leica (Apr 17, 2006)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> and just finished Les Enfants Terribles which was just plain disturbing.


What did you find disturbing about it?


----------



## onemonkey (Apr 17, 2006)

coronet said:
			
		

> I'm reading Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel.
> 
> Superb book fronm the fifties about using zen to discipine the mind.


i read that recently... there is something comical about all zen parables and practices but who knows there may be something to it


----------



## Nicsi (Apr 18, 2006)

Nic is currently digesting:

The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde by Neil McKenna 

and

The Truce by Primo Levi. 

and hasn't finished a book since January, thanks to too much coursework


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 18, 2006)

finished Boyle's East Is East and ploughed straight into Chandler's Long Goodbye.. been a long time since i read Chandler, he's brilliant


----------



## Idris2002 (Apr 18, 2006)

Benjamin Prado's _Not Only Fire_. It's about three generations of a left-wing Spanish family that remains scarred by what happened under Franco.

And it's very good. It's a while since I read a 'literary' novel as good as this.


----------



## maya (Apr 18, 2006)

still halfway through the Granta book of India, which i've continually put aside for other reads, but this time i'm going to finish it through, no matter what!!  
_*peeks longingly at crime novel placed temptingly on top of bookpile*_  

(it's not a bad book at all, 'ts just that i'm used to switch between books in frenetic as-it-suits-me tempo, attention span of a goldfish, so it's bloody hard to actually enforce the discipline to concentrate on one book only and stick with it to the (bitter?) end...)


----------



## stroober (Apr 18, 2006)

America - Franz Kafka


----------



## foo (Apr 18, 2006)

nearly finished The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen.

one of those books i wish wouldn't end. i'd highly recommend it.  

work's dead right now so i'm going to take it down by the river to read cos it's lovely out there...


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 18, 2006)

foo said:
			
		

> nearly finished The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen.
> 
> one of those books i wish wouldn't end. i'd highly recommend it.



told ya


----------



## Belushi (Apr 18, 2006)

Just started Orhan Pamuk 'Istanbul', his personal memoir of the city he's spend his life in.

After reading the brilliant 'My Name is Red' he's my favourite author at the moment.


----------



## foo (Apr 18, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> told ya



yep - it's a gorgeous & wonderful book. 

i want more. 

would you recommend any of his other stuff Dub?


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 18, 2006)

foo said:
			
		

> yep - it's a gorgeous & wonderful book.
> 
> i want more.
> 
> would you recommend any of his other stuff Dub?




for my sins, it's the only one i've read..


----------



## foo (Apr 18, 2006)

oh right. well, i'll have a look in the bookshops and if i come across another good un by Franzen, i'll let you know. 

(i got the wigwam cd btw)


----------



## wiskey (Apr 18, 2006)

i was reading Moab is my Washpot by stephen fry but i got a bit stuck when he was about14. i really enjoyed the bit i read i just fizzled out a bit. 

so now i'm reading Middlesex  by jeffrey eugenides on stigs reccomendation and its already proving to be a superb book


----------



## EatMoreChips (Apr 18, 2006)

'The Mole People' by Jennifer Toth. About the thousands of people who live in the tunnels under NYC. Fascinating and saddening at the same time.


----------



## dynamicbaddog (Apr 18, 2006)

just started reading The Ballad of Peckham Rye by  Muriel Spark


----------



## maya (Apr 18, 2006)

EatMoreChips said:
			
		

> 'The Mole People' by Jennifer Toth. About the thousands of people who live in the tunnels under NYC. Fascinating and saddening at the same time.


have you seen the film Dark Days? it's a very good documentary about the same people...


----------



## onemonkey (Apr 18, 2006)

Leica said:
			
		

> What did you find disturbing about it?


a lot - mostly how terrible those enfants were 

how they were permanently, tragically and grotesequely stuck in childhood


----------



## brixtonbard (Apr 18, 2006)

*Hi*

Any of you guys read EAST OFACRE LANE?


----------



## Leica (Apr 18, 2006)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> a lot - mostly how terrible those enfants were
> 
> how they were permanently, tragically and grotesequely stuck in childhood


I see now what you mean. It can be unsettling to think how much they try to hold on to it. On the other hand it is also understandable, given how much people as adults try to return there too... Perhaps this is what love is about, becoming reunited with something a person had previously been separated from... that missing same part that formed a whole. No wonder they were so scared of losing each other.

I don't know if you've seen that recent film by Bertolucci, the Dreamers, it is there too - the brother and sister (twins), the third person who threatens to separate them.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Apr 18, 2006)

A Multitude of Sins - Richard Ford, collection of short stories


----------



## madamv (Apr 18, 2006)

wiskey said:
			
		

> i was reading Moab is my Washpot by stephen fry but i got a bit stuck when he was about14. i really enjoyed the bit i read i just fizzled out a bit.




Noooo..  persist.  Its a lovely read.


----------



## madamv (Apr 18, 2006)

EatMoreChips said:
			
		

> 'The Mole People' by Jennifer Toth. About the thousands of people who live in the tunnels under NYC. Fascinating and saddening at the same time.


On order  

I love the internet.  I see a book here, fancy it, order it second hand and by magic, it arrives within a few days....

Ah... I. Love. Books.


----------



## Part 2 (Apr 18, 2006)

Currently reading the Stuart Christie book, Granny made me an Anarchist. It's good but I keep wandering and probably missing bits. 

So, I also started to read Charles Burns...Black Hole. I got it last week; the hardcover collection of the comic series. It's excellent, top story so far and the illustration is great too.


----------



## Part 2 (Apr 18, 2006)

madamv said:
			
		

> On order
> 
> I love the internet.  I see a book here, fancy it, order it second hand and by magic, it arrives within a few days....
> 
> Ah... I. Love. Books.



This thread is great for that. Come across a few gems myself. I went for the Dvd about the underground folk though, less than a fiver


----------



## Nicsi (Apr 19, 2006)

wiskey said:
			
		

> i was reading Moab is my Washpot by stephen fry but i got a bit stuck when he was about14. i really enjoyed the bit i read i just fizzled out a bit.
> 
> so now i'm reading Middlesex  by jeffrey eugenides on stigs reccomendation and its already proving to be a superb book



I love both of those books!

Middlesex is absolutely mindblowing. I can't believe someone could write something so amazing.


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 19, 2006)

brixtonbard said:
			
		

> Any of you guys read EAST OFACRE LANE?


No, but I want to after seeing Wheatle on the BBC Brixton doc the other week.

Hang on, you're not the author are you?


----------



## purves grundy (Apr 19, 2006)

_Rare Earth_

Why we're probably alone in the universe. A little foray into astrobiology... interesting.


----------



## pno (Apr 19, 2006)

Mindfulness in Plain English - B.H. Gunaratana
My Son, the Dalai Lama - Diki Tsering

Just finished reading...

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey


----------



## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Apr 19, 2006)

Time flies, Heathrow at 60.

Yawn.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 19, 2006)

*Joseph Roth*

I've been on a Joseph Roth spree the last couple of weeks. A truly great writer well served by some great translation (esp by Michael Hofmann). I read 'The Radetzky March' last year, which is a stonecold masterpiece. I've recently read:

'Confession of a Murderer Told in One Night': A spy yarn/love story set in pre-revolutionary Russia, shifting to pre-WWI Paris, very elegant, but probably not the best introduction to his work.

'What I Saw: Reports from Berlin 1920-33': Roth was first and foremost a journalist. This collection focuses on 20s Berlin -- the flipside to Weimar romanticism, and a nice prose accompaniment to Grosz, Dix and the rest. An exercise in New Journalism 40 years before Wolfe.

'Right and Left': A very funny, atmospheric and occasionally vicious dissection of middleclass pretensions in 20s Berlin. Not much of a plot, and it kind of fizzles out at the end, but very fine nonetheless.

'Hotel Savoy': One of Roth's fables. Disturbing in a very subtle way.

'Rebellion': Just brilliant.

I'm now onto 'The Spider's Web', Roth's first, which is him feeling his way in the novel form.

There's never a dull moment with Roth; brilliantly funny; great use of metaphor; vicious when he wants to be; a very compact and concise style without ever being too dense. It's amazing how he managed to write so much great fiction in range of styles over a relatively short period (15 years or so, at one a year). How his work managed to stay forgotten for so long outside Germany is a real mystery.

He had a very interesting and ultimately tragic life.

Anyway, there's still plenty to read, but I probably need a break now.


----------



## brixtonbard (Apr 19, 2006)

Yep, that'll be me.  I was just browsing around when I noticed this forum.  I like all the debates so I joined.  Simple as.


----------



## wiskey (Apr 19, 2006)

Nicsi said:
			
		

> I love both of those books!
> 
> Middlesex is absolutely mindblowing. I can't believe someone could write something so amazing.



i started it on sunday and i'm already half way through. i've sat up till the wee small hours glued to it. that hasnt happened for years. 

and madamev - i shall continue to read moab but now reading middlesex i can already feel it doing things to my head that moab never did. i can already tell that by the end of middlesex i shall be sad its over


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 19, 2006)

brixtonbard said:
			
		

> Yep, that'll be me.  I was just browsing around when I noticed this forum.  I like all the debates so I joined.  Simple as.


Welcome aboard - I'll endeavour to read your book now


----------



## wiskey (Apr 19, 2006)

brixtonbard said:
			
		

> Any of you guys read EAST OFACRE LANE?



i had it on the pile to read but then my dad stole it back  i dunno if he read it. it looked promising. 

you're not seriously the author?


----------



## brixtonbard (Apr 19, 2006)

Yeah, writers are normal people.  Still trying to find my way around these forums.  I didn't realise these things were around


----------



## tastebud (Apr 19, 2006)

wiskey said:
			
		

> i can already tell that by the end of middlesex i shall be sad its over


Definitely. It's really moving and incredibly well written in parts. Romantic and informative too. Gets the thumbs up from me as well. We were going to copy one part of it for work... can't really say which part if you haven't finished, but it's very good.


----------



## brixtonbard (Apr 19, 2006)

It's a shame that the two main bookshops around Brixton closed - Index in the market and Wordsworth in Butterfly Walk, Camberwell.  I used to sell very heavily there and pop in all the time.  I just hope we don't get a Waterstones or a Borders in their place


----------



## Pieface (Apr 19, 2006)

Motherless Brooklyn - Jonathan Lethem.

It's _fantastic_  (reading it for Book Group but felt I must plug it to you as well)

The main character is so absorbing - he has Tourette's yet is a sort of gangster's heavy which makes for some random and innappropriate ticcing.  Lethem has a real flair for apposite description.  He's put me inside that man's obsessive, itching mind like I wouldn't have believed - and it's fucking funny to boot.   

It's a kind of crime thriller but the plot is secondary to the character and his experiences so don't let that put you off if you're not into them.

Read it and love it


----------



## Pieface (Apr 19, 2006)

wiskey said:
			
		

> i can already tell that by the end of middlesex i shall be sad its over




I'll lend you the Virgin Suicides then and you can do it all over again.  He's a wonder that man.


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 19, 2006)

brixtonbard said:
			
		

> It's a shame that the two main bookshops around Brixton closed - Index in the market and Wordsworth in Butterfly Walk, Camberwell.  I used to sell very heavily there and pop in all the time.  I just hope we don't get a Waterstones or a Borders in their place


It's a terrible shame - Index is now a fishmongers - like we need another one of those


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 19, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> Motherless Brooklyn - Jonathan Lethem.
> 
> It's _fantastic_  (reading it for Book Group but felt I must plug it to you as well)
> 
> ...


I don't remember it being that good - all I remember is him shouting 'duck! duck! GOOSE!' and how they never had any cabs


----------



## wiskey (Apr 19, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> I'll lend you the Virgin Suicides then and you can do it all over again.  He's a wonder that man.



cheers 

and _then_ i'll get round to finishing off stephen


----------



## brixtonbard (Apr 19, 2006)

And I'm always arguing with the manager at WHSmiths.

They are located actually east of Acre Lane but for some reason they won't stock my novel EAST OF ACRE LANE - it's so frustrating! Especially as in Index I sold well over 150 copies of the book.  They stock Brixton Rock and Checkers but not my most acclaimed title - its crazy! Sorry, letting off ste  am here.


----------



## ck (Apr 19, 2006)

Just finished "Life and Def" by Russell Simmons. Interesting insight to the early days of Def Jam Recordsings , but the style was just a bit basic.


----------



## wiskey (Apr 19, 2006)

i find smiths abismal (mainly for their over the top security bloke but i think he's left). 

i'll have to get my dads copy of the book back and read it.


----------



## Pieface (Apr 19, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I don't remember it being that good - all I remember is him shouting 'duck! duck! GOOSE!' and how they never had any cabs




the tics are nothing like that.  And they don't have any cabs for a good reason.  Not paying attention Orang!


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 19, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> the tics are nothing like that.  And they don't have any cabs for a good reason.  Not paying attention Orang!


Admittedly, I probably didn't give it my full attention - it was a gift from my mum and I rarely like her choices.


----------



## Pieface (Apr 19, 2006)

For shame.


----------



## madamv (Apr 19, 2006)

wiskey said:
			
		

> cheers
> 
> and _then_ i'll get round to finishing off stephen



I am sure he will be relieved


----------



## Kidda (Apr 20, 2006)

just finished 

'The Kid' by Kevin Lewis and his follow up 'Moving on' 

just about to start 

'Stuart: A Life Backwards' by Alexander Masters


----------



## Barking_Mad (Apr 20, 2006)

'The Wisdom of Crowds' - James Surowiecki 

Ill quote the blurb as Ive got cold and cant think to type!



> Smart people often believe that the opinion of the crowd is always inferior to the opinion of the individual specialist. Philosophical giants such as Nietzsche thought that "Madness is the exception in individuals but the rule in groups". Henry David Thoreau lamented: "The mass never comes up to the standard of its best member but on the contrary degrades itself to a level with the lowest member." The motto of the great and the ordinary seems to be: Bet on the expert because crowds are generally stupid and often dangerous. Business columnist James Surowiecki’s new book The Wisdom of Crowds explains exactly why the conventional wisdom is wrong. The fact is that, under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them. Groups don’t even need to be dominated by exceptionally intelligent people in order to be smart. Even if most of the people within a group are not especially well-informed or rational, it can still reach a collectively wise decision. Why? Because, as it turns out, if you ask a large enough group of diverse, independent people to make a prediction or estimate a probability, and then average those estimates, the errors each of them makes in coming up with an answer will cancel themselves out.



I'd really recommend the book. Excellent read and full of some fresh thought provoking ideas about how groups of people should (and should not) organise themselves in order to be effective. Id have thought Anarchists might find it an interesting read.

Link to Amazon page


----------



## Sid's Snake (Apr 20, 2006)

Barking_Mad said:
			
		

> 'The Wisdom of Crowds' - James Surowiecki
> 
> Ill quote the blurb as Ive got cold and cant think to type!
> 
> ...




You should read Canetti - Crowds and Power.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Apr 20, 2006)

Gils all Fright Diner - A. Lee Martinez


----------



## Barking_Mad (Apr 21, 2006)

Sid's Snake said:
			
		

> You should read Canetti - Crowds and Power.



Cheers for that, Ill add it to my rather long book reading list!


----------



## madamv (Apr 21, 2006)

Clement Freud Autobiog.    Fabulous, witty, droll.    Only on chapter 3!


----------



## tastebud (Apr 23, 2006)

Yesterday I read Ian McEwan's _The Daydreamer_. It's a children's book as well as for adults. I mostly enjoyed the 21 page introduction which made me  lots and then the first chapter. The end was a bit depressing this morning when I finished though; the boy became an adult and fell in love  - not a spoiler as this is included in the description at the back of the book. I liked the book as I could identify with the child protagonist a bit. He also reminded me of my boyfriend. 
Thoroughly enjoyable for a sunny Saturday, though I wouldn't say, 'go out and read it'.

Today I must finish _Reading Lolita in Tehran_ by Azar Nafisi otherwise someone's gonna get mad with me.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 24, 2006)

I finished Joseph Roth's The Spider's Web and Orwell's Coming Up For Air, which I liked a lot.

Now it's The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J Evans.


----------



## Bomber (Apr 24, 2006)

I'm making a second & concerted effort to read James Elroy's,  'Cold Six-Thousand',


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 24, 2006)

Good luck! You'll need it!


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 24, 2006)

i've joined the Jonathan Letham fan club after just 50 pages of Motherless Brooklyn.

fucking fantastic..

"EATMESTRINGJOKE!!!"


----------



## Belushi (Apr 24, 2006)

Bomber said:
			
		

> I'm making a second & concerted effort to read James Elroy's,  'Cold Six-Thousand',



I found it unreadable, a bitter disapointment after American Tabloid.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Apr 24, 2006)

Belushi said:
			
		

> I found it unreadable, a bitter disapointment after American Tabloid.



after reading "Black Dahlia" i've got the other 3 in his LA Quartet on my list, from what i hear he's had quite an eventful private life before he started writing, don't know if there's any biographies out there though


----------



## spartacus mills (Apr 24, 2006)

Just finished 'Sex & Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons' by John Carter. Parsons was one of the inventors of jet propulsion type wossnims and was also a pretty serious occultist. 
Now started Jean Rhys' 'Wide Sargasso Sea'.


----------



## Tom A (Apr 25, 2006)

Currently reading "Talk To The Hand", by Lynne Truss. Only gotten as far as the end of the first chapter, but it seems promising, and I am glad I read Eats, Shoots, and Leaves beforehand.


----------



## laptop (Apr 25, 2006)

spartacus mills said:
			
		

> Just finished 'Sex & Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons' by John Carter. Parsons was one of the inventors of jet propulsion type wossnims and was also a pretty serious occultist.



Skimmed that when I was supposed to be working  Found it a bit dissapointing on the occult stuff, but a fine evocation of overgrown boys playing with high explosive in the arroyos


----------



## laptop (Apr 25, 2006)

Oh, and on Saturday I read John Hersey's _Hiroshima_.

Woah.


----------



## scumbalina (Apr 25, 2006)

Snuggled up today and read "The Long Way Round". *Really* didn't like it at first, but ended up enjoying it...


Was only reading it cos I'm rereading the Dark Materials trilogy for the milllionth time and have lost the last book somewhere


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 25, 2006)

jeff_leigh said:
			
		

> after reading "Black Dahlia" i've got the other 3 in his LA Quartet on my list, from what i hear he's had quite an eventful private life before he started writing, don't know if there's any biographies out there though


Yes - his autobiography, My Dark Places, is the most honest I've ever read - he admits to stuff most people wouldn't admit to themselves - quite uncomfortable reading at times


----------



## jeff_leigh (Apr 25, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Yes - his autobiography, My Dark Places, is the most honest I've ever read - he admits to stuff most people wouldn't admit to themselves - quite uncomfortable reading at times



cheers for that Orang Utan i'll check it out


----------



## dynamicbaddog (Apr 25, 2006)

Stranded -  a collection of short stories by Val Mcdermit


----------



## chooch (Apr 25, 2006)

laptop said:
			
		

> Oh, and on Saturday I read John Hersey's _Hiroshima_.
> Woah.


Aye. It's good. First of its kind, probably. 
Reading:
a thing called _The Culture of Defeat_, about the response of three cultures to defeats of variuous kinds; undecided whether it's bollocks or not. 
and a likeable history of the Jews in Europe.


----------



## GuerillaPhoto (Apr 25, 2006)

Bill Hicks

Agent of Evolution

It is an ok read actually I have read most of the books about his life. this one is written by all his friends as a collective telling stories about there times with him.


----------



## spartacus mills (Apr 25, 2006)

"Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons"




			
				laptop said:
			
		

> Skimmed that when I was supposed to be working  Found it a bit dissapointing on the occult stuff, but a fine evocation of overgrown boys playing with high explosive in the arroyos



That's pretty much what I thought too.


----------



## Fledgling (Apr 26, 2006)

stroober said:
			
		

> America - Franz Kafka



The novel I've not yet read though the trial and the castle were outstanding, hadn't read anyting that great for a long time, I'm going to be reading a book of criticism on the Castle and would like to look at the metamorphosis and other sories. 

But curently I'm reading the Ragged Trousered Philanphropists, it is excellent.


----------



## spartacus mills (Apr 26, 2006)

Geoffrey Gorer: The Life and Ideas of the Marquis De Sade.


----------



## maya (Apr 26, 2006)

spartacus mills said:
			
		

> Geoffrey Gorer: The Life and Ideas of the Marquis De Sade.


any good?  

i'm reading, erm- (  *braces self*) *Bram Stoker: The Lair Of The White Worm * 
...which i'm going to re-name "The *Curse* of Teh White Worm", since every time i've tried to open the book to read the first page, something has disturbed me away from actually reading it...


----------



## spartacus mills (Apr 26, 2006)

Originally Posted by spartacus mills
Geoffrey Gorer: The Life and Ideas of the Marquis De Sade.




			
				maya said:
			
		

> any good?



The book or De Sade's ideas?


----------



## Masseuse (Apr 26, 2006)

George Orwell:Essays

It's ace.  Corker essay titles including "The decline of the English Murder" and "How the poor die".


----------



## Fledgling (Apr 27, 2006)

Masseuse said:
			
		

> George Orwell:Essays
> 
> It's ace.  Corker essay titles including "The decline of the English Murder" and "How the poor die".



That's a good couple of essays, some of his domestic essays about enlgish cooking, cheapness of books and the ideal pub are quiet refreshing after some of his heavier essays.


----------



## wiskey (Apr 27, 2006)

wiskey said:
			
		

> i can already tell that by the end of middlesex i shall be sad its over



well i've finished it in just over a week  and actually i was ready for it to end although it did keep my interest right up to the last word. 

a thoroughly enjoyable book. 

now i want to read his other one.


----------



## rennie (Apr 27, 2006)

I just finished the thid book in the Cairo trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz. excellent book! very sad to see the family members age n some die... life is cruel! and the portrayal of Egypt under English occupation during WW2 is fantastic. highly reccommended... make sure u read all three tho!


----------



## Iam (Apr 27, 2006)

"The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever", by Stephen Donaldson.


----------



## walktome (Apr 28, 2006)

Surfacing by Margaret Atwood


----------



## May Kasahara (Apr 28, 2006)

Kate Atkinson - Case Histories, and enjoying it very much too.


----------



## rusalki (Apr 28, 2006)

*...*

Susan Sontag. ILLNESS AS METAPHOR and AIDS AND ITS METAPHORS. Beautiful, as always with Sontag. 

Martin Millar. RUBY AND THE STONE AGE DIET. I'm a Millar's addict. Yet this one is quite sad...

Also re-reading parts of Barthes: A LOVER'S DISCOURSE.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 30, 2006)

Finished 'The Coming of the Third Reich' by Richard J Evans. Very good on the whole, though the last section, on the reasons why the Nazis came to power with such a relatively low level of support, doesn't really pull the book together as he intended. Perhaps 50 or 100 pages too long, but it's a good read. The second volume of his TR trilogy is coming out in p'back this month, so I look forward to that.

Now onto 'The Pity Of It All: A Portrait of Jews in Germany 1743-1933' by Amos Elon.


----------



## Vintage Paw (May 1, 2006)

Still reading "Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole. Funny book, very interesting, just haven't had time to read much lately.


----------



## kalidarkone (May 1, 2006)

I just finished 'eleven minutes' by Paulo Cohelo', not really a fan of his but the blurb interested me,I found it an interesting read and there were some issues in it that made me question my self.


----------



## Dubversion (May 1, 2006)

Iam said:
			
		

> "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever", by Stephen Donaldson.




oh, god, don't put yourself through it 



i finished the Letham book and wished i hadn't, i wanted Lionel Essrog to be part of my life forever, he's one of the hardest characters i've ever had to give up 

now reading Kitchen Confidential because it was handy


----------



## han (May 1, 2006)

I'm reading Gazza's autobiography....

And the Police Guide to Motorcycle Roadcraft ...

lol !


----------



## Nina (May 2, 2006)

Just finished Bret Easton Ellis - Less than Zero.

I don't know why I feel compelled to read him. It makes me ill...


----------



## onemonkey (May 2, 2006)

rather too ambitiously i have recently started both Fernando Pessoa's Book of Disquiet 

and Francis Bacon's The Advancement of Learning 


Doubt i'll finish either


----------



## lau1981 (May 2, 2006)

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.

Not as good as the Da Vinci Code though.


----------



## onemonkey (May 2, 2006)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> rather too ambitiously i have recently started both Fernando Pessoa's Book of Disquiet
> 
> and Francis Bacon's The Advancement of Learning
> 
> ...


so i have also started TROLL by Johanna Sinisalo

a finnish 'thriller-fantasy/ love story' about a guy who takes in a helpless young troll..

great so far


----------



## tastebud (May 2, 2006)

*To Turkey I am taking:*

_The Kite Runner_ by Khaled Hosseini
_After These Things, A Novel_ by Jenni Diski
_The Magic Toyshop_ by Angela Carter
_Tooth & Claw_ by T. C. Boyle
Middle East, by those helpful _Lonely Planet_ writers.

*waves g'bye*


----------



## han (May 2, 2006)

I'm reading 'how to be idle' at the same time as a few other books....it's FAB.


----------



## Dubversion (May 2, 2006)

if you want to borrow LOTS of other Idler stuff, let me know


----------



## han (May 2, 2006)

Oooh fanks! I would love to, ta. It's the best stuff I've read in ages.

I nearly wet me knicks on the train when reading the bit about lemsips.


----------



## elevendayempire (May 2, 2006)

The Prestige, by Christopher Priest. Well, the film's out soon so I thought I'd better read it first...

SG


----------



## Dubversion (May 2, 2006)

han said:
			
		

> Oooh fanks! I would love to, ta. It's the best stuff I've read in ages.
> 
> I nearly wet me knicks on the train when reading the bit about lemsips.




why d'ya think i got their logo as a tat?


----------



## Monkeygrinder's Organ (May 2, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> _The Kite Runner_ by Khaled Hosseini



Fantastic book, IMO. 

I'm on 'American Pastoral' by Philip Roth.


----------



## laptop (May 2, 2006)

Started Spinoza's _Ethics_ last night


----------



## Julie (May 3, 2006)

I just completed Bloggs 19.

Not bad at all. It gave me a teensy insight into being a 'supergrass' in England.

I'd like to find a book that tells of an Aussie experience.


----------



## May Kasahara (May 3, 2006)

Finished 'Case Histories' at the weekend and give it a thumbs-up, although as it draws to a conclusion it suffers slightly from glibness (then again, I felt compelled to read the final third or so in one humungous hit so possibly I wasn't giving it the proper time to sink in). Glibness aside, it remains an excellent book and moved me to tears several times (also to loud laughter several times).

Now reading 'Naoko' by Keigo Higashino, which reads rather like it was bashed out in a weekend and not read through but which is nonetheless pretty good. It made Mr K cry on holiday last year, so something's gotta be going on with it.


----------



## meurig (May 3, 2006)

Anna Karenina, and I don't want it to finish.


----------



## foamy (May 3, 2006)

bit of fluff for the communte to work: A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
one of the many, many books i got for my birthday


----------



## onemonkey (May 3, 2006)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> so i have also started TROLL by Johanna Sinisalo
> 
> a finnish 'thriller-fantasy/ love story' about a guy who takes in a helpless young troll..


just finnished it 

wonderful book with an incrediblely well paced and satisfying climax.

it ain't exactly Tove Jansen but i reckon she'd have loved it.


----------



## onemonkey (May 3, 2006)

laptop said:
			
		

> Started Spinoza's _Ethics_ last night


difficulty sleeping?


----------



## jeff_leigh (May 4, 2006)

Eleanor Rigby - Douglas Coupland as recommended by this Forum


----------



## laptop (May 4, 2006)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> difficulty sleeping?



Not any more

:sleepy:


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 5, 2006)

me earlier said:
			
		

> Now onto 'The Pity Of It All: A Portrait of Jews in Germany 1743-1933' by Amos Elon.



Finished it, liked it. A history of German Jewish intellectuals and public figures mostly, lots of anecdotal stuff but some real surprises and some good solid history-writing in there too.

What next? I'm on a roll.


----------



## kakuma (May 5, 2006)

a book that doesn't let him indoors know that i'm reading


----------



## muser (May 5, 2006)

Reading a prelude to mathematics by W W Sawyer. Some of the concepts are hard, but it is told in a style that I find helpful.


----------



## LadyofScott (May 5, 2006)

Lord of the Vampires.  It's book 3 of a 3 part series.   It's pretty clever in that it is supposed to be the diaries of Dracula's relatives and all they went through.  I recommend it.  It's easy reading and good.


----------



## Shandril19 (May 5, 2006)

Much thanks to this thread for giving me some great recommendations, first Hussein's "Kite Runner" and now I just finished Murakami's "Kafka on the Shore".   Really enjoyed it.

One of the things I most miss about living in London is the culture of reading.  Books and book reviews/advertisements being such a part of daily life.


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 5, 2006)

Nietzsche, _Beyond Good & Evil_. Not sure whether I'm dipping into it or reading it for real.


----------



## Iam (May 6, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> oh, god, don't put yourself through it



I have to say, I'm starting to wonder why I'm bothering.

I can imagine that they would have been dreadfully disappointing to read as separate books. I've just finished the second (of the first chronicles) and it was a long, ponderously-worded wander along a path to... nowhere in particular.

I'm almost perversely intent on finishing at least the first one (curse my Amazon-ing, but I have the 2nd chronicles and the final book, too  ), and I'm a bit non-plussed, cos it was highly recommended and I'm sure I remembered enjoying his Gap series of sci-fi books.

Ho humm.


----------



## jeff_leigh (May 6, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Nietzsche, _Beyond Good & Evil_. Not sure whether I'm dipping into it or reading it for real.



got that one myself a little hard going aint it?


----------



## phildwyer (May 6, 2006)

James Boswell's 'London Journal,' its hilarious.  Mostly concerns brawling with hookers in the Strand.


----------



## maya (May 6, 2006)

.


----------



## chooch (May 6, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> A history of German Jewish intellectuals and public figures mostly, lots of anecdotal stuff but some real surprises and some good solid history-writing in there too.


Sounds good. The library calls...


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 6, 2006)

jeff_leigh said:
			
		

> got that one myself a little hard going aint it?



It is, but in a strange way. You understand every word, you can read it almost like you would listen to a very clever bloke down The Philosopher's Arms, and then you come to the end of a section and realise that he's miles ahead of you and has anticipated each of your reactions to what he's written. High comedy.

A very big brain.


----------



## bluestreak (May 6, 2006)

i just finished reading jon ronson's 'them' which is a funny old read.  but doesn't change my view towards conspiracy theorists at all!


----------



## Masseuse (May 7, 2006)

The Hidden Messages In Water by Masaru Emoto.  A mad japanese hippy who shows water nice pictures of flowers or chants "your beautiful" many times then photographs the ice crystals that result (very pretty).  For balance he shows them pictures of mobile phones and shouts "stupid" at them and also records those images (weirdly wrong).

It's ace.


----------



## Ceej (May 7, 2006)

Mark Billingham's 'Buried' - fantastic. 6th book - he just gets better and better.


----------



## Orang Utan (May 8, 2006)

The River Cottage Meat Book - not got to any recipes yet, but Fearnley-Whitingstall's got some very interesting things to say about meat production.


----------



## purves grundy (May 8, 2006)

_Gulag_ by Anne Applebaum


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 9, 2006)

Finished 'Chess' by Stefan Zweig
Now 'Judaism A Short Introduction' by Norman Solomon


----------



## pootle (May 9, 2006)

I just finished "Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction"  I never thought an Adrian Mole book would move me to tears, but it did.  

I must be on an anti-war tip atm, cos I've just started Ian McEwan's "Saturday".  Only on the first few pages, but the descriptions of neurosurgery are making me feel a bit queasy. I hope they don't feature frequently in the book!


----------



## Dubversion (May 9, 2006)

finished Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential which had some good passages but was generally a bit 'meh'.

Following that with Pelecanos' The Sweet Forever - one of the DC quarter - because I've always meant to get round to reading one of his books. So far, it's also a bit 'meh'. Not exactly the sharpest crime writing i've read, and the attempt to inject some contemporary flavour ("then we went to see Scream at such and such a club and they were very good") can be anywhere between awkward and plain embarassing.


----------



## brahaminda (May 9, 2006)

Re Reading Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

Lot better than I originally thought


----------



## bluestreak (May 9, 2006)

just started jeanette winterson's written on the body.  captivating stuff so far, i love her writing style.


----------



## Boogie Boy (May 9, 2006)

I've finally passed the 1000 page mark of the 'Count Of Monte Cristo', which I am pleased with, although given that there is probably less than 200 pages to go the plot seems to have suddenly changed pace significantly. I'm starting to wonder what I shall read after this.

BB


----------



## spartacus mills (May 10, 2006)

'Outer Gateways'. Headspinning occult weirdness from Kenneth Grant.


----------



## Hollis (May 10, 2006)

Seeing that I moaned about the last one: Ian McEwan  - Atonement


----------



## kyser_soze (May 10, 2006)

Re-reading 'Player of Games' by Iain M. Banks

Still don't think it's the best Culture book, but I'm seeing new stuff in it with this re-read...

Best recent book has to be 'Science of Discworld 2nd Edition' By Pratchett, Cohen and another scientist dude. Should be a required read before anyone ploughs into a science debate on Big Words, Big Thoughts and Bigger Egos...


----------



## pootle (May 10, 2006)

Hollis said:
			
		

> Seeing that I moaned about the last one: Ian McEwan  - Atonement




Did you moan about "Saturday" Hollis?  

I loved Atonement, but then I'm a big Ian McEwan fan anyway (although I hated Amsterdam)

Ho hum


----------



## elevendayempire (May 10, 2006)

Gave up on Quicksilver on the grounds of its appalingly turgid prose. And the fact that I'd have to read three books' worth of it. I've now started Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White. Aah. Much better.

SG


----------



## upsidedownwalrus (May 10, 2006)

Reading a book called the Skull Mantra, a murder-mystery set in Tibet.  Quite good so far.


----------



## Hollis (May 10, 2006)

pootle said:
			
		

> Did you moan about "Saturday" Hollis?
> 
> I loved Atonement, but then I'm a big Ian McEwan fan anyway (although I hated Amsterdam)
> 
> Ho hum



Indeed, I ended up thinking both the author and the main character were smug complacent gits.. still it must have struck a chord somewhere, as someone mentioned he's a great writer though.. (IMHO).


----------



## brahaminda (May 10, 2006)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> Re-reading 'Player of Games' by Iain M. Banks
> 
> Still don't think it's the best Culture book, but I'm seeing new stuff in it with this re-read...



That would be "Look to Windward"

NOT 

"Use of Weapons"

And the new covers are AWFUL


----------



## rennie (May 11, 2006)

Just started reading The long distance runner... i love the staccato writing style.


----------



## Fledgling (May 11, 2006)

phildwyer said:
			
		

> James Boswell's 'London Journal,' its hilarious.  Mostly concerns brawling with hookers in the Strand.



Is that the same Boswell from Boswell and Johnson'sjourney in Scotland? If so is any of Boswell's work worth reading? 

Oh and I'm currently reading Matryona's House and some other assorted Solzhenitsyn works which have revived my interest in him. I'll be trying to track down Cancer Ward so I can read it again. 

And I'm struggling slowly through the Rebel by Camus, it is not a commuting book. 
And some git's pinched my McCarthy's Bar book just as I was getting into it. That IS a commuting book. 
And I've just finished The Harp in the South by Ruth Park. 

I'm trying to save money, working through the book pile is the best way, I've a few to read for now.


----------



## Grego Morales (May 11, 2006)

The Death Ship by B.Travern.


----------



## Jenerys (May 12, 2006)

The Day of Jackal - Frederick Forsythe


----------



## marty21 (May 12, 2006)

comanche moon - larry mcmurtry

cowboytastic


----------



## chooch (May 12, 2006)

LilJen said:
			
		

> Frederick Forsythe


Now _he's_ a cunt.

Just finishing Antony Beevor- _The Spanish Civil War_ and wading through John Maddox _what remains to be discovered_, one of those sum up all of science in 300 pages efforts.


----------



## Jenerys (May 12, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> Now _he's_ a cunt.



But he writes a damn good thriller


----------



## Donna Ferentes (May 12, 2006)

Yesterday I read Guido Van Genechten's _Flop-Ear_ to a class of Spanish schoolkids. Does that count?


----------



## Poi E (May 12, 2006)

"Stolen Continents" by Ronald Wright. Documents the history of Aztec/Mayan/Cherokee/ Iroqois people since colonisation. Unnerving stuff.


----------



## chooch (May 13, 2006)

LilJen said:
			
		

> But he writes a damn good thriller


_Day of the Jackal_ is ok. I read _The Fourth Protocol_ once when there was nowt else and felt soiled. 

I particularly love the way he explores the inner world of characters from anything other than the upper middle class: 

_'What d'ya mean Guvnor?', said the sturdy Sergeant, whose thoughts were already straying to the 'slap-up' that Edna was preparing even now in their net-curtained council home, a haven of Brasso and boot polish deep in one of the less salubrious estates just south of the river. Bill Smyth, despite his upper crust name, explained away sheepishly as 'just one of those things' during the endless dominoes sessions at the Pig and Whistle, was a copper of the old school. He devoted his dogged attentions to two major loves- coarse fishing and West Ham United- with equal devotion and optimism. He was as unflappable in solid, unspectacular duty as his yeomen ancestors. And always ready to take on the burden of blooding a young officer straight out of one of the more 'progressive' universities._


----------



## maya (May 13, 2006)

Masseuse said:
			
		

> The Hidden Messages In Water by Masaru Emoto.  A mad japanese hippy who shows water nice pictures of flowers or chants "your beautiful" many times then photographs the ice crystals that result (very pretty).  For balance he shows them pictures of mobile phones and shouts "stupid" at them and also records those images (weirdly wrong).
> 
> It's ace.


you _do _know that he got his "Ph.D." from an indian correspondence course in 1988, didn't you? 

...but imagine it'd be fun to read this anyway- the japanese seems to have some interesting [shinto-influenced?] ideas about the "souls" hidden in inanimate objects-
once read about a japanese "experiment" with two bowls of rice in which you were supposed to sweet-talk to the first bowl and swear/insult the other one for a week,
then supposedly [they claimed] that the bowl of rice which'd been talked nice to lasted longer before it began to mould, while the "insulted" one got sour almost overnight...oo-er... LOL  - hippies!

sadly i think his books have been used to boost claims by evil creationist-type people....riding on the tail of the success of "what the bleep do we know" and the renewed general interest in new age stuff...scary


----------



## jeff_leigh (May 13, 2006)

Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett


----------



## districtline (May 13, 2006)

bought christopher isherwood - gooodbye to berlin earlier today, 70 pages into it so far and really enjoying it.

bought "the edukators" dvd a few days ago, all forms part of my "longing to go back to berlin" mode


----------



## Vintage Paw (May 13, 2006)

Revenge of the Lawn - Richard Brautigan. Fab so far. A really thin book filled with 62 short (and I mean short) stories. One of them is two sentences long. It's a good story too  

Next on my list - I'm not sure yet. I work in a bookshop so all my wages go on books, and I get freebies - so there is so much to choose from ... *ponders*


----------



## foamy (May 13, 2006)

'As I lay dying'
a cheery birthday present from my housemate


----------



## chooch (May 14, 2006)

districtline said:
			
		

> bought christopher isherwood - gooodbye to berlin earlier today, 70 pages into it so far and really enjoying it.


I'm reading Joseph Roth _what i saw_ on the side. Quite a different take on Weimar Berlin to Isherwood's. Wonderful writing.


----------



## Philbc03 (May 15, 2006)

Just finished Terry Pratchett's 'The Colour of Magic' (1983). After purposefully avoiding Pratchett and all his works for many a year I was quite surprised to find I actually liked it  

Now I'm on Alan Hollinghurst's 'The Line of Beauty' (2004).


----------



## maya (May 15, 2006)

Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> Revenge of the Lawn - Richard Brautigan. Fab so far. A really thin book filled with 62 short (and I mean short) stories. One of them is two sentences long. It's a good story too


ooh, i love brautigan 

right now i'm reading "The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg)" by Thomas Mann,
and after that i'll start "Doctor Faustus", also by him...
then i'll read about the Weimar Republic...


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 15, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> right now i'm reading "The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg)" by Thomas Mann,
> and after that i'll start "Doctor Faustus", also by him...
> then i'll read about the Weimar Republic...



I'm going through a bit of a Weimar Republic phase at the moment, history and literature. J Roth a favourite.

I want to read Dr Faustus, too -- I've just got to get hold of the Woods translation, it's supposed to be brilliant, and much better than the old Penguin efforts.


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 15, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> _'What d'ya mean Guvnor?', said the sturdy Sergeant, whose thoughts were already straying to the 'slap-up' that Edna was preparing even now in their net-curtained council home, a haven of Brasso and boot polish deep in one of the less salubrious estates just south of the river. Bill Smyth, despite his upper crust name, explained away sheepishly as 'just one of those things' during the endless dominoes sessions at the Pig and Whistle, was a copper of the old school. He devoted his dogged attentions to two major loves- coarse fishing and West Ham United- with equal devotion and optimism. He was as unflappable in solid, unspectacular duty as his yeomen ancestors. And always ready to take on the burden of blooding a young officer straight out of one of the more 'progressive' universities._


----------



## Flavour (May 15, 2006)

The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick.


----------



## spartacus mills (May 15, 2006)

About to start 'The Hard Life' by Flann O'Brien.


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 16, 2006)

'Stasiland' by Anna Funder, which I liked. Bizarre fucking place, the DDR, full of psychotics.

Now 'The Emigrants' by WG Sebald, which I started a year ago but never got round to finishing. I love Sebald.


----------



## maya (May 16, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I'm going through a bit of a Weimar Republic phase at the moment, history and literature. J Roth a favourite.


ah, great- interesting period, innit?  
i really don't know a lot yet- found a book in uni library by a certain Peter Gay(!), called "Weimar Culture"- and searching through online indexes at the moment...

haven't read the "new" translation of Dr. Faustus, might give it a try...
although sometimes, erm i mean many times, the most pleasurable reads/translations are those that aren't too pedantic...
"word-by-word" fundie translations can be quite painful to read...especially if the musicality is lacking or the languages don't cross over well (as is the case with german into english- ouch!  )

must find a non-highbrow book for next week, now


----------



## northernhord (May 16, 2006)

recently finished Stump by Niall Griffiths, though nothing at the mo


----------



## tastebud (May 17, 2006)

Monkeygrinder's Organ said:
			
		

> Fantastic book, IMO.


It made me cry a hell of a lot that's for sure. On coaches in Turkey, damn it! I was hooked to it too, though unfortunately 80% of the book is completely implausible. The Taliban guy bit made me speak out loud at the book - totally ridiculous! He does well at pulling the heart strings but unfortunately the heart strings are completely covered in cheese. I'd still recommend it to everyone though. The early Afghanistan stuff is really interesting but clearly the author left a long time ago and hasn't really been back... I think. I do think he's a promising writer though. Will await his new book which is out later this year.
I saw a guy on the tube reading it this evening and I really wanted to ask him what he thought of it, but I didn't as this is crappy England and I was too shy.

Last week I also read: _Death and the Penguin_ by Andrey Kergov which made for a very nice light travel read and I read about half of _V_ by Thomas Pynchon. I think I need to reserve a balanced judgement on it, if and when I ever finish it. (At this juncture I do not feel motivated to do this and couldn't even if I wanted to as it's miles away in Turkey... where I wish I still was   )


----------



## maya (May 18, 2006)

is it just me, or is the quality of US paperback bindings (usually) _far_ superior to the UK ones? 

not only is the cover often thicker, but the paper seems to (often) be of better quality- _not _sandpaper-bumpy, 100000 times recycled out of old toilet paper or whatever


----------



## siarc (May 18, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> is it just me, or is the quality of US paperback bindings (usually) _far_ superior to the UK ones?
> 
> not only is the cover often thicker, but the paper seems to (often) be of better quality- _not _sandpaper-bumpy, 100000 times recycled out of old toilet paper or whatever



think you're generally correct


----------



## spartacus mills (May 18, 2006)

An antholgy called "Three Pre-Surrealist Plays" consisting of Maeterlinck's 'The Blind', Jarry's 'Ubu the King' and Appilinaire's 'The Mammaries of Tiresias'. 
Top notch entertainment.


----------



## marty21 (May 19, 2006)

comanche moon - larry mcmurtry

part of the lonesome dove trilogy, the early years, loving it


----------



## Dubversion (May 19, 2006)

sticking with the Jonathan Letham, i've been dipping into a collection of essays called The Disappointment Artist, which is very good - basically about the relationship between his young identity and his young cultural life and what they say about each other..

but also reading Girl In Landscape, his very fucking odd kind of sci-fi book. But sci-fi doesn't do it justice - it's well strange. It's also his paean to The Searchers which I didn't get at first, till a large man's shadow loomed in a doorway with a harsh bright landscape behind him


----------



## cfz (May 21, 2006)

Just finished reading Pryor Convictions and Other Sentences - Richard Pryor's autobiography. The sad thing is he had an amazing life, but he was so high on drugs he can't remember much of it.
There's a lack of detail. 
BTW I wonder if his Super Nigger routine - about a black janitor with super powers working in the Daily Planet building inspired Hong Kong Phooey? (also a caretaker with super powers, who is a bit of a hipster)


----------



## colbhoy (May 21, 2006)

I'm reading A Widow for One Year by John Irving. 

This is my fifth Irving and I am thoroughly enjoying it, he is an extraordinary talent.


----------



## Dubversion (May 21, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> but also reading Girl In Landscape, his very fucking odd kind of sci-fi book. But sci-fi doesn't do it justice - it's well strange. It's also his paean to The Searchers which I didn't get at first, till a large man's shadow loomed in a doorway with a harsh bright landscape behind him




finished it, very odd book indeed, but very good. Raided My Back Pages in Balham yesterday and bought far too many books, currently ploughing through Who's In It?, a collection of interviews/portraits by Peter Bogdanovich, which is fascinating. Gets to the nub of how John Wayne is so compelling and iconic whilst still being a reactionary old cunt.


----------



## phildwyer (May 21, 2006)

'Ludmılla's Broken Englısh' by DBC Pıerre.  Absolutely hılarıous, better than 'Vernon God Lıttle.'  Actually ıt probably needs ıts own thread, hang on...


----------



## Orang Utan (May 21, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> sticking with the Jonathan Letham, i've been dipping into a collection of essays called The Disappointment Artist, which is very good - basically about the relationship between his young identity and his young cultural life and what they say about each other..
> 
> but also reading Girl In Landscape, his very fucking odd kind of sci-fi book. But sci-fi doesn't do it justice - it's well strange. It's also his paean to The Searchers which I didn't get at first, till a large man's shadow loomed in a doorway with a harsh bright landscape behind him


Are you the kind of reader who binges on an author when you discover their genius? I'm the opposite - I have to save up my great authors so I don't run out of them too early


----------



## tastebud (May 21, 2006)

My boy stole me his much loved _Tropic of Cancer_ by Henry Miller a little while ago, so in honour of his absence I'm reading that for now.
It's making me chortle.  
_I_ need some of Miller's huge appetite for life at the moment I think  , so it's probably a perfectly timed read. 
At the moment I'm not totally _getting_ the, you either love it or hate it assertion by, well, _everyone_ actually, but I think maybe I haven't read enough. I certainly don't hate it _at all_ and will probably also take the advice of those that say: read it twice!


----------



## Nina (May 21, 2006)

Tropic of Cancer? I think it was the last 50 pages that got me. They seemed to last a lifetime...

I've just fallen out with Graham Greene  

Got a massive pile of books next to my bed and I think H G Wells is on the top, so I guess he's next for the slaughter..


----------



## Fenian (May 21, 2006)

Sieze the Day, Saul Bellow


----------



## Vintage Paw (May 21, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> is it just me, or is the quality of US paperback bindings (usually) _far_ superior to the UK ones?
> 
> not only is the cover often thicker, but the paper seems to (often) be of better quality- _not _sandpaper-bumpy, 100000 times recycled out of old toilet paper or whatever




I have often found it to be the exact opposite. I work in a bookshop and we get a few US imports over for customer orders, and the binding is either similar to UK binding or utterly horrible. For a start, the cover artwork is atrocious, secondly, oftentimes the pages aren't cut evenly, and is kind of like this /\/\/\/\/\/\ if you look along the pages when the book is closed. Ugh!

I am reading _Grapes of Wrath_ - John Steinbeck at the moment. Only at chapter 3 but I think I will like it. Very good so far.
I just finished reading _Revenge of the Lawn_ - Richard Brautigan. Utterly fantastic. Superb. Cannot recommend it enough.


----------



## Jenerys (May 22, 2006)

Double post


----------



## Jenerys (May 22, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> _Day of the Jackal_ is ok. I read _The Fourth Protocol_ once when there was nowt else and felt soiled.
> 
> I particularly love the way he explores the inner world of characters from anything other than the upper middle class:
> 
> _'What d'ya mean Guvnor?', said the sturdy Sergeant, whose thoughts were already straying to the 'slap-up' that Edna was preparing even now in their net-curtained council home, a haven of Brasso and boot polish deep in one of the less salubrious estates just south of the river. Bill Smyth, despite his upper crust name, explained away sheepishly as 'just one of those things' during the endless dominoes sessions at the Pig and Whistle, was a copper of the old school. He devoted his dogged attentions to two major loves- coarse fishing and West Ham United- with equal devotion and optimism. He was as unflappable in solid, unspectacular duty as his yeomen ancestors. And always ready to take on the burden of blooding a young officer straight out of one of the more 'progressive' universities._


   He's also famous for the "woman naked in front of the mirror" scenes. As if us girls, take our towels off in front of the mirror and then run our hands over our bodies as though discovering them for the first time with no mention of the discovery of cellulite  

Latest read: The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger


----------



## Grandma Death (May 22, 2006)

JM Coatzee-Disgrace and its an excellent book thus far.


----------



## mrkikiet (May 23, 2006)

Grandma Death said:
			
		

> JM Coatzee-Disgrace and its an excellent book thus far.


it continues to be a good book.
i'm re-reading 1984.


----------



## foamy (May 23, 2006)

The Accidental - Ali Smith

given to me by my mother who said she couldnt read it but i'm finding it ok


----------



## maya (May 23, 2006)

just pasting this from my earlier thread, thought it needed wider recognition, so spread the word:

"Counterculture Through The Ages" by R. U. Sirius (a.k.a. Ken Geoffman) and Dan Joy... 

...go on, you know you want to read it!


----------



## spartacus mills (May 23, 2006)

'The Lurking Fear and other stories' - H.P. Lovecraft.


----------



## Philbc03 (May 23, 2006)

Help! I've got three on the go!    

They are:

Marxist Theories of Imperialism - Anthony Brewer, 1990
Freedom Summer - Doug McAdam, 1988
Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole, 1980


----------



## Rollem (May 24, 2006)

northernhoard said:
			
		

> recently finished Stump by Niall Griffiths, though nothing at the mo


oh, i like niall griffiths  'grits' is a great book imo, and sheepshagger and kelly and victor aren't too bad either (if somewhat dark!)

has anyone read "the virgin suicides"? a girl at work has given me a copy...


----------



## Dubversion (May 24, 2006)

Rollem said:
			
		

> has anyone read "the virgin suicides"? a girl at work has given me a copy...



it's absolutely fantastic. Writing like you wouldn't believe


----------



## chooch (May 24, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> 'Stasiland' by Anna Funder, which I liked. Bizarre fucking place, the DDR, full of psychotics.


I've just read that on an airport whim. Good it was.

Also finished Jim Dodge _Stone Junction_. Didn't rate it at all. Very disappointing after liking _Not Fade Away_. Thomas Pynchon liked it though,  presumably because it makes _the Crying of Lot 49_ look more charming and less wanky.  

Now ploughing through more Joseph Roth...


----------



## Boogie Boy (May 25, 2006)

Picked up a copy of 'Crowds And Power' by Elias Canetti, which is proving to be very interesting.

BB


----------



## districtline (May 26, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> 'Stasiland' by Anna Funder, which I liked. Bizarre fucking place, the DDR, full of psychotics..



stasiland. _propaganda der reaktion._


----------



## Dubversion (May 26, 2006)

"Hardboiled Hollywood" - Max Decharné's look at the real stories behind the best Hollywood crime / mob movies. Very good indeed - it's rare that somebody known primarily as a musician writes this well, but there's nothing of the dilletante about Decharné.


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 26, 2006)

districtline said:
			
		

> stasiland. _propaganda der reaktion._



Yeah well. She's actually pretty good at steering away from overt moral judgement imo; it's a book of stories about E Germans rather than a history of the DDR. And I think that she does a good job of making the backdrop of those stories the fact that people also led ordinary lives too. Part of the book is about how perceptions of the other side of the Wall have been warped through history and revision.

The Stasi appears to have been run and staffed by aging psychos and smooth-talking enthusiasts of power and influence (their own). It humiliated and hurt people, and helped run the country on a set of shaky fictions, large and small. Is anyone saying any different?

Is this book part of a general attempt to grind the memory of the DDR into the dust? Nah. 

If you've got a suggestion for a more 'balanced' view of the DDR ...


----------



## elevendayempire (May 26, 2006)

Just finished The Crimson Petal and the White. Bugger me, that was good.

SG


----------



## foo (May 27, 2006)

just finished Running With Scissors - Augusten Burroughs.

if you've reached adulthood having survived an insane family - read it!

i feel blessed.


----------



## jeff_leigh (May 27, 2006)

just started The Gunslinger part 1 of The Dark Tower Series been meaning to read this book for about 5 years


----------



## Kenny Vermouth (May 27, 2006)

I've just finished David Seabrook's "Jack of Jumps", an investigation into the unsolved murders of eight prostitutes in West London between 1959 and 1965.


----------



## Charlie Drake (May 27, 2006)

I'm loving 'Lark Rise to Candleford' by Flora Thompson - It's sort of 'Cider with Rosie', but 40 years before. I'm crying with every page. It's sentimental old claptrap, but then I'm a sentimental old fool.

If you hate the modern world (except your keyboards ) try it.


----------



## citydreams (May 27, 2006)

"The Master of Ballantrae" - Robert Louis Stevenson

The writing is stiff and as terse as the plot and the Scottish vernacular often difficult to follow. But this tale of brotherly love is enjoyably ghoulish.  The characters are wonderfully depicted through the memoirs of the house-keeper, a rather puritanical chap, whose professional detatchment is entertainingly the linchpin for this journey through reputation and repudiation.

Or it might just be about two brothers that don't get on very well.  Still got 100 pages to go.


----------



## jodal (May 28, 2006)

"We Need To Talk About Kevin" - so far so good


----------



## May Kasahara (May 29, 2006)

I'm reading 'Small Island' for my book club, and so far it's hard to see what all the fuss is about. I'm only about 70 pages in though, so maybe it heats up later on. Not that it's bad or anything, just seems rather unremarkable. I put it down and instantly forget all about it.


----------



## k_s (May 29, 2006)

I'm reading dostoevsky's 'demons', as well as terry pratchett's masterpiece 'small gods' for when i'm too stoned to read dostoevsky.


----------



## spartacus mills (May 29, 2006)

About to start Alexander Trocchi's 'Helen and Desire'.


----------



## krtek a houby (May 29, 2006)

Chukwuemaka Ike's "Toads for Supper".

Funny, sad, rites-of-passage campus comedy Nigerian-style.

There's something about Nigerian writers that reminds me of my own country, Ireland.

Can't quite put my finger on it but I can relate to the novels that come out of that country.

Ben Okri, Chinua Achebe, Gabriel Okaro...

Maybe my reading of Nigerian authors is slight but there's a voice, a distinctive style that draws you in.

A sense of humour and a knowingness about the state of affairs.

Admittedly, a lot of these are set pre-independence but I look fwd to reading the definitive "modern" Nigerian novel soon.

Any recommendations?


----------



## foamy (May 29, 2006)

just started 'Stuart, A Life Backwards' by alex masters

havent read much though cos firky wont stop talking!!!


----------



## tastebud (May 30, 2006)

I'm reading more Murakami - _Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World_.


----------



## Jenerys (May 30, 2006)

Dry by Augusten Burroughs


----------



## trashpony (May 30, 2006)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> I'm reading 'Small Island' for my book club, and so far it's hard to see what all the fuss is about. I'm only about 70 pages in though, so maybe it heats up later on. Not that it's bad or anything, just seems rather unremarkable. I put it down and instantly forget all about it.



Me too. I've read another of her novels which I was very underwhelmed by but thought that may have been an anomaly. Now I'm beginning to wonder if it's been so lauded for its subject matter, rather than the actual writing.


----------



## chooch (May 30, 2006)

Czeslaw Milosz _the captive mind_.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jun 2, 2006)

Finished 'The Emigrants' by WG Sebald and 'The Big Sleep'.

Starting 'How German Is It' by Walter Abish, and maybe 'Farewell, My Lovely'.


----------



## anfield (Jun 2, 2006)

*From Russia With Love* - Ian Fleming


----------



## chooch (Jun 2, 2006)

Umberto Eco- _Serendipities_. Very entertaining. It's from the same weaving of cleverness and folly as _the search for a perfect language_.


----------



## Philbc03 (Jun 2, 2006)

Just finished Peter Taaffe's '1926 General Strike - Workers Taste Power' and now embarked on Richard Brautigan's 'Revenge of the Lawn'.


----------



## chooch (Jun 5, 2006)

Richard Fletcher- _Moorish Spain_. A tad worthy but harmless.
James Robert Brown -_Who Rules in Science?_.  Good so far. It's a knockabout philosophy of science thing.


----------



## dynamicbaddog (Jun 5, 2006)

just started Cell by Stephen King


----------



## muser (Jun 5, 2006)

I heard a review of Douglas Coupland's Jpod on radio 4 and it has me wanting to buy it. Can anyone from here recommend it. I'm open to reading all books, Alice Munro to George Orwell, but tend to prefer well written books.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Jun 5, 2006)

muser said:
			
		

> I heard a review of Douglas Coupland's Jpod on radio 4 and it has me wanting to buy it. Can anyone from here recommend it. I'm open to reading all books, Alice Munro to George Orwell, but tend to prefer well written books.



I've got the special edition on order (you get a little lego figure *geek*) - Have you read _Microserfs_, apparently it's that for a new generation. It has the same crazy random pages of words and symbols inside. 

I'm still reading _Grapes of Wrath_ - it is bloody wonderful.


----------



## CharlieAddict (Jun 5, 2006)

Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> I'm still reading _Grapes of Wrath_ - it is bloody wonderful.



one of my favourites that!!!!!
just finished sweet tuesday last week - good follow up to cannery row.

now reading colin wilson's the outsider - quite disgusted that i not discovered him sooner.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Jun 6, 2006)

I've read several great books in the last 2 months:

The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - bloody amazing, read it twice, first time it made me burst into tears. Incredible and original love story sans cheese, incredibly moving, I fell in love with the characters.

We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver - really good, explores relationships between parents and their children. Kevin is a psycho.

Boiling A Frog by Christopher Brookmyre - I love his stuff, political satire, fantastic prose, dangerously acerbic etc...

Stuart, A Life Backwards - a biography about Stuart, a homeless alcoholic drug abuser who struggles with addiction, a childhood of sexual abuse and uncontrollable rages. His life is written backwards, which is interesting.

I've almost finished that one......need.more.books.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 6, 2006)

I read Slaughterhouse 5 the other week - liked it but think it must be overrated cos I can't remember a thing about it.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Jun 7, 2006)

I bought two Christopher Brookmyre books yesterday.

I've started on "One Fine Day In The Middle Of The Night". The other one is "A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away".


----------



## Rollem (Jun 7, 2006)

i have started readng "the virgin suicides"

its getting on my nerves a bit, but i will stick with it....


----------



## Belushi (Jun 7, 2006)

'Rubicon' by Tom Holland. Cracking narrative history of the last decades of the Roman Republic.


----------



## Sid's Snake (Jun 7, 2006)

Im re-reading Uylsses -coz I always do in June.

Joyce is a June writer. Ulysees is 24 hours on the 15th June and, I the book just is so adpt to the month of June, 

la joie de vive


"Weak joy opened his lips"

Seminal.

<swoons>


----------



## citydreams (Jun 7, 2006)

SubZeroCat said:
			
		

> I bought two Christopher Brookmyre books yesterday.
> 
> I've started on "One Fine Day In The Middle Of The Night". The other one is "A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away".



Before you read them you should give a previous bookgroup book a try: "Motherless Brooklyn"  
I think it fits nicely alongside Brookmyre without being too samey.  It still has just as many laughs though.


----------



## foamy (Jun 7, 2006)

SubZeroCat said:
			
		

> I've read several great books in the last 2 months:
> 
> The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - bloody amazing, read it twice, first time it made me burst into tears. Incredible and original love story sans cheese, incredibly moving, I fell in love with the characters.
> 
> ...




I've just finished 'Stuart - A life backwards' and was wondering whether to read 'Time travellers wife next' or 'We need to talk about kevin'
*hatches plan to form splinter book group*


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 7, 2006)

I'd be up for that - I'd like to read books that I actually want to read.


----------



## Rollem (Jun 7, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I'd be up for that - I'd like to read books that I actually want to read.




can i join too, please. seeing as i have read "stuart..." and "time travellers wife" and want to read "we need to talk about kevin", i think i'd qualify


----------



## SubZeroCat (Jun 7, 2006)

Yay!

I can get all of you in Christopher Brookmyre


----------



## Philbc03 (Jun 7, 2006)

Now reading J.K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'.

 

*Slinks away in shame*


----------



## tastebud (Jun 7, 2006)

citydreams said:
			
		

> "Motherless Brooklyn"


Amazingly Brainaddict liked that one too which is rare for your bookgroup choices. He said the protagonist reminded him of me. 

SZC I got the ttw from the library the other day, will read it when I get through my current reads... I'd be up for joining this new bookgroup.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Jun 7, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> SZC I got the ttw from the library the other day, will read it when I get through my current reads... I'd be up for joining this new bookgroup.



Good girl  

Your tagline is a Jeff Buckley song - is that intentional?


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 7, 2006)

Great! A new group with more lovely ladies and less grumpy blokes!


----------



## SubZeroCat (Jun 7, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Great! A new group with more lovely ladies and less grumpy blokes!



Wicked! So. What do we have to do? 

*please include alcohol*
*please include alcohol*
*please include alcohol*
*please include alcohol*


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 7, 2006)

SubZeroCat said:
			
		

> Wicked! So. What do we have to do?
> 
> *please include alcohol*
> *please include alcohol*
> ...


Alcohol is almost mandatory!


----------



## SubZeroCat (Jun 7, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Alcohol is almost mandatory!



Right then, Albert/Effra/Hob/whatever, that day that begins with T, five pints please mate, that one in the shirt, get your books out, sorted!  

Haha we're cooler than the bookgroup


----------



## tastebud (Jun 7, 2006)

Look forward to it... what we reading?

And yes it was intentional btw... remember my PM..? Related to that too..  *winks*


----------



## SubZeroCat (Jun 7, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> Look forward to it... what we reading?
> 
> And yes it was intentional btw... remember my PM..? Related to that too..  *winks*



No  

Related to what?  

*winks and winces back*

I have about 30 PMs from you so I'll have to trawl through them...yes. I didn't know you liked Jeff Buckley! Yay, you get 3 gold stars.

I dunno, what are we reading?


----------



## tastebud (Jun 7, 2006)

SubZeroCat said:
			
		

> No
> 
> Related to what?
> 
> ...


The one about the nightmares. Actually _can_ we pick a book and all read it, that'd be cool. A good book mind.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Jun 7, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> The one about the nightmares. Actually _can_ we pick a book and all read it, that'd be cool. A good book mind.



Oh. Ok, cos that's quite unrelated to Jeff Buckley....he's _dreamy_  



Ok, good book, good book.....Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides?


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 7, 2006)

SubZeroCat said:
			
		

> Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides?


Read it


----------



## tastebud (Jun 7, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Read it


ditto.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Jun 7, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Read it



Yeah me too, but I like it + have forgotten a lot of it.

That was just a random suggestion, I dunno really.

The only ones at the moment that I want to read are Christopher Brookmyre ones (that I haven't read).


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 7, 2006)

I only want to read books I haven't read before (which is why I'm destined to be in a book group of one). Not too interested in rereading many books cos there so many out there to read. Sorry, I'm being awkward again.


----------



## tastebud (Jun 7, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I only want to read books I haven't read before (which is why I'm destined to be in a book group of one). Not too interested in rereading many books cos there so many out there to read. Sorry, I'm being awkward again.


me too - definitely!

i too will be a bit fussy about book picking, i have to admit.

okay, well next on my pile is 'the bookseller of kabul' by asne seierstad - have you read that?


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 7, 2006)

No - not sure I want to though - looks a bit mumlit


----------



## SubZeroCat (Jun 7, 2006)

Maybe we should start our own thread instead of hijacking this one?


----------



## tastebud (Jun 7, 2006)

SubZeroCat said:
			
		

> Maybe we should start our own thread instead of hijacking this one?


seems a bit silly to have two bookgroup threads tho...

 yes, orang utan, if you say so.

what do you want to read next mr. utan?


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 7, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> seems a bit silly to have two bookgroup threads tho...
> 
> yes, orang utan, if you say so.
> 
> what do you want to read next mr. utan?


I want to read something my Andy McNab or Chris Ryan.


----------



## trashpony (Jun 7, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I want to read something my Andy McNab or Chris Ryan.



*sits back and watches with interest*


----------



## gaijingirl (Jun 7, 2006)

I'm nearly at the end of Shantaram, as recommended by a couple of people on here - it's a fucking brilliant book - and I don't use the "f" word lightly!!  (At least not in print)


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 7, 2006)

trashpony said:
			
		

> *sits back and watches with interest*


Ok then - the Da Vinci Code?


----------



## trashpony (Jun 7, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Ok then - the Da Vinci Code?



Read it.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 7, 2006)

trashpony said:
			
		

> Read it.


Me too - but I wouldn't mind having a bitch sesh about it


----------



## trashpony (Jun 7, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Me too - but I wouldn't mind having a bitch sesh about it



Oh go on then.  

I spoke to a friend on the phone yesterday who said 'don't go and see the film - it's shit'. I said that I'd no intention of going to see it. She then said that she was disappointed as she'd really enjoyed the book.

I changed the subject.


----------



## foamy (Jun 7, 2006)

i had a very funny arguement with a colleague about The DaVinci code.

I said it was crap, he said it was great. Through the course of the argument he said it wasn't Dan Browns job as a writer to come up wit new plot lines or to write them well.

I think i won that argument


----------



## Dubversion (Jun 8, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> Amazingly Brainaddict liked that one too which is rare for your bookgroup choices. He said the protagonist reminded him of me.




how the hell did he work that one out?  

just ploughing through a book called The Dream Life - fascinating stuff about the way american culture and movies reflected its politics and vice versa (not ideal holiday reading but nevermind  )

then going to read Ripley Bogle by Robert McLiam Wilson, which i read years ago, loved, found last week, loaned to Pie Face (who loved it) and now can't wait to get into again


----------



## May Kasahara (Jun 8, 2006)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> I'm reading 'Small Island' for my book club, and so far it's hard to see what all the fuss is about. I'm only about 70 pages in though, so maybe it heats up later on. Not that it's bad or anything, just seems rather unremarkable. I put it down and instantly forget all about it.



Well, I've finally finished 'Small Island' and I am pleased to say that it completely won me over in the end. It stayed unengaging until a particular scene (the riot in the cinema), when the writing suddenly seemed to take off, the characters became more real and I actually started to give a shit. I wouldn't say it's any kind of groundbreaking, but it was ultimately funny, moving and interesting and I'm glad I read it.

Next is "I'm Not Scared" by Niccolo Ammaniti (sp?) which I've had out of the library for _ages_.


----------



## maya (Jun 10, 2006)

*Howard Zinn: USA- A People's History Of The United States*
(interesting "grassroots" perspective)
*
Norah Vincent: Self-Made Man- My Year Disguised As A Man*
(very interesting about identity, gender, etc.- recommended read!)


----------



## rachamim18 (Jun 10, 2006)

I am rereading "Conferderacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy OToole. The book has an amazing story behind it. The author committed suicide in his late twenties, at the end of the 1960s. The unpublished manuscript sat in his mom's attic gathering dust. Then, in the late 80s, the mom approached a creative writing professor and asked him to read the yellowed and stained manuscript. The professor, criniging, reluctantly agreed. To his amazement he was enthralled by the book. He realised he had a masterpiece on his hands, perhaps the funniest book he had ever read. He helped it get published and the book subsequently won a Pullitzer. Sadly though, it is the only thing ever written by the author. What a tragedy as the book is the work of genius.

Also reading: "The French Lieutenant's Woman" by John Fowles. So far so good, onloy the first 60 odd pasges so far. For those that skipped the movie, period romance.

"The Palestinian People: A History" by Baruch Kimmerling and Joel S. Migdal. Very informative , slightly partisan [pro-Arab] but chock full of [ pertinent data].


[Edited for spelling]


----------



## Philbc03 (Jun 10, 2006)

rachamim18 said:
			
		

> I am rereading "Conferderacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy OToole. The book has an amazing story behind it. The author committed suicide in his late twenties, at the end of the 1960s. The unpublished manuscript sat in his mom's attic gathering dust. Then, in the late 80s, the mom approached a creative writing professor and asked him to read the yellowed and stained manuscript. The professor, criniging, reluctantly agreed. To his amazement he was enthralled by the book. He realised he had a masterpiece on his hands, perhaps the funniest book he had ever read. He helped it get published and the book subsequently won a Pullitzer. Sadly though, it is the only thing ever written by the author. What a tragedy as the book is the work of genius.



Correctomundo. I've just read this aswell and it is probably the funniest book I've ever read. Everyone should read this.

Now I'm on Gregory Benford's physics thriller, 'Cosm'. No laughs there.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Jun 10, 2006)

Well after reading 'The Man In The High Castle' (Philip K Dick) a friend recommended 'The Outsider' (Albert Camus), which I found mildly interesting, but not greatly thought provoking. I'm not sure what to try next - hopefully it will leave me in a better mind than these.

BB


----------



## feyr (Jun 10, 2006)

i am about to start Lifeless by Mark Billingham. not to taxing but nice enough


----------



## jeff_leigh (Jun 11, 2006)

Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind - Had these 4 volumes sitting on my shelf for about a year now just started reading it two nights ago. Pretty good going so far


----------



## Pieface (Jun 12, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> *
> Norah Vincent: Self-Made Man- My Year Disguised As A Man*
> (very interesting about identity, gender, etc.- recommended read!)



I read some interesting reviews of this - didn't she end up feeling sorry for men after her experiences and found she enjoyed their social dynamics more?    May give it a try....

I'm about to start the second of the Cormac McCarthy Border trilogy - called the Crossing.

All the Pretty Horses was *fantastic*.  I'm reading such good books this year - it's making me very happy


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jun 12, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> All the Pretty Horses was *fantastic*.  I'm reading such good books this year - it's making me very happy



It's a great book. I haven't been able to get into any of his others though.

Coming to the end of Walter Abish's _How German Is It_ and loving it.


----------



## Dubversion (Jun 12, 2006)

rachamim18 said:
			
		

> Sadly though, it is the only thing ever written by the author.



not so, Confederacy was published earlier than that (1979-80?) and The Neon Bible - a much less brilliant work - was also published, but that WAS in the late 80s (he wrote it when he was a kid and even he didn't think it was worth putting out).

The CoD movie is on hold. Again


----------



## maya (Jun 12, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> maya said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


yeah- basically she's a queer woman who decided to try and do the "walraff journo" thing and live disguised as a man for one year,
completely taking on the role of a man (lacing in boobs, fake beard growth, adopting masculine body language/movement, changing behaviour i.e. language, voice etc.)
she made friends with both men and women (some of them thought she was a gay/feminine man, but nobody suspected the role she was playing at all)

and yeah- in the end she got an even more sympathetic view of men, became more critical towards some shitty behaviour in women towards them- realising how far feminism have changed society and male-female power relations,
in fact she felt that men in some ways have become more marginalised...

very interesting book, well worth a try...


----------



## tastebud (Jun 12, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> yeah- basically she's a queer woman who decided to try and do the "walraff journo" thing and live disguised as a man for one year,
> completely taking on the role of a man (lacing in boobs, fake beard growth, adopting masculine body language/movement, changing behaviour i.e. language, voice etc.)
> she made friends with both men and women (some of them thought she was a gay/feminine man, but nobody suspected the role she was playing at all)
> 
> ...


That sounds really interesting.
---
Yesterday I started reading _The Bookseller of Kabul_. 'Twas awful. She's an _astonishingly_ bad writer. Don't think I'll continue, which is a shame as it's a bit of a wasted opportunity and could've been something very interesting.

This evening I just started reading _Maximum City, Bombay Lost and Found_ by Suketa Mehta.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jun 13, 2006)

So I'd recommend How German Is It by Walter Abish.

Novel of late 70s Germany (written 1980) and its relationship to the past by American experimental realist who hadn't been to Germany when he wrote it. Lots of droll, intentionally flat writing that lays waste to the German economic/social miracle, tons of plot, very funny, slightly baffling, utterly confident, unique, characters beautifully drawn. It's now in Penguin Classics after a long time virtually unavailable.

Now: Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger.


----------



## Pieface (Jun 13, 2006)

have started The Crossing.

He's not a writer you can get into on the train first thing in the morning.  I ended up listening to Kiss FM while looking out the window in a bovine manner


----------



## Philbc03 (Jun 13, 2006)

Currently on George Orwell's 'Burmese Days'. V good so far (65 pages in)


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 13, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> That sounds really interesting.
> ---
> Yesterday I started reading _The Bookseller of Kabul_. 'Twas awful. She's an _astonishingly_ bad writer. Don't think I'll continue, which is a shame as it's a bit of a wasted opportunity and could've been something very interesting.


My suspicions were correct then! <smug smilie>


----------



## maya (Jun 13, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> yesterday I started reading _The Bookseller of Kabul_. 'Twas awful. She's an _astonishingly_ bad writer. Don't think I'll continue, which is a shame as it's a bit of a wasted opportunity and could've been something very interesting.


i agree. she's an awful, awful "author"- she couldn't write her way out of an unwanted marriage proposal, even if she tried- worst fucking uncoherent purplish language i've ever had the misfortune to read... !

she should stick to TV journalism...i bet the only reason she got published is that she's "young and beautiful", plus a bit of a B-celebrity as a war journalist...stupid cow. 

not only is her "language" the verbal equivalent of having an enema shoved up your arse in a sahara detention camp, but she's immensely irritating in person as well- 
what the fark happened to "authors" who could actually WRITE, not just look good and perfectly coiffeured on a humongous mugshot splashed over glossy hardback covers in woolworth's?   : mad :

- reclaim the publishing industry with REAL writing! - abolish pictures of writers! - let the WORDS speak for themselves! - DOWN with this sort of thing!


----------



## tastebud (Jun 13, 2006)

re, maya post:

to be honest i'm always a bit dubious about western authors going to another culture; thinking that they can fit in all good and well and get a balanced viewpoint on how things work in that society and culture. she even states at the beginning that her perspective is not actually a true representation of typical afghani life, as she lives with a middle-class family etc. why bloody bother? what a waste of writing, travelling, journalism. she also seemed to assume an air of authority about things which she couldn't have possibly know about. at times she even seemed to _criticise_ the culture. this itself is insulting and annoying but i think her writing style was an even bigger problem!

i mean bad authors are one thing - i think it annoyed me that such a bad author was doing something as cool as what she ended up doing in order to write the book. ah well. it's not exactly uncommon i guess.

no orang, you weren't right particularly. i resent the term mum-lit to be honest. can mum's not read good books then or something?

anyway, whatever.

my current book is pleasing me greatly. he's a great writer and it's sooo exciting to read about bombay. it's such a completely crazy place - i think like no other. on the one hand i'm soooo excited and am counting the days - three weeks today! - and on the other i stare at the pages like this:    - cannot wait!


----------



## spartacus mills (Jun 13, 2006)

I'm on 'Niagara' by cult-actress turned writer Mary Woronov.


----------



## chooch (Jun 15, 2006)

Just finished Joseph Roth _the white cities_- journalism from his decline/exile in France. Wonderful stuff.


----------



## May Kasahara (Jun 15, 2006)

spartacus mills said:
			
		

> I'm on 'Niagara' by cult-actress turned writer Mary Woronov.



I didn't know she was writing now....she's cool. *goes off to Amazon*

And kudos for a truly excellent tagline!


----------



## May Kasahara (Jun 15, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> i mean bad authors are one thing - i think it annoyed me that such a bad author was doing something as cool as what she ended up doing in order to write the book.



The worst book I ever read, I think, was 'The Hot Zone', by Richard Preston - it's an account of the Ebola scare a few years ago with some backstory about the virus and what it does. I have never struggled through such bad prose, such awful misuse of the rhetorical question, such rampant egofrotting and just plain bad English. It's a mark of how fascinating the subject matter is that I made it to the end, but it made my blood boil. The climax of the book comes when Mr Preston, by now in total slavery to his monstrously out of control sense of self-importance, climbs to the cave where the virus is thought to have originated and stands around for a few minutes wittering on about how he's face to face with the heart of darkness, going mano a mano against this deadly blah blah blah. The fact that he's wearing a hazmat suit rather detracts from the sense of occasion, not to mention thwarting my strong desire for him to finish the book by actually contracting the fucking virus and dying bloodily in a heap.

Here's the author photo:


----------



## Philbc03 (Jun 16, 2006)

Just started Romanitas by Sophia McDougall.

Makes you sick to think she's just 24


----------



## bluestreak (Jun 16, 2006)

i keep forgetting to update this thread.

i've started re-reading microserfs by douglas coupland.  i forgot what a wonderful writer he is and how amazingly real his characters are.  his writing is so clean and readable without ever being too sparse or unformed.


----------



## Dubversion (Jun 16, 2006)

still dipping into the Dream Life but now reading  a fantastic collection of Jim Thompson's noir novels - The Grifters, The Getaway, Pop. something or other and Killer Inside Me.

brilliant stuff.


----------



## Leica (Jun 16, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Jim Thompson's noir novels



They are among my favourites.


----------



## KernowBoy (Jun 16, 2006)

Robbie Fowler's autobiography.

Its a very interesting read. About half way through now. Just got to the bit about the drugs rumours. Started by the bluenoses.


----------



## rennie (Jun 16, 2006)

1001 nights. excellent!


----------



## milesy (Jun 18, 2006)

bluestreak said:
			
		

> i've started re-reading microserfs by douglas coupland.  i forgot what a wonderful writer he is and how amazingly real his characters are.  his writing is so clean and readable without ever being too sparse or unformed.



he's ace. i've just started reading Jpod, and can't put it down. (except for now, when i wanted to post this on my way to the toilet)


----------



## foamy (Jun 18, 2006)

bit of trash for me: Tony Parsons: 'Stories we could tell'


----------



## jeff_leigh (Jun 18, 2006)

The Drawing of the Three - Stephen King 2nd in the Dark Tower Series


----------



## Bomber (Jun 19, 2006)

Shutter Island ~ Dennis Lehane


----------



## Iam (Jun 20, 2006)

Robin Hobb - Shaman's Crossing

Enjoyable enough so far.


----------



## marsha bourbon (Jun 20, 2006)

Shame the devil- George Pelecanos. I love his books, all set in Washington at various times with Characters crossing over from different series. All good crime fiction stuff!


----------



## Dubversion (Jun 20, 2006)

marsha bourbon said:
			
		

> Shame the devil- George Pelecanos. I love his books, all set in Washington at various times with Characters crossing over from different series. All good crime fiction stuff!




See, i just read one and found it really forced. The story was unremarkable and the way he'd cram in current events / bands etc seemed really forced. I love good crime writing and was really looking forward to his books, but 'meh'.


----------



## Philbc03 (Jun 21, 2006)

Now reading Don DeLillo's White Noise, and Practical Reason by Pierre Bourdieu.


----------



## Pieface (Jun 21, 2006)

Finished The Crossing - Cormac McCarthy

Loved loved loved it!  Found the 3 lengthy passages where others tell their own stories difficult to get through but I'm a sucker for Southern American literature  - starting to think it's my favourite type.  Can't wait to get my hands on the last in this trilogy which binds the characters from the first two books together. I think I know how already.

Started JG Ballard's Crash on the train today.  It's kind of annoying me at the moment but I've just started it so we'll see - the style and setting were always going to grate after riding around Mexico with some Texans last week


----------



## tastebud (Jun 22, 2006)

Yesterday I started _Hunger_. I'm less than half way through and I can confidently say that it's my new favourite book ever. I haven't had a book make me feel like this for a loooooong long time.

There aren't enough of these: 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 and i don't have the words right now...


----------



## onemonkey (Jun 22, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> Yesterday I started _Hunger_. I'm less than half way through and I can confidently say that it's my new favourite book ever. I haven't had a book make me feel like this for a loooooong long time.


i started it yesterday too.. 

it's okay but i'm not very far into it yet. ?


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 22, 2006)

I have this at home and have been meaning to read it for ages - perhaps I should suggest it for book group?


----------



## Pieface (Jun 22, 2006)

I think brainaddict was trying to get it read at BG ages ago - I'd read it - get it picked tonight OU, I'm not going as I never even got this month's book.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 22, 2006)

I'm not sure if I'm going either as I think only 3 people are going and the weather's looking shitty


----------



## Pieface (Jun 22, 2006)

Weren't you heading to a pub?  I just don't like it when I haven't read the book


----------



## Biddlybee (Jun 22, 2006)

I can only see blue sky out my window (and I'm only half way through the book)


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 22, 2006)

BiddlyBee said:
			
		

> I can only see blue sky out my window


It was cloudy when I went out earlier and I'm near St James's Park - who's coming tonight Biddly?


----------



## Biddlybee (Jun 22, 2006)

Ah, probably hasn't reached me yet then. 
Trashy, Eme, Hollis, not sure who else.


----------



## Pieface (Jun 22, 2006)

onemonkey and zora usually go


----------



## Biddlybee (Jun 22, 2006)

I was looking for posts from them, but then realised this is the wrong thread


----------



## mrkikiet (Jun 22, 2006)

beatniks - toby litt.

really disappointed. i read deadkidsongs and thought it was really good. since then he seems to have found a formula and is milking it for all it's worth with no really innovative ideas.


----------



## tastebud (Jun 22, 2006)

seriously read it - i'm in love with this guy!


----------



## tastebud (Jun 22, 2006)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> i started it yesterday too..
> 
> it's okay but i'm not very far into it yet. ?


how bizarre! - that you're reading it too. 

for me, i think it's a case of identification again. in a purely aspirational sense.


----------



## Hollis (Jun 22, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> I think brainaddict was trying to get it read at BG ages ago - I'd read it - get it picked tonight OU, I'm not going as I never even got this month's book.




We'll have to save it for when brainy stops pretending he's Mungo Park & heads home. ) )


----------



## foamy (Jun 22, 2006)

Today i started 'We need to talk about Kevin' by Lionel Shriver.
enjoying it so far.


----------



## tastebud (Jun 22, 2006)

Hollis said:
			
		

> We'll have to save it for when brainy stops pretending he's Mungo Park & heads home. ) )


he's read it already so you should just go ahead and read it i think.


----------



## rennie (Jun 22, 2006)

Misha Glenny's The Balkans: Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 1804-1999.

Im still reading about the aftermath of WW1 on Greece and early Yougoslav politics. utterly fascinating!


----------



## CharlieAddict (Jun 22, 2006)

read two books that would certainly deaden anyone's nerves.

cell - stephen king - not recommended.

and waylander - david gemmell - silly and basic but enjoyable.


----------



## madamv (Jun 22, 2006)

Weaveworld - Clive Barker.

Not an author I have read before but it was bought for me for my birthday by someone who totally loved it when it came out and thought I would too.  Third of the way through and it's really good, and quite Hellraiserish (one of my top ten films).

Bubba safely ensconsed in bed, time for a good read and a good j

xx


----------



## Pieface (Jun 23, 2006)

Hollis said:
			
		

> We'll have to save it for when brainy stops pretending he's Mungo Park & heads home. ) )




we should read it before he gets back - he'd be ever so pleased with us I think.  Brainy gets annoyed with the bookgroup choices


----------



## milesy (Jun 23, 2006)

irvine welsh - "the acid house".


----------



## Roadkill (Jun 23, 2006)

I've got three on the go at the moment.

John Keay - The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company

Roger Knight - The Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson

Peter Linebaugh - The London Hanged


----------



## chooch (Jun 23, 2006)

Alberto Manguel- _a history of reading_

This is fucking great. A touch _I'm mates with Borges, Calvino and Umberto Eco, dontchaknow?_ at times, but still corking. Tis a bit like one of those old essayists, Lamb or Hazlitt or someone...


----------



## Boogie Boy (Jun 24, 2006)

'Demanding The Impossible: A History Of Anarchsim' Peter Marshall

Really interesting. Wish I'd started reading this years ago.

BB


----------



## Dubversion (Jun 24, 2006)

Boogie Boy said:
			
		

> 'Demanding The Impossible: A History Of Anarchsim' Peter Marshall
> 
> Really interesting. Wish I'd started reading this years ago.
> 
> BB




it is a great book!


----------



## Boogie Boy (Jun 24, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> it is a great book!



It does have that 'instant accessibility without being patronising' tone that you sometimes come across with this kind of book, will let you know what I think once I've finished Dub.

BB


----------



## Philbc03 (Jun 25, 2006)

Edward Bellamy's 'Looking Backwards'


----------



## mr woofty (Jun 26, 2006)

cloud spotters guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney 

don't know if this has been mentioned on here before but i look at the sky in a whole new way since reading this (well i haven't quite finished, i'm up to strato cumulus!). we live in a richly clouded country and this book is intelligent, funny and explained completely for the non-meteorolgist. the sky above us is taken for granted sometimes, this book gives you an idea of what is going on up there.


----------



## foo (Jun 26, 2006)

tried Ian McEwan again - this time, Amsterdam. 

i just about got through it - and got fuck all from it. but at least it made me realise one of the reasons i don't like his books: his characters. they're always nasty, meanspirited, weak, brooding gits. 

i think i've tried my last try with McEwan.


----------



## Dubversion (Jun 26, 2006)

mr woofty said:
			
		

> cloud spotters guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney
> 
> don't know if this has been mentioned on here before but i look at the sky in a whole new way since reading this (well i haven't quite finished, i'm up to strato cumulus!). we live in a richly clouded country and this book is intelligent, funny and explained completely for the non-meteorolgist. the sky above us is taken for granted sometimes, this book gives you an idea of what is going on up there.




I plugged his website on the ed's Noctilucent clouds thread.. Brilliant site.. Some of the pics are breathtaking

Coil used to be involved in an organisation for keeping the night sky clearer by reducing light pollution, but I can't remember what they were called.


----------



## sojourner (Jun 26, 2006)

milesy said:
			
		

> irvine welsh - "the acid house".


How are you finding it milesy?

I love Irvine Welsh.  My favourite story in The Acid House is the one with God in it.  Cracks me up every time that.  Can't bloody remember what it's called mind....


----------



## sojourner (Jun 26, 2006)

I'm still eking out Annie Proulx, Close Range.  I haven't read such good short stories in a very long time and really don't want to finish it.  My boss is getting Bad Dirt by her tomorrow so I'll be borrowing that off her!

Still thumbing through Transgender Warriors by Leslie Feinberg as well, which is very interesting.  

Gave up on The Diceman - what a steaming pile of shite that was.


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 26, 2006)

sojourner said:
			
		

> How are you finding it milesy?
> 
> I love Irvine Welsh.  My favourite story in The Acid House is the one with God in it.  Cracks me up every time that.  Can't bloody remember what it's called mind....


Is that the one with flies and shit?


----------



## sojourner (Jun 26, 2006)

fractionMan said:
			
		

> Is that the one with flies and shit?


Bob ( or rather Boab) turns into a fly in it, yeh.  Why, have you read it?


----------



## bushphobia (Jun 26, 2006)

Hey, reading Stephen King's THE SHINING, a book I haven't read in bloody years. So much better than that crappy Kubrick film. 
Also Angela Carter's THE INFERNAL DESIRE MACHINES OF DOCTOR HOFFMAN.
Sheer briliant imaginative writing, that still outclasses most contemporary novels. DA Vinci code! bloody shite bollocks more like.


----------



## Cerisa (Jun 26, 2006)

"The Big Over Easy" by Jasper Fforde. kind of a kid's book (my housemate got me into him) but intelligently done and very funny


----------



## Nina (Jun 26, 2006)

H G Wells. 'The Island of Dr Moreau'.

And picked up Bernhard Schlink 'Flights of Love' from the library this weekend.

I loved 'The Reader'. So I hope this one fits the bill.

Spent an age in the library trying to find books the catalogue said where there but strangely didn't appear to exist....


----------



## Fledgling (Jun 27, 2006)

I've been moving around but managed to read The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles which I liked a lot, very moving although some of the visionary scenes were somewhat abstract and hard to understand. I think it's open to a lot of different interpretations but I'd be keen to read some of his other work as I like the style, particularly the way the characters were brought to life. One of those scary books whewre you think "he's talking about me, he's got inside my head". 

Also now reading 3 books as I didn't know which to read first. I'm enjoying the dreamy Eucalyptus by Murray Bail, am shocked by Victor Serge's Comrade Tulyev and trying to read the quite heavy-going Voss by Patrick White. Wanted to read some Australian literature whiel I'm here and I'm NOT reading anything by Dan Brown.


----------



## fudgefactorfive (Jun 27, 2006)

"Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro. 

Grim, disturbing, saps your will to live. Incredibly well-crafted in one sense - the characters are (appropriately to the plot) deliberately stunted, awkward, naive types, almost like bonsai children; but I found the set-up a bit ridiculous when I actually sat down and thought about it.


----------



## RubyToogood (Jun 27, 2006)

Have just finished re-reading The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco) which I thought was great when I first read it years ago. This time I found it really, really tedious and full of unnecessary and confusing waffle.


----------



## belboid (Jun 27, 2006)

RubyToogood said:
			
		

> Have just finished re-reading The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco) which I thought was great when I first read it years ago. This time I found it really, really tedious and full of unnecessary and confusing waffle.


aaah, I'm just about to start The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana - I still think he's ace.  But then I always loved the bits of discussion about the vexed question of whether or not Christ owned his own clothes......


----------



## han (Jun 27, 2006)

RubyToogood said:
			
		

> Have just finished re-reading The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco) which I thought was great when I first read it years ago. This time I found it really, really tedious and full of unnecessary and confusing waffle.



 

I'm reading Ellen MacArthur's autobiog at the moment. Wow, that woman is driven.


----------



## Dubversion (Jun 27, 2006)

han said:
			
		

> Wow, that woman is driven.




I thought she sailed?


----------



## Dubversion (Jun 27, 2006)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Gave up on The Diceman - what a steaming pile of shite that was.



It's a bit like a lot of those 'epoch-shattering' books, if you don't read it

a) at the right point in history
b) at the right age

it'll be a load of wank. 

I read it as a hippyish teen and loved it (although even then I could tell the sexual politics were a little dodgy) but now I just wouldn't touch it.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 27, 2006)

han said:
			
		

> I'm reading Ellen MacArthur's autobiog at the moment. Wow, that woman is driven.


Everywhere?
Lazy cow - now she's dame, she thinks she's it.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 27, 2006)

Proper summer reading this - nothing too demanding
Chuck Palahniuk - Haunted - I thought I'd finally give him a twirl 
John Le Carre - The Spy Who Came In From The Cold - this is for book group, but also it was about time I got round to reading him. 
Michael Connolly - The Lincoln Lawyer - started reading my brother's copy in Barcelona on the beach and got hooked - a well-written courtroom drama - well I never! I've tried Grisham before and was put off the whole genre. 
Still haven't got around to reading Kafka On The Shore or Rupert Thomson's Divided Kingdom but will hopefully do so by the end of the summer.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 27, 2006)

Oh and just about to finish reading Watching The English - about time too, cos I was getting fed up with Kate Fox's 'astonishing' observations about class.


----------



## RubyToogood (Jun 27, 2006)

I'm now reading Pride and Prejudice for the nine millionth time.

I don't like surprises in a book.


----------



## fudgefactorfive (Jun 27, 2006)

*sneaks into Rubes' house and substitutes a hacked copy of P&P where Mr Darcy is revealed to be a pimp, Rosings burns to the ground and Lizzie Bennett ends up sold to the white slave trade*


----------



## RubyToogood (Jun 27, 2006)

And that in itself sounds like the plot of an Umberto Eco novel... (or possibly John Fowles).


----------



## han (Jun 27, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Everywhere?
> Lazy cow - now she's dame, she thinks she's it.



 

Actually, I have this image of sailing as just being for posh over-privileged sloanes, but Jan said the book was really good so I started reading it, and it IS!

She's really modest, and doesn't fit into the typical sailing mould one iota. She comes from quite a humble background, and bought her first little wooden boat with dinner money she saved over several years. Ahhhh.


----------



## han (Jun 27, 2006)

Fuck, I can't believe I just used the word 'humble'.

<vomits>


----------



## D (Jun 27, 2006)

Any Haruki Murakami fans? I just started The Elephant Vanishes - excellent thus far.


----------



## pno (Jun 27, 2006)

Im terrible, I've always for a few books on the go.

One flew over the cuckoo's nest

Mindfulness in Plain English

Biography of Jimi Hendrix


----------



## sojourner (Jun 27, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> It's a bit like a lot of those 'epoch-shattering' books, if you don't read it
> 
> a) at the right point in history
> b) at the right age


Possibly

Catcher in the Rye is about the only book that's given me that feeling though.  And this, now.

It reminded me of a book I remember reading about 10...Stern, I think it was called.  Lots of similar macho bollocks with some soft porn.


----------



## Mungy (Jun 27, 2006)

i've recently discovered Ed McBain's 87th Precinct stuff. I'm enjoying it so far. its a long way off from my usual fantasy, sci-fi stuff.


----------



## bluestreak (Jun 27, 2006)

i've got about a third of the way through "the crying of lot 49" and unless someone tells me it gets a lot better i'm going to give up on it.


----------



## sojourner (Jun 27, 2006)

bluestreak said:
			
		

> i've got about a third of the way through "the crying of lot 49" and unless someone tells me it gets a lot better i'm going to give up on it.


It's an interesting style, worth sticking with til at least halfway through.  if you don't like it by then, give up


----------



## tastebud (Jun 27, 2006)

D said:
			
		

> Any Haruki Murakami fans? I just started The Elephant Vanishes - excellent thus far.


Big fan here. I've loved all his stuff that I've read thus far. Haven't read that one yet though.



			
				bluestreak said:
			
		

> i've got about a third of the way through "the crying of lot 49" and unless someone tells me it gets a lot better i'm going to give up on it.


I started that and the same thing happened.
----
I've started reading a couple of intemellectual books of late and my brain just doesn't seem to want to play - perhaps because I'm too stressed at work. For now I'm going to try something light and since it's been recommended by two of my friends, it's gonna be _The Time Traveler's Wife_. By Audrey someoneorother.


----------



## fudgefactorfive (Jun 27, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> _The Time Traveler's Wife_. By Audrey someoneorother.



Enjoyed that massively. By about page 10, I was thinking, how the hell is she going to make this work, but she does. The only romantic book that I've read in the last few years that I enjoyed.

I'd have shagged myself more if I'd have been him though.


----------



## sojourner (Jun 27, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> it's gonna be _The Time Traveler's Wife_. By Audrey someoneorother.


A great read...I reckon you'll really enjoy it


----------



## sojourner (Jun 27, 2006)

fudgefactorfive said:
			
		

> Enjoyed that massively. By about page 10, I was thinking, how the hell is she going to make this work, but she does. The only romantic book that I've read in the last few years that I enjoyed.
> 
> I'd have shagged myself more if I'd have been him though.


----------



## tastebud (Jun 27, 2006)

Having recently finished Hunger - one of the best books I've ever read, I think my brain's in a funny place right now and "the next Lovely Bones" on the front cover  doesn't exactly fill me with hope but we shall see... we shall see.


----------



## Dubversion (Jun 27, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> Having recently finished Hunger - one of the best books I've ever read, )



I think it's traditional to read Ask The Dust by John Fanté having finished Hunger..


----------



## sojourner (Jun 27, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> Having recently finished Hunger - one of the best books I've ever read, I think my brain's in a funny place right now and "the next Lovely Bones" on the front cover  doesn't exactly fill me with hope but we shall see... we shall see.


You're not judging a book by its cover now are you?


----------



## trashpony (Jun 27, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> Having recently finished Hunger - one of the best books I've ever read, I think my brain's in a funny place right now and "the next Lovely Bones" on the front cover  doesn't exactly feel me with hope but we shall see... we shall see.



Ah thanks for posting that again - I wanted to ask you what it was called as you'd raved about it so much but I couldn't remember who it was who was getting so exciting iyswim. Should I buy rather than get out of the library?


----------



## tastebud (Jun 27, 2006)

sojourner said:
			
		

> You're not judging a book by its cover now are you?


yeah, i'm afraid i do that a lot. 

dub, i'm more likely to do the opposite than take a recommendation from you i think.  although i did really like middlesex and you recommended that one on here. i need something light though i think.






			
				trashpony said:
			
		

> Ah thanks for posting that again - I wanted to ask you what it was called as you'd raved about it so much but I couldn't remember who it was who was getting so exciting iyswim. Should I buy rather than get out of the library?


try to borrow it i reckon. you know how i feel about this  i could lend you my* copy actually, though i doubt i'll see you before i leave for india (on monday).

i just wanna read more hamson - luckily one of my best friends has all of his books.

*what's his is mine, etc.


----------



## Biddlybee (Jun 27, 2006)

You could give it to me tomorrow at the curry and I'll pass it on


----------



## trashpony (Jun 27, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> try to borrow it i reckon. you know how i feel about this  i could lend you my* copy actually, though i doubt i'll see you before i leave for india (on monday).
> 
> i just wanna read more hamson - luckily one of my best friends has all of his books.
> 
> *what's his is mine, etc.



Of course! What was I thinking?   

I doubt I'll see you before Monday either but I've just checked my library and I can get it shipped from the Barbian so I will do that


----------



## tastebud (Jun 27, 2006)

BiddlyBee said:
			
		

> You could give it to me tomorrow at the curry and I'll pass it on


i'm afraid i can no longer make the curry. i'm gonna be working late for the entire week now.  boo, etc. don't think i'll be doing any urban stuff till i get back now - cept small scale dinner on sat night.


----------



## trashpony (Jun 27, 2006)

BiddlyBee said:
			
		

> You could give it to me tomorrow at the curry and I'll pass it on


Or that indeed 

And then you and me will have to meet for food sometime and book swapping


----------



## Biddlybee (Jun 27, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> i'm afraid i can no longer make the curry. i'm gonna be working late for the entire week now.  boo, etc. don't think i'll be doing any urban stuff till i get back now - cept small scale dinner on sat night.


Ah ok... didn't wish you bon voyage on Saturday... will do nearer the time 




			
				trashy said:
			
		

> And then you and me will have to meet for food sometime and book swapping


Sounds like you'll have to go with the Barbican. I'm up for food anytime though


----------



## tastebud (Jun 27, 2006)

great - the opening paragraph- 

"It's hard being left behind. I wait for Henry, not knowing where he is, wondering if he's okay. It's hard to be the one who stays. I keep myself busy. Time goes faster that way. I go to sleep alone, and wake up alone. I take walks. I work until I'm tired. I watch the wind play with the trash that's been under the snow all winter. Everything seems simple until you think about it, Why is love intensified by absence?

... Each moment that I wait feels like a year, an eternity. Each moment is as slow and transparent as glass. Through each moment I can see infinite moments lined up, waiting. Why has he gone where I cannot follow."

Hmm.


----------



## maya (Jun 27, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> great - the opening paragraph-
> 
> "It's hard being left behind. I wait for Henry, not knowing where he is, wondering if he's okay. It's hard to be the one who stays. I keep myself busy. Time goes faster that way. I go to sleep alone, and wake up alone. I take walks. I work until I'm tired. I watch the wind play with the trash that's been under the snow all winter. Everything seems simple until you think about it, Why is love intensified by absence?
> 
> ...


...Oprah Winfrey book club?


----------



## chooch (Jun 27, 2006)

John Belchem- _Popular Radicalism in Nineteenth-Century Britain_. Very stodgy and badly written. Turns a fascinating period into porridge, and I keep feeling that's the fucking _intention_. 

John Hooper- _The New Spaniards_. Good so far.


----------



## tastebud (Jun 28, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> ...Oprah Winfrey book club?


tell me about it. it actually gets worse too. i swear i can actually see grammatical errors in this book. (sorry everyone  )

*goes back to bookshelf* I'm going to try The Black Album - Hanif Kureshi today.


----------



## RubyToogood (Jun 28, 2006)

RubyToogood said:
			
		

> I'm now reading Pride and Prejudice for the nine millionth time.
> 
> I don't like surprises in a book.


Have now finished it, and it was very, very good. As usual.


----------



## Philbc03 (Jun 28, 2006)

I'm now reading Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach. On the bus. In full view of Stoke's travelling public.

That said I felt infinitely more embarrassed when I was ploughing through J.K. Rowling's latest. Am I the only one who tries to hide the covers of an embarrassing read?


----------



## Dubversion (Jun 28, 2006)

RubyToogood said:
			
		

> Have now finished it, and it was very, very good. As usual.




Was it the butler that did it? Again?


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 28, 2006)

Philbc03 said:
			
		

> That said I felt infinitely more embarrassed when I was ploughing through J.K. Rowling's latest. Am I the only one who tries to hide the covers of an embarrassing read?


Why be embarrassed about it if you like it?
I would be embarrassed to read it but only cos I'd be reading a shite kid's author - I wouldn't be embarrassed about reading Dahl or Pullman


----------



## Cerisa (Jun 28, 2006)

> Vixen
> missing piece of jigsaw   Join Date: Apr 2005
> Location: In a princedom by the sea
> Posts: 7,207
> ...


 
oooh the time traveller's wife! stick with it, it's a lovely read


----------



## colbhoy (Jun 28, 2006)

Over half way through Das Boot by Luthar-Gunther Buchheim - absolutely gripping!


----------



## D (Jun 28, 2006)

*Haruki Murakami*

First I was blown away by 100% Perfect Girl on an April Morning, then I read Bakery Attack and was awestruck.  Today I read The Kangaroos and I think I'm in love.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 29, 2006)

You must be reading some odd translations of Murakami - I've never heard of those - or maybe they're short stories?


----------



## tastebud (Jun 29, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> You must be reading some odd translations of Murakami - I've never heard of those - or maybe they're short stories?


_The Elephant Vanishes _IS short stories numb nuts.


----------



## dolly's gal (Jun 29, 2006)

i'm currently reading wicked women by fay weldon. old skool but quite good. 

and my new book from amazon has just arrived!! shawnie, by ed trewavas. written by a social worker about a family (based on his experiences but not actually a particular family) on an estate in knowle west, bristol. sounds fucking harsh but am well looking forward to reading it!


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 29, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> _The Elephant Vanishes _IS short stories numb nuts.


I knew that - just not the names of the stories! is that where they're from then?


----------



## exosculate (Jun 29, 2006)

dolly's gal said:
			
		

> i'm currently reading wicked women by fay weldon. old skool but quite good.
> 
> and my new book from amazon has just arrived!! shawnie, by ed trewavas. written by a social worker about a family (based on his experiences but not actually a particular family) on an estate in knowle west, bristol. sounds fucking harsh but am well looking forward to reading it!




That sounds good.


----------



## Philbc03 (Jun 29, 2006)

I'm now reading Martin Amis's 'Money: A Suicide Note' (v good so far) and the collection of Trotsky, Hansen, and Novack articles in 'The Transitional Program for Socialist Revolution'.


----------



## mrkikiet (Jun 29, 2006)

Never Let Me Go - Ishiguro. slightly disconcerting, but very good.


----------



## fudgefactorfive (Jun 29, 2006)

mrkikiet said:
			
		

> Never Let Me Go - Ishiguro. slightly disconcerting, but very good.



Likesay, finished that last week - been pondering on it ever since - decided it's an excellent slice of a made-up person's headspace, and loved the way he conveys that these children are stunted, unfinished, bonsai people - but I think the whole set-up is utterly unrealistic, it's a Britain occupied by about a hundred people. Anyone recommend more of his? Been told I should read _Remains of the Day_, which I'm quite up for, not having seen the film.

Just finished _Birthday Stories_, a collection of short stories on the loose theme of birthdays (given to me on my birthday  ) selected by Haruki Murakami. Nice read, I don't go for short stories much and this kind of book reminded me of why I should. The ones that stood out for me were by Russel Banks, Denis Johnson, Daniel Lyons, Lynda Sexson, Raymond Carver. There's one by Murakami himself, it's very "him", not sure what to make of him generally. _Hard Boiled Wonderland_ was excellent and spacily imaginative, and I've read two others that to be honest have left no lasting impression except for a vague sense of how odd he thinks Japanese women are.


----------



## tastebud (Jun 29, 2006)

fudgefactorfive said:
			
		

> except for a vague sense of how odd he thinks Japanese women are.


One thing that forms a prominent part of my love for Murakami is his female perspective on a lot of things. I can't think of examples right now, but I often fall in love with the women in his books, so he must be doing something right. It's not *that* common for a male author to get this right, but he does. Well. May Kasahara being a prime example.


----------



## Hollis (Jun 29, 2006)

Philbc03 said:
			
		

> I'm now reading Martin Amis's 'Money: A Suicide Note' (v good so far) and the collection of Trotsky, Hansen, and Novack articles in 'The Transitional Program for Socialist Revolution'.



Money's excellent! Probably his best.


----------



## tastebud (Jun 29, 2006)

Hollis said:
			
		

> Money's excellent! Probably his best.


Fucking awful book. I literally _threw_ it at my ex boyfriend's wall.


----------



## Hollis (Jun 29, 2006)

Pah! One of the greats of 1980s literature.. ohhh yes


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 29, 2006)

I hated it too - couldn't finish it


----------



## Hollis (Jun 29, 2006)

Unbelievable!


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 29, 2006)

I liked all his other books too.
Apart from The Information.


----------



## wiskey (Jun 29, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> Today i started 'We need to talk about Kevin' by Lionel Shriver.
> enjoying it so far.




i've just finished it. right up until 10 pages before the end i thought it was mediocre and then it redeemed itself. i really didnt like the letters format and spent the first 3 chapters trying to get into her writing style. I also found myself skipping bits because she used far too many words in places. 

overall i struggled through bits of it whilst other bits were gripping.

dont think i'll bother with any others she has written. 

wiskers


----------



## Hollis (Jun 30, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I liked all his other books too.
> Apart from The Information.



Very strange.. its _generally_ considered to be his best book.


----------



## RubyToogood (Jun 30, 2006)

I am now re-reading The Land of Green Ginger by Noel Langley, which is class. I hadn't realised he was one of the scriptwriters on The Wizard of Oz.


----------



## milesy (Jun 30, 2006)

irvine welsh - "ecstacy"

and after that i will be starting ben richards' new one "confidence", although i'm a bit put of reading it in public off by the awful cover, it looks like it's trying to say "this is chick-lit, but mature, _intelligent_ chick-lit" when it's nothing of the sort. well, i hope it's not.







i may have to get a copy of big juggs or razzle to hide it in.


----------



## kyser_soze (Jun 30, 2006)

Just finished re-reading 'American Tabloid' and decided to jump straight into a re-ru of 'The Cold Six Thousand'

Been AGES since I read any Ellroy and I'd forgotten how brilliant his writing is.


----------



## girasol (Jun 30, 2006)

I'm reading Lemony Snicket's 'The Bad Beginning' with my son, seems all I have time to read these days are children's books  

I was really hoping my son choose to read that before Harry Potter (and he did!!!), as it seems a lot more interesting...  If I do like it (I really loved the film) I'll end up buying all 12 books.


----------



## sojourner (Jun 30, 2006)

Iemanja said:
			
		

> I'm reading Lemony Snicket's 'The Bad Beginning' with my son, seems all I have time to read these days are children's books
> 
> I was really hoping my son choose to read that before Harry Potter (and he did!!!), as it seems a lot more interesting...  If I do like it (I really loved the film) I'll end up buying all 12 books.


I tried Lemony Snicket as my daughter was so into it, but it was not for me.  Pullman = genius kids writing, LS = average kids writing with some good ideas.

I started and finished The Woman Who Walked into Doors last night, by Roddy Doyle...I really liked the style of narrative, written from the perspective of a woman who doesn't think she has any intelligence, hence the short choppy sentence structure.  And she just throws out little screamingly aching facts about her life.  The bit where she's killing time until she can find the key and have a drink had my hair stood on end. 

Not sure what's next...I got a monster pile of books from the local charity shop a while back and can't remember everything I got.


----------



## Nikkormat (Jun 30, 2006)

Currently reading Hugh Trevor-Roper's _The Last Days of Hitler_. 

Not too heavy going, although the 60 page introduction was a little daunting.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 30, 2006)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> Just finished re-reading 'American Tabloid' and decided to jump straight into a re-ru of 'The Cold Six Thousand'
> 
> Been AGES since I read any Ellroy and I'd forgotten how brilliant his writing is.


He sure is a great writer.
Cold Six Thousand though. Hard to read. Couldn't finish. Or begin. Sentences too short. Fiendishly unparseable.


----------



## chooch (Jun 30, 2006)

milesy said:
			
		

> irvine welsh - "ecstasy"


You finding it god-awful?


----------



## Dubversion (Jun 30, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> You finding it god-awful?




It is, isn't it? utter shit. I think he's one of the most appallingly over-rated writers I've ever come across. Just dire. And Ecstasy is probably the worst.


----------



## milesy (Jun 30, 2006)

he's far from the best writer in the world, and a lot of his stuff is so obvious and cliched, but i'm enjoying it. agree he's very over-rated though. and it's all very _90s..._


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 30, 2006)

I liked his first two but yes, he's a cockend


----------



## northernhord (Jun 30, 2006)

Niall Griffiths - Stump (again) top Welsh writer a little in the style of Mr Welsh but a lot darker and funnier I reckon


----------



## chooch (Jun 30, 2006)

milesy said:
			
		

> he's far from the best writer in the world


Isn't _ecstasy_ the one where he attempts to write a Birmingham character to Dick van Dyke levels of accuracy, though far more charmlessly. 
I was embarrassed for him, which is never a good sign.


----------



## milesy (Jun 30, 2006)

yeah, it took me a while to figure out what accent he was supposed to be writing in!! he does it well with the scottish, but i find it hard to put any other accent in my head other than scots for his characters. it seems very forced when he does it for his cockney characters, or his posh ones. the west country bloke - jesus christ that was horrendous!!


----------



## chooch (Jun 30, 2006)

milesy said:
			
		

> it seems very forced when he does it for his cockney characters, or his posh ones. the west country bloke - jesus christ that was horrendous!!


Yes. Shamefully poor. A cloth-eared twunt, it would appear.


----------



## milesy (Jun 30, 2006)

he should just mention that the character is speaking in whatever accent, and let the reader put the accent onto the voice if they wish. (although i do enjoy the scottish ones, and find that easy to read)


----------



## Rollem (Jun 30, 2006)

we need to talk about kevin - lionel shriver

after this i want to read a 'fun' book!


----------



## Philbc03 (Jun 30, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> Fucking awful book. I literally _threw_ it at my ex boyfriend's wall.



Lol, IMHO I think it's top. I'm quite tempted top try a couple of his other books too. I guess many urbanites like their lit with a slice of sleaze.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Jun 30, 2006)

Jpod - Douglas Coupland


----------



## trashpony (Jun 30, 2006)

Rollem said:
			
		

> we need to talk about kevin - lionel shriver
> 
> after this i want to read a 'fun' book!



Yep - I've got something really trite lined up - I reckon I deserve it.

@ wiskey - know what you mean about the writing style - really laboured isn't it? I'm more than half way through now and am enjoying more but still am looking forward to finishing it


----------



## wiskey (Jun 30, 2006)

RubyToogood said:
			
		

> I am now re-reading The Land of Green Ginger by Noel Langley, which is class. I hadn't realised he was one of the scriptwriters on The Wizard of Oz.



dervish keeps a copy of this and reads it all the time. 

i need to get around to it, he thinks its the best book ever (possibly a bit of childhood nostalgia there)


----------



## wiskey (Jun 30, 2006)

*We need to talk about kevin*




			
				trashpony said:
			
		

> Yep - I've got something really trite lined up - I reckon I deserve it.
> 
> @ wiskey - know what you mean about the writing style - really laboured isn't it? I'm more than half way through now and am enjoying more but still am looking forward to finishing it



i ploughed through it blissfally unware of all the things i ought to have been putting together. perhaps its cruel of me but i wanted her to get to the bit where he shoots people so much i phased out of other bits. when she hooks you she really gets you, but the rest of the time its wishy washy. which is a shame because some of the things that happen are gripping and very strong images/storylines. 

i got proper fucked off with mr 'oh so american everythings great' franklin too but then i think we're sposed to. 

the reading group q's at the back of the book are interesting too but dont read em till you're finished. 

rollems right - now i want a fun book. i was going to go for john peels autobiog, but i know how that one ends. 

wiskers


----------



## milesy (Jun 30, 2006)

jeff_leigh said:
			
		

> Jpod - Douglas Coupland



what did you think of it? i loved it, found it hard to put down. very funny book, i thought.


----------



## trashpony (Jun 30, 2006)

wiskey said:
			
		

> i ploughed through it blissfally unware of all the things i ought to have been putting together. perhaps its cruel of me but i wanted her to get to the bit where he shoots people so much i phased out of other bits. when she hooks you she really gets you, but the rest of the time its wishy washy. which is a shame because some of the things that happen are gripping and very strong images/storylines.
> 
> i got proper fucked off with mr 'oh so american everythings great' franklin too but then i think we're sposed to.
> 
> ...



You are me and I claim my £5


----------



## wiskey (Jul 1, 2006)

trashpony said:
			
		

> You are me and I claim my £5



cool, but i want £2.50


----------



## Shippou-Sensei (Jul 1, 2006)

just finished volume 1-6 of genshiken ... i do love the series  but  mad  some of the translations  were  totally  crap ... like using the term  fanzine  instead of doujinshi ...  oh and  they  changed one of guys  line  from   "whats the use of having a blood related sister" to "theres no way you really could have a little sister"


----------



## foamy (Jul 1, 2006)

I read 'The Outsider' by Camus this morning after many recommendations. It went strangely well with 'We need to talk about Kevin' by Lionel Shriver which I finished yesterday.


----------



## chooch (Jul 1, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> John Hooper- _The New Spaniards_. Good so far.


...though with far too much fawning over monarchs.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Jul 1, 2006)

milesy said:
			
		

> what did you think of it? i loved it, found it hard to put down. very funny book, i thought.



haven't finished it yet, only read about 70 pages but yeah i'm liking it so far the only other of his books i've read is Eleanor Rigby what others would you recommend?


----------



## milesy (Jul 1, 2006)

miss wyoming and girlfriend in a coma are both excellent.


----------



## spartacus mills (Jul 1, 2006)

I'm enjoying Aleister Crowley's ''Moonchild''.


----------



## wiskey (Jul 2, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> It went strangely well with 'We need to talk about Kevin' by Lionel Shriver which I finished yesterday.



and what did you make of that?


----------



## cyberfairy (Jul 2, 2006)

Just finished reading 'Stuart, a life backwards' by Alexandra Masters, an autobiography of a homeless man in Cambridge which has left me  in a few tears  Superbly written, not mawkish, overly judgemental or sentimental, just interesting, moving and genuinely insightful and humorous despite the grim nature of the subject matter. I cannot recommend it enough.


----------



## foamy (Jul 2, 2006)

i loved 'Stuart'. Coming from Cambridge and being there at the time of the free the Cambridge 2 campaign made it a really interesting and involving read  

Now Reading:
'Middlesex' by Jeffrey Euginides
enjoying it so far but got it second hand and its a bit distracting that its previous owner has highlighted all the 'difficult' words


----------



## foamy (Jul 2, 2006)

wiskey said:
			
		

> and what did you make of that?



what did i make of 'We need to talk about kevin'?

i thought it was not an easy read and really made me question everything. i accidentally read the suggested questions for book groups in the back whilst i was half way through which was annoying as it gave some of the plot away  . but on the whole it was great, blew me away and i highly recommend it.

You?


----------



## Moggy (Jul 2, 2006)

"American Skin" by Don De Grazia.


----------



## CharlieAddict (Jul 2, 2006)

'making history' - stephen fry. thought i give it a try. a bit pompous, sentences here and there that stutters the pace but original enough to make a good read.


----------



## wiskey (Jul 2, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> what did i make of 'We need to talk about kevin'?
> 
> i thought it was not an easy read and really made me question everything. i accidentally read the suggested questions for book groups in the back whilst i was half way through which was annoying as it gave some of the plot away  . but on the whole it was great, blew me away and i highly recommend it.
> 
> You?



my thoughts  and here


----------



## chooch (Jul 2, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> its previous owner has highlighted all the 'difficult' words



_Utopia_ because it was in a box of crumbling paper and mouse droppings from about twenty years ago that I'm going through. 
More entertaining than I remember.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 3, 2006)

cyberfairy said:
			
		

> Just finished reading 'Stuart, a life backwards' by Alexandra Masters, an autobiography of a homeless man in Cambridge which has left me  in a few tears


<a pedant writes>
Alexander, not Alexandra and it's not an autobiography although Masters is involved in Stuart's life.
It's a great book though!


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 3, 2006)

haven't been able to settle into a book for a couple of weeks, been dipping into things like Charlie Brooker's Screen Burn, stuff like that. Started Our Man In Havana but got irritated by it. So I've dug out my copy of Cormac McCarthy's All The Pretty Horses so i can refresh myself before reading the other two in the series which Pie Face has now bought


----------



## mrkikiet (Jul 5, 2006)

giles tremlett - ghosts of spain. it's good.


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 5, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> So I've dug out my copy of Cormac McCarthy's All The Pretty Horses )



been a long time since i read this, I'd forgotten how brilliantly written it is.


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 5, 2006)

mrkikiet said:
			
		

> giles tremlett - ghosts of spain. it's good.




is this the book about Spain's failure to come to terms with Franco / the civil war? Robert 'Smart Bob' Elms had the author on, if it's the same one, and it sounded fascinating.


----------



## mrkikiet (Jul 5, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> is this the book about Spain's failure to come to terms with Franco / the civil war? Robert 'Smart Bob' Elms had the author on, if it's the same one, and it sounded fascinating.


that's the one, it is very interesting.


----------



## rennie (Jul 5, 2006)

I've just started reading "Yacoubian building" in Arabic... the story of Cairo and its people told around the inhabitants of a famous building...


----------



## Philbc03 (Jul 5, 2006)

I've now got L.E. Modesitt Jr's 'The Eternity Artefact' on the go (terrible so far) and Pierre Bourdieu's 'Sociology in Question', which is fine and dandy.


----------



## carlo_cc (Jul 5, 2006)

Brian Greene - The fabric of the Cosmos


----------



## Nina (Jul 7, 2006)

I've given up with Bernhard Schlink's Flights of Love.

It's not often I give books up but after the wow that was The Reader, I was sorely disappointed. 

Now reading Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red.

My, the boy can write  

I think it's going to need a large investment in time though. It's going to be a mammoth exercise akin to a Salman Rushdie.

Also got Johnathan Safran-Foer from t'library. The one about 9/11. Not sure it'll get a look in while Pamuk is gripping me by the throat....


----------



## Strumpet (Jul 7, 2006)

Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception - Eoin Colfer


----------



## spartacus mills (Jul 7, 2006)

I'm really enjoying Ed McBain's stuff. I'm reading 'Puss in Boots', one of his non-87th Precinct novels at the mo.


----------



## Dead Cat Bounce (Jul 7, 2006)

Just going to start with Roger Penrose - The Road to Reality.

I'll probably understand less than .1% of the book but the preface has left me very intrigued.


----------



## Philbc03 (Jul 8, 2006)

Finished L.E. Modesitt Jr - what utter utter crap. Sci-fi fans should avoid the Eternal Artefact like tha plague.

I've now started Alice Walker's 'The Color Purple'. Those first few pages are like being hit in the face with a brick.


----------



## muser (Jul 8, 2006)

Douglas coupland's Jpod, it is good so far, laugh out funny if your inner mind reads it while you read, if that makes sense. A sort of internal dialogue which allows me to identify with the characters.


----------



## AnnO'Neemus (Jul 8, 2006)

The Bookseller of Kabul...

It's been in my stack of 'to read' books for a few months now, but boy am I wishing I'd read it sooner... I kept putting it off and putting it off and reading other books before it, but now I've started I'm so glad I did... it's fantastic... very well written... very readable...  interesting anecdotes about life in Kabul...


----------



## maya (Jul 9, 2006)

AnnO'Neemus said:
			
		

> The Bookseller of Kabul...
> 
> It's been in my stack of 'to read' books for a few months now, but boy am I wishing I'd read it sooner... I kept putting it off and putting it off and reading other books before it, but now I've started I'm so glad I did... it's fantastic... very well written... very readable...  interesting anecdotes about life in Kabul...


..._what?_  

it's an _awfully_ written, predjudiced, tabloid, piece of _crap!_   

...but i respect that taste is subjective


----------



## foo (Jul 10, 2006)

i borrowed Stuart, A Life Backwards - Alexander Masters from Rollem on Saturday and i've been reading it at every opportunity since.

i had heard about this book but hadn't realised that i knew Stuart. he was a well known Cambridge 'face' - so the book was doubly interesting to me. alongwith all the local references etc.

i didn't like Masters style of writing at first but soon appreciated his total lack of sentimentality when writing about the homeless community. lots of funny bits too. 

an excellent book.


----------



## mrkikiet (Jul 10, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> is this the book about Spain's failure to come to terms with Franco / the civil war? Robert 'Smart Bob' Elms had the author on, if it's the same one, and it sounded fascinating.


it's not just about the civil war there is some good stuff on the madrid bombings and also basque and catalan independence although he only mentions some stuff in passin that probably needed more focus such as the endemic racism.
well worth a read.


----------



## H.Dot (Jul 11, 2006)

"The Music Industry Raw" by Tony Portelli. 

A fascinating read if u love the UK Garage scene as much as I do, but has more spelling and grammatical mistakes on each page than you'd usually find in an entire book.


----------



## tommers (Jul 11, 2006)

"A general history of the robberies and murder of the most notorious pirates", by "Captain Charles Johnson", written in 1724  

it's great, it's basically the book that all pirate stories are based on.  it has blackbeard, captain avery, mary read, anne bonney, stede bonnet...  all the greats.

the women pirates are the most amazing.  one of them was brought up dressed as a boy because she was an illegitimate daughter and her father wanted to maintain decency and so disguised her as a boy so nobody would know it was really his bastard daughter.  she then just grew up to join armies, sail ships, be a pirate.  amazing.


----------



## felixthecat (Jul 11, 2006)

foo said:
			
		

> i borrowed Stuart, A Life Backwards - Alexander Masters from Rollem on Saturday and i've been reading it at every opportunity since.
> 
> i had heard about this book but hadn't realised that i knew Stuart. he was a well known Cambridge 'face' - so the book was doubly interesting to me. alongwith all the local references etc.
> 
> ...



i've just read this - really, really enjoyed it  .


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 11, 2006)

tommers said:
			
		

> "A general history of the robberies and murder of the most notorious pirates", by "Captain Charles Johnson", written in 1724
> 
> it's great, it's basically the book that all pirate stories are based on.  it has blackbeard, captain avery, mary read, anne bonney, stede bonnet...  all the greats.
> 
> the women pirates are the most amazing.  one of them was brought up dressed as a boy because she was an illegitimate daughter and her father wanted to maintain decency and so disguised her as a boy so nobody would know it was really his bastard daughter.  she then just grew up to join armies, sail ships, be a pirate.  amazing.




i bought this and haven't got around to it. Is it a fairly easy read, bearing in mind the arcane language?


----------



## tommers (Jul 11, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> i bought this and haven't got around to it. Is it a fairly easy read, bearing in mind the arcane language?



it's not too bad once you get used to it.  it's quite difficult to work out what's happening in a couple of bits but overall it's pretty understandable.  after you've worked out what a snow or a pink are then it's plain sailing (ho ho.)  there's a glossary at the end and also some notes.

some of the histories are a bit short and just detail how many ships they took and what types and what they did with them.  but mary read and anne bonny have a proper "childhood to death" history for them.  so far I'm under halfway, just reading about captain davis, who seems to be one of the most successful (he's been capturing forts and all sorts.  )


----------



## undercover (Jul 11, 2006)

Just finished reading "The Contortionist's Handbook" by Craig Clevenger. 

Thought it was superb, and just started reading his second one - Dermaphoria. 

Same sort of madness as found in the first one, buit complicated somewhat by rather large amounts of acid and amnesia. Excellent so far.


----------



## foo (Jul 11, 2006)

felixthecat said:
			
		

> i've just read this - really, really enjoyed it  .



it's stayed with me a bit over the past few days, like some books do.

i think as well, because i used to avoid/recoil* a bit from Stuart when i knew him a long time ago, (we were sort of on the perifery of each others circles). he was also quite a bit younger than me. 

anyway - aside from all that, i do think Masters has written a fantastic book about a 'chaotic' life or personality. and does it with dry humour too. i kept forgetting it was a biography. 

* i know the phrase, 'everyone's got a story' is probably wank but it's resonated with me through reading this book. it's not that i feel bad or anything major. just a kind of recognition..


----------



## fudgefactorfive (Jul 11, 2006)

Had an entire week of Bret Easton Ellis - first _Glamorama_ then _The Informers_. The former was interesting but for the most part clumsily and tediously written (though a few chapters/passages really do stand out), the latter was better written, but ultimately a bit meandering and dull. After all that, I was so gripped with ennui that I could barely move.

I also got through _Mostly Harmless_ by Douglas Adams. Strange stuff - doesn't really mesh well with the other books in the series - he'd have been better off putting those ideas and that energy into a standalone work IMO. And as for the ending ... not exactly comedy


----------



## jeff_leigh (Jul 12, 2006)

The Wastelands - Stephen King 3rd in the Dark Tower Series


----------



## Bomber (Jul 12, 2006)

Give Us a Kiss: A Country Noir ~ Daniel Woodrell


----------



## Cheesypoof (Jul 12, 2006)

Prince: The Biography


----------



## elevendayempire (Jul 13, 2006)

I went and bought a job lot of Neil Gaiman's books in the Waterstones 3-for-2 Sci-Fi books offer. Just finished Stardust, and I'm reading Neverwhere now.

SG


----------



## jodal (Jul 13, 2006)

I'm 1/3 of the way through Freakanomics. Its pretty good actually.


----------



## Doctor Carrot (Jul 13, 2006)

Just finished Yes Man by Danny Wallace, a rather amusing and inspiring book


----------



## aqua (Jul 13, 2006)

I've just finished Joanne Harris Gentlemen and Players

I read the serious stuff me


----------



## Philbc03 (Jul 13, 2006)

I've just finished Francis Wheen's new one, 'Marx's Das Kapital: A Biography'. Very entertaining and accessible.  I liked it so much I've got a review in the pipeline.

I'm now reading Jane Austen's 'Northanger Abbey'. I've still got Bourdieu's 'Sociology in Question' on the hob, and I began Simon Clarke's 'Marx's Theory of Crisis' this morning.

I feel unfulfilled unless I have 3 books on the go.


----------



## May Kasahara (Jul 13, 2006)

On holiday I read John Wyndham 'The Kraken Wakes' (very good, been meaning to start reading all his books for years so happy I enjoyed it, although reading a book about a menace from the seas while on a beach holiday isn't perhaps the most sensible option...) and Junichiro Tanizaki 'Quicksand', a sweaty tale of obsessional Japanese love in the 1920s, which was pretty good also. Just started Rupert Thomson 'Divided Kingdom'.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 13, 2006)

Hello May, was wondering where you got to - where did you go?
I keep picking up that Rupert Thomson and getting distracted - any good?


----------



## onemonkey (Jul 13, 2006)

the essential difference - simon baron cohen  -- going on about the testosterone fuelled differences in male and female cognitive dispositions.. men on average are more systematic, women are more empathic..  (and how autism is instance of an 'extreme male brain' high syst + low emp) not much evidence to back it up and book fairly short but he might be onto something..


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 13, 2006)

That's Ali G's brother innit?


----------



## foamy (Jul 13, 2006)

tried to start The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by LeCarre but put it down and started The New York Triology by Paul Auster instead.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 13, 2006)

Yay! Brilliant brilliant book!


----------



## mrkikiet (Jul 14, 2006)

will self - how the dead live.


----------



## onemonkey (Jul 14, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> That's Ali G's brother innit?


his cousin 


was reading RIM by Alexander Besher - but have given up on it.. I've read the sequel MIR which was hardly shit at all but this one is dull, lumbering and to enthralled to it's own weak presumptions.. basically total mess of karmic sci-fi and east mysticism.. with no story to grip you and allow suspension of critical faculties.   into the cosmic bin with it


----------



## May Kasahara (Jul 14, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Hello May, was wondering where you got to - where did you go?
> I keep picking up that Rupert Thomson and getting distracted - any good?



Yo dude, just went down to Malaga for a week with Cut Out - sun, sea, sand, sex, it was all very relaxing. Just as well really, as had some bad news when we got back.  

Dunno about the RT yet, I've only read about 15 pages! I think it reads well though, and P finished it in 2 days, saying it was a ripping yarn, so I shall crack on with it.


----------



## Abjekt (Jul 15, 2006)

I'm half way through The Twelfth Card by Jeffery Deaver and it's a belter.


----------



## colbhoy (Jul 15, 2006)

About a quarter of the way through The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen.

A crime novel, had never heard of her until I picked this up at my work's book sale. Am enjoying it.


----------



## fudgefactorfive (Jul 15, 2006)

mrkikiet said:
			
		

> will self - how the dead live.



That was the first one of his that I read - still haven't gotten over it.  

Read his "Dorian" recently. Nasty, nasty. Lovely


----------



## Philbc03 (Jul 18, 2006)

Now reading Melvin Burgess's 'Doing It' for my reading group. Sadly I won't be able to attend because of a marriage rehearsal  The book's alright btw.


----------



## spartacus mills (Jul 18, 2006)

fudgefactorfive said:
			
		

> That was the first one of his that I read - still haven't gotten over it.
> 
> Read his "Dorian" recently. Nasty, nasty. Lovely



I loved 'How the Dead Live' but hated 'Dorian'. 

I'm a third of the way through Isabel Allende's ''Paula''.


----------



## schnickschnack (Jul 18, 2006)

Just got "Russian Disco" by Wladimir Kaminer out from the library and half way through Ive already decided that he's my favourite author ever.


----------



## chooch (Jul 18, 2006)

_The undercover economist_ Tim Harford. 
About 3/8 elegance to 5/8 market fundamentalist complacency.


----------



## mrkikiet (Jul 19, 2006)

spartacus mills said:
			
		

> I loved 'How the Dead Live' but hated 'Dorian'.


at the moment i think i'm going the other way. still only half way through how the dead live though.


----------



## votisit (Jul 19, 2006)

Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century

Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View [Paperback] by Milgram, Stanley...

Agent Sparrow is trying to educate me in the world of psychology and so far its really bloody interesting!


----------



## Jessica (Jul 20, 2006)

I haven't updated this in a while...

I just finished _We the Living_ by Ayn Rand 

and I'm about to read _23 Minutes in Hell_...my cousin is really religious and she thinks it will save me.  I might as well give it a shot...


----------



## Fledgling (Jul 23, 2006)

It's been a long time since posting and a few books later, hmmm what have I read? 

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
Eucalyptus by Murray Bail
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome
Voss by Patrick White (Excellent) 

Am reading the Case of Comrade Tulayev by Victor Serge and Poor Man's Orange by Ruth Park. If anyone can think of any good Aussie literature let me know, especially preferred Patrick White novels.


----------



## Philbc03 (Jul 23, 2006)

I'm now going through Thatcher's Downing Street Years. Know thy enemy ...


----------



## muser (Jul 24, 2006)

Philbc03 said:
			
		

> I'm now going through Thatcher's Downing Street Years. Know thy enemy ...



I had wanted to read this in my teens!!!! Never got around to it, please let me know if it is any good. Wandering around waterstones and saw and brought hermann hesse's the glass bead game. I love the use of language and I'm only a couple of pages in.


----------



## Philbc03 (Jul 24, 2006)

muser said:
			
		

> I had wanted to read this in my teens!!!! Never got around to it, please let me know if it is any good. Wandering around waterstones and saw and brought hermann hesse's the glass bead game. I love the use of language and I'm only a couple of pages in.



It's alright so far, very much like her Statecraft actually. I'm wearing my critical specs as she's keen to present herself as having a coherent programme from the outset. From what I know this wasn't actually the case until later on.

It's going to take bloody ages to read.


----------



## districtline (Jul 25, 2006)

schnickschnack said:
			
		

> Just got "Russian Disco" by Wladimir Kaminer out from the library and half way through Ive already decided that he's my favourite author ever.



i loved "russian disco" but all his other books seem to be the same. his german jungle book was quite boring imho.

his club "russian disco" in berlin is great though


----------



## Rollem (Jul 26, 2006)

Am half way through “we need to talk about Kevin” but in this heat, I am finding it hard to concentrate on it…so am dipping my toe in the ever so much lighter “my best friends girl”


----------



## k_s (Jul 26, 2006)

Just finished therese raquin by emile zola. Not exactly holiday reading, so I'm not entirely sure why i took it on holiday.


----------



## andy2002 (Jul 26, 2006)

'Rip It Up And Start Again – Post-Punk 1978-84'. A bit dry, a bit pretentious but an excellent history of British and US post-punk music nevertheless.


----------



## fishfingerer (Jul 27, 2006)

Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy. Not my favourite one of his but he was a bloody genius.


----------



## May Kasahara (Jul 28, 2006)

Don't seem to have picked up 'Divided Kingdom' since i got back from holiday, for some reason, so am currently ripping through "Sunset And Sawdust" by Joe R Lansdale. It's quality.


----------



## Iam (Jul 28, 2006)

Stephen Donaldson - The Runes of the Earth

"The Last Chronicles of Thomas Convenant", apparently (actually, it's the first of four new ones, apparently).

They've got much better as the story has gone along, after the struggle to finish the first book. This one is actually pretty gripping, I'm enjoying it.


----------



## choosysusie (Jul 28, 2006)

The curious incident of the doy in the night-time would recommend it to anyone


----------



## tangerinedream (Jul 29, 2006)

Just finished 'The Corrections' - Johnathan Franzen, which I loved very deeply indeed. I adored the way no character was truly likable and each was blessed with a certain amount of humanity that made them understandable. One of the best things I've read for _years_ - T'was like reading Delillo, without all the wanky 'look at me, I'm so clever and hip aren't I?' that drags his beautiful writing down.

Put down 'Brecht and CO' by John Fuegi to read it. - Am enjoying that much but not in a page turningly escapist way as yet. Possibly will as I get to the stuff about the more well known plays.


----------



## bluestreak (Jul 29, 2006)

just starting "palestine" by joe saccho.  supposed to be a treat.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Jul 29, 2006)

Dark Water - Koji Suzuki, thought i'd give it a try after seeing the movie, bit disapointing so far


----------



## zora (Jul 29, 2006)

tangerinedream said:
			
		

> Just finished 'The Corrections' - Johnathan Franzen, which I loved very deeply indeed. I adored the way no character was truly likable and each was blessed with a certain amount of humanity that made them understandable. One of the best things I've read for _years_



Aye, its one of the best books I've ever read much for the same reason.


Am just reading The Bullet Trick by Louise Welsh. It's very very good indeed. 
 I don't know what it is about this book exactly but she has got a way with words! Colleague I was talking to about her earlier also highly recommends her first book The Cutting Room: ''You don't get better prose than this'' were his exact words and I agree.


----------



## pinkfairy (Jul 30, 2006)

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown- although I'm really struggling to finish it. Haven't picked it up in weeks!!!!


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jul 30, 2006)

On holiday I read:

Stan The Man - A Hard Life In Football by Stan Ternent

Three Men In a Boat (I don't know why I put off reading this for so long, it's great)

The Crust On Its Uppers by Derek Raymond (brilliant, morrie)

English Passengers by Matthew Kneale, which I enjoyed a lot.

Now, finally, The Bandini Quartet by John Fante.


----------



## maya (Jul 30, 2006)

The Cat In The Hat, for my nephew.

you got to start early...


----------



## AllStarMe (Jul 30, 2006)

lollipop said:
			
		

> hello im new here
> 
> am currently reading A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, is very good, kinda follows a guy through his rehab.........emotional stuff.......


I was going to buy that book today! Wish I had now because the book I ended up buying doesnt seem that great!


----------



## lobster (Jul 30, 2006)

ive just started "human captital" by Stephen Amidon


----------



## Mrs Bradley (Jul 31, 2006)

I've been trying to read "I, Lucifer" - title intrigued me somewhat....and the idea is original to say the least (ie: Lucifer told he may be able to gain a place back in heaven if he can inhabit a human body and be a good boy etc)...oh, and Daniel Craig's in the film version


----------



## dynamicbaddog (Jul 31, 2006)

Ben Elton's The First Casualty- it's an historical drama set in World War 1.
I was a bit apprehensive when I bought this because I thought his last couple of books were a bit patchy, but this is good! I'm really enjoying it.


----------



## tangerinedream (Jul 31, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> On holiday I read:
> 
> Stan The Man - A Hard Life In Football by Stan Ternent
> 
> Three Men In a Boat (I don't know why I put off reading this for so long, it's great)



Is the Ternent book any good? - I've always regarded him as a bit of a tosser for no reason I can actually put my finger on. (apart from being manager of Buuuurnley)

'Three men in a boat' has a sequel where they go on a biking holiday - 'Three men on a bummel' - It's not quite as funny, but still is funny (and is available for free here! http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2183)


----------



## cyberfairy (Jul 31, 2006)

Reading 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell' by Susanna Clarke, a 1000 page romp through nineteenth century magicians circles


----------



## tommers (Jul 31, 2006)

Iam said:
			
		

> Stephen Donaldson - The Runes of the Earth
> 
> "The Last Chronicles of Thomas Convenant", apparently (actually, it's the first of four new ones, apparently).
> 
> They've got much better as the story has gone along, after the struggle to finish the first book. This one is actually pretty gripping, I'm enjoying it.



have you read his sci-fi trilogy?  weird and a bit off-putting.  the main female character in it gets abused pretty horrifically.  she also keeps being unable to scream due to sounds not being able to express her anguish and so on.  I liked the original Covenant stuff but that made me wonder about donaldson's mental wellbeing (and his views on women.)


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jul 31, 2006)

tangerinedream said:
			
		

> Is the Ternent book any good? - I've always regarded him as a bit of a tosser for no reason I can actually put my finger on. (apart from being manager of Buuuurnley)
> 
> 'Three men in a boat' has a sequel where they go on a biking holiday - 'Three men on a bummel' - It's not quite as funny, but still is funny (and is available for free here! http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2183)



Yeah, the Ternent was a good read, it's a long time since I read a football book. Lots of great anecdotes and turns of phrase ("He'd be lucky to get a game for Holby City", "older than Jimmy Savile's haircut", etc), though embellishment is the name of the game in yer average manager's ghostwritten autobiography. He's a tosser, but not too much of a one. Can't see you enjoying the occasional references he makes to Blackpool though 

Cheers for the Bummel link


----------



## tangerinedream (Jul 31, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Yeah, the Ternent was a good read, it's a long time since I read a football book. Lots of great anecdotes and turns of phrase ("He'd be lucky to get a game for Holby City", "older than Jimmy Savile's haircut", etc), though embellishment is the name of the game in yer average manager's ghostwritten autobiography. He's a tosser, but not too much of a one. Can't see you enjoying the occasional references he makes to Blackpool though
> 
> Cheers for the Bummel link



Stan was our boss for a short and very unsuccesful period mid 80s, dunno if he goes into that at all, probably fairly bitter about not cutting it at the finest of the north west clubs. I'll give it a whirl sometime I think. I bet the Ian Wright, Paul Gascoigne seasons at Buuuuurnley are pretty good reading. 

No worries fo't link.


----------



## Pieface (Jul 31, 2006)

cyberfairy said:
			
		

> Reading 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell' by Susanna Clarke, a 1000 page romp through nineteenth century magicians circles



I really enjoyed that - I can't seem to find anyone who has finished it! it peaks and troughs and is a little self indulgent but worth hanging in there with.  She's writing a sequel you know?   

I'm currently finishing Cormac McCarthy's Border trilogy with Cities of the Plain.  To be entirely honest I'm not sure why he bothered apart from the fact that John Grady is such a fantastic character.  The meeting of the two protagonists from the previous books seems at the moment to be a bit pointless and I'm nearing the end.  

A wonderful trilogy but I'm a less than blown away with the last part.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jul 31, 2006)

tangerinedream said:
			
		

> Stan was our boss for a short and very unsuccesful period mid 80s, dunno if he goes into that at all, probably fairly bitter about not cutting it at the finest of the north west clubs. I'll give it a whirl sometime I think. I bet the Ian Wright, Paul Gascoigne seasons at Buuuuurnley are pretty good reading.



There's some bitterness there for sure.

The Gascoigne stuff is pretty cursory but the Ian Wright story is quite touching.

I think I enjoyed the Bury chapters best. The victory parade by open-top bus after they won the title is well told


----------



## rennie (Jul 31, 2006)

If not now when by Primo Levi... I just started it and it's fascinating and engrossing!


----------



## maya (Jul 31, 2006)

revisiting Faulkner, "The Sound and the Fury"- hope to _finish_ it this time!  

also "Look Homeward, Angel", by...i never remember his name...uh, Thomas Wolfe?


----------



## sojourner (Jul 31, 2006)

Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller

I joined a lesbian book club


----------



## Pieface (Aug 1, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> revisiting Faulkner, "The Sound and the Fury"- hope to _finish_ it this time!



One of my favourite writers although I've never read The Sound and the Fury    As I Lay Dying really cuts you up....

Finished Cormac and kind of see why he did the third book although I got really lost at the end.  I think it was all about storytelling....

Anyway - Nick Cave now - And the Ass Saw the Angel - really excited about this!


----------



## tommers (Aug 1, 2006)

neil gaiman - anansi boys

only just started but pretty good so far...


----------



## May Kasahara (Aug 1, 2006)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> am currently ripping through "Sunset And Sawdust" by Joe R Lansdale. It's quality.



Finished this at the weekend and would recommend it to anyone - like an East Texas Carl Hiaasen, only less smug, a wonderfully laconic crime novel set in the 1930s. Completely unpretentious, witty and peppered with some beautiful prose which he makes no fanfare of at all. Very evocative of the Depression and its travails. Thumbs up!

Off to library at lunchtime to drop it off and possibly pick up my copy of 'Black Swan Green' to read before next week's book club meeting, although I'm not feeling very enthusiastic about it...


----------



## rennie (Aug 1, 2006)

The Primo Levi book is grossly captivating... amid all the violence and danger, the partisans are portrayed in a fascinating and very humane way. I truly feel for Lionel and Mendel now... I wish them all the luck as they try n evade the Nazis.

The book also discusses Zionism and why so many Jews from Eastern Europe migrated to Palestine.


----------



## sonik (Aug 1, 2006)

The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society by CHRIS STEWART
I have read all three of his books and loved them all, it makes me want to jack everything in and do the same as he's done, although i can't shear sheep  

Published by this top notch publisher Sort Of Books


----------



## atlanteanlost (Aug 2, 2006)

Schindler's Ark - Thomas Keneally

Not a particularly happy tale, but still brilliant and enthralling


----------



## Pie 1 (Aug 2, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> I'm currently finishing Cormac McCarthy's Border trilogy
> 
> A wonderful trilogy but I'm a less than blown away with the last part.




McCarthy's a truly great American writer. All The Pretty Horses is my favourite - it has the most beautiful prose.
His latest book, No Country For Old Men is also very good.

I've just finished Marina Lewycka's A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian which was very enjoyable. And re read Jonathan Raban's Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meaning.

I'm currently re reading Bill Drumond's excellent '45'


----------



## colbhoy (Aug 2, 2006)

I have just started The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Picked up the Wordswoth Classic edition for £1.50. I have seen the leather bound 2 volume set at my dad's over the years and have always intendd reading it so picked it up when I saw it for such a good price.  

I am about 4 chapters in and enjoying it.


----------



## snouty warthog (Aug 3, 2006)

"whole in one"- an exploration of near death experiences


----------



## JoeCowenlives (Aug 3, 2006)

*"Religion and the Rise of Capitalism"*

by R.H. Tawney.

It's a laff-a-minute romp through the gradual evolution from medieval scholastic proscriptions against usury to the Puritan work and business ethos via the compromises of the Calvinistic city theocracy.

Sad bugger, aren't I? And I don't even have the excuse that it's a course book ..  

Joe


----------



## JoeCowenlives (Aug 3, 2006)

cyberfairy said:
			
		

> Reading 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell' by Susanna Clarke, a 1000 page romp through nineteenth century magicians circles



How are you getting on with it, Cyberfairy? I found it hard going, and the style started to get on my nerves after a while.

'Er indoors loved it, though.

Joe


----------



## mrkikiet (Aug 3, 2006)

watching the english - kate fox. interesting in parts, very repetitive and seemed determined to prove half the points through her own writing style.

dead babies - amis. a delightful romp through a country weekend.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Aug 3, 2006)

The Colour of a Dog Running Away - Richard Gwyn


Just finished it, and got that sad pang I only get when I've finished something really magical that really drew me in.  It's all very neat, very lucid, nice touch of self-referential/unreliable narrator ambiguity near the end but all lightly worn.  And I found it really atmospheric, which you'd jolly well expect from something set in Barcelona's gothic quarter tbh.  Just listing the components wouldn't really put across anything of the flavour of the book, though - look it up on amazon or whatever for a synopsis if you're interested.


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 3, 2006)

Hey Moisty - where you been? I was wondering where you'd got to


----------



## MysteryGuest (Aug 3, 2006)

I have ascended on to a higher plane.  


I just pop in to "slum it" now and again, lest I forget my earthly origins.


----------



## girasol (Aug 3, 2006)

*The Rape of The Fair Country*

I don't have a lot of space in my flat so I just go around borrowing books from family, friends and library.

A couple of days ago I went to see my mum and asked to borrow a good book and she lent me 'The rape of the fair country' by Alexander Cordell.  I wasn't raised in England but I understand this is a classic and a must read (at least in Wales!).

I've read the first 2 chapters and I'm already totally imersed in it, it's very funny and well written.


----------



## jbob (Aug 3, 2006)

Austerlitz by W.G Sebald. The story focuses on the search for identity by an architectural archaeologist, whose childhood origins had been erased from the time of his evacuation on the Kindertransport. A gracefully written book, with economic prose that has a buoyant poetic lyricism, that is moving in the strangest of ways. The descriptions of bulidings, their interiors, transposed into memories, and how environment can awake repressed emotions, is quite startling. 

Now re-reading Heart of Darkness.


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 3, 2006)

Sebald bores me silly


----------



## jbob (Aug 3, 2006)

Funny, I thought he would too, and it did for a while, but then I really got into it. Like reading a slow film, if you know what I mean.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Aug 3, 2006)

Nah, Sebald's great. I like them all but 'Rings of Saturn' is a masterpiece.


----------



## May Kasahara (Aug 4, 2006)

I've started "Black Swan Green" and so far it's pretty unconvincing.


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 4, 2006)

Is that the new Mitchell?


----------



## chooch (Aug 4, 2006)

Finished _the maltese falcon_ and started Derek Raymond, _the crust on its uppers_. 
Also dipping into a bloomsbury _dictionary of euphemisms_. Must remember to refer to an afternoon booze as _a bracer_ or _a quick snort_...


----------



## May Kasahara (Aug 4, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Is that the new Mitchell?



Yeah it is. Two points to consider though: I haven't read any of his other books and am still interested in doing so, as I understand they are quite different to this; also, I read on Amazon that this was the first novel he drafted but the fourth to actually be published, which may explain why it's a retrograde step going by the little I know of his other work.


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 4, 2006)

Isn't it about a stammerer? Mitchell himself is one


----------



## May Kasahara (Aug 4, 2006)

Yeah, and it's set in Worcs which is where he grew up, I think.

Oh well, I won't be at book club next week anyway now, so at least my fellow book clubbers will be spared the hairdryer treatment from me 

Edit: in fairness, the stuff about stammering is pretty interesting - I kind of guessed he might have had personal experience as it's so vividly drawn. But the early 80s setting just seems like lazy pastiche and none of the characters have escaped their cardboardyness as yet.


----------



## Iam (Aug 4, 2006)

tommers said:
			
		

> have you read his sci-fi trilogy?  weird and a bit off-putting.  the main female character in it gets abused pretty horrifically.  she also keeps being unable to scream due to sounds not being able to express her anguish and so on.  I liked the original Covenant stuff but that made me wonder about donaldson's mental wellbeing (and his views on women.)



I read the Gap series years ago, long before these, and yeah, some of what happens to the female lead - especially in the first book - is not very nice. I read an interview a while back where he explained why he'd written these characters like this (I won't try to repeat it, but it was to do with overcoming incredible damage to become stronger than one could have been without - shocker).

Oddly, in the one I've been reading, Linden is the lead character... and I still find myself thinking that the attitude in the narrative voice to her being female is a little... well, victorian, perhaps. Some of the psychology of the Covenant books is pretty odd in general, but beyond that, I've enjoyed them on the whole.


----------



## tommers (Aug 4, 2006)

Iam said:
			
		

> Oddly, in the one I've been reading, Linden is the lead character... and I still find myself thinking that the attitude in the narrative voice to her being female is a little... well, victorian, perhaps. Some of the psychology of the Covenant books is pretty odd in general, but beyond that, I've enjoyed them on the whole.



is linden the female lead in the second trilogy?  name rings a bell but it's been a while since I read em.  (you know the one with the exaggerated seasons etc.)


----------



## Iam (Aug 4, 2006)

tommers said:
			
		

> is linden the female lead in the second trilogy?  name rings a bell but it's been a while since I read em.  (you know the one with the exaggerated seasons etc.)



Yeah, so far anyway. And yeah, the 3 day suns.

I struggled a great deal - more so than with any other fantasy I've read in years - with these up until the 3rd part of the 1st trilogy, then it seemed to click. I thought the second was excellent and this one is good so far, too.

He likes words, though. Lots and lots and lots of 'em.


----------



## tommers (Aug 4, 2006)

Iam said:
			
		

> Yeah, so far anyway. And yeah, the 3 day suns.
> 
> I struggled a great deal - more so than with any other fantasy I've read in years - with these up until the 3rd part of the 1st trilogy, then it seemed to click. I thought the second was excellent and this one is good so far, too.
> 
> He likes words, though. Lots and lots and lots of 'em.



yeah he certainly does.  I liked the first trilogy and was less keen on the second one.  I thought the bloodguard were  .  Vain was quite a nice idea though.  The bit in the sand city was good, was that in the first or the second one?


----------



## Iam (Aug 4, 2006)

The second, when they're off around the sea with the giants.

I like the fact that because it's all so epic in its scope, there's a lot of room and time for him to give depth to his characters. Even some of the bit parts are very carefully drawn and it lends a certain draw for me. The Bloodguard are still about, in a somewhat different form, still odd and inscrutable.

As I say, I found the first one very difficult indeed (my housemate, also an avid reader, put it down after a few chapters and has never picked it back up). I'm going to try the Gap series again... hopefully... if Amazon ever manage to come up with books 1 & 4.

I bought a couple of new ones in a series today (as recommended by the cute lass in Waterstones  ) but I can't remember what they are right now off the top of my head. Something about magic or the other. I also resisted buying either of the new Robin Hobb or Terry Goodkind, even though I'm keen to read both - £19 a go for the hardbacks. Sod that.


----------



## tommers (Aug 4, 2006)

Iam said:
			
		

> The second, when they're off around the sea with the giants.
> 
> I like the fact that because it's all so epic in its scope, there's a lot of room and time for him to give depth to his characters. Even some of the bit parts are very carefully drawn and it lends a certain draw for me. The Bloodguard are still about, in a somewhat different form, still odd and inscrutable.



ah.  maybe I liked the second one more than I remember then.

you've actually tempted me to dig my copies out and give them another go.  I think it's been long enough to forget most of the plot!

I actually found the sci fi stuff to be a real struggle.  I finished it really just as a point of pride, and because I liked the covenant stuff so much that I thought it just has to get better.

but it didn't.


----------



## Iam (Aug 4, 2006)

I read it a _long_ time ago. While I was at school. I only very vaguely remember the plot, beyond the synopsis I read when I ordered them. But I'm sure I enjoyed them at least, and I've being wanting to read sci-fi again since I read Richard Morgan's books and I've been disappointed by most of what I've picked up so far.


----------



## Philbc03 (Aug 7, 2006)

I've finished Thatcher's Downing Street memoir. Very interesting as a psychological self-portrait and particularly so her discussion of the events around the poll tax. Of course she was right and everyone else was wrong.

This morning I started and finished Roald Dahl's The Magic Finger and now I've gone all chick-lit with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.


----------



## tastebud (Aug 7, 2006)

Very much enjoing _A Mind to Murder_ by PD James   at the moment. Also three quarters way through _No Full Stops in India_ by Mark Tully which has impressed and interested me a lot. I agree with a lot of what he says about India and the roles of the Westernised elite. He seems to totally adore the country without getting too big for his boots like a lot of much less frequent (and therefore pretty annoying to all) travellers seem to.
It's also highly readable and written in an interesting way.


----------



## Julie (Aug 7, 2006)

The Death of Amy Parris. Not bad so far.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Aug 8, 2006)

So I finally finished _The Grapes of Wrath_ - months it took me, but that's coz I bin busy innnit.

Anyway, gone straight into my number 1 spot - recommend it highly.

Now reading _The Quiet American_ - Graham Greene.

Next on my list ... probably _The Jungle_ - Upton Sinclair (can anyone tell I'm studying American Lit?  )


----------



## tangerinedream (Aug 8, 2006)

Consider The Lobster - David Foster Wallace. 

(bought this once, and left it on a bus or something, so bought it again last week. Not really been able to concentrate on it, cos been arround people and like to read in peace.)


----------



## cyberfairy (Aug 8, 2006)

tangerinedream said:
			
		

> Consider The Lobster - David Foster Wallace.
> 
> (bought this once, and left it on a bus or something, so bought it again last week. Not really been able to concentrate on it, cos been arround people and like to read in peace.)


 Sorrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee


----------



## mrkikiet (Aug 8, 2006)

Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> Now reading _The Quiet American_ - Graham Greene.


one of greene's best.

the seymour tapes by tim lott. i kept on seeing it in bookshops but didn't feel it looked worth it. having read it i'm glad i didn't spend my mone on it. trying a little bit too hard to capture the surveillance fears.


----------



## bluestreak (Aug 8, 2006)

in bed i'm still reading a bob dylan biography.  it's ok but a little too brown-nosey.

on the bus i'm reading robert graves' greek myths.  a wonderful piece of work.  he tells the common forms of the myths, and then explains whay they most likely mean, and how they represent anthropological and religious history according to archaeology and assorted version that have been recorded.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Aug 10, 2006)

Soul Music - Terry Pratchett


----------



## Hawkeye Pearce (Aug 10, 2006)

Zola - Germinal


----------



## lights.out.london (Aug 10, 2006)

Brett Easton Ellis - Lunar Park

William Gibson - Idoru

The Beano Annual - 1978


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Aug 10, 2006)

Steven Sherrill - "The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break".

5000 years later the minotaur winds up as a diner line-chef in the deep south. Very deadpan and beautifully mundane. Recommended.


----------



## zenie (Aug 11, 2006)

On Beauty - Zadie Smith

and the book group book


----------



## tastebud (Aug 11, 2006)

I was disappointed with the end of my crime novel. 

I'm now reading Nabokov's _Laughter in the Dark_. It's no _Lolita_ (obviously) but I'm still enjoying it a lot.


----------



## tangerinedream (Aug 11, 2006)

A short history of tractors in ukranian. 
When saturday comes, the half decent football book.


----------



## Philbc03 (Aug 11, 2006)

lightsoutlondon said:
			
		

> Brett Easton Ellis - Lunar Park



A brilliant brilliant book. I just couldn't put it down.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Aug 11, 2006)

The 'Bandini Quartet' by John Fante. Four novels about Arturo Bandini, Italian-American author and all-round nutter, the first written in 1933, the last in 1982. Fante is a great stylist, and the depiction of 30s LA is brilliant. In 'The Road To Los Angeles' and 'Ask The Dust', the two best of the four, I kept having to remind myself that the books were written 75 years ago. Very fresh, very contemporary.

Anyone thinking of reading the four books together would do best to read 'Wait Till Spring, Bandini', which deals with B's childhood, last. It doesn't satisfy like the others; and though the books don't and aren't meant to tally factually, it did throw me off the Bandini scent for a bit.




			
				Orangesanlemons said:
			
		

> Steven Sherrill - "The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break".
> 
> 5000 years later the minotaur winds up as a diner line-chef in the deep south. Very deadpan and beautifully mundane. Recommended.



Just checked this out on Amazon, looks fun.


----------



## MonkeyMagic (Aug 12, 2006)

The Prince and The Art of War by Niccolo Machiavelli


----------



## cyberfairy (Aug 12, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> I was disappointed with the end of my crime novel.
> 
> I'm now reading Nabokov's _Laughter in the Dark_. It's no _Lolita_ (obviously) but I'm still enjoying it a lot.


I find many crime novels are excellent until the end 
I got annoyed with Doctor Strange and Mr Norrell (as Pie eye forewarned!) so am now about to begin Nightwatch by Sarah Waters-hope it is as good as her victorian lesbian romping


----------



## Dirty Martini (Aug 12, 2006)

The Dalkey Archive by Flann O'Brien


----------



## sojourner (Aug 13, 2006)

Finished Annie Proulx, Bad Dirt, (she is now in my all time favourite top 5 writers, fucking _wonderful_ short stories), and am 100 pages into The Bell by Iris Murdoch, which is a complete change of style, and is also quite brilliant


----------



## Philbc03 (Aug 14, 2006)

I read Douglas Coupland's 'jPod' yesterday, which was a nice read. I'm now looking at Edmund White's autobiography, 'My Lives'.


----------



## han (Aug 15, 2006)

I'm reading Marc Almond's autobiography 'Tainted Life' at the moment.

It's a crackin' old read. Especially the bits about him taking Ecstasy in New York in 1981!


----------



## fear-n-loathing (Aug 15, 2006)

Orangesanlemons said:
			
		

> Steven Sherrill - "The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break".
> 
> 5000 years later the minotaur winds up as a diner line-chef in the deep south. Very deadpan and beautifully mundane. Recommended.




bloody good book that


----------



## Reg in slippers (Aug 15, 2006)

my lives sounds bloody good


just finishing kafka on the shore, which i relished


----------



## Dirty Martini (Aug 15, 2006)

'Ordinary Men -- Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland' by Christopher Browning. Grim reading.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Aug 15, 2006)

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho.


----------



## sojourner (Aug 16, 2006)

Finished The Bell - must get some more Iris Murdoch - love her writing.  Quite hilarious at times, almost farcical, and an excellent character writer.  Started Will Self, Feeding Frenzy but I think that's going to be for bedtime reading.


----------



## Rollem (Aug 16, 2006)

call me elizabeth - dawn annadale


----------



## Dandred (Aug 16, 2006)

Johnny Canuck2 said:
			
		

> The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho.




That doesn't take long but it gives you a really nice feeling..


----------



## Dandred (Aug 16, 2006)

I'm currently reading "Sophies World" it's a kind of history of philosophy but gets strange later, haven't finished it yet, give me a day or two on the bus.


----------



## sojourner (Aug 17, 2006)

I'm on an Annie Proulx mission.  Started The Shipping News last night.  I remember watching the film ages ago - and reading the book last night started wondering just who the FUCK decided it was a good idea to cast Kevin fucking Spacey as Quoyle???!     Whoever it was wants fucking sacking is all I can say  

Anyway, rant over - it's as I expected, an unfailingly brilliant read.  I think I'm in love with Annie Proulx.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Aug 18, 2006)

The Collected Shorter Fiction of Joseph Roth.


----------



## tastebud (Aug 18, 2006)

Well over the last few days I've been glued to _Fear of Flying_ by Erica Jong. Which in truth, I should've read years ago 
It's bad for me in a way as it means that I think about sex all bloody day & night 
It's also been quite depressing in parts, to be reminded that at one time (the seventies) women were so repressed that this book was seen as liberating!  Wish I'd read it back then - despite not being born.
Essentially a lot of it is trash, though pretty well written trash, and I haven't been able to put it down.


----------



## sojourner (Aug 18, 2006)

Gawd, been a few years since I read Fear of Flying - the zipless fuck eh?  Must be strange reading that now, as a young woman, when casual sex has been the order of the day for some years now (for het women).  She made me angry when I read it though - although I tried not to be!


----------



## Brainaddict (Aug 18, 2006)

***Vixen posting!***






			
				sojourner said:
			
		

> Gawd, been a few years since I read Fear of Flying - the zipless fuck eh?  Must be strange reading that now, as a young woman, when casual sex has been the order of the day for some years now (for het women).  She made me angry when I read it though - although I tried not to be!


Why angry?
I think I know what you mean but I just keep of thinking about when it was written. Erica Jong has a lot of worthwhile stuff to say nowadays - in keeping with today's feminism, I mean.


----------



## tangerinedream (Aug 18, 2006)

Dandred said:
			
		

> I'm currently reading "Sophies World" it's a kind of history of philosophy but gets strange later, haven't finished it yet, give me a day or two on the bus.



It's a nice little book that. I really enjoyed it.


----------



## belboid (Aug 18, 2006)

Female Chauvinist Pigs - Ariel Levy.  Lots of interesting stuff in it, many good points, tho its is also - too American (can let her off that as she is American I guess), ahistorical, too anecdotal (hardly any actual stats) and has no conclusions worth speaking of,


----------



## maya (Aug 18, 2006)

Dandred said:
			
		

> I'm currently reading "Sophies World" it's a kind of history of philosophy but gets strange later, haven't finished it yet, give me a day or two on the bus.


i found the "philosophy" bits were very hard to get through, it felt a bit like the surrounding "story" only existed to provide a sort of vague red thread for the author to cut-and-paste in these chapters...in fact i think i zapped past them and only read the story  

you should read his book "The Solitaire Mystery", it's much much better and raises the same philosophical questions, but without preaching and in a much more subtle and original way...his best book imo (even if it's meant for children)


----------



## exosculate (Aug 18, 2006)

I'm reading Truman Capote's book _In Cold Blood_ at the moment - a most excellent read which I would recommend to everyone. Bit of a grim subject matter though.


----------



## exosculate (Aug 18, 2006)

belboid said:
			
		

> Female Chauvinist Pigs - Ariel Levy.  Lots of interesting stuff in it, many good points, tho its is also - too American (can let her off that as she is American I guess), ahistorical, too anecdotal (hardly any actual stats) and has no conclusions worth speaking of,




One sentence and i'm put off reading it.


----------



## exosculate (Aug 18, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> i found the "philosophy" bits were very hard to get through, it felt a bit like the surrounding "story" only existed to provide a sort of vague red thread for the author to cut-and-paste in these chapters...in fact i think i zapped past them and only read the story
> 
> you should read his book "The Solitaire Mystery", it's much much better and raises the same philosophical questions, but without preaching and in a much more subtle and original way...his best book imo (even if it's meant for children)



Agree Sophies World is grinding. Stopped reading half way through never finished it. Poorly written - is being kind.

Not read the other one though.


----------



## belboid (Aug 18, 2006)

exosculate said:
			
		

> One sentence and i'm put off reading it.


it doesnt take long, very easy style.  and there is a lot of stuff that could be used in a better book.

shit - forgot to mention!!!  it's so fucking _middle-class_.  it's like, totally, like, shocking because it's middle-class girls/women/bois who are doing this stuff, and they _should know better_


----------



## belboid (Aug 18, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> (even if it's meant for children)


so was Sophies World


----------



## sojourner (Aug 18, 2006)

Brainaddict said:
			
		

> ***Vixen posting!***Why angry?
> I think I know what you mean but I just keep of thinking about when it was written. Erica Jong has a lot of worthwhile stuff to say nowadays - in keeping with today's feminism, I mean.


The indecision mainly...frustrated the hell out of me, her dithering over one particular bloke (can't remember his name), and whether she was enjoying him (and the sex) enough.  I tried to keep it in mind as well, the year of publication, but couldn't help but get annoyed with the dithering!  Still a good book though, with plenty to say, as is The Second Sex, written wayyy before it...but which I still to this day feel has a lot of valid points in it.


----------



## Barking_Mad (Aug 18, 2006)

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy - so far so good, only about 30 pages in.


----------



## muser (Aug 19, 2006)

tangerinedream said:
			
		

> It's a nice little book that. I really enjoyed it.



Same here. For the lay philosopher it was a great introduction.


----------



## Philbc03 (Aug 19, 2006)

I'm reading Graham Greene's The Quiet American for my reading group. Seems alright so far.


----------



## mrkikiet (Aug 20, 2006)

Philbc03 said:
			
		

> I'm reading Graham Greene's The Quiet American for my reading group. Seems alright so far.


you're the second person in three pages, i think,yup, vintage paw post 5731. you could have your own online reading group with them.

platform, houellebecq. slightly strange, having seen a photo of the author i can't get him out of my head while i read the main characters opinions.


----------



## boxinghefner (Aug 20, 2006)

Fundamental Problems of Socialism
Plekhanov

Permanent Revolution: Results and Prospects 100 Years On
Hugo Radice and Bill Dunn.


----------



## Rollem (Aug 23, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> i found the "philosophy" bits were very hard to get through, it felt a bit like the surrounding "story" only existed to provide a sort of vague red thread for the author to cut-and-paste in these chapters...in fact i think i zapped past them and only read the story
> 
> you should read his book "The Solitaire Mystery", it's much much better and raises the same philosophical questions, but without preaching and in a much more subtle and original way...his best book imo (even if it's meant for children)


exactly what i was gonna say! didnt finish sophies world, but loved the solitaire mystery 

note to all, do not read "call me elizabeth" its shite!


----------



## rennie (Aug 23, 2006)

Teta, Mother and Me by Jean Said Makdissi... the author (Edward Said's sister) traces her family history and talks about the turmoil in the middle east in the 20th cnetury and what it means to be an Arab women. 

I'm really liking... It's reminding me of my own grandmother and stories she used to tell me about her childhood. It's also making miss home!


----------



## CharlieAddict (Aug 23, 2006)

feet in the clouds - richard askwith.

i so understand this book.


----------



## May Kasahara (Aug 24, 2006)

Was warming up quite a lot to 'Black Swan Green', now that he's all but dropped the unconvincing narrative voice, but have had to leave it behind for my week's travels in London as it's a massive hardback and I'm already carrying a huge bag on my back and feeling like a snail. So have started again with Rupert Thomson's 'Divided Kingdom' and am really, really enjoying it.

I am supposed to be reading 'Himalaya' by Michael Palin for my next book group meeting in 2 weeks' time, but instead I've got two previous book group books on the go


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Aug 24, 2006)

Alistair Crowley, Diary of a Drug Fiend. Its surprisingly good IMO, there's all sorts going on and "Do What Thou Wilt..." is very definitely interwoven yet I have found it as enthralling and enticing as any fiction recently. The joys and the horrors of drugs, true divinity and proper pain, weep from the pages.


----------



## maya (Aug 24, 2006)

.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Aug 24, 2006)

mrkikiet said:
			
		

> you're the second person in three pages, i think,yup, vintage paw post 5731. you could have your own online reading group with them.



We read the same copy  

I just finished _A Confederacy of Dunces_ by John Kennedy Toole. Hilarious. Ignatious J Reilly is one grotesque character!

Now readng _The Jungle_ by Upton Sinclair. Only up to chapter 6 so far but am very impressed. I think it will end up having a similar effect on me that _The Grapes of Wrath_ did - they have a similar tone although written 3 decades apart.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Aug 24, 2006)

Bernard Lewis: From Babel to Dragomans - Interpreting the Middle East.


----------



## 8ball (Aug 24, 2006)

I'm reading Popco by Scarlett Thomas.

Really good book.

Really shit cover.


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Aug 24, 2006)

Dead Beat -- Jim Butcher (from the Dresden files series)

http://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/

Its like Mickie Spillane meets Harry Potter.  Instead of prostititues it has vampires.  Instead of beautiful babes, it has fairies.  Instead of contract killers, it has ghouls.  A highlight it when the main character zombifies a dinosaur and rides it through downtown Chicago.  Evidently, "Dinosauers don't corner well."


----------



## Dimension Line (Aug 26, 2006)

The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks

I'm only a bit of the way through, but it's really good. There's a real sense of galactic scale with this one.


----------



## KGlad (Aug 26, 2006)

Well if i had the time to read a book i would read one but i just get angre at books


----------



## Fledgling (Aug 28, 2006)

Hard Times By Charles Dickens
The Great Wall of China by Kafka (plus other shorts) 
Riders in the Chariot by Patrick White


----------



## tastebud (Aug 28, 2006)

The Buddha of Suburbia - Hanif Kureishi. Excellent of course!


----------



## cyberfairy (Aug 28, 2006)

I have just finished 'Nightwatch' by Sarah Waters, brilliant book set in World War  Two but found the 'ending' slightly too ambigious, again the only problem I had with the superb 'A Child's Book Of True Crime', a bizzare fascinating twist on the murder mystery genre set in Tasmania.


----------



## cyberfairy (Aug 31, 2006)

Just finished An American Boy' by Andrew Taylor now-absolutely marvellous literary murder mystery/romance set in Regency England. Had to read it in one day as impossible to put down and was bereft when it was over.


----------



## fishfingerer (Aug 31, 2006)

Halfway through Arturo Barea's The Forging Of A Rebel.


----------



## Moggy (Aug 31, 2006)

Neuromancer by William Gibson


----------



## Philbc03 (Aug 31, 2006)

I was v disappointed with Neuromancer when I read it years ago. I've avoided Gibson like the plague ever since.

I've just finished reading Susanna Clarke's 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell', which is actually very good. It shats all over Harry Potter from a great height. And now it's the turn of James Wilcox's 'Modern Baptists'. It's shaping up to be quite good.


----------



## kins (Aug 31, 2006)

I have just finished "essays in love" by Alain de Botton and it was really enlightening.  I think anyone who has been heartbroken should read this!!  It made a lot of sense to me.


----------



## dweller (Aug 31, 2006)

I'm reading
Report to Greco by Nikos Kazantzakis 
Semi-autobiography by the author of Zorba the Greek.
Its a very nice read.


----------



## tastebud (Aug 31, 2006)

Just started Ian McEwan: The Child In Time. It's extremely harrowing thus far. Ian McEwan loves to over-intellectualise simple matter - especially pertinent with this book!

Still magnificent though.


----------



## maya (Aug 31, 2006)

*.*

i keep meaning to revisit PKD's books- encouraged by recent interest in the A Scanner Darkly film adaption- but the "near breakdown/fragile reality-splits/dark existential Void" mood kind of feels a bit too close to my own UnReality darkness at the moment...


----------



## fishfingerer (Aug 31, 2006)

Philbc03 said:
			
		

> I was v disappointed with Neuromancer when I read it years ago. I've avoided Gibson like the plague ever since.


I didn't like it much. But The Difference Engine (with Bruce Sterling) was fantastic.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 1, 2006)

Just started The Inner Circle by TC Boyle, liking it


----------



## cyberfairy (Sep 1, 2006)

I am currently pissing off my boyfriend by reading out loud 'Air Babylon' by Imogen Edwards-Jones and Anonymous-superb, hysterical  and fascinating insiders view of the airline industry


----------



## boohoo (Sep 1, 2006)

reading Harry Potter and the Half blud prince - what a load of rubbish - rather predictable... oh well, keeps me off the streets and out of mischief...


----------



## miss direct (Sep 2, 2006)

The Island by Victoria Hislop. Finished it last night and really enjoyed it. I don't usually like books written in the third person but the perspective changed from different characters/family members really well.


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 2, 2006)

You don't like books written in the third person? Why not? Seems a strange caveat. Most fiction is written in the third person - you're missing out on a lot.


----------



## miss direct (Sep 2, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> You don't like books written in the third person? Why not? Seems a strange caveat. Most fiction is written in the third person - you're missing out on a lot.




Well it's not so much that I don't like them, I just prefer books in the first person, feel they get a little closer to the character.


----------



## han (Sep 3, 2006)

I'm reading 'Facing Up' by Bear Grylls - about this bloke who climbs Everest aged 23.....


----------



## citydreams (Sep 3, 2006)

fishfingerer said:
			
		

> I didn't like it much. But The Difference Engine (with Bruce Sterling) was fantastic.



Good tip, thanks.


----------



## sojourner (Sep 3, 2006)

Currently still reading Will Self's Feeding Frenzy...am loving the restaurant reviews but it's bedtime reading only.

Day time reading is Portrait of a Marriage, by Nigel Nicolson - bout Vita Sackville West and Harold Nicolson. edit to add - has got sections of Vita's autobiog in it


----------



## Gmart (Sep 3, 2006)

The Dispossessed by Ursula le Guin - pretty good!


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Sep 4, 2006)

Ursula le Guin is better than 'pretty good'!
Anyway, I'm reading this...







Trollope by Victoria Glendinning

It's excellent and I also learned from this book that 'stupid' used to mean boring.


----------



## Julie (Sep 5, 2006)

Beautiful Lies - Lisa Unger


----------



## chooch (Sep 5, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Just started The Inner Circle by TC Boyle, liking it


You read any of his others? I like. 

Just starting William Gaddis _JR_.


----------



## snadge (Sep 5, 2006)

just started "Hyperion" omnibus/ dan simmons


----------



## Philbc03 (Sep 5, 2006)

I've got two on the go: Paul Auster's 'Book of Illusions' (v good) and Peter Berger's 'Invitation to Sociology' (also v good!).


----------



## bushphobia (Sep 5, 2006)

A PLANET FOR THE PRESIDENT by Alistair Beaton

Excellent satire on the current American administration.
Bought it Saturday afternoon.
Finished it this morning.

Viscous as a spike in the eye.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 7, 2006)

Craig Werner's A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race & The Soul Of America.

i'm only partway through but this is stunning stuff. A history of the freedom movement in the 50s and 60s onwards set again the music of the time - the relationship between gospel, Motown, Stax and the various political and social undercurrents. Very well written, factual but not drily academic. Wonderful - and quite upsetting  - stuff.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 7, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> You read any of his others? I like.



i must have read 5-6 Boyle's now, love his stuff. Riven Rock is amazing


----------



## Philbc03 (Sep 7, 2006)

I'll be starting Bryan S. Turner's 'For Weber' in about half an hour ...


----------



## Philbc03 (Sep 8, 2006)

... and now I've also begun Sebastian Faulk's 'Birdsong'. 'The Book of Illusions' btw is a brilliant novel and is one of the best I've read this year.


----------



## chooch (Sep 10, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Craig Werner's A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race & The Soul Of America.


That sounds fucking great.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 10, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> You read any of his others? I like.



I read about half of Budding Prospects a few years ago. I'm about two thirds of the way through this one. It's a page turner and he's got a nice turn of phrase and all those critics' cliches, but a good deal of it is, imo, typing rather than writing. I should finish it first though


----------



## marty21 (Sep 10, 2006)

Douglas coupland - microserfs .  i really enjoyed jpod so bought another coupland , read generation x when it came out .


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 12, 2006)

Finished The Inner Circle.

I dunno, I liked it on the whole, it rattles along and doesn't bore. He writes with great ease, but there's a complacency about the writing that frequently pissed me off. Did he begin to lose interest in the subject? I think I was expecting more given Boyle's rep, but I'd be interested in reading another one, maybe Drop City or The Tortilla Curtain.

I've just started Music For Torching by A M Homes. Anyone read any of her stuff?


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 12, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Finished The Inner Circle.
> 
> I dunno, I liked it on the whole, it rattles along and doesn't bore. He writes with great ease, but there's a complacency about the writing that frequently pissed me off. Did he begin to lose interest in the subject? I think I was expecting more given Boyle's rep, but I'd be interested in reading another one, maybe Drop City or The Tortilla Curtain.



go for Drop City or Riven Rock, IMO...




			
				Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I've just started Music For Torching by A M Homes. Anyone read any of her stuff?



I have it - don't know where it came from, bizarrely - and read 30 pages or so once when i was bored. It seemed very good - very dark and acerbic. Will definitely go back to it.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 12, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> go for Drop City or Riven Rock, IMO...



Ta. Hadn't heard of Riven Rock but it looks interesting.




			
				Dubversion said:
			
		

> I have it - don't know where it came from, bizarrely - and read 30 pages or so once when i was bored. It seemed very good - very dark and acerbic. Will definitely go back to it.



I'm about that much into it. Beautifully twisted style, very vicious


----------



## Wide Eyed Angel (Sep 12, 2006)

Just on the very last bit of A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole which my Dad lent me, and very glad he did too, I normally take an age to read anything but I've got through this one very quick because it's just so damn good, I'll be disappointed when it ends and I have no more of that terrible manboy Ignatius!


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 12, 2006)

it's fantastic isn't it?

god knows what happened to the movie - it was all set to go then nothing


----------



## sojourner (Sep 12, 2006)

Just finished Portrait of a Marriage by Nigel Nicolson, which was rather interesting, and am now on Heart Songs by my now-beloved Annie Proulx.  Problem is, this is the last book of hers that I haven't devoured, and I don't want to finish it cos that'll be it, unless/until she puts another one out.


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 12, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Finished The Inner Circle.
> 
> I dunno, I liked it on the whole, it rattles along and doesn't bore. He writes with great ease, but there's a complacency about the writing that frequently pissed me off. Did he begin to lose interest in the subject? I think I was expecting more given Boyle's rep, but I'd be interested in reading another one, maybe Drop City or The Tortilla Curtain.
> 
> I've just started Music For Torching by A M Homes. Anyone read any of her stuff?


Yes, although The End Of Alice is the one everyone talks about, it's Jack that affected me the most. A very accurate portrayal of teen angst.


----------



## lacsar (Sep 13, 2006)

kained&able said:
			
		

> Che guevera: a revolutionary life By Jon lee anderson.
> 
> Enjoying it at the moment its really facisinating.
> 
> ...



If Che Guevera were alive he'd be reading "Potent Enterprise".


----------



## upsidedownwalrus (Sep 13, 2006)

Just started the recent Sebastian Faulks one, Human Traces.  However, then put it down and started reacing 'Yes Man' again, which is one of the funniest books I've ever read...


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 14, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I've just started Music For Torching by A M Homes. Anyone read any of her stuff?



Liking this a LOT


----------



## Pie 1 (Sep 15, 2006)

Finished Jonathon Coe's House of Sleep a couple of days ago - Good, but nowhere near What A Carve Up.

Now halfway through Lucky Jim (finally ) & enjoying it thougherly.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 15, 2006)

Finished Music For Torching.

A great, great book. She manages to find new twists on that old US theme: the corruption and downright weirdness of suburbia. It nods at DeLillo, Abish, Pynchon -- that very male tradition of slick angular wisecracking comedy -- pays its respects, then rips the piss out of it. It's a brilliant performance. I want to read everything she's written.

to add: and it's very very funny


----------



## foamy (Sep 15, 2006)

Joanne Harris - Gentlemen and Players   bought it for my mums birthday but she already had it so.....


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 15, 2006)

The Brooklyn Follies -- Paul Auster


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 17, 2006)

*Auster writes*

... mildly diverting, cliched, self-conscious, middlebrow pap.

I read Moon Palace years ago and remember enjoying it, but this is essentially the same book, the same tropes, the same light learning worn like he's some genius professor of difficult subjects. Metafiction my arse.




			
				Paul Auster said:
			
		

> 'Did I love her? Yes, I probably loved her. To the extent that I was capable of loving anyone, Joyce was the woman for me, the only candidate on my list. And even if it wasn't the full-blown, one hundred percent passion that supposedly defines _love_, it was something that fell just short of it - but so close to the mark as to render the distinction meaningless.'



The book has too much shit like this in it. 

Now for some AM Homes stories, Things You Should Know, which I'm looking forward to.


----------



## Philbc03 (Sep 17, 2006)

I've not long finished Sebastian Faulks' 'Birdsong'. An excellent book IMO but strangely not the utterly amazing read I was expecting. 

I'm now on Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go'. It got panned on Newsnight Review when it came out - that's usually enough to recommend something!


----------



## Fenian (Sep 18, 2006)

'Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the 20th Century' by Lauren Slater.

Very pleased with this, an entertaining, well-written and informed read; her style (writing in part-novella style, locating her own experiences within the narrative) works very well to bring the analysis of human behaviours alive.

She also asks the questions that need to be asked.


----------



## tastebud (Sep 18, 2006)

Fenian said:
			
		

> 'Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the 20th Century' by Lauren Slater.
> 
> Very pleased with this, an entertaining, well-written and informed read; her style (writing in part-novella style, locating her own experiences within the narrative) works very well to bring the analysis of human behaviours alive.
> 
> She also asks the questions that need to be asked.


Hmm, I'm gonna look out for that book.


----------



## andy2002 (Sep 18, 2006)

Mark Billingham – Buried. I like all of his stuff up to yet...


----------



## sojourner (Sep 18, 2006)

Philbc03 said:
			
		

> I've not long finished Sebastian Faulks' 'Birdsong'. An excellent book IMO but strangely not the utterly amazing read I was expecting.


I loved this when I read it about 2 or 3 years ago. Loved his writing style.  Then I got Charlotte Gray and was bitterly disappointed.  But Birdsong stands on its own merit, you don't have to like everything by one writer, and usually you (I) don't. It's just a great bonus if you do


----------



## mrkikiet (Sep 19, 2006)

freakonomics. it's interesting. coffe table economics.


----------



## Pie 1 (Sep 19, 2006)

Philbc03 said:
			
		

> I'm now on Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go'.



It's very good - one of my most memorable reads so far this year.


Now reading James Elroy's The Black Dehlia. 
Started it 10 years ago but never got into it (i know this as a cash machine receipt bookmark dated 14/05/96 fell out at the place I 'd stopped!)

Really enjoying it this time having read 2/3rds of it in 2 days.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 19, 2006)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> Now reading James Elroy's The Black Dehlia.
> Started it 10 years ago but never got into it (i know this as a cash machine receipt bookmark dated 14/05/96 fell out at the place I 'd stopped!)
> 
> Really enjoying it this time having read 2/3rds of it in 2 days.



I loved it. The next one, The Big Nowhere, is even better imo.


----------



## belboid (Sep 19, 2006)

just starting Keri Hulmes the Bone People - off to NZ in a few weeks so thought should soak up a bit of the culture.  

Quite likely to bump into Ms Hulme at some point as well if we stop in her town, which we were planning on doing anyway!


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 19, 2006)

Finished Things You Should Know, stories by AM Homes.

Themes recurring, worked to a point, shuffled round, reworked. A few of these stories are so-so, a couple of them are interesting and no more, four of them are extremely good and one, 'The Former First Lady and the Football Hero', about Ronald and Nancy Reagan, is brilliant.

Homes is my discovery of the year. Better late than never.


----------



## Dr. Furface (Sep 20, 2006)

The Damned Utd by David Peace. Brilliantly imagines the inner thoughts of Brian Clough during his ill-fated 44 days as manager of Leeds United, contrasting that time with his earlier triumphs as manager at Hartlepool and, particularly, Derby County. You have to keep reminding yourself that it's a work of fiction, it's so believeable. A great portrait of a troubled and flawed genius fighting with his own demons, and with everyone else.


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 20, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Finished Things You Should Know, stories by AM Homes.
> 
> Themes recurring, worked to a point, shuffled round, reworked. A few of these stories are so-so, a couple of them are interesting and no more, four of them are extremely good and one, 'The Former First Lady and the Football Hero', about Ronald and Nancy Reagan, is brilliant.
> 
> Homes is my discovery of the year. Better late than never.


You should definitely give Jack a try.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 20, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> You should definitely give Jack a try.



Cheers, I noted your recommendation a page back  It'll be the next one of hers I'll read, I think. I don't want to get through them all too quickly, she hasn't written that much.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 20, 2006)

Now onto the urban-endorsed blockbuster, Middlesex.

I have become a reading machine.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 20, 2006)

How is Eugenides pronounced?

You gen eee deez

or

You genn a deez?

Or indeed Ay oo gen eee deez?


----------



## Philbc03 (Sep 20, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> How is Eugenides pronounced?
> 
> You gen eee deez



That's the one.

I'm now in a quandry. I've started reading an edited collection on Pierre Bourdieu but I'm at a loss for my bus/ad break book. Do I go for Edmund White's 'A Boy's Own Story' or James W. Gerard's 'My Four Years in Germany' (he was the last US ambassador to Imperial Germany, apparently).


----------



## mrkikiet (Sep 20, 2006)

boyd: restless.

once i got into it it was excellent.


----------



## baldrick (Sep 20, 2006)

Sartre - Being and Nothingness.

Seriously, I don't know why i bothered.  I wanted a book that would last me more than half a day, I think i've gone a bit too far  

Anyone read it? Does it get any more comprehensible after the 21st page?


----------



## jodal (Sep 20, 2006)

Philbc03 said:
			
		

> A brilliant brilliant book. I just couldn't put it down.



I've nearly finished reading this. Its fucking good.


----------



## undercover (Sep 20, 2006)

have taken a gamble with the new Christopher Brookmyre one, 'A tale etched in blood and hard black pencil', as his last but one effort, 'Be my enemy' was crap, trying to make the likable main character of his first few books into an ultra cool hero and just made him annoying.

Enjoying it so far, and if impressed enough will pop back to the one I missed out, 'All fun and games until someone loses an eye'.

Still one of the best british writers around of the black humour variety IMO.


----------



## belboid (Sep 20, 2006)

baldrick said:
			
		

> Sartre - Being and Nothingness.
> 
> Seriously, I don't know why i bothered.  I wanted a book that would last me more than half a day, I think i've gone a bit too far
> 
> Anyone read it? Does it get any more comprehensible after the 21st page?


aye read it for my philosophy course.  An entertaining read, if often ripped off from heidegger.  It sorta gets more comprehensible as you go along, in that if you can get past the first fifty odd pages, it doesnt get any worse.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 20, 2006)

Philbc03 said:
			
		

> That's the one.



Ta


----------



## baldrick (Sep 20, 2006)

belboid said:
			
		

> aye read it for my philosophy course.  An entertaining read, if often ripped off from heidegger.  It sorta gets more comprehensible as you go along, in that if you can get past the first fifty odd pages, it doesnt get any worse.



right  

tbh I was hoping it was going to turn into tolstoy...  I knew i should have stayed away from waterstone's


----------



## ICB (Sep 20, 2006)

LeGuin's Tombs of Atuan to my kids, such joy

King's The Waste Lands to myself, not bad

anything based on Heidegger should be pulped immediately


----------



## Philbc03 (Sep 21, 2006)

Philbc03 said:
			
		

> Do I go for Edmund White's 'A Boy's Own Story' or James W. Gerard's 'My Four Years in Germany' (he was the last US ambassador to Imperial Germany, apparently).



Well in the end I went for neither. Instead I picked up 'Why War?' by C.E.M. Joad, who I'm told by a specialist in Labour party history was a well known public intellectual in the inte-war period. This book, published on the eve of the war outlines the pacifist case against going to war with Germany. It reads very well so far, though the authorial voice sounds like something out of the Pathe news reels


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 22, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Cheers, I noted your recommendation a page back


 oops I must have been drunk when I posted that - I tend to repeat myself.



			
				Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> It'll be the next one of hers I'll read, I think. I don't want to get through them all too quickly, she hasn't written that much.


Yeah, I'm like that with authors I like - I daren't read any more Dostoievsky or Dickens for fear of using them up before my later years.


----------



## andy2002 (Sep 22, 2006)

The Devil You Know – Mike Carey. It's a supernatural/crime thriller full of ghosts and demons. I'm not usually a fan of this kind of stuff but this isn't bad at all...


----------



## mrkikiet (Sep 25, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Yeah, I'm like that with authors I like - I daren't read any more Dostoievsky or Dickens for fear of using them up before my later years.


what happens if you don't reach your later years?

Shakespeare's Liver by Francisco Lopez Serrano. short stories with some insights into what the Spanish think of the English. Fun.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 26, 2006)

Finished Middlesex -- I enjoyed it. It started strongly, sagged and stalled a bit in the middle, but the last 150 pages are fantastic, really strong. It's all about the great narrative voice. Everyone loves Cal.


----------



## liberty (Sep 26, 2006)

Yes Man Danny Wallace.. Fantastic


----------



## Philbc03 (Sep 28, 2006)

I've not long finished Arthur C Clarke's '2001'. V good AND it makes tons more sense than the film (to be fair to Kubrick he would not have been able to have filmed the hyperspace sequence as Clarke envisaged it with the technology of the day).

Now I've bumped back to Earth with Henry Miller's 'Tropic of Cancer'. First published in 1934 its jammed full of Parisian debauchery. I'm not surprised it got banned - it must have been 40 - 50 years ahead of its time.


----------



## Rollem (Sep 28, 2006)

a piece of cake - cupcake brown


----------



## ViolentPanda (Sep 28, 2006)

"The Old Contemptibles: The British Expeditionary Force, 1914" by Robin Neillands.


----------



## madzone (Sep 28, 2006)

Detoxify or Die - Sherry Rogers


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 28, 2006)

Look At The Harlequins! by Vladimir Nabokov


----------



## Nina (Sep 29, 2006)

My friend Leonard 

James Frey.

Have a feeling it won't be as good as A Million Little Things


----------



## jms (Sep 29, 2006)

Picture of Dorian Gray

Which I notice Im not alone in reading on this thread



gonna read the Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison next..


----------



## Fledgling (Sep 30, 2006)

The Tree of Man by Patrick White


----------



## tastebud (Sep 30, 2006)

Blind Willow Sleeping Woman - Murakami - his newest one. Very good, completely addictive book of short stories.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Sep 30, 2006)

A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole


It is !


I reckon there's a fair few posters on here who are Ignatius P Reilly IRL.  (Not naming names, like  )


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 30, 2006)

Finished Look At The Harlequins!, a lot of fun. He always makes you snag up against the greatest sentences.

Now The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. Enough people have recommended this, it's time I gave it another go.


----------



## Philbc03 (Oct 1, 2006)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
> 
> 
> It is !
> ...



Glad to see ever greater numbers of Urbanites reaching for this book. It is utterly brilliant and deserves a wider readership!

I'm just starting HG Wells' 'The Shape of Things to Come'.


----------



## dynamicbaddog (Oct 1, 2006)

Just finishing The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid 
s'quite good  - not as good as some of her other books but worth reading.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 2, 2006)

*The Moviegoer*




			
				Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> The Moviegoer by Walker Percy



I loved large parts of it, a lot of it is breathtaking, very funny and supercool, great New Orleans at the end of the 50s setting, with many passages of superb writing. The characterisation is brilliant. But, as he gets towards the end, he becomes constrained by the need to wrap it up philosophically as well as plotwise, blabla, and I was left empty by the ending.

Percy spent years on the book and it is, apparently, heavily reliant on Kierkegaard's notions of the good life, how to overcome despair and all that existential stuff. I've not read the gloomy Dane, apart from the odd passage in a reader, so maybe I'm missing something essential.

It's still a great read, beautifully paced overall, moving, funny. Second reading required.

Anyone else read it?

Now halfway through The End of Alice by A M Homes.


----------



## fractionMan (Oct 2, 2006)

I'm reading some terry pratchet book and I AM NOT ASHAMED!!!


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 2, 2006)

Where have all the readers gone?


----------



## May Kasahara (Oct 3, 2006)

I've just started 'Bowling Alone' by Robert Putnam - it's my book club book for this month. Despite being a sociology text, it's already very interesting indeed, about the fracturing of civil society in the USA over the last 50 years or so.

I only started it last night though, and the meeting is a week today, so I need to pull my finger out. That's why I'm going to be posting on Urban all day apart from lunchtime, instead of the other way round


----------



## BadlyDrawnGirl (Oct 3, 2006)

'The Rare Record Price Guide 2007'.


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 3, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Where have all the readers gone?


I'm still here but I'm reading a poor detective novel that apparently I chose for book group
 
Will pick up We Need To Talk About Kevin tomorrow


----------



## Biddlybee (Oct 3, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> that apparently I chose for book group


Yes you did    

I've heard We Need To Talk About Kevin is v.good though.


----------



## Philbc03 (Oct 3, 2006)

I'm still grinding my way through HG Wells' 'The Shape of Things To Come'. It's a very annoying book IMO - he clearly hasn't got a clue about Marx for instance but that doesn't stop him from pronouncing on his "failings".

I've been going through a couple of pamphlets too. These last two days I've read the Socialist Party's 'Muslims Under Siege' and Ted Grant's 'Menace of Fascism: What It Is and How To Fight It'. The latter is very good, and the introduction by Roger Silverman (written when the NF was at its height) is spot on. I think a reissue with a new introduction would be very welcome.

Right now I'm reading a piece by Andrew Chitty in an old edition of Historical Materialism on recognition and the social relations of production, and when that is done I'll be starting 'Durkheim Reconsidered' by Susan Stedman Jones.


----------



## Poi E (Oct 3, 2006)

Fanny Hill.

A bit of a steamy one to read on the tube.


----------



## foamy (Oct 3, 2006)

Tracy Emin 'Strangeland'
 
Took me a long time to decide if i liked Tracy Emin but now i know i do, i really do!


----------



## Dr_Gonzo (Oct 3, 2006)

For Whom The Bell Tolls - Hemingway


----------



## madamv (Oct 3, 2006)

Red Carpets and other banana skins - Rupert Everett.  

Really funny so far, page 15!  I do love him, he's such a luvvie.


----------



## mrkikiet (Oct 3, 2006)

Poi E said:
			
		

> Fanny Hill.
> 
> A bit of a steamy one to read on the tube.


surprising with a name like that.

Just started _the dream life of sukhanov_ by olga grushin today.


----------



## sojourner (Oct 3, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> Tracy Emin 'Strangeland'
> 
> Took me a long time to decide if i liked Tracy Emin but now i know i do, i really do!


  Must read this.

I like Tracy


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 3, 2006)

Finished The End of Alice.

Well, I like Homes a lot, she gives great sentence, pace and characters. I'm thinking about the book the whole two days it takes me to finish one. Matchless about suburbia, fearless with humour.

But I can't help feeling she fluffs this one. There's some thrilling stuff about the parallels between suburban and prison life, although she plays that out -- there's only much you can say I guess. What are you left with? The witterings of a morally insistent sick old man and batches of great, arresting prose. It niggles at you though. Good.

If you're going to have a book narrated by an incarcerated paedophile and childkiller, it might as well be AM Homes that writes it.

--

Now, I'm looking forward to starting The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson.


----------



## HAL9000 (Oct 3, 2006)

*Syriana bloke*

The film's character Bob Barnes (played by George Clooney) is loosely based on Robert Baer.

Robert Baer new book is "Blow the house down"

I thought it was quite good because its a fast paced thriller, pace helps hide one or two holes in the plot.  The ending wasn't bad becuase it caught me by surprise even though I should have predicted the ending.


----------



## bushphobia (Oct 4, 2006)

Just started reading Philip K dicks last novel, the divine invasion. I've had it for over a decade now, where it's been gathering dust, on my shelf. Quite brilliant so far. really hits the right buttons on human isolationalism, alienation, drug abuse, and, of course, future dystopia. It is Philip K Dick after all.

Also, bought at flops, Camden town, THE TRIALS OF LENNY BRUCE.
Three pound guys. 
And has a cd of snippets of some of the material that caused him to be arrested.
Class.


----------



## foamy (Oct 4, 2006)

*Small Island - Andrea Levy*

Orang - do read we need to talk about kevin, i thought it was amazing.

Soujourner - do read strangeland, i thought it was amazing.


----------



## Pie 1 (Oct 4, 2006)

Slow Man - JM Coetzee.
Excellent start, but it's just gone a bit weird. Probably will explain itself in time though.


----------



## Markyd (Oct 4, 2006)

Love in the time of cholera. Fantastic book 
And Hey ho let's go, the story of the Ramones: Everett True probably the most sycophantic Hagiograph I have ever read. Which is a shame cos I love the Ramones


----------



## киноактриса (Oct 5, 2006)

Proletkult: Culture of the Future by Lynn Mally


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 5, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> Orang - do read we need to talk about kevin, i thought it was amazing.



I have just started and it's great - Shriver is a very insigthful and skilled writer


----------



## May Kasahara (Oct 5, 2006)

Markyd said:
			
		

> And Hey ho let's go, the story of the Ramones: Everett True probably the most sycophantic Hagiograph I have ever read. Which is a shame cos I love the Ramones



Sycophantic hagiography? From Everett True? Never!


----------



## Shandril19 (Oct 5, 2006)

Markyd said:
			
		

> Love in the time of cholera. Fantastic book



Great book.  I think of it every time I eat asparagus.


Currently on Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

And just finished Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.


----------



## fear-n-loathing (Oct 5, 2006)

The Revolt of the Cockroach People by Oscar Zeta Acosta. Pretty good read about the chicano political movement in the 70's


----------



## BadlyDrawnGirl (Oct 5, 2006)

'The Telephone Directory Of Hertford And Ware 1923'.


----------



## sojourner (Oct 5, 2006)

The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things - JT LeRoy

Watched the film last week, and although I liked it, thought the book would be better. I'm pleased to report it is


----------



## mrkikiet (Oct 5, 2006)

Shandril19 said:
			
		

> Currently on Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro


good choice. up there with remains of the day.


----------



## Lea (Oct 6, 2006)

Just started Lord of the Beasts a paranormal romance by the exellent Susan Krinard.


----------



## Philbc03 (Oct 6, 2006)

Shandril19 said:
			
		

> Currently on Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro



I really liked this, but i wouldn't recommend reading it if you're feeling a bit down-in-the-dumps.


----------



## rusalki (Oct 7, 2006)

*J.T.Leroy*




			
				sojourner said:
			
		

> The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things - JT LeRoy
> 
> Watched the film last week, and although I liked it, thought the book would be better. I'm pleased to report it is




I don't think I can say I loved it but I found that book great.
There's a gift in the writing: everytime you feel that the story is _too much _, so that you stop feeling sorry for the kid (that's what happened to me reading) and you think you'll throw the book out of the window, the art of the author comes to save you. That's what I mean for a great book, not a great story, but a wonderful gift in telling it. 

"Coal" is for sure my favourite tale: I was enchanted, I felt I wanted to have written that!


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 8, 2006)

*The Killer Inside Me -- Jim Thompson*

I really thought I was going to enjoy this. Thompson's rep is really high in the crime-writing world and he'd been on my list for ages. But it was, by and large, crap. Plodding, confusing, terrible dialogue, no atmosphere, and all attempts at humour went flat. I think I'll have forgotten what it was all about in a couple of weeks.

 

Any Thompson fans on here? Have I picked a duff one, or should I stick to Chandler?

---

Now, The New York Trilogy, a last stab at Auster. This better be good


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 8, 2006)

You picked a winner there.


----------



## suzee blue cheese (Oct 8, 2006)

Absalom, Absalom - William Faulkener.  There's an excellent tale in there hidden among the adjectives and the longest sentences in literature...


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 8, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> You picked a winner there.



The Auster? Yeh, this one passed me by when it came out, though a lot of friends read it and liked it. I've read Moon Palace, which was OK, and Brooklyn Follies, which wasn't. He's on a final warning


----------



## sojourner (Oct 8, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> The Auster? Yeh, this one passed me by when it came out, though a lot of friends read it and liked it. I've read Moon Palace, which was OK, and Brooklyn Follies, which wasn't. He's on a final warning


New York Trilogy is brilliant.  I don't think you'll be disappointed  

I'm reading Stuart: A Life Backwards - read it straight through most of yesterday and today.  Stunned. Gutted. Fascinating, and even funny in places.  Alexander Masters is a right cunt at times, like he's trying _too_ hard not to come over all patronising.  It is a particularly poignant book for me at the moment.  Some of it has been like reading about myself.


----------



## tastebud (Oct 9, 2006)

Well I'm reading Jeanette Winterson - Written on the body. It's amazing!


----------



## SubZeroCat (Oct 9, 2006)

I couldn't sleep last night and so I read all of One Hundred Strokes of the Brush Before Bed my Melissa P. Interesting and though I felt sympathy for her I also thought she was a bit of an idiot...


----------



## sojourner (Oct 9, 2006)

Vixen said:
			
		

> Well I'm reading Jeanette Winterson - Written on the body. It's amazing!


!  One of my favourite books EVER that  

It is absolutely imPOSSible to assign a gender to the narrator, one of the finest pieces of truly androgynous literature in the known universe


----------



## Vintage Paw (Oct 9, 2006)

SubZeroCat said:
			
		

> I couldn't sleep last night and so I read all of One Hundred Strokes of the Brush Before Bed my Melissa P. Interesting and though I felt sympathy for her I also thought she was a bit of an idiot...



You got the nasty paperback edition? I'm quoted on the inside cover  (under the name of the people I was reviewing for, not my real name unfortunately).

I'm reading _Weiland_ by Charles Brockden Brown. Written in the 18th century - one of the first American novels. Also one of the first attempts at gothic fiction too. Someone died from spontaneous combustion in chapter 2  I really like it - it's a bit spooky.

Also reading _The Whole Equation_ by David Thomson, a history of Hollywood. Not far in yet, but looks like it might shape up to be good - it's got a lot of fabbo reviews anyway.

I have just borrowed a copy of _Final Cut_ too about the 'Heaven's Gate' film fiasco - and a copy of the film  Not entirely sure when I'll get chance to read/watch them, but it should be good.


----------



## novocain (Oct 10, 2006)

I'm rereading Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous. The ideas amaze me every time I read it.


----------



## Fledgling (Oct 10, 2006)

The Odyssey


----------



## Philbc03 (Oct 11, 2006)

I finished Susan Stedman Jones 'Durkheim Reconsidered' on Sunday. Aaargh what an annoying book! Her aim was to rescue Durkheim from the various misinterpretations he's accumulated over the years and in this she was successful. My mind about him has been changed in light of the evidence she marshalled. But I don't think she could have gone about her business in a more annoying way. Instead of offering her reinterpretation of Durkheim upfront she dives straight into the misconceptions, refutes them, and the spends the rest of the book setting out her stall. That's alright if you're a mad Durkheim afficianado but I'm not (I haven't bothered with his work since I was a sociology undergrad), and neither will be most of the readership. But that said it may have annoyed me but at least now I know Durkheim and his sociology is far more radical than most of what passes in sociology these days.

Now I'm starting Pierre Bourdieu's 'In Other Words' - a collection of interviews, short papers and the like. And I've also finished off HG Wells 'Shape of Things to Come'. My bus reading is now Audrey Niffenegger's 'The Time Traveller's Wife'.


----------



## sojourner (Oct 11, 2006)

Philbc03 said:
			
		

> My bus reading is now Audrey Niffenegger's 'The Time Traveller's Wife'.


Loved that


----------



## jugularvein (Oct 11, 2006)

i'm reading Corpsing, by Toby Litt

it started really well and i was pretty gripped, the writing is superb but it starts being let down around half way by a few weaknesses in the story and some seconday characters who come in and aren't very plausible.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 11, 2006)

finished Change Is Gonna Come. mostly a great book until about the last quarter, where the writer starts banging on about Bruce Springsteen and pissweak soul like Maxwell. A few factual errors crept in as well, i guess the more recent stuff just isn't his territory. But his writing on black music in the 60s and 70s and how it related to the cultural and political times was excellent.

For a bit of light relief, i'm now starting j-Pod by Douglas Coupland


----------



## sojourner (Oct 11, 2006)

Sarah, by JT LeRoy, got it as a double from Amazon together with The Heart is Deceitful, and so far, I'm really enjoying it.  The way that child prostitution is being normalised is scary, but I think it really helps the reader to understand the perspective of a person living that life.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Oct 11, 2006)

“In Your Garden Again” (1953) by Vita Sackville-West....it's interesting to see how she changed the face of horticultural columns...some of it comes over as very snobbish and dated, but it's an interesting read all the same.....


----------



## sojourner (Oct 11, 2006)

Mrs Magpie said:
			
		

> “In Your Garden Again” (1953) by Vita Sackville-West....it's interesting to see how she changed the face of horticultural columns...some of it comes over as very snobbish and dated, but it's an interesting read all the same.....


A very interesting woman all round was Vita.  I read her memoirs not long back (interspersed with her son's take on it all), and will be reading a female historian's take on her life soon when I get the book back off a mate.


----------



## Philbc03 (Oct 11, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> For a bit of light relief, i'm now starting j-Pod by Douglas Coupland



I like that book


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 11, 2006)

sojourner said:
			
		

> New York Trilogy is brilliant.  I don't think you'll be disappointed



I enjoyed this a lot, particularly the first story. I think the third got a bit wearying towards the end, but the whole thing is great fun. Probably repays a second reading 

I still don't think he's the great (anti-)metaphysical novelist that people have claimed him to be -- he skates across the surface of some pretty complex ideas, and mostly nothing more -- but he tells a good story, and he believes in love.


----------



## sojourner (Oct 11, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I enjoyed this a lot, particularly the first story. I think the third got a bit wearying towards the end, but the whole thing is great fun. Probably repays a second reading
> 
> I still don't think he's the great (anti-)metaphysical novelist that people have claimed him to be -- he skates across the surface of some pretty complex ideas, and mostly nothing more -- but he tells a good story, and he believes in love.


Glad you enjoyed it   Yeh, it does kinda slip a bit by the end, but what he does with genre and narrative is fascinating.  I've just lent this to a bloke in work actually, cos he wanted some ideas of different stuff to read.  

Yeh, you might see it as skating across the surface... but that is more to do with you as a reader - which makes it one of the most perfect earlier postmodernist texts


----------



## Poi E (Oct 12, 2006)

"Flow". Was mentioned around U75 and I grabbed it. First self-help book I've read.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 12, 2006)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Yeh, you might see it as skating across the surface... but that is more to do with you as a reader - which makes it one of the most perfect earlier postmodernist texts



I like the reader stuff, I've done my time with the theory and the fiction, but I get the feeling with Auster that he's more enamoured with the vocabulary of postmodernism -- _reader, story, text, fact_ -- than he is with the ideas, such as they are.

As for accepting that skating across the surface proves the postmodernist point, that's just the laziness and "taking things on trust" that they set out to demolish.

If you want the ultimate in sly postmodern intelligence, read How German Is it by Walter Abish.

In the end, for me, Auster tells a very good story, but the theoretical background to his work is not something even he's digested properly. It can come out a bit halfbaked.

But they're three cracking stories and I had a lot of fun reading them


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 12, 2006)

Now it's Farewell, My Lovely.

'He was a big man but not more than six feet five inches tall and not wider than a beer truck'

A genius writer.


----------



## sojourner (Oct 13, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I like the reader stuff, I've done my time with the theory and the fiction, but I get the feeling with Auster that he's more enamoured with the vocabulary of postmodernism -- _reader, story, text, fact_ -- than he is with the ideas, such as they are.
> 
> As for accepting that skating across the surface proves the postmodernist point, that's just the laziness and "taking things on trust" that they set out to demolish.
> 
> ...


Nice post  And I'd have to agree about the 'he's more enamoured with the vocabulary of postmodernism -- _reader, story, text, fact_ -- than he is with the ideas, such as they are', although I think he's topped in that respect by Don Delillo  They are 3 great stories though in the Trilogy, glad you enjoyed em

Ooo, I shall get the recommendation thank you.


----------



## Paris Garters (Oct 14, 2006)

Just re-read The long dark teatime of the soul by Douglas Adams in an effort to avoid Land of green plums by Herta Muller - it's about Ceaucescu's Romania, bleak as fuck but almost hypnotically poetic. Theres rather a lot of suicide  . Will persevere though.

Also on Epicurus in the bog and Updike on the bus (penguin 60's), and keep nicking Brecht's Life of Galileo (play) at mr. G's whenever he puts it down.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Oct 14, 2006)

Animals In Translation by Temple Grandin & Catherine Johnson. I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in or owns an animal and also anyone with an interest in Autism.


----------



## Dr_Gonzo (Oct 14, 2006)

Down and out in Paris and London - George Orwell


----------



## Kaka Tim (Oct 14, 2006)

Dr_Gonzo said:
			
		

> Down and out in Paris and London - George Orwell



I found that a bit middle class tourist, tho it sounds like he was authentically skint. Interesting book.


----------



## Dr_Gonzo (Oct 15, 2006)

Kaka Tim said:
			
		

> I found that a bit middle class tourist, tho it sounds like he was authentically skint. Interesting book.



I think if someone did the samething today it would be but back then I think it was a different situation. Even if it was though the stories and characters in it make it worth reading and it does sound like he was actually expereincing what he describes.


----------



## trashpony (Oct 15, 2006)

Mrs Magpie said:
			
		

> “In Your Garden Again” (1953) by Vita Sackville-West....it's interesting to see how she changed the face of horticultural columns...some of it comes over as very snobbish and dated, but it's an interesting read all the same.....



I keep In Your Garden next to my bed. It's very soothing in the night I find despite her shocking snobbery. Have you read Dear Friend and Gardener by Christo Lloyd and Beth Chatto? I'm going to dig that out and have a quick read this week as I'm going to Beth Chatto's gardens next week.


----------



## Paris Garters (Oct 15, 2006)

Dr_Gonzo said:
			
		

> I think if someone did the samething today it would be but back then I think it was a different situation. Even if it was though the stories and characters in it make it worth reading and it does sound like he was actually expereincing what he describes.



Agreed with KT, but that's a really good point. His desire to educate himself and others is admirable.


----------



## sojourner (Oct 16, 2006)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Sarah, by JT LeRoy, got it as a double from Amazon together with The Heart is Deceitful, and so far, I'm really enjoying it.  The way that child prostitution is being normalised is scary, but I think it really helps the reader to understand the perspective of a person living that life.


This is an incredible bit of writing. Took me to places I hadn't predicted, and I think you should all read it.  There ain't a genre for this


----------



## Throbbing Angel (Oct 16, 2006)

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight
Vladimir Nabakov


----------



## mrkikiet (Oct 16, 2006)

jugularvein said:
			
		

> i'm reading Corpsing, by Toby Litt


i have a horrible feeling that toby litt is not going to write another decent novel. deadkidsongs was good, with potential but since then he has churned out very little worth reading in it's entirety.

currently reading all-American Ads 60s. good clean futuristic fun.


----------



## kerb (Oct 17, 2006)

I've just read 'Meridian' by Alice Walker. 

i liked the fact that that this person who rebelled against her society didnt opt for the house and 2.4 children as she got older. she was against the oppression of her race and class and didnt conform even though she was told it was out of "fashion." 

Felt there a bit too much heavy detailed character biopics on peripheral characters but still a good yarn. 

Just about to read 'If not know, when?' by Primo Levi. I've started this once before but stopped cos uni degree and reading lists came round at the wrong time so gonna put  my feet up in a bit and get into it. Haven't read any of his other works so... i'll see what its like.


----------



## Leica (Oct 17, 2006)

I'm reading a lovely little book called _Los girasoles ciegos_ (the blind sunflowers) by Alberto Méndez, given to me by a friend.


----------



## Epicurus (Oct 17, 2006)

*I’m currently reading two*

Martyrs (innocence, vengeance, and despair in the middle east) Joyce M Davis
&
Harrington on hold’em Dan Harrington & Bill Robertie


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 17, 2006)

finished J-Pod..

definitely in the less essential Coupland box - but very very funny in places. 

he does seem to veer between the heartbreaking - Life After God, Eleanor Rigby, Hey Nostradamus - and the pretty throwaway. This one was more about the gags and the cool observation but still a damn good read


----------



## sojourner (Oct 17, 2006)

kerb said:
			
		

> I've just read 'Meridian' by Alice Walker.
> 
> i liked the fact that that this person who rebelled against her society didnt opt for the house and 2.4 children as she got older. she was against the oppression of her race and class and didnt conform even though she was told it was out of "fashion."


Excellent book. My holy trinity of African American female writers is Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelou.  They can do no wrong in my eyes


----------



## sojourner (Oct 17, 2006)

I'm reading The Joke's Over, by Ralph Steadman.  So far, so good - but I think if I'd have been mates with HST I'd have lamped him one several times over   Mace, for god's sake!!


----------



## Vintage Paw (Oct 17, 2006)

Reading James Fenimore Cooper's _The Deerslayer_ - jolly good read. Racist, sexist and everything else you would expect of America circa. 1840. Last in the series that included _Last of the Mohicans_ - although set before the other four books in chronological terms.


----------



## chooch (Oct 18, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Where have all the readers gone?


Seville.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 18, 2006)

Just started World's End by T C Boyle - very odd so far, a bizarre quasi-ghost story (i think) about a feckless bloke in 60s  New York State and his relationship with his dutch ancestors.

not sure where it's going, but Boyle never lets me down


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 18, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> Seville.



Whatcha reading then?


----------



## chooch (Oct 18, 2006)

All I've got, which ain't much. _The Emperor's Tomb_, _the Therapy of Avram Blok_, a couple of Hrabals.  
If I get bored enough I may *reread* _Gravity's Rainbow_, like some kind of difficult book namedropping twat.


----------



## BadlyDrawnGirl (Oct 18, 2006)

'The Good Pubs Guide To Penge'. 

A touch on the slim side.


----------



## citydreams (Oct 19, 2006)

Just given up on Michael Collins' 'Life and Times of a Teaboy' as I was starting to get a bit weary of the self-pity but will pick it up again.

Moved on to Anita Desai's 'The Zigzag Way'.  It's a nice change of scene.  Not too sure about her being "one of Tolstoy's inheritors - The Times" though.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 19, 2006)

citydreams said:
			
		

> Not too sure about her being "one of Tolstoy's inheritors - The Times" though.



maybe he left her nan a nice paperweight in his will?


----------



## Termite Man (Oct 19, 2006)

I'm reading 

DooDaa by ralph Steadman
Lono by Hunter S Thompson and Ralph Steadman
Wild Highway by Bill Drummond and Mark Manning


----------



## NostalgiaBytes (Oct 19, 2006)

I don't do alot of reading, in fact I almost never read, I'm more of a movie buff myself. But just recently life's been getting me down so to accompany my mood I decided to start reading a book I got for Christmas entitled - 

*Is It Just Me or Is Everything Shit?: The Encyclopedia of Modern Life*
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Just-Me-Everything-Shit-Encyclopedia/dp/0316729531

It's absoulutly hilarious, if you need a good giggle at the world then pick up a copy.


----------



## Dr_Gonzo (Oct 19, 2006)

Savage Henry said:
			
		

> I'm reading
> 
> DooDaa by ralph Steadman
> Lono by Hunter S Thompson and Ralph Steadman
> Wild Highway by Bill Drummond and Mark Manning



Lono is excellent. I was lucky to be in San Francisco last year to get a signed copy of the 1000 Taschen edition although it cost me £300. I bought it on amazon for the retail price of £150 but some fucker either at parcel force or amazon stole it. I've also got an orginal edition from the 80s.

I'm reading A Million Little Pieces by James Frey at the moment, it's a set book for my non fiction writing class as part of my jounrnalism degree. I'm about a 1/5 through it and I'm not quite sure what I make of it yet knowing about the bits that were made up or exagerated.


----------



## киноактриса (Oct 20, 2006)

real images: soviet cinema and the thaw by josephine woll.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 20, 2006)

Farewell, My Lovely done, now The High Window.


----------



## Termite Man (Oct 20, 2006)

Dr_Gonzo said:
			
		

> Lono is excellent. I was lucky to be in San Francisco last year to get a signed copy of the 1000 Taschen edition although it cost me £300. I bought it on amazon for the retail price of £150 but some fucker either at parcel force or amazon stole it. I've also got an orginal edition from the 80s.
> 
> I'm reading A Million Little Pieces by James Frey at the moment, it's a set book for my non fiction writing class as part of my jounrnalism degree. I'm about a 1/5 through it and I'm not quite sure what I make of it yet knowing about the bits that were made up or exagerated.




I've got a signed copy too although it's not the limited edition it was signed by Ralph Steadman personally 

I also have Memories of Hunter S Thiompson signed but I haven't started reading that yet !


----------



## Vintage Paw (Oct 20, 2006)

Just started _The Blithedale Romance_ by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

After that hoping to get enough time to read _The Good Life_ by Jay McInerney. Anyone read it? Good? Bad? It's a sequel of sorts to _Brightness Falls_ - anyone read that? Good? Bad?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 20, 2006)

Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> _Brightness Falls_ - anyone read that? Good? Bad?



Indifferent. Though to be fair I only read the first 50 pages, perhaps I should give it another go.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Oct 20, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Indifferent. Though to be fair I only read the first 50 pages, perhaps I should give it another go.



Hmmm *strokes imaginary beard* 

I find if I don't read a book first time around I will never end up reading it, no matter how many times I start again.

This has most notably happened to me with _Underworld_ - Don Delillo (although I'm determined I will read this eventually), and _Microserfs_ - Douglas Coupland.


----------



## shijima (Oct 20, 2006)

just finished a great book called As Used On Nelson Mandela by a comedian called mark thomas its all about the arms trade good mix of comedy and some serious issues tackled.


----------



## chooch (Oct 20, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Indifferent. Though to be fair I only read the first 50 pages, perhaps I should give it another go.


Didn´t rate it much meself. Think he can write though, when he puts his mind to it and stops raising a literary eyebrow.


----------



## Philbc03 (Oct 20, 2006)

I've just finished Ray Hammond's 'The Cloud'. It's a SETI related sci-fi thriller disaster thing very much in the Dan Brown mould of flimsy characters, unnecessary sub-plots, repetitious devices, etc etc. It was alright actually if you fancy something shamelessly trashy.

Edmund White's 'A Boys Own Story' now awaits ...


----------



## foamy (Oct 20, 2006)

A Boys Own story is good - very much enjoyed it.

I gave up on 'small island' and have now started 'The Sea' by john Banville.


----------



## chooch (Oct 21, 2006)

Philbc03 said:
			
		

> Edmund White's 'A Boys Own Story' now awaits ...


I liked it a lot, though I think _Caracole_ is a touch more stylish, in a good way.


----------



## Abjekt (Oct 21, 2006)

Just started book 5 of the Tales Of The City series by Armistead Maupin. I love themmmm.


----------



## chooch (Oct 21, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Just started The Inner Circle by TC Boyle, liking it


Just bought that.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 21, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> Just bought that.



I dunno, it annoyed me a bit in the end. Got his Drop City lined up though.


----------



## Philbc03 (Oct 21, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> I liked it a lot, though I think _Caracole_ is a touch more stylish, in a good way.



I only own 'A Boys Own' and Edmund White's autobiography at the mo'. Will give Caracole a go at some point - it just seems almost everything I'm reading at the moment has a gay thing going on


----------



## dynamicbaddog (Oct 21, 2006)

I'm reading an 87th Precinct detective novel by Ed Mcbain called _Till Death_ 
I *heart* Ed Mcbain's books, I've bought a load of them from e-bay recently which I'm working through


----------



## chooch (Oct 21, 2006)

Just starting James Wilcox- Modern Baptists. It seems oddly familiar.


----------



## Giles (Oct 22, 2006)

Just read "Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew".

Giles..


----------



## kerb (Oct 22, 2006)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Excellent book. My holy trinity of African American female writers is Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelou.  They can do no wrong in my eyes



You don't get much more heavyweight than that trio do you? Amazing writers. I saw Maya Angelou on BBC2 late one night. She was talking about her work etc and said that it took her about 7 months to work on one chapter in one of her books.  

Richard Wright is one of my favourite  African American Male writers. Black Boy was such a great read.


----------



## sojourner (Oct 22, 2006)

Just now finished The Jokes Over by Ralph Steadman.  What a moving, funny, savage book, one that captures the times they lived through  brilliantly.  Who said Ralph couldn't write, eh Hunter?    It's a must-read for all Hunter/Steadman fans, thanks to Savage Henry for the heads up.  I now want to return to The Proud Highway, which I have browsed through but never read all of, and perhaps The Curse of Lono, now that I know the tortuous background to it.  

And am now desperate to lay my paws on any one of the silk screen prints that were produced


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 22, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> The High Window.



Chandler is brilliant. I could read him forever.


----------



## k_s (Oct 22, 2006)

The invasion of compulsory sex-morality by Wilhelm Reich. Its making me feel slightly guilty about being in love with my girlfriend tbh.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Oct 22, 2006)

Don't worry about it. Reich was seriously odd.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 23, 2006)

k_s said:
			
		

> The invasion of compulsory sex-morality by Wilhelm Reich. Its making me feel slightly guilty about being in love with my girlfriend tbh.





---

The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M Cain


----------



## maya (Oct 23, 2006)

fuck highbrow, i'm going for the overflowing pile of yellowed paperback crime novels my former certain someone chucked out of his brother's garage (only to be saved by me, the rubbish tip woman)

...'tis actually a lot of good stuff in there: detective monsieur Maigret, Poe: "The Murders In Rue Morgue" (the first crime novel!), Blood From A Child" by Louis Malét, Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse books (right now I'm reading "The Quiet World Of Nicholas Quinn", to be followed by "Murder In The Chapel", or something like that...oh, it's intriguing), Sjöwall & Wahlöö's social-realist inspector Beck series from the 70's (masterpiece: "The Closed Room") , some laughably 1950's pulp stuff (including one verging on exploitation: dry martinis, women in bikinis and sophisticated gentleman retreats in stock "exotic" places)

...all in all, good (if not that wholesome) entertainment fun.


----------



## DUMBO.66 (Oct 25, 2006)

reading "fierce dancing" by CJ Stone and just finished the best book ever; Spiders, set in Kent, when killer spiders swamp britain, too cool


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 25, 2006)

I've put the Boyle to one side because I'm overexcited about having Innocent When  You Dream, the collected Tom Waits interview / article book. 

Which I dropped in the bath last night


----------



## May Kasahara (Oct 25, 2006)

After completely failing to read the Putnam book due to extreme family stress, I have now reluctantly started 'The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets' by Eva Rice, which was next month's choice out of the bookclub hat.

It's appalling. Even the edges of the pages are pink, ffs.

Also been rereading some Stephen King short stories ('Night Shift') after rereading his excellent 'Danse Macabre' on holiday...glad that I have not found them as scary as when I were a teen, and thus am not a complete and total wet end.

Also once again making some headway with Simon Schama's 'History of Britain Vol. 1', and reading a fuckload of further/financial education paperwork for my new job.


----------



## May Kasahara (Oct 25, 2006)

Here's a picture of the Eva Rice book:


----------



## Philbc03 (Oct 26, 2006)

Now reading 'How I Paid for College' by Marc Acito, yet another novel with gay overtones, lol.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Oct 27, 2006)

Philbc03 said:
			
		

> Now reading 'How I Paid for College' by Marc Acito, yet another novel with gay overtones, lol.



Fabbo book. Totally giggletastic.

I'm reading _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ by Harriet Beecher Stowe. not far in yet.


----------



## chooch (Oct 28, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> Just starting James Wilcox- Modern Baptists. It seems oddly familiar.


And now finished. Liked it; bit contrived in parts but some lovely sentence combinations that get through your guard and leave you fumbling for your gumshield.
Now started Vikram Seth-_Two Lives_.


----------



## lego (Oct 28, 2006)

_The Selfish Gene_ - Richard Dawkins


----------



## muser (Oct 28, 2006)

*won't I ever learn*

Iain M. Banks - Excession. space opera meets 2001, I started so I'll finish, though I think I've outgrown the sci fi genre.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Oct 28, 2006)

muser said:
			
		

> Iain M. Banks - Excession. space opera meets 2001, I started so I'll finish, though I think I've outgrown the sci fi genre.



I never got to the end of that one, I enjoyed _Consider Phlebus_ though. I might give it a go again at some point, but I haven't read sci-fi for maybe 4 or 5 years now, or longer


----------



## Boogie Boy (Oct 30, 2006)

Just finished 'We' by Yevgeny Zamyatin, which struck me as being an especially modern novel - despite the fact it was apparently written in the early 1920's. Well worth reading.

BB


----------



## red_gordon (Oct 30, 2006)

Im reading Anti-Duhring by Engels and Lenin by George Lukacs but really want to read a novel. 

Was going to read Enduring love but was advised against it. Might re-read Lord of the Flys.


----------



## Grandma Death (Oct 31, 2006)

Female Chaunvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy.


----------



## The Groke (Oct 31, 2006)

Just picked up 1984 for the second time.

Was struck anew - just from the first twenty pages - by what an extraordinary (and prescient) novel it is.


----------



## Pie 1 (Oct 31, 2006)

Jonh Le Carre's new one, The Mission Song. 
Interesting & well researched plot etc as usual - it's nice that Le Carre is still passionate - but the narrator  (apparently, it's the first he's narrated in the first person) is not getting my sympathy at all - he's a pompous, annoying liitle git who I keep hoping is going to get a well deserved pasting from some bad men  

Anyway, nice bit of light relief before starting Richard Ford's The Lay of the Land - Frank Bascombe's 3rd outing - which I'm really looking forward to.


----------



## Louloubelle (Oct 31, 2006)

An early 19th century impression of Aesop's Fables 

It's fascinating to see how people at that time projected various completely wrong character traits onto animals. e.g. wolves are evil and ferocious, lions are evil yet majestic, mules signify the working classes, noble horses the aristorcacy.

Lot's of stories about mules trying to be horses and coming to a bad end because they don't accept their proper place in life, that kind of thing.

A really fascinating insight into the prevalent ideas about class, good and evil, people and animals at the time


----------



## Paris Garters (Oct 31, 2006)

muser said:
			
		

> Iain M. Banks - Excession. space opera meets 2001, I started so I'll finish, though I think I've outgrown the sci fi genre.



Oh, persevere - I loved that.  Banks is about the only sci-fi I read. It is an interesting thing about SF though - It's seen as the preserve of teenage boys, geeks and fantasists with no life, but i think at it's best it's a really good genre for exploring socio-political issues, and can be really intelligent and inspiring, eg Ursula le Guin's stuff.

I am reading Peter Ackroyds 'Life of Blake' (ie william). What a loon, man. Really interesting placing his work in the social context of the time.

Also 'Gone with the Wind'   by Margaret Mitchell. I found it in a skip the other day, I've never seen the film, but fuck me I'm addicted to it. I'd always assumed it was some cartlandesque romance   but it's so much more.
Fascinating, and deeply uncomfortable.


----------



## J77 (Oct 31, 2006)

The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene

I'm on a science tip at the moment


----------



## foamy (Oct 31, 2006)

this week i read:

On Beauty - Zadie Smith: easier to read than the autograph man and similar to white teeth, didnt blow me away though.

The Abortionist Daughter - Elisabeth someoneorother: not as good as i was expecting.

The First Casualty - Ben Elton:   i know but he does write an entertaining crime novel.

Diary of a Manhatten Call Girl - say no more. 

The Sea - John Banville: a good book but i sometimes find it hard to see why these sorts of books win the booker prize cos they're just a bit 'meh'.

A Million Little Pieces - James Frey. Fuck me. it blew me away. the most thought introspective provoking book i've read in a while. it made me cry (and chuckle) and i want everyone i know to read it.


----------



## foamy (Oct 31, 2006)

red_gordon said:
			
		

> Was going to read Enduring love but was advised against it. Might re-read Lord of the Flys.




i'd advise you to read enduring love. much much better than the filum and a very good book (much in the same vein as most of his books)


----------



## User 301X/5.1 (Oct 31, 2006)

I am reading "the elegant universe" by Brian Greene.

Really enjoying it.


----------



## J77 (Oct 31, 2006)

User 301X/5.1 said:
			
		

> I am reading "the elegant universe" by Brian Greene.
> 
> Really enjoying it.


I considered that  but just dived straight in with FotC


----------



## User 301X/5.1 (Oct 31, 2006)

J77 said:
			
		

> I considered that  but just dived straight in with FotC




I am really enjoying it - I think I will read the fabric of the cosmos one as soon as I finish this.


----------



## J77 (Oct 31, 2006)

User 301X/5.1 said:
			
		

> I am really enjoying it - I think I will read the fabric of the cosmos one as soon as I finish this.


Nice - from what I've seen, they don't overlap too much.

I like the way Greene writes - he's good at keeping the flow going, which is hard with physics.

Before, FotC I reread The Emporer's New Mind by Penrose - there's some chapters in there which are very tedious...


----------



## Philbc03 (Oct 31, 2006)

Just polished off Peter Binns, Tony Cliff and Chris Harman's 'Russia: From Workers' State to State Capitalism'. Very interesting I thought.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Nov 3, 2006)

I've just started reading 'The Discovery Of Heaven' by Harry Mulisch, which is proving quite interesting.

BB


----------



## jodal (Nov 3, 2006)

Finished reading Lemony Snicket Book 1 which was good. If I was to read more childrens fiction I would deffo be reading this, much better than Harry fucking Potter.

Now I've started reading Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem (reccomended by Dub) and have to say its up there with the best books I've ever read. Mind you I've only read one chapter so far but its a cracking good start.


----------



## foamy (Nov 3, 2006)

'Essays in Love' - Alain De Botton: check me out reading philosophy on the tube


----------



## bang (Nov 3, 2006)

am halfway through the Count of Monte Cristo, never thought I'd stick at it to be honest, I seem to have trouble focusing on long books but this one has kept me wrapped up in it all the way through


----------



## laptop (Nov 3, 2006)

Douglas Hofstadter's next book, I Am a Strange Loop


----------



## baldrick (Nov 3, 2006)

^

looks fascinating  

so many books i want to read on this thread  am _still_ reading being and nothingness, the only time of day i can concentrate sufficiently is the half hour bus ride to work


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 3, 2006)

jodal said:
			
		

> Now I've started reading Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem (reccomended by Dub) and have to say its up there with the best books I've ever read. Mind you I've only read one chapter so far but its a cracking good start.



ah, cool, chuffed you like it. And it gets better, believe it or not


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 3, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> A Million Little Pieces - James Frey. Fuck me. it blew me away. the most thought introspective provoking book i've read in a while. it made me cry (and chuckle) and i want everyone i know to read it.




just as long as you know he made most of it up


----------



## Biddlybee (Nov 3, 2006)

Almost finished Hey Nostradamus... thank you PieEye, I might be visiting your library again


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 3, 2006)

BiddlyBee said:
			
		

> Almost finished Hey Nostradamus... thank you PieEye, I might be visiting your library again




we do have a BIG fucking library


----------



## trashpony (Nov 3, 2006)

jodal said:
			
		

> Now I've started reading Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem (reccomended by Dub) and have to say its up there with the best books I've ever read. Mind you I've only read one chapter so far but its a cracking good start.



We liked it at bookgroup too.  It's a great book


----------



## Biddlybee (Nov 3, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> we do have a BIG fucking library


 I have a tiny one you're welcome to peruse (but you probably have all my books)


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 3, 2006)

I'm still reading We Need To Talk About Kevin but I'm savouring every word - most impressive book I've read in a long time


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 3, 2006)

BiddlyBee said:
			
		

> I have a tiny one you're welcome to peruse




fnarr fnarr


----------



## Biddlybee (Nov 3, 2006)

I need to stop doing that.


----------



## muser (Nov 3, 2006)

shijima said:
			
		

> just finished a great book called As Used On Nelson Mandela by a comedian called mark thomas its all about the arms trade good mix of comedy and some serious issues tackled.



I loved the mark thomas project. I'm seriously tempted to go and get it.


----------



## muser (Nov 3, 2006)

J77 said:
			
		

> The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene
> 
> I'm on a science tip at the moment



Glad you mentioned this, please let me know if it delves into the murky world of everett's many world's theory and the higgs theory. Some post grads on the newsgroup, seem to think that higgs boson won't be found when the LHC is tested at full capacity 2 years time. Just curious to know whether you have read 'a brief history of time', a very respect friend of mine actually gave up on it after several chapters, citing the fact that its too indepth. This has put me off reading it. Could he be wrong?


----------



## muser (Nov 3, 2006)

Paris Garters said:
			
		

> Oh, persevere - I loved that.  Banks is about the only sci-fi I read. It is an interesting thing about SF though - It's seen as the preserve of teenage boys, geeks and fantasists with no life, but i think at it's best it's a really good genre for exploring socio-political issues, and can be really intelligent and inspiring, eg Ursula le Guin's stuff.
> 
> I am reading Peter Ackroyds 'Life of Blake' (ie william). What a loon, man. Really interesting placing his work in the social context of the time.
> 
> ...



I'm in a bit of a silly mood of late, which enables me to read excession, and I'm surprisingly enjoying it. I like the idea of 'infinite fun' and the names given to the minds; _peace make plenty, anticipation of a new lovers arrival, shoot them later_ and one of my favourites _a frank exchange of views_. The latter being a warship.


----------



## jodal (Nov 3, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I'm still reading We Need To Talk About Kevin but I'm savouring every word - most impressive book I've read in a long time



I can see whyyou might like that OU. Great book.


----------



## Philbc03 (Nov 3, 2006)

I'm now reading Ray Kroc's autobiography, 'Grinding it Out'. And on the train to Cov tomorrow my light reading will be 'Complexity and Social Movements' by Graeme Chesters and Ian Welsh. Look out for a piece on it in the Sociological Review in about 6 months social theory fans!


----------



## trashpony (Nov 3, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I'm still reading We Need To Talk About Kevin but I'm savouring every word - most impressive book I've read in a long time



You haven't finished it?  Blimey - I assumed you had. Just as well I didn't discuss the twist in the tale with you at Offline the other week


----------



## zenie (Nov 3, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> this week i read:
> 
> On Beauty - Zadie Smith: easier to read than the autograph man and similar to white teeth, didnt blow me away though.



Yep although it was a realy pageturner i sort of got that 'was that it?' feeling at the end  



			
				foamy said:
			
		

> The Abortionist Daughter - Elisabeth someoneorother: not as good as i was expecting.


Damn I liked the sound of that when I was in the book shop 



			
				foamy said:
			
		

> Diary of a Manhatten Call Girl - say no more



Better then Belle de Jour? The London call girl one rocked 




			
				foamy said:
			
		

> A Million Little Pieces - James Frey. Fuck me. it blew me away. the most thought introspective provoking book i've read in a while. it made me cry (and chuckle) and i want everyone i know to read it.



I'll get it out the library  

I'm about to finally read the Alchemist can anyone persuade me not to?


----------



## zenie (Nov 3, 2006)

bang said:
			
		

> am halfway through the Count of Monte Cristo, never thought I'd stick at it to be honest, I seem to have trouble focusing on long books but this one has kept me wrapped up in it all the way through



I had a really bad crush as a kid on Richard Chamberlain so not sure I can read the book now I've seen the film so many times 

Have you seen the film version?


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 4, 2006)

trashpony said:
			
		

> You haven't finished it?  Blimey - I assumed you had. Just as well I didn't discuss the twist in the tale with you at Offline the other week


Yeah, had to take a break for book group book. I can see a twist coming actually - she really keeps the surprises coming


----------



## Augie March (Nov 4, 2006)

Just over halfway through Everything Is Illuminated, very funny and unique book.


----------



## Strumpet (Nov 4, 2006)

Am half way through a very old relatives personal account of when he was in WW2. My mam gave it to me the other day. 
It's bloody fascinating, heartwarming and scary.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Nov 4, 2006)

*MOSQUITO 
A natural history of our most persistent and deadly foe* 
by Andrew Spielman, Sc. D. & Michael D'Antonio
Faber & Faber

Really good read and packed with all sorts of obscure facts and social history as well as interesting entomological stuff.


----------



## chazegee (Nov 4, 2006)

Any old Iron-A Burgess.
It's tough reading when You've got broadband though.


----------



## han (Nov 4, 2006)

I'm reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins at the moment. Brilliant. Quite funny in places too, but also scary the way it demonstrates the power religion seems to have had over people and the world since the beginning of time.


----------



## Guineveretoo (Nov 4, 2006)

Andrea Levy - A Small Island. 

It's fantastic. I am really enjoying it. It's well written, but easy to read, with characterisations which are believable and well rounded, and a gripping story. It's also very informative about what it was like being Black in the UK in the recent past.  It's also got some funny bits, thankfully! 

I am loving it. Has anyone else read it?


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Nov 4, 2006)

Yup, just lent it to a mate.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Nov 4, 2006)

Best Ghost Stories - Algernon Blackwood


It is all spooky!


----------



## cyberfairy (Nov 4, 2006)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> Best Ghost Stories - Algernon Blackwood
> 
> 
> It is all spooky!


I likes your ghostie I gave up on The Historian (forgot authors name) which had rave reviews as found it puerile badly written sub da Vinci Code cliched nonsence even though  had nice descriptions of Europe. She made vampires sound silly. Now reading So He Takes The Dog by Jonathon Buckley, about a dead tramp found on a beach in Devon. Am enjoying


----------



## MysteryGuest (Nov 4, 2006)

cyberfairy said:
			
		

> I likes your ghostie I gave up on The Historian (forgot authors name) which had rave reviews as found it puerile badly written sub da Vinci Code cliched nonsence even though  had nice descriptions of Europe. She made vampires sound silly. Now reading So He Takes The Dog by Jonathon Buckley, about a dead tramp found on a beach in Devon. Am enjoying




I got it by googling "ghost smilie" - which means I've effectively pinched it from another board.


----------



## maya (Nov 4, 2006)

i'm on a victorian/fin-de-siècle horror tip at the moment- not so much the "silly skeletons and castles/blood and gore" stuff (which i hate), but more the "psychological tension/slooooowly creeping suspension" side of things...

and there's LOADS to choose from...just wish they'd stock more of it at my local book haunts (wooh wooh), seems right now i need to go to england just to get more of these damn eerie tales on my crumbling shelves...ho-hum.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Nov 4, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> i'm on a victorian/fin-de-siècle horror tip at the moment- not so much the "silly skeletons and castles/blood and gore" stuff (which i hate), but more the "psychological tension/slooooowly creeping suspension" side of things...




Definitely check Algernon Blackwood then - he's really rather good at that sort of thing.  And Gustav Meyrink too - a brilliantly original writer of the spooky and strange, sometimes with a bit of a tongue in cheek quality where he's obviously really into what he's taking the piss out of.


----------



## maya (Nov 4, 2006)

*.*

he wrote "the golem", right? ...i've been meaning to check that out for ages, thanks for the reminder!

although i _do_ perhaps feel i need to slow down a bit and take a _long_ break away from all the "occult mindf*ck" shit i've been ruminating over- a bit more than what is healthy- for the past two years... 
(yeah, as you say, you start out fully convinced that you won't let it affect you, the next thing you know you're waffling on about kabbalistic ciphers and nature forces from the neolithic stones...lol)


----------



## MysteryGuest (Nov 4, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> he wrote "the golem", right? ...i've been meaning to check that out for ages, thanks for the reminder!
> 
> although i _do_ perhaps feel i need to slow down a bit and take a _long_ break away from all the "occult mindf*ck" shit i've been ruminating over- a bit more than what is healthy- for the past two years...
> (yeah, as you say, you start out fully convinced that you won't let it affect you, the next thing you know you're waffling on about kabbalistic ciphers and nature forces from the neolithic stones...lol)




Yeah the Golem is nang, bruv!    As is the Angel of the West Window (an exciting read-it-to-see-what-happens-next thriller apart from anything else), and the Green Face.  


But yes, good long walks, watching lots of football on the box, putting up shelves, and being practical - all the Jungian sensation function stuff, is good for the soul.  Always be grounded, young maya!    Mind you I think all football is mindblowingly dull, so I never, ever, or not very often look at it tbh.  Grown men kicking a ball about!


----------



## MysteryGuest (Nov 4, 2006)

I never put up shelves either.


----------



## maya (Nov 4, 2006)

of _course_ you don't put them up, it's the sort of experience that will put you _down!_  
erm...

(and your former handyman boasts would include..._what_ exactly?  )


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 4, 2006)

coming to the end of Innocent When You Dream, the Tom Waits collection. Probably the best book about a single musician I've ever read (and i've read bloody hundreds). I can't recommend this enough, seriously... Utterly inspiring, actually quite moving.. And the role his wife has played in his life and his art is captivating, and gives the lie to the usual macho artist bullshit about "yeh, he treated his women like shit but WHAT a singer" and all that


----------



## madamv (Nov 5, 2006)

Stephen Fry - Making History.

The words sound like they are coming from his mouth directly whilst I am reading


----------



## Philbc03 (Nov 5, 2006)

Alexandra Kollontai - Love of Worker Bees and A Great Love. Very good so far. I've read a bit of Kollontai in the past and she seems like someone contemporary socialists could do with revisiting.


----------



## Kanda (Nov 6, 2006)

zenie said:
			
		

> Better then Belle de Jour? The London call girl one rocked



Sequel is out now btw


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 6, 2006)

The Story of Crass - George Berger.

not that well written, to be honest, a bit of a cut and paste job. although it's interesting to find out a bit more about Penny, Eve et al's background in the 60s / early 70s./


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 6, 2006)

I've finished We Need To Talk About Kevin and fucking hell, it's devastating - gave me a sleepless night last night. 
Now, Freakanomics and Margrave Of The Marshes.
And I'm supposed to be reading The Time Traveller's Wife cos a friend insisted I read it - looks a bit mumsy though.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 6, 2006)

margrave of the marshes is great, really quite honest. I came away with what i feel (who knows really?) was a more rounded, possibly even less adulatory opinion of Peel, and in a perverse way that made me warm to him more, if that makes sense..


----------



## trashpony (Nov 6, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I've finished We Need To Talk About Kevin and fucking hell, it's devastating - gave me a sleepless night last night.
> Now, Freakanomics and Margrave Of The Marshes.
> And I'm supposed to be reading The Time Traveller's Wife cos a friend insisted I read it - looks a bit mumsy though.



Good twist eh?  

I'm saving Margrave of the Marshes for maternity leave because it's hardback and I want to be able to sit and weep 

I didn't like TTW that much - although I know lots of people who do. No blokes though


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 6, 2006)

yes, but I saw it coming - still pretty devastating and the most emotionally affecting part of the book


----------



## kerb (Nov 7, 2006)

Just finished _If not now, when?_ by Primo Levi

First time, i've read one of his books.  Good novel and just really like the fact that it gives a real underdogs viewpoint from WWII with groups of partisans living in the forest, walking thousands of kilometres in the snow, living in bombed out forts and underground etc. Full or sadnness, turmoil, laughter and lost lives and future hopes. 

definately will look out of for _The Periodic Table _which i think is his most famous work. 

Have _The Songlines _by Bruce Chatwin to read next. 

Heard this is a good read to...


----------



## purves grundy (Nov 7, 2006)

_The End of Oil_


----------



## J77 (Nov 7, 2006)

muser said:
			
		

> Glad you mentioned this, please let me know if it delves into the murky world of everett's many world's theory and the higgs theory. Some post grads on the newsgroup, seem to think that higgs boson won't be found when the LHC is tested at full capacity 2 years time. Just curious to know whether you have read 'a brief history of time', a very respect friend of mine actually gave up on it after several chapters, citing the fact that its too indepth. This has put me off reading it. Could he be wrong?


FotC hasn't gone into either of those yet - at the moment it's going over relativity (from Galilean to general) - basic intro physics.

I think the sole job of the LHC is to find the Higgs boson - it's the last thing the particle guys need for the full set.

As far as physics books... (in summary)

I haven't read BHoT since I was 16ish (13 years ago) but at the time could understand it well enough - of course, it neber went into string theory and the like.

FotC, I think, will focus on string theory as an underlying structure of the universe - also Brian Greene keeps the maths out of it if that suits you.

Penrose is more mathematical - and his writing flows least well, imo - but I think he's best (so far) at philosophical issues w.r.t. physics and life.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 8, 2006)

I'm reading and enjoying The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break by Steven Sherill


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 10, 2006)

A beautiful book


----------



## Vintage Paw (Nov 11, 2006)

Just started _So the wind won't blow i all away_ by Richard Brautigan. I love his stuff.

In _Revenge of the Lawn_ there is a beautiful story that makes me feel like I'm lost in myself every time I read it. It's called 'The Weather in San Francisco' and it is amazing! I've looked online and there doesn't seem to be a full-text version of it anywhere, which is a shame, coz I think some people on here would really love it. I'd be happy to type it out and PM it to people who want it - I don't want to put it up on t'internet coz of copyright issues and stuff. Even though it is less than whatever the percentage of quotable amounts is allowed of the whole book it was originally published as a short story alone and so I don't know how copyright relates to it as a stand alone story. Anyway, it's not very long, so it wouldn't take much to do. PM me if you want 

E2A: okay, I typed it up - just pm me if you want to read it. It's lovely


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 11, 2006)

The Safety Of Objects, short stories by AM Homes


----------



## dynamicbaddog (Nov 11, 2006)

I was going to buy Stephen King's new book yesturday as it was on special offer at Smiths, but I read the dust jacket and did'nt fancy it much - it did'nt sound very scary at all  - I'll wait till it comes out in paperback.
Just started A Matter of Convicton by Evan Hunter written in the 50s it _'examines juvenille delinquency and race hatred in New York's jungle'_ - according to the cover it was made into afilm called The Young Savages which starred Burt Lancaster & Shelly Winters.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Nov 11, 2006)

Just finished _So the wind won't blow it all away_ by Brautigan. Apparently critics didn't rate his later work (this was the last thing he wrote before he killed himself in '84) but I was stunned by it. He writes like a genius - he creates the most simple and stunning prose that is almost poetry. I cannot recommend him enough  I just got back from Brum where I bought the last 3 of his books I didn't already own - _An unfortunate woman_, _in watermelon sugar_ and _A confederate general from big sur_. 

I'm not going to go on right away and read them, I'm starting Martin Amis' _Money_ next. 

I also bought Eugenides' _The virgin suicides_ today too - I've read _Middlesex_ and enjoyed it a lot - it took me a while to get through it but it was worth it, and I've heard great things of his other book.

Again, don't forget if anyone wants to read Brautigan's short story 'The weather in San Francisco' just pm me


----------



## wiskey (Nov 11, 2006)

currently reading_ I Have America Surrounded_ - the biog of Timothy Leary. 

quite interesting


----------



## chooch (Nov 11, 2006)

Just starting _the moviegoer_ by Walker Percy, and some in-between Borges.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Nov 11, 2006)

_Mis geniales predecesores_ por Gary Kasparov (volumen II - de Euwe a Tal).


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 11, 2006)

Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> Just finished _So the wind won't blow it all away_ by Brautigan. Apparently critics didn't rate his later work (this was the last thing he wrote before he killed himself in '84) but I was stunned by it. He writes like a genius - he creates the most simple and stunning prose that is almost poetry. I cannot recommend him enough  I just got back from Brum where I bought the last 3 of his books I didn't already own - _An unfortunate woman_, _in watermelon sugar_ and _A confederate general from big sur_.



I love Brautigan, and agree that his last book was great.. I get annoyed that he's so undervalued




			
				Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> I also bought Eugenides' _The virgin suicides_ today too - I've read _Middlesex_ and enjoyed it a lot - it took me a while to get through it but it was worth it, and I've heard great things of his other book.



absolutely astonishing book, some of the finest writing I've read in years.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Nov 11, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> I love Brautigan, and agree that his last book was great.. I get annoyed that he's so undervalued
> 
> <snip>
> 
> absolutely astonishing book, some of the finest writing I've read in years.



I'm looking forward to reading the Eugenides then, if another Brautigan fan loves it  

I seem to remember seeing that my uni online resources have some stuff about Brautigan, but confess I haven't checked it out. I must remember to.


----------



## bellator (Nov 12, 2006)

The Historian, enjoying it!


----------



## Fledgling (Nov 12, 2006)

Reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez which is wonderful novel although a bit of a head fuck and porbably contains a lot more than I can see.


----------



## Nikkormat (Nov 12, 2006)

Fledgling said:
			
		

> Reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez which is wonderful novel although a bit of a head fuck and porbably contains a lot more than I can see.



I read that a few years ago after a girl I fancied said it was her favourite book. I enjoyed it, but I ought to read it again because I probably missed a lot.

Past couple of weeks I've read Antony Beevor's Battle for Spain, a book of Norse sagas, Wilfred Thesiger's Danakil Diary, and I've just started Island Years by Frank Fraser Darling. The joys of being on the dole


----------



## Vintage Paw (Nov 12, 2006)

Started reading _The Virgin Suicides_ last night. Very, very good so far. Will probably retire early with some cookies and hot chocolate and finish it off


----------



## sojourner (Nov 12, 2006)

Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> Started reading _The Virgin Suicides_ last night. Very, very good so far. Will probably retire early with some cookies and hot chocolate and finish it off


Good book


I'm currently heading towards the finish line of Postcards by Annie Proulx.  Took me a while to get into it, but have spent the afternoon just _gripped_ by Loyal Blood, Mernelle, Jewell, Ott, Mrs Nipple, Ben Rainwater, Crazy Eyes, and all the rest of the characters in this story. Excellent story-telling once again by Ms P


----------



## Witness01 (Nov 12, 2006)

Just started reading _The Virgin Suicides_ too.

I bought the book on the strength of the air track _Suicide Underground _ which I heard for the first time last week.

Thanks for the hot choc & cookies idea Vintage Paw


----------



## SubZeroCat (Nov 12, 2006)

Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> Started reading _The Virgin Suicides_ last night. Very, very good so far. Will probably retire early with some cookies and hot chocolate and finish it off



I love reading in the comfort of my own bed. Me and the boyf often read before going to sleep like an old couple in a sitcom   

At the moment I'm studying "Instant Spanish" in order to improve my Spanish - I've realised I can read it aloud easily and understand most of it. I just need to learn how to speak it.

I'm also starting a book called 2 Girls by Perihan Magden (no it's not chick lit).


----------



## Plato1983 (Nov 12, 2006)

Yukio Mishima's Report to the Emperor, by Richard Appignanesi.


----------



## kakuma (Nov 12, 2006)

i read a load of miss marple stuff in the bath today


----------



## Vintage Paw (Nov 12, 2006)

Witness01 said:
			
		

> Just started reading _The Virgin Suicides_ too.
> 
> I bought the book on the strength of the air track _Suicide Underground _ which I heard for the first time last week.
> 
> Thanks for the hot choc & cookies idea Vintage Paw



 

It's lovely to sit in bed, all snuggly and warm, with a good book, taking sips of velvety rich hot chocolate  

Hope you enjoy the book as much as I am doing.


----------



## tastebud (Nov 12, 2006)

ooh i must read the virgin suicides at some point. middlesex was quite good. 
i seem to be reverting back to adolescence at the mo' by reading books & short stories by ray bradbury & raymond chandler.


----------



## chooch (Nov 12, 2006)

tastebud said:
			
		

> middlesex was quite good.


The virgin suicides is much better.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 12, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> The virgin suicides is much better.




Just watched the movie. Very good, but I wish I'd seen it before I read the book, it was a bit frustrating in places. Having said that, the POV of the Virgin Suicides - a kind of indistinct collective male narration - must have been a fucker to make into a film so Coppola did well


----------



## tastebud (Nov 12, 2006)

*teh virgin suicides*

my friend has the film, i always thought i'd seen it, but don't remember it. maybe i haven't... could be my early onset dementia i guess.

will get the book from the library at some point though. middlesex was good, definitely not perfect - maybe needed another edit or something - but in parts, impressively well written.


----------



## thought (Nov 12, 2006)

Charlottes web!

O.k. I am reading it to my two year old at night, but not got any other book on the boil other than a factual thing on Ann Frank.


----------



## Fledgling (Nov 13, 2006)

Nikkormat said:
			
		

> I read that a few years ago after a girl I fancied said it was her favourite book. I enjoyed it, but I ought to read it again because I probably missed a lot.
> 
> Past couple of weeks I've read Antony Beevor's Battle for Spain, a book of Norse sagas, Wilfred Thesiger's Danakil Diary, and I've just started Island Years by Frank Fraser Darling. The joys of being on the dole



Beevor's works are a great intro to the conflict, although I've yet to read the updated versions. If you found the subject interesting I'd think about reading the Spanish Cockpit by Borkenau which manages to successfully combine eyewitness accounts and a decent analysis of the mid conflict politics.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 13, 2006)

*Safety of Objects*

I kind of enjoyed these, but perhaps there's not enough variety in them. Once you've seen one of her childish middle-aged men fuck up in the middle of the American plenty, you've seen them all.

Now it's The Devil's Home On Leave by Derek Raymond.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 13, 2006)

Angela Davis - An Autobiography.

i'm kinda flying through it, and determined to finish, but it's a fairly uninspiring read. It was written in 1972, just after she was acquitted of the Marin Courthouse charges, and veers between that and her background / childhood. It's so dry and, well, not triumphalist exactly, but little things - a few words of support from a fellow black female inmate - turn into an inspiring show of solidarity from another opressed sister. I understand WHY she writes it like that, but it almost veers into parody at times. Having said that, she's an interesting woman and they were interesting times so I'll stick with it..


----------



## (empty) (Nov 13, 2006)

Since last night - Lapedo, Uma Criança do Vale ( Lapedo, a child from the valley)
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





The most controversial pre-historic child in the archaeological fields in Portugal.


----------



## maya (Nov 13, 2006)

(empty) said:
			
		

> The most controversial pre-historic child in the archaeological fields in Portugal.


sounds intriguing- what was the controversy?


----------



## zenie (Nov 13, 2006)

*Went to the library today*

Got a load of books one of which was 






Even though foamy said it was shit I fancied reading it anyway 

and 






Which looks interesting


----------



## madamv (Nov 13, 2006)

The men who stare at Goats...  Jon Ronson.

Just finished Making History by Stephen Fry.  Very interesting, and funny.


----------



## wiskey (Nov 13, 2006)

madamv said:
			
		

> The men who stare at Goats...  Jon Ronson.



really, i'd be interested in hearing what you think of it as i was thinking about findin a copy.


----------



## wiskey (Nov 13, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> The virgin suicides is much better.



middlesex was the last book that had me demanding more. i'm getting around to readin the virgin suicides


----------



## andyefc (Nov 13, 2006)

zenie said:
			
		

> Got a load of books one of which was
> 
> 
> 
> ...


jake arnott a top read


----------



## madamv (Nov 13, 2006)

wiskey said:
			
		

> really, i'd be interested in hearing what you think of it as i was thinking about findin a copy.


When I'm done I could wing it to ya


----------



## SubZeroCat (Nov 13, 2006)

wiskey said:
			
		

> middlesex was the last book that had me demanding more.



I loved Middlesex. I must read The Virgin Suicides! I have another Murakami book to read and a french book called La Petite Absente by Didier Cohen - I haven't read a book in French for yeeeaaarrs


----------



## Pieface (Nov 14, 2006)

Lanark - Alasdair Gray.

Fucking loving it - that man's imagination!!  Am wondering if any is autobiographical....some of the passages when Lanark is a kid ring so.....true that I'm a wondering.  He has power fantasies that feel a bit familiar too  !!!   It's deliciously long as well, which I relish when I'm loving a book - partly why I loved Middlesex so much (I can't be as critical as tastebud with that one) - I didn't want it to end!


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 14, 2006)

Finished The Devil's Home On Leave, which isn't vintage Raymond but good fun all the same.

Now I'm reading The Patriot Game by George V Higgins. Higgins is brilliant, but this is the first of his I've read for 12 years or so. It feels good to be back.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Nov 14, 2006)

Yep, I'd say I'm preferring _The Virgin Suicides_ to _Middlesex_, but they are very different books, in style, subject and length, so it is tough to make a straight comparison. _Middlesex_ was a top read, but I think I'm more hooked with this one. 

I haven't seen the fillum, but I plan to rent it once I've finished reading.

Anyone read _The Hours_? I've got it on dvd from the library at the moment but don't know whether I should read it first. I prefer to read the book before seeing the film, but with this one I'm not sure it matters. Should I read _Mrs Dalloway_ before watching it though?


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 14, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> Lanark - Alisdair Gray.
> 
> Fucking loving it - that man's imagination!!  Am wondering if any is autobiographical....some of the passages when Lanark is a kid ring so.....true that I'm a wondering.  He has power fantasies that feel a bit familiar too  !!!   It's deliciously long as well, which I relish when I'm loving a book - partly why I loved Middlesex so much (I can't be as critical as tastebud with that one) - I didn't want it to end!


I've had that next to my bed for over a year - it's got a thick layer of dust on it!


----------



## Pieface (Nov 14, 2006)

you must read of it monkeyman.


----------



## tastebud (Nov 14, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> (I can't be as critical as tastebud with that one)


really? i think i just found it initially quite hard to get into. i found that some of it was just so impressively well written - i used to remember exactly which bits; towards the end - but then i don't know, some of it not so.
one of my friends really loved it - was raving about it & persuaded me to read it - but then she never actually finished it.

edit: in bed i'm reading michel houllebecq's newest book. he's such a cu*t that man. 
on the tube i'm reading angela carter - wise children.


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 14, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> you must read of it monkeyman.


I shall - there's a big pile in that 'in-tray' gathering dust - I need to take two months off work to read it - will someone break my leg or something?


----------



## Pieface (Nov 14, 2006)

tastebud said:
			
		

> really? i think i just found it initially quite hard to get into. i found that some of it was just so impressively well written - i used to remember exactly which bits; towards the end - but then i don't know, some of it not so.
> one of my friends really loved it - was raving about it & persuaded me to read it - but then she never actually finished it..



I know what you mean about the start - I just forgave it because the story was incredible.  I get suckered in by good characters quite easily and end up loving them so much I don't mind the book rambling - it just felt "epic", which tied in nicely with the Greek themes.



> edit: in bed i'm reading michel houllebecq's newest book. he's such a cu*t that man.



I haven't read any of him - apart from a magazine interview that was designed to wind female readers up I think - he came across as a total prick and what's worse doesn't seem to care a jot, which made my fury feel all the more pointless   .  

They had a show of Atomised (edit: actually - it could have been Platform, can't remember) on at the ICA ages ago that I went to see.  Was rather odd - we all went and sat in an individual peep show booth and the slot opened and we watched this guy acting scenes out as a voice read what I guess were passages from the book.  It didn't work.  I felt like I was in an edgy 6th form adaptation.  Disbelief is hard to suspend when you have a cardboard booth thingy round you that's wobbling and you're trying to see what the folk peeping through the other slots look like.  I think I was supposed to feel dirty


----------



## tastebud (Nov 14, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> I know what you mean about the start - I just forgave it because the story was incredible.  I get suckered in by good characters quite easily and end up loving them so much I don't mind the book rambling - it just felt "epic", which tied in nicely with the Greek themes.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 That’s bizarre!
MH: He’s a revolting writer. Sexist, racist, xenophobic. I don’t know why I go back for more. I often do that with writers I hate. I guess it’s good to remain aware of such vileness or something.
Yeah I agree with you about the characters in Middlesex though. I completely fell in love with Desdemona & Lefty.


----------



## Pieface (Nov 14, 2006)

Desdemona is so cool.  It was like a long ugly duckling retelling.  She ends up so beautiful and special.

I mean Calliope don't I?


----------



## wiskey (Nov 14, 2006)

madamv said:
			
		

> When I'm done I could wing it to ya



that would be great cheers  

now just gotta find a copy of the electric koolade acid test - i think my dads got it somewhere


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 14, 2006)

Desdemona just makes me think of Kids From Fame


----------



## tastebud (Nov 14, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> Desdemona is so cool.  It was like a long ugly duckling retelling.  She ends up so beautiful and special.
> 
> I mean Calliope don't I?


yeah you lost me. but i just assumed that my memory was failing me once again.
yeah calliope is the main character for most of the book i think... desdemona is the grandmother or perhaps even great grandmother. can't remember.


----------



## Lea (Nov 15, 2006)

Reading Phoenix and Ashes by Mercedes Lackey. It's set during WWI but has a fantasy/magical element.


----------



## Diamond (Nov 15, 2006)

'The March' by E.L. Doctorow.

Hadn't heard about the author or the book and was just browsing in a bookstore and made an impusle buy. I haven't come across such an involving, richly textured and all round brilliant read for a long time. Highly recommended.

It's about General Sherman's march through Georgia and the Carolinas in the final stages of the Civil War btw.


----------



## chooch (Nov 16, 2006)

Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> Yep, I'd say I'm preferring _The Virgin Suicides_ to _Middlesex_,


Yep. Think _the virgin suicides_ is a masterpiece of sense-tickling - there are paragraphs in there where the voice is so perfect. 
_Middlesex_ is good, and very likeable, but doesn't have that sustained fingersnapping rightness, for me.


----------



## sojourner (Nov 16, 2006)

Picked up The Proud Highway for the first time in a few years last night (Hunter S Thompson), and began from the beginning, which I've never done with that book before.  

It's a good book to kill time with until my one for the bookclub review comes through.


----------



## DotCommunist (Nov 16, 2006)

Steven Erikson's the Bonehunters. It's well good.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 16, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> Yep. Think _the virgin suicides_ is a masterpiece of sense-tickling - there are paragraphs in there where the voice is so perfect.
> _Middlesex_ is good, and very likeable, but doesn't have that sustained fingersnapping rightness, for me.




Fingersnapping rightness is a brilliant way of putting it. He's fantastically on the ball in that book, you're just THERE.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Nov 16, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Fingersnapping rightness is a brilliant way of putting it. He's fantastically on the ball in that book, you're just THERE.



I finished it and loved it. Amazing book. It just flows before your eyes so perfectly. At one point it crossed my mind that 'hang on, I've only got 50 pages to go and the 4 sisters don't seem anywhere near like killing themselves' and worried it might get all anti-climatic - but it didn't at all. I think it's a book about the boys almost as much as it's a book about the girls. Damn, someone make the man write more!

Now reading _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_ - Mark Twain. So far so good - very funny. Not far in yet though - just about to switch off the net of doom and get stuck in with a nice mug of hot choc  

So much to read, so little time


----------



## (empty) (Nov 16, 2006)

maya said:
			
		

> sounds intriguing- what was the controversy?



Some people say that he is half neanderthal and half sapiens sapiens  (modern).  He lived 25000 years ago. Neanderthal's extinguished 29000 years ago. Thats the main controversy.


----------



## foamy (Nov 16, 2006)

Slow Man - J.M. Coetze.
i loved Disgrace and i'm loving this too. cant wait to read more of his stuff


----------



## Julie (Nov 16, 2006)

Jonestown by Chris Masters: an expose of one of Sydney's most notorious  shock jocks: Alan Jones. Juicy reading but not that much of a shocker.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 17, 2006)

Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> Now reading _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_ - Mark Twain. So far so good - very funny. Not far in yet though


 
It's brilliant. I think Twain wrote two of the greatest books ever written -- that one and Huck Finn. He was a stonecold genius.




			
				Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> So much to read, so little time



I'm going to die trying to read everything


----------



## Paris Garters (Nov 17, 2006)

Just finished Gone with the wind, and thought it was fucking incredible. The racism was  at first, but i found the story so compelling that it just bypassed it for me. Or maybe it's because it's so blatant and overblown that you just end up ignoring it, or maybe because it's part of the whole context, I dunno. It must have been pretty damaging at the time, but it's so not what the book's about...I'd be interested to hear other peoples thoughts on it.

Now reading Daughter of Fortune, Isabel allende. Read a couple of her books before (Eva Luna and House of the Spirits), and it has a lot of recurrent themes that turn up in those books... still good though. I love her. Strong individualistic female characters, trashing religious hypocrisy, a bit of magical realism...and just waiting for the hot revolutionary guerilla action to kick in. Aah, lovely.


----------



## Lea (Nov 17, 2006)

Just started The Ghost Writer by John Harwood. 

http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Writer-John-Harwood/dp/B000I5YUJE/sr=8-1/qid=1163777352/ref=sr_1_1/102-4835220-9789767?ie=UTF8&s=books


----------



## Reg in slippers (Nov 17, 2006)

lunar park, easily ellis' best work to date


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 17, 2006)

Finished The Patriot Game by George V Higgins. I like his books a lot. This one kind of fades, but Higgins is one of those writers you spend a couple of hundred pages in the _presence of_. Killer dialogue, acutely observed characters, a great performance, as always. Read him if you haven't, but his books are quite difficult to get hold of these days, inexplicably. Except The Friends of Eddie Coyle, which is just brilliant and a good place to start.

Now, dunno. Drop City or the latest George Saunders.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 18, 2006)

Enjoying Drop City, but only 70 pages or so in


----------



## chooch (Nov 18, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> the latest George Saunders.


..will take about 30 seconds.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 18, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> ..will take about 30 seconds.



Better than most writers' half-hours.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Nov 19, 2006)

Reg in slippers said:
			
		

> lunar park, easily ellis' best work to date



Brilliant book - beautifully self-referential in the most teen-sniggering way, I love it


----------



## story (Nov 19, 2006)

I'm reading The Mind In The Cave by David Lewis Williams.

Fascinating stuff, to be sure, but a little heavy going in places if you're not interested in the philosophy or history of archeological study.


----------



## chooch (Nov 19, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Better than most writers' half-hours.


Aye.
Finished _the moviegoer_. Liked it very much.
Now starting A.M. Homes _Jack_.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 19, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> Finished _the moviegoer_. Liked it very much.



Great book, ending a bit damp and Catholic though.


----------



## tangerinedream (Nov 19, 2006)

just read the play 'penetrator' by Anthony Neilson. Enjoyed it. Short and not very sweet. Having said that, wasn't exactly life changing but there we go.


----------



## zenie (Nov 19, 2006)

zenie said:
			
		

> Got a load of books one of which was
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Honestly dont bother reading this, it's like a teen horror ala Point Horror books


----------



## foamy (Nov 19, 2006)

it is well rubbish isnt it?

it starts off: " i'd just taken the second pill when i got a call from dad to say that mum died" and you go "ooooooooooh this could get, wait, no, dull as fuck!!!"


----------



## chooch (Nov 20, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> Now starting A.M. Homes _Jack_.


And now finished. That was good. Must read more.


----------



## zenie (Nov 21, 2006)

foamy said:
			
		

> it is well rubbish isnt it?
> 
> it starts off: " i'd just taken the second pill when i got a call from dad to say that mum died" and you go "ooooooooooh this could get, wait, no, dull as fuck!!!"



Yep it's shocking!! Glad I didnt buy it now 

Just started off reading 






The Blue Place - Nicola Griffith

It was in the gay/lesbian section so I am hoping for a bit of lesbo smut somewhere


----------



## han (Nov 21, 2006)

^^looks interesting!

Talking of lesbo smut, I'm reading Dusty Springfield's autobiography at the moment....

Bit of a naughty girl, our Dusty....


----------



## zenie (Nov 21, 2006)

han said:
			
		

> ^^looks interesting!
> 
> Talking of lesbo smut, I'm reading Dusty Springfield's autobiography at the moment....
> 
> Bit of a naughty girl, our Dusty....




From the first few pages it seems she is a hot US COP lets hope she uses her trunchoen somewhere




*gets coat*



Dusty Springfield? 

Really?


----------



## han (Nov 21, 2006)

zenie said:
			
		

> From the first few pages it seems she is a hot US COP lets hope she uses her trunchoen somewhere



 

oh yes Dusty was a right goer - a lover of laydeez, lines and liquor


----------



## Jim Colyer (Nov 22, 2006)

INTO THE WILD
by Jon Krakauer

This is the story of Chris McCandless, a young man from an affuent family who graduated with honors from Emory University in Atlanta. In April, 1992, Chris set off into the Alaska wilderness with a rifle and meager supplies to "live off the land." He headed north of Denali National Park. He was idealistic and strongly influenced by the writings of Thoreau and Tolstoy. Four months later, he was found dead by a party of moose hunters in an abandoned Fairbanks city bus. He had starved to death. 

Jon Krakauer traces Chris' odyssey across the west. Chris' parents had assumed their son would go to law school with majors in history and anthropology. Instead, he secretly donated his college fund to charity and left with no word. He changed his name to Alex Supertramp. He abandoned his car and took to hitchhiking. He lived off rice. He traipsed through Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington. He was liked by the people he met. He spent time in South Dakota and worked for a man named Wayne Westerberg. He befriended an 80-year-old veteran whom he tried to convert to the nomadic life. 

Chris kept a journal in which he wrote about himself in the third person. He saw himself as a modern Thoreau. He camped in the Grand Canyon. He worked in a restaurant in Las Vegas. He revelled in his own spirit. 

Meanwhile, Chris' parents were worried sick. Krakauer documents their grief. 

Krakauer is sympathetic toward Chris and sees him as different from other wierdos who wander off in the wilderness. Chris' story and Krakauer's merge. Krakaeur grew up in Oregon and was taught mountain climbing by his father. He spent time in Alaska as a young man and climbed a peak known as Devils Thumb. He writes about it in detail, relating his mistakes and the unforgiving nature of mountains, ice and freezing temperatures. He questions why he survived his Alaska adventure while Chris perished in his. 

It got out of hand with Chris. At least, it would seem so. His disregard for his parents and contempt for the rules of society are hard to defend. His asceticism and high-mindedness are extreme. He became an aimless drifter, a selfish nonconformist. 

We are shown the source of Chris' resentment toward his father. His father had a second family by a first marriage. Apparently, it was a factor in this prodigal son's celibacy. 

Krakauer admits the gap between himself and his own father, finding it impossible to live the life his father had in mind. 

As his wanderlust grew, Chris thought more and more of Alaska. He hitched a ride from Dawson Creek in Canada up the Alaska Highway to Fairbanks. He bought a rifle and hitched again on the George Parks Highway toward the wilderness. He wanted to escape all signs of civilization. He saw Mt. Kinley in the distance. He found the bus and made it his home. For awhile, he was able to live off birds, squirrels and other small game. Krakauer's theory that Chris was poisoned by eating wild potato seeds may or may not be true. Krakauer did not want to believe Chris was suicidal or had a death wish as critics have proposed. Still, Chris was not that far into the bush and might have saved himself had he the will to do so. A year later, Krakauer escorted his parents to the bus. 

Krakauer went on to climb Mt. Everest, an expedition during which several of his party perished. He turned the disaster into another bestseller, "Into Thin Air." 

"Into the Wild" is being made into a movie starring Emile Hirsch and Vince Vaughn. Sean Penn will direct. It is due in 2007. Jon Krakauer's original story first appeared in Outside magazine.


----------



## han (Nov 23, 2006)

now I'm reading a book about the link between breast cancer and dairy products.

Whoopeedoo.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Nov 23, 2006)

Ooh that sounds interesting Han, what's it called?

I'm reading Kafka on The Shore by Haruki Murakami - I love his books but this one has me chuckling when the talking cat comes along (I love him!!!)


----------



## sojourner (Nov 23, 2006)

I've started The Secret Life of Bees.  Only got it cos I was meant to be writing a review for it, but it's that turgid, and fey, I've managed 20 pages, in bits, and had to admit I can't do the review cos it'll take me a lifetime to get through it.  Thinkin on, though, I could always just do a review that says 'this is shit, don't waste your money on it, it's shallow it's lame it's worthless'.  Not sure it'd fit the word count though


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 23, 2006)

Who do you review for, or would that be giving the game away?


----------



## sojourner (Nov 23, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Who do you review for, or would that be giving the game away?


A community mag (nowt famous in case you were wondering ), only just started doin it n all   that'll go down well won't it?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 23, 2006)

sojourner said:
			
		

> A community mag (nowt famous in case you were wondering ), only just started doin it n all   that'll go down well won't it?



Fun though, and free books, etc. Never done it, too prolix


----------



## chooch (Nov 23, 2006)

Reading _Music for torching_. Liking it.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 23, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> Reading _Music for torching_. Liking it.



It's great. Homes becomes a bit of an addiction.


----------



## sojourner (Nov 23, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> prolix


What does that mean?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 23, 2006)

Uses too many words.


----------



## sojourner (Nov 23, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Uses too many words.


You didn't then


----------



## sojourner (Nov 23, 2006)

I got editted down meself - they cut out the best most important bits! Drove me mad - I'd set out in openin para what I was gonna discuss, and they cut out a bit that was relevant to it!


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 23, 2006)

Nah, no opening para to discuss, just get right into it.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 25, 2006)

Finished Drop City by TC Boyle. Good story, but as with the other one of Boyle's I read (Inner Circle), he loses his grip about 2/3rds of the way through, the writing loosens up and repeats itself too much, occasionally reading like the notes he must have made for the novel. I dunno, loss of interest maybe. I think he boxed himself in a bit with the subject.


----------



## ice-is-forming (Nov 25, 2006)

atm, The Talented Mr Ripley.


----------



## chooch (Nov 25, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Finished Drop City by TC Boyle. Good story, but as with the other one of Boyle's I read (Inner Circle), he loses his grip about 2/3rds of the way through


I think that's a fair point. All of his that I've read have tailed off some; but I still think he has such a gift, when he feels like exercising it, that his books are a pleasure.


----------



## sojourner (Nov 26, 2006)

Started Henry Rollins - Black Coffee Blues and swiftly realised it's one for the plane next week.

So got stuck into Kill your Darlings by Terence Blacker - fuckin hilarious! Tony Watson has just GOT to be Will Self! It's incisive, self-mocking, self-referential - am loving it


----------



## May Kasahara (Nov 26, 2006)

Recently read:

"Pretty Boy" - Lauren Henderson. Utterly shit crime novel I picked up from the staffroom cos I had nothing else to read; hideously self-regarding 'urban cool' wankery. Avoid.

"Bad Chili" - Joe R Lansdale. Utterly brilliant crime novel from the East Texas legend, another rip thru in two days classic. Dirty nurses, gay violence, grease-napping, electric shock torture, and packed full as ever of laconic, hilarious dialogue. All in all, the best £2.80 I've ever spent in a charity shop.

Next I am supposed to be reading 'Pride and Prejudice' for my book club, but keep forgetting to get it out of the library. I bet when I go in, I get seduced by something more exciting.


----------



## sojourner (Nov 26, 2006)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> I bet when I go in, I get seduced by something more exciting.


Like, a soggy bus ticket, wedged in between the welcome mat and the mat well


----------



## May Kasahara (Nov 26, 2006)

You're a very bad cat (and probably right).

I have read P+P before and seem to recall enjoying it, but right now I'm so much more in the mood for crime and thrillers which, let's face it, JA doesn't really know much about. Not counting social crimes or the thrill of having your corset pulled too tight, of course.


----------



## sojourner (Nov 26, 2006)

May Kasahara Not counting social crimes or the thrill of having your corset pulled too tight said:
			
		

> Or using 3 billion words when a sentence would suffice
> 
> i fuckin HATE p+p, with a passion. I hate loads of that ilk...the only decent book (which admittedly came a fair bit later) was Wuthering Heights. imVHo of course


----------



## May Kasahara (Nov 26, 2006)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Or using 3 billion words when a sentence would suffice



Which is exactly the reason I loathe George Eliot. Hate, hate, hate her!


----------



## sojourner (Nov 26, 2006)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> Which is exactly the reason I loathe George Eliot. Hate, hate, hate her!


 And why I loathe and detest Charlotte Bronte. Villette - that's 3 days of my life I'll never get back  (I only read it all the way through cos it was a set book on a module)

Charlotte Bronte - you're a boring cunt


----------



## May Kasahara (Nov 26, 2006)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Charlotte Bronte - you're a boring cunt



I'm going to get that put on a t-shirt and wear it every day.

We were supposed to read 'Middlemarch' for one of my core modules at uni. Thank god I'm one of life's blaggers! The only use it ever got in my house was  as a doorstop.


----------



## sojourner (Nov 26, 2006)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> *I'm going to get that put on a t-shirt and wear it every day.*
> We were supposed to read 'Middlemarch' for one of my core modules at uni. Thank god I'm one of life's blaggers! The only use it ever got in my house was  as a doorstop.


 

The worst is when you get cornered by a load of (usually) older women, telling you how funny it is, and how ironic it all was - and you're saying (to their utter disbelief and horror) 'no, its not funny, it's barely ironic, and yes I know how women were kept down in writing, and yes I have read A Room of Ones Own, but FOR FUCKS SAKE IT'S SHIT'

ahem


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 26, 2006)

I think Middlemarch is one of the greatest English novels. Austen is wicked too. So nuur


----------



## chooch (Nov 26, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> Reading _Music for torching_. Liking it.


Finished it. Liked it. Quite brutal innit.
Now taking up with William Gaddis _JR_ again, after a trial separation.


----------



## May Kasahara (Nov 27, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I think Middlemarch is one of the greatest English novels. Austen is wicked too. So nuur



Like a moth to a flame!


----------



## Arafat (Nov 27, 2006)

Bash The Rich - Ian Bone.  A lot of it's set in Swansea (my hometown), so I'm really enjoying it.


----------



## bluestreak (Nov 27, 2006)

been re-reading peter ackroyd's london the last week or so.  one of the best non-fiction texts ever and one of my desert-island books!


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 27, 2006)

The Macguffin by Stanley Elkin


----------



## sojourner (Nov 27, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> The Macguffin by Stanley Elkin


any good?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 27, 2006)

sojourner said:
			
		

> any good?



It started off slowly but I'm getting into it. He's got quite a singular style -- easy to enjoy but not so easy on the eye, iyswim. He's another one of those wisecracking American writers loved by all the American writers you love, but not really read very much. It's fun seeking them out. You read any of his stuff?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 27, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> I think that's a fair point. All of his that I've read have tailed off some; but I still think he has such a gift, when he feels like exercising it, that his books are a pleasure.



Pleasure's right, and there's some magic writing in the first half of Drop City.


----------



## sojourner (Nov 28, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> It started off slowly but I'm getting into it. He's got quite a singular style -- easy to enjoy but not so easy on the eye, iyswim. He's another one of those wisecracking American writers loved by all the American writers you love, but not really read very much. It's fun seeking them out. *You read any of his stuff*?


Nah, but have read about him, and am quite intrigued. Might just get something now though


----------



## J77 (Nov 28, 2006)

Dracula - Bram Stoker.

It's excellent so far


----------



## sojourner (Nov 28, 2006)

J77 said:
			
		

> Dracula - Bram Stoker.
> 
> It's excellent so far


Fantastic book that.


----------



## han (Nov 28, 2006)

SubZeroCat said:
			
		

> Ooh that sounds interesting Han, what's it called?



It's called 'Your Life in Your Hands' by Professor Jane Plant. (about the link between Breast Cancer and dairy products, in case anyone else is interested...).

It's very good - she's a scientist (the head of the British Geological Survey), and so she has made sure that her theories have some basis in scientific truth.

It's interesting that in countries where few dairy products are eaten, the incidence of breast cancer is virtually nil....and in China they call it the 'rich woman's disease'.

On an even jollier note, now I'm reading 'I Escaped From Auschwitz', by Josef Vrba. One of the most unputdownable, unbelievable and amazing books I have ever read. He was one of the only people to have ever escaped from Aushwitz and document it - he spent 2 years there which was far longer than most managed to survive.....


----------



## May Kasahara (Nov 28, 2006)

You're really bringing the fun in just now, han!


----------



## May Kasahara (Nov 28, 2006)

Mind you, as someone who's been irresistably drawn to trash of late, I salute your seriousness. My intellectual rigour is only millimetres above Jeffrey Archer ATM


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 28, 2006)

I'm reading something very middlebrow - The Time Traveller's Wife - it seems OK actually - it does have a title obviously dreamt up my the marketing department though


----------



## Badgers (Nov 28, 2006)

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe


----------



## han (Nov 28, 2006)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> You're really bringing the fun in just now, han!



 

Trash is good though innit...I'm definitely up for a bit of that next! Some Jilly Cooper or sommat


----------



## Taxamo Welf (Nov 28, 2006)

Give The Anarchist A Cigarrette by Mick Farren

i thought thora had reccommnended this but it turns out she didn't...

Its not very good unless you like the anecdotes about 60's 'underground' figures like Pink Floyd or writers at International times.

At about half way in, he most certainly is not an ancrhist - or even particularly concerened with politics. There was plenty going on @ the time which he doesn't mention. Most of the characters he describes in 'the underground' seem like m/c art school hippies not much different from hippies today.

Its written ok-ish, but he is a bit up himself and doesn't seem to realise what a name dropper he is.

I'm going to give up soon and read The Corrctions.


----------



## mitochondria (Nov 28, 2006)

Badgers said:
			
		

> The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe



really enjoyable. when i read it i wished i had been there, on the bus. 

and it is skillfully written.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 29, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> The Macguffin by Stanley Elkin



Not finished it yet, but this is a genius book.


----------



## chooch (Nov 30, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Not finished it yet, but this is a genius book.


Why so.
What's a macguffin again?


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 30, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> Why so.
> What's a macguffin again?



A McGuffin is something in a book which is there for no other reason than to drive the plot forward / bring something into being, usually quite blatantly so. Hitchcock loved 'em.

After a couple of false starts, now flying through Letham's Fortress of Solitude. The other times, the sheer weight of the writing - brilliantly descriptive but so much of it - defeated me. But when I accepted that yes, every bloody sentence was pure gold and there ya go, no point wallowing in it too much, I relaxed into it and it's absolutely brilliant, a stunning story of a young  white kid growing up in mostly-black Brooklyn in the 70s. Just wonderful - I'm wondering if Letham might be one of the 3 or 4 best writers around these days.

I'm also dipping into Anglo-English Attitudes by Geoff Dyer, collection of his 80s/90s journalism, reviews and short pieces. Lovely stuff - he's funny and he's smart.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 30, 2006)

Taxamo Welf said:
			
		

> Give The Anarchist A Cigarrette by Mick Farren
> 
> i thought thora had reccommnended this but it turns out she didn't...
> 
> ...



that's half the fun with Farren though - he's such a self-important, "i was there mannnnnnn" dick that it's funny.




			
				Taxamo Welf said:
			
		

> I'm going to give up soon and read The Corrctions.



One of the best books of the last few years.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 30, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> Why so.
> What's a macguffin again?



What Dubversion said, only Elkin, or rather his main character, enlarges it to take in the paranoid plots he invents to make himself feel younger, to get his "force" back.

It's an almost perfect novel -- amazing verbal invention, beautiful structure, very clever, lots of ideas, howlingly funny.

"You've seen the confusion on him, his brow when it furrows like terrace farming in China".


----------



## tastebud (Nov 30, 2006)

I read Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy this week. Whilst intuitively I want to agree with her perspective, I do feel that she makes big anecdotal assertions, that looked at from an anthropological or even psychological perspective, could be explained quite differently. Worth reading though.

Now I'm reading Freakonomics - Levitt & Dubner. Too early to give an opinion on this but certainly wild theories!


----------



## Wide Eyed Angel (Nov 30, 2006)

Alex Garland - Coma

Short and easy to read, no bad thing, it's alright but not inspiring and I'm not all that interested in the main character


----------



## elevendayempire (Nov 30, 2006)

MR James's collected Ghost Stories. Spooky Victoriana for Christmas, woo!  

SG


----------



## kerb (Nov 30, 2006)

for these long winter nights ive chosen 'The Brothers Karamazov'

its been on my shelf for years and not nearly as scary as i thought it would be.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Dec 1, 2006)

Finished The MacGuffin, a brilliant novel, unexpectedly moving at the end, I need to read more Stanley Elkin.

Now, maybe Happiness™ by Will Ferguson, but he used the word "scenario" on the first page so I'm not sure I want to.


----------



## Philbc03 (Dec 1, 2006)

I've nearly finished 'Life Before Man' by Margaret Atwood. I've never read one of her non-scifi pieces before and I'm not sure what to make of it really. Just 3 characters in a sort of menage-a-trois who seem only to be happy when they're miserable or making the others miserable. Not a happy work by any means.


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 1, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> After a couple of false starts, now flying through Letham's Fortress of Solitude. ...



i can now confirm it's a work of bloody genius, this book, and I can't believe it defeated me first time out. 

orang utan - give it another go!


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 1, 2006)

I'll try but I did find it rather dispiriting


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 1, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I'll try but I did find it rather dispiriting




the initial bits - long langorous scenesetting, brilliant but thick sentences - does fade and the pace and narrative really picks up. The descriptions remain brilliant but he lays it on with a lighter touch. Honestly, it's wonderful


----------



## chooch (Dec 1, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Finished The MacGuffin, a brilliant novel, unexpectedly moving at the end, I need to read more Stanley Elkin.


Waiting for this to arrive...


> "scenario"


Dear god.

Running out of stuff to read, again. Any instant recommendations of stuff I´ll be able to find at an underpowered Seville bookshop?


----------



## Augie March (Dec 1, 2006)

Just over halfway through Life of Pi by Yann Martell and quite chuffing brilliant it is too.


----------



## chooch (Dec 1, 2006)

Dr Gonzo said:
			
		

> quite chuffing brilliant it is too.


Nah.


----------



## Augie March (Dec 1, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> Nah.



Persuassive arguement there, but I have to disagree and say... yeah, it is.


----------



## tastebud (Dec 1, 2006)

Philbc03 said:
			
		

> I've nearly finished 'Life Before Man' by Margaret Atwood. I've never read one of her non-scifi pieces before and I'm not sure what to make of it really. Just 3 characters in a sort of menage-a-trois who seem only to be happy when they're miserable or making the others miserable. Not a happy work by any means.


Oh God, that book is so bloody depressing.

Don't like that book.


----------



## sojourner (Dec 1, 2006)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Started Henry Rollins - Black Coffee Blues and swiftly realised it's one for the plane next week.


Well, I've read most of this and have a few pages left, and I have to say, it's a lot better than I thought it would be.  However, he does seem to dwell on death! Death by gunshot wounds, suicide, and stabbing, mainly! Oh, and he's rather partial to sons-with-crap-parents-who-turn-into-psychos, and misogynists too.  I did actually like the structure of it, and the writing itself, but sometimes it turned into quite cringey material.  

Anyone else read any of his stuff?


----------



## maya (Dec 1, 2006)

*the burroughs paradox...*

i've come to the conclusion that i loathe Burroughs as a writer (his novels: what a waste of time! sigh),
yet feel strangely fascinated by his ramblings when not in prose form... 

i don't know what this might mean- that i regard him as a literary philosopher, more than a writer?
hmmm...


----------



## Dirty Martini (Dec 1, 2006)

He's an interesting figure I guess, good for some "did he really do that?" anecdotes, but Naked Lunch made me doubt he has any value as a novelist. It's rubbish.


----------



## Groucho (Dec 1, 2006)

Dave Renton's fantastic 'When we touched the sky'. The story of the Anti Nazi League 1977-1981.


----------



## Fledgling (Dec 2, 2006)

The Vivisector by Patrick White, heavy and occasionally superfluous. Not as good as Riders in the Chariot or Voss.


----------



## wiskey (Dec 2, 2006)

wiskey said:
			
		

> currently reading_ I Have America Surrounded_ - the biog of Timothy Leary.



so i finished this and i really enjoyed it  i'm not all that keen on leary or his practices although i recognise he did a lot of influential things, and this book accepts that he was a bit of a fool. its nicely written.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Dec 2, 2006)

Isaac Newton by James Gleick.
It's about his science stuff more than his life as such.


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 2, 2006)

Does it mention catflaps?


----------



## The Groke (Dec 2, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Does it mention catflaps?



Sicko.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Dec 2, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Does it mention catflaps?


Sadly no....I hoped it might. Still, it's a library book...I would like to read a biography that says more about the man...he was pleasingly odd.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Dec 2, 2006)

A friend gave me a copy of 'Wide Open' by Nicola Barker to read, which I have just started reading.

BB


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 2, 2006)

^^
Fantastic book


----------



## Dirty Martini (Dec 2, 2006)

Zeno's Conscience by Italo Svevo


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 2, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Zeno's Conscience by Italo Svevo




wow! i read that when I was about 15 and really enjoyed it, without being sure I necessarily got it all. Is there a big point about not letting the truth getting in the way of a good story?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Dec 2, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> wow! i read that when I was about 15 and really enjoyed it, without being sure I necessarily got it all. Is there a big point about not letting the truth getting in the way of a good story?



I'm only about 80 pages into it, but I guess it's shaping up to be a shaggy dog story of sorts. That Modernist preoccupation with how language and truth can't really connect, with the added thing that it's clearly about Svevo, but not an autobiography in the conventional sense.

There's a bit I've just read where he's trying to woo his future wife, who's one of four sisters, and he gets into the habit of regaling them with wacky stories of his life as a student. He learns years later that none of them thought the stories were true:

'And yet to a great extent those stories were true. I can't at this point say to what extent because, as I had told them to many other women before the Malfenti daughters, through no wish of my own, they had changed and become more expressive. They were true inasmuch as I could not have told them in any other version.'

I'm liking this book a lot because it's very funny, I'm trying to give up smoking, and I'm trying to write a novel set in Trieste (neither am I, etc.) 

Did you read any of his others?


----------



## trashpony (Dec 2, 2006)

I've finally got round to reading Stuart: A Life Backwards. 

It's great


----------



## Pete the Greek (Dec 2, 2006)

Just finished Louis Theroux's "The Call of the Weird"

anyone read it?

I loved it. Great portrayal of those lost souls in the States, who cling on to crazy things that give them purpose and identity.

Something always lacking, when you live in a cloneville wank fest of shopping malls and fast food chains. 

Depressing yet interesting.


----------



## Spymaster (Dec 2, 2006)

Putin's Russia by Anna Politkovskaya.

I saw a tv interview with her last week in the wake of Litvinenko's assasination and was and was properly moved by her passion and dedication. 

The book arrived this morning so I've only read the first beautifully written chapter. 

A fierce critic of Putin's regime, the author was assasinated earlier this year in Moscow.


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 2, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I'm only about 80 pages into it, but I guess it's shaping up to be a shaggy dog story of sorts. That Modernist preoccupation with how language and truth can't really connect, with the added thing that it's clearly about Svevo, but not an autobiography in the conventional sense.
> 
> There's a bit I've just read where he's trying to woo his future wife, who's one of four sisters, and he gets into the habit of regaling them with wacky stories of his life as a student. He learns years later that none of them thought the stories were true:
> 
> 'And yet to a great extent those stories were true. I can't at this point say to what extent because, as I had told them to many other women before the Malfenti daughters, through no wish of my own, they had changed and become more expressive. They were true inasmuch as I could not have told them in any other version.'



that's the fella. I might have to dig this out and give it another go 




			
				Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> (neither am I, etc.)



 




			
				Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Did you read any of his others?



never did. For a while I'm sure I thought he wrote If On A Winter's Night.. then realised that i was, in fact, a moron


----------



## avu9lives (Dec 2, 2006)

ck said:
			
		

> I'm reading "By Myself" by Lauren Bacall ; it's very good than-you very much.
> 
> What about you ?[style, class, and genius


----------



## avu9lives (Dec 2, 2006)

]I'm reading "By Myself" by Lauren Bacall ; it's very good than-you very much. 

What about you ?[style, class, and genius


----------



## Philbc03 (Dec 2, 2006)

Well, I finished 'Life Before Man' and to be honest I thought it was a dreary waste of time. Miserable characters carry on being miserable, and that's about it. One of the reviewers quoted on the blurb said it was "wonderful" and "witty". They must have been reading a different book.

I've now taken to 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' by Mark Twain. I remember being a kid and having a very real aversion to the Huckleberry Finn series they used to show during the summer hols. I hope the books are a ton better.


----------



## dynamicbaddog (Dec 3, 2006)




----------



## sojourner (Dec 3, 2006)

dynamicbaddog said:
			
		

>


fucking awful pile of shite


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 3, 2006)

I thought so too


----------



## May Kasahara (Dec 3, 2006)

Well, I still haven't managed to acquire a copy of 'Pride and Prejudice', so have given up on that and am reading Sheri Tepper's 'The True Game' instead. It's pretty good so far, although if she doesn't go deeper into the whys and wherefores of the actual game itself I shall be disappointed.


----------



## Paris Garters (Dec 4, 2006)

The music of the spheres, Emma Redfern. Late 1700's spy story, with extra serial killer action. It's intriguing enough, some good characters, but I'm not that keen on her writing. It's got a lot of interesting historical detail about the science and politics of the time, which is useful as it's contemporary to the William Blake biography I'm also (still) reading.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Dec 4, 2006)

I've currently got "Eric Gill: Man of Flesh and Spirit" by Malcolm Yorke, and "Persons and Polemics" by E.P. Thompson on the go.


----------



## muser (Dec 4, 2006)

*V*

'The elegant universe' - by brian greene, which is written in a matter of fact, conversational tone. Very repetitive in his assertion that 'that string theory says'. Though thankfully he isn't deluded by the predictions super string theory makes. I'm half way through the book and I'm not convinced this theory will be the natural successor of the grand unifying theory or QFT.
There are 5 different version of the theory, heteroic 0(32), IIA, IIB, heteroic E8 x E8. A little problematic, if not disconcerting, for those studying the theory then certainly for the lay reader.
Almost none of SST can be validated since present technology can't certifiably prove to the contrary. Though some very interesting ideas regarding calabi-yau space and the kaluza-klein theory.


----------



## krtek a houby (Dec 4, 2006)

_How the Dead Live _- Will Self
_England, England _- Julian Barnes

and just finished _The Complete Bone _- Jeff Smith. That's the one I couldn't put down, all 1300 pages of the damn thing!


----------



## onemonkey (Dec 4, 2006)

The Story of  Mr Sommer - Patrick Süskind

A very short fable written before he got famous, moderately inoffensive but I am so far wondering if it might end badly


----------



## H.Dot (Dec 4, 2006)

Eugene O' Neill - "A Moon For The Misbegotten" - because I'm going to see it on Wednesday


----------



## i-am-your-idea (Dec 5, 2006)

'The English Roses' by Madonna


----------



## Pie 1 (Dec 5, 2006)

sojourner said:
			
		

> fucking awful pile of shite



Thirded.
The girl in it was tribal princess, I reckon.


Just finished Jake Arnott's He Kills Coppers. - pretty good.


----------



## sleaterkinney (Dec 5, 2006)

I'm reading James Ellroy: Destination: Morgue!. 

A collection of short stories, some of them autobiographical, it's excellent - the guy's my favourite author by a long way.


----------



## citydreams (Dec 6, 2006)

sleaterkinney said:
			
		

> I'm reading James Ellroy: Destination: Morgue!.
> 
> A collection of short stories, some of them autobiographical, it's excellent - the guy's my favourite author by a long way.






			
				James Ellroy said:
			
		

> Crime crystallized crisp in my cranial cracks


----------



## Rollem (Dec 7, 2006)

just finished 'the island' by victoria hislop - nice easy read

now reading 'the scent of dried roses' by tim lott


----------



## liberty (Dec 7, 2006)

dynamicbaddog said:
			
		

>


I gave up on it


----------



## Boogie Boy (Dec 7, 2006)

'The Man In The Iron Mask' Dumas

BB


----------



## madamv (Dec 10, 2006)

Dead Babies - Martin Amis


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 10, 2006)

finished Letham's Fortress of Solitude - amazing book, ends up very different to what one would imagine.

Now reading Gideon Defoe's Pirates Adventures With The Communists - so far, so funny


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 10, 2006)

I've just started on that again Dub


----------



## Philbc03 (Dec 11, 2006)

I polished off MArk Twain's 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' on Friday. What can I say? It's absolutely brilliant. I'm looking forward to tucking into the sequel very soon.

I've now got Jake Arnott's 'truecrime' on the go, which again is really good and highly recommended.

And one last thing I managed to squeeze in Peter Taaffe's new book, 'Marxism in Today's World'. It's very readable and serves as an excellent intro to the Socialist Party. It takes the form of a question and answer session with an Italian autonomist, meaning he gets asked tougher questions than what an exuberent hack is likely to come up with. Definitely recommended.


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 11, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I've just started on that again Dub




stick with it, honestly - as i say, it settled down after a while and rather than just being pinned down by his prose it starts to flow


----------



## Pieface (Dec 11, 2006)

Philbc03 said:
			
		

> I polished off MArk Twain's 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' on Friday. What can I say? It's absolutely brilliant. I'm looking forward to tucking into the sequel very soon.



His short stories are really worth it as well


----------



## ICB (Dec 11, 2006)

Just finished "The Wolves of the Calla" part 5 of The Dark Tower by Stephen King, good kit.

Now taking a break from that series with "Shadow of the Torturer", part one of "The Book of the New Sun" by Gene Wolfe.  I picked it up because of the high praise on the cover from Ursula LeGuin and I've not been disappointed, really rather well written and full of interesting ideas.  Highly recommended.


----------



## Pieface (Dec 11, 2006)

Do you own a plastic replica broadsword, ICB?


----------



## thefishdead (Dec 11, 2006)

just read 'the devil you know' and it sequal 'vicous circle' by mike carey.
Their about a freelance exorcist working in london. Blurb describs it as 'Raymond chandler driving a herse' which is about right. The guy knows how to put a story together and his prose is far better than you would expect from the genre. Recomended.


----------



## ICB (Dec 11, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> Do you own a plastic replica broadsword, ICB?





No.  And >90% of the fantasy/sci-fi I read as a yoof would have me curling my toes in disgust these days.  Gene Wolfe is a bit different though, up there with LeGuin herself as proper literature by anyone's standards.  His wikipedia entry makes for interesting reading.


----------



## Pieface (Dec 11, 2006)

He invented the Pringles machine! !

I quite want to read some good fantasy, just don't know where to start with it.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Dec 11, 2006)

"Gone to Croatan: Origins of North American Dropout Culture" edited by Ron Sakolsky and James Koehnline, and "Sheepshagger" by Niall Griffiths.


----------



## Pieface (Dec 11, 2006)

Sheepshagger's meant to be well nasty!


----------



## thefishdead (Dec 11, 2006)

fan of griffiths not read sheepshager yet


----------



## Pieface (Dec 11, 2006)

I just finished My Year of Meat, which surprised me in some ways but had a bit of a shit ending.   

Starting Earthly Powers now - Anthony Burgess.   Good opening sentence


----------



## elevendayempire (Dec 11, 2006)

The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox. Pretty good, though the hardback is bloody heavy and difficult to lug around. I might see if the library has it on CD and copy it to the iPod.

SG


----------



## citydreams (Dec 11, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> Sheepshagger's meant to be well nasty!



Aye, it's got grit in spades.  I liked it loads.  Made a nice change from your average anti-hero.  Some lovely off-yer-head rave ramblings in there too.  

I didn't get on with any other of Griffiths books.


----------



## citydreams (Dec 11, 2006)

Just about to start Bangkok 8


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 11, 2006)

Sheepshagger is fantastic - it's got some horrendous violence in it but Griffiths' prose is so rich - his descriptions of the Welsh countryside are staggeringly beautiful - the antiheroe has a great voice too.


----------



## madamv (Dec 12, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> I quite want to read some good fantasy, just don't know where to start with it.



I really enjoyed Clive Barkers Weaveworld.  Can pop in post or send with sparklefish if you fancy it


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 12, 2006)

just started Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Froer, been meaning to get round to this for ages... Started well - made me laugh out loud on the bus


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 12, 2006)

Ti pretty good - I love the way English is so throughly mangled by Alex (is that his name?)


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 12, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Ti pretty good - I love the way English is so throughly mangled by Alex (is that his name?)




Yeh, who is doing carnal in many of the positions.


----------



## gaijingirl (Dec 12, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> I just finished My Year of Meat, which surprised me in some ways but had a bit of a shit ending.
> 
> Starting Earthly Powers now - Anthony Burgess.   Good opening sentence



I loved My year Of Meat.

Fantasy wise.. I  LOVE the Lian Hearn: Tales of the Otori series (started as a trilogy but she recently wrote a 4th).  They're just stunning!   _Sort of_ set in an unreal world, _sort of_ based on Japan and it's magical and mythical legends...

(and I'm not usually a fantasy fan at all!)


----------



## foo (Dec 12, 2006)

Regeneration - Pat Barker.

after accidentally reading the middle book of this trilogy recently, i'm now starting on this, the first one, which is a bit wierd but i'll get with it - because i know it'll be worth it. 

she is a brilliant writer.


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 12, 2006)

The whole trilogy is absolutely mind blowing - it's strange, because although it deals with people coming to terms with the effects of humanity doing its worst to itself, you still come away from reading the books with a more benevolent view of mankind than you had before reading them - this is Pat Barker's special skill and she ought to be more appreciated for it.


----------



## foo (Dec 12, 2006)

that's exactly it OU! bloody well put. 

from what i've heard she's known best for her social commentary but her characters have real depth too, and the story-lines are gripping. 

i wish she was better known/appreciated too.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Dec 12, 2006)

foo said:
			
		

> Regeneration - Pat Barker.
> 
> after accidentally reading the middle book of this trilogy recently, i'm now starting on this, the first one, which is a bit wierd but i'll get with it - because i know it'll be worth it.
> 
> she is a brilliant writer.



I read The Ghost Road, which I think is the third in the trilogy, and liked it a lot. Maybe I should go back and start at the beginning.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Dec 12, 2006)

The Mammoth Book of Erotica (various authors)

I'm too embarrassed to read it on the tube


----------



## Pieface (Dec 12, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> Starting Earthly Powers now - Anthony Burgess.   Good opening sentence



I appear to have lost Earthly Powers  

I am all at sea    It's huge....how can I have lost this tome?


----------



## ICB (Dec 13, 2006)

PieEye said:
			
		

> He invented the Pringles machine! !
> 
> I quite want to read some good fantasy, just don't know where to start with it.





The best are:

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
The Earthsea series by Ursula LeGuin (and anything else she's written)
Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, so far so excellent

everything else I've read, including Tolkein, is pretty poor up against this lot.  Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn by Robert Holdstock is also very good.

Of these King is probably the least literary but has some great ideas, Wolfe and LeGuin are probably the best writers technically speaking, some incredibly poetic prose and powerful original imagery in their stuff.


----------



## Pieface (Dec 13, 2006)

I've read part of the Wizard of Earthsea series but I didn't quite *get* it - think I was a bit young.   I want to read much more of her, she's an impressive writer.

His Dark Materials I've read aswell - I do think it's good but it has some really flawed episodes and I don't think he hits his stride until halfway through the second book.  The first one got on my nerves but I have to take into account that it is a series written for children.   He doesn't patronise his readers though and I think it's a marvellous trilogy and should be read in schools!

I'll look into Gene Wolfe - not going to read any Stephen King I'm afraid  I've read enough of his stuff and the snob in me won't allow it any more 

Found Earthly Powers   It hadn't gone too far but in the hiatus have been happily waylaid by The Pirates' Adventure with Communists.


----------



## mrkikiet (Dec 13, 2006)

if nobody speaks of remarkable things. Jon Mcgregor.


----------



## ICB (Dec 13, 2006)

I first read A Wizard of Earthsea at about 12 and loved it but when I re-read it for the first time a few years ago, along with the other four, and subsequently read it to my sons, it opened up on at least two more levels.  I still don't quite get it and perhaps never will, I suspect it resonates with insight and wisdom that's forever beyond me.  I've still got "The Other Wind", "Tales of Earthsea" and "Gifts" to look forward to. 

Haven't read any King apart from Talisman (co auth Peter Straub, superb) and the Dark Tower (great but not quite as good).  I think I'd hate his other stuff, but then I'm not a fan of any horror writing apart from classic gothic novels.  I can just about forgive his occasionaly slip up and Americanism because the ideas and characters are sufficiently compelling. 

Agree with you about Pullman, sometimes captivating, other times annoying; like the idea of it being a part of the curriculum, should be part of a critical thinking course at 14.

Holdstock is well worth a look, nothing irritating or clumsy in the style (which is high praise, I'm increasingly fussy these days) and all sorts of interesting ideas, I must get hold of Mythago Wood.

Always found Burgess a bit portentous (up his own arse).


----------



## Pieface (Dec 14, 2006)

I haven't read any Burgess so I'll see how I get on with it.  Thanks for the ideas


----------



## sunflower (Dec 14, 2006)

Just finished 'Dark Fire' by C.J Sansom. Murder mystery set in Tudor London. Absolutely brilliant and especially of interest to me as it's based around Blackfriars and St Pauls where I work. Highly recommend to anyone interested in history/London/thrillers. He really brings the past to life.Can't wait to read the next one


----------



## chooch (Dec 14, 2006)

_The Big Sleep_


----------



## Boogie Boy (Dec 14, 2006)

ICB said:
			
		

> Always found Burgess a bit portentous (up his own arse).



It does depend on how serious you imagine Burgess to have been whilst involved in writing. He can be extremely funny, often in an obvious way, but he is equally adept at the subtle reference (which may or may not be annoying or percieved as being pretentious - requiring the reader to have an assumed cultural knowledge). I really didn't enjoy 'Earthly Powers' at all, and I certainly wouldn't consider it to be typical of Burgess.

A far more enjoyable read might be 'A Dead Man In Deptford', in which Burgess gives a masterclass in conveying Elizabethan expression without resorting to heavy handed use of 'thee' and 'thou'. His short stories can be equally appealing.

BB


----------



## MightyAphrodite (Dec 15, 2006)

My favourite book ever ever ever...ive read it 20 times probably and found a copy in my sisters stuff when i was having a nose around so started it again...


----------



## Boogie Boy (Dec 17, 2006)

Just read 'The Black Tulip' by Dumas. Short and utterly pointless.

BB


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 19, 2006)

absolutely loving Everything Is Illuminated - Brod especially is an amazing character..


----------



## trashpony (Dec 19, 2006)

I'm reading the unimaginatively titled 'We Are At War' - a collection of Mass Observation diaries from WWII which was my secret santa bookgroup gift from La Hollis.

I'm enjoying it very much. I'm particuarly interested by the parallels between now and then in terms of slagging off the usual suspects - immigrants, feckless mothers and shirkers.

Plus ca change I suppose


----------



## Dirty Martini (Dec 19, 2006)

I finished Zeno's Conscience by Italo Svevo last night and loved it. Lots of stuff to think about and writing to marvel at, like all the great Modernists. Zeno is a brilliant character.




			
				Dubversion said:
			
		

> Is there a big point about not letting the truth getting in the way of a good story?



This comes into focus later in the book, particularly in the last section, where he talks about his psychoanalysis. Lots of stuff about how, as a speaker of Triestine dialect rather than Italian, he has to compromise on the truth because he doesn't have the words. And anyway, he makes a lot of stuff up to piss his analyst off 

I've started Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais, but I might leave that humming in the background while I get on with The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss.


----------



## May Kasahara (Dec 19, 2006)

I am awaiting delivery of 'Rebecca' by Daphne du Maurier and 'Rebecca's Tale' by Sally Beauman; the latter is my next bookgroup read, and gives me the kick up the arse I've always needed to read the former.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Dec 19, 2006)

I've reached a point in 'The Discovery of Heaven', by Harry Mulisch, where I am seriously considering if it is worth reading on. Usually I always finish a book once I have started it but this story has run out of steam...........


BB


----------



## chooch (Dec 19, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I finished Zeno's Conscience by Italo Svevo last night and loved it. Lots of stuff to think about and writing to marvel at, like all the great Modernists. Zeno is a brilliant character.


Looking forward to reading this when I'm in England.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Dec 20, 2006)

chooch said:
			
		

> Looking forward to reading this when I'm in England.



Have you got the William Weaver translation? It's pretty good ...


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 20, 2006)

finished Everything Is Illuminated.

Nearly made me cry on the bus.


----------



## madamv (Dec 20, 2006)

Breakfast at Tiffanys.

Never got round to it, thought it about time I did.


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 21, 2006)

Death Of A Murderer - Rupert Thomson
Excellent novel about a copper whose marriage is falling apart and has a disabled young daughter who is charged with the task of guarding the corpse of Myra Hindley - cheery stuff
Black Vinyl, White Powder - Simon Napier-Bell 
Another excellent book - about British pop music from the late 50s from a bloke who's been at the centre of it all for 40 years - lots of great scurrilous anecdotes but quite a well-written and clear eyed view of the business


----------



## Dirty Martini (Dec 21, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Black Vinyl, White Powder - Simon Napier-Bell
> Another excellent book - about British pop music from the late 50s from a bloke who's been at the centre of it all for 40 years - lots of great scurrilous anecdotes but quite a well-written and clear eyed view of the business



Have you read the other one, You Don't Have To Say You Love Me? Fun read.


----------



## avu9lives (Dec 21, 2006)

CPAG the series


----------



## D'wards (Dec 21, 2006)

Diary of Anne Frank - lovely prose.

Is this down to the translator or Anne herself?


----------



## avu9lives (Dec 21, 2006)

CPAG -mmh the series, utterworths police law, Tolleys employmet... keyoard is o strike! so o ees uzz! or ems, argh


----------



## Fledgling (Dec 22, 2006)

foo said:
			
		

> Regeneration - Pat Barker.
> 
> after accidentally reading the middle book of this trilogy recently, i'm now starting on this, the first one, which is a bit wierd but i'll get with it - because i know it'll be worth it.
> 
> she is a brilliant writer.



I saw the film with the bad dude from James Bond (Jonathan Price?) and found that very emotional, I basically sat there and wanted to shoot all the high command responsible for dragging those guys into a totally unecessary struggle. But have not read the books. 


Am now reading the Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith by Thomas Keneally which looks into Aboriginal identity from the perspective of a hard working much maligned young man. Keneally's supposed to be a good writer so this should be interesting.


----------



## madamv (Dec 22, 2006)

The playground Mafia 

Needed silly lightness for xmas period.  Have won Everything is Illuminated on ebay, after dub's excellent recommendation


----------



## spoone (Dec 23, 2006)

small gods by terry pratchett - watching the hogfather on tv put me in the mood for some pratchett, so i dug this one out. havent read it for a while and seem to remember it being rather good.

also reading a book of short stories and essays by asimov.


----------



## Abjekt (Dec 26, 2006)

"The Last Templar" by Raymond Khoury

Only just started this, it's alright. The book I read before that was "Kafka On The Shore" by Haruki Murakami which started off pretty well and then got a bit naff towards the end.


----------



## zoooo (Dec 26, 2006)

Stephen King's _Lisey's Story_.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Dec 26, 2006)

"The Spirit of Place: Nine Neo-Romantic Artists and their Times" by Malcolm Yorke.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Dec 27, 2006)

Finished Behind The Curtain - Travels in Eastern European Football by Jonathan Wilson. A really fine book, fascinating always, especially the chapters on Yugoslavia, Romania and The Caucasus. Perhaps he could have brought it together at greater length at the end, but he has insight and style. Recommend it


----------



## Nikkormat (Dec 27, 2006)

The Living Planet by David Attenborough. Very readable.


----------



## madamv (Dec 27, 2006)

The Mole People - Jennifer Toth , after reading a review/comment on here!

The lost tribes of Pop - Tom Cox,  hubs xmas gift from my folks but I am sure I will read it quicker than him, so I've snatched it


----------



## k_s (Dec 27, 2006)

Hardy's the return of the native, and Steven Jay Gould's 'the panda's thumb', which is a marvelous book that shits on anything Dawkins et al have written about evolution from a very great height.


----------



## Jim Colyer (Dec 28, 2006)

Just finished "State of Emergency" by Pat Buchanan.

Conservative Pat Buchanan takes on the tough issues of immigration, ethnicity, religion and race in a book subtitled "The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America." Buchanan sees western civilization as dying. It is not reproducing itself. Birth rates are down due to birth control and abortion. White population was 90% in 1960. It is now 67%. Hispanics make up 14.4% They outnumber blacks. As Mexicans pour into the southwest, whites are leaving California for places like Colorado. There are 12 million illegal aliens in the United States. Liberalism and multiculturalism are to blame. Buchanan faults President Bush for not enforcing immigration laws. He says the Republicans will not put a moratorium on immigration because they see Hispanics as a means of retaining power. Their lust for cheap labor is destroying America's European core as corporations erase borders and undermine nations. Materialism is their religion. Meanwhile, Anglo-Americans are in danger of becoming a minority. Is Buchanan an alarmist? He is steeped in American history. He revers Jackson and Polk. His views reflect the Eisenhower and Reagan eras. He hates globalism and sees unchecked diversity as weakening our culture. He foresees the end of the United States unless our borders are fixed. It is pointless to secure the borders of Korea and Kosovo while neglecting out own. 

According to Buchanan, there is a reconquest of the American southwest taking place, that many Mexicans feel the land was stolen from them. It is an idea taught in their schools and promoted by the Mexican government. There have been reports of the Mexican military crossing the U.S. border. America's elite does nothing about it because they are paralyzed by guilt and a fear of being labelled "racist." 

White supremacy was accepted before World War I. Everyone believed in the superiority of the white race. No one felt guilt about Indians or blacks. There was no talk of racism or imperialism. Buchanan writes, "In public life, the charge of "racism" has become modernity's equivalent of the charge of heresy during the Inquisition. 

From 1492 to 1960, Europe conquered and colonized the world. Between 1914 and 1945, the European empires committed suicide in the two worst wars in history. The European mother countries are now being overrun by the descendants of the people they once ruled. 

Moslems are overwhelming Europe as Mexicans are illegally entering the United States. Similarly, the Moslems are unwilling to give up their own culture. 

Buchanan says the real conflict is between the elites and middle and lower classes, haves and have-nots of America. The elites are loyal only to money and trans-national corporations. They no longer care about country. They hire Hispanics and Asians and pay them less. The elites do not have to live with them. They are secluded in the rich part of town. Their kids go to private schools. Third world workers are thrust on the middle and lower classes. The workers do not care for American culture. They do not want to speak English. They wave flags of the countries they came from. This is in contrast to the immigrants who came to America during the Great Wave 1890-1920. They wanted to be Americans. It was possible to assimilate them. What is going on now is not Ellis Island. 

Buchanan gives the west one last chance. Specific things must be done. There must be a moratorium on immigration, and we must decide whom we will let in after the melting pot is mended. We should accept only those who bring something to our country, preferrably English-speaking, educated Christians. We need to build a 2,000 mile fence along our sounthern border, end dual citizenship and birthright citizenship to children of illegals. We need to deport criminals. It is up to our leaders to act.


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 28, 2006)

Yeah, but he's a bigoted nutjob - are you a bigoted nutjob too?


----------



## Belushi (Dec 28, 2006)

> Moslems are overwhelming Europe



No they arent.


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 28, 2006)

If you fancy a laugh, look at Jim's website - there is some comedy gold on it. I think Jim's gonna be the main character in the next Christopher Guest film and this is some novel kind of viral pre-publicity. Look at the bio and the trip to England and Sweden especially.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Dec 28, 2006)

Jim Colyer said:
			
		

> preferrably English-speaking, educated Christians. We need to build a 2,000 mile fence along our sounthern border



We ned edoocated cristians that can spel!

Fuk of, nobchops.


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 28, 2006)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> We ned edoocated cristians that can spel!
> 
> Fuk of, nobchops.


He's an ABBA stalker too:
http://www.jimcolyer.com/papers/entry?id=3
   
And check this gem:
"I began with Trafalgar Square. Nelson's column juts into the air, surrounded by four crouching lions. It is red double-decker buses and black cabs, people and pidgeons. Big Ben could be seen in the distance. I avoided Britian's center of government. 

Behind Trafalgar Square is the National Gallery. History unfolded: Titian, Tintoretto and Renoir. The French are painters. 

I knew what to see in the British Museum, antiquities. Elgin marbles from the Greek Parthenon! These fragments are reproduced in Nashville. The Rosetta Stone is the chunk of basalt used by the Frenchman Champollion to decipher hieroglyphics. 

I sought exhibits dealing with the Viking era, 750-1050. 

I got to the Tower of London before it opened and walked around the perimeter. The best view was from the Tower Bridge over the Thames. I crossed the bridge. "Shakespeare stood by this river," I mused. 

The Tower was built by William the Conqueror after the Norman invasion of 1066. The Normans or Norsemen or Northmen were descended from Vikings. 

I rode a double-decker bus to Piccadilly Circus. I sat on top."
We have a literary giant among us.


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 28, 2006)

i HEART Jim Colyer.

i started reading Saturday by Ian McEwan before Xmas but it really is toss - some of the clumsiest writing I've come across in a while - so i got stuck into a big pile of Xmas books instead..

a photohistory of the Black Panthers
the Rough Trade label story by Rob Young
The Idler No 35 - the War On Work
London Noir, crime collection edited by Cathi Unsworth
London: City of Disappearances, edited by Ian Sinclair.

all marvellous, all better than Saturday


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 28, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> London: City of Disappearances, edited by Ian Sinclair.


My flatmate got that too - looks interesting


----------



## Dubversion (Dec 28, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> My flatmate got that too - looks interesting




Yeh, definitely a 'dipper' rather than a cover to cover, and I was intrigued to see Moorcock claiming Brixton was in SW18 (  ) but there's some great stuff in there


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 28, 2006)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Yeh, definitely a 'dipper' rather than a cover to cover, and I was intrigued to see Moorcock claiming Brixton was in SW18 (  ) but there's some great stuff in there


Good for the shitter then


----------



## muser (Dec 28, 2006)

I have just begun 'fabric of the cosmos', but want to leave it for awhile as I've just read 'the elegant universe'. dostoveysky's 'crime and punishment' has been recommended to death, but what I want to know is it well written.
I've got a special aversion to this novel without ever having read it.
I tried war and peace, and gave up on it. The novel seems as though its trying to hard to be a great story, without the necessary prose to back up its claim.
I've read 'anna karina' and would rather something that wasn't so meandering in narrative.
If anyone has read it, please lets me know if it was in keeping with your expectations (even, perhaps, surpassed them).


----------



## handy1 (Dec 28, 2006)

Just finished Hannibal rising,cornball i know but love the Lecter stories.
Just started Unforgivable Blackness,The rise and fall of Jack Johnson,looks like a guddun.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Dec 28, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> He's an ABBA stalker too:
> http://www.jimcolyer.com/papers/entry?id=3
> 
> And check this gem:
> ...



That Abba entry is truly bizarre, like it was written by touristbot or something. Or like he's just about _holding it together_.

---

I've mislaid the Gatiss book, so I'm reading Penguin Special -- The Life and Times of Allen Lane by Jeremy Lewis.


----------



## sojourner (Dec 28, 2006)

That Old Ace in the Hole - Annie Proulx

I bought my daughter the Courtney Love diary for xmas, so am making sure I leave a decent amount of time before I pounce on it!!


----------



## dynamicbaddog (Dec 28, 2006)

zoooo said:
			
		

> Stephen King's _Lisey's Story_.



Any good? I'm thinking of buying it.


----------



## elevendayempire (Dec 28, 2006)

Just finished Michael Cox's _The Meaning of Night _- a huge slab of slightly indigestible, but atmospheric Victoriana - and I'm now rattling through Mark Gatiss's _The Devil in Amber _(1920s-set romp with a bisexual James Bond/Sherlock Holmes/Oscar Wilde type fighting Devil-worshipping fascists) by way of a literary downer.

SG


----------



## Gmart (Dec 28, 2006)

Tropic of Capricorn - Henry Miller 

Pretty good so far, real flow of consciousness stuff so it can ramble, enjoying it though.


----------



## sojourner (Dec 30, 2006)

sojourner said:
			
		

> That Old Ace in the Hole - Annie Proulx


Finished the last 30 pages just before, and my god, blown away yet again by the storytelling magic of AP.  

Just started Accordion Crimes by her, and it's already shaping up brilliantly.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Dec 30, 2006)

The Dark Tower the 7th a final book in the series


----------



## obanite (Dec 31, 2006)

jeff - let me know how that turns out. I started reading the Dark Tower series pretty much when it came out, then read one of the more recent ones (#4 or #5 I think) but was skint and the next ones weren't in the library...

I'm reading Pattern Recognition by William Gibson at the moment.

Read both of Robin Hobb's latest books over Xmas, they were great, get them if you're into fantasy at all


----------



## rollinder (Dec 31, 2006)

Redemption Song: The Definitive Biography of Joe Strummer by Chris Salewicz 

- he was a lot more of a tortured fuck up than he ever really let on


----------



## Ryazan (Jan 1, 2007)

Real Images: Soviet Cinema and the Thaw by Josephine Woll.

An interesting read, placing into various contexts the oscillating breathing space that Soviet filmmakers grasped and then had to defend in regard to the "destalinization" of Soviet society after 1953, up until the late 1960's.

And...

Peasant Metropolis: Social Identities in Moscow, 1929-1941 by David Hoffman.

A fascinating little book covering the internal migration of workers to the capital during the years of rapid industrialisation.  While not delving into the more well-covered topics of collectivsation for example, these major changes are seen as factors in the background, in regard to pushing the 20 million or so peasants who entered urban areas of the Soviet Union for over a decade.  Bringing with them deep-rooted cultural differences that contradicted "proletarian" ideological constructs, and very real resistance to official leanings in regard to socialist construction of the Soviet people through politcal education as well as labour.  The book shows conflict not only between officialdom, but between other urbanized workers who looked down on the new arrivals from rural areas, people who maintained links to their rural origins and used them to adapt to their new lives in the city.


----------



## madamv (Jan 1, 2007)

Just fnished Running with scissors - Augusten Burroughs.   I really really enjoyed it, but having googled him, wonder if more than a little is fantasy. Looking forward to catching the movie.

Started Everything is Illuminated, after Dubs recommendation.  Another cant put down if the first three pages are anything to go on.

Nothing lined up after that.  I get a bit jittery if I havent at least two on the shelf awaiting my attention


----------



## Corax (Jan 1, 2007)

madamv said:
			
		

> Just fnished Running with scissors


Naughty!


----------



## madamv (Jan 1, 2007)

uh? Why?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 2, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Penguin Special -- The Life and Times of Allen Lane by Jeremy Lewis.



This was great. Really fascinating social history. Viva Penguin.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Jan 2, 2007)

Just finished re-reading Orwell's 'Homage to Catalonia', and I still find the whole narrative dull and uninspired. Also finished reading 'The Great Gatsby' by F Scott Fitzgerald which I quite enjoyed.

Not sure what I'm going to read next though.

BB


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 3, 2007)

i thought i'd have an early night - back to work tomorrow - and went to bed to start reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road. That was about 11pm.

it's 2.15am, i've finished it and i'm in bits. 

i've not read something that's made me feel quite like that in a long time.... the sense of desolation and loss and.. .. dunno. it needs thinking about and i think it will stay with me a long time


----------



## chooch (Jan 4, 2007)

Done _The Day of the Locust_ and _Miss Lonelyhearts_, by Nathaniel West, tearing through _Zeno's Conscience/Confessions of Zeno_, and just reread _Right and Left_ by Joseph Roth. About ten more lined up if I can fit them in me bag.


----------



## SubZeroCat (Jan 4, 2007)

The Wind Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami

It's my mum's favourite of his lot


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 4, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> _The Day of the Locust_ and _Miss Lonelyhearts_, by Nathaniel West



I love Nathaniel West. His books are out-of-print in the UK. Scandalous.


----------



## AnIdiot (Jan 4, 2007)

100 years of solitude got it for christmas and am loving it!!


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 4, 2007)

Stumbled straight from McCarthy's The Road to his previous book No Country For Old Men, which is what I believe they call a 'cracking read' - almost airport novel in subject matter (cross-border drug deals gone wrong, that sort of thing) but with his usual amazing language,.


----------



## chooch (Jan 4, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I love Nathaniel West. His books are out-of-print in the UK. Scandalous.


Aye. Those two were genius. Quite dark, I noticed in passing.  
Seem to be reading everything as a mauling of the human spirit these days.


----------



## May Kasahara (Jan 4, 2007)

I'm reading 'Rebecca' by Daphne du Maurier, and enjoying it a lot. She is excellent at creating one unbearable setpiece of social embarrassment after another; after a while even the narrator's happiest days are tinged with dread for the reader, as you know another semi-self-inflicted failure is just lurking nearby ready to spring out and piss in her slippers.

I doubt I'm going to read my bookclub book, 'Rebecca's Tale', in time for next Tuesday though.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 4, 2007)

Rebecca is a fantastic book - great for book group as it's ripe with ambiguity and has lots to talk about in its pages


----------



## May Kasahara (Jan 4, 2007)

I know, I'm loving it - it's a shame that it's not actually the bookgroup choice! Apparently you don't have to have read it to enjoy 'Rebecca's Tale', which IS the official choice, but I've been meaning to get round to it for ages and didn't want to ruin it for myself by reading the sequel first.

Oh well, it won't be the first bookgroup meeting where I haven't read the book (but still manage to bang on about it for ages anyway  )


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 4, 2007)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> Oh well, it won't be the first bookgroup meeting where I haven't read the book (but still manage to bang on about it for ages anyway  )


Yeah me too - supposed to be reading some feminist sci-fi for my next one and still haven't bought the book


----------



## May Kasahara (Jan 4, 2007)

Is that that Marge Piercy one 'A Woman Through Time' or something? I would let you have my mum's copy, if I hadn't purged it in some long-ago bookmoving rage. It sat on my shelf for years, unread, while my English teacher and loads of my schoolfriends went on about how great it was.

It probably is great though, don't want to put you off.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 4, 2007)

That's the one - the title put me off bigtime and I had a load of other books to read and then it was Xmas/NY. Excuses, excuses...


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 5, 2007)

Finished 'The Vesuvius Club' by Mark Gatiss, which was good camp fun.

Now I'm reading 'We Need To Talk About Kevin' (which I keep thinking is called 'There's Something About Kevin'). Her determination to write beautiful prose keeps getting in the way of the writing.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 7, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Stumbled straight from McCarthy's The Road to his previous book No Country For Old Men, which is what I believe they call a 'cracking read' - almost airport novel in subject matter (cross-border drug deals gone wrong, that sort of thing) but with his usual amazing language,.




Oh dear.

Finished this at stupid o'clock this morning and it's a real disappointment. It switches between a pretty OTT 'drug deal gone wrong, innocent man takes money and is on the run' thriller plot and the folksy ruminations of a county sheriff wondering about the state of the world. And then (vague spoiler alert) the plot comes to an abrupt end some way from the book's end, and the rest of the book is the sheriff reflecting further, deciding to retire, visiting with his family and saying stuff like 



> 'My daddy always told me to just do the best you know how and tell the truth. He said there was nothin to set a man's mind at ease like waking up in the morning and not having to decide who you were.'



In terms of publication, it took McCarthy 7 years to put this one out after the end of the Border Trilogy, then a year before The Road. I can only hope he spent most of this time writing the Road and stuck out No Country For Old Men to keep himself in shotgun cartridges in the mean time or something.. 

very odd.. pretty conservative, still some amazing description and note-perfect dialogue but ultimately a bit of a waste of time..


----------



## sojourner (Jan 7, 2007)

It's so disappointing that isn't it, when you've read something utterly brilliant by someone, and the next one you read is a pile of crap?

Which is why it's been an absolute DELIGHT working my way through all of Annie Proulx's books.  From the first to the last (today), I have been in heaven.  One after another, all different, but all with the same brilliant perception, dialogue, landscape descriptions, cruelty and humour - it's safe to say I've been completely blown away by her.  I feel..._fulfilled_


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 7, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> It's so disappointing that isn't it, when you've read something utterly brilliant by someone, and the next one you read is a pile of crap?
> 
> Which is why it's been an absolute DELIGHT working my way through all of Annie Proulx's books.  From the first to the last (today), I have been in heaven.  One after another, all different, but all with the same brilliant perception, dialogue, landscape descriptions, cruelty and humour - it's safe to say I've been completely blown away by her.  I feel..._fulfilled_


with someone like that, do you want to read all their books ASAP or ration them out carefully? I am of the latter camp


----------



## sojourner (Jan 7, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> with someone like that, do you want to read all their books ASAP or ration them out carefully? I am of the latter camp


I tried OU, was very disciplined, but I had to read the last 2 on the trot I'm afraid. I did manage to put another book in between the first few, but then went on a buying frenzy and they kept pleading with me from the bookshelf  

Sigh.  What next?  I am reading a particularly frisky book of lesbian cowboy short story erotica that's rather good, Rode Hard Put Away Wet, but that's more of a dip-in book, iykwim  

I have 13 new books to get through thanks to a sale at Oxfam and News from Nowhere...and Amazon, damned Amazon.  Can't decide what's next


----------



## Paris Garters (Jan 7, 2007)

Vive la revolution by mark steele. It's a very entertaining and informative account of the french revolution. He is a trot, but he's fucking funny.


----------



## sojourner (Jan 8, 2007)

In Cold Blood, Truman Capote

Starting out well


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 8, 2007)

Paris Garters said:
			
		

> Vive la revolution by mark steele. It's a very entertaining and informative account of the french revolution. He is a trot, but he's fucking funny.



I did actually learn quite a bit as well, I'm not big on historical accounts so I'm afraid I'm enough of a simpleton to be happy to be spoonfed some history along with the the shits'n'giggles 

I've started reading Hayden Herrera's biography of Frida Kahlo, which I'm already enjoying and very much looking forward to getting properly stuck into


----------



## Paris Garters (Jan 8, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> I did actually learn quite a bit as well, I'm not big on historical accounts so I'm afraid I'm enough of a simpleton to be happy to be spoonfed some history along with the the shits'n'giggles


Me too! I struggle a bit with non-fiction sometimes, I can find it too dry even if it's something I'm really interested in. 
Self education with laffs! Yay!

Anyone got any recommendations for other eminently readable political history books?


----------



## Mr_Nice (Jan 8, 2007)

*The Google Story*

Only just started but its a cracking read


----------



## maya (Jan 8, 2007)

just to echo the sentiments of others already, i've finally started reading annie proulx' books and she's great...  !

i regret my snobbiness now (have the slightly unsympathetic habit of shunning writers/artists who get too popular, totally ridiculous really  )


----------



## chooch (Jan 8, 2007)

Just starting _The Macguffin_, still having a stab at William Gaddis _JR_, though very slowly, and have _The Radetzky March_ for the bus. All good.


----------



## rekil (Jan 8, 2007)

Death And The Penguin - Andrey Kurkov. About a hack who shares an apartment with a penguin and has a run in with gangstas.


----------



## Pie 1 (Jan 9, 2007)

Just finished Richard Ford's The Lay of The Land. Beautifully written 3rd outing for Frank Bascombe (The Sportswriter & Independence Day), although ultimately, not quite as fulfilling as the first two.

Now reading Paul Auster's New York Trilogy - first time I've read anything of his - he's a little on the pretentious side isn't he?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 9, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> Just starting _The Macguffin_



In for a treat.


----------



## chooch (Jan 9, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> In for a treat.


Hope so.

Not sure what I made of _Zeno's Conscience_ overall. Liked it, but not as much as I thought I was going to twenty pages in.


----------



## Wide Eyed Angel (Jan 10, 2007)

Just started 'Fingersmith' by Sarah Waters which after a little search of this thread sounds like it'll be right up my street.  It seems very engaging already which is always a good start!


----------



## milesy (Jan 10, 2007)

douglas coupland - "all families are psychotic" 

it took me a while to get the feel for this one, which was unusual as every book of his that i've read has gripped me right away, but it didn't take long to get into it properly and once again i'm rocketing through and chuckling away.


----------



## jbob (Jan 10, 2007)

About 100 pages into _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay _by Michael Chabon. Door stopper of a book, but it's moving along quickly.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 10, 2007)

milesy said:
			
		

> douglas coupland - "all families are psychotic"
> 
> it took me a while to get the feel for this one, which was unusual as every book of his that i've read has gripped me right away, but it didn't take long to get into it properly and once again i'm rocketing through and chuckling away.




it's the coupland I like least, to be honest. It's his hysterical soap opera elements to the fore and it just annoyed me. Not sure I even finished it


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 10, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> Just starting _The Macguffin_


Who's it by? Was looking for this in the shop and no one knew it


----------



## Yetman (Jan 10, 2007)

Haruki Marakami - The Wind Up Bird Chronicle

I'm about a third though and its intriguing.....you replicate the main character's own confusion and eagerness to find out what the hell is going on from the start hence keeping you hooked.....can see it getting mightily weird later on though


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 10, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Who's it by? Was looking for this in the shop and no one knew it



It's by Stanley Elkin. Probably quite difficult to get hold of in a shop, unless you can find a place with a good selection of Dalkey Archive books. I got mine from US amazon, it took two months to arrive.

Elkin's one of those widely praised but little-read great American writers. The MacGuffin is a great novel, you won't be disappointed


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 10, 2007)

Cheers - Waterstone's don't have it their database!


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 10, 2007)

Scandalous.

(dalkeyarchive.com have it for $10.36)


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 10, 2007)

I don't buy books online - I like browsing in real shops


----------



## chooch (Jan 10, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Scandalous.
> (dalkeyarchive.com have it for $10.36)


Got mine secondhand on amazon. Dirt cheap. Also available from many places via abebooks...


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 10, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> Not sure what I made of _Zeno's Conscience_ overall. Liked it, but not as much as I thought I was going to twenty pages in.



Really? I thought it got stronger as it went on. The section about his wife and mistress got me bogged down, but the big section, on his business misadventures, I really loved. Nice final section too.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 10, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I don't buy books online - I like browsing in real shops



Fair enough, I much prefer shops myself. Unfortunately, all the bookshops in my town have very small English-language fiction sections. If I used them, I'd never stop reading about the tired English middleclasses throwing it all up to become olive growers in Tuscany.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 10, 2007)

Well luckily I live in London - I hate mail order cos I want the book or CD or whatever it is in my hand right away to take home


----------



## Pieface (Jan 10, 2007)

I am reading a fantaseh trilogeh 

It is somewhat unbelievable


----------



## sojourner (Jan 10, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> I am reading a fantaseh trilogeh
> 
> It is somewhat unbelievable


Does what is says on the tin then?  It's nice to rely on some things in life eh?


----------



## Belushi (Jan 10, 2007)

Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson.

Used to love hard SF when as a teen, but haven't read any in years. Picked this up as its been recomended on here before and very good it is too.


----------



## chooch (Jan 10, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> If I used them, I'd never stop reading about the tired English middleclasses throwing it all up to become olive growers in Tuscany.


Not exactly short of that here n'all. And John Grisham. And an oddly skewed selection of alleged classics. Not sure whether that's owt to do with demand, or just publishers dumping stock long after it's dropped out of the Sunday papers in the Enlgish-speaking world.


----------



## Pieface (Jan 10, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Does what is says on the tin then?  It's nice to rely on some things in life eh?



and weirdly, the current book I'm reading for book group has a character in it called Sojourner.

Mmmm synchronicity


----------



## sojourner (Jan 10, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> and weirdly, the current book I'm reading for book group has a character in it called Sojourner.
> 
> Mmmm synchronicity


Spookeh 

What book is it?  (assuming it's a different one than the fantasy)


----------



## Pieface (Jan 10, 2007)

It is Woman on the Edge of Time.  To be honest, Sojourner is a character that has been mentioned once in, um, passing so not so much a character as a detail


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 11, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> I am reading a fantaseh trilogeh
> 
> It is somewhat unbelievable


Reminds me of something overheard coming out of the cinema after Lord Of The Rings - Bloke: what did you think of that then? Girl: well, it was a bit far fetched


----------



## suitgirl (Jan 11, 2007)

i am reading the amber spyglass by philip pullman...it's holding my interest just about...


----------



## sojourner (Jan 11, 2007)

suitgirl said:
			
		

> i am reading the amber spyglass by philip pullman...it's holding my interest just about...


Last book in the trilogy - did you enjoy the first two?  This one can be pretty treacly to get through at times compared to the first two, but well worth sticking with


----------



## milesy (Jan 11, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> it's the coupland I like least, to be honest. It's his hysterical soap opera elements to the fore and it just annoyed me.



yeah, it was a bit...hysterical and _way_ OTT in places. but i enjoyed it thoroughly, although not nearly as much as other coupland books i've read. i've just started "life after god" and the contrast between the two is like listening to a dark, slow song on an album straight after a fizzy, cheesy pop number, but both songs by the same artist.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 11, 2007)

milesy said:
			
		

> yeah, it was a bit...hysterical and _way_ OTT in places. but i enjoyed it thoroughly, although not nearly as much as other coupland books i've read. i've just started "life after god" and the contrast between the two is like listening to a dark, slow song on an album straight after a fizzy, cheesy pop number, but both songs by the same artist.




Life After God fucked me up, seriously. It was like somebody had x-rayed my brain and it made me sad


----------



## milesy (Jan 12, 2007)

i finished it on the bus this morning. i re-read the last page about ten times. what a fantastic book.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 12, 2007)

milesy said:
			
		

> i finished it on the bus this morning. i re-read the last page about ten times. what a fantastic book.



it's that bit about "who do you feel most sorry for.. those who never had a sense of wonder, or those who did and lost it?" that did my head in.

but yes, a truly wonderful book.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 12, 2007)

milesy said:
			
		

> i finished it on the bus this morning. i re-read the last page about ten times. what a fantastic book.


All Families Are Psychotic? Is that the one with the astronaut in it?


----------



## milesy (Jan 12, 2007)

yes that's the one with the astronaut in, but that's the one i finished earlier in the week. the one i finished this morning was "life after god"


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 12, 2007)

Ah, tis strange cos I've read them all apart from Eleanor Rigby and jPod and Life After God has had the least impact on me - I can't remember a thing about it, yet it seems to be a favourite amongst Coupland fans


----------



## wiskey (Jan 12, 2007)

madamv said:
			
		

> The men who stare at Goats...  Jon Ronson.



finished this but got seperated from it (will post it back shortly) - it wasnt what i expected and it was really odd to be honest, but it was enjoyable and i got on with the style of it. it just wasnt beleiveable, or it was but i couldnt buy into it all. 

it was also a lot shorter than i expected


----------



## sojourner (Jan 15, 2007)

Tracey Emin, Strangeland

It was mentioned on here some time ago so when I saw it in oxfam I had to get it.  

She's a woman of few words - am halfway through already and only read for an hour last night. It's interesting in the whole auto-biog selective way.


----------



## Fez909 (Jan 15, 2007)

Just finished _Norwegian Wood_ by Murakami which was quite good. Not a lot happens, and it reminded me of _Catcher in the Rye_ (which was even mentioned in the novel, so I'm guessing it was an influence).

And also finished _Flatland_ by Edwin A Abbott. What a nice little book! Only seventy-nine pages long, but with a really interesting story: it's about a square, living in a two dimensional world, who encounters a sphere, and his problems trying to visualise the third dimension. It's not as geeky as it sounds, but it's quite amazing that this was first published in 1884. Some of the ideas are very 'Einsteinian' or even related to String Theory. Hmmm, I'm making it sound more complicated than it really is.

Read it  

I've also got _Don Quixote_ on the go, but I seem to have ground to a halt. Might read another small book and then see if I can pick up the Quixote beast again.


----------



## chooch (Jan 15, 2007)

Fez909 said:
			
		

> And also finished _Flatland_ by Edwin A Abbott. What a nice little book!


Yes. I always liked that. Quirky and likeable.


----------



## madamv (Jan 15, 2007)

wiskey said:
			
		

> finished this but got seperated from it (will post it back shortly) - it wasnt what i expected and it was really odd to be honest, but it was enjoyable and i got on with the style of it. it just wasnt beleiveable, or it was but i couldnt buy into it all.
> 
> it was also a lot shorter than i expected



It is a little dis-jointed in many ways.  There sometimes is a flow and method to the madness, then sometimes a random person from three chapters back gets brought in.  I liked the story of the boys who cycled though


----------



## Final (Jan 15, 2007)

This week, I has been mostly reading, The Princess Bride by William Goldman.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 15, 2007)

finalstryke said:
			
		

> This week, I has been mostly reading, The Princess Bride by William Goldman.




an excellent book, far better than the dreadful movie. Don't let anyone tell you different


----------



## Final (Jan 15, 2007)

That's one of my favourite films... ever!

But the book is better.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 15, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> an excellent book, far better than the dreadful movie. Don't let anyone tell you different


Oh so it's dreadful now, is it?


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Jan 16, 2007)

I'm reading Time and Again by Jack Finney.  The plotting isn't all that interesting, but it gives a block by block account of what New York was like in 1882.  There's a picture of the Dakota (John Lennon's apartment house) surrounded entirely by farmland.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 16, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Oh so it's dreadful now, is it?




well, it's pretty poor. compared with the book, it's dreadful


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 16, 2007)

I loves it


----------



## Fez909 (Jan 16, 2007)

Dubversion in 'slates film quite highly regarded' shocker!


----------



## tastebud (Jan 16, 2007)

I love the book too, though don't actually remember the filum. Perhaps I haven't even seen it... dunno.

I'm reading A Passage to India again, cos for some reason I started _really_ missing India this week


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 16, 2007)

tastebud said:
			
		

> I love the book too, though don't actually remember the filum. Perhaps I haven't even seen it... dunno.


I didn't even know it was a book until I read one of William Goldman's Adventures In The Screen Trade books and he talks about adapting his own book for the film


----------



## tastebud (Jan 16, 2007)

Cool... I might try to get the film from Love Film soon


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 16, 2007)

tastebud said:
			
		

> Cool... I might try to get the film from Love Film soon




honestly, don't. It really is poor after you've read the book.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 16, 2007)

Do!


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 16, 2007)

but you haven't read the book


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 16, 2007)

I need to read the book and tastebud needs to see the film


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 16, 2007)

liberal 

want to borrow it? i can send it by Pony Face Express, along with Deadwood season 2.. want season 3 as well?


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 16, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> liberal
> 
> want to borrow it? i can send it by Pony Face Express, along with Deadwood season 2.. want season 3 as well?


YES PLEASE! <KISSES DUB ON THE LIPS AND POKES TONGUE IN>


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 16, 2007)

cool 

(i love the smell of primate in the evening)


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 16, 2007)




----------



## DotCommunist (Jan 16, 2007)

I just finished 'Vintage Stuff' by Tom Sharpe and I have to say compared to his other stuff this is pretty weak

Just about to start 'New grub street'  as i have to do an essay on it. On the reading for pleasure front I'm looking forward to finishing Robert Silverburgs 'Roma Etearnum' which is a quality alternate history story so far. not read any of his science fiction, but he's apparently well repected in that field. The idea of the roman empire enduring in it's purest form right up untill present day is 
Bastards the romans, but admirable bastards


----------



## DUMBO.66 (Jan 16, 2007)

the new Crichton book 'next'. nothing on Jurassic Park or congo


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 17, 2007)

Just finished re-reading (for the umpteenth time) Herbert Read's "The Meaning of Art", am part-way through Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War", and am just about to start james Methuen-Campbell's "Denton Welch: Writer and Artist".


----------



## Roadkill (Jan 17, 2007)

Just finished reading William Hague's (yes, the bald one) biography of Pitt the Younger.  It's very good indeed.  Hague IMO should give up politics and turn his talents to history, 'cos he's certainly good at it.

Just started on Enlightenment, by Roy Porter.


----------



## Julie (Jan 17, 2007)

Kathy Lette - Alter Ego.

It's laugh out loud, light entertainment


----------



## han (Jan 18, 2007)

I'm reading 'The Cruellest Journey' - a woman's account of her journey solo in a kayak along the river Niger from Bamako to Timbuktu..... 

It's a real page-turner!

It's by Kira Salak. An amazing woman.


----------



## Lea (Jan 18, 2007)

Reading a gothic romance by Jennifer St Giles called the Mistress of Trevelyan. It's along the lines of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca.


----------



## mrkikiet (Jan 18, 2007)

just finished stasiland: stories from behind the berlin wall.
some of the stuff sounds like it should really be fiction, straight out or orwell.


----------



## dweller (Jan 18, 2007)

I'm reading 
"looking at the stars" by Ian Pattison (creator and writer of Rab C Nesbitt). The protagonist is a failing sit-com writer.

I read "A Stranger here Myself" a few years back and hadn't realised he's written two novels since that. 

Really funny biting comedy set in Glasgow (so far).
If you've ever lived in Glasgow, you'll probably enjoy this even more. However I'm sure anyone with a dark sense of humour would enjoy his brand of hilarious vitriol.


----------



## Fez909 (Jan 18, 2007)

Reading _Breakfast of Champions_ and I'm not sure I'm in the mood for it. I've not laughed, or even smiled, and I'm 50 pages in. I'm sure I've heard this described as one of the funniest books.  

Anyway, will persevere.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 18, 2007)

it's a very gallows humour.


----------



## onemonkey (Jan 19, 2007)

i'm reading Something Happened by Joseph Catch-22 Heller..  i guess it is a more grown up book but it's not as good.


----------



## littlebabyjesus (Jan 19, 2007)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> i'm reading Something Happened by Joseph Catch-22 Heller..  i guess it is a more grown up book but it's not as good.


Oh, I felt cheated by that book. I got about two thirds of the way through but didn't finish it. His brand of cynicism was perfect for the setting of Catch 22, but doesn't seem to work in the corporate world.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 19, 2007)

I only got a chapter in before I gave up. Or was that God Knows?


----------



## littlebabyjesus (Jan 19, 2007)

I think that should be Joseph 'should only have written the one book' Heller.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 19, 2007)

Quite - have you read Closing Time?


----------



## littlebabyjesus (Jan 19, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Quite - have you read Closing Time?


Yes.   
The rantings of a bitter old man. Not funny, not incisive, not insightful. Very sad really - when your first book's a brilliant blockbuster, what do you do with the rest of you life but write?


----------



## sojourner (Jan 19, 2007)

I've had Picture This on me shelves for a few years now - I'm almost too scared to read it - afraid I'll get too confused during the jumping around and it'll ruin it for me


----------



## cutandsplice (Jan 20, 2007)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> i'm reading Something Happened by Joseph Catch-22 Heller..  i guess it is a more grown up book but it's not as good.


It's not as laugh-out-loud funny but it is just as profound. Keep reading it, it will be worth it in the end. Closing time is also worth reading. It isn't catch 22 (but of course the sequel) but it is as an important book. See it in the same perspective as Johnny Cash's later work compared to the early stuff, telling us about what happens when we get older.


----------



## Fledgling (Jan 21, 2007)

The Good Soldier Svjek by Jaroslav Hasek 

The Solid Mandala by Patrick White

The first a riotously funny account of a chronically febble-minded old soldier re-recruited to fight the good fight for the Austro- Hungarian empire in ww1. Excellent, although I need to get hold of a new edition due to the old one suffering no pronunciation guide, lack of explanation of obvious piss takes of leading figures of the age, lack of piss takes of leading figures of the age owing to fears of controversy and lack of one of the 4 published books. 

The seocnd a novel which lives up to expectations, but then anything I've read by White has been superb and near flawless. Outstanding characterisation and the sharpest observations of life I've encountered. Two brothers who share their lives, one trys, one understands. I'll probably end up reading the rest of his novels (I've read four already). Justified Nobel Laureate in every sense.


----------



## sojourner (Jan 21, 2007)

Just finished The Love of Good Women by Isabel Miller.  Got it cos it was on sale, and I liked a previous book by her, but this one stank.  Badly written, with only a couple of interesting bits. 

Can't decide between The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing next, or Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 21, 2007)

I haven't read The Fifth Child (I've only read one Lessing novel ) but Loive In the Time Of Cholera is even better than 100 Years Of Solitude, so go for it!


----------



## sojourner (Jan 21, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I haven't read The Fifth Child (I've only read one Lessing novel ) but Loive In the Time Of Cholera is even better than 100 Years Of Solitude, so go for it!


Righty ho, I'll go with that then - my daughters off out for the day too, so peace and quiet allll day beckons


----------



## sojourner (Jan 21, 2007)

Good call OU - am lovin it so far


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 23, 2007)

Finally, after a slow start, I'm getting into We Need To Talk About Kevin. There's still a lot of _writing_ in it, but I'm eager to see what happens.

In the meantime I read some Frank O'Connor short stories, which were very funny and beautifully written.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Jan 23, 2007)

It's been a while since I updated on this thread.

Currently reading Theodore Dreiser's _Sister Carrie_ - seems to be shaping up nicely.

After that is Edith Wharton's _The Custom of the Country_. Can you tell I'm taking a 20th century Am. Lit. module this year?  

Want at some point to be able to read more Brautigan - I've got 3 unread sitting on my shelf at the moment.


----------



## Cerberus (Jan 23, 2007)

Am currently reading 'Brighton Rock' - Graham Greene. Been meaning to get round to this for years. shaping up nicely

Just finsished - 'Rabbit, Run' - John Updike. Fine book i`m sure but way, way too close to home at the moment for any kind of objectivity . Complete fluke in picking it up from a second hand stall too. Might well become a believer in fate after all


----------



## El Sueno (Jan 23, 2007)

I remember reading Brighton Rock when a girl I wanted to impress was enthusing over it, years ago... watched the movie too, as well as nailbiting drama there are some unintentionally hilarious scenes in that piece of cinematic antiquity.

I'm flitting between 'The five people you meet in Heaven' - Mitch Alburn and 'Blind to the Bones' - Stephen Booth. Except I can't find either right now so I think I'll start 'A world of my own' - Robin Knox Johnston which my flatmate give me for xmas.




			
				onemonkey said:
			
		

> i'm reading Something Happened by Joseph Catch-22 Heller..  i guess it is a more grown up book but it's not as good.



I tried that too... left me cold, nothing else he's done is a patch on Catch.


----------



## Cpatain Rbubish (Jan 23, 2007)

Right now I'm reading... A Joe Strummer biography, The Progressive Patriot - Billy Bragg, Out Of It (a cultural history of intoxication - Stuart Walton and re-reading the Flashman Papers inbetween


----------



## sojourner (Jan 24, 2007)

Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> Can you tell I'm taking a 20th century Am. Lit. module this year?


Ooo, is Willa Cather's My Antonia on the list?


----------



## pootle (Jan 24, 2007)

I'm reading Stephen King's "On Writing"  and I'm enjoying it very much. A interesting insight into the craft of writing, his life, where he gets his ideas from and he defends "popular" - be it music or writing or whatever against the snobbery it so often comes up against.  I like this quote:


> Critics and scholars have always been suspicious of popular success. Often their suspicions are justified. In other cases, these suspicions are used as an excuse not to think. No one can be as intellectually slothful as a really smart person; give smart people half a chance and they will ship their oars and drift...dozing to Byzantium, you might say.


----------



## BL2ALLb (Jan 24, 2007)

Just read Death in the Hands of the State by Proff David Wilson next Lies, Spies and Whistleblowers by Anne Machon but before that read A Shed with a View by Micheal Wale lovely meandering tales bout down the allotment + he is a cox for rowing boats so bits about the river thrown in and politics as well calls himself an allotment activist.loved it.


----------



## jd (Jan 24, 2007)

I've just finished an enjoyable book about tea and tea trade, The Gunpowder Gardens by Jason Goodwin.


----------



## chooch (Jan 24, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> In the meantime I read some Frank O'Connor short stories, which were very funny and beautifully written.


I like those.

Now reading A.M.Homes, _the end of alice_. Sharply written but I keep thinking of Humbert Humbert.


----------



## madamv (Jan 27, 2007)

I'm on 'Possible Side Effects' - Augusten Burroughs

Laugh out loud funny for the first couple of stories/chapters.


----------



## citydreams (Jan 27, 2007)

tastebud said:
			
		

> Well I'm reading Jeanette Winterson - Written on the body. It's amazing!



I started this yesterday on the train..  Still had the book in my hand six hours later.

Absolutely love it! 

Perfect.


----------



## sojourner (Jan 27, 2007)

citydreams said:
			
		

> I started this yesterday on the train..  Still had the book in my hand six hours later.
> 
> Absolutely love it!
> 
> Perfect.


Excellent book, one of my faves.


----------



## citydreams (Jan 27, 2007)

innit.. so many laugh out loud moments..

"now it's a serious matter to have PERVERT written on your NHS file and some indignities are just a romance too far" 

"this urinal is a symbol of patriarchy and must be destroyed" 

I haven't finished it yet.. I'm still in bed with Louise


----------



## sojourner (Jan 27, 2007)

citydreams said:
			
		

> innit.. so many laugh out loud moments..
> 
> "now it's a serious matter to have PERVERT written on your NHS file and some indignities are just a romance too far"
> 
> ...


The thing I found most fascinating about it is that it is impossible to assign gender to the author - a truly androgynous bit of writing


----------



## citydreams (Jan 27, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> The thing I found most fascinating about it is that it is impossible to assign gender to the author - a truly androgynous bit of writing



Aye, I thought that..  The writing style feels very feminine to me, but maybe that's because of the openess / ease of discussing feelings?  

Have you read any of her other books?


----------



## citydreams (Jan 27, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Can't decide between The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing next, or Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera



Which Dorris Lessing did you like?  I tried A Brief Decent into Hell, but struggled to get past the first few pages.


----------



## sojourner (Jan 27, 2007)

citydreams said:
			
		

> Aye, I thought that..  The writing style feels very feminine to me, but maybe that's because of the openess / ease of discussing feelings?
> 
> Have you read any of her other books?


It didn't feel feminine to me, but I can see what you're saying.

Yeh, got a few of hers, Oranges, The Passion, and Sexing the Cherry, but she got further up her own arse with each novel I thought.


----------



## sojourner (Jan 27, 2007)

citydreams said:
			
		

> Which Dorris Lessing did you like?  I tried A Brief Decent into Hell, but struggled to get past the first few pages.


I've only read Shikasta, years ago, but thought it was excellent.  I've got Memoirs of a Survivor on the shelf to be read, but picked this up in a recent haul


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Jan 27, 2007)

The Forgiveness of Nature: The Story of Grass 
Graham Harvey.
All about species of grass, and how grasses have shaped human life and there's even a bit about the development of grasses specific to the Beautiful Game. Really good, beautifully written.....


----------



## Boogie Boy (Jan 27, 2007)

'War and Peace'. What a waste of time and effort it was working through this tired monstrosity. The basic story is weak enough, but the attempts to place the characters (such as they are) within a larger philosophical framework is laughable. This is not a book I shall be re-reading in the next few years.

BB


----------



## mrkikiet (Jan 27, 2007)

i finished the tin drum by gunter grass last night, and don't really know where to go from there. 

It was pretty intense. worth a read if you want something to get you thinking. Then you can have a laugh at all the online criticism written before Grass outed himself as a member fo the Nazi armed forces.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 29, 2007)

I finished We Need To Talk About Kevin.

I really enjoyed it, if that's the word. The ending's devastating, achieves a chilling effect, but rather skews the book. I appreciated the elegance of insight into married life, contemporary American culture and childrearing. The writing's beautiful, in part perhaps too much so -- although it could be argued that the overwriting (or overediting) is an attempt by the narrator, a reluctant American, to place a conscious distance between her literacy and the blandness of the culture she sees around her. Her babyboomer's despair leads her to see high school massacres as _blandness_ more than anything else.

I think it's a bit daft that we can't discuss the ending in public, just in case anyone hasn't read it yet. I think it's really important to the book.

---

Now reading 'Craven House' by Patrick Hamilton, a great secondhand find. Like too much stuff by this comic genius, it's out of print.


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 29, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I
> Now reading 'Craven House' by Patrick Hamilton, a great secondhand find. Like too much stuff by this comic genius, it's out of print.




I've just bought 20,000 Streets...... looking forward to it


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 29, 2007)

I've kinda run aground with Herrera's Frida biography.

I think this is the case with almost every biog i've read. Not sure why - maybe there's a point where you're pretty informed about the subject's attitudes, behaviour, likely reactions, and then it becomes a mere list of events. ?

i'm determined to finish it but might skim the last 1/3rd


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 29, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> I've just bought 20,000 Streets...... looking forward to it



Great stuff. You'll love the London stuff, the black comedy and the Komic Kapitals, and then you'll want to read everything he ever wrote


----------



## Dubversion (Jan 29, 2007)

well i got that and some Julian McLaren Ross at the same time

(oh, and your CD is burned and ready to post, I just have a memory like a sieve  )


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 29, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> well i got that and some Julian McLaren Ross at the same time
> 
> (oh, and your CD is burned and ready to post, I just have a memory like a sieve  )



Of Love and Hunger, or the memoirs? I haven't read the latter, but Of Love is brilliant.

(No worries. When it comes. The number of CDs I have to send out but haven't is embarrassing )


----------



## Final (Jan 29, 2007)

Currently reading: Star Wars episode 0.1

(aka Dune).


----------



## twistedAM (Jan 29, 2007)

Cormac McCarthy 'The Road'...great but not recommneded bedtime reading. Was just about to nod off one night and suddenly got to the bit where he found the private army's "food locker"
I feel another nightmare coming on later!


----------



## chooch (Jan 29, 2007)

Michel Faber- _The Fahrenheit Twins_ 
Short stories from a youngish British geezer I'd not heard of. Really very good in parts- well-crafted and disturbing.

Also on the go- A.M. Homes - _The End of Alice_.
Next up- Truman Capote _In Cold Blood_


----------



## tastebud (Jan 30, 2007)

cutandsplice said:
			
		

> It's not as laugh-out-loud funny but it is just as profound. Keep reading it, it will be worth it in the end. Closing time is also worth reading. It isn't catch 22 (but of course the sequel) but it is as an important book. See it in the same perspective as Johnny Cash's later work compared to the early stuff, telling us about what happens when we get older.


Without really knowing, that is, I'm still quite young, I think this is pretty accurate. Something Happened is definitely worth sticking with. I didn't, the first time round, but when you get to about half way through you realise that it's definitely worth finishing. I feel like I've learnt something from that book. Something pretty f*cked up but nevertheless, definitely worth a read.


----------



## LDR (Jan 30, 2007)

suitgirl said:
			
		

> i am reading the amber spyglass by philip pullman...it's holding my interest just about...


I've just about finished it myself.  I can hardly put it down.  I'll have read all three books in under a week. 

I think the trilogy is brilliant and one of the most entertaining stories I've had the pleasure of reading in some time.

It shits on bloody Harry Potter from a very great height.


----------



## kyser_soze (Jan 30, 2007)

James Clavell's Noble House.

Some of it's cringingly 'Brit expat in Asia' but he's equally rude about everyone (Brits shouldn't be there, Chinese hate everyone who isn't Chinese but have respect for certain _quai loh_ who have the same outloook as 'civilised persons', American's out of their depth in Asia (it's set in 63 just before the big troop increases in Vietnam), and early 60s 'woman in business' stereotype...good bit of airport novel hokum, and his descriptions of Hong Kong (stuff like the lack of running water to most homes, even the rich Brits and Chinese having to use a bucket, only being able to shower once every few days; the smell of Aberdeen harbour etc) are really good.


----------



## Throbbing Angel (Jan 30, 2007)

*Mortality by Nicholas Royle*

Mortality by Nicholas Royle

nice collection of short stories - highly recommended by me


----------



## Final (Jan 30, 2007)

kyser_soze said:
			
		

> James Clavell's Noble House.
> 
> Some of it's cringingly 'Brit expat in Asia' but he's equally rude about everyone (Brits shouldn't be there, Chinese hate everyone who isn't Chinese but have respect for certain _quai loh_ who have the same outloook as 'civilised persons', American's out of their depth in Asia (it's set in 63 just before the big troop increases in Vietnam), and early 60s 'woman in business' stereotype...good bit of airport novel hokum, and his descriptions of Hong Kong (stuff like the lack of running water to most homes, even the rich Brits and Chinese having to use a bucket, only being able to shower once every few days; the smell of Aberdeen harbour etc) are really good.




Good book (I preferred Shogun and King Rat, but not because there was anything wrong with NH).


----------



## Rainingstairs (Jan 30, 2007)

the sin city library and lg wades 6th ed. of organic chem. the stark difference between the two is about to drive me nucking futs.


----------



## Paris Garters (Jan 31, 2007)

Just finished 'American Scream' by cynthia true, a biography of Bill Hicks.
Not terribly well written but an interesting insight into the guy. Worth it if you're into his comedy.


----------



## smoooch (Feb 1, 2007)

im reading Gerald Seymour's book the Untouchable. So far so good


----------



## mrkikiet (Feb 2, 2007)

Butterfly's tongue by Manel Rivas.
selected short stories related to the Spanish Civil War


----------



## Nina (Feb 2, 2007)

Bill Bryson

The Short History of nearly Everything.

I must say, it certainly isn't short. I'm half way through and in pain.

All the stuff I should know but it's a chore to read it.


----------



## Rainingstairs (Feb 3, 2007)

Nina said:
			
		

> Bill Bryson
> 
> The Short History of nearly Everything.
> 
> ...




yeah i found it kind of gossipy and unfactual. *yawn


----------



## sojourner (Feb 4, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera


Finally finished this today.  I got a bit fed up with it at times, which is why it took me so long to finish, but all in all, it was a beautiful read...funny, poetic, and insightful

Just started Once in a House on Fire, by Andrea Ashworth, cos one of me mates has read it and wants to have a chat about it


----------



## cutandsplice (Feb 4, 2007)

Rainingstairs said:
			
		

> yeah i found it kind of gossipy and unfactual. *yawn


I totally agree. I gave up about 3 quarters through and read a book on Parmenides instead. A much better use of my time.


----------



## andy2002 (Feb 4, 2007)

Jake Arnott's 'Johnny Come Home' – one of the original print run with the stuff that landed its publishers in court still included.


----------



## DotCommunist (Feb 4, 2007)

I started Stephen Kings Rose Madder but it's a bit shit, so I'll be re-reading Julian Rathbones 'Kings of Albion'


----------



## foo (Feb 5, 2007)

just went to the pub and finished All Families are Psychotic - Douglas Coupland. 

i've read it before but forgot how bloody hilarious and life afirming a story it is. 

he reminds me of a demented John Irving   and as with Running With Scissors, i'm always pleased to read about a family more nuts than my own.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Feb 6, 2007)

I finished Craven House by Patrick Hamilton.

For Hamilton fans, this early novel seems to come some way down the list but I can't see why. It's got some of his finest comic set-pieces and is strongly plotted. It's very poignant about the social changes wrought by the First World War, and features the outside world in a much more sustained way than most of his other books. I also realised what a fine "serious" novelist he would have made; some of his atmosphere is the equal of anyone writing at the time, and he's brilliantly economical when he wants to be about the reasons why people follow social convention without thinking about it.

And he was only 22 when he wrote it, the bastard.


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 6, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I finished Craven House by Patrick Hamilton.
> 
> For Hamilton fans, this early novel seems to come some way down the list but I can't see why. It's got some of his finest comic set-pieces and is strongly plotted. It's very poignant about the social changes wrought by the First World War, and features the outside world in a much more sustained way than most of his other books. I also realised what a fine "serious" novelist he would have made; some of his atmosphere is the equal of anyone writing at the time, and he's brilliantly economical when he wants to be about the reasons why people follow social convention without thinking about it.
> 
> And he was only 22 when he wrote it, the bastard.



nearly started 20,000 Streets Under the Sky last night but was still a bit wobbly after the tragic end of Frida so i started reading The Pirates' Adventures With The Communists instead


----------



## Dirty Martini (Feb 6, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> nearly started 20,000 Streets Under the Sky last night but was still a bit wobbly after the tragic end of Frida so i started reading The Pirates' Adventures With The Communists instead



I was flicking through 20,000 Streets again earlier, just to see how much darker and more controlled he became later on, though the first book in that trilogy was written only a couple of years after Craven House.

There are a couple of new editions of Slaves of Solitude just out, so hopefully he's going to start getting the run he deserves


----------



## chooch (Feb 6, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I finished Craven House by Patrick Hamilton.
> For Hamilton fans, this early novel seems to come some way down the list but I can't see why....


Love to get hold of it. I'll see what abebooks can offer. 


> Slaves of Solitude


My favourite Hamilton so far. It's on hour at the moment, else I'd reread now.


----------



## zenie (Feb 6, 2007)

*My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time*






Just started this - so far so good


----------



## foamy (Feb 6, 2007)

zenie said:
			
		

> Just started this - so far so good



i really enjoyed 'War Crimes For The Home' by Liz Jensen, perhaps when you've finished this we could swap?


----------



## 5t3IIa (Feb 6, 2007)

andy2002 said:
			
		

> Jake Arnott's 'Johnny Come Home' – one of the original print run with the stuff that landed its publishers in court still included.




I was using a scruffy paperback of The Long Firm to wipe the condensation off bus windows a month ago - than I realised that JA's signature at the front was running! I got it from a charity shop and hadn't even clocked it 


I'm now on A World Lit Only By Fire by William Manchester. Devastatingly readable (sometimes a bit crusty on moral issues though) on the Dark Ages and transition to the the Ranaissance :thumbup:


----------



## May Kasahara (Feb 6, 2007)

Just finishing 'I know why the caged bird sings' by Maya Angelou, for my book club. As warm and uplifting as a hot bath after a long cold day, I can see why it's often on the curriculum in secondary schools - it's very evocative of a time and place, without being hard-edged or brutally upfront.

Once that's done, I shall be diving into Introduction to Social Research by Keith Punch *sigh*. I want to read some non-book club books - need to make more time for reading.


----------



## sojourner (Feb 6, 2007)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> Just finishing 'I know why the caged bird sings' by Maya Angelou, for my book club. As warm and uplifting as a hot bath after a long cold day, I can see why it's often on the curriculum in secondary schools - it's very evocative of a time and place, without being hard-edged or brutally upfront.


Fantastic book, I can't sing its praises too highly.  I LOVE Maya Angelou.


Have you got the rest of the books in the series May?


----------



## May Kasahara (Feb 6, 2007)

I used to have all of them (inherited from mum) - they sat on my shelves, unread, for about 10 years before I finally decided that if I hadn't got round to them by now, I was never going to, and purged them.

I have really enjoyed IKWTCBS but to be honest I still probably wouldn't get round to reading the rest if they were still on my shelves. Not sure why, maybe I'm just rubbish eh


----------



## sojourner (Feb 6, 2007)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> I used to have all of them (inherited from mum) - they sat on my shelves, unread, for about 10 years before I finally decided that if I hadn't got round to them by now, I was never going to, and purged them.
> 
> I have really enjoyed IKWTCBS but to be honest I still probably wouldn't get round to reading the rest if they were still on my shelves. Not sure why, maybe I'm just rubbish eh


Weirdo  

She captures so much of black politics in her later books, and I found it fascinating to read how she changed as society did.  She's also brutally honest about her parenting, or lack of it, on occasion.


----------



## Treebeak (Feb 6, 2007)

Just finished Crazy by Benjamin Lebert. Small book described as 'the catcher in the rye for the mtv generation'. Pretty good description : about a disolusioned teenager in boarding school 'growing up'. Lebert wrote it when he was 16 - thoughtfully and well written for a kid.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Feb 6, 2007)

I'm reading 'The Brief & Frightening Reign of Phil' and 'In Persuasion Nation' by George Saunders, a novella and short stories.


----------



## onemonkey (Feb 6, 2007)

cutandsplice said:
			
		

> It's not as laugh-out-loud funny but it is just as profound. Keep reading it, it will be worth it in the end. Closing time is also worth reading. It isn't catch 22 (but of course the sequel) but it is as an important book. See it in the same perspective as Johnny Cash's later work compared to the early stuff, telling us about what happens when we get older.


having finally finished it, i find that to be quite a good summary 

glad i got to the end but it wasn't an easy book..


and therefore completely unlike _ Armadillos and Old Lace by Kinky Friedman _  what i read next


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 6, 2007)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> and therefore completely unlike _ Armadillos and Old Lace by Kinky Friedman _  what i read next



a wonderful book


----------



## colbhoy (Feb 6, 2007)

I am just over half-way through King Rat by James Clavell - thoroughly enjoyable.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Feb 6, 2007)

Reading _The Custom of the Country_ by Edith Wharton. 

Seem to have gotten bogged down in texts for my course - would like to make time to read some of the other stuff that has been languishing on my bookcases for the past forever


----------



## madamv (Feb 6, 2007)

Just finished Augusten Burroughs' Possible Side Effects.  Wonderful.

Now started Perfume.  Trying to read it before going to the flicks.


----------



## Calva dosser (Feb 6, 2007)

Fancied nostalgie pig-out so did Irvine Welsh-Ecstasy. Probably sad, but entirely necessary. Lining up to tackle the archaeological soc's 3000 year history of the town. Not exactly a novel, but with pubs all closed by 21.00 it will need some Yank-style padding.


----------



## Cheesypoof (Feb 6, 2007)

giro playboy.


----------



## andy2002 (Feb 7, 2007)

Have now finished Jake Arnott's 'Johnny Come Home' - not bad but probably not as enjoyable as the Harry Starks books. Interestingly, the character that ended up getting Arnott and his publishers into big legal trouble - Tony Rocco - is probably the most minor character in the entire story, only appearing in a handful of pages late on. 

Derek Raymond's 'I Was Dora Suarez' is next...


----------



## Vintage Paw (Feb 7, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> nearly started 20,000 Streets Under the Sky last night but was still a bit wobbly after the tragic end of Frida so i started reading The *Pirates' Adventures With The Communists* instead



You just reminded me I have this sitting waiting for my attention - so I started it, Edith Wharton can wait a couple of hours. Just off to finish it.


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 7, 2007)

andy2002 said:
			
		

> Derek Raymond's 'I Was Dora Suarez' is next...



I have both the book and the 'soundtrack' waiting on my 'to get to' pile


----------



## maximilian ping (Feb 7, 2007)

i'm most currently reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck. it's fab. i've read most of his other books (not Cannery Row) and i think via osmosis he's my favourite author. 

Lots of people seem to hate/get bored by his books, but for someone reason i've got an instant connection with his writing, i'm hooked, engrossed and whisked away within seconds. and he's funny

it's weird why some books do that and some do the opposite: for example i've never got past the first chapter of Catch 22 because it sends me to sleep. as the italians say, strano


----------



## chazegee (Feb 7, 2007)

Crime and punishment, not to heavy for an old book


----------



## zenie (Feb 7, 2007)

foamy said:
			
		

> i really enjoyed 'War Crimes For The Home' by Liz Jensen, perhaps when you've finished this we could swap?




would be a pleasure


----------



## Throbbing Angel (Feb 7, 2007)

Carrie by Stephen King

wanted to see what all the fuss was about


----------



## Vintage Paw (Feb 8, 2007)

maximilian ping said:
			
		

> i'm most currently reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck. it's fab. i've read most of his other books (not Cannery Row) and i think via osmosis he's my favourite author.
> 
> Lots of people seem to hate/get bored by his books, but for someone reason i've got an instant connection with his writing, i'm hooked, engrossed and whisked away within seconds. and he's funny
> 
> it's weird why some books do that and some do the opposite: for example i've never got past the first chapter of Catch 22 because it sends me to sleep. as the italians say, strano



I've only read the obligatory _Of Mice and Men_ and the utterly astounding _The Grapes of Wrath_. I have _'Tis the Winter of our Discontent_ and _Cannery Row_ (which for the longest time I was convinced was called Canary Row  ) on my shelf waiting to be read. 

Finished _Pirates! in and Adventure with Communists_ and _The Custom of the Country_ yesterday. Now started reading Willa Cather's _The Professor's House_ - only read the first chapter so far but it seems far more modern than it is.


----------



## onemonkey (Feb 8, 2007)

now reading _"Neuroconstructivism - How the brain constructs cognition - Vol. 1"_ 

It's by my boss and his mates. It's  C   L


----------



## ViolentPanda (Feb 8, 2007)

"Modern Sculpture" by Herbert Read and "Armageddon's Children" by Terry Brooks.


----------



## madamv (Feb 8, 2007)

chazegee said:
			
		

> Crime and punishment, not to heavy for an old book


My fave book ever........   


*sighs, and sweats*


----------



## LDR (Feb 9, 2007)

Not a book as such but a guy's thesis about the 1980s UK indie scene.

It's online here - Do It Yourself: Industry, Ideology, Aesthetics and Micro Independent Record Labels in the UK by Robert Strachan.


----------



## Kripcat (Feb 12, 2007)

The Worldly Philosophers, very interesting. I just finished The Unknown Terrorist, was just average. Very preachy.


----------



## MightyAphrodite (Feb 12, 2007)

"Everything Is Illuminated" Jonathan Safran Foer


----------



## DotCommunist (Feb 12, 2007)

Re-reading Endymion


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Feb 12, 2007)

'Elizabeth', Karen Usborne's excellent biography of the novelist Elizabeth von Arnim. Beautifully written and researched. In fact, sod spending time on the computer, even if there are no kids about to prevent me from gaining online access till some godforsaken hour...I'm signing off to continue reading it.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Feb 13, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I'm reading 'The Brief & Frightening Reign of Phil' and 'In Persuasion Nation' by George Saunders, a novella and short stories.



Finished these. I love George Saunders, he's got a unique voice, and there are good things on every page of the stories, but he seems a lot angrier in this collection, which leads to some fairly clunky fingerpointing. One of his prime targets here is the creation and servicing of consumer desire. He's always very funny, conjuring up dystopias of an indeterminate American future of theme parks and bizarre consumer goods alongside a recognisably 'now' mode of American speech. In fact, he catches the rhythms of speech like no other writer I've ever read.

His stories are like the most hilarious dreams you've ever had.

The long story, '...Phil' is cute, but one of the weaker things he's done.

He's a difficult writer to describe, I haven't done a very good job of it, but you'd definitely like Saunders if you like Brautigan or Vonnegut or sharp US satire in any medium. Start with 'Civilwarland in Bad Decline' though. The stories in there are, by and large, masterpieces.

georgesaundersland

---

Now I'm halfway through and enjoying 'The Spy Who Came In From The Cold'.


----------



## Fledgling (Feb 14, 2007)

maximilian ping said:
			
		

> i'm most currently reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck. it's fab. i've read most of his other books (not Cannery Row) and i think via osmosis he's my favourite author.
> 
> Lots of people seem to hate/get bored by his books, but for someone reason i've got an instant connection with his writing, i'm hooked, engrossed and whisked away within seconds. and he's funny



I love East of Eden, about 3 years ago I read most of Steinbeck's works, The Winter of our Discontent is perhaps the one novel of his that I still really want to read. Cannery Row is definitely worth a look, and it's short so you'll read it in a few hours, very warm humourous book. I'm not sure why people would get bored with Steinbeck unless they'd been force fed of Mice and Men at school and been subsequently turned off due to over analysing the novel. He is a fantastic writer, the Grapes of Wrath IMO ranks alongside the Ragged Trousered Philanphropists as one of the great 20th century social novels. When I visited the Us afriend told me that some of Steinbeck's works were still considered suspect even today and that some school libraries had been reluctant to stock some novels. If that's true I'm worried, his descriptive powers and amusing, believeable characters make for fine reading. 


Currently reading The Victim by Saul Bellow and Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, the latter reminds me of Steinbeck somewhat.


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 14, 2007)

Now finally started 20,000 Streets Under The Sky. Absolutely loving it so far


----------



## Dirty Martini (Feb 14, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Now finally started 20,000 Streets Under The Sky. Absolutely loving it so far



Wahey, another Hamiltonian 

---

I finished the Le Carre. It was fun, but I was expecting something more I think. Nicely atmospheric, well plotted, serviceable prose.

What's the must-read Le Carre?

Now I'm onto Julian Maclaren-Ross, Collected Memoirs. I'm starting with the Memoirs of the Forties. Lots of pub-going, literary lunches and impecuniousness.


----------



## sojourner (Feb 14, 2007)

2 on the go at the mo - And Still I Rise by Doreen Lawrence (a mate wants me to read it so we can talk about it), and The World Unseen by Shamim Sarif, for book club.  The latter is a bit meh, tbh, and I think I might have to be a bit howwible and unkind about it.  I've read deeper studies into race and sexuality relations on the back of a fag packet.

I'm looking forward to the next bookclub choice (we do two per meet, woo) which is Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller - I think there might be a bit more to it than TWU.


----------



## spoone (Feb 14, 2007)

2 on the go as well - the 3rd book of the acorna series by Anne Mcaffery, Acornas people.

I'm also reading Artemis fowl by Eoin Colfer, and which is apparently a kids book - although Im really enjoying it. Nice easy reading but entertaining enough to keep my interest.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Feb 15, 2007)

I like Julian Maclaren-Ross because he writes things like



> bearded voluntary poverty beats from Soho and the Fulham Road boast loudly of spiving a livelihood from what they call The Lark


----------



## sojourner (Feb 15, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I like Julian Maclaren-Ross because he writes things like


 

I'm having great fun being howwible about that book I mentioned, for the review.  It's an art form, being brutal on a small word limit. 

Ahhh, I do love quiet days in work


----------



## May Kasahara (Feb 15, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> 2 on the go at the mo - And Still I Rise by Doreen Lawrence (a mate wants me to read it so we can talk about it), and The World Unseen by Shamim Sarif, for book club.  The latter is a bit meh, tbh, and I think I might have to be a bit howwible and unkind about it.  I've read deeper studies into race and sexuality relations on the back of a fag packet.
> 
> I'm looking forward to the next bookclub choice (we do two per meet, woo) which is Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller - I think there might be a bit more to it than TWU.



Sounds like you have more high-minded book club choices than me - this month it's 'Call of the Wild' (which I'm actually really looking forward to) and in April it's 'Northern Lights' by someone called Nora somebody. I think it was described as a good unchallenging read on Amazon  I'm still waiting for one of my choices to come up. Preferably 'Watchmen' or 'House of Leaves'.

Anyway. Not complaining too much, I like my book club buddies and we always have lots to talk about. So I have dutifully ordered the above two books, and a copy of 'The Macguffin' too cos so many people on here have been raving about it


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 15, 2007)

<imagines a bookgroup reading House of Leaves, all sat in a room with mirrors, microscopes and notebooks  >


----------



## May Kasahara (Feb 15, 2007)

And tape measures, don't forget the tape measures.


----------



## sojourner (Feb 15, 2007)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> Sounds like you have *more high-minded book club choices* than me - this month it's 'Call of the Wild' (which I'm actually really looking forward to) and in April it's 'Northern Lights' by someone called Nora somebody. I think it was described as a good unchallenging read on Amazon  I'm still waiting for one of my choices to come up. Preferably 'Watchmen' or 'House of Leaves'.
> 
> Anyway. Not complaining too much, I like my book club buddies and we always have lots to talk about. So I have dutifully ordered the above two books, and a copy of 'The Macguffin' too cos so many people on here have been raving about it


Ya think?  I don't think the first choice is anywhere near meaty enough.  And as for last months...pah.  Noddy would have been more of a challenge. 

Do you have a core object or theme to the choices?  Cos in my one, it started off with a ridiculous standard - the books had to be written by and about lesbians.  Oh, and no american authors    I left for a while in a flounce cos the choices were so shit, and then no one would fuckin talk about them!  

I keep meaning to get a copy of The Macguffin.  Why do you recommend House of Leaves then?


----------



## maximilian ping (Feb 15, 2007)

Fledgling said:
			
		

> I love East of Eden, about 3 years ago I read most of Steinbeck's works, The Winter of our Discontent is perhaps the one novel of his that I still really want to read. Cannery Row is definitely worth a look, and it's short so you'll read it in a few hours, very warm humourous book. I'm not sure why people would get bored with Steinbeck unless they'd been force fed of Mice and Men at school and been subsequently turned off due to over analysing the novel. He is a fantastic writer, the Grapes of Wrath IMO ranks alongside the Ragged Trousered Philanphropists as one of the great 20th century social novels. When I visited the Us afriend told me that some of Steinbeck's works were still considered suspect even today and that some school libraries had been reluctant to stock some novels. If that's true I'm worried, his descriptive powers and amusing, believeable characters make for fine reading.
> 
> 
> Currently reading The Victim by Saul Bellow and Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, the latter reminds me of Steinbeck somewhat.



I loved Grapes of Wrath too. also Red Pony, The Pearl - both magic! Tortilla Flat just mnakes me think of booze. Of Mice and Men makes me think of me ripping it off for my English O Level exam essay


----------



## Reg in slippers (Feb 15, 2007)

susie orbach - the impossibility of sex

my oh my


----------



## maximilian ping (Feb 15, 2007)

Don't understand how come Steinbeck didnt write Old Man and the Sea - i'm sure there was a mix up at the publishers with him and Ernest H


----------



## May Kasahara (Feb 15, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Ya think?  I don't think the first choice is anywhere near meaty enough.  And as for last months...pah.  Noddy would have been more of a challenge.



Heh...I'm still scarred by having to read this:







We think it was chosen by someone who then left the group...certainly no one would own up to it!




			
				sojourner said:
			
		

> Do you have a core object or theme to the choices?  Cos in my one, it started off with a ridiculous standard - the books had to be written by and about lesbians.  Oh, and no american authors    I left for a while in a flounce cos the choices were so shit, and then no one would fuckin talk about them!



Eeek! Thankfully no, we don't - everyone gets to choose 5 books to go in the hat, they can be anything (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, comics, whatever) and you can choose stuff you've read before and loved, stuff you've never read but always meant to...anything really. We have had some good choices too, but some of it has been a bit MOR. Don't want to sound snobby, but if I'm going to be reading books I wouldn't necessarily have picked myself then I want to be challenged at least a bit. That's why my picks were: 'Watchmen' (superb comic), 'House of Leaves' (insane typographic ghost story headfuck), 'The End of Alice' (beautifully written and deeply disturbing paedo drama) and two books I've never read, 'The Maltese Falcon' and 'Regeneration'.




			
				sojourner said:
			
		

> I keep meaning to get a copy of The Macguffin.  Why do you recommend House of Leaves then?



See above  It's a mentalist, multilayered book about reading and storytelling, presented in some wigged-out typographic ways, which nevertheless manages to grip like a bitch with its central ghost/horror story. Thoroughly recommended, plus it's funny watching people wondering what you're doing as you turn the book this way and that to follow the typestreams.


----------



## ringo (Feb 15, 2007)

Just finished Hemingway's "The Garden Of Eden". Great book but a poor personal choice given similar recent experiences.
Also recently finished J.M. Coetzee's "Slow Man". Utterly miserable and not a patch on the incredible "Disgrace". 
Cheering myself up with Robert Rankin's "American Gods".


----------



## Blagsta (Feb 15, 2007)

Susan Sontag - On Photography


----------



## sojourner (Feb 15, 2007)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> Heh...I'm still scarred by having to read this:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Oh dear god, that Eva Rice book looks like my idea of hell!!! Look at that bloody cover!  

Sounds like a good idea, the ideas in a hat thing.  I might suggest that next time, but I might just end up with a load of crap - lesbian detective fucking novels etc (and believe me there are _lots_ of them). Hmm, maybe not.

The House of Leaves sounds really interesting - I'm deffo gonna get that!  I'm really into experimental narrative structures, and this sounds right up my street  

The End of Alice sounds intriguing as well.  

*goes off to add to amazon wishlist*


----------



## May Kasahara (Feb 15, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Oh dear god, that Eva Rice book looks like my idea of hell!!! Look at that bloody cover!



It really was that bad. The funny thing was, we had all just been talking more generally about what kind of books we did/didn't like, and me and a few others had been giving shitty chick lit a right slating, complaining about books with pink covers and sketchy angular girls looking quizzical...and then this was pulled out for next month. The horror!


----------



## Steader (Feb 15, 2007)

Bill Bryson:Notes from a small island.(Fantastic)


----------



## sojourner (Feb 15, 2007)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> It really was that bad. The funny thing was, we had all just been talking more generally about what kind of books we did/didn't like, and me and a few others had been giving shitty chick lit a right slating, complaining about books with pink covers and sketchy angular girls looking quizzical...and then this was pulled out for next month. The horror!


Heh  

Sorry but I'd have flounced!!


----------



## Fledgling (Feb 16, 2007)

maximilian ping said:
			
		

> Don't understand how come Steinbeck didnt write Old Man and the Sea - i'm sure there was a mix up at the publishers with him and Ernest H



A more important question is which of the two authors had the best beard.


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 16, 2007)

Western Philosophy by Betrand Russell, generously lent me by Mr Citrone.

It's very big, but I'm reassured that the foreward and first couple of chapters haven't broken my head yet.


----------



## DotCommunist (Feb 16, 2007)

Yesterday I was mostly enjoying the stuff here


http://www.hourwolf.com/sfbooks/


----------



## purves grundy (Feb 16, 2007)

No book at all because the cunts in our central post room have lost the fuckers I ordered 5 weeks ago


----------



## zora (Feb 18, 2007)

Finished _Restless_ a little while ago, and this morning _Any Human Heart_. 
Now I want to have William Boyd's babies. 
Failing that, I'll just read some more of his books, probably _The New Confessions_ next, or _Armadillo_.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 18, 2007)

Read The New Confessions - it's the best of the Boyds I've read - very entertaining


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Feb 18, 2007)

Just finished Mark Haddon's 'A Spot of Bother'. Not a good book to read on public transport unless you don't mind people quietly moving away from you as you shriek maniacially with laughter that causes your eyes to weep and your nose to run.


----------



## foamy (Feb 18, 2007)

oh, is mark haddons new book as good as 'the curious incident of the dog in the night time'?

I'm reading 'The nine lives of Louis Drax' by Liz Jensen. very good so far


----------



## Throbbing Angel (Feb 19, 2007)

Never the Bride  by Paul Magrs


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Feb 19, 2007)

foamy said:
			
		

> oh, is mark haddons new book as good as 'the curious incident of the dog in the night time'?


It's very funny. I enjoyed it immensely. I was reading bits of it to Blind Lemon last night and had to keep stopping because I couldn't breathe I was laughing so much at the wedding bit.


----------



## May Kasahara (Feb 19, 2007)

chin dildo said:
			
		

> Read The New Confessions - it's the best of the Boyds I've read - very entertaining



It's the only Boyd I've read (so far) - absolutely brilliant, loved it.


----------



## Bomber (Feb 19, 2007)

Just about to finish the first 'Rebus' novel, a series I've been meaning to read for years ......... !


----------



## I'm at work (Feb 19, 2007)

I'm reading Graham Swifts "Waterworld" - it's not going well. I read Zoe Heller "Notes on a scandal" recently and it's not too bad . I was suprised when I heard it had been made into a film.


----------



## mrkikiet (Feb 21, 2007)

Bomber said:
			
		

> Just about to finish the first 'Rebus' novel, a series I've been meaning to read for years ......... !


you're going to be trapped. I really enjoy Rebus, read a henning mankel and didn't enjoy it as much. 
plus ian rankin is a really nice guy.


----------



## foamy (Feb 21, 2007)

Notes On A Scandal - enjoying it possibly too much


----------



## baldrick (Feb 22, 2007)

James Lee Burke - Purple Cane Road.


----------



## May Kasahara (Feb 22, 2007)

Am tearing through Call Of The Wild, and really enjoying it. Plus I'll have finished it by tonight, which leaves me free to start another book of my own choice - and I have my newly-arrived copy of The MacGuffin lingering on my shelves...


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 22, 2007)

been diverted from the Hamilton book by Gary Mulholland's fantastic Fear Of Music, the follow-up to This is Uncool, this time covering the same era but looking at albums.

He's probably my favourite music writer working today - he dispenses with theory and context (mostly) to talk instead about how the records make you FEEL. Words like excitement and joy and wonder and sadness etc, which are all too often missing from long lists of references or analyses.


----------



## Pieface (Feb 22, 2007)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> Am tearing through Call Of The Wild, and really enjoying it. Plus I'll have finished it by tonight, which leaves me free to start another book of my own choice - and I have my newly-arrived copy of The MacGuffin lingering on my shelves...



oh!  I _love _that book!  Don't bother with any of his dumb, heavy handed socialist ones though - fucking awful.


----------



## DotCommunist (Feb 22, 2007)

Half way through a Roger Zelazny short story collection 'The doors of his face, the lamps of his mouth'

Well written and not too gung-ho sci fi.


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 22, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> oh!  I _love _that book!  Don't bother with any of his dumb, heavy handed socialist ones though - fucking awful.




!!!!!!!LIBERAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## Pieface (Feb 22, 2007)

No - just some fucking standards - it was like Biggles with pickaxes.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Feb 22, 2007)

Just finished Patrick Parker's Progress by Mavis Cheek. She's a very underrated writer which is a very great pity. I see her stuff now tends to be given pink chick litty covers. Boo


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 22, 2007)

Mrs Magpie said:
			
		

> Just finished Patrick Parker's Progress by Mavis Cheek. She's a very underrated writer which is a very great pity. I see her stuff now tends to be given pink chick litty covers. Boo




i've noticed this with quite a few female authors who are supposed to be anything but 'chicklit' but get those awful 'wacky' colourful covers anyway.. can't do them any good in the long run


----------



## onemonkey (Feb 22, 2007)

Just finished Computer Models of Mind by Maggie Boden.. it has been sitting on my shelves for at least 12 years and pleased to have finally seen it off. some wise words but doubt that i'll remember much about it by this time next week.. 

started Small World by David Lodge.  Bit irritating so far


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Feb 22, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> i've noticed this with quite a few female authors who are supposed to be anything but 'chicklit' but get those awful 'wacky' colourful covers anyway.. can't do them any good in the long run


I wouldn't be seen dead with a ditzy pink book on the bus. It won't stop me reading Mavis Cheek though. I'll rediscover the schoolgirl art of covering books.


----------



## Pieface (Feb 22, 2007)

"Mavis Cheek" - that is a fine name


----------



## sojourner (Feb 22, 2007)

foamy said:
			
		

> Notes On A Scandal - enjoying it possibly too much


I'm gonna read this at the weekend, really looking forward to it


----------



## foamy (Feb 22, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> I'm gonna read this at the weekend, really looking forward to it



it was very good, quick, easy and compelling to read.

i want to see the film now to see how they did it. thelondonpaper described it in some stupid way like 'psycho lesbian' drama which just doesnt go anyway to describe the relationship of the two main characters


----------



## sojourner (Feb 22, 2007)

foamy said:
			
		

> thelondonpaper described it in some stupid way like 'psycho lesbian' drama which just doesnt go anyway to describe the relationship of the two main characters


Yeh, I've been told similar by mates


----------



## bluestreak (Feb 22, 2007)

Q, by Luther Blissett.  If you haven't read this book yet you're missing out.


----------



## Dubversion (Feb 22, 2007)

bluestreak said:
			
		

> Q, by Luther Blissett.  If you haven't read this book yet you're missing out.




i have this and 54 by Wu Ming (same people). Haven't got round to either


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Feb 22, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> "Mavis Cheek" - that is a fine name


I suspect it may have summat to do with why she's not taken terribly seriously, plus she's funny.


----------



## trashpony (Feb 22, 2007)

Mrs Magpie said:
			
		

> I suspect it may have summat to do with why she's not taken terribly seriously, plus she's funny.



She's a great writer. I agree about the covers though - they're dreadful. It does seem to be a disturbing trend too


----------



## colbhoy (Feb 24, 2007)

I am reading The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. It is a bit slow in building but I am quite enjoying it.


----------



## iguzza (Feb 24, 2007)

hmm good job you aren't his PR officer  


I'm reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, it's set in Afghanistan and although I've only read about 3 chapters i'd definitely recommend it


----------



## ViolentPanda (Feb 24, 2007)

bluestreak said:
			
		

> Q, by Luther Blissett.  If you haven't read this book yet you're missing out.



Agreed. The high quality of historical research is pretty amazing for a work of fiction too.

Am currently reading T.D. Barlow's "The Woodcuts of Albrecht Durer" and E. P. Thompson's "William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary"


----------



## Fledgling (Feb 24, 2007)

We by Zamyatin

The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass

The Sixth Heaven by LP Hartley

How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World by Francis Wheen


----------



## sojourner (Feb 24, 2007)

foamy said:
			
		

> Notes On A Scandal - enjoying it possibly too much


Hehe, I think I might know what you're saying here.  I have 40 pages left that I'm saving for tomorrow, but I've been glued to it all day.  And...my dirty little secret is that I absolutely love Barbara   I love the structure of the text - simple narrative devices such as it being non-linear, writing-about-writing (forgot the term for this, I'm not well), and addressing the reader Tristram Shandy style are used to brilliant effect.  Barbara's monologue is cutting, hilarious, brittle and brutal.  I heart Barbara


----------



## sojourner (Feb 25, 2007)

Finished it - what a brilliant novel.  And foamy, I agree with you more than ever now - I see B with much more twisted maternal feelings than lesbian.  This is something which will hopefully prove to spark an interesting debate at my next bookclub meet


----------



## Dirty Martini (Feb 25, 2007)

I finished Collected Memoirs by Julian Maclaren-Ross. These were great, particularly The Memoirs of the Forties and the war/postwar memoirs. Unexpectedly moving in parts. Some nice reportage there, prefiguring New Journalism. I want to read the short stories.

Now it's Q.


----------



## stromasher24 (Feb 26, 2007)

Hi newbie here, just finshed reading Ashok Bankers King of Ayodhya. 

Its the latest book in the re-telling of the Ramayana series, hes got a great style of writing. 
May have been discussed on here before but all the books in the series by him have been top drawer.


----------



## han (Feb 26, 2007)

I've just finished 'The Caged Virgin' by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and have moved onto 'Infidel' by the same author.

Both unputdownable, challenging and inspirational books written by a brave and strong woman. She is incredible.

Still finishing 'Ripley Bogle' as well....by Robert Mcliam Wilson..v.v. good.


----------



## foamy (Feb 26, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Finished it - what a brilliant novel.  And foamy, I agree with you more than ever now - I see B with much more twisted maternal feelings than lesbian.  This is something which will hopefully prove to spark an interesting debate at my next bookclub meet



it just made me a bit angry that it was simplified into being 'lesbian' relationship because they are both women. it seemed to me more maternal or than barbara needed a dependant more like a child substitute. have you seen the film? i havent and am curious now.


----------



## Relahni (Feb 26, 2007)

Brian Clough - walking on water

very good.


----------



## foo (Feb 26, 2007)

Mrs Magpie said:
			
		

> I suspect it may have summat to do with why she's not taken terribly seriously, plus she's funny.



met her once here in Cambridge  - she was lovely! 

i'm reading Broken Biscuits by someoneorother who one some prizeorother for writing it. 

it's a bit shit - and after 3 chapters i think i've had enough.


----------



## sojourner (Feb 26, 2007)

foamy said:
			
		

> it just made me a bit angry that it was simplified into being 'lesbian' relationship because they are both women. it seemed to me more maternal or than barbara needed a dependant more like a child substitute. have you seen the film? i havent and am curious now.


Spot on - this is evidenced when B's need for a dependent got just that bit more desperate and twisted when the Portia bit happened (without giving away too much!)

No haven't seen the film, but I'm also curious now  

The media did a very similar thing with Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson, calling it a lesbian love story, and the book itself a 'lesbian love ode'    If they'd bothered to read the fucking thing they'd have realised that it's impossible to assign gender to the narrator, so if you can't do that, you can't blather on about what sexuality s/he is can you?!


----------



## madamv (Feb 26, 2007)

Just finished 'The Tuesday Erotica Club' - Lisa Beth Kovetz.

I enjoyed it, chick lit but with a bit of sauce  

Dunno whether to start 'Dry' - Augusten Burroughs, or 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' - Jonathan Safran Foer.

Will start one of those tomorrow, tonight its pretty frocks Oscar stylee


----------



## I'm at work (Feb 26, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Spot on - this is evidenced when B's need for a dependent got just that bit more desperate and twisted when the Portia bit happened (without giving away too much!)
> 
> No haven't seen the film, but I'm also curious now
> 
> The media did a very similar thing with Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson, calling it a lesbian love story, and the book itself a 'lesbian love ode'    If they'd bothered to read the fucking thing they'd have realised that it's impossible to assign gender to the narrator, so if you can't do that, you can't blather on about what sexuality s/he is can you?!




They haven't bothered to read the book ( which is superb) . When they did Wintersons "oranges ae not the only fruit" on the BBC they angled it to the lesbian part of the story yet it was about fundamentalist religious belief - the lesbian aspect was a side line, that _was_ the story - it didn't matter who or what she did/was as long as she bashed the bible!!

Having finished the watery ""Waterworld" by Graham Swift I've moved onto the 1985 Booker Winner The Bone people by Keri Hulme.


----------



## foamy (Feb 26, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> The media did a very similar thing with Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson, calling it a lesbian love story, and the book itself a 'lesbian love ode'    If they'd bothered to read the fucking thing they'd have realised that it's impossible to assign gender to the narrator, so if you can't do that, you can't blather on about what sexuality s/he is can you?!



would i enjoy this since i loved notes on a scandal?


----------



## sojourner (Feb 27, 2007)

foamy said:
			
		

> would i enjoy this since i loved notes on a scandal?


Two different books (obvious statement of the year there!), but I would recommend that book to anyone anyway cos I love it


----------



## sojourner (Feb 27, 2007)

I'm at work said:
			
		

> They haven't bothered to read the book ( which is superb) . When they did Wintersons "oranges ae not the only fruit" on the BBC they angled it to the lesbian part of the story yet it was about fundamentalist religious belief - the lesbian aspect was a side line, that _was_ the story - it didn't matter who or what she did/was as long as she bashed the bible!!


Hmm, well, I'd have to say that it was Jess's sexuality that caused her split with the religious community she was part of, and caused all the rest of the uproar, so i'd say with Oranges it was very definitely centred around her lesbianism.  I thought the TV adaptation was excellent btw - Charlotte Coleman was just brilliant (RIP)


----------



## Nina (Feb 27, 2007)

Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner

Just finished it and shed my fair share of tears. Beautiful story, beautifully written.


----------



## maya (Feb 28, 2007)

Trying to read some philosophy, but my brain just isn't up to the task... In fact, it _never_ is.


----------



## quimcunx (Feb 28, 2007)

I enjoyed the kite runner.  I like how the main character was in no way heroic. 

I'm reading Unspeak Stephen Poole about weasel words.  Why politicians use particular words, what they want us to think etc.

AC Grayling is about as much philosophy as my little brain can handle. I'm a beginner.   I can say Occam's Razor, though I probably can't spell it...


----------



## tastebud (Feb 28, 2007)

i read it on coaches in turkey & couldn't read for more than about twenty seconds at a time, before having to look out of the window, away from the book & blink back the tears 
i really enjoyed reading it, though it has to be said that it's pretty cheesy & far fetched in parts.
(the kite runner i mean).


----------



## chazegee (Mar 1, 2007)

In cold blood - Truman Capote

I know have 5 books on, and getting no closer to finishing any of them, a bit like my bittorrent then


----------



## jodal (Mar 2, 2007)

Story - Robert McKee for something like the 5th time.


----------



## sojourner (Mar 2, 2007)

chazegee said:
			
		

> In cold blood - Truman Capote


How are you finding it?  I read it recently (after watching the Philip SH film) and really liked it

I plan to start Coetzee's Disgrace on Sunday


----------



## madamv (Mar 2, 2007)

Just finished 'Dry' - Augusten Burroughs.   I love him.  I feel sad when I finish his books because its like a friend who doesnt call you for months....

Started 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' - Jonathan Safran Foer.

I think I have found my favourate paragraph in a book ever.  



			
				Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' - Jonathan Safran Foer said:
			
		

> What about microphones?  What if everyone swallowed them, and they played the sounds of our hearts through little speakers which could be in the pouches of our overalls?  When you skateboarded down the street at night you could hear everyone's heartbeat, and they could hear yours, sort of like a sonar. One weird thing is, I wonder if everyone's hearts would start to beat at the same time, like how women who live together have their menstrual periods at the same time, which I know about, but don't really want to know about. That would be so weird, except that the place in the hospital where babies are born would sound like a crystal chandelier in a houseboat, because the babies wouldn't have had time to match up their heartbeats yet. And at the finish line at the end of the New York City Marathon it would sound like war.



Ahhhh.  I love reading on Gin


----------



## Julie (Mar 3, 2007)

The Last Godfather: The Rise and Fall of Joey Massino (by Simon Crittle)

Forward by Donnie Basco (aka Joseph D. Pistone)


Interesting, quick read. He reminds me of Tony Soprano


----------



## trashpony (Mar 3, 2007)

PD James. I can only cope with stuff which isn't too taxing right now


----------



## iguzza (Mar 5, 2007)

Nina said:
			
		

> Khaled Hosseini
> 
> The Kite Runner
> 
> Just finished it and shed my fair share of tears. Beautiful story, beautifully written.




me, too

Very  good book.

Starting My name is Red now by Orhan Pamuk.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 6, 2007)

Finished Q by Luther Blissett.

It's a lot of fun. It dips sometimes, there's some clunky writing and at points the plot creaks like a 16th century floorboard, but it's a cracking read. I think I'd like to read more about the peasant wars. I'd certainly like to read 54.


----------



## maya (Mar 6, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> It dips sometimes, there's some clunky writing and at points the plot creaks like a 16th century floorboard,


(  )

I'm halfway into "The Art Of Loving" by Erich Fromm... Will start Joseph Conrad's "Lord Jim" in roughly two hours...
You won't excitedly await my reports, but I'll return later to let you know, anyway...


----------



## foamy (Mar 6, 2007)

just finished 'The Girls' by Lori Lansen

and started 'Everything You Know' by Zoe Heller (after enjoying notes on a scandal so much )


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 6, 2007)

maya said:
			
		

> Joseph Conrad's "Lord Jim" in roughly two hours...
> You won't excitedly await my reports, but I'll return later to let you know, anyway...



That's one of the best novels ever written (imo)


----------



## chooch (Mar 6, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Finished Q by Luther Blissett.
> It's a lot of fun. It dips sometimes, there's some clunky writing and at points the plot creaks like a 16th century floorboard, but it's a cracking read. I think I'd like to read more about the peasant wars. I'd certainly like to read 54.


I loved _q_ despite its join-the-dotsness. In _54_, the writing´s clunkier still in parts, but a good deal of the entertainment´s still there. Worth reading.
I´m just finishing Allan Gurganus _white people_, a short-story collection. Very impressed overall. There´s some tenderness, some vitriol, some satire and the odd false step.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 6, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> join-the-dotsness



That's it, especially in the last third. That said, the political vision behind the book is impressively consistent. I think they manage to make the 16th century speak pretty directly to the 21st ... (ugh)


----------



## Boogie Boy (Mar 7, 2007)

Just finished:

'Brave New World' Aldous Huxley
'One Hundred Years Of Solitude' Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Now reading:

'The New Atlantis' Francis Bacon

BB


----------



## YouSir (Mar 7, 2007)

Everything by P.G Wodehouse.


----------



## purves grundy (Mar 7, 2007)

_Fun Home_, by Alison Bechdel

The first graphic novel I've ever bothered with (cos of the top reviews it got), and I tell ya it's fuckin awesome. What a work of art


----------



## Vintage Paw (Mar 7, 2007)

Am still reading Auster's _The Book of Illusions_ but had to put it to one side while I'm doing work. 

Yesterday finished _Day of the Locust_ by Nathaneal West. Very interesting book. Quite disturbing by the end ... in some ways it (sadly) reminded me of _Elect Mr Robinson for a better world_ - and that book is one experience I never want to relive again!

Reading _Ragtime_ by Doctorow next, looking forward to it, plus is has a  picture on the front.


----------



## ringo (Mar 7, 2007)

The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs by Irvine Welsh


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 7, 2007)

A Perfect Hoax by Italo Svevo.


----------



## sojourner (Mar 7, 2007)

ringo said:
			
		

> The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs by Irvine Welsh


Are you an Irvine Welsh fan? (I am)

How are you finding it?


----------



## sojourner (Mar 7, 2007)

Disgrace by JM Coetzee

The main thing that's striking me so far is my contempt for David Lurie - in some ways it reminds me of certain content from The Dice Man

I'm hoping it gets better


----------



## ViolentPanda (Mar 7, 2007)

Currently reading Kathryn Dodd's "A Sylvia Pankhurst reader", David Toop's "Ocean of Sound" and Stephen Dorril's "Blackshirt".


----------



## foamy (Mar 7, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Disgrace by JM Coetzee



i loved this - especially loved reading it on the way to work (school!)

i'm reading '*The Birds*' by Tareji Vasees (sp?) translated from Norwegian.


----------



## maya (Mar 7, 2007)

foamy said:
			
		

> i'm reading '*The Birds*' by Tareji Vasees (sp?)


Tarjei Vesaas...  Try reading "The Ice Palace"- his best book, IMO.


----------



## foamy (Mar 7, 2007)

maya said:
			
		

> Tarjei Vesaas...  Try reading "The Ice Palace"- his best book, IMO.



ha! my guess was quite good then  only started it today but read 100 pages and enjoying it muchly.
will check out the ice palace, thanks


----------



## May Kasahara (Mar 8, 2007)

Since I'm having such trouble getting into novels at the moment, I've decided to return to an area that never fails to hold my interest - crime.

Am reading _Fearless Jones_ by Walter Mosely. It's alright so far, but I wouldn't agree with the Guardian's assertion that he's the best crime writer working today (mind you, individual reviewers have probably said that about any number of writers). Certainly he's got nothing on Joe R Lansdale in the entertainment stakes.


----------



## Pieface (Mar 8, 2007)

The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende

Took me an age to get into it but finally hooked me last night - it's got that S American fiction thing going on of massive cast of characters and loads of eccentricities - she's writing from a feminist, lefty slant as well.


----------



## ringo (Mar 9, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Are you an Irvine Welsh fan? (I am)
> 
> How are you finding it?



Yes, I've read all his books. The last couple (Filth & Porno) I found so over the top disgusting that I was starting to go off him, but this one is a bit more easily digested.
Awful pun that.
Some of the characters are continuations of his previous main men, there's a lot of sick boy (sadistic smug bastard) and spud (weak victim) in the main two characters, but enough inventiveness in their relationship to hold it together. Only half way, but so far so good.


----------



## Cheesypoof (Mar 9, 2007)

Started 

'Let it blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs' this morning, the bio of America's greatest gonzo journalist and most legendary rock critic. So far, its brilliant. he died of an overdose at 33 in 1982 and was respected as much by the rockstars as the fans. 

his writing will always be remembered, he wrote for Creem, The Village Voice and Rolling Stone in the 70s and his reviews, sometimes done on stage with the performers, were legendary stream of consciousness, speed and benzy fuelled gutter masterpieces.


----------



## sojourner (Mar 9, 2007)

ringo said:
			
		

> Yes, I've read all his books. The last couple (Filth & Porno) I found so over the top disgusting that I was starting to go off him, but this one is a bit more easily digested.
> Awful pun that.
> Some of the characters are continuations of his previous main men, there's a lot of sick boy (sadistic smug bastard) and spud (weak victim) in the main two characters, but enough inventiveness in their relationship to hold it together. Only half way, but so far so good.


I really liked Filth - he does grotesque so well. 

I would have hoped though that by now, he would have started changing his stock characters.  I used to love that characters in his books would all be interrelated somehow, but find myself wanting more now

Hmmm...I want to read it, but it won't be on the priority list I think


----------



## tastebud (Mar 9, 2007)

Cheesypoof said:
			
		

> Started
> 
> 'Let it blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs' this morning, the bio of America's greatest gonzo journalist and most legendary rock critic. So far, its brilliant. he died of an overdose at 33 in 1982 and was respected as much by the rockstars as the fans.
> 
> his writing will always be remembered, he wrote for Creem, The Village Voice and Rolling Stone in the 70s and his reviews, sometimes done on stage with the performers, were legendary stream of consciousness, speed and benzy fuelled gutter masterpieces.


That's funny, cos I have _Mainlines, Blood Feasts & Bad Taste_, in my desk drawer* as we speak. 
(*I just put it there this morning, to read at a later date).


----------



## ringo (Mar 9, 2007)

"Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The Work of a Legendary Critic" is a good collection of Lester Bangs writing, great for dipping into.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Mar 9, 2007)

ringo said:
			
		

> "Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The Work of a Legendary Critic" is a good collection of Lester Bangs writing, great for dipping into.



Especially when he gets into his "hectoring the grand-chilluns about how music back in the day was so much better than the shit on the radio nowadays" mode.


----------



## foo (Mar 9, 2007)

just finished Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Inshiguro. i enjoyed it, although i've read quite a few books with this theme by now. a bit, The Handsmade's Tale....with boys.  

does anyone know if this book is in translation, or did he write it in english?


----------



## bluestreak (Mar 9, 2007)

Q by Luther Blissett.  One of the greatest novels ever written and if you haven't read it you need to.


----------



## tastebud (Mar 9, 2007)

bluestreak said:
			
		

> Q by Luther Blissett.  One of the greatest novels ever written and if you haven't read it you need to.


like you already told us, last week, on this very thread.


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 9, 2007)

ringo said:
			
		

> "Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The Work of a Legendary Critic" is a good collection of Lester Bangs writing, great for dipping into.



his piece on Van Morrison's Astral Weeks is about the most powerful and moving piece of music criticism i've ever read.



> What Astral Weeks deals in are not facts but truths. Astral Weeks, insofar as it can be pinned down, is a record about people stunned by life, completely overwhelmed, stalled in their skins, their ages and selves, paralyzed by the enormity of what in one moment of vision they can comprehend. It is a precious and terrible gift, born of a terrible truth, because what they see is both infinitely beautiful and terminally horrifying: the unlimited human ability to create or destroy, according to whim. It's no Eastern mystic or psychedelic vision of the emerald beyond, nor is it some Baudelairean perception of the beauty of sleaze and grotesquerie. Maybe what it boiled down to is one moment's knowledge of the miracle of life, with its inevitable concomitant, a vertiginous glimpse of the capacity to be hurt, and the capacity to inflict that hurt.




and then Bangs closes the piece by comparing a Morrison lyric to this



> My heart of silk
> is filled with lights,
> with lost bells,
> with lilies and bees.
> ...



which has me in bits every time i read it


----------



## Boogie Boy (Mar 9, 2007)

Phew! Bacon was fun!

So now it is going to be 'Poetics' (Aristotle) and 'Culture And Anarchy' (Matthew Arnold).

BB


----------



## ViolentPanda (Mar 9, 2007)

foo said:
			
		

> just finished Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Inshiguro. i enjoyed it, although i've read quite a few books with this theme by now. a bit, The Handsmade's Tale....with boys.
> 
> does anyone know if this book is in translation, or did he write it in english?



He writes in English, came over here when he was a toddler. Writes beautifully though, doesn't he?


----------



## ViolentPanda (Mar 9, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> his piece on Van Morrison's Astral Weeks is about the most powerful and moving piece of music criticism i've ever read.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Ah well, one poorly thought-out review out of his whole output ain't bad, I suppose.


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 9, 2007)

i'm going right off you


----------



## Fledgling (Mar 9, 2007)

Jut finished The Warden by Trollope which was average and have started Three men on the bummel which should be excellent.


----------



## quimcunx (Mar 9, 2007)

Q&A by someone.  It's about an Indian boy who wins 'who wants to be a billionaire' despite being an uneducated poor waiter.  Each question relates to a a part of his story. 'snot bad.


----------



## Appassionata (Mar 10, 2007)

Stuart Spencer - "The Playwright's Guidebook"... because... er... I think I can be one, but I need guidance.


----------



## chooch (Mar 10, 2007)

Patrick Hamilton _Craven House_


----------



## sojourner (Mar 10, 2007)

Have stalled on Disgrace

Am instead re-reading Written on the Body, cos it's my recommendation for book club, and even though I've read it about 4 times now, I need to refresh my ailing memory 

What a fucking brilliant book


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 10, 2007)

Finished A Perfect Hoax. I like Svevo a lot, he had human beings nailed.

Now it's Eight German Novellas, alternating with some John Updike memoirs, though he can be a very _annoying_ writer.


----------



## wishface (Mar 10, 2007)

Trying to read Three Stigmatas of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K Dick. I say trying, my eyesight is not what it was and i am consequenly not the reader i was, to my shame. I do like my genre fiction.


----------



## Appassionata (Mar 10, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> <quote>
> 
> What Astral Weeks deals in are not facts but truths. Astral Weeks, insofar as it can be pinned down, is a record about people stunned by life, completely overwhelmed, stalled in their skins, their ages and selves, paralyzed by the enormity of what in one moment of vision they can comprehend. It is a precious and terrible gift, born of a terrible truth, because what they see is both infinitely beautiful and terminally horrifying: the unlimited human ability to create or destroy, according to whim. It's no Eastern mystic or psychedelic vision of the emerald beyond, nor is it some Baudelairean perception of the beauty of sleaze and grotesquerie. Maybe what it boiled down to is one moment's knowledge of the miracle of life, with its inevitable concomitant, a vertiginous glimpse of the capacity to be hurt, and the capacity to inflict that hurt.



Brilliant stuff. 

That makes Cheesy look like a coked-up journo.


----------



## May Kasahara (Mar 11, 2007)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> Am reading _Fearless Jones_ by Walter Mosely. It's alright so far, but I wouldn't agree with the Guardian's assertion that he's the best crime writer working today (mind you, individual reviewers have probably said that about any number of writers). Certainly he's got nothing on Joe R Lansdale in the entertainment stakes.



Hmmm, still reading it but really not impressed. Why does everyone go on about this guy being so brilliant? Maybe I've just picked a bad book of his, but the occasional nicely-worded sentence isn't doing much to make up for the distinctly average whole.


----------



## maya (Mar 12, 2007)

wishface said:
			
		

> Trying to read Three Stigmatas of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K Dick. I say trying, my eyesight is not what it was and i am consequenly not the reader i was, to my shame. I do like my genre fiction.


Was pleasantly surprised with that one- Apart from the extremely clumsy (and involuntarily funny) descriptions of sex/women, it's unputdownable- He just keeps on with his evil little twists and turns, just when you thought you had it all pinned down, he notches it up another level and the completely over the top headfuck plot becomes an even worse trip- 
Even Dick himself was scared of that book, he refused to re-read it as he believed he'd touched on "absolute evil"...

It's great as a pageturner, but not up there with his three best ones, IMO...
Still, pisses down from a great, great height on most of the predictable genre fluff churned out today (and back then by his contemporaries)


----------



## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2007)

maya said:
			
		

> Was pleasantly surprised with that one- Apart from the extremely clumsy (and involuntarily funny) descriptions of sex/women, it's unputdownable- He just keeps on with his evil little twists and turns, just when you thought you had it all pinned down, he notches it up another level and the completely over the top headfuck plot becomes an even worse trip-
> Even Dick himself was scared of that book, he refused to re-read it as he believed he'd touched on "absolute evil"...
> 
> It's great as a pageturner, but not up there with his three best ones, IMO...
> Still, pisses down from a great, great height on most of the predictable genre fluff churned out today (and back then by his contemporaries)




One of my favorites from Phil is that. Better than the overrated 'Do androids dream of electric sheep?'  and definetly unsettling. Gets right under your skin


----------



## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2007)

I've just read the first chapter of this ultra-cheesey 70's adult sci fi book called 'Spaceways of Alien bondage' 

Unintentional comedy Gold 

when I'm don I shall regale you with some choicee quotes from this truly awful book


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Mar 12, 2007)

The Bus We Loved: London's Affair with the Routemaster by Travis Elborough. Wonderful.


----------



## Nikkormat (Mar 13, 2007)

Canterbury Tales. Not in the original, but a nice translation.


----------



## foo (Mar 13, 2007)

ViolentPanda said:
			
		

> He writes in English, came over here when he was a toddler. Writes beautifully though, doesn't he?



yes, he does. i'd like to read another of his -  can you recommend one?


----------



## maya (Mar 13, 2007)

DotCommunist said:
			
		

> Better than the overrated 'Do androids dream of electric sheep?'  and definetly unsettling. Gets right under your skin


I do have a soft spot for "Androids..." though, there's some very emotional scenes in there...  
BUT, he could've done with a bit of pruning- As a whole, the book feels a bit too long- And since the pace is so slow, it's easy to lose interest if one expects the usual witty, breakneck- speed PKD incarnation...
Scenes like that of the two "parallel police stations" lead nowhere, and feels a bit undeveloped... If he'd made the book shorter, I'd rate it higher, but I guess this really is a question of taste- It's a more "thoughtful", introspective book than those which came before. 
(But I'm probably biased, I like it because I loved Blade Runner...  )


----------



## maya (Mar 13, 2007)

erk! another double post!

must check fingers for arthritis...


----------



## foamy (Mar 14, 2007)

just finished *'How Proust Can Change Your Life*' by Alain De Botton.
now started '*The Camomile Lawn*' By Mary Wesley


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 14, 2007)

The Line Of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst
A stunning writer - amazed I haven't discovered this til recently


----------



## chooch (Mar 14, 2007)

maya said:
			
		

> It's great as a pageturner, but not up there with his three best ones, IMO...
> Still, pisses down from a great, great height on most of the predictable genre fluff churned out today (and back then by his contemporaries)


I reckon it´s his best. Not his best written, but his most unsettling.


----------



## maya (Mar 15, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> I reckon it´s his best. Not his best written, but his most unsettling.


It's absolutely terrifying! First time around I didn't dare to put it down, sat up all night reading to the bitter end, clutching the blanket and with lots of light on...

don't laugh


----------



## tastebud (Mar 15, 2007)

Ooh, I started reading The Neon Bible today.
John Kennedy Toole.
15 pages in but I like it thus far.

I also found out that it's a film too! & only a mere few weeks ago, I thought it was just a (great) album by a great band.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Mar 16, 2007)

tastebud said:
			
		

> Ooh, I started reading The Neon Bible today.
> John Kennedy Toole.
> 15 pages in but I like it thus far.
> 
> I also found out that it's a film too! & only a mere few weeks ago, I thought it was just a (great) album by a great band.



And for some reason I'd thought he'd only ever written the one book ... weird.


----------



## chooch (Mar 16, 2007)

tastebud said:
			
		

> Ooh, I started reading The Neon Bible today.
> John Kennedy Toole.


I liked it. It's obviously the work of a teenager in parts, but it has some very strong writing.


----------



## tastebud (Mar 16, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> It's obviously the work of a teenager in parts


Yep!


----------



## Throbbing Angel (Mar 16, 2007)

this week I am mainly reading 'On Writing' by Stephen King


----------



## Vintage Paw (Mar 16, 2007)

Well, I finished _The Book of Illusions_ (Paul Auster) today. Cracking read - very compelling. Would recommend.

Now moving on to _Ragtime_ (Doctorow) - looking forward to it immensly.


----------



## purves grundy (Mar 17, 2007)

I'm preparing for my MA, reading _Agents of Atrocity_ by Neil Mitchell. 

Put age-old enmities, ideology, and whatever to one side, we need to focus on the relationship between leaders and their followers in order to understand human rights violations.

Very nicely written.


----------



## spoone (Mar 17, 2007)

do androids dream of electric sheep - Phillip k dick

and Im gonna start the second artemis fowl book soon.


----------



## madamv (Mar 17, 2007)

Finished 'Extremely Loud'.  JSF is so wonderful I could cry.

Started 'Magical Thinking' - Augusten Burroughs.  *sighs*


----------



## sojourner (Mar 17, 2007)

Aimee and Jaguar - a true story of a German woman married to a Nazi, who had an affair with a Jewish woman - to the point that they made a secret marriage contract.  Aimee and Jaguar are their pen names - they wrote ferociously to each other when apart.   Fascinating stuff - letters, poems, interviews with the surviving woman, and her friends and family - the Jewish woman.... (SPOILER ALERT)


















ends up arrested and sent to a camp, never to return

There's loads of detail about the slow creep of Nazi rule that I never knew - fascinating book


----------



## Kripcat (Mar 18, 2007)

"Rich Dad, Poor Dad"
S'about what the majority of people supposedly don't know about money that the rich elite do. S'abit dicky and up its own arse at the moment.


----------



## maya (Mar 18, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Aimee and Jaguar - a true story of a German woman married to a Nazi, who had an affair with a Jewish woman -


which got made into a film very recently... with the lovely heike makatsch(sp?)
although i haven't seen it myself, so can't vouch for its, erm, greatness...


----------



## sojourner (Mar 18, 2007)

maya said:
			
		

> which got made into a film very recently... with the lovely heike makatsch(sp?)
> although i haven't seen it myself, so can't vouch for its, erm, greatness...


I didn't know that.  Now is where I start dithering over whether to watch it, cos it might be ruined by ridiculous changes in the story and characters


----------



## maya (Mar 18, 2007)

Back to books, I've just started Tolstoy's "Hadji Murat"- A short, but powerful criticism of the Russian warfare in Checnya... That the novel is over a hundred years old, sadly doesn't detract from its current relevance...


----------



## Strumpet (Mar 18, 2007)

I have the life stories of Lauren Bacall and Katharine Hepburn to read as of today.


----------



## Pie 1 (Mar 19, 2007)

Just finished William Boyd's Restless - Excellent stuff. 
Just about to start Geoff Dyer's The Ongoing Moment.


----------



## Roadkill (Mar 19, 2007)

For a bit of light reading I've just started on David Hall's biography of Fred Dibnah.  Interesting and amusing reading so far.


----------



## May Kasahara (Mar 19, 2007)

'Northern Lights' by Nora Roberts. An enjoyable, straightforward yarn, very like that tv show 'Northern Exposure' but in book form. Filled with well-worn incidence and such, but done solidly enough to be rather charming.


----------



## Dubversion (Mar 19, 2007)

not really reading books at the moment. Instead, in true music geek style I'm going to my big pile of Wire magazines - about 12 years worth - and pulling random copies from the bottom. Interesting to see what I know about or like now that I didn't at the time, and it's always a learning thing.

Tonight in the bath a read a long article about New Orleans R&B / jazz through the eyes of Dr John.


----------



## Rainingstairs (Mar 20, 2007)

"The Witching Hour"  

lil brain candy. loving that Rowan Mayfair. brilliant parilment chain smoking neurosurgeon from san fran who lives on her boat.

I'd love to live on a boat, and just take it out and gaze at the stars and vastness of the swaying ocean. it'd save money...for when i want to live in a more permenant location.


----------



## Bomber (Mar 20, 2007)

Raw Shark Texts ~ Steven Hall


----------



## ringo (Mar 23, 2007)

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak


----------



## cyberfairy (Mar 23, 2007)

Just finished Cryers Hill by Kitty Aldridge and really really recommend it. Tis a slow burner at first but has the best child's perspective of life I have ever ever read. Somewhat dark, it meanders between the first world war and the sixties in a small village and becomes utterly compelling. Superbly written and one of those books you really remember long after they have been finished.


----------



## Rollem (Mar 23, 2007)

about to start reading margaret atwood's "oryx and crake"

haven't read any atwood for yonks and am slightly apprehensive....


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 23, 2007)

cyberfairy said:
			
		

> Just finished Cryers Hill by Kitty Aldridge and really really recommend it. Tis a slow burner at first but has the best child's perspective of life I have ever ever read. Somewhat dark, it meanders between the first world war and the sixties in a small village and becomes utterly compelling. Superbly written and one of those books you really remember long after they have been finished.



That looks interesting, never heard of her before.


----------



## cyberfairy (Mar 23, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> That looks interesting, never heard of her before.


Tis her first book *jealous* I have just discovered the joys of ordering books from library-go into Waterstones, see a book i want and order it if not at library for 60p  Cryers Hill has some interesting stuff about kids learning phonetics in it as well-worked with kids all my life but never before encountered such a beautiful description of a kids mind in the first person. Had tears in eye when finished reading it. Go reserve it at library
eview



Walter Brown went alone to the woodland pond on a July afternoon in 1934. He saw his girl swimming there. She wasn't his girl then, but he knew she would be. He was sixteen when he knew. He watched her floating and saw how white her skin was in the green water, her belly, her breasts, her pond-tangled hair. A naked girl. Then she turned over like an otter and dived down. She did not come up again. Two boys... Sean Matthews stands at the bottom of George's Hill, more or less the very centre of the housing estate, with his hands on his hips. School is finished for the summer and last night, 20 July 1969, two men landed on the moon. There is a notice announcing it in the classroom. Jhe spaesmen hav landid in Jhe see ov trankwility. Funetic words, as if it were a huge laugh; but phonetics is not supposed to be funny. It is important and clever. It is a nationwide experiment, government-sanctioned. Sean and his friends are the guinea pigs. Wur...growing up in the same village thirty-five years apart. When Sean Matthews unknowingly witnesses an event he cannot bear to remember, his life is changed forever.Hailed by Salman Rushdie on the publication of her first novel as 'a real discovery, a writer of precision, delicacy and wit', Kitty Aldridge brings us "Cryers Hill", a novel that confirms her as a writer of immense talent, possessing the rare gift of enabling us to see the world anew, infusing the ordinary with a sense of wonder.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 23, 2007)

cyberfairy said:
			
		

> Tis her first book *jealous* I have just discovered the joys of ordering books from library-go into Waterstones, see a book i want and order it if not at library for 60p  Cryers Hill has some interesting stuff about kids learning phonetics in it as well-worked with kids all my life but never before encountered such a beautiful description of a kids mind in the first person. Had tears in eye when finished reading it. Go reserve it at library



My library won't have it, I'll wait for paperback. Cheers for the recommendation


----------



## vinnie111 (Mar 24, 2007)

i am reading THE COMPLETE PARKHURST TALES by norman parker i read alot of true crime not into novels that much.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Mar 24, 2007)

A Song For Every Season by Bob Copper.

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/obituary/0,12723,1185004,00.html


----------



## Vintage Paw (Mar 24, 2007)

Rollem said:
			
		

> about to start reading margaret atwood's "oryx and crake"
> 
> haven't read any atwood for yonks and am slightly apprehensive....



I quite enjoyed it, although it was rather bleak.

Finished _Ragtime_ - bloody brilliant, great book.

Started _Song of Solomon_ by Toni Morrison. Only read _The Bluest Eye_ by her before, so not sure what to expect. First chapter was strangely difficult to read - could have been my tiredness though.


----------



## rennie (Mar 24, 2007)

Bliss street... feels like I'm home again!


----------



## sojourner (Mar 24, 2007)

Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> Started _Song of Solomon_ by Toni Morrison. First chapter was strangely difficult to read - could have been my tiredness though.


Oooo!! I actually put this in me top 3 books tother day - it is absolutely WONDERFUL...can't tell you how much I love this book.  Stick with it, it'll start to make sense soon


----------



## Vintage Paw (Mar 24, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Oooo!! I actually put this in me top 3 books tother day - it is absolutely WONDERFUL...can't tell you how much I love this book.  Stick with it, it'll start to make sense soon



Thank you, I will do  Actually, I might toddle off to bed with a mug of hot chocolate to read it now!


----------



## tufty79 (Mar 25, 2007)

the testament of gideon mack - james robertson.


----------



## mozzy (Mar 25, 2007)

Rubin Gallego - White On Black: An Orpan's Story


----------



## sojourner (Mar 25, 2007)

Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> Thank you, I will do  Actually, I might toddle off to bed with a mug of hot chocolate to read it now!


How are you finding it now VP?

I finally finished both Aimee and Jaguar and the re-read of Written on the Body today, and just wrung my heart and head out writing the review...Aimee and Jaguar is now on my must-read list - absolutely fascinating, erotic, despairing...


----------



## tastebud (Mar 26, 2007)

I'm reading The Women by Hilton Als & I'm liking it very much thus far


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 26, 2007)

I finished Eight German Novellas and enjoyed about most of them. Standout stories were Clothes Make The Man by Gottfried Keller, The White Horse Rider by Theodor Storm and The Marchioness of O. by Heinrich von Kleist.

Now it's either 54 by Wu "Luther Blissett" Ming or three stories by Dostoyevsky (The Gambler, Bobok and A Nasty Story), in a nice old Penguin Classics edition.


----------



## foamy (Mar 26, 2007)

read 'The Lucky Ones' By Racheal Cusk. it was shit.

now reading 'Choke' By Chuck Palahniuk


----------



## Leica (Mar 26, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> The Marchioness of O. by Heinrich von Kleist


Heinrich von Kleist wrote some great stories... His essay on puppet theatre is very good too (Über das Marionettentheater)


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 27, 2007)

Leica said:
			
		

> Heinrich von Kleist wrote some great stories... His essay on puppet theatre is very good too (Über das Marionettentheater)



Can you recommend a good collection/anthology of his stuff in English?


----------



## Grandma Death (Mar 28, 2007)

Gordon Ramsey's autobiography Humble Pie.


----------



## Leica (Mar 28, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Can you recommend a good collection/anthology of his stuff in English?



I don't know if there is an english edition of his eight novellas (Michael Kohlhaas, die heilige Caecilie, die Marquise von O, der Findling, der Zweikampf, die Verlobung in St Domingo, das Bettelweib von Locarno, das Erdbeben in Chile). I think a good anthology should include at least the first three.

I would also recommend the puppet essay. The Broken Jug is the most famous of his plays.


----------



## Cheesypoof (Mar 28, 2007)

finished the lester bangs one and straight onto 'snowblind' by robert sabaag, which my mates brother edited.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 28, 2007)

Leica said:
			
		

> I don't know if there is an english edition of his eight novellas (Michael Kohlhaas, die heilige Caecilie, die Marquise von O, der Findling, der Zweikampf, die Verlobung in St Domingo, das Bettelweib von Locarno, das Erdbeben in Chile). I think a good anthology should include at least the first three.
> 
> I would also recommend the puppet essay. The Broken Jug is the most famous of his plays.



Thanks, I'll have a dig around. There's a few writers in the anthology I've just read that I'd like to read more of. Thinking about it, I think I might have come across the essay on puppet theatre at some point, don't know how or where


----------



## sojourner (Mar 28, 2007)

Started 'To Kill A Mockingbird' last night - one of those books I never got around to reading, although I did see the Gregory Peck film years ago.  Am really enjoying it so far.


Am sulking a bit though cos one of my fave books ever got a drubbing at bookclub last night, being described as 'too much, too clever' blah blah 'i just like a nice easy read' - fucking bollocks.  Why go to a book club if all you wanna do is read shite?  You can do that any old time can't you?  I open my gob to talk about it, and get cries of 'well I just don't UNDERSTAND' - well shut the fuck up then and I'll explain   


sorry. rant over. It's like being back at fucking school again though - I appear to be talking a different language than the rest of them


----------



## SubZeroCat (Mar 28, 2007)

I'm just finishing Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle and I've started In The Shadow of Islam - Isabelle Eberhardt by Sharon Bangert.

I have acquired 10 books and bought 14 in the last few weeks so I have lots of reading material to get through!


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 28, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Am sulking a bit though cos one of my fave books ever got a drubbing at bookclub last night, being described as 'too much, too clever' blah blah 'i just like a nice easy read' - fucking bollocks.  Why go to a book club if all you wanna do is read shite?  You can do that any old time can't you?  I open my gob to talk about it, and get cries of 'well I just don't UNDERSTAND' - well shut the fuck up then and I'll explain


What book was it?


----------



## sojourner (Mar 28, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> What book was it?


Written on the Body, by Jeanette Winterson


Christ knows what their reaction would have been to The Passion or Sexing the Cherry!  I'm really tempted to put forward The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter now - see what they make of that  

Fucking 'nice easy read'


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 28, 2007)

ooh I've never read that one - I loved Sexing The Cherry and Oranges but don't think I've read owt else by her


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 28, 2007)

I haven't read any Winterson, apart from a few chapters of Oranges. Armed with  that, and the TV series, I asked her a stupidly provocative and ill-informed question at a reading she was giving at my university. It was all she could do not to _shout_ at me. Never felt so embarrassed in my life


----------



## sojourner (Mar 28, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> ooh I've never read that one - I loved Sexing The Cherry and Oranges but don't think I've read owt else by her


Oh you should read it then OU, if you like the others.  The ironic thing is, I think it's actually the least challenging out of all of her works, so to get that reaction just hugely pissed me off!  I can't BEAR people who just shove the hand up and go 'no, not thinking about it, brain disengaged', when you would have thought the whole POINT of being in a bookclub is to get to read a range of things that you wouldn't otherwise


----------



## sojourner (Mar 28, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I haven't read any Winterson, apart from a few chapters of Oranges. Armed with  that, and the TV series, I asked her a stupidly provocative and ill-informed question at a reading she was giving at my university. It was all she could do not to _shout_ at me. Never felt so embarrassed in my life


  Wow, you've met her then?  I'd love to meet her sometime.  I'm the only person I know (who's actually read her stuff) who likes her arrogance  I think it's perfectly justified!!

Please - tell me what the question was


----------



## quimcunx (Mar 28, 2007)

American Gods by Neil Gaiman.  Enjoying it so far though I preferred Neverwhere, I think.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 28, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Wow, you've met her then?  I'd love to meet her sometime.  I'm the only person I know (who's actually read her stuff) who likes her arrogance  I think it's perfectly justified!!
> 
> Please - tell me what the question was



Met is not the right word, she took questions from the floor and mine was one of them. She reacted badly to my question, but I have to say she came across and very grumpy and arrogant throughout it all. Not that it matters of course. Most authors I've come across in readings have been a bit strange


----------



## vinnie111 (Mar 29, 2007)

im now reading GRAFTERS by COLIN BLANEY its a true story of colin and his rise to becoming one of europes most prolific hustler.


----------



## soonplus (Mar 29, 2007)

"Lint" by steve aylett

one of stewart lee's mates... very very funny, i actually won it on myspace.....woooo lucky me


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Mar 29, 2007)

Byzantium Endures by Michael Moorcock, given to me on my birthday last year, finally reading it and enjoying the tales of prerevoluntiary ukraine, cocaine and all types of intrigue and interest. 

I haven't been reading much fiction of late but this is crackingly enjoyable, gripping and good fun


----------



## sojourner (Apr 1, 2007)

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

Loving it.

I finished off Mockingbird yesterday and opened the new package from amazon only to find this - perfect dovetailing


----------



## DUMBO.66 (Apr 1, 2007)

'cell' by Stephen King, the new one.. 
nothing like his classics but very gory and entertaining so far..


----------



## Nikkormat (Apr 1, 2007)

_Passages from Arabia Deserta_ by Charles Doughty. Hard to fathom at first but gets better.


----------



## maya (Apr 1, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg


What did you think of the film, Sojourner? It made a very strong impression on me as a 10-year-old, (mostly for the way that they er, got rid of the "evidence" through er, cooking...), and of course I fell in love with Idgie, too...  
What happened to Mary Stuart Masterson? Can't remember having seen her in any film since- She was perfect for the role, IMO...

...And lest we forget... TOWANGA!


----------



## sojourner (Apr 1, 2007)

maya said:
			
		

> What did you think of the film, Sojourner? It made a very strong impression on me as a 10-year-old, (mostly for the way that they er, got rid of the "evidence" through er, cooking...), and of course I fell in love with Idgie, too...
> What happened to Mary Stuart Masterson? Can't remember having seen her in any film since- She was perfect for the role, IMO...


Have you read the book maya?

I saw the film first, years ago, and it made a big impression on me too but not for the 'evidence' bbq  

Dunno, but I had quite a crush on her for some years after that

The book is much more obvious about Idgie and Ruth than the film is...quite a relief actually


----------



## tastebud (Apr 3, 2007)

Ian McEwan's new book came out yesterday: On Chesil Beach. I might buy it at lunchtime.
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2041193,00.html for an excerpt.


----------



## foamy (Apr 3, 2007)

just finished 'Down and out in paris and london' by George Orwell and now reading 'This book will save you life' by A.M Homes - doing some catching up for book group 

tastebud - new mcEwan looks good, will wait for it to come out in paperback though


----------



## tastebud (Apr 3, 2007)

I'm trying to work out if £7.74 is too much to pay. I feel that it is, but I want it!


----------



## foamy (Apr 3, 2007)

i cant bring myself to pay that much for a book. i guess i've been spoilt by growing up across the road from a £1 book warehouse 

i bought the book group book yesterday and walked an extra mile to get it for £6 instead of £8.


----------



## tastebud (Apr 3, 2007)

yeah me too, re: not paying much/anything for books.
i bought it though - i can lend it to you when i'm done, to get my money's worth!
ian mcewan is worth it. kinda.


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 3, 2007)

tastebud said:
			
		

> I'm trying to work out if £7.74 is too much to pay. I feel that it is, but I want it!


How is that too much?


----------



## foamy (Apr 3, 2007)

its not that its *too* much, just more than you'd pay in other places.

but it is 5p cheaper than amazon


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 3, 2007)

tastebud said:
			
		

> Ian McEwan's new book came out yesterday: On Chesil Beach. I might buy it at lunchtime.
> http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2041193,00.html for an excerpt.


What I've read about that has really put me off - just more overpriviledge poshos with problems - he's such a good writer though that I'll probably end up reading it


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 3, 2007)

foamy said:
			
		

> its not that its *too* much, just more than you'd pay in other places.
> 
> but it is 5p cheaper than amazon


Most books are £7.99 these days aren't they?


----------



## tastebud (Apr 3, 2007)

i almost always get books & music second hand, often online.
i did get thet mcewan book from amazon just now though.

i don't know, i just hate paying for stuff, generally. (unless it's from a charity shop).


----------



## foamy (Apr 3, 2007)

not in fopp or on amazon... not the ones i buy anyway 

i guess my problem with spending that much on a book is it seems quite a lot to gamble if i dont like it. 

i'd definitely never pay £14 - £16 quid for a hardback book either, i'd rather wait for the paperback version.

is this unusual?

eta: if i paid £8 for each book, read one a week = 4 a month i'd be spending £384 a year on books


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 3, 2007)

I have to have brand new shiny books from a real shop - I see them as cheap cos I only really buy music and books and books are half the price as music - twisted logic maybe but there you go


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 3, 2007)

foamy said:
			
		

> not in fopp or on amazon... not the ones i buy anyway
> 
> i guess my problem with spending that much on a book is it seems quite a lot to gamble if i dont like it.
> 
> ...


I will rarely buy a hardback - too cumbersome - but if I really want to read the book, I'll buy it - it doesn't seem a lot to me - I'll spend £15 on a CD, so why not a book?


----------



## foamy (Apr 3, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I will rarely buy a hardback - too cumbersome - but if I really want to read the book, I'll buy it - it doesn't seem a lot to me - I'll spend £15 on a CD, so why not a book?




i think being brought up by my mum whose mantra is 'never pay full price for anything' doesnt help


----------



## tastebud (Apr 3, 2007)

i do agree with the half the price of music logic, funnily enough 
but i try to pay as little as possible for both.
spending guilt... & i'm not sure why i get it  probably my upbringing too actually.

e2a: i don't like brand new shiny books at all. they never stay that way so it makes me feel weird. i also like to know that others have read it first & will read it after me... the environment/trees & things...


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 3, 2007)

tastebud said:
			
		

> i do agree with the half the price of music logic actually
> but i try to pay as little as possible for both.
> spending guilt... & i'm not sure why i get it  probably my upbringing too actually.


Maybe you're just naturally miserly


----------



## tastebud (Apr 3, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Maybe you're just naturally miserly


i'll happily spend heaps on travelling/holidays though... so that cancels out my environment claim above, i guess 

stuff... it bothers me and if you can get it cheaper elsewhere then it's worth doing so imo. why waste money?


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 3, 2007)

It doesn't bother me if it's a matter of a few quid - I just don't think about it - for instance, I'd rather go to a shop and buy a book for £8 than order one from Amazon for £3.
I'm crap with money and am always skint though


----------



## foamy (Apr 3, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> It doesn't bother me if it's a matter of a few quid - I just don't think about it - for instance, *I'd rather go to a shop and buy a book for £8 than order one from Amazon for £3.*
> I'm crap with money and am always skint though



but thats not a matter of a few quid - its £5 difference!
and over twice the price!
no wonder you're always skint  but why am i always skint too?!


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 3, 2007)

A fiver is only a few quid! It's more important to me that I have the book in my hand to read immediately, than the fiver is important to me, IYSWIM


----------



## Yetman (Apr 3, 2007)

foamy said:
			
		

> i think being brought up by my mum whose mantra is 'never pay full price for anything' doesnt help



My mums mantra is simply 'never pay for anthing' - she's a scouser


----------



## The Groke (Apr 3, 2007)

Just finished the new Iain Banks - "The Steep approach to Garbadale"

Bit disappointing really.

Readable enough I suppose, and frankly even at his worst he is better than a hell of a lot of contemporary novelists IMHO, but it was very vanilla and lacked the sinister edge, intrigue and bite that he usually does so well.

 The characters were pretty forgettable too - seemed on the whole to be rehashes and watered down versions of other, previous characters of his creation.

Oh well.

 

I am now rereading "Deadkid Songs" by Toby Litt.


----------



## sojourner (Apr 3, 2007)

Finished Fried Green Toms, and launched into The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing.  Complete change of style, very refreshing.  I was getting a bit bogged down in the Deep South; it's good to read without having that accent in me head    Am loving Lessing's brisk and chilled turn of phrase, how she manages to convey emotion without it turning into a slushfest, nice clear clean uncluttered sentences.


----------



## Bazza (Apr 3, 2007)

The Stand - Stephen King (the full, uncut edition).

Wish me luck guys, it's 1400+ pages. 

It's meant to be King's best book so I'm giving it a go. So far, so good. 

I intend to have it finished by the end of April (I've been reading it for 2 days)


----------



## tastebud (Apr 4, 2007)

I'm reading the Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker because BA started a thread about it once & I liked the sound of it, so he lent it to me.
It's very amusing in a LOL way, but the footnotes I don't like, I have to say.
I like reading prose about random mundane everyday stuff. I think that was why I wanted to borrow the book in the first place.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Apr 7, 2007)

"Terrorism, Legitimacy and Power: The Consequences of Political Violence" - Martha Crenshaw (ed).
"The Orientalist" - Tom Reiss


----------



## May Kasahara (Apr 7, 2007)

Bazza said:
			
		

> The Stand - Stephen King (the full, uncut edition).
> 
> Wish me luck guys, it's 1400+ pages.
> 
> ...



I wouldn't say it's his best book, not by a long chalk. It is good but I found it went off the boil quite badly about halfway through. Just a heads-up in case you find yourself becoming disappointed. It's still worth reading though.

I'm being really indecisive at the moment and haven't started a new book yet.


----------



## yokerist (Apr 8, 2007)

em its by ed gilnert cant remember what its called but its all about the east end

its well good full of mental history and general weirdness


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Apr 8, 2007)

Shit! The book I'm meant to be reading is on the shelf by the downstairs window at Ms T's


----------



## Star Dove (Apr 8, 2007)

Iain Bank's new novel: The steep approach to Garbadale. 

Nothing new, it's the Crow Road revisited, but so far a good read at least.


----------



## sojourner (Apr 9, 2007)

Just started The Wild Girl by Michele Roberts - a take on the Mary Magdalene story.  Rather good so far


----------



## Nikkormat (Apr 9, 2007)

Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad. Too early to have formed an opinion.


----------



## chooch (Apr 10, 2007)

Just finished _The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break_, which somehow kicked me in the heart. Just starting W.G Sebald _The Rings of Saturn_, though may succumb to reading Bohumil Hrabal _Too Loud a Solitude_ on the bus, if I'm feeling unloved.


----------



## madamv (Apr 10, 2007)

The Stand *shudders*   The only TV mini series I couldnt watch because the first one gave me nightmares...

I have read - Wedding in December and Getting rid of Matthew this weekend.  Both chic lit type stuff, hence the super quick reads.

Nothing lined up.  I may re-read the last Harry Potter, in readiness for the new one.

I will trawl through this thread later in the week, in search of something I fancy.  Its not let me down yet


----------



## foamy (Apr 10, 2007)

'Lullaby' by Chuck Palahniuk. good but dont like it as much as 'Choke' maybe its because i dont like magic/fantasy but prefer real life? hmm....


----------



## rekil (Apr 10, 2007)

54 by the Wu Ming Foundation people. Pretty good so far. Lots of interesting Italian post war happenings.


----------



## Bazza (Apr 10, 2007)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> I wouldn't say it's his best book, not by a long chalk. It is good but I found it went off the boil quite badly about halfway through. Just a heads-up in case you find yourself becoming disappointed. It's still worth reading though.



I've only read a handful of his other stuff, what do you reckon is his best, out of interest?

I have a feeling it's all going to go off the boil soon actually, but it is still gripping me at the moment. Coming up to the 300 mark. 1,100 pages to go.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Apr 10, 2007)

I finished Anna Karenina a little while ago, amazing!

Now I am down to about 4 books on the go at once

The Uncomfortable Dead by Subcommandante Marcos and Paco Ignacio Taibo II

Fear & Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard

The Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (for about the seventh time).

There are probably a few more lying around somewhere that I will pick up again

I am also trying to learn Spanish _and_ revise all at the same time


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 10, 2007)

dp


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 10, 2007)

Bazza said:
			
		

> I've only read a handful of his other stuff, what do you reckon is his best, out of interest?
> 
> I have a feeling it's all going to go off the boil soon actually, but it is still gripping me at the moment. Coming up to the 300 mark. 1,100 pages to go.


Carrie or The Shining.
Pet Sematary is pretty good too.
Oh and The Dead Zone is fucking awesome!


----------



## Bazza (Apr 10, 2007)

When I was about 14 years old, I couldn't finish The Shining. Moving hedges freaked me out too much. 

I will bear those in mind though, cheers Orang-U.


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 10, 2007)

I haven't read any of his since that age either, mind!


----------



## sojourner (Apr 10, 2007)

I used to love Stephen King years ago.  About 15 or so years ago, I got so fucked off with him meandering on about bugger all that I gave up on him in disgust.

I think The Stand did it for me in the end - I nearly died of boredom


----------



## mrkikiet (Apr 10, 2007)

Franco by Preston.
It's massive and very interesting.


----------



## intrikat (Apr 10, 2007)

'the passion' jeanette winterson, small and very well formed


----------



## sojourner (Apr 11, 2007)

intrikat said:
			
		

> 'the passion' jeanette winterson, small and very well formed


Have you read much of JW?

Love this book - trust me, I'm telling you stories...


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 11, 2007)

currently reading 3 books at once:

Music For Torching by AM Holmes
Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon (which i partly read - and loved - years ago)
How To Survive A Robot Uprising by Daniel Wilson, which is just silly


----------



## foamy (Apr 11, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> currently reading 3 books at once:
> 
> Music For Torching by AM Holmes



have you read 'This book will save your life'? the book group book of the month... I've read it and am wondering what other AM Holmes stuff is like....


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 11, 2007)

haven't yet, but planning to


----------



## Roadkill (Apr 11, 2007)

Maybe it's the ex being away or the fact I'm trying to stay out of the pub, but I've read a scary amount this last week or two:

Howard Sounes - Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan (Superb book - cheers bluestreak   )

Andrew Simms - Tescopoly: How one shop came out on top and why it matters (Interesting, occasionally startling but didn't tell me much I didn't already know)

Max Adam - Nelson's Own Hero: The Life of Admiral Collingwood (Very readable, but I've read better...)

Richard Woodman - The Real Cruel Sea: The Merchant Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic (a bit narrative and unfocused so far, but interesting and often moving)


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 11, 2007)

foamy said:
			
		

> have you read 'This book will save your life'? the book group book of the month... I've read it and am wondering what other AM Holmes stuff is like....


It's nothing like the others but I'd recommend her others heartily


----------



## May Kasahara (Apr 11, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Carrie or The Shining.
> Pet Sematary is pretty good too.
> Oh and The Dead Zone is fucking awesome!



My picks for his best books are Firestarter, The Shining, The Dead Zone and Salem's Lot. There are two collections of his early short stories that are great as well - Skeleton Crew and Nightshift.


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 11, 2007)

I didn't think much of Firestarter, but I loved the short stories - the most disturbing one is that bloke on the desert island with a load of surgical equipment and some smack. And no food. So he eats himself....


----------



## May Kasahara (Apr 11, 2007)

I LOVE Firestarter, it's probably my favourite book of his. It really shows that his writing is so much more than just bog-standard genre horror - the subject itself isn't that horrific, but the characters are so well drawn. Plus, what little girl doesn't dream of being able to incinerate her enemies with the fiery power of a thousand suns?


----------



## MysteryGuest (Apr 11, 2007)

A TREATISE CONCERNING WEE: The uses thereof as a palliative, agent of cleansing both moral and physickal, as a tanning agent, an agent of spiritual and moral refinement, uses in medicinal decoctions and as a tonick for the relief for common ailments CONTAINING THEREIN a compleat description of the divers appearances, odours and tastes of lees, the humours of their production, Biblical concordances, a description of urea in history since the Classical Era, & c.

by Isaak Milesie, printed by Geo. R Urethra, publisher of urinary tracts at the sign of the Tun of Golden Water, Walton-on-Piddle.  MDCCLVII


----------



## chooch (Apr 12, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> though may succumb to reading Bohumil Hrabal _Too Loud a Solitude_ on the bus, if I'm feeling unloved.


I did, and it was, as ever, a 96 page snowflake of a book.


----------



## intrikat (Apr 12, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Have you read much of JW?
> 
> Love this book - trust me, I'm telling you stories...


  
Not as much as I'd like to have, but starting lighthousekeeping next


----------



## chooch (Apr 12, 2007)

foamy said:
			
		

> I've read it and am wondering what other AM Holmes stuff is like....


Fucking great, from what I've read.


----------



## sojourner (Apr 12, 2007)

intrikat said:
			
		

> Not as much as I'd like to have, but starting lighthousekeeping next


   Not read that one, it's on my to-do list though


----------



## moonsi til (Apr 14, 2007)

Anthropologist On Mars by Oliver Sacks.....ace bedtime reading, Im having very lucid dreams at the mo....


----------



## Ceej (Apr 14, 2007)

Picked up one of these Books Crossing books on the bus (where books are re-homed, with an indentifying sticker) - Run for Home by Sheila Quigley. Not my usual fare - crime novel - but original, very well written, northern (unusual) and highly recommended.


----------



## mozzy (Apr 15, 2007)

moonsi til said:
			
		

> Anthropologist On Mars by Oliver Sacks.....ace bedtime reading, Im having very lucid dreams at the mo....



I've just brought this - looking forward to it - i loved "The Man who mistook His Wife For a Hat"! Very interesting.

Just Finnished The Zahir by Paullo Colleho - also very good.


----------



## quimcunx (Apr 15, 2007)

To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf.  Urgh.  I knew there was a reason the postage was more than the cost of the book.  Loads of them for a penny on amazon.   I hate suicidal Danish Lit students. (the person who suggested the book)


----------



## Roadkill (Apr 16, 2007)

Having finished Woodman, I've made a start on _The Prize of all the Oceans: The Triumph and Tragedy of Anson's Voyage Round the World_, by Glyn Williams.  Given that I know Glyn and he's a nice bloke I've a slight vested interest in saying so, but the book really is superb.  I read 100 pages last night without a pause.


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 16, 2007)

William Boyd's Restless - he knows how to tell a story alright, old Boydy


----------



## onemonkey (Apr 16, 2007)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> A TREATISE CONCERNING WEE: The uses thereof as a palliative, agent of cleansing both moral and physickal, as a tanning agent, an agent of spiritual and moral refinement, uses in medicinal decoctions and as a tonick for the relief for common ailments CONTAINING THEREIN a compleat description of the divers appearances, odours and tastes of lees, the humours of their production, Biblical concordances, a description of urea in history since the Classical Era, & c.
> 
> by Isaak Milesie, printed by Geo. R Urethra, publisher of urinary tracts at the sign of the Tun of Golden Water, Walton-on-Piddle.  MDCCLVII


ISBN?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 16, 2007)

I'm not reading much at the moment, but I finished _The Gambler_ by Dostoevsky last week, which was brilliant, really hard stuff, took a line to say what other writers toil for pages to say. I'd never read any of his stuff before. He was a punk. It'd make a great film, if you perhaps made the roulette into something else and updated the setting.

Now I'm reading _The Right Nation. Why America is Different_ by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge. It's interesting and funny.


----------



## maya (Apr 16, 2007)

Dirty Martini, have you got any recommendations where to start re: "classic" [i.e., 19th century] Russian novels?*  
I've read a fair bit of Dostojevskij, Tolstoy, Turgenyev, Checkov... But that's it, really- The sheer _amount_ of the available literature is frightening, like an impenetrenable (but very interesting) mass... Have absolutely _no_ idea where to start!  

(*After about ten years of snobbish sneering at "old-fashioned" literary style and preferring to read modernist/avant-whathaveyou novelists, I've recently rediscovered the joy of "classic", epic, literature! And its a very welcome reunion, I must say...)


----------



## Fledgling (Apr 16, 2007)

I'll bump that thought on 19th century Russian lit maya, I'd like to get a few more ideas, I like some 20th century Russian novels but feel that knowledge of more 19th would be helpful. 

Currently having a bit of a Russian extravaganza with And Quiet flows the Don by Sholokhov, A People's Tragedy by Orlando Figes and the harvest of Sorrow by Robert Conquest. Conquest is definitely an excellent historian but also seems to like wiriting more general books on political thought. I am nearing the end of his Reflections on a Ravaged Century which criticises the dogmatic solutions led ideologies of the 20th century. Interesting although at times it seems like a series of academic attacks on Hobswarm. Also finished Crick's biog of Orwell for second time and on reflection that was definitley more about the works (as opposed to the man) than I expected.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 17, 2007)

maya said:
			
		

> Dirty Martini, have you got any recommendations where to start re: "classic" [i.e., 19th century] Russian novels?*
> I've read a fair bit of Dostojevskij, Tolstoy, Turgenyev, Checkov... But that's it, really- The sheer _amount_ of the available literature is frightening, like an impenetrenable (but very interesting) mass... Have absolutely _no_ idea where to start!
> 
> (*After about ten years of snobbish sneering at "old-fashioned" literary style and preferring to read modernist/avant-whathaveyou novelists, I've recently rediscovered the joy of "classic", epic, literature! And its a very welcome reunion, I must say...)



Heh, you've read more than me then. The Gambler's the only Russian thing I've read, unless Nabokov counts. I had a similar thing to you -- for years, if it wasn't American, it wasn't worth bothering about...


----------



## Brockway (Apr 17, 2007)

Papingo said:
			
		

> To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf.  Urgh.  I knew there was a reason the postage was more than the cost of the book.  Loads of them for a penny on amazon.   I hate suicidal Danish Lit students. (the person who suggested the book)



I loathe that book too - she should have called it _To The Dinner Party_. Woolf is so overrated, she's been lionized because of her Bloomsbury connections (fuck knows why they were all awful) and dare I say it because she is a woman. And she didn't invent stream of consciousness either. 

Her lit-crit though is first class.


----------



## Brockway (Apr 17, 2007)

I'm reading _The Mansion _by William Faulkner. I've never read anything by him before - it's a huge hole in my reading CV. _The Mansion _is one of his last books so perhaps it's not the best place to start. The first 50 pages have been magnificent though and you can see his influence on people like Cormac McCarthy.


----------



## souljacker (Apr 17, 2007)

Just finished I'm not scared by Niccolo Amminiti.

Bloody excellent, well written, bizarre thriller. Highly recommended


----------



## TheNegotiator (Apr 17, 2007)

Just finished "popcorn" by Ben Elton - Very funny but slow at times, but well written

And re reading "Dead Famous" by same author


----------



## Dillinger4 (Apr 17, 2007)

If you want a good introduction to Russian Literature, I suggest Mikhail Lermontov's 'Hero Of Our Time', arguably one of the first Russian novels. 

It is quite short, and the main character, Pechorin, is one of the most interesting characters i have ever read.


----------



## sojourner (Apr 17, 2007)

Maus - Art Spiegelman

Not my usual type of read, it's a graphic novel


----------



## maya (Apr 17, 2007)

Ta for the recommendations- to the bookmobile!   

Yeah, it's the 19th century stuff I'm most interested in- just _love_ the crinoline flowery language, the impossible large stable of characters with equally difficult names, the sweeping flow of the storyline- bursting, nay _swelling_ from the pen of the author like a pugnacious ink stain on oriental rice paper, soaking in its own incontestable punch... ahh 

(DM, when I said "a fair bit", i meant more like one book from each author, skimmed through for a reading course half a decade ago... not a superhuman knowledge of books... lol)

Will heartily recommend "Petersburg" by Andrej Belyj (sp?), another 19th century tome with that impeccably charming, wordy stream-of-sentences 1st person narrative (an early forerunner of stream of consciousness?), and everything from an anarchist bomb plot to... uh, must not spoil the story- read it!


----------



## sojourner (Apr 17, 2007)

maya - not sure if it's classic, but Gogol is a good writer, plenty of satire going on.  And Master and Margarita by Bulgakov is a must


----------



## chooch (Apr 17, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> W.G Sebald _The Rings of Saturn_


Just finished this. Mighty good- a wander through Suffolk and, through some characters variously linked to Suffolk, through Empire, the passing of time, twists of fate, coincidences, and lots of other interesting stuff.


----------



## mrkikiet (Apr 17, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Maus - Art Spiegelman
> 
> Not my usual type of read, it's a graphic novel



I've just read that and it was a complete break from my normal reading too. What did you think? I found that I had to make myself look at the pictures and not just read the words. I also didn't feel it was as great as everyone had said that it was. Maybe I need to understand the genre better to appreciate how good it is?


----------



## sojourner (Apr 18, 2007)

mrkikiet said:
			
		

> I've just read that and it was a complete break from my normal reading too. What did you think? I found that I had to make myself look at the pictures and not just read the words. I also didn't feel it was as great as everyone had said that it was. Maybe I need to understand the genre better to appreciate how good it is?


I've only just started it, and finding it quite a strange experience. Yeh, that thing with looking at the pictures - it's annoying me cos I keep wondering whether to look at the pics first then read the words, or t'other way round.  The pictures aren't exactly full of detail though, unlike other 'comic strip (for want of a better phrase) stuff I've seen. 

I'm gonna persevere with it though, as it does sound very interesting, and the story so far is quite good


----------



## Vintage Paw (Apr 18, 2007)

Finished _A man Without a Country_ - by the late, great Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Actually really enjoyed it - although I'm sure it wouldn't be for everyone. All the more poignant reading it knowing that it was the end - there would be no more.

Just started, for the third time, Auster's _New York Trilogy_. I've started and failed twice before. Got to read it for my course this time so I will perservere. I liked _The Book of Illusions_ so it's not his style I don't like - just something didn't click the last two times.


----------



## May Kasahara (Apr 18, 2007)

William Boyd - A Good Man In Africa

Am thoroughly enjoying it


----------



## Janh (Apr 18, 2007)

I'm reading Graham Hancock's 'Supernatural - meeting with the ancient teachers of mankind', in paperback. 

It covers areas of interest for me such as 
- the development of the psyche, 
- the origins and purpose of bushman and european cave art,
- a developmental perspective on spirituality and creativity,
- shamanism.

It sparked an interest in halucinogens, which he writes about and records his own experiences with ayahuasaca and psilocybe.

Not an easy read. It is often exciting, provocative, extensively referenced, occasionally boring (like when he's writing about the development of the academic study of caves). He gives the impression of a broad thinker who makes his argument well and is prepared to test his his hypotheses experientially. Good pictures and annotations too. 

Practically the paperback is easier to handle than the hardback brick. 

It's my first reading of Graham Hancock and he's opened up my thinking about cave art and shamanism, and has pointed me towards other writers on the topic.


----------



## sojourner (Apr 18, 2007)

Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> Just started, for the third time, Auster's _New York Trilogy_. I've started and failed twice before. Got to read it for my course this time so I will perservere.


I really liked this - read it years ago


----------



## tufty79 (Apr 20, 2007)

just finished kurt vonnegut's 'a man without a country'
waiting for 'the girl with curious hair' by david foster wallace to ping through my letterbox..


----------



## chooch (Apr 20, 2007)

tufty79 said:
			
		

> waiting for 'the girl with curious hair' by david foster wallace to ping through my letterbox..


splits about 50 50 into the impressive and the irritating that one.
Not dissimilarly, I have _Lunar Park_ on the go.


----------



## sojourner (Apr 21, 2007)

Am torn between starting Disobedience by Naomi Alderman (for book club), We Need to talk about Kevin, and The MacGuffin

Will decide later


----------



## colbhoy (Apr 21, 2007)

I have just started reading Gai-Jin by James Clavell. It will be my 5th Clavell book - he is an excellent storyteller.


----------



## sojourner (Apr 22, 2007)

Started The MacGuffin, got 30 pages in, and just couldn't get on with it.  Another time perhaps.

Then started We Need to talk about Kevin, and am loving it


----------



## foamy (Apr 22, 2007)

The Illusionist by Paul Auster, loving it so much more than The New York Trilogy. (especially loving the fact it was £1 in the local charity shop )


----------



## jeff_leigh (Apr 22, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> And Master and Margarita by Bulgakov is a must



got that on my shelf, thinking about giving it a 2nd read


----------



## ViolentPanda (Apr 22, 2007)

The Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke. It's a poetry kind of day.


----------



## madamv (Apr 22, 2007)

'The Accidental' - Ali Smith.

Interesting, only a few pages in and I know I am going to enjoy her revealing the characters.


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 23, 2007)

Been on a books splurge, mostly non-fiction stuff.

I have a tottering pile containing

Dr John - Under A Hoodoo Moon
Redneck vs Blueneck - the Politics of Country
Nowhere to Run - A History of Soul
Max Decharne - Kings Road, self explanatory really
Simon Ford - Wreckers of Civilisation (Throbbing Gristle Story)
somebody called something Charters' book about New Orleans jazz
another Jonathan Franzen book i've forgotten the name of..


----------



## Crispy (Apr 23, 2007)

Bill Drummond - 45

Him and his cohorts do get up to some hijinks. Some or all of it may be fiction, but it's all very entertaining


----------



## Dubversion (Apr 23, 2007)

Crispy said:
			
		

> Bill Drummond - 45



one of my four or five favourite books ever. Based on the people I know who knew Drummond, I'd say it's mostly true, if perhaps tidied up a bit.

I once had a plan to steal the sign outside the art shop in Camberwell. Then one day it was gone, and on reading 45 I found out where 


"MOO MOO"


----------



## chooch (Apr 23, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Redneck vs Blueneck - the Politics of Country


Hmm. Sounds worth a look.

Just finished _Lunar Park_ without ever being that impressed.
Now have Giorgio Bassani _The Garden of the Finzi-Continis_ on the go.


----------



## marty21 (Apr 23, 2007)

"damned utd" - david peace - fictionalised version of brian clough's 44 day reign as leeds manager in 1974, plus stuff about his past as a player and a manager at other clubs - brilliant book


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 24, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Started The MacGuffin, got 30 pages in, and just couldn't get on with it.  Another time perhaps.



It does take off after a bit, the first 30 pages or so are a bit heavygoing.

I've finished _The Right Nation. Why America Is Different_, which was interesting, but repetitive in parts and a bit too fussy and rigid in its structure. Too much signpost not enough destination. This is a problem with books written by two people.

Now I'm looking at _Penguin By Designers_, a survey of the work of the main designers and art editors. Lots of beautiful covers.


----------



## mrkikiet (Apr 25, 2007)

The New Spaniards by John Hooper.

Anyone who wants to know more about Spain's recent history and attitudes beyond the coast shouild probably read it. I reckon it's probably more informative about why Spain is like it is than Tremlett's Ghosts of Spain.


----------



## tastebud (Apr 25, 2007)

'what a carve up!' by jonathan coe.

only just started it this morning, so will have to reserve judgement for a while. though i like what i've read so far.


----------



## Rollem (Apr 25, 2007)

'the mermaid and the drunks' - ben richards

s'alright....


----------



## ViolentPanda (Apr 25, 2007)

Children of Kali by Kevin Rushby. Interesting in parts.


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 26, 2007)

My mum sent me Nabokov's Invitation To A Beheading for my birthday. A typically grim Mum present but this one actually looks readable. I've read Lolita and that is an astonishing delight, so I have hopes for this. Anyone read it?


----------



## tufty79 (Apr 26, 2007)

tastebud said:
			
		

> 'what a carve up!' by jonathan coe.
> 
> only just started it this morning, so will have to reserve judgement for a while. though i like what i've read so far.



that book made me stop eating meat :s


----------



## sojourner (Apr 27, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> It does take off after a bit, the first 30 pages or so are a bit heavygoing.


Cheers DM - think I'll give it a while to try and forget the first part then, and try in a coupla months or so


----------



## tastebud (Apr 27, 2007)

tufty79 said:
			
		

> that book made me stop eating meat :s


already veggie & have been for a while, so i should be safe.


----------



## Brockway (Apr 27, 2007)

_Pandora's Handbag _by Elizabeth Young. Non-fiction. Published in the mid-90s. A collection of her newspaper and magazine articles on music, literature and drugs. Highly recommended.


----------



## tastebud (Apr 27, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> My mum sent me Nabokov's Invitation To A Beheading for my birthday. A typically grim Mum present but this one actually looks readable. I've read Lolita and that is an astonishing delight, so I have hopes for this. Anyone read it?


no, but i'd like to.

'an astonishing delight' is exactly the right way to describe lolita


----------



## Pieface (Apr 27, 2007)

I just bought Lolita so I'm looking forward to the astonishing delight now


----------



## sojourner (Apr 27, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> I just bought Lolita so I'm looking forward to the astonishing delight now


I had to give up on it when I read it - daughter was 9 and it was just a bit too disturbing for me

It's been sat there waiting for me to try it again - perhaps now she's a lot older I could do it


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 27, 2007)

It's such a feast of the English language - you want to take your time to savour it though, no matter how tempted you are to gobble it all down at once


----------



## Santino (Apr 27, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> It's such a feast of the English language - you want to take your time to savour it though, no matter how tempted you are to gobble it all down at once


Christ, I hate that kind of writing.

Still, horses for different folks and all that.


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 27, 2007)

Alex B said:
			
		

> Christ, I hate that kind of writing.


Normally I do, but Nabokov is different. For instance, I can't stomach WG Sebald.


----------



## sojourner (Apr 27, 2007)

I have almost finished We Need to talk about Kevin, and have got ants in me pants about what the denouement is gonna be, having read loads of people on here talk about how shocking it was!!!


If anyone dares to put a spoiler up, I will find out where you live, and you will be the sorriest you have EVER been.  EVER. Roight?


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 27, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> I have almost finished We Need to talk about Kevin, and have got ants in me pants about what the denouement is gonna be, having read loads of people on here talk about how shocking it was!!!
> 
> 
> If anyone dares to put a spoiler up, I will find out where you live, and you will be the sorriest you have EVER been.  EVER. Roight?


An alien comes down and eats them all


----------



## sojourner (Apr 27, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> An alien comes down and eats them all


----------



## maya (Apr 27, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> My mum sent me Nabokov's Invitation To A Beheading for my birthday. A typically grim Mum present but this one actually looks readable. I've read Lolita and that is an astonishing delight, so I have hopes for this. Anyone read it?


No but had a discussion with a friend recently where we both agreed that while Nabokov's language is amazing, pick up almost any of his books and you'll see this greatness marred by the inevitable drift into the usual kiddy fiddler waffling territorium...  *

(* ...See? Now you _have_ to read the book, to prove me wrong! )


----------



## MightyAphrodite (Apr 27, 2007)

The Corrections...Jonathan Franzen

never heard of it, borrowed it from a mate...bet its gonna be crap


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 27, 2007)

MightyAphrodite said:
			
		

> The Corrections...Jonathan Franzen
> 
> never heard of it, borrowed it from a mate...bet its gonna be crap


You'll lose the bet then! It's amazing


----------



## MightyAphrodite (Apr 27, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> You'll lose the bet then! It's amazing




isit? ....great, i picked a winner  

now i'll start it.



*i picked it cause i liked the cover.


----------



## sojourner (Apr 28, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> I have almost finished We Need to talk about Kevin, and have got ants in me pants about what the denouement is gonna be, having read loads of people on here talk about how shocking it was!!!


Finished it this morning.  Denouement was good, but not as brilliant as my fevered mind had worked it up to

Really enjoyed this book though


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 28, 2007)

So you didn't like the alien spaceship? It was a bit far-fetched wasn't it?


----------



## Boogie Boy (May 1, 2007)

I've just finished reading 'The Sleeper Awakes' by HG Wells, which is a horrible, nasty little book with a distinctly racist subtext which does little to encourage me to read anything further by Wells. 

BB


----------



## maya (May 1, 2007)

Boogie Boy said:
			
		

> I've just finished reading 'The Sleeper Awakes' by HG Wells, which is a horrible, nasty little book with a distinctly racist subtext which does little to encourage me to read anything further by Wells.
> 
> BB


You could say that of almost _any_ british author 1600- 1950+, can't you, though? 
The British Empire, colonism, imperialism- racist and etnocentric ideologies/thought seeping through every pore of society and education, upbringing etc... Most people and many writers at that time did hold racist views, some more than others and a few didn't, not that that is an excuse but it was a different time and racism was more prevalent and common at that time...

(And continued to be up until the late 1960's and 70's...)

What I'm trying to say is not to applaud racism, because racism is a horrible thing-
but you should remember that Britain has a deeply disturbing, deeply racist past...
And remember that that past was not long ago, just a bit over 40 years ago... It's closer than you think
These people didn't exist in a vacuum- Something shaped their beliefs and that something was the society of their day.


----------



## Boogie Boy (May 2, 2007)

maya said:
			
		

> You could say that of almost _any_ british author 1600- 1950+, can't you, though?
> The British Empire, colonism, imperialism- racist and etnocentric ideologies/thought seeping through every pore of society and education, upbringing etc... Most people and many writers at that time did hold racist views, some more than others and a few didn't, not that that is an excuse but it was a different time and racism was more prevalent and common at that time...
> 
> (And continued to be up until the late 1960's and 70's...)
> ...



My initial response to your reply was to simply post a set of rolling eyes, but afterwards I felt that that would not be entirely fair. I would like to ask you if your intention in writing was to be patronising, because as I read over the text again I find myself quite taken aback.

BB


----------



## chooch (May 2, 2007)

mrkikiet said:
			
		

> The New Spaniards by John Hooper.


I liked that. 

Just finishing _The White Album_, another Joan Didion. Not quite as sharp as _Slouching Towards Bethlehem_ but still some very fine writing in there.


----------



## onemonkey (May 2, 2007)

Junkie - William Burroughs

Never read any of his before.. it's okay but he does seem a bit cold and distant so far


----------



## sojourner (May 2, 2007)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> Junkie - William Burroughs
> 
> Never read any of his before.. it's okay but he does seem a bit cold and distant so far


I love that book - it was a different take on the life of an addict, as compared to the people I was knocking round with at that time


I'm reading Disobedience by Naomi Alderman, for book club.  It's fucking shite - chicklit for dykes.  I'm seriously considering another flounce if they're gonna continue picking vacuous bollocks like this


----------



## Rollem (May 2, 2007)

'the memory keepers daughter' - kim edwards


----------



## maya (May 2, 2007)

Boogie Boy said:
			
		

> My initial response to your reply was to simply post a set of rolling eyes, but afterwards I felt that that would not be entirely fair. I would like to ask you if your intention in writing was to be patronising, because as I read over the text again I find myself quite taken aback.
> 
> BB


yeah, probably... tried to be ironic in a patronising way, but failed.

i'll have to mention that i've never read anything by wells, nor did it seem especially tempting, judging from your description.


----------



## intrikat (May 2, 2007)

Finally started Jeanette Winterson's The Lighthousekeeper, after also reading The Passion  both very whimsical and she really does the story-within-a-story well.


----------



## Dillinger4 (May 3, 2007)

This week I finished:

Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

Wonderful book, I have read Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh too. Both books are filled with such a dark and dry sense of humour, and a subtle feeling of a vague impending doom. I cant wait to read more of him (if anybody has any recommendations of other novels, or other similar authors...)

I have also finished:

Wonder Boys - Michael Chabon

I had seen the film before I had read the book, but again a very funny book (in a much different way than Evelyn Waugh)

Books on the go at the moment:

Thinking in action: On Belief - Slavoj Žižek

Not really tried to hard with this one yet, Its a bit heavy and I am supposed to be revising (and this is completely unrelated).

and I have a load of others half on the go....


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (May 3, 2007)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> Junkie - William Burroughs
> 
> Never read any of his before.. it's okay but he does seem a bit cold and distant so far



of course it does, its written in the head space of someone on junk.

have a sustained go at Naked Lunch next and see where you get, is my absolute advice....


----------



## Boogie Boy (May 3, 2007)

Going to start 'The Private Memoirs And Confessions Of A Justified Sinner' by James Hogg. 

BB


----------



## J77 (May 3, 2007)

Recently read:

*The Society of Others -- William Nicholson.*

It was good for the most part, the ending was a bit lame.

*Arthur and George -- Julian Barnes.*

Nice book for lazy reading in the sun


----------



## Pieface (May 4, 2007)

Started Deliverance - have no idea what it's going to be like as I haven't seen the film yet - it's downloaded for viewing afterwards though.  He's setting them all up for a big fall at the moment and the protagonist is not at all sure what they are doing going up into the mountains to rediscover their masculinity.  I think I'm going to like it - there's a survival fantasist character as well - a kind of suburban Ray Mears type but with an edge of frontier machismo - he's so going to come a-cropper 

Ended up buying this purely because of a still posted on here from the film the other day of the inbred banjo boy.  I wikkied him and the film and found there was a book - the actor was neither inbred nor mentally retarded - and seems to have had 2 parts in his life, one as that kid and one about 20 years later reprising the role in Tim Burton's Big Fish as a town banjo player.

So there you go


----------



## Pieface (May 4, 2007)

oooh - a quotation:



> I touched the knife hilt at my side, and remembered that all men were once boys, and that boys are always looking for ways to become men.



They have bows and arrows with them too.


----------



## sojourner (May 4, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> Started Deliverance - have no idea what it's going to be like as I haven't seen the film yet


Can't believe you've never seen the film!  


It's very good.  Haven't read the book mind


----------



## sojourner (May 4, 2007)

intrikat said:
			
		

> Finally started Jeanette Winterson's The Lighthousekeeper, after also reading The Passion  both very whimsical and she really does the story-within-a-story well.


Yay, a fellow JW fan


----------



## Pieface (May 4, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Can't believe you've never seen the film!



no one can believe it   - although an iconic scene which I kind of know about has played out very differently to how it sounds in the film.  They may be quite different...


----------



## Dubversion (May 4, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> no one can believe it   - although an iconic scene which I kind of know about has played out very differently to how it sounds in the film.  They may be quite different...



to be honest, building an impression of Deliverance from listening to "Beers Steers & Queers" by Revolting Cocks might not be reliable


----------



## Pieface (May 4, 2007)

God I hate that fucking song.


----------



## foamy (May 4, 2007)

just started 'Black Swan Green' by David Mitchell.  Its seems ok so far, not really sure why i bought it - i didnt enjoy Cloud Atlas that much but this one seems less long 

ETA - itsobviously 'less long' as it has less pages, but hopefully it wont be so drawn out


----------



## maya (May 5, 2007)

onemonkey said:
			
		

> Junkie - William Burroughs
> 
> Never read any of his before.. it's okay but he does seem a bit cold and distant so far


I think he kind of distanced himself from that book in later years, not because of the content (which is largely autobiographical), but because he didn't really know how to write a novel at that time, so he didn't consider it very good-
(Although, the same could perhaps be said of Naked Lunch, which is perhaps the worst of his books IMO!)

By his own definition he belonged to the picaresque tradition, that kind of satiric and bizarre tales which has links to oral traditions in medieval times but which in literature started with works such as Satyricon... Wild exaggerations, sex and shit and sperm and death, the grotesque and the uncanny...

If you're interested in his a bit more advanced "cut-up" novels, you could try The Soft Machine, The Ticket That Exploded, or Nova Express... 

But I'm especially fond of his three latest books which are written in a more conventional narrative, abandoning the experimentalism... They're a bit more mellow (or as mellow as Burroughs can be- which means still not exactly bedtime stories), and IMO works better as enjoyable novels in their own right (whereas the preceding works have many good bits, interspersed among lots of not so good bits, while juxtaposed so confusingly the damn thing feels like    a maze of ciphers or a practical joke where the prank is on you)

Not everyone warms to his work at all- Myself I don't think his language is that good, he's more of an ideas man... But a lot of authors are, that doesn't necessarily diminish his value...


----------



## N_igma (May 5, 2007)

Tony Hawks-One Hit Wonderland.


----------



## chooch (May 5, 2007)

Alasdair Gray- Lanark


----------



## sojourner (May 5, 2007)

Michele Roberts - A Piece of the Night

Fucking wonderful wonderful writing...a welcome change after the last 'easy read' which is so beloved of my fellow bookclub members


----------



## Nikkormat (May 5, 2007)

She, by Henry Rider Haggard. Great book, gripping.


----------



## J77 (May 7, 2007)

I just read *The boy in the striped pyjamas* by John Boyne.

A book which should be on every school's reading list!


----------



## Pieface (May 7, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> Alasdair Gray- Lanark



Fucking amazing novel!  I waffled about it somewhere on here...

I just saw the mural he's done in a converted church in Glasgow's west end - it's beautiful - place called Oran Mor.


----------



## chooch (May 7, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> Fucking amazing novel!  I waffled about it somewhere on here...
> I just saw the mural he's done in a converted church in Glasgow's west end - it's beautiful - place called Oran Mor.


I´m enjoying it so far. Quite dark, very strange.


----------



## Pieface (May 7, 2007)

SO strange!!


----------



## SubZeroCat (May 7, 2007)

The Innocent by Ian McEwan


----------



## DotCommunist (May 7, 2007)

Just started Gravitiy's Rainbow. Looks promising so far, the same surreal tone and unique writing style as in Vineland.

It's on a one week loan from the library. The chunkiest, most challenging book of all I took out this week is on a one week loan. Bah


----------



## Dubversion (May 8, 2007)

Dr John - Under A Hoodoo Moon (by Rebennack with Jack Rummel)

no idea how ghostwritten this is, but it's excellent - really captures the flavour of New Orleans and is written in the speech patterns and language the Dr uses. Wonderful stuff (apparently he was so fucked at the time that he doesn't remember writing it, but that might be hype.. )


----------



## foo (May 9, 2007)

just finished, The Paper Eater - Liz Jensen. 

odd but good.


----------



## zora (May 10, 2007)

Apples by Richard Milward. Which is really very VERY good.


----------



## May Kasahara (May 10, 2007)

Finished 'A Good Man In Africa' at the weekend, which was enjoyably daft. Am now reading Alice Sebold's 'The Lovely Bones', which is this month's book club choice; I am getting on with it better than I thought I would (a lot of the incidence is very well observed) but at the same time it is really starting to piss me off.


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 10, 2007)

I've just whipped through 'Those Feet. An Intimate History of English Football' by David Winner, which was really disappointing. I was expecting a lot more. Nothing particularly original in it, a lot of it being cobbled together from other writers' stuff on declinism, post-imperial unease, bla bla. Quite a few factual errors too.


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 11, 2007)

'Visits From The Drowned Girl' by Steven Sherrill. I liked 'The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break', so I'm hoping I'll like this.


----------



## May Kasahara (May 11, 2007)

'The Lovely Bones' is pretty awful, tbh. Thankfully it is also a quick read, so should be over soon.


----------



## sojourner (May 11, 2007)

Lori Lansens - The Girls

Well written, funny, dark, interesting little snippets in there for those who like their literary theory too


----------



## elevendayempire (May 11, 2007)

Michel Faber - Under the Skin. Two chapters in, and it's... weird.

SG


----------



## Orang Utan (May 12, 2007)

The War Of The World - Niall Ferguson - he seems like he's a bit too enamoured with the idea of empire, but an interesting read nonetheless. I bet he reads the Telegraph.
Black Swan Green - David Mitchell - I'm loving this - it's a bit I Love 1982, but it's spot on and painfully accurate about the pain of adolescence - I'm finding it difficult in places cos it's bringing up some harsh long-buried memories


----------



## Nikkormat (May 13, 2007)

Last week, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

This week, Straw Dogs by John Gray, second time round.


----------



## May Kasahara (May 14, 2007)

Finished The Lovely Bones last night, thankfully. Despite some vivid moments and a few nice images, the writing lacks range and seems consciously pitched at an Oprah-friendly level, i.e. painfully earnest wonderment. The most believable scenes in the book are those detailing Susie's rape and murder, which I think is probably because of Sebold's own experience. As the book goes on and everyone learns and grows and sheds a few unsnotty noble tears, the experience of reading it seems more and more like sitting through an 8 hour Dawson's Creek marathon, all shallow emotional insights masquerading as deep life lessons. There were a few lazy continuity errors that annoyed me as well - it's not exactly Finnegan's Wake, the author or any decent editor should have picked them up before publishing.

Am starting 'Little Face' by Sophie Hannah next, which I anticipate to be much more hard-boiled.


----------



## SubZeroCat (May 14, 2007)

I'm still reading The Innocent but I'm also reading The Menstrual Cycle by Anne E. Walker


----------



## foamy (May 14, 2007)

elevendayempire said:
			
		

> Michel Faber - Under the Skin. Two chapters in, and it's... weird.
> 
> SG



i think that might well be THE WORST BOOK i have ever read. In fact i very nearly went and asked for my money back, but i only paid £1 for it.

just finished Black Swan Green by David Mitchell - loved it so much more than Cloud Atlas (now have Number9 Dream to read too )


----------



## Throbbing Angel (May 14, 2007)

PULP by Bukowski


----------



## Fledgling (May 15, 2007)

Babbitt By Sinclair Lewis, very amusing and poignant. Clever. 

Just finished To the Islands by Randolph Stow, a short but mystical account of an old man's journey to despair and back in NW Australia. 

And I finished A People's Tragedy by Orlando Figes! I'm quite impressed with myself as this may be the longest book I've read, and it was very interesting.


----------



## madamv (May 15, 2007)

foamy said:
			
		

> just finished Black Swan Green by David Mitchell - loved it so much more than Cloud Atlas (now have Number9 Dream to read too )



I have just started this and loving it totally already.  I also loved Cloud Atlas.


----------



## Mikey77 (May 15, 2007)

Kim. Rudyard Kipling.


----------



## Bazza (May 15, 2007)

Still on The Stand by Stephen King. 777 pages through....not bored yet.


----------



## Vintage Paw (May 15, 2007)

Just finished _The New York Trilogy_ by Paul Auster. I've tried to read it twice before but given up - not in the mood I guess. I had to read it for my course though this time and absolutely loved it.

It's the only book I've ever read that as soon as I read the last sentence made me want to go straight back to the beginning and read it again. It is also the book that has most made me want to write myself.

Let's hope I can write about it for an hour on Thursday in my exam  

Next - reading _Day of the Locust_ again for the same exam. It's short so I can get it read in a morning. 

Then reading lit crit.

Then reading the complete works of James Baldwin, starting with _Go Tell it on the Mountain_ and _Giovanni's Room_. Not for my exams, but half for pleasure, half for research for my dissertation and masters. 

Also on my list are the few Brautigans I still have waiting to read, I need to get a copy of _God's Country_ by Percival Everett too, and various other things that have been waiting until the end of term.


----------



## Orang Utan (May 16, 2007)

madamv said:
			
		

> I have just started this and loving it totally already.  I also loved Cloud Atlas.


Just finished Black Swan Green. Made me cry. There's some unconvincing elements but all in all it's brilliant.


----------



## Dubversion (May 16, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Dr John - Under A Hoodoo Moon (by Rebennack with Jack Rummel)



just finishing this - http://dubversion.wordpress.com/2007/05/16/125/


----------



## Dante (May 16, 2007)

A thousand Suns by ALex Scarrow. 

Nice idea good premise, reasonably well written (though some irritatiing miss use of slang) But gives away too much too early so it all becomes somewhat predictable half way through.


----------



## madamv (May 16, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Just finished Black Swan Green. Made me cry. There's some unconvincing elements but all in all it's brilliant.


I dont know if I want to go on reading it now.   There should be a warning on it.

'This book made a grown-up boy cry'


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 17, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> 'Visits From The Drowned Girl' by Steven Sherrill. I liked 'The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break', so I'm hoping I'll like this.



Utter fucking garbage. Boring, nasty, contrived, badly written, dumb, lazy. Either he lost form badly after _Minotaur_, or this was a first novel dusted off. Toss.

Next it's _Hotel California -- Singer-Songwriters & Cocaine Cowboys in the LA Canyons 1967-76_ by Barney Hoskyns. This should be good


----------



## scumbalina (May 17, 2007)

Just finished Chocolat. It was alright, passed the time *shrugs*.


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 17, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Next it's _Hotel California -- Singer-Songwriters & Cocaine Cowboys in the LA Canyons 1967-76_ by Barney Hoskyns. This should be good



Liking this a lot. Did anyone see the documentary and was it any good?


----------



## foamy (May 17, 2007)

scumbalina said:
			
		

> Just finished Chocolat. It was alright, passed the time *shrugs*.



Have you read any more Joanna Harris? They're all the same but set in a different place and with name changes. Having said that i've read them all  

Just finished:
Cats Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut: read it for book group and enjoyed it, especially as it's not something i would have read without book group promtpting.

now starting:
The Woman Who Walked Into Doors - Roddy Doyle.


----------



## sojourner (May 17, 2007)

Started Stupid White Men last night.  God knows why it's taken me so long to get round to reading it, but there we go.  Am loving it hugely already


----------



## Nikkormat (May 17, 2007)

Just started The Greatest Raid of All, by C.E. Lucas Phllips. 50 pages in, great so far.


----------



## Nina (May 18, 2007)

The Rampa Story by Lopsang Rampa

Interesting...especially love the 'astral travelling' bits  

Hurrah to the Romanian Orphan charity bookshop.


----------



## Throbbing Angel (May 18, 2007)

just started Ian Rankin's first Rebus novel 'Knots & Crosses'

60 pages in - like it a lot

gave up on Magnus Mills' 'Explorers of the New Century' after one chapter, 20 or so pages.  First time that's happened with one of his books - ho hum


----------



## Vintage Paw (May 22, 2007)

Took my last exam yesterday, so I can finally spend some time reading what I actually want to.

So, I started a book that I've wanted to read for ages, _In Watermelon Sugar_ by Richard Brautigan. I didn't know anything about it so it was a bit of a surprise when I started reading. A lovely, whimsical style, and yet I've got to say, it's a little unnerving. Maybe because of our modern cynicism, but I'm expecting it all to go horribly wrong.


----------



## J77 (May 22, 2007)

bellator said:
			
		

> The Historian, enjoying it!


Yeah -- am reading this at the moment.

It's a bit like the DVC for people who read


----------



## SubZeroCat (May 22, 2007)

The Book of Revelation by Rupert Thomson.

Started it last night and it made me have weird sex dreams


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 23, 2007)

Finished _Hotel California -- Singer-Songwriters & Cocaine Cowboys in the LA Canyons 1967-76_ by Barney Hoskyns.

An entertaining cavalcade of bedenimed doughnuts and heroes, well written. Good guys: JD Souther, a few of the early A&R people, Gene Clark, Bernie Leadon, Randy Newman, Graham Nash. Bad guys: Crosby (insane and highly unpleasant, like Stephen Stills), Geffen, etc. etc. Neil Young is a major figure here, and a bit of a weird fella.

It's nice to see Gene Clark figure so prominently though.

The book is a very l o n g Mojo article, but a good laugh all in all.


----------



## sojourner (May 23, 2007)

Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg - for book club


It's dreadful.  Boring, claggy, about as interesting as a dog turd on a rainy day.  I've read more scintillating prose in a cost benefit analysis spreadsheet on bog-roll suppliers.

I don't think I'm going to finish it somehow.  Boy, is THIS gonna get a drubbing!


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 23, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow



Wacky title always = poor book ...


----------



## sojourner (May 23, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Wacky title always = poor book ...


I think it might also have lost something in the translation...

The 'interesting' part for instance


----------



## Orang Utan (May 23, 2007)

I thought it was rather a good book


----------



## Voley (May 23, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Finished _Hotel California -- Singer-Songwriters & Cocaine Cowboys in the LA Canyons 1967-76_ by Barney Hoskyns.
> 
> An entertaining cavalcade of bedenimed doughnuts and heroes, well written. Good guys: JD Souther, a few of the early A&R people, Gene Clark, Bernie Leadon, Randy Newman, Graham Nash. Bad guys: Crosby (insane and highly unpleasant, like Stephen Stills), Geffen, etc. etc. Neil Young is a major figure here, and a bit of a weird fella.
> 
> ...



In a similar vein, I'm reading 'Shakey', Neil Young's biography at the mo'. It's ace. 

Stephen Stills comes across as a total knob in that, too.


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 23, 2007)

NVP said:
			
		

> In a similar vein, I'm reading 'Shakey', Neil Young's biography at the mo'. It's ace.
> 
> Stephen Stills comes across as a total knob in that, too.



Heh 

So much booze and cocaine that he was convinced he'd served in Vietnam 

I'll get round to that Neil Young bio some day ...


----------



## Voley (May 23, 2007)

It's worth it - the Stills 'Vietnam bit' gets mentioned in this one, too. 

It takes a bit to get going - the author's exhaustive trawl through Neil Young's childhood is a bit pointless but once he starts making music the book's pretty hard to put down. I'm enjoying it a lot.


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 23, 2007)

Now: _White Bicycles -- Making Music in the 1960s_ by Joe Boyd. I've been saving this one up.


----------



## tastebud (May 23, 2007)

finally reading 'my summer of love' by helen cross. what was a beautiful film turns out to also be a brilliant book.

"helen cross was educated at goldsmiths college"   no wonder!


----------



## Nikkormat (May 23, 2007)

The Heimskringla, Norse history. I started it nearly a year ago and had to take a break after 100 pages, I'm going to do another hundred now. Someone's lending me a Margaret Atwood novel tomorrow.


----------



## golightly (May 23, 2007)

Just started 'Moon Dust' by Andrew Smith.  He interviews those Apollo astronauts who are still alive.  Should be interesting.  I've also got queued up:

'Collapse' by Jared Diamond
'As used on the famous Nelson Mandela' by Mark Thomas
'The Fabric of the Cosmos' by Brian Greene

That'll keep me occupied for a while.


----------



## sojourner (May 24, 2007)

Nikkormat said:
			
		

> Someone's lending me a Margaret Atwood novel tomorrow.


Which one?



I'm reading Ray Mears Bushcraft Survival    He's not been ont telly for a while and I'm craving survival tips and handy hints (well, I was reading it, until a bloody power cut got in the way last night )


----------



## quimcunx (May 26, 2007)

I'm reading The Book of Dave by Will Self and The Country of the Blind by Christopher Brookmyre. I love Christopher Brookmyre.  I was getting so into it that when i switched on the news the other night I was expecting to see an update on the death toll.....


----------



## Nikkormat (May 26, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Which one?



Not Margaret Atwood after all. It's _The Shipping News_ by Annie Proulx. 150 pages so far; it's ok, nothing special.


----------



## rennie (May 27, 2007)

Just finished reading Yasin's song, an autobiography of Nabeel Yasin, the Iraqi poet who was blacklisted under Saddam. very moving and his poetry is quite good!


----------



## Vintage Paw (May 27, 2007)

Finished the Brautigan - I really liked it.

Should finish James Baldwin's _Go Tell it on the Mountain_ today, then I'm going to read _The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil_ by George Saunders. I bought it yesterday and read the first few pages on my dinner and it sounds funny.

After that, maybe another Brautigan, maybe _Giovanni's Room_ by Baldwin, maybe _The Fortress of Solitude_ by Lethem, or one of the other plethora of American lit books I've bought recently. Who knows, now I've finished uni for the summer the world is my literary oyster


----------



## May Kasahara (May 27, 2007)

Nikkormat said:
			
		

> Not Margaret Atwood after all. It's _The Shipping News_ by Annie Proulx. 150 pages so far; it's ok, nothing special.



Hahahaha, sojourner will have your head for that!

(I threw _The Shipping News_ down in disgust after about 100 pages, though, so I'm on your side.)


----------



## Cheesypoof (May 27, 2007)

'Apples' By Richard Millwood - its a new book out by a new young author, whos like 22 or somethin. Its about a load of youngsters growing up and going to school and popping pills in Middlesborough, and has been tagged 'The dont look back in anger of the myspace generation.' tis great

next up is 'Joyce' by Richard Ellmann, sitting in Fulham post office which i have yet to collect.


----------



## sojourner (May 27, 2007)

Nikkormat said:
			
		

> Not Margaret Atwood after all. It's _The Shipping News_ by Annie Proulx. 150 pages so far; it's ok, *nothing special*.


 

I absolutely love Annie P - she can do no wrong in my eyes. 


I'm re-reading Northern Lights and enjoying it immensely


----------



## sojourner (May 27, 2007)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> Hahahaha, sojourner will have your head for that!
> 
> (I threw _The Shipping News_ down in disgust after about 100 pages, though, so I'm on your side.)


Ha!

I replied to that post before I saw yours    I am aghast that anyone can feel that way about her writing, cos it just blows me away SO much

Each to their own though and all that...I struggled badly with The MacGuffin and put it back on the shelf after only 30 pages


----------



## Nikkormat (May 27, 2007)

Re. The Shipping News - I'm quite tempted to give up. Not keen on the style of writing at all.


----------



## Throbbing Angel (May 27, 2007)

this week I am reading
'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'
just done chapter 1 in the bath and very liked it.


----------



## foamy (May 27, 2007)

i just finished *The Woman Who Walked Into Doors* by *Roddy Doyle* - i'm sure now that i have read it before but i think i probably appreciated it more the second time 'round.

I' d really like to read the follow up 'Paula Spencer' but need to wait til its a bit cheaper.


might go and have a nosey in the charity shop this week for some more books as i dont know what to read next, even though i have a big stack of books to read i just ont fancy any of them at this point in time.


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 28, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Now: _White Bicycles -- Making Music in the 1960s_ by Joe Boyd. I've been saving this one up.



It is indeed a great book -- always fascinating, very well written. One of the best books about 60s music I've read


----------



## Geoff kerr-morg (May 28, 2007)

A Sunday By The Pool in Kigali by Gil Courtemanche about Rwanda


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 28, 2007)

_A Social History of English Cricket_ by Derek Birley


----------



## chooch (May 30, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> _A Social History of English Cricket_ by Derek Birley


Also sounds great.
I'd like to read yer last three books in a large Andalucian pool, with occasional floating Brakspears, if that's possible.
Now reading _The Plot Against America_, again, in the absence of owt else. 
Liked George Saunders _In Persuasion Nation_, especially _I Can Speak tm_ and _Bohemians_. High points not quite as high as the first two collections though, I reckon. Seemed a bit familiar.


----------



## chooch (May 30, 2007)

Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> Should finish James Baldwin's _Go Tell it on the Mountain_ today, then I'm going to read _The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil_ by George Saunders. I bought it yesterday and read the first few pages on my dinner and it sounds funny.l:


Like those two, though the George Saunders is pretty slight. I've liked all the James Baldwin I've read, even where he gets all paintbrush behind ear.


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 30, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> Also sounds great.
> I'd like to read yer last three books in a large Andalucian pool, with occasional floating Brakspears, if that's possible.
> Now reading _The Plot Against America_, again, in the absence of owt else.
> Liked George Saunders _In Persuasion Nation_, especially _I Can Speak tm_ and _Bohemians_. High points not quite as high as the first two collections though, I reckon. Seemed a bit familiar.



I think you're right about the Saunders ...

The cricket book is great. Deep research, good pace and length, opinionated in the right places, very well written. Some great stories and names so far: Notts batsman Richard Daft, Surrey stalwart Julius Caesar, and, of course, E.W. Bastard


----------



## Nikkormat (May 30, 2007)

_The Civil War: The War of the Three Kingdoms 1638-1660_ by Trevor Royle.


----------



## Rollem (May 30, 2007)

have finally got round to reading "the likes of us" by michael collins 

soon to be followed by alexei sayle's "weeping women hotel"


----------



## Dubversion (May 30, 2007)

Simon Reynolds' latest, Bring The Noise


unlike the last couple, it's a mixed bag because it's a collection (albeit one with some hindsight).

it's a great read but also quite frustrating. Partly because you remember how much better the level of music writing was in years gone by, but also because Reynolds' style can be so overly analytical and po-faced (the two sound like contradictions but they're not). He's included 'directors cut' versions of some of the works - the originals submitted rather than the published pieces, and he's not above a bit of self-aggrandisement from time to time. But there's some fascinating stuff, especially an article called Roots & Future, about white attitudes to reggae (especially the privileging of the producer over the singer or player).


----------



## elevendayempire (May 30, 2007)

Harry Potter.    

Well, I thought I ought to catch up, since the last one's out this year.

SG


----------



## sojourner (May 30, 2007)

I can't decide what to read next

Do I reread The Subtle Knife?

Or start one of about 10 books that have been waiting for me to pick them up for a while now?

Or just carry on meandering through Bushcraft til either the new Annie P arrives (any day now APPARENTLY) or the bookclub choices do?

I'm too hungry and stressed to decide right now.  I need food, a daughter that isn't having a breakdown, a spliff...


----------



## Orang Utan (May 30, 2007)

Start a new one - never reread!


----------



## sojourner (May 30, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Start a new one - never reread!


I only reread Northern Lights cos the film is coming out and I wanted to have the story straight in my head, ready for a good drubbing at the cinema  

Righty ho - no rereading tonight then.  Something fresh.  Ta la


----------



## SubZeroCat (May 30, 2007)

American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis


----------



## jeff_leigh (May 30, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Start a new one - never reread!



rereading The Wasp Factory after which I may reread The Master and Margarita unless something else takes my fancy


----------



## tastebud (May 30, 2007)

finished the time traveler's wife finally, which was much more enjoyable than i expected, so now i can go back to my summer of love.


----------



## Strumpet (May 31, 2007)

Am reading about Dave Grohl's life at mo. Loving it.


soj - Subtle Knife!


----------



## sojourner (May 31, 2007)

tastebud said:
			
		

> finished the *time traveler's wife *finally, which was much more enjoyable than i expected, so now i can go back to my summer of love.


I really loved that book - although slightly predictable, the writing was good enough to get you over that


----------



## sojourner (May 31, 2007)

Strumpet said:
			
		

> Am reading about Dave Grohl's life at mo. Loving it.
> 
> 
> soj - Subtle Knife!


What book is the Dave Grohl one?  Is it an authorised biog?  Autobiog?


Noooo - OU was right, a fresh book!  Trouble is, I ended up getting slightly sloshed with me daughter and not reading anything


----------



## sojourner (Jun 3, 2007)

I finished Emerald Budgies by Lee Maxwell this morning.  Full of graphic detail about bodily 'stuff', it left me wanting a shower.  It was funny in places, dark and sick in others, and I enjoyed it, although found myself thinking 'if a bloke said that... '.  Having said that, I thought it was excellent for a first novel - would be interested in seeing what else she's done


Am now reading Absent Kisses by Frances Gapper.  With a title like that you may well think this is some kind of vacuous chicklit, but no - it's a wonderful collection of short stories, extremely cleverly written, lots of playing with perceptions and accepted truths...pretty much magical realism for the most part (so far).  It's Jeanette Winterson-lite.  I love it


----------



## Pie 1 (Jun 3, 2007)

The Road - Cormac McCarthy.
Incredible writing. 
Probably one of the best he's written and a welcome return to form after the slightly dissapointing No Country For Old Men.


----------



## Dubversion (Jun 3, 2007)

agree entirely with both points - No Country was really 'meh', i just didn't get what he was up to (although I'm looking forward to the movie).

But The Road was unbelievable. I read it in one late-night sitting and got no sleep.. left me really shaken


----------



## 5t3IIa (Jun 4, 2007)

I read Fred & Rose by Howard Sounes about The Wests and the Gloucester House of Horrors on Saturday...it was £1! :shame:

Now I am re-reading Mr Nice, then re-reading Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen then starting Age & Guile by PJ O'Rourke then I'm going to try The Wasp Factory.

I read the first line of The WF and thought 'Oh, what the fuck is this shit?'


----------



## 5t3IIa (Jun 4, 2007)

dp


----------



## sojourner (Jun 4, 2007)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> The Road - Cormac McCarthy.
> Incredible writing.
> Probably one of the best he's written and a welcome return to form after the slightly dissapointing No Country For Old Men.


Someone else has just recommended this to me...will have to put it on the list I reckon


----------



## sojourner (Jun 4, 2007)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> The Road - Cormac McCarthy.
> Incredible writing.
> Probably one of the best he's written and a welcome return to form after the slightly dissapointing No Country For Old Men.


dp due to treacle-like boards today


----------



## Pie 1 (Jun 5, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Someone else has just recommended this to me...will have to put it on the list I reckon



Do.
It's one of the most intense books I've ever read.
Moving, genuinely disturbing and very brilliant.


----------



## sojourner (Jun 5, 2007)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> Do.
> It's one of the most intense books I've ever read.
> Moving, genuinely disturbing and very brilliant.


So I've heard  

Right, off to amazon I go then  

I've finished the Frances Gapper one now...I have an Anais Nin that I can't remember the title of, but will start that tonight


----------



## DRINK? (Jun 5, 2007)

Got 3 on the go at the moment.....Henning Mankel - the return of the dancing master...Marcus Aurelius meditations and something that was free in yesterdays Times that I started on the train. Think it is Stuart a life backwards or something

I read so quickly is becoming a problem since Friday have finished 5 books....I total skim read, could not tell you the names of characters etc could give you an initial of the main protagonists....and could tell you in depth of the story....am trying to slow down but is just the way I've always read...library must be sick of the sight of me


----------



## foamy (Jun 5, 2007)

the life and times of Michael K - J.M.Coetzee. i really like it but finding it hard to read (mainly cos the yummy mummy on the train next to me wouldn't shut up! )


----------



## sojourner (Jun 5, 2007)

DRINK? said:
			
		

> Think it is Stuart a life backwards


Excellent book 


I've just been to the local 2nd hand shop - someone round here has great taste, I'm always getting great books in there.  Today's swagbag includes:

Carol Shields - The Stone Diaries

Umberto Eco - Foucault's Pendulum

Fannie Flagg - Welcome to the World Baby Girl

Erica Wagner - Gravity

Norman Mailer - The Naked and the Dead


----------



## rollinder (Jun 5, 2007)

Geroge Orwell - Nineteen eighty four 
read it in one go on Sunday - spent part of yesterday re-reading it.

1984 John Hurt film edition penguin paperback with proper creased yellow pages and old book smell only cost 99p - god bless oxfam

lThere's something gloriously fucked up about finding a 1984 edition of 1984 plugging the 1984 film of 1984 "the book of the year now the film of the year"  

doubleplusgood / ungood for the intenseness total degree of bleakness and ultimate sense of no hope  
"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever"

one of those books thats everything and so much more than you every thought it was

spoilers the long awaiting bullet in the brain / promised death turns out imo to be the death of self of finally loving Big Brother (end spoiler)

speant long hours yesterday browsing wiki & amazon and the discussions boards for different versions on IMBD 
intense essays and theries on Orwell's views on Socahlism & Comunism,  something about Chomsky and part of the book being an attack on Churchill & then present day Britain, whether (spoiler)  
Julia's betrayal was the same as O'Brian's and the old shop keeper - that she was working for them all a long

and if the apendix explaining newspeak is from a fictional future where it's no longer used - so there is some hope of a uprising (by the proles?)


----------



## sojourner (Jun 6, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Carol Shields - The Stone Diaries


Started this last night - a bit waffly, but overall very interesting.  Life story of a fictional woman from Manitoba, with photos of family - I need to dig more to find out who the photos really are though, due to protagonist being fictional


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 6, 2007)

I'm trying to read The Book Of Dave by Will Self and am making slow progress with David Simon's Homicide: A Year  On The Killing Streets. I'm going through one of those phases where I'm not in a reading mood most of the time. Does anyone else get that?


----------



## sojourner (Jun 6, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Does anyone else get that?


Yes, it used to be more frequent than it is now, say 2 months frantic reading, month or so off.  These days it's more like 1 year frantic reading, month or so off.  Probably because I don't go out much


----------



## Rollem (Jun 6, 2007)

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jun 6, 2007)

I finished A Social History of English Cricket by Derek Birley. It's a brilliant book. Seriously researched, beautifully written, very funny, moving, very anti-old Buffer and MCC. All in all, fascinating.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jun 6, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I'm trying to read The Book Of Dave by Will Self and am making slow progress with David Simon's Homicide: A Year  On The Killing Streets. I'm going through one of those phases where I'm not in a reading mood most of the time. Does anyone else get that?



I had that for years after university. I used to read a couple of books a week for about two months, the last one remaining unfinished, then nothing for six months apart from magazines. During those periods, I couldn't face books, it was almost a physical distaste  

It's only in the last couple of years that I've been reading every week. General boredom plus this thread, which has some great recommendations.


----------



## tastebud (Jun 8, 2007)

i'm reading 'notes on a scandal'. think i'll breeze through it...


----------



## sojourner (Jun 8, 2007)

tastebud said:
			
		

> i'm reading 'notes on a scandal'. think i'll breeze through it...


What do you think of it so far?


----------



## tastebud (Jun 8, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> What do you think of it so far?


very difficult to say; i only started it on the train this morning. i'm slightly gripped by the story - it's kind of hard not to be - but i am in no place where i feel qualified to judge her writing yet. what did you think of it btw?

i'll let you know, when i know


----------



## sojourner (Jun 8, 2007)

tastebud said:
			
		

> very difficult to say; i only started it on the train this morning. i'm slightly gripped by the story - it's kind of hard not to be - but i am in no place where i feel qualified to judge her writing yet. what did you think of it btw?
> 
> i'll let you know, when i know


Just had to search for meself on here, and posts 6235 and 6236 say this:

"I have 40 pages left that I'm saving for tomorrow, but I've been glued to it all day. And...my dirty little secret is that I absolutely love Barbara  I love the structure of the text - simple narrative devices such as it being non-linear, writing-about-writing (forgot the term for this, I'm not well), and addressing the reader Tristram Shandy style are used to brilliant effect. Barbara's monologue is cutting, hilarious, brittle and brutal. I heart Barbara " 

"Finished it - what a brilliant novel. And foamy, I agree with you more than ever now - I see B with much more twisted maternal feelings than lesbian"

So err yeh, I loved it!


----------



## SubZeroCat (Jun 11, 2007)

I'm reading The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis.


----------



## sojourner (Jun 11, 2007)

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert.  For bookclub.  It's an easy read *yawn*


----------



## maya (Jun 13, 2007)

*now reading:*

Defoe's "Journal of the Plague Year"... Which i assume was supposed to be suspenseful, but I can't find any suspense or excitement in there even if I searched the pages with torch and magnifying glass...

Interesting fact: The very learned, Oxbridge scholarly introduction tells that the author was born to a man named mr. Foe, which leaves an interesting question- If christened Foe, why did his son take the surname Defoe?  
Was it because of the French influence on the prominent classes, or was it just the custom at the time (I assume Defoe = de Foe, i.e. son of Foe?)*

*Could any Urbs explain and enlighten me, because ze curiosity eez aroused now...


----------



## upsidedownwalrus (Jun 13, 2007)

A cool indian book called the Romantics


----------



## jeff_leigh (Jun 13, 2007)

One night at the Call Centre - Chetan Bhagat, enjoying it so far


----------



## thought (Jun 15, 2007)

Silent Thunder - The hidden voice of elephants.- Kathy Payne

Amazon link



A fantastic insite into the language of Elephants.


----------



## OldGirl (Jun 17, 2007)

"I am a cat" by Soseki Natsume

amazing!


----------



## cybertect (Jun 17, 2007)

Current reading for the train: _The Struggle for Mastery in Europe 1848–1918_: AJP Taylor


----------



## bluestreak (Jun 17, 2007)

on the train - voices from the british underground - a talking heads book about 60s counterculture.

in bed - jimmy corrigan, the smartest kid on earth


----------



## rollinder (Jun 17, 2007)

The Book with no name


----------



## Boogie Boy (Jun 18, 2007)

Having recently finished 'The Poe Shadow' by Matthew Pearl I thought it would be a good idea to try and read some Poe, having not previously done so. I've just finished the 'Pit and the Pendulum' and wasn't impressed at all, so allowing for the fact that it might not be particularly representative of his work I'm going to read 'The House Of Usher'.

BB


----------



## J77 (Jun 18, 2007)

*On Chesil Beach by Ian MacEwan*

Read it yesterday -- once again, every line a winner.


----------



## Biddlybee (Jun 18, 2007)

Confederacy of the Dunces... only read a few pages, but liking it so far


----------



## tastebud (Jun 18, 2007)

william boyd - the new confessions. so far so good.


----------



## J77 (Jun 19, 2007)

*The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney*

Just started...


----------



## Badgers (Jun 19, 2007)

Quartered Safe Out Here

Written by George MacDonald Fraser 

/genius


----------



## Barking_Mad (Jun 19, 2007)

Notes From The Underground - Fyodor Dostoyevsky


----------



## jeff_leigh (Jun 19, 2007)

The Stand - Stephen King


----------



## tufty79 (Jun 19, 2007)

wake up, sir - jonathon ames


----------



## Boogie Boy (Jun 19, 2007)

And I can say that the 'Fall of the House of Usher' by Poe wasn't a huge improvement on the other tale, so I'm going to go for a comfort read. I'm going to pick up 'Q' again.

BB


----------



## tastebud (Jun 19, 2007)

J77 said:
			
		

> *On Chesil Beach by Ian MacEwan*
> 
> Read it yesterday -- once again, every line a winner.


aw, i loved that book. couldn't put it down! (i didn't i think).


----------



## SubZeroCat (Jun 20, 2007)

I've just finished Chocolat by Joanne Harris. 

Twas alright, a bit Paulo Coelho though...

My colleagues gonna lend me Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis but I have no book to read today so maybe I'll start another one and then read Lunar Park. Maybe I'll go to Oxfam on my way home and by some more books


----------



## rekil (Jun 20, 2007)

I read The Futurologists Congress by Stanslaw Lem at the weekend. Bloody funny it was too.


----------



## mrs quoad (Jun 21, 2007)

Yukio Mishima - Confessions of a Mask.

Only a wee bit in, but loving it


----------



## obanite (Jun 21, 2007)

Wilbur Smith - River God

I <3 Egypt fiction


----------



## bikergrrl (Jun 21, 2007)

obanite said:
			
		

> Wilbur Smith - River God
> 
> I <3 Egypt fiction



There are more Wilbur Smith books on the shelf, I reckon you'll like them too.

I was reading "The Red Tent" by Anita Diamant until this morning.

It's the story of Dinah (Joseph's sister (you know, technicolour dream coat Joseph! )) and I really enjoyed it.


----------



## cyberfairy (Jun 21, 2007)

Darkmans by Nicola Barker-was fantastic read for first 600 or so pages then went a bit sillywhich was a shame as really enjoying it  Superb use of language and very funny perceptive look at a group of dysfunctional people living in Ashford who get taken over by seventeenth century jester. I think!


----------



## Orang Utan (Jun 21, 2007)

Nicola Barker is great and so very very strange


----------



## cyberfairy (Jun 21, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Nicola Barker is great and so very very strange


 Have 'Behindlings' to read now. I like strange but did think towards end of Darkmans, went a bit beyond a farce when before it had been so slow moving but involving. I love the way she writes though-can make anything sound poetic without being forced. Funny too


----------



## foamy (Jun 21, 2007)

The comfort of strangers - Ian McEwan.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Jun 21, 2007)

I just finished The Fall of Berlin by Anthony Beevor, and now I'm reading a fictional novel called The Last Legion.

It's martial month.


----------



## glaucon (Jun 22, 2007)

I've just finished reading the collected short stories of Katherine Mansfield.  I'd never heard of her till recently - I came across her name in conecction with Virgina Woolf who she used to hang out with and (I think) is very similar stylistically.

She's very easy to read - they really are _short_ stories; most of them just a few pages long but they certainly got under my skin and were, without exception, very moving.

The edition I got was a new (published this year) Penguin Classics.  If you like short stories I'd highly recommend her as she's a master of the form.


----------



## slutter (Jun 22, 2007)

Cerberus said:
			
		

> I`m re-reading  1984 for about the 3rd time
> 
> Hence i`m lurking on this thread for a bit of inspiration



Try The Forever war by Joe Haldeman - its old, but I'm reading it for the first time - its freaky and very well written ...


----------



## thought (Jun 22, 2007)

Shoe String Safari - Travels and Adventures and Experiences in Africa, by John Whittingham...


And Alice in Wonderland! - Well I am reading it to our little un Illustrated by  - Peter Weevers.


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 22, 2007)

I just bought revelation space and some book by neil gaiman.


----------



## Spudinka (Jun 23, 2007)

Have just read The LA Diaries by James Brown, it was very moving. A must read for anyone connected with addiction in any way, a great insight into it all. 

Love this thread by the way, but it's not going to help my book addiciton.


----------



## Star Dove (Jun 24, 2007)

I've just finished Redemption Falls by Joseph O'Connor.

It's supposed to be the 2nd part of a trilogy carrying on from Star of the Sea. Set in the years immediately after the American Civil War, he's written a much more ambitious novel that in the end certainly pays off.


----------



## obanite (Jun 25, 2007)

Johnny Canuck2 said:
			
		

> I just finished The Fall of Berlin by Anthony Beevor, and now I'm reading a fictional novel called The Last Legion.
> 
> It's martial month.



Ah, the one by Valerio Massimo Manfredi about the fall of Rome? I thought it was ok, but his Alexander trilogy was much better


----------



## no-no (Jun 25, 2007)

Just finished Samurai Williams, William Adams was one of the first englishmen to settle in Japan.Well, he was kind of stranded there and ended up staying for more than 10 years. 

He did pretty well out there but his troubles started when the europeans started to arrive in numbers.

It's funny to hear that europeans have always been coarse,uncouth,louts especially the dutch and the english.


----------



## no-no (Jun 25, 2007)

slutter said:
			
		

> Try The Forever war by Joe Haldeman - its old, but I'm reading it for the first time - its freaky and very well written ...



I agree, thats a goodun


----------



## cyberfairy (Jun 25, 2007)

Just given up on Book Of Dave by Will Self-really like premise and Dave's sections but found myself struggling too much with the 'Mockni' language and just not quite understanding it enough-feel cross at myself for not getting it


----------



## Boogie Boy (Jun 25, 2007)

Just started 'American Psycho' by Bret Easton Ellis. 

BB


----------



## Tuft (Jun 25, 2007)

Just about finished with Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic, and about to start The Light Fantastic.

I should probably pick up Jose Saramago's All the Names again, but I'm also busy reading James Gibson's The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception for work.


----------



## foamy (Jun 25, 2007)

Boogie Boy said:
			
		

> Just started 'American Psycho' by Bret Easton Ellis.


oooh, i love that book 

just started: The Cement Garden - Ian McEwan


----------



## Madusa (Jun 25, 2007)

Im reading Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller and Chaos by James Gleick. Took it on holiday but didnt get very far. Lying on the beach reading about weather predictions and the butterfly effect strangely didnt do it for me. 

Giving it another go.


----------



## lights.out.london (Jun 25, 2007)

William Gibson - _Pattern Recognition_ for the umpteenth time

Stephen Wolfram - _A New Kind of Science_ ongoing, stretching my maths and understanding of chaos theory


----------



## obanite (Jun 26, 2007)

lightsoutlondon said:
			
		

> William Gibson - _Pattern Recognition_ for the umpteenth time
> 
> Stephen Wolfram - _A New Kind of Science_ ongoing, stretching my maths and understanding of chaos theory



He took a duck in the face!

My new character in WoW is called Cayce


----------



## lights.out.london (Jun 26, 2007)

obanite said:
			
		

> He took a duck in the face!
> 
> My new character in WoW is called Cayce





I inhabit a dream world from a Gibson novel.

The new one is out in a week or two.


----------



## fear-n-loathing (Jun 26, 2007)

on the bus, its the history of ken kasey and merry pranksters. not great but an interesting read


----------



## tufty79 (Jun 26, 2007)

foamy said:
			
		

> oooh, i love that book
> 
> just started: The Cement Garden - Ian McEwan


 brillian stuff.  if a little squeamy.




			
				tufty79 said:
			
		

> wake up, sir - jonathon ames



i'm only on chapter two  i'm really liking it, but just not in a read-y mood 
actually, i'm going to go back to bed with it. now.


----------



## Madusa (Jun 26, 2007)

tufty79 said:
			
		

> brillian stuff.  if a little squeamy.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



um, what happened to photoshop, lady?!!


----------



## Dubversion (Jun 30, 2007)

after a few week's 'dipping' - into Wreckers of Civilisation (the TG book), Reynold's Bring The Noise, stuff like that - i'm about to slide into the bath a crack the spine of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Police Union. This guy better be good, after all the hype


----------



## sojourner (Jun 30, 2007)

Cormac McCarthy - The Road

Loving it so far, only read about 30 pages though


----------



## Dubversion (Jun 30, 2007)

"loving it"?

that'll change to something like "slipping into a dark dark hole of despair and grief" any time now


----------



## sojourner (Jun 30, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> "loving it"?
> 
> that'll change to something like "slipping into a dark dark hole of despair and grief" any time now


Haha

Yes.     Fuck me, I'll never complain about being hungry or cold ever EVER again  

Loving the minimal use of language - really impressed with how it mirrors the landscape, and huge emotions/ideas are expressed with barely a sentence


----------



## purves grundy (Jun 30, 2007)

_May-June_ New Left Review


----------



## bluestreak (Jun 30, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Cormac McCarthy - The Road
> 
> Loving it so far, only read about 30 pages though



oh i can't wait to read this.  currently reading a "very short introduction to classics" as i'm fascinated by the subject and want to learn my around it.


----------



## sojourner (Jul 1, 2007)

Finished The Road

Anyone got a valium?  A tissue will do if not.


Christ Almighty 


This is one of those books I will be getting evangelical about to all and sundry 


I almost dare not ask...but...are McCarthys other novels this good?  Or should I just stop now?


----------



## sojourner (Jul 1, 2007)

bluestreak said:
			
		

> currently reading a "very short introduction to classics" as i'm fascinated by the subject and want to learn my around it.


How do you mean, learn around it bluey?


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 1, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Finished The Road
> 
> Anyone got a valium?  A tissue will do if not.
> 
> ...




read the Border Trilogy - All The Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities Of The Plain. absolutely stunning.

don't read No Country For Old Men - it's toss


----------



## sojourner (Jul 1, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> read the Border Trilogy - All The Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities Of The Plain. absolutely stunning.
> 
> don't read No Country For Old Men - it's toss


Cheers  



Fucking Hell


So so much in that book to talk about...right down to the missing apostrophes


----------



## sojourner (Jul 1, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> don't read No Country For Old Men - it's toss


okay


----------



## winterinmoscow (Jul 1, 2007)

I've just bought: Everything is Illuminated

and Weathercock and Hope by Glen Duncan

I adore Glen Duncan's novels but did give up on Weathercock, determined to get through it this time


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 1, 2007)

oi, sojourner


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jul 1, 2007)

_The Good Soldier_ by Ford Madox Ford. Interesting do far...


----------



## sojourner (Jul 2, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> oi, sojourner


Cheers!  Is it only 2009 then that it's coming out? 

Lots of interesting comments there on that thread....the issue of faith was massive (for me anyway)...I felt as if 'okay' was a post-apocalyptic substitute for 'amen', if you know what I mean? 

Will check out the McCarthy forum that blinky bill linked to later


----------



## obanite (Jul 2, 2007)

Finished _River God_ - excellent book! Devouring _Warlock_ now


----------



## TheNegotiator (Jul 4, 2007)

I'm reading "I hope they serve beer in hell" written by Tucker Max and is basically about a guy who goes out and gets pissed and has sex, funny but not really worth the money


----------



## cyberfairy (Jul 4, 2007)

Just finished footnote* by Boff Walley, Chumbawamber member. Excellent autobiography-funny, fascinating and intelligent


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 4, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> .....i'm about to slide into the bath a crack the spine of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Police Union. This guy better be good, after all the hype




well it's ace so far


----------



## sojourner (Jul 4, 2007)

Fannie Flagg - Welcome to the world Baby Girl

Well, it's certainly no Fried Green Tomatoes, that's for sure.  In fact, it's probably the trashiest novel I've read in a _long_ time, but is funny in places, and not offensively shit. I've started so I might as well finish it til me book club choice comes through, or the Border Trilogy, whichever comes first


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 4, 2007)

cyberfairy said:
			
		

> Just finished footnote* by Boff Walley, Chumbawamber member. Excellent autobiography-funny, fascinating and intelligent



great, isn't it?


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 4, 2007)

Fannie Flagg


\m/ \m/


----------



## Pie 1 (Jul 4, 2007)

Just finished Coupland's JPod.
Good fun.


----------



## tufty79 (Jul 4, 2007)

tufty79 said:
			
		

> wake up, sir - jonathon ames
> 
> 
> i'm only on chapter two  i'm really liking it, but just not in a read-y mood
> actually, i'm going to go back to bed with it. now.



ahhhhhhhhhhh it was *fantastic*
need more more more of his stuff 

dipping in and out of douglas coupland's hey nostradamus, and *loving* delia smith's basic blockading


----------



## Dubversion (Jul 4, 2007)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> Just finished Coupland's JPod.
> Good fun.




yeh, he tends to alternate between moving examinations of sad stuff (Eleanor Rigby for example, most recently) and more throwaway zeitgeisty stuff like Jpod. Was fun


----------



## lynne8 (Jul 5, 2007)

I'm having a hard time getting through this one, I've read 3 books while I am in the middle of this one and am only 1/2 way through, I think it's worth a read tho.

The Terror by Dan Simmons.  A review:


The men on board, Her Britannic Majesty's Ships Terror and Erebus had every expectation of triumph. They were part of Sir John Franklin's 1845 expedition - as scientifically advanced an enterprise as had ever set forth - and theirs were the first steam-driven vessels to go in search of the fabled North-West Passage. But the ships have now been trapped in the Arctic ice for nearly two years. Coal and provisions are running low. Yet the real threat isn't the constantly shifting landscape of white or the flesh-numbing temperatures, dwindling supplies or the vessels being slowly crushed by the unyielding grip of the frozen ocean. No, the real threat is far more terrifying. There is something out there that haunts the frigid darkness, which stalks the ships, snatching one man at a time - mutilating, devouring. A nameless thing, at once nowhere and everywhere, this terror has become the expedition's nemesis. When Franklin meets a terrible death, it falls to Captain Francis Crozier of HMS Terror to take command and lead the remaining crew on a last, desperate attempt to flee south across the ice. With them travels an Eskimo woman who cannot speak. She may be the key to survival - or the harbinger of their deaths. And as scurvy, starvation and madness take their toll, as the Terror on the ice becomes evermore bold, Crozier and his men begin to fear there is no escape...


----------



## sojourner (Jul 6, 2007)

The Fannie Flagg turned out to be really good towards the end, really got some meat on its bones.  

Am now reading The Good Doctor, by Damon Galgut


----------



## cyberfairy (Jul 6, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> The Fannie Flagg turned out to be really good towards the end, really got some meat on its bones.
> 
> Am now reading The Good Doctor, by Damon Galgut


Oh if you like dogs, that's really upsetting


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jul 6, 2007)

I finished FMF's The Good Soldier, which is pretty remarkable novel really, with some fairly vicious things to say about marriage, the English and the morality of the Victorian novel-reader. One of the first novels to use flashback apparently.

Now I've dived without much thought into A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell, being the first in his Dance to the Music of Time sequence. Just to see what it's like.


----------



## sojourner (Jul 6, 2007)

cyberfairy said:
			
		

> Oh if you like dogs, that's really upsetting


I like dogs, but I may not be as upset as possibly you could get me dear...I'm a hard-hearted cunt at the best of times


----------



## cyberfairy (Jul 6, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> I like dogs, but I may not be as upset as possibly you could get me dear...I'm a hard-hearted cunt at the best of times


I'm a liberal bedwetter who couldn't strim the grass yesterday cos there was ickle fwoggies jumping in it who might have been hurted (also a good excuse to not fucking bother doing stuff )


----------



## sojourner (Jul 6, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I finished FMF's The Good Soldier, which is pretty remarkable novel really,


I THINK I've read that, but it was a lonnnng time ago.  I remember being quite impressed with it at the time


----------



## sojourner (Jul 6, 2007)

cyberfairy said:
			
		

> I'm a liberal bedwetter who couldn't strim the grass yesterday cos there was ickle fwoggies jumping in it who might have been hurted (also a good excuse to not fucking bother doing stuff )


   I'd have been keeping score


----------



## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Jul 6, 2007)

Promethea. 

Not really a book because it has pictures. Let's call it a comic 'book'.
Anyway, I have not made my mind up. Could be bollocks or incredible depending on how you look at it.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jul 6, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> I THINK I've read that, but it was a lonnnng time ago.  I remember being quite impressed with it at the time



Uptight English, foolish Americans, spa town, affairs, India, _ennui_, polo, suicide, madness and Surrey?


----------



## sojourner (Jul 6, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Uptight English, foolish Americans, spa town, affairs, India, _ennui_, polo, suicide and madness?


Why yes!  That is the one - thanks DM  I remember getting reet pissed off with one of the female characters


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jul 6, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Why yes!  That is the one - thanks DM  I remember getting reet pissed off with one of the female characters



You've got a choice of three really -- Leonora the patient suffering Catholic wife, Florence the unfaithful status-obsessed American, or Nancy the quietly steaming ward.

Leonora is a magnificent character.


----------



## sojourner (Jul 6, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> You've got a choice of three really -- Leonora the patient suffering Catholic wife, Florence the unfaithful status-obsessed American, or Nancy the quietly steaming ward.
> 
> Leonora is a magnificent character.


It was Leonora!!!  Name rings such a bell with me it must be


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jul 6, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> It was Leonora!!!  Name rings such a bell with me it must be



I was really impressed with this novel. A sharper dissection of sexual relations would be hard to find in a novel that old. I might give some of his other stuff a go ...


----------



## sojourner (Jul 6, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I was really impressed with this novel. A sharper dissection of sexual relations would be hard to find in a novel that old. I might give some of his other stuff a go ...


I always meant to read more of his stuff...be interested to see how you go on

I remember after reading this book, me and a very good mate were invited out by other mates, and spent the entire night discussing it and ignoring everyone else - oops


----------



## Reno (Jul 7, 2007)

A Woman in Berlin by 'Anonymus'. A diary written by a German journalist over two months when the Russians invaded Berlin as the WWII was ending. Really gripping and very well written.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Jul 8, 2007)

Just started 'All Quiet On The Western Front' by Erich Maria Remarque.

BB


----------



## sojourner (Jul 9, 2007)

Boogie Boy said:
			
		

> Just started 'All Quiet On The Western Front' by Erich Maria Remarque.
> 
> BB


Fucking fantastic book that...had me very emotional indeed


----------



## sojourner (Jul 9, 2007)

cyberfairy said:
			
		

> Oh if you like dogs, that's really upsetting


Ok Ms CF - I think you might have been thinking about a different book, cos there's no dogs, upsetting or otherwise, in The Good Doctor!!!  Finished it yesterday, and zero canines. 

Started The Mistress's Daughter: A Memoir by A.M. Homes - it's a bookclub choice.  Not a brilliant start, very woe-is-me navel-gazing, but we'll see.  Thing is, the Border Trilogy is sat on me shelf, screaming READ ME I'M WAY MORE INTERESTING and it's taking immense self-will not to abandon current book


----------



## SubZeroCat (Jul 9, 2007)

5 Moral Pieces by Umberto Eco


----------



## sojourner (Jul 9, 2007)

SubZeroCat said:
			
		

> 5 Moral Pieces by Umberto Eco


Have you read much of his stuff?

I've got Foucaults Pendulum waiting to be read.  A mate of mine loves his stuff


----------



## Boogie Boy (Jul 9, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Have you read much of his stuff?
> 
> I've got Foucaults Pendulum waiting to be read.  A mate of mine loves his stuff



It is a fantastic book, and one that rewards being read again and again. It is far more ambitious in scope and scale than 'In The Name Of The Rose', and it has some rather interesting jokes running through the text too.

I hope you enjoy it!

BB


----------



## baldrick (Jul 9, 2007)

Genghis Khan - life, death and resurrection by John Man.

really, really enjoying this.  about 2/3 of the way through now.  the research is brilliant and the little stories he tells about his adventures in doing the research are gems


----------



## obanite (Jul 9, 2007)

Boogie Boy said:
			
		

> Just started 'All Quiet On The Western Front' by Erich Maria Remarque.
> 
> BB



Ooh, bought that a couple of months ago, it's in my queue


----------



## Vintage Paw (Jul 9, 2007)

obanite said:
			
		

> Ooh, bought that a couple of months ago, it's in my queue



Fabulous book. I cried on the bus when I finished it - felt like a right twonk  

I'm still reading the book I started a month ago (_Go Tell it on the Mountain_). But, in the meantime I have also started _The Genius of Photography_ by Gerry Badger (I love that name  ). I'm teh crap at reading at the moment - spending too long on facebook instead


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jul 9, 2007)

"On the Nature of War" by Carl von Clausewitz.
"The Origins of the 1st World War" by Annike Mombauer


----------



## Wilf (Jul 9, 2007)

The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey - its excellent.  Just read Jack Maggs by him also - which was pretty good (apart from the happy ending  )


----------



## belboid (Jul 9, 2007)

Boogie Boy said:
			
		

> It is a fantastic book, and one that rewards being read again and again. It is far more ambitious in scope and scale than 'In The Name Of The Rose', and it has some rather interesting jokes running through the text too.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> BB


You think?  It's one of my favourite books, but it's hardly 'much more ambitious' than NotR, both deal with essentially similar themes (all his novels are just philosophy masquerading as literature, to quote the back of Mysterious Flame of Queen Loanna - which I'm just reading.  Very enjoyable, but much slighter, as his novels have become progressively. A shame, but there you go, he could never really do character development, but he does find great excuses as to why he cant!). 

Rose is a better novel in many ways, i think, but Pendulum is much more fun if you are coming from a philosophy bent.


----------



## sandblast (Jul 9, 2007)

I've just finished Redemption Song, the biograhy of Joe Strummer by Chris Salewicz...at 630 pages it was a bit long, could've been a couple of hundred pages less i feel...Now i'm starting UNIT 731, by Peter Williams and David Wallace, a look at the Japanese WW2 camp where they carried out horrific and utterly pointless experiments on both military and civilian prisoners in a village in Manchuria.


----------



## upsidedownwalrus (Jul 9, 2007)

reading the first His Dark Materials book.  Interesting.


----------



## cyberfairy (Jul 9, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Ok Ms CF - I think you might have been thinking about a different book, cos there's no dogs, upsetting or otherwise, in The Good Doctor!!!  Finished it yesterday, and zero canines.
> 
> Started The Mistress's Daughter: A Memoir by A.M. Homes - it's a bookclub choice.  Not a brilliant start, very woe-is-me navel-gazing, but we'll see.  Thing is, the Border Trilogy is sat on me shelf, screaming READ ME I'M WAY MORE INTERESTING and it's taking immense self-will not to abandon current book


Oh Think I must have been thinking about a different book by same author.
 I am reading 'A Study In Scarlet', by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-tis ace so far and just finished the magnificent 'Be Near Me' by Andrew err Someone-Forgotten his surname and book back in library. Was about a priest in Scotland anyway and read it from start to finish yesterday afternoon. Beautiful use of language and sad and thought provoking dealing without giving too much away, paedophilia and class.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 9, 2007)

O'Hagan


----------



## cyberfairy (Jul 9, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> O'Hagan


Well done Have you read it?


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 9, 2007)

No - never read him!


----------



## Mungy (Jul 9, 2007)

i'm having my 3rd or 4th attempt at reading "Iron John" by Robert Bly.


----------



## N_igma (Jul 9, 2007)

Alister McGrath-Dawkins Delusion?

Interesting stuff.


----------



## sojourner (Jul 10, 2007)

belboid said:
			
		

> (all his novels are just philosophy masquerading as literature


Oh goody!   

Just like Sartre and his oppos then 

Looking forward to this more now.


----------



## sojourner (Jul 10, 2007)

RenegadeDog said:
			
		

> reading the first His Dark Materials book.  Interesting.


Quality

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  I think it tends to divide readers into love and hate camps.  Myself, I couldn't get enough of it, and raced to read the rest of the trilogy


----------



## Pie 1 (Jul 10, 2007)

In Cold Blood - Really brilliantly written.






			
				sojourner said:
			
		

> Have you read much of his stuff?
> I've got Foucaults Pendulum waiting to be read.  A mate of mine loves his stuff



Oh, his last book [Queen amelda's blah blah, or whatever the fuck...] was fucking awful. 
Pretentious Isn't the word. 
It's just the most infuriatingly annoying, self satisfiyed, acadmeic, head up backside, obscure quote wank.
I took my copy back after 3 days and got a refund and was told I wasn't the first  .


----------



## sojourner (Jul 10, 2007)

Pie 1 said:
			
		

> In Cold Blood - Really brilliantly written.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I rather like self satisfied academic wank


----------



## belboid (Jul 10, 2007)

i dont think its that pretentious (not in the first third anyway), just not that great.  a surprisingly easy read, tho maybe thats just comparative to his others.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Jul 10, 2007)

belboid said:
			
		

> You think?  It's one of my favourite books, but it's hardly 'much more ambitious' than NotR, both deal with essentially similar themes (all his novels are just philosophy masquerading as literature, to quote the back of Mysterious Flame of Queen Loanna - which I'm just reading.  Very enjoyable, but much slighter, as his novels have become progressively. A shame, but there you go, he could never really do character development, but he does find great excuses as to why he cant!).
> 
> Rose is a better novel in many ways, i think, but Pendulum is much more fun if you are coming from a philosophy bent.



I think that the 'Rose' is interesting, and the internal jokes and general playfulness with ideas and meanings can be intriguing, but I found the 'Pendulum' far more satisfying, building on the style seen in the earlier book. I've always found the ending rather moving too.

I found reading 'Loanna' quite painful, it completely failed to generate any huge interest for me, and it quickly became something I read because I wanted to finish it (I always try to finish what I start - although Nicola Barker has had the same effect on me) - not out of a sense of excitement or 'page turning' expectation - similar to my experience of reading the 'Island of the Day Before'.

BB


----------



## quimcunx (Jul 11, 2007)

The Testament of Gideon Mack.  

It's reminded me of words like puddock.


----------



## badlands (Jul 11, 2007)

have just finished the autobiography of Jack Rosenthal called, By Jack Rosenthal. Its written, brilliantly, as a screenplay. Unfortunately he died of cancer before he finished the last chapter, but his wife, Maureen Lipman bravely and beautifully finished the remaining chapter. Its a wonderful, touching and poignant book by one of the most underrated dramatists this country has ever produced.


----------



## tastebud (Jul 13, 2007)

Brainaddict got me the new Murakami book 'After Dark' which I'm very happy about & started reading last night


----------



## angermanagement (Jul 14, 2007)

Thud.  Tery Pratchett. Something like between 20 -30 of his Discworld books in a row and even read one twice by accident. I need rehab.


----------



## rennie (Jul 14, 2007)

I'm about to start reading Harafish by Naguib Mahfouz. I'm addicted!


----------



## cyberfairy (Jul 15, 2007)

Spent all afternoon reading When We Were Romans by Matthew Kneale from cover to cover. Utterly superb book-gripping, sad, insightful with an eight year old 'narrator' describing his trip to Rome and his mother's flight from demons


----------



## The Fourth Bear (Jul 15, 2007)

Currently reading The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr. (A sherlock Holmes story). I know no-one can write Holmes like Conan-Doyle but I like to see how well an author does when they try.

After that I'll be moving on to First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde. I'm a big fan of his, hence the username.


----------



## May Kasahara (Jul 16, 2007)

Read Liz Jensen's 'The Ninth Life of Louis Drax' over the last few weeks - it was quite good, a nice little puzzle. Louis' voice was much better realised than Dr Dannachet's, though, and Natalie Drax was just annoyingly transparent.

Now reading 'Castle Waiting' by Linda Medley, a beautifully drawn comic series that my wonderful other half found in a bookshop in Amsterdam. The book itself is gorgeous, the artwork is clean and simple, the story is as cosy and enjoyable as a cashmere jumper. It's cool


----------



## northernhord (Jul 16, 2007)

Nicholas Blincoes Jello Salad (again)


----------



## Mandla (Jul 17, 2007)

Just finished Spud: the madness continues, by John van Der Ruit and the Kite Runner by Khalid Hossieni - both excellent for different reasons. Just started Bullet Points by Mark Watson - very interesting so far.


----------



## fear-n-loathing (Jul 17, 2007)

confessions of an economic hitman - not bad not great


----------



## quimcunx (Jul 17, 2007)

I've read kite runner and bullet points, mads, both good. 

I'm reading The Testament of Gideon Mack.  Enjoying it and some nice reminders of scottish words I don't hear so often these days.


----------



## baldrick (Jul 17, 2007)

Dunkirk: fight to the last man - Hugh Sebag-Montefiore.  

Only just started it, but very, very interesting.  Haven't read much modern British history  

Also Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family and Fatherland - Carmen Callil.

Nearly finished.  Horrifying and scathing in fairly equal measure.


----------



## cyberfairy (Jul 18, 2007)

Just finished 'The Longest Crawl' by Ian Marchant, an account of travelling from first to last pub in Britain via lots of other pubs. Very good read-enjoyable, intersting and funny if somewhat marred by the hippy lite narrator's occasional descent into slagging off veggies, 'chavs' and saying women weren't ever really into metal music, beers or motorbikes, just pretended to be to please boyfriends


----------



## selamlar (Jul 18, 2007)

'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' - good bit of escapism


----------



## sojourner (Jul 18, 2007)

cyberfairy said:
			
		

> Just finished 'The Longest Crawl' by Ian Marchant, an account of travelling from first to last pub in Britain via lots of other pubs. Very good read-enjoyable, intersting and funny if somewhat marred by the hippy lite narrator's occasional descent into slagging off veggies, 'chavs' and saying *women weren't ever really into metal music, beers or motorbikes*, just pretended to be to please boyfriends


Glad I haven't read it then!  I'd have to write a strongly-worded letter of complaint to him.  Or post a dog turd


----------



## cyberfairy (Jul 18, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Glad I haven't read it then!  I'd have to write a strongly-worded letter of complaint to him.  Or post a dog turd


He seems like such a nice bloke most of the time in his books as well-guess he entitled to his opinions but as a veggie metal loving bike loving beer liker was a bit miffed


----------



## sojourner (Jul 18, 2007)

cyberfairy said:
			
		

> He seems like such a nice bloke most of the time in his books as well-guess he entitled to his opinions but as a veggie metal loving bike loving beer liker was a bit miffed


Well he's obviously NOT such a nice bloke then is he mate?  

Wankaaarrrrr!! (him, not you  )


----------



## Biddlybee (Jul 18, 2007)

Not reading it yet, but is 'Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell' a good book?


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 18, 2007)

BiddlyBee said:
			
		

> Not reading it yet, but is 'Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell' a good book?


It's quite a good read! That's given me an idea, actually....


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jul 19, 2007)

The Fourth Bear said:
			
		

> Currently reading The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr. (A sherlock Holmes story). I know no-one can write Holmes like Conan-Doyle but I like to see how well an author does when they try.
> 
> After that I'll be moving on to First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde. I'm a big fan of his, hence the username.



Jasper Fforde. Hehe. One of my "cheer yourself up" authors. Brings a little sunshine into my life.


----------



## May Kasahara (Jul 19, 2007)

Finished 'Castle Waiting' on Tuesday night - thoroughly recommended to anyone who likes clean, simple linework, meandering stories, beautiful books or bearded nuns.

Now starting Rupert Thomson, 'Death Of A Murderer'. Enjoying it so far, although have only read the first few pages.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jul 20, 2007)

On holiday I read:

A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell, which was enjoyable enough.

Lucky Jim -- I don't know why it took me so long to get round to it. A brilliant comic novel.

A Confederacy of Dunces -- which I only began to like after about 150 pages, when Toole's own voice started to come through. He might have been great had he lived, and if he had, I think COD would have been seen for the hit-and-miss effort it is.

Treasure Island -- I read this in a modernised version as a kid. It's magnificent.


----------



## tastebud (Jul 20, 2007)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> Now starting Rupert Thomson, 'Death Of A Murderer'. Enjoying it so far, although have only read the first few pages.


I read all of his books when I was a teenager. Should maybe check that one out.


----------



## May Kasahara (Jul 20, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> A Confederacy of Dunces -- which I only began to like after about 150 pages, when Toole's own voice started to come through. He might have been great had he lived, and if he had, I think COD would have been seen for the hit-and-miss effort it is.



Yeah, I know what you mean. I had a weird, queasy balance of enjoying the book and really disliking it, the entire way through. It's a shame he never got to produce more, I think it would have been really interesting to watch his work develop.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jul 20, 2007)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> Yeah, I know what you mean. I had a weird, queasy balance of enjoying the book and really disliking it, the entire way through. It's a shame he never got to produce more, I think it would have been really interesting to watch his work develop.



I particularly liked the setpieces with the Levys -- some really great comic writing there. I dunno, I think as the book goes on, and Ignatius becomes more vulnerable and likeable, it does begin to feel more controlled. New Orleans itself comes through more strongly too. The first 150 pages, though, are just daft


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jul 20, 2007)

I'm going to read Diary of a Nobody because I fancy some light late-19th-century suburban fiction.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Jul 20, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I'm going to read Diary of a Nobody because I fancy some light late-19th-century suburban fiction.



I found it quite amusing, quite unexpectedly so.

BB


----------



## sojourner (Jul 20, 2007)

I'm sick to death of the bookclub book, which is just a load of whinging nonsense - 3 weeks already and I've not finished it. Says a lot.  So I'm scrubbing it and gonna start The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy tomorrow


----------



## sojourner (Jul 22, 2007)

Started it today - into it already.  Didn't realise it was gonna be set in the west (one of my favourite places in the world and I've never been)

And McCarthy lives in El Paso.  It really doesn't get much cooler than that for me


----------



## Strumpet (Jul 22, 2007)

Just started Potter of course.


I know a cute guy lives in El Paso! *plans a road trip with sojourner*


----------



## sojourner (Jul 22, 2007)

Strumpet said:
			
		

> *plans a road trip with sojourner*


Oh my god - to do that is a dream of mine - I seriously have to go there someday!

*starts saving up*


----------



## Strumpet (Jul 22, 2007)

I'd like to. It looks a lovely interesting place. And he is CUTE. 

*saves too!*  heh


----------



## sojourner (Jul 22, 2007)

Strumpet said:
			
		

> I'd like to. It looks a lovely interesting place. And he is CUTE.
> 
> *saves too!*  heh


Sorted

You can have him, and I'll find me a Wicked Felina  


Can we ride some of the way on old paint hosses? Can we can we can we?


----------



## sojourner (Jul 22, 2007)

All the Pretty Horses is shaping up brilliantly btw - the landscapes are mindblowingly articulated, dialogue just perfect, and I've laughed me head off at one part - didn't realise there was gonna be funny stuff in it too


----------



## thedailymail (Jul 24, 2007)

Currently reading "The Wind Up Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami


----------



## Roadkill (Jul 25, 2007)

I've been at the 3 for 2 deals in Waterstones again.    In the last week I've read:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (and yes, I enjoyed it  )

Andrew Roden - er, can't remember the exact title, but it was a kind of 'biography' of the Flying Scotsman, and very nicely done it was too

Dawkins - The God Delusion: better than I expected, very thought-provoking in places

Ed Husain - The Islamist: only done a few chapters, but it's very interesting so far


----------



## Hoss (Jul 25, 2007)

L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy


----------



## quimcunx (Jul 25, 2007)

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox.  Enjoying so far.

Just finished One Good Turn by kate atkinson, rubbish.  Shame as I enjoyed Behind the scenes at teh museum immensely.


----------



## quimcunx (Jul 25, 2007)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> Yeah, I know what you mean. I had a weird, queasy balance of enjoying the book and really disliking it, the entire way through. It's a shame he never got to produce more, I think it would have been really interesting to watch his work develop.



My friend recommended this saying that her and another had absolutley loved it.  It didn't make me laugh at all.  I just didn't get it.


Confederacy of Dunces that is.  Just realised I've quoted the bit that doesn't mention it.


----------



## May Kasahara (Jul 26, 2007)

Yeah, my brother absolutely loved it as well, whereas I struggled with how annoying it was at times.


----------



## tastebud (Jul 26, 2007)

Hanif Kureishi - Midnight All Day... brilliant so far, just what the doctor ordered!


----------



## foo (Jul 26, 2007)

that's a great book tastebud.  

i'm reading a book called Hound Dog by Richard somebody. all about an Elvis impersonator, living in Cambridge, who hates Elvis. 

a bit strange so far.....


----------



## Relahni (Jul 26, 2007)

Boxing Mastery: Advanced Technique, Tactics, and Strategies from the Sweet Science by Mark Hatmaker.


----------



## sleepyhead (Jul 26, 2007)

Just started 'Cosmos' by Carl Sagan.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Jul 26, 2007)

Still working through 'American Psycho', which is quite disjointed, and have decided to pick up 'The Conference of the Birds' by Attar, which is light and easygoing but deceptively so.

BB


----------



## exosculate (Jul 27, 2007)

tastebud said:
			
		

> Hanif Kureishi - Midnight All Day... brilliant so far, just what the doctor ordered!




He is a great writer.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jul 27, 2007)

Today I read the first paragraph of Cormac McCarthy's The Road and I'm not sure I'll ever be the same again. What a beginning. Not sure if I'm exactly looking forward to the rest of it, but I can't wait.


----------



## tastebud (Jul 27, 2007)

exosculate said:
			
		

> He is a great writer.


Yep, he's an amazing novelist - one of my favourites in fact - and now i'm a big fan of his short stories too.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jul 27, 2007)

Boogie Boy said:
			
		

> I found it quite amusing, quite unexpectedly so.
> 
> BB



I've just finished it. Amusing enough


----------



## sojourner (Jul 27, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Today I read the first paragraph of Cormac McCarthy's The Road and I'm not sure I'll ever be the same again. What a beginning. Not sure if I'm exactly looking forward to the rest of it, but I can't wait.


What a beginning - what a book - will be interested to hear what you make of it.

I just finished All the Pretty Horses by him.  Wow.  In many ways he reminds me of Annie Proulx - the sparse dialogue, the dialect, the landscapes, the language itself actually reflecting those landscapes, the changing of cultures through time, and they both write about an area of the world that massively interests me

I'm gonna start the next book in the trilogy tomorrow.  Want to digest this one first


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Jul 27, 2007)

I've just finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt and started The Little Friend....I've been reading a lot more fiction recently, mainly because the library of the school that I work in is really good (unlike Lambeth libraries  )......I've also recently read Archangel and Fatherland by Robert Harris...really pacy stuff and hugely enjoyable....so far this year the best has been Relish, the biography of Alexis Soyer, Victorian chef who invented the cafetiere. Highly recommended.


----------



## sojourner (Jul 27, 2007)

Hello stranger!


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jul 27, 2007)

Europe, Europe by Hans Magnus Enzensberger


----------



## sojourner (Jul 28, 2007)

The Crossing - Cormac McCarthy

I was gonna try and read the trilogy in parts, in between other books so I wouldn't use up all that brilliance at once, but just couldn't help reading the first page...


----------



## rollinder (Jul 28, 2007)

Bernard Crick - George Orwell A Life

and just read chapter one of Keep the Aspidistra Flying online 
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200021.txt


----------



## Roadkill (Jul 31, 2007)

Just started William Naphy, _Born to be Gay: A History of Homosexuality_.  Interesting stuff, so far.


----------



## the button (Jul 31, 2007)

Kenneth Tynan's diaries. What a twat. But quite entertaining, nonetheless.


----------



## Badgers (Aug 1, 2007)

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell

A good friend posted this to me saying that it was the best book ever written. Only two chapters in so far but it is already really good.


----------



## obanite (Aug 1, 2007)

The Caged Virgin, Ayaan Hirsi Ali


----------



## rollinder (Aug 1, 2007)

Peter Robinson - In A Dry Season


----------



## D'wards (Aug 2, 2007)

About halfway through A Million Little Pieces by James Frey.
I had it personally recommended, and it is covered with glowing reviews - however, i am finding it boring, repetitive, self-rightous and his writing style, though distinctive, is irritating - he overemphasises everything to the point of naseau (which actually writes about constantly - always being sick that lad, and each and every time describing in in lurid detail)


----------



## J77 (Aug 2, 2007)

Just read: *I'm not scared* by Niccolò Ammaniti.

Which was a nice summer book -- I'd put it in the same league as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, if anyone's read that.

and...

*Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows* -- which, once again, had too much waffle, but at least a bit of a plot this time; can't wait for the 8th installment... 

Think I'll turn to some classics now... David Copperfield and a History of Western Philosphy have been sitting on the shelf for a while...


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 2, 2007)

D'wards said:
			
		

> About halfway through A Million Little Pieces by James Frey.
> I had it personally recommended, and it is covered with glowing reviews - however, i am finding it boring, repetitive, self-rightous and his writing style, though distinctive, is irritating - he overemphasises everything to the point of naseau (which actually writes about constantly - always being sick that lad, and each and every time describing in in lurid detail)




he also made most of it up


----------



## obanite (Aug 2, 2007)

D'wards said:
			
		

> About halfway through A Million Little Pieces by James Frey.
> I had it personally recommended, and it is covered with glowing reviews - however, i am finding it boring, repetitive, self-rightous and his writing style, though distinctive, is irritating - he overemphasises everything to the point of naseau (which actually writes about constantly - always being sick that lad, and each and every time describing in in lurid detail)



Self-righteous? 

I'd say he's anything but - he constantly reaffirms that all of this is of his own doing. As for boring, well, what did you really expect from a story about somebody in rehab?

The fact that he made up parts of it is far worse than what you've said in my opinion


----------



## obanite (Aug 2, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> he also made most of it up



I don't know about "most". If you read the actual story that 'blew the book out of the water', most of the stuff they go on about is his criminal record, not what actually happened during the telling of the book.


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 2, 2007)

J77 said:
			
		

> *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows* -- which, once again, had too much waffle, but at least a bit of a plot this time; can't wait for the 8th installment...


I thought this one was the last Potter book? Oh, and is I'm Not Scared about a kidnapped kid? If so, I've seen the film and it's excellent.


----------



## J77 (Aug 2, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I thought this one was the last Potter book? Oh, and is I'm Not Scared about a kidnapped kid? If so, I've seen the film and it's excellent.


Yeah -- set in Southern Italy. It's a great book for reading whilst lounging around in the sunshine (when it comes ).

The HP is the 7th from 7, but you know they'll be more...


----------



## D'wards (Aug 2, 2007)

obanite said:
			
		

> Self-righteous?
> 
> I'd say he's anything but - he constantly reaffirms that all of this is of his own doing. As for boring, well, what did you really expect from a story about somebody in rehab?
> 
> The fact that he made up parts of it is far worse than what you've said in my opinion



Its more the fact that he really looks down on the methods of the centre and the other people in there. One bit where some bloke was giving a lecture who had used the 12-step programme and had found God, as was better now, and he describes how he would punch him in the face if he was near enough. I am an athiest, but each to his own - if religion helps someone get over his addictions then fine - no need to be condescending about it...


----------



## elevendayempire (Aug 2, 2007)

Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold, and, er... a biography of Axl Rose which I'm supposed to be reviewing.

SG


----------



## obanite (Aug 3, 2007)

D'wards said:
			
		

> Its more the fact that he really looks down on the methods of the centre and the other people in there. One bit where some bloke was giving a lecture who had used the 12-step programme and had found God, as was better now, and he describes how he would punch him in the face if he was near enough. I am an athiest, but each to his own - if religion helps someone get over his addictions then fine - no need to be condescending about it...



Yeah I see what you mean... but to be honest, I saw that more as just another part of his whole "I'm an angry fuck up" personality. I guess the reason I don't see him as self-righteous is because he's just as hard on himself as anything or anyone else...


----------



## Dirty Martini (Aug 3, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Europe, Europe by Hans Magnus Enzensberger



I loved this. Written in the mid-80s, independent leftwing German poet's travels through Europe -- specifically, Sweden, Italy, Hungary, Spain, Portugal and Poland. A travel book that looks at the impact of political regimes and history on everyday life. I was expecting it to be dated I guess, but it's remarkably prescient about how these societies would turn out after the end of communism, a strengthened and expanded EU, electronic networks, etc. It would be great if he could go back and take another look at these countries, particularly Poland and Italy for different reasons, but he's getting on a bit.

Recommended, for the things that have changed and for the things that appear to be eternal


----------



## rollinder (Aug 4, 2007)

Philip K Dick - Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said and A Scanner Darkly,


----------



## chooch (Aug 5, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Europe, Europe by Hans Magnus Enzensberger


Sounds interesting.
On a reading spree at the moment. Just finished _Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee_, a history of the american west, _They Would Never Hurt a Fly_, about war crimes in the Yugoslavian wars, _The Leopard_ by Guiseppe Tomasi de Lamoudesa, which intermittently annoyed me but which ends in some style. Now reading _Everything is Illuminated_ by Jonathan Safran Foer.


----------



## golightly (Aug 5, 2007)

The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene.  Bit of a reprise of The Elegant Universe, but I like this kind of stuff even if I have to regularly reread paragraphs about five times to get it.


----------



## rollinder (Aug 5, 2007)

John Wyndham - Day of The Triffids


----------



## marty21 (Aug 5, 2007)

rachel north - out of the tunnel


----------



## unusual_solid (Aug 5, 2007)

robin wright  sacred rage - the wrath of militant islam


----------



## Leica (Aug 5, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> _The Leopard_ by Guiseppe Tomasi de Lamoudesa, which intermittently annoyed me but which ends in some style.



di Lampedusa    I love the Leopard, also love his short stories, especially the Siren (Lighea).


----------



## obanite (Aug 6, 2007)

obanite said:
			
		

> The Caged Virgin, Ayaan Hirsi Ali



Highly recommend this, brave lady.

Reading Renegade Magic by Robin Hobb at the moment, pretty good series  Lots of eating...


----------



## chooch (Aug 6, 2007)

Leica said:
			
		

> di Lampedusa


whoops. I'm blaming a foreign keyboard...


----------



## sojourner (Aug 7, 2007)

I finally finished The Crossing.  Bit of an epic read to say the least.  Just started Cities of the Plain


----------



## Daniel-San (Aug 7, 2007)

Bob Dylan- Chronicles


----------



## Boogie Boy (Aug 7, 2007)

I have nearly finished 'American Psycho', which I am finding incredibly dull. And I have just started 'How Non Violence Protects The State' by Peter Gelderloos.

BB


----------



## foamy (Aug 7, 2007)

Chart Throb - Ben Elton.
Haven't read anything for ages and knew i could read this fast so pinched it off my mum. Not time well spent. Must read something better next time.


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 7, 2007)

Bad foamy


----------



## foamy (Aug 7, 2007)

hangs head in shame


----------



## Xanadu (Aug 7, 2007)

I'm reading Hanif Kureishi - Love in a Blue Time.  Pretty good so far.


----------



## May Kasahara (Aug 8, 2007)

Yet again, for no good reason, I started a Rupert Thomson book then put it aside temporarily and haven't picked it up again...instead, I've reread Tim Moore's "Continental Drifter" which was as hilarious as before but made me really sad too as it was something my brother and I used to share. Am supposed to be reading "To The Lighthouse" for book club next week, so will probably make a start on that tomorrow *sigh* Also have got a Marcus Sedgwick book and two Thailand guides out of the library, and really want to start reading that Rupert Thomson book again!


----------



## roney (Aug 8, 2007)

finished 'the house on bear tree road' - amazing. recommned it.
also 'the pyjama game' - about judo - really good.

and irivine welsj's new on. 'if you liked school you'll love work' - ok.

and now reading 'Londonstani'..fascinating book. still not sure what a 'desi' is though.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Aug 8, 2007)

"The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy" by Adam Tooze. Heavy going but extremely interesting.


----------



## D'wards (Aug 9, 2007)

Just starting on The Picture of Dorian Gray - about time i read that.


----------



## souljacker (Aug 10, 2007)

Just finished Miss Wyoming -Douglas Coupland

I liked it, he's a very witty writer. However, I was completely uninterested in the fate of any of the characters. None of them even remotely interested me. I got the impression Coupland was more interested in writing some witty prose than actually engaging me with any of the characters.

It was, however, good enough to make we want to read his other novels.


----------



## Grego Morales (Aug 10, 2007)

The Player of Games by Iain M Banks. Not read any of his Sci-Fi stuff before, but it's dead good so far.


----------



## obanite (Aug 13, 2007)

Renegade Magic was a bit boring in the middle but had a really nice ending.

Almost finished Persian Fire by Tom Holland, all about events leading up to and during Xerxes' invasion of Greece, it's really well written and I recommend it! Didn't realise quite how many of our words are greek or persian


----------



## foamy (Aug 13, 2007)

just started Bill Bryson: The life and times of the thunderbolt kid.


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 13, 2007)

souljacker said:
			
		

> Just finished Miss Wyoming -Douglas Coupland
> 
> I liked it, he's a very witty writer. However, I was completely uninterested in the fate of any of the characters. None of them even remotely interested me. I got the impression Coupland was more interested in writing some witty prose than actually engaging me with any of the characters.
> 
> It was, however, good enough to make we want to read his other novels.




IMO, Coupland's only written two bad books, and that's one of them. All Families Are Psychotic sucks too

read Hey Nostradamus, that's awesome


----------



## Lea (Aug 13, 2007)

Just finished Dead Heart by Douglas Kennedy.


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 13, 2007)

Dub - what of C McM's books should I read now I've finished The Road?


----------



## sojourner (Aug 13, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Dub - what of C McM's books should I read now I've finished The Road?



I know you asked him and not me, but I'm gonna recommend what he did to me  

the Border Trilogy - excellent.  I'm on the last book now


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 13, 2007)

yep, those.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Aug 13, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> IMO, Coupland's only written two bad books, and that's one of them. All Families Are Psychotic sucks too
> 
> read Hey Nostradamus, that's awesome



I have read just about everything Douglas Coupland has published, and liked most of it, but I admit that those two mentioned are not Coupland's best.

I would reccomend Hey Nostradamus aswell.


----------



## foo (Aug 13, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> IMO, Coupland's only written two bad books, and that's one of them. All Families Are Psychotic sucks too
> 
> read Hey Nostradamus, that's awesome




i loved All Families Are Pshchotic! and thought Miss Wyoming was good, not brilliant, but a good read. 

i'm a bit pee'd off with Coupland - i have read every book and wish he'd bloody write more. he is (i think) my favourite living author.


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 13, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> I know you asked him and not me, but I'm gonna recommend what he did to me
> 
> the Border Trilogy - excellent.  I'm on the last book now



before The Road, all I was aware of him was that he did All The Pretty Horses and that title and the impression I got of him as a cowboy western writer prejudiced me against him, so I need to rectify things!


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 13, 2007)

the border trilogy is set later than that - mid 20th century - and is just immense.


----------



## sojourner (Aug 13, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> before The Road, all I was aware of him was that he did All The Pretty Horses and that title and the impression I got of him as a cowboy western writer prejudiced me against him, so I need to rectify things!


Hmm...I read lots of that sort of stuff when younger and it was pap.  This is the best ever cowboy story in the WORLD.  Made me resent my job more powerfully than I ever have, and started hankering after a lost world.

It's some powerful stuff OU - well worth reading


----------



## May Kasahara (Aug 13, 2007)

I guess it's just me that doesn't really get on with Cormac McCarthy then.


----------



## bodach (Aug 13, 2007)

I'm reading "A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away" by Christopher Brookmyre. A really good book


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 13, 2007)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> I guess it's just me that doesn't really get on with Cormac McCarthy then.


I didn't think I would, but I was attracted to the post-apocalyptic setting - it reminded me of Riddley Walker


----------



## sojourner (Aug 13, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I didn't think I would, but I was attracted to the post-apocalyptic setting - it reminded me of Riddley Walker


I was impressed by that cos I thought post-apocalyptic stuff was dead in the water by now, but he turned it right around


----------



## May Kasahara (Aug 13, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I didn't think I would, but I was attracted to the post-apocalyptic setting - it reminded me of Riddley Walker



Yeah, I'm certainly willing to have another go round with him as I know he's good and all that. I bought Blood Meridian after reading a review that vividly described an intriguing kind of power and passion, but I found the actual book strangely unengaging. Then had to read All The Pretty Horses for a university module - I think I made it to the end, but again, found it hard to give a shit.

Maybe The Road is the book for me to start again with


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 13, 2007)

The Road is the most compelling book I've read in years - as I said, I read it in one sitting - give it a go! It is so bleak and depressing though.


----------



## May Kasahara (Aug 13, 2007)

Yay


----------



## sojourner (Aug 13, 2007)

It's not just bleak and depressing!!  there's fuckloads of stuff in there - I found a whole heap of theological questions running through it, without giving too much away


----------



## Dirty Martini (Aug 15, 2007)

A Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell. Second in the Music of Time sequence. 'S ok so far, bit windy and fussy.


----------



## ChrisC (Aug 15, 2007)

Currently reading Revelation Space by Alistair Reynolds. Interesting so far.


----------



## Mandla (Aug 15, 2007)

The Blind Watchmaker by Dickie Dawkins. Enjoying it - but not as good or readable as The God Delusion. However certainly not as 'preachy' as God Delusion.


----------



## Barking_Mad (Aug 16, 2007)

Crime & Punishment - Fyodor Dosotevsky.

Damned fine book although I want him to get away with it but know he quite obviously won't.......


----------



## Guruchelles (Aug 16, 2007)

Lolita by Nabokov


----------



## foo (Aug 16, 2007)

i'm still reading Hound Dog - Richard Blandford 

i'm not sure why i'm still reading it  -  it's making me feel ill.


----------



## tastebud (Aug 16, 2007)

6870 + 6871 are two of my favourite books ever.

i'm still reading the poisonwood bible.. great name, great book!


----------



## bodach (Aug 16, 2007)

Decided that I liked Brookmyre, so I'm about to start "The Sacred Art of Stealing"


----------



## rollinder (Aug 16, 2007)

Rachel North - Out Of The Tunnel


----------



## Giles (Aug 16, 2007)

foamy said:
			
		

> just started Bill Bryson: The life and times of the thunderbolt kid.



Read that one on holiday last week. 

Funny and easy to read, good for lounging by the pool, or lying in bed trying to get to sleep when the dr*gs won't wear off.....


----------



## chooch (Aug 16, 2007)

_Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film_, another Peter Biskind one. Liking it so far.


----------



## chooch (Aug 16, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> A Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell. Second in the Music of Time sequence.


Can't remember which of those I read a while back. Wasn't so impressed.


----------



## foo (Aug 18, 2007)

Well i finished Hound Dog. 

my tribute to Elvis' memory reading that. 

i was nearly sick a couple of times, laughed my arse off and felt sick at the same time. and now it's over, i want to find Richard Blandford, look him in the eyes and ask 'why?'.


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 18, 2007)

not heard of it, sounds odd...


----------



## Citizen66 (Aug 18, 2007)

I've been reading this thread....


----------



## unusual_solid (Aug 19, 2007)

foo said:
			
		

> Well i finished Hound Dog.
> 
> my tribute to Elvis' memory reading that.
> 
> i was nearly sick a couple of times, laughed my arse off and felt sick at the same time. and now it's over, i want to find Richard Blandford, look him in the eyes and ask 'why?'.



 
who would win a fight out of elvis and buddy holly.

just finished 
confessions of an english opium eater by thomas de quincey.
liked the description about his dreams but not enough for my liking. shudders at his reduction of the dose of laudanum and the effects comming off the stuff had.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Aug 20, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> Can't remember which of those I read a while back. Wasn't so impressed.



Finished this. Gale-force wind, but curiously interesting.

Now: _The Willow Wand -- Some Cricket Myths Explored_ by Derek Birley.


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 20, 2007)

ages ago started Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, but it got left to one side in summer hecticness.

Back into it with a vengeance and it's absolutely brilliant. What writing!


----------



## May Kasahara (Aug 20, 2007)

Just finished My Swordhand Is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick; pretty good, but it's no Dark Horse.

Will be starting on Pat Barker's Regeneration this evening


----------



## KeeperofDragons (Aug 25, 2007)

Bout halfway through The Bible Unearthed by Israel Finkelstein & Neil Asher Silberman


----------



## Dirty Martini (Aug 26, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Now: _The Willow Wand -- Some Cricket Myths Explored_ by Derek Birley.



A very good book.

Now I don't know what to read.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Aug 26, 2007)

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy never read anything by this guy before taking a while to get used to his style of writing


----------



## winterinmoscow (Aug 27, 2007)

"what we did on our holiday"

this book is hilarious


----------



## Doctor Carrot (Aug 28, 2007)

I'm currently reading Marching Powder about a convicted drug traffiker's time in San Pedro prison Bolivia, it's by Rusty Young and it's a right good read I tell ya.  It's also reminded me of how engrossing reading can be and how it improves your imagination, I should do it more often


----------



## sparkling (Aug 28, 2007)

Just nearing the end of Half a Yellow Sun.  Brilliant.  This book has completely absorbed me I've even been dreaming of starvation.


----------



## CharlieAddict (Aug 28, 2007)

undercover economist - a random buy.


----------



## catrina (Aug 28, 2007)

Giles said:
			
		

> Read that one on holiday last week.
> 
> Funny and easy to read, good for lounging by the pool, or lying in bed trying to get to sleep when the dr*gs won't wear off.....



hmm, I couldn't get into it. I've had it for a year and am only halfway through.

I just finished _A Thousand Splendid Suns._ Was too depressing for me, and didn't seem nearly as good as _The Kite Runner_.

I'm now reading _Are men necessary?_ It's been a long time since I've read any feminist theory, I must say she seems very dated in her arguments, not really sure what the point is.

Someone please recommend me a good novel!


----------



## Dubversion (Aug 28, 2007)

just finished the excellent Yiddish Policemens's Union - it kinda jumps the shark a little but I forgive him because the writing is SO strong.

Now onto You Don't Love Me Yet, the latest Jonathan Lethem. Suspect it's going to be a lighter, frothier effort than stuff like Fortress of Solitude but still totally looking forward to ti.


----------



## 5t3IIa (Aug 28, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> just finished the excellent Yiddish Policemens's Union - it kinda jumps the shark a little but I forgive him because the writing is SO strong.
> 
> Now onto You Don't Love Me Yet, the latest Jonathan Lethem. Suspect it's going to be a lighter, frothier effort than stuff like Fortress of Solitude but still totally looking forward to ti.




I _sensed _you were going to mention Lethem, how queer 

It's the first of his that I need to read again to check if it was arse or if it was OK.


----------



## rollinder (Aug 28, 2007)

V For Vendetta


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Aug 28, 2007)

The Audacity Of Hope by Barack Obama, so far it's boring as shit. Got yet another copy of The Watchmen today (I think it's my third over the years), gonna have a good read of that soon, figure I might as well enjoy it now before they finish the film and royally fuck the work up.


----------



## Yelkcub (Aug 28, 2007)

Just finished this>







Moving and inspiring. Reminds how I'd like to be.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Aug 29, 2007)

Just finished John Updike's 'The Terrorist', which I stupidly picked up thinking it might prove to be interesting (and I hadn't previously read any of his stuff). It is a very quick text to read, and therein lies the problem. It apparently purports to examine the development and emergence of a terrorist but the story is too light and fragile, there is absolutely no depth to any of the characters - no true exploration or consideration of motive, impact, reasoning - particularly so with the 'terrorist'. If this work is typical of Updike then I will be more than happy to steer clear.[/RIGHT] 

BB


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 30, 2007)

Carter Beats The Devil by Glen David Gold. Strikes me as the sort of distraction I need - light, funny and pacy


----------



## Barking_Mad (Aug 30, 2007)

Just finished 'Notes From The Underground' by Dostoevsky, great short read. Now reading 'The Double' which is in the same book.


----------



## maya (Aug 30, 2007)

Egil's Saga... Love the sagas, they're so economic with words: "Gudleik was pierced by the sword, he fell to the ground and died, the end"


----------



## Leica (Aug 30, 2007)

Red Wind, by Raymond Chandler.


----------



## chooch (Aug 30, 2007)

Michel Houellebecq- The Possibility of an Island

It's giving me the creeps.


----------



## May Kasahara (Aug 30, 2007)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> Will be starting on Pat Barker's Regeneration this evening



I am absolutely loving this  No fuss, no flash, just brilliant writing and absorbing characters. MOAR!


----------



## Orang Utan (Aug 30, 2007)

She is certainly one of our greatest living writers. She has such humanity and sympathy for her characters. Even though she deals with the worst that humans can do to each other, at no point do you despair in our capacity for evil - she in fact helps us see better our capacity for compassion. Have you not read any Pat Barker before? You're in for a treat.


----------



## Nikkormat (Aug 31, 2007)

My India, by Jim Corbett.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Aug 31, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> Michel Houellebecq- The Possibility of an Island
> 
> It's giving me the creeps.




He's a very creepy individual.

I'm reading The Undercover Economist (your copy?), which is jaunty and jokey and a bit over my head.


----------



## May Kasahara (Aug 31, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> She is certainly one of our greatest living writers. She has such humanity and sympathy for her characters. Even though she deals with the worst that humans can do to each other, at no point do you despair in our capacity for evil - she in fact helps us see better our capacity for compassion. Have you not read any Pat Barker before? You're in for a treat.



Very well put. I've only read _Blow Your House Down_ before now, which is similarly clear and compassionate while dealing with terrible subject matter. Don't know why it's taken me so long to read more, really. I'm just a useless slacker.

Am especially pleased with Regeneration because it was my pick for book club which means that everybody will love me (at least until another of my choices is pulled out - they include _Watchmen_, _House of Leaves _and _The End of Alice _).


----------



## catinthenet (Aug 31, 2007)

Blah Blah Byron Rogers.. the man who went into the west.. thumbs up.


----------



## sojourner (Sep 1, 2007)

Just started The Naked and The Dead, Norman Mailer


----------



## chooch (Sep 1, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> He's a very creepy individual.


Yes. I've put the book into the never read again pile. Might offload it in the post to someone. 


> I'm reading The Undercover Economist (your copy?)


 bruvver's, I think, though I have one too. His microeconomics is much more convincing than his macro.

Now reading Seamus Deane _Reading in the Dark_, an Irish novel, and Tim Parks _Adultery and Other Diversions_- essays.


----------



## sojourner (Sep 1, 2007)

What's an Irish novel? ^


----------



## chooch (Sep 1, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> What's an Irish novel? ^


 The Seamus Deane one. It's a novel, by Seamus Deane, from Ireland. I was gonna say a stereotypically Irish novel, but that would've been wrong.


----------



## sojourner (Sep 1, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> The Seamus Deane one. It's a novel, by Seamus Deane, from Ireland. I was gonna say a stereotypically Irish novel, but that would've been wrong.


So, is it Irish by dint of it being written by an Irish writer?  I'm just intrigued as to your description of it...


----------



## chooch (Sep 1, 2007)

Aye. It's not in Irish (if it was, i might call it a Novel in Irish). And it's not necessarily An Irish Novel, part of a Grand Tradition of Irish Novels branching from The European Novel. It's just a novel, by someone who would consider themselves Irish. It does resemble other novels that fit onto the bookshelf in my head marked Irish Novels, in that it's set in Ireland, and features some of the elements I'd expect to find in something of its period, which probably led me to draw attention to its Irishness in a way I wouldn't for a Scottish novel or an American Novel.


----------



## sojourner (Sep 1, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> Aye. It's not in Irish (if it was, i might call it a Novel in Irish). And it's not necessarily An Irish Novel, part of a Grand Tradition of Irish Novels branching from The European Novel. It's just a novel, by someone who would consider themselves Irish. It does resemble other novels that fit onto the bookshelf in my head marked Irish Novels, in that it's set in Ireland, and features some of the elements I'd expect to find in something of its period, which probably led me to draw attention to its Irishness in a way I wouldn't for a Scottish novel or an American Novel.


So, what period is it set in?  And give us a synopsis

I'm intrigued now...I never refer to novels as Irish, or Scottish, or English...or European for that matter.  Just isn't a category I would think of using, for reference purposes


----------



## chooch (Sep 1, 2007)

It's a 'swift, masterful transformation of family griefs and political violence into something rhapsodic and heartbreaking' (thanks, Seamus Heaney)
Set between 1945 and 1970, in Derry. It's mostly about a boy trying to piece together his family history. Lots of whispered hints and unmentionable relatives. Against the background of the politics of living Irish in Northern Ireland.  
Synopsis here. 

I wouldn't often refer to Irish novels, or Scottish novels, or Jamaican novels, or Czech novels, or Russian novels, or whatever novels, but I would use it, rarely, as a shorthand for the cultural tradition of a particular kind of novel. Would you say it's helpful, or meaningful, or entertaining, to refer to, say, _the Brothers Karamazov_, as _one of those interminable Russian novels_?


----------



## Strumpet (Sep 1, 2007)

Am restless re: books right now.
After telling a work mate that I want something funny and light to read she has given me "Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging" lol If it makes me chuckle there are 7 others in the series apparently.
Tis the diaries of a young girl. Seems like it could be the female version of Adrian Mole


----------



## sojourner (Sep 1, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> It's a 'swift, masterful transformation of family griefs and political violence into something rhapsodic and heartbreaking' (thanks, Seamus Heaney)
> Set between 1945 and 1970, in Derry. It's mostly about a boy trying to piece together his family history. Lots of whispered hints and unmentionable relatives. Against the background of the politics of living Irish in Northern Ireland.
> Synopsis here.
> 
> I wouldn't often refer to Irish novels, or Scottish novels, or Jamaican novels, or Czech novels, or Russian novels, or whatever novels, but I would use it, rarely, as a shorthand for the cultural tradition of a particular kind of novel. Would you say it's helpful, or meaningful, or entertaining, to refer to, say, _the Brothers Karamazov_, as _one of those interminable Russian novels_?



Okay, now I understand why you used it as a term of reference.  Still, quite damning when the reference you use to describe such a novel is 'Irish' when it's mainly due to the politics, innit?  No offence whatsoever intended - just, interesting.

Re your last paragraph, no, I wouldn't say it's any of those 3 things to refer to the BK.


----------



## chooch (Sep 1, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Okay, now I understand why you used it as a term of reference.  Still, quite damning when the reference you use to describe such a novel is 'Irish' when it's mainly due to the politics, innit?  No offence whatsoever intended - just, interesting.


No offence taken. 

Aye. Think it comes down to whether I feel I'm reading it comfortably- whether I can ignore its otherness. Even though I'm of Irish extraction, and even though it tracks quite closely some of the experiences of my relatives in Northern Ireland, I still feel I'm on the outside looking into this book. Maybe that's me not connecting with the characters or style, or maybe it's that I'm aware it feels alien because I get foolishly antsy or sentimental around Irishness, because of my own family links there, I'm not sure. 

It is a tricky one. I think you can usefully describe something as an Irish novel, a European novel, an Afro-American novel. All would come with a dancing bear parade of caveats though.


----------



## tufty79 (Sep 1, 2007)

i've just finished 'lost in the fun house: the life & mind of andy kauffman' by bill zehme.

i cried on the tube at the ending


----------



## sojourner (Sep 1, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> No offence taken.
> 
> Aye. Think it comes down to whether I feel I'm reading it comfortably- whether I can ignore its otherness. Even though I'm of Irish extraction, and even though it tracks quite closely some of the experiences of my relatives in Northern Ireland, I still feel I'm on the outside looking into this book. Maybe that's me not connecting with the characters or style, or maybe it's that I'm aware it feels alien because I get foolishly antsy or sentimental around Irishness, because of my own family links there, I'm not sure.
> 
> It is a tricky one. I think you can usefully describe something as an Irish novel, a European novel, an Afro-American novel. All would come with a dancing bear parade of caveats though.


Hmmm.  That's interesting...your feeling of otherness and not-quite-being...

Shit - we're getting into Sartre territory - run for the hills  

I would  describe Maya Angelou's autobiography as Afro-American, but it's not a novel, so...

I'm trying to think of stuff I've read that I would describe as 'ish'.  Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon might be a good example...would I describe that as Afro-American?  Perhaps I would.  Would I describe Gogol's the Nose as Russian?  Possibly. But I think I would always describe them as novels 'written by a Russian/Afro-American writer', rather than as Russian or A-A novels


----------



## Star Dove (Sep 2, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> Michel Houellebecq- The Possibility of an Island
> 
> It's giving me the creeps.



I loved Atomised but gave up on him after being bored shitless by Whatever and Platform. 

Is that a recommendation for The possibility of an island?

I'm currently reading Stump by Niall Griffiths, which is great if you like tales of Welsh junkies and alkies. He's usually compared to Irvine Welsh but for my money easily the better writer.


----------



## chooch (Sep 2, 2007)

Star Dove said:
			
		

> Is that a recommendation for The possibility of an island?


It was like having a sporadically diverting conversation with a friend of your dad's that you've always suspected of a fondness for animal porn.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Sep 2, 2007)

A book about Anthony Zinni.


----------



## Star Dove (Sep 2, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> It was like having a sporadically diverting conversation with a friend of your dad's that you've always suspected of a fondness for animal porn.



 Not quite a whole hearted recommendation but I'm going to have to read it now.


----------



## madamv (Sep 2, 2007)

Out of the Tunnel.  Rachel North.

Written really well, amazing tale.

Its not my usual sort of book tbh, but got it cause its BK and all that....


----------



## Mandla (Sep 3, 2007)

Reading Dark River by John Twelve Hawks. Have also read the Traveler, part one of his trilogy, by same author. Part one is definitely better. Also reading How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World by Francis Wheen again. A brilliant, often hilarious book . Essentially a scathing polemic aimed at Postmodernists, Premodernists and new age mystics.


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 3, 2007)

Johnny Canuck2 said:
			
		

> A book about Anthony Zinni.


Who he?


----------



## jeff_leigh (Sep 3, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Who he?



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Zinni


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 3, 2007)

_Rates of Exchange_ by Malcolm Bradbury. I think.


----------



## mrkikiet (Sep 4, 2007)

jose saramago: seeing


----------



## themonkeyman (Sep 5, 2007)

A spot of Bother by Mark Haddon


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 6, 2007)

I think I've dropped the Bradbury and am now reading _Memphis Underground_ by Stewart Home, which was helpfully squirrelled away in the 'music' section of the local bookshop.


----------



## 5t3IIa (Sep 7, 2007)

I'm reading Stoned - Andrew Loog Oldham's autobiography. 

I also have 3/4 done Experience by Martin Amis that I seemed to've forgotten about. 3rd reading though so it can wait.


----------



## chooch (Sep 7, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I think I've dropped the Bradbury and am now reading _Memphis Underground_ by Stewart Home, which was helpfully squirrelled away in the 'music' section of the local bookshop.


Sounds good. I'm going to drift down the bookshop in a while. Such as it is. 

Want to read something that doesn't make my skin crawl. Current filler book- George Saunders _In Persuasion Nation_. Liking it more second time round. There are, as always, some perfectly voiced bits.


----------



## Thimble Queen (Sep 7, 2007)

colonialism/postcolonialism - anita loomba.... its for uni. Its interesting but hard... i have to write an essay on postcolonial epistemology and how it affects sociology, yukky yuk yuk


----------



## electric.avenue (Sep 8, 2007)

themonkeyman said:
			
		

> A spot of Bother by Mark Haddon



Not as innovative as his first novel. Bit of a "Woman's Own" type of story.


----------



## phildwyer (Sep 8, 2007)

Just finished Kitty Kelley's bio of Frank Sinatra.  What a complete and utter bastard he was.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Sep 8, 2007)

Not that Kitty tends to dwell on her subjects' good points.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Sep 8, 2007)

Hugh Thomas - The Spanish Civil War.

What a complete and utter bastard Franco was.


----------



## phildwyer (Sep 8, 2007)

Donna Ferentes said:
			
		

> Not that Kitty tends to dwell on her subjects' good points.



Or maybe she just always writes about complete and utter bastards.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Sep 8, 2007)

Has she done Franco?

Actually Mola was even worse.


----------



## phildwyer (Sep 8, 2007)

Donna Ferentes said:
			
		

> Has she done Franco?



No, but she did the Bushes and the Royals.  Complete and utter bastards the lot of them.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 9, 2007)

I've just finished _Memphis Underground_ by Stewart Home. It's the first book I've read by the East London-based _provocateur_ and apart from large bits of it being thoroughly shit, it's also funny and inventive by turns, and satisfies this poster's _enthuasisme_ for gossip and anecdote.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 9, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I've just finished _Memphis Underground_ by Stewart Home. It's the first book I've read by the East London-based _provocateur_ and apart from large bits of it being thoroughly shit, it's also funny and inventive by turns, and satisfies this poster's _enthuasisme_ for gossip and anecdote.




that's Home for ya. Totally wonderful trash 

The book about his mum - the name escapes me - is of a different calibre, apparently, but all the "skinhead runs riot through London art-wank community" books are genius


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 9, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Now onto You Don't Love Me Yet, the latest Jonathan Lethem. Suspect it's going to be a lighter, frothier effort than stuff like Fortress of Solitude but still totally looking forward to ti.



finished - thoroughly enjoyed this. Very Douglas Coupland in a way, but better written. Brilliantly written, actually. Funny and touching.

Just started The Gospel Singer by Harry Crews, his first novel. Brilliant so far...


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 9, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> that's Home for ya. Totally wonderful trash
> 
> The book about his mum - the name escapes me - is of a different calibre, apparently, but all the "skinhead runs riot through London art-wank community" books are genius



Would that be _Tainted Love_? I'd like to read that, and some others. I've spent a quite interesting weekend going through his website. Some good pointers towards other writers, too.

I do like the way he sets up whole paragraphs just to have a go at some tosser he's taken a dislike to 

I'm not sure I got the joke with the narrative bit of _Memphis Underground_. Shit writing is shit writing, no? And some of the metafictional tricks are showing their age. But it still came out feeling fresh. Or retro-fresh, or something.

Any standout recommendations, either of his stuff or similar?


----------



## cyberfairy (Sep 9, 2007)

Nearly finished and thoroughly enjoying The Testament Of Gideon Mack by James Robertson


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 9, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Would that be _Tainted Love_? I'd like to read that, and some others. I've spent a quite interesting weekend going through his website. Some good pointers towards other writers, too.
> 
> I do like the way he sets up whole paragraphs just to have a go at some tosser he's taken a dislike to
> 
> ...



i've pretty much only read the pulp stuff - Red London, Blowjob, Slow Death, stuff like that. All basically blends of his own art / political obsessions, Richard Allen-style Skinhead pulp stuff, eternal characters (Luther Blissett, Karen Eliot etc), repeating themes (even repeating paragraphs). All a bit of a giggle, really, but with semi-serious intent..

You know those holiday villas where people leave their holiday books and pick up other peoples? I once took great pleasure in leaving a copy of Home's 69 Things To Do With A Dead Princess on the shelf between Len Deighton and Jeffrey Archer.


eta: worth asking our very own Larry O'Hara about Home. They're very close


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 9, 2007)

electric.avenue said:
			
		

> Not as innovative as his first novel. Bit of a "Woman's Own" type of story.


Yeah, it is a bit shit - an novel version of an ITV drama featuring David Jason


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 9, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> You know those holiday villas where people leave their holiday books and pick up other peoples? I once took great pleasure in leaving a copy of Home's 69 Things To Do With A Dead Princess on the shelf between Len Deighton and Jeffrey Archer.



Nice work!

Ta for the recommendations


----------



## lynne8 (Sep 9, 2007)

Harry Potter..


----------



## marty21 (Sep 9, 2007)

just been away for a week and read 3 novels

girlfriend in a coma - douglas coupland
the intruders - michael marshal
thank you for smoking - christopher buckley

enjoyed them all


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 9, 2007)

_The Shadow of the Sun_ by Ryszard Kapuscinski. Of his stuff, I've only read _The Emperor_, which was brilliant.


----------



## chooch (Sep 9, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> _The Shadow of the Sun_ by Ryszard Kapuscinski.


I skimmed his last one in a bookshop last time I was in England. Looked really good. You got _The Emperor_?

Reading Brian Keenan's account of his hostage experience, _An Evil Cradling_. Finding him thoroughly unlikeable so far. That may be because Sebastian Faulks and John Simpson are quoted on the back cover. Wish I wasn't such a tedious kneekerk twat.


----------



## chooch (Sep 9, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> IStewart Home.






			
				amazon said:
			
		

> British experimental novelist and cultural critic Home (Cunt) makes his American debut with his trademark fusion of highbrow theory


Bit harsh  

Might have one or two of those. Abebooks will provide.


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 10, 2007)

Shadow Of The Sun is a fantastic book


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 10, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> I skimmed his last one in a bookshop last time I was in England. Looked really good. You got _The Emperor_?



Nah, it was a borrowed copy. It's a stunning achievement, reads like a Shakespeare tragedy.




			
				Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Shadow Of The Sun is a fantastic book



Great so far ...


----------



## ChrisC (Sep 10, 2007)

Flux by Stephen Baxter, just started it. Finished Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds great book. Looking forward to getting hold of Redemption Ark.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 10, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Just started The Gospel Singer by Harry Crews, his first novel. Brilliant so far...



this is just STUNNING. the most Southern Gothic book ever. I'm only a few dozen pages in and already there's a twisted southern baptist gospel singer, a freakshow featuring a midget with the world's biggest foot, mutant hillbillies, a rape and murder and an imminent hanging.


----------



## sojourner (Sep 10, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> this is just STUNNING. the most Southern Gothic book ever. I'm only a few dozen pages in and already there's a twisted southern baptist gospel singer, a freakshow featuring a midget with the world's biggest foot, mutant hillbillies, a rape and murder and an imminent hanging.


It'll just tail off disappointingly, probably


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 10, 2007)

Not read Crews, but have you read any Barry Hannah? His _Yonder Stands Your Orphan_ is great, and out-Southern-gothics most anything I've read.


----------



## chooch (Sep 10, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> [Ryszard Kapuscinski.


In a hitherto seemingly unlikely coup, I've just got one of his from the shoddy bookshop here. So now reading _Another Day of Life_.


----------



## yardbird (Sep 10, 2007)

I'm going to read Robert Sabbag's  Snowblind  again, to set me up for Smokescreen.
All in one paperbook.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 10, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> In a hitherto seemingly unlikely coup, I've just got one of his from the shoddy bookshop here. So now reading _Another Day of Life_.



Coup 

Is that the Angola one? I'm loving Shadow of the Sun, which is about post-independence Africa. He's like a better-behaved Hunter S Thompson. Polish gonzo.


----------



## chooch (Sep 10, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Coup
> Is that the Angola one?


Aye. 
Can't remember the last time I used _coup_.
Also got James Salter _The Hunters_. Looks pretty good. 'It is an article of faith among readers of fiction that James Salter writes American sentences better than anybody writing today'. Apparently.


----------



## Wilf (Sep 10, 2007)

The one I'm actually reading is Flan O'Brien's The Third Policeman.  I'm also, half heartedly plodding through a book on the New Age, though will finish it.  Then I've got a few more that i'm halfway through and can't quite admit i've abandoned - Erewhon by Samuel Butler, London 1945 (about London in the blitz) and a freebie I got from AK Press - Other Lands Have Dreams (peace activists in iraq n'stuff).  Wish i could finish one book before starting another


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 10, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> Also got James Salter _The Hunters_. Looks pretty good. 'It is an article of faith among readers of fiction that James Salter writes American sentences better than anybody writing today'. Apparently.



Never heard of him until the recent press coverage. It's amazing how much American stuff doesn't make it to the UK for years and years.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 10, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> It'll just tail off disappointingly, probably




apparently not.


----------



## tufty79 (Sep 10, 2007)

fierce dancing - stories from the underground by j c stone.


it's fucking amazing.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 10, 2007)

tufty79 said:
			
		

> fierce dancing - stories from the underground by j c stone.
> 
> 
> it's fucking amazing.



hmm. it read it and enjoyed it, but he's very far from well-liked. Didn't you notice he spent a lot of time around people that he's quite dismissive of? that he used, to some extent?

there are people on these boards who were good to him, i believe, who then got fairly short shrift in his book


----------



## tufty79 (Sep 10, 2007)

i'm about a third of the way through at the moment..   i shall give a considered opinion when i'm finished, and when my brain is working again (be prepared to wait some time).


----------



## May Kasahara (Sep 11, 2007)

Finally finished Regeneration last night - absolutely wonderful, it has quite restored my faith in mainstream literature.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Sep 11, 2007)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> Finally finished Regeneration last night - absolutely wonderful, it has quite restored my faith in mainstream literature.


So it's been regenerated?


----------



## Roadkill (Sep 11, 2007)

Roy Porter - Blood and Guts: A Short History of Medicine.  Fascinating and disgusting in equal measure.


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Sep 11, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> hmm. it read it and enjoyed it, but he's very far from well-liked. Didn't you notice he spent a lot of time around people that he's quite dismissive of? that he used, to some extent?
> 
> there are people on these boards who were good to him, i believe, who then got fairly short shrift in his book



I wasn't aware of this (not that i'm doubting what you say, merely that i didn't know that he'd slipped in peoples' estimation of him). I know he used to knock around with the tvc crew who are also in Whitstable and i used to see the lad who did the drawings in his books regular when he came to parties that we did (fierce dancing and the other one, um, last of the hippies iirc).

But i did wonder about whether some of the, shall we say, rather graphic and revealing descriptions of people close to him would go down terribly well when i read both of these a couple of years back. [/derail]

Amongst others, I'm currently ploughing my way through Pies and Prejudice by Stuart Maconie which is laugh out loud funny in parts, a good look at the North and all its delights.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 11, 2007)

i think there was this notion that he spends the whole book involved in a scene that he's very dismissive / sarcastic about, but very much depends on the open-ness and kindness of people in that scene both to get by and to get material.

i found myself reading about him in another tea tent at another festival thinking, "well  if it's all so bloody awful, go somewhere else then"


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 11, 2007)

He likes Surgeon!


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 11, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> He likes Surgeon!




that's no barometer of decency. So do I


----------



## cyberfairy (Sep 11, 2007)

Paulie Tandoori said:
			
		

> I wasn't aware of this (not that i'm doubting what you say, merely that i didn't know that he'd slipped in peoples' estimation of him). I know he used to knock around with the tvc crew who are also in Whitstable and i used to see the lad who did the drawings in his books regular when he came to parties that we did (fierce dancing and the other one, um, last of the hippies iirc).
> 
> But i did wonder about whether some of the, shall we say, rather graphic and revealing descriptions of people close to him would go down terribly well when i read both of these a couple of years back. [/derail]
> 
> Amongst others, I'm currently ploughing my way through Pies and Prejudice by Stuart Maconie which is laugh out loud funny in parts, a good look at the North and all its delights.


As a Southerner moved to the North, really enjoyed Pies And Prejudice especially after all the horror from friends and family in Bath when telling them I was moving. The sun does actually shine up here!
 Loved CJ Stone's books also-intrigued about the whole 'Wally' thing


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 11, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> that's no barometer of decency. So do I


I only know him from newspaper columns and have always thought of him a smug self-obsessed hippy cunt with nothing to say


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 11, 2007)

cyberfairy said:
			
		

> Loved CJ Stone's books also-intrigued about the whole 'Wally' thing



Crass had a lot of involvement with Wally, indeed his treatment by the authorities played a big part in their coming into being

read all about it here


----------



## cyberfairy (Sep 11, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Crass had a lot of involvement with Wally, indeed his treatment by the authorities played a big part in their coming into being
> 
> read all about it here


Cheers-what a fascinating and tragic story


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Sep 11, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Crass had a lot of involvement with Wally, indeed his treatment by the authorities played a big part in their coming into being
> 
> read all about it here



Crikey, that takes me back, that's more or less the text from the free book in Christ The Album (in fact following the link indicates that it is the same text).

Funnily enough, i saw Penny Rimbaud walking past my local the other evening, rucksack slung over his shoulder and grey hair blowing in the wind.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 11, 2007)

Paulie Tandoori said:
			
		

> Crikey, that takes me back, that's more or less the text from the free book in Christ The Album (in fact following the link indicates that it is the same text).



yeh, it got expanded for bits of Penny's book and the like..


----------



## bodach (Sep 11, 2007)

The Woods.  Harlan Coben


----------



## Stig (Sep 11, 2007)

Paulie Tandoori said:
			
		

> I wasn't aware of this (not that i'm doubting what you say, merely that i didn't know that he'd slipped in peoples' estimation of him). I know he used to knock around with the tvc crew who are also in Whitstable and i used to see the lad who did the drawings in his books regular when he came to parties that we did (fierce dancing and the other one, um, last of the hippies iirc).
> 
> But i did wonder about whether some of the, shall we say, rather graphic and revealing descriptions of people close to him would go down terribly well when i read both of these a couple of years back. [/derail]
> 
> Amongst others, I'm currently ploughing my way through Pies and Prejudice by Stuart Maconie which is laugh out loud funny in parts, a good look at the North and all its delights.



Yup, I remember at the Thanet way bypass protest he used to sit around the firepit with us night after night, and made some really good (they thought) friends, and when they read the newspaper articles later they were absolutely fucking furious, that's not even to mention the books.


----------



## Pieface (Sep 11, 2007)

Just finished The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.

It was technically amazing, the way he wove all the stories together but it didn't grab like some of his other work has.  It was very cold.  Reminded me of a fairytale in its structure - hero needs to rescue heroine and is helped along the way by a series of random encounters and individuals.  Lots of gifts and symbols and weirdness and dreams.

He has an incredible imagination that man.....


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 11, 2007)

I think it's his best! All of his other books are slightly disappointing to me cos they don't stand up as well as WUBC


----------



## Pieface (Sep 11, 2007)

It's got an amazingly absorbing plot, I loved that but I didn't give a fuck about anyone in it - it was all very interesting but for a story showing all the shades of humanity I didn't find a human I cared about.  Actually, everyone seemed very lonely - perhaps that was the point. 

There are a lot of loners trying to get back to real life aren't there?  And he tries to hammer the No Man is an Island idea home with all the knock on effects of the various stories.

I'm not saying I disliked it - it was very very impressive but didn't seem to have much heart to me.


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 11, 2007)

Isn't it the one with May Kasahara in it?


----------



## Pieface (Sep 11, 2007)

Yes it is.


----------



## May Kasahara (Sep 11, 2007)

*preens*

*makes wig*


----------



## Pieface (Sep 11, 2007)

*watches the duck people*

She is the best out of all of them - very funny


----------



## dash_two (Sep 11, 2007)

The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad.


----------



## G. Fieendish (Sep 11, 2007)

_The Man In The High Castle_ - Philip K Dick


----------



## foamy (Sep 11, 2007)

currently reading 'A spot of bother' by Mark Haddon.
just finished 'The bedroom secrets of the masterchefs' by Irvine Welsh
and before that: Bill Bryson's 'The life and times of the thunderbolt kid'


----------



## Boogie Boy (Sep 12, 2007)

'The Women's War' Alexander Dumas. Something light and (no doubt) entertaining.

BB


----------



## i_hate_beckham (Sep 12, 2007)

Crap Towns II


----------



## YouSir (Sep 12, 2007)

Age of Extremism - Eric Hobsbawm
&
Ghosts of Spain - Some Fella

Former's what you'd expect, latter is a bit of a disappointment really.


----------



## sojourner (Sep 12, 2007)

Bill Bryson - Made In America

Fascinating


----------



## ChrisC (Sep 13, 2007)

Flux by Stephen Baxter.

Strange and exotic world building.


----------



## mrkikiet (Sep 13, 2007)

YouSir said:
			
		

> Ghosts of Spain -
> 
> Former's what you'd expect, latter is a bit of a disappointment really.


Giles Tremlett? why is it a disappointment? I thought it was pretty good and informative on the issues involving for contemporary spain, although he has a slightly rose-tinted view of Barcelona, probably coming from living in Madrid.


----------



## starfish (Sep 13, 2007)

Calypso by Ed McBain. An 87th Precinct novel.


----------



## Barking_Mad (Sep 13, 2007)

Resurrection - Tolstoy.

Great read so far.


----------



## chooch (Sep 15, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> Also got James Salter _The Hunters_


Not entirely convinced. First novel, so maybe he turned out other things that are less drably predictable, with less etch-a-sketch characters. 
There are, I'll allow, some great sentences.


----------



## Roadkill (Sep 15, 2007)

Christian Wolmar - Fire and Steam: A New Short History of Britain's Railways

I'll read pretty much anything Wolmar writes, and he's not disappointing me with this book.  It's very easy reading, and very thoroughly researched.  

<e2a> Actually, having now finished it, the last couple of chapters are a disappointment.  Wolmar doesn't do himself or his subject justice, IMO.  I can understand why he wouldn't want to repeat much that he's said in other books about the privatisation of the railways, but his treatment of the fifty years of British Rail is far too brief.  It would have merited at least two chapters, one dealing with the troubled early history of BR, and another with how in the '70s, '80s and early '90s it finally got things right.  He criticises the privatised railway for being inefficient in comparison, but doesn't do enough to establish BR's credentials.  A good book, then, but doesn't end as well as the first half suggested it should.


----------



## Yu_Gi_Oh (Sep 15, 2007)

Words and rules by Steven Pinker.

I've started it, but I'm really limiting myself with it 'cos I know as soon as I start I wont want to stop.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 17, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> _The Shadow of the Sun_ by Ryszard Kapuscinski



Finished this. I enjoyed it a lot, perhaps wearying of it a bit in the last 50 pages, where he begins to tread water. Still, a remarkable life and a remarkable writer. Reads very well for a translation too.

Now it's _The King Is Dead_ by Jim Lewis, a Memphis-set tale of murder and political intrigue.


----------



## chooch (Sep 17, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Finished this. I enjoyed it a lot, perhaps wearying of it a bit in the last 50 pages, where he begins to tread water. Still, a remarkable life and a remarkable writer. Reads very well for a translation too.


Swap?

Just starting Simon Ings _The Weight of Numbers_; impulse buy.


----------



## catrina (Sep 19, 2007)

I just finished The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant. I'm not one for historical novels, but this was one of the best books I've ever read, I couldn't put it down. Looking forward to her next one, In the Company of the Courtesan.


----------



## maya (Sep 20, 2007)

(double post!) grr


----------



## maya (Sep 20, 2007)

E.M. Forster, 'India' something... it's not the english version (although i do prefer reading english novels in the original, they didn't have that at the bookstore)


----------



## chooch (Sep 20, 2007)

maya said:
			
		

> E.M. Forster, 'India' something...


A passage to...

Just got Joseph Roth- _What I Saw_ through my door. His journalism from Berlin. Excellent stuff. Things like 'The Steam Baths at Night' read like they were written yesterday.


----------



## maya (Sep 21, 2007)

Another good Berlin book is "Stasiland" by Anna Funder...


----------



## chooch (Sep 21, 2007)

maya said:
			
		

> Another good Berlin book is "Stasiland" by Anna Funder...


I liked that. Know the last time it was brought up here it was accused of besmirching the DDR.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 23, 2007)

couldn't sleep yesterday so i chewed and gurned my way through the whole of Julian Cope's Japrocksampler. Somehow I think it's what he would have wanted. 

it's very very good - the usual mix of really thorough research and absurd rock'n'roll nonsense. Perhaps needed better editing - a lot of the bands' careers intersect but he could probably still have repeated himself a little less in place (yes, we KNOW the Japanese production of Hair fell victim to a drugs bust  ) - but fascinating nonetheless. And, for my sins, I learned more about the recent history of Japan in the context-establishing opening chapters than I ever have elsewhere.


----------



## Strumpet (Sep 23, 2007)

Just bought Broken Angels by Richard Morgan - can't wait to get into it. 
Also got the first 2 in the DiscWorld series. Excited


----------



## marty21 (Sep 24, 2007)

just started China Mieville - Perdido Street Station


----------



## tufty79 (Sep 24, 2007)

halfway through 'house of sleep' by jonathon coe
fantastic stuff. wow 

will come back to 'fierce dancing' in a bit - going to re-read it soon, i think.. .


----------



## cyberfairy (Sep 24, 2007)

Just finisher the excellent 'What Was Lost' by Catherine O'Flynn-a dark yet really funny book about a missing child in a a shopping arcade in Birmingham with some wonderful observations in about our shopping culture and am now reading 'Death Of A Murderer' by Rupert Thompson, a fictionalised account of Myra Hindley's death and so far, very good.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 24, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> Just got Joseph Roth- _What I Saw_ through my door. His journalism from Berlin. Excellent stuff. Things like 'The Steam Baths at Night' read like they were written yesterday.



I wonder if there's more of his Berlin journalism waiting to be translated. It's a brilliant collection, New Journalism decades before anyone else.


----------



## dash_two (Sep 24, 2007)

Started historian Peter Hennessy's _Having it so good: Britain in the 1950s_. I enjoyed his _The Secret State: Whitehall and the Cold War_ and like the way he writes.


----------



## The Groke (Sep 24, 2007)

starfish said:
			
		

> Calypso by Ed McBain. An 87th Precinct novel.


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Sep 24, 2007)

Ham and Rye by Charles Bukowski, fucking great stuff, knocked off first ten chapters last night, sitting in the bath with a brewski


----------



## Barking_Mad (Sep 24, 2007)

Just finished Tolstoy's 'Resurrection'. Simply superb.

Now reading 'The Forged Coupon' by Tolstoy, which is only 90 pages long - thankfully


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 24, 2007)

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins - absolutely brilliant - clear, calm and so well argued - I was led to believe that it was an arrogant rant but not so. Thank you Richard for giving this lazy atheist ammunition against the legions of superstitious irrationalists out there.


----------



## starfish (Sep 25, 2007)

Cop Hater by Ed McBain, the first in his 87th Precinct novels.

Its about someone who hates cops, obviously, & kills 3 of them in the course of the book. Its the 4th one ive read & am finding them very enjoyable. Fast paced & full of in depth procedural detail.

(Wonders what will be done to this post)


----------



## claxton (Sep 25, 2007)

Apathy and Other Small Victories, by Paul Neilan.  The first book that's made me laugh out loud since Catch-22.


----------



## chooch (Sep 25, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I wonder if there's more of his Berlin journalism waiting to be translated. It's a brilliant collection, New Journalism decades before anyone else.


I really hope so. The collection from France is also very good.


----------



## Pieface (Sep 25, 2007)

I'm reading Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy.

I think it's the most violent book I've ever read.  He's amazing but I think I'll need some shit book about fairies after this


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 26, 2007)

I finished _The King Is Dead_ by Jim Lewis. I thought I was going to enjoy this, and I did for the first 100 pages or so, more or less. But despite some great passages of observation, it's overblown and overwritten, with a hackneyed plot, poor dialogue and a denouement that limps in, hands up. It's got that sharp intelligence that good American novels have, but seems to have been written from a mind populated exclusively by books.

It does have a chapter featuring a very thinly disguised Hank Williams, but what it's doing there I have no idea.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 27, 2007)

finished the Gospel Singer by Harry Crews - phenomenal stuff

now going to crack on into The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland cos I'm going to see him talk about it next week


----------



## the button (Sep 27, 2007)

Rudyard Kipling's _Collected verse_. There's more to it than "If" & casual racism. Honest.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Sep 27, 2007)

the button said:
			
		

> Rudyard Kipling's _Collected verse_. There's more to it than "If" & casual racism. Honest.



I haven't read much of the poetry, but he was one of the best short story writers ever imo.

I'm reading _The Beast In The Nursery_ by Adam Phillips.


----------



## Poi E (Sep 27, 2007)

"Train Ferries of Western Europe." Very detailed indeed.


----------



## quimcunx (Sep 27, 2007)

THE GOD DELUSION  

Yay!  I don't have to respect people's delusions just because a lot of peopele share it any longer.


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 27, 2007)

Papingo said:
			
		

> THE GOD DELUSION
> 
> Yay!  I don't have to respect people's delusions just because a lot of peopele share it any longer.




just bought that


----------



## bodach (Sep 27, 2007)

If you liked school, you'll love work.  Irvine Welsh. Fantastic


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 27, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> just bought that


It's great for arguing - you'll love it - he hasn't called any bishops cunts yet though


----------



## Dubversion (Sep 27, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> It's great for arguing - you'll love it - he hasn't called any bishops cunts yet though




that's cos he's a pussy


----------



## sojourner (Sep 27, 2007)

Have been going through another bout of my 3am insomnia attacks, and finding Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby the perfect cure.  30 mins of that and I'm back to sleep again, and not simultaneously singing songs in my head/thinking of 50 different things to do in work next day/wondering what to eat tomorrow/etc etc


----------



## Rollem (Sep 27, 2007)

just finished 'neat vodka' by anna blundy, now about to start 'the friday knitting club' or something


----------



## dynamicbaddog (Sep 27, 2007)

starfish said:
			
		

> Cop Hater by Ed McBain, the first in his 87th Precinct novels.
> 
> Its about someone who hates cops, obviously, & kills 3 of them in the course of the book. Its the 4th one ive read & am finding them very enjoyable. Fast paced & full of in depth procedural detail.
> 
> (Wonders what will be done to this post)



That's an absolutely brilliant book  I'm a big Mcbain fan, I've read most of the 87th Precinct books - still got a few left to go tho


----------



## jonnyd1978 (Sep 27, 2007)

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney. I'm about a 3rd of the way through. Excellent so far.


----------



## sojourner (Sep 30, 2007)

Margrave of the Marshes - excellent 

Sad though...I can hear his voice telling the stories...


----------



## madamv (Oct 1, 2007)

Just finished Julian Clary autobiog and then Past Mortem by Ben Elton.  Both amusing.

I now have these to choose from - 

Atomised - Michel Houellebecq
Pelagia and the White Bulldog - Boris Akunin
We need to talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver.....


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 1, 2007)

I finished _The Beast In The Nursery_ by Adam Phillips, which is an alternately vague and quite detailed disquisition on childhood imagination and curiosity, and how the imperatives of childhood can fruitfully be taken into adult life in order to make it happier -- or at least, how the conflict and impossibility that that process entails can be enjoyed. 'Expecting the earth, we get something'. A kind of pleasurable (post-)Freudian mess.

However, as with most stuff that leans on psychoanalysis and Freud, I can't rid myself of the occasional nagging feeling that it's very attractively packaged guff. Phillips does a decent job of addressing those concerns, writes in a way that makes you a bit more interesting to yourself, and sells a nice line in reading and literature as essential pleasures for the psyche.

Verdict: nice tits.

So, I'm reading his _Promises, Promises_, which is a series of essays on psychoanalysis and literaure.


----------



## ChrisC (Oct 2, 2007)

An easy read Aliens: The Female War by Steve Perry and Stephani Perry


----------



## crustychick (Oct 2, 2007)

Finally started reading for pleasure again (after 2 years of only Msc related reading)

1st book of choice: The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. It's FAB


----------



## Vintage Paw (Oct 2, 2007)

Just finished Donald Antrim's _The Verificationist_ - surreal. Read 12 years ago his _Elect Mr Robinson for a Better World_ - I can see it's good sides, but I really don't want to ever read it again - it's the one book that stayed with me, for all the wrong reasons. I don't get off on reading about kids tearing each other apart - literally.

About to read _The Legend of Sleepy Hollow_ followed by Julia Glass's _Three Junes_.

Can you tell term has started again


----------



## Flashman (Oct 2, 2007)

LotR  

Thinking of doing Watchmen again though, all this talk of Moore.


----------



## Roadkill (Oct 2, 2007)

Wayne Besen - _Anything but Straight: Exposing the Scandals and Lies of the Ex-Gay Movement_

I found it for a couple of quid in a secondhand bookshop up the Charing Cross Road at the weekend and, to my surprise, it's fascinating.  I never knew just how many of the ex-gay movement's spokespeople were complete and utter frauds, or just how many of them are spotted in saunas and gay bars on a regular basis.  The whole 'ex-gay' thing was always obvious bollocks, but it's come as a surprise to me just how cynical the whole thing is.


----------



## starfish (Oct 2, 2007)

dynamicbaddog said:
			
		

> That's an absolutely brilliant book  I'm a big Mcbain fan, I've read most of the 87th Precinct books - still got a few left to go tho



Yeah, i think ive only got another 50 or so to go.

Now reading Stuart - A Life Backwards. Just started it yesterday.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Oct 2, 2007)

Currently reading "The Working Class in Britain: 1850-1939" by John Benson, "A Place Among the Fallen" by Adrian Cole and "The Subterranean Railway" by Christian Wolmar.


----------



## Roadkill (Oct 2, 2007)

ViolentPanda said:
			
		

> "The Subterranean Railway" by Christian Wolmar.



Good book, that.    But then, I'll read pretty much anything Wolmar writes.  He's usually pretty good.


----------



## Pieface (Oct 2, 2007)

Everything is Illuminated

Tell me it gets less irritating.  It's doing my head in at the minute.


----------



## Barking_Mad (Oct 3, 2007)

'The Diamond As Big As The Ritz' - F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Only 53 pages long, didn't want anything too large as im waiting to receive Tolstoy's - 'The Kingdom Of God Is Within You' and it's probably mahoosive.


----------



## Mandla (Oct 3, 2007)

God is not great: The case against religion By Chris Hitchens Interesting. Nothing new and he has an annoying rambling kind of writing style.
Also reading one market under God by Thomas Frank. Enjoying it.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 3, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> Everything is Illuminated
> 
> Tell me it gets less irritating.  It's doing my head in at the minute.




you're weird


----------



## madamv (Oct 4, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> Everything is Illuminated
> 
> Tell me it gets less irritating.  It's doing my head in at the minute.


Its one of my fave ever books...... keep with it, it turns around and is utter enthralling


----------



## tufty79 (Oct 4, 2007)

aye, pie eye, it's in my top 3 

stay with it 

i'm about to finish 'a million little pieces' by james frey.  bloody 'ell it's a bit good.


----------



## Brainaddict (Oct 4, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> Everything is Illuminated
> 
> Tell me it gets less irritating. It's doing my head in at the minute.


It doesn't


----------



## Barking_Mad (Oct 8, 2007)

The House of The Dead - Dostoevsky. Interesting 'fictional' tale of his 4 years in various Siberian prisons for 'political activities' as written from the viewpoint of someone else. Not as good as his other stuff, but better than most other peoples.


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 8, 2007)

Eleanor Rigby - Douglas Coupland - fantastic, very touching, though I wish I hadn't read it cos it made me think about stuff I'd rather not think about. Also, puzzled by the title.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 8, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Eleanor Rigby - Douglas Coupland - fantastic, very touching, though I wish I hadn't read it cos it made me think about stuff I'd rather not think about.



told ya 




			
				Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Also, puzzled by the title.



"all the lonely people"?


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 8, 2007)

tufty79 said:
			
		

> i'm about to finish 'a million little pieces' by james frey.  bloody 'ell it's a bit good.



all lies, of course.


----------



## marty21 (Oct 8, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Eleanor Rigby - Douglas Coupland - fantastic, very touching, though I wish I hadn't read it cos it made me think about stuff I'd rather not think about. Also, puzzled by the title.


 i have loved all the coupland novels i've read, that one will be next

currently reading - "monte cassino" Matthew parker - WW2 history


----------



## DotCommunist (Oct 8, 2007)

I'm reading a science fiction book. But, as the literary powers that be insist on maintaning a sneery and elitist attitude towards scifi, I shall keep my book taste to myself


It's called Alien Sex Fiend


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 8, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> told ya
> 
> 
> 
> "all the lonely people"?


oh is that a lyric in the song?


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 8, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> oh is that a lyric in the song?




yeh..

(*blushes at knowing Beatles lyric*)


----------



## marty21 (Oct 8, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> yeh..
> 
> (*blushes at knowing Beatles lyric*)


  one of your fave fab 4 songs?


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 8, 2007)

I was congratulating myself on recognising the title as a Beatles song, despite being allergic to them


----------



## mentalchik (Oct 8, 2007)

DotCommunist said:
			
		

> *I'm reading a science fiction book. But, as the literary powers that be insist on maintaning a sneery and elitist attitude towards scifi, I shall keep my book taste to myself*
> 
> 
> It's called Alien Sex Fiend




Who does ? the total bastards.....don't worry DC, i'm sure the sci-fi massive will back you up !


I'm reading Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman..........then i have Hilldiggers by Neal Asher and a Dean Koontz to start !


----------



## ChrisC (Oct 9, 2007)

Reading The agony of ecstasy by Olivia Gordon. So so, so far.


----------



## chooch (Oct 9, 2007)

_Hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world_, but it's boring the bollocks off me.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 9, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> _Hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world_, but it's boring the bollocks off me.



I got halfway through that and gave up. Utter drudgery.


----------



## chooch (Oct 9, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I got halfway through that and gave up. Utter drudgery.


Might have to burn it, for kicks  

Did some drunken ordering last night but the bookshop calls, I think.


----------



## Choc (Oct 10, 2007)

bernhard schlinck  -THE READER

what a great and important book...i would recommend it to anyone!


----------



## Orang Utan (Oct 10, 2007)

Choc said:
			
		

> bernhard schlinck  -THE READER
> 
> what a great and important book...i would recommend it to anyone!



Yes, it's a fantastic book


----------



## Eva Luna (Oct 10, 2007)

I finished 'Adventures in the Underground' last night, by CJ Stone.

Really enjoyed it.  But need to read it again, and the Criminal Justice Act, to properly understand it.


----------



## Larry O'Hara (Oct 10, 2007)

Barking_Mad said:
			
		

> The House of The Dead - Dostoevsky. Interesting 'fictional' tale of his 4 years in various Siberian prisons for 'political activities' as written from the viewpoint of someone else. Not as good as his other stuff, but better than most other peoples.



and, crucial in understanding his ambivalent love/hate relationship with authority throughout his life.  The daily visits to the hangman he endured broke his spirit, allowing it to be remade in fascinating (from a literary point of view) way.  Must rush, the Grand Inquisitor wants me to answer some questions


----------



## Strumpet (Oct 10, 2007)

About to start the first of the DiscWorld series


----------



## foo (Oct 11, 2007)

an old childhood favourite i found again 

A Girl of the Limberlost - Gene Stratton-Porter. 

i always assumed 'Gene' was a man but it must've been written at the time when women had to adopt male names to get published. cos she was a woman, and her real name was Geneva.


----------



## Eva Luna (Oct 11, 2007)

Larry O'Hara said:
			
		

> and, crucial in understanding his ambivalent love/hate relationship with authority throughout his life.  The daily visits to the hangman he endured broke his spirit, allowing it to be remade in fascinating (from a literary point of view) way.  Must rush, the Grand Inquisitor wants me to answer some questions




Goodness that all sounds very interesting.........never read any Dostoevsky..........must do better!  There's always so much to read isn't there!


----------



## QueenOfGoths (Oct 11, 2007)

Just finished "The Book of Lost Things" by John Connolly - fantastic. Really like his writing


----------



## May Kasahara (Oct 11, 2007)

Well, after having a bit of a fail episode a while back, I have started Rupert Thomson's 'Death of a Murderer' again and am really loving it. Seems like writing a more straightforward narrative has really allowed his prose to shine


----------



## Barking_Mad (Oct 11, 2007)

Larry O'Hara said:
			
		

> and, crucial in understanding his ambivalent love/hate relationship with authority throughout his life.  The daily visits to the hangman he endured broke his spirit, allowing it to be remade in fascinating (from a literary point of view) way.  Must rush, the Grand Inquisitor wants me to answer some questions



Ah, The Grand Inquisitor - I have The Bros. Kar. on my shelf, not got round to reading it yet but looking forward to all 900+ pages of it!


----------



## Barking_Mad (Oct 11, 2007)

Honey said:
			
		

> Goodness that all sounds very interesting.........never read any Dostoevsky..........must do better!  There's always so much to read isn't there!



Dosotevsky truly is brilliant. I heard people say that and either wasnt interested or went "yeah yeah yeah, whatever", but having read Crime & Punishment and a couple of others i came to see why. Amazing psychological insight and amazingly descriptive. I read C&P some 3 months ago and still cant get the scenes he described out of my head.

Tolstoy too is amazing but in a different way. Such wonderfully simplistic language yet he paints the most amazing scenes in your mind.

Resurrection is a great read.

*hearts Tolstoy*


----------



## Eva Luna (Oct 11, 2007)

Yeah I agree re Tolstoy - the opening scene in Anna Karenina is just fantastic.

I also learnt a lot about economics funny enough, from reading that - is that wierd of me, or would he be a good person to pay attention to as regards the economic development of Russia?  A subject I am none too familar with, oddly enough........!!


----------



## Barking_Mad (Oct 11, 2007)

Tolstoy, yeah I would guess he would be. And love, life, peasantry, landowners, religion, love, death, hate, The State, God.

Didn't leave much out. One of my favourite Tolstoy passages is in 'Resurrection' when the main character goes with an Englishman into one of the prisons and meets an old man whom he met earlier in the novel.

http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/t/tolstoy/leo/t65r/chapter128.html


----------



## Eva Luna (Oct 11, 2007)

Blimey.

Gotta say though - I always skip over the names and never enunciate them in my mind when reading them!!


----------



## Barking_Mad (Oct 11, 2007)

Honey said:
			
		

> Blimey.
> 
> Gotta say though - I always skip over the names and never enunciate them in my mind when reading them!!



Yeah, Russian names can be a *skip quickly over* when you arent used to them. I regularly have to re-read them about 20 times. 

I just love that part of the passage,



> “Ask him how he thinks one should treat those who do not keep to the laws,” said the Englishman.
> 
> Nekhludoff translated the question. The old man laughed in a strange manner, showing his teeth.
> 
> “The laws?” he repeated with contempt. “He first robbed everybody, took all the earth, all the rights away from men, killed all those who were against him, and then wrote laws, forbidding robbery and murder. He should have written these laws before.”



In the context of the rest of the book, that part comes along and is just  Im still waiting for my copy of 'The Kingdom of God Is Within You' by Tolstoy, but it seems to have been lost in the postal strike.


----------



## Roadkill (Oct 12, 2007)

I've just finished _The Truth About Markets_ by John Kay.  It's an interesting book and nicely written, but I don't feel as if I discovered 'the truth' about the market economy from it; more a few little truths that I half knew about anyway and he pulled together a little bit.  And he'd missed out a few very big truths.  Good book, but nothing world-shaking IMO.


----------



## mentalchik (Oct 12, 2007)

QueenOfGoths said:
			
		

> Just finished "The Book of Lost Things" by John Connolly - fantastic. Really like his writing




Tis good ain't it !


got a few of his books !


----------



## SpookyFrank (Oct 12, 2007)

Barking_Mad said:
			
		

> Ah, The Grand Inquisitor - I have The Bros. Kar. on my shelf, not got round to reading it yet but looking forward to all 900+ pages of it!



Implausibly enough I've read it twice. 'Demons' is also a fantastic read, a real slowburner which unfolds beautifully right near the end.

I'm still reading Arthur Miller's 'Big Sur'. I'd never heard of Miller before I found this book, but he's very very good. The opening section of the book had me on a high for days


----------



## sojourner (Oct 15, 2007)

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 

Liking it


----------



## Eva Luna (Oct 15, 2007)

Oooh I've read that Sojourner........ended up feeling quite propective over the little crocus.   

I am now reading 'Your Body Never Lies' by Alice Miller, which is about how lots of people who were abused as kids store the memories in their bodies and they then manifest as illnesses.  To avoid breaking confidentiality, she has used examples of famous authors to case study.

But the central message is - you don't have to love them.  Their idea of love is fucked up, and it is normal if you have a lot of anger and resentment towards them.  You are an adult now and can take care of yourself and if you never want to see them again, you don't have to.  This is in direct contradiction to the 4th commandment - Honour thy father and thy mother, which has been passed down as a staple of our morality.

It feels great to read it.


----------



## Boogie Boy (Oct 15, 2007)

I'm dipping in and out of 'Labyrinths' by Borges, which is proving to be fascinating, endearing, frustrating and thought provoking in equal measure.

BB


----------



## bodach (Oct 16, 2007)

Vixen by Ken Bruen.  His books go at one hell of a pace, great.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 16, 2007)

finished The Gum Thief. A middling Coupland IMO.

now reading The Amazing Adventures Kavalier & Klay by Michael Chabon, which is off to a cracking start


----------



## art of fact (Oct 16, 2007)

just started naked lunch...


----------



## Pieface (Oct 16, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
> 
> Liking it



Oh I love love love that book!  Hope you enjoy it....he's definitely one of my favourite writers - the Virgin Suicides is fantastic too.   Doesn't seem to have done anything for a while though


----------



## jonnyd1978 (Oct 16, 2007)

Finally reading "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie.   Had to wait ages for the library to get it in then they got 2 in at once!  
Great so far!


----------



## marmaladeskies (Oct 17, 2007)

Reading Cat's Cradle for school; I looove Kurt Vonnegut; he's a genius.....also reading Psychoanalysis and Shakespeare, which is proving to be really interesting, because the introduction to the book is about Freud's view on art, and more specifically, literature, and I find his theories very interesting.


----------



## DotCommunist (Oct 18, 2007)

I'm halfway through @the White Plague' by Frank Herbert

Initialy it threw me, being set in the eighties rather than in the future, but it soon falls back into that comfortable mixture of factional warfare and science he does so well.

Not sure about his going on about the Irish. All that 'tortured gaelic soul' stuff is a mite tedious and some of the bit's are borderline offensive. Still, not ad so far


----------



## Choc (Oct 18, 2007)

i recently read the blind assasin by magaret atwood which i really enjoyed

i also just finished a niderlansk (...dutch) book called leo kaplan which i enjoyed

i started to read love, again by doris lessing. it s my first lessing ever and its up to a good start.

mah!


----------



## tufty79 (Oct 18, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> Oh I love love love that book!  Hope you enjoy it....he's definitely one of my favourite writers - the Virgin Suicides is fantastic too.   Doesn't seem to have done anything for a while though


absolute genius 

i'm finishing off what a carve up! by jonathon coe


----------



## Pieface (Oct 18, 2007)

jonnyd1978 said:
			
		

> Finally reading "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie.   Had to wait ages for the library to get it in then they got 2 in at once!
> Great so far!



Such a fantastic book.....weird premise too 

I'm _still _being irritated by Everything is Illuminated - I should have finished it ages ago  

Thing is, when I start reading it, I love certain parts but I can't bring myself to pick it up very often.  Hmmmm.....


----------



## baldrick (Oct 18, 2007)

jpod.

not enjoying it at all.  which is a shame.  lots of people seem to like it, but i'm just not getting it.  maybe it's shit?  i'm reluctant to think that coupland's written a crap book, but it's possible.

anyway.  waste of 7.99.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Oct 18, 2007)

I are mostly reading far too much at the moment.

Need to finish _Middlesex_ - I've read it before and love it, this second time around is for my course.

Just finished _The Scarlet Letter_, again second time around for my course.

Next on to _Veronica_ by Mary Gaitskill, and 'Billy Budd' by Melville. 

Also need to find time to read _Oracle Night_ and _The Brooklyn Follies_ as background for my dissertation. 

Recently read _Travels in the Scriptorium_ - hard core fans of Auster and his pomo wankery will love it.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Oct 18, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> Such a fantastic book.....weird premise too
> 
> I'm _still _being irritated by Everything is Illuminated - I should have finished it ages ago
> 
> Thing is, when I start reading it, I love certain parts but I can't bring myself to pick it up very often.  Hmmmm.....



I loved _Midnight's Children_ too - totally not what I was expecting, no idea it was a magic realist book before I read it. Had the same wtf moment as when I watched Devil's Advocate before realising it was anything other than a normal lawyer film lol!

Foer's other book, incredibly extremely everything whatsit is on my reading list, so I bought the first one too - haven't had time to read it yet though.


----------



## El Sueno (Oct 18, 2007)

I'm reading _Dogwalker _by Arthur Bradford. It just gets funnier and funnier, a real gem of little short stories.

Just finished _The Cosmic Serpent_ by Jeremy Narby which was pretty interesting too. Shamans seeing DNA after ingesting hallucinogenics etc.


----------



## Pieface (Oct 18, 2007)

Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> Had the same wtf moment as when I watched Devil's Advocate before realising it was anything other than a normal lawyer film lol!



 I think I might have had that as well  

"oh blah, Al Pacino, ranty ranty, blah.........OH! What the fuckingfuck?!"


----------



## Yetman (Oct 18, 2007)

El Sueno said:
			
		

> Just finished _The Cosmic Serpent_ by Jeremy Narby which was pretty interesting too. Shamans seeing DNA after ingesting hallucinogenics etc.


Hmmm...sounds like my kind of thing, might check that out


----------



## Structaural (Oct 18, 2007)

Fiction: No Country for Old Men, much brevity and to the point, but not very nice story, be interesting what the Cohen brothers do with it.


Just finished Noam Chomsky's 'American Hegemony...etc' - I really enjoyed it (if enjoyed is the right word). Can anyone recommend further reading? 

I'm particularly interested in the (unglossed) history of Palestine...


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Oct 18, 2007)

Structaural said:
			
		

> Can anyone recommend further reading?


Yes, I recommend you continue reading.


----------



## Structaural (Oct 18, 2007)

Donna Ferentes said:
			
		

> Yes, I recommend you continue reading.



 

But what?


----------



## no-no (Oct 18, 2007)

Second attempt at The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester. I got bored of it last time for some reason, can't figure why, it's great this time round.


----------



## El Sueno (Oct 18, 2007)

Yetman said:
			
		

> Hmmm...sounds like my kind of thing, might check that out



I loved it and it's one of my tripping buddys' favourite book too, I think it'd be definately up your street.


----------



## May Kasahara (Oct 18, 2007)

Hey El Sueno, I thought of you the other day - I was watching some bizarre trippy kids' tv with the sound off, and they showed a massive clips compilation of Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow  It was so great.


----------



## El Sueno (Oct 18, 2007)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> Hey El Sueno, I thought of you the other day - I was watching some bizarre trippy kids' tv with the sound off, and they showed a massive clips compilation of Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow  It was so great.



Oh mannnnn!!! I wish I'd had my digibox tuned to that one to record for posterity...  

For now I have to content myself with clips like .


----------



## Rainingstairs (Oct 18, 2007)

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

EXCELLENT!  but sometimes I look outside myself and am like "geez...I've been reading about the proliferation of wild seeds via defecating animals and fertile latrines for like an hour now...."


----------



## mrs quoad (Oct 18, 2007)

Are about to start 'Theatre of Horror: Crime and Punishment in Early Modern Germany' as bedtime reading 

It is - apparently - v readable. AND with a booklet of mini-post-its by t'bed doubles up as course work. Woo. 

Geek @ self


----------



## chooch (Oct 18, 2007)

_The Gay Talese Reader_ and Flann O Brien- _The Poor Mouth_.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Oct 19, 2007)

Bandersnatch - Ed McBain one of his 87th Precinct novels, The series got some good reviews on here so thought I'd try it out


----------



## Pieface (Oct 19, 2007)

Finished Everything Is (_FINALLY _) Illuminated.

Not that impressed - the structure was interesting but too confusing I think.  Some parts were very impressive but there was too much going on - I didn't get what the whole story was....
Although the theme of memory and its incomplete nature explains that.

I still didn't like it very much and the whole eastern european take on english was just irritating.

Meh.

Got Ursula Le Guin's The Disposessed now.


----------



## Cribynkle (Oct 19, 2007)

Isabella: She-Wolf of France, Queen of England. Only just started it but very interesting so far....love books about the Planagenets - quite a dramatic bunch!


----------



## tufty79 (Oct 19, 2007)

Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> Foer's other book, incredibly extremely everything whatsit is on my reading list, so I bought the first one too - haven't had time to read it yet though.


beautiful, beautiful stuff.  
get it read


----------



## Dillinger4 (Oct 19, 2007)

I am reading 'The conference of the Birds' by Farid ud-din Attar.

I have read 'Spiritual Verses' by Rumi as well recently.

I am getting quite into my 12th Century Persian Mystic Poetry.


----------



## Strumpet (Oct 19, 2007)

Am LOVING Altered Carbon....again


----------



## maya (Oct 21, 2007)

Another attempt at the "famous russian novels" pile which threatens to consume me not only by their ingenious verbosity and brick-like authority, but also by my mounting guilt of leaving them unloved and unfinished at crucial moments...


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 22, 2007)

Finished most of _Promises, Promises_ by Adam Phillips, a collection of essays on psychoanalysis and literature. I like him more and more. Some of his lit crit is stunning.

Then it was _Hey, Have You Got a Cig, the Time, the News, My Face?_ by Barry Hannah, from _The Granta Book of the American Long Story_. Very funny, snappy, honed American prose, but the story doesn't really go anywhere.

Now it's _A State of Denmark_ by Derek Raymond.



> With their whiskers, their chat about shares and their false grief, they were a high, braying concerto to the abuse of democracy.



is the quintessential Raymond sentence


----------



## chooch (Oct 22, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Finished most of _Promises, Promises_ by Adam Phillips, a collection of essays on psychoanalysis and literature. I like him more and more. Some of his lit crit is stunning.


Looks interesting.




			
				Derek Raymond said:
			
		

> With their whiskers, their chat about shares and their false grief, they were a high, braying concerto to the abuse of democracy.


----------



## sojourner (Oct 22, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Then it was _Hey, Have You Got a Cig, the Time, the News, My Face?_ by Barry Hannah, from _The Granta Book of the American Long Story_. Very funny, snappy, honed American prose, but the story doesn't really go anywhere.


That sounds interesting  

I'm about 30 pages away from the end of Middlesex...read from 8am to 10pm yesterday, with a 3 hour break for housework and corrie - what a fucking fantastic book.  Sooo much in there it would take me a week to analyse it all


----------



## Roadkill (Oct 22, 2007)

David Cordingly - Cochrane The Dauntless: The Life and Adventures of Thomas Cochrane
Interesting bloke, Cochrane, and this is a really good biog.


----------



## May Kasahara (Oct 23, 2007)

Finished Death Of A Murderer a few days ago, really enjoyed it. Am now reading Brighton Rock - why the fuck haven't I read any Graham Greene before? The writing is astonishing.


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 23, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> now reading The Amazing Adventures Kavalier & Klay by Michael Chabon, which is off to a cracking start



.. and continues to be cracking


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 23, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> That sounds interesting



It was good in the end. I'd like to read more of Hannah's stuff. I've read one of his novels, which was great, but he doesn't seem to be much in print in the UK.

The long story collection is worth getting hold of, for Stanley Elkin's very bizarre _The Making of Ashenden_ alone ...


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Oct 23, 2007)

The Spanish Civil War, by Anthony Beevor.


----------



## starfish (Oct 23, 2007)

Knots & Crosses by Ian Rankin, while i wait for Waterstones to order me The Con Man by McBain.


----------



## marty21 (Oct 23, 2007)

all families are psychotic - douglas coupland


----------



## quimcunx (Oct 23, 2007)

Terrorist, John Updike


----------



## Dillinger4 (Oct 23, 2007)

marty21 said:
			
		

> all families are psychotic - douglas coupland



What do you think of it?

And did you read 'Life after God' first?


----------



## quimcunx (Oct 23, 2007)

jonnyd1978 said:
			
		

> Finally reading "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie.   Had to wait ages for the library to get it in then they got 2 in at once!
> Great so far!




Couldn't finish it I don't think. found it dull.  Enjoyed The Grimus though.


----------



## quimcunx (Oct 23, 2007)

baldrick said:
			
		

> jpod.
> 
> not enjoying it at all.  which is a shame.  lots of people seem to like it, but i'm just not getting it.  maybe it's shit?  i'm reluctant to think that coupland's written a crap book, but it's possible.
> 
> anyway.  waste of 7.99.



this was my first coupland.  I enjoyed some parts more than others.  Enough to try something else by him, anyway.


----------



## quimcunx (Oct 23, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins - absolutely brilliant - clear, calm and so well argued - I was led to believe that it was an arrogant rant but not so. Thank you Richard for giving this lazy atheist ammunition against the legions of superstitious irrationalists out there.



There was a bit near the front where he took a stance on what famous scientists believed that read a little defensively, but then he is defending against what others have written.  Overall I really enjoyed it.  And I feel more confident with challenging 'respect' for peoples' delusions..  e2a: said that already.  

also I knew morals didn't come from god, the bible, or religion.  thank you, Richard, for sorting my thoughts out on that.


----------



## marty21 (Oct 24, 2007)

Dillinger4 said:
			
		

> What do you think of it?
> 
> And did you read 'Life after God' first?



i forgot the order 

only about 30 pages in so far, enjoying it


----------



## Balbi (Oct 24, 2007)

The Princess Bride


----------



## rollinder (Oct 24, 2007)

Paul Cornell - British Summertime
finally bought a copy 
 - makes a lot more sense than the first time I read it, so many ideas 
fuck     

angels = demons = money or the whole concept/ideolegy that money/power symbolises/stands for embodied as the demonic opersite of the word made flesh  

and a gently socialist / relgious alternative future where people are killed by terrorists for refusing to accept money.


----------



## Zorra (Oct 24, 2007)

Dillinger4 said:
			
		

> I am reading 'The conference of the Birds' by Farid ud-din Attar.



I *heart* this book, great stuff  




			
				Dillinger4 said:
			
		

> I am getting quite into my 12th Century Persian Mystic Poetry.



Me too, perhaps excessivly - I learnt Farsi and wrote my thesis on Ibn al Arabi    I've got loads of stuff if you wanna borrow it


----------



## Dubversion (Oct 24, 2007)

Balbi said:
			
		

> The Princess Bride



SO much better than the shonky movie


----------



## N_igma (Oct 24, 2007)

Hemmingway-A Farewell to Arms. 

It's a bit shit but I've started so I'll have to finish lol.


----------



## baldrick (Oct 24, 2007)

Papingo said:
			
		

> this was my first coupland.  I enjoyed some parts more than others.  Enough to try something else by him, anyway.



eleanor rigby made me cry  and girlfriend in a coma is also pretty good.  not read any others, will have to check out life after god etc.


----------



## quimcunx (Oct 25, 2007)

baldrick said:
			
		

> eleanor rigby made me cry  and girlfriend in a coma is also pretty good.  not read any others, will have to check out life after god etc.



thanks for the tips.


----------



## Fledgling (Oct 25, 2007)

maya said:
			
		

> Another attempt at the "famous russian novels" pile which threatens to consume me not only by their ingenious verbosity and brick-like authority, but also by my mounting guilt of leaving them unloved and unfinished at crucial moments...



Well I've started Borhers Karamazov finally, bought it in March. Was tempted to put it off because I am perturbed by large books but buying something and not reading it is bad and more importantly this might turn out to be one of the greatest books I've read.


----------



## Barking_Mad (Oct 25, 2007)

Just finished Dostoevsky's - 'House of The Dead'. Very interesting read of prison life in Siberia!

Next up, Dostoevsky's - 'The Brothers Karamazov'.

996 pages to go!


----------



## Barking_Mad (Oct 25, 2007)

Fledgling said:
			
		

> Well I've started Borhers Karamazov finally, bought it in March. Was tempted to put it off because I am perturbed by large books but buying something and not reading it is bad and more importantly this might turn out to be one of the greatest books I've read.



oh well im on page 1, ill let you know what i think.


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Oct 25, 2007)

N_igma said:
			
		

> Hemmingway-A Farewell to Arms.
> 
> It's a bit shit but I've started so I'll have to finish lol.


Nonsense, life's too short to continue ploughing thru any particular book that you don't enjoy. My shelves are full of book-marked editions that i swear i'll get back too, let alone the ones that i start reading and then palm off unfinished to charidee shops.

I've just found and started My Granny Made Me An Anarchist by Stuart Christie (since being given it last May for my birthday, it had managed to lodge itself under the bed somehow and i didn't know where it was) - it's had me laughing out loud already which is always a good sign.


----------



## Superdupastupor (Oct 25, 2007)

Player Piano - Kurt Vonnegut

Enjoying it far more than expected. It turns out that I can pretty much read it as an analogy of my life at the moment. The problems the protaganist is facing are largly the same as my own.
I am going to finnish the book before I make any firm desicions IRL
hope he doesn't do anything rash mind


----------



## Maurice Picarda (Oct 25, 2007)

Re-reading lots this week. Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go, Rupert Thompson - The Book of Revelation and everything by Geoff Nicholson. 

Not a lot of work on at the moment. Anyone else confused that Geoff Nicholson is so low on the general radar?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 26, 2007)

Finished _A State of Denmark_

A grim ride, I liked it, but not as much as the other stuff of Raymond's that I've read.

I'm waiting for some books to turn up, so it'll be one of those next.


----------



## chooch (Oct 26, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Finished _A State of Denmark_
> A grim ride, I liked it, but not as much as the other stuff of Raymond's that I've read.


How many others you read? I've only done _The Crust on its Uppers_, which (as you know) I liked a lot. Was this one as chirpily dark?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 26, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> How many others you read? I've only done _The Crust on its Uppers_, which (as you know) I liked a lot. Was this one as chirpily dark?



I've read _Crust_, _I Was Dora Suarez_ and _The Devil's Home On Leave_, and'm waiting to borrow _He Died With His Eyes Open_.

This one's dark and bitter and not too chirpy, though there are moments of comedy. I appreciate his style, which is very far from elegant, more than I like it. He wrenches the words out -- there are lots of elbows and knees. It's a big contrast to _Crust_ I think, which is smooth and artful.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 28, 2007)

_Miami Blues_ by Charles Willeford


----------



## jeff_leigh (Oct 28, 2007)

Adrian Mole & The WMD - Sue Townsend


----------



## Yu_Gi_Oh (Oct 28, 2007)

Koba the dread, by Martin Amis.

I don't like communists anymore.


----------



## hotelinsane (Oct 28, 2007)

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.
For the millionth time.


----------



## sojourner (Oct 28, 2007)

if nobody speaks of remarkable things, by Jon McGregor

Gripping, so far.  Simply but well written - intricate, but uncomplicated, and poetic in parts 

Liking it, lots


----------



## Nikkormat (Oct 29, 2007)

_Arabia Felix_, by Thorkild Hansen, an account of a Danish expedition to Yemen in the 1760s.


----------



## Blagsta (Oct 29, 2007)

Emmett Grogan - Ringolevio


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Oct 30, 2007)

hotelinsane said:
			
		

> American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.
> For the millionth time.


there are lots of others you know

they lend them for free in what remains of the libraries

move on up  put the ice axe down as wel.....


----------



## Dirty Martini (Oct 30, 2007)

Finished _Miami Blues_ by Charles Willeford.

Great stuff. An object lesson in how to structure a crime novel. Facts can be beautiful when it's all hardboiled.

What a fascinating life Willeford led.

Now I'm going to read _He Died With His Eyes Open_ by Derek Raymond, or maybe _Shah of Shahs_ by Ryszard Kapuscinski.


----------



## bodach (Oct 30, 2007)

Grief by John B Spencer


----------



## bodach (Oct 30, 2007)

Just finished Analyst by John Katzanbach, excellent novel.


----------



## tufty79 (Oct 30, 2007)

Cash: the autobiography of johnny cash.


----------



## sojourner (Oct 31, 2007)

tufty79 said:
			
		

> Cash: the autobiography of johnny cash.


Want


----------



## Roadkill (Oct 31, 2007)

_Victorian London: The Life of a City, 1840-1870_ - Liza Picard.

It's really, really good.    Although it's about London, much of what it has to say applies to other cities of the time as well.  It's very informative, nicely researched and very well-written.  I'd recommend it.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 1, 2007)

Finished _He Died With His Eyes Open_. All in all, it was disappointing. The detective in the Factory novels is a fascinating character, but there's something very flat and old-fashioned about Raymond's characterisation of British life, which might be a consequence of the fact that he lived abroad for so long, and that his much-vaunted links to the underworld had run out by the time he returned and become _literary_ underworld links and tall stories told in The Coach and Horses.

Having 80s hoodlums speak like 50s Kings Road slags is badly misjudged, and there's some really jarring cod psychopathology thrown in for good measure.

I'm beginning to think his first, _The Crust On Its Uppers_, is by far the best thing he did.


----------



## ShiftyBagLady (Nov 1, 2007)

I'm reading Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys. I'm really enjoying it but I find it quite oppressively sad in places. There are some really eloquent and though provoking passages in it like this one:


> Please, please, monsieur et madame, mister, missis and miss, I am trying so hard to be like you. I know I don't succeed, but look how hard I try. Three hours to choose a hat; every morning an hour and a half trying to make myself look like everybody else. Every word I say has chains round its ankles; every thought I think is weighted with heavy weights. Since I was born, hasn't every word I've said, every thought I've thought, everything I've done, been tied up, weighted, and chained? And, mind you, I know that with all this I don't succeed. Or I succeed in flashes only too damned well. . . . But think how hard I try and how seldom I dare. Think -- and have a bit of pity. That is, if you ever think, you apes, which I doubt.



Almost finsihed it, think i will go for something lighter next


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 1, 2007)

_Motherless Brooklyn_. I'm hooked.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 1, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> _Motherless Brooklyn_. I'm hooked.




it's just astonishing, isn't it?


----------



## tufty79 (Nov 1, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Want


will pass on when i'm done


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 1, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> now reading The Amazing Adventures Kavalier & Klay by Michael Chabon, which is off to a cracking start



and made me cry on the fucking tube this afternoon


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 1, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> it's just astonishing, isn't it?



It's just put a huge smile on me. You read all these books, they're great, you like the atmosphere or the memories they're making, then every so often, but not that often, you read something like this. So much stuff these days is machine-tooled, you forget what handmade is like


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 1, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> It's just put a huge smile on me. You read all these books, they're great, you like the atmosphere or the memories they're making, then every so often, but not that often, you read something like this. So much stuff these days is machine-tooled, you forget what handmade is like



exactly. the premise is entertaining enough, but to marry it to such a fantastic style, to enable you to get inside Lionel's thought processes but in a way that seems just totally natural - that's phenomenal.

his other stuff is great too


----------



## sojourner (Nov 1, 2007)

tufty79 said:
			
		

> will pass on when i'm done


----------



## foamy (Nov 1, 2007)

just finished Queen Camilla by Sue Townsend, have to say i was really disappointed by it and had to remind myself several time during reading that it wasn't written by Ben Elton 

not a patch on Adrian Mole.


----------



## pootle (Nov 2, 2007)

Just finished J-Pod by Douglas Coupland - really, really enjoyed it. A funny Coupland book makes a change from his recent output.  Have the Gum Thief to read which is clearly going to be one of his more, what's the word, emotional for the what of a better word, efforts - am svaing that as a treat though.

Am reading "This Book Will Save Your Life" atm - am not sure if it won't get on my wick quite soon though...


----------



## D'wards (Nov 3, 2007)

Just finished Atonement - what a book that was, fantastic - 8.5/10

Think i'll start on Ham & Rye by Charles Bukowski now.


----------



## maya (Nov 4, 2007)

Fledgling said:
			
		

> Well I've started Borhers Karamazov finally, bought it in March. Was tempted to put it off because I am perturbed by large books but buying something and not reading it is bad and more importantly this might turn out to be one of the greatest books I've read.






			
				Barking_Mad said:
			
		

> Just finished Dostoevsky's - 'House of The Dead'. Very interesting read of prison life in Siberia!
> 
> Next up, Dostoevsky's - 'The Brothers Karamazov'.
> 
> 996 pages to go!


Well what did you think of it? Sad to say, _I _never had the patience to finish my 'great russian novel', so I copped out and settled for some crime noir Chandler instead...  

Thing is, even though those huge novels are a bit intimidating and takes a while to get into- I tend to just _njet_ over the looong, triple russian names that all sound the same when you're not used to that sort of thing anyway- If you're determined enough to plow through the tome all the way to the bitter end, it ends up being one of the greatest books you've ever read and the flowery, 18th century language is beautiful and you just want to cry and read the damn thing over again...
At least that's what I felt when finishing the Master And Margarita...
Bulgakhov rocks... Perhaps one of my favourite books ever, that...


----------



## henrytheoctopus (Nov 4, 2007)

i was reading lady something by margraret atwood, but it's pretty boring. it's the first thing of hers i've read, and i'm fairly turned off. people tend to like her, but i can't figure out why yet?


----------



## maya (Nov 4, 2007)

henrytheoctopus said:
			
		

> i was reading lady something by margraret atwood, but it's pretty boring. it's the first thing of hers i've read, and i'm fairly turned off. people tend to like her, but i can't figure out why yet?


Atwood is generally fantastic, but she's got a few duds among her massive output- you just have to find (and stick with) the good stuff- Try "The Blind Assassin" for example, which is brilliant...

However, I know nothing can be loved or liked by everyone- Follow your instincts and see what kind of books you like, regardless of critical acclaim/scorn there will always be some books and authors which "won't be for you", IYSWIM... The trick is to find those who are, and read them...
Then let everybody else have their opinions, only you know what you like.


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Nov 4, 2007)

Reading Al Gore's Assault on Reason, ok so far although far too focused on how great the US and its constitution is...


----------



## henrytheoctopus (Nov 4, 2007)

i like to give things second, third even fourth chances. my flatmate has the one you recommended, so i'll give it a go. i'm currently not reading anything at the moment anyway, i need something new...


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Nov 4, 2007)

D'wards said:
			
		

> Think i'll start on Ham & Rye by Charles Bukowski now.


You should, its great. Very vivid portrayal of growing up and adolescence imo.


----------



## dada (Nov 4, 2007)

douglas coupland's latest - the gum thief

interesting, liking it so far.
story telling within stories through letters.


----------



## foamy (Nov 4, 2007)

currently reading and loving Kate Atkinsons 'One Good Turn'  
really pleased that i found something i actually wanted to read on my book shelf, i was just about to give up all hope and spend loads of money at amazon


----------



## J77 (Nov 5, 2007)

Just read *Sophie's World*

Mainly because someone bought me Russell, and I thought I'd read the summary first 

It's a nice history book -- the Sophie/Hilde/Alberto/Albert story's a bit lame tho'


----------



## Barking_Mad (Nov 5, 2007)

maya said:
			
		

> Well what did you think of it? Sad to say, _I _never had the patience to finish my 'great russian novel', so I copped out and settled for some crime noir Chandler instead...
> 
> Thing is, even though those huge novels are a bit intimidating and takes a while to get into- I tend to just _njet_ over the looong, triple russian names that all sound the same when you're not used to that sort of thing anyway- If you're determined enough to plow through the tome all the way to the bitter end, it ends up being one of the greatest books you've ever read and the flowery, 18th century language is beautiful and you just want to cry and read the damn thing over again...
> At least that's what I felt when finishing the Master And Margarita...
> Bulgakhov rocks... Perhaps one of my favourite books ever, that...



Bros K. is good, but 120 pages in not much has happened, but then I dont expect it to. Yes, the names can be hard work, and remembering who is who and did what can be a struggle, but it gets easier the more you read similar books I think.

I have the Master & the M., not read it yet!


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 6, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> now reading The Amazing Adventures Kavalier & Klay by Michael Chabon, which is off to a cracking start




have just finished this.

wow.

just. wow.


----------



## Yossarian (Nov 6, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> have just finished this.
> 
> wow.
> 
> just. wow.


 
Yeah, I really liked that book. I've heard Chabon wrote a series of actual Escapist comic books to follow...


----------



## Nikkormat (Nov 6, 2007)

_Watership Down_ by Richard Adams.


----------



## Zorra (Nov 6, 2007)

Making Globalization Work by Joseph Stiglitz.  Fairly interesting and much more readable than Globalization and it's Discontents.

I are also reading the collected letters of Nancy Mitford, and preparing myself for my new life as a 1930s dilletante


----------



## Julie (Nov 7, 2007)

The Matriarch.

A good, true crime, Aussie yarn.


----------



## idioteque (Nov 7, 2007)

Pompeii, by Robert Harris. Half because it's for a university module, half because volcanoes are sexy.

Edit for spelling.


----------



## ChrisC (Nov 7, 2007)

Dreamcatcher by Stephen King. Too early to tell if it's any good.


----------



## idioteque (Nov 7, 2007)

ChrisC said:
			
		

> Dreamcatcher by Stephen King. Too early to tell if it's any good.



Really good book, I thought it was very different to everything else I've read by him. Wierd, but worth it.


----------



## claxton (Nov 7, 2007)

I just started reading Winkie, by Clifford Chase.  It's about a living teddy bear accused of acts of terrorism.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 7, 2007)

Finished _Motherless Brooklyn_. It's a fantastic novel, the best contemporary novel I've read this year I think. It's a proper wonder how Lethem writes so well with apparently such little effort and with none of the self-consciousness that, for me, mars a lot of the stuff around at the moment.

Lionel's kidnapping by a group of Zen doormen makes it into my all-time favourite comic set-pieces, just brilliant 

A masterpiece I guess, and a future American classic.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 7, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Finished _Motherless Brooklyn_. It's a fantastic novel, the best contemporary novel I've read this year I think. It's a proper wonder how Lethem writes so well with apparently such little effort and with none of the self-consciousness that, for me, mars a lot of the stuff around at the moment.
> 
> Lionel's kidnapping by a group of Zen doormen makes it into my all-time favourite comic set-pieces, just brilliant
> 
> A masterpiece I guess, and a future American classic.




Really glad you enjoyed it. It was my favourite of last year.

Bit worried about the movie, though - Ed Norton as Lionel?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 7, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> Really glad you enjoyed it. It was my favourite of last year.
> 
> Bit worried about the movie, though - Ed Norton as Lionel?



I had no idea they were making a movie. I love Ed Norton, but Lionel has to be _big_, it's kind of the point 

It would be fun movie to cast though ...


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 8, 2007)

_Roscoe_ by William Kennedy. Never read any of his stuff before.


----------



## Mogden (Nov 8, 2007)

The making of a chef by Michael Ruhlman. It's great so far but now I want to pack up my worldly belongings and chuff off to CIA.


----------



## sojourner (Nov 8, 2007)

Iris and the Friends: A Year of Memories by John Bayley

Whilst trying not to cry


----------



## Vintage Paw (Nov 8, 2007)

Recently finished Foer's _Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close_ and I liked it.

Now reading Heidi Julavits's _The Uses of Enchantment_ and so far, only a little way into it, it's so-so.

Next on the list is Henry Adams and his bloody education. Not looking forward to that one.


----------



## ThierryEnnui (Nov 8, 2007)

Just finished Nostromo by Joseph Conrad, it has replaced The Secret Agent as my favourite Conrad book. Fantastic.


----------



## Roadkill (Nov 8, 2007)

On two long tube journeys and a lunch break, I've read all the way through one of the OUP Very Short Introductions series today - John's Guy's one on Tudor England.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 8, 2007)

trying to avoid reading a proper novel cos I'm supposed to be reading set texts.

But curling up in bed with a book about Ricardian fucking economics is just cunty. So I might buy ANOTHER Michael Chabon book


----------



## the button (Nov 8, 2007)

I'm reading EP Thompson's biography of William Morris, which I got for cheap in Judd back in April. Interesting stuff so far.


----------



## crustychick (Nov 8, 2007)

where do you people find the time to read all of this?!?!

hmmm, it took me 2 month to finish The Diamond Age (which I LOVED)

Just started Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. So far I like it.


----------



## the button (Nov 8, 2007)

crustychick said:
			
		

> where do you people find the time to read all of this?!?!


½ an hour on the DLR on the way to work, ½ an hour on the way home. You'll notice I bought my current book back in April. I have something of a backlog. 

I have a meeting in Manchester tomorrow, so that means I get paid to read a book on a 2 hour train journey. Not bad, eh?


----------



## Blagsta (Nov 8, 2007)

Laurie Lee - A Moment of War


----------



## Roadkill (Nov 8, 2007)

crustychick said:
			
		

> where do you people find the time to read all of this?!?!



Not having the internet at home used to help.  I'd doubtless be reading now if I still hadn't.    I get a lot read on days when I go to the PRO, since it's about an hour and a half each way.  Assuming the train and the tube aren't too crowded, that is, since I'm not good at reading with my face jammed into someone's armpit...

I bought Roy Porter's last book, _Flesh in an Age of Reason: How the Enlightenment Transformed the Way we see our Bodies and Souls_ at the weekend, and I'm a big fan of Porter so that'll probably be my next read.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Nov 9, 2007)

Planet Simpson - Chris Turner


----------



## Barking_Mad (Nov 9, 2007)

anyone read any Victor Pelevin? Ive recently discovered his stuff but not as yet bought any. It looks really quite splendid 

http://www.amazon.com/Yellow-Arrow-...3552/ref=pd_sim_b_title_4/104-8393857-6337556


----------



## quimcunx (Nov 9, 2007)

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.   

Nothing we do is right.  Why do the govt's measure everything by how well the big corporations are doing, and everything have to be moulded for their benefit and our and everything elses detriment?


----------



## Barking_Mad (Nov 9, 2007)

im going to attempt the impossible, to walk into a bookshop and come out without a book. Wish me luck fellow readers.


----------



## Barking_Mad (Nov 9, 2007)

Doh!


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 9, 2007)

Interrupting _Roscoe_, which is dragging a bit, to read _The Day of the Owl_ by Leonardo Sciascia. I read some Sciascia a few years ago and liked it, and this one looks good.


----------



## sojourner (Nov 9, 2007)

crustychick said:
			
		

> where do you people find the time to read all of this?!?!


I tend to read in 4-6 hour chunks at the weekend, sometimes more.  I manage about 30 mins at best in the week, as I'm so utterly fucked after work


----------



## G. Fieendish (Nov 10, 2007)

Fiction: Boomsday by Christopher Buckley
Factual: British Secret Project's Vol.3 - Hypersonics, Ramjets & Missiles  
This deals with various aviation, and R&D programmes during the late 1940's, 1950's & 1960's that never made it to production, due to various reasons...
_(One concept that thankfully never made it, was the RAF proposal to air launch Polaris A3 Ballistic Missiles from Vulcan Bombers....) _


----------



## Fledgling (Nov 11, 2007)

*



			
				maya said:
			
		


			Well what did you think of it? Sad to say, I never had the patience to finish my 'great russian novel', so I copped out and settled for some crime noir Chandler instead...  

Thing is, even though those huge novels are a bit intimidating and takes a while to get into- I tend to just njet over the looong, triple russian names that all sound the same when you're not used to that sort of thing anyway- If you're determined enough to plow through the tome all the way to the bitter end, it ends up being one of the greatest books you've ever read... 
		
Click to expand...

*



			
				maya said:
			
		

> > I'm still on Bros K and will probably end up reading several books while I pay lip service to it. To be honest (I'm about 200 pages through), it has been a laboured affair so far. I still can't understand why so much is thrust onto Alyosha; Ivan in my mind is a more interesting character. Alosha is too weak to be the central protagonist. I'm determined to get to the Grand Inquisitor, largely because it is mentioned in detail in Patrick White's The Solid Mandala. The Russian names don't bother me, I quite like the names, having now learnt the Cyrillic alphabet and some Russia words. However if you aren't familiar with the system it's confusing (Alyosha's half dozen names for example).
> >
> > Bros K is part fo an ambitious journey into Russian literature, a long one because I refuse to give up reading other literature too.
> >
> > ...


----------



## mentalchik (Nov 11, 2007)

Got nothing new at the mo so re-reading all my John Connolly novels.....


----------



## Pie 1 (Nov 11, 2007)

Just finished Posy Simmonds' graphic novel, Tamara Drewe.
The drawings are inspired, her eye (and ear) for detail superb & so spot on.
Really enjoyed it.


----------



## Blagsta (Nov 11, 2007)

The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade by Alfred McCoy.


----------



## sojourner (Nov 11, 2007)

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka

Excellent so far


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 11, 2007)

She's a friend of my mum's


I'm reading The Border Trilogy - just finished All The Pretty Horses and am about to embark upon The Crossing
Also reading Jeremy Paxton's On Royalty


----------



## sojourner (Nov 11, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> She's a friend of my mum's
> 
> 
> I'm reading The Border Trilogy - just finished All The Pretty Horses and am about to embark upon The Crossing
> Also reading Jeremy Paxton's On Royalty


!  Hello you!!   Missed ya.  Is she?   

What did you think of Pretty Horses?


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 11, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> !  Hello you!!   Missed ya.  Is she?
> 
> What did you think of Pretty Horses?


I loved it - though it needed a glossary of horse stuff and Mexican geographical features


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 11, 2007)

under no circumstances watch the movie!!!

it's an amazing book, isn't it? god, he can write..


----------



## Kidda (Nov 11, 2007)

at the moment im trying to work my way through all this lot at the same time

'Beyond the closet' Steven Seidman
'Gay and lesbian youth' Gilbert Herdt 
'Coming out' Jeffery Weeks
'Silenced sexualities in schools and universities' Debbie Epstein
'Homosexuality and education' J Stafford
'Section 28; a practical guide to the law and its implications' Liberty
'Something to tell you' Lorraine Trenchard
'Sexualities and society' Jeffery Weeks

and for ''fun'' im still reading 'redemption' by Stanley Tookie Williams

my head hurts


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 11, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> under no circumstances watch the movie!!!
> 
> it's an amazing book, isn't it? god, he can write..


Yeah, he's not bad at it


----------



## sojourner (Nov 11, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I loved it - though it needed a glossary of horse stuff and Mexican geographical features


  I was alright on the horse front, having been a juvenile equestrian   The Mexican geographical thing just made me want to go there even more than I already did


----------



## sojourner (Nov 11, 2007)

Kidda said:
			
		

> at the moment im trying to work my way through all this lot at the same time
> 
> 'Beyond the closet' Steven Seidman
> 'Gay and lesbian youth' Gilbert Herdt
> ...


Cool list though kidda


----------



## Kidda (Nov 11, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Cool list though kidda



yeah its all a bit daunting though. im trying to condense it all into helping me write about the coming out process and how section 28/attitudes in school effect/effected it  

i just want to sit under a blanket and sleep though


----------



## sojourner (Nov 11, 2007)

Kidda said:
			
		

> yeah its all a bit daunting though. im trying to condense it all into helping me write about the coming out process and how section 28/attitudes in school effect/effected it
> 
> i just want to sit under a blanket and sleep though


If you wanna chat about it, gis a shout.  I have personal experience


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 11, 2007)

I finished Sciascia's _The Day of the Owl_, which is as short and hard as a Sicilian gunman, but also very sweet, like a _cannolo_. A really complex but gripping dissection of a mafia killing. I recommend Sciascia.


----------



## sojourner (Nov 11, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I finished Sciascia's _The Day of the Owl_, which is as short and hard as a Sicilian gunman, but also very sweet, like a _cannolo_. A really complex but gripping dissection of a mafia killing. I recommend Sciascia.


Will look out for that  

'as short and hard as a Sicilian gunman'


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 11, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka



That title, along with dozens of others, drives me absolutely fucking mad for some reason, I guess it's the desperate modishness and archness.

_Trout Fishing in the Yemen_, _Special Topics in Calamity Physics_, _Cooking with Fernet-Branca_, _A Long Seminar on Broccoli in Spanish_, all that bollocks. When will it all end? Where's the geology book called _A Sacred Glittering_, or _Did the Earth Move for You, Darling?_ (a textbook on seismology). Eh?


----------



## sojourner (Nov 11, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> That title, along with dozens of others, drives me absolutely fucking mad for some reason, I guess it's the desperate modishness and archness.
> 
> _Trout Fishing in the Yemen_, _Special Topics in Calamity Physics_, _Cooking with Fernet-Branca_, _A Long Seminar on Broccoli in Spanish_, all that bollocks. When will it all end? Where's the geology book called _A Sacred Glittering_, or _Did the Earth Move for You, Darling?_ (a textbook on seismology). Eh?


Ah, but it's totally relevant to the story, in this case, and not some wanky bollocks    You should know by now I'm not the most pretentious person in the world


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 11, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Will look out for that
> 
> 'as short and hard as a Sicilian gunman'



It's all being republished by Granta and it's great stuff  Sciascia's one of those great late 20th century Europeans that's too little read outside his home country.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 11, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Ah, but it's totally relevant to the story, in this case, and not some wanky bollocks    You should know by now I'm not the most pretentious person in the world



Fair enough. Not casting aspersions on the reader, just the writer (or in all these case, probably the publisher. Or Waterstone's)


----------



## dodgepot (Nov 11, 2007)

"rockabilly - a 40 year journey" by billy poore


----------



## maya (Nov 11, 2007)

Barking_Mad said:
			
		

> anyone read any Victor Pelevin? Ive recently discovered his stuff but not as yet bought any. It looks really quite splendid


Have two Pelevin books on hold at the library- Descriptions so far:
Grim, satirical, both kitchen sink/social realism _and_ fantastic/horror elements... Sounds promising!


----------



## chooch (Nov 12, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I finished Sciascia's _The Day of the Owl_, which is as short and hard as a Sicilian gunman, but also very sweet, like a _cannolo_.


Sounds fucking great. Just taken delivery of _motherless brooklyn_


----------



## Barking_Mad (Nov 12, 2007)

maya said:
			
		

> Have two Pelevin books on hold at the library- Descriptions so far:
> Grim, satirical, both kitchen sink/social realism _and_ fantastic/horror elements... Sounds promising!



I bought 'Babylon' on Friday. Not started it yet as im sticking to my 1 book rule and i have 700 pages of The Brothers K. to read yet.


----------



## Eva Luna (Nov 12, 2007)

I have set aside Crime and Punishment for next week.

This week, I have been reading 'Women Who Run With the Wolves' which is a fantastic poetical accompaniment to the spirit that lives in all women.  It's one of those books that you can pick up and open to find just the sort of deep understanding that you craved and had to retreat inwards to find.


----------



## J77 (Nov 12, 2007)

At the moment, I'm reading "Crow Lake by Mary Lawson". It was sitting in a pile of books on my gf's side of the bed and I had nothing to read...

I think it's gonna be a so-so book.


----------



## DRINK? (Nov 12, 2007)

Silent Terror - James Ellroy, someone just gave it to me at work, will see whether the recomendation lives up to their claims in reality


----------



## Barking_Mad (Nov 14, 2007)

300+ pages into The Brothers Karamzov and have just finished 'The Grand Inquisitor'. Not hard to see why that chapter has been re-printed as a small book in it's own right. What a truly amazing piece of literature.


----------



## Yu_Gi_Oh (Nov 14, 2007)

Words and Rules by Steven Pinker.

It is super exciting, full of stuff which makes me go 'WOW!'.

He's a nice writer too, so far I prefer it to all other books of the same ilk that I've read.


----------



## foamy (Nov 14, 2007)

Douglas Copeland - All families are psychotic.

just trying to read my way through the shelf full of books i have aquired but not read before asking for loads more for christmas


----------



## maya (Nov 15, 2007)

Barking_Mad said:
			
		

> as im sticking to my 1 book rule *and i have 700 pages of The Brothers K. to read yet.*


- That's the spirit!


----------



## jeff_leigh (Nov 16, 2007)

Hostage - Robert Crais


----------



## D'wards (Nov 18, 2007)

Just started Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters - definately an eyeopener about the homeless


----------



## foamy (Nov 19, 2007)

D'wards said:
			
		

> Just started Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters - definately an eyeopener about the homeless



that is an excellent book, did you see the TV dramatisation?

i'm now redaing 'The shadow of the wind' by Carlos Ruiz Zafon on the recommendation of my housemate although she warned me that it drags in the middle.


----------



## maya (Nov 19, 2007)

Barking_Mad said:
			
		

> I bought 'Babylon' on Friday..


Confusingly, they re-titled it "Buddhas's Little Finger" (IIRC) in the US. 
Or... perhaps _not_ so confusing after all... Given the associations of that title: 'Bring down...' etc. Oh dear.

Anyway, his best book is the one where the main character is sent on a moon rocket mission only to discover his 'landing vessel' is just a badly disguised, ordinary bike and that his return was never a part of the official equation... Lots of satire on Soviet reality, etc. also (the book was written before the USSR disintegrated)


----------



## crustychick (Nov 19, 2007)

Just read Black Swan Green by David Mitchell and it was really really good


----------



## Nikkormat (Nov 19, 2007)

Just finished _Watership Down_ which was excellent, now back to Trevor Royle's _Civil War - The Wars of the Three Kingdoms - 1638-1660_ which I started six months ago and have been reading on and off since then. 200 pages left...


----------



## SpookyFrank (Nov 19, 2007)

Fahrenheit 451; which I have no excuse for not having read before


----------



## 5t3IIa (Nov 20, 2007)

I'm on Seamus Heaney's trans. of _Beowulf_. So far I have enjoyed the introduction, Heaney's notes on the translation, a note on names and the acknowledgments.

I'm a bit scared to start the actual text


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 20, 2007)

Finished _Roscoe_ by William Kennedy, which is a pretty entertaining novel about a Democratic Party fixer in Albany, NY from 1918 to 1946.

He's a sharp writer, Kennedy, and there's lots of great stuff in it -- quite similar to Doctorow in its noisiness and its insertion of fictional characters alongside major historical ones. It perhaps gets a bit repetitive, and drags some, but has some interesting things to say about political truth and falsehood.

Has anyone read any of his stuff? He's pretty much exclusively devoted himself to writing novels about Albany public life from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries ('the Albany Cycle'). I'd like to read some more, but maybe not yet.

Now I'm back with Sciascia and _The Wine-Dark Sea_, a collection of stories. He is brilliant.


----------



## sojourner (Nov 20, 2007)

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey...cos I've never read it


----------



## maya (Nov 20, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> _The Wine-Dark Sea_


That's an ancient greek/Hellenic reference, isn't it? 
Apparently their descriptive imagination was very different from ours- the sea was never dark _blue_, but 'wine-dark'... confused*

(* = deep_ red?_ ...huh? blood? battles? death? ...or just colour blindness? the mind boggles.)


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 20, 2007)

in between studying, i'm flying through Harry Crews' Feast Of Snakes. As ever, veers from laugh out loud funny to desperately sad, but always wonderful to read.


----------



## N_igma (Nov 20, 2007)

The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

Really good so far, though his lack of punctuation is a bit confusing at times.


----------



## Orang Utan (Nov 20, 2007)

N_igma said:
			
		

> The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
> 
> Really good so far, though his lack of punctuation is a bit confusing at times.


I didn;t have trouble with it in The Road, but it was well confusing in All The Pretty Horses 
I'm now reading The Crossing, which is much much better than ATPH, but not as good as The Road


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 20, 2007)

maya said:
			
		

> That's an ancient greek/Hellenic reference, isn't it?
> Apparently their descriptive imagination was very different from ours- the sea was never dark _blue_, but 'wine-dark'... confused*
> 
> (* = deep_ red?_ ...huh? blood? battles? death? ...or just colour blindness? the mind boggles.)



It's yer man Homer, I think.

Greek wine, I guess, would have been dark dark, before being watered down. Getting colour and viscosity in in one metaphor, I like it 

Have you read any Sciascia, maya? It's superior vintage.


----------



## ThierryEnnui (Nov 20, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> It's yer man Homer, I think.
> 
> Greek wine, I guess, would have been dark dark, before being watered down. Getting colour and viscosity in in one metaphor, I like it
> 
> Have you read any Sciascia, maya? It's superior vintage.



I'm reading The Odyssey at the moment, 3/4 of the way through and absolutely loving it. I've got The Iliad on order.
Who/what is Sciascia then?


----------



## sojourner (Nov 20, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I didn;t have trouble with it in The Road, but it was well confusing in All The Pretty Horses
> I'm now reading The Crossing, which is much much better than ATPH, but not as good as The Road


I didn't have trouble with it either, but then I read a lot of stuff that doesn't follow conventional rules on anything

Re The Crossing - I absolutely LOVED ATPH, thought that was the best one.  Can't compare it to The Road - totally different in so many ways


----------



## maya (Nov 20, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Have you read any Sciascia, maya? It's superior vintage.


Not yet, but the name alone sounds of supreme greatness... 

Like the name of a secretly guarded, deeply incensive ancient roman wine whose  age-old, finely honed putrefaction has mutated into alchemical gold- seducing grey tastebuds with such indecent pleasures that the (un)lucky gentlemen of the italian wine club falls into orgasmical raptures just by tasting one single drop on their tongue before surrendering to the meaty sweet arms of flowery Mama...*

(* 'Rosa', she was called... a mole on her thigh... they said she was married... though no one had seen her Signori ever leaving the house... Poor Vittorio... 'Taverna of horrors', the locals had nick-named that old, tarnished house where even the shadows fled and the rats didn't stay... The wine-seals were broken, fresh barrels went sour... And the spectre of misery would chase every guest... al dente el FINE)


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 20, 2007)

ThierryEnnui said:
			
		

> Who/what is Sciascia then?



Leonardo Sciascia (1921-1989) was a Sicilian writer who wrote brilliantly compressed short stories and novellas, a lot of them about the Mafia but just as often about the effect of crime, poverty, feudalism and religion on Sicily. He often uses the crime/thriller genre as a way into his themes, but twists it considerably. He did quite a bit of political commentary as well -- I haven't read his book on the Moro Affair, but it's meant to be brilliant. He was a maverick leftist MP as well. Packed a lot in. Well worth a look 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_sciascia


----------



## ThierryEnnui (Nov 20, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Leonardo Sciascia (1921-1989) was a Sicilian writer who wrote brilliantly compressed short stories and novellas, a lot of them about the Mafia but just as often about the effect of crime, poverty, feudalism and religion on Sicily. He often uses the crime/thriller genre as a way into his themes, but twists it considerably. He did quite a bit of political commentary as well -- I haven't read his book on the Moro Affair, but it's meant to be brilliant. He was a maverick leftist MP as well. Packed a lot in. Well worth a look
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_sciascia



Nice one, I've added him to my never-ending list of books to read.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 20, 2007)

maya said:
			
		

> Not yet, but the name alone sounds of supreme greatness...
> 
> Like the name of a secretly guarded, deeply incensive ancient roman wine whose  age-old, finely honed putrefaction has mutated into alchemical gold- seducing grey tastebuds with such indecent pleasures that the (un)lucky gentlemen of the italian wine club falls into orgasmical raptures just by tasting one single drop on their tongue before surrendering to the meaty sweet arms of flowery Mama...*
> 
> (* 'Rosa', she was called... a mole on her thigh... they said she was married... though no one had seen her Signori ever leaving the house... Poor Vittorio... 'Taverna of horrors', the locals had nick-named that old, tarnished house where even the shadows fled and the rats didn't stay... The wine-seals were broken, fresh barrels went sour... And the spectre of misery would chase every guest... al dente el FINE)



I like 'Taverna of Horrors'. You're wasted on these boards 

He does have the best name in world literature and, with _The Day of the Owl_, one of the best titles


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 20, 2007)

ThierryEnnui said:
			
		

> Nice one, I've added him to my never-ending list of books to read.



Aye, it _is_ never-ending ...


----------



## D'wards (Nov 20, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Aye, it _is_ never-ending ...



Yeah - i only average about 20-25 books a year (the national average is 3 a year ) and have about 100 books to read that i have purchased from charity shops - 4-5 years worth.

I belive there are enough books i would want to read that i could read one a week for the rest of my life and never get them all done - depressing innit 

Do you know that women read a lot more than men? **SNOB ALERT** but i feel that a lot of that is this worthless (not having read any though to be fair) "chick lit" - all pastel covers and relationship dramas


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 20, 2007)

D'wards said:
			
		

> Do you know that women read a lot more than men? **SNOB ALERT** but i feel that a lot of that is this worthless (not having read any though to be fair) "chick lit" - all pastel covers and relationship dramas



what a totally fucking pathetic comment.

(oh, and who do you reckon reads all the Andy McNabb / Alistair McLean / Frederick Forsyth books? all gun-laden covers and cartoon violence).


----------



## ThierryEnnui (Nov 20, 2007)

D'wards said:
			
		

> Yeah - i only average about 20-25 books a year (the national average is 3 a year ) and have about 100 books to read that i have purchased from charity shops - 4-5 years worth.
> 
> I belive there are enough books i would want to read that i could read one a week for the rest of my life and never get them all done - depressing innit



I used to be like that, but now I make sure I never have more than one book in my flat that i haven't read yet, and stick to only having one book on the go at a time. I used to have stacks of unread books and it did get a bit depressing.


----------



## D'wards (Nov 20, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> what a totally fucking pathetic comment.
> 
> (oh, and who do you reckon reads all the Andy McNabb / Alistair McLean / Frederick Forsyth books? all gun-laden covers and cartoon violence).



Point taken, but i see a lot more women reading chick lit stuff than men reading that geezer stuff on trains, which is where i gauge the tastes of the nation, so to speak.

I'm not having a go - good to read anything, and most men read fuck all, which is worse than reading pap


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 23, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> _The Wine-Dark Sea_, a collection of stories. He is brilliant.



Finished these. He is indeed brilliant.

Now: _The Prone Gunman_ by Jean-Patrick Manchette. French noir.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 23, 2007)

read Harry Crews' Feast Of Snakes over a couple of sleepless nights. Pretty good, but a little obvious, almost OTT. Not a patch on the Gospel Singer


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 23, 2007)

I'm going to have to get me _The Gospel Singer_, someone else recommended it to me the other day.


----------



## DUMBO.66 (Nov 23, 2007)

just getting into 'star Maker' by Olaf Stapleton, it's amazing, truly epic, yet not that hard to read.


highly recommended


----------



## May Kasahara (Nov 23, 2007)

Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body, ed. Rosemarie Garland Thomson. Very interesting so far.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 23, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I'm going to have to get me _The Gospel Singer_, someone else recommended it to me the other day.




demented preachers, swamps, hillbillies, a freakshow, sexual guilt, a lynching and a storm and a dwarf with a massive foot. What more could you possible want?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 23, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> demented preachers, swamps, hillbillies, a freakshow, sexual guilt, a lynching and a storm and a dwarf with a massive foot. What more could you possible want?



Not a great deal more, to be fair.

Weaponry?


----------



## jeff_leigh (Nov 23, 2007)

The Final Solution - Michael Chabon


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 23, 2007)

jeff_leigh said:
			
		

> The Final Solution - Michael Chabon




is that the one set in England?


----------



## jeff_leigh (Nov 23, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> is that the one set in England?



yeah the one with the Parrot


----------



## quimcunx (Nov 23, 2007)

Dubversion said:
			
		

> demented preachers, swamps, hillbillies, a freakshow, sexual guilt, a lynching and a storm and a dwarf with a massive foot. What more could you possible want?



Ooh that sounds good.   

Persuasion, Jane Austen


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 24, 2007)

Psychogeography by Merlin Coverley.
signed copy I picked up at a Waterstones counter, cheap. Excellent little book 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Psychogeography-Pocket-Essentials-Merlin-Coverley/dp/1904048617


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 25, 2007)

Finished _The Prone Gunman_. It was OK, read like an extended treatment for a French crime thriller, shit ending.

Now it's _Why Read?_ by Mark Edmundson.


----------



## citydreams (Nov 25, 2007)

"This thing of darkness" Harry Thompson

Apparently it only took Darwin five years to sail around the world on board the Beagle.  It's going to take me much longer to finish this book.  Perahps thats the point.  But 700 pages of Darwin and Fitzroy keeping aplomb with spoons up their backsides while polishing the turds of Galapagos' turtles wore thin along time ago.


----------



## andrewdroid (Nov 26, 2007)

Terry Pratchett's  Feet of Clay yeah I know its below comics (which are lit/art in their own right but you know what i mean) but its just somthing to while away the tube but it did make me laugh like this bit.-


> Dwarfs regard baking as part of the art of warfare. When they make rock cakes, no simile is intended. Most dwarf breads were in classic cowpat-like shape, an echo of their taste, but there were also buns, close-combat crumpets, deadly throwing toast, drop-scones (deadly at short range) and a vast array of  other shapes devised by a race that went in for food-fighting in a  big and above all terminal way.



also
Stupid White Men Michael Moore which is shocking the level of idiocy in but not only amerika, aparently in 2002 44 million americans couldnt read or write at all. They ony read 99 hours a *year* compared to 1460 hours watching TV.
 The amount of tax the auto makers *dont *pay and this was written 6 years ago so with GWB it cant have got any better.


----------



## chooch (Nov 29, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Lionel's kidnapping by a group of Zen doormen makes it into my all-time favourite comic set-pieces, just brilliant


That is the best bit  
I had such an urge to shout _eatmebailey_ for days. 
Off out to look for books, armed, as ever, with this thread. Special miision to find something by..._gasp_...a woman. Fear it may be A.M.Homes, because that's all I liked the look of last time I went.


----------



## Dubversion (Nov 29, 2007)

If They Move.. Kill 'Em! by David Weddle.

very good so far


----------



## ThierryEnnui (Nov 29, 2007)

Just finished The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford, really enjoyed it and it's especially interesting if you've read Joseph Conrad as you can see his influence on it.


----------



## D'wards (Nov 29, 2007)

Just starting A Confederacy of Dunces - see what all the fuss is about!


----------



## crustychick (Nov 30, 2007)

I've just started Northern Lights by Philip Pullman - want to get it finished before going to watch the Golden Compass


----------



## sojourner (Nov 30, 2007)

crustychick said:
			
		

> I've just started Northern Lights by Philip Pullman - want to get it finished before going to watch the Golden Compass


 

I'm going watching it with my lass next weekend


----------



## Dirty Martini (Nov 30, 2007)

I finished _Why Read?_ by Mark Edmundson, which I enjoyed a lot despite agreeing with about half of it.

His argument is this:

Literature can provide 'vital options' in the reader's quest to find the good life. 

It can replace religious faith in that respect.

You wouldn't know this from the way it is taught at universities, where disinterested enquiry and interpretation are promoted in the humanities.

The prevailing culture in the US is the culture of 'cool'. It has its acute pleasures, but is no good if you are going to study literature. Students of literature need to embarrass themselves and fail. Suspicion falls on anyone who shows enthusiasm and emotion in their study.

Theory encourages students to believe that they are better and know more than the (great) authors they are studying. They have not earned this right.

Theory does have its uses, though, but applying Foucault to a literary text like a piece of translation software is daft.

Literary theory represents the ultimate kowtow to authority because it has been inserted into American literature departments as a response to the perceived need to provide students with a specific body of knowledge that they can take forward into employment. This is part of the fierce competition between universities for students and their money, ie a marketing tool.

A great many English professors despise the writers they study.

Readers should become disciples of the authors they like, and allow themselves to be read by great books.

We only think the field of literature has been strip-mined (which leads bright graduates to study little-known areas of literature against their better instincts) because we haven't been asking the right questions of it.

And so on.

His quiet, genial insistence that the 'good life' is attainable, and worthwhile attaining, is reminiscent of Adam Phillips. I like it, but his thesis seems to ignore the pleasures to be gained from work that lies outside the canon. He's big on the concept of the 'major work'. Lots of food for thought though. I'll be reading it again.

---

So now I'm reading some Wordsworth, to see, I guess, if he can give me some 'vital options'


----------



## chooch (Dec 1, 2007)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I finished _Why Read?_ by Mark Edmundson


Hmm. Interesting. You get that in town or by amazon/abebooks?

Seville booksearch disappointing. Only managed to get _The Collected Stories of John Cheever_. Decent enough so far...


----------



## story (Dec 1, 2007)

Currently reading:

The Mind In The Cave (David Lewis-Williams)

The Forgiveness of Nature: the Story of Grass (Graham Harvey)

Another Country (James Baldwin)

The Land of Lettice Sweetapple: an English Countryside Explored (Peter Fowler & Ian Blackwell)

Stonehenge: Neolithic Man and the Cosmos (John North)

The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics (Arthur W. Frank)


----------



## crustychick (Dec 1, 2007)

story said:
			
		

> Currently reading:
> 
> The Mind In The Cave (David Lewis-Williams)
> 
> ...



all at once?


----------



## story (Dec 1, 2007)

crustychick said:
			
		

> all at once?




Aye... and also the New Scientist, which comes through the letterbox every week and gives me no rest

Foolish or what.

I'm reading a couple of Rock n Roll anthologies for light relief 



ETA Actually they hang together rather well.

The Story of Grass is about the green sward and how it has formed history, been part of history, how pasture and livestock has formed society.

The Lettice Sweetapple book is about the history and archeology of the land in Wiltshire (a lot of it is pastureland).

The Stonehenge book is about how Neolithic peoples interacted with the land (amongst other things)

The Mind in the cave is a theory about how consciousness evolved in early humans... It makes me think about how the Land and the relationship with the Land has been  a thread through the human mind from before self-consciousness, and how we are currently losing that connection to the Land.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Dec 1, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> Hmm. Interesting. You get that in town or by amazon/abebooks?



Got it off amazon marketplace, fairly cheap. It's definitely worth a read


----------



## quimcunx (Dec 3, 2007)

Hunger by Knut Hamsen.    I enjoyed Growth of the Soil, which was as plodding as it sounds, so thought I'd give it a go. 

It's good so far though the foreword by Paul Auster (whose work I enjoy) is pretty impenetrable for a bear of very little brain like me.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Dec 3, 2007)

Currently reading (for pleasure, which is  considering the amount of uni reading I have to do) _The Philosophy of Andy Warhol_ and am enjoying it muchly.


----------



## sojourner (Dec 6, 2007)

Stephen Fry - The Liar and the Hippopotamus


----------



## Pie 1 (Dec 6, 2007)

Currently half way through Self Help by Edward Docx.
It's really very enjoyable.

Impressively confident & fluid writing for only his 2nd novel (not read his other one). 
Great characters & structure, superb discriptve detail in the settings - his pictures of London & NY are spot on so I must presume that his St Petersberg is also. 
It's witty in the right places, knowing without being smug or arch, and does a very nice line in melancholy.

Think he going to be one to watch if he keeps up this standard.


----------



## Nikkormat (Dec 6, 2007)

Just finished _The Civil War: The War of the Three Kingdoms 1638-1660_ by Trevor Royle. I started it in May  

About the begin reading _Setting The Desert On Fire, T.E. Lawrence and Britain's secret war in Arabia, 1916-1918_.


----------



## idioteque (Dec 6, 2007)




----------



## TheDave (Dec 6, 2007)

The Ancestor's Tale - Richard Dawkins

Finally got round to reading it and I haven't put it down since, starts quite slowly explaining the format of the book, technical stuff but then it changes to some wonderful flowing prose that mixes advanced biology neatly into a way the layman can understand. Although most people know Dawkins for his anti-religious stuff, his works on biology and evolution are where he really shines.


----------



## chooch (Dec 7, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> _The Collected Stories of John Cheever_. Decent enough so far...


Better than decent. There are some great stories in here, though at least half can be reduced to _New England family squanders old money_ or _quiet suburban man does something weird._

He can turn a perfect sentence'n'all.


----------



## foamy (Dec 9, 2007)

Case Histories - Kate Atkinson. I think she is my new favourite thing ever


----------



## foo (Dec 10, 2007)

i like Kate Atkinson too  you could also try Behind the Scenes at the Museum (i think that's what it's called) 

i'm reading Russell Brand's Booky Wook. one son gave it to the other son for his birthday and i've nicked it  

and i'm enjoying it.


----------



## foamy (Dec 10, 2007)

foo - i've read behind the scenes and One Good Turn so bought everything else she ever wrote and am making my way through it. 
Let me know if 'My Booky Wook' is good, i'm not Brands biggest fan but i'm intrigued about the book


----------



## SpookyFrank (Dec 10, 2007)

I'm reading Dostoevsky's 'the devils' for the second time. It's the sort of book that only really makes sense when you've already read it and you know what it's about


----------



## foo (Dec 11, 2007)

foamy said:
			
		

> foo - i've read behind the scenes and One Good Turn so bought everything else she ever wrote and am making my way through it.
> Let me know if 'My Booky Wook' is good, i'm not Brands biggest fan but i'm intrigued about the book



well i'm enjoying it. as i read it, i make sure i'm speaking like him in my head. cos it's fun. 

im not too sure i believe all his stuff about herion and crack (quite what a mess/an addict he was) but i'm not sure why i'm unsure...something doesn't quite ring true. 

i still like what he does with words/language though, on telly and in this book. and laughed out loud at the 'Drug and Drink(s)' musings at the beginning. give it a go, then tell me what you think!


----------



## El Jefe (Dec 11, 2007)

The extracts I read in the paper were wonderful - very funny, but also quite honest and thoughtful. I've always taken his addiction claims etc at face value (I remember hearing about him at the time), but others doubt it.


----------



## foo (Dec 11, 2007)

El Jefe said:
			
		

> The extracts I read in the paper were wonderful - very funny, but also quite honest and thoughtful. I've always taken his addiction claims etc at face value (I remember hearing about him at the time), but others doubt it.



thing is, i remember Brand from when my boys first got into him - the MTV club stuff and his RE:Brand thing (my eldest has been Brand's Biggest Fan for years    ). and even though he seemed pissed etc. i have been around both heroin and crack addicts, and he just didn't seem to behave like an addict. 

sorry, that probably doesn't make a lot of sense.


----------



## El Jefe (Dec 11, 2007)

It does 

Maybe he just had enough money to support himself through it? If you're not scrabbling around for money to keep yourself going, a lot of the problems are eased and you can probably function better in 'normal' life. Or is that a bit simplistic?


----------



## foo (Dec 11, 2007)

El Jefe said:
			
		

> It does
> 
> Maybe he just had enough money to support himself through it? If you're not scrabbling around for money to keep yourself going, a lot of the problems are eased and you can probably function better in 'normal' life. Or is that a bit simplistic?




not at all, you're probably right.  anyway, my doubting doesn't take anything away from the book being a cracking good yarn!

(i said that like him in my head)


----------



## mrs quoad (Dec 11, 2007)

_Criminology at the Crossroads. Feminist Readings in Crime and Justice_ came through from Amazon yesterday.

For the first time in ages, I'm actually thoroughly excited. It's an old-ish book, but the list of authors and their topics / chapters is absolutely mindblowing...

Gosh gosh gosh.

And it's MINEMINEMINE so I can mark it all in pencil


----------



## Barking_Mad (Dec 12, 2007)

120 pages left of 'The Brothers K' - gtop banana read although I think i'd probably need to read it 2 or 3 times to get the full picture.


----------



## no-no (Dec 12, 2007)

Tau Zero - Poul Anderson


----------



## Larry O'Hara (Dec 12, 2007)

mrs quoad said:
			
		

> _Criminology at the Crossroads. Feminist Readings in Crime and Justice_ came through from Amazon yesterday.
> 
> For the first time in ages, I'm actually thoroughly excited. It's an old-ish book, but the list of authors and their topics / chapters is absolutely mindblowing...
> 
> ...



just as I suspected.


----------



## Larry O'Hara (Dec 12, 2007)

Nothing specific yet, but in a month's time I will for sure have back in my possession my library, including 10,000+ books that have been in storage for 3 years.


----------



## cliche guevara (Dec 12, 2007)

The Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul - Douglas Adams

Apparently it's his worst book, but by anyone else's standards that means it's fucking excellent. Only about 20 pages in thoug so will withold judgement for now. Didn't think that the first Dirk Gently book was anywhere near as good as H2G2 series though.


----------



## mrs quoad (Dec 12, 2007)

YAWN!!! Sounds like fair comment, cliche 

I found it just a wee bit painful. But that was - admittedly - roughly 20 years ago


----------



## nks487 (Dec 16, 2007)

Humm, Just finished Lee Child "The Killing Floor" in 5hrs this evening with breaks to check if the cat wanted to come in - can anyone beat me? .

I have "The Looming Towers" Lawrence Wright and "The God Delusion" by Dawkins lined up. I've been told that "God Delusion" by Dawkins is a bit school mam'ish in tone. i.e. talking down to readers  "I am more intelligent than you lot.."  sort of thing.

I've read all of Dawkins other stuff. I liked it but then I am converted a long time ago.


----------



## Barking_Mad (Dec 19, 2007)

Just finished the Bros. K. 

Stunning stuff and at that end I seemed to get something in my eye, not sure what it was  

Now reading Victor Pelevin's 'Babylon'


----------



## Dillinger4 (Dec 19, 2007)

I finished The _Crying of Lot 49_ by Thomas Pynchon last week. 

Right now, I am reading _The Philosophers Magazine. _


----------



## the button (Dec 19, 2007)

William Cobbett's _Rural rides_ (which is about his various tours of England in the 1820s, rather than shagging farm animals). 19th century radicalism. Oh yeah.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Dec 19, 2007)

the button said:
			
		

> William Cobbett's _Rural rides_ (which is about his various tours of England in the 1820s, rather than shagging farm animals). 19th century radicalism. Oh yeah.



Oh I saw a program about that on BBC2. With that really enthusiastic and earnest chap. The one who likes walking everywhere.


----------



## the button (Dec 19, 2007)

Dillinger4 said:
			
		

> Oh I saw a program about that on BBC2. With that really enthusiastic and earnest chap. The one who likes walking everywhere.


It's a good read, but the Penguin classic is prohibitively expensive -- over a tenner, IIRC. I got an old 2 volume Everyman edition off EBay for £3.


----------



## bluestreak (Dec 19, 2007)

That sounds like something I want to read.  I haven't read any Cobbett since A Level history!


----------



## Dillinger4 (Dec 19, 2007)

I love all the 18th/19th century Radicals.



I will always have a soft spot in my heart for pamphleteers and non-conformists.


----------



## the button (Dec 19, 2007)

Cobbett writes like a dream. It's hard to believe that he was producing journalism (we might call it reportage nowadays) on the hoof (literally) for his newspaper _The Register_, rather than "literature."


----------



## JerryLundegaard (Dec 20, 2007)

I'm reading Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow, and I'm loving it - wonderfully written and very funny. It has also made me realise how much Martin Amis stole from Bellow to write Money, not only the style which is immediately obvious imo, but also particular scenes e.g  John Self getting anonymous calls in Money is 'inspired by' (stolen from) the scenes where Charley Citrine is getting threats from Rinaldo Cantabile in Humboldt's Gift.

I always thought Martin Amis was a clever cunt with plenty of style and ideas, but now I realise he's just a cunt.


----------



## jodal (Dec 20, 2007)

I just ordered 'Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army' which sounds very interesting. Hopefully it will be here before Christmas.


----------



## nks487 (Dec 20, 2007)

Just started Brick Lane today.. Not really sure about it so far.


----------



## nks487 (Dec 20, 2007)

jodal said:
			
		

> I just ordered 'Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army' which sounds very interesting. Hopefully it will be here before Christmas.



Right on my to-read list.

The classic blackwater video is 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5209468964068430943
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5209468964068430943

IMO!


----------



## jeff_leigh (Dec 22, 2007)

just finished

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon 

just starting 

Moth Smoke - Mohsin Hamed


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Dec 22, 2007)

Still reading the book on the Spanish Civil war: it's tough sledding.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Dec 22, 2007)

Johnny Canuck2 said:
			
		

> Still reading the book on the Spanish Civil war: it's tough sledding.



The Anthony Beever one?

If it is, stick with it, its a great book that.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Dec 22, 2007)

Dillinger4 said:
			
		

> The Anthony Beever one?
> 
> If it is, stick with it, its a great book that.



That's the one; I'm about 2/3 done.


----------



## chooch (Dec 22, 2007)

Dillinger4 said:
			
		

> The Anthony Beever one?
> Its a great book that.


It is a corker. Anyone read the new version?


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Dec 22, 2007)

chooch said:
			
		

> It is a corker. Anyone read the new version?



It's informative, but it's the least interesting book to read of his that I've attempted so far.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Dec 22, 2007)

Johnny Canuck2 said:
			
		

> It's informative, but it's the least interesting book to read of his that I've attempted so far.



I particularly liked the last third, myself. The aftermath. I don't know if I have read any others. Did he do one on Stalingrad?


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Dec 22, 2007)

Dillinger4 said:
			
		

> I particularly liked the last third, myself. The aftermath. I don't know if I have read any others. Did he do one on Stalingrad?



Yeah. It's good, but the best is the one about the battle for berlin.


----------



## Julie (Dec 23, 2007)

I can't believe I'm reading a book about a band (and band members) I can't stand, but there you go. It's a fun read: Dirt by Motley Crue


----------



## Dillinger4 (Dec 23, 2007)

I am still reading Gravitys Rainbow. It goes on FOREVER.


----------



## sojourner (Dec 26, 2007)

Waiting, by Ha Jin 


Liking it so far


----------



## bodach (Dec 27, 2007)

Highland River by Neil Gunn


----------



## colbhoy (Dec 27, 2007)

Just started The Innocent Man by John Grisham. Was a Christmas pressie and I am flying to Lanzarote on Sunday for the week so will be ideal pool-side reading.


----------



## May Kasahara (Dec 27, 2007)

Greg Bear - Blood Music

The writing could maybe use a little more finesse, but it's a cracking thriller nonetheless. Virustastic!


----------



## tufty79 (Dec 27, 2007)

just finished the kite runner, not too sure whether or not i actually liked it :s

annie nightingale's autobiography's keeping me going through doing reception this week. and i *do* like it


----------



## ice-is-forming (Dec 27, 2007)

the descent by jeff long...excellent story


----------



## Mr_Nice (Dec 28, 2007)




----------



## moonsi til (Dec 28, 2007)

Im reading 'half of a yellow sun' and totally loving it. It's been on my book shelves for a few months and im so glad I finally picked it up.


----------



## monkeyrampage (Dec 28, 2007)

Money for Nothing

by Roger P. Bootle


----------



## Jim Colyer (Dec 29, 2007)

I am getting ready to start a book about Yankee Stadium and the politics of New York.


----------



## quimcunx (Dec 29, 2007)

Nearly finished Derren Brown, moving onto Haruki Makathingy.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Dec 29, 2007)

Papingo said:
			
		

> Nearly finished Derren Brown, moving onto Haruki Makathingy.



Murakami?

Which one? He is brilliant.


----------



## quimcunx (Dec 29, 2007)

Dance Dance Dance.  I'm a virgin, but I've heard good things.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Dec 29, 2007)

Papingo said:
			
		

> Dance Dance Dance.  I'm a virgin, but I've heard good things.



My favorite, IIRC!

He is very good indeed.


----------



## May Kasahara (Dec 29, 2007)

Hard Boiled Wonderland is my fave 

Hope you enjoy, Papi - Murakami is the tits.


----------



## Katzenjammer (Dec 29, 2007)

Stephen Fry's autobiography Moab is my Washpot. 10 years old but still a great read.


----------



## sojourner (Dec 29, 2007)

For my bedtime book, I am reading Innocent When You Dream by Mac Montandon.  It's a collection of interviews of Tom Waits, mentioned by someone on here - it's


----------



## lunatrick (Dec 29, 2007)

just picked up a copy of 'the jokes over' by ralph steadman. Haven't started it yet - but I saw him do an impression of hunter s thompson at a litery festival in plymouth a couple of years ago - and it got me interested in their relationship....the mans an enigma and if anybody knows what made him tick it would be ralph I reckon....


----------



## sojourner (Dec 29, 2007)

lunatrick said:
			
		

> just picked up a copy of 'the jokes over' by ralph steadman. Haven't started it yet - but I saw him do an impression of hunter s thompson at a litery festival in plymouth a couple of years ago - and it got me interested in their relationship....the mans an enigma and if anybody knows what made him tick it would be ralph I reckon....


That's a fucking ace book.  I pre-ordered it, and I never do that usually, but it was well worth it if you're a fan of both Hunter and Ralph


----------



## lunatrick (Dec 29, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> That's a fucking ace book.  I pre-ordered it, and I never do that usually, but it was well worth it if you're a fan of both Hunter and Ralph



more a fan of hunter - but interested in a close friend / colleague's opinion as the man himself was deliberately vague and created a self myth...it will hopefully offer a different angle?


----------



## sojourner (Dec 29, 2007)

lunatrick said:
			
		

> more a fan of hunter - but interested in a close friend / colleague's opinion as the man himself was deliberately vague and created a self myth...it will hopefully offer a different angle?


It will - and maybe not one you were after/envisioning - it may even change your attitude towards Hunter, without saying too much


----------



## lunatrick (Dec 29, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> It will - and maybe not one you were after/envisioning - it may even change your attitude towards Hunter, without saying too much



well I'm sort of expecting that - I mean in some ways his death destroyed the myth anyway....but interesting man all the same..


----------



## sojourner (Dec 29, 2007)

lunatrick said:
			
		

> well I'm sort of expecting that - I mean *in some ways his death destroyed the myth anyway*....but interesting man all the same..


You think?

How so?  (genuinely interested, not a pop)

Very interesting man, yeh.  I do/did love Hunter, and that's given how much of a twat he could be


----------



## lunatrick (Dec 30, 2007)

It just seemed like an unfitting end for such an apparently macho bloke I suppose and seemed a bit undignified. I would have much preferred to hear about him passing away in his sleep


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Dec 30, 2007)

At long last: Don Quixote.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Dec 30, 2007)

lunatrick said:
			
		

> It just seemed like an unfitting end for such an apparently macho bloke I suppose and seemed a bit undignified. I would have much preferred to hear about him passing away in his sleep



He did get launched in a Rocket afterwards though.


----------



## sojourner (Dec 30, 2007)

Dillinger4 said:
			
		

> He did get launched in a Rocket afterwards though.


Quite!!

I thought it was very in keeping with him actually luna - he did it HIS way


----------



## lunatrick (Dec 30, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Quite!!
> 
> I thought it was very in keeping with him actually luna - he did it HIS way



true enough......but was it just a man trapped in the myth that even in death he couldn't be himself? the ultimate sacrifice for the journalistic art and extension of the gonzo mythology? to me it just left a bad taste in my mouth - I admired him and would wish for a more fitting end to an extraordinary life.


----------



## sojourner (Dec 30, 2007)

lunatrick said:
			
		

> true enough......but was it just a man trapped in the myth that even in death he couldn't be himself? the ultimate sacrifice for the journalistic art and extension of the gonzo myth?


Or just one of life's misfits, who fortunately made enough money to live the way he wanted to - and enough space to die the way he wanted to?


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 30, 2007)

Papingo said:
			
		

> Dance Dance Dance.  I'm a virgin, but I've heard good things.


Ooh, you should have read A WIld Sheep Chase first


----------



## sojourner (Dec 30, 2007)

lunatrick said:
			
		

> I admired him and would wish for a more fitting end to an extraordinary life.


He was very ill

Would you have rather he wasted away, losing his physical health, bit by bit?  Been in pain, been vulnerable?


----------



## lunatrick (Dec 30, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Or just one of life's misfits, who fortunately made enough money to live the way he wanted to - and enough space to die the way he wanted to?



hmm maybe so......I suppose it has more to do with my own feelings about suicide - you're going to peg it one day anyway so why make it easy on the f*ckers.......like you say he was a maverick and he expressed it even in death.....so yeah respect...........damaged heros eh?


----------



## lunatrick (Dec 30, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> He was very ill
> 
> Would you have rather he wasted away, losing his physical health, bit by bit?  Been in pain, been vulnerable?



plenty of people would have probably argued he was very ill mentally a long time ago....(not me) I don't wish anyone pain obviously but agree with the adage ' of do not go gently into the good night'.......


----------



## Chilliconcarne (Dec 30, 2007)

Ive just picked up (for about the 5th time lol) T.A.Z. (The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism) by Hakim Bey.

I've tried to read it a few times now but its pretty heavy going. Perhaps this time I'll get more than half way through before giving up


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 30, 2007)

Isn't he a dodgy paedo?


----------



## sojourner (Dec 30, 2007)

lunatrick said:
			
		

> plenty of people would have probably argued he was very ill mentally a long time ago....(not me) I don't wish anyone pain obviously but agree with the adage ' of do not go gently into the good night'.......


Yeh, they probably would/did  


Well quite - shooting your own head off and then having your body fired out of a rocket is NOT going gently into the good night  (is that what you meant?  It's what _I _mean  )


----------



## Kidda (Dec 30, 2007)

Chilliconcarne said:
			
		

> Ive just picked up (for about the 5th time lol) T.A.Z. (The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism) by *Hakim Bey*.
> 
> I've tried to read it a few times now but its pretty heavy going. Perhaps this time I'll get more than half way through before giving up



ugh *shudder* burn it.

im reading Granny made me an anarchist by Stuart Christie 

Good so far


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 30, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Isn't he a dodgy paedo?


http://libcom.org/library/leaving-out-ugly-part-hakim-bey


----------



## Voley (Dec 30, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> It will - and maybe not one you were after/envisioning - it may even change your attitude towards Hunter, without saying too much



Sounds good. I've always been interested in the myth / reality thing that goes with him.


----------



## lunatrick (Dec 30, 2007)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Yeh, they probably would/did
> 
> 
> Well quite - shooting your own head off and then having your body fired out of a rocket is NOT going gently into the good night  (is that what you meant?  It's what _I _mean  )



true - hadn't thought of it like that.............I just expected him to fight unreasonably to the end and when he didn't I was a bit shocked. ah well raise a glass to him and look forward to more insight in ralph steadmans book.....


----------



## sojourner (Dec 30, 2007)

lunatrick said:
			
		

> true - hadn't thought of it like that.............I just expected him to fight unreasonably to the end and when he didn't I was a bit shocked. ah well raise a glass to him and look forward to more insight in ralph steadmans book.....


 

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did


----------



## Chilliconcarne (Dec 30, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> http://libcom.org/library/leaving-out-ugly-part-hakim-bey



OMFG    

I had no idea


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 30, 2007)

Of course, lots of writers are probably paedos....


----------



## Dillinger4 (Dec 30, 2007)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Of course, lots of writers are probably paedos....



I think thats obvious. Writing stuff, its not normal is it? They should all just get over it and watch the X factor like the rest of us.


----------



## harlow (Dec 30, 2007)

"Three Cups of Tea"


----------



## Roadkill (Dec 30, 2007)

Judith Flanders - _Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain_

David Ross - _The Steam Locomotive: A History_

David Kynaston - _Austerity Britain, 1945-51_


----------



## jonnyd1978 (Dec 30, 2007)

Just finished "Suite Francais" by Irene Nemirovsky. Excellent! An account of the occupation of France during WWII written by someone who was there and who was killed at Austwitz. Only recently translated into English and published using the bits she had written and her collection of notes. It's a fiction but I'm sure alot was based on her own experiences and what she saw going on around.


----------



## Barking_Mad (Dec 31, 2007)

Just finished 'Babylon' by Victor Pelevin. Excellent book if not a bit loaded with bizarre sybology, some of which went over my head. However it's worth reading for the description of how advertising, television and the media work, which is superb in itself.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Dec 31, 2007)

"Japrocksampler" by Julian Cope, and "Fringe and Fortune: The Role of Critics in High and Popular Art"by Wally Monroe Shrum Jr.


----------



## kyser_soze (Dec 31, 2007)

'The Reality Dysfunction' by Peter Hamilton, recently finished 'Galactic North' by Reynolds and 'Conventions of War' by Walter J Williams...both good SF...got Neutronium Alchemist and Adam Robert's new one, Splinter...


----------



## moonsi til (Jan 2, 2008)

I just finished 'Half a Yellow Sun' which I adored. Now have just strarted Stuart Maconies 'Pies and Prejudice'.

I have a 2 week beach holiday at the end of January and Im looking forward to spending my days leisure reading.


----------



## El Jefe (Jan 3, 2008)

Michael Chabon's Gentlemen Of The Road (working title, 'Jews With Swords',  ), a kind of knowing Jewish swashbuckler...


----------



## El Jefe (Jan 3, 2008)

ViolentPanda said:
			
		

> "Japrocksampler" by Julian Cope,


 I'm ashamed to say I think I learned more 19th and 20th century Japanese history in that book than I'd ever learned previously


----------



## Dillinger4 (Jan 3, 2008)

El Jefe said:
			
		

> Michael Chabon's Gentlemen Of The Road (working title, 'Jews With Swords',  ), a kind of knowing Jewish swashbuckler...



I saw that reviewed! I found the idea behind it fascinating, and Michael Chabon is a great writer.

Would you recommend it? Coz I might put it on my shopping list.


----------



## El Jefe (Jan 3, 2008)

It's short and not particularly substantial, but it's lots of fun, like The Princess Bride was, for example. Half-price in hardbook in Waterstones at the moment, too


----------



## D'wards (Jan 3, 2008)

Just starting "If you liked School, You'll love work" by Irvine Welsh, i normally race through his stuff, so should be done in a few days...


----------



## Barking_Mad (Jan 3, 2008)

Leo Tolstoy - A Confession & Other Religious Writings

*hearts Tolstoy*


----------



## miss direct (Jan 3, 2008)

I just read Hotel World by Ali Smith. It was a bit strange but I enjoyed some parts.


----------



## baffled (Jan 3, 2008)

Just starting Daniel Johnson's White Queen and Red King _:How the cold war was fought on the chessboard_, I have read a lot of positive reviews so I am looking forward to it.


----------



## tufty79 (Jan 3, 2008)

miss direct said:
			
		

> I just read Hotel World by Ali Smith. It was a bit strange but I enjoyed some parts.


ooh that's one of my faves   have you read any of her other short stories?


----------



## JerryLundegaard (Jan 4, 2008)

Finished 'The Double' by Dostoyevsky, excellent though claustrophobic and not always enjoyable read, and I must say I was glad it was only 150 pages long.
I've also nearly finished 'The Gambler' by the same author which is very enjoyable and surprisingly straightforward.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Jan 4, 2008)

The Double is a brilliant story.

The way Dostoyevsky writes is more than a bit tedious though.


----------



## cyberfairy (Jan 4, 2008)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cock-Lane-Ghost-Haunting-Johnsons/dp/0750938692

One of the most exciting books I have ever read-and true! The epilogue was the the most scary and thrilling thing ever...


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 4, 2008)

_An Introduction to English Poetry_ by James Fenton. Useful and more than a bit interesting.


----------



## bodach (Jan 5, 2008)

A Scots Quair by Lewis Grassic Gibbon.


----------



## May Kasahara (Jan 5, 2008)

S P Somtow - Vampire Junction




			
				cyberfairy said:
			
		

> http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cock-Lane-Gh.../dp/0750938692
> 
> One of the most exciting books I have ever read-and true! The epilogue was the the most scary and thrilling thing ever...



That sounds pretty good! Plus it makes me chuckle that the Amazon link says Cock Lane Ghost Haunting Johnsons


----------



## El Jefe (Jan 5, 2008)

El Jefe said:
			
		

> Michael Chabon's Gentlemen Of The Road (working title, 'Jews With Swords',  ), a kind of knowing Jewish swashbuckler...



Actually, I've got bored with this. As great as Chabon is, he can't seem to do the basic swashbuckling thrills a book like this needs


----------



## lontok2005 (Jan 5, 2008)

Just started to read 'The Line of Beauty' by Alan Hollinghurst. So far, so fucking amazing! Not a dud sentence in nearly a hundred pages. Absolutely stunning, absorbing prose. 

I love it when a book really sucks me in


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Jan 5, 2008)

I've got several on the go. I'm reading two aloud to Blind Lemon at the moment (Far from The Sodding Crowd &  a collection of Wodehouse's Jeeves novels) and the new collection of the Mitford sisters letters, Necropolis and short stories by Muriel Spark for myself.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Jan 5, 2008)

Dillinger4 said:
			
		

> The Double is a brilliant story.
> 
> The way Dostoyevsky writes is more than a bit tedious though.


 Russian doesn't translate well.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Jan 5, 2008)

Mrs Magpie said:
			
		

> Russian doesn't translate well.



The other Russian novels I have read don't seem that bad.

Tolstoy seems to translate really well in fact, as does Lermontov and Solzhenitsyn. Gogol less so, maybe, but Dostoyevsky is just awful to plough through sometimes.

Although I am in no way saying he is shit.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 6, 2008)

_Equal Danger_ by Leonardo Sciascia.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 7, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> _Equal Danger_ by Leonardo Sciascia.



Is great. Sciascia does irony like no other writer -- it drives his books.

This one isn't as strong as the others of his I've read, but still better than most others'.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 7, 2008)

Mrs Magpie said:
			
		

> Russian doesn't translate well.


I've always been very impressed by Russian translations - they've always read much more clearly than the English equivalent. Not that I know any Russian.


----------



## CharlieAddict (Jan 7, 2008)

sea of fertility - mishima yukio.


----------



## Pieface (Jan 7, 2008)

Just finished Geek Love - Dub got it for me for xmas.  It was fantastic.







Wonderful, humane book - fucking funny too.  As usual, the blurb written on the back was a load of old arse. It doesn't "require a sickbag" - it's very satirical and is about human relationships essentially.  Just that the relationships are between a family of freaks, genetically engineered to be so by their experimental parents.  

I recommend this one to you all and I haven't done that since Cormac McCarthy


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 7, 2008)

Oooh - and you were right about him...


----------



## The Groke (Jan 7, 2008)

This:






Really, really good so far and essential reading for anyone with more than a passing interest in music.

 


Also, just finished this:






Which is ace and already being recommended in another live thread...


----------



## kyser_soze (Jan 7, 2008)

Neutronium Alchmemist, but Peter F Hamilton...fucking great except for the Louise Kavanagh storyline...


----------



## Pieface (Jan 7, 2008)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Oooh - and you were right about him...



I can lend you it if you want - although I'm actually going to push it at Book Group too


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 7, 2008)

PieEye said:
			
		

> I can lend you it if you want - although I'm actually going to push it at Book Group too


Cheers, but I have about 10 books in my 'intray' - probably won't even be at BG for a while (unless that gets picked of course)


----------



## Pieface (Jan 7, 2008)

ok - what is in your intray?


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 7, 2008)

PieEye said:
			
		

> ok - what is in your intray?


Margaret Atwood - Alias Grace
Oliver Sacks - Uncle Tungsten: Memories Of A Chemical Boyhood
Tales Of Hoffmann
Jonathan Safran Foer - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Margaret Atwood - The Blind Assassin
Andrew Smith - Moondust
Philip Roth - Everyman/The Plot Against America
Pat Barker - Blow Your House Down/Union Street
and some others I forget


----------



## Pieface (Jan 7, 2008)

I need to develop my intray - I didn't ask for books for xmas for once. I'm quite excited at interviewing the potential candidates


----------



## sojourner (Jan 7, 2008)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Margaret Atwood - Alias Grace
> Oliver Sacks - Uncle Tungsten: Memories Of A Chemical Boyhood
> Tales Of Hoffmann
> Jonathan Safran Foer - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
> ...


I see

STILL no Surfacing then?


----------



## sojourner (Jan 7, 2008)

Just finished Wrong Rooms by Mark Sanderson.  Simply written, nowt clever, but engaging, honest, and a little bit moving


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 7, 2008)

sojourner said:
			
		

> I see
> 
> STILL no Surfacing then?


Nah, doesn't appeal at all


----------



## sojourner (Jan 7, 2008)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Nah, doesn't appeal at all


No bloody taste    *huffs off*


----------



## maya (Jan 7, 2008)

I'll recommend The Blind Assassin over Alias Grace... TBA is more complex and emotionally engaging (although before the main characters are established, the story at first glance seems a bit too slow and overtly pernickety... but then as you understand things more and more it sucks you in and just keeps getting better... and the twist at the ending is unforgettable)


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 7, 2008)

sojourner said:
			
		

> No bloody taste    *huffs off*


It just looks like something I would have been made to read at college as an example of classic feminist literature
<ducks>


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 7, 2008)

maya said:
			
		

> I'll recommend The Blind Assassin over Alias Grace... If you need to arrange the books in reading order...


They're in no particular order


----------



## ChrisC (Jan 7, 2008)

*Ring By Stephen Baxter*

Another journey into the realm of plausible physics while enjoying a good storyline.


----------



## Blagsta (Jan 7, 2008)

Alexander Berkman - Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist


----------



## sojourner (Jan 7, 2008)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> It just looks like something I would have been made to read at college as an example of classic feminist literature
> <ducks>


   It's nowt bloody like that!

Well, your loss mate.  I wouldn't have recommended it unless I thought you might like it -


----------



## maya (Jan 7, 2008)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> They're in no particular order


Yeah, that's the best way to read, IMO... Or else it becomes 'duty reading', and you lose interest* (it's a pretty traumatic experience to plow through 100+ pages of novels you absolutely hate, just to 'have read it')

Didn't mean to get up on a high horse and tread own taste down the ears of others, either... Books are such a personal taste, that the concept of "recommendations" really seems meaningless (except for gently steering you away from the most abominable excretions, such as Dan Brown and similar filth) 

((*although my own adhd hops between novels every other chapter- i'm currently switching between three novels, lacking the concentration necessary to stick to just one and every time a passage gets boring i switch to a different book, then back agaain as that gets slow- seems a bit too stressful to be practical in general...))


----------



## QueenOfGoths (Jan 7, 2008)

"Inversions" by Iain M. Banks - and I am enjoying it. A lot!


----------



## May Kasahara (Jan 7, 2008)

I loved Inversions as well. Haven't ever read any of his other IMB books, but that one really grabbed me.


----------



## rennie (Jan 7, 2008)

I'm reading The Grass Crown at the moment and thoroughly enjoying it. It's part 2 of the Masters of Rome series and chronicles Rome's tension with its Italian allies and it's slide towards authoritarianism. 

I can't wait for book 4 out of 6 which is all about Ceaser. At the moment, he's a precocious 2 year old!


----------



## the button (Jan 7, 2008)

_The Radetsky March_ -- Joseph Roth

I'd only read _Legend of the holy drinker _before (and wasn't that impressed, tbh), but this is great.


----------



## Pieface (Jan 7, 2008)

maya said:
			
		

> I'll recommend The Blind Assassin over Alias Grace... TBA is more complex and emotionally engaging (although before the main characters are established, the story at first glance seems a bit too slow and overtly pernickety... but then as you understand things more and more it sucks you in and just keeps getting better... and the twist at the ending is unforgettable)



I had a go at it and that exact thing with the beginning made me lose interest.  I'll have another go on your recommendation, maya.  I need some recommendations actually - I feel all loose and have no books lined up.

I need to finish Cormac McCarthy actually - will read No Country for Old Men before it becomes the Film of 2008


----------



## kyser_soze (Jan 7, 2008)

QueenOfGoths said:
			
		

> "Inversions" by Iain M. Banks - and I am enjoying it. A lot!



Enjoyed it more on 2nd reading. Very different from the rest of the Culture books.


----------



## QueenOfGoths (Jan 7, 2008)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> I loved Inversions as well. Haven't ever read any of his other IMB books, but that one really grabbed me.



I read "The Algebraist" last year - which I thought was brilliant - and have been meaning to read some more IMB. Found this. copy of "Inversions" at a book sale for 50p so decided that must be fate telling me to do so!


----------



## JerryLundegaard (Jan 7, 2008)

Dillinger4 said:
			
		

> The other Russian novels I have read don't seem that bad.
> 
> Tolstoy seems to translate really well in fact, as does Lermontov and Solzhenitsyn. Gogol less so, maybe, but Dostoyevsky is just awful to plough through sometimes.
> 
> Although I am in no way saying he is shit.



The copy of The Double that i read was a fairly recent translation by Richard Pevear, I've also read some Chekhov translated by him and imo they are very readable.


----------



## JerryLundegaard (Jan 7, 2008)

Just finished One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, I'd always avoided it because it seemed too bleak and depressing. The subject matter (internment of political prisoners in sub zero temperatures) is obviously grim, but the emphasis is more on the strength of the human spirit. Great stuff, but i'm not sure I'm ready for the Gulag Archipelago just yet.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Jan 7, 2008)

Switchback - Matthew Klein


----------



## Dillinger4 (Jan 7, 2008)

JerryLundegaard said:
			
		

> Just finished One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, I'd always avoided it because it seemed too bleak and depressing. The subject matter (internment of political prisoners in sub zero temperatures) is obviously grim, but the emphasis is more on the strength of the human spirit. Great stuff, but i'm not sure I'm ready for the Gulag Archipelago just yet.



I read this a few months ago.

This might sound strange, but when I read it, I thought 'this doesn't seem so bad'. 

I was thinking it would be horror in the style of the holocaust or something.

But I suppose that is the whole point. How a humans can adapt to the most insane conditions they might find themselves in.

I realized the point of view I had come to was the point of view of Ivan Denisovitch himself.

Very good book, highly recommend it.


----------



## chooch (Jan 7, 2008)

the button said:
			
		

> _The Radetsky March_ -- Joseph Roth


 
Read the journalism too, if you can find it. It is the shit.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 7, 2008)

_The Kite Runner_ by Khaled Hosseini. Not my usual thing, a present from my mum, whose favourite book it's become. I'm kind of enjoying it, apart from the telegraphed heartstring-pulling and occasionally portentous grammar.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 7, 2008)

chooch said:
			
		

> Read the journalism too, if you can find it. It is the shit.



He didn't write a single shit sentence as far as I can tell


----------



## chooch (Jan 7, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> telegraphed heartstring-pulling and occasionally portentous grammar.


Dear god. Does it come with piano arpeggios and slow motion make-ups and break-ups?  
7/8 of the way through _The Dispossessed_. Likeable enough.


----------



## chooch (Jan 7, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> He didn't write a single shit sentence as far as I can tell


May very well be true. The later, drunk stuff is a little weaker, maybe.


----------



## JerryLundegaard (Jan 7, 2008)

Dillinger4 said:
			
		

> I read this a few months ago.
> 
> This might sound strange, but when I read it, I thought 'this doesn't seem so bad'.
> 
> ...



I know exactly what you mean, I assumed it would be a political attack on the Stalinist regime, but it wasn't heavy-handed in the slightest. It would have been so easy to show life in the Gulag in the worst possible light by making the protagonist less experienced with dealing with prison life, but instead we are given a portrait of an expert in overcoming indignities and deprivations.
The funny thing is, almost any 'first-hand' account of the Gulag could have ended up being published at the time because nobody had dared to attempt it, and instead of being a sensationalist exposé it is a subtly written masterpiece.
Can't recommend it highly enough.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 7, 2008)

chooch said:
			
		

> Dear god. Does it come with piano arpeggios and slow motion make-ups and break-ups?



'And from that moment, [insert person/place/mood] would never be the same again.'


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 7, 2008)

chooch said:
			
		

> May very well be true. The later, drunk stuff is a little weaker, maybe.



Ah. Not read the late late stuff


----------



## chooch (Jan 7, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> 'And from that moment, [insert person/place/mood] would never be the same again.'


  
I'm waiting for the strings, the shot of an oddly still sepia foreground against background bustle in 1940s chicago and the close-up on audrey tautou's first oversized tear.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 7, 2008)

chooch said:
			
		

> I'm waiting for the strings, the shot of an oddly still sepia foreground against background bustle in 1940s chicago and the close-up on audrey tautou's first oversized tear.



All transposed to 70s Kabul, if that makes sense.

Nah, it's keepng me reading. For some reason buried deep, I like long descriptions of fine houses and the varieties of tree grown in their gardens. There always bougainvillea somewhere.


----------



## chooch (Jan 7, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> always bougainvillea somewhere.


Quite right. Let me know when the winning orphan with the hitherto overprotective sister suffers the injury, whatsoever it may be.


----------



## sojourner (Jan 8, 2008)

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro 

It's alright, fairly engaging, but I fear it may have peaked too early (am halfway through)


----------



## cybertect (Jan 8, 2008)

Just finished 99 Francs  by Frédéric Beigbeder. Quite an entertaining read and I have a couple of his other books on their way from Amazon France 

My inner transport buff needed feeding, so today I started on Christian Wolmar's The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground Was Built and How It Changed the City Forever.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Jan 8, 2008)

The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark. A slim novel, but probably all the better for it than a weightier tome.... not a single word is wasted.


----------



## bluestreak (Jan 8, 2008)

is muriel spark any good mrs m?


----------



## TheDave (Jan 8, 2008)

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Wilde and Nausea by Sartre.

Both books recommended by a friend that I finally got around to getting out of library.


----------



## Strumpet (Jan 8, 2008)

Back in book reading mode... 

About to finish Adam Ants life story. VERY interesting as I might have said already.
Gonna start the Discworld stuff next....although I had State of Fear for Xmas and it's calling me :|


----------



## Structaural (Jan 8, 2008)

Angela's Ashes - cheery isn't it?


----------



## JerryLundegaard (Jan 8, 2008)

TheDave said:
			
		

> Nausea by Sartre.



Great book, I'm a big fan of French misanthropists, so i particularly liked this line in Nausea: 

"The fellow with the moustache has enormous nostrils that could pump air for a whole family and that eat up half his face"


----------



## TheDave (Jan 8, 2008)

JerryLundegaard said:
			
		

> Great book, I'm a big fan of French misanthropists, so i particularly liked this line in Nausea:
> 
> "The fellow with the moustache has enormous nostrils that could pump air for a whole family and that eat up half his face"



I only perused a few pages so far, seems pretty interesting. I'll have to look out for that line.


----------



## sojourner (Jan 10, 2008)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
> 
> It's alright, fairly engaging, but I fear it may have peaked too early (am halfway through)


Can I just say - this is an excellent novel.  Really well crafted, some very interesting (if already well worn) ideas, and I couldn't put it down after the halfway mark

Am now reading Auswitchz by Laurence Rees


----------



## Biddlybee (Jan 10, 2008)

I was just about to ask what you thought of it, I got it from my brother for christmas. It's been added to the ever growing 'pile to read'... I might bump it up a few books.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 10, 2008)

El Jefe said:
			
		

> I'm ashamed to say I think I learned more 19th and 20th century Japanese history in that book than I'd ever learned previously


I'm *not* ashamed to say that I learned the same. 
In fact I've put a few of the titles listed in the bibliography down on my "must get" list.


----------



## chooch (Jan 10, 2008)

Just finished Leonardo Sciascia _The Day of the Owl_.
Now reading Charles D'Ambrosio _Orphans_. Next up, _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay_.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 10, 2008)

chooch said:
			
		

> Just finished Leonardo Sciascia _The Day of the Owl_.



What did you think?


----------



## e∞a (Jan 10, 2008)

starting jpod by douglas coupland
very funny, amusing.


----------



## May Kasahara (Jan 11, 2008)

As well as coming to the end of Vampire Junction, which I am absolutely loving, I'm reading a collection of essays called A Dark Night's Dreaming: Contemporary American Horror Fiction. It's good 

We're supposed to be reading The Kite Runner for book club this month...I'm not too jazzed about it, tbh, although it sounds like an easy read.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 11, 2008)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> We're supposed to be reading The Kite Runner for book club this month...I'm not too jazzed about it, tbh, although it sounds like an easy read.



I finished this last night. Meh. It turns the pages, but, Christ, it's about as manipulative as fiction gets. Portentous revelatory sentence to end every section for example ('I never saw him again', 'And then I knew', that sort of stuff), fantastic coincidences, book club clues dropped at every turn. It has the rhythm of the big film it's just become. Ugh.

---

Now reading _Shah of Shahs_ by Ryszard Kapuscinski.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 11, 2008)

Nature's Engraver: A Life Of Thomas Bewick - Jenny Uglow - this is fantastic - I have to read all of her biographies now, she seems to have an eye for unusual but important subjects


----------



## fractionMan (Jan 11, 2008)

Pushing ice - Alistair Reynolds.


----------



## May Kasahara (Jan 11, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> I finished this last night. Meh. It turns the pages, but, Christ, it's about as manipulative as fiction gets. Portentous revelatory sentence to end every section for example ('I never saw him again', 'And then I knew', that sort of stuff), fantastic coincidences, book club clues dropped at every turn. It has the rhythm of the big film it's just become. Ugh.



As I suspected  Oh well.

Oh, I am also reading the Highway Code


----------



## kyser_soze (Jan 11, 2008)

fractionMan said:
			
		

> Pushing ice - Alistair Reynolds.



Two thumbs way, way up...his best non-RevSpace book fo sho...


----------



## Dillinger4 (Jan 11, 2008)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> Oh, I am also reading the Highway Code



I hear that is pretty good. 



There is a big twist at the end.


----------



## Roadkill (Jan 11, 2008)

Tim Clayton - Tars

Despite its corny title, it's very good.


----------



## chooch (Jan 11, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> What did you think?


Yeah. Liked it. Need to read it again though, because my head wasn't quite together enough to take it in.


----------



## bodach (Jan 11, 2008)

A Tour in Scotland 1769 by Thomas Pennant. Not everyone's cup of tea, but very interesting nonetheless


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 11, 2008)

Dillinger4 said:
			
		

> I hear that is pretty good.
> 
> 
> 
> There is a big twist at the end.


Yeah, complete U-turn


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 11, 2008)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> We're supposed to be reading The Kite Runner for book club this month...I'm not too jazzed about it, tbh, although it sounds like an easy read.


I got it for Xmas and swapped it after taking one look at it and thinking, 'that looks SOOO bookclub'


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 11, 2008)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I got it for Xmas and swapped it after taking one look at it and thinking, 'that looks SOOO bookclub'



Do you think writers write with bookclubs in mind now? This book certainly felt like it.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 11, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Do you think writers write with bookclubs in mind now? This book certainly felt like it.


I wouldn't be surprised if they wrote with R&J in mind


----------



## DotCommunist (Jan 11, 2008)

China Mieville's King Rat


It has all the element I love about his writing but feels somehow less polished than his new crobuzon stuff. Still far and away the best thing I have read this year


----------



## sojourner (Jan 11, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Do you think writers write with bookclubs in mind now?


God

What a depressing thought


----------



## Dillinger4 (Jan 11, 2008)

sojourner said:
			
		

> God
> 
> What a depressing thought



innit!



whats the world coming to eh?

I am re-reading _The Gum Thief_ by Douglas Coupland. I usually re-read some Douglas Coupland when I start feeling a bit existential and stuff.


----------



## sojourner (Jan 11, 2008)

You know, I've never read any Coupland.  Perhaps someone could lend me one - wouldn't wanna buy it, and I never see any of his stuff in 2nd hand shops


----------



## soulman (Jan 11, 2008)

I got a copy of The 39 Steps by John Buchan from the library yesterday. I've seen a couple of the film adaptations, but I've never read the book. If I'm too pissed to read later on I'll make a start tomorrow. Anyone read it?


----------



## Dillinger4 (Jan 11, 2008)

I read it when I was kid. I cant remember it for the life of me though!


----------



## chooch (Jan 12, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Now reading _Shah of Shahs_ by Ryszard Kapuscinski.


Just squeezed in _Another Day of Life_ over a sleepless night. Wonderful writing.
I liked _The Emperor_ too, but really need to reread.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 12, 2008)

His Shadow Of The Sun is great - what are his other books about? Are they all collected journalism?


----------



## chooch (Jan 12, 2008)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> His Shadow Of The Sun is great - what are his other books about? Are they all collected journalism?


_The Emperor_ is about the last days of Haile Selassie, and uses interviews with various palace hangers-on.
_Another Day of Life_ is an extended piece of journalism about the Angolan war, and _Shah of Shahs_ is about the last Shah of Iran. 

I flicked through _Travels with Herodotus_ in a bookshop when in came out and it looked great. Just couldn't afford it at the time.

There's also one about the Soviet Union.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 12, 2008)

I'm about halfway through _Shah of Shahs_ and enjoying it a lot. I read _Shadow of the Sun_ last year and started off really enjoying it, and then got a bit bogged down. There was some controversy about this book: that he generalised about Africa and failed to take account of its diversity (leading to accusations of racism), and that he exaggerated his involvement in key events. I don't know. He does generalise, but he's also careful, I think, to outline the specific cultural and political bases of each country he visits. He was a journalist, with all the partiality that implies, not an academic writing a history of Africa. It's as much about himself and his own reaction to events, and also what it means to be Poland's only accredited foreign correspondent.

_Shah_ and _The Emperor_ are strong books that are like meditations on power, hallucinations almost. He imagines what these two men thought by looking at the events they caused. No one would suggest going to those books for an in-depth history of the Iran or Ethiopia, but that's not the point of them. I loved _The Emperor_ -- it reminded me of a Shakespeare history play.


----------



## quimcunx (Jan 12, 2008)

Just finished Dance Dance Dance by Hurika Murkikama ish

Not bad.  thought it was going to go all American Gods.  A bit unfinished.  

Now Eleanor Rigby by Coupland.   Enjoying it so far.


Are you in brixton, soj?


----------



## Ms T (Jan 12, 2008)

I just started *Everything is Illuminated* by Jonathan Safran Foer, which I've had on my bookshelf for about a hundred years (it's in hardback, ffs) but never read.  I've only read a couple of pages so far though.


----------



## Orang Utan (Jan 12, 2008)

I loved that - the narrator is great


----------



## Ms T (Jan 12, 2008)

Yeah, I'm liking the narrator's voice already.


----------



## Random One (Jan 12, 2008)

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts



> In 1978, gifted student and writer Greg Roberts turned to heroin when his marriage collapsed, feeding his addiction with a string of robberies. Caught and convicted, he was given a nineteen-year sentence. After two years, he escaped from a maximum- security prison, spending the next ten years on the run as Australia's most wanted man. Hiding in Bombay, he established a medical clinic for slum- dwellers, worked in the Bollywood film industry and served time in the notorious Arthur Road prison. He was recruited by one of the most charismatic branches of the Bombay mafia for whom he worked as a forger, counterfeiter, and smuggler, and fought alongside a unit of mujaheddin guerrilla fighters in Afghanistan.



about a 1/4 of the way through and so far is really good and really well written. you get a real sense of being amongst the action and there's some funny moments too


----------



## May Kasahara (Jan 13, 2008)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I loved that - the narrator is great



That was last month's choice for bookclub and it got a right slating from several people  Sadly I didn't have time to read it, but it is another novel that has an offputting whiff of bookclub about it.

Not saying I won't give it a go at some point though - I was surprised by some of the comments, considering how many people on here raved about it.


----------



## Mallard (Jan 13, 2008)

'White Bicycles' by Joe Boyd


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 13, 2008)

Mallard said:
			
		

> 'White Bicycles' by Joe Boyd



That's a great book.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Jan 13, 2008)

Papingo said:
			
		

> Just finished Dance Dance Dance by Hurika Murkikama ish
> 
> Not bad.  thought it was going to go all American Gods.  A bit unfinished.
> 
> ...



Soj is up north.

 

I like the books you are reading.


----------



## Mallard (Jan 13, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> That's a great book.



Only half way through and really enjoying it. Well written and great for a lot of the '60ts stuff I'm in to.


----------



## isvicthere? (Jan 13, 2008)

"The shock doctrine: the rise of disaster capitalism" by Naomi Klein.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 13, 2008)

Mallard said:
			
		

> Only half way through and really enjoying it. Well written and great for a lot of the '60ts stuff I'm in to.



Yeh, very thoughtful and well written. He's a smart bloke.


----------



## chooch (Jan 13, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Yeh, very thoughtful and well written. He's a smart bloke.


Sounds good. Might have to have that. Despite a ruthless book replenishment trip, I'm down to three things I ain't read. Amazon/Abebooks beckon.
Anyone read anything good about _country_?


----------



## Dillinger4 (Jan 13, 2008)

isvicthere? said:
			
		

> "The shock doctrine: the rise of disaster capitalism" by Naomi Klein.



Thats her newest one isn't it?

Would you recommend it?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 13, 2008)

chooch said:
			
		

> Anyone read anything good about _country_?



I ordered a bio of Hank Williams a while back, but had to return it because the first 23 pages were missing and they didn't send me another one. I reckon that would be a good place to start.

Or this. Looks interesting.


----------



## chooch (Jan 13, 2008)

Looks promising. Though really I want a wide-eyed dirty pilgrimage by a Japanese Kapuściński. 
Chapter titles: _Memphis Ain't What it Was, or Was It?_, _I Left My Mandolin on a Greyhound Bus_, _All My Exes Paid in Texas_.


----------



## El Jefe (Jan 13, 2008)

chooch said:
			
		

> Anyone read anything good about _country_?



You mean, episodic history style things, or more themed? i've got one called Redneck Vs Blueneck about politics and country which is very good


----------



## chooch (Jan 13, 2008)

El Jefe said:
			
		

> You mean, episodic history style things, or more themed? i've got one called Redneck Vs Blueneck about politics and country which is very good


Anything really. Gonzo history, hipster doorstop, academic history in verse, critical recitation. 
Sounds interesting. ta.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 13, 2008)

chooch said:
			
		

> hipster doorstop


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 13, 2008)

This?  Doesn't look like it'll stir the imagination the way it should though.


----------



## chooch (Jan 13, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Doesn't look like it'll stir the imagination the way it should though.


Judging by the no reviews and boring-as-not-even-country-shit cover?  
I've gone for that _Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity_. If it's bad, expect a bill and an open can of pilchards.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 13, 2008)

chooch said:
			
		

> Judging by the no reviews and boring-as-not-even-country-shit cover?



It looks like it might have one of those _hardback covers without a dust jacket_ that go all smeary and end up with loads of nail marks on them.


----------



## El Jefe (Jan 13, 2008)

this is good, and cheap on amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Are-Ready-C...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200265291&sr=1-1


----------



## marty21 (Jan 13, 2008)

the mermaid and the drunk - ben richards - quite enjoying it


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 13, 2008)

El Jefe said:
			
		

> this is good, and cheap on amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Are-Ready-C...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200265291&sr=1-1



Ooh, good find. I think I'll get that.

I like this, from one of the reviews: 'this is a fascinating read but is somewhat undermined by oversimplification ... He uses words like "mellow" as insults ...'


----------



## chooch (Jan 13, 2008)

El Jefe said:
			
		

> this is good, and cheap on amazon


Is it _flawed_?  
Looks interesting. 

I'll admit, only mildly irrationally, to fearing anything that gives people one name though: _Elvis_, _Dylan_, _Parsons_. 
Think that may be because my dad does it: _but Dylan in his early days, The Early Dylan, before the accident, much like Hendrix, challenged the..._


----------



## the button (Jan 14, 2008)

chooch said:
			
		

> Anyone read anything good about _country_?



_Heartache spoken here_ by Stephen Walsh is excellent. It's about the "country" scene in the UK and what it means to the people involved.


----------



## JerryLundegaard (Jan 14, 2008)

Just finished The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow.
Well written with some great characters, overall a very enjoyable read. My only quibbles would be that the ending was weak compared to the rest of the book, and the constant referencing of obsure Greek myths started to grate after a while. 

Just started The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, which I've been meaning to read for years. 150 pages in at the moment and so far it's incredible.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Jan 14, 2008)

Estates, An Intimate History by Lynsey Hanley.

Only just started it, but it's a really good read, and not the usual drivel written about estates, speaking as someone who is a long-term estate dweller.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 15, 2008)

Finished _Shah of Shahs_. A mighty 150 pages, packed with insight, great writing, black humour and sprightly pessimism. There's a film that'll never get made on every page. Kapuscinski was a genius writer. I love the way he moves in on those moments that have always fascinated me about news events -- that someone speaks the words and does the deed that changes history, and that people are still shopping and sleeping three streets away from a revolution.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 15, 2008)

Mrs Magpie said:
			
		

> Estates, An Intimate History by Lynsey Hanley.
> 
> Only just started it, but it's a really good read, and not the usual drivel written about estates, speaking as someone who is a long-term estate dweller.



I've just ordered that, looks good.


----------



## disappearer (Jan 15, 2008)

Carl G. Jung - Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Carl G. Jung - Man And His Symbols


----------



## soulman (Jan 15, 2008)

Kafka _The Trial_

Took some books back, and got some more out for free. Long live public libraries


----------



## Dillinger4 (Jan 15, 2008)

soulman said:
			
		

> Kafka _The Trial_
> 
> Took some books back, and got some more out for free. Long live public libraries



Hurray!

*is on the way to becoming a chartered librarian*


----------



## sojourner (Jan 15, 2008)

Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady - Florence King

Cheers May - so far so good


----------



## tufty79 (Jan 15, 2008)

douglas coupland's 'microserfs'... it's taking me ages for some reason


----------



## Dillinger4 (Jan 15, 2008)

tufty79 said:
			
		

> douglas coupland's 'microserfs'... it's taking me ages for some reason



Thats the only one of his that I have not read.


----------



## May Kasahara (Jan 15, 2008)

sojourner said:
			
		

> Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady - Florence King
> 
> Cheers May - so far so good



The Ovariad 

I been reading a load of complicated textual editing stuff last night and this morning...quite pleased at the speed with which I went from WTF? to OMG! with it


----------



## chooch (Jan 15, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> It looks like it might have one of those _hardback covers without a dust jacket_ that go all smeary and end up with loads of nail marks on them.


 
I associate those with the late 1970s: The Usborne Children's Book of the Animal Kingdom, a Time Life series on People of Action, a set of World Books missing Q-R.




			
				the button said:
			
		

> Heartache spoken here


Looks interesting. 
Thanks to all for recommendations.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 15, 2008)

_Idle Passion: Chess and the dance of death_ by Alexander Cockburn.


----------



## May Kasahara (Jan 15, 2008)

I'm in between fictions at the moment and am having trouble deciding what to read next - just taken delivery of an Amazon order, so have:

George R R Martin - Dreamsongs
Steven Sherrill - The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break
Kathe Koja - Extremities
A big compilation of new horror stories (The Year's Best Horror, or something)

I need to read all of these anyway, but dunno which to start first.


----------



## DotCommunist (Jan 15, 2008)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> I'm in between fictions at the moment and am having trouble deciding what to read next - just taken delivery of an Amazon order, so have:
> 
> *George R R Martin - Dreamsongs*
> Steven Sherrill - The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break
> ...


 

he is so unrelentingly grim


----------



## May Kasahara (Jan 15, 2008)

I know  I love it!

Hopefully it'll keep me going till the next Ice and Fire book arrives.


----------



## foamy (Jan 15, 2008)

I'm just going back to The Child In Time by Ian McEwan, I left it to read Northern Lights which I finished yesterday.

I have 44 unread books on my shelf so I need to get a wriggle on and read them before I can justify buying anything else - this does not include the 6 books that are winging their way to me from Amazon right now


----------



## Minnie_the_Minx (Jan 16, 2008)

Started Richard Hammond's On the Edge on the tube this morning and have just finished it.

A great read for anyone who has ever had someone close to them admitted to hospital or for anyone who's lost their memory 

First book I've read in absolutely ages


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 16, 2008)

_The Soccer War_, Ryszard Kapuscinski.


----------



## bodach (Jan 16, 2008)

The Island of the Women by George Mackay Brown


----------



## ruffneck23 (Jan 16, 2008)

Raving Lunacy by Dave Courtney : dont know what i was expecting but its the first book ive ever physically chucked across the room . The odd bit about the raves is good but the whole ' im so fcking hard cos i did this / that ' gets really tedious........ im sure some of its true but its all a bit crass ( i hope he doesnt read this cos i reckon he will kill me in the face !!   )


----------



## foamy (Jan 16, 2008)

I've put down the McEwan again today as my order from amazon came at lunch time so I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy which I have now nearly finished


----------



## quimcunx (Jan 16, 2008)

foamy said:
			
		

> I've put down the McEwan again today as my order from amazon came at lunch time so I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy which I have now nearly finished




If you want my advice don't bother picking it up again.  

Just finished Eleanor Rigby.  Very good.    

About to start Venus as a Boy by Luke Sutherland.  No idea if it will be any good.  I picked it because I met him back in the old country when I was a slip of a lass.   He was wearing odd socks and kindly gave me a lift home.  And it was adapted into a play at the Soho theatre recently which reminded me of it.


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Jan 16, 2008)

May Kasahara said:
			
		

> Steven Sherrill - The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break


I read this last year i think it was - it's enjoyable enough in the main and some interesting characterisation but it did leave me a little feeling like it wasn't properly finished or something, like it runs out of steam a little. Be interested in what you think about it as i think its definitely worth a read.

I've just finished Stormy Weather by Carl Hiassen, ok as a quick holiday read, now getting serious with A History of the Arab-Speaking Peoples by Albert Hourani. Bit heavy-going but fascinating stuff all the same.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 18, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> _The Soccer War_, Ryszard Kapuscinski.



Finished this. Fantastic book. The best place to start with Kapuscinski I reckon, being a mix of straight(ish) reportage and more meditative stuff.

Next up, I think: _Too Loud A Solitude_ by Bohumil Hrabal.


----------



## chooch (Jan 18, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Next up, I think: _Too Loud A Solitude_ by Bohumil Hrabal.


It's not as immediate as _Closely Observed Trains_ or _I Served the King of England_, but it's probably my favourite of his now. 

Whipping through Stewart Home _Memphis Underground_ as an in-betweener.  
I want to punch him regularly, but it's very entertaining.


----------



## Donna Ferentes (Jan 18, 2008)

_Bobby Fischer: His Approach To Chess_ - Elie Agur.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 18, 2008)

chooch said:
			
		

> It's not as immediate as _Closely Observed Trains_ or _I Served the King of England_, but it's probably my favourite of his now.
> 
> Whipping through Stewart Home _Memphis Underground_ as an in-betweener.
> I want to punch him regularly, but it's very entertaining.



Yeh, I wanted to get _I Served_ but they didn't have it.

I enjoyed the Home, without really getting it I think


----------



## cybertect (Jan 19, 2008)

Reading on the train this week has been Roland Barthes' _Mythologies_


----------



## chainsaw cat (Jan 19, 2008)

Erewhon.


----------



## dessiato (Jan 19, 2008)

just re reading 'The Old Man and the Sea'. I've read more times than I care  to remember.


----------



## chooch (Jan 19, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> Yeh, I wanted to get _I Served_ but they didn't have it.


It's a corker, but I fear you wouldn't like it.


> I enjoyed the Home, without really getting it I think


Yeah. I think he's mostly dicking about. Can't pretend to chortle knowingly, but the sniggering bits are good. And it's page-turning, in an occasionally punchable kind of way. I'm not getting the impression of vast, unconquerable self-doubt with it.


----------



## BBORCIK (Jan 19, 2008)

*A Life Played For Keeps*

I am half way through Ringolevio - A Life played for Keeps by Emmett Grogan - figured I should read the story as my brother named himself Ringolevio!!  It's a great read for anyone that hasn't read it...or am I the only one that hasn't?!!  ** Wondering if I should feel dumb now?!  **


----------



## senny dreadful (Jan 19, 2008)

Hello!

I've just finished reading _Watchmen_ by Alan Moore for the second time- even more amazing this time round, in my top ten reads of all time easily.

So now I'm also nearing the end of _Evolution_ by Stephen Baxter (good read, if you can get past all the monkey penis) and just starting Stephen Fry's _Making History_.


----------



## El Jefe (Jan 19, 2008)

BBORCIK said:
			
		

> I am half way through Ringolevio - A Life played for Keeps by Emmett Grogan - figured I should read the story as my brother named himself Ringolevio!!  It's a great read for anyone that hasn't read it...or am I the only one that hasn't?!!  ** Wondering if I should feel dumb now?!  **




It's a really brilliant book, and I think it's cool  you're reading it


----------



## El Jefe (Jan 19, 2008)

finally tracked down a new copy of my long lost Modern Primitives book, published by Re: Search. Brilliant collection of pieces / interviews about tattoos, piercing, ritual, scarification, body modding etc.


----------



## Scarlette (Jan 19, 2008)

The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch. I love Iris Murdoch.


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Jan 19, 2008)

El Jefe said:
			
		

> finally tracked down a new copy of my long lost Modern Primitives book, published by Re: Search. Brilliant collection of pieces / interviews about tattoos, piercing, ritual, scarification, body modding etc.


Great book


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 19, 2008)

I'm struggling manfully through Paul Hegarty's "Noise/Music: A History". It's a good book that could have been great (IMHO) if the author had resisted the urge to cite quite so often.


----------



## BBORCIK (Jan 20, 2008)

El Jefe said:
			
		

> It's a really brilliant book, and I think it's cool  you're reading it



Thanks El Jefe!  I am digging it!


----------



## BBORCIK (Jan 20, 2008)

El Jefe said:
			
		

> finally tracked down a new copy of my long lost Modern Primitives book, published by Re: Search. Brilliant collection of pieces / interviews about tattoos, piercing, ritual, scarification, body modding etc.



Haven't read that one but read similar ones - will have to check it out!


----------



## maya (Jan 20, 2008)

ViolentPanda said:
			
		

> I'm struggling manfully through Paul Hegarty's "Noise/Music: A History". It's a good book that could have been great (IMHO) if the author had resisted the urge to cite quite so often.


Yeah, I struggled through my copy last week... Incredibly dry and academic style of writing... Fell asleep at least twice (not sure whether bedtime reading is such a good idea, lol)

It seems to me most of the material in the book have been used before, I'm not sure whether he's contributed much of his own or if it's mostly quotes and re-cycling of other people's writing... Hmmm.


----------



## chymaera (Jan 20, 2008)

The  Ascent Of Man, Jacob Bronowski


----------



## maya (Jan 20, 2008)

Time-Life were rubbish... In a historical 'fact' book I've got they present lots of Biblical legends as "facts", alongside the historical material... For instance a historical timeline plate included lots of unverified myths and characters from the Bible, along with highly dubious maps of "ancient Palestine in the time of Jesus", and so on...




			
				El Jefe said:
			
		

> Re: Search


They've changed name to V/Search now for some reason, IIRC?


----------



## chooch (Jan 20, 2008)

maya said:
			
		

> Time-Life were rubbish


 
Yes. A unique and fantastically stilted prose style though, which screams to be read in a Leslie Neilsen type voice.


----------



## maya (Jan 20, 2008)

chooch said:
			
		

> Yes. A unique and fantastically stilted prose style though, which screams to be read in a Leslie Neilsen type voice.


... or Charlton Heston, presumably?


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 20, 2008)

maya said:
			
		

> Yeah, I struggled through my copy last week... Incredibly dry and academic style of writing...


Uh-huh. The guy has a real hard-on for Georges Bataille too, doesn't he?  


> Fell asleep at least twice (not sure whether bedtime reading is such a good idea, lol)


I wondered why I've been sleeping without valium for the last couple of nights!


> It seems to me most of the material in the book have been used before, I'm not sure whether he's contributed much of his own or if it's mostly quotes and re-cycling of other people's writing... Hmmm.


It *is* a bit of a "meta-review", isn't it?
I suspect he's allowed some of his own insight through, but it's buried under such a heavy morass of citation, seemingly unnecessary references to vaguely-connected philosophical ideas and contradictory sentences that it's difficult to "see the wood for the trees".


----------



## chooch (Jan 20, 2008)

maya said:
			
		

> ... or Charlton Heston, presumably?


Perfect.  
I do love that stuff. The cheeky inanimate possessive (_Earth's Fragile Sphere_), the use of 'our nation', 'our planet', 'our cities' (_Religion in Our Nation_), the pompous opening sentence based on shaky evidence, (_'Mankind had barely begun to till the Earth before he built his first cities'_)...


----------



## El Jefe (Jan 20, 2008)

maya said:
			
		

> They've changed name to V/Search now for some reason, IIRC?



There was a split of some kind between Vicki Vale (presumably the 'V' in V Search) and her publishing partner. Not sure it was that friendly either.


----------



## sojourner (Jan 21, 2008)

Was in HMV ordering sommat to spend my xmas vouchers on, and had £6 to use up, so bought the Johnny Cash autobiog, and Touching from a Distance - Deborah Curtis.  Will start the JC one tonight


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Jan 21, 2008)

maya said:
			
		

> They've changed name to V/Search now for some reason, IIRC?


Doesn't look like it from the website


----------



## kyser_soze (Jan 21, 2008)

The Naked God - makes a hell of a lot more sense now I'ver read the 2 prequels to it...


----------



## chooch (Jan 21, 2008)

Harry Crews- The Gospel Singer



			
				Dubversion said:
			
		

> demented preachers, swamps, hillbillies, a freakshow, sexual guilt, a lynching and a storm and a dwarf with a massive foot. What more could you possible want?



Very little. I've done two-thirds of it in one sitting, and it's great


----------



## crustychick (Jan 21, 2008)

I'm reading All tomorrow's Parties by william gibson. just started. looking forward to it


----------



## kyser_soze (Jan 21, 2008)

Nice - good end to a more complex trilogy than the Cyberspace sequence IMV.


----------



## D'wards (Jan 21, 2008)

Just started Banco by Henri "Papillon" Chierre - if its as good as the first i'm in for a treat


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 21, 2008)

chooch said:
			
		

> It's a corker, but I fear you wouldn't like it.



How so?

I'm enjoying this one, kind of. Little man with weird job as vehicle for wry satirical look at communist Czechoslovakia. Maybe that's what you mean


----------



## chooch (Jan 21, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:
			
		

> How so?


_I served..._ is a fairly straight narrative, more lyrical, and much more emotionally manipulative. I suspect you might toss it away for not being _Zeno's Conscience_.


> I'm enjoying this one, kind of. Little man with weird job as vehicle for wry satirical look at communist Czechoslovakia.


I reckon it's more than that, though don't want to say why and what until you've finished it


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 21, 2008)

chooch said:
			
		

> _I served..._ is a fairly straight narrative, more lyrical, and much more emotionally manipulative. I suspect you might toss it away for not being _Zeno's Conscience_.



Heh, OK 

Tbf, I'm only 20 pages into _Too Loud_, I'm jumping the gun a bit.


----------



## colbhoy (Jan 21, 2008)

I'm about half-way through Clemente - The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero by David Maraniss. A biography of Puerto Rican baseball legend Roberto Clemente who died whilst flying to Nicaragua to help after a devasting earthquake.


----------



## Firky (Jan 22, 2008)

Woken Furies by Richard Morgan, finding it far more difficult to get into than the brilliant Altered Carbon which I feel is one of the best cyber punk dystopian sci-fis ever written.

See how it goes!


----------



## Blagsta (Jan 22, 2008)

Abel Paz - Durutti in the Spanish Revolution


----------



## Dillinger4 (Jan 22, 2008)

Blagsta said:
			
		

> Abel Paz - Durutti in the Spanish Revolution



That sounds good. I like Buenoventura Durruti.

*adds to list*


----------



## chooch (Jan 22, 2008)

chooch said:
			
		

> Harry Crews- The Gospel Singer


Liked that, though thought it tailed off a little when he couldn't quite decide what to do with all those wonderful characters. It was out the traps fast, a lap or two full tilt and then the hare got caught. 

Now starting Adam Phillips- _Promises Promises_, and finishing up a couple of others.


----------



## kyser_soze (Jan 22, 2008)

firky said:
			
		

> Woken Furies by Richard Morgan, finding it far more difficult to get into than the brilliant Altered Carbon which I feel is one of the best cyber punk dystopian sci-fis ever written.
> 
> See how it goes!



So you rate Morgan do ya?


----------



## QueenOfGoths (Jan 22, 2008)

firky said:
			
		

> Woken Furies by Richard Morgan, finding it far more difficult to get into than the brilliant Altered Carbon which I feel is one of the best cyber punk dystopian sci-fis ever written.
> 
> See how it goes!



Altered Carbon is, I think, the best of the three Takeshi Kovacs novels. Broken Angels - the second in the series - is easier to get into that Woken Furies but I don't think the story arc is as good.


----------



## ringo (Jan 22, 2008)

Slowly Down The Ganges - Eric Newby

Don't know why, but I always thought Newby would be rubbish and wouldn't represent my idea of travelling or travel writing in the slightest. Turned out I was full of it; this is enthralling, entertaining and insightful. I'll ignore him no more.


----------



## Blagsta (Jan 22, 2008)

Dillinger4 said:
			
		

> That sounds good. I like Buenoventura Durruti.
> 
> *adds to list*



It's interesting so far, although occasionally a little odd gramatically due to the translation.  Lots of photos.  Durutti was hardcore, doing bank raids to fund buying arms for anarchist groups!


----------



## Radhika (Jan 22, 2008)

*Ken Follett*

Have read ' World without End'  by this most prolific author.  Brilliant desciptions of life in england during the 'Black Death'


----------



## trashpony (Jan 23, 2008)

crustychick said:
			
		

> Just read Black Swan Green by David Mitchell and it was really really good



I've just finished it and it's one of the best books I've read in a long time IMO. Have you read any of his other novels?


----------



## Lea (Jan 23, 2008)

trashpony said:
			
		

> I've just finished it and it's one of the best books I've read in a long time IMO. Have you read any of his other novels?



Read his first book Ghostwritten which was excellent. Tried to read Cloud Atlas but couldnt get into it. Havent read Black Swan Green yet.


----------



## Maurice Picarda (Jan 23, 2008)

I thought that Black Swan Green was a bit of  a disappointment. It read like a promising first novel. Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas were far better, and Number 9 Dream had more to it.


----------



## Andy the Don (Jan 23, 2008)

Anthony Beevor - The Battle for Spain: The Spainish Civil War 1936 - 1939


----------



## trashpony (Jan 23, 2008)

Maurice Picarda said:
			
		

> I thought that Black Swan Green was a bit of  a disappointment. It read like a promising first novel. Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas were far better, and Number 9 Dream had more to it.



It's the only book of his I've read so perhaps I've done it in the right order 

Lea - why couldn't you get into Cloud Atlas?


----------



## May Kasahara (Jan 23, 2008)

Maurice Picarda said:
			
		

> I thought that Black Swan Green was a bit of  a disappointment. It read like a promising first novel. Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas were far better, and Number 9 Dream had more to it.



Apparently he wrote BSG first, but didn't publish it until he had a few more under his belt, which might explain why.

I loved it - it totally won me over - but haven't got round to reading any of his other stuff yet.


----------



## London_Calling (Jan 23, 2008)

trashpony said:
			
		

> It's the only book of his I've read so perhaps I've done it in the right order
> 
> Lea - why couldn't you get into Cloud Atlas?


You're not addressing me and I can't answer for Lea but, fwiw, I got to halfway and just stalled. It's been on the bedside table for several month and I'm considerably past hooks that (i imagine) drive people on yet . . . 

Can't even offer a view on the book.

Must try harder.


----------



## foamy (Jan 23, 2008)

i loved Black Swann Green too but found that i lost my momento half way through Cloud Atlas and had to struggle not to abandon it. But I think that was mostly due to not liking the middle storyline very much.

Have Ghost Written on my shelf so will read that soon


----------



## Lea (Jan 24, 2008)

trashpony said:
			
		

> It's the only book of his I've read so perhaps I've done it in the right order
> 
> Lea - why couldn't you get into Cloud Atlas?



I dont think that I read enough of it. I had only read part of the first story before giving up. The first story really didnt appeal to me.


----------



## JerryLundegaard (Jan 24, 2008)

foamy said:
			
		

> momento



is that a very fast moving souvenir?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 24, 2008)

I Finished _Too Loud A Solitude_ by Bohumil Hrabal, which started slowly and got stronger and stronger until it became quite a complex, poetic, funny and very moving description of a life. Beautifully translated as well.

"Quietly devastating" is the reviewer's cliche for this sort of tale.

Now it's_ Estates -- An Intimate History_ by Lynsey Hanley.


----------



## cybertect (Jan 25, 2008)

Most of this week it's been _The Penultimate Truth_ by Philip K. Dick, which was up to his usual standards. 

Switching back to French again for _Nouvelles sous ecstasy_ by Frédéric Beigbeder. That guy really loves playing with language - the entire first chapter was written as a stream-of-consciousness series of questions.


----------



## Throbbing Angel (Jan 25, 2008)

My little blue dress
by Bruno Maddox 
ain't started it yet
amazed that I'm the 1st person to take it out the library
3or 4 years on a shelf
untouched


----------



## chooch (Jan 25, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> I Finished _Too Loud A Solitude_ by Bohumil Hrabal, which started slowly and got stronger and stronger until it became quite a complex, poetic, funny and very moving description of a life.


Glad you liked it. It does creep up on you.


----------



## seeformiles (Jan 25, 2008)

Just finished "The Grave Tattoo" by Val McDermid - not bad and not half as gory as some of her others. About to start some Kathy Reichs book I got in a charity shop for 50p (title escapes me at the moment). Reading diet seems to be largely violent crime and death at the moment!


----------



## dada (Jan 25, 2008)

假面的告白 by 三島由紀夫


----------



## maya (Jan 25, 2008)

dada said:


> 假面的告白 by 三島由紀夫


????


----------



## Dillinger4 (Jan 25, 2008)

I bought _The Sandcastle_ by Iris Murdoch today for £1.50.

Iris Murdoch being recommended Milly Molly. 

I am liking it already.


----------



## DotCommunist (Jan 25, 2008)

dada said:


> 假面的告白 by 三島由紀夫


 

Yukio Mishima ?


----------



## moonsi til (Jan 26, 2008)

Just finished 'The Book Seller of Kabul' by Asne Seierstad. 

essentially based upon her time living with a middle class (ish) family in Kabul but she tells it from each family members perspective.


----------



## quimcunx (Jan 26, 2008)

The Undercover Economist.  He's annoying me a bit.  I'll withold judgement until he concludes.


----------



## mentalchik (Jan 26, 2008)

Am reading - Hunter's Run by george r.r. martin, gardner dozois and daniel abraham

and

Ilario (The Lions Eye) by Mary Gentle


----------



## Dillinger4 (Jan 26, 2008)

This Iris Murdoch is brilliant.

Why had nobody ever told me before?


----------



## jeff_leigh (Jan 26, 2008)

The Gum Thief - Douglas Coupland


----------



## Dillinger4 (Jan 26, 2008)

jeff_leigh said:


> The Gum Thief - Douglas Coupland



You enjoying it? I quite liked it, myself.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Jan 26, 2008)

Dillinger4 said:


> You enjoying it? I quite liked it, myself.



Oi, stop reading other stuff and read my brautigan books you bugger so I can have them back


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Jan 26, 2008)

just purchased and ploughed thru the intro and first chapter of Violence by Slavoj Zizek, and been thoroughly entertained by some enjoyable invective.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Jan 27, 2008)

Dillinger4 said:


> You enjoying it? I quite liked it, myself.



Yeah I am thanks


----------



## dada (Jan 27, 2008)

DotCommunist said:


> Yukio Mishima ?



yes it is.
after two easy fast reads of coupland in a row*, i'm picking up a chinese translation of the confessions of a mask.  
i don't want the english version as it wouldn't be as accurate as the chinese interpretation would be.
been a difficult read cos it's taking me a while to get back into rhythm of reading chinese characteres.

*jpod was a blast.  humorous and made me laugh hard in the sort of geeky sense.  i'm unsure how others will relate if they don't work in a similar environment.
*the gum thief.  i was so tempted to get glove pond after.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Jan 27, 2008)

Glove Pond made me want to read John Cheever novels. 

I resisted. I think it was for the best.


----------



## dada (Jan 27, 2008)

Dillinger4 said:


> Glove Pond made me want to read John Cheever novels.
> 
> I resisted. I think it was for the best.



why?
is it a good or bad thing?
never read john cheever before.


----------



## chooch (Jan 27, 2008)

Dillinger4 said:


> Glove Pond made me want to read John Cheever novels. I resisted. I think it was for the best.


_Bullet Park_ is pretty great.


----------



## Student Minor (Jan 27, 2008)

Im currently reading 'No Country for Old Men' absolutely love it at the moment. Also when I find it I'm reading a book about Operation Sea Lion, by Peter Flemming which is dam fine book but a might heavy going. Thoose are the ones I'm reading theres a pile of books 10 high by my bed.


----------



## StanSmith (Jan 27, 2008)

Its an old one but I am reading The Dice Man by George Cockcroft aka Luke Rheinehart. I know its been considered a bit wayward in the past but so far so good.....imagine living life on a roll of a dice?


----------



## sojourner (Jan 28, 2008)

StanSmith said:


> Its an old one but I am reading The Dice Man by George Cockcroft aka Luke Rheinehart. I know its been considered a bit wayward in the past but so far so good.....imagine living life on a roll of a dice?



I loathed that book.  Made it halfway through and couldn't take any more of his drivel.  Ooo, shall we decide with the dice, shall we?  Why don't you take your shitty little boring story and shove it up yer arse - were my thoughts


----------



## rollinder (Jan 30, 2008)

The Nature of Monsters by Clare Clark


----------



## the button (Jan 30, 2008)

The long recessional -- a biography of Rudyard Kipling by a bloke whose name evades me.


----------



## sojourner (Jan 30, 2008)

The Wrong Boy, by Willy Russell

Started it last night and couldn't put it down.  Funny as fuck, heartbreaking, full of insight/empathy with adolescents, it's written as a series of letters to Morrissey 

One line that particularly had me laughing out loud was when he was describing his cousins - 'Mark and Sonia were the kind of children who'd make a paedophile eat his own sweets'


----------



## El Jefe (Jan 30, 2008)

sojourner said:


> I loathed that book.  Made it halfway through and couldn't take any more of his drivel.  Ooo, shall we decide with the dice, shall we?  Why don't you take your shitty little boring story and shove it up yer arse - were my thoughts



It's up there with Zen & The Art Of Motorcyle Maintenance, anything by Richard Bach and On The Road as stuff you can get away with reading aged 13-14, but after that it's just embarrasing.

See also: The Doors.


----------



## Pieface (Jan 30, 2008)

Just finished the Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin.  It was interesting as all her novels are but I find that she never writes characters you like or care about - barring perhaps Ged in the Earthsea quartet but even he was very cold and distant.  She excels at the "alien".

It's not a problem for me but it holds you at a distance from the book, so you consider what she's writing and why, rather than worrying about the wellbeing of the characters.

Her books deal with politics and gender so much more than I thought they would.  Most crappy scifi is mainly about the fantasy and the world, that stuff is all just a background to her stories, which ironically makes them feel more realistic. She's very good.


----------



## sojourner (Jan 30, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> It's up there with Zen & The Art Of Motorcyle Maintenance, anything by Richard Bach and On The Road as stuff you can get away with reading aged 13-14, but after that it's just embarrasing.
> 
> *See also: The Doors*.



Heh   My copy of that still has some hideously embarrassing teenage comments written in the front pages


----------



## sojourner (Jan 30, 2008)

PieEye said:


> Just finished the Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin.  It was interesting as all her novels are but I find that she never writes characters you like or care about - barring perhaps Ged in the Earthsea quartet but even he was very cold and distant.  She excels at the "alien".
> 
> It's not a problem for me but it holds you at a distance from the book, so you consider what she's writing and why, rather than worrying about the wellbeing of the characters.
> 
> Her books deal with politics and gender so much more than I thought they would.  Most crappy scifi is mainly about the fantasy and the world, that stuff is all just a background to her stories, which ironically makes them feel more realistic. She's very good.



Sometimes I really like that kind of writing - sometimes I get really fucking fed up of 'identification', if you know what I mean.

Having said that, have you ever read The Drivers Seat by Muriel Spark?  Same sort of thing - drove me round the bend it did


----------



## Pieface (Jan 30, 2008)

I read the Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and gave not a fig for her or her bloody protegés!


----------



## sojourner (Jan 30, 2008)

PieEye said:


> I read the Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and gave not a fig for her or her bloody protegés!



Try The Drivers Seat - it's a million miles away from PMJB


----------



## Pieface (Jan 30, 2008)

I think I may


----------



## bluestreak (Jan 30, 2008)

For the first time in over a year I am working far enough away that I get some quality reading time on my commute.  It's wonderful.  In the last ten days I've re-read _The Left Hand of Darkness_ by Ursula le Guin, and Iain Banks' _The Business_.  Both were great and well recommended.  I am currently reading PJ O'Rourke's _Peace Kills_ and can do nothing but note that he's getting less astute and more inaccurate as he gets older, which is a shame.  In his early career I often felt that he was actually a good observer of and describer of the world, albeit one that then used the facts to make a massive leap into an incorrect political analysis.  He turned cynicism into greedy pessimism, whereas I used the same information to inform my anarchist leanings.  However in this text he's turned into the same sad old flag-waver of the type he used to sneer at.  So I think that's one for the charity shop.


----------



## Roadkill (Jan 30, 2008)

Francis Pryor - Britain in the Middle Ages: An Archaeological History

It's really good, and very interesting to see the differences in approach between archaeologists and historians.


----------



## cybertect (Jan 30, 2008)

Susan Sontag - _On Photography_


----------



## ringo (Jan 31, 2008)

Roadkill said:


> Francis Pryor - Britain in the Middle Ages: An Archaeological History
> 
> It's really good, and very interesting to see the differences in approach between archaeologists and historians.



He's brilliant, worked with him and went out on the lash with him a few times. His enthusiasm is infectious, runs about like an excited puppy. Mike Parker-Pearson has a similar style.


----------



## foo (Jan 31, 2008)

Anne Tyler - The Accidental Tourist. 

i finished it in a day and a half. she's an odd one, i can't put her down as easy-reading, or chick lit. but she is kind of lite. saying all that, it was enjoyable escapism and she does write cleverly when it comes to human relationships imo.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jan 31, 2008)

Finished _Estates -- An Intimate History_ by Lynsey Hanley, which I'd read a bit about and was looking forward to.

Well, it's OK. The history of council housing section in the middle is interesting, though it could have done with a bit more detail and some photos. The memoir sections that sandwich it are weaker. In my opinion, she doesn't have enough interesting things to say about how she emerged from a council estate and became a journalist, and comes across like she's the only one ever to have done so. The final sections, about her life in Tower Hamlets and her prescriptions for future social housing policy, are intermittently interesting, but repetitious and waffly. And the editor needs shooting -- really poor in parts. I've noticed this with some Granta books. It's a shame because they have a great list.

Still, I learned a fair bit.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Feb 1, 2008)

_That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana_ by Carlo Emilio Gadda


----------



## Roadkill (Feb 1, 2008)

ringo said:


> He's brilliant, worked with him and went out on the lash with him a few times. His enthusiasm is infectious, runs about like an excited puppy.



Yes, I got that impression from his writing.  I like academics like that; enthusiastic as well as knowledgeable.    He's a good, lively writer as well.  

My latest purchase flopped through the door this morning; Peter Tatlow's _St John's Lewisham, Fifty Years On: Restoring the Traffic_'  So I think much of my weekend will be taken up with that - once I finish Pryor, that is.


----------



## Belushi (Feb 1, 2008)

bluestreak said:


> I am currently reading PJ O'Rourke's _Peace Kills_ and can do nothing but note that he's getting less astute and more inaccurate as he gets older, which is a shame.  In his early career I often felt that he was actually a good observer of and describer of the world, albeit one that then used the facts to make a massive leap into an incorrect political analysis.  He turned cynicism into greedy pessimism, whereas I used the same information to inform my anarchist leanings.  However in this text he's turned into the same sad old flag-waver of the type he used to sneer at.  So I think that's one for the charity shop.



Couldn't agree more mate, read his book about Adam Smiths 'Wealth of Nations' a while back and it's awful, real first year undergrad stuff.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Feb 2, 2008)

sojourner said:


> if nobody speaks of remarkable things, by Jon McGregor
> 
> Gripping, so far.  Simply but well written - intricate, but uncomplicated, and poetic in parts
> 
> Liking it, lots


Started it this week and couldn't get on with it at all......it was all a bit self-consciously 'modern' I thought...no speech marks round speech, missing full stops and so on.....what was it, 'the disaster' that happened?


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Feb 2, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> Finished _Estates -- An Intimate History_ by Lynsey Hanley, which I'd read a bit about and was looking forward to.
> 
> Well, it's OK. The history of council housing section in the middle is interesting, though it could have done with a bit more detail and some photos. The memoir sections that sandwich it are weaker. In my opinion, she doesn't have enough interesting things to say about how she emerged from a council estate and became a journalist, and comes across like she's the only one ever to have done so. The final sections, about her life in Tower Hamlets and her prescriptions for future social housing policy, are intermittently interesting, but repetitious and waffly. And the editor needs shooting -- really poor in parts. I've noticed this with some Granta books. It's a shame because they have a great list.
> 
> Still, I learned a fair bit.


I liked it because I live on an estate, brought up all my children (now all grown-ups) on an estate and usually books about estates are all patronising & worthy about people like me & mine, or think we are undeserving scum, and I learned a lot too. There are some really funny passages too. It could have done with more illustration and better editing, I agree.


----------



## ChrisC (Feb 3, 2008)

American Gods By Neil Gaiman.

Never ever read any of his books before. So not sure what to expect. Based on Amazon reviews it seems like it could be good.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 3, 2008)

Mrs Magpie said:


> Started it this week and couldn't get on with it at all......it was all a bit self-consciously 'modern' I thought...no speech marks round speech, missing full stops and so on.....what was it, 'the disaster' that happened?



I  loved it - thought it was a fantastic achievement - finish it and you'll find out what the disaster is


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Feb 3, 2008)

Nah, life's too short to read books that irritate the fuck out of me and anyway I gave it back to the library. I tried but the only 'fantastic achievement' would have been to read another page. I nearly hurled it across the tube carriage in frustration at the lack of punctuation. Do I care about who lived at No 18? Do I fuck.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 3, 2008)

I like books that don't have punctuation in them - it streamlines the prose and gives it an immediacy


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Feb 3, 2008)

No, it makes it hard to read.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 3, 2008)

Mrs Magpie said:


> No, it makes it hard to read.



I don't think it does once you get used to it - I like it especially when speech is freed from punctuation - it flows better


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Feb 3, 2008)

Well maybe you're used to it. I had to keep reading lines (they weren't sentences) again to understand them, and so it didn't flow at all. It stopped and started and was one line forward two lines back. Just couldn't be doing with it at all.


----------



## Pieface (Feb 4, 2008)

You'd HATE Cormac McCarthy then


----------



## sojourner (Feb 4, 2008)

PieEye said:


> You'd HATE Cormac McCarthy then



Heh


Shame about that Mrs M - I thought it was an excellent book.  Still, each to their own


----------



## kyser_soze (Feb 4, 2008)

'Splinter' by Adam Roberts. Kind of a rewrite of a Jules Verne story, an asteroid hits earth and it's about a group of end-of-world cultists who were right and try to make a life on the US-sized planetoid chunk...


----------



## blueplume (Feb 5, 2008)

which novel of Jules Vernes has inspired him ?


----------



## May Kasahara (Feb 5, 2008)

I'm reading Extremities by Kathe Koja and The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill, both of which are very good indeed.


----------



## QueenOfGoths (Feb 5, 2008)

Student Minor said:


> Im currently reading '*No Country for Old Men' *absolutely love it at the moment. Also when I find it I'm reading a book about Operation Sea Lion, by Peter Flemming which is dam fine book but a might heavy going. Thoose are the ones I'm reading theres a pile of books 10 high by my bed.



Just starting reading this - in the anticipation of seeing the film


----------



## bodach (Feb 5, 2008)

A Geography of Victorian Gothic Fiction - Mapping Histories Nightmares by Mighall. And it is a fucking nightmare of a read.


----------



## jeff_leigh (Feb 5, 2008)

Scoop - Evelyn Waugh


----------



## Barking_Mad (Feb 5, 2008)

Just read 'The Road', which was superb. Now reading 'God is Dead', a story about God coming to earth in the body of a female African refugee, and then dying.


----------



## alexjames (Feb 5, 2008)

I read Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five recently and I've been re-reading bits of Simon Reynold's Rip It Up and Start Again on the bus. Other recent reads: Glue by Irvine Welsh and The Rum Diaries by Hunter S. Thompson. I really want to get hold of a copy of On The Road by Jack Kerouac but all the local libraries are out.


----------



## belboid (Feb 6, 2008)

alexjames said:


> I read Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five recently and I've been re-reading bits of Simon Reynold's Rip It Up and Start Again on the bus. Other recent reads: Glue by Irvine Welsh and The Rum Diaries by Hunter S. Thompson. I really want to get hold of a copy of On The Road by Jack Kerouac but all the local libraries are out.



lordy, I've read all of them, and damned good they all are.  Don't bother with On The Road tho, Kerouac is the most over-rated author in the history of the world (tho his dreams book is worth a read)


----------



## bluestreak (Feb 6, 2008)

Half way through _Fury_ by Salman Rushdie.  Very good so far, there's something about Malik that reminds me of myself though, which is a worry.

Read _Albion_ by Alan Moore the other day, which was a nice idea but didn't grip me.


----------



## Sneaky Rushton (Feb 6, 2008)

Just finnished The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins last night... I found it a good read...


----------



## chazegee (Feb 6, 2008)




----------



## CharlieAddict (Feb 6, 2008)

Cormac McCarthy's The Road - loving it.

defo will read Suttree next.


----------



## MightyAphrodite (Feb 6, 2008)

Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen

The Gangs of New York - Herbert Asbury

is next.


----------



## QueenOfGoths (Feb 7, 2008)

Yossarian said:


> J.G. Farrell – The Singapore Grip



Great book - have you read any of his others?


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 7, 2008)

QueenOfGoths said:


> Great book - have you read any of his others?



Troubles is ace

I'm still reading the Bewick biog - it's shaping up to be the finest biography I've ever read.
That man had the skills:


----------



## chooch (Feb 8, 2008)

chooch said:


> Next up, _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay_.


Which I've only just started. Kracking so far.

Also finished Caroline Lucas/Mike Woodin: _Green Alternatives to Globalisation: A Manifesto_. An impressive piece of work, though a little patchy. RIP Mike.


----------



## sojourner (Feb 10, 2008)

Crocodile Soup by Julia Darling

Hmmm.  It's okay, but a little too self-conscious I think...


----------



## El Jefe (Feb 10, 2008)

stopped reading Chabon for a bit (6 novels in about 4 months may have been overkill) and am finally reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell - I picked up a nice 3-part paperback set which isn't quite as wrist-threatening as the usual edition. Loving it so far, funnier than I'd expected.


----------



## May Kasahara (Feb 10, 2008)

The bulk is what's put me off so far  Maybe I'll look out for that three part edition...


----------



## Maurice Picarda (Feb 11, 2008)

Just read Rupert Thomson's _Death of a Murderer_. It's a slight, single-sitter. He's written a lot of good books, Thomson, but ti's not looking likely any more that he'll write anything superb. Which is a shame, because he's a top-rank stylist.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 11, 2008)

Still reading about Bewick, but my flatmate's making me read Perdido Street Station by China Miéville - is this what they call fantasy then? It's very well written, but I haven't quite got to grips with his world, or maybe it's the genre I'm having trouble with - only read 1 chapter so far though - it's pretty gripping so far in that I want to find out more.


----------



## upsidedownwalrus (Feb 11, 2008)

Reading a book called Galilee by Clive Barker which my mate got for me cos he thought it would be right up my street.  It's an interesting mixture so far...

The other week, I read "On Beauty" by Zadie Smith, which I thought was awesome.


----------



## maya (Feb 11, 2008)

_Finally_ started The Road...  Spent _ages_ beforehand trying to peel off the annoying 'Oprah's Bookclub' sticker without damaging the dustjacket... devil's spawn, etc...


----------



## colbhoy (Feb 11, 2008)

Just started All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. It's taking me a bit of time to get used to his unique writing style but it is slowly building up into something quite intriguing.


----------



## pootle (Feb 12, 2008)

The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland.  Am loving it, after a slow start, but then Coupland can do little wrong in my eyes.


----------



## bluestreak (Feb 12, 2008)

Started Portnoy's Complaint yesterday.  seems like a good little read so far, though I have this vision that it's going to get cringingly grim very soon.


----------



## Maurice Picarda (Feb 12, 2008)

bluestreak said:


> Started Portnoy's Complaint yesterday. seems like a good little read so far, though I have this vision that it's going to get cringingly grim very soon.


 
Still Roth's best.


----------



## bluestreak (Feb 12, 2008)

Yeah, I read one of his then recent ones a few years ago, cannae remember what it was called but they made a film of it.  Dull as fuck.  Never bothered after that, but I thought I'd give him another chance seeing as I've owned this for years and enver read it.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 12, 2008)

bluestreak said:


> Yeah, I read one of his then recent ones a few years ago, cannae remember what it was called but they made a film of it.  Dull as fuck.  Never bothered after that, but I thought I'd give him another chance seeing as I've owned this for years and enver read it.



The Human Stain?


----------



## Maurice Picarda (Feb 13, 2008)

Gary Shteyngart: _Absurdistan_. I'm liking.


----------



## chooch (Feb 13, 2008)

bluestreak said:


> Yeah, I read one of his then recent ones a few years ago


They've all started pretty well, tailed off some, IIRC.


----------



## bodach (Feb 13, 2008)

Under the Glacier by Halldór Laxness


----------



## Roadkill (Feb 13, 2008)

Isabel Fonseca - _Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and their Journey_ 

<edit>  I'm now 2/3 of the way through this, and it's one of the most fascinating, thought-provoking things I've read in ages.  I couldn't recommend it too highly.


----------



## the button (Feb 13, 2008)

Having been diverted via the Kipling biog I mentioned earlier in the thread, I am now on volume 2 of William Cobbett's _Rural rides_.


----------



## Sunray (Feb 13, 2008)

Currently its Labyrinth by Kate Mosse.  Its OK, the Wire has me distracted at the moment.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Feb 13, 2008)

Waiting for _The Sea, The Sea_ by Iris Murdoch to arrive. It has been a week now. 

So in the meantime I am rereading _Jpod_ by Douglas Coupland.


----------



## the button (Feb 13, 2008)

Dillinger4 said:


> Waiting for _The Sea, The Sea_ by Iris Murdoch to arrive. It has been a week now.



It'll be worth the wait.


----------



## mentalchik (Feb 13, 2008)

Just finished Blood Music by Greg Bear and  am part way into Koko by Peter Straub......both charity shop finds in perfrct condition too !


realised i have about 10 books piled on my bedside table....really must sort 'em out !


----------



## Nikkormat (Feb 14, 2008)

A biography of Gertrude Bell, _Daughter of the Desert_ by Georgina Howell.


----------



## May Kasahara (Feb 14, 2008)

Just got a nice box of books through from Amazon:

Geek Love
Middlesex
Perdido Street Station
King Rat

I don't know where to start!


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 14, 2008)

Perdido Street Station, cos I'm reading it and we can discuss!


----------



## liquidlunch (Feb 14, 2008)

May Kasahara said:


> Just got a nice box of books through from Amazon:
> 
> Geek Love
> Middlesex
> ...



King Rat was a good read but Clavells best has to be Noble House


----------



## May Kasahara (Feb 14, 2008)

Orang Utan said:


> Perdido Street Station, cos I'm reading it and we can discuss!



(((my wrists))) 

I've just realised that sounds perverse. It's a big book, people, before you start sniggering!


----------



## Roadkill (Feb 17, 2008)

I've just started on _Arctic Apprentice_, by Rob Ellis.  It's the memoirs of a bloke who started on Hull trawlers in the 1950s - I picked it up in Hull last weekend.  I wasn't expecting it to be that good, but so far I'm rather impressed.   

<edit again>  I enjoyed it so much that I finished it on the tube this morning, having read it from cover to cover in a couple of sittings.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Feb 17, 2008)

I am STILL waiting for my copy of _The Sea, The Sea_ by Iris Murdoch. 

It got delivered to my dads house instead of where I live. So it should be here on Monday.

In the meantime, I reread _The Fall_ by Albert Camus, as it ties in with the existentialism essays I am writing.


----------



## lenny101 (Feb 17, 2008)

I am currently reading Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Its quite disturbing.

I can't wait to finish it so I can read Angel by Katie Price. AKA Jordan. Is there anything this woman can't do!


----------



## Scarlette (Feb 17, 2008)

Dillinger4 said:


> I am STILL waiting for my copy of _The Sea, The Sea_ by Iris Murdoch.
> 
> It got delivered to my dads house instead of where I live. So it should be here on Monday.
> 
> In the meantime, I reread _The Fall_ by Albert Camus, as it ties in with the existentialism essays I am writing.



Eek! The fact that you've bought this makes me foolishly pleased. I should have sent you my copy, sorry!!


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 17, 2008)

bluestreak said:


> I've owned this for years and enver read it.















ern would be proud.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Feb 17, 2008)

I am very close to ordering _The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao_ by Junot Diaz. 

I will restrain until I have a bit more money though.


----------



## Barking_Mad (Feb 19, 2008)

Dostoevsky - The Idiot.

*thinks it will be a sad day when he has no more Dostoevsky to read*


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Feb 19, 2008)

Richard Fortey’s new book Dry Store Room Number 1. I'm really enjoying it.
www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/news/2008/january/news_13240.html


----------



## bodach (Feb 19, 2008)

The Wasp Factory. Again. I'm after it's gothic this time.


----------



## Roadkill (Feb 19, 2008)

Nik Cohn - _Yes We Have No_.  I read this years ago and I remember enjoying it, but now I don't know what to make of it.  I can't make up my mind whether it's self-satisfied, cliched middle-class slumming or roughly what it claims to be.    I am enjoying it though, in a way.  Cohn's a good writer.

Three entries on the last two pages.  I must be reading rather a lot atm.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Feb 19, 2008)

the button said:


> It'll be worth the wait.



oh yes.


----------



## Maurice Picarda (Feb 19, 2008)

Roadkill said:


> Nik Cohn - _Yes We Have No_. I read this years ago and I remember enjoying it, but now I don't know what to make of it. I can't make up my mind whether it's self-satisfied, cliched middle-class slumming or roughly what it claims to be.  I am enjoying it though, in a way. Cohn's a good writer.


 

He is a good writer. I really wanted to punch him by the end, though. And send tanks into his "republic".


----------



## Roadkill (Feb 19, 2008)

Maurice Picarda said:


> He is a good writer. I really wanted to punch him by the end, though. And send tanks into his "republic".



I'm just not sure how much of it I believe.  It's a bit pat and dramatised in places.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Feb 20, 2008)

Am I right in thinking Nik Cohn who was knocking about in the 70s writing for various people is the same Nick Cohen who writes for either the Observer or the Grauniad?


----------



## Vintage Paw (Feb 20, 2008)

Dillinger4 said:


> I am STILL waiting for my copy of _The Sea, The Sea_ by Iris Murdoch.
> 
> It got delivered to my dads house instead of where I live. So it should be here on Monday.
> 
> In the meantime, I reread _The Fall_ by Albert Camus, as it ties in with the existentialism essays I am writing.



Huzzah. You know, my dishy lecturer specialises in Iris.

Me, I'm reading _The Brooklyn Follies_ for my dissertation. I don't think I can even entertain the idea of reading anything for my own unadulterated pleasure for the next few months. Mind you, only 3 months to go now.


----------



## El Jefe (Feb 20, 2008)

Mrs Magpie said:


> Am I right in thinking Nik Cohn who was knocking about in the 70s writing for various people is the same Nick Cohen who writes for either the Observer or the Grauniad?



Nope, different people


----------



## Fez909 (Feb 20, 2008)

I got to the end of book one of the _Illuminatus! Trilogy _and somehow wandered into a library and found two books which I need to read _now.

_So I've put Illuminatus down for now and I'm a chapter into _1933 Was a Bad Year_ by John Fante. No opinion of it yet!


----------



## blueplume (Feb 20, 2008)

Orang Utan said:


> The Human Stain?



there is always something quite touching in his characters, apart from identity matter or sexual and other frustrations ; also remember that crazy Faunia's husabnd, ex-Vietnam soldiar, what a nightmare!


----------



## chooch (Feb 21, 2008)

chooch said:


> Kavalier and Clay.


Well, that was likeable, but began to wind me up by the end. The most obviously comic book yarny sections were most convincing, in a way. 

Now on to Derek Raymond _A State of Denmark_, with thanks to Dirty Martini.


----------



## MightyAphrodite (Feb 21, 2008)

Big Sur - Jack Kerouac

read this several times, love it more every time.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Feb 21, 2008)

chooch said:


> Now on to Derek Raymond _A State of Denmark_, with thanks to Dirty Martini.



That's a cheery read.

I've got the Chabon in a holding formation.


----------



## sojourner (Feb 21, 2008)

Gravity by Erica Wagner


2 stories in - liking it


----------



## jeff_leigh (Feb 21, 2008)

The Idiocy of Idears


----------



## chooch (Feb 22, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> I'm beginning to think his first, _The Crust On Its Uppers_, is by far the best thing he did.


I'm finding _A state of Denmark_ frustrating because he can write, and some of it is wonderful, and the idea's great and correctly grubbily drably English, but the cockernee reads like _On the Buses_ and he can't help point-scoring through the narrator.


----------



## Rollem (Feb 22, 2008)

'oystercatchers' susan fletcher

its alright, I dont usually like books that are too descriptive, but this one is quite intriguing

bit frustrated as i want to finsish it quicker than i can be bothered to read, asi have 'empress orchid' by anchee min ro read...


----------



## bodach (Feb 22, 2008)

Island by Alistair MacLeod. A collection of short stories by a Canadian author. Really good book.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Feb 22, 2008)

chooch said:


> I'm finding _A state of Denmark_ frustrating because he can write, and some of it is wonderful, and the idea's great and correctly grubbily drably English, but the cockernee reads like _On the Buses_ and he can't help point-scoring through the narrator.



His police dialogue is generally suitably Sweeneyesque; his dialogue, when it involves youngsters and villains, for some reason, falls flat on its arse.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Feb 23, 2008)

Finally finished _That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana_ by Carlo Emilio Gadda.

'Finally' because, although it's not of monstrous length, it took me ages to read. It's a strange, philosophically charged, satirical crime novel set in Mussolini's Rome. Fascinating, not a bit frustrating, brilliant for long stretches, bracing. Nothing gets solved, there's lots of digression and natter, but it's worth it.

The Italians wrote some great novels in the 20th century, I'm just coming to realise this.

Now, I think, it's _You Don't Love Me Yet_ by Jonathan Lethem.


----------



## D'wards (Feb 23, 2008)

Just started The Road by Cormac McCarthy based on U75 recommendations - enjoying it thus far


----------



## May Kasahara (Feb 24, 2008)

Today I am reading some Pepys for my course. Never read any before, it's surprisingly enjoyable if a bit samey.


----------



## Nikkormat (Feb 26, 2008)

_Seven Years in Tibet_ by Heinrich Harrer.


----------



## Roadkill (Feb 26, 2008)

Maurice Hamilton - _RAC Rally 1932-1988_.  Found it in a shop in Blackheath at the weekend, and it's really rather good as a potted history of world rallying in general and the RAC in particular.  And it ends right at the point I first started to get interested in the sport - with Markku Alen's emotional first win on the long, snowy 1988 event.  £5 well spent, that.


----------



## Throbbing Angel (Feb 26, 2008)

The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin


----------



## maya (Feb 26, 2008)

Just borrowed a whole stack of China Mielville books- they're HUGE! I literally staggered under the weight as i carried them home...
Starting with: Perdido Street Station. 
Nice cover... Haven't got any further yet. Will report back after I've actually read anything, if anyone cares.


----------



## sojourner (Feb 26, 2008)

China who?  What?  Not like I care, or anything...


----------



## Structaural (Feb 26, 2008)

maya said:


> Just borrowed a whole stack of China Mielville books- they're HUGE! I literally staggered under the weight as i carried them home...
> Starting with: Perdido Street Station.
> Nice cover... Haven't got any further yet. Will report back after I've actually read anything, if anyone cares.



Top author!


----------



## bodach (Feb 26, 2008)

Frankstein by Shelley.   Not really by choice.


----------



## CharlieAddict (Feb 26, 2008)

D'wards said:


> Just started The Road by Cormac McCarthy based on U75 recommendations - enjoying it thus far



good choice. 
was my read before last.


----------



## marty21 (Feb 26, 2008)

maya said:


> Just borrowed a whole stack of China Mielville books- they're HUGE! I literally staggered under the weight as i carried them home...
> Starting with: Perdido Street Station.
> Nice cover... Haven't got any further yet. Will report back after I've actually read anything, if anyone cares.


 perdido station is brilliant - haven't got around to reading any more of his books yet

currently reading

rumours of a hurricane - tim lott


----------



## kalidarkone (Feb 27, 2008)

Misconceptions by Naomi Wolf and fat is a feminist issue by Susie Orbach.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 27, 2008)

sojourner said:


> China who?  What?  Not like I care, or anything...



I'm reading Perdido Street Station too, and I think maybe May K is too - there's seems to be a cluster of China M interest on U75 at the mo


----------



## pootle (Feb 28, 2008)

I was reading "Atomised" by that french fella and was really, really enjoying it, but I've lost it somewhere.  Bah!

Have got Sarah Walters' "The Nightwatch" in my bag now, but yet to start it.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Feb 28, 2008)

I have my head in the M section of my dictionary of philosophy

Other books I have to flick through today:

Phenomenology of Perception by Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Then for my dissertation:

Comparitive Federalism: A Systematic Enquiry
Citizenship and National Identity
Identity Politics
European Citizenship
Securing Democracy: Political Parties and Consolidation in Southern Europe
The Government and Politics of Spain
Contemporary Spanish Politics 
Research Methods in Comparitive Politics

And a LOAD of Journal articles!

Argh

This is why my post count seems to have shot up recently.


----------



## maya (Feb 28, 2008)

sojourner said:


> China who?  What?  Not like I care, or anything...


just imagine- if his parents had had twins instead, they could've called'em Hong and Kong...


----------



## maya (Feb 28, 2008)

Structaural said:
			
		

> Top author!


Quite intriguing, so far! 



			
				Orang Utan said:
			
		

> I'm reading Perdido Street Station too, and I think maybe May K is too - there's seems to be a cluster of China M interest on U75 at the mo


I think it was Cloo who recommended him, actually- and keep hearing his name in certain circles, so found out it was time to check him out...

What's your thoughts on him thus far?
The first thing I noticed was that my vocabulary couldn't keep up with the words used, I mean I understand the meaning from the context, but some of these words I've never heard before (but I suppose for a native english speaker he probably isn't super complex or anything- I got out the dictionary, though)

First thing I noticed was that he was more science fantasy than science fiction- i always had him pinned down as a science fiction author (shows my ignorance, really), but his stuff is more fantasy which acknowledges technology (which doesn't make it 100% fantasy? or what are people's thoughts on this? i always think of fantasy as a very narrow and backwards-looking, escapist genre: the middle ages romanticism, romantic 1800s hero stuff... sword'n'sandals... if there's technology, it already borders on science fiction, and so becomes science fantasy automatically? hm.)


----------



## D'wards (Feb 29, 2008)

Just started on My Booky Wook by Russell Brand, and i must say in the first 2 pages i have laughed out loud. Good stuff.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 29, 2008)

maya said:


> Quite intriguing, so far!
> 
> I think it was Cloo who recommended him, actually- and keep hearing his name in certain circles, so found out it was time to check him out...
> 
> ...


I find him very easy to read - quite pulpy in fact, though not in a bad way.
I was introduced to him as a pure fantasy writer, but I'm so unfamiliar with the genre I don't know what he's regarded as by fans.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Feb 29, 2008)

Currently reading "Fat Cats and Running Dogs: The Enron Stage of Capitalism" by Vijay Prashad.


----------



## quimcunx (Feb 29, 2008)

Just started Half of a Yellow Sun.  I liked the first chapter but I'd quite like it to carry on in that vein but know horrible things will have to happen.     

I used to be the same with Famous Five books.


----------



## May Kasahara (Mar 1, 2008)

A Clergyman's Daughter, by George Orwell. This month's book club choice. It's well dreary so far.


----------



## cybertect (Mar 1, 2008)

_Eighteenth Century England_ by Dorothy Marshall


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Mar 1, 2008)

Hannah Cullwick's diaries.


----------



## Fez909 (Mar 2, 2008)

Finished _1933 Was a Bad Year_ and have started on _Cat's Cradle_ by Vonnegut.  Very enjoyable book, as I expected, but not as good as _slaughterhouse 5 _or _Sirens of Titan_...so far (still got halfway to go though)!


----------



## Spunkmonkey (Mar 2, 2008)

James Kelman, You Have To Be Careful In The Land Of The Free.


----------



## May Kasahara (Mar 3, 2008)

May Kasahara said:


> A Clergyman's Daughter, by George Orwell. This month's book club choice. It's well dreary so far.



It's perked up a bit now, thank fuck. Actually quite enjoying it.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 3, 2008)

I finished _You Don't Love Me Yet_ by Jonathan Lethem.

Lethem writes brilliant prose without showing off. He might be my current favourite contemporary prose stylist (I am a ponce), but he brings that mighty skill to bear on what is a very slight story, making it top-heavy or bottom-heavy or something. It's missing about 100 pages and a decent subplot (the kangaroo tale doesn't cut it). He monses the ending, as he kind of does with _Motherless Brooklyn_, and Lucinda isn't Lionel, so she's left looking rinsed out and unfinished. More than one eye on the film, I think. Cameron Crowe will probably make it.

A good laugh though.


----------



## quimcunx (Mar 3, 2008)

May Kasahara said:


> A Clergyman's Daughter, by George Orwell. This month's book club choice. It's well dreary so far.




  No! No!  Serbian book, serbian book!  surely?    I've ordered 2 copies by mistake, 1 spare is enough, not 2 copies of the wrong book.


----------



## Pieface (Mar 3, 2008)

I found that one really odd Martini - in fact, it's kind of seeped out of my memory entirely.  He seems to write a very _different _book every time (if that is not a moronic observation to make ).

Which segues nicely into my recent completion - The Rising Tide by Molly Keane.   I studied one of hers for A level ages ago and having read this and the blurbs for her others, she seems to write the same sort of novel over and over again.  I like it but won't be hammering through the rest of them in a hurry.  They're set in early 20th Century Anglo Irish families, feature jealous parents and evil traditions and houses steeped in sadness etc etc.  But she writes characters brilliantly - actually, the whole book is hung on the inner life of these complex people and fuck all seems to happen outside of that.  It's impressive but kind of exhausting.

I also kept seeing Kristin Scott Thomas in the lead role.


----------



## Pieface (Mar 3, 2008)

And I fancy her a bit.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 3, 2008)

Papingo said:


> No! No!  Serbian book, serbian book!  surely?    I've ordered 2 copies by mistake, 1 spare is enough, not 2 copies of the wrong book.



There is more than one book group in the world, pappy


----------



## QueenOfGoths (Mar 3, 2008)

Mrs Magpie said:


> Hannah Cullwick's diaries.



Gosh that takes me back 

When I was at college we workshopped and then had a play written for us based on Hannah Cullwick, her relationship with Arthur Munby and his relatioship with the Wigan pit-girls.

I read her diaries when we were workshopping it - fascinating


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 3, 2008)

PieEye said:


> I found that one really odd Martini - in fact, it's kind of seeped out of my memory entirely.  He seems to write a very _different _book every time (if that is not a moronic observation to make ).



It's fair comment, I think, to say that he's experimenting with genre perhaps, to see what he can do. And when, in 30 years' time, when he's hailed as great American author, as I think he could be, there'll be people who'll refer to YDLMY as a "neglected classic".

I am basing this on MB and this one, the only ones I've read, so I'm feeling fraudulent but correct.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 3, 2008)

PieEye said:


> And I fancy her a bit.



God, yes. She should be on a UNESCO list or something.


----------



## quimcunx (Mar 3, 2008)

Orang Utan said:


> There is more than one book group in the world, papi



(quote amended for preferred spelling ) 


That's all right then.  I shall desist from panicking.


----------



## Pieface (Mar 3, 2008)

"Fraudulent but correct" 

I'd be inclined to agree with you going on what I have experienced of the Fortress of Solitude as well, which is nothing like MB and a bit bonkers.  Although I'm being entirely fraudulent here - I haven't read it - just watched Dub wrestle with it and dipped in and out myself to see what he was whinging about.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 3, 2008)

Papingo said:


> (quote amended for preferred spelling )
> 
> 
> That's all right then.  I shall desist from panicking.



pappy is better


----------



## Pieface (Mar 3, 2008)

It's a bit scatty - but I expect you like that.


----------



## Maurice Picarda (Mar 3, 2008)

The Glamour - Christopher Priest. He's good, Priest. Someone made a film of his one about duelling magicians and Tesla, which should raise his profile a bit.


----------



## quimcunx (Mar 3, 2008)

Orang Utan said:


> pappy is better



no it's unflattering, which is why, I suspect, you think it's better.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 3, 2008)

Papingo said:


> no it's unflattering, which is why, I suspect, you think it's better.



Sorry papster


----------



## quimcunx (Mar 3, 2008)

Orang Utan said:


> Sorry papster



 


*PMs Ed to request change of name* 




*to _Muffin_, no one will be able to do anything unflattering to that*


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 3, 2008)

I bet I could


----------



## catinthehat (Mar 3, 2008)

The steep approach to Garbadale, the new Iain Banks and All that is Solid. Zygmaunt Bauman.  Really enjoying the Ian Banks.  Bauman is for work purposes more than pleasure.  But it is still somewhat pleasnat.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 4, 2008)

So it's _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Gray_, after much recommendation on this thread.

e2a: Clay, not Gray :/


----------



## El Jefe (Mar 4, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> So it's _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Gray_, after much recommendation on this thread.



Look forward to hearing what you think


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 4, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> Look forward to hearing what you think



I'm 50 pages in, enjoying it a lot. I'm appreciating the slow expansive style, a nice contrast to Lethem's tightly wound aphorisms


----------



## foamy (Mar 4, 2008)

I've had to give up on Nelson Algren's A Walk On The Wild Side for the moment as I was finding it really hard to get into - i'll have to book myself a beach holiday to finish it off 

now onto Mister Pip by LLoyd Jones. Enjoying it a lot so far and it'll hopefully kick start a bit more reading after the sense of achievement i get from finishing all 199 pages in one day


----------



## bluestreak (Mar 4, 2008)

I'm reading _The Canterbury Tales_.  Bloody good actually, I'm really enjoying it, though it's hard work at times.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 4, 2008)

bluestreak said:


> I'm reading _The Canterbury Tales_.  Bloody good actually, I'm really enjoying it, though it's hard work at times.



Ah, they're great. In the Middle English or a modern English version?


----------



## Biddlybee (Mar 4, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> So it's _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Gray_, after much recommendation on this thread.


I keep meaning to get that out the library... I might do it this afternoon, none of the books I've half-heartedly started are really grabbing me at the moment.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 4, 2008)

BiddlyBee said:


> I keep meaning to get that out the library... I might do it this afternoon, none of the books I've half-heartedly started are really grabbing me at the moment.



It's building up nicely


----------



## foamy (Mar 4, 2008)

BiddlyBee said:


> none of the books I've half-heartedly started are really grabbing me at the moment.



this has happened to me for the past month so i had to go and get a book not good enough for the Booker prize but good enough for Richard and Judy' book club and the Galaxy awards


----------



## Rollem (Mar 4, 2008)

i'm reading 'empress orchid', by anchee min. just started it but already engrossed


----------



## El Jefe (Mar 4, 2008)

Nashville Radio by Jon Langford - fantastic book of his art and lyrics


----------



## bluestreak (Mar 4, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> Ah, they're great. In the Middle English or a modern English version?



I'd say modern, but it's a rather _interesting_ 1950s variant!


----------



## catinthehat (Mar 4, 2008)

bluestreak said:


> I'm reading _The Canterbury Tales_.  Bloody good actually, I'm really enjoying it, though it's hard work at times.



You could practice your middle english by posting every tenth post in it.  Having said that the only words I remember is Blacke Rockkes, which is not even spelt like that and rarely comes up in conversation.


----------



## Blagsta (Mar 7, 2008)

Sue Gerhardt - Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain


----------



## Nikkormat (Mar 7, 2008)

Memoirs of Field Marshal Montgomery.


----------



## Roadkill (Mar 8, 2008)

Tim Harford - _The Undercover Economist_

Impulse buy in Waterstone's yesterday.  Amusing enough and fairly light, but he has an unhealthy regard for Kenneth Arrow...


----------



## bodach (Mar 8, 2008)

Amongst Women by John McGahern. A thoughtful book.


----------



## Annierak (Mar 9, 2008)

'The Wrong Boy' by Willy Russell. Excellent so far, almost feel like it was written about me except i'm female . Can identify with it on every level and it's funny too


----------



## sojourner (Mar 9, 2008)

Finished Touching From a Distance by Deborah Curtis this morning.  Was never into Joy Division, so don't know much about them.  Liked this book though - shed a bit of light.

Now - East of Acre Lane by Alex Wheatle


----------



## Fledgling (Mar 9, 2008)

I've started plenty of books but slacked off reading them. I'm going to continue with Crime and Punishment though because I'm about a third of the way through and it's actually very good but I haven't really got into it.  It is a bit irritating though, you can tell the novel was a serial, this guy must have really needed the money, a bit repetitive so far. 


I have lots of books now and aven't read many of them, buy faster than read.


----------



## heinous seamus (Mar 9, 2008)

The Secret Life of Salvador Dali

I'm not sure I have the concentration levels to make it to the end.


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Mar 9, 2008)

Blagsta said:


> Sue Gerhardt - Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain


you big softie you


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 10, 2008)

I've finally got round to finishing From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddy Campbell - it took a while! It's great - so many strands and ideas in it - shame Moore isn't such a great writer but the ideas he has and the research he's done more than make up for that. I may have a look at V For Vendetta next.


----------



## May Kasahara (Mar 10, 2008)

My favourite bit of From Hell is the Ripperologists chasing the gull at the end 

Finished A Clergyman's Daughter last night - it was decent enough, but I'm not really sure what Orwell was trying to say. A lot of it is state-of-the-nation journalism shoehorned into a pulpy novel, which made me wonder why he didn't just write it as straight journalism, and the book depends a lot on the reader taking any kind of interest in issues of Christian faith, which I don't. I'll be interested to hear what the book club selector has to say about it tomorrow night.

Bedtime reading at the moment is a Love and Rockets compilation (Heartbreak Soup - v good), and am going to start Middlesex this evening


----------



## Pieface (Mar 10, 2008)

Aw - Love and Rockets is ace!  And Middlesex is one of my favourite books ever


----------



## BennehBoi (Mar 10, 2008)

Matter - Iain M Banks - very slow to get moving but looks like the end may rock.


----------



## maya (Mar 10, 2008)

heinous seamus said:
			
		

> The Secret Life of Salvador Dali
> 
> I'm not sure I have the concentration levels to make it to the end.


The weirdest (and most annoying) book abut Dali is the one he wrote about himself: "The Diary Of A Genius"...


----------



## colbhoy (Mar 10, 2008)

I'm reading Touching from a Distance, a biography by Deborah Curtis of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis and on which the film Control was based. Got the book free when I ordered the DVD from Amazon.


----------



## idioteque (Mar 12, 2008)

I'm about to start either The Satanic Verses or A Wild Sheep Chase by Murakami. Can't decide which to read first though!


----------



## Dillinger4 (Mar 12, 2008)

Murakami.

I wouldn't bother reading The Satanic Verses, tbh.


----------



## mrkikiet (Mar 12, 2008)

I wouldn't bother reading Murakami tbh.

Britain and Decolonisation by John Darwin, literally the only book in English in my flat.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Mar 12, 2008)

I cant afford to buy any new books at the moment, so I am re-reading _The Book of Laughter and Forgetting_, after chatting with D about it.

There is a bit of a discussion about an untranslatable Czech word, Litost:



> Litost is an untranslatable Czech word. Its first syllable, which is long and stressed, sounds like the wail of an abandoned dog. As for the meaning of this word, I have looked in vain in other languages for an equivalent, though I find it difficult to imagine how anyone can understand the human soul without it.
> 
> Take an instance from the student’s childhood. His parents made him take violin lessons. He was not very gifted and his teacher would interrupt him to criticize his mistakes in an old, unbearable voice. He felt humiliated, and he wanted to cry. But instead of trying to play in tune and not make mistakes, he would deliberately play wrong notes, the teacher’s voice would become still more unbearable and harsh, and he himself would sink deeper and deeper into his litost.



On my amazon shopping basket I have:

_The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao_ by Junot Diaz (Which I have heard nothing but good things about).

_Labyrinth and Other Collected Stories_ by Jorge Luis Borges 

_The Outsiders_ by SE Hinton

_The Curtain_ and _The Art of the Novel_ by Milan Kundera 

Annnndd

_Songs of Milarepa_ by Milarepa.

I want them all!!!


----------



## Dillinger4 (Mar 12, 2008)

mrkikiet said:


> I wouldn't bother reading Murakami tbh.
> 
> Britain and Decolonisation by John Darwin, literally the only book in English in my flat.



_Even_ if that were so, I would still read Murakami above the Satanic Verses. What a massive waste of time.

You know I am right Idioteque.


----------



## El Jefe (Mar 12, 2008)

Peter Doggett - There's A Riot Going On: revolutionaries, rock stars and the rise and fall of 60s counterculture.

Only about 50 pages in but it's excellent so far


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 12, 2008)

Dillinger4 said:


> Murakami.
> 
> I wouldn't bother reading The Satanic Verses, tbh.



I've been planning on reading that for ages - I was led to understand that it's even better than Midnight's Children?


----------



## Mr_Nice (Mar 12, 2008)

Out Of The Tunnel - Racheal North (BK) 

Its an amazing read although I am probably preaching to the converted. Just so many things about the book, the strength shown, realtionships with other people, determination  etc ..... I am only a third of a way through the book and its moved me to tears - literally


----------



## QueenOfGoths (Mar 12, 2008)

"The Terror" by Dan Simmons - a nice bit of horror mixed with historical fiction to  tide me over the boring commuter journeys. I am hoping to adopt the phrase "smoke and oakum" into my everyday life!


----------



## blueplume (Mar 12, 2008)

Corelli's mandolin, Louis de Bernieres


----------



## foamy (Mar 12, 2008)

blueplume said:


> Corelli's mandolin, Louis de Bernieres


I loved that book, one of the funniest I've ever read. I'm glad my mum made me pick it up after I'd given up on it although I've still haven't got round to reading Birds Without Wings.

At the moment i'm reading The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies. Nearly half way through and enjoying it very much.


----------



## jonnyd1978 (Mar 12, 2008)

Orang Utan said:


> I've been planning on reading that for ages - I was led to understand that it's even better than Midnight's Children?



I'm halfway through it at the moment. I wouldn't say it's as good as Midnights Children. (so far) Well worth reading though.


----------



## Dillinger4 (Mar 12, 2008)

ooo I want to read that Peter Ho Davies one ^^


----------



## ChrisFilter (Mar 12, 2008)

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer. Alongside some account by a Telegraph journalist of a trip along the Congo.


----------



## foamy (Mar 13, 2008)

Dillinger4 said:


> ooo I want to read that Peter Ho Davies one ^^



so did i until it featured on todays Richard and Judy's book club


----------



## frogwoman (Mar 13, 2008)

ChrisFilter said:


> The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer. Alongside some account by a Telegraph journalist of a trip along the Congo.



That book is amazing, it is one of the original and best accounts of what took place under the Nazi regime. that alongside Kershaw's biography of Hitler are the two best, nothing else even comes close. 

I'm reading flat earth news... I think it's all right, but i think he's just a little bit biased  Im quite pessimistic about the media but I dont really agree with all his conclusions, and I think he spoils it a bit by being quite repetitive in places ... 

I just finished "Beyond Chutzpah" by Norman Finkelstein ... it should be renamed "Alan Dershowitz is a zionist Cunt - here's why!" Absolutely hilarious in places


----------



## DotCommunist (Mar 13, 2008)

frogwoman said:


> That book is amazing, it is one of the original and best accounts of what took place under the Nazi regime.
> 
> *I'm reading flat earth news... I think it's all right, but i think he's just a little bit biased * Im quite pessimistic about the media but I dont really agree with all his conclusions, and I think he spoils it a bit by being quite repetitive in places ...
> 
> I just finished "Beyond Chutzpah" by Norman Finkelstein ... it should be renamed "Alan Dershowitz is a zionist Cunt - here's why!" Absolutely hilarious in places


 


I find it all to plausible. 

e2a

Shirer was good, but damn that was a long read. One of them 'a chapter a day' books.


I'm currently reading a sci fi anthology


----------



## frogwoman (Mar 13, 2008)

oh yeah, for sure, im not saying none of it's true, i think most of it is, but i dunno...good book though


----------



## frogwoman (Mar 13, 2008)

Finkelstein on the other hand ... i mean he's basically writen a whole book devoted to why Alan Dershowitz is a cunt, and he does it fucking brilliantly, he really knows his stuff as well. i can see why dershowitz tried not to let him get it published


----------



## Blagsta (Mar 13, 2008)

Re-reading Orwell's Homage to Catalonia


----------



## no-no (Mar 14, 2008)

Just finished The Handmaids Tale after hearing good things on Urban, pretty grim.The "threesome" sex scenes made me feel queasy.

Just started on Tim Krabbes The Cave.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Mar 16, 2008)

Just finished "Persons and Polemics" by E.P. Thompson, currently reading "Palimpsest: A Memoir" by Gore Vidal and "Liberty or Death: Early Struggles for Parliamentary Democracy" by Ray Hemmings.


----------



## sojourner (Mar 18, 2008)

Picked up Sarah Schulman - Empathy.  Threw it in the corner after 5 minutes.  Self-important shite.  The introduction should have given me a clue - I've never read a hagiographic intro that bad before 


Started Donnie Brasco instead.  Terrible writing, interesting story


----------



## May Kasahara (Mar 18, 2008)

I'm reading Middlesex. It's very good, not really what I expected (much more pulpy), but I'm not loving it. By which I mean, I'm enjoying it, want to know more, think it's well written and likeable and interesting, but it's not the mindblowing experience I thought it would be.


----------



## sojourner (Mar 18, 2008)

May Kasahara said:


> I'm reading Middlesex. It's very good, not really what I expected (much more pulpy), but I'm not loving it. By which I mean, I'm enjoying it, want to know more, think it's well written and likeable and interesting, but it's not the mindblowing experience I thought it would be.



I really liked that.  I didn't read any reviews or hear any opinions first though (apart from tufty saying how good it was - where is she these days?), so it wasn't built up from the get go


----------



## Fledgling (Mar 19, 2008)

Keep picking up books and not getting beyond 30 pages. Talk about short attention spans. Still on Crime and Punishment but branched out into non-fiction so am reading Stliglitz's Making Globalisation Work and Chomsky "9/11". 


AND I bought "Blood River" by Tim Butcher. Apparently this is about a journey through the Congo, following Stanley's route. Has anyone read this? I did get it from Sainsburies and it's on Richard and Judy's list so I was reticent (I make no apologies for being snobby about any of that). But it looks really interesting and was a bargain.


----------



## Leica (Mar 19, 2008)

The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark.


----------



## sojourner (Mar 20, 2008)

Leica said:


> The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark.



What do you think of it Leica?

have to say, it drove me bonkers when I read it, but I can appreciate what she did


----------



## Leica (Mar 20, 2008)

sojourner said:


> What do you think of it Leica?
> 
> have to say, it drove me bonkers when I read it, but I can appreciate what she did



I love it, love the film as well (which is really faithful to the book).

It's so full of great moments.

_You look like Red Riding-Hood's Grandmother. Do you want to eat me up?

DOESN'T STAIN? Do you think I spill things on my clothes?
_


----------



## sojourner (Mar 20, 2008)

Leica said:


> I love it, love the film as well (which is really faithful to the book).
> 
> It's so full of great moments.
> 
> ...



Didn't even know there WAS a film.  I would imagine it's really difficult to make a film out of it, just as Morvern Callar was.  

You know what?  I probably need to read it again.  Just on those two lines, I'm intrigued all over again


----------



## Leica (Mar 20, 2008)

The second one is from that scene in the beginning, when the salesgirl informs her that the dress she has just tried on is made of stainless fabric.

I also adore her conversations with the old ladies.

The film is PERFECT in every way. I keep picturing Lise as Elizabeth Taylor -- I think it was possibly her best performance ever. And the ending is so moving.


----------



## sojourner (Mar 20, 2008)

Leica said:


> The second one is from that scene in the beginning, when the *salesgirl informs her that the dress she has just tried on is made of stainless fabric*.
> 
> The film is PERFECT in every way. I keep picturing Lise as Elizabeth Taylor -- I think it was possibly her best performance ever. And the ending is so moving.



Ah, of course

hmmm..right, putting that on me rental list then


----------



## sojourner (Mar 20, 2008)

sojourner said:


> putting that on me rental list then



or I would, if they had it

is it the same title?


----------



## Leica (Mar 20, 2008)

sojourner said:


> is it the same title?



It's also known as _Identikit._
I'm not sure you'll like it though


----------



## sojourner (Mar 20, 2008)

Leica said:


> It's also known as _Identikit._
> I'm not sure you'll like it though



Searched for it, not found 

eh, how do you know what I'd like?  I put all those films you sent me on my rental, and I reckon I must have watched a few of them by now


----------



## Leica (Mar 20, 2008)

sojourner said:


> eh, how do you know what I'd like?



I don't


----------



## Rainingstairs (Mar 20, 2008)

a Phillip K. Dick reader


----------



## Blagsta (Mar 20, 2008)

Ghosts of Spain: Travels through a country's hidden past by Giles Tremlett


----------



## Numbers (Mar 21, 2008)

Muhammad Ali - His Life and Times by Thomas Hauser

Best book I've ever read on Ali by a long shot.


----------



## Pieface (Mar 21, 2008)

In Cold Blood - Truman Capote....

It's actually quite hard going - I'm having trouble getting into it.


----------



## sojourner (Mar 21, 2008)

PieEye said:


> In Cold Blood - Truman Capote....
> 
> It's actually quite hard going - I'm having trouble getting into it.



I LOVED that


----------



## colbhoy (Mar 21, 2008)

sojourner said:


> I LOVED that



So did I, a book that stayed with me for quite some time after I had finished it.


----------



## D'wards (Mar 22, 2008)

Just finished K-PAX by Gene Brewer. Should i quickly read K-PAX II? Should i?

Great book though, really enjoyed it.

Just starting Factotum by Bukowski. If i don't enjoy this one i'll put £100 in an anonymous envelope and send it to Heather Mills


----------



## DotCommunist (Mar 22, 2008)

Currently on Robert Adams 'Land of the Headless' a sci fi tale about a far future poet beheaded by his society (followers of the biblequ'ran) but like other headless kept alive and seeing through prosthetics and medical tech. Good stuff.

as is usual with Adams there is FAR more going on than the science fiction. After reading Swiftly and now this one I'm fast coming to think of Adams  as one of sci-fi's most complex writers.


----------



## heinous seamus (Mar 22, 2008)

I'm reading The Sorrows of Young Werther.


----------



## Biffo (Mar 22, 2008)

Ska'd for Life by Horace Panter - Specials biog by the bass player. Only just started but so far so good.


----------



## moonsi til (Mar 23, 2008)

I'm reading The Girls by Lori Lansen. It is about Rose and Ruby who are the worlds oldest craniopagus twins. It's fiction and yet another one I have bought from Asda with the R&J book club sticker on. So far I'm really enjoying it and last night it made me giggle quite a bit.


----------



## jonnyd1978 (Mar 23, 2008)

The R&J sticker is not anything to be fussed by. I read "The Time Travelers Wife" which had that sticker on and was a great book. Another book had it too that I can't remember!  So what if it's in R&J's bookclub?


----------



## jayeola (Mar 23, 2008)

jpod by Doug Coupland. 

*I did not find this funny at all* OK, so I LOL'd just --once--. Who liked this book?


----------



## jeff_leigh (Mar 23, 2008)

jayeola said:


> jpod by Doug Coupland.
> 
> *I did not find this funny at all* OK, so I LOL'd just --once--. Who liked this book?



I liked it, Athough to be fair I didn't LOL or ROTFLMAO,d did have a couple of grins though


----------



## moonsi til (Mar 23, 2008)

jonnyd1978 said:


> The R&J sticker is not anything to be fussed by. I read "The Time Travelers Wife" which had that sticker on and was a great book. Another book had it too that I can't remember!  So what if it's in R&J's bookclub?




It wasn't a criticism. More about me really that recently that a lot of my book purchases have been from Asda. Im loving my book and the last 2 I recall I bought from Asda and had the R&J sticker on were 'Half A Yellow Sun' and 'The Bookseller from Kabul' both IMO excellant books


----------



## El Jefe (Mar 23, 2008)

jayeola said:


> jpod by Doug Coupland.
> 
> *I did not find this funny at all* OK, so I LOL'd just --once--. Who liked this book?



I'm not sure Coupland writes books for laughs. You might have missed the point...


----------



## pootle (Mar 23, 2008)

jayeola said:


> jpod by Doug Coupland.
> 
> *I did not find this funny at all* OK, so I LOL'd just --once--. Who liked this book?



I loved it! And thought parts of it were hilarious, albeit wrong, dark humour but that's my favourite kind!

I'm reading "The Night Watch" by Sarah Walters atm and am also hearting it!


----------



## Fictionist (Mar 23, 2008)

The Origins of the Koran - Ibn Warraq


----------



## sojourner (Mar 24, 2008)

moonsi til said:


> I'm reading The Girls by Lori Lansen. It is about Rose and Ruby who are the worlds oldest craniopagus twins. It's fiction and yet another one I have bought from Asda with the R&J book club sticker on. So far I'm really enjoying it and last night it made me giggle quite a bit.



Bugger the R&J sticker on it - The Girls is a cracking novel, I really enjoyed it.


----------



## jayeola (Mar 24, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> I'm not sure Coupland writes books for laughs. You might have missed the point...



The blurb at the back implied that Jpod was LOL-matic. Certainly wasn't for me. I did enjoy it though; finding prime numbers and pi to umpteen decimal places. However going by the blurb it's a side splitter.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Mar 24, 2008)

The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman. It was OK. Not that great though. I found the characters pretty irritating to tell the truth.


----------



## avu9lives (Mar 24, 2008)

Coming to the end of Chris Haslams ‘ Alligator Strip’
Found it to be immensely engaging, to the point of obsession reading. (Especially as it’s an Easter Monday bank holiday)
What a read, it flows swiftly into the next plot so easily, I don’t know if there has been a film already made or not. Would defiantly watch it, but doubt it would ever live up to Chris Haslams novel, shame. Sherry Lee seems to be the only search info able to find on goggle, who would be able to fill her boots, and his handbag ;0
Absolutely pissed myself around the middle of the book, especially when he goes with Sherry Lee to church.
The red neck element with Brad, great read.


----------



## cyberfairy (Mar 24, 2008)

Sunday At The Crossbones is probably one of the best books I have ever read (and I read at least two a week) It is so good that despite it being a library book, I need to purchase it just to have. 
 It is based very much on truth, the story of a pastor who sought to save prostitutes souls in the thirties and came to an unfortunate end but so so much more is encompassed in the story. Wonderfully written and observed, a book I cannot stop thinking about and implore you to read
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article1734097.ece


----------



## May Kasahara (Mar 25, 2008)

Finally finished Middlesex this morning, and am glad to say that it ended up winning me over. I think what threw me was the relatively old-fashioned storytelling - I wasn't expecting such a straightforward narrative, but it is a lovely, loving book.

Now reading Marina Warner - No Go The Bogeyman.


----------



## kerb (Mar 25, 2008)

After a hard old slog i just finished Count of Monte Cristo. 

Bloody difficult. not the content or the language or even the politics of the time which i dont know much about, but its the time it takes to read these epics. 

Bloody modern life


----------



## avu9lives (Mar 25, 2008)

avu9lives said:


> Coming to the end of Chris Haslams ‘ Alligator Strip’
> Found it to be immensely engaging, to the point of obsession reading. (Especially as it’s an Easter Monday bank holiday)
> What a read, it flows swiftly into the next plot so easily, I don’t know if there has been a film already made or not. Would defiantly watch it, but doubt it would ever live up to Chris Haslams novel, shame. Sherry Lee seems to be the only search info able to find on goggle, who would be able to fill her boots, and his handbag ;0
> Absolutely pissed myself around the middle of the book, especially when he goes with Sherry Lee to church.
> The red neck element with Brad, great read.



Well eventually finished reading this, wow. You know when you get a decent read, and you cant put it down, yep!
What a crazy ending, seemed to be reading the last ten or so pages forever (timewarped) kind of felt like the book did not want me to put it down (hmmmhh scuse) 
Problem is now I find, is finding the next good read, it's goona take forever...

Seriously enjoyed reading this book.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 26, 2008)

I've just finished _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay_

It's a very fine read, I like the expansive and unfussy style very much. Chabon manages to be quietly conventional in the way he moves the writing along, slightly oldfashioned I think, and then he'll drop in a pure gem. It works.

The first half/two-thirds is beautifully plotted, with two or three strong themes that get pushed and pushed, but never too much. It works brilliantly on that level. It was obviously a novel that took a lot of planning, and that planning is worn pretty lightly...

But the problem I have with the book is that some of the fight goes out of it after the war. The detailed and episodic structure of NYC in WWII becomes a bit too sparse. The gaps are bigger, the strokes are broader, and it kind of meanders in the last 150 pages or so. The riot of detail is lost.

I'll definitely be reading more Chabon though


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Mar 26, 2008)

I've just finished 'Violence' by Slavoj Zizek which was certainly thought provoking and needs some further quiet contemplation.

Have now moved onto Carmen LaForet's 'Nada' which is a beautiful little book, about the experiences and inner thoughts of an 18y/o girl who moves to Barcelona to stay with family, set not long after the Spanish Civil War. It has been published here about ~50 years after it came out in Spain and i would highly recommend it, it's a really enjoyable and engrossing read so far.

Also enjoying whizzing through 'The Black Swan' by epistemologist Nassim Nicholas Taleb, which is about the unpredictability of life, as well as dipping in and out of 'Chomsky on Anarchism' which does what it says on the tin basically.


----------



## El Jefe (Mar 26, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> I've just finished _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay_
> 
> It's a very fine read, I like the expansive and unfussy style very much. Chabon manages to be quietly conventional in the way he moves the writing along, slightly oldfashioned I think, and then he'll drop in a pure gem. It works.
> 
> ...



much as it's absolutely my favourite novel of the last few years, i do know what you mean. The latter third is still wonderfully written IMO, but does suffer in comparison with the genius of the rest....


----------



## Pieface (Mar 26, 2008)

I find that the episode in the Arctic (??) is the tipping point for all that but I can't be sure it wasn't just my disappointment at the change in their personal dynamic.  I got quite upset that everyone went "grown up" and real life took over.  Well it took over after he'd stopped going mad in the snow.


----------



## El Jefe (Mar 26, 2008)

PieEye said:


> I find that the episode in the Arctic (??) is the tipping point for all that but I can't be sure it wasn't just my disappointment at the change in their personal dynamic.  I got quite upset that everyone went "grown up" and real life took over.  Well it took over after he'd stopped going mad in the snow.



yeh, i think I was so swept along by the passions and excitements of their lives, was so in love with all three of them, that when real life kicked in it felt flat. But maybe that had to happen..


----------



## chooch (Mar 26, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> The first half/two-thirds is beautifully plotted, with two or three strong themes that get pushed and pushed, but never too much. It works brilliantly on that level. It was obviously a novel that took a lot of planning, and that planning is worn pretty lightly...But the problem I have with the book is that some of the fight goes out of it after the war.


Yep. Entirely agree with that. It seems to lose that comic book derring-do when he dashes those hopes that so much of the first part relies on. 

I wasn't convinced by anything after the first four pages of the antarctic. Still enjoyed it enormously, mind.


----------



## bluestreak (Mar 26, 2008)

To my embarrassment I'm finally reading I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.

Interesting stuff.  Very grim in places, merely slightly grim in others.  Like many similar autobiographies it's a strange mix of beauty and ugliness.

It makes me realise that 1930s southern black americans lived in a way that bears a resemblance to medieval serfs and peasants and that perhaps we can learn more about how our ancestors lived from works like this than from the history books that are primarily concerned with the ruling classes, IYSWIM.


----------



## sojourner (Mar 26, 2008)

bluestreak said:


> To my embarrassment I'm finally reading I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.
> 
> Interesting stuff.  Very grim in places, merely slightly grim in others.  Like many similar autobiographies it's a strange mix of beauty and ugliness.
> 
> It makes me realise that 1930s southern black americans lived in a way that bears a resemblance to medieval serfs and peasants and that perhaps we can learn more about how our ancestors lived from works like this than from the history books that are primarily concerned with the ruling classes, IYSWIM.



I can't begin to tell you how much I loved the series.  Do you have the rest?

She's almost unbearably brutally honest at times about herself, and the series is a fantastic window on _so _many aspects of black american life


----------



## Roadkill (Mar 26, 2008)

Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time


----------



## d.a.s.h (Mar 26, 2008)

Tom Wolfe - _Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine_ (short stories and essays)
F Scott Fitzgerald - _The Great Gatsby_


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Mar 26, 2008)

Roadkill said:


> Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time


Is it any good then? I've been put off by other people saying how dense and incomprehensible they found a lot of it, so I've tended to stick with books like Simon Singh's The Big Bang which is kind of the easy-read version of ABHOT


----------



## Roadkill (Mar 26, 2008)

Paulie Tandoori said:


> Is it any good then? I've been put off by other people saying how dense and incomprehensible they found a lot of it, so I've tended to stick with books like Simon Singh's The Big Bang which is kind of the easy-read version of ABHOT



I've only read a chapter and half so far, but yes, it's very good.  It's surprisingly easy to read, given what the subject matter is, although I have had to stop and go back a page or two a couple of times to make sure I've grasped the thread of what he's on about!


----------



## Fictionist (Mar 26, 2008)

The Metamorphoses  Ovid (translated by Arthur Golding)


----------



## mentalchik (Mar 26, 2008)

Re-reading Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub !


----------



## gaijingirl (Mar 26, 2008)

moonsi til said:


> I'm reading The Girls by Lori Lansen. It is about Rose and Ruby who are the worlds oldest craniopagus twins. It's fiction and yet another one I have bought from Asda with the R&J book club sticker on. So far I'm really enjoying it and last night it made me giggle quite a bit.



I enjoyed that too.  I've lent it to one of my, very very motivated, EAL (English as an additional language) students - along with "A gathering light"... both good books for teenage girls I think.


----------



## chooch (Mar 27, 2008)

d.a.s.h said:


> Tom Wolfe - _Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine_ (short stories and essays)


How is that? Cos he can write like god's more urbane drunker brother when he wants.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 27, 2008)

chooch said:


> Yep. Entirely agree with that. It seems to lose that comic book derring-do when he dashes those hopes that so much of the first part relies on.
> 
> I wasn't convinced by anything after the first four pages of the antarctic. Still enjoyed it enormously, mind.



Yeh, after the comics became a job rather than the quirky passion they had been, I felt Chabon got a bit lost.



El Jefe said:


> yeh, i think I was so swept along by the passions and excitements of their lives, was so in love with all three of them, that when real life kicked in it felt flat. But maybe that had to happen..



There are lots of good things in the domestic last third, but I thought that Sammy perhaps lost a bit of definition then. Clearly unhappy and defeated, I don't think his unhappiness was sketched out fully enough.

Still, a cracking book, and one I'm glad I took my time over.

---

Now it's _Football Against the Enemy_ by Simon Kuper. Interesting, but I can't help thinking I've read all this stuff elsewhere.


----------



## d.a.s.h (Mar 27, 2008)

chooch said:


> How is that? Cos he can write like god's more urbane drunker brother when he wants.



The book has some of Tom Wolfe's writings from the 1970s. So far, it's enjoyable reading, in particular a piece on US Navy fighter pilots. Wolfe's good at getting inside the alpha male/hero/'jock' mindset.


----------



## chooch (Mar 28, 2008)

Just starting _Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity_, by Richard A Peterson.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Mar 30, 2008)

I finished _Football Against The Enemy_ by Simon Kuper.

Football and politics around the world. Almost never boring, but it badly needs an update (it was written in 1994), and some of it feel like it comes from a completely different _era_. Also, I feel I've read a lot of this stuff before, which isn't necessarily the writer's fault -- his book was part of the first wave of 'new football writing' and a lot of writers have taken it as a starting point. I liked Jonathan Wilson's _Behind The Curtain_, a very similar book in some ways, more.

I've started _Where Were You, Robert?_ by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, but it hasn't grabbed me yet.


----------



## sojourner (Mar 30, 2008)

Foucaults Pendulum - Umberto Eco

Something I've been meaning to read for about 10 years now, and picked up in a 2nd hand shop not long ago

On chapter 9 now, and have run the gamut of frustration, confusion, identification and laughter (well, more of a 'HA', and some smirking to be precise ) so far.  Liking it more than I thought I would


----------



## stonefield (Mar 30, 2008)

The Cull by Mark Frankland.
Reading it for the 3rd time it is excellent.


----------



## Spion (Mar 31, 2008)

The Gorse Trilogy - Patrick Hamilton


----------



## Barking_Mad (Apr 1, 2008)

The Master & The Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov


----------



## quimcunx (Apr 1, 2008)

A clockwork orange.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 1, 2008)

Spion said:


> The Gorse Trilogy - Patrick Hamilton



Is that a re-read? I remember us talking about Hamilton some time ago.

I should give it another go, it's been too long


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 3, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> I've started _Where Were You, Robert?_ by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, but it hasn't grabbed me yet.



Fuck I was bored by this.


----------



## chooch (Apr 3, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> Fuck I was bored by this.


I shall give it a miss. Rereading _The Emperor_ because I'm not feeling pressed to read anything else, except the country book, which should be an alongsider for a few weeks. That Pole can surely write.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 4, 2008)

_The Periodic Table_ by Primo Levi


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 4, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> _The Periodic Table_ by Primo Levi


An amazing book!

I'm reading Memoirs Of A Gnostic Dwarf by David Madsen - it has a fantastic opening, which I will post in a minute


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 4, 2008)

Orang Utan said:


> An amazing book!



I'm enjoying it a lot. I've had it on my 'to read' list for about 20 years


----------



## chooch (Apr 4, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> _The Periodic Table_ by Primo Levi


Is that mine?


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 4, 2008)

If yours has a pencilled note to 'phone plumber' on the title page, it is


----------



## foamy (Apr 4, 2008)

first book i've read for ages: 'Russell Brand's My Booky Wook'.


----------



## D'wards (Apr 4, 2008)

Into "We Need to Talk about Kevin" by Lional Shriver.

I was given it by a friend who said the first 50 pages are very hard going, and he disgarded it to be told to persist. He was right, once you get passed the scene-setting and get used to the over-articulate style (nobody talks like that), its got very good.


----------



## heinous seamus (Apr 5, 2008)

I've been reading Fear and Trembling by Kierkegaard.

To be honest for all I could tell you about it I'd have been as well just reading a brief summary of the book.


----------



## sojourner (Apr 7, 2008)

Graham Swift - Waterland


Fantastic so far, loving it


----------



## Maurice Picarda (Apr 7, 2008)

sojourner said:


> Graham Swift - Waterland
> 
> 
> Fantastic so far, loving it


 

It's definitely his best.


----------



## sojourner (Apr 7, 2008)

Maurice Picarda said:


> It's definitely his best.



is it? damn you - i was going to try reading some of his other stuff on the basis of this being so good


----------



## Maurice Picarda (Apr 7, 2008)

sojourner said:


> is it? damn you - i was going to try reading some of his other stuff on the basis of this being so good


 
It's still worth doing so.


----------



## sojourner (Apr 7, 2008)

Maurice Picarda said:


> It's still worth doing so.



oookay

any recommendations?  he's a marvellous storyteller, have to say


----------



## Maurice Picarda (Apr 7, 2008)

Two early ones which are very good are _Shuttlecock_ and _The Sweet Shop Owner_.


----------



## chooch (Apr 7, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> If yours has a pencilled note to 'phone plumber' on the title page, it is


If it does, then I didn't


----------



## quimcunx (Apr 7, 2008)

Girlfriend in a Coma, douglas coupland.


----------



## sojourner (Apr 7, 2008)

Maurice Picarda said:


> Two early ones which are very good are _Shuttlecock_ and _The Sweet Shop Owner_.



   cheers


----------



## rennie (Apr 7, 2008)

A Tunisian Tale, a book published by a mate on, you guessed it, Tunisia.


----------



## cuthbert (Apr 7, 2008)

Just finished Gulag by Anne Applebaum - fascinating, packed with detail that brings home reality of Russian labour camps. Just starting Life & Fate - Vasily Grossman. Blown away by this. V long but getting through it. Its a gripping story briliantly written


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Apr 7, 2008)

Richard Mabey's biography of Gilbert White. Very good.

This Gilbert White btw....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_White


----------



## mentalchik (Apr 7, 2008)

Black Man - Richard Morgan


----------



## Orangesanlemons (Apr 8, 2008)

Kill Your Friends by John Niven.

An entertaining enough read if you've an interest in the Britpop years but really, Martin Amis should sue.


----------



## rover07 (Apr 9, 2008)

'Wee Free Men' -Terry Pratchett. Just read the 'Wintersmith'   ...finished it that morning when it snowed


----------



## cliche guevara (Apr 9, 2008)

rover07 said:


> 'Wee Free Men' -Terry Pratchett. Just read the 'Wintersmith'   ...finished it that morning when it snowed



I have a couple of Pratchett books lined up, "Making Money" and the science of discworld books, I want to have them all out of the way for when the next one comes out, as it seems likely that it'll be his last. *sniff*


----------



## QueenOfGoths (Apr 9, 2008)

mentalchik said:


> Black Man - Richard Morgan



I enjoyed that - though prefer his Takeshi Kovacs novels


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 10, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> _The Periodic Table_ by Primo Levi



This is a beautiful book, I am in awe of it (to use a reviewer's cliche). There are pages in there, I think, that are some of the best I've ever read. I am a twat for leaving it so long to read it.

---

Now it's _Open Doors_ by Leonardo Sciascia.


----------



## Spion (Apr 10, 2008)

just read 'In search of the blues' by Marybeth Hamilton.

Next is Pride and Prejudice


----------



## dpc (Apr 10, 2008)

Coming Up For Air, by George Orwell. One of the funniest books I have read for ages.


----------



## ChrisC (Apr 11, 2008)

The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker. Read it before when I was younger remember enjoying it. Have to wait for my ordered copy of Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds to arrive. Got the Clive Barker book for next to nothing at an fate.


----------



## Roadkill (Apr 11, 2008)

Charles McKean - Battle for the North

Very interesting on the politics and the rivalries among the various companies building railways in Scotland, but his analysis of the Tay Bridge disaster isn't so good.  A good and easy read, though.


----------



## Stig (Apr 11, 2008)

Just finished the amber spyglass, last of three, then quickly did the finn family moomintroll. Am now on Jack Vance-Star King. Aaah, thin books. I'm going to embark on George R R Martin's A Feast for Crows next, so I needed a couple of thin books,  he does go on.


----------



## Fictionist (Apr 11, 2008)

'The Satanic Verses' by Rushdie


----------



## sojourner (Apr 14, 2008)

A mate brought me back some of my missing Annie Proulx, so I started re-reading Bad Dirt   Looks like she's got not just one, but two new books, coming out - let's hope they stay on course for publication this time around

Am also just finishing a biog of John Peel by Mick Wall


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 15, 2008)

Finished _Open Doors and Three Novellas_ by Leonardo Sciascia, which was ruthless and spare and utterly great.

The last things he wrote, that seem to bring most of his big themes together. The title story is particularly brilliant, but all of them are touched by greatness. It's only when you read a fair bit of him that you realise how special he was (because the author himself is always there), and how unique his crossing of investigative essay, detective story, court/police procedural and history was. There's no one who can touch him. He's close to being my favourite writer I think.

Read him!

---

Now it's _I Served the King of England_ by Bohumil Hrabal.


----------



## heinous seamus (Apr 15, 2008)

I'm reading Ring of Brightwater by Gavin Maxwell.

It makes me want to go and find an abandoned cottage in the middle of nowhere and live there.


----------



## quimcunx (Apr 15, 2008)

The Dice Man.


----------



## quimcunx (Apr 15, 2008)

sojourner said:


> A mate brought me back some of my missing Annie Proulx, so I started re-reading Bad Dirt   Looks like she's got not just one, but two new books, coming out - let's hope they stay on course for publication this time around
> 
> Am also just finishing a biog of John Peel by Mick Wall



It's partly thanks to Annie Proulx that I know how to make a noose.


----------



## cybertect (Apr 16, 2008)

Still on my English history kick - _The Century of Revolution, 1603-1714_ by Christopher Hill.


----------



## sojourner (Apr 16, 2008)

Papingo said:


> It's partly thanks to Annie Proulx that I know how to make a noose.





how come only partly?


----------



## maya (Apr 16, 2008)

cybertect said:


> Still on my English history kick -


Could you perhaps point me in the direction towards a decent "history of britain" type book _without_ a tory bias?
I just read such a gigantic edition which turned out to be just _endless_ recitations of monarchs and battles, military strategies etc., with nearly _nothing_ on ordinary people or culture... (!), and it was a real letdown, since the subject in itself is so (potentially) interesting.


----------



## cybertect (Apr 17, 2008)

I'm more attuned to political and diplomatic history, but if you're after something quite general, I imagine you could do a lot worse than Asa Briggs' A Social History of England which covers the period from the Ice Age up to Thatcher in the latest edition.

e2a: If you want a good contemporary account of early 19th Century England, take a look at William Cobbett's Rural Rides from 1830. It casts a light on the poverty in rural Britian that is often forgotten today in the chocolate-box view of the pre-industrial countryside.

Actually, the Christopher Hill book I'm reading at the moment is quite a broad study of the political, economic and religious aspects of the 17th century. I'm enjoying it a lot.


----------



## quimcunx (Apr 17, 2008)

sojourner said:


> how come only partly?



Because The Shipping News has a variety of knots in it.  I don't think a noose is one of them.  If it I couldn't work it out from the diagram.  I expressed my disappointment to a work colleague who so happened to know how to make nooses from his army days and he taught me.


----------



## Structaural (Apr 17, 2008)

Just starting The Islamist by Ed Husain.


----------



## sojourner (Apr 17, 2008)

Papingo said:


> Because The Shipping News has a variety of knots in it.  I don't think a noose is one of them.  If it I couldn't work it out from the diagram.  I expressed my disappointment to a work colleague who so happened to know how to make nooses from his army days and he taught me.



 excellent! 

I need to learn how to make a lasso actually...


Anyway, I finally got round to finishing this 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			




Have been reading it on and off at bedtimes, and I think it's a must-read for everyone.  There's so much in there that is revelatory - and the most objective book about the Holocaust I've ever come across.


----------



## maya (Apr 17, 2008)

cybertect said:


> I'm more attuned to political and diplomatic history, but if you're after something quite general, I imagine you could do a lot worse than Asa Briggs' A Social History of England which covers the period from the Ice Age up to Thatcher in the latest edition.
> 
> e2a: If you want a good contemporary account of early 19th Century England, take a look at William Cobbett's Rural Rides from 1830. It casts a light on the poverty in rural Britian that is often forgotten today in the chocolate-box view of the pre-industrial countryside.
> 
> Actually, the Christopher Hill book I'm reading at the moment is quite a broad study of the political, economic and religious aspects of the 17th century. I'm enjoying it a lot.


Ah, cheers- will check those out now 
Yeah, Hill wrote the World Turned Upside Down, didn't he? I kept coming across references to that book for years, and always meant to track it down, but never got round to it...
- More fodder for the reading list!


----------



## foamy (Apr 17, 2008)

i finished Paula Spencer by Roddy Doyle and started Slam by Nick Hornby. I really ought to tackle something more intellectual


----------



## maya (Apr 17, 2008)

foamy said:
			
		

> i finished Paula Spencer by Roddy Doyle and started Slam by Nick Hornby.* I really ought to tackle something more intellectual *


Heck, _reading_ in itself _is_ intellectual!  
There are people who _never_ read at all, you know... !


----------



## foamy (Apr 17, 2008)

i know, i know but i have some more challenging books on the shelf which i keep passing up for the likes of Hornby *hangs head in shame*


----------



## sojourner (Apr 17, 2008)

foamy said:


> i know, i know but i have some more challenging books on the shelf which i keep passing up for the likes of Hornby *hangs head in shame*



Never hang your head in shame at reading ANY book.  Apart from The Diceman, and only then, if you liked it


----------



## mrkikiet (Apr 17, 2008)

Lost city radio - I bought it without reading about it properly and then realised that it was all about Lima and Peru from the descriptions of the coast. Well worth a read, people who just disappear.


----------



## chooch (Apr 18, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> Finished _Open Doors and Three Novellas_ by Leonardo Sciascia, which was ruthless and spare and utterly great.


Like the sound of that. Amazon/Abebooks should provide, when I win El Gordo. 


> Now it's _I Served the King of England_ by Bohumil Hrabal.


----------



## chooch (Apr 18, 2008)

cybertect said:


> I'm more attuned to political and diplomatic history, but if you're after something quite general, I imagine you could do a lot worse than Asa Briggs' A Social History of England, which covers the period from the Ice Age up to Thatcher in the latest edition.


Looks good. Might have some of that when I've finished the next 12 on the list. Some of the history suggestions on this and other Urban threads have been corking.


----------



## foamy (Apr 19, 2008)

sojourner said:


> Never hang your head in shame at reading ANY book.  Apart from The Diceman, and only then, if you liked it


not ever entertained the idea of readin the Diceman and definitely wont now 

now reading The Gathering by Anne Enright.


----------



## Fictionist (Apr 19, 2008)

The History of the Qur'anic Text (from Revelation to Compliation) - M.M Al-Azami

Edited to add:

Reading this has proved to be quite disturbing, I never thought that I would find the suggestion (however opaque) that recent Western scholarly examination of the Qur'an (for which read 'hostile') is linked to the foundation of the state of Israel.


----------



## audiodragon (Apr 20, 2008)

fear & loathing on the campaign trail '72 dunno why im reading it tho cos im not into politics


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Apr 20, 2008)

foamy said:


> The Gathering by Anne Enright.


Halfway through that...


----------



## chooch (Apr 21, 2008)

audiodragon said:


> fear & loathing on the campaign trail '72 dunno why im reading it tho cos im not into politics


It's good though. Suited him best, that stuff, I reckon.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 21, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> Now it's _I Served the King of England_ by Bohumil Hrabal.



Loved this. I like Hrabal a lot 

---

Now, _The Fermata_ by Nicholson Baker


----------



## heinous seamus (Apr 21, 2008)

The Willow Tree - Hubert Selby Jr.

It's the 19th book I've read this year. Not too shabby.


----------



## Nikkormat (Apr 22, 2008)

Heinrich Harrer's _The White Spider_.


----------



## El Jefe (Apr 22, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> Now, _The Fermata_ by Nicholson Baker




I kind of enjoyed that, except for the 'boom within the book', it was completely unecessary. And that's nothing to do with being prudish, it just didn't need to be there


----------



## D'wards (Apr 22, 2008)

Just finished "We Need to Talk About Kevin" by Lionel Shriver - and throughly enjoyed it.

Found it thought-provoking and compelling, although it took 50-100 pages to get into, until Kevin is born really. Recommend it to anyone.

Just starting Friends of the Earth by TC Boyle.


----------



## foamy (Apr 22, 2008)

Mrs Magpie said:


> Halfway through that...



half way through now too and think its very good, i am struggling to stay awake when reading it although thats no reflection on the book


----------



## SpookyFrank (Apr 22, 2008)

Iain M Banks- Consider Phlebas. I've read several of his non-SF books and liked them so I thought I'd get around to this one. I'm only 10 pages in but it seems quite promising.


----------



## Blagsta (Apr 22, 2008)

Design for a Life: How behaviour develops by Patrick Bateson and Paul Martin


----------



## Dirty Martini (Apr 23, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> I kind of enjoyed that, except for the 'boom within the book', it was completely unecessary. And that's nothing to do with being prudish, it just didn't need to be there



The book's annoying me and I'm only 40 pages in. The narrator's a dick, which normally wouldn't matter, and the writing's not clever enough


----------



## becki1701 (Apr 23, 2008)

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins...very interesting


----------



## CharlieAddict (Apr 23, 2008)

ju-jitsu unleashed - eddie bravo.  so far, so interesting.


----------



## fractionMan (Apr 23, 2008)

I just read "the fall of hyperion" and I'm about to start "century rain".

They've both got shiny covers.


----------



## becki1701 (Apr 23, 2008)

I like shiny covers.......


----------



## Scarlette (Apr 23, 2008)

The Sea The Sea by Iris Murdoch. I love her. And the book.


----------



## DotCommunist (Apr 23, 2008)

Re-reading Neverwhere by Gaiman, because I've an essay to do on it.



Pleasure book is Polity Agent, the usual mix of freakery and violence you expect from a polity novel


----------



## kyser_soze (Apr 23, 2008)

SpookyFrank said:


> Iain M Banks- Consider Phlebas. I've read several of his non-SF books and liked them so I thought I'd get around to this one. I'm only 10 pages in but it seems quite promising.



Funnily enough I've just started re-reading CP! TBH I'd forgotten how good it is, and it'll be pretty cool getting your introduction to The Culture 



DotCommunist said:


> Re-reading Neverwhere by Gaiman, because I've an essay to do on it.
> 
> 
> 
> Pleasure book is Polity Agent, the usual mix of freakery and violence you expect from a polity novel



There're 2 new Cormac books out. _Line War_ which is the final Agent Cormac novel - or at least the last one in the Dragon/Jain sequence, and a shorter one in the style of Prador Moon called 'Scorpio Rising' or somesuch which details Cormac's life as a kid when his old man gets it in the Prador war.

I *heart* the Polity almost as much as the Culture - moreso in some ways cos it's less utopian and perfect, and considerably more inventive on the weapons front


----------



## jeff_leigh (Apr 23, 2008)

Just picked up "How to be free - Tom Hodgkinson"


----------



## DotCommunist (Apr 23, 2008)

kyser_soze said:


> Funnily enough I've just started re-reading CP! TBH I'd forgotten how good it is, and it'll be pretty cool getting your introduction to The Culture
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Theres another Prador one? is it set on spatterjay again?

I fucking loved that prador one, sentient horntets, immortal fishermen it was class


e2a

The Polity is far grimier than the fluffy Culture.  It's like they're some pre-cursor society to the Culture if that makes any sense


----------



## kyser_soze (Apr 23, 2008)

Innit. Well if you want more Spatterjay action there's 'Voyage of the Sable Keech', which is good, but essentially a re-run of 'The Skinner' (but with even more extreme Spatterjay fauna so that should make you happy).

But the one I'm referring to is 'Prador Moon' - it's a shorter story, and it's really only for Asher completists as altho each chapter is well written, it doesn't hang together 100%, altho it gives you loads of history on how the war started, the Polity getting it's arse kicked into the next century, whole worlds being annihilated by anti-matter bombardment, how the dysfunctional wardrones like Sniper and Arach come into being and some really interesting stuff with a runcble gate that is hinted at in Polity Agent...


----------



## sojourner (Apr 24, 2008)

Finished Soft by Rupert Thomson last night - not a bad read, bit simplified, but interesting enough to keep me reading.

Now reading Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey - the small type's giving me major eye ache though


----------



## Fictionist (Apr 25, 2008)

A House For Mr Biswas - V.S Naipaul


----------



## colbhoy (Apr 26, 2008)

I'm reading Atonement by Ian McEwan.


----------



## citydreams (Apr 26, 2008)

milly molly said:


> The Sea The Sea by Iris Murdoch. I love her. And the book.



I really really wanted to like this book, went for a little walk down by the rock pools and never came back.  

edit: Ok, I loved Charles' views on what makes for a good dinner


----------



## dada (Apr 26, 2008)

picked up a copy of haruki murakami's the elephant vanishes from heathrow.
short stories.
interesting and captivating so far.


----------



## El Jefe (Apr 26, 2008)

Just this minute finished Will Self's Book of Dave. Easily his best novel IMO, there's a lot of anger in it, some brilliant ideas and a great premise. Took a while to adjust to the mangled cockney of the future, but when you get it, it's like second nature

Oscar Wao next, I think


----------



## Maurice Picarda (Apr 26, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> Just this minute finished Will Self's Book of Dave. Easily his best novel IMO, there's a lot of anger in it, some brilliant ideas and a great premise. Took a while to adjust to the mangled cockney of the future, but when you get it, it's like second nature


 
I do agree. It's his best novel by a huge distance. All his others feel a little like short stories pushed too far, but Dave is flawless.


----------



## El Jefe (Apr 26, 2008)

Maurice Picarda said:


> I do agree. It's his best novel by a huge distance. All his others feel a little like short stories pushed too far, but Dave is flawless.



I hadn't made the Riddley Walker connection, but both reviews I've just googled do, and apparently Book of Dave is explicitly influenced by it. Might have to try that out..


----------



## Maurice Picarda (Apr 26, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> I hadn't made the Riddley Walker connection, but both reviews I've just googled do, and apparently Book of Dave is explicitly influenced by it. Might have to try that out..


 
I struggled with it. Not a patch on Hoban's books about Frances the Badger.


----------



## Roadkill (Apr 26, 2008)

Jeremy Rowett Johns - The Smugglers' Banker

It's a biography of a Cornish businessman who among many other things financed smuggling in the late eighteenth century.  I bought it for work since the bloke's name - Zephaniah Job - has come up in some stuff I've been looking at, and found it far better than I expected.  Fascinating, well researched and nicely written as well.


----------



## sojourner (Apr 28, 2008)

Stuart Maconie - Pies and Prejudice

A 'travel guide' to the North, except it's not the whole North   It's fascinating, funny (been chuckling out loud at points), packed with interesting snippets about, say, the Peterloo massacre, and how Skem was settled in the 9th century by a Viking called Skjalmar, hence Skjalmar's Dale   And he mentions the little village I come from, several times 

Loving it


----------



## madamv (Apr 28, 2008)

Cleo -  Cleo Lanes autobiog.

I am also reading My Secret Garden  - Nancy Friday.  Its a great read for sexing up, and being put off!   The amount of women obsessed about dogs dicks is appalling.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Apr 28, 2008)

All I'm reading at the moment is stuff for my dissertation. I love the subject, but I'm about sick and tired of it now.

I've got a massive pile of stuff to read after the 13th of May though. Top of the list are my most recent purchases:

_Drown_ and _The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao_, both by Junot Diaz
_But Beautiful,_ by Geoff Dyer
_American Youth_, by Phil LaMarchie
_The Brief History of the Dead_, by Kevin Brockmeier
_Persepolis_
_Naive: Super_, by Ican'readhisnamefromhere


----------



## sojourner (Apr 28, 2008)

madamv said:


> I am also reading My Secret Garden  - Nancy Friday.  Its a great read for sexing up, and being put off!   The amount of women obsessed about dogs dicks is appalling.



Haha!! You should read Women on Top, or the one she did about blokes - there's primate-fucking fantasies   (I think - or maybe I just made that up!)


----------



## Maurice Picarda (Apr 28, 2008)

Gordon Burn: Fullalove. Despite being about a burned-out drunken hack and the excesses of the tabloid press, it somehow manages to avoid being cliched and stay compelling.


----------



## madamv (Apr 28, 2008)

sojourner said:


> Haha!! You should read Women on Top, or the one she did about blokes - there's primate-fucking fantasies   (I think - or maybe I just made that up!)



No, the bloke one is next on my agenda


----------



## sojourner (Apr 28, 2008)

madamv said:


> No, the bloke one is next on my agenda



  it's the most repetitive of them all - quite gag-inducing at times, or maybe that's just me   Well worth a read though - quite eye-opening!


----------



## El Jefe (Apr 28, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> Oscar Wao next, I think



Erm - wow!

1/3rd of the way through and totally swept away by it.


----------



## Rollem (Apr 29, 2008)

call the midwife, by jennifer worth

true story of the east end in the 1950s


----------



## Orang Utan (Apr 29, 2008)

Margaret Atwood - Alias Grace - brilliant!


----------



## christonabike (Apr 29, 2008)

The Laughing Policeman - Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo

Loving my crime novels at the moment

Been in Brixton 15 years and been in Bookmongers on Coldharbour Lane ONCE so far


----------



## maya (Apr 29, 2008)

christonabike said:


> The Laughing Policeman - Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo


Did you like it?

Sjowall & Wahloo is representative for a certain overtly social-realistic (or should i say 'social democratic'), gritty 'antihero detective' kind of scandi crime novel of the 1970s... Very of its time, but classic in the genre...
They did a whole ream of novels about Beck IIRC, all very readable, some masterpieces.


----------



## chooch (Apr 29, 2008)

John Lampe _Yugoslavia as History: Twice there was a country_ and Julie Myerson _Sleepwalking_, which I'm approaching with extreme scepticism.


----------



## dada (Apr 29, 2008)

the story of 'Sleep' from murakami's elephant vanishes.
isn't it sad?
his writing is so surreal, metaphoric.
love it.


----------



## Badgers (May 1, 2008)

Just got this:


----------



## rollinder (May 1, 2008)

Orangesanlemons said:


> Kill Your Friends by John Niven.
> 
> An entertaining enough read if you've an interest in the Britpop years but really, Martin Amis should sue.


 
yeah - I thought that too


----------



## Vintage Paw (May 1, 2008)

I'm re-reading _Ghosts_ and _Travels in the Scriptorium_ by Auster for my dissertation. I should read a bunch of his others too, but I simply don't have time. Let's hope I'm good enough at blagging eh?


----------



## Vintage Paw (May 1, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> Erm - wow!
> 
> 1/3rd of the way through and totally swept away by it.



Dillinger4 persuaded me to buy this. It's on my list for when I finish uni in a couple of weeks. I got his earlier _Drown_ too - looks fab.


----------



## Disaster (May 1, 2008)

How to be Good by Nick Hornby.

Can't say I'm enjoying it at all. It doesn't seem to go anywhere. Just...plods.


----------



## El Jefe (May 1, 2008)

Finished Oscar Wao - a really really wonderful book.

Have just started Dandy In The Underworld by Sebastian Horsley and although I suspect it's probably a lot of fun I don't think I'm in the mood for his brand of nonsense at the moment


----------



## Tank Girl (May 2, 2008)

to kill a mockingbird - something that I probably should have read about 20 years ago.


----------



## Orang Utan (May 2, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> I hadn't made the Riddley Walker connection, but both reviews I've just googled do, and apparently Book of Dave is explicitly influenced by it. Might have to try that out..



I made a start on Dave, but couldn't get into the argot - I'll give it another go, cos I had no trouble with Riddley Walker - a book I'm always trying to get people to read


----------



## QueenOfGoths (May 2, 2008)

Just started Philip Kerr's new Bernie Gunther novel "A Quiet Flame". 

He writes so well in a noir style - pithy, amusing and apt one liners - as well as providing in Bernie an engaging, interesting protaganist while commentting on the political situation in1950's Argentina and Germany. Excellent


----------



## Pieface (May 2, 2008)

Peter Carey - True History of the Kelly Gang. 

He's one of my favourite writers - he can make you adore characters - Oscar and Lucinda will always be one of my favourite books.  This one's interesting for the narrative voice he's created, it's Australia - I guess first/second gen settlers so it's a mad mix of Irish, American words with the Australian dialect developing.    It's based on a series of journals - I'm assuming fictional ones but I haven't investigated the creation of the book, I'm just enjoying it at the moment.  It's a good yarn - lots of horse stealing etc but again the characters shine through stronger than the tale they inhabit.

I think I'll read Oscar and Lucinda again this summer - with a crystal cathedral in the territories!


----------



## Orang Utan (May 2, 2008)

^^^^
that book is boss! Have you read The Unusual Life Of Tristan Smith, and Jack Maggs?


----------



## Pieface (May 2, 2008)

Nope - they good?  I read the Tax Inspector, which felt like a first novel.


----------



## Orang Utan (May 2, 2008)

Yes! Esp Tristan Smith - Carey's one of those writers whose work you feel you need to ration, so you don't use him all up


----------



## El Jefe (May 2, 2008)

Orang Utan said:


> I made a start on Dave, but couldn't get into the argot - I'll give it another go, cos I had no trouble with Riddley Walker - a book I'm always trying to get people to read



It was tricky for the first 50 pages or so, but as long as you remember the i with an accent was a glottal stop, the rest falls into place.


----------



## May Kasahara (May 2, 2008)

Thank fuck I've finished my shitty Pepys assignment and can get on with reading other stuff again. Going to start Oryx & Crake tomorrow, also rereading The End of Alice for book group (my choice - muhahahaha).


----------



## El Jefe (May 2, 2008)

Abandoned Horsley in the end. Had a night of no sleep at all so caned 250 pages of Independence Day by Richard Ford and although I'm flying through I'm not sure what I think of it. I think it's a rare case of a book that makes more sense if you're American..


----------



## Bakunin (May 4, 2008)

Executioner: Pierrepoint.

The autobiography of Albert Pierrepoint, Britain's most prolific and skilled public executioner. Pierrepoint hanged 608 people, including some of the most infamous murderers of his time and many Nazi war criminals. His father and uncle were also public executioners.

Pierrepoint later turned against the death penalty, like many a public executioner before him stating that none of his hangings had achieved anything except revenge. He also highlighted the inconsistent and arbitrary nature of the death penalty as it was applied in Britain.

It's an absorbing read and not heavy on the gore, so those with weak stomachs are unlikely to be particularly shocked, while the more voyeuristic reader might prefer something the memoir of hangman John Ellis (My Experiences As An Executioner) or the memoir of Syd Dernley (a former assistant executioner) published under the title 'The Hangman's Tale.' While the gore aspect is played down, not that judicial hanging is at all gory if performed correctly, the technical aspects of a proper hanging are gone into in considerable detail.


----------



## sojourner (May 4, 2008)

Paul Morley - Nothing

It'd best pick up soon, cos it's fucking dire so far - can't stand his writing


----------



## mentalchik (May 4, 2008)

Got nothing new so am re-reading The Snow Queen - Joan D Vinge........



haven't read it in an age !


----------



## Mrs Magpie (May 5, 2008)

Propitious Esculent by John Reader, and as it's mentioned a lot in Reader's excellent book on the world history of the potato, I'm re-reading The Great Hunger by Cecil Woodham-Smith. I'm also reading various books on mediaeval history, but those are short commuting reads rather than settle down for a marathon with pot of tea at my elbow books.


----------



## maya (May 5, 2008)

Orang Utan said:


> cos I had no trouble with Riddley Walker - a book I'm always trying to get people to read


I've just read it! Might've been on your recommendation too, because I first picked up the name from urban, or more specifically this thread...

Loved it, but struggled really hard to get through it- had to turn back and read whole pages twice or more just to get the content, and the primitive spk is a nightmare to grok (although that is precisely the point)
Really glad i persevered, though.


----------



## El Jefe (May 7, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> Abandoned Horsley in the end. Had a night of no sleep at all so caned 250 pages of Independence Day by Richard Ford and although I'm flying through I'm not sure what I think of it. I think it's a rare case of a book that makes more sense if you're American..



Must be in a bad state with books - abandoned Ford too.

But read Talk Talk by TC Boyle in a few hours, another great Boyle book (and with a leading character who's deaf, which he handled well and I found interesting).

Another sleepless night meant I started on The Way We Wore by Smart Bob Elms. I like Elms even though he's really irritating in some ways, and the book is like that. I can hear him reading it as I do 

Tell you what though, if ever a book needed illustrations, this is it. Not having been a top mod in 1973, I have absolutely no idea what a Salatio box-top loafer looks like.


----------



## ViolentPanda (May 8, 2008)

I'm indulging in a bit of Self myself, although it's "Feeding Frenzy", a collection of his journalism, rather than his fiction.


----------



## crustychick (May 8, 2008)

I'm reading Zodiac by Neal Stephenson, which was loaned to me by the lovely onemonkey... it's quite good, although not as good as the Diamond Age, imho...


----------



## Roadkill (May 8, 2008)

Stuart Maconacie - Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North

Impulse buy, and I didn't know what to expect from it, but actually it's rather good.


----------



## Bakunin (May 8, 2008)

Pretty Boy - The memoir of one of the most violent men in Britain, a certain Roy Shaw.

The Guv'nor - The memoir of his greatest rival Lenny McLean.

The Way Of The Wiseguy - a guide to the American Mafia and other gangsters by Joseph 'Donnie Brasco' Pistone, former FBI deep cover operative.


----------



## citydreams (May 9, 2008)

Stumbled across this debut..

The Journal of Dora Damage - Belinda Starling

Damages Bookbindery, Bindings Of Any Kind, Ivy-Street London

Lambeth, London 1859...
...when a mysterious fugitive slave arrives at her door, Dora realises she's entangled in a web of sex, money, deceipt and the law....


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (May 9, 2008)

I'm reading Lord Byron, Letter and Journals, Vol. 1 & 2.  

I haven't laughed so hard in ages!  Its best soap opera ever.

"I got a wife and a cold on the same day.  I got rid of the cold rather speedily."


----------



## sojourner (May 9, 2008)

Roadkill said:


> Stuart Maconacie - Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North
> 
> Impulse buy, and I didn't know what to expect from it, but actually it's rather good.



I've just read that!!  it's ace innit?    I was all chuffed cos he namechecked the little village I grew up in, and talks about loads of places I know really well

It actually inspired me to go the Lowry and the Cornerhouse on me week off as well 




Anyway, the Paul Morley book has picked up a bit, but some of it is still driving me nuts.


----------



## Roadkill (May 9, 2008)

sojourner said:


> I've just read that!!  it's ace innit?    I was all chuffed cos he namechecked the little village I grew up in, and talks about loads of places I know really well



Yes, it's really well written.  Tbh I think 'In Search of the North-West' would have been a better title for it, though.  I've not read the last few chapters yet so I'm not sure what he has to say about Newcastle, but it's a shame he didn't cover north and east Yorkshire.  I'd have been interested to see what he had to say about York, Middlesbrough, Scarborough and Hull.  Not that I've an axe to grind or owt.


----------



## sojourner (May 9, 2008)

Roadkill said:


> Yes, it's really well written.  Tbh I think '*In Search of the North-West' *would have been a better title for it, though.  I've not read the last few chapters yet so I'm not sure what he has to say about Newcastle, but it's a shame he didn't cover north and east Yorkshire.  I'd have been interested to see what he had to say about York, Middlesbrough, Scarborough and Hull.  Not that I've an axe to grind or owt.



yeh  but at least he sets his stall out early on that 

I really loved that book


----------



## MightyAphrodite (May 9, 2008)

Dorothy Rowe's Guide to Life 

(thank you mrs. m)


----------



## sojourner (May 9, 2008)

trixiet said:


> Dorothy Rowe's Guide to Life
> 
> (thank you mrs. m)



and..do you like it? and what's it about?


----------



## MightyAphrodite (May 9, 2008)

sojourner said:


> and..do you like it? and what's it about?



i do like it...

its about life, well the main things in life...guilt, coping, depression, self-esteem, fear...loads of things ive been dealing with personally...

i will be reading more by her.


----------



## sojourner (May 9, 2008)

trixiet said:


> i do like it...
> 
> its about life, well the main things in life...guilt, coping, depression, self-esteem, fear...loads of things ive been dealing with personally...
> 
> i will be reading more by her.



so it's not fiction then?  or is it? 

or a self-help guide thing?


----------



## MightyAphrodite (May 9, 2008)

sojourner said:


> so it's not fiction then?  or is it?
> 
> or a self-help guide thing?



its self help...mrs magpie gave me some good suggestions on reading material.


----------



## sojourner (May 9, 2008)

trixiet said:


> its self help...mrs magpie gave me some good suggestions on reading material.





self-help books can be sooo useful

i had one that got me through my lass's worst excesses of her younger teens (which were fuck all compared to mine, thank christ!)


----------



## colbhoy (May 10, 2008)

I'm reading All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Pretty good so far.


----------



## sojourner (May 11, 2008)

colbhoy said:


> I'm reading All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Pretty good so far.



I cried buckets when reading that - fantastic book


----------



## Fictionist (May 11, 2008)

sojourner said:


> I cried buckets when reading that - fantastic book



I agree, having heard so much about the book I was sceptical but when I reached the description of his return to see his Mother - breathtakingly simple and very moving.


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 12, 2008)

Finished _The Fermata_. It took some time to hit its stride, but I did end up enjoying it, and kind of enjoying my irritation with it.

Now it's _A Season With Verona_ by Tim Parks.


----------



## mrkikiet (May 13, 2008)

donna tartt - the little friend. it's taking me longer to get into than secret history.


----------



## jimblue (May 14, 2008)

im reading beowulf (again) and the importance of being ernest (again again again again ......if you havnt read it (!) go get it, even if you arent a fan of older books (!!) its still brilliant)


----------



## El Jefe (May 14, 2008)

Finally got round to Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides and can't believe it's taken so long. What a wonderful writer. So frustrating that there's nothing new on the way, as far as I know


----------



## Barking_Mad (May 14, 2008)

Thin - Grace Bowman.

Story of a girl who recovered from anorexia.


----------



## Orang Utan (May 14, 2008)

Europe At War - Norman Davies
Decency & Disorder 1789-1837 - Ben Wilson
Moondust - Andrew Smith


----------



## Fictionist (May 14, 2008)

The Master & Margarita - Bulgakov

About 80 pages in and still not sure what to make of it! Has anyone else read this?


----------



## Orang Utan (May 14, 2008)

Aye - tis a fine book


----------



## sojourner (May 14, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> The Master & Margarita - Bulgakov
> 
> About 80 pages in and still not sure what to make of it! Has anyone else read this?



Yep - read it years ago.  Had a very disorientating effect on my psyche as I recall - had to keep putting it down to reorientate myself back into reality 

Cracker of a book - loads of sneaky Stalinist regime jibes too


----------



## sojourner (May 14, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> Finally got round to Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides and can't believe it's taken so long. *What a wonderful writer.* So frustrating that there's nothing new on the way, as far as I know



Agreed

I must remember to give the copy I have back to Shirl!!!  I borrowed it about a year ago


----------



## Fictionist (May 14, 2008)

sojourner said:


> Yep - read it years ago.  Had a very disorientating effect on my psyche as I recall - had to keep putting it down to reorientate myself back into reality
> 
> Cracker of a book - loads of sneaky Stalinist regime jibes too



That makes sense - I'm still trying to work out where it might go and what the purpose of the story is. Reading about a big cat that drinks vodka is quite unusual!


----------



## sojourner (May 14, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> That makes sense - *I'm still trying to work out where it might go and what the purpose of the story is*. Reading about a big cat that drinks vodka is quite unusual!



Trust me, that way madness lies


----------



## Fictionist (May 14, 2008)

sojourner said:


> Trust me, that way madness lies



Now I'm filled with a sense of dread........

I'll come back when I have finished the book.


----------



## John Quays (May 14, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> The Master & Margarita - Bulgakov
> 
> About 80 pages in and still not sure what to make of it! Has anyone else read this?



Yes, I found it fabulous. I then bought a graphic novel of it which was black and white and disappointing graphically. 

The novel filled me with powerful image after powerful image though there were moments where I wondered what exactly was going on and where the characters were, etc.

Three cheers for Behemoth!


----------



## John Quays (May 14, 2008)

I've just finished The Enchantment Of Lily Dahl by Siri Hustvedt and though I never thought I'd say it: I now prefer her to her husband, Paul Auster.

Put the bejeezuzes into me at times, it did.

I recommend Hustvedt's What I Loved as well: Mark is an utterly believable sociopath, so to speak, and yet I felt I knew him so well.


----------



## chooch (May 15, 2008)

Eric Hobsbawm _The Invention of Tradition_, and some Julio Cortázar short stories. 
First cracking so far, second will take some getting in to.


----------



## El Jefe (May 15, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> Finally got round to Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides and can't believe it's taken so long. What a wonderful writer. So frustrating that there's nothing new on the way, as far as I know



Well, another night of shocking insomnia (what, you thought I got up at 6am? ) means I finished Middlesex in almost one sitting.

What a beautiful, moving book. Just brilliant


----------



## KellyDJ (May 15, 2008)

I'm finally about to start reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.  It's been on my book shelf untouched for as long as I can remember


----------



## quimcunx (May 15, 2008)

Restless by William Boyd.  It's quite jolly.


----------



## bushphobia (May 16, 2008)

Masters of horror.
Stuart Gordon made a version of this story, which, by Stuart Gordon standards at any rate, was pretty good.
Seen it yet? I hate to admit that it's worth watching, but, when it's good....you cannea complain.


----------



## bushphobia (May 16, 2008)

Black book: The league of extraordianary Gentlmen. For about the fourth time.
By some fella named Alan Moore.

The Terror, by Peter Straub.
It's the eighteen hundreds.
Two ships set off from England on an expidition to chart the uttermost limits of the North pole.
One of these ships was called the Terror.
Kind of a mix of Scott of the Antartic and John Carpenters the Thing.

Dan Brown and J K Rowling can fuck off.
This is popular fiction, as written by someone with actual talent, intelligence and the mileage to prove it.


----------



## bushphobia (May 16, 2008)

The God Delusion.


No, I am not baiting for an arguement.
This book is, well, many things. Contentious. Controversial. compelling.
A very good document of how the rational mind of one of the worlds more infamous thinkers battles against a world that apparently seems determined to turn more and more dogamatic.
Any deconsruction of the disturbing swing of thought control through out this still very young century must be welcomed.

I do not think it is that regular an occurance to come across a book so focused and clear on the subject.

I use it to hit sheople over the head when the herd get restless. ;P


----------



## Miss Potter (May 16, 2008)

KellyDJ said:


> I'm finally about to start reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.  It's been on my book shelf untouched for as long as I can remember



me too (had the book on the shelf for ages), report back with what you think of it

I've just finished reading The Choice by Nicholas Sparks, who wrote The Notebook. Very good, I liked the way he built up the relationship between the two lead characters.

Just about to start The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (May 16, 2008)

A book about the Cathar heresy. I can't remember the name.


----------



## El Jefe (May 16, 2008)

Insomnia plus time off certainly gets reading done. Now flying through The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey,which is excellent


----------



## QueenOfGoths (May 16, 2008)

bushphobia said:


> Black book: The league of extraordianary Gentlmen. For about the fourth time.
> By some fella named Alan Moore.
> 
> *The Terror*, by Peter Straub.
> ...



Great book - I finished it early this year...but isn't it by Dan Simmons rather than Peter Straub 

I've just started "Sacred Games" by Vikram Chandra. Okay but my mind is still in 1950's Buenos Ares with Bernie Gunther and loads of ex-Nazi's so I think I may have to set it aside for a couple of days as it gets fantastic reviews and I don't want to waste it by reading it when my mind is still on another book.


----------



## sojourner (May 16, 2008)

I'm STILL ploughing through the Morley book. By the christ he's one whinging moaning self-obsessed pretentious CUNT   I don't even know why I'm bothering to finish it. I just keep hoping that there might be something, if only one paragraph, that might make it worth all the effort.  

Great cure for insomnia though - eh, El Jefe - try Paul Morley - Nothing.  Guaranfuckteed to send you to sleep!!


----------



## CharlieAddict (May 16, 2008)

The Last Wrestlers: A Far Flung Journey in Search of a Manly Art - Marcus Trower.

i'm already a 1/4 of a way through and don't want it to end!!


----------



## Kid_Eternity (May 16, 2008)

I'm reading Microtrends by Mark Penn, very interesting read especially if you're into politics or stats etc....


----------



## El Jefe (May 16, 2008)

sojourner said:


> I'm STILL ploughing through the Morley book. By the christ he's one whinging moaning self-obsessed pretentious CUNT   I don't even know why I'm bothering to finish it. I just keep hoping that there might be something, if only one paragraph, that might make it worth all the effort.
> 
> Great cure for insomnia though - eh, El Jefe - try Paul Morley - Nothing.  Guaranfuckteed to send you to sleep!!



Which one, think I've read them all. If it's WOrds & Musuc, i LOVED that.

The point with Morley is that he IS pretentious. It's just really good fun


eta: ah, just  realised it's called Nothing. Haven't read that one.But I will


----------



## sojourner (May 16, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> Which one, think I've read them all. If it's WOrds & Musuc, i LOVED that.
> 
> The point with Morley is that he IS pretentious. It's just really good fun



Err, it's called Nothing


It's not fun.  I can see what he's TRYING to do.  But he just doesn't quite pull it off.  Not for me anyhow


----------



## Roadkill (May 16, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> Insomnia plus time off certainly gets reading done. Now flying through The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey,which is excellent



I was given that ages ago and never read it.  If it's that good I might give it a go.   

I've just bought an old book by journalist Tom Geraghty called 'A North-East Coast Town,' about the bombing of Hull in World War II, so that'll be my weekend reading.


----------



## geoff64 (May 16, 2008)

The Owl Service by Alan Garner.  Don't usually read kids books but remember the tv series when i was young which spooked me a lot and found this in an Oxfam shop a few days ago.  Bloody good writing.

The Open Society and Its Enemies (Vol1) - Karl Popper.

I'm also dipping into London in the Nineteenth Century by Jerry White.


----------



## Fictionist (May 16, 2008)

I'm still slowly working through The Master & Margarita, which is proving to be quite frustrating. I think I can now see where the book might be 'going', and I really hope this doesn't prove to be the case.


----------



## Homeless Mal (May 16, 2008)

Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Always been a fan of Moley


----------



## sojourner (May 16, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> I'm still slowly working through The Master & Margarita, which is *proving to be quite frustrating*. I think I can now see where the book might be 'going', and I really hope this doesn't prove to be the case.



You'll never forget it, put it that way


----------



## bushphobia (May 16, 2008)

Yeah, Mea culpa. Tis Dan Simmons. I was tired, ok. 
And the Alan Moore is the black Dossier. Yep, I was very tired.
Bernie Gunther and ex-Nazi's? Damn, that sounds interesting.


----------



## QueenOfGoths (May 16, 2008)

bushphobia said:


> Yeah, Mea culpa. Tis Dan Simmons. I was tired, ok.
> And the Alan Moore is the black Dossier. Yep, I was very tired.
> Bernie Gunther and ex-Nazi's? Damn, that sounds interesting.



That's okay. You had me worried 'cos I am useless at remembering author's names. "The terror" is a great book though, fantastic - made me want to know more about the actual voyage though I would advocte leaving this until after you've finished the book itself.

Bernie Gunther and the ex-nazi's is Philip Kerr's latest "A Quiet Flame". Very, very good though if you haven't read any of the his Bernie Gunther novels yet I would recommend reading them in sequence

Berlin Noir trilogy

    * March Violets. London: Viking, 1989. ISBN 0-670-82431-3
    * The Pale Criminal. London: Viking, 1990. ISBN 0-670-82433-X
    * A German Requiem. London: Viking, 1991. ISBN 0-670-83516-1

The One From the Other. New York: Marian Wood, 2006. ISBN 0-399-15299-7
A Quiet Flame. London: Quercus, 2008. ISBN 978-1847243560

If you like noir Raymond Chandler type novels you will love them!


----------



## geoff64 (May 16, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> I'm still slowly working through The Master & Margarita, which is proving to be quite frustrating. I think I can now see where the book might be 'going', and I really hope this doesn't prove to be the case.



first time i tried to read this i gave up, but i read it in a few days when i tried the next time - couldn't put it down.  fucking amazing book. 

Now then, "auto da fe" by Elias Canetti...  still haven't managed to get on with this ...


----------



## Fictionist (May 16, 2008)

sojourner said:


> You'll never forget it, put it that way



You really did enjoy this book didn't you? Without giving too much away (I'm still getting through it) what did you like most? I'm really beginning to feel a little lost with this one.


----------



## geoff64 (May 16, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> You really did enjoy this book didn't you? Without giving too much away (I'm still getting through it) what did you like most? I'm really beginning to feel a little lost with this one.



Personally, I loved the sense of humour.  I thought it was very funny. "riotus" is the phrase I think reviewers use.  It's wonderfully anarchic, darling ...


----------



## MightyAphrodite (May 17, 2008)

ive just got my flight bag ready and im taking a book called....

*"Gazza: My Story"*

i dont even know why i bought it, but i got it off amazon cause its here the last time i was here, so i may as well read it....


----------



## sojourner (May 17, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> You really did enjoy this book didn't you? Without giving too much away (I'm still getting through it) what did you like most? I'm really beginning to feel a little lost with this one.



Yep made a big impact on me

I just loved the wanton chaos of it all, the sneaky digs at the political climate, the sub-story on jesus et al.  It's not a book that gives you everything on a plate - and certainly the only book to make me physically and psychologically disorientated


----------



## mentalchik (May 17, 2008)

Finally got round to reading Matter - Iain Banks........(thanks to the library)



have to say it doesn't grab me like the others did........s'ok i spose !


----------



## Fictionist (May 17, 2008)

sojourner said:


> Yep made a big impact on me
> 
> I just loved the wanton chaos of it all, the sneaky digs at the political climate, the sub-story on jesus et al.  It's not a book that gives you everything on a plate - and certainly the only book to make me physically and psychologically disorientated



Thanks for taking the time to answer Sojourner  - I'll let you know if it has the same effect on me. It has made me trek to a local bookshop and pick up a copy of Goethe's 'Faust' - so this might well be the start of something!


----------



## chooch (May 18, 2008)

Russell Hoban _Riddley Walker_, on a this thread recommendation a while back. Brilliant so far. Really wonderful.


----------



## chazegee (May 18, 2008)

The SAS survival handbook.


----------



## sojourner (May 19, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> Thanks for taking the time to answer Sojourner  - I'll let you know if it has the same effect on me. It has made me trek to a local bookshop and pick up a copy of Goethe's 'Faust' - so this might well be the start of something!



No worries - if there's one thing I love as much as reading good books, it's yakking about them   Be interested to hear your final thoughts on it once you're done


----------



## Orang Utan (May 19, 2008)

chooch said:


> Russell Hoban _Riddley Walker_, on a this thread recommendation a while back. Brilliant so far. Really wonderful.


Great!


----------



## quimcunx (May 19, 2008)

The Selfish Gene.  Richard Dawkins. 


Do people read the prefaces and ting to books, or do they just dive right in?  

I will sometimes but I haven't read the many pages of preface to this book....  should I?


----------



## Orang Utan (May 19, 2008)

Yes, of course - it's very important to read it all!
You didn't even read the cover it seems - it's by Richard Dawkins!


----------



## Voley (May 19, 2008)

Just finished 1984 again. He was right.


----------



## Fez909 (May 19, 2008)

Started _Fury_ by Rushdie.  I did a search to see what else has been said about it, and this post from way back in 2003 summed it up perfectly for me:



transparent said:


> Fury by Salman Rushdie, was put off by his writing style at first, very pretentious (by my standards anyway   ), but there's definitely potential, bit of a grower.


----------



## quimcunx (May 19, 2008)

Orang Utan said:


> Yes, of course - it's very important to read it all!
> You didn't even read the cover it seems - it's by Richard Dawkins!



  I know, I know.  I start work at 9.30, I got in at 10.20,  I'm clearly not operating at full capacity today.


----------



## Orang Utan (May 19, 2008)

I went and bought 2 more books, despite still reading 3 others 
Now I have The Gate Vegetarian Cookbook and Geoff Dyer's The Ongoing Moment to read


----------



## quimcunx (May 19, 2008)

You are an addict OU,  seek help.


----------



## heinous seamus (May 19, 2008)

I just read the Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller which made me want to visit Greece and now I'm going to read every poker book ever written before I go to Vegas.


----------



## geoff64 (May 19, 2008)

Kierkegaard - a very short introduction (better safe than sorry...)


----------



## Vintage Paw (May 19, 2008)

Now I've finished the old degree I can start ploughing through all the books I've been buying over the past 3 years 

First one: that Oscar Wao book. Only about 100 pages in, but finding it very good so far. 

Don't know what to read next. Probably Brockmeier's _A Brief History of the Dead_.


----------



## Roadkill (May 19, 2008)

Orang Utan said:


> I went and bought 2 more books, despite still reading 3 others



Are you me?    My 'bought, must read sometime' pile never gets any smaller either...


----------



## Vintage Paw (May 19, 2008)

Roadkill said:


> Are you me?    My 'bought, must read sometime' pile never gets any smaller either...



Mine neither. In fact, it continues to grow  

Compulsive book-buyers ftw.


----------



## Orang Utan (May 19, 2008)

Roadkill said:


> Are you me?    My 'bought, must read sometime' pile never gets any smaller either...



I have a special shelf for them with its own trashy pink poodle bookends a friend bought me (I would never have bought them!)


----------



## Roadkill (May 19, 2008)

I'm on a self-imposed ban this month.  I totted up roughly how much I've spent on books in the last couple of months and it was a bit 

I've done fairly well so far - only, er ... five.


----------



## Nikkormat (May 19, 2008)

_The Valleys of the Assassins_ by Freya Stark


----------



## sojourner (May 20, 2008)

Orang Utan said:


> I have a special shelf for them



 I try and make sure I put them all together on the top shelf, so I can easily browse through the not-read pile 

I'm going to finish that fucking Paul Morley book tonight if it kills me.  I only had 30 pages left last night but I just couldn't keep me eyes open.  I've got a cracking Margaret Attwood I want to start!


----------



## Barking_Mad (May 20, 2008)

Roadkill said:


> I'm on a self-imposed ban this month.  I totted up roughly how much I've spent on books in the last couple of months and it was a bit
> 
> I've done fairly well so far - only, er ... five.



Im in recovery. I did manage to walk into Waterstones the other week and come out without a single book!

It was a sad day.


----------



## El Jefe (May 20, 2008)

Finished the Kelly Gang - excellent book.

Now reading another TC Boyle book - The Tortilla Curtain - which is about Mexican illegal immigrants in LA running up against white liberal values. Pretty good so far.

I think I'm close to reading more books by Boyle than anyone I can think of.


----------



## May Kasahara (May 20, 2008)

Back on the Highway Code again


----------



## Lea (May 20, 2008)

Just finished Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning, the first book in a series of 5. A fantasy fae fiction. Loving it. Just ordered book 2 Bloodfever.


----------



## Fictionist (May 20, 2008)

Fez909 said:


> Started _Fury_ by Rushdie.  I did a search to see what else has been said about it, and this post from way back in 2003 summed it up perfectly for me:




I spoke recently with a work colleague who was describing his experience of reading Rushdie, and he summed it up by stating that there was great narrative storyteller waiting to get out, if only he could drop the baggage. Strangely enough, he had read all the Rushdie that I had ignored (and vice versa) - but his comment did register with me.


----------



## sam/phallocrat (May 20, 2008)

Just starte this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/St-Pancras-...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211298116&sr=8-1

It's quite good, so far.


----------



## Roadkill (May 20, 2008)

Ooh, that looks interesting.


----------



## sojourner (May 21, 2008)

Finished the Paul Morley   It actually got better towards the end - lot less pretentious bollocks going on 

Started Melvyn Bragg - The Soldier's Return.  It's a bit...average.  Expected something a bit cleverererer from Melv


----------



## cyberfairy (May 21, 2008)

Pilcrow by Adam Mars Jones-really loving it-about a disabled boy moving from home to hospital then a special school in fifties England-about three quarters of the way through it-wonderfully written-completely non mawkish or sentimental and damn funny too


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 21, 2008)

Finished _A Season in Verona_ by Tim Parks.

This is the Verona-based author's account of a year following Hellas Verona in Serie A, home and away. Ostensibly it is a football book, but also serves as a 'state of the nation' essay on contemporary Italy. Ostensibly, Tim Parks is a big football fan, but I don't believe him.

It's confused, arrogant, self-indulgent and politically dishonest. It's 440 pages long, _dio bon_. It's a midlife crisis book and Parks himself comes across as a soulless, try-hard bell-end.


----------



## El Jefe (May 21, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> Finished _A Season in Verona_ by Tim Parks.
> 
> This is the Verona-based author's account of a year following Hellas Verona in Serie A, home and away. Ostensibly it is a football book, but also serves as a 'state of the nation' essay on contemporary Italy. Ostensibly, Tim Parks is a big football fan, but I don't believe him.
> 
> It's confused, arrogant, self-indulgent and politically dishonest. It's 440 pages long, _dio bon_. It's a midlife crisis book and Parks himself comes across as a soulless, try-hard bell-end.



I quite enjoyed Dark Heart of Italy, but didn't bother with this cos I'm not interested in football


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 21, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> I quite enjoyed Dark Heart of Italy, but didn't bother with this cos I'm not interested in football



I'd like to read that. Interestingly, Parks got some prize or other from the city of Verona for 'upholding its honour' by refusing to write a hatchet-job in The Daily Mail. Tobias Jones wrote it instead 

I lived in Verona a few years ago and met some of the soundest, most thoughtful people I've ever met. But it's no good Parks trying to rescue its reputation for racism and Fascism by laying into 'political correctness'. It's a politically nasty town, although the rest of the country seems to be doing its best to catch up.


----------



## Orang Utan (May 21, 2008)

I'm also reading a big fat coffee table book published by Phaidon by the designer Alan Fletcher called The Art Of Looking Sideways - not sure if I'm supposed to read it cover to cover, but that's what seems to be happening. It's interesting but a bit new age.


----------



## chooch (May 22, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> Finished _A Season in Verona_ by Tim Parks
> It's confused, arrogant, self-indulgent and politically dishonest. It's 440 pages long, _dio bon_. It's a midlife crisis book and Parks himself comes across as a soulless, try-hard bell-end.


He does seem to be something of a cock. I've enjoyed a couple of his essays, but only where he's not bringing his endless self-wankery (or his fucking kids, his italian _best mates_ or the church of fucking england) in. I suspect he'd be an unbearable bearded 'uncle' around a christening. By the end of the one I read, I was willing him _real_ pain.


----------



## chooch (May 22, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> Now reading another TC Boyle book - The Tortilla Curtain


Liked that, though it runs out of steam, like all his. Shame, because he can turn a paragraph so.


----------



## El Jefe (May 22, 2008)

chooch said:


> Liked that, though it runs out of steam, like all his. Shame, because he can turn a paragraph so.



I know what you mean, he's a great writer who's plots don't always pan out. Although I do think Riven Rock is a proper classic


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (May 22, 2008)

Still reading that book about the Cathar heresy. Can't recall the name. It's kind of tough sledding, but interesting.


----------



## MightyAphrodite (May 22, 2008)

nothing right now, still havent started the mystery book i found!!... but i will, also ive just ordered a LOAD of books off amazon, i overindulged a little


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 22, 2008)

_If This Is A Man_ by Primo Levi.


----------



## Lea (May 22, 2008)

Just started Fire and Ice by Anne Stuart.


----------



## quimcunx (May 22, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> _If This Is A Man_ by Primo Levi.



Love a bit of Primo Levi.


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 22, 2008)

Papingo said:


> Love a bit of Primo Levi.



It's taken me a shockingly long time to get round to reading him. I read _The Periodic Table_ a little while back and thought it was brilliant.


----------



## becki1701 (May 22, 2008)

The Wolf of the Plains by Conn Iggulden.  I read his 'Emperor' series and it was fantastic!  This one looks to be working out the same


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 22, 2008)

chooch said:


> He does seem to be something of a cock. I've enjoyed a couple of his essays, but only where he's not bringing his endless self-wankery (or his fucking kids, his italian _best mates_ or the church of fucking england) in. I suspect he'd be an unbearable bearded 'uncle' around a christening. By the end of the one I read, I was willing him _real_ pain.



You're basically saying he's a slightly less square Peter Mayle.


----------



## chooch (May 23, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> You're basically saying he's a slightly less square Peter Mayle.


Yeah, some, though with fewer touching typical incidents and more _in a sense, we're all..._. More straightforwardly a _prig_.  


Dirty Martini said:


> _If This Is A Man_ by Primo Levi.


This, on the other hand, is corking. Honest, above all.


----------



## DotCommunist (May 23, 2008)

My word if you don't all read such _worthy_ books.

Guess us poor lovers of honest genre fiction are missing out eh?


----------



## chooch (May 23, 2008)

DotCommunist said:


> My word if you don't all read such _worthy_ books. Guess us poor lovers of honest genre fiction are missing out eh?


Nah. Honest genre fiction's _the shit _when done well.


----------



## Fictionist (May 23, 2008)

I have finished 'The Master & Margarita', with a slight diversion to allow the reading of 'Faust'. Sojouner was certainly right in saying that it was a strange book, it _really_ is. I'm not sure what to make of it! Whilst there were parts that I quite enjoyed and would have wanted to have seen expanded (the Pilate episodes) there are other parts that I found incredibly dull (that damned cat!!).

Going to have to think about this one for a bit.


----------



## sojourner (May 23, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> I have finished 'The Master & Margarita', with a slight diversion to allow the reading of 'Faust'. Sojouner was certainly right in saying that it was a strange book, it _really_ is. I'm not sure what to make of it! Whilst there were parts that I quite enjoyed and would have wanted to have seen expanded (the Pilate episodes) there are other parts that I found incredibly dull (that damned cat!!).
> 
> Going to have to think about this one for a bit.



  I'm still thinking about it 10 years on   I've often thought about re-reading it, but it's like my acid years...do I REALLY want to do all that again?


----------



## Fictionist (May 23, 2008)

sojourner said:


> I'm still thinking about it 10 years on   I've often thought about re-reading it, but it's like my acid years...do I REALLY want to do all that again?



I can understand that feeling, do I really want to commit to going through the thing again!! I'm not sure what to read next to be honest, usually one book will naturally suggest another.


----------



## sojourner (May 23, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> I can understand that feeling, do I really want to commit to going through the thing again!! *I'm not sure what to read next *to be honest, usually one book will naturally suggest another.



hehe - I also had that feeling!!  I'd suggest something really pappy, even just a few mags for a while...nothing will compare to it, and I think it's one worth savouring for a while anyway


----------



## Roadkill (May 23, 2008)

David Kynaston, _Austerity Britain 1945-51_.  It's one of those books I bought to dip into, but I've ended up reading it all through.  It's a weighty old tome, but it's good.


----------



## Barking_Mad (May 23, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> I have finished 'The Master & Margarita', with a slight diversion to allow the reading of 'Faust'. Sojouner was certainly right in saying that it was a strange book, it _really_ is. I'm not sure what to make of it! Whilst there were parts that I quite enjoyed and would have wanted to have seen expanded (the Pilate episodes) there are other parts that I found incredibly dull (that damned cat!!).
> 
> Going to have to think about this one for a bit.



Nooo i loved the cat! Great character!


----------



## Fictionist (May 23, 2008)

Oh no, I would have strangled the bloody thing (if that had been possible) or  placed it in a large vat of vodka.


----------



## Dirty Martini (May 23, 2008)

DotCommunist said:


> My word if you don't all read such _worthy_ books.
> 
> Guess us poor lovers of honest genre fiction are missing out eh?



Plenty of genre fiction on here. More crime than SF though.

What's a 'worthy' book?


----------



## Aldebaran (May 23, 2008)

Tom Holland "Rubicon". Very good so far. He writes almost as if it is a fiction book. One remark though on his reference to  "Animal Farm" to underscore an argument of comparison. Such things should not be done when writing on history. Not everyone is familiar with that movie (I had to think twice about what the hell he referred to with that) and secondly in a few years time nobody will ever have heard of it. Does not give credit to the outstanding scholarship he exposes.  

salaam.


----------



## DotCommunist (May 23, 2008)

becki1701 said:


> The Wolf of the Plains by Conn Iggulden.  I read his 'Emperor' series and it was fantastic!  This one looks to be working out the same



The Genghis Khan ones are awesome.


----------



## DotCommunist (May 23, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> Plenty of genre fiction on here. More crime than SF though.
> 
> What's a 'worthy' book?



Don't mind me my anti-inullectual streak is showing agai *goes off to kick a picture of salaman rushdie*


----------



## Geri (May 24, 2008)

I've just finished reading 'Ten Men Dead' by David Beresford about the Long Kesh hunger strikers. It's really interesting and very sad.


----------



## Fictionist (May 24, 2008)

sojourner said:


> hehe - I also had that feeling!!  *I'd suggest something really pappy, even just a few mags for a while..*.nothing will compare to it, and I think it's one worth savouring for a while anyway



I was going to take your advice and then I picked up 'The Fountainhead' by Ayn Rand, which I have now started. Judging by the first two chapters it will cover the same ground as 'Atlas Shrugged', which should prove interesting.


----------



## Fictionist (May 24, 2008)

DotCommunist said:


> Don't mind me my anti-inullectual streak is showing agai *goes off to kick a picture of salaman rushdie*



Prospect Magazine recently published a list of 100 individuals for consideration as being worthy of the label 'intellectual', accompanied by Christopher Hitchens' attempt at providing a working definition for the word. Rushdie was included in the list.


----------



## Orang Utan (May 24, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> I was going to take your advice and then I picked up 'The Fountainhead' by Ayn Rand, which I have now started. Judging by the first two chapters it will cover the same ground as 'Atlas Shrugged', which should prove interesting.



Isn't that a fascist book?


----------



## DotCommunist (May 24, 2008)

Orang Utan said:


> Isn't that a fascist book?


 

Atlas Shrugged is widely accepted to be so. Having not read Atlas Shrugged, I cannot condemn.


----------



## DotCommunist (May 24, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> Prospect Magazine recently published a list of 100 individuals for consideration as being worthy of the label 'intellectual', accompanied by Christopher Hitchens' attempt at providing a working definition for the word. Rushdie was included in the list.


 
I read Ground Beneath Her Feet. His writing is lovely, but I found his story to be underwhelming.


----------



## Fictionist (May 24, 2008)

Orang Utan said:


> Isn't that a fascist book?



I can't answer that regarding 'The Fountainhead', as I have just started it, but I'm not certain that 'Atlas Shrugged' could be labelled as such. There are elements of the book which (if taken to a logical conclusion) are nasty and unpleasant. It would no doubt depend on your understanding of what fascism means tbh.


----------



## Fictionist (May 24, 2008)

DotCommunist said:


> I read Ground Beneath Her Feet. His writing is lovely, but I found his story to be underwhelming.



I wrote on this thread recently about a conversation I had with a work coleague concerning Rushdie, and he really does provoke a wide range of reactions from people. Your comment makes me think of Martin Amis in recent years, a triumph of style over intellectual substance.


----------



## sojourner (May 24, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> I can't answer that regarding 'The Fountainhead', as I have just started it, but I'm not certain that 'Atlas Shrugged' could be labelled as such. There are elements of the book which (if taken to a logical conclusion) are nasty and unpleasant. It would no doubt depend on your understanding of what fascism means tbh.



I suppose, then, it kinda follows nicely from M&M


----------



## Fictionist (May 24, 2008)

sojourner said:


> I suppose, then, it kinda follows nicely from M&M



Perhaps. I'm still thinking about 'The Master & Margarita' and what the central theme of the book is. There is no doubt that there is an obvious relationship with 'Faust' but I'm not convinced that the book develops or extends them beyond what can be seen in that play (at least Part 1). I find the motifs of forgiveness, redemption and the use / misuse of power far more intriguing, and I think this is what I will ultimately take away from the book. The image of Pilate walking accompanied by his dog and 'the other' is really quite moving.




Have you read 'The Fountainhead' or 'Atlas Shrugged' Sojouner? I'd be interested in your thoughts on either one.


----------



## sojourner (May 24, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> Perhaps. I'm still thinking about 'The Master & Margarita' and *what the central theme of the book is*. There is no doubt that there is an obvious relationship with 'Faust' but I'm not convinced that the book develops or extends them beyond what can be seen in that play (at least Part 1). I find the motifs of forgiveness, redemption and the use / misuse of power far more intriguing, and I think this is what I will ultimately take away from the book. The image of Pilate walking accompanied by his dog and 'the other' is really quite moving.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



tbh, i only really focussed on the stalinist regime and how the book reflected that, so you've probably got more out of it than me 

nah, not read them...but if/when i do, i'll be sure to post about it.


----------



## DotCommunist (May 24, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> I can't answer that regarding 'The Fountainhead', as I have just started it, but I'm not certain that 'Atlas Shrugged' could be labelled as such. There are elements of the book which (if taken to a logical conclusion) are nasty and unpleasant. It would no doubt depend on your understanding of what fascism means tbh.


 

Active trot and blindingly talented writer of 'weird fiction' China Meiville made me laugh with a three word review of Atlas Shrugged: Know your enemy


----------



## Fictionist (May 24, 2008)

DotCommunist said:


> Active trot and blindingly talented writer of 'weird fiction' China Meiville made me laugh with a three word review of Atlas Shrugged: Know your enemy



But you said that you had not read the book?


----------



## DotCommunist (May 24, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> But you said that you had not read the book?



No I haven't. China Meiville is an active Trot (stood for some seat or other a while back iirc). He's also a suberb writer, and other books reviews of his are lengthly and well written. That he dismissed Atlas Shrugged in three words made me laugh, because it's clear in that offhand review that he sees the book as facist. 

I tend to enjoy negative reviews cause they show how bitchy the lit world can be.


----------



## Fictionist (May 24, 2008)

DotCommunist said:


> No I haven't. China Meiville is an active Trot (stood for some seat or other a while back iirc). He's also a suberb writer, and other books reviews of his are lengthly and well written. That he dismissed Atlas Shrugged in three words made me laugh, because it's clear in that offhand review that he sees the book as facist.
> 
> I tend to enjoy negative reviews cause they show how bitchy the lit world can be.




Either that or the reviewer hadn't actually read the book?

I don't know the reviewer so I've no idea what 'style' he/she adopts, but to use three words to dismiss a book sounds very very suspicious.


----------



## Blagsta (May 25, 2008)

Michael Eaude - Barcelona: The city that re-invented itself


----------



## Roadkill (May 25, 2008)

Sean O'Neill and Daniel McGrory - _The Suicide Factory: Abu Hamza and the Finsbury park Mosque_


----------



## zog (May 25, 2008)

Dale Pendell - Pharmakopoeia


----------



## sojourner (May 25, 2008)

Finished the Melv book.   Christ - it was like a fucking Mills and Boon!!

Anyway, now reading Moral Disorder by Margaret Attwood, and veh good it is too


----------



## Orang Utan (May 25, 2008)

sojourner said:


> Finished the Melv book.   Christ - it was like a fucking Mills and Boon!!



That's the impression I got from browsing in bookshops - there was a tedious ITV drama adapted from one of his books a few years ago about a doomed May-December romance.


----------



## sojourner (May 25, 2008)

Orang Utan said:


> That's the impression I got from browsing in bookshops - there was a tedious ITV drama adapted from one of his books a few years ago about a doomed May-December romance.



I'm shocked and disturbed, I really am!  I kept having to remind myself this was Melvyn Bragg, and he's really quite a clever and inquisitive man.  It was PAP!


----------



## Orang Utan (May 25, 2008)

He's ITV clever though, not BBC clever


----------



## sojourner (May 25, 2008)

Orang Utan said:


> He's ITV clever though, not BBC clever



lol - snob


----------



## dilute micro (May 25, 2008)

War on the Middle Class


----------



## Pip (May 25, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> I have finished 'The Master & Margarita', with a slight diversion to allow the reading of 'Faust'. Sojouner was certainly right in saying that it was a strange book, it _really_ is. I'm not sure what to make of it! Whilst there were parts that I quite enjoyed and would have wanted to have seen expanded (the Pilate episodes) there are other parts that I found incredibly dull (that damned cat!!).
> 
> Going to have to think about this one for a bit.



What translation did you read? I tried with one ages ago and couldn't get on with it, then picked up another recently and enjoyed most of it (I think there is still a lot lost in translation though).

I'm reading The Secret Life Of Words by Henry Hitchings. It's bloody brilliant, I can't get enough of it.


----------



## Geri (May 26, 2008)

Blagsta said:


> Michael Eaude - Barcelona: The city that re-invented itself



Does it have any info on the exact whereabouts of Durutti's grave?


----------



## Vintage Paw (May 26, 2008)

I'm reading _Sex and the City_ in preparation for seeing the film.

Don't mock me. I need a good dose of trash.


----------



## stargazer (May 26, 2008)

Am reading Paulo Coehlo's Eleven Minutes, know it's a bit old novel, but I adore the guy.


----------



## Zeppo (May 26, 2008)

Two books Naked Lunch and Literary Outlaw William Burroughs by Ted Morgan. Bill was a crazy genius.


----------



## Blagsta (May 26, 2008)

Geri said:


> Does it have any info on the exact whereabouts of Durutti's grave?



It says "The city's biggest cemetry covers the wind-swept Southern side of the Montjuich hill.  Here you find beside each other, overlooking the harbour, three slabs: the grave of Francesc Ferrer and memorial slabs to the anarchist leaders Francisco Ascaso, who died in the assault on the Drassanes barracks on July 20, 1936, mentioned earlier, and Buenaventura Durruti, killed on the Madrid front in November 1936.  On Durruti's great block of stone are carved his famous words 'We carry a new world in our hearts'.  Poignant words of hope for a dead man's memorial."


It's a very interesting book, especially if you have a love of Barcelona and a fascination with the Spanish revolution/civil war.


----------



## jodal (May 27, 2008)

Just finished 'Exit Ghost' which was hard work but I guess alright as a companion to 'Ghost Writer'.

Just started 'Blackwater' which so far is interesting and disturbing in equal measure.


----------



## the button (May 27, 2008)

John Gray -- _Black Mass: apocalyptic religion & the death of utopia._ 

Here's what I wrote about it on another forum, because I can't be arsed having any original thoughts at this time of the morning: -



> It's an entertaining & provocative read -- although not quite as provocative as the author thinks, I suspect. It's a take on some fairly well-worn cliches of liberal academia (being cliches doesn't necessarily make them untrue, like): -
> 
> * ideologies which self-presented as eclipsing or replacing religion are in fact forms of secular religion
> * modern fundamentalism is not a "harking back," but is a distinctively modern phenomenon
> ...


----------



## Fictionist (May 27, 2008)

Enid Laundromat said:


> What translation did you read? I tried with one ages ago and couldn't get on with it, then picked up another recently and enjoyed most of it (I think there is still a lot lost in translation though).
> 
> /QUOTE]
> 
> ...


----------



## Lea (May 27, 2008)

Devil May Cry - Sherrilyn Kenyon


----------



## zenie (May 27, 2008)

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian: A Novel by Marina Lewycka 

Nearly finished should do it tonight


----------



## sojourner (May 27, 2008)

zenie said:


> A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian: A Novel by Marina Lewycka
> 
> Nearly finished should do it tonight



I liked that - what do you think of it?


----------



## foamy (May 27, 2008)

sojourner said:


> I liked that - what do you think of it?



so did i  have you read Two Caravans as well? what did you think of that?


----------



## sojourner (May 27, 2008)

foamy said:


> so did i  have you read Two Caravans as well? what did you think of that?



Nah, haven't read that.  I tend to buy a lot of books from charity shops, and only if I come across a writer I can't live without do I start seeking out their other work


----------



## Vintage Paw (May 27, 2008)

Not reading yet, but just got in the post today from Amazon:

_Death of a Discipline_ – G. C. Spivak
_Comparative Literature in an Age of Globalization_ – Ed. Haun Saussy

Both look very interesting and hopefully will give me a little more breadth of knowledge and background for my upcoming Masters/PhD.

Still reading _Sex and the City_ though.

(oh, the contradiction  )


----------



## zenie (May 27, 2008)

sojourner said:


> I liked that - what do you think of it?



yeh it's really funny! I like it. 



foamy said:


> so did i  have you read Two Caravans as well? what did you think of that?



I got that out the library at the same time, worth a read then?


----------



## cliche guevara (May 27, 2008)

"The Mutt" - Rodney Mullen's autobiography. Appalingly written, but the subject matter grips me and it's a doss read.


----------



## foamy (May 27, 2008)

zenie said:


> yeh it's really funny! I like it.
> 
> 
> 
> I got that out the library at the same time, worth a read then?



hmm... i'm still not sure if i really liked it as much as 'A Short History.....' it is similar in many ways but has a few more (different nationalities) strands to the story.


----------



## jonnyd1978 (May 27, 2008)

zenie said:


> yeh it's really funny! I like it.
> 
> 
> 
> I got that out the library at the same time, worth a read then?




Worth a read and also a character  from "A Short History..." turns up in it! Has the author written any other fiction?


----------



## QueenOfGoths (May 28, 2008)

Have given up on "Sacred Games", just couldn't get into it. Strange because I did the same with "Red Earth and Pouring Rain" another Vikram Chandra novel. There is just something sbout his writing that I find difficult to read and to take in. I find myself not remembering what I've read.

Instead I have started on "Revelation" C.J. Sansom's new Mathhew Shardlake novel. Familiar ground and I am enjoying it.


----------



## Geri (May 28, 2008)

Blagsta said:


> It says "The city's biggest cemetry covers the wind-swept Southern side of the Montjuich hill.  Here you find beside each other, overlooking the harbour, three slabs: the grave of Francesc Ferrer and memorial slabs to the anarchist leaders Francisco Ascaso, who died in the assault on the Drassanes barracks on July 20, 1936, mentioned earlier, and Buenaventura Durruti, killed on the Madrid front in November 1936.  On Durruti's great block of stone are carved his famous words 'We carry a new world in our hearts'.  Poignant words of hope for a dead man's memorial."
> 
> 
> It's a very interesting book, especially if you have a love of Barcelona and a fascination with the Spanish revolution/civil war.



That's weird, we went to that cemetry and you can't see the harbour from it. 

Anyway, the book looks good so I've ordered it - thanks.


----------



## DotCommunist (May 28, 2008)

Fictionist said:


> Either that or the reviewer hadn't actually read the book?
> 
> I don't know the reviewer so I've no idea what 'style' he/she adopts, but to use three words to dismiss a book sounds very very suspicious.




have a little read of this. He reviews as an aside, is far more active as an author and politician.
Not really the sort of author likely to dismiss a book without reading it.

http://www.depauw.edu/SFs/interviews/mievilleinterview.htm


----------



## El Jefe (May 28, 2008)

Now reading my first collection of Lovecraft short stories. 

I'm a bit nonplussed - I mean, they are quite macabre and evocative, but he's a truly dreadful writer (and that aside from the really fucking repugnant racism). 

Diverting, though, I guess


----------



## Fictionist (May 29, 2008)

DotCommunist said:


> have a little read of this. He reviews as an aside, is far more active as an author and politician.
> Not really the sort of author likely to dismiss a book without reading it.
> 
> http://www.depauw.edu/SFs/interviews/mievilleinterview.htm




Thank you for posting that DC. I've had a very quick superficial read of the text, and he is obviously an interesting individual. Once I've had a chance to read it thoroughly and in a considered way I'll get back to you.


----------



## chooch (May 30, 2008)

chooch said:


> _The Invention of Tradition_


Corking. Highly entertaining picking apart of woven guff.

Also fitted Ian McEwan _On Chesil Beach_ into a spare couple of hours. Not unbearable. 

Now back to _Riddley Walker_ and Yugoslav history.


----------



## El Jefe (May 30, 2008)

As well as the Lovecraft, also dipping into Gore Vidal's second memoir - Point To Point Navigation


----------



## Fictionist (Jun 1, 2008)

I've just started Part 4 of 'The Fountainhead', and the end, finally, is in sight! Only another 100 pages or so to go.....


----------



## sojourner (Jun 3, 2008)

Roddy Doyle - A Star Called Henry

The usual filthnsqualornsadness


----------



## Lea (Jun 3, 2008)

Just finished Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning, book 2 in the Fever series. Great stuff. Can't wait for book 3 to come out.


----------



## CharlieAddict (Jun 3, 2008)

greco-roman wrestling - william a martel. not bad at all.

sun and steel (again) - mishima yukio.


----------



## trevhagl (Jun 4, 2008)

"Into the devils den" by Dave Hall, great book on infiltrating the nazi pseudo religious loons in america (where else)


----------



## El Jefe (Jun 4, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> Now reading my first collection of Lovecraft short stories.
> 
> I'm a bit nonplussed - I mean, they are quite macabre and evocative, but he's a truly dreadful writer (and that aside from the really fucking repugnant racism).
> 
> Diverting, though, I guess



Actually, he's just toss.

Nothing seems to ever HAPPEN to the narrator. It's always at least 3rd hand - 

"I was in my local library one day, and I read a truly macabre account written by Professor Jones about something that happened to someone he met in the pub once. Man alive, it was grisly".


----------



## belboid (Jun 4, 2008)

Barney Hoskyns - Waiting For The Sun: Strange Days, Weird Scenes & The Sound Of Los Angeles 

cracking book.  Started it a while back, but didn't get into it, gawd knows why, it's ace.


----------



## bluestreak (Jun 4, 2008)

Kitty Kelley - The Royals.

Just wanted to know what salacious rumours are considered unsuitable for British eyes.


----------



## upsidedownwalrus (Jun 4, 2008)

Alastair Reynolds - Chasm City.  Quite good.


----------



## upsidedownwalrus (Jun 4, 2008)

Interested to see that people think Ayn Rand's philosophy is 'fascist'.  I'm no supporter of her brand of libertarianism, but in many ways it's quite the opposite of fascism.


----------



## Badgers (Jun 4, 2008)

Off to the charity shop to have a rummage soon... 

Have not read much recently, need to remedy this!


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jun 4, 2008)

Norman Dixon's "On the Psychology of Military Incompetence", after many fulsome recommendations by our own Bernie Gunther.

(It's excellent, btw.)


----------



## DotCommunist (Jun 4, 2008)

RenegadeDog said:


> Alastair Reynolds - Chasm City.  Quite good.



Oh excellent stuff. My favorite book from the Revelation Space series


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jun 4, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> Actually, he's just toss.
> 
> Nothing seems to ever HAPPEN to the narrator. It's always at least 3rd hand -
> 
> "I was in my local library one day, and I read a truly macabre account written by Professor Jones about something that happened to someone he met in the pub once. Man alive, it was grisly".



Not read any Lovecraft, but that's a formula from German Romanticism -- the uncanny unheard-of event related third-hand. Can be really eerie in the right hands.

---

Finished _If This Is A Man_ and _The Truce_ by Primo Levi.

I don't know what to say really. Fascinating, gripping, unbearable. What a great man Levi was, and a great writer.


----------



## El Jefe (Jun 4, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> Finished _If This Is A Man_ and _The Truce_ by Primo Levi.
> 
> I don't know what to say really. Fascinating, gripping, unbearable. What a great man Levi was, and a great writer.




Yeh, those two totally floored me.

There's a line in the former about mothers getting their kids clothes ready for the next day (or something like this) and when Levi considers the futility, just writes "but what else could we do?"


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jun 4, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> Yeh, those two totally floored me.
> 
> There's a line in the former about mothers getting their kids clothes ready for the next day (or something like this) and when Levi considers the futility, just writes "but what else could we do?"



'But the mothers stayed up to prepare the food for the journey with tender care, and washed their children and packed the luggage; and at dawn the barbed wire was full of children's washing hung out in the wind to dry. Nor did they forget the diapers, the toys, the cushions and the hundred other small things which mothers remember and which children always need. Would you not do the same? If you and your child were going to be killed tomorrow, would you not give him to eat today?'

It strips you bare.

The bit that haunts me is his passage about how no one was ever woken by the reveille in Auschwitz, because they were already awake an hour before dawn, waiting. So the Kapo just has to tell them to 'get up' in the gentlest voice, no coercion needed, as if it was the most natural thing in the world that people could take you halfway across Europe, control and ultimately destroy you.

It's probably the darkest thing I've read


----------



## Fictionist (Jun 4, 2008)

I have finished 'The Fountainhead'!!! (phew)


And I have just started '1985' by Anthony Burgess.


----------



## chooch (Jun 5, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> It's probably the darkest thing I've read


Never wallows, never shirks. 

Asa Briggs _A social history of England_.


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jun 5, 2008)

chooch said:


> Never wallows, never shirks.



It's remarkable for that.

So, I've read _The Periodic Table_ and the two mentioned above. What next from Levi (apart from 'everything he wrote')?


----------



## phildwyer (Jun 5, 2008)

'The Gnostıcs' by Sean Martın.  A bıt confusıng, but that's understandable gıve the subject matter.


----------



## chooch (Jun 5, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> So, I've read _The Periodic Table_ and the two mentioned above. What next from Levi (apart from 'everything he wrote')?


I've read some of his essays, but can't remember which. Helpful...


----------



## May Kasahara (Jun 5, 2008)

Started reading The God Of Small Things last night, and already it's pissing me off.


----------



## QueenOfGoths (Jun 5, 2008)

May Kasahara said:


> Started reading The God Of Small Things last night, and already it's pissing me off.



That is on the 'worthy' section of my bookcase. Along with a number of other books I feel ought to read but am just too lazy


----------



## DotCommunist (Jun 5, 2008)

May Kasahara said:


> Started reading The God Of Small Things last night, and already it's pissing me off.



Stick with it. I hated it to begin with, but there's a moving story hidden amonst Roy's irritating sort-of magic realism.


----------



## May Kasahara (Jun 5, 2008)

QueenOfGoths said:


> That is on the 'worthy' section of my bookcase. Along with a number of other books I feel ought to read but am just too lazy



Innit  It's this month's book club choice *sigh*



DotCommunist said:


> Stick with it. I hated it to begin with, but there's a moving story hidden amonst Roy's irritating sort-of magic realism.



Aha, that's good to know. I trust your judgement so will plough on


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jun 5, 2008)

chooch said:


> I've read some of his essays, but can't remember which. Helpful...



_Other People's Trades_?


----------



## belboid (Jun 5, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> So, I've read _The Periodic Table_ and the two mentioned above. What next from Levi (apart from 'everything he wrote')?



If Not Now, When?

I wasn't as impressed by Other People's Trades as I was by his others, not by quite a long chalk, iirr


----------



## Dirty Martini (Jun 5, 2008)

belboid said:


> If Not Now, When?
> 
> I wasn't as impressed by Other People's Trades as I was by his others, not by quite a long chalk, iirr



Yeh, I'll have a go at that soon.


----------



## DotCommunist (Jun 5, 2008)

Just finished Children of Hurin, which was okay, if you like your sagas. Could have done with moar quoting from the poetry version of the tale tbh.

Looking for something similarly epic. Not Beawulf or illiad though. Might try the oddesy one. And actually finish it this time.


----------



## Poi E (Jun 5, 2008)

Toxic Sludge is Good for You. About the PR industry. Blimmen heck.


----------



## Fictionist (Jun 5, 2008)

DotCommunist said:


> Just finished Children of Hurin, which was okay, if you like your sagas. Could have done with moar quoting from the poetry version of the tale tbh.
> 
> Looking for something similarly epic. Not Beawulf or illiad though. Might try the oddesy one. And actually finish it this time.



Gilgamesh is worth reading, if you don't fancy the wanderings of Mr O and pondering if the extant text has a significant addition at the very end.


----------



## Nikkormat (Jun 6, 2008)

Not so much reading as looking at Wilfred Thesiger - A Life in Pictures.


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## Fictionist (Jun 7, 2008)

Has anyone else on here read the Burgess '1985'? I've finished it today and it has to be one of the most thought provoking but strangely unattractive books that I have read for a very long time. Islam, socialism, trade unions, it is a very dark response to Orwell's 1984.


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## John Quays (Jun 7, 2008)

I've completed my Siri Hustvedt reading cure with her first, _The Blindfold_. It's disappointing to me in comparison with the other two. The elements that make What I Loved and particularly The Enchantment Of Lily Dahl so compelling and mysterious are there all right, but left too bare, too unadorned with story and purpose.

It reminds me of Auster so much though. The ideas of pushing oneself to extremes (in life as in art and anyway where is the boundary?) and of never really knowing anyone still less yourself, of chancy yet meaningful encounters (scrap that, meaningful BECAUSE by chance), it's all there in both authors' work.

What I would say about The Blindfold is that I'm pleased to have read it _after_ my year of panic attacks and belief that I had succumbed to schizophrenia. I think Siri Hustvedt might have been through similar things...


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## Orang Utan (Jun 7, 2008)

DotCommunist said:


> Stick with it. I hated it to begin with, but there's a moving story hidden amonst Roy's irritating sort-of magic realism.



I thought it was a load of crap - dunno why it is so acclaimed.

I have just read the worst book I've ever read - 13 by Sebastian Beaumont.


Now reading The Steep Approach To Garbadale by Iain Banks - it and the 13 book are late B-day presents from my brother, so I guess I have to read them.


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## May Kasahara (Jun 7, 2008)

I must say, having made it to chapter 2 of the Roy, I'm still finding it _intensely_ irritating. As you might say OU, it's very bookclub.


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## Yu_Gi_Oh (Jun 7, 2008)

The God of Small things is meant to be really good, May, but I couldn't get into it because of the language.  If you persevere then you might be rewarded by it though, wish I could.  

I've started Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, I know I should be loving it but all I can think is that is feels like it's written by Martin Amis' dad, which obviously it is.   But reading Martin Amis doesn't feel like a challenge or a chore and Lucky Jim is feeling a teensy bit hard going.    Does anyone have any words of encouragement?


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## May Kasahara (Jun 7, 2008)

It's the language that's putting me off - her twin habits of Randomly Capitalising Things to show their significance and running two words together in a flowerybollocks bit of trickery are just so annoying.

Fuck it, it's only a bookclub choice, I'll just jack it in if things don't improve. Life's too short to waste time on books that don't do it for you. Besides which, there's a person in my bookclub whose reaction to seemingly every month's choice is "I didn't get on with it, so I didn't read it". Am unsure of what, if anything, she does like. Strange girl.


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## DotCommunist (Jun 7, 2008)

It's the purpely prose that did my nut as well. I read it for my course last year. I was pleasantly suprised to find myself engrossed in the story by the last few chapters.


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## Capt Jacks Coat (Jun 7, 2008)

Am reading Black Noir by Laurell K Hamilton.... I love her books and have and read all of her sixteen novels... and am looking forward to reading a lot more.. 

Anyone else read her books??  If not you should.. the characters are brilliantly written and believable and so very sexy! Vampires werewolves... and so much more... (AD over lmao)


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## Guineveretoo (Jun 7, 2008)

I am reading Pilgrim State by Jacqueline Walker, and I am loving it!

http://www.pilgrimstate.co.uk/


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## Rogue Element (Jun 7, 2008)

I'm mostly reading _Trickster Makes This World_ by Lewis Hyde.  An excellent overview of the trickster god archtype from Ancient Greece, Native American and other traditions.

When I'm not reading that, I'm flicking through Cory Doctorow's _Little Brother_.  Maybe I just get lucky with these things, but I never seem to find a free e-book that is actually given away by its author (as opposed to just leaked onto the internet) that I don't like.  Then again, I've only read about 5 books like that so far...


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## Orang Utan (Jun 7, 2008)

Yu_Gi_Oh said:


> The God of Small things is meant to be really good, May, but I couldn't get into it because of the language.  If you persevere then you might be rewarded by it though, wish I could.
> 
> I've started Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, I know I should be loving it but all I can think is that is feels like it's written by Martin Amis' dad, which obviously it is.   But reading Martin Amis doesn't feel like a challenge or a chore and Lucky Jim is feeling a teensy bit hard going.    Does anyone have any words of encouragement?


It's short


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## Yu_Gi_Oh (Jun 7, 2008)

Heh, thanks for that OU!  Is that the best you could muster?


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## Orang Utan (Jun 7, 2008)

'Fraid so! I didn't get past the first chapter, but I was only a lad when I tried to read it. I imagine it has dated somewhat now. University life is quite different these days.


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## Yu_Gi_Oh (Jun 7, 2008)

Yeah, I wonder if that's it, having never been to uni, 'specially not years ago, maybe I'm missing something!  Thanks OU, the perfect reason to give up.


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## Dirty Martini (Jun 9, 2008)

Finished _Opening Up_, Mike Atherton's autobiography.

Now: _The Moro Affair_ by Leonardo Sciascia


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## Dirty Martini (Jun 9, 2008)

Orang Utan said:


> 'Fraid so! I didn't get past the first chapter, but I was only a lad when I tried to read it. I imagine it has dated somewhat now. University life is quite different these days.



The comedy hasn't dated at all. It's one of the funniest books around. The first few chapters are tightly written, but then it really hits its stride.

How could the subject-matter of any book written 50 years ago not have dated?


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## Lea (Jun 9, 2008)

Capt Jacks Coat said:


> Am reading Black Noir by Laurell K Hamilton.... I love her books and have and read all of her sixteen novels... and am looking forward to reading a lot more..
> 
> Anyone else read her books??  If not you should.. the characters are brilliantly written and believable and so very sexy! Vampires werewolves... and so much more... (AD over lmao)



Hi, 

Not read her books before but are they paranormal romance. If so have read similar authors including Sherrilyn Kenyon, Christine Feehan, Susan Krinard and my favourite at the moment is Karen Marie Moning especially her Fever series. 

Yummy vampires and werewolves...


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## sojourner (Jun 9, 2008)

The Orton Diaries, edited by John Lahr

Have been sidetracked by this from the Roddy Doyle


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## Dirty Martini (Jun 9, 2008)

sojourner said:


> The Orton Diaries, edited by John Lahr



Loved those, great fun


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## sojourner (Jun 9, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> Loved those, great fun



Yeh, am loving it too - borrowed it off annierak, and started it at hers....then couldn't put it down when I got home!  Have also got Prick up your Ears to follow it with


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## Barking_Mad (Jun 9, 2008)

Dosotevsky - The Devils.

Been a while since i read one of his and it's like pulling on a favourite pair of slippers!


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## El Jefe (Jun 9, 2008)

picked up a proof copy of Andrew Crumey's Sputnik Caledonia. 

Intrigued so far - account of a kind in 70s Glasgow dreaming of being an astronaut, but I think it becomes a little more sci-fi (and plays with chronology) as it carries on. nice writing style, and Crumey doesn't wear his physics Phd too heavily.


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## Stanley Edwards (Jun 9, 2008)

On the Black Hill - Bruce Chatwin.

Set on the Welsh borders 

Actually, think I may fuck off to my favourite plaza now and finish it off with a cold beer.


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## Orang Utan (Jun 9, 2008)

Dirty Martini said:


> The comedy hasn't dated at all. It's one of the funniest books around. The first few chapters are tightly written, but then it really hits its stride.
> 
> How could the subject-matter of any book written 50 years ago not have dated?



I dunno - university life is a lot different these days and the relationships between students and faculty are different. I read Malcolm Bradbury's The History Man when I was a student and that already seemed dated.


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## QueenOfGoths (Jun 9, 2008)

Finished "Revelation" - very good, CJ Sansom is an excellent and entertaining writer. 

Now it'll be "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for a bit until I get all my lines learnt


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## quimcunx (Jun 9, 2008)

The Selfish Gene has gone missing so I'm onto 

Stardust - Neil Gaiman


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## Orang Utan (Jun 9, 2008)

I went and bought another book, despite having another four on the go - the new Stephen Pinker book on language and thought. I love his books and the way he thinks and explains his thought.


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## Paulie Tandoori (Jun 9, 2008)

Vintage Paw said:


> I'm reading _Sex and the City_ in preparation for seeing the film.
> 
> Don't mock me. I need a good dose of trash.


How does one _read_ Sex and the City? I thought twas a tv series. 

I started reading Ken Kesey's Demon Box again over the weekend and remembering why i liked it so much so far.


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## Roadkill (Jun 10, 2008)

Jeffrey Richards - Sex, Dissidence and Damnation: Minority Groups in the Middle Ages

Not my period and not a book I'd normally pick up, but it was going cheap in a second-hand bookshop and it looked interesting.  Sure enough, it is.  Nicely written, too.


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## MightyAphrodite (Jun 10, 2008)

Persuasion - Jane Austen


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## SpookyFrank (Jun 10, 2008)

Lord of the rings again. Every page makes me hate Peter Jackson just a little bit more


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## Nikkormat (Jun 11, 2008)

_My Kenya Days_ by Wilfred Thesiger.


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## QueenOfGoths (Jun 11, 2008)

"The Reapers" - John Connolly's new book. I feel a bit distracted at the moment though - for some unknown reason - so haven't got into it yet as much as I expected


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## foamy (Jun 11, 2008)

just finished 'The Shadow Of The Wind' by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, enjoyed it very much and glad I picked it back up again having abandoned it about a year ago.

Now started 'Notes From An Exhibition' by Patrick Gale. seems ok s far, nothing ground breaking but it'll do me for the beach.


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## sojourner (Jun 12, 2008)

Finished the Orton Diaries, started Prick up your Ears but the inclusion of vast chunks of the diaries really irritated me, and he didn't seem to have a lot to add around them.  So started the Kenneth Williams Letters, and very quickly decided I'd much rather read his diaries.

Went back to A Star Called Henry


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## becki1701 (Jun 12, 2008)

Religion and Magic in Ancient Egypt, really interesting


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## Annierak (Jun 12, 2008)

sojourner said:


> Finished the Orton Diaries, started Prick up your Ears but the inclusion of vast chunks of the diaries really irritated me, and he didn't seem to have a lot to add around them.  So started the Kenneth Williams Letters, and very quickly decided I'd much rather read his diaries.
> 
> Went back to A Star Called Henry


Yeh i meant to mention that...Prick up your ears does repeat a lot of stuff from the diaries so i skipped chunks of it too.

True, The Kenneth Williams diaries are better than the letters. Much more interesting. I'll find it and you can borrow that


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## Fictionist (Jun 12, 2008)

Robert Fagles' translation of Virgil's 'The Aeneid', which is proving to be a very dull read indeed. The only enjoyable part thus far has been Book Six, where you realise just how much Virgil influenced Dante.


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## Jimlyn (Jun 13, 2008)

Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Its absolutley stunning


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## the button (Jun 13, 2008)

_Beyond Black_ by Hilary Mantel. First one of hers I've read, and very impressed. Although the bits with the homeless bloke are a bit tedious.


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## Barking_Mad (Jun 13, 2008)

Dostoevsky - The Devils 

typical Dostoevsky slow burner........


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## editor (Jun 13, 2008)

Thread continues here: http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=253591


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