Books
Comments
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Amazing, just amazing. I sort of like to think of myself as well read, and I do plow through a fair share of books these days, but on reading some peoples lists I'm at a loss and find myself saying "who? what?". Makes me feel I'm NOT as well read as I like to think.
So much to read, so little time.0 -
ScaldedCat wrote:Josie Dew's cycling books
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Josie is such a lovely writer! - I wrote to her not long back to say how she inspired me and she replied telling me that since she had her kid she still gets out and about on her bike but not as much!
'since the flaming telly's been taken away, we don't even know if the Queen of Englands gone off with the dustman'.
Lizzie Birdsworth, Episode 64, Prisoner Cell Block H.0 -
johnfinch wrote:I started reading Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code to please my girlfriend, but after 30 pages I just could not read one more line of that bullshit pseudo-intellectual, "oh, let's mention some intelligent people from the past, then the readers will think they're clever" pile of w@nkcheese.
The scary thing is that Brown teaches (or did teach) creative writing at some slightly second rate (I think) US University. If his course was 'Getting an idiot public to buy your crap by the ton' I think it would be fair enough but Dan Brown is just such an awful writer and he had some nerve to teach other people how to write considering his own minimal skills. The plotting is OK for what it is but it is just so incompetently written.
I read Da Vinci Code simply to prove to myself that I didn't need to read that kind of crap to tell other people it was crap (if you see what I mean!)northernneil wrote:I am seriously into Ian Fleming having only just discovered him. I grew up watching the Bond films and kind of never wanted to read the books but I canfully understand why they were made into films. His writing style and attention to detail is simply amazing.
If you have never read a bond book do so, they have a great 'hook-ability' so by half way through chapter one you really want to carry on to the end.
Fleming on the other hand, is rather good. It is a shame that not all of the books have been filmed properly yet (eg Moonraker) - generally, the crap Bond films are the ones where the producers thought they could do a better plot job than Fleming. If you like these books, you might want to look out for the Leslie Charteris Saint books - not in print but easily found in second hand bookshops and charity shops. He churned them out and they are a bit lightweight but they are nicely written and good fun.
I've just finished The Last of the Mohicans which I really enjoyed - kept a pretty good pace for a book written in about the 1820s. I'll be on the lookout for more James Fenimore Cooper if I can find them.......Faster than a tent.......0 -
bilko wrote:Fav book, read many times, Catch 22 - Joseph Haller, closely followed by 100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Hitchhikers Guide set of books and of course anything Discworld. Lifes too short for King/Herbert/Dan Brown......
Wow, how could I have forgotten 100 Years.... Fabulous. I also liked his Love in The Time
of Cholera.
Have to admit not getting through Catch 22. Couldn't do it for whatever reason.0 -
Tom Clancy
Red Storm Rising has to be his best 8)
http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/402900/Red-Storm-Rising/Product.htmlThe universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle. ...Stapp’s Ironical Paradox Law
FCN3
http://img87.yfrog.com/img87/336/mycubeb.jpg
http://lonelymiddlesomethingguy.blogspot.com/0 -
dennisn wrote:bilko wrote:Fav book, read many times, Catch 22 - Joseph Haller, closely followed by 100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Hitchhikers Guide set of books and of course anything Discworld. Lifes too short for King/Herbert/Dan Brown......
Wow, how could I have forgotten 100 Years.... Fabulous. I also liked his Love in The Time
of Cholera.
Have to admit not getting through Catch 22. Couldn't do it for whatever reason.
Just finished Love in The Time of Cholera, if I'd read this first I think I'd have enjoyed it more, still a good read though.0 -
Sci-Fi try Harry Harrison either The Stainless Steel Rat series or his more serious Deathworld Trilogy, as mentioned in the films section try Saturday Night Sunday Morning Silitoe's best, an interesting back to back read is Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, then The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis.
The Claudius series of novels I think was by Robert Graves, also for Flashman fans "Quartered Safe Out Here" by George McDonald Fraser, his experiences as a 19 year old infantryman in Burma, highly recommended.0 -
OK...
Rupert Thompson - 'The Insult' and 'Dreams of Leaving'
Haruki Murakami - 'Norwegian Wood'
Salman Rushdie - 'Midnight's Children'
V S Naipul - 'A House for Mr Biswas'
Ian McEwan 'A Child in Time'
Dennisn - 'Bike Radar Ramblings - The Early Years'0 -
ratsbeyfus wrote:OK...
Rupert Thompson - 'The Insult' and 'Dreams of Leaving'
Haruki Murakami - 'Norwegian Wood'
Salman Rushdie - 'Midnight's Children'
V S Naipul - 'A House for Mr Biswas'
Ian McEwen 'A Child in Time'
Dennisn - 'Bike Radar Ramblings - The Early Years'
+1 for Midnights Children. What a great story.
Had trouble getting through Mr. Biswas. Great look into the culture of Latin America.
Sort of like Midnights Children and Indian culture.
I'm still not sure if I actually liked The Satanic Verses. Another great story though.
As for "Ramblings....." The author really gets on my nerves.0 -
Must confess I'm not a great reader of fiction. Tend to go mainly towards military history. I can highly recommend "Stalingrad" and "Berlin" by Anthony Beevor. I also have his D-Day book that I havent started yet but is well reviewed. About to read "Road of Bones" by Feargal Keane. Its about the siege of Kohima in the WW2 Burma campaign. Recently discovered my father-in-law was part of the relief force so it's of family relevance.0
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Anyone else out there enjoy Atlas Shrugged(Ayn Rand) as much as I did?0
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johnfinch wrote:dennisn wrote:Anyone else out there enjoy Atlas Shrugged(Ayn Rand) as much as I did?
BikingBernie.
I thought he had told me he hadn't read it. Could be wrong. In any case I would venture to say that "enjoy" was not a word he would use for that book. Doesn't seem to fit in with his world view.
In any case, anyone else out there "enjoy" that massive read. Great story. IMHO.0 -
I never knew that Dan Brown taught creative writing. It proves the theory that those who can't do teach.
He has earned a fortune though and spawned a whole new genre of religious/archiological conspiracy stories.0 -
Thanks for the Kohima tip, my Uncle was at the Admin Box, I will look that one up.0
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Mark Billingham, Ian Rankin & Michael Connolly for my cop fix
Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams (time and time again) for clever twists to make very funny books.
mainly biographies and historical stuff as well.
on the go right now
The Complaints by Ian Rankin.
A history of The Levellers (political mov't / new model army, not the band)
Dark Fire by CJ Sansome at work.
'Going down with Janis' Peggy Caserta's book chroinicling her life with Janis Joplin - its quite a dour grim read I've been dipping in and out for ages0 -
Cleat Eastwood wrote:I have been mostly rreading
Rousseaus Confessions...profoundly moving
The History of the world in 10.5 chapters...powerfully complex meditations on the effects of the ol dtestament
The invincible Jeeves...hilarity incarnate
And things I always have on the go
****Poooo Ems
Better than God- Peter Porter (who sadly died this year, so it'll be his last work)
Duino Elegies- Rilke...as dictated by angels...genius of the highest order.
Collected Poems Tony Harrison...doing what demosthenes could not
Two Cures for Love- Wendy Cope...wendys take on the lighter side of mating
*****Plays
Making Noise Quietly ..robert HOLMAN...he should be more widly read/performed
Strawberry Fields...poliakoff...stil struggling with polly olly lolly tics eh ste
Kafka's Dick...alan bennet...super but let down by last scene
Saved...the mighty edward bond
Line 'Em...nigel williams...stop the novels nige, tv scriptwriters need you
Stars...stephen lowe...where are you ste?
Prickly Heat..simon donald...how it all seemed so easy back then
The Physicists durenmat...clever euro liberalism...I am einstein...
Hysteria...Terry Johnson...what did you do in the womb daddy
Wendy Copes two cures for love by the way are....
1. Don't see him. Don't phone or write a letter.
2. The easy way: get to know him better
Wendy Cope should live inside of everyones head.
Dorothy Sayers: Four are the things I'd be better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles and doubt...0 -
Brilliant Ynyswen24, a little gem, ta muchlyThe dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns
momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.0 -
Cleat Eastwood wrote:Brilliant Ynyswen24, a little gem, ta muchly
The leastest I could do for making me go and get my battered copy of Tony Harrison's Collected off the shelf.
Bertold Brecht... he could write a bit too.
And Godot was a 6 day track rider at the Vel' D'Hiv in Paris, Beckett used to go and watch. I know that thanks to Tim Hilton, 'One more Kilometre...'0 -
Yeah another thumbs down for Dan Brown from me too...
My ten penneth for what it's worth, In no particular order;
Tales of the Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson (read em in order starting with Gardens of the Moon) - Best fantasy I've read by a country mile.
Anything by James Lee Burke, Ian Rankin, Robert Crais, Annie Hawes, David Gemmell, Greg Isles, Lawrence Block, Michael Crighton, Tolkien, Donna Tart, the guy who wrote 'Prayers for Rain' and 'Gone baby gone' who's name I forget but is excellent.
Also most of the classics, they may seem hard to get into but they're called 'classics' for a reason
A bit more patchy imo but worth a read are;
Grisham, Robert Harris, Lee Child, Michael Connolly, George RR Martin, Stephen Leather.0 -
Yeah another thumbs down for Dan Brown from me too...
My ten penneth for what it's worth, In no particular order;
Tales of the Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson (read em in order starting with Gardens of the Moon) - Best fantasy I've read by a country mile.
Anything by James Lee Burke, Ian Rankin, Robert Crais, Annie Hawes, David Gemmell, Greg Isles, Lawrence Block, Michael Crighton, Tolkien, Donna Tart, the guy who wrote 'Prayers for Rain' and 'Gone baby gone' who's name I forget but is excellent.
Also most of the classics, they may seem hard to get into but they're called 'classics' for a reason
A bit more patchy imo but worth a read are;
Grisham, Robert Harris, Lee Child, Michael Connolly, George RR Martin, Stephen Leather.0
