Best book of 2007

popette
popette Posts: 2,089
edited November 2007 in The bottom bracket
Following on from best album, what was your best book of 2007?

I haven't read a non-cycling related book for what seems like ages. I think Jonathon Strange may have been the last book I read - really enjoyed that.
I would love a real page turner if you can recommend one.
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Comments

  • ChrisLS
    ChrisLS Posts: 2,749
    ...does the book have to be published in 2007, or can it be the most recent book that you have read? :?:
    ...all the way...'til the wheels fall off and burn...
  • popette
    popette Posts: 2,089
    ChrisLS wrote:
    ...does the book have to be published in 2007, or can it be the most recent book that you have read? :?:

    yeh, any good book really.
  • The Terror by Dan Simmons

    simply awesome
    <a>road</a>
  • ChrisLS
    ChrisLS Posts: 2,749
    ...Orbital by Iain Sinclair...takes some reading, and is sometimes obscure, but an amazing read about his walk around the course of the M25.

    Or as mentioned, The Book of Dave by Will Self...
    ...all the way...'til the wheels fall off and burn...
  • If bios are your thing then Ellen McArthurs is truly awe inspiring. The Crossing by Ben Fogle and James Cracknell is also interesting.
  • vermooten
    vermooten Posts: 2,697
    Best book I read this year was The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon. But because I spent most of the year doing my degree dissertation it's just about the only book I've read. Now on Moby Dick.
    You just have to ride like you never have to breathe again.

    Manchester Wheelers
  • popette
    popette Posts: 2,089
    vermooten wrote:
    Best book I read this year was The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon. But because I spent most of the year doing my degree dissertation it's just about the only book I've read. Now on Moby Dick.

    moby dick - have it on my shelf but haven't read it. I do this - go and buy a stack of books and then never get round to reading all of them. Is it worth making a start on?
  • pneumatic
    pneumatic Posts: 1,989
    The Testament of Gideon Mack - great story, lingers with you.


    Fast and Bulbous
    Peregrinations
    Eddingtons: 80 (Metric); 60 (Imperial)

  • vermooten
    vermooten Posts: 2,697
    popette wrote:
    vermooten wrote:
    Best book I read this year was The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon. But because I spent most of the year doing my degree dissertation it's just about the only book I've read. Now on Moby Dick.

    moby dick - have it on my shelf but haven't read it. I do this - go and buy a stack of books and then never get round to reading all of them. Is it worth making a start on?
    I read page 1 and knowing that I had around another 300 to go I got a familiar sinking feeling....
    You just have to ride like you never have to breathe again.

    Manchester Wheelers
  • On The Beach - Neville Shute
    "A cyclist has nothing to lose but his chain"

    PTP Runner Up 2015
  • I've not read any books published this year, but Birdsong was one of the most recent I read and it is very good (but slightly weak finish I thought).

    Also read Turgenev, Fathers and Sons, which I liked but I doubt it'd be everyone's cup of tea - it wasn't exactly what you'd call 'easy reading'.

    The worse book I read was Crash by J G Ballard. It is a truly demented piece. (As contrast I really liked A Clockwork Orange and The Wasp Factory last year - so it's not like I don't do disturbing or violent books.)

    Just read Joe Brown's (the climber) autobiography. Certainly not a classic, but must have only taken a few hours in total to read, so it's hardly demanding.

    Can anyone recommend me any books worth reading using the above information?

    Rule No.10 // It never gets easier, you just go faster
  • heavymental
    heavymental Posts: 2,076
    I've just read Will Greenwoods autobiography which is pretty funny and offers some interesting insights into relatively recent rugby events. After I'd finished it....which only took a few sittings.... I went and ordered Austin Healeys autobiography which is a pretty similar read to be honest. Both were very enjoyable though especially for Leicester and/or England rugby fans. I'm not a leicester fan but both books are still a good read. Both of them are funny guys with lots to say.
  • ricadus
    ricadus Posts: 2,379
    edited November 2007
    popette wrote:
    ChrisLS wrote:
    ...does the book have to be published in 2007, or can it be the most recent book that you have read? :?:

    yeh, any good book really.


    In that case, I nominate this one, since I finished designing it yesterday (so I've read it in the process):
    http://tinyurl.com/2toalf

    Unfortunately it doesn't include Herne Hill velodrome, despite the clubhouse being ramshackle enough.
  • il_principe
    il_principe Posts: 9,155
    Novels:

    The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns - both by Khaled Hosseini
    The Winter of Frankie Machine - Don Winslow
    The Joke - Milan Kundera (Not recent, but one of my all time favourites)

    Non-Fiction

    The March of Unreason - Dick Taverne
    If This Is A Man - Primo Levi
    French Revolutions - James Moore (cycling related and hilarious)
  • NFMC
    NFMC Posts: 232
    I think it was out in 2006 but 'the Damned United' about Brian Clough's 40-odd days in charge of Leeds United was absolutely brilliant. A fictionalised biography, if that makes sense.

    A great sports biography was 'Can I Keep the Jersey?' by Paul Shirley about an American basketball player who ends up playing a few weeks here and there in places like Spain, Siberia, Greece and the lower leagues in America. Even if you don't like basketball, it's brilliant.

    And...the filthiest and crudest book I've read in ages is 'The Average American Male' by Chad Kutchen about a youngish bloke's relationship with his girlfriend (whilst trying to get rid of her and target another one) and his thoughts on all other women. Superb, laugh-out-loud but you could never allow your wife/girlfriend to know that we think like that.
  • Pedant alert


    French Revolutions is Tim Moore (Roger's son). Good book though!












    I know he's not really Roger's son, but if you've read it you'll know.

    Rule No.10 // It never gets easier, you just go faster
  • il_principe
    il_principe Posts: 9,155
    Doh, of course it is.
    Great line though!
  • pneumatic
    pneumatic Posts: 1,989
    (As contrast I really liked A Clockwork Orange and The Wasp Factory last year - so it's not like I don't do disturbing or violent books.)

    If you liked the Wasp Factory, and you haven't read "Whit" by the same author, you should. Half as dark, twice as funny, just as well-written.


    Fast and Bulbous
    Peregrinations
    Eddingtons: 80 (Metric); 60 (Imperial)

  • pneumatic wrote:
    (As contrast I really liked A Clockwork Orange and The Wasp Factory last year - so it's not like I don't do disturbing or violent books.)

    If you liked the Wasp Factory, and you haven't read "Whit" by the same author, you should. Half as dark, twice as funny, just as well-written.

    I'll put it on my Christmas list - I haven't read any other Banks and have been wondering which one's are worth it.

    Cheers

    Rule No.10 // It never gets easier, you just go faster
  • pneumatic wrote:
    (As contrast I really liked A Clockwork Orange and The Wasp Factory last year - so it's not like I don't do disturbing or violent books.)

    If you liked the Wasp Factory, and you haven't read "Whit" by the same author, you should. Half as dark, twice as funny, just as well-written.

    I'll put it on my Christmas list - I haven't read any other Banks and have been wondering which one's are worth it.

    Cheers

    the early ones are all brilliant up to about Whit then they go downhill a bit, though this year's Steep Approach to Garbadale was somewhat of a return to form.

    The SF books are more consistently good though nothing has ever touched Use of Weapons which is definitely in my top 10 all time reads.
    <a>road</a>
  • NFMC wrote:
    I think it was out in 2006 but 'the Damned United' about Brian Clough's 40-odd days in charge of Leeds United was absolutely brilliant. A fictionalised biography, if that makes sense.

    I thought this was brilliant, I tried GB84 but that was a struggle though. Maybe it helps to have more knowledge of the subject matter.
    <a>road</a>
  • Lbaguley
    Lbaguley Posts: 161
    pneumatic wrote:
    (As contrast I really liked A Clockwork Orange and The Wasp Factory last year - so it's not like I don't do disturbing or violent books.)

    If you liked the Wasp Factory, and you haven't read "Whit" by the same author, you should. Half as dark, twice as funny, just as well-written.

    I'll put it on my Christmas list - I haven't read any other Banks and have been wondering which one's are worth it.

    Cheers

    I've not found a Banks book that I dislike, although some of the ones published under M. Banks are a little more of an acquired taste, which thankfully I did very quickly - I'm with el_presidente on Use of Weapons. Particularly enjoyed Walking on Glass. The Crow Road is also very good.

    Happy reading!

    As for my vote - my book of the year is not from this year :oops: - read and loved Charlotte Grey almost as much as I did Birdsong which was my reading highlight of last year. Gideon Mack is waiting for me as soon as I finish my current book and really looking forward to it :)
  • Clever Pun
    Clever Pun Posts: 6,778
    Christopher Brookmyre - A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil

    was rather enjoyable thriller type affair

    Brian Lumley - The Touch was a good horror vampire book... anyone else read his Necroscope series?

    if you want a page turner try out

    Carl Hiaasen... amusing crime novel type thing
    Purveyor of sonic doom

    Very Hairy Roadie - FCN 4
    Fixed Pista- FCN 5
    Beared Bromptonite - FCN 14
  • nolf
    nolf Posts: 1,287
    Notes from a big country- Bill Bryson.
    Light hearted, entertaining, and easy to read.

    If you want something more serious then try-
    Not a penny more, not a penny less by Jeffrey Archer- I know it's written by the idiot Archer, but the book is incredibly entertaining, a real page turner and some brilliant twists. :)
    "I hold it true, what'er befall;
    I feel it, when I sorrow most;
    'Tis better to have loved and lost;
    Than never to have loved at all."

    Alfred Tennyson
  • LangerDan
    LangerDan Posts: 6,132
    "Bad Faith" by Carmen Callil.
    (The French Nation dropped several notches in my esteem after this book. Anti-Semitism and collaboration wasn't the sole preserve of a few bad eggs, much as our school history texts would like to present it)

    That book depressed me, so I read Matt Rendells biography of Pantani to cheer me up. Didn't like Marco much before he died - still don't like him.

    "Leonardo DaVinci:Flights of the Mind" by Charles Nichol - a stunning biography.
    'This week I 'ave been mostly been climbing like Basso - Shirley Basso.'
  • My favourites this year were.. in no particular order.

    In search of Robert Millar by Richard Moore. Which was fascinating, and about the British cyclist I admire the most, hence the name..

    The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills - darkly amusing and slightly creepy at the same time.

    The Wages of Destruction by Adam Tooze - Brilliant, if you like economic history and reading about Nazism

    A Theory of Justice by John Rawls - The foundation of most political theory in recent memory, and an interesting read. Not just for political scientists...

    I could go on and on..

  • The Wages of Destruction by Adam Tooze - Brilliant, if you like economic history and reading about Nazism

    I might get that. I found economics really interesting for some reason. We never got to cover the Nazi ecnomy after Speer came in, but I did a little reading myself and saw some of the statistics, and I must say it made frightening reading.
    "A cyclist has nothing to lose but his chain"

    PTP Runner Up 2015
  • Just finished "Half a world away" by Tom Bromley. Absolutely brilliant.

    Can we fix it?
    Yes we can!
  • kaacp
    kaacp Posts: 93
    Clever Pun wrote:

    Carl Hiaasen... amusing crime novel type thing

    I like Carl Hiaasen - great characters. 'Sick Puppy' is my favourite.

    If you like entertaining crime novel thingies (no doubt that's the catalogue description!), I highly recommend Laurence Block's Bernie Rodenbarr series about a very literary burglar. His Keller character, a hired assassin with discernment, is also worth reading - Hit Man etc.
    ***********************
    Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.
    Charles M. Schulz
  • mea00csf
    mea00csf Posts: 558
    Just finished reading "as used on the famous Nelson Mandella: underground adventures in the arms and torture trade" by Mark Thomas. A truly scary and hilarious book for anyone who likes his brand of political stand up comedy.