Books - What are you reading?

[Ace-T]

colonel c said:

Terry Pratchett’s Monstrous Regiment.
I had some difficulty in getting into Pratchett. Only after listing to a couple of audio books have I been able to pick up a printed copy again. Loving every page now.

Bizarrely considering the subject matter I really didn't like this one at all and I am normally a Pratchett fan. IMHO there are much better ones.

[downthepub]

Earlier today finished off London Fields by Martin Amis. Hmm. The literary style seemed a little too clever for it's own good. Towards the end of the book got pretty fed up with the whole thing and was tempted to give up - but I never like giving up on books. On to The Drowned World by JB Ballard.

Oh, and cheers for the reminder of the Follett books, I read the Fall of Giants just after it came out and meant to read the subsequent books. But then never managed. Will reserve the next in the trilogy from the library forthwith!

Edited by downthepub on Monday 24th November 12:50

[ascayman]

ali_kat said:

ascayman said:

I am struggling with this am halfway through it and just cant get into it.

I had to persevere with it, did get a bit boring in the middle

Hmm mixed reviews on here then it would seem, ill keep going just because I don't like to give up and hope that it gets better.

[soad]

Picked this up just now:



Choose us. Choose life. Choose mortgage payments; choose washing machines; choose cars; choose sitting on a couch watching mind-numbing and spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fkin junk food intae yir mooth. Choose rotting away, pishing and steing yersel in a home, a total fkin embarrassment tae the selfish, fked-up brats ye've produced. Choose life.

Should teach me some Scottish swearing then.

[Digga]

Aye it will fannybaws.

Just finished and enjoyed this:

The Meaning of Things, by A C Grayling

And am ploughing through this at a vast rate of knotts and with a great deal of interest and amusement:

Guy Martin's autobiography.

[Laurel Green]

Digga said:

Guy Martin's autobiography.

I enjoyed it.

[Digga]

Laurel Green said:

Digga said:

Guy Martin's autobiography.

I enjoyed it.

Fun isn't it? And interesting - I didn't really know that much about the motorbike racing scene for example - as well as disarmingly candid.

[g3org3y]

soad said:

Picked this up just now:



Choose us. Choose life. Choose mortgage payments; choose washing machines; choose cars; choose sitting on a couch watching mind-numbing and spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fkin junk food intae yir mooth. Choose rotting away, pishing and steing yersel in a home, a total fkin embarrassment tae the selfish, fked-up brats ye've produced. Choose life.

Should teach me some Scottish swearing then.

So very good.

I found it took some time to adjust to the dialect but it's a great book. As is the sequel and prequel. Big Irvine Welsh fan.

[Abagnale]

Read it at the time & once I got my head around the vernacular, I found it to be a disjointed collection of well worn bar room tales & not particularly the better for it. A rare case of the film being superior to the book, at least Danny Boyle was obliged to stitch together a cohesive narrative.

Didn't bother with Irvine Welsh after that, I consider him to be someone who got very lucky with the first book.

[g3org3y]

Abagnale said:

Read it at the time & once I got my head around the vernacular, I found it to be a disjointed collection of well worn bar room tales & not particularly the better for it. A rare case of the film being superior to the book, at least Danny Boyle was obliged to stitch together a cohesive narrative.

Didn't bother with Irvine Welsh after that, I consider him to be someone who got very lucky with the first book.

Good bar room tales with interesting and genuinely realistic characters. I think his experience of life in the Schemes really shows. Some of the stuff is genuinely dark/shocking.

I enjoy Welsh's books for what they are though I must admit some of his short story collections fall well below par.

[K50 DEL]

K50 DEL said:

Started the first book (The Hunter) by new author Tom Wood over the weekend (I'm a little late to the party as the second is already released)
A great read so far, crime / political thriller that's fast paced with a good number of twists.

Recommended at the moment.

Finished this one and now halfway through the second. Really good read, can see me following this series like I used to follow Reacher.

[The Vambo]

K50 DEL said:

K50 DEL said:

Started the first book (The Hunter) by new author Tom Wood over the weekend (I'm a little late to the party as the second is already released)
A great read so far, crime / political thriller that's fast paced with a good number of twists.

Recommended at the moment.

Finished this one and now halfway through the second. Really good read, can see me following this series like I used to follow Reacher.

Just finished reading/listening to all four Victor books back to back, every one a fantastic read.

Tom Woods fourth in the series, Better Off Dead is the radio 2 book club pick of the month so a free extract is available for those interested.

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/simon-mayo...

[Alex]

I've just finished Steve Brookstein's "Getting Over The X". A very readable insight into behind the scenes of the X Factor and also the power of the press and PR.

[Nezquick]

g3org3y said:

soad said:

Picked this up just now:



Choose us. Choose life. Choose mortgage payments; choose washing machines; choose cars; choose sitting on a couch watching mind-numbing and spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fkin junk food intae yir mooth. Choose rotting away, pishing and steing yersel in a home, a total fkin embarrassment tae the selfish, fked-up brats ye've produced. Choose life.

Should teach me some Scottish swearing then.

So very good.

I found it took some time to adjust to the dialect but it's a great book. As is the sequel and prequel. Big Irvine Welsh fan.

Exellent book - i'm a big Welsh fan and have read a number of his books now. Filth was good as was Porno.

I agree though, it does take some time to get your head around the dialect but once you do, good reading.

[coppice]

Let me be Frank- Richard Ford - as brilliant as all his other books.

Dark Places - Gillian Flynn- disturbing and quite un-put-down- able.

Please Mr Postman and This Boy- proof that not all politicians are dull or out of touch .

Funny Girl - Nick Hornby; good but not great

Stoner - John Williams- a classic on US academic in the 20s and 30s.

The Children Act - Ian McEwan - brilliant as ever- one of our best writers

An Officer and Spy - Robert Harris- superb account of the Dreyfus scandal in France in 1890s .

The Richard Ford is my best book so far of 2014 - the writing is of the very highest quality

[lowdrag]

Some books stay with you for ever - never lent out, never given away - and this is one of them. The sheer scale of the story of the richest man in America and his daughter takes a lot of comprehending. He was born in 1836 and his daughter died in 2013 aged 104, the family riches being made in copper mining in Montana. But while I had heard of the Rockenfellers, the Carnegies, the Vanderbilts, I had never heard of the Clark family, who outdid them all as far as wealth was concerned.

The story of the daughter is bizarre, astounding, and rather sad. In effect, she never grew up, getting married but never consummating, divorced after nine months, and lived with her mother until she died and then the daughter became a recluse. The picture above you might think is a French chateau, and in style it is, but it backs (or backed) onto Central Park in New York. 121 rooms and a private rail system that delivered seven tons of coal per day to heat the place and generate electricity. It was pulled down after the father's death, and the mother and daughter bought three complete floors of an apartment building overlooking the park. Inside, an Aladdin's cave of Cézanne, Degas, Monet and others, three Stradivarii - you get the picture.

But the daughter, all alone in the world, shut herself away, and spent the last 20 years of her life in a hospital room of her own volition. For 50 years the family house at San Bernadino had the table laid in case she visited, the same cars in the garage, the same staff (her expenses were $330,000 per month overall including the maintenance of this house) but she never visited. She bought another house in Connecticut in 1961 but never furnished it nor visited. She collected dolls, spending $20,000 per month on her passion, and ended up with 1,157 of the finest Japanese and French dolls in the world, plus she had made innumerable houses for them. To her personal nurse at the hospital she gave a total of $30,000,000 (yes, you read correctly) but then money could never be a problem, and on her death she left behind three hundred million dollars, which started of course a fight to contest her will.

I have been kept enthralled by this amazingly researched book, by the stories of avarice, theft by her banks and others, theft of a Degas from the apartments, her unbridled generosity to maintain friends and family, and would recommend the book to you without reservation. A truly amazing story.

Edited by lowdrag on Tuesday 9th December 14:16

[blindswelledrat]

Looks fascinating.
I will order that one.

[Digga]

coppice said:

Dark Places - Gillian Flynn- disturbing and quite un-put-down- able.

Loved that book. Read it last year and, as you say, it's darkly compelling. I liked it even better than 'Gone Girl', which is a great story about to be ruined by having that lump of Hollywood-Hardwood, Ben Afleck play the protagonist.

It is no surprise to me that Bret Easton Ellis admires her work.

[Legend83]

Digga said:

oved that book. Read it last year and, as you say, it's darkly compelling. I liked it even better than 'Gone Girl', which is a great story about to be ruined by having that lump of Hollywood-Hardwood, Ben Afleck play the protagonist.

He was actually very good in the role and fitted well as Nick - you spent the whole film wanting to punch him in the face.

[E24man]

Thanks Lowdrag - that's right up my street so I've ordered it and that means I'll have at least one Christmas present I like.