Books - What are you reading?
Discussion
coppice said:
Not Hemingway's (one M) best book , but after The Old Man and The Sea, his most famous . Curiously he is now almost forgotten , despite being an utterly peerless author . Nobody can write such spare prose so elegantly and to such effect.
If you enjoy it do try A Moveable Feast - about his days in Paris as a young man, but written from the perspective of an older man. I think it 's his best work and the older I get the more moving it is- I re-read it every few years
Halfway through it and would agree with the comments If you enjoy it do try A Moveable Feast - about his days in Paris as a young man, but written from the perspective of an older man. I think it 's his best work and the older I get the more moving it is- I re-read it every few years
blindswelledrat said:
I am not quite sure what gives you that impression but if you google 'famous authors' he is the first that comes up.
I don't think he will ever be forgotten.
Because his work is only rarely mentioned now , except by Jeremy Paxman , also a fan and because if he is mentioned, it is usually just an opportunity for somebody to drone on about what a misogynistic , hard drinking, self mythologising man he was . Some of which is true - but judge the art not the artist . I don't think he will ever be forgotten.
You are quite right about googling his name- a welcome surprise indeed. I 'd have expected some talentless w
ker like Jeffrey Archer to appear - and yes, I am judging the 'artist' here as his'art ' isn't worth a bucket of cold sick ... coppice said:
blindswelledrat said:
I am not quite sure what gives you that impression but if you google 'famous authors' he is the first that comes up.
I don't think he will ever be forgotten.
Because his work is only rarely mentioned now , except by Jeremy Paxman , also a fan and because if he is mentioned, it is usually just an opportunity for somebody to drone on about what a misogynistic , hard drinking, self mythologising man he was . Some of which is true - but judge the art not the artist . I don't think he will ever be forgotten.
You are quite right about googling his name- a welcome surprise indeed. I 'd have expected some talentless w
ker like Jeffrey Archer to appear - and yes, I am judging the 'artist' here as his'art ' isn't worth a bucket of cold sick ... Not that I am a book snob. I read everything and I am as happy with a trashy novel as a classic for different reasons according to different moods. Its just that there is literally noting to say about a bestseller thriller and whilst I enjoy reading them I cannot remember a single thing about them a week later.
I am rambling now, but my point is simply that relatively few people have the same tastes in books so the chances of ending up in a conversation where someone is lauding the merits of 'Confessions of a shopaholic' is so high that I simply don't talk about books to people hence don't hear of my favourite Authors.
I know what you mean ; I am an oceangoing snob when it comes to books. Not in the sense that I survive on a diet only - or at all -of French and Russian classics, it's just that I value writing style at least as much as racy plot . If people want to survive on a diet of crash bang wallop SAS fantasies that's up to them but it isn't my preferred diet . I can struggle with the 'all opinion is equally valid , whether informed or not ' school , which is always challenging when comparing Hamlet with On The Buses or Martin Amis with EL James ...
Anyway...reading AA Gill's travel writing at the moment; what a loss he is - his writing is just infuriatingly, absurdly good.
Anyway...reading AA Gill's travel writing at the moment; what a loss he is - his writing is just infuriatingly, absurdly good.
"What am I trying to read" would be a more apt title for this one. "The End Game", by Raymond Khoury, is another in the genre of dastardly insiders and an honest cop trying to get at the truth, but I am wondering just what the author was on when he wrote it. I mean, a cop pulls over at a deli in New York to buy a sandwich, the hired assassin just happens to be in this deli, knocks the sandwich to the floor, picks it up and dusts it with a fatal powder he just happened to have in his pocket. Exit stage left the honest and reliable partner of our hero. Our hero is falsely arrested for murder, is entombed in the FBI HQ but his wife smuggles in an unknown drug from Mexico, he foams at the mouth, is rushed to hospital without being handcuffed and escapes.
There are very few books I have never finished but this may just be one of them. Compared to the easy style of Lee Childs for one, this is torture.
There are very few books I have never finished but this may just be one of them. Compared to the easy style of Lee Childs for one, this is torture.
coppice said:
blindswelledrat said:
I am not quite sure what gives you that impression but if you google 'famous authors' he is the first that comes up.
I don't think he will ever be forgotten.
Because his work is only rarely mentioned now , except by Jeremy Paxman , also a fan and because if he is mentioned, it is usually just an opportunity for somebody to drone on about what a misogynistic , hard drinking, self mythologising man he was . Some of which is true - but judge the art not the artist . I don't think he will ever be forgotten.
You are quite right about googling his name- a welcome surprise indeed. I 'd have expected some talentless w
ker like Jeffrey Archer to appear - and yes, I am judging the 'artist' here as his'art ' isn't worth a bucket of cold sick ... I don't doubt if you did a survey that E.L. James, Lee Child and J.K. Rowling would be higher up in the recognition stakes today, but I bet you that won't be true in 50 years time!
I'm currently reading "The Girl Who Saved The King of Sweden" by Jonas Jonasson - If you've read the "The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared" you'll recognise the style, although I have to say I preferred that book's 'sweep of history' style and the absurdity of it, which is present here, but in a more mundane setting (Albeit with one particularly huge absurdity, which I won't mention in case you read it!).
It's ok though, enjoyable fluff.
I see there's another book by him now, so I'll keep an eye out at the Charity shop
M.
Edited by marcosgt on Saturday 7th January 17:42
Finally finished "A-Train, Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman"
Not full of the Squadrons European battles, but concetrates of his training and Korean service. Hard to find a cheap copy
I can't help but read it with his accent in my head!Reading that now, and I can't not hear his voice as I read it either.
Not full of the Squadrons European battles, but concetrates of his training and Korean service. Hard to find a cheap copy
RC1807 said:
I can't help but read it with his accent in my head!
marcosgt said:
coppice said:
blindswelledrat said:
I am not quite sure what gives you that impression but if you google 'famous authors' he is the first that comes up.
I don't think he will ever be forgotten.
Because his work is only rarely mentioned now , except by Jeremy Paxman , also a fan and because if he is mentioned, it is usually just an opportunity for somebody to drone on about what a misogynistic , hard drinking, self mythologising man he was . Some of which is true - but judge the art not the artist . I don't think he will ever be forgotten.
You are quite right about googling his name- a welcome surprise indeed. I 'd have expected some talentless w
ker like Jeffrey Archer to appear - and yes, I am judging the 'artist' here as his'art ' isn't worth a bucket of cold sick ... I don't doubt if you did a survey that E.L. James, Lee Child and J.K. Rowling would be higher up in the recognition stakes today, but I bet you that won't be true in 50 years time!
I'm currently reading "The Girl Who Saved The King of Sweden" by Jonas Jonasson - If you've read the "The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared" you'll recognise the style, although I have to say I preferred that book's 'sweep of history' style and the absurdity of it, which is present here, but in a more mundane setting (Albeit with one particularly huge absurdity, which I won't mention in case you read it!).
It's ok though, enjoyable fluff.
I see there's another book by him now, so I'll keep an eye out at the Charity shop
M.
Edited by marcosgt on Saturday 7th January 17:42
I have never read any Harry Potter books but I did try one of JK Rowling's Cormoran Shrike books . It was so astonishingly awful that I read another just to check that it wasn't a one off lapse in form . It wasn't , in fact it was even worse . God only knows why people buy this stuff.
I just blitzed through Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. Really enjoyed it - thought provoking and gripping, switching between the run up to a devastating plague that wipes out most of the world population and how the few survivors are coping 20 years later. Absolutely recommended.
EdJ said:
I just blitzed through Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. Really enjoyed it - thought provoking and gripping, switching between the run up to a devastating plague that wipes out most of the world population and how the few survivors are coping 20 years later. Absolutely recommended.
Ordered epom said:
EdJ said:
I just blitzed through Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. Really enjoyed it - thought provoking and gripping, switching between the run up to a devastating plague that wipes out most of the world population and how the few survivors are coping 20 years later. Absolutely recommended.
Ordered Recently enjoyed 'Tuesday Falling' by S Williams; a great first piece with an engaging perspective, a page-turner with some thoughtful twists. It's not necessarily going to pull any literary awards however. My only (minor) complaint being I found occasions where it was hard to work out who was speaking in some of the conversations.
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