Books - What are you reading?

[Shadow R1]

Finished zen & the art of motorcycle riding by Mat Oxley.

It's 700 pages of short stories covering motorcycle racing from the 1920's up to modern times.

Very good if you are into the subject.

[Justayellowbadge]

Origin, the latest Dan Brown.

He still cannot write. It is laughably bad.

fking terrible.

[droopsnoot]

I didn't mind the really popular one, it was "Digital Fortress" that wound me up.

[coppice]

Levin said:

Sincerest thanks for the advice! 'The Old Man and the Sea' seems to be among his most well regarded stories, or at least, it is the title I see referred to most often. As it happens it is next on my reading list. Thanks to my local library, I have it, 'A Farewell to Arms' (which I am eager to read soon due to the setting) and 'A Moveable Feast' to enjoy in the coming days and weeks. Having read Steinbeck, Fitzgerald and Hemingway recently I'm partial to the idea of improving my own writing style. Perhaps that is the hallmark of great literature.

Nobody writes like EH .His words are fine and good and true . Don't try to imitate his style. If you do , you just use stupidly short sentences. But badly .

[Levin]

coppice said:

Nobody writes like EH .His words are fine and good and true . Don't try to imitate his style. If you do , you just use stupidly short sentences. But badly .

Not to worry, I have no interest in imitating anyone's style knowingly. Subconsciously I suppose we all adopt elements of style from exposure to it, but to entirely copy someone's writing style would be uninspired. Reading the works of those well-regarded for their writing style does leave me a little more introspective about my own, but I believe that to be a good thing.

'The Old Man and the Sea' is a nice little story and does not take especially long to read, but has a few infinitely quotable mantras. Familiarity therefore was a key part of the reading experience, as I have seen a few extracts from it repeated in various places online. Next up is 'A Farewell to Arms', also by Ernest Hemingway. By the time I have finished this current batch of books from my local library, I ought to have checked off quite a few of Hemingway's most famous works.

[coppice]

My early words in print were cringingly awful Hemingway parodies . I read them now and want to crawl away and die. Ultimately we do end up writing like ourselves, but it took me twenty years fully to relax into my own style

[Goaty Bill 2]

coppice said:

Nobody writes like EH .His words are fine and good and true . Don't try to imitate his style. If you do , you just use stupidly short sentences. But badly .

[Adam B]

Justayellowbadge said:

Origin, the latest Dan Brown.

He still cannot write. It is laughably bad.

fking terrible.

did you read it just to wind yourself up? He was hardly going to morph into Dostoevsky was he

[p1doc]

just bought copy of codex Leicester -not original like bill gates lol should be interesting

[matchmaker]

"Of whales and men" by R B Robertson. The experiences of a Scottish doctor who went on a whaling expedition to the South Atlantic in 1956. Fascinating read.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2814908-of-wha...

[tight fart]

3/4s of the way through Dominion, quite enjoyable so far.
(CJ Samson)

[Digby]

Old B&W images, now coloured. All accompanied by related pockets of info.

[Halmyre]

blindswelledrat said:

Legend83 said:

Got a dual read going on at the moment - Wuthering Heights by Bronte (I think most know this one!) .

Could you be any more gay?
Whilst it's literary merits are undeniable, how any man would voluntarily read what amounts to a 400 page romance novel is quite beyond me!

I've read it, remained thoroughly heterosexual, and it's not a romance.

Justayellowbadge said:

Origin, the latest Dan Brown.

He still cannot write. It is laughably bad.

fking terrible.

I read an interview with him recently which mentions the research he does for each book. However he obviously isn't happy with it because he then just makes stuff up instead.

Just finished Lee Child's 'Night School'. Rather poor.

Edited by Halmyre on Wednesday 18th October 23:06

[grumbledoak]

I just finished The Old Man and The Sea, many thanks to those who recommended it. I really liked the simple, direct style.

Previously it was Rivers of London, again from a recommendation here. I've always loved London for it's hidden history, all the little clues and reminders in the street names if you are inclined to read around them, and Peter Grant is a great character. I shall get more.

Up next is The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan.

[havoc]

grumbledoak said:

Up next is The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan.

Recently finished the series - gripping read, but a few too many deus-ex-machina moments for it to be really good (esp. the third book). There's a certain 'character trait' that rather gets rammed down your throat too :cough: ...

Anyway, cross Morgan's usual fast-paced, all-action style with GRR Martin's machinations and you get the idea.

[p1doc]

grumbledoak said:

I just finished The Old Man and The Sea, many thanks to those who recommended it. I really liked the simple, direct style.

Previously it was Rivers of London, again from a recommendation here. I've always loved London for it's hidden history, all the little clues and reminders in the street names if you are inclined to read around them, and Peter Grant is a great character. I shall get more.

Up next is The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan.

rivers of London is very good-he has done 6 novels 1 novella and loads of graphic novels, similar is jim butcher but appears to have stopped at book 15 for last few years and the alex verus novels by benedict jacka
just finished secret library looking at less well known books over the years so lots of interesting authors to research

[TheJimi]

grumbledoak said:

I just finished The Old Man and The Sea, many thanks to those who recommended it. I really liked the simple, direct style.

Previously it was Rivers of London, again from a recommendation here. I've always loved London for it's hidden history, all the little clues and reminders in the street names if you are inclined to read around them, and Peter Grant is a great character. I shall get more.

Up next is The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan.

I was one of those who recommended Rivers Of London. Pleased you enjoyed them, brilliant books and well written too. I arrived at them after I read all Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files stuff.

As for me, my current book is The Angels Game, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. After I re-read Shadow Of The Wind this summer, I decided to give the 2nd book in the trilogy a bash – enjoying so far

Edited by TheJimi on Thursday 19th October 14:00

[Levin]

I finished Hemingway's 'A Farewell to Arms' yesterday and moved on to 'A Moveable Feast'. Different to the other works of his I have read, I'm enjoying how it captures life in 1920s Paris. It is also a rather short book, with the version I have coming in at slightly over 100 pages.

[Prolex-UK]

Reading deep freeze by john sandford. 10th in the virgil flowers series.

Excellent read with some great one liners.

Set in minnesota

[WolfieBot]

"Time bubble"

It was only £2 on Kindle, first in a series with some spin offs too.

Pretty easy reading, nostalgic time travel similar to "the 86 fix" which was popular on here.