Books - What are you reading?
Discussion
Well I have finished my Orwell omnibus and thoroughly enjoyed the journey. As I alluded to a few pages ago, I last read a lot of his books maybe 50 years ago and wanted to revisit. I'd read Animal Farm, 1984 and Aspidestra amongst others but not Clergyman's Daughter or Burmese Days as far as i remember.
Animal Farm - we all know the story.
Clergyman's Daughter - It lost me briefly as i wasn't sure about the change in her circumstances but actually that is exactly what the author intends. Would love to know who he has based the character on. Probably quite a lot of people about the time he wrote the book.
Burmese Days. - surely based upon his time in Burma as a policeman, a time of extreme racism, imperial dominance and a suppression of the locals. Is it any wonder the "english" are hated in many parts of the world.
Coming up for air - Humorous at times but very descriptive of the life of an ordinary male born at the turn of the century, through growing up, the onset of war and the changes to his world, his village, his outlook.
Keep the Aspidestra Flying - Again a humorous at times tale of life in the earlier part of the twentieth century as seen through someone who doesn't want to conform to the capitalist way of life. Many of Orwell's characters are downtrodden, there are no superheroes. Books such as Down and Out take the underdog to even greater levels.
1984 - How does Orwell choose his subject matter. From the previous 4 books about early twentieth century life to this forecast of the future. OK he's already 40 years out on his "predictions" but the grim outlook on our future is a masterpiece of how we may well end up. Thought Police? we already have criticism if we speak our minds on many subjects, we have "alexa" listening into our conversations like his "telescreens". We have the three major continents, often at loggerheads (fortunately not at war) except they aren't called Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia.
Orwell's writing is outstanding, descriptive, probably quite factual rather than fanciful, in his books (excluding 1984 obviously). As I said above, there are no "superheroes" the main characters usually downtrodden, "working class" people which can make the stories a little grim at times, there's no "Downton Abbey" types in his books. Will seek out a few more.
Animal Farm - we all know the story.
Clergyman's Daughter - It lost me briefly as i wasn't sure about the change in her circumstances but actually that is exactly what the author intends. Would love to know who he has based the character on. Probably quite a lot of people about the time he wrote the book.
Burmese Days. - surely based upon his time in Burma as a policeman, a time of extreme racism, imperial dominance and a suppression of the locals. Is it any wonder the "english" are hated in many parts of the world.
Coming up for air - Humorous at times but very descriptive of the life of an ordinary male born at the turn of the century, through growing up, the onset of war and the changes to his world, his village, his outlook.
Keep the Aspidestra Flying - Again a humorous at times tale of life in the earlier part of the twentieth century as seen through someone who doesn't want to conform to the capitalist way of life. Many of Orwell's characters are downtrodden, there are no superheroes. Books such as Down and Out take the underdog to even greater levels.
1984 - How does Orwell choose his subject matter. From the previous 4 books about early twentieth century life to this forecast of the future. OK he's already 40 years out on his "predictions" but the grim outlook on our future is a masterpiece of how we may well end up. Thought Police? we already have criticism if we speak our minds on many subjects, we have "alexa" listening into our conversations like his "telescreens". We have the three major continents, often at loggerheads (fortunately not at war) except they aren't called Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia.
Orwell's writing is outstanding, descriptive, probably quite factual rather than fanciful, in his books (excluding 1984 obviously). As I said above, there are no "superheroes" the main characters usually downtrodden, "working class" people which can make the stories a little grim at times, there's no "Downton Abbey" types in his books. Will seek out a few more.
p1doc said:
andy_s said:
Enjoyed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, not sure it merits some of the hype but a solid sci-fi tale and a story I'll be reading more of anyway.
Had a few days in Lisbon and a friend recommended this, The Book of Disquiet' by Fernando Pessoa - it's fragments of a lifetime of writing stitched together then re-edited [some better than others apparently] to form a whole. 'Fragmentary' could also be used to describe Pessoa himself as he wrote under guise of about 72 different and disparate characters throughout his life [see rear cover]. Great to dip in and out of, and although quite morose and pessimistic in nature, the skill of the writing is a joy and the concepts/ideas are thought provoking.
Finally, just starting The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World by David Deutsche , 'A provocative, imaginative exploration of the nature and progress of knowledge' - NYT, let's see.
supposedly netflix just made tv series of three body problem i really enjoyed the books but feel would be hard to make into seriesHad a few days in Lisbon and a friend recommended this, The Book of Disquiet' by Fernando Pessoa - it's fragments of a lifetime of writing stitched together then re-edited [some better than others apparently] to form a whole. 'Fragmentary' could also be used to describe Pessoa himself as he wrote under guise of about 72 different and disparate characters throughout his life [see rear cover]. Great to dip in and out of, and although quite morose and pessimistic in nature, the skill of the writing is a joy and the concepts/ideas are thought provoking.
Finally, just starting The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World by David Deutsche , 'A provocative, imaginative exploration of the nature and progress of knowledge' - NYT, let's see.
just finished empire of the damed sequel to empire of the vampire vgood
"Battles like this one raged across Beijing like a multitude of CPUs working in parallel."
Jesus wept.
I've just finished reading "Criminal Enterprise" by Owen Laukkanen. An accountant loses his job, sets up on his own but struggles to get enough work to maintain his massive house and lavish lifestyle, so he robs a bank. He starts out small, then takes on a couple of partners and graduates to robbing security vans and shooting people. Meanwhile an FBI agent is suspicious of him almost from the start, but her older partner and boss don't trust her instincts and pursue different suspects, and force her to do the same, which she generally ignores. I enjoyed the book, would read another, but the "female agent ignored by older male partner and boss until she proves them wrong" is a bit overdone.
I've just read "Twisted Prey" by John Sandford. Someone attempts to assassinate a US Senator and kills his friend, he suspects who was behind it, and US Marshal Lucas Davenport has to find out whether he's right, and prove it. Very enjoyable read, I might have read one of his before.
RizzoTheRat said:
After finishing Guts and Gunships (crap name, decent biography from a Vietnam Huey pilot) the other day, I noticed Chickenhawk was on Kindle's 99p deal, so I'm now rereading that and kindle keeps advertising me more Vietnam helicopter books, I had no idea there were so many 
Garrison went out mid way through the war, starting as a slick (transport) pilot then converting to gunships. Mason went out with 1st Air Cav when they first started air mobile operations
Was pleased to find this free on KU.Garrison went out mid way through the war, starting as a slick (transport) pilot then converting to gunships. Mason went out with 1st Air Cav when they first started air mobile operations
Interesting to see his career after.
droopsnoot said:
I've just finished "Never" by Ken Follett, after hearing people on here recommend it. A very good story, though I was a bit critical of the earlier parts being a bit too verbose for my liking. Another one that really started to speed up part-way through.
I have done the same. It was the first book I had read by Ken Follett, and rarely read books like it (or what I expected it to be like).The story itself was well-told (even with some unlikely events taking place), especially later on the book, and the tension certainly built towards the end.
I was not expecting great literature. The writing, however, was very clunky in places and not what I'd expect from a successful author. The dialogue in particular was often disappointing and simplistic. Some of the dialogue also felt as if it should have been in a much older era/book. George Orwell it was not.
Overall, I did enjoy reading it, as the book became better towards the end, but some of the side stories in the early part did not necessarily need to be there.
LimaDelta said:
RizzoTheRat said:
Appropriate username 
Yeah, I read it years ago too. No idea where my paperback copy ended up for for the sake of 99p I figured it was worth another read.
19 minutes to live gets some good reviews too.
If you like Chickenhawk, you'll love Low Level Hell.Yeah, I read it years ago too. No idea where my paperback copy ended up for for the sake of 99p I figured it was worth another read.
19 minutes to live gets some good reviews too.
Thanks for the recommendation
Excellent book.
Just finished reading Bloody Minded by Alex Dowsett
A cracking read and more personal than the autobiographies from the likes of Wiggins and Froome, which seemed more of a PR exercise.
His story is all the more interesting when you realise that he is/was the only elite athlete in the world who suffers from haemophilia!
A cracking read and more personal than the autobiographies from the likes of Wiggins and Froome, which seemed more of a PR exercise.
His story is all the more interesting when you realise that he is/was the only elite athlete in the world who suffers from haemophilia!
I've just finished "Graft" by Matt Hill. Set in the near future after some sort of civil unrest or apocalypse. A man makes a living stealing cars and breaking them for spares, but steals one that has a young woman in the boot, and she's been genetically modified, turned part mechanical, in a different dimension and he decides to try to take revenge on those that did it. Or something like that. It flits back and forth between Manchester and this other dimension, and back and forth in time. Not my kind of thing at all, I won't be looking for any more like this.
Currently reading Bret Easton Ellis's 'The Shards'..
Really enjoying it so far, American Psycho is one of my favourite books, and I really liked Less Than Zero and The Rules of Attraction (although couldn't gel with Glamorama, didn't end up finishing that)..
But I'm about 1/3 through this and it's pretty good. Without going into spoilers, it's quite 'meta', in that it's written as a fictional memoir. If you're familiar with his work, you'll know the general setting and themes of his books, which are loosely based on his own experiences and life. This is written in the style of a true story with himself as the protagonist, and makes reference to his other work throughout the book, if that makes sense?
Really enjoying it so far, American Psycho is one of my favourite books, and I really liked Less Than Zero and The Rules of Attraction (although couldn't gel with Glamorama, didn't end up finishing that)..
But I'm about 1/3 through this and it's pretty good. Without going into spoilers, it's quite 'meta', in that it's written as a fictional memoir. If you're familiar with his work, you'll know the general setting and themes of his books, which are loosely based on his own experiences and life. This is written in the style of a true story with himself as the protagonist, and makes reference to his other work throughout the book, if that makes sense?
After having a tidy up in my front room I rediscovered an old copy of Wings of Fire by Dale Brown which I think I have read about 5 times now. So much so that I am now slowly making my way through the Patrick McLanahan series and I have just started Sky Masters.
I think I'm up to 13 of the 22 books in the series as I find them on eBay and buy a couple at a time. I will get to a point and then sell a few off as they are taking over my front room!
I think I'm up to 13 of the 22 books in the series as I find them on eBay and buy a couple at a time. I will get to a point and then sell a few off as they are taking over my front room!
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