Author Topic: What books are we reading at the moment ? (Read 843753 times)

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #525 on:** 23 March, 2009, 07:38:41 pm »

The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams. It must be 20 years since I last read it and I have no idea how it ends.

Wascally Weasel · « **Reply #526 on:** 23 March, 2009, 07:49:47 pm »

Quote from: Kirst on 23 March, 2009, 07:38:41 pm

The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams. It must be 20 years since I last read it and I have no idea how it ends.

*Tries to resist spoiling ending*

Captain Zep · « **Reply #527 on:** 23 March, 2009, 08:57:28 pm »

Keep up the recommendations folks.

I really enjoyed "The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher" and am currently reading "The Return of John Macnab", both mentioned on this thread.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #528 on:** 24 March, 2009, 08:54:32 am »

Ash: A Secret History - Mary Gentle

Picked this up in a second hand bookshop when I needed something for the train. It's a mad feminist historical / fantasy novel set in 15th Century Europe about a women (the ash of the title) who is captain of a mercenary troop. It's surprised me as its a lot better than I though it would be and the author manages to weave in real facts about the period along whilst going off on a tangent with a very alternate view of history. The main character Ash makes Buffy look like a woose.

mike · « **Reply #529 on:** 24 March, 2009, 09:00:13 am »

robinson crusoe. It's great!

'I spent twelvty eleven days making a canoe, then it was too heavy to get to the water. D'oh'

tiermat · « **Reply #530 on:** 24 March, 2009, 09:03:03 am »

"Heroes, Villains and Velodromes, the story of Chris Hoy and British Track Cycling", on a bit of a cycling reading tip at the moment.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #531 on:** 24 March, 2009, 12:35:56 pm »

My Idea Of Fun ~ Will Self. Harder going than "The Book Of Dave" or "The Butt".

harrumph · « **Reply #532 on:** 25 March, 2009, 01:56:00 pm »

"Who cut the Cheese - a cultural history of the fart" by Jim Dawson. Amusing, but not as substantially anthropological as I had hoped, so far.

Published, oddly enough, by 10-Speed Press. Maybe it's true: cycling does make you fart...

clarion · « **Reply #533 on:** 25 March, 2009, 02:14:45 pm »

d'Oh! I've lost me book.

This always happens when I'm getting somewhere with it.

Never mind - in sorting through some papers, i've found the Irving novel I was reading. It's been sat on my desk for two weeks

Butterfly · « **Reply #534 on:** 25 March, 2009, 02:17:14 pm »

Quote from: clarion on 25 March, 2009, 02:14:45 pm

d'Oh! I've lost me book.

This always happens when I'm getting somewhere with it.

Never mind - in sorting through some papers, i've found the Irving novel I was reading. It's been sat on my desk for two weeks

Is it on the dining table?

clarion · « **Reply #535 on:** 25 March, 2009, 02:24:44 pm »

Almost certainly somewhere as obvious as that. I took it away at the weekend, and so it perhaps got into the camping equipment. hey ho.

delthebike · « **Reply #536 on:** 25 March, 2009, 02:26:47 pm »

Quote from: Butterfly on 25 March, 2009, 02:17:14 pm

Is it on the dining table?

It'll be at the last place he'll look.

If audiobooks count I'm currently on an unabridged Lord of the Rings.

Deano · « **Reply #537 on:** 07 April, 2009, 12:14:42 am »

I am reading "To Kill a Mockingbird".

I bought it - and I remember distinctly - for 50p at Nottingham Oxfam as something to read on the train to Newcastle, but I got speaking to a girl on the train, and never got around to reading it. The book is wonderful, Atticus Finch is the father we all dream of having as children, and I have about 20 books bought in similar circumstances. One at a time.

Oh, I am also reading Moods of Future Joys by Alastair Humphreys, the first half of which I read in a chippy in Inverness. I enjoyed it so much, I'm saving the rest for an equally outré location.

Regulator · « **Reply #538 on:** 07 April, 2009, 10:48:04 am »

Robin Shelton's 'Allotted Time'... subtitled 'Two Blokes, One Shed, No Idea'.

An absolutely hilarious and engaging true story of the novice allotment holder. I can thoroughly recommend it as a good read.

microphonie · « **Reply #539 on:** 07 April, 2009, 06:05:11 pm »

Finally started 'How The Dead Live' by Will Self for a second time. Seem to have got into it a bit easier this time - I'm pretty sure I'm past the stage at which I abandoned the last attempt.

Captain Zep · « **Reply #540 on:** 07 April, 2009, 08:18:00 pm »

Quote from: microphonie on 07 April, 2009, 06:05:11 pm

Finally started 'How The Dead Live' by Will Self for a second time. Seem to have got into it a bit easier this time - I'm pretty sure I'm past the stage at which I abandoned the last attempt.

I read that for "Book Club" on Radio 4 a couple of years ago. I quite enjoyed it, but Self enjoys using little used or obscure words too much - I still haven't found a dictionary with "lithopedion" in it (I worked it out as "calcified being who walks" yes?). I got annoyed by his overuse of the word "valedictory" in "Great Apes".

nightrider · « **Reply #541 on:** 07 April, 2009, 08:35:56 pm »

The book thief.By Marcus Zusak.Wartime Germany seen through eyes of a young girl.Easy to read and touching.

clarion · « **Reply #542 on:** 08 April, 2009, 04:36:59 pm »

Quote from: clarion on 17 March, 2009, 05:08:15 pm

I'm reading another book I happened upon in the dusty shelves in the kitchen at work.

This one's Cley by Carey Harrison (son of Rex, if that matters). I was lured in by the mention of a bike ride. Indeed there is one - a ride from west London to Cley in Norfolk. But, once he gets there, that seems to be it. I'm hoping thare'll be another ride to Liskeard later in the book (it's part of a sequence of novels which are parallel stories about how & why the characters reach Liskeard. Yeah - I dunno either).

It's a slim volume, and seems a bit chaotic in the middle, but I'm hoping it all becomes more connected by the end.

Finally finished it today.

Really really poor. The bike wasn't even a useful plot device, though the fact that he damaged it in a crash on the way back from Cromer did mean there was a ploddingly 'significant' conversation in a car at the end. Maybe it's damaged state at the end was a metaphor. Nothing really of the riding.

Of the book beyond the cycling, it was really poor. Characterisation thin and unbelievable; chronology awful; dialogue wooden and stilted; motivations unlikely. Plot was unnecessarily convoluted without having any complexity - it was just as if the author forgot to mention something and had doubled back, so you didn't know where you were.

Oh - and it's supposed to be set in the late 60s, but the incongruous anachronisms were clunking and all too frequent.

Er... Don't Bother.

microphonie · « **Reply #543 on:** 08 April, 2009, 06:26:25 pm »

Quote from: RJMcB on 07 April, 2009, 08:18:00 pm

Quote from: microphonie on 07 April, 2009, 06:05:11 pm
Finally started 'How The Dead Live' by Will Self for a second time. Seem to have got into it a bit easier this time - I'm pretty sure I'm past the stage at which I abandoned the last attempt.

I read that for "Book Club" on Radio 4 a couple of years ago. I quite enjoyed it, but Self enjoys using little used or obscure words too much - I still haven't found a dictionary with "lithopedion" in it (I worked it out as "calcified being who walks" yes?). I got annoyed by his overuse of the word "valedictory" in "Great Apes".

Yeah, it's the obscure language that can annoy me too - it's as if he's trying to impress upon the reader just how wide his vocabulary is (and therefore how clever he is).

I'd decided on 'stone footed' or similar for lithopedion and then I googled it: 'Stone baby' which fits the storyline perfectly.

GruB · « **Reply #544 on:** 08 April, 2009, 06:51:10 pm »

Rough Ride - Paul Kimmage.

mark · « **Reply #545 on:** 09 April, 2009, 05:48:38 am »

"Love, Janis" by (her sister) Laura Joplin. Worthwhile reading for fans of Janis Joplin, but truthfully not a very good work of literature.

ChrisO · « **Reply #546 on:** 12 April, 2009, 01:27:50 pm »

For those who like cycling books I've just read A Dog In A Hat, by Joe Parkin.

He was an American who came to Belgium in the late 80s early 90s and rode for some of the middle-ranking Belgian teams.

He starts off with dreams of doing the grand tours but falls into the journeyman route of kermis and minor stage races with occasional chances to do some classics but never as more than a domestique. His team winning the Tour of Switzerland is the high point.

He's quite open about the whole scene including the drug taking and doesn't have the same chip on his shoulder about it as Kimmage. There are some amusing stories from the peloton and insights into the way teams, riders and racing work, especially the "auctioning" of results in the kermis races.

What I found most interesting about it was how quickly he falls into the monotony and treats it as you might treat an office job. He says he's looking forward to races but then for a variety of reasons it just becomes another grind. Maybe that's the difference between the journeyman and the elite.

But it is written very much from an insider point of view which is good. Not the outsider looking in. He speaks Flemish and becomes assimilated into their cycling. Having said that the title comes from a Flemish expression which basically means something is out of place.

GruB · « **Reply #547 on:** 12 April, 2009, 02:05:49 pm »

Now that I have finished with Paul Kimmage, I am unsure how I feel about his book. He certainly portrays an axe to grind and I found his thoroughbreed and donkey talk a new way of viewing those of us that ride a bike for please and those that use it as their job. I think I like his honesty, especially to himself but I do think he is a tortured soul in a Catholic body - hence the crusade that is all consuming.

I'm now into Breaking the Chain by Willy Voet. I find his writing style more easy to read than Kimmage's - and he certainly doesn't beat around the bush. He is certainly opening my eyes to the peleton of the 1990's.

This all brings me back to a throw away comment to Gonzo about Lance being clean - Mr Naive here is now facing facts.

nobby · « **Reply #548 on:** 12 April, 2009, 07:09:26 pm »

The Making of the English Landscape by W G Hoskins, it's the main reason why I cycle and camp.
I've read it several times but this time I'm reading the 1988 edition with the updates by Christopher Taylor. Found the hardback in a shop for four quid

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #549 on:** 28 April, 2009, 12:53:51 pm »

More Trees to Climb by the excellent and very nice man Ben Moor and I can't recommend it highly enough, or his plays.

Author Topic: What books are we reading at the moment ? (Read 843753 times)

ChrisO