What books are we reading at the moment ?

[YahudaMoon]

Down and out in Paris and London. My third time round reading this old classic by G. Orwell

[mark]

Down and out in Paris and London. My third time round reading this old classic by G. Orwell

An excellent book. It was a long time before I could go into a restaurant after reading it!

[Bledlow]

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

It's started well, & I like the cover. But I've just seen Flying Monkey's comment about how it goes on. Oh dear.

I've just read The Purple Plain, by H E Bates, & Life Class, & The Century's Daughter, by Pat Barker.

[jane]

The fall of the Imam by Nawaal El Sadaawi

[YahudaMoon]

I recently read 'The road to Wigan Pier' G. Orwell. another depressing autobiography on the mans experiance up north. If you look at the paper back jacket on this release (Theres many differnt jackets released)  It clearly shows a man with a full laiden touring bike. Was it Mr Orwell himself ?. And after reading the book I was a little dissapointed in that there was no mention of a push bike let alone touring. 'Don't let this put you of reading it as it's a great book '. So why the touring bike on the jacket ' have a been reading a edited version ?
The pic on the jacket is here : Google Images

[itsbruce]

Ringworld    Larry Niven


Years since I last read it, but its a damn good book

Shame about all the sequels.

[Flying_Monkey]

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

It's started well, & I like the cover. But I've just seen Flying Monkey's comment about how it goes on. Oh dear.

It's okay - you will probably disagree with me anyway! 99% of the world seems to; it's mostly only the 1% who know much about Japan who even see what I am getting at.

[citoyen]

I'm 2/3 of the way through Graham Greene's The Heart of the Matter and have just had a major BUSTED! moment.  Things are going to take a turn from here on.  My my, Greene could be a crafty bugger.

Read that for A level and loved it. Can't help thinking 18 is too young to appreciate the finer points of Graham Greene though. Might read it again now I'm older and wiser/more world-weary...

d.

[LindaG]

I Shall Wear Midnight, the latest Tiffany Aching novel from Terry Pratchett.

Absolutely perfect when you have a stinking cold and want to stay in bed 

[Bledlow]

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

It's started well, & I like the cover. But I've just seen Flying Monkey's comment about how it goes on. Oh dear.

It's okay - you will probably disagree with me anyway! 99% of the world seems to; it's mostly only the 1% who know much about Japan who even see what I am getting at.

Er, well, me missus is Japanese - and I noticed oddities & off-putting things. It looks as if his sources of Japanese information didn't proof-read the book. Some of the names, diminutives, etc. are just plain wrong.

But it wasn't Rider Haggard like, IMO.

[Flying_Monkey]

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

It's started well, & I like the cover. But I've just seen Flying Monkey's comment about how it goes on. Oh dear.

It's okay - you will probably disagree with me anyway! 99% of the world seems to; it's mostly only the 1% who know much about Japan who even see what I am getting at.

Er, well, me missus is Japanese - and I noticed oddities & off-putting things. It looks as if his sources of Japanese information didn't proof-read the book. Some of the names, diminutives, etc. are just plain wrong.

But it wasn't Rider Haggard like, IMO.

You didn't think the whole thing with the Abbot was at all out-of-place, or as I described it in my review 'gobsmackingly ridiculous' then?

[clarion]

I'm reading Professor Stewarts Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities.

Splendid mind-bending stuff - lite.

[microphonie]

Just started Dan Simmons' Olympos the follow-up to Ilium a sci-fi retelling of Homer's Iliad & Odyssey with references to plenty of other literary work too.

Ilium/Olympos wiki

A bit of a change from Irving Welsh's Filth , which I've just finished.

[DrMekon]

Ballard - High Rise

[αdαmsκι]

I've just finished A Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell. I started it a number of years ago, but didn't finish it for some reason. I was prompted to pick it up again because a friend was reading it, and it's wonderful. It's great to get an insight into western Scotland in the 1950s, and the comedy of having an otter as a pet.

[pcolbeck]

Tacitus  The Annals of Imperial Rome

[Bledlow]

I've just finished A Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell. I started it a number of years ago, but didn't finish it for some reason. I was prompted to pick it up again because a friend was reading it, and it's wonderful. It's great to get an insight into western Scotland in the 1950s, and the comedy of having an otter as a pet.

Even when I first read that, aged about 10, I wondered about how some things didn't quite seem to add up, but now I know why they didn't I think that even if he was capable of writing one (& I suspect he found it impossible to be open, even to himself), a completely honest account wouldn't have sold, even if he could have got it published.

Good read, though.

[citoyen]

American Psycho is good but you when you read it you will set it to one side at least once as you read it and promise your self that you will not pick it up again.

It's violently pornographic in some unpleasant ways and you feel guilty reading it, but then I think that is the point.

Exactly my feelings.

I said almost these exact words to M.I.A. of this forum about this very book three weeks ago. 

It's taken me a while to get going with American Psycho - partly due to lack of time/energy for reading, and partly because I found the first few chapters highly irritating. All the namechecking of clothes labels is quite hard to digest. I know it's a deliberate stylistic thing, but it makes for heavy reading.

However, once I got into the rhythm of it, I started to really enjoy it. And then I actually started finding it really funny. Laughing-out-loud-on-the-train funny. Yeah, a bit depraved in places, but I was thinking,  "What's all this about setting it to one side and not wanting to pick it up again? Are Zoidburg and Captain Zep just big girly wusses or something?"

And then I got to the first proper murder scene, where he does the tramp and his dog...

zOMG!!!!!1 

I like to think I'm not easily shocked, but OK, I admit it. I did have to put the book down for a few minutes after reading that bit. But then I picked it up again... and he continues by launching straight into a hilarious chapter about why Genesis are the best English band of the 80s. Like, WTF?

This book is a total headfuck. I love it. 

d.

[microphonie]

Just wait until you get to the drainpipe murder

That was a definite: close book/hope no-one's reading over my shoulder moment

Now that will get your imagination going if you haven't already reached that part of the book yet!

[Clandy]

Neuromancer - William Gibson (again)

[andrewc]

I've just finished A Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell. I started it a number of years ago, but didn't finish it for some reason. I was prompted to pick it up again because a friend was reading it, and it's wonderful. It's great to get an insight into western Scotland in the 1950s, and the comedy of having an otter as a pet.

Even when I first read that, aged about 10, I wondered about how some things didn't quite seem to add up, but now I know why they didn't I think that even if he was capable of writing one (& I suspect he found it impossible to be open, even to himself), a completely honest account wouldn't have sold, even if he could have got it published.

Good read, though.

I've read Maxwell's otter trilogy and the 2 available biographies,  definitely an "interesting" chap, though probably not very likeable. The film version was a saccharin travesty.

[Oaky]

Re-reading the complete Sherlock Holmes.

[Clandy]

I've just finished A Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell. I started it a number of years ago, but didn't finish it for some reason. I was prompted to pick it up again because a friend was reading it, and it's wonderful. It's great to get an insight into western Scotland in the 1950s, and the comedy of having an otter as a pet.

I watched the film when I was quite young and was in tears for days after. Even now, over forty years later, I still find it difficult to watch.

[αdαmsκι]

I've read Maxwell's otter trilogy and the 2 available biographies,  definitely an "interesting" chap, though probably not very likeable. The film version was a saccharin travesty.

I've got the second and third books in the otter trilogy to read at a later date. And, yeah, certainly an "interesting" person who was happy to be by himself.

I watched the film when I was quite young and was in tears for days after. Even now, over forty years later, I still find it difficult to watch.

I too cried when I watched the film as a youngster.

[LindaG]

Last Rites: the end of the Church of England by Michael Hampson.

An interesting, but embittered, view of things.  Thought-provoking.