Author Topic: What books are we reading at the moment ? (Read 843213 times)

Nuncio · « **Reply #5300 on:** 18 April, 2018, 12:27:16 pm »

Judging by a review I read of it, I don't think that would help at all.

T42 · « **Reply #5301 on:** 18 April, 2018, 01:19:28 pm »

Thanks to M. Citoyen OTP, a series of 3 Raylan Givens novels by Elmore Leonard. At 5€ on Google Books for 750+ pp it should last a week.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #5302 on:** 23 April, 2018, 02:05:42 pm »

They had that Jo Nesbo on "Meet The Author" last night. The fact of his "Macbeth" being one of eight specially-commissioned reworkings of characters created by W Shakespeare does not make it any easier going.

citoyen · « **Reply #5303 on:** 23 April, 2018, 02:10:04 pm »

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John Le Carré

I first read this as a teenager and remember liking it very much, but don't remember anything else about it... Wow! It's brilliant. Didn't end how I was expecting at all.

Quote from: T42 on 18 April, 2018, 01:19:28 pm

Thanks to M. Citoyen OTP, a series of 3 Raylan Givens novels by Elmore Leonard. At 5€ on Google Books for 750+ pp it should last a week.

Eh? Oh, because I mentioned Get Shorty? Will be interested to know what you think of those.

T42 · « **Reply #5304 on:** 23 April, 2018, 02:30:53 pm »

Good reading. The last volume of the 3-book collection I picked up was all short stories, which I didn't notice at first. I was about a third of the way through and wondering how he was going to fit so many different characters into the dénouement - and if I'd be able to remember them all - before I twigged. It was the bit about San Juan Hill that did it.

I've just picked up a second such collection, and the first story is Get Shorty. I can't get Gene Hackman's phyzog out of my mind's eye.

T42 · « **Reply #5305 on:** 25 April, 2018, 01:16:00 pm »

So: out the other end of Get Shorty the book, and watched Get Shorty the film last night for the second time. Liked the ending of the film more than that of the book, didn't like Danny de Vito as Michael/Martin Weir (agreed with Chili, he's too short). Otherwise, the film felt rushed second time around but didn't when I saw it the first time a couple of months back.

All taken together, I'd probably watch the film a 3rd time but I doubt if I'll re-read the book.

citoyen · « **Reply #5306 on:** 25 April, 2018, 01:43:42 pm »

Quote from: T42 on 25 April, 2018, 01:16:00 pm

So: out the other end of Get Shorty the book, and watched Get Shorty the film last night for the second time. Liked the ending of the film more than that of the book...

Glad it's not just me.

Currently re-reading The Long Goodbye and loving it. This prompted a conversation with my wife about the similarities between Raymond Chandler and PG Wodehouse, which I think we've discussed here before. On the back of that, I found this quiz, which had me laughing so hard I couldn't speak:
https://www.sporcle.com/games/ZYX/wodehouse-or-chandler

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #5307 on:** 25 April, 2018, 04:07:37 pm »

I got 21/30 on that one. Been a while since I did a Chandler binge and am shamefully lacking in the Wodehouse department, which I intend to rectify on holibobs this year.

tiermat · « **Reply #5308 on:** 25 April, 2018, 04:18:48 pm »

Now on the third of Helen Fields' Perfect series. DI Callanach is still very French, bodies are still turning up everywhere and it is now winter.

Got two Paul Finch books to move on to after this.

Legs · « **Reply #5309 on:** 26 April, 2018, 08:36:44 am »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 25 April, 2018, 04:07:37 pm

I got 21/30 on that one. Been a while since I did a Chandler binge and am shamefully lacking in the Wodehouse department, which I intend to rectify on holibobs this year.

I got 26/30, despite never having read any Chandler and it being probably 25 years since I saw a Wodehouse...

Legs · « **Reply #5310 on:** 30 April, 2018, 01:23:30 pm »

Back onto Stephen King for a couple of days - just a short one: Carrie.

jsabine · « **Reply #5311 on:** 30 April, 2018, 10:36:36 pm »

Quote from: Legs on 26 April, 2018, 08:36:44 am

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 25 April, 2018, 04:07:37 pm
I got 21/30 on that one. Been a while since I did a Chandler binge and am shamefully lacking in the Wodehouse department, which I intend to rectify on holibobs this year.
I got 26/30, despite never having read any Chandler and it being probably 25 years since I saw a Wodehouse...

I got 21, mostly by dint of about four Chandler quotes coming from a short story I'd read just a few days before: my guesswork on the rest was poor.

This, however, I thought was in amusingly poor taste: https://www.sporcle.com/games/jr637/tolkien-character-or-antidepressant

citoyen · « **Reply #5312 on:** 30 April, 2018, 10:50:28 pm »

Quote from: jsabine on 30 April, 2018, 10:36:36 pm

Quote from: Legs on 26 April, 2018, 08:36:44 am
Quote from: Mr Larrington on 25 April, 2018, 04:07:37 pm
I got 21/30 on that one. Been a while since I did a Chandler binge and am shamefully lacking in the Wodehouse department, which I intend to rectify on holibobs this year.
I got 26/30, despite never having read any Chandler and it being probably 25 years since I saw a Wodehouse...

I got 21, mostly by dint of about four Chandler quotes coming from a short story I'd read just a few days before: my guesswork on the rest was poor.

I got 26, mostly ones I recognised, and I'm supposed to be some kind of Wodehouse aficionado.

(By contrast, I got full marks on this one, on Wodehouse titles, filling in all the blanks in around 80 seconds: https://www.sporcle.com/games/MSUKent/Robinson_names - and what's more, I've read all of them)

Quote

This, however, I thought was in amusingly poor taste: https://www.sporcle.com/games/jr637/tolkien-character-or-antidepressant

That is genius.

Cunobelin · « **Reply #5313 on:** 01 May, 2018, 06:37:08 am »

Quote from: MSeries on 31 March, 2008, 08:59:11 pm

Quote from: Really Ancien on 31 March, 2008, 08:56:09 pm
I am re-reading Holidays In Hell by PJ O Rourke, as in the following quotes.

Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
P. J. O'Rourke

Making fun of born-again Christians is like hunting dairy cows with a high powered rifle and scope.
P. J. O'Rourke

Good choice, I read that in Melbourne in 1990, must dig it out. It's gotta be showing it's age though, Belfast is very different now.

The changes in a city and are part of the fun....

Not really reading, but dipping in and out as I plan

Findlay Muirhead's Blue Guide to Southern Spain and Portugal from 1929

These are my chosen reference books when travelling and I always buy the 1926 edition, or if not available the 1929

They are very informative guides and it is interesting to investigate a city from a historical perspective and see what is still there and what has gone.

It also helps narrow row accommodation as often the Hotels that are recommended are still not only there, but reasonably priced.

cycleman · « **Reply #5314 on:** 02 May, 2018, 09:22:10 pm »

I am reading the bicycle and the Bush by Jim Fitzpatrick about the use of bicycles in Australia . Very enjoyable . Available on kindle

Vince · « **Reply #5315 on:** 02 May, 2018, 10:25:04 pm »

I'm currently re-reading Damian Boyd's Somerset Levels series of crime novels.

DaveJ · « **Reply #5316 on:** 02 May, 2018, 11:00:47 pm »

I'm re-reading Alistair Reynolds Revelation Space series. The first time I read them, I read them out of sequence, and whilst they stood up well as individual books, I find on reading them in sequence, that I missed some of the detail carried from one book to another.

There's something about the experience of reading a book for the first time that isn't reproduced on re-reading it though. The first time I read Absolution Gap, I had a sense of how terrifying the whole Revelation Space world was. On re-reading, that fear isn't there any more. Its all become a bit too comfortable.

tiermat · « **Reply #5317 on:** 03 May, 2018, 06:03:05 am »

Just started "The Hanging Club" by Tony Parsons.

Just for a change, another series about polis, this time in The Big Smoke. I read one of his short stories, which I quite enjoyed, so have started on this one where the bodies that are piling up all have done something wrong in the past.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #5318 on:** 05 May, 2018, 09:55:27 pm »

Swotting up for this year's Leftpondian odyssey with The Milepost, a seven-hundred page travel guide to Alaska and NW Canuckistan. Which now looks like it's been attacked by a feeding swarm of Post-It^TM notes.

IanDG · « **Reply #5319 on:** 05 May, 2018, 10:26:08 pm »

Stuart Maconie's 'Pies and Prejudice'

T42 · « **Reply #5320 on:** 06 May, 2018, 08:44:45 am »

M. Citoyen having got me hooked on noir, I'm on James Ellroy's Black Dahlia.

rafletcher · « **Reply #5321 on:** 06 May, 2018, 06:57:40 pm »

The latest of John Connoly’s Charlie Parker stories, The Woman in the Woods. Excellent as always.

Legs · « **Reply #5322 on:** 08 May, 2018, 04:11:19 pm »

Just finished The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz. Very good, nice twist in plot, marred by two things...

(click to show/hide)

and

(click to show/hide)

Legs · « **Reply #5323 on:** 08 May, 2018, 06:58:39 pm »

Back onto Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne. Gorry, this dialect is going to take some getting used to...

Alismed · « **Reply #5324 on:** 12 May, 2018, 07:31:13 pm »

Ooo, just discovered the yacf culture section! Today I finished 'the Confabulist' by Steven Galloway. A very unusual read about Houdini and the people in his life, friend and foe. Probably a Lionel Shriver next or one of my library pile (working part time in a library is dangerous!)