Author Topic: What books are we reading at the moment ?  (Read 835447 times)

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #200 on: 02 September, 2008, 09:14:10 pm »
I just acquired a copy of "In Sickness and in Power- Illnesses in heads of government during the last 100 years".

JT

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #201 on: 02 September, 2008, 10:01:15 pm »
Just finished One Train Later - Andy Summers' "memoir".

I'm a fan of The Police in any case but this was a real surprise as it's really well written. Hugely enjoyable.
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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #202 on: 04 September, 2008, 11:35:06 am »
Small Wars Permitting by Christina Lamb recounts the foreign correspondents trips across the world during the last 20 years.  It starts out in Pakistan talking about the coming to power of Benazir Bhutto in 1988, before the authors heads off to Latin America, South Africa, the Middle East and currently she's living in Portugal.  The book is partly made up of Lamb's articles publishes in a variety of newspapers and then her own thoughts and feelings about her experiences.  It's interesting reading about events with the knowledge of hindsight and seeing how events have unfolded in, for example, Pakistan. 

I have finally finished Small Wars Permitting.  Like I said above, the first half of the book is extremely interesting insights to the countries that Lamb visits on her trips.  However, the second half turns into a series of articles that she's published with no attempt to link them in any way and the personally thoughts that appear in the first half vanish.  I felt cheated because I was now reading a string of newspaper articles rather than a book and I struggled to finish the book.

I've now started reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hossein.
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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #203 on: 04 September, 2008, 01:21:20 pm »
A 725 page biography of Norman Lewis, Semi Invisible Man, by Julian Evans. Ironically I most admire Lewis for his economical style, so I wonder if I'll make it to the end.

Damon.

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #204 on: 04 September, 2008, 06:52:02 pm »
Just finished The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time by Mark Haddon. I found it very entertaining, intriguing and amusing.

Wascally Weasel

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #205 on: 10 September, 2008, 12:08:38 pm »
Having finished re-reading Consider Phlebas (better than I remembered but still no patch on my favourite of his the Player of Games).

Later today will start the Last Starship from Earth by John Boyd (been sitting on a to-read shelf for about three years now)

Tim Hall

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #206 on: 10 September, 2008, 01:42:24 pm »
Just finished The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time by Mark Haddon.

For 2 points, what is the connection between that book and Recreativo Hackney FC, Marcus du Sautoy's football  team?
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clarion

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #207 on: 10 September, 2008, 01:57:39 pm »
Prime Numbers?  Chapter numbers & shirt numbers?
Getting there...

Tim Hall

  • Victoria is my queen
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #208 on: 10 September, 2008, 01:59:56 pm »
Ding!

2 points to that nice Clarion.
There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.  (Jerome K Jerome)

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #209 on: 10 September, 2008, 02:06:47 pm »
Killing Mister Watson, by Peter Matthieson

I'd read Lost Man's River many years ago and have wanted to find the others in this trilogy for some time.  My wife eventually did the sensible thing and bought them on the interweb for me.

This one is a most extraordinarily fragmented collection of other people's recollections of Edgar Watson and the stories they had heard about him.  Full of intriguing glimpses of life (and death) in South West Florida about a hundred years ago, but quite hard going because you need to keep reminding yourselve whose account you are reading and how it relates to other people's versions of events.

Muchly recommended if you have the time for it and can find a copy.

Edit: spelling his name correctly may make the search easier!  oops :-[

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #210 on: 11 September, 2008, 10:06:27 pm »
Muchly recommended if you have the time for it and can find a copy.

Very much recommended--these are among my favorite books ever, especially Lost Mans River. I grew up in South Florida and so have a bit more of a connection to these books, but they would be great even without that.

I'm very lucky to have signed copies of all three--for some reason, there was a time when I could count on seeing Mr Matthiessen at readings every few years. Haven't in the last 7 or 8 years, though. He's getting older, and I travel less.

FWIW, Anders's middle name is Matthiessen.
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clarion

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #211 on: 12 September, 2008, 09:54:06 am »
Yay!  Just finished the brilliant 'What's Going On?' by Mark Steel.  Funny, impassioned, informed and touching.

Just in time I received a parcel from Amazon.  In it I have a copy of Dancing Uphill, the biography of Charles Holland, the first English rider in the TdF.  Loads of photos - brilliant!

As an aside, Butterfly reminded me last night, a propos of something else, that I had a box of books in the wardrobe, including my essential cycling books.  I spent a happy hour leafing through 'Fellowship Is Life' by Dennis Pye, the history of the Clarion CC, and The Road Book of Great Britain, a map of routes for bicyclists and the emerging motorists, with profiles.  Brilliant :D
Getting there...

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #212 on: 13 September, 2008, 11:52:37 pm »
"Desert Queen", a biography of Gertrude Bell. Ms Bell was a 19th/early 20th century adventurer (adventuress?) who did first ascents in the Alps, explored the Arabian desert including modern-day Iraq, and worked with T.E. Lawrence when he organized and incited the Arab tribes to rebel against the Turks during World War I.

RJ

  • Droll rat
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #213 on: 18 September, 2008, 11:49:31 pm »
I just finished _The Rings of Saturn_ by W.G. Sebald, who I only heard of recently. It's a novel, but reads like notes from a long walk interrupted by long asides on history and odd people. I think I need to find his other two novels now. 

I love this book. It's like a stream of consciousness for me, to range far and wide around the world but keep returning to the same place - the Suffolk coast, where I live.   

Ich auch/moi aussi.  (The Rings of Saturn, that is, not the Suffolk coast). 

A lot of Sebald's writing defies categorisation - I'm not sure that I'd use the word "novel"; like Austerlitz and Vertigo there is a lot of autobiography and travelogue - but they are all mesmeric narratives and all have been beautifully translated into very precise and poetic English from Sebald's native German.  Philosophical prose-poems, maybe? The Emigrants is maybe his most novel-like book.  The Rings of Saturn has the most "English" subject matter - the others treat rather more European themes, but are none the worse for that.

The only caveat is that because the prose is so rich/dense they're best read in a few long sittings - but I think they repay the effort and I will re-read them all.

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #214 on: 18 September, 2008, 11:55:39 pm »
Killing Mister Watson, by Peter Matthieson

I'd read Lost Man's River many years ago and have wanted to find the others in this trilogy for some time.  My wife eventually did the sensible thing and bought them on the interweb for me.

And now, it turns out, he's rewritten the entire trilogy and condensed it down into one volume called _Shadow Country_.
scottclark.photoshelter.com

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #215 on: 19 September, 2008, 12:03:08 am »
I think they repay the effort and I will re-read them all.

After all these positive reviews, I'm looking forward to reading the rest. I just picked up copies of _Austerlitz_ and _Vertigo_.

But I've just had a bit (ahem) of a book-buying spree, and now have so many good books waiting that I don't know what to do. Well, first I have to finish _Connemara: Listening to the Wind_ before _Connemara: The Last Pool of Darkness_ arrives by transatlantic dirigible.
scottclark.photoshelter.com

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #216 on: 19 September, 2008, 11:36:03 am »
"Desert Queen", a biography of Gertrude Bell.

I'd like to learn more about Gertrude Bell, so could you provide us with a review of the book when you are finished, please?  I'll then know whether it is worth reading or not!
What on earth am I doing here on this beautiful day?! This is the only life I've got!!

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #217 on: 19 September, 2008, 12:25:08 pm »
I think they repay the effort and I will re-read them all.

After all these positive reviews, I'm looking forward to reading the rest. I just picked up copies of _Austerlitz_ and _Vertigo_.
My (rather learned) brother gave me a copy of Austerlitz when it came out and I was immediately entranced by it.  As soon as I'd finished it, I tracked down some of his other books, all of which I have enjoyed but none of them as much as Austerlitz.  It has an extraordinarily powerful resonance - a sort of feel and atmosphere that transports you and gets your emotions, memories and thoughts whirring away.

Sebald's early death was certainly a great loss.

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #218 on: 19 September, 2008, 12:34:24 pm »


Quote
I'm currently entirely hooked on Victorian literature and so I'm on the last of Trollope's Barsetshire series.

Enjoying it? Trollope is on my must-read list but I've never quite got around to him. I've been recently, belatedly getting into Dickens, though - Our Mutual Friend is a new favourite of mine. Viciously caustic and bitter but also very, very funny.

d.


Sorry, just seen this - yes, I am, very much. Though I'm still reading it - it's long!

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #219 on: 20 September, 2008, 04:14:05 am »
I'd like to learn more about Gertrude Bell, so could you provide us with a review of the book when you are finished, please?  I'll then know whether it is worth reading or not!

Not great literature, but a good look at a unique personality. Lots about her early years and the realities of being an intelligent, strong-willed woman in the late 19th/early 20th centuries (it wasn't easy, but being filthy rich helped a lot). Worth reading as a source of information about Gertrude Bell, but less so as entertainment.

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #220 on: 20 September, 2008, 07:42:18 am »
I've got Antony Beever's updated Battle For Spain at the moment - excellent and even handed. Actually it's my second attempt at it. The first time I tried it a few years ago I found myself getting lost and had to go and read a few more basic books about the Spanish Civil War first to get the big picture before I came back to this one.

As an aside, this would have been my specialist subject in the final round of Mastermind if I'd got that far, picked before I worked out what a horribly complicated subject it was. Luckily I fell down on Hunter S Thompson in the first round.

Also Exit Music by Ian Rankin for when the going gets a bit too tough!
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Torslanda

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #221 on: 20 September, 2008, 02:29:05 pm »
Just read Andy McNab's 'Seven Troop' which took me a little by surprise.

It kicks off in his usual style which seems to be the same whether he's Nick Stone or himself. It rapidly becomes apparent about halfway through that this book is not telling his story. He is entirely incidental to the plot. It is about the friends he lost along the way and after his career in the SAS.

Some died on active service. Some went mad. Some found God. Some had never lost him.

It is a book that gives the ignorant layman an insight into Post Traumatic Stress, its effects, its symptoms, how people deal with it - or not as the case may be. It proves that even the SAS are human and subject to the same stresses and emotions that we all are. It boils down to whether you can deal with them effectively or not.

Thought provoking.

luv'n'stuff

J
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

RJ

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #222 on: 21 September, 2008, 01:11:55 am »
I'm about to start Günter Grass's Peeling the Onion - (presumably unintentionally) ironically shelved by Borders under "fiction" ...

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #223 on: 21 September, 2008, 02:27:22 am »
Günter Grass's what?
Allow me to explain through the medium of interpretive dance

Flying_Monkey

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #224 on: 21 September, 2008, 11:35:05 am »
Killing Mister Watson, by Peter Matthieson

I'd read Lost Man's River many years ago and have wanted to find the others in this trilogy for some time.  My wife eventually did the sensible thing and bought them on the interweb for me.

And now, it turns out, he's rewritten the entire trilogy and condensed it down into one volume called _Shadow Country_.

I haven't read the new version yet, but the trilogy remains one of my favourite things, so I am not sure I would want to!

I have just finished George Mackay Brown's Beside the Ocean of Time, which is one of the most beautiful novels I have ever read. It is so good I am now reading it again.