Author Topic: What books are we reading at the moment ?  (Read 835810 times)

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1175 on: 18 February, 2010, 09:28:22 pm »
Weapons of Choice: World War 2.1 - John Birmingham

I read the trilogy last year and enjoyed them.  They may not be Dickens or Dostoyevsky, but very good fun nonetheless.


One classic bit has Prince Harry as an officer in the SAS !

Prince Harry becomes one of the major characters in the second and third books - his SAS kick a lot of Nazi ass.  :thumbsup:

There are a lot of major characters though - sometimes the story spreads a bit too thinly.

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1176 on: 18 February, 2010, 11:31:44 pm »
Through Black Spruce - Joseph Boyden

(Another of FM's tips - cheers :thumbsup:)

Did you read Three Day Road first? If not, make sure you do afterwards, it's even better...

Nah - Through Black Spruce was a Christmas pressie so I gratefully took it out of sequence (and have no reason 20 chapters in, for complaint)...but I'll scurry off to Amazon to remedy.

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1177 on: 19 February, 2010, 12:07:22 am »
Just finished Kingdom Come - J G Ballard. One of his last, & IMO worst, an obvious rehash of previous work. Perhaps he ran out of ideas.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Mr Larrington

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1178 on: 19 February, 2010, 10:59:49 am »
Just started The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith.  Sequel of sorts to the better-than-expected Child 44.
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jogler

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1179 on: 19 February, 2010, 12:49:30 pm »
The Brooks Bugle

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1180 on: 19 February, 2010, 12:58:28 pm »
Standard for Verification and Validation in CFD and Heat Transfer, ASME V&V 20-2009.
Frenchie - Train à Grande Vitesse

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1181 on: 19 February, 2010, 01:00:50 pm »
Standard for Verification and Validation in CFD and Heat Transfer, ASME V&V 20-2009.

I didn't think the plot was very good, nor the characters well-developed.  There is a degree of suspense, though, and a twist in the denouement. ;D
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Mr Larrington

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1182 on: 19 February, 2010, 01:21:00 pm »
I'm with Clarion on this one.  The Everyday Uses Of Portland Cement, now that's a bangin' read...
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jogler

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1183 on: 19 February, 2010, 01:28:21 pm »
I suggest that you read The White Book by British Gypsum.It is available F.O.C. on the internet.

Mr Larrington

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1184 on: 19 February, 2010, 02:21:40 pm »
Ooh, ta.  I shall pass the reference on to my grate frend Uncle Marvo, the celebrated aqua-pikey, who first tipped me off to The Everyday Uses Of Portland cement :P
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

jogler

  • mojo operandi
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1185 on: 19 February, 2010, 03:08:28 pm »
The Brooks Book 2010

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1186 on: 19 February, 2010, 04:44:16 pm »
Standard for Verification and Validation in CFD and Heat Transfer, ASME V&V 20-2009.

I didn't think the plot was very good, nor the characters well-developed.  There is a degree of suspense, though, and a twist in the denouement. ;D

I can provide the online link for direct order... if you want? USD 59.00. A bargain!

To be fair it seems very well written and exhaustive.
Frenchie - Train à Grande Vitesse

Zoidburg

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1187 on: 19 February, 2010, 04:53:38 pm »
The Day Of The Triffids.

I am just popping into the garden to stab a giant cactus with a pitch fork.

RJ

  • Droll rat
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1188 on: 19 February, 2010, 10:06:26 pm »
Re-reading Hunter Thompson.  Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas used to be an annual  ritual around this time of year.  It's been that sort of sleep-deprived week ...

The good news is that it stands up to re-reading in a different context.  I find HST's righteous anger weirdly inspirational.

Next up: Generation of Swine (which got a laugh out of my fellow Trumpton vets in Furryboots city this morning ...).

αdαmsκι

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1189 on: 21 February, 2010, 10:38:52 pm »
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Stieg Larsson.  Just started.
+1

I read the majority of this over the weekend. I really enjoy it when I get into a book in such a way and am constantly wanting to find out more of the plot. It is a bit of a thriller, but the writing is good and the characters are believable. I really liked reading about Lisbeth and watching her struggle to accept friendship. I now really want to read the second book in the series.
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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1190 on: 22 February, 2010, 08:43:11 am »
Finished it yesterday.  Not really my thing in the end, though it zipped along at quite a pace.  And I wasn't as taken with the writing/translation(?) as you αdαmsκι.  The film's coming out soon.  I can imagine it making a great thriller (if you haven't read the book!)

Netherland by Jooseph O'Neill next.

Mr Larrington

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1191 on: 22 February, 2010, 11:03:21 am »
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Stieg Larsson.  Just started.

Film version to be released in the UK on March 22nd, apparently.

About bloody time...
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1192 on: 22 February, 2010, 11:07:48 am »
I should be re-reading The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (no relation of Alec), but I forgot to bring it to work :(

I have two copies, because I needed to check on something at a time when my first copy was in store, so I plan to leave it on the shelves at work when I've finished.

Getting there...

arallsopp

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1193 on: 22 February, 2010, 03:27:00 pm »
Currently reading 'Company of Liars' by Karen Maitland. Doing a book swap with the other half at the moment. I think I faired better than her. She got 'Cryptonomicon'.
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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1194 on: 22 February, 2010, 10:08:41 pm »
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Stieg Larsson.  Just started.

Film version to be released in the UK on March 22nd, apparently.

About bloody time...

Is the film to be subtitled or dubbed?

Flying_Monkey

Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1195 on: 23 February, 2010, 01:48:28 am »
Now reading several back issues of McSweeney's (the literary mag run by Dave Eggers) - great production values and some interesting ideas for issues, but the quality is too variable and tends to favour wanky self-impressed graduates of Creative Writing MAs, and it doesn't have the serious reportage of something like Granta...

αdαmsκι

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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1196 on: 23 February, 2010, 09:55:25 am »
I've started reading one of the classics I picked up in Asda (two books for £5 was a bargin I couldn't refuse) - All Quiet on the Western Front. It's one of those books I've heard about many times over, but until now haven't gotten round to actually reading.
What on earth am I doing here on this beautiful day?! This is the only life I've got!!

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clarion

  • Tyke
Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1197 on: 23 February, 2010, 10:16:37 am »
It is brilliant.  there are dull passages, where nothing much happens other than playing cards, but it's a depiction of the strange uneven pace of trench warfare, so stick with it.

Well worth digging out a copy of the sequel, The Road Back, which says more about the dislocation of war, as the surviving soldiers try hard to re-integrate into a society in turmoil, among people who have no conception of what they have just been through to defend a state that has crumbled in their absence.

Three Comrades also covers much the same ground, but gives a slightly different aspect.

If you like All Quiet..., it's also worth trying to find Under Fire by Henri Barbusse.  I think it should be compulsory reading for all those comfy Yanks who propagate the myth of the French as cowardly.  Gripping.
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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1198 on: 23 February, 2010, 01:39:05 pm »
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Stieg Larsson.  Just started.

Film version to be released in the UK on March 22nd, apparently.

About bloody time...

Is the film to be subtitled or dubbed?

The snippet I saw in the most recent issue of "Q" (yes, I've cancelled my subscription but it's taking them a while to notice) says it's "in Swedish" so I assume subtitled.  They gave it four stars too, so my Social Secretary is on special alert to find where it's going to be on in That London.
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Re: What books are we reading at the moment ?
« Reply #1199 on: 23 February, 2010, 01:54:18 pm »
If you like All Quiet..., it's also worth trying to find Under Fire by Henri Barbusse.  I think it should be compulsory reading for all those comfy Yanks who propagate the myth of the French as cowardly.  Gripping.

Cycling around France a few years ago, I was struck by the war memorials in every little village I passed through. I would look at the long list of names of dead from 1914-18, look around at the tiny little village I was in, and wonder who was left to carry on after the war.

"Under Fire" is available from Amazon on both sides of the pond, btw. I just downloaded a copy to my Kindle software.