*What book are you reading? (part 2)

[Orang Utan]

I remember an ex of mine always flaming me about Jilly Cooper but I'd always come back at him with the 'Have you read one? Then shut up!' line. So one day he read one, and I shit you not, he ended up borrowing the lot from me!

Want to borrow my copy of Riders?

I think I can guess who that is, unless all of your exes are book snobs

 

[magneze]

I could cope with it as he walked up the River Lea as it's an area I know well meaning I was more inclined to put up with the grating writing style. But once he got up to Edmonton I had to pack it in. I also tried to read his book about Hackney but couldn't manage that either....

I've made it to page 148 so far. I joined the reading challenge thread and then started this book. Bad move, could take a while!

 

[BoatieBird]

I'll own up to enjoying the odd Jilly Cooper Dr Nookie.
She tells a good tale

I'm currently reading Whit by Iain Banks.

 

[Dr Nookie]

I think I can guess who that is, unless all of your exes are book snobs

Actually it wasn't him. I don't think he would ever have actually bothered to read one!

 

[Orang Utan]

I am RMTO to Dostoievsky's The Brothers Karamazov at the mo.

 

[starfish]

Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban. My sister recommended it.

 

[Orang Utan]

Brilliant book!

 

[starfish]

I hope so. Shes usually a good judge.

 

[Prince Bert]

A brilliant self-help book that I wish I had found many years ago. Your Erroneous Zones by Wayne Dyer. It's just silly the book was published a year before I was born and would have been such a great help years ago, but I only find it now. Grrrr

 

[Frances Lengel]

Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban. My sister recommended it.

Great stuff. Mind you I didn't realise there was a glossary at the back til I got near the end.

 

[8115]

The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for everyone by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett.

It's ok so far, but I think it's going to be hard going. They haven't really kept much up their sleeve, I think it's going to be a book stuffed full of evidence. And while I love evidence as much as the next person, I also like a narrative alongside it.

 

[ringo]

Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel

 

[sojourner]

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell. Can't believe I've not read this yet!

Only on page 45 and by the christ,I've been having the fucking same conversations meself over the last couple of years, so much truth in it

 

[Orang Utan]

I need to read it again. I absolutely hated it when I first read it.

 

[sojourner]

I need to read it again. I absolutely hated it when I first read it.

Did you?! Why?? For me, it's like emptying out the contents of my mind, it's like all the arguments I have over and over and over again. I'm gobsmacked actually - given the time it was written, it could really be NOW

 

[Orang Utan]

I was 16-18 and hated the mawkishness.
It seemed almost parodic, like a Monty Python sketch.

 

[Orang Utan]

I was also annoyed cos I felt cheated by Allan Sillitoe's claim in the preface that it was 'utterly unsentimental'.
One of the first times I felt mugged off by a writer.

 

[Frances Lengel]

Gargoyles by Tomas Bernhard. Well, I'm re reading it - I was pissed last time but I remember thinking this needs a better looking at. Fuck, man - And I've not even got to the princes monologue yet.

Alan Sillitoe's a prick BTW - Alan, it's an anagram of anal.

 

[Frances Lengel]

And if you want to know about the way we live now - The Confusions Of Young Torless by Robert Musil is a decent start. Offers no hope though.

 

[DotCommunist]

Just went through Neal Ashers 'line war' then Brian Aldiss 'Starship' (the better of the pair. A generation starship gone horribly wrong, tribes warring between hydroponic jungles etc)

Next up, a srs book about Abraham.

 

[Captain Hurrah]

Gargoyles by Tomas Bernhard. Well, I'm re reading it - I was pissed last time but I remember thinking this needs a better looking at. Fuck, man - And I've not even got to the princes monologue yet.

Alan Sillitoe's a prick BTW - Alan, it's an anagram of anal.

He aint bad.

Ragged is one of those books that sixth-formers say they have read but really haven't.

As for me, Road to the Killing Fields: The Cambodian War of 1970-1975 - Wilfred P. Deac.

 

[QueenOfGoths]

"The Seige" - Simon Kernick. I wanted the equivilent of a no need to think action movie and I have got it!

 

[Orang Utan]

Ragged is one of those books that sixth-formers say they have read but really haven't.

How is it one of those books? There isn't really a type of book that sixth formers pretend to read.
They pretend to read all sorts of shit

 

[sojourner]

I was 16-18 and hated the mawkishness.
It seemed almost parodic, like a Monty Python sketch.

That surprises me - I haven't interpreted it as mawkish in any way whatsoever. I'm identifying with it like a bastard, more like.

 

[Captain Hurrah]

How is it one of those books? There isn't really a type of book that sixth formers pretend to read.
They pretend to read all sorts of shit

Just personal experience of others talking shit. Along with Orwell.

 

[complience]

Ive been giving american literature another go
Tom Robbins Still life with Woodpecker - its like a warped version of the great gatsby

 

[purenarcotic]

Julie Walters' autobiography, 'That's Another Story'.

 

[izz]

Just personal experience of others talking shit. Along with Orwell.

Harrumph. I read a lot of Orwell when I was in sixth form.

ok so I haven't read any since...

 

[DotCommunist]

his essays can be quite good. Politics and The English Language is dated but worth your time- and the whimsical 'Decline of the English Murder'

all free to read online

 

[scanner]

Real film buffs might enjoy "The Parade's Gone By" by Kevin Brownlow. A fine book on the silent cinema. ( Though real film buffs will probably have read it anyway! ) I'm halfway through and really enjoying the sense of nostalgia.