*What book are you reading? (part 2)

[Orang Utan]

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - read it for O'Level about 33 years ago...Pip is such a twat early doors - didn't think that when I read it at 15

He stays a twat IMO. Doesn't learn much

 

[marty21]

He stays a twat IMO. Doesn't learn much

he gets less twattish - I blame that Estella - she drove him crazy

 

[sojourner]

Smoke in the Lanes, Happiness and Hardship on the Road with the Gypsies in the 1950s, by Dominic Reeve.

Finding it very interesting reading various accounts one after the other

 

[weltweit]

Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon

Only a little way in, but liking it so far!

 

[inva]

Sweetly Sings the Donkey by Shelagh Delaney

I've only read A Taste of Honey by her before so I'm interested to see what this turns out like.

 

[May Kasahara]

Twenty Trillion Leagues Under The Sea, by Adam Roberts and Mahendra Singh. Just finished it today, actually. Takes at least half the book to get going, then is really exciting, then has one of those endings where you just think 'NOOOO, resolve, dammit!' And yet I am still half caught up in its watery world.

 

[jeff_leigh]

Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes

 

[DotCommunist]

Just finished 'The Dervish House' by Ian McDonald


Istanbul is the star of this book. Queen of Cities, Byzantium- 3000 mosques in one ancient city.

good book

 

[sojourner]

No Fixed Abode by Charlie Carroll, about a bloke losing his job and decided to 'tramp' from Cornwall to London. Interesting in parts, but he's wound me up a couple of times through being a tithead. Although tbf, he is mostly a self-aware tithead, and some of the stories are good.

 

[sojourner]

Charlie Carroll's a twat. So far we've had mention of 'chavs' and when talking about the riots a couple of years ago, there's absolutely no mention of Mark Duggan, but instead we are treated to his mates opinion that the police were getting loads of flak for something they didn't do, and isn't it awful, and didn't they do well.

 

[ringo]

The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje

Love all of his beautiful descriptive writing but this is another level and might even rank alongside the first of his I read, 'Coming Through Slaughter'.

 

[sojourner]

The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje

Love all of his beautiful descriptive writing but this is another level and might even rank alongside the first of his I read, 'Coming Through Slaughter'.

Oh, it's a stunningly beautiful book that. I read it years ago and was knocked out by it.

 

[Orang Utan]

I hated it! Not a fan of that kind of florid prose.

 

[ringo]

I hated it! Not a fan of that kind of florid prose.

You're missing out

 

[Orang Utan]

You're missing out

I read the whole book and some family memoir of his, at my mother's insistence. Never again.
The film is an even more stultifying experience.

 

[DotCommunist]

The Dreaming Void- Peter Hamilton

forgot what a hack he can be. Might sack it off for that In My Skin book

 

[mansonroad]

first post, wag1 urban75. in terms of a whole book, i just finished in cold blood by truman capote, very interesting smudging of the lines between fiction and journalism, much recommended. also just got through a few of angela carter's short stories from 'the bloody chamber', similarly worth checking out if you're into disturbing retellings of gothic legends and brothers grimm fairy tales - menstrual vampires and virgins galore.

 

[sojourner]

first post, wag1 urban75. in terms of a whole book, i just finished in cold blood by truman capote, very interesting smudging of the lines between fiction and journalism, much recommended. also just got through a few of angela carter's short stories from 'the bloody chamber', similarly worth checking out if you're into disturbing retellings of gothic legends and brothers grimm fairy tales - menstrual vampires and virgins galore.

Welcome

Great choices

 

[Cheesypoof]

first post, wag1 urban75. in terms of a whole book, i just finished in cold blood by truman capote, very interesting smudging of the lines between fiction and journalism, much recommended. also just got through a few of angela carter's short stories from 'the bloody chamber', similarly worth checking out if you're into disturbing retellings of gothic legends and brothers grimm fairy tales - menstrual vampires and virgins galore.

i agree with soj - two astounding writers. Angela Carter - explosive, and Truman Capote, sublime. You fall in love with him via his words on the page. Only greats like Oscar Wilde have that kind of affect.

 

[Dexter Deadwood]

The Way We Live Now. - Anthony Trollope.

 

[Obnoxiousness]

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury.

I'm enjoying it.

 

[Orang Utan]

Just finished rereading Michel Faber's Under The Skin after seeing the film of it. Double wow. Even better this time round. Faber is one of the best living writers in the English. language. Every sentence is perfect. His description of his characters, under and over the skin is vivid and memorable.
Fans of the film who haven't read this: the film is a only a very loose adaptation of the book - if you want to know who ScarJoh is and why she's doing what she is doing, then read it. Read it anyway.

 

[flypanam]

Don DeLillo - Libra

 

[sojourner]

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury.

I'm enjoying it.

ONLY enjoying?! It's a work of genius!

 

[sojourner]

I started 'The Palace of Curiosities' by Rosie Garland last night. She's a poet who I've met but don't really know that much, and has struck so lucky - she's been writing novels for years, and been having them rejected for the same amount of time, but finally FINALLY she's got herself a book deal with Harper Collins! Wooo!

I'm halfway through and it is fucking marvellous! Brilliant storytelling!

 

[Cheesypoof]

Finished 'City of Night' by John Rechy, its about gay hustling in the 60's. Brilliant.

 

[sojourner]

Just finished rereading Michel Faber's Under The Skin after seeing the film of it. Double wow. Even better this time round. Faber is one of the best living writers in the English. language. Every sentence is perfect. His description of his characters, under and over the skin is vivid and memorable.
Fans of the film who haven't read this: the film is a only a very loose adaptation of the book - if you want to know who ScarJoh is and why she's doing what she is doing, then read it. Read it anyway.

Cheers - just checked and it's in the local library, so it's gone on the wanted list

 

[DotCommunist]

Just finished rereading Michel Faber's Under The Skin after seeing the film of it. Double wow. Even better this time round. Faber is one of the best living writers in the English. language. Every sentence is perfect. His description of his characters, under and over the skin is vivid and memorable.
Fans of the film who haven't read this: the film is a only a very loose adaptation of the book - if you want to know who ScarJoh is and why she's doing what she is doing, then read it. Read it anyway.

with that I'm going to have to read the epub I downloaded by accident (was after the film)

have to sack off the current Peter Hamilton'Commonwealth' saga, well, lifes too short.

 

[Obnoxiousness]

ONLY enjoying?! It's a work of genius!

I guess my literary taste has not developed as it should have done. It's a very, very good book, but it ain't quite as good as Orwell.

 

[imposs1904]

Finished 'City of Light' by John Rechy, its about gay hustling in the 60's. Brilliant.

I have that on my 'to read' list. That, and about 700 other books.