*What book are you reading? (part 2)
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sovereignb
Well-Known Member
Just finished this Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges - "Pulitzer prize–winner Chris Hedges charts the dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate society that craves fantasy, ecstasy and illusion"
Im know reading Lexicon by Max Barry - so far so good!
Im know reading Lexicon by Max Barry - so far so good!
Just picked up The Empty Throne..... Drooling!!
neonwilderness
What would Badgers do?
I'm about to start The Pagan Lord.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
What is also important is that Alan Moore wrote it and Ian Gibson drew it. ((((Writers and artists))))
starfish
No dialogue. Just plot.
My apologies. I have amended my post
What is also important is that Alan Moore wrote it and Ian Gibson drew it. ((((Writers and artists))))
May Kasahara
take me to the feeling
F Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby. Sublime writing about a load of complete twats. I'm conflicted.
not-bono-ever
meh
latest james Ellroy
you know what you to expct - ish- its a big slab of intrigue and full of unlikeable charachters that you have met before in other books
its great
you know what you to expct - ish- its a big slab of intrigue and full of unlikeable charachters that you have met before in other books
its great
Buddy Bradley
Pantheistic solipsist
Currently reading The Scar by China Mieville. It had been on my 'to get' list for ages because I loved Perdido Street Station so much. The writing in this one seems much sparser, less lyrical, though.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
its the most competent bas-lag novel mind. Not my fave, but certainly the most coherent. And he really piles on the baroque which I love
I'm still stuck on Dirty War/Killer in Clowntown. Wading in a gutter, but I can't not know, will be on this theme for some time I recon
Buddy Bradley
Pantheistic solipsist
I don't think I'd ever call PSS incoherent.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
sprawling. Less focused. Iron Council (my fave) is of a similar bent.
jakethesnake
In bed for Britain
Just finished reading this. Really interesting, takes in resistance on Crete during WWII, Wing Chun, Greek myths, SOE, parcour... loads of stuff! I enjoyed his other book, Born to Run, but this one is even better.
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
On and off I'm reading Horse the Wheel and Language
And the last day or so on the tube I have steaming through The Windup Girl, dark and dank sci-fi with an awesome and somewhat realistic world as its backdrop.
And the last day or so on the tube I have steaming through The Windup Girl, dark and dank sci-fi with an awesome and somewhat realistic world as its backdrop.
bookaddict
New Member
New to this site and some very interesting suggestions for a real book addict like me! I'd like to recommend a few but may not be to everyone's taste? I have a fascination of how our predecessors lived at the beginning of the 19th century and how their work affected their lives.
Brother to the Ox by Fred Kitchen - a biography really about a farm labourer in South Yorkshire in the mid 20th century and before. It covers Fred's working life and how these folks were 'hired' at the local Statutes Fairs for a full 12 months. Some brill descriptive writing - to think just over 100 years ago!
The Belle Fields by Lora Adams - although a romantic fiction set around a village where a young girl lands a job as a kitchen maid in the 'Big House' around 1900, the obvious research done by the author of life working 'below stairs' and the customs to celebrate Christmas and May-day etc makes for very descriptive reading. Beware though the twists and turns when her life is turned upside down when getting involved with a relative of the Earl! A real twist and I think very sad ending??
Lifting the Latch by Sheila Stewart - this author must have spent many hours listening to the story of a shepherd who worked all his life in Oxfordshire. She's got it all down and the book was a joy to read - Old Mont was a real character - wish I could have met him.
Hope these might interest some of you - I thoroughly recommend 'em.
Brother to the Ox by Fred Kitchen - a biography really about a farm labourer in South Yorkshire in the mid 20th century and before. It covers Fred's working life and how these folks were 'hired' at the local Statutes Fairs for a full 12 months. Some brill descriptive writing - to think just over 100 years ago!
The Belle Fields by Lora Adams - although a romantic fiction set around a village where a young girl lands a job as a kitchen maid in the 'Big House' around 1900, the obvious research done by the author of life working 'below stairs' and the customs to celebrate Christmas and May-day etc makes for very descriptive reading. Beware though the twists and turns when her life is turned upside down when getting involved with a relative of the Earl! A real twist and I think very sad ending??
Lifting the Latch by Sheila Stewart - this author must have spent many hours listening to the story of a shepherd who worked all his life in Oxfordshire. She's got it all down and the book was a joy to read - Old Mont was a real character - wish I could have met him.
Hope these might interest some of you - I thoroughly recommend 'em.
trabuquera
Modesty Bag
... the last day or so on the tube I have steaming through The Windup Girl, dark and dank sci-fi with an awesome and somewhat realistic world as its backdrop.
This is a fantastic book - recommendation seconded. Really really interesting as a near-future world which isn't lazily written from a reflex Western whitecismale viewpoint and really grapples with some looming 21st-century dilemmas. I loved it!
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
^^I've you like that sort of thing youll enjoy River of Gods
Theres also a short story knocking about thats basically the prolouge to Wind Up Girl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_of_Gods
Theres also a short story knocking about thats basically the prolouge to Wind Up Girl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_of_Gods
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
trabuquera
Modesty Bag
Thanks both. got to stop reading u75 threads about books and read more actual books...
Just finished reading The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/233436.The_Loneliness_of_the_Long_Distance_Runner
It's the first time I've read anything by Sillitoe. I thought it was so good, poignant in a knowing way, often missing in many books.
So I know I'm not taking a chance with my next book; Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show...rning?from_search=true&search_version=service
Then I'm going to watch the film adaptation of both books.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/233436.The_Loneliness_of_the_Long_Distance_Runner
It's the first time I've read anything by Sillitoe. I thought it was so good, poignant in a knowing way, often missing in many books.
So I know I'm not taking a chance with my next book; Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show...rning?from_search=true&search_version=service
Then I'm going to watch the film adaptation of both books.
Needing some sf to take me away from reality, I picked up Neal Stephenson's Seveneves...which is, I hope, a return to space opera, first contact and alien races instead of endless alchemical noodling. Have always found Stephenson to be a wildly variable writer (loved Zodiac and Snow Crash, Crytonomicon and even Reamd) but loathed Quicksilver et al.
Looking for mindless amusement, I did alight upon Charles Stross (again) but ambivalent - any good Dot Communist?
If there is even a sniff of a horse, sword or dragon (not to mention the regressive fixation on ruling families, princes, priests and other such rubbish), I feel ennui creeping in - I really cannot bear this fleeing to fantasy tropes which seems to have filled the bookshelves in my local bookshop - have sent off for Willful Child - much as I enjoyed the Malazan books, I feel the need for spaceships and proton lasers rather than assassin daggers.
Looking for mindless amusement, I did alight upon Charles Stross (again) but ambivalent - any good Dot Communist?
If there is even a sniff of a horse, sword or dragon (not to mention the regressive fixation on ruling families, princes, priests and other such rubbish), I feel ennui creeping in - I really cannot bear this fleeing to fantasy tropes which seems to have filled the bookshelves in my local bookshop - have sent off for Willful Child - much as I enjoyed the Malazan books, I feel the need for spaceships and proton lasers rather than assassin daggers.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
stross is one of my fave SF authors. Accellerando and Glasshouse are two to try. He also does lovecraftian mash-up stuff but the two I mention are SF.
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