*What book are you reading? (part 2)
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Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
just discovered i was supposed to read Clare North's The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August, so might try that instead
BoatieBird
Well-Known Member
I've decided to defer the OU module I was about to start (20th Century Lit) for a year.
This means I can read for pleasure again, it's a lovely feeling
I'm celebrating with David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks.
It's something I kept putting off reading while I was studying because it was too long.
I'm really enjoying it, it's great to be engrossed in a big chunky book again
This means I can read for pleasure again, it's a lovely feeling
I'm celebrating with David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks.
It's something I kept putting off reading while I was studying because it was too long.
I'm really enjoying it, it's great to be engrossed in a big chunky book again
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
Just about to finish the Whispering Swarm, can't decide on the next one, tis a choice between:
Michael Moorcock - Coming of the Terraphiles
Lise Vogel - Marxism and the Oppression of Women: Toward a Unitary Theory
Marlon James - A Brief History of Seven Killings
Raymond Chandler - The Long Goodbye
Philip Kerr - The Pale Criminal
Michael Moorcock - Coming of the Terraphiles
Lise Vogel - Marxism and the Oppression of Women: Toward a Unitary Theory
Marlon James - A Brief History of Seven Killings
Raymond Chandler - The Long Goodbye
Philip Kerr - The Pale Criminal
ringo
Macaroni cheese controller
I've just started this. Its already the best book on Jamaica and the best novel written by a Jamaican that I've ever read. I'm not convinced it will win the Booker even though its short listed - it's too visceral, includes some patois, just seems a bit too real for the Booker. Reminds me a bit so far of James Ellroy's American Tabloid, which covered the CIA's involvement in the JFK assassination etc. So far so bloody brilliant.
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
cheers. Finished Whispering Swarm last night, so am about ready for the next one, and this sounds very promising.
Just to make sure tho...your reading challenge list is pretty solid, and makes you look reliable, but, just in case....... you did think that Head On was hilarious and one of, if not the, greatest rock autobiographies you've ever read, don't you?
ringo
Macaroni cheese controller
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
Pratchett 'Rising Steam'
rail comes to ankh morpork. Its funny and a light read. Bloody alzhiemers.
rail comes to ankh morpork. Its funny and a light read. Bloody alzhiemers.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Oh, I didn't know she had a new one out. Is it set in the same world as Mortal Instruments?
Orang Utan Yes 5 years on, centred around the Los Angeles institute and Emma Carstairs, that's the girl in the artwork, she is holding Cortana
How many have you read? Did you also read the Infernal Devices?
How many have you read? Did you also read the Infernal Devices?
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
I haven't read any of them, but they have been very popular in schools i have worked at. the mortal instruments books seem to get fatter and fatter just like the harry potter seriesOrang Utan Yes 5 years on, centred around the Los Angeles institute and Emma Carstairs, that's the girl in the artwork, she is holding Cortana
How many have you read? Did you also read the Infernal Devices?
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
nogojones
spelling is overrated
I've been reading Paul Routledges biog of Airey Neave- Public Servant, Secret Agent: The Enigmatic Life and Violent Death of... and I got up to the early 70's, but I've gone and lost the fucking book. I was mainly reading it because I've heard Routledge thinks British spooks rather than the INLA offed him, but as it stands I'll never find out 
If it doesn't show up in the next couple of weeks I might have to order a second copy.
In it's absence I've started Jack Londons Mutiny on the Elsinore. I picked an old Mills & Boon hardback copy, which I think is 100 years old for 20p in a 2nd hand shop a couple of years back and so far its pretty engaging. He's got a way with characters' and some of them are sailors from the last of the slave ships. Two chapters in and I'm well up for it.
I've also been reading Poisonous Plants by Frantisek Stary as a bog book and it's pretty shit (no pun intended) - but I've started it so I feel compelled to see it through. I think its translated from Czech, so that might be part of the problem, but it reads as a botanist/ homeopath trying to explain poisons/medicines, through the medium of poor Czech to English translation.
It covers about 120 poisonous plants including that deadly weed Cannabis sativa
, and discusses the homeopathic uses of many of the plants, which makes me doubt the usefulness of any of its content.
If it doesn't show up in the next couple of weeks I might have to order a second copy.
In it's absence I've started Jack Londons Mutiny on the Elsinore. I picked an old Mills & Boon hardback copy, which I think is 100 years old for 20p in a 2nd hand shop a couple of years back and so far its pretty engaging. He's got a way with characters' and some of them are sailors from the last of the slave ships. Two chapters in and I'm well up for it.
I've also been reading Poisonous Plants by Frantisek Stary as a bog book and it's pretty shit (no pun intended) - but I've started it so I feel compelled to see it through. I think its translated from Czech, so that might be part of the problem, but it reads as a botanist/ homeopath trying to explain poisons/medicines, through the medium of poor Czech to English translation.
It covers about 120 poisonous plants including that deadly weed Cannabis sativa
, and discusses the homeopathic uses of many of the plants, which makes me doubt the usefulness of any of its content.
ringo
Macaroni cheese controller
Finished it 5 minutes before it won, it deserves it. Great for Jamaican literature, expecting a whole new wave of bright authors following on from him now. The judges must have a thing for historical fiction atrocities after all that Hilary Mantel
In work: 'The Story of Us' edited by Teika Bellamy. An anthology of prose and poetry, with that theme. I'm in it but there's loads of great poems and prose in there too.
At home: just started a collection of ghost stories edited by Audrey Niffenegger, called 'Ghostly'. I bloody LOVE ghost stories. They combine my two favourite things - short stories, and suspense.
At home: just started a collection of ghost stories edited by Audrey Niffenegger, called 'Ghostly'. I bloody LOVE ghost stories. They combine my two favourite things - short stories, and suspense.
was marooned, bookless, at the horsebox and had no choice but to read 'The Damned United' (charity shop buy)...which in fact, skipped by at pace (those repetitive short sentences David Peace uses!)
Back on the sf trail, waiting on Brasyl and The Dervish House (Ian McDonald).
Back on the sf trail, waiting on Brasyl and The Dervish House (Ian McDonald).
moonsi til
worked it out now!
I have never finished Catch 22 but started it many, many times. Currently reading 'Do No Harm' by Henry Marsh & Rick Stein's autobiography.
Finished 'Breakfast with Lucian' by Geordie Greig this week - a journalists take on spending time with Lucian Freud (if anyone wants a copy by the way, i have it on an ebook, PM me). I'm bananas for Freuds art and didnt like this book at all - read like a load of Daily Mail columns stitched together, there are occasional insights. I'm sure Lucian himself would've hated it. I hope a more deserved biography is forthcoming. In the meantime (if you like his art) i highly recommend 'Man with a blue scarf: On sitting for a painting by Lucian Freud' by Martin Gayford, which is amazing. I think i have written about this before.
to save you time, here's what i wrote a few years ago
Finished 'Man with a blue scarf. On sitting for a portrait by Lucian Freud' by Martin Gayford. Wow what a treasure - it was this guy who sat for the notoriously idiosyncratic and intriguing Freud documenting his experience of posing for him, every day for 9 months, and their conversations. Some of them you couldnt make it up, hanging with the Krays in the 40's, why Freud didnt like real models, his thoughts on horses, his grandfather, why he radically changed his artistic style overnight in the 50's, love of game meats and claret. I would recommend this book to anyone, it was a joy from start to finish, also illustrated with his paintings and all about them on the opposite page.
to save you time, here's what i wrote a few years ago
Finished 'Man with a blue scarf. On sitting for a portrait by Lucian Freud' by Martin Gayford. Wow what a treasure - it was this guy who sat for the notoriously idiosyncratic and intriguing Freud documenting his experience of posing for him, every day for 9 months, and their conversations. Some of them you couldnt make it up, hanging with the Krays in the 40's, why Freud didnt like real models, his thoughts on horses, his grandfather, why he radically changed his artistic style overnight in the 50's, love of game meats and claret. I would recommend this book to anyone, it was a joy from start to finish, also illustrated with his paintings and all about them on the opposite page.
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SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
Just finished Empty Space, the last of M. John Harrison's Kefahuchi Tract trilogy. For something which originally seemed a bit like an excercise in style over substance, it was quite moving really. I still don't have a fucking clue what happened, but none of the characters ever understand what's happening to them either so that seems entirely appropriate.
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
It is pretty bloody good. Can't think of another recent sci-fi novel that's actually lived up to the fuss made about it.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
Ancillary Mercy is out this month, completing the trilogy.
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