Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact
  • Hi Guest,
    We have now moved the boards to the new server hardware.
    Search will be impaired while it re-indexes the posts.
    See the thread in the Feedback forum for updates and feedback.
    Lazy Llama

*What book are you reading? (part 2)

re-reading Ready Player One. Its flaws are a lot more apparent on the re-read and it's not aged well even though its not very old. I still think it will make a good film tho, which is apparently in the works
 
The End Of The Affair - Graham Greene

I didn't know I was still yet to read some of his best writing, what a treat. Heart breaking and incisive, incredibly emotive writing. I don't know if there's something autobiographical in this, because it's so real and painfully articulate or it could just be that he's one of the best writers there has been. Or both.

ETA: Based on Greene's own extramarital relationship with Lady Catherine Walston, and dedicated to her.
 
Last edited:
ringo said:
The End Of The Affair - Graham Greene
Click to expand...

Brilliant, would have gone straight into my top ten favourite books if the end hadn't drifted off into Greene's eternal uneasiness with his catholic beliefs. His writing is so precise it's surgical, and the keening pain of the protagonist cuts so painfully to the quick you're right there with him in his grief, but it's all clumsily sidetracked by overlong questions on the articles of faith.

The effects of religious belief on the characters was central, but the pondering on bigger questions distracted far too much from the experiences of the characters.
 
The pile of abandoned books is simply vast - The Goldfinch, for example, I gave up on with only 30 or so pages left (disappointing rubbish), Ranging from charity shop emergencies (a couple of Jessie Burton's , some rubbish about a 100 year old man, through to sf (Adam Roberts and Ken Macloud - dunno why I keep persevering with this tedious pair). Lonesome Dove, courtesy of this very thread - attempted, discarded. Wolf Hall - another. Spending hard cash and got a trio of sf summer books at the ready - Neal Asher's return to form with the last of the Transformation trilogy, The Infinity Machine. Ian Macdonald's 'Wolf Moon' (cheers Dotty - this one's thanks to you) - always got him mixed up with the dull Ken Macleoud (sp?)and the new Kim Stanley Robinson 'New York 2140'.
Passed Streek's Buying Time to daughter...who has hauled it around the entire Norwich Children's Services office.
 
I love ken dearly for his fall revolution series but horses for courses etc
campanula said:
Ian Macdonald's 'Wolf Moon'
Click to expand...

He's brilliant with prose style as well as ideas, haven't read the above yet I think. He's like Aldiss or Gene Wolfe for me, in the same headspace. Would be stacked together on the shelves if I wasn't all about the ebook these days. I've been off my sci fi game book wise for a few months, been on the non fic so Wolf Moon will be a nice re entry.

e2a

if you haven't try his steampunk YA trilogy Planesrunner. V. Good yarn, a steampunk many worlds tale
 
Oh hey campanula - completely off topic here, but I bought some campanula plants at the weekend, partly because they look easy to keep alive and they're purple, but cos I thought of you when I saw them :D
 
Oh cheers, sojourner, hope they do well for you (obvs, they are a very favourite plant family). What sort are they?
Lonesome Dove just failed to grip me at all...and I gave it a couple of goes. I guess I was expecting a Steinbeck type of narrative (who I love) and having a hard time engaging with anyone in the book. Not discounting having a third attempt - especially when that nightmare insomnia hits...but I have been allowing myself to not finish books for a few years...and swing between guilt and relief...as rather more books are discarded than read.
Oh OU, I have attempted numerous AR books - Salt, On, Stone...the latest to hit the bedroom floor in boredom is Gradisil. Got up to nearly page 200 before realising that I didn't actually give a shit about a single (shallow) character...I guess it really is horses for courses but I just cannot connect emotionally with any of the people who inhabit AR world.Big ideas are all very well but without an emotive charge and a sense of authenticity, I just don't have the patience anymore to enter that world...although I have made allowances for the likes of Neil Asher and Richard Morgan who are very much in the heroic space opera mould. I guess it is part of getting older - time telescopes somewhat and I am less inclined to 'make do' with anything which does not deserve my limited time and energy. I admit to not enjoying any of Iain M Banks books either.
 
Ah fair enough. I stopped trying to finish books I didn't like absolutely ages ago. Life's too short! I think Lonesome Dove was close to my heart cos I always wanted to be a cowboy :D

Erm - I thought they were 'just' campanula :confused::D They're purple, if that helps :thumbs:
 
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed Moonglow by Michael Chabon. I think it's either gonna be Nail Gaiman 'Neverwhere' next, or 'One Day in December - Celia Sánchez and the Cuban Revolution ' by Nancy Stout. Will sit down with them both later and have a little feel of them before deciding.
 
campanula said:
The pile of abandoned books is simply vast - The Goldfinch, for example, I gave up on with only 30 or so pages left (disappointing rubbish),
Click to expand...
I'm now reading The Goldfinch :D I chose it because I enjoyed her first two books and I have given up on three books already this year. The books I've given up are were all crime novels (my favourite bedtime reading) but although I enjoy a good crime the writing has to be decent. The three I gave up on were very poorly written and I wanted some grown up writing. I'm really enjoying it so far. How come you gave up with only 30 pages to go? I don't get anywhere near the end of books I give up on although I tend to read more than I should incase they improve but they never do :)
 
Getting through Salems Lot was a struggle. It just got pretty tedious tbh and I kept avoiding it. Thinking twice about my Kingathon now. Having a break anyway and going to try the first Game of Thrones book again - last time i got confused about who was who around the halfway point.
 
I really liked The Secret History and The Little Friend so I was very disposed to like the Goldfinch -I even stumped up for the hardback when it came out...and such a disappointment. True, the people in Tartt's books are from a different echelon (to me) yet she was able to make entitled poshos both vulnerable and engaging - quite a feat...but alas, this did not translate at all to the ludicrous and empty-headed Theo. What a little shit! I lumbered through the book feeling more and more hateful (and as an inveterate druggie myself, it was definitely not any ethical quandaries about excess hedonism) Honestly, I was down to the last chapter when I realised I could not give even the tiniest fuck what happened next. Yep, Shirl, my step-ma in law is a huge crime fan so I get a lot of stuff from her...handily filtered since I agree - the writing must be good (and, like sf and fantasy, often isn't).
 
sojourner said:
Erm - I thought they were 'just' campanula :confused::D They're purple, if that helps :thumbs:
Click to expand...

They tend to fall into 2 groups - tall herbaceous types such as our native 'bats in the belfry (c,trachelium) or the smaller alpines (Dalmatian and Carpathian campanulas). Both can usually be cut back or dead-headed to prolong the bloom season or get a second go-round. Generally trouble-free mannerly plants.
 
campanula said:
They tend to fall into 2 groups - tall herbaceous types such as our native 'bats in the belfry (c,trachelium) or the smaller alpines (Dalmatian and Carpathian campanulas). Both can usually be cut back or dead-headed to prolong the bloom season or get a second go-round. Generally trouble-free mannerly plants.
Click to expand...
I don't think they're the tall ones campanula . The info said they'd grow sort of bowl-like. I'm a bit shit with plants but I do like a little greenery and wildish type flowers.

Anyhoo, currently reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Not enjoying it as much as Ocean, but still quite good.
 
The Little Friend - Donna Tartt
Enjoying it, but 11% in nothing has happened. So far it seems like a bit of an attempt to emulate America's favourite book, To Kill A Mocking Bird, which is OK, I like TKAMB and I like reading Tartt's writing, but I'd like something to happen now please.
 
Foundation and Empire by Asimov

kabbes Idon't know if you got around to this novella but it's a foundation book I actually quite like, its incredibly quaint but somehow charming.
 
Just finished reading Lord of the Rings for the first time since I was about 12? 13?


It was a lot easier this time around because it was on Kindle rather than an all in one torso sized hardback and a lot easier to read in general, found it an exhilarating and enchanting blast to read. It was both familiar yet different to how I remembered it from last time and from the films.

The films are visually very similar to the images conjured up by the book but lacking so much nuance and depth compared to the actual books. The characters are also markedly different to a shocking extent, Faramir in particular is just a completely different person. I knew there were differences but its just jarring how vast those differences are when laid out on the page.
 
Saul Bellow Adventures of Augie March. I'm loving it. First Bellow I've read, tried Herzog a few years ago but got stuck. This one is a joy, haven't ready anything like it, wasn't expecting to enjoy it, is proper madcap adventure through inter war Chicago, as Augie gets into all sorts of scrapes as a street corner salesman, crap get a away driver, dog groomer, book stealer and the language is electric, tumbles out with real zip and momentum. Fair play Mr B :).
 
Just had a music/musician biography splurge, re-read Lloyd Bradley's "Bass Culture", Michael Bracewell's Roxy Music opus "Re-make/Re-model", John Powell's "How Music Works" and David Sheppard's "On Some Faraway Beach: The Life and Times of Brian Eno". Still have David Hendy's "Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening" and Charles White's "The Life and Times of Little Richard" to go.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

tommers
What (comics) are you reading right now?
2 3
Replies
60
Views
1K
nagapie
N
Pickman's model
  • Poll
Dedication's what you need: the 2025 reading challenge thread
2 3 4
Replies
100
Views
2K
nottsgirl
N
ska invita
Comfortable chairs you can read books in
2
Replies
35
Views
794
Hollis
Hollis
danny la rouge
Wolf Hall 1&2
2
Replies
49
Views
936
redsquirrel
R
Eivets Rednow
What gives you writing inspiration/energy?
Replies
4
Views
145
Eivets Rednow
Eivets Rednow
Back
Top Bottom