*What book are you reading ?

[Orang Utan]

Yeah - that's the one. Magwitch scared the shit out of me when I was a tot. And Miss Haversham was exactly how I imagined it.
Don't bother with the modern day Californian version with Gwyneth Paltrow - it's pants.
Just though of another great adaptation - One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest - I'm sure there must be another thread somewhere that discusses succesful adaptations - if there ain't one, maybe I should start one.

 

[foo]

Oh gawd. You're right. Jack Nicholsan (sp) et al are brilliant in that film.

I'm orf!

 

[Orang Utan]

Trainspotting ain't bad either!

 

[Swearing Nonna]

You're not losing it foo. . . fat stew looks at garp's eyes and announces that he's Japanese

 

[fen_boy]

I'm reading

'the life and loves of leo sayer'

by leo sayer.

unix lent it to me.

 

[Swearing Nonna]

I used to like you fen_boy

I used to feel like dancing

 

[jms]

The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux- a book with an interesting dedication

 

[Cassius Belli]

Saddam Hussein by various Reuters reporters.

 

[Nina]

Just finished Siddhartha Herman Hesse...bloody lovely

and George Orwell's Burmese Days

also bloody lovely

 

[Lord Camomile]

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

I'm reading the entire Discworld series in order, it's proving to be quite interesting as I'm finding out things that I had always assumed had happened 'outside' the books (notably what happened to the Librarian).

 

[PearlySpencer]

I've just started reading VITALS by Greg Bear.

From the blurb by Amazon "Reading VITALS, Greg Bear's dark, suspensful, paranoid thriller of high-tech bioterrorism, would be terrifying even without the real world anthrax attacks. But the news stories of late 2001 add layers of resonance to the book"

It's shaping up to be a goodun.

 

[MadFish]

Gonna hop on out at lunchtime and grab myself a copy of Prozac Nation or Fast Food Nation, whichever is available first.

 

[MadFish]

Well neither book was availiable but I got myself a lovely Photoshop guide instead. Does that count as good reading?

 

[Roadkill]

Hard Work by Polly Toynbee.

Excellent book. Can't say I'm enjoying it exactly, since it's not pleasant reading sometimes, but it's fascinating, and very well written. I'll have a lot more time for Polly Toynbee after reading this, i think.

 

[Roadkill]

Bugger. Double post.



<I finished Hard Work this afternoon anyway. "Why do People Hate America?" is up for reading next.>

 

[flypanam]

Saul bellow - Herzog (yawn)
Hal draper - Marxs theory of revolution Vol 1
Marshall berman - Adventures in marxism


I've never really tried to read so many in one time, am really gutted that Herzog has turned out to be a peice of well written boring ramblings, if i wanted that i would read Robert harris.

The real shocker thou has to be Berman. Nigel Irritable should get his hands on this and realise what good writing is.
no offence Bri!

 

[Maggot]

Miss Wyoming by Douglas Coupland and jolly good it is too!

 

[Nina]

Originally posted by Maggot
Miss Wyoming by Douglas Coupland and jolly good it is too!

EXCELLENT I just did book exchange for this 5 mins ago. had heard it wasn't one of his best but there was little else decent reading fodder to be found here...

 

[souljacker]

Just finished The Vulture by Gil Scott Heron. Reasonably decent, like the 'black power' stuff in it, good characters but not the greatest story IMHO.

Now starting The Room by Hubert Selby Jr. Rather good so far, the blurb on the back seems to imply it gets pretty sick later on. Cant wait!!!

 

[Maggot]

Originally posted by Orang Utan
I know what you mean - most adaptations are cack cos they're either too ambitious in attempting to be faithful to the plot and end up as sprawling incoherent messes, or they piss off the fans by changing/eliminating essential chararacter and plot details for the sake of brevity. There are a few norable exceptions though. The first ones that spring to mind are Great Expectations (the Lean version of course) and Lord Of The Rings. Give me time and I'm sure I could come up with a few more. I won't even bother listing the failures cis they are legion!

Bladerunner: great film and was based on 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' by Philip K Dick. (there always seems to be a question about this in quizzes)

 

[alco]

The Trial - Franz Kafka

Two pages into it.

 

[Mujahoudini]

The Quarrel Of The Age - a biography of William Hazlitt - a radical freethinking gentleman.

 

[Random One]

Just finished Surivivor and started Lullaby, both by Palahniuk.

Survivor is definietly worth a read, maybe not as good as choke... but then am not sure if u can really compare the two... both very different.

 

[onenameshelley]

Paranoid

Just finished "Stupid White Men" by Michael Moore. Very very funny, enjoyable book, although if i was paranoid about the U.S. before i read it i most certainly am now. I would recomend it.. i would give it 10 book bus points! (Anyone else remember the book bus coming to their school?)

 

[Cassius Belli]

The Uranium Club.
It's the transcripts of hidden tapings made of Werner Heisenberg,Otto Hahn, and the other German scientists who Britain captured during the last days of the European theatre of WW2. These were the scientists who worked on (or looked into the feasibility of) an atomic weapon for Nazi Germany.
I picked up this book yesterday for $2 new,just cos the cover was slightly damaged, so I'm stoked.

 

[Dr. Christmas]

The Cloud Sketcher

I'm reading The Cloud Sketcher by Richard Rayner. Its set in Finland and America, covering the Finnish Civil War of 1918 and 20s new York. The title is a translation of the Finnish word for Skyscraper: this alone was enough to make me want it. Also I heard bits of it on a Book at Bedtime towards the back end of last year.

It's great in terms of characterisation and plot ad is one that is possible to dip in and out of. I'm one of these people who reads several books at once, more or less in parallel; also reading A Life by Italo Svevo and D'Annunzio at Fiume by Michael A Leeder. This last is a fascinating story about how Italian nationalists seized the port of Fiume after World War One and held it in the teeth of Allied opposition throughout the versailles treaty period. The story is interesting coz I've never heard it before, but I do find the author's obvious sympathies with/ romanticising of a proto-fascist slightly dubious.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Originally posted by Lord Camomile
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

I'm reading the entire Discworld series in order, it's proving to be quite interesting as I'm finding out things that I had always assumed had happened 'outside' the books (notably what happened to the Librarian).

<edited after I realised what an idiot I am >

 

[colbhoy]

I have just finished, consectutively, Shogun by James Clavell - awesome and then Joe Di Maggie: A Hero's Life by Richard Ben Cramer - as good a biography as I have ever read with loads of Marilyn Monroe in it.

I'm now relaxing with Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson.

 

[mrkikiet]

i finished Deadkidsongs by toby litt on the train this morning. It's really good, much better than other similar stories i've read, 10-13 yr old boys in gangs, doing war type things.

 

[Nina]

Half way through Stupid White Men which I will send to all my friends as a gift immediately!

well worth the read, if you can stand the taste of bile.