*What book are you reading ?

[chooch]

Alberto Manguel- a history of reading

This is fucking great. A touch I'm mates with Borges, Calvino and Umberto Eco, dontchaknow? at times, but still corking. Tis a bit like one of those old essayists, Lamb or Hazlitt or someone...

 

[Boogie Boy]

'Demanding The Impossible: A History Of Anarchsim' Peter Marshall

Really interesting. Wish I'd started reading this years ago.

BB

 

[Dubversion]

'Demanding The Impossible: A History Of Anarchsim' Peter Marshall

Really interesting. Wish I'd started reading this years ago.

BB

it is a great book!

 

[Boogie Boy]

it is a great book!

It does have that 'instant accessibility without being patronising' tone that you sometimes come across with this kind of book, will let you know what I think once I've finished Dub.

BB

 

[Philbc03]

Edward Bellamy's 'Looking Backwards'

 

[mr woofty]

cloud spotters guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney

don't know if this has been mentioned on here before but i look at the sky in a whole new way since reading this (well i haven't quite finished, i'm up to strato cumulus!). we live in a richly clouded country and this book is intelligent, funny and explained completely for the non-meteorolgist. the sky above us is taken for granted sometimes, this book gives you an idea of what is going on up there.

 

[foo]

tried Ian McEwan again - this time, Amsterdam.

i just about got through it - and got fuck all from it. but at least it made me realise one of the reasons i don't like his books: his characters. they're always nasty, meanspirited, weak, brooding gits.

i think i've tried my last try with McEwan.

 

[Dubversion]

cloud spotters guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney

don't know if this has been mentioned on here before but i look at the sky in a whole new way since reading this (well i haven't quite finished, i'm up to strato cumulus!). we live in a richly clouded country and this book is intelligent, funny and explained completely for the non-meteorolgist. the sky above us is taken for granted sometimes, this book gives you an idea of what is going on up there.

I plugged his website on the ed's Noctilucent clouds thread.. Brilliant site.. Some of the pics are breathtaking

Coil used to be involved in an organisation for keeping the night sky clearer by reducing light pollution, but I can't remember what they were called.

 

[sojourner]

irvine welsh - "the acid house".

How are you finding it milesy?

I love Irvine Welsh. My favourite story in The Acid House is the one with God in it. Cracks me up every time that. Can't bloody remember what it's called mind....

 

[sojourner]

I'm still eking out Annie Proulx, Close Range. I haven't read such good short stories in a very long time and really don't want to finish it. My boss is getting Bad Dirt by her tomorrow so I'll be borrowing that off her!

Still thumbing through Transgender Warriors by Leslie Feinberg as well, which is very interesting.

Gave up on The Diceman - what a steaming pile of shite that was.

 

[fractionMan]

How are you finding it milesy?

I love Irvine Welsh. My favourite story in The Acid House is the one with God in it. Cracks me up every time that. Can't bloody remember what it's called mind....

Is that the one with flies and shit?

 

[sojourner]

Is that the one with flies and shit?

Bob ( or rather Boab) turns into a fly in it, yeh. Why, have you read it?

 

[bushphobia]

Hey, reading Stephen King's THE SHINING, a book I haven't read in bloody years. So much better than that crappy Kubrick film.
Also Angela Carter's THE INFERNAL DESIRE MACHINES OF DOCTOR HOFFMAN.
Sheer briliant imaginative writing, that still outclasses most contemporary novels. DA Vinci code! bloody shite bollocks more like.

 

[Cerisa]

"The Big Over Easy" by Jasper Fforde. kind of a kid's book (my housemate got me into him) but intelligently done and very funny

 

[Nina]

H G Wells. 'The Island of Dr Moreau'.

And picked up Bernhard Schlink 'Flights of Love' from the library this weekend.

I loved 'The Reader'. So I hope this one fits the bill.

Spent an age in the library trying to find books the catalogue said where there but strangely didn't appear to exist....

 

[Fledgling]

I've been moving around but managed to read The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles which I liked a lot, very moving although some of the visionary scenes were somewhat abstract and hard to understand. I think it's open to a lot of different interpretations but I'd be keen to read some of his other work as I like the style, particularly the way the characters were brought to life. One of those scary books whewre you think "he's talking about me, he's got inside my head".

Also now reading 3 books as I didn't know which to read first. I'm enjoying the dreamy Eucalyptus by Murray Bail, am shocked by Victor Serge's Comrade Tulyev and trying to read the quite heavy-going Voss by Patrick White. Wanted to read some Australian literature whiel I'm here and I'm NOT reading anything by Dan Brown.

 

[fudgefactorfive]

"Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Grim, disturbing, saps your will to live. Incredibly well-crafted in one sense - the characters are (appropriately to the plot) deliberately stunted, awkward, naive types, almost like bonsai children; but I found the set-up a bit ridiculous when I actually sat down and thought about it.

 

[RubyToogood]

Have just finished re-reading The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco) which I thought was great when I first read it years ago. This time I found it really, really tedious and full of unnecessary and confusing waffle.

 

[belboid]

Have just finished re-reading The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco) which I thought was great when I first read it years ago. This time I found it really, really tedious and full of unnecessary and confusing waffle.

aaah, I'm just about to start The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana - I still think he's ace. But then I always loved the bits of discussion about the vexed question of whether or not Christ owned his own clothes......

 

[han]

Have just finished re-reading The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco) which I thought was great when I first read it years ago. This time I found it really, really tedious and full of unnecessary and confusing waffle.

I'm reading Ellen MacArthur's autobiog at the moment. Wow, that woman is driven.

 

[Dubversion]

Wow, that woman is driven.

I thought she sailed?

 

[Dubversion]

Gave up on The Diceman - what a steaming pile of shite that was.

It's a bit like a lot of those 'epoch-shattering' books, if you don't read it

a) at the right point in history
b) at the right age

it'll be a load of wank.

I read it as a hippyish teen and loved it (although even then I could tell the sexual politics were a little dodgy) but now I just wouldn't touch it.

 

[Orang Utan]

I'm reading Ellen MacArthur's autobiog at the moment. Wow, that woman is driven.

Everywhere?
Lazy cow - now she's dame, she thinks she's it.

 

[Orang Utan]

Proper summer reading this - nothing too demanding
Chuck Palahniuk - Haunted - I thought I'd finally give him a twirl
John Le Carre - The Spy Who Came In From The Cold - this is for book group, but also it was about time I got round to reading him.
Michael Connolly - The Lincoln Lawyer - started reading my brother's copy in Barcelona on the beach and got hooked - a well-written courtroom drama - well I never! I've tried Grisham before and was put off the whole genre.
Still haven't got around to reading Kafka On The Shore or Rupert Thomson's Divided Kingdom but will hopefully do so by the end of the summer.

 

[Orang Utan]

Oh and just about to finish reading Watching The English - about time too, cos I was getting fed up with Kate Fox's 'astonishing' observations about class.

 

[RubyToogood]

I'm now reading Pride and Prejudice for the nine millionth time.

I don't like surprises in a book.

 

[fudgefactorfive]

*sneaks into Rubes' house and substitutes a hacked copy of P&P where Mr Darcy is revealed to be a pimp, Rosings burns to the ground and Lizzie Bennett ends up sold to the white slave trade*

 

[RubyToogood]

And that in itself sounds like the plot of an Umberto Eco novel... (or possibly John Fowles).

 

[han]

Everywhere?
Lazy cow - now she's dame, she thinks she's it.

Actually, I have this image of sailing as just being for posh over-privileged sloanes, but Jan said the book was really good so I started reading it, and it IS!

She's really modest, and doesn't fit into the typical sailing mould one iota. She comes from quite a humble background, and bought her first little wooden boat with dinner money she saved over several years. Ahhhh.

 

[han]

Fuck, I can't believe I just used the word 'humble'.

<vomits>