Dubversion said:
been a long time since i read this, I'd forgotten how brilliantly written it is.
*What book are you reading ?
- Thread starter ck
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been a long time since i read this, I'd forgotten how brilliantly written it is.
mrkikiet said:
is this the book about Spain's failure to come to terms with Franco / the civil war? Robert 'Smart Bob' Elms had the author on, if it's the same one, and it sounded fascinating.
Nina
muftysludge
I've given up with Bernhard Schlink's Flights of Love.
It's not often I give books up but after the wow that was The Reader, I was sorely disappointed.
Now reading Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red.
My, the boy can write
I think it's going to need a large investment in time though. It's going to be a mammoth exercise akin to a Salman Rushdie.
Also got Johnathan Safran-Foer from t'library. The one about 9/11. Not sure it'll get a look in while Pamuk is gripping me by the throat....
It's not often I give books up but after the wow that was The Reader, I was sorely disappointed.
Now reading Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red.
My, the boy can write
I think it's going to need a large investment in time though. It's going to be a mammoth exercise akin to a Salman Rushdie.
Also got Johnathan Safran-Foer from t'library. The one about 9/11. Not sure it'll get a look in while Pamuk is gripping me by the throat....
spartacus mills
let's wee on each other
I'm really enjoying Ed McBain's stuff. I'm reading 'Puss in Boots', one of his non-87th Precinct novels at the mo.
Dead Cat Bounce
A member of the Waffle elite.
Just going to start with Roger Penrose - The Road to Reality.
I'll probably understand less than .1% of the book but the preface has left me very intrigued.
I'll probably understand less than .1% of the book but the preface has left me very intrigued.
AnnO'Neemus
Is so vanilla
The Bookseller of Kabul...
It's been in my stack of 'to read' books for a few months now, but boy am I wishing I'd read it sooner... I kept putting it off and putting it off and reading other books before it, but now I've started I'm so glad I did... it's fantastic... very well written... very readable... interesting anecdotes about life in Kabul...
It's been in my stack of 'to read' books for a few months now, but boy am I wishing I'd read it sooner... I kept putting it off and putting it off and reading other books before it, but now I've started I'm so glad I did... it's fantastic... very well written... very readable... interesting anecdotes about life in Kabul...
foo
dirtysweet
i borrowed Stuart, A Life Backwards - Alexander Masters from Rollem on Saturday and i've been reading it at every opportunity since.
i had heard about this book but hadn't realised that i knew Stuart. he was a well known Cambridge 'face' - so the book was doubly interesting to me. alongwith all the local references etc.
i didn't like Masters style of writing at first but soon appreciated his total lack of sentimentality when writing about the homeless community. lots of funny bits too.
an excellent book.
i had heard about this book but hadn't realised that i knew Stuart. he was a well known Cambridge 'face' - so the book was doubly interesting to me. alongwith all the local references etc.
i didn't like Masters style of writing at first but soon appreciated his total lack of sentimentality when writing about the homeless community. lots of funny bits too.
an excellent book.
tommers
It was... Rebekah Vardy's account
"A general history of the robberies and murder of the most notorious pirates", by "Captain Charles Johnson", written in 1724
it's great, it's basically the book that all pirate stories are based on. it has blackbeard, captain avery, mary read, anne bonney, stede bonnet... all the greats.
the women pirates are the most amazing. one of them was brought up dressed as a boy because she was an illegitimate daughter and her father wanted to maintain decency and so disguised her as a boy so nobody would know it was really his bastard daughter. she then just grew up to join armies, sail ships, be a pirate. amazing.
it's great, it's basically the book that all pirate stories are based on. it has blackbeard, captain avery, mary read, anne bonney, stede bonnet... all the greats.
the women pirates are the most amazing. one of them was brought up dressed as a boy because she was an illegitimate daughter and her father wanted to maintain decency and so disguised her as a boy so nobody would know it was really his bastard daughter. she then just grew up to join armies, sail ships, be a pirate. amazing.
felixthecat
are we there yet?
foo said:i borrowed Stuart, A Life Backwards - Alexander Masters from Rollem on Saturday and i've been reading it at every opportunity since.
i had heard about this book but hadn't realised that i knew Stuart. he was a well known Cambridge 'face' - so the book was doubly interesting to me. alongwith all the local references etc.
i didn't like Masters style of writing at first but soon appreciated his total lack of sentimentality when writing about the homeless community. lots of funny bits too.
an excellent book.
i've just read this - really, really enjoyed it
.tommers said:"A general history of the robberies and murder of the most notorious pirates", by "Captain Charles Johnson", written in 1724
it's great, it's basically the book that all pirate stories are based on. it has blackbeard, captain avery, mary read, anne bonney, stede bonnet... all the greats.
the women pirates are the most amazing. one of them was brought up dressed as a boy because she was an illegitimate daughter and her father wanted to maintain decency and so disguised her as a boy so nobody would know it was really his bastard daughter. she then just grew up to join armies, sail ships, be a pirate. amazing.
i bought this and haven't got around to it. Is it a fairly easy read, bearing in mind the arcane language?
tommers
It was... Rebekah Vardy's account
Dubversion said:
it's not too bad once you get used to it. it's quite difficult to work out what's happening in a couple of bits but overall it's pretty understandable. after you've worked out what a snow or a pink are then it's plain sailing (ho ho.) there's a glossary at the end and also some notes.
some of the histories are a bit short and just detail how many ships they took and what types and what they did with them. but mary read and anne bonny have a proper "childhood to death" history for them. so far I'm under halfway, just reading about captain davis, who seems to be one of the most successful (he's been capturing forts and all sorts.
)undercover
Chopping up Armadillos
Just finished reading "The Contortionist's Handbook" by Craig Clevenger.
Thought it was superb, and just started reading his second one - Dermaphoria.
Same sort of madness as found in the first one, buit complicated somewhat by rather large amounts of acid and amnesia. Excellent so far.
Thought it was superb, and just started reading his second one - Dermaphoria.
Same sort of madness as found in the first one, buit complicated somewhat by rather large amounts of acid and amnesia. Excellent so far.
foo
dirtysweet
felixthecat said:i've just read this - really, really enjoyed it
it's stayed with me a bit over the past few days, like some books do.
i think as well, because i used to avoid/recoil* a bit from Stuart when i knew him a long time ago, (we were sort of on the perifery of each others circles). he was also quite a bit younger than me.
anyway - aside from all that, i do think Masters has written a fantastic book about a 'chaotic' life or personality. and does it with dry humour too. i kept forgetting it was a biography.
* i know the phrase, 'everyone's got a story' is probably wank but it's resonated with me through reading this book. it's not that i feel bad or anything major. just a kind of recognition..
fudgefactorfive
New Member
Had an entire week of Bret Easton Ellis - first Glamorama then The Informers. The former was interesting but for the most part clumsily and tediously written (though a few chapters/passages really do stand out), the latter was better written, but ultimately a bit meandering and dull. After all that, I was so gripped with ennui that I could barely move.
I also got through Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams. Strange stuff - doesn't really mesh well with the other books in the series - he'd have been better off putting those ideas and that energy into a standalone work IMO. And as for the ending ... not exactly comedy
I also got through Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams. Strange stuff - doesn't really mesh well with the other books in the series - he'd have been better off putting those ideas and that energy into a standalone work IMO. And as for the ending ... not exactly comedy
jeff_leigh
What happened to Dubversion ?
The Wastelands - Stephen King 3rd in the Dark Tower Series
Prince: The Biography
elevendayempire
Registered Loofah
I went and bought a job lot of Neil Gaiman's books in the Waterstones 3-for-2 Sci-Fi books offer. Just finished Stardust, and I'm reading Neverwhere now.
SG
SG
Doctor Carrot
Marxist Henchman
Just finished Yes Man by Danny Wallace, a rather amusing and inspiring book
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