*What book are you reading ?

[Orang Utan]

Do!

 

[Dubversion]

but you haven't read the book

 

[Orang Utan]

I need to read the book and tastebud needs to see the film

 

[Dubversion]

liberal

want to borrow it? i can send it by Pony Face Express, along with Deadwood season 2.. want season 3 as well?

 

[Orang Utan]

liberal

want to borrow it? i can send it by Pony Face Express, along with Deadwood season 2.. want season 3 as well?

YES PLEASE! <KISSES DUB ON THE LIPS AND POKES TONGUE IN>

 

[Dubversion]

cool

(i love the smell of primate in the evening)

 

[Dubversion]

 

[DotCommunist]

I just finished 'Vintage Stuff' by Tom Sharpe and I have to say compared to his other stuff this is pretty weak

Just about to start 'New grub street' as i have to do an essay on it. On the reading for pleasure front I'm looking forward to finishing Robert Silverburgs 'Roma Etearnum' which is a quality alternate history story so far. not read any of his science fiction, but he's apparently well repected in that field. The idea of the roman empire enduring in it's purest form right up untill present day is
Bastards the romans, but admirable bastards

 

[DUMBO.66]

the new Crichton book 'next'. nothing on Jurassic Park or congo

 

[ViolentPanda]

Just finished re-reading (for the umpteenth time) Herbert Read's "The Meaning of Art", am part-way through Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War", and am just about to start james Methuen-Campbell's "Denton Welch: Writer and Artist".

 

[Roadkill]

Just finished reading William Hague's (yes, the bald one) biography of Pitt the Younger. It's very good indeed. Hague IMO should give up politics and turn his talents to history, 'cos he's certainly good at it.

Just started on Enlightenment, by Roy Porter.

 

[Julie]

Kathy Lette - Alter Ego.

It's laugh out loud, light entertainment

 

[han]

I'm reading 'The Cruellest Journey' - a woman's account of her journey solo in a kayak along the river Niger from Bamako to Timbuktu.....

It's a real page-turner!

It's by Kira Salak. An amazing woman.

 

[Lea]

Reading a gothic romance by Jennifer St Giles called the Mistress of Trevelyan. It's along the lines of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca.

 

[mrkikiet]

just finished stasiland: stories from behind the berlin wall.
some of the stuff sounds like it should really be fiction, straight out or orwell.

 

[dweller]

I'm reading
"looking at the stars" by Ian Pattison (creator and writer of Rab C Nesbitt). The protagonist is a failing sit-com writer.

I read "A Stranger here Myself" a few years back and hadn't realised he's written two novels since that.

Really funny biting comedy set in Glasgow (so far).
If you've ever lived in Glasgow, you'll probably enjoy this even more. However I'm sure anyone with a dark sense of humour would enjoy his brand of hilarious vitriol.

 

[Fez909]

Reading Breakfast of Champions and I'm not sure I'm in the mood for it. I've not laughed, or even smiled, and I'm 50 pages in. I'm sure I've heard this described as one of the funniest books.

Anyway, will persevere.

 

[Dubversion]

it's a very gallows humour.

 

[onemonkey]

i'm reading Something Happened by Joseph Catch-22 Heller.. i guess it is a more grown up book but it's not as good.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

i'm reading Something Happened by Joseph Catch-22 Heller.. i guess it is a more grown up book but it's not as good.

Oh, I felt cheated by that book. I got about two thirds of the way through but didn't finish it. His brand of cynicism was perfect for the setting of Catch 22, but doesn't seem to work in the corporate world.

 

[Orang Utan]

I only got a chapter in before I gave up. Or was that God Knows?

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I think that should be Joseph 'should only have written the one book' Heller.

 

[Orang Utan]

Quite - have you read Closing Time?

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Quite - have you read Closing Time?

Yes.
The rantings of a bitter old man. Not funny, not incisive, not insightful. Very sad really - when your first book's a brilliant blockbuster, what do you do with the rest of you life but write?

 

[sojourner]

I've had Picture This on me shelves for a few years now - I'm almost too scared to read it - afraid I'll get too confused during the jumping around and it'll ruin it for me

 

[cutandsplice]

i'm reading Something Happened by Joseph Catch-22 Heller.. i guess it is a more grown up book but it's not as good.

It's not as laugh-out-loud funny but it is just as profound. Keep reading it, it will be worth it in the end. Closing time is also worth reading. It isn't catch 22 (but of course the sequel) but it is as an important book. See it in the same perspective as Johnny Cash's later work compared to the early stuff, telling us about what happens when we get older.

 

[Fledgling]

The Good Soldier Svjek by Jaroslav Hasek

The Solid Mandala by Patrick White

The first a riotously funny account of a chronically febble-minded old soldier re-recruited to fight the good fight for the Austro- Hungarian empire in ww1. Excellent, although I need to get hold of a new edition due to the old one suffering no pronunciation guide, lack of explanation of obvious piss takes of leading figures of the age, lack of piss takes of leading figures of the age owing to fears of controversy and lack of one of the 4 published books.

The seocnd a novel which lives up to expectations, but then anything I've read by White has been superb and near flawless. Outstanding characterisation and the sharpest observations of life I've encountered. Two brothers who share their lives, one trys, one understands. I'll probably end up reading the rest of his novels (I've read four already). Justified Nobel Laureate in every sense.

 

[sojourner]

Just finished The Love of Good Women by Isabel Miller. Got it cos it was on sale, and I liked a previous book by her, but this one stank. Badly written, with only a couple of interesting bits.

Can't decide between The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing next, or Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

 

[Orang Utan]

I haven't read The Fifth Child (I've only read one Lessing novel ) but Loive In the Time Of Cholera is even better than 100 Years Of Solitude, so go for it!

 

[sojourner]

I haven't read The Fifth Child (I've only read one Lessing novel ) but Loive In the Time Of Cholera is even better than 100 Years Of Solitude, so go for it!

Righty ho, I'll go with that then - my daughters off out for the day too, so peace and quiet allll day beckons