*What book are you reading ?

[foamy]

Notes On A Scandal - enjoying it possibly too much

 

[baldrick]

James Lee Burke - Purple Cane Road.

 

[May Kasahara]

Am tearing through Call Of The Wild, and really enjoying it. Plus I'll have finished it by tonight, which leaves me free to start another book of my own choice - and I have my newly-arrived copy of The MacGuffin lingering on my shelves...

 

[Dubversion]

been diverted from the Hamilton book by Gary Mulholland's fantastic Fear Of Music, the follow-up to This is Uncool, this time covering the same era but looking at albums.

He's probably my favourite music writer working today - he dispenses with theory and context (mostly) to talk instead about how the records make you FEEL. Words like excitement and joy and wonder and sadness etc, which are all too often missing from long lists of references or analyses.

 

[Pieface]

Am tearing through Call Of The Wild, and really enjoying it. Plus I'll have finished it by tonight, which leaves me free to start another book of my own choice - and I have my newly-arrived copy of The MacGuffin lingering on my shelves...

oh! I love that book! Don't bother with any of his dumb, heavy handed socialist ones though - fucking awful.

 

[DotCommunist]

Half way through a Roger Zelazny short story collection 'The doors of his face, the lamps of his mouth'

Well written and not too gung-ho sci fi.

 

[Dubversion]

oh! I love that book! Don't bother with any of his dumb, heavy handed socialist ones though - fucking awful.

!!!!!!!LIBERAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Pieface]

No - just some fucking standards - it was like Biggles with pickaxes.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Just finished Patrick Parker's Progress by Mavis Cheek. She's a very underrated writer which is a very great pity. I see her stuff now tends to be given pink chick litty covers. Boo

 

[Dubversion]

Just finished Patrick Parker's Progress by Mavis Cheek. She's a very underrated writer which is a very great pity. I see her stuff now tends to be given pink chick litty covers. Boo

i've noticed this with quite a few female authors who are supposed to be anything but 'chicklit' but get those awful 'wacky' colourful covers anyway.. can't do them any good in the long run

 

[onemonkey]

Just finished Computer Models of Mind by Maggie Boden.. it has been sitting on my shelves for at least 12 years and pleased to have finally seen it off. some wise words but doubt that i'll remember much about it by this time next week..

started Small World by David Lodge. Bit irritating so far

 

[Mrs Magpie]

i've noticed this with quite a few female authors who are supposed to be anything but 'chicklit' but get those awful 'wacky' colourful covers anyway.. can't do them any good in the long run

I wouldn't be seen dead with a ditzy pink book on the bus. It won't stop me reading Mavis Cheek though. I'll rediscover the schoolgirl art of covering books.

 

[Pieface]

"Mavis Cheek" - that is a fine name

 

[sojourner]

Notes On A Scandal - enjoying it possibly too much

I'm gonna read this at the weekend, really looking forward to it

 

[foamy]

I'm gonna read this at the weekend, really looking forward to it

it was very good, quick, easy and compelling to read.

i want to see the film now to see how they did it. thelondonpaper described it in some stupid way like 'psycho lesbian' drama which just doesnt go anyway to describe the relationship of the two main characters

 

[sojourner]

thelondonpaper described it in some stupid way like 'psycho lesbian' drama which just doesnt go anyway to describe the relationship of the two main characters

Yeh, I've been told similar by mates

 

[bluestreak]

Q, by Luther Blissett. If you haven't read this book yet you're missing out.

 

[Dubversion]

Q, by Luther Blissett. If you haven't read this book yet you're missing out.

i have this and 54 by Wu Ming (same people). Haven't got round to either

 

[Mrs Magpie]

"Mavis Cheek" - that is a fine name

I suspect it may have summat to do with why she's not taken terribly seriously, plus she's funny.

 

[trashpony]

I suspect it may have summat to do with why she's not taken terribly seriously, plus she's funny.

She's a great writer. I agree about the covers though - they're dreadful. It does seem to be a disturbing trend too

 

[colbhoy]

I am reading The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. It is a bit slow in building but I am quite enjoying it.

 

[iguzza]

hmm good job you aren't his PR officer


I'm reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, it's set in Afghanistan and although I've only read about 3 chapters i'd definitely recommend it

 

[ViolentPanda]

Q, by Luther Blissett. If you haven't read this book yet you're missing out.

Agreed. The high quality of historical research is pretty amazing for a work of fiction too.

Am currently reading T.D. Barlow's "The Woodcuts of Albrecht Durer" and E. P. Thompson's "William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary"

 

[Fledgling]

We by Zamyatin

The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass

The Sixth Heaven by LP Hartley

How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World by Francis Wheen

 

[sojourner]

Notes On A Scandal - enjoying it possibly too much

Hehe, I think I might know what you're saying here. I have 40 pages left that I'm saving for tomorrow, but I've been glued to it all day. And...my dirty little secret is that I absolutely love Barbara I love the structure of the text - simple narrative devices such as it being non-linear, writing-about-writing (forgot the term for this, I'm not well), and addressing the reader Tristram Shandy style are used to brilliant effect. Barbara's monologue is cutting, hilarious, brittle and brutal. I heart Barbara

 

[sojourner]

Finished it - what a brilliant novel. And foamy, I agree with you more than ever now - I see B with much more twisted maternal feelings than lesbian. This is something which will hopefully prove to spark an interesting debate at my next bookclub meet

 

[Dirty Martini]

I finished Collected Memoirs by Julian Maclaren-Ross. These were great, particularly The Memoirs of the Forties and the war/postwar memoirs. Unexpectedly moving in parts. Some nice reportage there, prefiguring New Journalism. I want to read the short stories.

Now it's Q.

 

[stromasher24]

Hi newbie here, just finshed reading Ashok Bankers King of Ayodhya.

Its the latest book in the re-telling of the Ramayana series, hes got a great style of writing.
May have been discussed on here before but all the books in the series by him have been top drawer.

 

[han]

I've just finished 'The Caged Virgin' by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and have moved onto 'Infidel' by the same author.

Both unputdownable, challenging and inspirational books written by a brave and strong woman. She is incredible.

Still finishing 'Ripley Bogle' as well....by Robert Mcliam Wilson..v.v. good.

 

[foamy]

Finished it - what a brilliant novel. And foamy, I agree with you more than ever now - I see B with much more twisted maternal feelings than lesbian. This is something which will hopefully prove to spark an interesting debate at my next bookclub meet

it just made me a bit angry that it was simplified into being 'lesbian' relationship because they are both women. it seemed to me more maternal or than barbara needed a dependant more like a child substitute. have you seen the film? i havent and am curious now.