*What book are you reading ?

[Barking_Mad]

Doh!

 

[Dirty Martini]

Interrupting Roscoe, which is dragging a bit, to read The Day of the Owl by Leonardo Sciascia. I read some Sciascia a few years ago and liked it, and this one looks good.

 

[sojourner]

where do you people find the time to read all of this?!?!

I tend to read in 4-6 hour chunks at the weekend, sometimes more. I manage about 30 mins at best in the week, as I'm so utterly fucked after work

 

[G. Fieendish]

Fiction: Boomsday by Christopher Buckley
Factual: British Secret Project's Vol.3 - Hypersonics, Ramjets & Missiles
This deals with various aviation, and R&D programmes during the late 1940's, 1950's & 1960's that never made it to production, due to various reasons...
(One concept that thankfully never made it, was the RAF proposal to air launch Polaris A3 Ballistic Missiles from Vulcan Bombers....)

 

[Fledgling]

Well what did you think of it? Sad to say, I never had the patience to finish my 'great russian novel', so I copped out and settled for some crime noir Chandler instead...

Thing is, even though those huge novels are a bit intimidating and takes a while to get into- I tend to just njet over the looong, triple russian names that all sound the same when you're not used to that sort of thing anyway- If you're determined enough to plow through the tome all the way to the bitter end, it ends up being one of the greatest books you've ever read...

I'm still on Bros K and will probably end up reading several books while I pay lip service to it. To be honest (I'm about 200 pages through), it has been a laboured affair so far. I still can't understand why so much is thrust onto Alyosha; Ivan in my mind is a more interesting character. Alosha is too weak to be the central protagonist. I'm determined to get to the Grand Inquisitor, largely because it is mentioned in detail in Patrick White's The Solid Mandala. The Russian names don't bother me, I quite like the names, having now learnt the Cyrillic alphabet and some Russia words. However if you aren't familiar with the system it's confusing (Alyosha's half dozen names for example).

Bros K is part fo an ambitious journey into Russian literature, a long one because I refuse to give up reading other literature too.

I've started the Aunt's Story by Patrick White. A much earlier novel than his classic works but gives some insight into how his technique developed.

I finished God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. These bestselling works have to rely on so much invective which ends up reducing the substance of their argument to about 20 pages of 300 (Oborne's new book follows the same vein).

 

[mentalchik]

Got nothing new at the mo so re-reading all my John Connolly novels.....

 

[Pie 1]

Just finished Posy Simmonds' graphic novel, Tamara Drewe.
The drawings are inspired, her eye (and ear) for detail superb & so spot on.
Really enjoyed it.

 

[Blagsta]

The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade by Alfred McCoy.

 

[sojourner]

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka

Excellent so far

 

[Orang Utan]

She's a friend of my mum's


I'm reading The Border Trilogy - just finished All The Pretty Horses and am about to embark upon The Crossing
Also reading Jeremy Paxton's On Royalty

 

[sojourner]

She's a friend of my mum's


I'm reading The Border Trilogy - just finished All The Pretty Horses and am about to embark upon The Crossing
Also reading Jeremy Paxton's On Royalty

! Hello you!! Missed ya. Is she?

What did you think of Pretty Horses?

 

[Orang Utan]

! Hello you!! Missed ya. Is she?

What did you think of Pretty Horses?

I loved it - though it needed a glossary of horse stuff and Mexican geographical features

 

[Dubversion]

under no circumstances watch the movie!!!

it's an amazing book, isn't it? god, he can write..

 

[Kidda]

at the moment im trying to work my way through all this lot at the same time

'Beyond the closet' Steven Seidman
'Gay and lesbian youth' Gilbert Herdt
'Coming out' Jeffery Weeks
'Silenced sexualities in schools and universities' Debbie Epstein
'Homosexuality and education' J Stafford
'Section 28; a practical guide to the law and its implications' Liberty
'Something to tell you' Lorraine Trenchard
'Sexualities and society' Jeffery Weeks

and for ''fun'' im still reading 'redemption' by Stanley Tookie Williams

my head hurts

 

[Orang Utan]

under no circumstances watch the movie!!!

it's an amazing book, isn't it? god, he can write..

Yeah, he's not bad at it

 

[sojourner]

I loved it - though it needed a glossary of horse stuff and Mexican geographical features

I was alright on the horse front, having been a juvenile equestrian The Mexican geographical thing just made me want to go there even more than I already did

 

[sojourner]

at the moment im trying to work my way through all this lot at the same time

'Beyond the closet' Steven Seidman
'Gay and lesbian youth' Gilbert Herdt
'Coming out' Jeffery Weeks
'Silenced sexualities in schools and universities' Debbie Epstein
'Homosexuality and education' J Stafford
'Section 28; a practical guide to the law and its implications' Liberty
'Something to tell you' Lorraine Trenchard
'Sexualities and society' Jeffery Weeks

and for ''fun'' im still reading 'redemption' by Stanley Tookie Williams

my head hurts

Cool list though kidda

 

[Kidda]

Cool list though kidda

yeah its all a bit daunting though. im trying to condense it all into helping me write about the coming out process and how section 28/attitudes in school effect/effected it

i just want to sit under a blanket and sleep though

 

[sojourner]

yeah its all a bit daunting though. im trying to condense it all into helping me write about the coming out process and how section 28/attitudes in school effect/effected it

i just want to sit under a blanket and sleep though

If you wanna chat about it, gis a shout. I have personal experience

 

[Dirty Martini]

I finished Sciascia's The Day of the Owl, which is as short and hard as a Sicilian gunman, but also very sweet, like a cannolo. A really complex but gripping dissection of a mafia killing. I recommend Sciascia.

 

[sojourner]

I finished Sciascia's The Day of the Owl, which is as short and hard as a Sicilian gunman, but also very sweet, like a cannolo. A really complex but gripping dissection of a mafia killing. I recommend Sciascia.

Will look out for that

'as short and hard as a Sicilian gunman'

 

[Dirty Martini]

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka

That title, along with dozens of others, drives me absolutely fucking mad for some reason, I guess it's the desperate modishness and archness.

Trout Fishing in the Yemen, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Cooking with Fernet-Branca, A Long Seminar on Broccoli in Spanish, all that bollocks. When will it all end? Where's the geology book called A Sacred Glittering, or Did the Earth Move for You, Darling? (a textbook on seismology). Eh?

 

[sojourner]

That title, along with dozens of others, drives me absolutely fucking mad for some reason, I guess it's the desperate modishness and archness.

Trout Fishing in the Yemen, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Cooking with Fernet-Branca, A Long Seminar on Broccoli in Spanish, all that bollocks. When will it all end? Where's the geology book called A Sacred Glittering, or Did the Earth Move for You, Darling? (a textbook on seismology). Eh?

Ah, but it's totally relevant to the story, in this case, and not some wanky bollocks You should know by now I'm not the most pretentious person in the world

 

[Dirty Martini]

Will look out for that

'as short and hard as a Sicilian gunman'

It's all being republished by Granta and it's great stuff Sciascia's one of those great late 20th century Europeans that's too little read outside his home country.

 

[Dirty Martini]

Ah, but it's totally relevant to the story, in this case, and not some wanky bollocks You should know by now I'm not the most pretentious person in the world

Fair enough. Not casting aspersions on the reader, just the writer (or in all these case, probably the publisher. Or Waterstone's)

 

[dodgepot]

"rockabilly - a 40 year journey" by billy poore

 

[maya]

anyone read any Victor Pelevin? Ive recently discovered his stuff but not as yet bought any. It looks really quite splendid

Have two Pelevin books on hold at the library- Descriptions so far:
Grim, satirical, both kitchen sink/social realism and fantastic/horror elements... Sounds promising!

 

[chooch]

I finished Sciascia's The Day of the Owl, which is as short and hard as a Sicilian gunman, but also very sweet, like a cannolo.

Sounds fucking great. Just taken delivery of motherless brooklyn

 

[Barking_Mad]

Have two Pelevin books on hold at the library- Descriptions so far:
Grim, satirical, both kitchen sink/social realism and fantastic/horror elements... Sounds promising!

I bought 'Babylon' on Friday. Not started it yet as im sticking to my 1 book rule and i have 700 pages of The Brothers K. to read yet.

 

[Eva Luna]

I have set aside Crime and Punishment for next week.

This week, I have been reading 'Women Who Run With the Wolves' which is a fantastic poetical accompaniment to the spirit that lives in all women. It's one of those books that you can pick up and open to find just the sort of deep understanding that you craved and had to retreat inwards to find.