*What book are you reading ?

[Orang Utan]

Nature's Engraver: A Life Of Thomas Bewick - Jenny Uglow - this is fantastic - I have to read all of her biographies now, she seems to have an eye for unusual but important subjects

 

[fractionMan]

Pushing ice - Alistair Reynolds.

 

[May Kasahara]

I finished this last night. Meh. It turns the pages, but, Christ, it's about as manipulative as fiction gets. Portentous revelatory sentence to end every section for example ('I never saw him again', 'And then I knew', that sort of stuff), fantastic coincidences, book club clues dropped at every turn. It has the rhythm of the big film it's just become. Ugh.

As I suspected Oh well.

Oh, I am also reading the Highway Code

 

[kyser_soze]

Pushing ice - Alistair Reynolds.

Two thumbs way, way up...his best non-RevSpace book fo sho...

 

[Dillinger4]

Oh, I am also reading the Highway Code

I hear that is pretty good.



There is a big twist at the end.

 

[Roadkill]

Tim Clayton - Tars

Despite its corny title, it's very good.

 

[chooch]

What did you think?

Yeah. Liked it. Need to read it again though, because my head wasn't quite together enough to take it in.

 

[bodach]

A Tour in Scotland 1769 by Thomas Pennant. Not everyone's cup of tea, but very interesting nonetheless

 

[Orang Utan]

I hear that is pretty good.



There is a big twist at the end.

Yeah, complete U-turn

 

[Orang Utan]

We're supposed to be reading The Kite Runner for book club this month...I'm not too jazzed about it, tbh, although it sounds like an easy read.

I got it for Xmas and swapped it after taking one look at it and thinking, 'that looks SOOO bookclub'

 

[Dirty Martini]

I got it for Xmas and swapped it after taking one look at it and thinking, 'that looks SOOO bookclub'

Do you think writers write with bookclubs in mind now? This book certainly felt like it.

 

[Orang Utan]

Do you think writers write with bookclubs in mind now? This book certainly felt like it.

I wouldn't be surprised if they wrote with R&J in mind

 

[DotCommunist]

China Mieville's King Rat


It has all the element I love about his writing but feels somehow less polished than his new crobuzon stuff. Still far and away the best thing I have read this year

 

[sojourner]

Do you think writers write with bookclubs in mind now?

God

What a depressing thought

 

[Dillinger4]

God

What a depressing thought

innit!



whats the world coming to eh?

I am re-reading The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland. I usually re-read some Douglas Coupland when I start feeling a bit existential and stuff.

 

[sojourner]

You know, I've never read any Coupland. Perhaps someone could lend me one - wouldn't wanna buy it, and I never see any of his stuff in 2nd hand shops

 

[soulman]

I got a copy of The 39 Steps by John Buchan from the library yesterday. I've seen a couple of the film adaptations, but I've never read the book. If I'm too pissed to read later on I'll make a start tomorrow. Anyone read it?

 

[Dillinger4]

I read it when I was kid. I cant remember it for the life of me though!

 

[chooch]

Now reading Shah of Shahs by Ryszard Kapuscinski.

Just squeezed in Another Day of Life over a sleepless night. Wonderful writing.
I liked The Emperor too, but really need to reread.

 

[Orang Utan]

His Shadow Of The Sun is great - what are his other books about? Are they all collected journalism?

 

[chooch]

His Shadow Of The Sun is great - what are his other books about? Are they all collected journalism?

The Emperor is about the last days of Haile Selassie, and uses interviews with various palace hangers-on.
Another Day of Life is an extended piece of journalism about the Angolan war, and Shah of Shahs is about the last Shah of Iran.

I flicked through Travels with Herodotus in a bookshop when in came out and it looked great. Just couldn't afford it at the time.

There's also one about the Soviet Union.

 

[Dirty Martini]

I'm about halfway through Shah of Shahs and enjoying it a lot. I read Shadow of the Sun last year and started off really enjoying it, and then got a bit bogged down. There was some controversy about this book: that he generalised about Africa and failed to take account of its diversity (leading to accusations of racism), and that he exaggerated his involvement in key events. I don't know. He does generalise, but he's also careful, I think, to outline the specific cultural and political bases of each country he visits. He was a journalist, with all the partiality that implies, not an academic writing a history of Africa. It's as much about himself and his own reaction to events, and also what it means to be Poland's only accredited foreign correspondent.

Shah and The Emperor are strong books that are like meditations on power, hallucinations almost. He imagines what these two men thought by looking at the events they caused. No one would suggest going to those books for an in-depth history of the Iran or Ethiopia, but that's not the point of them. I loved The Emperor -- it reminded me of a Shakespeare history play.

 

[quimcunx]

Just finished Dance Dance Dance by Hurika Murkikama ish

Not bad. thought it was going to go all American Gods. A bit unfinished.

Now Eleanor Rigby by Coupland. Enjoying it so far.


Are you in brixton, soj?

 

[Ms T]

I just started Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, which I've had on my bookshelf for about a hundred years (it's in hardback, ffs) but never read. I've only read a couple of pages so far though.

 

[Orang Utan]

I loved that - the narrator is great

 

[Ms T]

Yeah, I'm liking the narrator's voice already.

 

[Random One]

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

In 1978, gifted student and writer Greg Roberts turned to heroin when his marriage collapsed, feeding his addiction with a string of robberies. Caught and convicted, he was given a nineteen-year sentence. After two years, he escaped from a maximum- security prison, spending the next ten years on the run as Australia's most wanted man. Hiding in Bombay, he established a medical clinic for slum- dwellers, worked in the Bollywood film industry and served time in the notorious Arthur Road prison. He was recruited by one of the most charismatic branches of the Bombay mafia for whom he worked as a forger, counterfeiter, and smuggler, and fought alongside a unit of mujaheddin guerrilla fighters in Afghanistan.

about a 1/4 of the way through and so far is really good and really well written. you get a real sense of being amongst the action and there's some funny moments too

 

[May Kasahara]

I loved that - the narrator is great

That was last month's choice for bookclub and it got a right slating from several people Sadly I didn't have time to read it, but it is another novel that has an offputting whiff of bookclub about it.

Not saying I won't give it a go at some point though - I was surprised by some of the comments, considering how many people on here raved about it.

 

[Mallard]

'White Bicycles' by Joe Boyd

 

[Dirty Martini]

'White Bicycles' by Joe Boyd

That's a great book.