*What book are you reading ?
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Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
"confessions of a thug" by philip meadows taylor.
from the blurb on the back:
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from the blurb on the back:
it is very interesting!
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*
are you me?
two of the best books ever, IMO..
i'm starting Mother London by Michael Moorcock. i was a Moorcock obsessive in the 80s (it was the acid, i think) and i wolfed down both his clever and intricate stuff like the Jerry Cornelius stories, as well as the deliberately hammy fantasy stuff (inter-connected as it all was).
but somewhere along the line he's reinvented himself as a mmore 'serious' writer and as another of the 'hidden London' set, alongside Sinclair, Ackroyd et al, and this is the first thing of his i've read since the 80s so i'm looking forward to it.
where the hell did you find a whacked out Barbra Streisand fan? and have you let her go yet?
chegrimandi
associated with adultery
nearly finished This Side of Brightness by Colum McCann - have really enjoyed it - its a pretty easy read.....about homeless in New York, people living in the underground tunnels beneath the city....recommend to anyone....
Originally posted by Roadkill
I've just finished Goodnight Mister Tom, by Michelle Magorian. I read it at school, but hadn't looked at it for about ten years before I found it in a charity shoip at the weekend. What a lovely story.
i just noticed this comment. Goodnight Mister Tom is one of my favourite books ever. It brings out the true softy in me.
ON a slightly different note i'm reading Eurotrashed, an ever so slightly sensational account of the hooligan problem in Europe.
it's this bit that gets me - i'd argue it's the saddest thing i've ever read:
"Sometimes I think the people to feel the saddest for are people who are unable to connect with the profound - people such as my boring brother-in-law, a hearty type so concerned with normality and fitting in that he eliminates any possibility of uniqueness for himself and his own personality. I wonder if some day, when he is older, he will wake up and the deeper part of him will realise that he has never allowed himself to truly exist, and he will cry with regret and shame and grief.
And then sometimes I think the people to feel saddest for are people who once knew what profoundness was, but who lost or become numb to the sensation of wonder - people who closed the doors that lead us into the secret world - or had the doors closed for them by time and neglect and decisions made in times of weakness".
"Sometimes I think the people to feel the saddest for are people who are unable to connect with the profound - people such as my boring brother-in-law, a hearty type so concerned with normality and fitting in that he eliminates any possibility of uniqueness for himself and his own personality. I wonder if some day, when he is older, he will wake up and the deeper part of him will realise that he has never allowed himself to truly exist, and he will cry with regret and shame and grief.
And then sometimes I think the people to feel saddest for are people who once knew what profoundness was, but who lost or become numb to the sensation of wonder - people who closed the doors that lead us into the secret world - or had the doors closed for them by time and neglect and decisions made in times of weakness".
cailinmaith
New Member
read: 'on the road' by Jack Keroac, really well written, and a great story.
and: 'The teachings of don juan' by carlos castaneda.
about a native american and all his knowledge about sorcery.
and: 'The teachings of don juan' by carlos castaneda.
about a native american and all his knowledge about sorcery.
Orang Utan
They cannot crucify you if your hand is in a fist
I am reading The Political Animal by Jeremy Paxman - I like Paxman even though he is a smug wanker - it's populist anecdote driven material but he gets to the heart of the absurdities of British democracy. His distaste for the New Labour and the Tories is obvious and he can be be quite withering in his put downs (as evidenced in Newsnight and Unviersity Challenge)
Just read:
A Short History Of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
Bryson can be extremely maddening - Down Under really pissed me off cos he gleefully rails off unsourced anecdotes as unimpeachable fact - he doesn't often let truth get in the way of a good yarn and can actually be quite offensive in his light-hearted depiction of real people's unfortunate fatal accidents - so I was quite surprised by this - he utilises his skills very well here - his stories are actually sourced this time and he explains complex scientific theorys without making our head explode - I was especially taken with the section on particle physics cos I had attempted to read Hawking before and was as baffled as Calvin being explained it by Hobbes.
Another great thing Bryson does is hail the scientists who didn't quite make the Hall Of Fame - he reveals how competitive and backstabbing the scientific world is and, of course, provides us with some first class anecdotes.
His final analysis is gloomy - we're very lucky we're here and we'll be even luckier of we survive for much longer, for soon enough we'll be hit by a mega earthquake/volcanic explosion/ice age/meteorite and that will be that for us all.
I have also just read Patrick McGrath's Asylum. He is a bit overblown, and like Sebastian Faulkes, I suspect he doesn't have as much insight into the female psyche as he thinks he does - it's a very Gothic portrayal of a doomed love affair between a psychiatrist's wife and a paranoid shizophrenic patient at a mental hospital and is possibly the most depressing book I have ever read - still, it is beautifully written but shallower than it makes itself out to be.
I have also just read The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith and The Book, The Film, The T-Shirt by Matt Beaumont, but the less said about them the better. I might post more about the Smith book in a seperate post tomorrow because I really feel that Smith has been ridiculously over-hyped and someone needs to say that the emperor has no new clothes.
In my in-pile:
Pattern Recognition -William Gibson
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Looking forward to these!
Just read:
A Short History Of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
Bryson can be extremely maddening - Down Under really pissed me off cos he gleefully rails off unsourced anecdotes as unimpeachable fact - he doesn't often let truth get in the way of a good yarn and can actually be quite offensive in his light-hearted depiction of real people's unfortunate fatal accidents - so I was quite surprised by this - he utilises his skills very well here - his stories are actually sourced this time and he explains complex scientific theorys without making our head explode - I was especially taken with the section on particle physics cos I had attempted to read Hawking before and was as baffled as Calvin being explained it by Hobbes.
Another great thing Bryson does is hail the scientists who didn't quite make the Hall Of Fame - he reveals how competitive and backstabbing the scientific world is and, of course, provides us with some first class anecdotes.
His final analysis is gloomy - we're very lucky we're here and we'll be even luckier of we survive for much longer, for soon enough we'll be hit by a mega earthquake/volcanic explosion/ice age/meteorite and that will be that for us all.
I have also just read Patrick McGrath's Asylum. He is a bit overblown, and like Sebastian Faulkes, I suspect he doesn't have as much insight into the female psyche as he thinks he does - it's a very Gothic portrayal of a doomed love affair between a psychiatrist's wife and a paranoid shizophrenic patient at a mental hospital and is possibly the most depressing book I have ever read - still, it is beautifully written but shallower than it makes itself out to be.
I have also just read The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith and The Book, The Film, The T-Shirt by Matt Beaumont, but the less said about them the better. I might post more about the Smith book in a seperate post tomorrow because I really feel that Smith has been ridiculously over-hyped and someone needs to say that the emperor has no new clothes.
In my in-pile:
Pattern Recognition -William Gibson
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Looking forward to these!
Orang Utan
They cannot crucify you if your hand is in a fist
Originally posted by newharper
'Give me 10 seconds' by john Sergeant
very funny, and the guy has the knack of being in the right place, starting from being in the crowd when Martin Luther King made his ' I have a dream' speech.
I read that too - he is quite a lucky chap isn't he? Just as well, considering his Laughtonesque visage - what happened to him anyway? I haven't seen him on ITN for a while.
golightly
Uneconomically Active
Just ploughing through Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson - a real thumper of a book with tiny writing about code breaking, information theory, the Second World War and the Pacific Rim. Leant to me by my incredibly well-read girlfriend (puts me to shame).
I have to say my favourite bit was the description of eating very crunchy cereal with very cold milk. One of my fetishes that is.
I have to say my favourite bit was the description of eating very crunchy cereal with very cold milk. One of my fetishes that is.
onemonkey
winmonkey
you'll be delighted to know that Quicksilver, a 900 page prequel has just been published.. set in the time of Newton & Leibnitz featuring ancestors & antecedents of the cryptonomicon cast and conspiracies..
got it but haven't started it yet.. like with the cereal its arguable that best bit is the moment of anticipation before the first mouthful..
got it but haven't started it yet.. like with the cereal its arguable that best bit is the moment of anticipation before the first mouthful..
hierophant
Let the bells ring out.
'Quarantine' is about a fast in the desert.
'Cities of the red night' says love is an ancient virus;
'The narrow road to the deep north' is mysterious and real,
and a collection of jorge luis borges has one piece called
'Inferno 1, 32' which i read in early october and which has been very powerful since. it's got an unforgettable leopard in it.
jim crace william boroughs and basho wrote the others.
'Cities of the red night' says love is an ancient virus;
'The narrow road to the deep north' is mysterious and real,
and a collection of jorge luis borges has one piece called
'Inferno 1, 32' which i read in early october and which has been very powerful since. it's got an unforgettable leopard in it.
jim crace william boroughs and basho wrote the others.
newharper
Manxome Tove
Hey i don't know, I was going to go into a smug pose here,about how I don't watch ITV till I remembered about the rugby- but then, I hated their coverage so much I e-mailed them once a week to complain.
I've now sworn never to watch them again, but as I don't watch
them in the first place, does this have any relevance.
Elpenor
The World Turned Upside Down
Time to bump this thread
A 2 hour commute means I'm reading loads at the mo. Gone through Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh, Morvern Callar by Alan Warner and Life After God by Douglas Coupland. Liked 'em all.
Now getting my teeth into Girlfriend In A Coma, which I'm enjoying a lot. At the rate I'm reading I'll have finished it by thursday
A 2 hour commute means I'm reading loads at the mo. Gone through Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh, Morvern Callar by Alan Warner and Life After God by Douglas Coupland. Liked 'em all.
Now getting my teeth into Girlfriend In A Coma, which I'm enjoying a lot. At the rate I'm reading I'll have finished it by thursday
Biscuit Tin
registered poster
What book are you reading
I am nearly half way through "Veronica Decides To Die" by Paulo Coelho sounds negative, I know, but it's caught my interest and I'm enjoying it.
I am nearly half way through "Veronica Decides To Die" by Paulo Coelho sounds negative, I know, but it's caught my interest and I'm enjoying it.
The Anarchists In The Spanish Civil War Volume 1 - Robert Alexander
Several academic books on Quantum Mechanics.
Several academic books on Quantum Mechanics.
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