Ross. Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Just finished "Inverting the Pyramid", a book I had been meaning to read for quite some time. Got an e-reader for Christmas, will need to stock up when I get home and can link it up to the wifi again. Too many books on my reading list to know where to start now. At least now I don't have to order and wait a few days or hope that the English section in the local store has been updated beyond all the chic lit and stuff I have already bought from the. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morrison Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Angelmaker by Nick Harroway - a bit rubbish. Started off promisingly but descended into farce. The dialogue became unbearable and put me right off. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep - fast paced sci-fi, really engaging stuff and a neat ideas. Had been meaning to read it for years. Now reading American Psycho. Not far in, but I like the style so far. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross. Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Angelmaker by Nick Harroway - a bit rubbish. Started off promisingly but descended into farce. The dialogue became unbearable and put me right off. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep - fast paced sci-fi, really engaging stuff and a neat ideas. Had been meaning to read it for years. Now reading American Psycho. Not far in, but I like the style so far. Have you read anything else by Easton Ellis? The few others I have were similar in style but just not very good. American Psycho though is a fucking phenomenal read. The character he created there is outstanding. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morrison Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Have you read anything else by Easton Ellis? The few others I have were similar in style but just not very good. American Psycho though is a fucking phenomenal read. The character he created there is outstanding. I haven't, and you haven't sold the idea to me! I'll likely give another a go at some point, though. Anything you think highly enough of to recommend? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross. Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 "So you've been publicly shamed". Jon Ronson. Read that recently as well. Was disappointed. Not as quirky as his usual output. I haven't, and you haven't sold the idea to me! I'll likely give another a go at some point, though. Anything you think highly enough of to recommend? From Easton Ellis? No. I've only read a couple of his other books, Less than Zero and The Rules of Attraction. Both were written in the same emotionless, dispassionate narrative and both were loaded with gratuitous drug use and sex scenes, but neither really stood out and it all seemed a bit boring. His style of writing only really worked with Patrick Bateman(Who makes a few appearances in Rules of Attraction as one of the main characters brothers) for me. Never bothered reading any more of his books after reading the first two, which I read after American Psycho. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sliced Bread Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 (edited) My 2016 so far: "Tales From The Dugout" by Richard Gordon. Scottish football anecdotes. Pretty fun. 4/5 "The Black Ice" by Michael Connolly. LA Detective Harry Bosch investigates murders and shags women. Second book in the Harry Bosch series. 4/5 "A Long Way Down" by Nick Hornby. Four strangers meet on the roof of a London tower block, each with the intention of commiting suicide by jumping off, and instead they strike up an unlikely friendship. Ass. 2/5 "McX: Scottish X-Files" by Ron Halliday. True tales of UFO sightings, close encounters, ghost stories and other unexplained stories from Scotland. Decent but a lot of the UFO stories are very similar, and most of the ghost stories are olden days myths and legends. A good idea but poorly executed. Needs interviews with eye witnesses, and pictures. 3/5 "Broken Skin" by Stuart MacBride. #3 in the Logan McRae series. McRae investigates, among other things, the murder of a male porn star with an BDSM fetish, and a series of rapes, the main suspect of the latter is Aberdeen FC's homegrown star player Robbie MacIntyre. A terrific story but horribly written. 3/5. I'm currently reading "Emma" by Jane Austen. It's a big departure from my usual reading, I tend to read modern novels that I can race through, this is very slow paced a lot of old fashioned prose, but I'm enjoying it so far. Edited February 18, 2016 by Sliced Bread 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Nooka Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Chomp - Carl Hiaasen, this is one of Hiaasens 'teen' books but it caught my eye in the library and thought I'd give it a go as I haven't read any of his stuff for a while. It's very much in the 'Hiaasen' farce style, it's about a father and son animal wrangling outfit employed by a TV show whose presenter is basically an amalgam of Steve Irwin and Bear Grylls. It's not up to his best and some of the more outrageous stuff has been toned down for a younger audience but it still has some very funny scenes and no one writes bonkers characters like Hiaasen. Recommended if you're a fan looking for a fix and it's probably a good introduction for those unfamiliar with his work. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Chomp - Carl Hiaasen, this is one of Hiaasens 'teen' books but it caught my eye in the library and thought I'd give it a go as I haven't read any of his stuff for a while. It's very much in the 'Hiaasen' farce style, it's about a father and son animal wrangling outfit employed by a TV show whose presenter is basically an amalgam of Steve Irwin and Bear Grylls. It's not up to his best and some of the more outrageous stuff has been toned down for a younger audience but it still has some very funny scenes and no one writes bonkers characters like Hiaasen. Recommended if you're a fan looking for a fix and it's probably a good introduction for those unfamiliar with his work. His columns in the Miami Herald are worth a browse and you can see where he gets his characters from, full of stories about corrupt politicians an developers. http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/carl-hiaasen/ 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Nooka Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 His columns in the Miami Herald are worth a browse and you can see where he gets his characters from, full of stories about corrupt politicians an developers. http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/carl-hiaasen/ For some reason I've never got round to reading his columns and I've been reading his books for years. Think I'll bookmark that page, thanks! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteRoseKillie Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 The Hiaasen column anthologies are superb and show that, while his storytelling is marvelously, outrageously inventive, his characters (with the possible exception of Skink) are just about ready made. On a similar, Florida based farce theme, I've just finished Tim Dorsey's "Coconut Cowboy" - familiar stuff, but it seems like Serge Storms it's mellowing with age. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shandon Par Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 (edited) Always like Carl Hiassen - I'd forgotten about him in recent years. Read everything up to Sick Puppy then just forgot about him. A lot of Christopher Brookmyre's stuff reminds me of his work, with madcap villains. He paints a vivid picture of Florida - like the Dundee of the Have I Got Local News For You? thread only with gators instead of seagulls. Edited February 18, 2016 by Shandon Par 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.A.F.C Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 This year The long earth - terry pratchet sci fi. Decent enough. Into the valley - excellent biography about the rise and fall of the pars during the Paton era to Masterton mess. Would recommend to non pars fans. Limmys daft wee stories - superb and better than I thought it was going to be. Seven steps - from Snowdon to Everest - great insight into what it takes to go from a hillwalker to a mountaineer. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine It's a masterpiece. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murphy1970 Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 Meaning to have a clear out of all the books I've bought 2nd hand and not got around to reading and started in on Kurt Vonnegut. Just finished Player Piano and I thought it was wonderful, and was annoyed I'd left it so long to getting round to it. Like all the best sci-fi it speaks of the human condition, looks at the world as we know it, and extrapolates from that a convincing view of what might be. What impressed me most was the combination of comedy and pathos. He manages to make serious points and human drama whilst being funny. I'm currently more than half way through The Sirens of Titan and I'd highly recommend that too. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell It's a bit shallow. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 Simon Scarrow's Brittania. Utter pish. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savage Henry Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan. It's beautiful. That guy's a seriously stylish writer. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 A Sparrow Falls by Wilbur Smith. Nothing eats up your life like an old Smith book. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antlion Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 "Julius" by du Maurier. The life story of a psychopath, who drowns his kitten when his family flee to Paris during the Franco-Prussian war; induces his father to strangle his mother when he's ten; has a relationship with a child prostitute; moves to England, starts a business and works his way up to being a millionaire and then an MP; marries and has a daughter, whom it is implied he molests, and then drowns when she turns eighteen and shows signs of being interested in other men; then dies alone in his mansion. Hard to believe this was written in 1931! Absolutely harrowing. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dosser-fae-the-shire Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Can't be fucked reading the whole thread but has anyone read any of John Niven's books? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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