Wellboy1978 Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 Reading Game of Thrones at the moment. Not long in, but it's goooood 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross. Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 20000 Leagues Under the Sea. Collins Classics range are about the only English language books I can afford to buy over here! First time I've read it, but despite the advances made since it was written, I think the book has aged extremely well. I enjoyed it. Now reading Hit & Run, by Doug Johnstone. Not the greatest so far, but I have read far worse. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borys Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Wages of Destruction by Tooze. On the economy of the IIIrd Reich. Some of the views/information there contravenes "common wisdom". Some cringeworthy typos or whitewashing, but on the whole an interesting read. Borys 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morrison Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 20000 Leagues Under the Sea. I enjoyed this, but was fairly regularly looking up the various sea-creatures I'd never heard of before. It was an educational experience. I've recently read The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafon which seems to have won a lot of plaudits but is somewhat devalued by having a "rushed" letter written by an endangered character explain away 90% of the mysteries of the book towards the end. "Rushed" because it's 100 pages long, and devalued because it's a lazy cop out. 3/5. The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson is self descriptive. Oh, and it's brilliant. There are two main stories, one in the present day - he climbs out of the window in the opening pages - and the other following Alan's first 100 years as he traipses through life bumping into famous figures through the 1900's. Both stories are farcical and very entertaining. 4/5. The Death of Grass by John Christopher is an apocalyptic novel in which a virus spreads across the globe killing all grasses. This is a tricky book to sell but it was a gripping read. Set in the UK, Britain is largely unaffected as the virus causes havoc across Asia, but when it does reach the island it devastates overnight, law and order breaks down and it's everyone for themselves. It's short, and well worth picking this up. It's the best thing I've read in the last year. 5/5. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ya Bezzer! Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 I do like a mad over ambitious project so I've decided to read two books from every decade from 1700 to the present day. The first two are Daniel Defoe's 'The Storm' (1703) and Jonathan Swift's 'A Tale of a Tub' (1704). I reckon I can get to 2012 by 2015! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
54_and_counting Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 treasure island, was one of the 3 free books on the S3 hadnt read it before and i must admit i really enjoyed it, excellent read now i have alice in wonderland and the three musketeers to get through 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ya Bezzer! Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 The Island of Dr Moreau by HG Wells. I've previously read "War of the Worlds" by Wells and this has the same "normal" man reporting the strange horrors about him kind of theme. I enjoyed it and can imagine the context being quite shacking stuff when it first came out but horror/torture porn like the Saw films have perhaps numbed our generation. Marquis de Sade was a 100 years prior to H. G. Wells so I don't agree with your assessment! I'd bet even today most readers wouldn't be able to finish his more extreme works. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StewartyMac Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 As the new version is out, I've decided to read the 'Football Manager Stole My Life' book. About 3/4 of the way through it, and it's a great read. Good mix of interviews with the writers of the game, insights as to where the legends of previous versions are now in real life (Cherno Samba is in the Norwegian 2nd Division, and is still convinced he's going to 'make it' in the game), and of course, various stories of CM/FM addictions from gamers. My favourite one is the Geordie comedian who won the EPL with Blyth Spartans, made a wee plastic trophy, then booked himself on one of those city tourist buses with the open tops, and paraded the wee trophy all round Newcastle 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ya Bezzer! Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 Finished Homage to Catalonia the other day and most of the way through Down and Out in Paris and London now. Thoroughly enjoyed both so far. I read Animal Farm and 1984 when I was a kid, maybe 12 or so, and looking back maybe I didn't really rate them too highly in terms of liking them, although I do think that those two are more to be appreciated than loved, if that makes sense. Went on amazon today and bought Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell, 1982 Janine by Alasdair Gray and A Disaffection by James Kelman. Winter is drawing in so bleak tales of dissatisfaction, rebellion and attempted suicide it is then. Keep the Aspidistra Flying is probably my favourite Orwell novel although I am a fairly ridiculous Gordon Comstock type so that figures.... Coming Up For Air is also a underrated Orwell novel and there is a Penguin compilation of essays that's worth reading, I think it's called 'Shooting the Elephant and Other Essays'. I love the one on working in a book shop which has a couple of laugh out loud moments, maybe not something you generally associate with Orwell! At the other end of the scale the essay about the execution of the prisoner is pretty powerful stuff. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ya Bezzer! Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 As the new version is out, I've decided to read the 'Football Manager Stole My Life' book. About 3/4 of the way through it, and it's a great read. Good mix of interviews with the writers of the game, insights as to where the legends of previous versions are now in real life (Cherno Samba is in the Norwegian 2nd Division, and is still convinced he's going to 'make it' in the game), and of course, various stories of CM/FM addictions from gamers. My favourite one is the Geordie comedian who won the EPL with Blyth Spartans, made a wee plastic trophy, then booked himself on one of those city tourist buses with the open tops, and paraded the wee trophy all round Newcastle Reading this made me google Maxim Tsigalko, the greatest striker in Champie Man history. Retired at 29, what a waste! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peasy23 Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 Just finished Rough Ride by Paul Kimmage (2006 updated edition), really does show up the fact that cycling has been rotten to the core for decades. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topcat(The most tip top) Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 Oxford History of Ireland. R.F. Foster Pretty Dull and with lots of rival chieftans knocking lumps out of each other over obscure villages so far. Hopefully it'll pick up once we get past the middle ages. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banterman86 Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 You know, a top 50 books thread would be good, in the vein of the other top 50s running. I am far to disorganised to do it, any volunteers? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banterman86 Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 Very good shout. Not sure how i would ever narrow down my choices though. DomDom has led the way on this with the TV shows thread - you'd need to stipuate between fiction and non-fiction. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ka202 Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 James Patterson : Kill Alex Cross Was good, just follows the same sort of storyline of all the Alex Cross books, but i like it, i struggle to put it down 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bold Rover Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 you'd need to stipuate between fiction and non-fiction. One of each? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenlights Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 Hells angles, very good read, although it only scratches the surface, it is about as far as any non-angle could get. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T_S_A_R Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 Hells angles, very good read, although it only scratches the surface, it is about as far as any non-angle could get. i've always found hunter s. thompson rather protracted and obtuse but this is an acute book. covers the whole 360 degrees of a biker gang. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggy Wallace Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 Currently reading The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. Very interesting concept and I've found myself flipping a coin to make decisions once or twice since starting it, which I wouldn't normally do. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kejan Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 (edited) Raw Spirit - Iain Banks 3/10 - a dull, uninspiring read. It's his first non-fiction book so maybe I should cut him slack but it feels like it was rushed through and it is not very interesting at all, I gave up around page 140 and I think I've only stopped reading 2 books in the past. I noticed on the side it's £18.99! Thank crikey, I rented that out from the library. Banks goes on a trip around Scotland to find the perfect dram. Yet he doesn't write enough about this process, baring a half page in each chapter of the whisky or distillery he tasted and visited. The rest of the pages are filled with rubbish about him being a dyed in the wool socialist yet rolling on about his fancy BMs and Land Rovers, speedboats, castles and luxurious hotels that he has stayed in - he comes off as the type who is constantly referring to himself as working class in the pub yet lives in a 5 bedroom b*****d house and has 3 cars in the driveway. Along with long-winded descriptions of minor and back roads of Scotland - we have a beautiful country and these roads are fantastic to drive with the scenery but he fails to even capture that as he ends up droning on about the road itself and car stuff that I do not understand or like. I doubt even a petrolhead wouldo enjoy it either. Continued with stories of his drunken and youthful capers which just aren't funny at all. Guess I had to be there, but it's like going to the pub with one of your pals and his other group of friends when they are all giggling away about the weekend before where they got up to no good yet because you weren't there it just sounds alien. And the Iraq war - I wasn't keen on it either, but constantly droning on about it when he's meant to be writing about whisky. Currently reading Jennifer Egan's - A Visit From The Goon Squad which so far has restored my faith in reading and is fairly funny. Edited November 3, 2012 by Kejan 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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