Shandon Par Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Bandits - Elmore Leonard. Bit of a wobble late on with the introduction of a shaky IRA character but otherwise the usual mix of likeable cool guys and girls. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICTChris Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 His Bloody Project, Graeme Macrae Burnet.GMB hosted the book launch for my mates whose boo I mentioned earlier in this thread and I'm finally got round to reading his own latest novel, which was a shocking listing for the Man Booker Prize. It's now favourite to win.It's the story of a trip,e murder in the mid 19th century crofting community in Wester Ross, told at various points from the view of the killer, witnesses, an 'expert criminologist' and observers of the trial.I loved it, read it all on a five hour flight. He pulls together a number of really interesting aspects, the politics of tenant crofting, the miserable experience of many crofters, the personality of the killer, the primitive 19th century criminologist (who record offenders' penis size) and the nature of the killing itself.Throughly recommended. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dee_62 Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 Just finished the first 2 books of Peter May's Lewis trilogy while on holiday. Now into the third. Like the plots and especially like his descriptions of the Islands. Furthest West I've been is Skye and although I've been to Orkney, I really fancy a trip out to the the Western Isles after reading these books. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gavin_3110 Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 Just finished "Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo. The story is probably best known through the Metallica song "One" and accompanying video which features clips from the film of the same name. Basic premise is that the main character named Joe has been injured during the first world war and is trapped in his armless, legless, faceless, deaf and blind body, isolated from the world around him. Makes for pretty harrowing reading. Written almost entirely without punctuation, it's sometimes like reading a post in the Junior section of this forum. This incoherent style is deliberate and serves to convey Joe's desperation, does very effectively in my opinion. Don't think you "enjoy" a book like this in the traditional sense, but it's certainly thought provoking. Although the scenario is a bit farfetched, much of the narrative drives home the lunacy of that particular conflict whilst making you question the logic of subsequent conflict. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy_K_97 Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 How Music Got Free by Stephen Witt - very decent read about the rise of mp3 culture. It starts off a bit dry explaining the origins of the mp3 and compressed music files in the 80s and 90s and goes along to almost the present day. I studied this sort of thing when I was at uni and it's still good to revisit that kind of material every now and then. I've started Alan McGee's autobiography now, after that I've got Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut, Tony Visconti's autobiography and A Decent Ride by Irvine Welsh. Hoping to get Johnny Marr and Springsteen's autobiographies for Christmas, I've plenty of material to read until then. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saigon Raider Posted November 12, 2016 Share Posted November 12, 2016 On 10/17/2016 at 23:26, ICTChris said: His Bloody Project, Graeme Macrae Burnet. GMB hosted the book launch for my mates whose boo I mentioned earlier in this thread and I'm finally got round to reading his own latest novel, which was a shocking listing for the Man Booker Prize. It's now favourite to win. It's the story of a trip,e murder in the mid 19th century crofting community in Wester Ross, told at various points from the view of the killer, witnesses, an 'expert criminologist' and observers of the trial. I loved it, read it all on a five hour flight. He pulls together a number of really interesting aspects, the politics of tenant crofting, the miserable experience of many crofters, the personality of the killer, the primitive 19th century criminologist (who record offenders' penis size) and the nature of the killing itself. Throughly recommended. I am in the middle of that right now. Really enjoying it. Finding it quite harrowing as you know what happens at the end so the slow build up to the actual act is really tense (for me anyway). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nightfly Posted November 14, 2016 Share Posted November 14, 2016 Iain Banks, "Transition". Took a while for me to get my head around all the characters. Each chapter has each character telling you something of their recent experiences. It jumps around a bit, but I got hooked about half way through. Enjoyed it more than some of his other later works. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmothecat Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Just finished Dracula. I realised that I had never read it but I have a second hand copy I bought from a charity shop years ago and decided to pick it up and start reading it. It was pretty good, I'm not usually into the whole gothic thing but I really enjoyed it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bert Raccoon Posted November 17, 2016 Share Posted November 17, 2016 On 30/09/2016 at 11:14, jessmagic said: What does everyone think about Irvine Welsh's recent output? I'll get the obvious out of the way first - Trainspotting is a pretty much an undeniable Scottish classic. For my money's worth it should be studied during higher English. However after recently finishing The Blade Artist, it seems he is an irrefutable decline as an author. It was an awful read and with the only option at the time being the hardback version coming in at £9.99 was not the cheapest. I can't remember the last time i enjoyed one of his newer books. It has been previously mentioned to me that Irvine Welsh is much like the band Oasis, they were good at their one trick in the nineties but are now/were a sad parody of themselves. Haven't read The Blade Artist yet but I have to agree that his last few books have been poor. A Decent Ride just seemed to be extremely lazy, taking a popular character and lots of shite jokes about shagging but lost all the charm that Juice Terry had as a character in Glue. Also Sex Lives Of Siamese Twins was shite and if it didn't have his name in the front I would never have known it was an Irvine Welsh book. Perhaps it's because he's got older, got some money and lives in America now but he really needs to get back into dark and gritty novels with decent characters (When was the last time he created a decent new character?) Sadly I just don't think he has it in him anymore. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted November 29, 2016 Share Posted November 29, 2016 Scottish Journey by Edwin Muir Read it, realise it was written in 1935, then weep at how much of it still pertains to modern day Scotland. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester Posted November 29, 2016 Share Posted November 29, 2016 The Last Highlander by Sarah Fraser The story of Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, and what was a remarkable and turbulent life taking in the 1715 and 1745 uprisings, exile in France, and Scottish politics from the Highlands to Westminster. I'm genuinely surprised that the story has not been picked up as a film or mini-series. A cracking read which gives an interesting insight into the politics of Scotland in the 1700's, it goes some way to countering the "300 years of happy union" mythology. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tree house tam Posted November 29, 2016 Share Posted November 29, 2016 3 minutes ago, jester said: The Last Highlander by Sarah Fraser The story of Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, and what was a remarkable and turbulent life taking in the 1715 and 1745 uprisings, exile in France, and Scottish politics from the Highlands to Westminster. I'm genuinely surprised that the story has not been picked up as a film or mini-series. A cracking read which gives an interesting insight into the politics of Scotland in the 1700's, it goes some way to countering the "300 years of happy union" mythology. Cheers for that. Going to buy this. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross. Posted November 29, 2016 Share Posted November 29, 2016 On 17.11.2016 at 23:44, Bert Raccoon said: Haven't read The Blade Artist yet but I have to agree that his last few books have been poor. A Decent Ride just seemed to be extremely lazy, taking a popular character and lots of shite jokes about shagging but lost all the charm that Juice Terry had as a character in Glue. Also Sex Lives Of Siamese Twins was shite and if it didn't have his name in the front I would never have known it was an Irvine Welsh book. Perhaps it's because he's got older, got some money and lives in America now but he really needs to get back into dark and gritty novels with decent characters (When was the last time he created a decent new character?) Sadly I just don't think he has it in him anymore. A Decent Ride was OK in a schoolboy humour sense. The Blade Artist read to me like he had been told to write a book about Begbie but couldn't be arsed. Sex Lives of the Siamese Twins was an absolute atrocity. Skagboys was excellent, imo, but he has let himself down badly since. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highlandcowden Posted November 29, 2016 Share Posted November 29, 2016 Dictator,the last in Robert Harris's cicero trilogy.excellent 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross. Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 TC Boyle "The Harder They Come". First of his books I have read, won't be in a hurry to pick up another. Very "meh". 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomCat Posted December 1, 2016 Share Posted December 1, 2016 High fidelity. Not bad and decent film too 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmothecat Posted December 1, 2016 Share Posted December 1, 2016 Nineteen Seventy-Four by David Peace. First part of the red riding quartet (that was made into a tv trilogy by c4 a few years back). Pretty good crime fiction set in 1974 West Yorkshire. Quite different from typical crime fiction, but very gripping. Same author wrote The Damned United and the style is similar but I feel it lends itself better to crime fiction than football writing. Quite looking forward to reading the next one in the series, but might find something a bit less dark to read first. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross. Posted December 8, 2016 Share Posted December 8, 2016 Fired up the e-reader last night and put a few Roddy Doyle books on it. Not read any of his stuff before but have seen The Commitments, which was one of the books I bought as they were on a decent deal. Anyone much to say on his work? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
locheedfcno1 Posted December 8, 2016 Share Posted December 8, 2016 Just read john budgie burridges book [emoji1303] 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topcat(The most tip top) Posted December 8, 2016 Share Posted December 8, 2016 The book of Genesis Murder, Fratricide, Deceit, Ritual sacrifice, Genocide, Drunken Incest, and all sorts of other things. It's cracking stuff Not suitable for children. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.