Last Book You Read....

[yoda]

Tender Is The Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Read "The Great Gatsby" last year in Higher English and thought it was great. Both books run along a similar line but they are very good.

[ICTChris]

I'm currently working my way through Generation Kill by Evan Wright. It's an account of the invasion of Iraq by Wright, a Rolling Stone journalist embedded with the First Recon Marines.

Finished this.

An excellent journalistic account of the invasion of Iraq. Evan Wright went in with a platoon of Recon Marines, the 'shock troops' of the Marine Corps. Effectively what they were asked to do during the invasion was drive on ahead of the bulk of the USMC forces and draw out ambushes from Iraqi soldiers and Fedayeen militias. Wright details the characters of the Marines in the platoon well, highlighting the diversity of class, race and views among the men. One thing that I found interesting was the attitudes of the men towards the invasion and towards what they were doing in Iraq - many of them supported the war but just as many voiced cynicism for the motives of the operation and at points were horrified by what was happening.

Another remarkable aspect of the book for me was the utter incompetence of some of the commanding officers. One particular character, only named as 'Captain America', sounds like thelast person you'd want with you in a war zone. In one incident Captain America attempts to bayonet a restrained prisoner, for which he is reported. He also takes a far more gung-ho attitude towards the invasion than the other marines, practically whooping with delight when he discovers that the platoon has been fighting Syrians who he considers 'terrorists'. Other commanders call in artillery strikes when there are friendly forces within the blast range of the shells and order the strafing of areas where civilians have been observed. This all adds to the cynicism among the 'grunts', who are the ones dealing with dead and brutally injured civilians on the ground.

Towards the end of the book a theme emerges that could be considered the story of how a relatively quick victory for the coalition in terms of the invasion of Iraq turned into the long lasting and bloody insurgency. The architects of the invasion emphasised manouverability and speed over large levels of firepower, meaning that they valued units like First Recon taking the battle to the enemy and smashing through the relatively demoralised Iraqi army. What this meant was that after contact with enemy forces the Marines would race through towns and villages onto the next engagemetn, to keep the targets on the run. While this approach saw success in the invasion stage it was planting a terrible seed in terms of a long-term occupation - Wright points out after one large engagement in a town that the Marines have effectively bombed a town, overthrown the Ba'ath leaders and then left. Most Ba'athist irregulars didn't engage the US forces directly, they got rid of their uniforms and disappeared. Thsi means that after destroying infrastructre the invasion forces didn't actually occupy many places in Iraq. Later, in Baghdad, the Marines of First Recon are told they will be establishing control over areas of Sadr City by setting up a base and conducting patrols. This sounds all well and good but the platoon is moved several times to other areas, meaing no effective controlor US presence can be established. As violence escalates the Marines are told not to go out after dark, due to the violence between Shia militias and former Ba'athists. There are even reports of some Marine commanders giving weapons from captured arms dumps to Shia militants as they are seeking to destroy Ba'ath Party members. Of course, with hindsight the militias became a huge security issue, only really resolved in the last 18 months with the improved performance of the Iraqi security forces. Also, the lack of US presence in much of the country left a vacuum quickly filled with insurgents and jihadi militants, which quickly turned parts of Iraq into a charnel house.

I'd heartily recommend this book to anyone and am looking forward to watching the DVD box set, which I also received for Christmas.

[Tryfield]

Anyone here read You'll Win Nothing With Kids(Fathers, sons and football) by Jim White?

Got it as a present, but not an avid reader.

[Gnash]

Flashforward - Robert Sawyer

7/10

I suppose if you have seen the TV programme you will know the plot (I haven't). Just as a physics experiment is performed, everyone on the planet loses conciousness for 2 minutes and experiences a vision of what appears to be 21 years in the future. The book basically deals with the consequences of knowing (or thinking you know) your future. What if you're not with your current partner? What if your career didn't turn out as you'd hoped? What if you're dead? It's a brilliant concept for book and it's surprisingly well researched. The writing is a bit clumsy at times and I got the feeling he made the best of a bad job for the ending, but overall it's well worth reading. There's also a major, obvious flaw in the plot that I won't spoil.

[Disraeli]

Tender Is The Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Read "The Great Gatsby" last year in Higher English and thought it was great. Both books run along a similar line but they are very good.

Tender is arguably Fitzgerald's greatest work and its protagonist's decline is charted beautifully by the author. It's the book where Fitzgerald was able to unite the concept of failure, and the irrevocable nature of the past with his own life and failing marriage. It's sincere and real.

[Mak]

Now started another book which was bought for me, called The Covenant of Genesis. Only really reading it out of a sense of duty because my granny got me it, but it's enjoyable enough so far, putting to one side the absurd plot and thriller by numbers title.

Finished this now.

Absurd, but enjoyable enough. The twist was pretty obvious, although there followed a second twist which I wasn't really expecting.

Now started the latest Discworld book, Unseen Academicals. Only about 25 pages in, but it's good so far.

[chico]

Finished this now.

Absurd, but enjoyable enough. The twist was pretty obvious, although there followed a second twist which I wasn't really expecting.

Now started the latest Discworld book, Unseen Academicals. Only about 25 pages in, but it's good so far.

mhak, eddie chase thriller? They're good for the £3.86 from tesco but they don't pretend to be literature.

I just finished 'This Burning Land' by Bernard Cornwell. Another in the Alfred the Great/ Uthred the Saxon series. For a historical action thingy it was quite good. 7/10.

Next read is 'The Girl Who kicked the hornet's nest' by Stieg Larsson, but I have a paperback in my work bag to maybe get through.

[morrison]

Finished reading Les Miserables just before Christmas. Couldn't be doing with tackling a book that fills you with plenty of negative emotions during the festive period.

As well as the character development and the tale itself, you get a slice of French history and a good deal of philosophy peppered throughout. Have to admit some of the references had me lost, but it has encouraged me to research other areas which now appear more interesting than I would have otherwise thought.

If you've got a bit of patience, you'll be rewarded by this classic.

I followed it up with something completely different, and no, it wasn't Monty Python related. It was Murray Walker's autobiography. I don't tend to read these books, but an 80-something motorsport legend's life is bound to be interesting, and it was cheap in a charity shop. I found it enjoyable, and it did what I wanted it to do.

Currently reading a 20p buy from Shelter entitled Weaveworld, by Clive Barker. It's a fantasy novel based around magic-wielding people called the Seerkind. It's set on our own wonderful world, and in Liverpool of all places. Having read 130 pages of it's 700, I have to confess that the writing style is ruining what could be a decent enough story, but I'm going to persist with it anyway.

[Frank Booth]

Ninteen Eighty Four George Orwell

Finally got round to reading this classic. Brilliant, but utterly depressing. Not that I want to spoil it for those that haven't read it, but the ending is one of the saddest things I've ever read.

I actually only got around to reading it for the first time a month or so back. Have to say, what an incredibly pointless, boring book.

Although Orwell was out with the date, there are several aspects of the novel which have been frighteningly prophetic.

Am currently reading "If nobody speaks of remarkable things" by Jon McGregor

Am 50 odd pages in and aye, I understand the concept of an extended metaphor (having recently written a 1200 word short story in that very vein) but FFS, get on with it!

[Falcor Roar]

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis. Mildly funny predicaments the main guy gets in. A bit old style humour.

[Frank Booth]

Currently reading a 20p buy from Shelter entitled Weaveworld, by Clive Barker. It's a fantasy novel based around magic-wielding people called the Seerkind. It's set on our own wonderful world, and in Liverpool of all places. Having read 130 pages of it's 700, I have to confess that the writing style is ruining what could be a decent enough story, but I'm going to persist with it anyway.

Having read it when it came out (almost 20 years ago and really only to ingratiate myself with my then fiancee/now wife), it doesn't get any better and the ending is really weak.

[Mak]

mhak, eddie chase thriller? They're good for the £3.86 from tesco but they don't pretend to be literature.

I didn't say that they did. The topic title is: 'Last Book You Read', not 'Last Great Work of Literature You Studied'.

Given that I've already said that I was reading it out of a sense of duty because my granny gave me it and made reference to the 'thriller by numbers' title, it's pretty obvious what I made of it. Didn't stop it from being a mildly enjoyable way of passing the time, though. I don't really get the impression that Larsson's books are exactly modern classics either.

Incidentally, 'The Burning Land' is the next book that I'm going to be reading once I've finished the one I'm on at the moment.

[chico]

I didn't say that they did. The topic title is: 'Last Book You Read', not 'Last Great Work of Literature You Studied'.

Given that I've already said that I was reading it out of a sense of duty because my granny gave me it and made reference to the 'thriller by numbers' title, it's pretty obvious what I made of it. Didn't stop it from being a mildly enjoyable way of passing the time, though. I don't really get the impression that Larsson's books are exactly modern classics either.

Incidentally, 'The Burning Land' is the next book that I'm going to be reading once I've finished the one I'm on at the moment.

Nice thing about 'This Burning Land' was that it was a return to form on the Uthred series as I thought the previous one was a bit of a poor effort.

I thought the two first books in the Larsson series were a bit over long. I enjoyed them though, really just because of the salander character.

As for the eddie chase stuff, I've enjoyed all the paperbacks in that series and I don't mind the formula used. I guess that's how I got through so many iain rankin rebus books in the past.

[H_B]

"The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"

This was ridiculously good. Definitely in the top 5 books I have ever read. It really is most inconvenient he died.

[VillaKnollBoy]

"The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"

This was ridiculously good. Definitely in the top 5 books I have ever read. It really is most inconvenient he died.

Agreed, excellent book, finished it last week and now halfway through the sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire, which is proving to be equally enjoyable.

Getting right into Swedish crime atm, as prior to these two, I read the first five books in the Wallander series by Henning Mankell, again I found these to be excellent.

Edited January 12, 2010 by VillaKnollBoy

[GypsyTillIDie]

Near enough halfway through 'Mad For It' a book about football rivalries all over the world. Decent read so far, especially the West Ham - Millwall coverage.

[Cowden til i die]

Just finished Chris Ryan's Stand By, Stand Byin just over a week.

As always with Ryan's book they are a good enough read and keep you wanting more. It has a very good storyline if not a touch more complicated than it needs to be. However it sems to be based on actual events. The ending leaves it crying it for a sequel which Zero Option may well be.

Well worth a read.

[banterman86]

I loved it, largely due to being able to place all the locations etc as it's set in Falkirk (like his first book Boyracers). I used to stay in Hallglen as well so it's a novelty to read a book based there. It's also, again, written in the local dialect. It took me a few pages to get used to this but after that it makes the book incredibley easy to rip through.

I actually picked this up simply because of the Bisset love in this thread. Was okay stuff, if a bit "coming of age by numbers"

The lack of chapters really annoyed me though, I realse it makes the book "hard to put down" but still.

Despite all this, I think I like Bisset as a writer, and will now probably pick up "Ladies man"

Edited January 20, 2010 by banterman86

[mighty meadow]

The Life of Graham: The Authorised Biography of Graham Chapman by Bob McCabe

Took me a bit longer than normal to get through this book (in fact I put it down for a while halfway through and read another book) on account of it being pretty boring and flat. You would think that a book about one of the Python's would at least have a few laughs but I don't remember a single funny line in here. What you get is a few intervews with his family and the Python team, mostly dealing with his sexuality and alcoholism and that's it. Thankfully I only paid a quid for the book in the local charity shop (at least someone got something out of it). Very poor and not recommended unless you are the most obsessive of Python obsessives.

[Shawfield Stallion]

After I resolved to start reading more books this year, I've just finished reading Shogun by James Clavell. Amazing!

It's brilliantly written and really takes you in to 17th century feudal Japan. For the past few days I've been watching TV and cursing the lack of honour of everyone on it

Edited January 20, 2010 by Shawfield Stallion