Last Book You Read....

[Mak]

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

Finished this. It was good, but wouldn't have said that it was vintage Pratchett or anything. Probably an 8/10, it had its moments.

Also finished 'The Burning Land' by Bernard Cornwell, which is the latest in his Uhtred series. Thought that it was absolutely brilliant, I'm a big fan of Cornwell's books and this has to be one of the best.

I'm not on 'A History of Scotland' by Neil Oliver, which is the companion to some TV series that he did. Not all that far in yet, but really enjoying it so far.

[YOGI IS GOD]

Adrian Mole Diaries: The Prostrate Years - Sue Townsend

In a word, fantastic. I first picked up the first diary by chance in a shop when I was about 14 and instantly fell in love with the character. Sue Townsend has a great ability of making humour out of everyday situations and effectively portraying how the little tragedies of life can affect us all. I actually now feel I know Adrian Mole better than some of my pals! Great book, can't put it down, hilarious in parts and tragic in others.

[mighty meadow]

Just finished reading SATURDAY'S CHILD by RAY BANKS this morning.

Written by a guy from Kirkcaldy about an ex con from Leith, living in Manchester and sent to do a bit of P.I. work in Newcastle. Not the sort of book likely to win any literary prizes but a decent book when you get into it all the same. I nearly abandoned reading it about three chapters in due to the writing style but thankfully I persevered and it turned out to be a 'real page turner' (terrible cliche I know). Good read for a longish journey or a quiet weekend in.

7/10

The Saturday Boy

Edited January 21, 2010 by mighty meadow

[Stingraypoindexter]

I realise everyone's entitled to an opinion, but seriously...

1984 - Pointless?

Jesus fucking Christ.

Agreed -

I read 1984 then a few months later read Wild Swans by Jung Chang, a biographical account of her life and that of her mother and grandmother in China in the 20th century. The similarities between 1984 (written in 1949) and post-war life in communist China are staggering. Orwell was a genius. QI - most of the book was written while he stayed on Jura.

Would highly recommend Wild Swans as well.

[sonofjenova]

Two books (a rarity for me).

Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk

Probably needs no introduction, but I'll summarise; a first-person account of a recall campaign conductor for a major car company. His initial cure for his crippling insomnia is to attend various terminal illness support groups under assumed names; after discovering another "tourist" who attends these meetings and lapsing into insomnia again, he meets the charismatic Tyler Durden: the two found the novel's "Fight Club". This quickly turns into a terrorist group who wreak havoc on corporate society and all the trappings of modern life.

The novel is brutal, funny and obscenely compelling. The movie follows the novel very closely, only missing out small details and unimportant characters, yet I would still highly recommend the book to anyone who enjoyed the film. One complaint was that it was over in a flash, but any brilliant piece of media never outstays its welcome.

9/10

The Man Who Only Loved Mathematics, by Paul Hoffman

This novel focuses on some of the life and work of Paul Erdos, the brilliant 20th century speed-devouring Hungarian mathematician. It details his early life, features contributions from some of his friends and collaborators, and provides insight into Erdos' chosen areas of study; mixed in are various explanations of mathematical theorems. The problem with the book is that, like an absent minded professor, the book wanders over to another subject too easily - only a tenuous link is enough to send Hoffman off on a tangent, discussing the early lives of other mathematical phenoms and their work; the whole thing just doesn't tie in very neatly. It seems a bit padded out; Andrew Wiles' solution of Fermat's Last Theorem was a wonderful event, but I wanted to hear more about Paul Erdos himself.

Being a bit of a maths geek my enjoyment of the book was about 9/10; however, I'm grading this as a literature exercise.

6/10

Edited January 21, 2010 by sonofjenova

[StewartyMac]

"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.

I bought this earlier today. I'll get started on it when I'm finished the Brookmyre one I'm on just now. Commuting to and from Glasgow now means I've more time for some quality reading.

[StewartyMac]

A Snowball in Hell - Christopher Brookmyre

Another good 'un by P&B's resident wordsmith. Anyone with even a slight disdain of reality TV and the ever growing 'celebrity' culture will lap this up. The various famous fictional characters are clearly based on real life personas, and it's fun working out who each one is. And in Simon Darcourt, we have one of the best villains in the thriller genre.

I assume there's been a previous novel by CB featuring many of the same characters, as there's many references to previous events, that are never fully explained, which is the only slight irksome quality it has. But overall, a cracking read.

8/10.

I'm about 70 pages into yon Stieg Larsson book now. Quite good so far.

[Lisa Cuddy]

I assume there's been a previous novel by CB featuring many of the same characters, as there's many references to previous events, that are never fully explained, which is the only slight irksome quality it has. But overall, a cracking read.

Two actually. A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away (Simon Darcourt, Angelique De Xavier) and Scared Art Of Stealing (Angelique and Zal Innes). Absolutely and most definitely worth reading.

[StewartyMac]

Ah, that's a bit annoying, I would've preferred to have read those first. Never mind.

[Lisa Cuddy]

Ah, that's a bit annoying, I would've preferred to have read those first. Never mind.

It won't make much difference to be honest. I read all the earlier ones in a completely random order and it's not marred my enjoyment at all. Get them read!

[Shawfield Stallion]

Just finished reading King Rat by James Clavell, and The Road by Cormac McCarthy

King Rat is about the struggles of British, American and Australian troops in a Japanese PoW camp. Typically for a Clavell novel the characters are brilliantly weaved, and the several different plot lines throughout the book kept me captivated. 8/10

The Road was recommended to me, it's had rave reviews and I understand it won the Pullitzer prize a few years ago, but I couldn't really get into it. It's about a father and son who have to travel across post apocalyptic America battling against hunger, thirst and 'bad guys' who are also on the road. It's a very bleak, depressing but tender book, but nothing much happens really. I found it to be quite boring and hard going for long spells. 6.5/10

[StewartyMac]

Stieg Larsson - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

I bought this as I'd heard a few people on here wax lyrical about it, and decided to give it a shot. Excellent book, with mult-dimensional characters, including the fantastic Lisbeth Salander, who is just terrific. I've heard a criticism that the first half of the book is quite slow, as it introduces you to the myriad of characters, but I think it's a necessity given the complexitites of the plot, and it certainly didn't dampen my enjoyment of it.

As in most 'murder mystery' type thrillers, there's plot holes aplenty, but you run with them, and Larsson's prose is addictive enough that you don't really notice them until you think about it later.

Overall, a terrific novel, and I'm looking forward to reading the other two in the series.

*****

[Disraeli]

I re-read “Pale Fire” by Nabokov recently and I must say while it has affirmed my belief in the identity of his two greatest works (“Lolita” and the aforementioned work), it doesn’t alleviate the difficulty in choosing his masterpiece. It is one of those wonderfully written books that can elicit pleasure by the sentence, drawing the reader in again and again.

[Mak]

Finished 'A History of Scotland' by Neil Oliver, the companion book to the BBC series of the same name (which I didn't catch any of).

It'd be hard to make the subject anything other than interesting and it was reasonably well written, so my only complaint would be that the author was on occasion less than impartial. It was still good, as someone who's studying Scottish history, to read a book on the topic which was actually interesting and didn't devote whole chapters to subjects such as the burgh network and the importance of sheep to the medieval economy. It also helped fill in (albeit with fairly general information) some of the gaps in my knowledge.

8/10.

Have now started Ian Rankin's 'The Complaints', which I got for Christmas, and am enjoying it so far. Another detective novel set in Edinburgh, which Rankin could probably do in his sleep, but with a new main character based in the complaints and conducts section of Lothian and Borders police (hence the title). The new cast of characters seem a lot more fresh than those in the later Rebus novels, although I enjoyed those too.

[The Minertaur]

Dean Koontz - Your Heart Belongs To Me

Quite a good book I thought. Didn't enjoy it as much as I did The Husband but it was still a good read.

[uberman]

Dean Koontz - Your Heart Belongs To Me

Quite a good book I thought. Didn't enjoy it as much as I did The Husband but it was still a good read.

I'm reading the husband now, not bad so far.

[Monkey Tennis]

It won't make much difference to be honest. I read all the earlier ones in a completely random order and it's not marred my enjoyment at all. Get them read!

Agreed. The books don't for a minute require sequential reading. Each happily stands alone.

Just finished Espedair Street by Iain Banks. I've not read as much of him as I should and this is one of the earlier ones.

I really liked it. In evoking its period while avoiding the clumsiest cliches, it's pretty convincing.

It's detailed, yet not unduly complex and is well worth a look.

Time for some more Iain Banks I'd say.

Anyone want to suggest what my first Iain M Banks foray should be?

[chico]

Hypothermia by Arnaldur Indridason.

The latest in the Detective Erlundur series. Beautifully written and a damn good read. 9/10. One of the best Crime novelists in Europe right now. No formula to the books as others do. Streets ahead of Rankin and Mankell.

[stimpy]

Agreed. The books don't for a minute require sequential reading. Each happily stands alone.

Just finished Espedair Street by Iain Banks. I've not read as much of him as I should and this is one of the earlier ones.

I really liked it. In evoking its period while avoiding the clumsiest cliches, it's pretty convincing.

It's detailed, yet not unduly complex and is well worth a look.

Time for some more Iain Banks I'd say.

Anyone want to suggest what my first Iain M Banks foray should be?

Obviously his first book "The Wasp Factory" a dark sometimes disturbing book that makes you laugh out loud and you're kinda glad nobody knows what it is you're laughing at.

His own personal favorite is "The Bridge" layers upon layers of storytelling again with some real lol moments.

The only other of his fiction books I have read is "Canal Dreams" which has a strong female character and some good descriptive deaths.

I've read a few of his sci-fi books and would strongly recommend "Consider Phlebas" he said he wanted to out space opera Star Wars and he managed it.

He's manufactured a whole civilization called the culture that feature is most of his sci-fi works and it makes a great base for his stories, personal favourites are "Use Of Weapons" and "The Player Of Games"

Hope this helps.

Edit; just noticed you specifically asked for his sci-fi stuff, d'oh.

Just finished "The Sirens Of Titan" by Kurt Vonnegut, fantastic read where he loosely tells you where the story will end but you've no bloody idea how he's going to get you there. this is the second book by him that I've read but will not be the last.

Edited February 8, 2010 by stimpy

[Johnstoun]

Time for some more Iain Banks I'd say.

Anyone want to suggest what my first Iain M Banks foray should be?

Consider Phlebas is epic, Feersum Endjinn isn't too heavy going. Any of the Culture books are a good read, Excession is one of the best of his recent ones. If it was up to me though, I'd read them in the order he wrote them.

I've just finished 'Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling' by Ross King, which is a great read for history/art addicts. Now I can start on 'The Corner' by David Simon and Ed Burns.