Last Book You Read....

[yoda]

Worth reading.

For the whole story of the eastern front in mega detail, a two book thing both by Professor John Erickson. Road to Stalingrad and Road to Berlin. A massive read though.

Cheers for the info. I will definitely have a look at Beevor's book first. I may have a book at Erickson's book after, although I might have a flick through it first to see how heavy-going it is.

[chico]

Barbarossa by Alan Clark is a good read.

It's eastern front 'lite'

[Jam]

It's eastern front 'lite'

I Don't know about that. I'm sure there are many less detailed and simplified accounts out there...

[arab_joe]

I have some interest in the Second World War, particularly the Eastern Front. I was wondering if anyone had read Anthony Beevor's "Stalingrad"? If so, would you recommend it?

I realise that it is far more recent than the Second World War, but MY WAR GONE BY, I MISS IT SO by Anthony Lloyd is a great read. Concentrates on Bosnia and Chechnya, but very interesting indeed.

[nomoreheroes]

I have some interest in the Second World War, particularly the Eastern Front. I was wondering if anyone had read Anthony Beevor's "Stalingrad"? If so, would you recommend it?

Have you read "Krushchev remembers"?

Amazon link...

Well worth a reading, if that's your thing.

[kiwififer]

The Hobbit.

Took a notion to read this and TLotR again as I've not read them for years. I adore this book. As much as I liked the Harry Potter books for what they were, I wish more kids would read this.

9/10

Got a nice shiny new copy of LotR waiting now. My dads old copy succumbed to the ravages of time unfortunately

my mum read the hobbit to me as a nipper, I got LOTR for a crimbo pressie at 13. I couldn't agree more, and I've always thought the dark is rising sequence by Susan Cooper is way better than harry.

I have some interest in the Second World War, particularly the Eastern Front. I was wondering if anyone had read Anthony Beevor's "Stalingrad"? If so, would you recommend it?

Decent read, Berlin is way better (if that's the word to descibe it) , especially describing the red army's aftermath on the poplulation. It's very harrowing stuff but well worth ploughing through.

[Neiljb]

Read KILLING FLOOR by Lee Child last week, and though it was quite fun it isn't a patch on the aforementioned 3 books. Entertaining in the same way an Arnie film from the mid-1990s is!

Jack Reacher is comfort reading. I've read them all. There's not much point remembering their title names because they are all the same. He wanders into a new town, some random incident puts him in conflict with the local bullies/ criminal gang/ cult/ Dr Evil and he then proceeds to beat the f**k out of the lot of them.

Basically an Eastwood western for the 21st century and in book form.

[endieinreekie]

I maintain that Kubrick ruined that story massively.

Make sure and read the sequal 2010: Odessey two. There are obvious anachorisms in it (being written in the cold war) but is in many ways superior to the original.

There was also a third book if I remember correctly, 2061, but it's been so long since I read it I can't remember if it's any good

[22inarow]

Bought a kindle a few months back now i have far too much to read.Just about to finish the Andre Agassi autobiography.Really enjoyed it,he is not the happy go lucky character i imagined.Read the last of the S Larsson trilogy,Darkness on the Edge of Town by Brian Keene and the Keith Richards book Life.

Thinking of starting Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist or Dead Simple by Peter James next.

[Adam]

Do you often read more than one book at a time? Is it not hard to keep the two characters / plots seperate?

Normally I've got two or three books on the go at once, yes. It stems from a love of buying books so when a new one comes in, I feel the urge to pick it up and start reading it even when I haven't finished the book I'm currently reading.

Reading Howard Marks Book of Dope Stories just now, seems pretty poor. Still on Crime and Punishment as well, hoping to get that finished soon as the print is a b*****d to read!

Loved Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, looking forward to reading Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail next. Hunter S Thompson really was an utter genius.

[arab_joe]

The Help by Kathryn Stockett...

Just in case you care, The Help is, I believe, currently being filmed with a release due next summer. Good book, hope it translates well to the big screen.

Now starting 'The Book Thief', I have high hopes...

Joking aside, THE BOOK THIEF was absolutely incredible. Heartbreaking, enlightening and really qwirky (a book narrated by the concept of death tends to be...). Would recommend it to absolutely everyone in the world, it tells such an important story of a child in Nazi Germany.

Now starting 'One Day' by David Nicholls...

[T_S_A_R]

the book thief is great, it's such a simple, sad story but depressing. i loved wee rudy stenier.

i actually just finished another book about childhood under the third reich, 'the tin drum' by gunther grass. it's an extremely complex novel of the life story of a very strange, verging on the insane, dwarf. oskar bronski takes you through his strange life story and that of his family which ties in with the rise of nazism in germany and the fortunes of the free city of danzig through to the formation of west germany, it's not overtly political but it has constant subtle allegory linking the fortunes of oskar to that of the peoples of danzig/gdansk.

it's a bit of an epic but very rewarding. it's bizaare, vulgar and funny throughout and contains some incredibly poignant moments, it's the sort of novel that has such a scope that i'm amazed anyone could have the vision to create it. 'one hundred years of solitude' and 'midnight's children' are two of my very favourite novels and this is quite similar in it's achievement especially considering this was the first to be published.

next up for me is a vonnegut, 'god bless you, mr rosewater'. it's always nice to dip into a bit of kurt v, very good for the soul.

Edited December 1, 2010 by T_S_A_R

[yoda]

next up for me is a vonnegut, 'god bless you, mr rosewater'. it's always nice to dip into a bit of kurt v, very good for the soul.

Cracking book, I don't think it is one of his best but it is still a good read. Vonnegut books are always refreshing.

[StewartyMac]

Not long finished 'The Girl Who Played With Fire' by Stieg Larsson. It's the first ever book I've read from start to finish on my phone rather than a physical book. As for the book itself, pretty similar to the 'Dragon Tattoo' one in that most of the same characters re-appear, and Larsson does a good job in bringing them to life. The story was fairly flimsy, but it was well written and a fairly enjoyable read. I'm sure I'll get round to reading the third one at some point. 6/10

[arab_joe]

Now starting 'One Day' by David Nicholls...

Another great read, with a lot of laughs and a superb twist.

I identified far too much with the character who was meant to be a twat, but c'est la vie.

I'd highly, highly recommend both One Day and The Book Thief, my last two reads, to anyone wanting a Christmas book!

Now... Life of Pi by Yann Martell.

[T_S_A_R]

recently powered through...

god bless you mr rosewater by kurt vonnegut. a good read but not on the same sort of level as his later books and clearly written when he was still learning his trade. all the usual themes of injustice are in there and it's funny but it's not on the genius level of slaughtehouse/champions/mothernight/jailbird/hocus pocus.

sanshiro by natsume soseki. i bought this mainly due to the haruki murakami introduction and comparison to norwegian wood. it's a nice wee story about a rural japenese guy going to uni in tokyo in 1908. it's quite frustrating because although there are some great characters the main boy isn't one of them and he's quite passive and nuetral to everything that happens to him. overall i really enjoyed it and i'll probably look into some of his other work more serious work.

the power of the dog by don winslow. i don't normally read thrillers and this reminded me why. it takes 600 pages but the good guys win, the bad guys lose and it all gets wrapped up neatly in the end. you know pretty much every character before you even open the book. the hard ass drug agent who was in the cia, is incorruptible, haunted by his demons and estranged from his family. the drug kingpin who has a coporate mindset. the whore with a heart of gold. the stoic street kid who is a lethal killer but a good guy really. it's about the mexican drug cartels and america's anti communist policies in central america and touches on some interesting issues but doesn't go into them at all. i'm not sure whether this is because that would put people off or the author just isn't interested capable. a handy wee reminder to stay away from formulaic genre books, there's no point in wasting time reading stuff like this when there's so much amazing stuff i haven't read yet.

Edited December 21, 2010 by T_S_A_R

[Savage Henry]

Currently starting, again, Stories edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio. Gaiman has suddenly become quite the household name of late, and this compendium of modern horror is patchy but terrific in parts. Brilliant, actually. One or two short stories are hideously pretentious, but you can skip them. Gaiman's own contribution is decent.

[StewartyMac]

After getting back into the zombie genre with the Walking Dead tv series, I downloaded a zombie novel called 'Dead City' by Joe McKinney for my phone's kindle app, and have recently finished it.

Difficult to know how to score it. It's poorly written, there's no character development, and the characters there are, are all one dimensional. The dialogue is basic, and the threadbare plot is pretty illogical in places. And yet despite all this, I actually quite enjoyed it. It's quite fast paced, and like the best zombie films, it's non-stop from the word go, and of course, there's plenty gore! I suppose as a piece of literature, it would be hard to give it more than 2/10, but as a good, enjoyable read on the journey to and from work over a couple of days, it fares much better.

Overall, a 5/10, but only because I'm biased when it comes to anything zombie related.

[T_S_A_R]

nazi literature in the americas by roberto bolano

a collection of biographies of fictional latin and north american right wing writers. quite a strange book and one that's probably only for bolano fans but i've yet to read to anything by him that i haven't found engrossing and i enjoyed it. while some of the profiles that are quite dry and seem a bit pointless there are quite a few that are superb including a couple about brothers who lead the boca juniors hooligans while self publishing fascist literature, a couple about a pair of colombians who go to europe to fight for franco and hitler and a murderous chilean sky writing pilot cum poet.

this cold weather is pretty decent for getting through some books. i have a pile sitting with david mitchell 'ghostwritten', phillip roth 'sabbath's threatre', salman rushdie 'the satanic verses' and thomas pynchon 'gravity's rainbow'. the rushdie and pynchon books are monsters so i expect that'll last me until about the end of february and then it'll be back onto amazon.

Edited December 23, 2010 by T_S_A_R

[T_S_A_R]

ghostwritten by david mitchell: a novel consisting of 9 interlinked stories of varying quality. there is a great story about a chinese woman who runs a mountain tea shack during the 20th century and recounts the horrors of fuedalism, japanese invasion, the cultural revolution, famine during the great leap forward and finally capitalism. the common theme connecting the stories is of chance and fate, considering how much control, if any, we have over our destinies. this is the 2nd book of mitchell's i've read and i really like him as an author, 'ghostwritten' and 'cloud atlas' were both very entertaining and i'm looking forward to reading his first single narrative novel 'the thousand autumns of jacob de zoet' when i can get a cheap paperback version.

sabbath's theatre by phillip roth: the life story of a 64 year old man recounted as he goes on a bit of a mad rampage following his lover's death. the main guy, mickey sabbath, is a bit of a mad shagger/deviant type and is only really interested in sex and remincising about his childhood. as usual with roth when he deals with family matters he is fantastic but the r rated sections bored me slightly. the book contrasts the endless ideal childhood with the horrors of the adult world which sabbath seems to believe can only be escaped via carnal activity. there's very few redeemable characters in the novel and sabbath generally comes across as pathetic and a bad caricature of a misanthrope. overall it's funny and has some superb sections but as i said the graphic parts seemed a bit pointless, though that might just because i'm part of the youporn generation for whom viewing dp and watersports is a regular occurence and this was written in the early 90s before filth took over the world.