Hi Gang -- has anyone got any suggestion for reading a decent book..? I'm into pretty much anything really. I've recently just finished Dean Koontz "From the corner of his eye" and Richard Branson's Autobiography "Losing my Virginity" and I've just started Roy Strong's "The Story of Britain: A People's History". So as you can see, fiction or non-fiction, I'm not fussed.
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Timeline by Michael Crichton is one which I plan to read again very soon, even though I only read it about 3 months ago.
Lord of the Rings if you have the patience
Pernicketty Butt -- Who is it by..?
Nessie -- I'm nor sure why but I seem to have got out of the nabit of buying Patricia Cornwell. I read some of her earlier stuff. I love Terry Pratchett - very funny but again, I seem to have missed all the latest ones. Oh and warped mind..? Very
The catcher in the rye - still good after all these years.
Love the CRASH helmet, Barkles!
The looniness of a long distance runner is fabulous! It is by a guy called Russell Taylor.
I am reading Frank Skinner's autobiography at the moment and it is truly fabulous. If you like his sense of humour, you'll love it!
DW
If you like Terry Pratchett, you should try Robert Rankin: OK, so the books aren't set in a fantasy setting like Discworld, but they have a similarly warped sense of humour. Considering that some of the characters in the books include Elvis, Christeen (the twin sister of Jesus, whom the Bible neglects to mention), and a time-travelling sprout named Barry, you can kind of see where he's coming from. I'd recommend starting with the Brentford Trilogy (I think there are currently five in the series).
Or, if you want something a little less skewed, try "The Dice Man" by Luke Rheinhart, which is a stunning book.
Or for some non-fiction, you could read "The Climb" by Weston DeWalt and Anatoli Boukreev, which is about the storm which killed a whole load of climbers on Everest on May 10th 1996: it clears up a lot of the, erm, "misunderstandings" (I don't want to get sued) that were propagated by certain journalists in the aftermath, and is an amazing story of one man's courage.
Or for straightforward fiction, I can highly recommend "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie, which is superb.
Papillon is great too - that stands rereading
Actually, thinking about it, if you want a laugh-out-loud funny book, the one that had me crying on a plane (and had the stewardess asking if I was all right), was "e" by Matt Beaumont. Set in the world of advertisin, it's basically all the e-mails sent within the company, which makes it a little hard to get into, but it's the funniest book Ive read in years.
Going back to the original question, if you like biographies, Bob Monkhouse's is very good. No, seriously. As are the Richard E Grant and Kenneth Williams books.
Making History – Stephen Fry
River God – Wilbur Smith
Pillars of the earth – Ken Follett
Microserfs – Douglas Coupland
The Crow Road – Iain Banks
High Fidelity – Nick Hornby
Bird Song – Sebastion Faulks
Jessica – Bryce Courtney
Atonement – Ian McEwan
C:Because cowards get cancer too – John Diamond
Anything by John Irving…
Hope this helps!
Am I helpful?
I too have been reading Jeffery Deaver books recently, pysch thrillers, v good.
er, can't think of anything else!
I'm also reading Embodying the Social: Constructions of Difference. An unpickupable pulication from the OU.
Cougie -- I've never read Papillon mainly because I watched the film years ago and well, it was a bit long ... but again, I have thought about giving it a go.
Siomn F -- I've read John Diamond's book twice now. Once before I had cancer (as an effort tp try to understand cancer patients) and also since I was diagnosed - it's been enormously helpful.
Jeffsy -- heee! Not at all helpful! But, the way I'm going I'd read just about anything to escape Fern Britten!
Billy Boy -- Oh aye, I don't dispute Dean Koontz is utter crap but for me - it's the kind of stuff I don't have to entangle my mind with too much... especially at the moment. I tend to get through hs books fairly quickly anyway, so it means I don't spend too much time on them
Fraggle -- I've read quite a bit of Iain Rankin's stuff. Espedair St was brilliant oh and the cult religious one, can't remember what it was called now. V good though.
If you ever need to really appreciate what you have, read Schindler's Ark -- the book Schindler's List is based on.
If you want a laugh and a little travel-type writing, read either "Round Ireland with a Fridge" or "Playing the Moldovans at Tennis" by Tony Hawks. Or "Notes from a Small Island" or "Notes from a Big Country" by Bill Bryson.
Of course Lord of the Rings can be re-read any number of times.