Read any good books lately?

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  • M..o.useM..o.use ✭✭✭

    I do hope this thread survives an initial flurry of interest.

    I've read chunks of Mein Kampf and found it very, very heavy going.  Good luck with it Don.

    I've just read Eight Minutes Idle by Matt Thorne.  General pulp fiction, set in a Bristol call centre but just a bit too weird for me.

    Previous to that I read The Diary of an Ordinary Woman by Margaret Forster, a diary of a woman from 1915 until around 1990 I believe.  I very much enjoyed it, made a change from the usual Marian Keyes rubbish.

    Has anyone read Londonstani?  I had a great conversation with the librarian about it, it's a really strange book with a very interesting plot twist.  Highly recommended. 

  • Mouse - I'll do my best to keep it going. Depends how quickly I finish my books though.
  • Plodding On, you're a star - throwing 'Coast to coast' in with all this highbrow stuff. Never dreamed it could be in the same thread as Enid Blyton and Winnie the Pooh. Cool

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Run-Coast-Matt-Beardshall/dp/1845492471/ref

  • God is not great - Chris Hitchens

  • Picked up a copy of Brian Keenan "An Evil Cradling" in the charity shop a few weeks ago - an account of his being held hostage in Lebanon. Absolutely amazing book - I found it hard to put down. Some of it is obviously harrowing but there's a real thread of redemption running through it.

    Highly recommended.

  • I've a soft spot for Marian Keyes image but only because she loves Strictly Come Dancing.

     Lots more good ideas here.  Mind you, I've got a few that I need to read on the shelf already.

  • Ha ha RTS!  You're welcome!  Am trying to convince a mate to get into fell running with me now...   image
  • HL - I know what you mean. I should have started this thread when I had no books to read and needed inspiration.
  • Is anyone else like me in that they have more than one book on the go at a time - I currently have 5 on the go and which one I read depends on what mood I'm in.

    I can't remember exact details of them all, but will look and post later.

    I also read War and Peace and found it a brilliant book.

  • Plodding On - yes, get on the mountains. There's no doubt a whole sub-genre of appropriate literature. Although I can only think of 'Heidi'

    image

  • IM - no, I really struggle with more than one book on the go. But you know men and multi-tasking...

    I finished War & Peace last year and didn't find it particularly worth the effort.

  • Horrible though because I am in London RTS and the only place I know to go and find a mountain is in Wales...   image

    Maybe I should just move back and bother the Welsh again  image

  • Iron Min - I often have 2 books on the go but don't think I could manage 5 - I normally have one that I can't put down and one that I come back to every now and again.

    War and Peace - must be almost 20 years since I read that - thought the first 500 pages were great but found it a bit hard-going towards the end.

    PloddingOn - I'm sure the Welsh wouldn't mind if moved back image

  • Hahaha - wait until Token gets here....   image

  • I liked Heller's Catch 22 a lot. Lulls you into a false sense of security then hits you in the face with a brick.

    Metaphorically of course. It wasn't one of those interactive books.

    Plod - M1 North, exit Jn29 - Peak District.  M1 then M62 - Yorkshire Dales / North York Moors.  M1 then M6 Lake District. The world is your fell running lobster.

    RTS

  • Misread - thought for a minute PO was announcing Tolkien's imminent arrival. Then I realised he's dead, and she typed 'Token'. I finished Don Quixote this year after three of four failed attempts. Final verdict, as with War and Peace, was "okay but not really worth the effort".
  • Ah but am completely reliant on public transport.  Or hire cars.  Which I should really get onto, but is far more orgnisation than I am good at!

    Will moan until I realise that it's that or nothing. 

    And will more than likely rent a car  image

  • SVT - Token = Token Welshman who tends to yell at me a lot and threaten to leave me with Welsh "locals"

    Scary thought  image

  • M1 North, M6 North, M54, A5 - Snowdonia.

    M1 North, M6 North until it ceases to exist, A/M74, M73, A/M80, M9, A84, A85, A82 - Fort WIlliam, and the Nevis Range. image

  • (And the last part of that journey is superb scenery, over Rannoch Moor and through Glencoe. Work out how long it takes you to get to Milton Keynes, then add 10 hours!)
  • See - I have climbed Snowdon, Pen-y-Fan and all those.  My thing about London is that you can't just pop out - even if it's an hour away on a train.  You have to hire a car and turn it into a weekend thing.

    Directions up to far places of the UK is brilliant.  But it's not something I could realistically do every weekend 

  • ....returning to books image

    Ones I have particularly enjoyed are:

    We Need to Talk about Kevin (Lionel Shriver)
    The Magus (John Fowles)
    Sick Puppy (Carl Hiaasen)
    The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafon or similar)
    The Secret History (Donna Tartt)
    The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)

    for starters.... image

  • Good grief ST - you been preparing that all day? 
  • They also sounds like Mills and Boon type books...

    Are they books that SHOULD be discussed on a running forum?  Hmmmm? 

  • M..o.useM..o.use ✭✭✭

    ST - I've read The Lovely Bones and agree it's a great book.  I'm trying to think if I've read The Magus, I think not, but it rings a big bell.

    Min - I can't read more than one book at once, unless one of them is 'educational' in some way or another.

    HL - Sorry, I shouldn't have a go at Marian Keyes, the last couple of her books I've read I've enjoyed.  I just got a bit fed up with her works on female ad execs who can't get a boyfriend and then realise they are in love with their best mate all along who happens to be a bloke.   The last book of hers I read was great.

    The way you guys are talking about War and Peace is how I feel about The Catcher in the Rye, supposed be a great, great book but just seems a let down to me. 

  • Just to show how shallow I am.  My current book is 'Penguins stopped play' by Harry Thompson.

    It's about a bloke who assembles a team of 11 players to play Cricket on each of the seven continents of the globe.  Only just started it so can't really comment.  The writer contributed to 'Have I got news for you' and it's been recommended because it is pant wettingly funny!  image

  • Lovely Bones is an awesomely haunting book ST.

    At the moment I am reading;

    A Peoples' Tragedy - Orlando Figes (history of the Russian Revolution
    Don't You Know Who I Am - Piers Morgan
    Unchained Melanie - Judy Astley
    The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
    A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
    Seven Weeks to the Perfect Ride - Lance Armstrong
    My Story So Far - Paula Radcliffe

    I have a book in the car too but can't remember what its called.

    I am a bit odd aren't I?

    I know what you mean about Marian Keyes though Mouse - I'm finding that I am tiring of the whole Chick Lit genre for easy reading - all so so predictable. And altho I did enjoy her earlier books I find them a bit "samey" now. I also find the same of Phillipa Gregson who writes historical novels - read one or two and you've read them all.

  • I'm reading The TIme Traveller's Wife at the mo and am enjoying that image
  • ScreamScream ✭✭✭

    Excellent thread.

    I'm currently reading Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov; excellent and amusing read, despite the subject matter.  Also reading a book on Scottish History by Magnus Magnusson, which is exceptionally well written, if a bit boring in places.

    I've always fancied reading Mein Kampf and other WW2 books but haven't gotten round to it yet.

    Also recently finished Alive by Piers Paul Read as well as quite a few books on African Economics and violence in Sierra Leone - all interesting stuff..

  • SVT - interesting comments about Cervantes - I read the complete Quixote last year in response to the spanish harping on about it being the first modern novel, but also to get a better understanding of the story. 

    The translation I read was certainly easy enough to follow and I did find the first part funnier and lighter to read than the second part which was certainly more detailed in its characterisations but also more outlandish in Quixote's behaviour and in some ways less credible. 

    In some ways this is understandable.  The first part when published was a larger and more involved work than had been customarily published up to that point and attracted a lot of interest, praise, criticism and indeed plagiarism (another author tried to cash in on Cervantes success by writing and publishing his own version of the second part before Cervantes own version was finished).  All of these factors must have affected Cervantes in writing the second part and alongwith his development of the characters, landscape, and humour which had been widely praised his anger at his critics and immitators is  evident.

    I would read it again but probably not for a couple of years.

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