Read any good books lately?

1141517192023

Comments

  • Hello....i've not read back, so not sure if this has been mentioned before, but i've just finished @A Confederacy of Dunces' by John Kennedy Toole.  It was very funny.....I got it as part of a Penguins Classics set from Bookworld.com....4 x sets of 10 classics (Virago /Penguin /modern and some other....)....£44!!!!!!  Fabulous.
  • I didn't get the plot twist!

    The second came out in paperback a few weeks ago. "It's called The Girl Who Played With Fire". I hear it's just as good, but more gory which is a bad thing for me, I'm a real wuss! The third is out in Swedish but not in English until November.
  • Morning....I was late to the game and read The Reader..in a morning.  I think I would have enjoyed it better if I didn't have Kate Winslet's face in my head when I was reading it....the woman in the book is older (and less sexy I think....) but I thought it was well worth a read through. 
  • I'm currently reading Where I'm Calling From by Raymond Carver.  I'd never read any of his stuff before and don't usually read short stories, but this collection is brilliant and I'll definitely be checking out more of his work.
  • HappychapHappychap ✭✭✭

    Oh Goodness I'm reading a right old pile of cr@p at the moment.

    Revisiting either 'Becoming an Ironman' here or 'First marathons' here or Chris Stewarts 'Driving Over Lemons' depending which room in the house I'm sat in image

    Off on hols in a couple of weeks and need some inspiration image

  • <waves to ISHC> What did you think of 'Becoming an Ironman'? I wasn't that impressed, and the chap was no way a novice or 'numpty'.

    I am reading A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz. Out of all the books we've bought, and out of the ones I've read so far, I'm enjoying this one the most. It's funny and sad and well written. I'm not too far from the end. I've still got a few to read though.

    The Other Hand - Chris Cleave - it was okay. Quite enjoyed it but was expecting something astounding.

    The Hour I First Believed - Wally Lamb. Again it was okay, but I kept thinking 'for God's sake HTFU and get over it' and then I got a bit befuddled with all his relations and who was who.

    I was looking at a book in Smiths, I can't for the life of me remember the title or the author, something about a boy and an earthquake but I put it down again, we went to waterstones and I couldn't find it! Any ideas?

  • I seem to be in a fiction-free phase at the moment. Recently finished Denis Law's autobiography, currently reading Bobby Charlton's (my boss found out I'm a United fan and has loaned them to me).
  • Last fiction book I read was probably 'The Shack', as mentioned by Crashie. Very good, very moving.
  • I've got that Wally Lamb in my box of holiday books. Not sure about him. I thought "I know this much is true" was good but it went on a bit.

    ISHC - what sort of stuff do you like? Some good fiction I would read on holiday would include

    The Kite Runner
    Small Island
    The Time Traveller's Wife
    Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy
    Shadow of the Wind
    Ghostwritten
    The Poisonwood Bible

    Currently reading Deaf Sentence by David Lodge. As a cloth ears myself I'm loving it. He's saying what I think and doing it really well. Only trouble is I want all my hearing family and friends to read it, not me, I already know how shit it is to be deaf!

  • A Fraction of the Whole was brilliant. Really enjoyed it image
  • Crash Hamster - you do know that I'm not actually French, right? image

    I just love the French Rugby team which may have something to do the fact that Serge Blanco was still playing when I first started watching 5 Nations image

    Been off sick so read a v. odd selection of books recently. Trashy novel by Sophie Kinsella which I quite enjoyed, the Brokeback Mountain short story by Annie Proulx (sp?) so sad, and half-way through rereading the first Harry Potter, v. good fun. I put The Road on hold until I was well again as I didn't want to spoil it. Really enjoying this but scared by what the ending might be.

    Welcome to all the newbie book lovers! image

  • Hello readers!

    Just read Atonement (Ian McEwan) and City of God (Paulo Lins) on holiday - both very good image
  • Tracey. wrote (see)
     The second came out in paperback a few weeks ago. "It's called The Girl Who Played With Fire". I hear it's just as good, but more gory which is a bad thing for me, I'm a real wuss! The third is out in Swedish but not in English until November.

     Thanks tracey!


    Little Nemo - 1,000 miles in 2009 wrote (see)

    Crash Hamster - you do know that I'm not actually French, right? image


    You've shattered all my illusions now image

    I've just hacked my way through The Hour I First Believed - Wally Lamb too. Blimey. What on Earth was that all about? the focus of the story seemed to change at random; I wanted to shake the 'hero' and several of the assorted heroines, all of whom seemed to waste their lives with self-pitying tosh. Dear dear...

  • A classic - I likewise recommend it.
  • I hated The Shack - just kept imagining perfect American teeth all the way through. Bleh.

    Loved The Other Hand.

    Read a good one on holiday "The City of Thieves", I think it''s called (cba to go upstairs and check image)

    Liked most Jodi Picoult but especially 19 Minutes. Some of her others I found a bit contrived, but enjoyed Faith a lot.

    Re-read The Crow Road by Iain Banks recently - it must have the best opening line of any novel - "It was the day my grandmother exploded" image

  • I've read a few Banks but not The Crow Road - probably because I saw the TV version first. Which I thought was very good.
  • CorinthianCorinthian ✭✭✭

    Francis Wheen 'How Mumbo-Jumo Conquered the World'

    Passionate polemic on how stupidity and unreason is threatening enlightenment values and how humanity is marching blindly into the abyss of a new dark age of superstition and moral confusion.

    312 coruscating  pages which tackle amongst other things; religious fundamentalism; voodoo economics; management speak; New Age quackery; the government managed 'fear industry' and celebrity worship bordering on hysteria.

    Joyful, exhilarating, wonderful polemic... 

    Best non fiction book I've read in a long time - a must read for sceptics everywhere.

  • A must read for sceptics? image

    I'm not sure I believe that. image

  • HappychapHappychap ✭✭✭

    Sorry for the delay.  I had a day off yesterday image

    Loved Atonement much more than I thought I would.

    Will check out the Steve Tolz book Squish.

    The IM book you were talking about I do have and though he was a bit up his backside to be honest.  Definitely not a beginner anyhoo.

  • CorinthianCorinthian ✭✭✭
    Nice SVT... very niceimage
  • Mr PuffyMr Puffy ✭✭✭

    Yes very funny!

    Just finished Postcards by Annie Proulx, very good, off for A Saturday trawl round the secand book shops later..

  • Toady's Waterstones haul was Henry by David Starkey, Desperate Romantics (The book of the PRB thing on BBC) and Stephen Fry's American travelogue. Rattler insisted they go in the suitcase ready for our holidays. image
  • Mumbo Jumbo is good fun - as a confirmed septic I would say it is a must read.
  • Mr PuffyMr Puffy ✭✭✭
    Kwilter will you report back on Henry?  I got it for mrs puffy and she didn't finish it, unusual for her.
  • I will Mr Puffy..this isn't like school where I had to write 200 words on a book before I was allowed to start the next one is it?
  • HappychapHappychap ✭✭✭

    Hope you're going somewhere nice Kwilter image

    Read 'Elizabeth' by David Starkey a long while ago.  I seem to remember it was very well written but slightly dull.*

    * Dull probably because of my lack of interest in history not because David Starkey made it so 

  • Mr PuffyMr Puffy ✭✭✭
    Kwilter just don't tell me the end please...
Sign In or Register to comment.