Books The BOOK thread

Dear God someone help me.

I'm reading Edith Wharton's 'House of Mirth.' Have to read it in it's entirety for tomorrow ( I do literature at Uni) and it's draggggging on.

Meanwhile I'm reading Kerouac's 'On the road' for leisure; when your young its inspiringly hedonistic.
 
FortBoyard said:
Dear God someone help me.

I'm reading Edith Wharton's 'House of Mirth.' Have to read it in it's entirety for tomorrow ( I do literature at Uni) and it's draggggging on.

Meanwhile I'm reading Kerouac's 'On the road' for leisure; when your young its inspiringly hedonistic.
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Nothing like 'On the Road'. It's definitely in a league of its own.
 
Gangster by Lorenzo Carcaterra
I was planning on using it for my dissertation but had to change because there wasn't enough relevant source material.
Great book about friendship as well organised crime
Carcaterra is a great author in general he wrote Sleepers, which was later turned into a hollywood film
 
I've been reading loads lately

Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby
It’s dated badly and a lot of the issues he discourses on (ie. Hooliganism, the move to all-seater stadiums) are no longer current. Still, the things he has to say about football’s middle class shift and its rise in commercialism are still very relevant and given that it was written before the Premier League era started, I think it shows that the wheels were in motion long before Sky showed up.

I think the problem is that since this came out football’s become a much more mainstream sport and there’s been loads of similar texts about football fandom, so what was once a groundbreaking insight into an increasingly marginalized culture has lost a lot of its freshness. But it’s full of wry humour and still a great read, and to some extent the fact that a lot of its focus seems backdated now is interesting by itself.
 
High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
Very easy and funny read, and he does a fine job of distilling aspects of people everyone knows into his characters. The problem for me is that you never get the sense that he and his bird actually fancy each other all that much.

Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut
Amusing enough read, and lots of acerbic left-wing satire but I’ve found that humour novels bore me unless they’re really short. I like meaty characters in a novel. This sort of thing’s a lot better on TV

Dubliners, James Joyce
Didn’t understand the point of most of the stories but understood the general theme about paralysis. He’s got a brilliant way of constructing characters although I thought sometimes it was all a bit blunt and vicious and could have used a bit more irony
 
Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane
Brilliant book. The imagery gets a bit repetitive after a time but it’s a great look into the psychology of fear.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
Better than the film, which dragged on a bit. The cult around this book is epic so I was glad it didn’t disappoint. I love books which have that rough-edged prose style and loads of drugs and weird shit so I couldn’t really go wrong.

Postcards from Surfers, Helen Garner
Doubt any of you have heard of Helen Garner but she’s a literary giant over here, famous for her feminist bent and the strong sexual content of her novels. She also once wrote a book detailing her affairs with a number of her friends’ husbands without bothering to change the names. Beyond that she’s a class writer and has a brilliantly understated way of delivering characters and images.

I'm currently reading 'Pimp' by Iceberg Slim. He's a former big-league pimp with an IQ of 175 who later reformed himself and wrote this novel based on his experiences to dissuade others from following the same path. It apparently had the opposite effect which is predictable enough. Nevertheless, it's a fantastic book and in between the chunks of hilariously cheesy 1930s black American dialogue there's some genuinely brilliant prose.
 
Light in August by Faulkner: wonderfully well-written. I found the shifts in perspective an effective narrative technique, though it can get confusing if you're not paying attention. Great insight into the reluctance by many to change or break the social norms.

Melbourne Red said:
Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane
Brilliant book. The imagery gets a bit repetitive after a time but it’s a great look into the psychology of fear.
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I've read this and really liked it but have always thought All Quiet on the Western Front was the better war novel.

The Great Santini by Pat Conroy: not the deepest or most symbolic of books, but very entertaining and funny. Good if you're looking for some light (well it's about 400 pages but you know what I mean) reading.

Also, I just want to say that The Great Gatsby is the greatest novel ever written. I read it for the first time when I was 15 and have read it at least 4 times since. I love it. That is all.
 
M'n'M said:
Have you tried Pompeii by Robert Harris? I read it on my honeymoon in Sorrento after a day trip to Pompeii and loved it.
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Reading it now. Really good and the researchhe did was incredible.

I recommend Fatherland. It's brilliant
 
cj_sparky said:
James Patterson, is an amazing author.

His books on Detective Alex Cross, are a cracking read and I highly recommend them to everyone. They have so many twists and turns, always keeps you guessing and are hard to put down to be honest.
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I prefer Connolly's Bosch novels. Echo Park being his best I think.
 
GodlovesUnited said:
Light in August by Faulkner: wonderfully well-written. I found the shift in perspective an effective narrative technique, though it can get confusing if you're not pying attention. Great insight into the reluctance by many to change or break the social norms.



I've read this and really liked it but have always thought All Quiet on the Western Front was the better war novel.

The Great Santini by Pat Conroy: not the deepest or most symbolic of books, but vrey entertaining and funny. Good if you're looking for some light (well it's about 400 pages but you know what I mean) reading.

Also, I just want to say that The Great Gatsby is the greatest novel ever written. I read it for the first time when I was 15 and have read it at least 4 times since. I love it. That is all.
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I have to agree ... I read it for the first time just a couple of months back and was totally blown away by it.
 
Melbourne Red said:
r.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
Better than the film, which dragged on a bit. The cult around this book is epic so I was glad it didn’t disappoint. I love books which have that rough-edged prose style and loads of drugs and weird shit so I couldn’t really go wrong.
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Love that book, getting really into beat generation or beat generation inspired novels.
 
FortBoyard said:
Love that book, getting really into beat generation or beat generation inspired novels.
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Wasn't Fear and Loathing more Gonzo than Beat ? Well, unless you mean that Gonzo is an indirect derivative of the beat generation ... which I guess might be partly true.
 
Emma by Austen. I used to rank it alongside Northanger Abbey, ie as her least brilliant novel, but in many ways it's her best. The reasons I didn't rate it was probably the lack of "action" and the fact that almost all the characters are annoying gimps, which makes it hard to really care about their fates, but it's ubelievably well-written, and an absolute feast just for that reason.
 
The_Red_Hope said:
Wasn't Fear and Loathing more Gonzo than Beat ? Well, unless you mean that Gonzo is an indirect derivative of the beat generation ... which I guess might be partly true.
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Yeah that's true, but Hunter S. Thompson was inspired by the beats, so i consider him a post-modern version.

Heck even Irvine W is a branch of post-modern beat for me (even if he'd like to think he wasn't).
 
feck ME!!!

Was reading some forums and there was a link for pre-ordering the RHCP´s new picture book. So I went along and bought it and didn't pay much thought to it...

When I was done I was redirected to the front-page of the bookshop: http://www.merseyshop.com/index.php
 
uae said:
I never really got into Robin Hobb. Read the first book of the Soldier Son trilogy, but found it a chore almost. Bought the second but never read it.

.
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man... i love robin hobb

you read it in the wrong order bruv..

the first 3 trilogies need to be read in order, cos they all link - assassins apprentice trilogy , liveship traders trilogy and then tawny man trilogy.

soldier son is totally different to the rest and the first book in soldier son is the worst but it's worth it to push through cos the others get really good.
 
I'll give the 2nd book a go then Espada, once i'm done reading Terry Goodkind anyway.
 
you should get the first one of the assassins apprentice trilogy... once you've read them, you'll have more faith to read the soldier son ones
 
Finished with school for the year, so can finally start reading novels again.


The Fortune of War by Patrick O`Brian, sixth book in the Aubrey-Maturin (Master and Commander) series about the Napoleon war. I`ve read the first five, and I believe there are twenty in total. All good books, and a proper boys (mans) novel.
 
Reading 'Alas, Babylon' by Pat Frank. One of the first and best post-apocalyptic novels. Realistic description of the after effects of nuclear war. Great great read so far.
 
I got The World's Worst Poems for Christmas. It's awesome. Here's Sidney Dobell (1824-1874):

Wind

Oh the wold, the wold,
Oh the wold, the wold!
Oh the winter stark,
Oh the level dark,
On the wold, the wold, the wold!

(It goes on like this for five more stanzas.)

Balder, scene XXXVIII

You crowded heavens that mine eyes left but now
Shining void and azure!
Ah! Ah! Ah!
Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
By Satan! this is well. What? am I judged?


Theophilius Marzials:

The Sun of my Songs

O my heart, and O my head!
Go a-singing a silly song,
All wrong,
For all is dead,
Ding, Dong,

And I am dead,
Dong!
 
Lizard King said:
Right I've bought One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest finally, I'll read it sometime soon.
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It's a very fine book mate. Some of the best dialogue ever written with some brilliantly observed detail on the dynamics of power relations.

'The next dame that takes on old man McMurphy's gonna light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars!'
 
pillory said:
I got The World's Worst Poems for Christmas. It's awesome. Here's Sidney Dobell (1824-1874):

Wind

Oh the wold, the wold,
Oh the wold, the wold!
Oh the winter stark,
Oh the level dark,
On the wold, the wold, the wold!

(It goes on like this for five more stanzas.)

Balder, scene XXXVIII

You crowded heavens that mine eyes left but now
Shining void and azure!
Ah! Ah! Ah!
Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
By Satan! this is well. What? am I judged?


Theophilius Marzials:

The Sun of my Songs

O my heart, and O my head!
Go a-singing a silly song,
All wrong,
For all is dead,
Ding, Dong,

And I am dead,
Dong!
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:lol:
 
Read The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. Enjoyed it but didn't think it was worthy of a booker prize.
 
For people who are interested in non-fiction, I would heartily recommend 3 Cups of Tea. A fantastic and uplifting book about a guy who dedicates his life to building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, especially for girls. A really interesting snapshot of village life in these countries and why they can be fertile breeding grounds for extremism.
 
Finished Pat Frank's 'Alas Babylon' and Arthur C Clarke's '2001 : A Space odyssey' back to back and in a few days. Enjoyed them both immensely.

Just started with Umberto Eco's - 'Foucault's Pendulum'. Anyone else here read it ? Nervous and excited at the same time about reading Eco ... I have heard that it's too high-brow and intellectual, well, I did a lil' research before starting and am beginning to really get into the novel. Hurrah !!

Amazon Review of Foucault's Pendulum
http://www.amazon.com/Foucaults-Pendulum-Umberto-Eco/dp/0345368754
 
The_Red_Hope said:
Just started with Umberto Eco's - 'Foucault's Pendulum'. Anyone else here read it ? Nervous and excited at the same time about reading Eco ... I have heard that it's too high-brow and intellectual, well, I did a lil' research before starting and am beginning to really get into the novel. Hurrah !!

Amazon Review of Foucault's Pendulum
http://www.amazon.com/Foucaults-Pendulum-Umberto-Eco/dp/0345368754
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Ive read it. To be honest I didnt like it that much but I do love Eco. Baudolino and The Name of the Rose are great books. Foucault has too much physics in it for me, so parts of it were quite hard to follow - of the novels I have read it is the most intellectual by far - though I tried to read one of his non-fiction books - Kant and the Platypus - and I had to give up after 20 pages after realising I had bitten off significantly more than I could chew.
 
Currently reading reading The Pillars of the Earth of Ken Follett, Not a big fan of his other stuff, but this is my 2nd reading of this book since I was a kid and I have to say I'm starting to think I'd should read some more of him.

It's set in England in the 11th century with civil war and very much a religious back drop (the main theme is the construction of a cathedral), but it's very enjoyable as he balances between a story told over many years and still manages to create engaging characters and to me also describes the times so easily and with conviction. In his opening words he talks about about his lack of spiritual inspiration, but he's still mightily impressed with the buildings that were erected in those days, IMO his fascination shines through and is the why the book is so good.

Might sound boring, but trust me, it's well worth the read.
 
Red Norse said:
Currently reading reading The Pillars of the Earth of Ken Follett, Not a big fan of his other stuff, but this is my 2nd reading of this book since I was a kid and I have to say I'm starting to think I'd should read some more of him.

It's set in England in the 11th century with civil war and very much a religious back drop (the main theme is the construction of a cathedral), but it's very enjoyable as he balances between a story told over many years and still manages to create engaging characters and to me also describes the times so easily and with conviction. In his opening words he talks about about his lack of spiritual inspiration, but he's still mightily impressed with the buildings that were erected in those days, IMO his fascination shines through and is the why the book is so good.

Might sound boring, but trust me, it's well worth the read.
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Yep, have to agree....Its considered a classic. I read it back when I was in school. I think I should give it a read again.
 
Simon Adebesi said:
Ive read it. To be honest I didnt like it that much but I do love Eco. Baudolino and The Name of the Rose are great books. Foucault has too much physics in it for me, so parts of it were quite hard to follow - of the novels I have read it is the most intellectual by far - though I tried to read one of his non-fiction books - Kant and the Platypus - and I had to give up after 20 pages after realising I had bitten off significantly more than I could chew.
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Finished the first half ... and after the rather tough first hundred odd pages, it's settling into a great thriller. I've just given up on figuring out all the vague references. Was wiki-ing everything when I started ... but then I figured that's not what he wants you to do and most of the lore, references and conspiracies are just the products of a crazy mind and I'm better of focusing on the character development then on each hidden reference.

I am positively sure his non-fictional works ARE NOT meant for me. :p
 
Seriously, if you enjoy it then try one of the others I mentioned some time. If you are interested in theological matters then The Name of the Rose is very good. Its the same kind of thing as with the physics in Foucaults - not essential to the plot but ubiquitous, so it helps if you find it interesting. With Baudolino it is more medieval history and crusades. I find those subjects more interesting that physics, which is the main reasons I enjoyed those books a lot more.
 
Red Norse said:
Currently reading reading The Pillars of the Earth of Ken Follett, Not a big fan of his other stuff, but this is my 2nd reading of this book since I was a kid and I have to say I'm starting to think I'd should read some more of him.

It's set in England in the 11th century with civil war and very much a religious back drop (the main theme is the construction of a cathedral), but it's very enjoyable as he balances between a story told over many years and still manages to create engaging characters and to me also describes the times so easily and with conviction. In his opening words he talks about about his lack of spiritual inspiration, but he's still mightily impressed with the buildings that were erected in those days, IMO his fascination shines through and is the why the book is so good.

Might sound boring, but trust me, it's well worth the read.
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The characters in POTE are so real - you really hate the bad guys. I did skip the technical stuff I have to admit, but there wasn't too much of it and it didn't hinder the plot. Great book.

And there's a follow up, World Without End, which also grips you.
 
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