A book I read recently was a Gerald Seymour one called The Walking Dead. I thought it was absolutely fantastic and I could not put it down. I read it in a day and a half. Fantastic read.
Books The BOOK thread
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I recently read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez and it was so good it has me craving for more. I'm not the best at dissecting novels but the language, ambience and brilliant story construction instantly made OHYoS one of my absolute favourite books. Has anyone got any recommendations regarding what next to read from this author?
Love in the time of Cholera.
I've heard of that one. Supposed to be brilliant as well. I'll probably buy it when I'm finished with my current book.
Only about 50 pages in but I'm enjoying it hugely so far, great read and I love Celine's writing style. It's a very pessimistic book but I sense that he is also writing it with a lot of sarcasm and it's made me 'lol' a couple of times.
Threads like this don't help. I've just bought 2 based on recommendations here.
Been slow on the reading front of late because of work and studies. Needed to read something light and fast paced, so I picked up the first book of the John Rain Series by Barry Eisler. The series follows an ex-CIA half Japanese, half American assasin called John Rain and his adventures in Tokyo. Something like a modern Raymond Chandler story, but that might be a tad much. Easy to read and a good change from some of the heavies.
I'm reading A History of Glue...
I can't put it down.
I can't put it down.
I have just ordered a lot of books -
Isaiah Berlin - Collected essays.
Rousseau - Confessions.
Plato - Symposium
Hunter S. Thompson - The Rum Diary
Nietschze - On the Genealogy of Morality
Yeat's and T. S. Eliot's poems. In their entirety, i think.
Wittgenstein's - Tractatus. If i manage to understand any of it will have more than justified its cost.
Does anybody else have similar interests?
Isaiah Berlin - Collected essays.
Rousseau - Confessions.
Plato - Symposium
Hunter S. Thompson - The Rum Diary
Nietschze - On the Genealogy of Morality
Yeat's and T. S. Eliot's poems. In their entirety, i think.
Wittgenstein's - Tractatus. If i manage to understand any of it will have more than justified its cost.
Does anybody else have similar interests?
Ah yes, the book where all the characters are named after each other.
It got a tad irritating.
I'm reading Bukowski's 'Women'. Fantastic
Anyone ever seen Darkplace? The character Garth Marenghi is basically based on a writer called James Herbert, who writes schlock horror type stuff. Im reading a book of his called ’48. Basically Nazi zombies, that’s the only reason, otherwise id have given up by now. But its getting really annoying, reading the book all I can hear is Garth Marenghi narrating it in my head.
Fantastic writer
Preferred 'Ham on Rye' and 'Post Office' myself, but all good
Read all his stuff. "Post Office" was my favorite. "Women" was fantastic as well. "Hollywood" was funny as well, believe it or not. Probably his last good one.
"Pulp" was pretty bad. I don't think there was much left of him at that point.
Wish I could have met him. What a nutter.
I've read some short stories which were quite brilliant. There was a biopic a couple of years back which was pretty poor I thought.
i´ve read all his books.......really enjoyed them
Haven't read a Bukowski novel yet ... just the odd poem and short story an loved them all. So where's the ideal place to start ? Post Office / Ham on Rye or something else.
Started 'Kafka on the shore' by Haruki Murakami. A good read this so far.
I'd recommend you start with 'Ham on Rye'.
I guarantee you'll want to read the rest after you've read this
Thanks for the recco man. For some reason most of the bookstores in my city only stock up on his poetry compilations ... will keep an eye out for this one.
Read this.....because I'm gonna be in it!
Which one's you?
I get the feeling that Bukowski doesn't get the recognition he deserves. Although very popular he'll never be mentioned in the same sentence as the "truely greats" which is a bit of a shame. Probably because he wrote pretty obscene stuff. But he had this way with language which makes you stop at a random sentence and think 'feck, that's just brilliant'.
I love many of his books like Ham on Rye and others but my favourite book of his is probably "Tales of Ordinairy Madness" which is a collection of short stories. Great read.
I love many of his books like Ham on Rye and others but my favourite book of his is probably "Tales of Ordinairy Madness" which is a collection of short stories. Great read.
I wasn't really bothered by it. Have you read Dostoijevskij (or however his name is spelt in English)? All those characters with all those not too familiar Russian surnames who have different nicknames.. Now that's irritating. Especially when you've done with one novel and pick up the next one, only to find that the names are more or less exactly the same!
Bought these three over the weekend ;
1. Iain Banks - The Crow Road
2. Albert Camus - The Outsider
3. Charles Bukowski - Factotum
Looking forward to getting into them as soon as I'm done with 'Kafka on the shore' which is a weird lil' book ... thoroughly enjoyable though. A 60 year old challenged man who talks to cats, a pychopath-cat killer who wants to feed on their souls and thus take over the world, a teenage boy who runs away from home and ends up working in a library in a distant town ; all with mild philosophic insights. Anyone else read this ? What did you think ?
1. Iain Banks - The Crow Road
2. Albert Camus - The Outsider
3. Charles Bukowski - Factotum
Looking forward to getting into them as soon as I'm done with 'Kafka on the shore' which is a weird lil' book ... thoroughly enjoyable though. A 60 year old challenged man who talks to cats, a pychopath-cat killer who wants to feed on their souls and thus take over the world, a teenage boy who runs away from home and ends up working in a library in a distant town ; all with mild philosophic insights. Anyone else read this ? What did you think ?
The Crow Road is really quirky - as is the tv adaptation, which - according to Iain Banks himself - is possibly even better than his book.
The book is far far better than the TV adaptation which was alright but nowt special.
It is one of my top 5 books of all time.
It is one of my top 5 books of all time.
It's a great book, but the middle brother was a bit superfluous to the plot and therefore an unnecessary character.
The TV adaption was compact and sharp and as adaptations go, was excellent.
Not as funny or as black though. And the truly brilliant moments in the book weren't very well dealt with in the adaptation. Banks at his best is a genius.
I tried to read a few of his years ago when travelling around South America but I found them to be pretentious beyond belief.
What did you think of The Wasp Factory?
Any book/screenplay that begins with the words "It began the day my grandmother exploded" has to be a winner.
Loved the Wap Factory. It must be one of the best debue novels ever.
I'm not a fan of his Sci-Fi stuff, not that I have read much and I find some of his books so devoid of emotion, Canal Dreams and Things of Stone or whatever it was called, as to be uninteresting but the majority of the rest are sheer genius.
I'm not a fan of his Sci-Fi stuff, not that I have read much and I find some of his books so devoid of emotion, Canal Dreams and Things of Stone or whatever it was called, as to be uninteresting but the majority of the rest are sheer genius.
Debeuueueueueueueueueue
Or debut even
Can anyone recommend me a good mystery-thriller novel?
Serious ones! Please 
I was going to start a thread but since this is the books section i'll post in here.
I was told about some United book from the 80s, something about fights, booze, something and an FA Cup? i heard it's a good read, anyone got any info? correct title? author? if it is indeed a good book or any relevant information?
Cheers booktards
I was told about some United book from the 80s, something about fights, booze, something and an FA Cup? i heard it's a good read, anyone got any info? correct title? author? if it is indeed a good book or any relevant information?
Cheers booktards
I'm reading some sort of book about Pet Sounds. It's interesting, but marred by fanboyism. Apparently even the lyrics are totally awesome and totally capture the essence of [insert random word]. Judging by the books that are lying around it seems I'm also reading Daniel Deronda by George Eliot, Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell and Dracula, but I'm not sure about the first two.
Bit like comparing Richard Pryor to Eddie Murphy, in that sense.