Books The BOOK thread

Has "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck been mentioned in this thread yet?

Absolutely brilliant book.
 
Has "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck been mentioned in this thread yet?

Absolutely brilliant book.

Completely agree, read it about 5 years ago, but was still awesome. Steinbeck is a great author, he has a certain American je ne sais quoi about him, that rattles through his writing, The Grapes of Wrath and Tortilla Flat among others are great reads.
 
Completely agree, read it about 5 years ago, but was still awesome. Steinbeck is a great author, he has a certain American je ne sais quoi about him, that rattles through his writing, The Grapes of Wrath and Tortilla Flat among others are great reads.

The character descriptions in that book are amazing. I always loved reading the conversations between Samuel and the Chinese man Li. Those conversations can teach you so much about life.

One more thing. Even though Kate is a very horrible human being I still in some wicked way find her attractive, does this make me a weirdo?
 
Anyone read the book The Count of Monte Cristo, classy book and my favourite book of all-time. Great read, recommend it to everyone.

Agreed absolutely excellent work, a total masterpiece, although there were discrepansies the movie was excellent as well
 
Count of Monte Cristo is an all time classic. Love it. One of my favourites too.

Started Raymond Chandler's - The Big Sleep. His style is incomparable, Philip Marlowe must be the coolest private-eye of all time . I wonder what took me so long.
 
Just finished Terry Pratchett's 'The Light Fantastic'. Absolutely delightful. Laugh riot from start to finish. The man is a legend.

Started Philip k Dick's , 'Do Android's dream of Electric sheep'. Have wanted to read this one for a while now having seen Bladerunner numerous times.
 
Started with TP's - 'Equal Rites'. I found it so incredibly laugh-out-loud funny I simply had to post a sample (the opening lines of the book) here ...

This is a story about magic and where it goes and perhaps more importantly where it comes from and why, although it doesnt pretend to answer all or any of these questions.

It may however help to explain why Gandalf never got married and why Merlin was a man. Because this is also a story about sex, although probably not in the athletic, tumbling,count-the-legs-and-divide-by-two sense unless the characters get totally beyong the authors control. They might.

However, it is a primarily a story about a world. Here it comes now. Watch closely, the special effects are quite expensive.....
 
didn't like the movie at all to be honest. Wasn't even close to being as good as the book but in all fairness what movie is.

I saw the film before I read the book, so I wasn't disappointed in either case as the book was the better of the two, yet the film tickled my fancy enough to read the novel
 
I've just re-read Pride and Prejudice for probably the 50th time plus and still enjoy it

Read somewhere that its the most read fiction book in USA ( no comments on The Bible please)
 
Anything by Charles Bukowski >>>>> Anything by anyone else

(particularly Ham on Rye, and Post Office)
 
Just began American Skin by Ken Bruen, seems interesting, I will let you know how it goes, Bruen is a Galway lad btw
 
Anyone read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro? Wonderful book and very thought provoking. Also just read Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris as a lighter read. Quite a twist in that one.
 
I've just re-read Pride and Prejudice for probably the 50th time plus and still enjoy it
I know where you're coming from! I'm currently reading Mansfield Park for the third time. I think that means I'll have read every novel by Austen three times when I'm done (and it's only been three or four years since I started reading her). I would probably have read P&P about fifteen times by now if I didn't watch the 1995 adaptation all the time.
 
Read somewhere that its the most read fiction book in USA ( no comments on The Bible please)
BTW, I just watched the new Jane Eyre series and then re-read the book, and the introduction claimed it's the most read novel in the English language. That's worldwide and not limited to the US, of course.
 
Just read A Brave New World on Friday, as I was laying in the sun in 78 degree temperatures in Denver on Friday, quite an enjoyable, quick, and easy read
 
Just read A Brave New World on Friday, as I was laying in the sun in 78 degree temperatures in Denver on Friday, quite an enjoyable, quick, and easy read

That is a brilliant book, How Huxley made such predictions at the time i shall never know.

I'm reading a lot of post 1945 satirical stuff atm, Evelyn Waugh - Decline and Fall at the moment.
 
I just finished reading On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. What an amazing novel. Has anyone else read it? There was something I was wondering about..
 
I have a pile of books to read and it's in there somewhere. I flipped through it a bit a while back - didn't really grab me. What's great about it?

It's very well written, the vocabulary is beautiful and the way he describes the two main characters, what they think of each other, how they view their relationship, how they deal with their insecurities etc. Also a good description of the atmosphere in England in the early 1960s, prior to the sexual revolution. And then the little twist. It's only short, I read it in a couple of hours.
 
It's very well written, the vocabulary is beautiful and the way he describes the two main characters, what they think of each other, how they view their relationship, how they deal with their insecurities etc. Also a good description of the atmosphere in England in the early 1960s, prior to the sexual revolution. And then the little twist. It's only short, I read it in a couple of hours.

Hmm... I can see why it didn't really reward a quick skim - I found the setting a bit dreary and unexciting. Maybe I'll pick it up when I get home tonight. Thanks, much appreciated.
 
Hmm... I can see why it didn't really reward a quick skim - I found the setting a bit dreary and unexciting. Maybe I'll pick it up when I get home tonight. Thanks, much appreciated.

At times it does have this feel, probably at the romantic descriptions of the landscapes, however I felt the personal story of the two main figures was very much gripping. The writer constantly develops their character and you just wanna know what is going to happen next. All the characters in the story felt so real that I actually thought this must be some kind of an auto-biography, at least to an extent.
 
I just finished reading On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. What an amazing novel. Has anyone else read it? There was something I was wondering about..
Managed about a dozen pages. Truly awful. Seemed to think that sexual intercourse began in 1963. Rumours of plagiarization as well aren't there?
 
I read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for the first time, which was even better than the film, which was also good, but a tad confusing. The trouble with the film was that even though it contained some brilliant performances, it didn't do a particularly good job of presenting the book's wider commentary about oppressive social manipulation. The fact that the Chief was such a minor character, and that the film gave no insight into his background and his tribe's battle with land rights didn't help.

The book had it all mind, absorbing narrative, razor-sharp dialogue and brilliant evocation of character.

I also read The Quiet American, which held my attention without being particularly compelling. I then saw the film, which was crap.

I've just started Catch 22, and it's fecking hilarious so far. That said, the circular humour and juxtapositions might get a bit tedious a hundred more pages in.
 
So who would you lot say is funnier, Pratchett or Wodehouse?

Personally, while I've enjoyed the 10-12 books I've read of Pratchett's I don't think I've ever found a character more hilarious than Bertie Wooster.
 
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Anyone read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro? Wonderful book and very thought provoking.

Read the other one, When We Were Orphans...quite a nice read as well ...by the way which one is better, the Lolita movie or the book? Thinking of getting either one...