I have it, only just closed the last chapter of Sapiens so will give it a few days. Looking forward to it.
Will let you know what I think once complete
Books The BOOK thread
- Thread starter Livvie
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I have it, only just closed the last chapter of Sapiens so will give it a few days. Looking forward to it.
Will let you know what I think once complete
Kazuo Ishiguro has won the 2017 literature Nobel Prize.
Never Let Me Go
Should have given it to Giggsy till the end of the season.
Could this be Chronicle of a Death Foretold?
Anyway, I know you didn't pose your question to me, but I certainly have read Solitude. It's my all-time favorite novel. Can't recommend it enough.
Came back from holiday yesterday, while we were away I read Slow Horses by Mick Herron (modern spy thriller, a bit like Le Carre but not as dry. first in a series, highly recommended) and IQ by Joe Ide (mystery set in LA, the main character, IQ is along the lines of Sherlock Holmes, really really great book).
Started 2666, really liking it so far.
Just finished IT, Stephen King. First novel of his I've read. Really engaging stories throughout, especially the Intervals, but badly let down by the weird, ridiculous climax.
Used to read a lot of Stephen King but have given up now after reading nearly a dozen of his later ones that had ridiculous endings.
First one I read was Firestarter - still love that book.
Nope, first venture into his work.
The Stand remains one of the most captivating books I ever read. I was about 14 or so when I read it, no idea whether it would live up to my memory of it now if I read it again, but at the time it completely blew me away. For a book of its size as well, I remember being on holiday with my dad in Ireland while I was reading it and just lying on the sofa all day reading, I just couldnt put it down.
Think my love for reading was really grounded in part by Stephen King. I recall 'IT' being a cracking read as a young teen, and I enjoyed the 'Dark Half', but I went through to many of his in the end to be honest, bit of overkill. 'Dreamcatchers' was awful.
Reading 'No Is Not Enough' by Naomi Klein at the mo, a nice concise (albeit left of centre) assessment of current politics, Trumpism, Macron, movements etc. It's a 2017 press too so it's fabulously current.
Agreed on Stephen King. I read loads of his books over a period of maybe 3 or 4 years as a teen: IT, Carrie, Kujo, The Stand, Gerrard's Game, Needful Things, Misery, Salem's Lot, The Dead Zone... amazing how prolific he has been to be honest, big respect for the man churning out so many books that capture the imaginations of so many people. Cant imagine reading one now, though I did read On Writing in the last couple of years, which I enjoyed immensely.
Im currently reading The Strange Death of Europe, which a right wing friend of mine encouraged me to read to challenge my more liberal inclinations. Ive found it very interesting to be fair, precisely because it is so opposed to how I instinctively look at things. Once ive finished it though I may need to read something a bit more like Naomi Klein to get my head back to a more normal place.
The Long Walk, as well. That's another one, a bit like The Stand, that affected my young mind quite deeply. As much as I enjoyed a lot of his other books mentioned above, they were just good books, enjoyable reads, but somehow The Long Walk felt more significant to me at the time in a way Im not sure Ill be able to articulate. Partly in the sense of how striking I found the concept of it. This is actually a book I have considered re-reading as an adult - unlike The Stand - partly because it is short. Id be very interested to see what I thought about it now, and if I did read it again perhaps I would be able to put my finger on why it made such an impression on me.
Away from Stephen King, another book I read as a teenager that had that kind of impression on me was The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner.
Papillon as well. Extraordinary book I read as a teenager.
Away from Stephen King, another book I read as a teenager that had that kind of impression on me was The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner.
Papillon as well. Extraordinary book I read as a teenager.
The Stand. Its less horrory than most of his books Id say, though its obviously disturbing, so if you like that kind of supernatural horror stuff maybe its not the way to go. And its incredibly long, which is in some ways an argument against it, it might be a bit daunting (though if you enjoy it its a great thing because there is so much of it to enjoy.) Its not just me either, a lot of King fans Ive spoken to over the years have it as their favourite of his books, I think he acknowledges himself (in On Writing which is part autobiography) its the one his fans rave about the most.
If not that, its hard to say. As I said I enjoyed most of the ones I read, I found him very consistent, but having read a lot as a teen I felt I had kind of grown out of it, rightly or wrongly. But you could look at a load of them, read the backs and see which concepts jump out at you, the chances are itll be very readable.
I mentioned The Long Walk - that is one of four short stories in The Bachman Books. If you dont go for The Stand because of length I would maybe recommend that, because as far as I remember all four were excellent.
'Different Seasons' is worth a read. Four fairly short stories, which keep it going. You'll see one of them became a v v famous film.
No I don't care about the length of it, heard good things about The Stand before so I guess that'll be next.
I've actually read these years ago, the only other Stephen King stuff I'd read until this week. Great, great stories.
Just ended up buying The Bachman Books on ebay. Not easy to find because one of the stories in the original, Rage, is now out of print because Stephen King feared it had contributed to Columbine and other mass shootings. So the recent editions appear to have different stories to the ones I read. Some of the original editions are selling for in the region of £200, but I found an old worn paperback for £15. Looking forward to reading this now, I wonder if it will trigger some kind of Stephen King renaissance for me.
He has some excellent short story collections - "Last Evenings on Earth" and "The Return", highly recommend checking them out when you're done.
Just to let you know, The Stand has the worst ending I've ever read. You'd think that King just lost interest in writing the book and ended it as quickly as possible. It's a massive disappointment after such a long book to have that be the resolution and it has put me off reading any more of his books.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/50-best-cult-books/
Would anyone highly recommend a book from this list? Seemed like a decent one taking from different decades of time. I absolutely adore Master and Margarita, actually need to reread it as it's been ages.
Would anyone highly recommend a book from this list? Seemed like a decent one taking from different decades of time. I absolutely adore Master and Margarita, actually need to reread it as it's been ages.
The Stranger, Catch 22 and The Road are must reads IMO.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is great.
The Road to Oxiana is one the greatest travel books ever written, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is in my top five or ten novels.
I've also read The Stranger, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye and Fear and Loathing. Don't think I need say anything about them, they're all quite well known.
Been meaning to read The Stranger for bloody years, with providers like Amazon I've no excuse. I struggled to get into The Road and perhaps gave up on it too early. I found McCarthy's writing style to be overly descriptive for my tastes, but I really should give it another blast.
Yeah great book and film! I did a comparative study of Fear and Loathing with Gogol's The Diary of a Madman for my A-levels. Would love to read that now actually.
The article states The Road is McCarthy's masterpiece - not even close IMO. Blood Meridian is his best work, but I'd also rate All The Pretty Horses, The Crossing and Suttree over The Road. Do give McCarthy another try. It can be tough but at it's best, his prose is astounding.
The Stranger is phenomenal. Also reasonably short as well, I breezed through it in a couple of days.
From that list, the description of Rand is great...
Mr Mercedes is a good recent thriller from King, non horror.
Only from those I have read I would recommend:
Firestarter (still the best for me - not too long and I've read it 5 times and will do so again).
The Dead Zone
Both are just great storytelling.
Also the Langolliers from Four Past Midnight and 11.22.63.
Enjoyed quite a few others but I prefer his less over the top graphic ones that have a better story line.
An absolutely crap view of an important book and a continually intriguing writer.
Just finished Dan Brown's Origin
Pretty cool premise. Not as much of a page turner as some of his previous stuff. I liked it though... but then again I've always liked his stuff.
Pretty cool premise. Not as much of a page turner as some of his previous stuff. I liked it though... but then again I've always liked his stuff.
Jane Harper's the dry is worth a read if you like a thriller. Also 61 hours by Lee Child was good.
What did you think of The Savage Detectives? Personally, I thought the first part was fantastic, but then everything else was too meandering and disorganized to really enjoy.
I still remember Alastair describing it as just a rubbish story about a sociopath. As with the mentioning of Rand in the same breath as Nietzsche, it just strikes me as typical Tory(graph) philistinism.
Maybe it's just me, mate - I love history so much that even THB&THG seemed fascinating.
In my haste to categorise all Tory loving types as oblivious buffoons with poor reading skills I embarrassingly misread your quote as referring to Camus' The Outsider which was also on the list under its yank title.
Haven't the froggiest what you're on about. Sounds interesting though.