Books you are reading

The all-encompassing home of media discussion - including music, film, and television.

Moderators: Gnome, last.caress, Wilko1304, Rio, bristolhammerfc, the pink palermo, chalks

Post Reply
Online
WCpete
Posts: 32738
Joined: Thu Dec 05, 2002 12:11 am
Location: San Francisco, CA
Has liked: 1405 likes
Total likes: 3071 likes

Re: Books you are reading

Post by WCpete »

Just starting Bill Bryson's The Body. Only ten pages in. Factoid: If you connected every strand of DNA in your body end to end, it would stretch from Earth to beyond Pluto.
User avatar
old fart
Posts: 6835
Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2003 11:31 am
Has liked: 136 likes
Total likes: 356 likes

Re: Books you are reading

Post by old fart »

Burnley Hammer wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 1:52 pm I


I grew out of it and moved to crime fiction. I never grew out of my need for a decent bodycount though. They need to be a bit pulpy - I get bored easily otherwise. I like Jo Nesbo and Michael Connolly too, and also Stuart MacBride.
Have you read Adrian McKinty's troubles novels a Catholic RUC detectective, the body count is high
User avatar
Burnley Hammer
Posts: 16455
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2007 12:19 pm
Location: was Colne, Burnley, Hull, Colchester, Norwich, Derby.... Now Nottingham
Has liked: 232 likes
Total likes: 2570 likes
Contact:

Re: Books you are reading

Post by Burnley Hammer »

old fart wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 7:01 pm Have you read Adrian McKinty's troubles novels a Catholic RUC detectective, the body count is high
No... they sound decent although I've seen that it's written from first person perspective and I always struggle a bit to get into those.
User avatar
old fart
Posts: 6835
Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2003 11:31 am
Has liked: 136 likes
Total likes: 356 likes

Re: Books you are reading

Post by old fart »

Burnley Hammer wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 7:17 pm No... they sound decent although I've seen that it's written from first person perspective and I always struggle a bit to get into those.
They're excellent he's into drug taking,heavy drinking (vodka gimlets by the pint) knows his music and a bit of a loose cannon.

All the book titles are Tom Waits tracks
Spammy The Vee
Posts: 1296
Joined: Thu Jul 18, 2013 11:45 pm
Has liked: 3 likes
Total likes: 36 likes

Re: Books you are reading

Post by Spammy The Vee »

Just finished Patrick Hamilton's excellent 1941 novel "Hangover Square". Set mostly in Earls Court (with a couple of trips to Brighton) on the cusp of World War Two, it is a tale of a sorry man, a nasty woman, the poor company they keep and the alcohol drenched lives they live.
User avatar
Korea Hammer
Posts: 11447
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2003 4:23 pm
Location: Shoreham-By-Sea
Has liked: 1316 likes
Total likes: 772 likes

Re: Books you are reading

Post by Korea Hammer »

Clarice Lispector ~ Complete Stories

I really enjoyed this heavyweight collection of short stories by the Ukrainian/Brazilian writer, Clarice Lispector. Tracing her development from the earliest stories to the unfinished work left when she died prematurely in her fifties, it's an impressive body of work. Some of them are straightforward if reflective snapshots of life in 1950s Rio, especially as it was for women, but as the collection develops, Lispector soon shows that she is an experimental and unusually talented writer.

My favourite of these 80-odd stories was The Buffalo.
User avatar
Korea Hammer
Posts: 11447
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2003 4:23 pm
Location: Shoreham-By-Sea
Has liked: 1316 likes
Total likes: 772 likes

Re: Books you are reading

Post by Korea Hammer »

Magnus Mills - Sunbathers In A Bottle

More Millsian magnificence. If you know, you know.
User avatar
The Old Man of Storr
Posts: 32779
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:17 am
Location: Lost In the Recesses Of My Mind .
Has liked: 2642 likes
Total likes: 1747 likes

Re: Books you are reading

Post by The Old Man of Storr »

Metal Hammer wrote: Fri Jan 07, 2022 6:03 pm The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. Quite enjoyable so far.

I'm reading his second ' Thursday Murder Club ' book , The Man Who Died Twice , I read the TMC last year .

There's something quite cosy about them , like an old jumper [ not that I wear jumpers any longer ] , they're a bit like ' The Famous Five ' books for old folk , easy reading but as you say very enjoyable , wish all books were .
User avatar
Rio
Ronnie Biggs was here
Posts: 25987
Joined: Wed Dec 04, 2002 1:29 pm
Location: Reykjavik comma Iceland full stop
Has liked: 159 likes
Total likes: 1080 likes
Contact:

Re: Books you are reading

Post by Rio »

Rob Halfords autobiography. A bit winke heavy, but I should have expected it
User avatar
Roby
Posts: 6809
Joined: Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:07 pm
Location: Plaistow - Maidstone - Bristol
Has liked: 250 likes
Total likes: 257 likes

Re: Books you are reading

Post by Roby »

Just finished The Silence of The Lambs by Thomas Harris.

Saw the movie as a kid in the early 90s but the book had been unread on my shelf for many, many years.

Excellently written and moves at a fast pace but it’s pretty sick and got under my skin a bit. The Buffalo Bill character is seriously twisted.
User avatar
Korea Hammer
Posts: 11447
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2003 4:23 pm
Location: Shoreham-By-Sea
Has liked: 1316 likes
Total likes: 772 likes

Re: Books you are reading

Post by Korea Hammer »

Mathias Enard ~ Zone

A 500-page, single-sentence, amphetamine-fuelled stream of consciousness narrated by a former Croatian freedom fighter turned spy sat on a train to Rome, densely packed with historical diversions, allusions to Homer, and references to Joyce, Lowry and Genet. In the end it's a kind of compendium of war crimes, horror and savagery. Brilliantly written, and I read it in 4 days, but a bit overwhelming.
brightsun
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2022 12:56 pm
Total likes: 1 like

Re: Books you are reading

Post by brightsun »

In fact, I like to read psychology books the most. I am currently reading the works of Sigmond Freud. Recently I was delighted when I was presented with a collection of books by this author.
User avatar
Arnold Layne
Posts: 2065
Joined: Thu Dec 17, 2009 4:12 pm
Has liked: 47 likes
Total likes: 143 likes

Re: Books you are reading

Post by Arnold Layne »

Just finished the Tricky autobiography Hell is Round the Corner,he’s had an interesting life that’s for sure.
User avatar
smuts
Posts: 33750
Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 9:28 am
Location: East, East, East London
Has liked: 1499 likes
Total likes: 1440 likes

Re: Books you are reading

Post by smuts »

Beast - The John Bonham story (I know by the end I won't be fancying Ham Rolls washed down with quadruple vodka and oranges).

Cowboy Song about Phil Lynott.
User avatar
SoulCircus
Posts: 3402
Joined: Tue Aug 28, 2007 2:27 pm
Location: The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Has liked: 12 likes
Total likes: 87 likes

Re: Books you are reading

Post by SoulCircus »

Had my first read of Ulysses as it is the centenary of its publication. Never really had a reading experience like it, almost certainly a work of genius despite the fact vast swathes of it went over my head!
User avatar
Burnley Hammer
Posts: 16455
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2007 12:19 pm
Location: was Colne, Burnley, Hull, Colchester, Norwich, Derby.... Now Nottingham
Has liked: 232 likes
Total likes: 2570 likes
Contact:

Re: Books you are reading

Post by Burnley Hammer »

Korea Hammer wrote: Wed Feb 23, 2022 1:12 pm Mathias Enard ~ Zone

A 500-page, single-sentence, amphetamine-fuelled stream of consciousness narrated by a former Croatian freedom fighter turned spy sat on a train to Rome, densely packed with historical diversions, allusions to Homer, and references to Joyce, Lowry and Genet. In the end it's a kind of compendium of war crimes, horror and savagery. Brilliantly written, and I read it in 4 days, but a bit overwhelming.
Single-sentence?
User avatar
Korea Hammer
Posts: 11447
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2003 4:23 pm
Location: Shoreham-By-Sea
Has liked: 1316 likes
Total likes: 772 likes

Re: Books you are reading

Post by Korea Hammer »

Burnley Hammer wrote: Wed Mar 02, 2022 12:48 pm Single-sentence?
Well, not really. He basically uses commas where full stops should be, but it does create a kind of head-over-heels chaotic momentum that matches the mental state of the narrator, and indeed the journey of the train he's on.

This sort of thing has become a bit of an overused gimmick lately though. The best one I can think of, in my opinion, is Lucy Ellmann's 'Ducks, Newburyport'', a brilliantly done 1,000-page internal monologue inside the mind of an American housewife. Apart from brief interludes about a mountain lion, that's a single, roll-on sentence too, although it is, again, really just a series of controversially-punctuated thoughts.

Gerald Murnane is probably the best at writing grammatically correct superlong sentences. His later books, from the brilliant The Plains onwards are packed with page-long sentences that take quite a bit of unpicking but are proper senetnces.
User avatar
continental skills
Posts: 1057
Joined: Sun Jun 13, 2004 10:57 pm
Location: the wrong side of the channel
Has liked: 43 likes
Total likes: 19 likes

Re: Books you are reading

Post by continental skills »

Korea Hammer wrote: Wed Feb 23, 2022 1:12 pm Mathias Enard ~ Zone

A 500-page, single-sentence, amphetamine-fuelled stream of consciousness narrated by a former Croatian freedom fighter turned spy sat on a train to Rome, densely packed with historical diversions, allusions to Homer, and references to Joyce, Lowry and Genet. In the end it's a kind of compendium of war crimes, horror and savagery. Brilliantly written, and I read it in 4 days, but a bit overwhelming.
Good to hear that you got through it so quickly. I have it on my shelf but have baulked at the idea of its density up until now. I have, however, read everything else by Enard translated into English and think he's a brilliant writer.
User avatar
Korea Hammer
Posts: 11447
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2003 4:23 pm
Location: Shoreham-By-Sea
Has liked: 1316 likes
Total likes: 772 likes

Re: Books you are reading

Post by Korea Hammer »

continental skills wrote: Fri Mar 04, 2022 10:09 am Good to hear that you got through it so quickly. I have it on my shelf but have baulked at the idea of its density up until now. I have, however, read everything else by Enard translated into English and think he's a brilliant writer.
Oh, interesting. I was very impressed and whistled through it because I was off work and could devote time to it. I don't think it would be so enjoyable in bits and pieces at the end of a tiring day. Although, perhaps enjoyable isn't the right word, it's pretty harrowing stuff, I must say. Are all his books like that?
Crouchend_Hammer
Posts: 26349
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2004 9:31 am
Location: Forest Gate
Has liked: 137 likes
Total likes: 2357 likes

Re: Books you are reading

Post by Crouchend_Hammer »

Trio by William Boyd

I love William Boyd
Post Reply