Books you are reading
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Re: Books you are reading
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.
Re: Books you are reading
Have you read Adrian McKinty's troubles novels a Catholic RUC detectective, the body count is highBurnley 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.
- Burnley Hammer
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Re: Books you are reading
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.
Re: Books you are reading
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.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.
All the book titles are Tom Waits tracks
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Re: Books you are reading
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.
- Korea Hammer
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Re: Books you are reading
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.
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.
- Korea Hammer
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Re: Books you are reading
Magnus Mills - Sunbathers In A Bottle
More Millsian magnificence. If you know, you know.
More Millsian magnificence. If you know, you know.
- The Old Man of Storr
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Re: Books you are reading
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 .
- Rio
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Re: Books you are reading
Rob Halfords autobiography. A bit winke heavy, but I should have expected it
- Roby
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Re: Books you are reading
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.
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.
- Korea Hammer
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Re: Books you are reading
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.
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.
Re: Books you are reading
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.
- Arnold Layne
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Re: Books you are reading
Just finished the Tricky autobiography Hell is Round the Corner,he’s had an interesting life that’s for sure.
- smuts
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Re: Books you are reading
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.
Cowboy Song about Phil Lynott.
- SoulCircus
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Re: Books you are reading
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!
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Re: Books you are reading
Single-sentence?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.
- Korea Hammer
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Re: Books you are reading
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.
- continental skills
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Re: Books you are reading
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.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.
- Korea Hammer
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Re: Books you are reading
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?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.
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