Read Any Good Books Lately?

[Bald rick 9]

Just finished (apart from the epilogue) Blood River by Tim Butcher. An account of the author's journey down the river Congo. Very interesting, but quite sad, in that the country seems to have so much potential that is wasted by the constant fighting and corruption in the government.

[Godot 149]

Just finished (apart from the epilogue) Blood River by Tim Butcher. An account of the author's journey down the river Congo. Very interesting, but quite sad, in that the country seems to have so much potential that is wasted by the constant fighting and corruption in the government.

I've just read it too. A good read. A war with with 5m dead and back in the news but not quite big enough to push Brand and Ross off the front pages.

[deathofapotato 0]

I enjoyed this book by Patrick Süskind, along with all his other books.

Including the Perfume and the Double Bass.

I think they give a frightening insight into human nature. I love his pictorial style.

 

Apart from that the Barney Thomson series by Douglas Lindsay is funny as hell.

 

Assuming they haven't lost or gained a lot through translation into/out of German.

[TAFKAG 70]

If you're at a loose end, here are 1,000 novels you might like to read. One a week and you'll be done in about 20 years.

[maryportfuncity 10,646]

Them critics no nowt, no sign of Workington Dynamo or Never Never (set mainly in Cleator Moor and Whitehaven) in them 1000 novels.

 

Ironically, one book I would highly recommend is 'So Many Books' by Gabriel Zaid that tackles head on the problem of living busy lives in a world where so many books are available.

[Anubis the Jackal 77]

This week, I re-read American Psycho. I first it read in my early '20's and at the same time as I was into quite full-on shock-fiction (Derek Raymond and the like) so it never really had a great impact. Damn, it's a good book.

 

Also John Pilgers' 'A Secret Country' a damning re-telling of the great Australian pioneer mythology.

[TAFKAG 70]

Ironically, one book I would highly recommend is 'So Many Books' by Gabriel Zaid that tackles head on the problem of living busy lives in a world where so many books are available.

Or you could try Pierre Bayard's excellent, thought-provoking and amusing How to Talk about Books that You Haven’t Read.

 

Quite right, I haven't read it.

[Dia de los Muertos 7]

I am in the process of reading (and very much enjoying) Mr. Nice, by Howard Marks, "the world's favourite dope smuggler". Fun, fun, fun!

[Anubis the Jackal 77]

Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem by the magnificent Peter Ackroyd.I Can't recommend it enough.

 

Howard Marks can sh*t right off in my book.

[Twelvetrees 10]

Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem by the magnificent Peter Ackroyd.I Can't recommend it enough.

 

Howard Marks can sh*t right off in my book.

 

Agreed on both points. I do think Ackroyd's powers are diminishing, though. I'm currently edging my way carefully through 'The Kindly Ones', Jonathan Littell's 1000 page epic of the Eastern Front. Executions, cannibalism and bowel movements are all described in delightful detail.

[DevonDeathTrip 2,358]

I've just finished The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks. The book concerns a small town in New York State in the aftermath of a school bus crash that has killed fourteen of the town's children. It wasn't very funny.

[Dia de los Muertos 7]

Howard Marks can sh*t right off in my book.

 

Would you care to elaborate?

[harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy 1,689]

I've just ploughed my way through Alex Ross's wonderful history of 20th century classical and avant garde music, The Rest is Noise. I now know my chromatics from my tritones (ehhh??) and my Berg from my Schoenberg, even if I might struggle to fully appreciate them. The excerpts on the site are a great help, hooray for t'internet.

[Rotten Ali 600]

I'm half way through "The Revenge of Gaia" by James Lovelock, and I'm getting the impression that within about 20 to 50 years half the worlds populus are totally stuffed due to even stronger effects from global warming. I'm taking from all this bad news, the infurence that I'll be getting many more hits per year from now on, than I ever expected.

 

quick hint - if you are about to buy a new house - first ask yourself "is it at least 80 metres above current sea level?" 'cus in time, if it isn't then you may have to own a boat as well!

[Tuber Mirum 125]

Chalked up a trio of corkers when on holiday,.............

 

Finally I tackled that novel set in West Cumbria - Workington Dynamo, thought I'd share the cover blurb:

 

Full-on fist, football and - occasional - f***ing action in seventies West Cumbria. Young Dougie Grimton dreams of being in with the right crowd, inside his buxom cousin Kerry and proving himself where it really counts....in a fight! Greyhounds are kidnapped, tramps totalled in car accidents, cigarettes are smoked, a herd of pigs get used as an opposing team in football training and all the time, the nearby nuclear power station leaks a grim poison that grabs the local lads, by the balls.

 

Oddly enough, it holds up well, good jokes throughout and a decent balance between stuff that makes sense in West Cumbria and stuff that'd play well elsewhere. A right laugh, and a decent story fit to compare with - oooh - 'Influx' by J C Jones, or summat.

Just finished this excellent piece of literature, having downloaded it for the unbeatable bargain price of 1 pound 88 or thereabouts.

I wonder if the improbably-named author gets all of that?

Easily on a par with 'Influx' by J. C. Jones, or indeed 'From Anger to Apathy' by Mark Garnett, it is one of those rare books in which the blurb on the cover actually bears some resemblance to the events portrayed inside, so in that respect the reader cannot fail not to be disappointed. Or indeed in any other respect. Assuming gratuitous violence (always entirely justified) and strangely familiar sounding anecdotes and one-liners are the sort of thing you like. A thing which it would be perfectly safe to assume for most Deathlist members. Or anyone else for that matter.

 

The author will not thank me for pointing out the 2 or 3 typos I noticed.

 

 

[maryportfuncity 10,646]

The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories.

 

Looks great, anyone here - like - read it?

[Lady Grendel 139]

I'd quite like to read 'Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About' by Mil Millington having stumbled across this site during the week, I'm sure I've read some of it before in a newspaper column. I can particularly relate to this :

 

3) Disappearance of the TV Remote. Precisely who had it last will be hotly disputed, witnesses may be called. Things can turn very nasty indeed when the person who isn't looking for it is revealed to be unknowingly sitting on it.

 

Guilty as charged .

[maryportfuncity 10,646]

Just finished this excellent piece of literature, having downloaded it for the unbeatable bargain price of 1 pound 88 or thereabouts.

I wonder if the improbably-named author gets all of that?

 

Just a wild guess here......the improbably named publisher might make - ooooh - 38 pence on that transaction.

[Canadian Paul 97]

I rarely have time to read for pleasure any more these days, but I have to say that I can't resist picking myself up a copy of Shatnerquake.

[Guest Guest_Tick Tock_*]

Fool - Christopher Moore. As an avid reader of the Author Guy I was a bit apprehensive about this journey into Shakespeare. Nope, he has done it brilliantly. Fool is up there with the best, the humour and storytelling is just as good as Lamb.

[maryportfuncity 10,646]

Recently finished 'Touch Me, I'm Sick' a book by Tom Reynolds about the creepiest love songs ever written. The following lyrics by Sophie B Hawkins are eventually revealed as the creepiest of all time. You might - just - pass the song off as using 'brother' in a very general context, until you start to consider the implications of the Hansel and Gretel monologue at the end. Decent book, not exactly demanding reading, v funny in places.

 

 

 

 

Don't Stop Swaying

I saw you there

All I wanted was to start with you

Was the hardest thing I ever had to do

Till I made you care

 

Yo brother

You sure heard me

Banging on the big drums for your love

You called me baby then

Talked to me like your best friend

When the time was right you were so good

Asked me what I like

And I said

 

Chorus

Don't stop swaying baby

You soothe my soul and I stop searching

When I get lost in the rhythm

Everything stops hurting

Don't stop swaying baby

Take it slow and I keep yearning

 

Again I fall

Lighter than the morning dew

Fresh

'Cause I always never knew

What I'm stumbling on

 

Yo sister

You sure heard me

Singing in the rain for some love

You took me unaware

Said things to make me care

Now the time is ripe and you're so good

Ask me what I like and I say

 

Chorus

 

Spoken:

Hansel and Gretel are holding hands deep in the forest.

They are lost. This is their own story. The two have fallen in love, and so,

after a long quietness amidst the creatures of the night, they begin to kiss.

Traveling like heat through each other's bodies,

they pass through centuries of insecurity and into a rhythm where they are not afraid.

 

Mamma has led these children into the wild unknown for reasons, known,

with father's help, of course, they tried very hard to get back home,

but of course, they could not.

And so, they find themselves through the darkness, through the sadness,

making love, making peace, making music.

They find themselves, through the chaos, making sense.

This is what they want. This is who they are. These are the things they need.

[harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy 1,689]

Although ex-Kursaal Flyers/The Records drummer Will Birch's history of Pub Rock, No Sleep Till Canvey Island, may well constitute an entire nanogenre by itself and boast a total readership that could be comfortably housed in the Hope & Anchor's cellar, it's still a rollicking romp through a musical backwater for which I have a certain soft spot.

 

If you've ever caught yourself wondering about 1970's legendary 'Brinsley Schwarz Hype' or how Ian Dury turned the humble razor blade into a fashion accessory, then this is the book for you.

 

Mine's a pint of black & tan, cheers!

[maryportfuncity 10,646]

The Booker shortlist, has anyone read any of these?

 

 

 

AS Byatt - The Children's Book

JM Coetzee - Summertime

Adam Foulds - The Quickening Maze

Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall

Simon Mawer - The Glass Room

Sarah Waters - The Little Stranger

 

I'm gutted that the awesome Me Cheetah didn't make the final six.

[Lady Grendel 139]

I was wondering how many of us reread books. I was talking to a DL'er tonight who never rereads anything, my ex husband was exactly the same, could not understand why I would want to read a book I'd read before. I suppose it depends on your interests and my ex was only interested in factual books, fiction to him was a no-no. I love to read and never leave the house without a book, nor do I go to bed without reading a few chapters and can often be found burning the midnight oil trying to find out what happens next, in recent months I've reread quite a few books and enjoyed them just as much as I did the first time round, although it can have disapointing results. I loved 'A Town like Alice'read it at 18, reread it at 21, but read it now again in my 40's, wish I hadn't. Rereading great books has always been a pleasure for me and I pick up something different each time.

[Godot 149]

I was wondering how many of us reread books. I was talking to a DL'er tonight who never rereads anything, my ex husband was exactly the same, could not understand why I would want to read a book I'd read before. I suppose it depends on your interests and my ex was only interested in factual books, fiction to him was a no-no. I love to read and never leave the house without a book, nor do I go to bed without reading a few chapters and can often be found burning the midnight oil trying to find out what happens next, in recent months I've reread quite a few books and enjoyed them just as much as I did the first time round, although it can have disapointing results. I loved 'A Town like Alice'read it at 18, reread it at 21, but read it now again in my 40's, wish I hadn't. Rereading great books has always been a pleasure for me and I pick up something different each time.

Why did the third reading disappoint? I read Catch-22 as a teenager and loved it, re-read it a year or two later and enjoyed it again, then picked it up to read a third time a few years later and couldn't work out what the hell it was about, so left it. In the interim I had seen the dreadful film of the book. Perhaps it's time to try it again. Just now I'm reading The Kindly Ones, not sure whether I saw it recommended here or not. It's taking ages.