Read Any Good Books Lately?

[Paul Bearer 5,755]

Has any body read Influx by JC Jones? If so, whats it like? (An UN-biased opinion please)

[Tempus Fugit 212]

How many DLers have read Influx by J C Jones?

I have.

 

It's not quite as good as Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers by Harry Harrison.

At least one DL member has, or so he says.

[maryportfuncity 10,043]

Absolutely lovin' David Mitchell's 'Ghostwritten' at the moment. First 109 pages, i.e. first three sections very gripping and thought provoking.

[Banshees Scream 107]

Has any body read Influx by JC Jones? If so, whats it like? (An UN-biased opinion please)

 

I wouldn't doubt JC Jones has a spark in his pen, for all I know his vocabulary might top our very own In Eternum+. I thought about purchasing the book, though I haven't made any commitment. I wonder how many stars?

[Six 22]

I've just finished reading Slavomir Rawicz's ' The Long Walk '. A totally unbelievable true story (!) about the author's escape from the Red Army, and subsequent trek to freedom, during WW2. An amazing journey with many tragedies and many heart-warming moments.

[maryportfuncity 10,043]

David Crosby tells how he survived everything. Forthcoming. Might give it a punt, after I get round to reading Influx, of course.

[Rebecca de Winter 7]

Normally I don't mind typos and misspellings much, but that one gets on my tits.

Nicely used!

 

It's one of the few things that drive me nuts, misspelling atheist.

Is it any wonder 'atheist' gets spelled wrong, what with it contradicting the whole "'i' after 'e' except after 'c'" rule? You atheists... always trying to be different, aren't you?

 

It's actually "i" before "e" except after "c', (not before) so there is no contradiction at all, just in case you had any doubt that you were wrong.

[Rebecca de Winter 7]

...which I can now see that you do, since more than one person answered you....I'm a bit slow with the reading of the thread...

[maryportfuncity 10,043]

I before E so it's; Magere Hien, hmmm, not sure about that.

[DevonDeathTrip 2,294]

I've dumbed down and read "The Other Side Of Nowhere" by Daniella Westbrook.

 

I don't think she'll win the Nobel Prize For Literature, but it was a very good read, describing her slide in to drug addled, septum rotting oblivion.

[Tempus Fugit 212]

Bollocks To Alton Towers, a celebration of truly British days out, none of your corporate OTT hullabaloo.

[BrunoBrimley 83]

I just learned that Paulo Coelho who wrote the simply superbly herb laced book (I dropped my,um,er, Basil and oregano on it) any wya he wrote the sensational (without being sensationalist)) the sensational book Veronika Decides To Die.

 

 

And Senor Coelho is slated to e 60 next year since he was birthed in 19and47

 

And isn't it interesting that he wrote a book named so conclusively and nicely for this site and its purposes.?

 

 

 

 

Day by day day by day day by day by day by day by day by day.....I think I tossed the album from The Hillside Singers.

[Tempus Fugit 212]

The Stars' Tennis Balls by Stephen Fry.

 

This modern re-telling of The Count of Monte Cristo is superb, most of the characters are anagrams of Dumas' originals.

[BrunoBrimley 83]

The Stars' Tennis Balls by Stephen Fry.

 

This modern re-telling of The Count of Monte Cristo is superb, most of the characters are anagrams of Dumas' originals.

I didn;t like the original so whut makes you believed I'd give a flying fig about this version?

[Typhoid Harry 21]

The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer. Highly recommend it.

 

Amazon UK link.

 

Amazon US link.

 

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

"Long before it legally served me, the bar saved me," asserts J.R. Moehringer, and his compelling memoir The Tender Bar is the story of how and why. A Pulitzer-Prize winning writer for the Los Angeles Times, Moehringer grew up fatherless in pub-heavy Manhasset, New York, in a ramshackle house crammed with cousins and ruled by an eccentric, unkind grandfather. Desperate for a paternal figure, he turns first to his father, a DJ whom he can only access via the radio (Moehringer calls him The Voice and pictures him as "talking smoke"). When The Voice suddenly disappears from the airwaves, Moehringer turns to his hairless Uncle Charlie, and subsequently, Uncle Charlie's place of employment--a bar called Dickens that soon takes center stage. While Moehringer may occasionally resort to an overwrought metaphor (the footsteps of his family sound like "storm troopers on stilts"), his writing moves at a quick clip and his tale of a dysfunctional but tightly knit community is warmly told. "While I fear that we're drawn to what abandons us, and to what seems most likely to abandon us, in the end I believe we're defined by what embraces us," Moehringer says, and his story makes us believe it. --Brangien Davis --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

 

 

From The New Yorker

In the mid-seventies, Moehringer, aged nine, first entered Dickens, a smoky Long Island pub. Through the next decades it became, variously, his hideout, "holy place," surrogate father, and "security blanket." But, perhaps as a result of his reverence for the place-and despite his assurances that he can accurately recall drunken conversations long past-scenes there often feel contrived and mawkish. The stronger episodes in this memoir, such as an endearing series of failures while working as a Times copyboy, take place away from Dickens’s hazy influence. Revering a bar had other dangers, too; Moehringer eventually becomes unhappy with his drinking habits and decides that "growing up" means "sobering up." The bar had started to seem like a "submarine trapped on the ocean floor."

Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

[BrunoBrimley 83]

The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer. Highly recommend it.

 

Amazon UK link.

 

Amazon US link.

 

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

"Long before it legally served me, the bar saved me," .

I caqnn most sibstantially realtie to that.

I any go to arnes and noble and byu a copu of that boook.

[themaninblack 2,112]

Have I read any good books recently?

 

No, but i intend to read H.G Well's Outline of History....

[themaninblack 2,112]

I've got loads of books to read, but I find I spend too much time on death based websites!

[TLC 9]

The Coming Of The Third Reich by Richard J Evans is good, it covers the 'how on earth did Germany get into that position?' question in much more detail than usual; it's about how Nazism was gradually allowed to seep into all aspects of German society. This book only covers up to 1933, I'm about to purchase the second of the trilogy as I really want to know what happens next...

 

The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night Time by Mark Haddon comes recommended. A mystery written from the point of view of a 15 year old with Asbergers' Syndrome; I can't vouch for its accuracy in portraying the main character but it's a very good and very different style of read at the very least.

 

The First Casualty by Ben Elton is one of his better ones, set in WW1. Quite a serious book for Mr Elton, but well written I thought. Just don't read the horrendous blurb inside the front cover that has a lovely soft-focus picture of him and an incredibly puffed up account of his all round genius, as it might make you a bit ill.

[Lady Grendel 138]

The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night Time by Mark Haddon comes recommended. A mystery written from the point of view of a 15 year old with Asbergers' Syndrome; I can't vouch for its accuracy in portraying the main character but it's a very good and very different style of read at the very least.

 

I read this too about 18 months ago and thoroughly enjoyed it, like you I don't know how accurate Mr. Haddons account of Asbergers' Syndrome is, but it still made a very good read, then again my Dad read it too and we have quite similar tastes in books (apart from his love of Westerns and mine of bodice rippers!) and he didn't like it at all.

 

The First Casualty by Ben Elton is one of his better ones, set in WW1. Quite a serious book for Mr Elton, but well written I thought. Just don't read the horrendous blurb inside the front cover that has a lovely soft-focus picture of him and an incredibly puffed up account of his all round genius, as it might make you a bit ill.

 

I have to admit I have only read the opening chapter of this book, which I enjoyed, but went through one of my periods of 'can read won't read', which is a side effect of the head injury I sustained in an accident (see the 'doctor doctor' thread for more details), it means I want to read but my mind takes off on flights of fantasy leaving me unable to concentrate, but that was 2 months ago and I have successsfully read quite a few books since then including 'Hungerford' by Jeremy Josephs which I have since found out is available to read on the web, Whole book here.

[maryportfuncity 10,043]

Just finished 'Explorers of the New Century' by Magnus Mills; one of my all-time favourite authors. Should've read this ages ago. His usual understated and ironic comic genius with a hint of something darker, highly recommended.

 

Also caught up on Nick Hornby's 'A Long Way Down' recently, about four people who meet on New Years Eve when they all decide to jump off the same tower block. Pretty good although if you're not bothered about reading it you'll doubtless be able to enjoy the edited highlights when the inevitable film of the book is made.

[Anubis the Jackal 76]

'Berlin - The Downfall 1945' by Anthony Beevor.

 

 

 

It's always useful to have your faith in humanity smashed in a thousand pieces every now and again.

[maryportfuncity 10,043]

ATJ: It's always useful to have your faith in humanity smashed in a thousand pieces every now and again.

 

MPFC: Well, either that or being gifted with the chance to keep it real. Either way, I reckon you can't beat the DL for regular reminders that everything turns to dust in the end.

 

Go well.

[in eternum+ 20]

ATJ: It's always useful to have your faith in humanity smashed in a thousand pieces every now and again.

 

MPFC: Well, either that or being gifted with the chance to keep it real. Either way, I reckon you can't beat the DL for regular reminders that everything turns to dust in the end.

 

ie+: Except for Mr Lenin, of course...

[Banshees Scream 107]

I'm about to start John Kenneth Galbraith's 'The Affluent Society' Something tells me to read it. Conventional Wisdom...