Book thread: what are you reading?

[Severus]

My daughter has recommended it to me

Think I might give it a go

I'm about halfway through. The two main characters are very unlikaable but it's very compelling. Trying to get it read before I see the film.

[timtum]

I'm currently thoroughly enjoying Carl Hiaasen's Star Island.  Hysterically funny with the return of the governor from the swamps,  a paparazzo with BO, a pop starlet who is the embodiment of everyone out there, a bodyguard with a prosthetic weed whacker.....

 

I really would recommend his canon.

 

Previously read the Jo Nesbo Harry Hole in Thailand which I really enjoyed, and his latest ( I think ) Police, which I didn't.

[getdownmonkeyman]

Danny Baker's Going Off Alarming. Which is the sequel to Going to Seain a Sieve, which I haven't read, but have just purchased. 

[Futtocks]

Danny Baker's Going Off Alarming. Which is the sequel to Going to Seain a Sieve, which I haven't read, but have just purchased. 

Both excellent reads! 

[stimpo-and-kat]

Birdman by Mo Hayder

[Larry the Leit]

Great. The first one was really good. If you get the audiobook he reads the whole book himself (unlike a lot of writers) and a lot of the stories, particularly the ones involving his dad, are even funnier with him doing the voices. (Skulduggery boy!).

 

I took this advice, this was my first audiobook.  I loved it.  I usually listen to Baker on a Saturday morning, I don't see him as a broadcasting genius as some do, but he has his moments.  The audio book was brilliant, I cannot wait for the next one.

[villager]

two of the best books i ever read was the late tom mitchells autobiography and cec thompson,i particulary  was amazed to read cec when he stated that when he signed for workington town  the crowd christened him darkie,,,a name he looked on with affection,,,,,how times have changed

[Larry the Leit]

two of the best books i ever read was the late tom mitchells autobiography and cec thompson,i particulary  was amazed to read cec when he stated that when he signed for workington town  the crowd christened him darkie,,,a name he looked on with affection,,,,,how times have changed

 

I've read Cec's book.  It's great until the point at the end when he cites Seb Coe as a hero.  It spoilt it for me. 

[Futtocks]

Just finished a couple of excellent biographies.
'Just the one' by Graham Lord, about the legendarily dissipated writer Jeffrey Bernard.
'The Quest for Corvo' by A.J.A.Symons, about the writer, artist, tramp, litigant, pederast, sponger and generally peculiar character Frederick Rolfe, aka Baron Corvo.

Now getting stuck into The Ingoldsby Legends, which is good fun.

[Red Willow]

Guy Martin

I'm reading that as well, it seems to be went racing, fell off, went racing fell out with this bloke. amazing how little money here is in road racing.

 

I can't take to Jo Nesbo, over long

[villager]

i happened to get a copy of the late chris balderstones autobiography and was stunned  when i read he was the only man to play in a first class cricket match and play in a  football league game the same day,more remarkable is the fact  that chris fielded all day,,only saw chris play a few times for carlisle united,a good all round player who had the lot,,and then of course hewent on to be a first class umpire,,,what a sportsman.

[Trojan]

I've just finished Evelyn Waugh's "Vile Bodies" a satire on the thirties "bright young things."  Waugh was very right wing, but is an excellent writer, I always enjoy his stuff.  Scoop, and Decline and Fall are really funny.  The "Sword of Honour" trilogy are always rewarding, funny, informative, with an excellent plot. Funnily enough the only book of Waugh's I haven't enjoyed is the most famous Brideshead.

[Futtocks]

I've just finished Evelyn Waugh's "Vile Bodies" a satire on the thirties "bright young things."  Waugh was very right wing, but is an excellent writer, I always enjoy his stuff.  Scoop, and Decline and Fall are really funny.  The "Sword of Honour" trilogy are always rewarding, funny, informative, with an excellent plot. Funnily enough the only book of Waugh's I haven't enjoyed is the most famous Brideshead.

Brideshead isn't classic Waugh, but the TV adaptation was so well done, it made the book much more famous than some of the other, better, ones.

 

'Black Mischief' is another funny one, while 'Labels' is his account of a Mediterranean holiday and is pretty good.

[Futtocks]

I'm currently dipping into 'Footypedia' by Daniel Maier. It's a 'Meaning of Liff' for Football. Here's a few tasters:

• Beagrie (v.) - to feel one's anger dissipate in the time between phoning a Football phone-in and being put through.

   

   

• Solano (n.) - supporter who launches into song on the terraces, only for nobody to join in.

   

   

• Cantello (n.) - sympathetic supporter who belatedly accompanies the solano in order to temper his and everyone's embarrassment.

   

   

• Crangle (n.) - rsentment experienced by a club's second-oldest supporter, who never gets VIP treatment or press coverage.

   

   

• Buttle (v.) - to tell listeners that they can catch a game live on the radio when everyone knows full well it's live on TV, courtesy of another broadcaster.

   

   

• Bosbury (n.) - player regarded with suspicion by team-mates because he reads a broadsheet newspaper.

 

[Exiled Townie]

 

In 1836 in East Texas, nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped by Comanches. She was raised by the tribe and eventually became the wife of a warrior. Twenty-four years after her capture, she was recaptured by the U.S. cavalry and Texas Rangers and restored to her white family, to die in misery and obscurity. Cynthia Ann's story was then told in a best seller in the 1950's in a book by Alan LeMay, which would be then be adapted into one of Hollywood's most legendary films, The Searchers, directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, frequently voted as the best western ever made.

This book tells three stories in one, the original incident, the writing of the best seller and the making on the film.  If you like Western films and history, this book is well worth a read.

 

 

Just finished this one as well, a history book that reads like a novel, written by an Anglican priest, who is chaplain to the SAS, and curator of The 17th/21st Lancers Regimental Museum, so has unrivalled access to documents about the charge.  Makes some bold assumptions ( the charge was a success) and full of details that you probably have never heard of before, like the regimental butcher 'Butcher Jack' Vahey who went on the charge still wearing his bloody apron and carrying his butchers axe.

Very enjoyable and written so that anyone who knows nothing about the Crimean war can understand what it was all about.

[Roughyhead true]

The shock of the fall. Similarish to the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime.

[Futtocks]

Philip Roth - Portnoy's Complaint. Relentless and a bit samey throughout. A deluge of exclamation and question marks. And frenzied masturbation. 

 

Like a neurotic with a megaphone shouting at you while simultaneously prodding you in the chest with... let's not go into that.

 

The kind of conceit-with-a-touch-of-self-loathing-and-edgy-misogyny that critics like, perhaps, rather than people who read for pleasure. I finished it, but I make a point of doing that, even Ishiguro's frustrating, numbing 'The Unconsoled'. Don't read that, by the way. I did it so you don't have to.

[Futtocks]

The Spanish Ambassador's Suitcase, a compilation of British diplomatic corps confidential 'funnies', compiled by Matthew Parris. Very good!

[C H Calthrop]

The British Spy Manual, The Authentic SOE Guide for WWII. Introduction by Sinclair McKay. 

Equipment supplied to the dirty tricks brigade. 

[longboard]

Philip Roth - Portnoy's Complaint. Relentless and a bit samey throughout. A deluge of exclamation and question marks. And frenzied masturbation. 

 

Like a neurotic with a megaphone shouting at you while simultaneously prodding you in the chest with... let's not go into that.

 

The kind of conceit-with-a-touch-of-self-loathing-and-edgy-misogyny that critics like, perhaps, rather than people who read for pleasure. I finished it, but I make a point of doing that, even Ishiguro's frustrating, numbing 'The Unconsoled'. Don't read that, by the way. I did it so you don't have to.

 

You may recall a quip about Portnoy's Complaint along the lines of, "I'd like to meet the author but I wouldn't want to shake his hand."

[Futtocks]

You may recall a quip about Portnoy's Complaint along the lines of, "I'd like to meet the author but I wouldn't want to shake his hand."

That could also be applied to Nicholson Baker, author of 'The Fermata' which is actually even more onanistic.

[Phil]

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The old gods still walk the earth but are living obscure poverty ridden lives. The mysterious Mr Wednesday (Odin?) tries to lead them in a war against the new up and coming gods, Media, Telivision, Internet etc with the help of Shadow an ex con he travels the USA gathering his forces

I couldn't put it down

[Futtocks]

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The old gods still walk the earth but are living obscure poverty ridden lives. The mysterious Mr Wednesday (Odin?) tries to lead them in a war against the new up and coming gods, Media, Telivision, Internet etc with the help of Shadow an ex con he travels the USA gathering his forces

I couldn't put it down

I used to have that, but lost it a few years ago. I thought it was very good too.

[Wolford6]

I don't think I've read a book for about twenty years but, if this woman's written an autobiography, I'd make the effort.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_Smith

[WearyRhino]

I don't think I've read a book for about twenty years but, if this woman's written an autobiography, I'd make the effort.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_Smith

 

Do you mean like the one that's clearly referenced in the link you have provided?