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Luke_W

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Gone for the first and second Game of Thrones books, I've always managed to avoid the spoilers so I'm going into it with no clue or idea of what is going to happen in it

Pick up the third one too. It's one of my favourite books ever, it's certainly the best in the Song of Ice and Fire series (so far) but a lot of the pleasure in it are the payoffs from things set up in the first two. Avoid any discussion until you have read them, the potential for massive spoilers is a very real thing.

I'll get the third book but I'm not in a great rush at the moment yesterday the first and second books come to about 1600 pages so I doubt if I'll be burning through them in a day or two.

My mate is a massive fan of the books and the series (he prides himself on the fact he was reading them before they were popular) and I am getting regular texts from him wanting to know how far I have got into it

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Honourable Schoolboy could have been such a great miniseries if they'd had the budget (would have required far east location shooting).

 

I have recently started on The Honourable Schoolboy at the same time as watching the TV miniseries of Tinker Tailor with Mr Guinness over the past couple of days. From what I've read so far of THS it's a damn shame it didn't receive similar treatment. Book is fascinating and Guinness' portrayal is fantastic - succeeds in large part due to being really loyal to the book. 

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Honourable Schoolboy could have been such a great miniseries if they'd had the budget (would have required far east location shooting).

 

I have recently started on The Honourable Schoolboy at the same time as watching the TV miniseries of Tinker Tailor with Mr Guinness over the past couple of days. From what I've read so far of THS it's a damn shame it didn't receive similar treatment. Book is fascinating and Guinness' portrayal is fantastic - succeeds in large part due to being really loyal to the book. 

 

 

The BBC did The Complete Smiley a few years back on Radio 4, which included THS.

 

Simon Russell Beale as Smiley was brilliant.

 

I am sure they will repeat it sooner or later.

 

I think the film, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, with Richard Burton, captures the Le Carre atmosphere very well. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just finished Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance, one word: heartbreaking.

Being in India whilst I read the book and seeing these characters jump out of the pages and on to the pavement on a daily basis really enhanced the effect this book had on me and I'd definitely recommend giving it a read.

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About a quarter of the way through The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Enjoying it even if it does bombard you with characters and sub plots. I just love David Mitchell's prose, he does whimsy really well too, and it's about a fascinating place and time in history of which I was completely ignorant. Very enjoyable. 

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Currently reading this

 

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About half way through - basically all about an author suffering from writer's block after a hugely successful debut novel so he goes to visit his old mentor just as the remains of a 15yr old girl, who had been missing for 30 odd years are discovered in the mentor's garden.
 
Very good so far!
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About a quarter of the way through The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Enjoying it even if it does bombard you with characters and sub plots. I just love David Mitchell's prose, he does whimsy really well too, and it's about a fascinating place and time in history of which I was completely ignorant. Very enjoyable. 

 

It's an interesting clash of cultures but I wasn't a fan of the direction it took after the opening section.

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Started reading again just before Christmas and I've got through Alan Carr's biog, Forgotten Voices of the Somme, one of Clarkson's books (can't remember which one, mind!) and the Guy Martin autobiography.

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About a quarter of the way through The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Enjoying it even if it does bombard you with characters and sub plots. I just love David Mitchell's prose, he does whimsy really well too, and it's about a fascinating place and time in history of which I was completely ignorant. Very enjoyable. 

 

It does start well, and I certainly agree about the proliferation of characters. I'll be interested to hear how you feel by the end. I didn't feel I was well enough rewarded for the struggle involved with getting through it, despite some good passages.

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I think Slaughterhouse 5 is one of those books that is better when you study it.   John Green (the author) does a neat series of videos on YouTube where he dissects the book.  Worth watching, spoilers obviously, but I don't think Slaughterhouse 5 is the kind of book which is all about a big reveal so you can go in to in knowing what happens. 

 

 

Edited by The_Rev
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I'm still reading 'The Book of Disquiet' probably one of the most interesting books I've ever read. Can have a gloomy outlook at times though. I've got 'Journey to the End of the Night' to read next by Louis-Ferdinand Céline.

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