sonic_bouma Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Very excited by this news. Cannot wait to read the sequel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 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. Three quarters of the way through now, Part Three and the British have just arrived. The deeper into this book I get the more I realise it's actually about the time, the place and the characters who inhabit it rather than about a 'traditional' plot. I'm enjoying it a lot. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC_Hitz Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 I'm trundling through The Master and Margarita at the moment. Really, really enjoyable and darkly comic. I'll add more when I finish it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted February 11, 2015 VT Supporter Share Posted February 11, 2015 I'm trundling through The Master and Margarita at the moment. Really, really enjoyable and darkly comic. I'll add more when I finish it. Truly fantastic book. [emoji106] 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PussEKatt Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Just got "Americas most haunted" looks interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YLN Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Reading Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London at the moment. Really enjoying it. His daily search for tea is something I can associate with quite well. Nice to get some background on the desolation he was able to describe in Nineteen Eighty Four as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post 8pints Posted February 14, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 14, 2015 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted February 14, 2015 Moderator Share Posted February 14, 2015 I've been reading the internet. I'm tempted to look at the last page to see what happened. So far it's quite interesting, if a little tetchy - there's some Cats saying stuff about cheeseburgers (though the sub-editing of that chapter leaves a lot to be desired). Also it goes into a whole buch of conspiracies. The politicians are the evil characters, in the main - kind of like the illuminati. But it also covers music, sport, drugs, sex, cars and gadgets and there's a kind of narrator called "Google" who helps when you get lost in the plot. I'm about half way through, now - On the chapter about America and it being a good idea to head for the hills with lots of guns. That bit's funny. There's already a sequel lined up called "the darknet". 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 Somewhere near the start there is a whole section of "Chuck Norris facts" which is actually quite amusing. The problem is the exact same jokes get used again about five years later as James Milner facts and it's tedious. I've not finished the internet either but I presume that they will be repurposed again at some point in the not too distant future. The last page is kinda disappointing if you were expecting a revelation though. It reminded me of No Country for Old Men. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted February 14, 2015 Moderator Share Posted February 14, 2015 I have Slaughterhouse 5 on my list to read soon. Care to elaborate any more, I'd be interested in your views. I think, like the Rev said, it's not a book that contains a big reveal, it sort of demands that you fill that in yourself, but there's no development, no resolution, no discussion of the fascinating thing as to how he ended up this way, what will happen to him, whether there is some sort of redemption. Ultimately, it's like visiting with a mental patient who has lived through a terrible thing - you feel a sense of sadness, but ultimately frustration that there's nothing you can do and they're never going to change or learn or offer anything. It was like a character study of a character that should have been in a novel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villaajax Posted February 15, 2015 Share Posted February 15, 2015 Not one of them would give up their seat for that woman. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Not one of them would give up their seat for that woman. she can sit on my lap. also, there is a spare seat next to the sleeping man if she really wants to sit down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted February 28, 2015 VT Supporter Share Posted February 28, 2015 On a slightly related note I'm reading Ulysses and decided to abandon the annotation and just read it flat out and it's highly enjoyable, even if the allusions just go in one ear and out the other, in fact I nearly fist pump any time I get one. Just finished Ulysses. Fantastic book, but not for the faint-hearted. At the start of each 'episode', I read a few pages ahead in the notes, but after that just went with the flow. I feel I would have got more out of it if I'd been familiar with Dublin's fair city, but hey ho. As a self-confessed fan of 1920s modernist literature, I felt I HAD to read it, and I'm glad I did. Chilling out now with a bit of Alan Furst ("Mission to Paris") for light relief. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 2/3 of the way through and Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Just started book one of The Laundry Files. Seems fun if not entirely original. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Just finished God Is Not Great by the late, great Christopher Hitchens. Very interesting. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 I can't understand how Hitchens fell for the Iraq War hype, he was so sharp on just about everything else. There's a great debate online between him and Tony Blair. Well worth watching, it's a religion debate, and not long after Blair converted. Blair is made to look pretty silly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Just starting "look whose back" by Temur Vermes Hitler has just woken up in 2011.... Ok i've not got much further than that just now but it sounds like the book offers some thought provoking satire Will report back in a few days ... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 I can't understand how Hitchens fell for the Iraq War hype, he was so sharp on just about everything else. There's a great debate online between him and Tony Blair. Well worth watching, it's a religion debate, and not long after Blair converted. Blair is made to look pretty silly. Think 9/11 sent him neocon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Just starting "look whose back" by Temur Vermes Hitler has just woken up in 2011.... Ok i've not got much further than that just now but it sounds like the book offers some thought provoking satire Will report back in a few days ... Look Who's Back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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