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Luke_W

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  • 2 weeks later...

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Just finished Station Eleven, which was released to rave reviews about six months ago.  I passed over it at the time because I'd had my fill of post apocalyptic fiction which all tend centre on the basic premise that "hell is other people" but I'm really glad I picked this up because it blew me away.   I'd go as far as to say that it moves the genre on somewhat because it's a book all about hope and beauty.  It jumps around to events immediately before, during and about twenty years after a variant of swine flu wipes out 99% of the world's population in less than a month and follows a bunch of characters who have loose connections to each other whether it was through mutual friends or just being in the room when a certain event happened.   It's beautifully written, has some incredibly realised characters and the way it jumps from time to time or location to location (it's mostly set on the Canadian/American border surrounding the great lakes) is really smart.  I highly recommend it because it's so much more than a good example of genre fiction. 

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Just picked this up at the library-

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Funnily enough I'm 'half-reading' that myself atm (i.e. dipping into a chapter now and then between other books).

Reading is for prisoners.

We are all prisoners.
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Quite a French thing to say, Mooney. Have you been at the brie?

On that note, I'm about to start Houellebecq's 'Atomised'. Heard great & terrible things about it.

Bien sûr. Toujours le brie, mon petit choux.

Mais je n'ai pas raison - nous ne sommes pas tous prisonnieres. Certains d'entre nous sont gardes.

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On that note, I'm about to start Houellebecq's 'Atomised'. Heard great & terrible things about it.

 

It's a good read, from what I can remember, but bleak and pessimistic. I think he's currently in hiding due to his recent book.

 

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I read autobiographies/biographies, mostly of musicians and sportsmen and women.

 

Most recent one was a new one on Sir Tom Jones, highly recommended if you like him as it goes into a lot of depth about his life as a child and young bloke before he got famous:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tom-Jones-Life-Sean-Smith/dp/000810445X


Oh and I've got these too, the top one's gonna need updating soon :)

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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Just finished Irvine Welsh's third book in three years, A Decent Ride.  A weird one to judge, I'm a huge fan of Irvine Welsh, I don't think I've failed to get one of his books within a week or so of release since Filth came out in '98 and for the most part I really enjoy them.  Last year's Sex Lives of Siamese Twins was excellent but this one felt a bit half baked.  

 

It's about 'Juice' Terry Lawson who was an amazing background character in several other Irvine Welsh books and he's a very strong character in this one too.  The plot is really what lets it down, large parts of it read like a first draft, there are sections which are paper thin and seemingly throwaway bits at the start which all of a sudden turn out to be extremely important by the end.     There are some genuine belly laughs in it though, and any book which can do that is always worth a mention so I'd recommend it if like me you are a fan but don't go out of your way to pick this one up. 

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I'll tell you something interesting. I've bought three George Orwell books for my Kindle. So Amazon know I like Orwell. As a result when I go to buy a fourth Orwell book, it's twice the price compared to when I search the book without being signed in to my amazon kindle account. Amazon say it's because prices are different between countries. So I set up another amazon account based in Ireland. It's half the price on there.

 

Kindle charge extra for books by an author they know you like. 

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Working my way through this...

 

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good choice

I've got this one

 

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I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover and all that but it really is a lovely book

 

 

The book is exquisitely designed with bonded-leather bindings, distinctive gilt edging and an attractive silk-ribbon bookmark. Decorative, durable, and collectible, the Leatherbound Classics series offers hours of pleasure to readers young and old and is an indispensable cornerstone for any home library.

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PYxHwoF.jpg

 

Just finished Station Eleven, which was released to rave reviews about six months ago.  I passed over it at the time because I'd had my fill of post apocalyptic fiction which all tend centre on the basic premise that "hell is other people" but I'm really glad I picked this up because it blew me away.   I'd go as far as to say that it moves the genre on somewhat because it's a book all about hope and beauty.  It jumps around to events immediately before, during and about twenty years after a variant of swine flu wipes out 99% of the world's population in less than a month and follows a bunch of characters who have loose connections to each other whether it was through mutual friends or just being in the room when a certain event happened.   It's beautifully written, has some incredibly realised characters and the way it jumps from time to time or location to location (it's mostly set on the Canadian/American border surrounding the great lakes) is really smart.  I highly recommend it because it's so much more than a good example of genre fiction. 

 

I bought this when I was in Newcastle the other day purely based on your review of it, I'm looking forward to finishing the 3rd Game of Thrones book now so I can get started on this one

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