Do you read?

[mjmooney]

On 07/11/2016 at 19:08, leemond2008 said:

Speaking with my mate earlier on (I was sitting down reading my book at my desk) and he came over and told me that he's currently reading Lemmy's autobiography, I asked him if it is any good and he said 'yeah I'm about 150 pages into it, I started it just after he died'

Now I understand that some people don't read much but jesus to be reading a book for nearly 12 months...

Took me a year to read Proust. 

[leemond2008]

3 hours ago, mjmooney said:

Took me a year to read Proust. 

Yeah there is a slight difference between Proust and a 250 page biography

[Seat68]

Read Seinfeldia last week, a book about seinfeld. Really gave me the detail I craved, a great insight into the show, its writing process and its lifespan. 

Now on Tom Jones autobiography, so far so good, mentioned Elvis fairly early on.

[The_Rev]

I recently finished We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson which I guess could be considered a classic by now, right?  She's got a reputation as a great horror writer and while I've not read any of her other books (and I believe this is something of a departure from her formula) it goes from being spooky to creepy to downright sinister in places.  Really enjoyed it, the themes of mental illness and mob mentality are as relevant today as they were fifty years ago when this was published. It's a quick read too, one or two sittings. Highly recommended. 

[coda]

Just finished - So You've Been Publicly Shamed is a book by British journalist Jon Ronson about online shaming and its historical antecedents. The book explores the re-emergence of public shaming as an Internet phenomenon, particularly on Twitter.

It influenced Black Mirror and would be a good text to add to the national curriculum, maybe.

[Rodders]

On 11/2/2016 at 13:53, Rodders said:

Couple on the go: 

 

Joyce - A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man - enjoying it so far. Been meaning to read it for a long time since finishing The Dubliners, and I like the style, mix of third person narrative with the consciousness of young Stephen. Again has made me look up so much more about the contemporary world of Irish politics which has gotten a few references so far. Also, think the word Cod as slang for joke or jape needs to come back into use again. 

Enjoyed it, effective style, though I'm going to switch back to more contemporary stuff for a while, might save Ulysses for a summer break - found myself looking up quite few more old fashioned terms, and testing my Latin - which was fun but nonetheless a less cerebral spell will do. 

I think Pratchett's Mort will be next or City on Fire - which I picked up on a recent browse:

Quote

Midnight, New Year’s Eve, 1976. Nine lives are about to be changed forever.

Regan and William Hamilton-Sweeney, heirs to one of New York's greatest fortunes; Keith and Mercer, the men who, for better or worse, love them; Charlie and Samantha, two suburban teenagers seduced by the punk scene; an obsessive magazine reporter and his idealistic neighbour – and the detective trying to figure out what any of them have to do with a shooting in Central Park on New Year’s Eve. 

Then, on July 13th, 1977, the lights go out.

 

Seems to have mixed reviews but looks a little different to what I've read recently. 

[The_Rev]

I'm flying through Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. It's a coming of age tale about a thirteen year old boy in 1982.   Mitchell is a hell of a writer, I never have any trouble getting lost in the worlds he creates (Cloud Atlas, Jacob de Zoet, Slade House) but this one is particularly hitting home.  I'm probably just about in the sweet spot for the book, I can kinda remember the era, Mitchell has got about ten years on me, and it seems I had a somewhat similar childhood to the protagonist growing up on the fringes of the West Midland's green belt so it's very easy to picture the fields he describes and get some of the more regional references too.  He dances on the edge of laying it on a bit thick with the nostalgia at times and there are a few too many moments where he almost invites the reader, who has the benefit of 25 years of hindsight, to giggle at the naivety of the characters predictions about how the world is going to go.  
 
I like it though, I like it because it somehow manages to be both all over the place and totally coherent at the same time. It can almost switch genre from chapter to chapter and it's excellent at pointing out how multi faceted people are, you see the personality and persona of so many characters in the book and it's incredibly interesting how Mitchell pulls that off in a convincing manner.  It's also witty, poignant and spooky. I'm really really enjoying it.  If you are male and old enough to remember Maggie Thatcher, Findus Crispy Pancakes and being able to stay out with your mates until it got dark then definitely consider picking it up. 
 

[Rodders]

Yes I like Mitchell, draws characters so very well. Only read Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks of his but both were excellent, switching genres or periods and back again appears to be a speciality of his. Frustrating when you just want more of where you are sometimes but always comes together very well.

[The_Rev]

I wholeheartedly recommend The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet then. It's got a more traditional structure but it's set in an incredibly interesting place. It's from the height of the VOC where the Dutch had an exclusive deal to trade with Japan but were forbidden from setting foot on Japanese soil. Naturally there is a love triangle and a sea battle. It's brilliant. 

[Seat68]

On 11/7/2016 at 19:08, leemond2008 said:

Speaking with my mate earlier on (I was sitting down reading my book at my desk) and he came over and told me that he's currently reading Lemmy's autobiography, I asked him if it is any good and he said 'yeah I'm about 150 pages into it, I started it just after he died'

Now I understand that some people don't read much but jesus to be reading a book for nearly 12 months...

Its not a bad book all told, he had some very old fashioned views but even for someone like me that knows nothing about Motorhead it was a pretty interesting read.

 

On books that took me an age to read, the first volume of the Elvis biography, Last Train To Memphis. I love Elvis and want to know about his life but blimey it was a chore, took me 12 months purely because it was so dull.

Edited November 29, 2016 by Seat68

[villakram]

Just finished "History of the World in 100 Objects", which I picked up in the British museum over the summer. It's supposedly based on a beeb radio show of the same name. Anyway, if you're interested in an easy to pick up, segmented read and a slightly different take on the history genre, I'd highly recommend this.

[mjmooney]

Anybody else read Jonathan Littell's "The Kindly Ones"? On it at the moment. Good, but **** ing grim. 

[mottaloo]

I'm on the second book of Colm O'Regan's books about irish mammies - if you are the son of one, you'll totally get it ! It's made me laugh out loud many a time 

[Seat68]

Outside of biographies I read the Alex Cross series that has James Pattersons name attached to them. It's a guilty pleasure, reading his latest this week, Cross The Line before I move on to a George Jones biography next week.

[theboyangel]

Reading David Wong's John Dies At The End - very druggy but still fairly coherent.

Quite enjoying it so will look to read his other books afterwards (This Book Is Full Of Spiders and Futuristic Violence And Fancy Suits)

[mjmooney]

Currently on the most recent Louis de Bernieres (The Dust That Falls From Dreams) and Robert Shelton's Dylan biog No Direction Home. 

[Ginko]

Read Blake Crouch's latest effort, Dark Matter. It's a story centred around the multiverse theory and throws in a couple of other concepts here and there too. A tight story, well-written and full of thrills and suspense, I read it in three nights I was that into it. Very clever, might check out his Wayward Pines series soon.

Now I'm onto Ready Player One, which I've had recommended to me several times. I'm a bit of a movies and games nerd so it should be right up my street but some of it is a bit on the nose and cringeworthy, especially the dialogue between the geeks in the chat rooms. I'll see it through but I hope it improves soon.

[theboyangel]

I quite enjoyed ready player one. 

Keep with it

[ermie123]

Missing 411 got the series very very head wrecking!

[leemond2008]

 

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One of the most significant and intriguing Gothic novels of the Victorian period and is enjoyed today as a modern psychological thriller. In UNCLE SILAS (1864) Le Fanu brought up to date Mrs Radcliffe's earlier tales of virtue imprisoned and menacedby unscrupulous schemers. The narrator, Maud Ruthyn, is a 17 year old orphan left in the care of her fearful uncle, Silas. Together with his boorish son and a sinister French governess, Silas plots to kill Maud and claim her fortune. The novel established Le Fanu as a master of horror fiction.

finished this the other day, cracking book, a real slow burner and ultimately not a lot happens throughout but it's still really good, considering when it was first published its a really easy read as well.

I'd recommend it if you like books from this period but don't fancy anything as tough as things like The Monk or Melmoth the Wonderer.

 

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Mattie Ross, 14, from Dardanelle, Arkansas, narrates half a century later, her trip in the winter of 1870s, to avenge the murder of her father. She convinces one-eyed "Rooster" Cogburn, the meanest available U.S. Marshall, to tag along, while she outdickers and outmaneuvers the hard-bitten types in her path. Basis of John Wayne movie and re-make.

Well this one needs no introduction, one of my fave books, started it yesterday finished it this morning

 

Quote

A gripping tale of human unrelieved horror, of survival and resilience, and of the ways in which humankind confronts death, The Plague is at once a masterfully crafted novel, eloquently understated and epic in scope, and a parable of ageless moral resonance, profoundly relevant to our times. In Oran, a coastal town in North Africa, the plague begins as a series of portents, unheeded by the people. It gradually becomes a omnipresent reality, obliterating all traces of the past and driving its victims to almost unearthly extremes of suffering, madness, and compassion.

Going to be starting this tomorrow, never heard of it before so I took a little gamble on it, I think it was released in the 40's or 50's, quite looking forward to it.