mjmooney Posted March 13, 2010 VT Supporter Share Posted March 13, 2010 Finished "If I Die in a Combat Zone", now onto Hunter S. Thompson's "The Rum Diary". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted March 13, 2010 VT Supporter Share Posted March 13, 2010 Stephen King is one of the recognized experts on J2EE... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted March 14, 2010 Share Posted March 14, 2010 Recently finished Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth. Very funny. Now reading Money by Martin Amis. Oh the depravity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodders Posted March 14, 2010 Share Posted March 14, 2010 putting the bryson down for the weekend and started on my Daschiel Hammett collection last night. Much more fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theboyangel Posted March 14, 2010 Share Posted March 14, 2010 Currently reading Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - going pretty well at the moment but only a 3rd in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyShears Posted March 14, 2010 Share Posted March 14, 2010 Been reading a lot of Chuck Palahniuk recently. Currently reading 'Rant'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rendelc Posted March 14, 2010 Share Posted March 14, 2010 Part way through Generation Kill by Evan Wright. Very good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted March 14, 2010 Share Posted March 14, 2010 Just started reading Empire of Sands by Robert Ryan ... story about Lawrence of Arabia given the sort of true but not quite true fictional story angle .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted March 15, 2010 VT Supporter Share Posted March 15, 2010 Just started reading Empire of Sands by Robert Ryan ... story about Lawrence of Arabia given the sort of true but not quite true fictional story angle ..Read that last year, enjoyed it. I like Ryan's books, read most of them, but his last couple before that one had gone off the boil a bit. I thought "Sands" was a return to form. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Santa_Rosa Posted May 3, 2010 Share Posted May 3, 2010 Always worth digging up this thread I reckon. My current, but hopefully temporary, job means the best part of two hours in total travelling on the Metro into the Toon and has meant that I'm ploughing through books at the minute. In the last fortnight I've: - finally finished Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and it was well worth it IMO - just the concept and that scale of the thing is impressive and to tie everything in to a very readable, and sort of believable story, is mind-boggling really. - polished off Drama City by George Pelecanos. My 3rd book by him and will definitely not be the last. Superb crime writing - set on the streets of Washington DC and, as you'd expect from one of David Simon's collaborators, like reading an episode of The Wire. - got halfway through On The Road by Jack Kerouac, which I'm enjoying, and hope to finish this week. Next up either The Perfect Spy by John Le Carre or one of a couple of Ian McEwans I've recently acquired from the excellent Bookmooch - many of those on my Bookmooch wishlist have come from this very thread. That Le Carre one from Mr Mooney IIRC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted May 3, 2010 VT Supporter Share Posted May 3, 2010 In the past couple of weeks I've -reread Terry Pratchett's Carpe Jugulum, which is a good satire of vampires and has some ideas on the notion of religion too. -finally read No Country for Old Men, which after the film I enjoyed a lot and flew through, although I found McCarthy's style (lack of quotation marks for speech especially) a bit jarring at first, and I'm still not sure I like it. but otherwise a very good read. -and start Iain Banks' Whit, 4 chapters in and liking where it seems to be going currently, even I think the overall plot arch looks a little predictable I think it'll be a good read regardless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted May 3, 2010 Share Posted May 3, 2010 I know people that refuse to read McCarthy because of the style of writing, it's odd at first but once you get used to it you realise why he does it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWeedMcGrass Posted May 3, 2010 Share Posted May 3, 2010 Currently reading Joseph Conrad's Heart of darkness for the third time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted May 3, 2010 VT Supporter Share Posted May 3, 2010 - finally finished Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and it was well worth it IMO - just the concept and that scale of the thing is impressive and to tie everything in to a very readable, and sort of believable story, is mind-boggling really.My wife raved about this, and I gave it a go a couple of months ago. Couldn't get on with it at all, and gave up after about four chapters. Reminded me of Dickens - her favourite writer, but my bete noir. - got halfway through On The Road by Jack Kerouac, which I'm enjoying, and hope to finish this week. My daughter's just read this - she loved it. I read it in my 20s and I thought it was OK, but a bit lacking in plot (which was kind of the point, I know). - Next up either The Perfect Spy by John Le Carre or one of a couple of Ian McEwans I've recently acquired from the excellent Bookmooch - many of those on my Bookmooch wishlist have come from this very thread. That Le Carre one from Mr Mooney IIRCYep, loved it, easily my favouite Le Carre - fairly autobiographical, apparently. I'm nearing the end of "The Pacific" (OK, but no "Band of Brothers"), and Lewis Grassic Gibbon's 1933 "Spartacus" - very good indeed, and tremendously violent! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Santa_Rosa Posted May 3, 2010 Share Posted May 3, 2010 - finally finished Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and it was well worth it IMO - just the concept and that scale of the thing is impressive and to tie everything in to a very readable, and sort of believable story, is mind-boggling really.My wife raved about this, and I gave it a go a couple of months ago. Couldn't get on with it at all, and gave up after about four chapters. Reminded me of Dickens - her favourite writer, but my bete noir. Yeah, I could see why someone who wasn't into Dickens wouldn't like it. My daughter's just read this - she loved it. I read it in my 20s and I thought it was OK, but a bit lacking in plot (which was kind of the point, I know). It isn't exactly rocking my world either. I was expecting more. There's much to admire about OTR, but I think 'OK' probably sums up my feelings on it too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted May 12, 2010 VT Supporter Share Posted May 12, 2010 Just finished The Female Brain, which was interesting until I started thinking about it critically, and The Big Short, which was typical Michael Lewis: illuminating and entertaining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pelle Posted May 12, 2010 Share Posted May 12, 2010 Anyone ever read Agatha Christie? The woman I hang around with these days thinks she is really good and she's one of the most read authors when it comes to the detective genre, I think, so I gave it a go. I'm reading "Lord Edgware dies" and it's, well, not very good. Not bad either. Slow but a little charming, especially the old language that's used. And Poirot can be quite funny sometimes. But not what I'd normally read. At home I'm finally reading "Hunt for red October". That one is better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWeedMcGrass Posted May 12, 2010 Share Posted May 12, 2010 Anyone ever read Agatha Christie? The woman I hang around with these days thinks she is really good and she's one of the most read authors when it comes to the detective genre, I think, so I gave it a go. I'm reading "Lord Edgware dies" and it's, well, not very good. Not bad either. Slow but a little charming, especially the old language that's used. And Poirot can be quite funny sometimes. But not what I'd normally read. At home I'm finally reading "Hunt for red October". That one is better. I have most of her books(in hardcover!) and have to say , she was brilliant. She was quite prolific with her output as well and to maintain those high standards while being as prolific as her is really rare in the world of fiction. My first AC book was ".. And there were none" and I was hooked. The convoluted plots , the old fashioned setting and characters , the level of detail in her mysteries,, classic detective fiction. I did grow out of her books though , especially since I discovered PD James but a great and pioneering writer of her genre , nonetheless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted May 12, 2010 VT Supporter Share Posted May 12, 2010 Agatha Christie falls into the category of "Read one book, it was OK, felt no need whatsoever to read any more of what is basically an endlessly repetitive genre". Other authors in this category include (going back to my childhood): Enid Blyton (Famous Five) Richmal Crompton (Just William) Frank Richards (Billy Bunter) and as an adult: C. S. Forester (Hornblower series) Stephen King (I think I read The Fog) Georges Simenon (Maigret series) Alistair Maclean (Ice Station Zebra) Ken Follett (Pillars of the Earth - gave up before the end) James Michener (Chesapeake) Jeffrey Archer (Shall We tell the President?) Dan Brown (guess!) Bernard Cornwell (The Winter King) So far, never read a single word by Terry Pratchett, Dean Koontz, Robert Ludlum, Clive Cussler, Wilbur Smith, Stiegg Larsson, Robert Jordan, Lee Child. Harlan Coben, Jack Higgins, james Patterson, John Grisham. I have however read almost everything by Patrick O'Brian, and am currently addicted to James Ellroy, so it's not that I am implacably opposed to genre series. Oh, and as a kid I loved J. T. Edson's (admittedly terrible) westerns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWeedMcGrass Posted May 12, 2010 Share Posted May 12, 2010 Thank god you did not mention Colin Forbes in that list! Stephen King is sometimes unfairly bunched along with 'genre' writers , which he is not , as I can attest to after having read all of his work. I suggest you to try 'The running man' or 'The Stand' if you have time on your hands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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