[Misc] What Book are you Currently Reading?

[Buzzer]

Have read the winner, The Vegetarian, good book but very dark. Any others you recommend from the shortlist? Will have a read of the The Four Books. Thanks!

The only other I'd really recommend from the other shortlisters would be Orhan Pamuk - 'Strangeness in my Mind'. However, if you're after a good book then I'd highly recommend Ian McGuire's 'The North Water'. I've set myself the task again this year of reading the Man Booker longlist, currently I've only read The North Water and found it impossible to put down - I had to read it as quickly as possible. Unusually for a Man Booker lister this is an action thriller novel - a historical one at that. Set in the 1800s it follows the journey of a whaling ship from Hull to Greenland and the 2 main protagonists - one a ship's captain and the other a Bill Sykes type baddie who is evil personified. It's fast-paced but still quite cerebral and the attention to period detail is something else, it could easily have been written by someone like Joseph Conrad or Herman Melville.

 

[basque seagull]

The only other I'd really recommend from the other shortlisters would be Orhan Pamuk - 'Strangeness in my Mind'. However, if you're after a good book then I'd highly recommend Ian McGuire's 'The North Water'. I've set myself the task again this year of reading the Man Booker longlist, currently I've only read The North Water and found it impossible to put down - I had to read it as quickly as possible. Unusually for a Man Booker lister this is an action thriller novel - a historical one at that. Set in the 1800s it follows the journey of a whaling ship from Hull to Greenland and the 2 main protagonists - one a ship's captain and the other a Bill Sykes type baddie who is evil personified. It's fast-paced but still quite cerebral and the attention to period detail is something else, it could easily have been written by someone like Joseph Conrad or Herman Melville.

Thanks!

Enviado desde mi XT1068 mediante Tapatalk

 

[Buzzer]

Thanks!

Enviado desde mi XT1068 mediante Tapatalk

You're welcome!

Regarding Primo Levi, I agree - he's a must-read and probably the definitive first-hand account of the holocaust. He set out to write as full and factual account of life and death at Auschwitz as possible but also the motives of those involved was something Levi struggled to come to terms with and this is why he wrote so much on it.

You have some books that, as others have written, focus on the little things (Moments of Reprieve details how prisoners normalised their situation and managed somehow to have friendships, rivalries, routines and suchlike whereas Drowned and the Saved tells of the types of characters who were overwhelmed very quickly by the horrors and then others who were determined to survive as long as possible) and you then have some books where Levi reflects on his own feelings towards the Germans. His books are certainly not repetitive.

Given his analytical approach (he was a scientist) and that he was well into his old age when he died, I don't think he deliberately killed himself. His fall from a top balcony of stairs It was either accidental or murder, I reckon.

 

[SUA Seagull]

Another vote for Primo Levi here, probably the best writer on the Holocaust. If this is a man is an excellent work.

Agree re Levi's "If this is a man". The power in Levi's writing is that he focuses on a factual account of the (literally) day-to-day survival rituals that many in the concentration camps pursued in the face of unspeakable atrocities perpetrated by their captors. It describes calmly and objectively, without rage, the victims' primal instinct to survive to "tell the tale", rather than graphically portray the Nazis' methodical and cynical violence. It is one of those books you have to put down from time to time to draw breath and absorb the gravity of what he's just written in terms that are so matter-of-fact, or to comprehend how man can be capable of behaving so monstrously towards his fellow man. It is a haunting read and one of my favourite books.

 

[SULLY COULDNT SHOOT]

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

Good choice - Abercrombie is masterful writer

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

The Wall Jumper by Peter Schneider, about people crossing the Berlin Wall, a novel that reads like non-fiction.

 

[wilko1]

Reading the End of the World Running Club
Really enjoying it so far...can't beat Civilisation crumbling

 

[wakeytom]

Anyone read this? Not sure if to read it before Elon Musk, about to start one of them

 

[Marshy]

To kill a mockingbird - Harper lee

Literally started it today

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Just finished the Narrow Road to the Deep North. I thought was a slow burner to begin with but then became electrifyingly intense and whilst that was impossible to maintain post POW camp, I loved the aftermath and found it moving. It's a brilliant written and memorable book which I'd throughly recommend.

 

[whitelion]

To kill a mockingbird - Harper lee

Literally started it today

Read it a few months ago. Always been on a bucket list. Found the style difficult at first but determined to finish it and found it very good.

 

[Silk]

Just finished the Narrow Road to the Deep North. I thought was a slow burner to begin with but then became electrifyingly intense and whilst that was impossible to maintain post POW camp, I loved the aftermath and found it moving. It's a brilliant written and memorable book which I'd throughly recommend.

That's good to know. I downloaded it from Kindle when it was on offer at 99p. It's on my albeit enormous "to read" list!

 

[jakarta]

Anyone read this? Not sure if to read it before Elon Musk, about to start one of them

View attachment 76953

Yes, a Holiday Read while in New Zealand in January. I could see what he was driving at, but don't think it is that memorable a book.

I think Churchill as a Politician is rather beyond BoJos simplistic world view. Max Hastings Finest Years Churchill as Warlord 1940-45 is a much better book.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

'Thatcher Stole my Trousers' by Alexei Sayle. Holiday read.

BTW, Mrs Tackle reported various approving gesticulations by a fellow Seagull at the various Seagulls stickers and whatnot in my car, parked at Porthcurno car park today. If that man is on NSC, reveal thyself

 

[BN9 BHA]

Death Comes Knocking - Policing Roy Grace's Brighton.
Graham Bartlett with Peter James.

Very good book if you like reading about crime.
Just read a chapter about a gang, and one of them was in my year at school.
Also a chapter on policing fans for Albion matches, including when we played Palace in the first season at the Amex.

 

[CorgiRegisteredFriend]

Non Fiction- Prisoners Of Geography. Concise insite into world Geopolitics.
Fiction- The Fishermen. About four boys living in Nigeria who disobey their father and the events that take place when they meet up with the local madman. Not the happiest of tales!

 

[Simon Morgan]

Having another go at Jonathan Wilson 'Inverting the Pyramid'.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Just finished Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami. It was fine, I guess.

On to American Gods by Neil Gaiman next.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Just finished re-reading 'Porno', Irvine Welsh's 2002 sequel to Trainspotting. Fantastic story-telling. Can't wait for THIS little beauty to be released in early 2017

 

[Larry Day]

A Spy Among Friends - Ben Macintyre's excellent addition to the well-documented Cambridge Spy Ring. An interesting take on how Kim Philly was tracked down by his chum Nicholas Elliott and, to a lesser degree, James Angleton. Well written and skilfully plotted, despite a non-fiction piece. Friendship or country first? Discuss.

Also enjoyed Andrew Lownie's excellent biog of Guy Burgess. Fascinating portrait of the man and a revealing social history of middle / upper class Britain on either side of the second world war.