Count Otto Black
New member
- Jul 22, 2015
- 134
just started lord of the rings trilogy.
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[Misc] What Book are you Currently Reading?
- Thread starter Lady Buck
- Start date
Tom Bombadil
Well-known member
Really, I didn't like it as much as Blood's a Rover, but then that could be because I was more invested in the American Tabloid trilogy
Cheeky Monkey
Well-known member
- Jul 17, 2003
- 23,884
Tom Bombadil
Well-known member
Reading SPQR by Mary Beard. She's very good. Before that read Ishiguro's Buried Giant. Which was ok but i expected more. Not up there with Remains of th Day or my favourite, An Artist of the Floating World.
I have All the Light we cannot see to read next which judging by this thread should be something to look forward to
I have All the Light we cannot see to read next which judging by this thread should be something to look forward to
Cheeky Monkey
Well-known member
- Jul 17, 2003
- 23,884
Only ever done 'Never Let Me Go.' Should really get around to RotD though.
All the Light That We Cannot See is a decent read.
tinycowboy
Well-known member
I'm mellowing out to The South Country by Edward Thomas. I have I, Partridge lined up next. Mixing it up.
Ecosse Exile
New member
I love the Jack Reacher series (shame about the film), however i believe he has brought out two in the last 18 months while i've been away, so looking forward to coming back next month to get these.
Have you tried Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series? similar amount of books, 15 i think, Lee Child actually recommends them, i personally prefer them.
I'm pleased that there's been a renewed interest in Thomas over the past few years - he's an inspiring writer. I used to cycle past the house where he was born on my daily commute to and from work: it was a contrast between his drab, urban upbringing and the countryside about which he wrote so vividly. I always think of him a literary equivalent of Eric Ravilious - there's the same love of nature, the same appreciation of this island's history and the beauty of the countryside. Only read extracts of The South Country but it's a work I mean to read
skipper734
Registered ruffian
I've tried most of Lee Childs recommendations usually disappointed, they don't have the elusive Reacher thing. Unfortunately they are making /have made another film. Best to look upon them as a Tom Cruise vehicle with a slight reference to a Reacher story.
Ecosse Exile
New member
I'll probably watch it anyway, i expected to be disappointed last time, im sure this one wont fail to disappoint either, Tom Cruise just isnt Jack Reacher
If you haven't tried Vince Flynn, Give it a go, the first in the series is called American Assassin, I expected to be meh about it after Jack Reacher, but was very pleasantly surprised, it is another bad boy American hero type, but thats pretty much where the similarity ends. Oh and Tom Cruise probably could get awat with playing Mitch Rapp
Buzzer
Languidly Clinical
- Oct 1, 2006
- 26,121
I'll probably watch it anyway, i expected to be disappointed last time, im sure this one wont fail to disappoint either, Tom Cruise just isnt Jack Reacher
If you haven't tried Vince Flynn, Give it a go, the first in the series is called American Assassin, I expected to be meh about it after Jack Reacher, but was very pleasantly surprised, it is another bad boy American hero type, but thats pretty much where the similarity ends. Oh and Tom Cruise probably could get awat with playing Mitch Rapp
I don't mind Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that I've never seen a Tom Cruise action film that I didn't like. He's good value for money and height difference aside, he's not a bad Jack Reacher.
tinycowboy
Well-known member
It's not easy going until you get into the rhythm of it. I've been a Thomas fan for a good long time - I think I'm drawn to tragic, doomed literary figures. I enjoy the tension in his writing between the idealization (to an extent) of the countryside and its working people and his sense of his own personal limitations and unbridgeable detachment from being a part of country life. He was a good poet too - everyone loves Adelstrop.
Ecosse Exile
New member
Id agree, Cruise is a superb actor, obviously, his action films are normally very good, I just feel he was not right for the part, apart from the height issue he's too pretty, but..... He did buy the rights to the films so he can do what he wants I suppose.
Oscar
Well-known member
- Nov 10, 2003
- 3,864
Halfway through David Bowie: Starman by Paul Trynka.
So far an interesting, well written and concise biography of a true icon I grew up listening to without fully knowing/understanding his background and path to worldwide fame. For example, I never realised how hard Bowie had to work for his talent unlike others who seemed to be born with it.
So far an interesting, well written and concise biography of a true icon I grew up listening to without fully knowing/understanding his background and path to worldwide fame. For example, I never realised how hard Bowie had to work for his talent unlike others who seemed to be born with it.
Buzzer
Languidly Clinical
- Oct 1, 2006
- 26,121
I've been making my way through the rest of the Man Booker International Prize 2016 shortlisted books and I've much preferred reading these to the Man Booker 2015 English language novels from last year.
Orhan Pamuk - Strangeness in my Mind: It's a fairly lengthy novel but relatively easy-going and chronicles the life and times of a poor Turkish man as he moves to and lives in Istanbul. There's no great shocks to the book, the twist near the end was obvious but the book is very well structured and gives a fascinating insight into how and why Istanbul mixes secular with the religious. I enjoyed reading this.
Jose Eduardo Agualusa - A General Theory of Oblivion: A white colonial woman in Angola locks herself in her apartment as revolution hits Luanda. I'm not quite sure what point the author was making with this novel as the whole premise seems implausible and yet the main character managed to hide away for years with relative ease and without the author revealing how. It was only 200-odd pages though and a pleasant enough diversion. I can't help feel though that it's a great idea for a story wasted.
Robert Seethaler - A Whole Life: The life of a logger/labourer in the Austrian Alps from his birth at the turn of the 20th century to his death in the 1970s. Another short novel that I read very quickly and was quite easy-going. The hero of the book is essentially a Gabriel Oak - a stoic person who finds peace of mind and meaning to life through simple living and honest toil. And he even shares a major tragedy in his life although unlike Oak, he loses a wife rather than gains one as a result. It was all a bit too twee for my liking and the author did lay on with a trowel the idea of the wisdom of the poor man.
Elena Ferrante - The Story of the Lost Child: This is the fourth and final book in a series of novels but it's fairly easy to pick up this book cold, as I did and read without confusion or prior knowledge of the characters. Despite the claims to the contrary, this book is Chick-Lit. The women are the only characters with full, three-dimensional personalities. The men are bullies, alcoholics, addicts, love-cheats, weak or just plain mean.
All the protagonists are incredibly successful in whatever they turn their hand to, they are all part of Italian intelligentsia from the 70s and 80s. Picture one of those awful American soap operas but with posh, left-wing Italians and you've got this book in one. I'd imagine it's Polly Toynbee's idea of a wet dream. At one point the main character even decamps to the roughest part of Camorra-infested Naples just so she can get an authentic feel for life as a working-class woman. I don't know how other chick-lit novels describe the sex scenes but this particular book had me laughing out loud. "He grabbed at her wet sex..." "She could feel his throbbing sex..." Thankfully, there aren't too many of these moments. Chick-Lit for people who say they don't read Chick-Lit.
Julian Barnes - The Noise of Time: After that Ferrante book, I took a break from the International awards to read Julian Barnes latest. It's a dramatised account of the adult life of Shostakovich, the Soviet composer as he falls in, out and back in favour with the Soviet regime. This is exceptionally well-written and Barnes' philosiphising by proxy had me gripped throughout. Barnes did study Russian and when writing for the New Statesman under Martin Amis, he worked alongside lapsed-Trotskyite Christopher Hitchens and anti-Soviet historian Robert Conquest so his knowledge of this era is extremely solid. Although it's a novelisation, you know for sure that the petty cruelty and brutality of the Communist regime is pretty much spot on and reinforces all my prejudices about just how shit socialism is in real life and why I could never be a socialist. This is as good a book as Barnes has ever written and I include Flaubert's Parrot in that. Highly recommended.
Orhan Pamuk - Strangeness in my Mind: It's a fairly lengthy novel but relatively easy-going and chronicles the life and times of a poor Turkish man as he moves to and lives in Istanbul. There's no great shocks to the book, the twist near the end was obvious but the book is very well structured and gives a fascinating insight into how and why Istanbul mixes secular with the religious. I enjoyed reading this.
Jose Eduardo Agualusa - A General Theory of Oblivion: A white colonial woman in Angola locks herself in her apartment as revolution hits Luanda. I'm not quite sure what point the author was making with this novel as the whole premise seems implausible and yet the main character managed to hide away for years with relative ease and without the author revealing how. It was only 200-odd pages though and a pleasant enough diversion. I can't help feel though that it's a great idea for a story wasted.
Robert Seethaler - A Whole Life: The life of a logger/labourer in the Austrian Alps from his birth at the turn of the 20th century to his death in the 1970s. Another short novel that I read very quickly and was quite easy-going. The hero of the book is essentially a Gabriel Oak - a stoic person who finds peace of mind and meaning to life through simple living and honest toil. And he even shares a major tragedy in his life although unlike Oak, he loses a wife rather than gains one as a result. It was all a bit too twee for my liking and the author did lay on with a trowel the idea of the wisdom of the poor man.
Elena Ferrante - The Story of the Lost Child: This is the fourth and final book in a series of novels but it's fairly easy to pick up this book cold, as I did and read without confusion or prior knowledge of the characters. Despite the claims to the contrary, this book is Chick-Lit. The women are the only characters with full, three-dimensional personalities. The men are bullies, alcoholics, addicts, love-cheats, weak or just plain mean.
All the protagonists are incredibly successful in whatever they turn their hand to, they are all part of Italian intelligentsia from the 70s and 80s. Picture one of those awful American soap operas but with posh, left-wing Italians and you've got this book in one. I'd imagine it's Polly Toynbee's idea of a wet dream. At one point the main character even decamps to the roughest part of Camorra-infested Naples just so she can get an authentic feel for life as a working-class woman. I don't know how other chick-lit novels describe the sex scenes but this particular book had me laughing out loud. "He grabbed at her wet sex..." "She could feel his throbbing sex..." Thankfully, there aren't too many of these moments. Chick-Lit for people who say they don't read Chick-Lit.
Julian Barnes - The Noise of Time: After that Ferrante book, I took a break from the International awards to read Julian Barnes latest. It's a dramatised account of the adult life of Shostakovich, the Soviet composer as he falls in, out and back in favour with the Soviet regime. This is exceptionally well-written and Barnes' philosiphising by proxy had me gripped throughout. Barnes did study Russian and when writing for the New Statesman under Martin Amis, he worked alongside lapsed-Trotskyite Christopher Hitchens and anti-Soviet historian Robert Conquest so his knowledge of this era is extremely solid. Although it's a novelisation, you know for sure that the petty cruelty and brutality of the Communist regime is pretty much spot on and reinforces all my prejudices about just how shit socialism is in real life and why I could never be a socialist. This is as good a book as Barnes has ever written and I include Flaubert's Parrot in that. Highly recommended.
tinycowboy
Well-known member
Finished H Is For Hawk by Helen MacDonald - very good, interesting read, even though I have no interest in birds of prey - it's all about the emotional attachment/impact of training the bird and dealing with grief. Now on Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household - a classic spy hunting novel. Gripping stuff, for fans of The 39 Steps.
Marshy
Well-known member
Good to know, I have H is for Hawk on my bookshelf waiting to be read.
Currently reading Agent ZigZag by Ben Macintyre and thoroughly enjoying it.
Raskolnikov
New member
The Good Soldier Schweik by Hasek, what a brilliant, clever and funny book that is