General Discussion: what are you reading?


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guffer
guffer avatar

8474 posts since 28/5/04

2 Mar 2006 14:08
Ellgal wrote:
guffer wrote: finished:

cloud atlas - david mitchell
kiss me judas - will christopher baer
strangers - taichi yamada

i'm going to start the optimists by andrew miller today…

What did you think?

I really enjoyed it. Every little section was written so well in different styles. The old man bit was my favourite.

i thought it was really good, how it missed out on the booker prize i dont know…the stories got better as they went on i thought, sonmi 451 and timothy cavendish were the best ones imo
Ellgal
Ellgal avatar

3757 posts since 21/1/02

2 Mar 2006 16:05
guffer wrote:
Ellgal wrote:
guffer wrote: finished:

cloud atlas - david mitchell
kiss me judas - will christopher baer
strangers - taichi yamada

i'm going to start the optimists by andrew miller today…

What did you think?

I really enjoyed it. Every little section was written so well in different styles. The old man bit was my favourite.

i thought it was really good, how it missed out on the booker prize i dont know…the stories got better as they went on i thought, sonmi 451 and timothy cavendish were the best ones imo


You're right, how could anone think Jonathan Strange… or The Line of Beauty was better?
nightofjoy
nightofjoy avatar

470 posts since 8/2/06

2 Mar 2006 16:51
Jeffy the Burglar's Cat - Ursula Moray Williams.

Superb.
berk_old_account
berk_old_account avatar

2000 posts since 18/8/04

2 Mar 2006 16:54
how to be a drug dealer-gary the phone
nightofjoy
nightofjoy avatar

470 posts since 8/2/06

2 Mar 2006 17:00
Norvern Rob wrote: Sounds good Cool

Currently reading 'A confederacy of dunces', written by John Kennedy Toole in the 60's, who ended up commiting suicide in 1969 after becoming depressed because he couldn't get it published.

Was given to me by a guy at work, i was suprised by how good it is. Any book that contains the words 'dear mongoloid' can't be bad Laughing out loud


You're reading the finest book ever written. Just noticing your message has cleared my valve for the remainder of the day.

I know it backwards, and only prey the movie they're making doesn't twat it up too badly (they're talking about Will Ferrell for Ignatius). Furtuna would surely send me on a downward spiral if that occurred….
denisovich
denisovich avatar

996 posts since 14/6/05

2 Mar 2006 17:10
all time favourite and only book i've read twice. it is quality.
nightofjoy
nightofjoy avatar

470 posts since 8/2/06

3 Mar 2006 02:45
Luke wrote: Bill Bryson - A Short History of Nearly Everything

Liked it, but with no capacity to hold scientific stuff, found that I was reading every page two or three times just for stuff to sink in - without often understanding it. So I ended up knowing a lot of stuff I didn't understand, but felt I owed it to know it.

Does that make sense..?????

And if you think THAT'S chewy (perhaps you don't) Try reading MADE IN AMERICA….

Faaaaaar too much information to take onboard. The first half, every other page is just full of a million different ways we;they used to spell/pronounce stuff to how we do now.

I love Bryson, and perhaps this is one more for Americans, but second time around it's still far too full of info to make it comfortable to absorb, unless you have a photographic memory. Second half is better where it gets into US culture.

Mother Tongue was better (similar, but more our side of the pond & accessible)

hMMMM?
easylover
easylover avatar

345 posts since 17/5/04

3 Mar 2006 15:18
If u wanna read something that is brilliantly written yet also shocking and stomach churning, yet somehow romantic at the same time.. Exquisite corpse by Poppy. Z. Brite
So Fresh
So Fresh avatar

838 posts since 22/12/03

3 Mar 2006 17:01
The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
mr.white
mr.white avatar

17101 posts since 10/7/04

3 Mar 2006 17:37
berk wrote: how to be a drug dealer-gary the phone

ive read this, he really knew his stuff. deserved booker prize imo
andymakesglasses
andymakesglasses avatar

20478 posts since 26/1/06

3 Mar 2006 17:53
nightofjoy wrote: And if you think THAT'S chewy (perhaps you don't) Try reading MADE IN AMERICA….

funnily enough just started reading this a couple of days ago after finishing The Lost Continent and really enjoying it. but then I love language and languages

Cheers
Andy
J'Adore
J'Adore avatar

1815 posts since 27/2/05

3 Mar 2006 18:03
The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst…won the booker prize in 2004 had to read it for my course. Good book. All about gay sex in the 80s, Thatcher, snobs and cocaine.
Ellgal
Ellgal avatar

3757 posts since 21/1/02

3 Mar 2006 18:05
J'Adore wrote: The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst…won the booker prize in 2004 had to read it for my course. Good book. All about gay sex in the 80s, Thatcher, snobs and cocaine.

What are your thoughts on this? I really hated it.
J'Adore
J'Adore avatar

1815 posts since 27/2/05

3 Mar 2006 18:19
I liked it, had a seminar on it today actually…some people absolutely hated it and others loved it.

Found it very readable compared to the other ones I've read lately…and of course you're meant to hate all the characters anyway because they're all such arses. I just thought the gay perspective was an interesting angle I hadn't come across before…

How come you hated it?
Ellgal
Ellgal avatar

3757 posts since 21/1/02

3 Mar 2006 18:30
To me it was written in a very agressive, "This is what it was like and if you disagree fuck you" without any of the subtle characterisation or humanity that would have made it possible to care what happened to any of them. And what makes it worse is that, at times, he's obvoiusly trying to achieve that but instead makes the reader slightly uncomfortable at being asked to see the beauty in someone that their creator also thinks is reprehensible.
NumBerS
NumBerS avatar

3347 posts since 5/3/04

3 Mar 2006 18:33
Dan Brown - Angels & Demons
Norvern Rob
Norvern Rob avatar

814 posts since 5/3/05

3 Mar 2006 19:24
Ugly Americans - Ben Mezrich

true story about American traders working on the Asian stock exchanges in the 90's, really good read.

Deception Point - Dan Brown

Expected this to be shit but was pleasantly suprised, really well written thriller.
gray
gray avatar

142 posts since 30/12/02

4 Mar 2006 04:08
The Apologies - Jay Raymer Finished this earlier this morning, can't recommend it highly enough.

Just about to start The Diceman
india
india avatar

5665 posts since 31/10/05

4 Mar 2006 05:24
just read.
are you dave gorman, american psycho and damage done all really good.
maximilian
maximilian avatar

571 posts since 3/3/06

4 Mar 2006 09:00
Interesting thread, at the moment my "fun" reading is "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins, it's an excellent and insightfull read. Highly recommended. More info @ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1576753018/104-8818534-8986353?v=glance&n=283155


Otherwise…im studying…. The Iliad by Homer, The Aeneid by Virgil, Plays by Aeschelus, The Histories by Herodotus, collection of poems by Blake, Measure for measure by W.Shakespeare, Tender is the Night by Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald….thats all for college.

regards,
max.