What are you reading tonight?

[thebish]

tw*t.

you're reading tw*t tonight?

[Prufrock]

Verbal's thing. Shithouse. Couldn't help myself. Frickning.

[Annoyed Grunt]

Just read this online. I hate scary things, and being scared, so why i ventured to the end of this is beyond me

http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/detail.n ... 0217&no=31" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That scared you?

[Harry Genshaw]

Just read this online. I hate scary things, and being scared, so why i ventured to the end of this is beyond me

http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/detail.n ... 0217&no=31" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That scared you?

Christ it bloody scared me! You must have nerves of steel

[Worthy4England]

tw*t.

you're reading tw*t tonight?

He's a lip reader.

[thebish]

tw*t.

you're reading tw*t tonight?

He's a lip reader.

ahhh - and a clitorary critic?

[Annoyed Grunt]

Just read this online. I hate scary things, and being scared, so why i ventured to the end of this is beyond me

http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/detail.n ... 0217&no=31" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That scared you?

Christ it bloody scared me! You must have nerves of steel

Watching video nasties as a child, immune to it all now.

[Bruce Rioja]

Surely it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that being an athiest could be a contributory factor to not wanting to read a book regarding the Holy Grail?

it's possible - but I certainly don't think it is the "given" that you seem to think it is. I see no reason for assuming Fry's atheism is a contributory factor in disliking the DaVinci code at all.

can you not enjoy a book about something that you don't believe in?

Yes you can enjoy a book about something that you don't believe in. But not usually when you've said fairly explicitly that you "loathe" the particular subject matter...

You continue to assume that his athiesm isn't a contributory factor. I'll sit here quite happily in my belief that I think it probably is.

I'm agnostic. I can't decide as to whether it's a pile of shite or not!

[Worthy4England]

Surely it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that being an athiest could be a contributory factor to not wanting to read a book regarding the Holy Grail?

it's possible - but I certainly don't think it is the "given" that you seem to think it is. I see no reason for assuming Fry's atheism is a contributory factor in disliking the DaVinci code at all.

can you not enjoy a book about something that you don't believe in?

Yes you can enjoy a book about something that you don't believe in. But not usually when you've said fairly explicitly that you "loathe" the particular subject matter...

You continue to assume that his athiesm isn't a contributory factor. I'll sit here quite happily in my belief that I think it probably is.

I'm agnostic. I can't decide as to whether it's a pile of shite or not!

Don't you bloody start!

[Bruce Rioja]

I'm agnostic. I can't decide as to whether it's a pile of shite or not!

Don't you bloody start!

[Verbal]

tw*t.

did warn you.

[Harry Genshaw]

Just finished 'Outposts' by Simon Winchester. One of the most enjoyable books I've read in a long while. Quite old, as first published in 1984, but if places like Tristan De Cunha, St Helena and other such places from our colonies fascinate you as they do me, I would highly recommend it.

[Lord Kangana]

No Such Thing as Society by Andy McSmith. So far its a very interesting appraisal of the Tories political and economic record in the eighties. Its interesting how he also destroys a few pre conceived notions, both whether you were for or agin em.

[General Mannerheim]

I Partridge.

[CAPSLOCK]

Another Kernick

He's alreet

[Harry Genshaw]

2 chapters into Bill Bryson's 'At Home'

Another triumph for the man. Absolutely love his books

[Bruce Rioja]

2 chapters into Bill Bryson's 'At Home'

Another triumph for the man. Absolutely love his books

Is ont' shelf. Looking forward to getting to it.

[clapton is god]

2 chapters into Bill Bryson's 'At Home'

Another triumph for the man. Absolutely love his books

Is ont' shelf. Looking forward to getting to it.

And on mine! Its been there all summer but keeps getting relegated by other stuff. I'll get round to it soon.

[General Mannerheim]

At Home is brilliant, really fascinating! was bored to tears by 'A Short history..' but at home is a belter.

'I Partridge' however is probably the funniest book ive ever read, and im only about 40 pages in!

[thebish]

OK - finished reading "Schopenhauer's Telescope" by Gerard Donovan - well worth a look - very nicely written - nicely paced and full of interesting alleyways - a thebish recommendation!

also finished off "A Partisan's Daughter" by Louis de Bernières... a delight!! the Guardian reviewer (being a professional - puts it better than I could - and is spot on!)

The novel tells the story of a Serbian former prostitute living in a semi-derelict 1970s London co-op. She spends her days drinking coffee, smoking, and telling tales of dubious veracity to a travelling salesman in his 40s. This forms the framework of the entire narrative, with repressed love and lust simmering appropriately as the friendship builds. Yet the layering of anecdote and reverie and the escalation of intimacy between two marginalised characters is so subtle and authentic that the novel is intensely moving and has its own unexpected momentum....... (snip)

The novel's charm works by stealth. It reads like a memoir; it offers subtle comment on the art of storytelling; it rarely strikes a false note, and it contains lessons about love and regret and seizing the moment. Like Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach, A Partisan's Daughter is a novel about missed opportunities and wrong paths taken, tracing the way in which one false move can alter the history of a life. "I have never lost the pain in the chest and the ache in my throat that Roza left behind," says Chris.

This is a work whose soul is too quiet to make a big impact, but whose artistic integrity should be applauded. It's a wise and moving novel, perfectly accomplished. It shows that no life is ordinary. It shines fresh light on the nature of love.

I am currently reading Howard Jacobsen's "The Finkler Question", which, so far, is also a delight!! (and winner of the Man Booker Prize, 2010)

this time - the critic from the Scotsman:

TIME is running out. You sense it slipping across these pages, eroding the words, becoming a cliché: the death of everything, of the novel, the end of the world, the passing of love — to be precise of the flesh of the loved one — but not of loving. Losing the loved one is not the same as losing love, but it's bad enough.
No graver matter pervades the pages of The Finkler Question, Howard Jacobson's latest holler from the halls of comic genius. The man who loves deepest, it seems, is most deeply snared in sorrow....

The opening chapters of this novel boast some of the wittiest, most poignant and sharply intelligent comic prose in the English language, as though the writer, like his characters, is caught up in a whirlwind courtship (of each other, of the reader, of the idea of the preciousness of now in the teeth of time's passing). Jacobson's brilliance thrives on the risk of riding death to a photo-finish, of writing for broke. Exhilaration all the way.

I have to say - yeah!