What are you reading tonight?

[TANGODANCER]

First 30 or 40 pages have been very readable. Its about an area I like and a subject that I'm starting to get into, so I s'pose I'm a little predisposed to give it a favourable review. Its worth a peek if you've nowt else lined up.

After that I've got a book about the English conquest of much of France to read. Can't remember what its called, something like "English Conquest" bizzarly enough.

Montegur was the scene of the massacre of the Cathars. It's a fascinating subject. Haven't read this book but I'll certainly look out for it.

[Montreal Wanderer]

Anyway, at the moment I'm reading "Massacre at Montsegur". French book about religious tolerance or something.

More like intolerance I would think. Wasn't that where they not only slaughtered the Cathar heretics but also perfectly good Catholics who had lived in peace for years with the Cathars, simply because they didn't surrender their neighbours to the French King's forces (who just wanted to expand his territory anyway). I read a novel about this not too long ago, but forget what. Age I'm afraid, but I think I discussed it with Tango once.

[Lord Kangana]

I was being a little disingenuous Monty.

[Lofthouse Lower]

'The Road'

[William the White]

The final two chapters and epilogue of The Finkler Question are magnificent, as the writer rids himself of cleverness and wit and allows himself to tell twenty-odd pages of truth about bereavement, with profound understanding and rich use of language and the pity of it all. Maybe he won the Booker for these alone. Beautiful and moving.

[TANGODANCER]

Anyway, at the moment I'm reading "Massacre at Montsegur". French book about religious tolerance or something.

More like intolerance I would think. Wasn't that where they not only slaughtered the Cathar heretics but also perfectly good Catholics who had lived in peace for years with the Cathars, simply because they didn't surrender their neighbours to the French King's forces (who just wanted to expand his territory anyway). I read a novel about this not too long ago, but forget what. Age I'm afraid, but I think I discussed it with Tango once.

I've read quite a bit of factual stuff on Montsegur and Kate Moss did a novel based on the Cathar tribulations "Labrynth".

[kavalier]

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. One of the best 5 books I've ever read. Gutted as I'm near the end and I know that whatever I read next is probably not going to be as good. Can't recommend it enough. 11/10

[thebish]

Anyway, at the moment I'm reading "Massacre at Montsegur". French book about religious tolerance or something.

More like intolerance I would think. Wasn't that where they not only slaughtered the Cathar heretics but also perfectly good Catholics who had lived in peace for years with the Cathars, simply because they didn't surrender their neighbours to the French King's forces (who just wanted to expand his territory anyway). I read a novel about this not too long ago, but forget what. Age I'm afraid, but I think I discussed it with Tango once.

I've read quite a bit of factual stuff on Montsegur and Kate Moss did a novel based on the Cathar tribulations "Labrynth".

Labyrinth was one of the most tortured piles of guff I have ever read - to me it just looked like it was knocked out poste-haste in the wake of the Dan Brown hysteria. I have no idea how Labyrinth got anything like the widespread acclaim that it did... I suspect it was down to who she is rather than what she wrote...

George Ttoouli wrote a review of the book that encapsulates my feelings perfectly and saves me a lot of typing...

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/ttooulig/ent ... d_entry_1/

[Lord Kangana]

I thought her real name was Kate Mosse anyway.

And you can blame her and Brown for all that Pays Cathare nonsense that Enfield thought was so touristy. (On a random note if you are reading btw Enfield, have you seen the Ronde des Vendange in Carcassone? -I thought it'd be right up your street )

[TANGODANCER]

I thought her real name was Kate Mosse anyway.

And you can blame her and Brown for all that Pays Cathare nonsense that Enfield thought was so touristy. (On a random note if you are reading btw Enfield, have you seen the Ronde des Vendange in Carcassone? -I thought it'd be right up your street )

You're right about Mosse (nothing to do with the media darling model). She and Dan Brown write fiction that generally pays little heed to the real facts. To treat what either read as fact has little or no basis on reality. They should be read, or not as the case may be, as what they are, made up stories.

[William the White]

I'm reading David Mitchell's debut novel Ghostwritten. On p64, end of Chapter 2 and I'm seriously gripped. It's unlikely to be as good as Cloud Atlas - one of the top ten of the decade for me - but it is looking excellent.

More when I've finished...

[thebish]

I'm reading David Mitchell's debut novel Ghostwritten. On p64, end of Chapter 2 and I'm seriously gripped. It's unlikely to be as good as Cloud Atlas - one of the top ten of the decade for me - but it is looking excellent.

More when I've finished...

indeed it is, excellent. I read that and Black Swann Green after Cloud Atlas - an excellent worsdmith... I suspect lots of other authors would have failed to pull off the disparity of the voices and narrators - each of them equally believable...

(Blacl Swan Green is not the same kind of book at all - having one sole storyteller)

[HMX]

'I am Legend' by Richard Matheson. Brilliant so far.

[Lofthouse Lower]

'I am Legend' by Richard Matheson. Brilliant so far.

Just promise me you won't watch the film, or if you do, at least watch the old one

[William the White]

Ghostwritten is astonishingly good. That it was a first novel, published when the writer was only 30, is amazing.

The characters range over the globe, from a thuggish secret policeman in Mongolia, to an ancient woman tea seller in China, to a terrorist in Japan, to an art thief in Petersburg, to a nuclear scientist on an Irish island, and others, whose lives touch, intersect, affect each other without them ever truly being aware of this.

Chapter seven - 'London' - where the narrator is, actually, a ghostwriter - is the key chapter, where the writer brings the threads together of what has gone before and what is yet to come, with great ingenuity.

Can't praise it enough. I've now read two novels by this writer - and look forward to the rest. A major, major talent.

[Lord Kangana]

Is that the book that spawned the film of the same name? Because the film is a reet duffer.

[William the White]

Is that the book that spawned the film of the same name? Because the film is a reet duffer.

I've no idea. But great writing often resists dramatisation.

[William the White]

Is that the book that spawned the film of the same name? Because the film is a reet duffer.

Can't find any film entitled Ghostwritten.

Are you thinking of The Ghost Writer?

[Raven]

'I am Legend' by Richard Matheson. Brilliant so far.

Just promise me you won't watch the film, or if you do, at least watch the old one

Read the book after seeing the film...........all they really share is the name, ones brilliant the others not........the brilliant one does not have Will Smith in it

Reading Dracula the Undead, the official follow up to Dracula and I really like it, its had mixed reviews but I think its good stuff and has some of the feelings of the original.

[TANGODANCER]

Just read On The Edge, Michael Ridpath. A story about money, hedge funds, stock markets and all the greed with which the golden dollar, pound, Lira etc, is pursued and the lengths people will go to attain it.