What are you reading tonight?

[thebish]

We still ahve a library?

Disgraceful behaviour. Someone should put a stop to that sort of thing.

Bruce is on it!

Borrow book - pay money.

Buy book - pay money.

Use service - pay money.

Do something that incurs cost - pay money.

Where's the difficulty?

who said there was one?

[Raven]

The Journey of Crazy Horse (not the poster on here) by Joseph M Marshall III, great read about an incredible man, knew a bit about the history of the American Indian but opened my eyes even more to who the real blood thirsty savages were out there and once again how mankind can be so cruel

[Bijou Bob]

A Fool's Alphabet by Sebastian Faulks.

Bruce, how did you find the Tom Sharpe??

[TANGODANCER]

Reading The Songs of Manolo Escobar, a novel by Carlos Alba. One for WTW.

[Bruce Rioja]

Bruce, how did you find the Tom Sharpe??

I left it out on the table last night, specifically so that I'd remember to bring it with me this morning. Guess what's still sat on a table 200 miles from where I am?

[Wandering Willy]

Bruce, how did you find the Tom Sharpe??

I left it out on the table last night, specifically so that I'd remember to bring it with me this morning. Guess what's still sat on a table 200 miles from where I am?

Tomorrow's match tickets?

[William the White]

The Long Songby Andrea Levy. Booker nominated last year, it's now spent 18 months on the shelf of shame.

I'm glad it has emerged. about two thirds of the way through it - a slow read only because of an over-busy life atm.

Set amongst the sugar plantations of Jamaica in the early decades of the 19th century, with a narrator who is a former slave, it deals with the slave uprisings, the terrible vengeance taken by the plantation owners and, finally, the freeing of the slaves.

Sounds grim, and some of it is, but it's brightened by its narrator, who is lively, and bright and funny. And the book is humane and warm whenever it can be.

Recommend so far.

[Raven]

Going to add that one to my to buy list then

[Annoyed Grunt]

Lee Evans Autobiography - The Life of Lee.

Only just started. One of my absolute favourite comedians.

Just finished....good read.

[Annoyed Grunt]

Will either start Jeffrey Deaver - The Edge or Jeff Lindsay - Double Dexter.

[CAPSLOCK]

On the 4th Simon Kernick

Then I think its gonna be Trescothick

[Dujon]

Wahoo! I finally found a box of books buried my workshop, books which I thought were lost forever after one of my moves some 15 years ago. How I missed them in a couple of extensive searches I will never know. So the next few weeks will undoubtedly be spent in evenings catching up with old friends. There are only about 35 of them and some are reference rather than straight reading material. Among them is Lancashire Laughter by T.Thomson - a publication the absence of which I have bemoaned on many occasions (not so much for its intrinsic value but its sentimental equivalent as it was a gift from my school headmaster, who was also the Superintendent of my local Sunday School, and which was bestowed me on my departure from Harwood bound for Australia in 1955). I'm rather a happy chappy today.

[thebish]

just finished "Gilgamesh" by Joan London - which came with a big write up and with critical acclaim (and a couple of literary prizes) - but, as it turns out, is a a bit "meh!"

so am now reading Dara O'Briain - Tickling the English - which is an amusing joy - and (oddly) I find myself reading it with a Dara O'Briain accent in my head!!

[Gary the Enfield]

For those who missed it last time, BananaBooks have the Gabriel Garcia Marquez offer of 10 books for £7.00 on again.

Go to [email protected]


And enjoy.

[Bruce Rioja]

For those who missed it last time, BananaBooks have the Gabriel Garcia Marquez offer of 10 books for £7.00 on again.

Go to [email protected]


And enjoy.

There still on my shelf from last time, I'm afraid. Must read 100 years of solitude soon!

[TANGODANCER]

For those who missed it last time, BananaBooks have the Gabriel Garcia Marquez offer of 10 books for £7.00 on again.

Go to [email protected] And enjoy.

There's a bookshelf benind my pc and all ten are looking at me disdainfully right now. Started a couple when I bought them (same time as Bruce) but they didn't grab me like "El Coronel no tiene quien le escriba". Someday......

[William the White]

For those who missed it last time, BananaBooks have the Gabriel Garcia Marquez offer of 10 books for £7.00 on again.

Go to [email protected]


And enjoy.

There still on my shelf from last time, I'm afraid. Must read 100 years of solitude soon!

You see, I'm jealous. I've read 100 years of solitude 12 times, I think.

But nothing beats the first.

Back then, with ten or so pages to go, I was thinking, how the.... is he going to end this...

The answer was - perfectly. The only way it could ever be ended...

[Dujon]

Question for the 'well read':

Among the box of books that miraculously turned up the other week are two by Russian authors. One is Doctor Zhivago (Boris Pasternak) the other The Gulag Archipelago (Alexander Solzhenitsyn). Now, it's a long time since I first attempted this pair. I know that I didn't finish the latter as I found it incredibly hard going - not necessarily for its content, although that could have been part of it, whilst the former I'm not too sure about other than I also found that hard reading.

Is it just me? Are English translations of Russian authors generally hard to follow unless digested small bite by small bite? The 'good doctor' I am aware was lauded the world over (my copy is one of the twenty-second impression, produced in 1969) whilst the Solzhenitsyn tome is the first edition published in Australia (1974). I am going to gird my loins and try both of them again as the intervening decades might well have changed my perceptions.

Should I bother?

[William the White]

Question for the 'well read':

Among the box of books that miraculously turned up the other week are two by Russian authors. One is Doctor Zhivago (Boris Pasternak) the other The Gulag Archipelago (Alexander Solzhenitsyn). Now, it's a long time since I first attempted this pair. I know that I didn't finish the latter as I found it incredibly hard going - not necessarily for its content, although that could have been part of it, whilst the former I'm not too sure about other than I also found that hard reading.

Is it just me? Are English translations of Russian authors generally hard to follow unless digested small bite by small bite? The 'good doctor' I am aware was lauded the world over (my copy is one of the twenty-second impression, produced in 1969) whilst the Solzhenitsyn tome is the first edition published in Australia (1974). I am going to gird my loins and try both of them again as the intervening decades might well have changed my perceptions.

Should I bother?

the gulag archipelago is a remarkable work of testimony that I hope will never be out of print. It is damaged by its ahistorical approach - in the sense that the author makes no real attempt to place these events within the historical period, rather he attempts to make them a fundamental feature of 'bolshevism'. As a work of history, it's hopeless, but will be useful to historians. As an account of suffering it is outstanding.

Zhivago is the only novel by a great Russian poet. His poetry is outstanding, and the Lean film is a flawed masterwork. The novel should be read by the dutiful.

[Dujon]

Thanks for your comments, William the White, they are appreciated.

I shall return to the starting grid and hope not to have another dnf after my name. At least they will both be added to my small 'to read' list under the sub-section 'when in the mood'. In the interim I have a wee bit of lighter reading with which to amuse myself.