What are you reading tonight?

TANGODANCER · Post by **TANGODANCER** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:24 am

Fraid not WTW. Father was Irish and I grew up in St Josephs RC. Just had a quick read theough " Lone Gentleman". Bit of a lad was old Pablo, sort of Pablo Picasso of the pen.

Reason I said Garcie Marquez was hard work....my copy (bought at Manchester University bookshop several years ago) is in Spanish with no translation, as is my copy of Lorca's Romancero Gitano.

Raven · Post by **Raven** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 6:17 am

Lord Kangana wrote:To keep up with my current reading theme, I've borrowed a book called "The Siege" by Helen Dunmore. Its a story about a family during the siege of Leningrad. All 900 days of it.

Sounds interesting, is it any good?

Prufrock · Post by **Prufrock** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 3:32 pm

Prufrock wrote:Just had an epic Amazon session, well pleased with what i got. For 35quid:

The Night Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko Top top top book, anyone who secretly (or not) likes Harry Potter, or any Vampirey stuff would love it. Not normally a big fan of the werewolf, 'horror' stuff, but this is excellently written.

The Outsider - Albert Camus (this and Dorian Gray are two of my fav books I don't own...yet )

The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx

De Profundis, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, and Other Writings - Oscar Wilde Not read the heavy stuff yet, but had a re-read of Reading Gaol, oh so very good. The man might be well known for his comedies and his witticisms, but he is a fine fine poet. Such an evocative piece of writing.

The Road - Cormac MacCarthy

Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Nietzsche

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - Mark Haddon Had a lot of fun reading this. Certainly not what i thought it was going to be, but enjoyable none the less, though the ending is abrupt and a bit weak.

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Marquez

Blind Faith - Ben Elton This is a weird one. On the one hand i was consciously aware i was reading a 1984 tribute band book, but i think the book is saved because it doesn't pretend not to be. The first two thirds is decent to read, but not particularly original or mind blowing, the end however is very very good, if a little Hollywood.

Neither Here Nor There- Bill Bryson

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

The Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde

12 bookies, 35quid, i can't wait for them to arrive.

My thoughts on what I've read of my amazon session so far.

Verbal · Post by **Verbal** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 12:54 pm

You'll love The Road.

Embarrassingly, after i posted the Marquez offer on here a while ago, I didn't go to purchase them until a week later...when they'd sold out. Feck.

Either way, I bought 'Homicide: A Year on the killing streets' yesterday by David Simon. Only about 50 pages in, great stuff so far.

Raven · Post by **Raven** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:22 pm

Prufrock wrote:Just had an epic Amazon session, well pleased with what i got. For 35quid:

The Night Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko
The Outsider - Albert Camus (this and Dorian Gray are two of my fav books I don't own...yet )

The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx

De Profundis, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, and Other Writings - Oscar Wilde

The Road - Cormac MacCarthy

Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Nietzsche

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - Mark Haddon

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Marquez

Blind Faith - Ben Elton

Neither Here Nor There- Bill Bryson

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

The Picture of Dorian Gray

12 bookies, 35quid, i can't wait for them to arrive.

I nearly bought that one the other day so will get it now!

Currently reading The Liar and Moab is my Washpot (autobiography) by Stephen Fry and both are brilliant but not best read together as sure the character in the Liar is based on his life so gets a bit confusing.

Prufrock · Post by **Prufrock** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 5:37 pm

Raven wrote:
Prufrock wrote:Just had an epic Amazon session, well pleased with what i got. For 35quid:

The Night Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko
The Outsider - Albert Camus (this and Dorian Gray are two of my fav books I don't own...yet )

The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx

De Profundis, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, and Other Writings - Oscar Wilde

The Road - Cormac MacCarthy

Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Nietzsche

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - Mark Haddon

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Marquez

Blind Faith - Ben Elton

Neither Here Nor There- Bill Bryson

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

The Picture of Dorian Gray

12 bookies, 35quid, i can't wait for them to arrive.
I nearly bought that one the other day so will get it now!

Currently reading The Liar and Moab is my Washpot (autobiography) by Stephen Fry and both are brilliant but not best read together as sure the character in the Liar is based on his life so gets a bit confusing.

Do it! I enjoyed it very much.Keep meaning to get Moab, recommended?

Raven · Post by **Raven** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 12:22 pm

Definately I am really enjoying it and he is frank and open about everything and at times it is very very funny

General Mannerheim · Post by **General Mannerheim** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 1:43 pm

Been Reading Yes man by Danny Wallace after I watched the Jim Carey film. Thought it would be a kind of rudimentary self help manual, but actually its really funny and theres no way id like to end up in some of the incidents he’s been in so far just for saying Yes more!

Bench · Post by **Bench** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 5:26 pm

Currently reading the biography of that Johnson Beharry chappy.

You know? The guy who was recently awarded the Victoria Cross - in fact, he is the only living recipient to be awarded the honour in the last 40 years.

mofgimmers · Post by **mofgimmers** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 12:01 am

I'm reading The Damned Utd... in prep of the film (and I'm liking it very much), as well as a couple of Christmas presents... Persepolis (not getting me going just yet) and something really techie about the download culture and new media ('Content' by Cory Doctorow).

Anyway. Albert Camus' 'The Outsider' is pure dynamite. One of my favourite books ever written.

Prufrock · Post by **Prufrock** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 4:09 am

mofgimmers wrote:I'm reading The Damned Utd... in prep of the film (and I'm liking it very much), as well as a couple of Christmas presents... Persepolis (not getting me going just yet) and something really techie about the download culture and new media ('Content' by Cory Doctorow).

Anyway. Albert Camus' 'The Outsider' is pure dynamite. One of my favourite books ever written.

Somewhere in this thread I detail a truck load of books I bought, some of which were books I'd read 3 or 4 times yet didn't yet own, this was one of them. Ive just finished reading it for the sixth time, and it NEVER gets old. Human.Condition. Book form. It's on my list of things I think everyone should have to read to be allowed to be a person.

Worthy4England · Post by **Worthy4England** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 11:47 am

Without anything to do, the night before last, I went on a book hunt. I don't get as much time to read novels as I would like, but as I was hunting, I espied a book called "The Liar" by Stephen Fry. It was passed to me some years ago by a mate, as being "very funny". I'd never got round to looking, but in the absence of anything else, I thought I'd give it a whirl.

I suspect it's largely biographical and is indeed laugh out loud occasionally. All I can say is, that I'm now seeing our ex-Public School contributors and anyone who went to Cambridge, not in a completely different light, but shall we say in a re-affirmed way

ratbert · Post by **ratbert** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 12:23 pm

'Nice to see it, to see it, nice' - Brian Viner's memoir of 1970s television. A signed copy of 'Adventures on the High Teas' by Stuart Maconie to follow.

TANGODANCER · Post by **TANGODANCER** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 12:27 am

Reading rather a strange tome right now: "Twenty First Century Grail" by Andrew Collins. Psychic Questing is his field and the search for the Grail truth his mission. Not sure where he's going yet but I'll persist awhile.

Dujon · Post by **Dujon** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 2:01 am

I'd be careful if I were you, TANGO, as at half twelve in the morning even the local train timetables can start to make sense.

hisroyalgingerness · Post by **hisroyalgingerness** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 8:23 pm

Voices of Stalingrad. It's a bit bleak

Lord Kangana · Post by **Lord Kangana** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 8:37 pm

I've had a books amnesty with myself. I call it the credit crunch cull, as I tend to be a prolific buyer of books. I went through all the books I own, and pulled out the ones I'd bouught and never read, and ones (like Huckleberry Finn) that I haven't read in years. I've set myself the goal that I'm not allowed to spend another penny on new books 'til I've read that shelf full. Theres about 50 something of them, including Don Quixote, The God Dilemna, The Thin Red Line, The Collected works of James Joyce (yikes!!) Churchill by Roy Jenkins, and many more besides.

If anyone would like to provide synopses (particularly of the Joyce one) they would most gratefully accepted.

Dujon · Post by **Dujon** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 11:02 pm

Yikes! indeed, Lord K.

I'm pretty sure the Jenkins' Churchill biography I have read. It is well worth the effort although, if memory serves me correctly, keeping up with all the various Lords and Ladies became a bit of a chore.

I cannot comment on the JJ compendium as I haven't come across it. Nevertheless I do hope that the book(s) are physically manageable. The reason for that comment is that I have a two volume collected works of a bloke called Henry Lawson (famous here but probably unknown to you). He was a bush poet and yarn teller of some renown in this country and had his image appear on one of our notes of legal tender. My problem in reading this collection is that whilst they are of manageable size in height and breadth they are also thick. Given that I tend to read in bed - or at least lying down - the mass of each volume becomes a bit of a problem. I'm sure you understand the problem so I won't elucidate.

As an aside I might also mention (just in case any other Oz residents read this) that in reading his works - his prose in particular - I have a tendency to become annoyed with the dear departed Henry as his use of words and phrases and the general construction of his writing seem to echo my own. It is hard to describe my reaction, but it's a bit like reading something one might have written years ago and are revisiting it for the first time. On more than one occasion I have stopped reading a piece as it made me so uncomfortable that I was affected physically. Strange but true.

William the White · Post by **William the White** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 11:50 pm

Lord Kangana wrote:I've had a books amnesty with myself. I call it the credit crunch cull, as I tend to be a prolific buyer of books. I went through all the books I own, and pulled out the ones I'd bouught and never read, and ones (like Huckleberry Finn) that I haven't read in years. I've set myself the goal that I'm not allowed to spend another penny on new books 'til I've read that shelf full. Theres about 50 something of them, including Don Quixote, The God Dilemna, The Thin Red Line, The Collected works of James Joyce (yikes!!) Churchill by Roy Jenkins, and many more besides.

If anyone would like to provide synopses (particularly of the Joyce one) they would most gratefully accepted.

LOL! I have a shelf like that - did the same about six weeks ago... I have to read them all before the year ends, though i'm not sure what happens to me if I don't... there's 25 of them... how many so far, mid march?

zero...

it's going pretty well, then...

Joyce...

Dubliners - good fun, witty...

Portrait of the Artist... readable and enjoyable...

Ulysses... tried on a number of occasions, never got anywhere near finishing it...

Finnegan's Wake... Once opened the cover, but didn't read a word, had such a strong internal sigh at the thought of it alone...

So, good luck with that lot...

If you finish either of the last two tell us how they are...

Raven · Post by **Raven** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 12:07 pm

TANGODANCER wrote:Reading rather a strange tome right now: "Twenty First Century Grail" by Andrew Collins. Psychic Questing is his field and the search for the Grail truth his mission. Not sure where he's going yet but I'll persist awhile.

Pretty certain he "stars" in some Robert Rankin books under the name Danbury Collins, psychic youth and masturbator!

Dont think they get on

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