What are you reading tonight?

[TANGODANCER]

The whole film was shot darker than a very dark thing on a dark day in darksville. I couldn't get my interest up for it, despite having quite enjoyed the book.

Not all books translate well to screen. This was undoubtedly one of them. Angels and Demons was decidedly better.

[William the White]

i am reading my first novel of the year... For some reason I've abandoned fiction and the Shelves of Shame are groaning beneath the weight of the great unread...

I'm more than halfway through Herta Muller's The Hunger Angel. It's not exactly an easy, cheerful read.

Muller won the Nobel for literature in 2009 - and I'd never heard of her. My wife bought me this for Christmas, for my education, and only 7 months later I opened it.

It's a dense, poetic, gripping and overwhelmingly desolate story of Romanians of German origin, civilians, arrested by Stalin's forces in 1945 as the Red Army took Romania (a Hitler ally). They were shipped as 'Fascists' to slave labour camps in the Arctic circle. The horrors of the GULAG are very well documented. It takes a great writer to get under the skin of the reader about events that are pretty well known.

She is outstanding. It's tough - horrifying, even - to read this. But I'm glad it got itself off my shelf.

[LeverEnd]

Yeah but Audrey is nice to look at

You mean the next Mrs Rioja? Isn't she just?!

Oi! careful, you'll get in trouble for Gooner Girl for televisual perving like I did.
Just warning you, not judging.

[Bruce Rioja]

Yeah but Audrey is nice to look at

You mean the next Mrs Rioja? Isn't she just?!

Oi! careful, you'll get in trouble for Gooner Girl for televisual perving like I did.
Just warning you, not judging.

Oh she's given up on telling me off for being an old perv by now.

[Prufrock]

What the holy feck were you both expecting, may I ask?

Da Vinci Code. Good read.
Angels and Demons. Good read.
Lost Symbol. Worse but readable.
Inferno. Awful.

I saw the film of Da Vinci Code. fecking shite, Geoff. I'd sussed it after a half an hour.

Ain't disagreeing. After all the hype I expected a cracker. Turned out a crapper. Not a patch on the book.

The whole film was shot darker than a very dark thing on a dark day in darksville.

I couldn't get my interest up for it, despite having quite enjoyed the book.

I can't stand the intellectual snobbery-side of criticism of Dan Brown. The book The Da Vinci Code was decent, in a fast-paced thriller way.

However, it became blatantly clear from reading more than five words of any of his others that this was a complete fluke. The Da Vinci Code is shockingly poorly-written for the most part. The plot makes no sense, the characters make no sense, and the dialogue is of a kind I've never heard spoken, even by Americans; however, despite, or maybe because of, the plot being nuts, the whole thing is fun. His other ones don't have that, and you're left with just the awful style.

Everyone I know who has read the latest offering has said it was unmitigated shite. I was happy to say I'd told them so .

[TANGODANCER]

I can't stand the intellectual snobbery-side of criticism of Dan Brown. The book The Da Vinci Code was decent, in a fast-paced thriller way.

I'm collecting material for a similar blockbuster about Bolton. I think I'll call it The Lowry Link. So far I've got a secret message on the tombstone of Samuel Crompton, a clue on the painting of Nev in the art gallery, a line of cat's eyes on Scout Road, an angel in the Parish church pointing a direction, a message scribbled on a napkin in Macdonalds, a reference to the English Civil War via Cannon Street and Lord Derby's cross on Churchgate. A secret tunnel under The Man and Scythe is going to be involved along with the real burial place of a famous English King and the Templar Treasure, all linked with Lowry's painting "going to the Match". I won't say more for fear of spoiling the plot. It's going to be a best seller.

[Lord Kangana]

Yeah, but really it was just shit. Thats not snobbery, just honesty.

[thebish]

Yeah, but really it was just shit. Thats not snobbery, just honesty.

^ can't say fairer than that...

[Bruce Rioja]

Yeah, but really it was just shit. Thats not snobbery, just honesty.

^ can't say fairer than that...

calm down!!

[Gooner Girl]

Yeah but Audrey is nice to look at

You mean the next Mrs Rioja? Isn't she just?!

Oi! careful, you'll get in trouble for Gooner Girl for televisual perving like I did.
Just warning you, not judging.

Oh she's given up on telling me off for being an old perv by now.

Tsk, I despair of you lot.

[thebish]

Yeah, but really it was just shit. Thats not snobbery, just honesty.

^ can't say fairer than that...

calm down!!

hmmmm.... not sure agreeing with someone that a shit book is shit is quite the same level as calling another forum member a c*nt... but - eye of the beholder and all that...

[thebish]

just downloaded onto my kindle the three david mitchell books that I haven't read..

Ghostwritten
Number9dream
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

if they're anywhere near as good as Cloud Atlas - then that'll be my holiday reading sorted...

[William the White]

just downloaded onto my kindle the three david mitchell books that I haven't read..

Ghostwritten
Number9dream
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

if they're anywhere near as good as Cloud Atlas - then that'll be my holiday reading sorted...

You will enjoy...

I've not read Number9dream - though have it on the shelf...

Ghostwritten is second only to Cloud Atlas in my view - but not by much. It's fantastic...

Jacob starts slowly but grips tighter as it develops its story...

A very, very good writer...

[TANGODANCER]

In preparation for the Ashes I have two to read, Dickie Bird's White Cap and Bails and Jimmy-My Story by James Anderson.

[Hoboh]

After overheating outside I've been reading potted history of the campaigns waged by Nelson and Wellington, feel like flying a large flag of St George now .

[Worthy4England]

After overheating outside I've been reading potted history of the campaigns waged by Nelson and Wellington, feel like flying a large flag of St George now .

I guess you'd need to fly the Irish tricolour, to fondly remember Wellington.

[bobo the clown]

After overheating outside I've been reading potted history of the campaigns waged by Nelson and Wellington, feel like flying a large flag of St George now .

I guess you'd need to fly the Irish tricolour, to fondly remember Wellington.

He was British. He was born in what is NOW Ireland, but it was British then ... as was he. Gold old Arthur.

[Hoboh]

Remarkable the two only ever met once for no more than 30 mins and the first impression Wellesley had of Nelson was that he was up his own backside. Nelson got killed at Trafalgar 7 weeks after that meeting.

[William the White]

After overheating outside I've been reading potted history of the campaigns waged by Nelson and Wellington, feel like flying a large flag of St George now .

I guess you'd need to fly the Irish tricolour, to fondly remember Wellington.

He was British. He was born in what is NOW Ireland, but it was British then ... as was he. Gold old Arthur.

Tory bastard!

[Lost Leopard Spot]

The quality of my holiday reading was mixed this year.

Only two books read, both on the Kindle.

The first was great and I have no hesitation recommending it here, especially to LLS who, like myself, is a hill walker. The Last Englishman by Keith Foskett tells the tale of the writer walking the 2700 mile Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada on the west coast of the USA. He walks with some fantastic characters along the way and writes with passion and humour..

Cheers Clappers, recommendation found and I've ordered the last paperback from Amazon (I don't do kindle, just like e-cigs e-books are absent from my life). It had one of them preview panes on Amazon, he has a very jaunty writing style; looking forward to it.