What are you reading tonight?

[Gary the Enfield]

Hmmm. Now then, ignoring the obvious 'colouring in' jokes, I've just had Merson's book recco'd to me by someone who I wouldn't have ever thought might have (a) even read it, or (b) liked it one jot.
Has anyone else....... Etc, etc?

Is it a heavy tome? Could it, for instance, poleaxe a German diner?

[TANGODANCER]

The Time of My Life.

Patrick Swayze's autobiography, written/finished in June 2009 after he discovered in 2007 he had pancreatic cancer. An amazingly brave account of his life and attitude in coping with the shock of an untreatable ailment. Three months later he was dead. R.I.P a a very brave man.

[Gooner Girl]

Hmmm. Now then, ignoring the obvious 'colouring in' jokes, I've just had Merson's book recco'd to me by someone who I wouldn't have ever thought might have (a) even read it, or (b) liked it one jot.
Has anyone else....... Etc, etc?

Yes. i believed i mentioned it on here. I presume we are talking about his new one and not autobiography? Its probably more interesting if you're a gooner but he spills the beans on some other football events that took place in the 80's and 90's, its a fairly light read, i woul;dn;t pay more then £5 for it though. Get it out the library. If you lived nearer i'd lend it to you.

[Gooner Girl]

The Time of My Life.

Patrick Swayze's autobiography, written/finished in June 2009 after he discovered in 2007 he had pancreatic cancer. An amazingly brave account of his life and attitude in coping with the shock of an untreatable ailment. Three months later he was dead. R.I.P a a very brave man.

Ahhh, i loved Patrick Swayze in 'Dirty Dancing' as a teenager. "Nobody puts Baby in the corner"

So very sad he died so young.

[William the White]

Getting back to doing some reading after the annual three weeks of proper work...

And back to Paul Preston's outstanding book Comrades.

It consists of 9 biographical chapters of leaders of Left, Right and Centre in the terrible bloodletting that was the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39. From Franco on the far right to Ibarruri (La Pasionaria) on the Communist Left, Preston gives a vivid portrait of their lives, ideas and fate.

Excellent biography from one of the leading historians of 20th century Spain. I got it from amazon for two quid.

[clapton is god]

Just finished A. D. Miller's Snowdrops.

A genre - crime thriller - I rarely read. But very glad I read this one. Set in Russia sometime about now, when the line between entrepreneur and gangster is blurred, and when the ice melts in the streets the corpses hidden for a winter in the ice appear - like snowdrops...

An English banker, back home, after more than four years in the 'Wild East' of Moscow talks to his fiancee, offering a lengthy confession, that he must give before he allows her to marry him... Or... maybe decide to leave...

So well crafted, as, little by little, we are led slowly to the nasty place we vaguely sense at the beginning that gets clearer and clearer as this story unfolds horribly... would you marry this person after this truth has been told...

Moral culpability, acquiescence to corruption, sex and love at a price, and... (I can't tell any more)... other than an intelligent page-turner with depth and feeling and questioning... take to beach if you like Le Carre...

Am managing to keep to a book read every month new year's res...

Read this whilst away last week and enjoyed it very much. A morbidly depressing vision of a less than savoury Russia. Fascinatingly page turning as the story comes out piece by piece. Thanks for recommending.

[Bruce Rioja]

Hmmm. Now then, ignoring the obvious 'colouring in' jokes, I've just had Merson's book recco'd to me by someone who I wouldn't have ever thought might have (a) even read it, or (b) liked it one jot.
Has anyone else....... Etc, etc?

Yes. i believed i mentioned it on here. I presume we are talking about his new one and not autobiography? Its probably more interesting if you're a gooner but he spills the beans on some other football events that took place in the 80's and 90's, its a fairly light read, i woul;dn;t pay more then £5 for it though. Get it out the library. If you lived nearer i'd lend it to you.

No idea which, and I'm quite stunned to learn that there's more than one, to be honest. Will ask. I'll skive it off of him either way and will report back. Apparently he read it over four evenings which bears out your "fairly light" assessment though.

[General Mannerheim]

yeah, ive read the earlier one, the one where he gets pretty deep about his gambling endeavours - was good.

[Harry Genshaw]

Just finished 'Stick it up your punter' the inside story of the Sun. Really interesting and quite scary at times the tactics they got up to.

Started 'I, Partridge. We need to talk about Alan' last night. 3rd chapter in and spat mi brew out half a dozen times already. Very very funny

[Bruce Rioja]

I've recently subscribed to The Week magazine. Perfect for me. I don't buy papers anymore as I don't get time to read them, instead I just read stuff online whilst having my lunch. The Week is ace, it means I get to keep up to speed with all sorts.

[TANGODANCER]

John Le Carre's "Our Kind Of Traitor".

[Prufrock]

I've recently subscribed to The Week magazine. Perfect for me. I don't buy papers anymore as I don't get time to read them, instead I just read stuff online whilst having my lunch. The Week is ace, it means I get to keep up to speed with all sorts.

Ace isn't it?

Exams over, I'm on a serious reading mission. Read two thirds of Of Mice and Men today. A massive stack of others is looking at me as I type. Finally, relaxation!

[William the White]

I've recently subscribed to The Week magazine. Perfect for me. I don't buy papers anymore as I don't get time to read them, instead I just read stuff online whilst having my lunch. The Week is ace, it means I get to keep up to speed with all sorts.

Ace isn't it?

Exams over, I'm on a serious reading mission. Read two thirds of Of Mice and Men today. A massive stack of others is looking at me as I type. Finally, relaxation!

Stage production of this at the octagon next season.

[Prufrock]

Have you seen it staged before? I'm still 30-odd pages from the end, but it has only felt like about a half hour's worth so far!

Either way it's been too long since I've been to the Octagon. Must sort.

[William the White]

Have you seen it staged before? I'm still 30-odd pages from the end, but it has only felt like about a half hour's worth so far!

Either way it's been too long since I've been to the Octagon. Must sort.

I haven't seen it staged - but I presume they are using Steinbeck's own version of it.i think this appeared very quickly after the novel's publication. and there's a 19830s movie of it also, don't know if Steinbeck wrote this.

It was the first Steinbeck i ever read. I consumed the entire opus in the following few years. He writes with heart and passion, and has strangely fallen out of favour recently. One of the three great writers of that American generation - with Hemingway and dos Passos.

[Prufrock]

Have you seen it staged before? I'm still 30-odd pages from the end, but it has only felt like about a half hour's worth so far!

Either way it's been too long since I've been to the Octagon. Must sort.

I haven't seen it staged - but I presume they are using Steinbeck's own version of it.i think this appeared very quickly after the novel's publication. and there's a 19830s movie of it also, don't know if Steinbeck wrote this.

It was the first Steinbeck i ever read. I consumed the entire opus in the following few years. He writes with heart and passion, and has strangely fallen out of favour recently. One of the three great writers of that American generation - with Hemingway and dos Passos.

And mine. Tearing through it like you do when a book just grabs you. Already had Grapes of Wrath reserved at the library, I'm on a mission whilst I have free time to get through as many of the books one 'ought to have read' as I can, but I think it could be a while before it is available. Where do I go after that do you reckon?

Hemingway, I read A Farewell to Arms about a year ago, and really enjoyed it. The only other I have read is the Old Man and the Sea. I found a copy of it, in French, in the school library when about 15. I read it to practise my french more than anything, and so didn't really follow it as a book.

dos Passos I haven't read any of.

It's an ace feeling finding new authors you enjoy. Recommendations on where to go next for the three would be much appreciated.

[TANGODANCER]

Hemingway, I read A Farewell to Arms about a year ago, and really enjoyed it. The only other I have read is the Old Man and the Sea. I found a copy of it, in French, in the school library when about 15. I read it to practise my french more than anything, and so didn't really follow it as a book.

Have a read of The Sun Also Rises and Dangerous Summer.

[William the White]

Dos Passos is now hardly known - but was outstanding and inventive in form.

The 'entry level' to him is probably Manhattan Transfer. His masterwork is USA - the Penguin classic is 1184 pages - i've just checked. I read it at University in one of those marathons that happen when a book grabs you and you are able to give it real attention; like I just stayed at home to finish it, skipped lectures, tutorials, food, sleep. Finished it at about three o clock one very early midweek morning. The final chapter, Vag, is one of the finest things I've read. As is the opening chapter.

but you don't need to be in marathon mode to start it - it is three volumes, published over years, that aim to tell the story of USA, rich, poor, glamorous, desperate, complacent in the first thirty years of the 20th Century... Of the three I think the first - The 42nd Parallel is the best. The second is Nineteen Nineteen, the third The Big Money - this one takes us from the 'Roaring Twenties' to the great depression.

It is a stunning achievement.

If you find yourself grabbed by him, come back to me for other reccos of once world famous, now apparently obscure, American writers...

[thebish]

spent pretty much the whole afternoon in the garden, undisturbed, reading the second in the Farseer Trilogy on my Kindle.. what a luxury!! I must do that more often!!

[Prufrock]

Cheers gents. Lancashire libraries didn't have either of those in book format TD (though they had them as audio CDs, wtf?!) so I ordered The Old Man and the Sea, this time in English!

Also ordered the Manhattan Transfer, which will be dispatched from Skem! Is it not ace that a book by a now little-known American author WtW rates up there with Hemingway and Steinbeck is just sitting there waiting for a kid in somewhere like Skem to pick up and read?