What are you reading tonight?

[clapton is god]

Started Bill Brysons "A Walk in the Woods" yesterday in advance of the film being released in a couple of weeks. Robert Redford and Nick Nolte have a lot to live up to!

They've made a film out of that? A good book, but I can't imagine it would make a great film.

I imagine it got produced off the back of Reese Witherspoons 'Wild', which was very well thought of. That deals with a stroll on the Pacific Crest Trail whereas Brysons is concerned with the Appalachian Trail.

It was you, I think, who recommended a book about the PCT.

Yup, Keith Foskett's The Last Englishman.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Started Bill Brysons "A Walk in the Woods" yesterday in advance of the film being released in a couple of weeks. Robert Redford and Nick Nolte have a lot to live up to!

They've made a film out of that? A good book, but I can't imagine it would make a great film.

I imagine it got produced off the back of Reese Witherspoons 'Wild', which was very well thought of. That deals with a stroll on the Pacific Crest Trail whereas Brysons is concerned with the Appalachian Trail.

It was you, I think, who recommended a book about the PCT.

Yup, Keith Foskett's The Last Englishman.

That's the badger, bought it, read it, have it in a pile somewhere having run out of shelving space for the umpteenth time.

[Bruce Rioja]

Picked up Set a Watchman again. Now 100 pages in to a 270 page book and still absolutely nothing's happened.

[Harry Genshaw]

Currently reading Fish, the memoir of a 17 year old lad that through a combination of misfortune ended up serving time in an adult penitentiary in Michigan. Grim yet fascinating reading.

[William the White]

The Booker shortlist for 2015 has been announced.

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j ... 7793,d.bGg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

With the assistance of a fortnight in Portugal at a place with nothing to do (other than lie on a beach, eat delicious fish, drink excellent Portuguese wine - and read) - for the first time ever I managed to finish the previous year's shortlist before the current one was announced.

The final one was Neel Mukherjee's The Lives of Others, which tells the story of a middle class Bengali family in crisis and that of their eldest son who joins the militant Maoist armed struggle movement the Naxalites. Powerful work, if not the greatest storytelling.

[Prufrock]

Gaaaah I missed it by 99 pages. That's what I've got left of The Narrow Road to the Deep North which I started last week.

Let me know if/when the Book People come up with their usual offer will you, old sport?

[William the White]

Gaaaah I missed it by 99 pages. That's what I've got left of The Narrow Road to the Deep North which I started last week.

Let me know if/when the Book People come up with their usual offer will you, old sport?

You bet! I've already checked and it's not there yet.

Since you bought it once they'll probably be sending you an email.

[William the White]

Gaaaah I missed it by 99 pages. That's what I've got left of The Narrow Road to the Deep North which I started last week.

Let me know if/when the Book People come up with their usual offer will you, old sport?

It's on offer from today.

I've just 'pre-ordered'. Still £30 for the whole shortlist. £70 below RRP. Incredible really.

[Prufrock]

Ordered too, thanks! It is an unbelievable offer. £5 for pretty much any hardback at all is a steal!

[clapton is god]

Started Bill Brysons "A Walk in the Woods" yesterday in advance of the film being released in a couple of weeks. Robert Redford and Nick Nolte have a lot to live up to!

They've made a film out of that? A good book, but I can't imagine it would make a great film.

Watched this this afternoon. It was actually quite good. Didn't have the gritty stuff that Wild has but was good old home spun American humour on the trail. I enjoyed it!

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Started Bill Brysons "A Walk in the Woods" yesterday in advance of the film being released in a couple of weeks. Robert Redford and Nick Nolte have a lot to live up to!

They've made a film out of that? A good book, but I can't imagine it would make a great film.

Watched this this afternoon. It was actually quite good. Didn't have the gritty stuff that Wild has but was good old home spun American humour on the trail. I enjoyed it!

Okay then, I shall look out for it...

[William the White]

Just finished Elif Shafak's The Architect's Apprentice - a 450 page-turning historical novel set in 16th century Istanbul, telling the story of the Turkish master architect Sinan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8YrijHoDmw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - and - I think - fictional apprentice, Jahan.

I started this on holiday and it is brilliant holiday reading. Deliciously written, almost poetic in places, but undemanding. Best read under sunshine or on the balcony of the Topkapi Palace overlooking the Bosporus.

[Bruce Rioja]

As a VW driver I thought I'd better prepare myself.

[William the White]

The Booker Prize shortlist arrived this afternoon.

I'm relieved to report that none comes anywhere near the length of the 2013 winner The Luminaries that weighed in at 832 pages (read by my wife but, so far, not by me) and only one, the ironically named A Little Life manges to limp its way across the 700 page threshold, terminating at p720 with the sentence 'And then he did.' I hope that isn't too great a spoiler.

The annual arrival of this collection is a delight and a profound challenge, that I usually fail to complete. It's one of my favourite moments of the year.

[bobo the clown]

As a VW driver I thought I'd better prepare myself.

Amalgamating the two previous posts, a little a-la the Two Ronnie : -

Deliciously written, almost poetic in places, but undemanding. Best read under sunshine or on the balcony of the Topkapi Palace overlooking the Bosporus.

[thebish]

Deliciously written, almost poetic in places, but undemanding. Best read under sunshine or on the balcony of the Topkapi Palace overlooking the Bosporus.

nahh - use your imagination!!

I read the Ladybird book of Car Maintenance the other day - practically written, demanding in places, but mechanically poetic.. best read on a cloudy day whilst sat in the garage with the halogen spotlight on whilst supping a warm glass of Tizer...

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Waiting for Doggo.
Not my usual sort of read, but very good nonetheless. Very funny (so far).

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Waiting for Doggo.
Not my usual sort of read, but very good nonetheless. Very funny (so far).

Breezed through it, entertainingly amusing. It's been called chick-lit for men, apparently. Which I suppose makes it dick-lit.

[LeverEnd]

The Spanish Game by Charles Cumming.
Intelligent and enjoyable spy thriller. he's been favourably compared to John le Carre and Len Deighton.
I've never read many spy thrillers but I'll read more of this guy, and maybe pick up some of the old classics as well.

[bobo the clown]

The Spanish Game by Charles Cumming.
Intelligent and enjoyable spy thriller. he's been favourably compared to John le Carre and Len Deighton.
I've never read many spy thrillers but I'll read more of this guy, and maybe pick up some of the old classics as well.

If nothing else read le Carre's 'Tinker, Tailor' and 'Smiley's People'. There a lot more by him I'd recommend but those two are simply superb.