The what are you reading at the moment fred

[aussieh]

Omerta was very good.

[Ortarkod]

 

 

Thanks for your input

Just these little things that stand out to me. Tell her not to read the sequels, they're shit. In fact, tell her not to bother rereading the first one either, it's only a good read once.

 

Have you read/tried to read A Song of Ice and Fire?

[Maroonblood22]

Just these little things that stand out to me. Tell her not to read the sequels, they're shit. In fact, tell her not to bother rereading the first one either, it's only a good read once.

 

Have you read/tried to read A Song of Ice and Fire?

 

no worries man, I already bought her the sequels though so think it would be hard to persuade her not to! I've not tried that one yet, is that the one that Game of Thrones is based on?

[GrimUpNorth]

Two books recently finished, An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris, historical novel on the Dreyfus affair. Superb book, didn't know much about the actual story before reading so it was a real page turner.

 

Then read We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. This was shortlisted for the Manbooker Prize, lost out to Richard Flanagan. There is a HUGE twist on page 77, actually mentions this on the back of the book and in all the reviews, the whole book centres on this twist, won't give away any spoilers, it's a good read on a very interesting topic but it does drag slightly late on and I'm not entirely sure what the book was meant to be after page 77.

 

Currently reading two, HHhH by Laurent Binet and Wolf of Wall Street.

[Ortarkod]

Wuthering Heights.

[scott_jambo]

Thought I'd jump on to this thread for some recommendations from you chaps...I genuinely don't think I've read a full book since I was at school!

 

My little girl has just finished reading Hunger Games (kids version obvs) this week and seeing just how engaged she was with it really made me wish I could feel the same about a book, but I honestly don't know where to start. I know it all comes down to 'what you're into' but I've bought so many different genres over the years yet never got past 10 pages for whatever reason. So can I get some recommendations for something that might be a good starting point?

 

Cheers in advance

 

My suggestion would be to read this thread from the start.

 

Everytime I read a few pages of this thread I am intrigued by at least one book. Everyones tastes are so varied on here you'll find something which jumps out at you in no time.

[Coco]

 

Just started this

 

The introduction to Storm of Steel called this a 'star' book and it is dead right. So much of the action is very close to the author - with his First World War platoons seemingly acting as sponges soaking up shell fire - and with very short mentions of anything outwith close range so the book is star-shaped. The descriptions of life under shell fire are quite stunning - and from the 'other' side. A stunning book.

 

Now reading

[trotter]

Got my paws on this at the weekend. just finished up reading Rocket Men which tells the untold story behind Apollo, so this seemed like a fun follow-up before i go for another big read.

 

[brownkg]

Colin comes out to France with us on the annual visits in June/July

[Ray Gin]

Thought I'd jump on to this thread for some recommendations from you chaps...I genuinely don't think I've read a full book since I was at school!

 

My little girl has just finished reading Hunger Games (kids version obvs) this week and seeing just how engaged she was with it really made me wish I could feel the same about a book, but I honestly don't know where to start. I know it all comes down to 'what you're into' but I've bought so many different genres over the years yet never got past 10 pages for whatever reason. So can I get some recommendations for something that might be a good starting point?

 

Cheers in advance

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0057WTF3Y?btkr=1

 

The Damage Done: Twelve Years Of Hell In A Bangkok Prison

[Cigaro]

Just finished A Brief history of time, and started David Mitchells new one as a bit of lighter reading.

 

As an aside has anyone 'read' 'Icarus at the Edge of Time' by Brian Greene?

[Shanks said no]

Two books recently finished, An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris, historical novel on the Dreyfus affair. Superb book, didn't know much about the actual story before reading so it was a real page turner.

 

 

Read it when on holiday recently, which was good because I couldn't google to see how much was true but vaguely remembered some of the the characters from Higher History around WW1. Likewise I knew little and was surprised how anti-Semitic turn of the century France was.

 

now reading Ken Follett's Century trilogy, feels like it will be an easy read, a bit Archerlike.

[Des' Dad]

now reading Ken Follett's Century trilogy, feels like it will be an easy read, a bit Archerlike.

 

 

A wee tip if you're reading on a kindle (or I suppose in a proper book). Photocopy the list of characters and keep beside you when reading as it will save you constantly having to flick back to find out who's who. Excellent read. Just finished the last book in the series and would thoroughly recommend.

[AWM]

[Creepy Lurker]

Two books recently finished, An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris, historical novel on the Dreyfus affair. Superb book, didn't know much about the actual story before reading so it was a real page turner.

 

Then read We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. This was shortlisted for the Manbooker Prize, lost out to Richard Flanagan. There is a HUGE twist on page 77, actually mentions this on the back of the book and in all the reviews, the whole book centres on this twist, won't give away any spoilers, it's a good read on a very interesting topic but it does drag slightly late on and I'm not entirely sure what the book was meant to be after page 77.

 

Interestingly, I've also read both of these fairly recently. Quite enjoyed both.

 

Over the past couple of months I've read:

 

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

James Joyce, Dubliners

Jean-Paul Sartre, Qu'est-ce Que La Litt?rature?

Chr?tien de Troyes, Le Chevalier de la Charrette

Moli?re, La Critique de l'Ecole des Femmes and l'Impromptu de Versailles

Voltaire, Candide

Voltaire, Microm?gas

Voltaire, l'Histoire des Voyages de Scarmentado

Voltaire, Alzire

Voltaire, Zadig

Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Victor Hugo, Hernani

Victor Hugo, Ruy Blas

Alexandre Dumas, Antony

 

Voltaire is some boy.

[Ray Gin]

Just finished 'kill your friends' by John Niven. A tale of partying, drugs, sex and violence through the eyes of an A&R man. Highly offensive, twisted and depraved. I enjoyed it.

[spud]

The Hare with Amber Eyes - A Hidden Inheritance

 

You see a lot of books describing aspects of WWII on this thread. As I?ve just finished this I thought it may be of some interest.

 

Here, the author traces his Jewish family history from the mid 19^th Century to the present day by way of the fate of 264 Japanese wood and ivory carvings bought by his great-great-great-great grandfather, Charles in Paris.

 

Charles was a friend of Proust, is mentioned by Proust in his novels, is depicted in a Manet painting, owned many paintings by various Impressionists which he bought from the artists, was an arbiter of Parisian taste and was the head of the family Ephrussi, the biggest dealers in grain on Earth.

 

The book tells of the family?s incredible wealth and life style until their near destitution within a few days after the Nazi Austrian Anschluss in 1938. But it doesn?t stop there.

 

There is much debate on Amazon, some of it quite fierce, about the book?s merits. The mostly five star reviews (over 250) are tempered by a sizeable minority of one star reviews. Various professional reviewers rate it as a masterpiece.

 

I tend towards the five stars/masterpiece and found the book original, interesting, sometimes slightly long-winded and often, especially in the pre and post war period, extremely moving without being sentimental.

 

There is probably no other book like it, so if you are looking for a unique history spanning some 150 years, this one fits the bill.

Edited November 14, 2014 by spud

[tian447]

Reading Dreamcatcher at the minute.

 

I'm 100% a dedicated Stephen King man, and I refuse to read anything else until I have read them all.

 

I don't have that many to go either!

[superjack]

After reading the first 2 parts of the trilogy, I was quite disappointed with this book. Not saying it was pants, just that the other 2 had such a high standard, agent 6 just struggled to keep up

[Haken]

Having just finished 'Papillon', have gone for something a wee bit different:

 

 

This is book 9 of 10 in Erikson's 'Malazan' series. I've read 630 pages of this one so far, which is about half way through... If you like your fantasy long and winded, Erikson's your man.

[Uncle Buck]

Any Linwood Barclay fans? Recently read Fear the Worst, Trust Your Eyes and Never Saw it Coming. Just started on No Time For Goodbye.

 

The man is a genius.

[brownkg]

just started this one this week

 

 

The tartan special one

 

 

It began as a cult website with a surreal take on the career of one of Scottish football?s bright young things.

Now Dundee author Barry Phillips has scored a Christmas smash after turning his tale of bizarre goings-on at Dens Park into a novel.

The Tartan Special One was published last month by independent Dundee publisher Teckle Books.

The original print run of 1,000 copies sold out so quickly a second printing had to be rushed into the shops for Christmas.

Barry said: ?I?m absolutely thrilled to see the book selling so well.?

The Tartan Special One?s origins lie in an offbeat website created by Barry called The Real Leigh Griffiths Blog, an outlandish and off-the-wall fictional account of the striker?s time at Dundee FC.

The spoof website was a hit with fans and Barry was eventually approached by Grant Hill with a view to turning it into a book.

Copies of the book have now been sold across the world and Scottish author Christopher Brookmyre has called it the funniest book of the year.

getting all sorts of weird looks as I laugh out loud on the train

 

 

grr image not working http://www.tecklebooks.co.uk/

Edited November 14, 2014 by brownkg

[GrimUpNorth]

Reading Dreamcatcher at the minute.

 

I'm 100% a dedicated Stephen King man, and I refuse to read anything else until I have read them all.

 

I don't have that many to go either!

He's got another out this week, Revival.

[Carl Fredrickson]

Any Linwood Barclay fans? Recently read Fear the Worst, Trust Your Eyes and Never Saw it Coming. Just started on No Time For Goodbye.

 

The man is a genius.

 

Read a few of his and yet to be disappointed with any. First bought one of his books when the wife and I were up at Aviemore for a long weekend. She was pregnant and one of the days wasnt feeling up to going out. So I went to the local Tesco and bought No Time For Goodbye. I read it in a day and was the first "page turner" I had read in a long time.

[Hugh Phamism]

Just started the second in the Escobar Walker 'Bowling Ball' trilogy. He has a brilliant command of the Scottish language. Not as breakthrough as Irvine Welsh, but more current. Check him out.

 

http://escobarwalker.com/books/sideways-movers.html

[michael_bolton]

Just finished 'kill your friends' by John Niven. A tale of partying, drugs, sex and violence through the eyes of an A&R man. Highly offensive, twisted and depraved. I enjoyed it.

 

Quite enjoyed this, but thought Straight White Male was more well-written.

[Rudolf's Mate]

Two books recently finished, An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris, historical novel on the Dreyfus affair. Superb book, didn't know much about the actual story before reading so it was a real page turner.

 

Then read We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. This was shortlisted for the Manbooker Prize, lost out to Richard Flanagan. There is a HUGE twist on page 77, actually mentions this on the back of the book and in all the reviews, the whole book centres on this twist, won't give away any spoilers, it's a good read on a very interesting topic but it does drag slightly late on and I'm not entirely sure what the book was meant to be after page 77.

 

Currently reading two, HHhH by Laurent Binet and Wolf of Wall Street.

 

 

I'm about halfway through An Officer and a Spy. Started it a couple of months ago when my daughter was in hospital and really need to get back to it. 

 

It was recommended on here and I'm really (or was) enjoying it.

Edited November 17, 2014 by Rudolf's Mate

[Creepy Lurker]

I'm currently reading Les Particules El?mentaires by Michel Houellebecq (I think it's been translated into English as Atomised).

 

Don't like it at all but got to finish it as I'm reading it for uni.  It's about two brothers in the late nineties, both of whom have been negatively affected by their unusual family situation growing up.  Houellebecq is often described as a 'new reactionary', and there's pretty explicit criticism of the hippie movement among other things.

 

I don't like it, not so much because of the political views as the fact that there's some fairly graphic depiction of sexual abuse as well as one torture/murder scene.  The kind of stuff that authors justify on the basis that it's done to make a point about society but which I always feel seems voyeuristic, intended to titillate readers.  Houellebecq is a bit of a ****** too, which doesn't help.

[Haken]

 

Just finished A Brief history of time, and started David Mitchells new one as a bit of lighter reading.

As an aside has anyone 'read' 'Icarus at the Edge of Time' by Brian Greene?

Interested to hear what you think of the David Mitchell when you've finished it.  I loved Ghostwritten, No 9 Dream and Cloud Atlas, but felt BSG amd 1000 Autumns weren't quite the same standard.

 

Reading Dreamcatcher at the minute.

I'm 100% a dedicated Stephen King man, and I refuse to read anything else until I have read them all.

I don't have that many to go either!

Just noticed that the latest King book is available as a Kindle download for ?2.99, which appears to be causing a bit of consternation among those who just paid ?9.99 for it before the price came down! 

Edited November 18, 2014 by Haken

[leginten]

Interested to hear what you think of the David Mitchell when you've finished it.  I loved Ghostwritten, No 9 Dream and Cloud Atlas, but felt BSG amd 1000 Autumns weren't quite the same standard.

 

I've only read No.9 Dream, Cloud Atlas and The 1000 Autumns...

 

Of the three, I found The 1000 Autumns by far the most satisfying and rounded book. The other two contain passages of brilliance - absolute brilliance in the case of a couple of the stories within the story of Cloud Atlas - but to be quite honest he loses me when he enters the realm of what might be loosely termed science fiction, futuristic worlds and fantasy.

 

When he's keeping a tight rein on an interesting plot with a good character, I think he's just about the most dazzling writer around at the moment.

[Greenbank2]

Just finished 'kill your friends' by John Niven. A tale of partying, drugs, sex and violence through the eyes of an A&R man. Highly offensive, twisted and depraved. I enjoyed it.not

Not that I blame you, but you obviously couldn't be bothered reading this whole thread (who could!)  I posted a number of pages ago drumming up support for Mr. Niven who IMO is he best Scottish author of this generation. KYF is due for cinema release next year and will do for him more that the film version of Trainsportting did for Irvine Welsh, Danny Boyle and Ewan McGregor put together. If you enjoyed KYF you HAVE to read "The Second Coming" again IMO the best novel of the past 25 years. He has also written some more serious stuff which is excellent.

 

And as posted by Hugh Phamism, Pablo Escobar's second novel is an absolute scream (as is the first and it's a trilogy!). There are characters in there (weegie's of course) who make Franko Begbie seem like a pillar of the community. If you like gritty scottish humour you will absolutely love his work.

[Creepy Lurker]

The Society of the Spectacle by the situationist thinker Guy Debord. Tough going but fascinating.

[Haken]

Having just finished 'Papillon', have gone for something a wee bit different:

 

 

This is book 9 of 10 in Erikson's 'Malazan' series. I've read 630 pages of this one so far, which is about half way through... If you like your fantasy long and winded, Erikson's your man.

Having now finished that, no option but to finish the series off:

 

[Ray Gin]

Not that I blame you, but you obviously couldn't be bothered reading this whole thread (who could!) I posted a number of pages ago drumming up support for Mr. Niven who IMO is he best Scottish author of this generation. KYF is due for cinema release next year and will do for him more that the film version of Trainsportting did for Irvine Welsh, Danny Boyle and Ewan McGregor put together. If you enjoyed KYF you HAVE to read "The Second Coming" again IMO the best novel of the past 25 years. He has also written some more serious stuff which is excellent.

 

And as posted by Hugh Phamism, Pablo Escobar's second novel is an absolute scream (as is the first and it's a trilogy!). There are characters in there (weegie's of course) who make Franko Begbie seem like a pillar of the community. If you like gritty scottish humour you will absolutely love his work.

The Second Coming is already on my Amazon wishlist. Def going to read it soon.

[Hugh Phamism]

Just finished this, and yes Poulter can be a right dick and he annoy's the shit out of me on twitter, but his tales of the Ryder Cup, both on-course and behind the scenes are epic.

 

[Coco]

Something about this didn't read right ... hundreds of pages about how SEALs are the best, how they find it easy to observe from deep cover ... and then within minutes of finding their observation point where it would be impossible to see them - they are spotted by 3 goatherds walking along a path!

 

This was not bad

 

Now reading this

 

[Guest Trapper John]

Flashman and the Angel of the Lord.

 

Glorious.

[Ray Gin]

Just finished 'death can't take a joke' by Anya Lipska. Pretty good.

 

Now onto 'American Rust' by Phillip Mayer. Almost stopped reading after a few pages as the writing style takes a bit of getting used to. Glad I stuck with it though.

[Rousset1]

Hard Times

 

Charles Dickens

[fila]

The Empty Throne by Bernard Cornwell, it's the 8th book out of the series , all been good reads .

[Zico]

Reading If This Is A Man by Primo Levi about his experiences at Auschwitz. As harrowing as you would expect but fascinating to read about from a first person perspective. Have The Truce to read afterwards.

[Ray Gin]

Now onto 'American Rust' by Phillip Mayer. Almost stopped reading after a few pages as the writing style takes a bit of getting used to. Glad I stuck with it though.

 

Just finished this, really enjoyed it in the end.

 

Up next, "The Universe Versus Alex Woods" by Gavin Extence. 

[Guest Trapper John]

Reading If This Is A Man by Primo Levi about his experiences at Auschwitz. As harrowing as you would expect but fascinating to read about from a first person perspective. Have The Truce to read afterwards.

 

A remarkable book. I read a biography of Levi. Pretty sad life. He worked as an company executive and didn't exactly live the high life for all his genius and fame. Killed himself in the end but the belief is his soul died long before in Auschwitz. 

[The White Cockade]

[Jambos_1874]

Just finished reading "Spandau: The Secret Diaries". It's basically just Albert Speer's diary during his 20 year imprisonment in Spandau Prison in Berlin. Fascinating to read his thoughts on his relationship with Hitler and about the daily prison routine. Different to your average read but I'd definitely recommend it.

[269miles]

Beyond Contempt by Peter Jukes. Its his take on the Brooks/Coulson trial. He explauns how he funded his blog, who followed his Tweets and who approached him during the trial with info that never made the papers. A great insight into the battery of lawyers paid for by Murdoch and how they tried to derail the trial - and nearly did.

[GrimUpNorth]

I'm about 40 pages from the end of Stephen King's new book 'Revival'. Every review I've read has said it's a return to form from King and that those who thought he had gone soft should think again as the ending is the most dark and disturbing he's ever written. Reviewer in The Times said the ending will live with them for a long time. Enjoyed it so far, read up to this point in less than two days, I wonder if I'll still be enjoying it when I've finished. I've got an inkling where it's heading.

 

Before that read The Trials Of Oscar Pistorius by John Carlin (author of the book the film Invictus was based on). First half is a biography second half on the actual trial. Very good and balanced view of both OP and the trail.

[Shanks said no]

Flashman and the Angel of the Lord.

 

Glorious.

One day I will go back and read them all again, I remember searching Edinburgh Libraries 20 odd years ago to get hold of the next one in the series. Great reads. 

[Gigolo-Aunt]

Just finished reading "Spandau: The Secret Diaries". It's basically just Albert Speer's diary during his 20 year imprisonment in Spandau Prison in Berlin. Fascinating to read his thoughts on his relationship with Hitler and about the daily prison routine. Different to your average read but I'd definitely recommend it.

 

That would be an excellent read - might check it out.   Bizarre that he went on American chat shows on his release

 

The Boys from Brazil - Ira Levin.   Superb thriller.

Edited January 4, 2015 by Gigolo-Aunt

[Craig Gordons Gloves]

I think it's been mentioned on here already, but i got a hold of a copy of The Tartan Special One which is essentially a book along the lines of the famous Leigh Griffiths fake blog.  Anyway - it's actually piss your pants funny if you know you're not supposed to take anything seriously.  Clubbed to Death - also published by Teckle books is quite amusing too.

 

I've also recently finished Us by David Nicholls which is pretty good and Gray Mountain by John Grisham which is exactly what you'd expect in a Grisham novel - you don't have to think when reading. 

 

Really struggling to find stuff to read at the moment so this thread always helps - thanks to all who contribute!