This week, I are mostly reading....

JackKelly

Some of the scenes in that book are priceless! Looking for the American Dream lol

Miles Long

You gotta love the dictated bit at the end of Fear and Loathing, with all the *truck went by* and stuff like that. Amazing book though. I'm reading "Shadow of a Dark Queen" since this morning, I've gotton thought 20 pages in work, I'll hold on the judgement yet...

Maybe I'll read Tolstoys "War and Peace" after the four I'm on... :rolleyes:

Hippo

Fear and Loathing is a magnificent achievement.

Reading 'The First Casualty' by Ben Elton

hshortt

Harlan Coben, the Myron Bolitar crime novels. Lovely!

JackKelly

It's the shining for me. What a book. I'll have to watch the film again when i'm finished.

Barcode

Jpod --Douglas coupland


I don’t think oprah has recommended this one

BossArky

Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

Merrick

Making a start on the Dark Tower.
Gunslinger here I come.

Attractive Nun

40 stories of Anton Chekhov. I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying them to be honest, they seem very droll and unexciting, but they are still somehow fascinatingly intelligent. Very strange.

muletide

Terrorist by John Updike - great book

fasterkitten

In between Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge - finding it really boring so far and The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw which is brilliant so I'm going to struggle through Master Georgie so I can concentrate on it

dudara

I just finished "jPod" by Douglas Coupland, and i found it really dull and clicheed. Typical of what you'd expect from an updated version of Microserfs.

Am about halfway through "The Geographer's Library" by John Fasman. It's in the vein of "The Historian" etc fad of the moment, but it's well written and so far I'm enjoying it. However, I'll find until the end to reserve final judgement.

Sgt. Sensible

Social Policy In The 3rd Reich - Tim Mason. About how the nazis attempts to assimilate the (predominantly left wing) German working class failed and how their subsequent policies stemmed from this failure.

Giving fiction a break for a while.

Kold

We need to talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver. Took it from one of those swappy book thingies at a hostel in Amsterdam.

Seems to have a lot of acclaim, quite looking forward to it.

Merrick

Dangerous Liasons - Choderlos de Laclos (I think that's how it's spelled).
Again...

snapjiggyfluff

Two Lives-Vikram Seth. Brilliant book, one of the best i've read in ages, has anyone else read this book or another of Seth's books?

johnny_ultimate

The third policeman, flann O Brien - Dont really have a clue what it's about yet but the general surrealness is very appealing.

sonic juice

Freud's the interpretation of dreams;all that cocaine he was taking during his psychoanalysis prevalence,he's insane and articulate as hell; what an interesting read...i now have so much more perception on dreams. It no longer seems as abstractly carved...

Demetrius

Intensity by Dean Konntz. Looks promising.

buck65

Blood meridian - Cormac Mc Carthy
lively

hullaballoo

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller.
Brimfull of subtle humour.

Demetrius

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. Doesn't "feel" like a discworld novel so far.

JackKelly

The Secret Agent - Joseph Conrad.

In fairness, I'm about 3 pages in.

Tar.Aldarion

The second book in the sabriel series , just started. Lisrael or Lirael or something...

luckat

Zoli by Colum McCann, about the Nazi persecution of the Roma. It's based on a famous (fictional) singer called Zoli Novotna and her involvement with a group of communist intellectuals, and is based on the actual story of the gypsy poet Papusza (http://kmareka.com/free-literature-online/growinganewskin.htm) who wrote lush, wonderful songs about girls as beautiful as bilberries (frauchans) wearing earrings of leaves, but was incarcerated in a mental hospital because she published her poems, against the custom of her people.

It's good, but it feels a little too *researched* somehow - I'm not stolen away into another world by the story.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zoli-Colum-McCann/dp/0297847597

I've just finished Hellfire by Mia Gallagher, which is a novel about Dublin's gangs. It irritated the heck out of me by being written in a kind of attempt to capture Dublin accents by the spelling: "He springs up from behind the sofa; his eyes are bright and glarin and even through the barrier of her skin and flesh and blood, they keep their colour. Two shots a green, blue, grey, in a red fog. She heaves herself backwards, draggin me with her, sendin a sour taste a fear through the cord."

And the story isn't structured - it wanders on forever, with occasional violent incidents; the characters are alike and it's hard to keep track of which psychopath is which.

But for a first novel it's impressive. And I suspect many others will really love this book - it could become a Dublin underground cult.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hellfire-Novel-Mia-Gallagher/dp/1844880818

Valmont

Merrick wrote:

Dangerous Liasons - Choderlos de Laclos (I think that's how it's spelled).
Again...

Thats one of my favourites, I like the way it's done in a series of letters;it adds a dimension that you wouldn't really see often in that type of story.

I'm reading Persian Fire by Tom Holland. It doesn't seem as well written as Rubicon but interesting nonetheless.

meldrew

Wolves of the calla by Stephen King , I had actually forgotten how good a writer he is

theCzar

Reading Thud by T.P.

Finished "letters from america" compilation by Alistar Cooke and "the Idiot" by dostoevsky and "Down Under" by Bill Bryson (his best). Hey, I was on my holidays...

tHE vAGGABOND

Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer - very interesting read about Mormon fu<kwits

LoLth

Just started "system of the world" - final part of the baroque trilogy by Neal Stephenson. Fantastic series so far (hard to get into but well worth the effort! a bit like Umberto Eco in that regard I suppose). Fingers crossed for a good ending