What book are you reading atm??

FiveSive

Wally Lambs "I know this much is true"

Love it! highly recommend

Rubberchikken

have given up reading books - concentration gone:eek:

at the moment am listening to a lee child book, one of the jack reacher novels. pure escapism.

eisenberg1

FiveSive wrote: »

Wally Lambs "I know this much is true"

Love it! highly recommend

First rate, I bought on a whim going on hols a few years ago, and got really stuck in to it..............the OH was not a happy bunny:)

I have tried a couple of his other books, ok, but not near as good as this one.

astonaidan

My latest attempt to finish Moby Dick, have decided Im not going to buy another book till I finish it

Breadcrusts

Having a good book month - just read and adored Eimear McBride's "A Girl is a half formed thing" and currently reading and most definitely enjoying "Stoner" by John Williams.

Both sad and touching but on completely different levels.

Sir Arthur Daley

Big Girl by Danielle Steel.

DenMan

Gill Edwards 'Pure Bliss' - The Art of Living in Soft Time

Pumpkinseeds

M.R. James, Curious Warnings and other ghost stories. It's a compilation of short stories, many of which I recognise as having been the basis of a lot of dramas I've seen on tv over the years. I'd highly recommend it, some of the stories are just outright creepy and are almost enough to make you want to check under the bed and in the wardrobe before you turn off the light to sleep.

thattequilagirl

Ian Rankin - Saints of the Shadow Bible. It is brilliant.

GLaDOS

Finished Catch-22 last night, really enjoyed it. Genuinely laughed out loud in some parts! Was difficult to read at times though.

Moving onto Hannibal by Thomas Harris, something a little less silly and a bit easier to read

RachaelVO

ScienceNerd wrote: »

Finished Catch-22 last night, really enjoyed it. Genuinely laughed out loud in some parts! Was difficult to read at times though.

Moving onto Hannibal by Thomas Harris, something a little less silly and a bit easier to read

Hannibal is good, especially if you know the other books, I must read it again, been a good long while since I have.

GLaDOS

Yeah I've read the first two, but this is the first I hadn't seen the film before so looking forward to it

JohnMearsheimer

I recently finished reading Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer. I've seen the movie as well. There are divergent ways that people view the McCandless story. Christopher McCandless is a hero to many people, an idealist whose independence, sense of adventure and romanticism were inspirational. I think he was treated empathetically by Krakauer in the book and by Sean Penn in the movie. On the other hand people out there paint McCandless as a foolish adventurer, the Alaskan media especially. They say he was reckless, naive and unprepared for the task of surviving in the wilderness (which are also fair points).

After finishing the book I have mixed feelings on McCandless. McCandless was all of the above those things, good and bad, at once. I admired his free spirit but can't get over his complete recklessness either, which is a bit contradictory I suppose. It feels very weird to disagree with some decisions that a person chooses to make and yet admire their adventurous spirit. For all his flaws I still found him a fascinating character with an interesting story.

judgefudge

In cold blood by Truman capote! Great so far

Clandestine

Apt Pupil by Stephen king. Its a bit messed up

eisenberg1

Clandestine wrote: »

Apt Pupil by Stephen king. Its a bit messed up

Read it years ago and thought it was good, but I don't know if I would read it again. Without a doubt, King's best is "Rita Hayworth & The Shawshank Redemption"

JumpShivers

I bought a few books of The Vampire Diaries in a charity shop just before Christmas. I've no idea what these books are about, besides the obvious. :rolleyes:

Should be good though.

--Kaiser--

The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov

This was recommended to me my Uncle, it's his favourite book. I am unsure about it as I don't believe you can really translate books very well into another language - too much is lost and modified

Gamayun

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov

This was recommended to me my Uncle, it's his favourite book. I am unsure about it as I don't believe you can really translate books very well into another language - too much is lost and modified

Here's an example of how much translators can interpret the one line in M&M.

"I ought to drop everything and run down to Kislovodsk." (Glenny)
"It's time to throw everything to the devil and go to Kislovodsk." (Burgin, Tiernan O'Connor)
"It's time to send it all to the devil and go to Kislovodsk." (Pevear, Volokhonsky)
"To hell with everything, it's time to take that Kislovodsk vacation." (Karpelson)
"It’s time to let everything go to the devil and be off to Kislovodsk.” (Aplin)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_and_Margarita#English_translations

Also it wasn't finished when Bulgakov died, so the last few chapters are drafts of a kind (I don't know how near to finishing Bulgakov was). I still enjoyed the book (P&V translation) though it didn't blow me away as it has others, I was given it by a work colleague who loved it.

Custardpi

If you have the Pevear-Volokhonsky translation you're in luck. They're generally recognised as being the finest translation team for Russian literature around. Read their version of Anna Karenina a while back, not the easiest of books but it kept my attention pretty well. Have their issue of Gogol's Collected Tales marked down for reading in the next few months too, looking forward to that.

Birneybau

Breadcrusts wrote: »

Having a good book month - just read and adored Eimear McBride's "A Girl is a half formed thing" and currently reading and most definitely enjoying "Stoner" by John Williams.

Both sad and touching but on completely different levels.

thattequilagirl wrote: »

Ian Rankin - Saints of the Shadow Bible. It is brilliant.

Loved "Stoner" myself.

Only finished "Saints of the Shadow Bible" earlier today, didn't think it was the greatest Rebus book to be honest.

playedalive

Finished The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Brilliant book and far better than the film adaptation.

I am reading Carrie by Stephen King. It's my first Stephen King book and I like his writing style.

Ilyana 2.0

I'm reading A Peace To End All Peace by David Fromkin, all about the creation of the Middle East.

It is an academic work but it's a great introduction to Middle Eastern history, if you're into that kind of thing

Yawlboy

Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson - for the third time. Have to admit its been over that last 15 years or so but I love the series.

sogood

Reading "Berlin 1961". Excellent read if you're into all the political "behind the scenes" activity and the birth of the Wall, conflict between JFK and Kruschev.

It's a good view into the self serving policies of Russia and the USA, and most others also! An easy read, very well written.

Custardpi

A good mix of stuff the past month or so. Started off with Robert Tressell's "The Ragged Trousered Philantropists", a novel with strong socialist leanings which depicts the lives of a group of painters & decorators in early 20th Century England. It makes its' points with a sledgehammer at times but is a very good account (drawn from the author's own experiences) of the grim working conditions for the majority of people at the time.

Went a bit lighter next with Kingsley Amis' wonderful "Lucky Jim", which was apparently a serious gap in my reading history - everyone I mentioned it to was amazed I hadn't read it already, one of those classics that just passed me by until now. Very funny satire on university life & awkward social conventions.

Got Dee Brown's "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" for Xmas so decided to read that next. An almost relentlessly tragic account of the cruel & often bloody battle to drive the various North American Indian tribes off their ancestral land. There's the occasional tale of brave resistance by chiefs like Cochise, Red Cloud, Geronimo & Sitting Bull but ultimately all prove futile. Very depressing but a well written book with lots of contemporary photos featuring the main people involved.

While reading these I've also been dipping in & out of "Letters of Note", a collection of interesting correspondance by famous people or relating to famous events. Some fascinating letters in it such as Darwin's letter to one of his contemporaries regarding his developing ideas on evolution, Dostoevsky's letter to his brother shortly after being reprieved (what a loss to literature if not!) at the last moment from the firing squad & the indignant & eloquent reply of an escaped slave from the Southern US to his former master who had written to him begging him to return. Very enjoyable & some great examples of the lost art of proper letter writing.

baron von something

finished Metro 2033.really good book,so much creepy tension throughout it and it had a good twist at the very end

currently reading Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan

judgefudge

The corrections by jonathon franzen

bnt

Without Remorse by Tom Clancy. I think I read it before, many years ago, too long ago to remember much. It's a flashback to 1969, before Jack Ryan was on the scene; it's mostly about "John Clark" (John Kelly) as a young former Navy Seal, recently widowed, the start of his involvement with the CIA, and the very dodgy things he got up to in those days. All with the Vietnam War complicating events and motivations and dividing the USA.

Not one of Clancy's best books, and some of the characters are caricatures e.g. a couple of anti-war characters are sad, immature traitors who seem to be motivated to betray their country by a lack of regular sex. On the other hand, the character of John Kelly seems to spend half his time wrestling with his conscience about his actions, and doesn't always get it right. He's even more complex a character than Jack Ryan.

Ilyana 2.0

I've just started Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown, thanks to this thread. So far so good