What book are you reading atm??

Birneybau

Aglomerado wrote: »

That's a terrific book. :-)

A fantastic writer, I love his stream of consciousness stuff, it's incredible when he just takes off and runs with it. An amazing depiction of a manic episode in "The Marriage Plot"

judgefudge

JohnMearsheimer wrote: »

I would say Shantaram is the biggest pile of drivel I've ever read. I have no idea how I managed to finish the thing. Shantaram is a big commitment in terms of reading but I can safely say it was the least rewarding book I've ever read. Roberts seems to hint that many of the events in the book happened in real life but the whole thing is a swizz. His whole I became more Indian than the Indians themselves angle really got on my nerves.

If it wasn't supposedly based on real life do you think you would have enjoyed it? To be honest I wish I hadn't read that it was related to the authors life because it colours my opinion of the whole thing. Going to persevere for the meantime but I'm not holding out too much hope for it after these comments...

Hootanany

To kiss a stranger Gene Wilder Auto it's very good had me hooked on the first page.

ART6

"The Martian" by Andy Weir (ISBN 978-0-09195-613-4). This is not SF, although the title suggests that, and it is fiction. It's about a guy who got stranded on Mars when the first human expedition there went wrong, and it is riveting. I am half way through it, and it's causing me sleepless nights because I can't put it down.

Ice Storm

ART6 wrote: »

"The Martian" by Andy Weir (ISBN 978-0-09195-613-4). This is not SF, although the title suggests that, and it is fiction. It's about a guy who got stranded on Mars when the first human expedition there went wrong, and it is riveting. I am half way through it, and it's causing me sleepless nights because I can't put it down.

Ooh, that's on my wishlist. Sounds promising.:)

JohnMearsheimer

judgefudge wrote: »

If it wasn't supposedly based on real life do you think you would have enjoyed it? To be honest I wish I hadn't read that it was related to the authors life because it colours my opinion of the whole thing. Going to persevere for the meantime but I'm not holding out too much hope for it after these comments...

I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was presented as a complete work of fiction but I think Roberts is intentionally vague on what's reality and what's fiction. I do think Roberts has had a colourful life, the drug addiction, bank robber and prison escapee stories are true from what I know. After that I'm not so sure.

MRnotlob606

Birneybau wrote: »

'Middlesex' by Jeffrey Eugenides.

Pulitzer prize winning tale of a hermaphrodite borne of incestuous descendents. Also contains: race riots, war and the great depression.

Enjoyable.

something for everyone there

MRnotlob606

how to be fluent in 3 months by Benny lewis, Met him today too , great guy

Brigante

The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson

Brigante

The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson

Custardpi

Brigante wrote: »

The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson

How did you score? :pac:

ibarelycare

Have some of Stephen King's older books downloaded to read. Last week I read The Long Walk (originally published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman). Thought it was brilliant, very Hunger Games-esque (but with good writing obviously )

Started The Dead Zone last night.

8mv

Three books finished recently:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Second time to read it - picked up on the humour this time around. Great book. Read it if you haven't already. I've just started the follow-up, Bring Up The Bodies(first reading)

Stupid White Men by Michael Moore. Very much a book of it's time, I'm afraid. What was unbelievable in US politics pre-9/11 is just commonplace now unfortunately.

HHhH by Laurent Binet. This one caught my eye in Easons with it's strange title and typeface and the distorted photo of Reinhart Heydrich on the cover. I'm glad I bought it - on one hand a fascinating and exciting account of the assassination attempt on Heydrich in Prague in 1942, it's build-up and consequences. On the other hand, the author breaks away from the narrative to address the reader directly, deliberately throwing the veracity of what we are reading into doubt or giving us some insight into his own real (?) history. I was reminded of Lemony Snickets continuous interjections during A Series Of Unfortunate Events. The reviews for this on Amazon are divided, but I thought it was really good.

Merkin

I'm reading The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion and I'm a tad underwhelmed thusfar. It's OK and I'll finish it but I sometimes wonder whether I'm living in some parallel universe when books that receive such rave reviews often disappoint. I'd be keen to hear what others here thought of it.

Ilyana 2.0

I've just started Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder. Right now it hasn't told me a whole lot more than I knew already but I'll keep going with it.

Also going to start Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier soon.

Thargor

niallo24 wrote: »

Count of Monte Cristo, a classic I have had on my must read list for near twenty years!

Collie D wrote: »

Great book. Translated beautifully into gorgeous English and a great story. Bit of a brick though. If you like that you should also check out The Three Musketeers. I plan to read more of Dumas' stuff

Im in the middle of Count of Monte Cristo now, wandered into this thread after burning through pretty much all the available sci-fi/fantasy I usually read.

Im absolutely loving it, have to track down a proper physical version though as I kind of regret reading the epub on my reader even though I prefer reading everything else on my Nook. Hard to imagine its a translation from a different language, its some of the best writing Ive ever read, going to read the Three Musketeers next aswell, maybe CoMC has finally cured my aversion to "classic" literature.

megaten

Collie D wrote: »

Great book. Translated beautifully into gorgeous English and a great story. Bit of a brick though. If you like that you should also check out The Three Musketeers. I plan to read more of Dumas' stuff

Do you have a recommendation of which edition to pick up? I'm assuming there's been multiple translations at this point.

FouxDaFaFa

Merkin wrote: »

I'm reading The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion and I'm a tad underwhelmed thusfar. It's OK and I'll finish it but I sometimes wonder whether I'm living in some parallel universe when books that receive such rave reviews often disappoint. I'd be keen to hear what others here thought of it.

Oh, that's next on my list. I picked it up and put it back down again but then saw that it was a staff pick and they'd written a great review of it so got it after all. Hope it's good. I suppose humour is a very individual thing.

smellmepower

Finished Dubliners by Joyce which I really enjoyed and wasn't expecting to, and have just started South! The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition.

Thank jaysus for Project Gutenburg!

meoklmrk91

Just finished Who could that be at this Hour by Lemony Snicket, I enjoyed it, a nice read, easy to get through.

Think of getting into Game of Thrones books now, I've had the first one sitting in my kindle library for ages so going to get stuck in and see what it's like, I really enjoy the show so hoping I will like the books.

Jamiekelly

I have three in front of me and I'm not sure which one to crack open first.

-The Da Vinci Code
-Captain Corelli's Mandolin
-The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Have read the Da Vinci Code years ago but I don't feel like going through 620+ pages again...

WilyCoyote

A Christmas Carol with drawings by Arthur Rackam. For some reason never read Dickens in my youth

MagicMarker

Ilyana 2.0 wrote: »

I've just started Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder. Right now it hasn't told me a whole lot more than I knew already but I'll keep going with it.

Hitler dies at the end

Mars Bar

I'm enjoying the first in the Farseer's Trilogy so thanks to those of you who recommended it!

Ice Storm

WilyCoyote wrote: »

A Christmas Carol with drawings by Arthur Rackam. For some reason never read Dickens in my youth

Same here although I probably did read an abridged version of A Christmas Carol.

I bought Bleak House a few years ago and have read a few since then including A Christmas Carol which I read last Christmas. I just finished David Copperfield today which I really enjoyed.

ibarelycare

After all the posts in this thread about The Count of Monte Cristo, as well as a thread I read yesterday on Reddit, it's next on my list

Barna77

WilyCoyote wrote: »

A Christmas Carol with drawings by Arthur Rackam. For some reason never read Dickens in my youth

Hate Dickens. Had to read him in college, never liked his work

Tried last year A Tale of Two Cities. I gave up...

KH25

Currently reading Zlatan Imbrahimovic's book. Nice bit of light reading. Before that, I read 'The Disaster Artist', which is about the making of the film 'The Room'. Very entertaining and interesting.

I Heart Internet

Ethan Clean Jawbreaker wrote: »

Jerusalem, The Biography. Simon Sebag Montefiore.

Enjoyed this a lot. A good overview of the history of the Jewish people too...although that's not the real purpose of the book. It really conveyed how men (and nations) have been (and still are) obsessed to the point of madness about the city.

Daith

LA Noir. Pretty much around the police and crime scene of LA. Pretty interesting but I've read that a lot of facts are wrong so I'm enjoying it but not trusting it which is annoying.