Books Books Booksy Books

[Batch]

Just about to start Ben Eltons Meltdown.

I loved his early stuff but IMHO he's got worse as time had gone on. This particular book being worst of the lot. Will be interested if its just me or if you think the same..

Personally I'm trying to exercise some school English Lit lesson ghosts by re-reading the closest thing to a 'classic' I will probably ever read - To Kill a Mocking Bird. Hated this book at school, it bored me rigid. Now I want to see if I'll see it for the "masterpiece" it is proclaimed to be.

[thedarkprince]

I did Catch-22 and Lord of the Flies at school and have been back to both since then too. Helps that i enjoyed them both. 

[Benzel]

Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murikami.

Also been reading through that big book of news clippings on The Town from the 20's up until the play off semis.

[jayohaitchenn]

I've just finshed reading A Very Short Introduction to Particle Physics for the third time. Bit touch towards the end but I thnk I'm getting it. I enjoyed it so much I've bought another four books in the series; Cosmology, Logic, Quantum Theory and Relativity.

Non-Fiction is the new black.

[Processed Beats]

A Week In December by Sebastient Faulkes. Brilliant!

[adje]

just started that one!

[Amir]

Agreed on every account.

It's making me really want to go back there, makes it so much better I imagine having been to the country. Where abouts have you been in India?

I was saying this to someone earlier this week that there is no way that he can remember such fine details. However I still like to believe that it is true. I think he's already stated it is a story based on his life and not so much an autobiography.

Have you been on GDRs website? Inspirational guy.

We were in the south of India, next stop was to be Mumbai but the other half was less than keen on India, so we flew to Bangkok after six weeks there.  Certainly not my favourite country either, but an intriguing place to visit nonetheless.  We'll probably return one day, and we're going to Sri Lanka in just over a year for a wedding, so that should be good.

I've finished the book now, and as much as I loved the first half of it, I can't help feeling now that he's a bit of a nob.  It was almost as if the book was back to front, and as much as I was compelled to find out about him getting mixed up with the mafia/afghanistan, in the end it all just disappointed somewhat.  I also couldn't shake the feeling that most of it was bollocks.  The Sapna killers he has admitted didn't exist, and that is a running thread through a large part of the story.  He must be the most scarred man in the world, if you believe what he's written. 

Someone has also since pointed out to me just how bad the sex scenes are.  I really didn't notice at the time,but when you read back they are incredibly cheesy to the point of being funny.  I don't want to slag it off too much, because the first half is magical and even overall I really enjoyed.  Some of the phrases and maxims were particularly memorable.  "Justice is not only the way we punish sinners.  It is also how we try to save them".

I have since then read Marching Powder by Rusty Young, the true story of a British drug smuggler in the strangest prison in the world, in Bolivia.  Very interesting and easy to read book, although it lost something in translation for me, due to it being in the first person from the prisoner's perspective, even though someone else wrote it.

I'm now reading First They Killed My Father, about the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.  I read the Killing Fields around the same time as visiting the museum a while back, and it broke my heart.  I have a feeling this will do the same.

[mexico red]

amir, please post on tef more, you are sorely missed.

[jimmy_onions]

The killing fields is about as grim as it gets books wise, not sure I particuarly want to read 'First they killed my father'.

[nochee]

The killing fields is about as grim as it gets books wise, not sure I particuarly want to read 'First they killed my father'.

I read about a third of first they killed my father before I sadly lost/forgot it somewhere on my travels. Pretty heart wrenching stuff. I had a lump in my throat and I'm not what you would call sensitive.

[Bob's Orange]

I bought 'the good soldiers' by David Finkel in the states and have just about finished it. Very good read.

[tans]

Might purchase it for the management team if this poor form carries on

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flat-Back-Four-Tactics-Football/dp/0752211943/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288737403&sr=1-5

[otanswell]

I have since then read Marching Powder by Rusty Young, the true story of a British drug smuggler in the strangest prison in the world, in Bolivia.  Very interesting and easy to read book, although it lost something in translation for me, due to it being in the first person from the prisoner's perspective, even though someone else wrote it.

That prison sounds epic, you could get smashed for a fiver in there on the finest purest coke in the world

[Amir]

amir, please post on tef more, you are sorely missed.

That's very kind of you, Mex.  I'm waiting in the shadows for Onion_Jimbo and Piemonte to return.

The killing fields is about as grim as it gets books wise, not sure I particuarly want to read 'First they killed my father'.

Well, in some ways it is more horrific than The Killing Fields, although the way she has tried to write it from her perspective as a child doesn't work that well.  It still feels like someone looking back at what happened, rather than presently experiencing it.  Definately worth reading alongside The Killing Fields though, as it gives you a good idea of what life was like during the Khmer Rouge regime, whereas The Killing Fields is more about foreign involvement(mainly American) and abandonment of Cambodia(mirrored by Sydney leaving Dith Pran and his subsequent feelings of guilt).

I've also just finished Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, a book I've been meaning to read for a long time, and I'm very glad I did.  I'm in awe of someone who can write a book in so many styles.  It's a little bit Defoe, a little bit Huxley, and it's many other things as well.  The middle part reminded me of The Book of Dave by Will Self though, and I couldn't even finish that.  I'm not sure whether I preferred Dream Number 9, I think I probably did, but it was better than Black Swan Green, which seemed very two dimensional compared to the others.  Has anyone read Ghostwritten, or his new book?

[Batch]

Personally I'm trying to exercise some school English Lit lesson ghosts by re-reading the closest thing to a 'classic' I will probably ever read - To Kill a Mocking Bird. Hated this book at school, it bored me rigid. Now I want to see if I'll see it for the "masterpiece" it is proclaimed to be.

Mrs Krauer the English Teacher 1 Batch 0

To Kill a Mocking Bird was extremely good. To my surprise I enjoyed it from start to finish. A glimpse into life in a small 1930's Alabama county and the attitudes towards black people before Luthor King/Malcolm X changed the world.

Which leads me to my next point. I think it was a a waste of time trying to teach such classic texts to the majority of GCSE aged schoolboys. If it doesn't have football, guns, cars and grils in it then it wont work 75% of the time. At least I avoided The Bard.