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Having finished my last book the quite awful 'Where do I belong' by Ian Manners I am now reading 'Birdsong' by Sebastian Faulks. I believe this is a critically acclaimed novel and I am starting to get into it.

I don't do much fiction at the moment.....just finished reading again WG Hoskins The Making of English Landscape....picked it up for a few pence in a sale.

  Hoskins was a pioneer....who paved the way for Oliver Rackham, to produce the seminal  mid 80's tome,  The History of the Countryside.

kurt vonegut's "slaughterhouse 5". really dig his writing style.

clearly, without kurt there is no chuck palahniuk (who i love also).

 I read a most of KV's  catalogue some years ago.....they still sit on the shelf, but I'm loathe to revisit for fear of disappointment.

The war part is some of the most well researched and emotive fiction I've read.  People slag it off, but if after reading the whole of it it doesn't have some impact, you have no soul :mrgreen:

My recent books have been.....

Paolo Coelho - The Alchemist;  I re-read this, and didn't enjoy it as much as the first time.  It's another book that is derided by many, possibly because of it's success.  I think maybe some just expect too much of it, it's just a nice story about never giving up on your dreams.

Philip Roth - American Pastoral;  Roth is becoming one of my favourite authors.  He certainly likes to ground everything in his Jewish/American experience, though he always moves on to something more.....phone call disrupted my thoughts.....err, elemental maybe :D

Bill Hicks - Agent of Evolution;  Another re-read, probably only worth reading if you're a fan.  A perspective on the man you won't get from any other source.

Viva la Revolution - Mark Steele;  He certainly writes better than he does stand-up.  I knew very little about the French Revolution before this, and he's got a funny twist on most aspects of it.

At the moment I'm reading The Fountain At The Centre of the World by Rob Newman of Newman and Bladdiel fame.  Very political but a gripping story nonetheless.


Sorry if I appear a cunt.  You don't get book threads very often :smile1:

finished norman mailer's the fight the other day.
not bad for boxing fans, nice contrast to the usual "ali- greatest sportsman of the universe ever" rubbish.

amir, did you see the rob newman / mark thomas double header at the wyvern theatre in 2005? rob newman was quite funny when he got his banjo out, but for the most part it was more of a lecture than stand-up comedy.

but then i am an outrageous self-confessed philistine, i just wanted to hear some titty jokes.

 Think the only Roth novel I've read is Portnoy's Complaint....which is all about wanking.....I'm sure the reason  I read it was because it achieved a certain notoriety when the Australians tried to ban it....presumably on the basis they're not wankers....yeah right.

I've only ever seen Rob Newman live, and that was with Bladdiel(who he hated) at Colston Hall.  Mark Thomas' old act was all about shagging, then he went political on us :smile1:

I did,I turned up late and was sitting at the front and got some grief off Badiel..

Re-reading the Code of the Woosters by the genius that was P.G Wodehouse,makes me laugh out loud  :D
Planning to move onto either The willow wand by Derek Birley or Beyond a boundary by CLR James,seeing as the World cup is on and summer is just aroung the corner,i love reading cricket books.

Got a heap of books to read - the final football factory trilogy by John King is lurking somewhere, as is a book on black footballers and their impact on UK football.  But I think I'll stick with my big book on Peru before going there this summer then a one about Shakleton's trip to the poles.

reading chariot of the gods by Erich von daniken again

  I've got a bit of a cricket library....have you ever read any of the Peter Tinniswood books....Tales From a Long Room.  I've read them loads, they're a bit silly but just make me soapy tit wank every time and still do.

The first 100 pages is pretty much a 'sensual' tour-de-force. After that Faulks gets to grips with the nitty-gritty of trench warfare, and does a bloody good job of it. Makes you thankful you weren't there.

What other books are in his set on football? Worth buying?

 I'm liking that turn of phrase......bit like the tour de france without the pedalling....and drugs.

The first book is called the football factory - , I read it a few years before the film, it isn't that similar to the film be honest as I remember it, but a decent read.  The second one is call Headhunters, and that seems to focus more on the lives of the guys outside football and their boozy drug-fuelled antics.  The third is called England Away, and I guess it's set around an England away game, but I've not read it yet.  IMHO his other books White Trash and Human Punk are probably better, and I'm looking forward to getting the Prison House soon as well.

Cheers matt

Read 'This other eden' by Ben Elton whilst in Hospital and currently reading 'Blast from the past' another Ben Elton offering.

Enjpyed/enjoying both.

im currenty reading high society by ben elton which is also pretty enjoyable

I'm currently reading 'Congratulations, you've just met the ICF' By Cass Pennant.

Soul Crew by David Jones and Tony Rivers is also worth a shout Ralph.

I'll have a look for that one.

If you like Ben Elton, 'The First Casualty' is worth a look.

I've got 'Human Traces' here which I've not started on yet. Faulks' books are all totally different which is good. Some are obviously better than others. My personal favourite of his is 'On Green Dolphin Street'.

I have read that twice, some of it is a bit stupid - 'so there we were, a crowd of twenty good men stood and had it with 1,000 scousers armed with Stanley knives, we were too game for them and they ran away' yeah, Cass of course they did!  :roll:

These are the first Ben Elton books I have read, he makes a good writer in my opinion. I am going to have a lot of time to read over the next while so does anyone know of where I can order online fairly cheaply? play.com has a sale but I wouldn't know if the books reduced to a fiver were any good or not, an idea of some decent authors helps I suppose. Will have a look out for Seb Faulks books and that one you suggested.

I'd give Elton's latest, Chart Throb, a very wide birth. Enjoyed all his other books but this was bollocks.

I have found the amazon site to be good - especially the used range, books are often in pence - you only pay the postage on em.

Ive said it before but i'll say it again:-

Danny Wallace 'Yes Man'  8)

:nod:

Bloody brilliant book

This book got me through 3 days of mind numbing boredom on the beach in Spain a year or so ago.

On my last holiday I got through:

Rio: My Story - Rio Ferdinand
The Sound of Laughter - Peter Kay
I Know You Got Soul - Jeremy Clarkson
The World According To Clarkson - Jeremy Clarkson

Next time i go on a beach holiday im taking more than one book with me, last time i made the ultimate schoolboy error.