SteveCrisis Posted November 13, 2006 Report Share Posted November 13, 2006 I'm reading "Romanitas" by Sophia McDougall. It's about the Roman Empire in modern times. Not what I thought it would be like. In fact, it's pretty shite.I bought that a while ago thinking the premise of the novel was quite inspired.250 pages later the story's not getting anywhere and my perseverance wore off.Shite indeed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveCrisis Posted November 13, 2006 Report Share Posted November 13, 2006 I've read quite a bit these past few months:The Battle For Spain by Antony BeevorArthur & George by Julian BarnesThe Alienist by Caleb CarrThe Angel of Darkness by Caleb CarrCosa Nostra by John DickieDestination: Morgue! by James EllroyNightmares & Dreamscapes by Stephen KingThe Naming of The Dead by Ian RankinCurrently reading Lisey's Story by Stephen King and next on the hit is The Algebraist by Iain M Banks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gall_4185 Posted November 13, 2006 Report Share Posted November 13, 2006 Currently re-reading The Count of Monté Cristo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy Moon Posted November 17, 2006 Report Share Posted November 17, 2006 I have to read The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter for uni and I can't say I'm enjoying it much. I've just finished a rather stange chapter involving a girl being molested by a swan puppet. xxxDid you know there was a film version of 'The Magic Toyshop'? - I have it somewhere on video.I quite liked 'The Magic Toyshop', although 'Fireworks' is a far better book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy Moon Posted November 17, 2006 Report Share Posted November 17, 2006 Oh, forgot to answer the question... I've just finished reading 'Strangers' by Taichi Yamada. It's a great ghost story with a cool twist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonie Posted November 17, 2006 Report Share Posted November 17, 2006 Dresden is involved, but its not exactly a straight forward war novel. That said, its one of my favourite novels. Please read it, you won't regret it!just ordered it off amazon for 79p plus postage!will get into it once i've finished the four i'm reading at the moment. i've been off reading for so long but now i'm back with a vengance!! /x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alvin Starclusk Posted November 17, 2006 Report Share Posted November 17, 2006 Am currently in the middle of "Stalingrad" by Anthony Beevor and "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" by Bill Bryson. One is very good, if a bit of struggle, the other is shit. I'll let you work out which is which. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Atom Posted November 20, 2006 Report Share Posted November 20, 2006 some of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories for uni, as well as 'The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym' by Edgar Allen Poe which I'm really enjoying.I did Poe for my dissertation last year, haven't read that particular one, although I do mean to at some point. His short stories are brilliant. I had to read a Hawthorne story last year too, it was Young Goodman Brown if I recall correctly.I'm doing a course on Victorian realism, so in the last few weeks I have read Oliver Twist (enjoyable but a ridiculous ending to the plot), Middlemarch (enjoyed it much more than last time I tried to read it), Jude the Obscure by Hardy (the most depressing book ever, but good) and I just finished The Awkward Age by Henry James. I hated it, and I've got to read Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway for next week, meh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonie Posted November 20, 2006 Report Share Posted November 20, 2006 i finished romo - bill romanowski's autobiography and catch 22 - joseph heller at the weekend and started fear and loathing in las vegas - hunter s. thomson this morning on the bus. it's as good as i expected so far! /x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fraser Shredwards Posted November 20, 2006 Report Share Posted November 20, 2006 Bernard Cornwell's "the warlord chronicles", Camus' "the plague", also just did a dissertation on "the outsider" and Trocchis' "young adam"all good books:up: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TR!ΔNGL€ T€€TH Posted November 22, 2006 Report Share Posted November 22, 2006 Currently reading "Fool the World - An oral history of the Pixies"...It's interesting stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Atom Posted November 22, 2006 Report Share Posted November 22, 2006 i finished romo - bill romanowski's autobiography and catch 22 - joseph heller at the weekend and started fear and loathing in las vegas - hunter s. thomson this morning on the bus. it's as good as i expected so far! /xCatch 22 is brilliant as I recall, although it was years ago that I read it, perhaps I should again when I get time. Fear and Loathing is even better, classic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonie Posted November 22, 2006 Report Share Posted November 22, 2006 about 3/4 way through fear and loathing and it's fantastic. have got a shitload more books coming through the door from recommendations on here every day so i've plenty to get through. they're coming through about 2 a day at the mo! /x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kilgore Trout Posted December 3, 2006 Report Share Posted December 3, 2006 i'm currently getting through will self's "book of dave", so far its pretty good. i would obviously prefer more drugs and sexual devience in the story but "dorian" pretty much covered all the bases on that respect. Then again anything he does suits me fine. recently i dug myself through a nice rock music related box set that i got from work for about 8, the Led Zep book "hammer of the gods" was allmost as boring as the bands music but the status quo, acdc and black sabbath stuff was good. had no idea ac/dc were of scottish decent. ach well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kilgore Trout Posted December 3, 2006 Report Share Posted December 3, 2006 Catch 22 is brilliant as I recall, although it was years ago that I read it, perhaps I should again when I get time. Fear and Loathing is even better, classic.the sequel to catch 22 - "closing time" is really strange, wierd underground complexes and the return of yossarian. might have tae dig that one out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarmaTsunami Posted December 3, 2006 Report Share Posted December 3, 2006 i'm currently getting through will self's "book of dave", so far its pretty good. i would obviously prefer more drugs and sexual devience in the story but "dorian" pretty much covered all the bases on that respect. Then again anything he does suits me fine. recently i dug myself through a nice rock music related box set that i got from work for about 8, the Led Zep book "hammer of the gods" was allmost as boring as the bands music but the status quo, acdc and black sabbath stuff was good. had no idea ac/dc were of scottish decent. ach well.you don't perchance work in a book world do you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kilgore Trout Posted December 3, 2006 Report Share Posted December 3, 2006 you don't perchance work in a book world do you?na, work at Makro(double ding!)- they have loads of box sets in for xmas. i once tried to get a job at book world, it was a bit of a disaster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Addi Posted December 3, 2006 Report Share Posted December 3, 2006 I wanted a job in a bookshop, until on thursday I was in waterstones (in edinburgh) and was in the downstairs section and saw two of the worst customers ever. The first was a guy phoning to complain (he was basically just shouting) at the poor girl that worked there because the publisher of a book had pushed back the date of publication, like there is anything she can do about it. And she told him there was nothing she could do about it and that he should phone the publisher but in the end she had to get a manager on the phone to speak to him. Then, some lady that was buying a dictionary and taking herself waaay too seriously started going nuts because the chairs had arms on them and she apparently couldn't sit down and open the book at the same time. She kept saying "I sit down and I'm trapped!" and "Buying a dictionary is a very serious business" and telling the girl (same girl) that if she ever gets a chance to buy some new chairs she should buy ones without arms...and this complaining went on for like 5 minutes!It seems to have lost something in the process of being written down. It was far more irritating in real life than I have managed to describe it.And to get the thread back on topic:I'm still reading the bible, but i took a short break and read 'The Music Of The Primes' by Marcus du sautoy and 'The Millenium Problems' by Keith DevlinIn the bible I am currently at the first book of Samuel. David has just owned Goliath. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarmaTsunami Posted December 3, 2006 Report Share Posted December 3, 2006 I've just finished Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Marble Faun'. It's really good in the middle section, but I found it took a bit long to get into and then dragged on towards the end. Prefer his short stories to this, but the the middle part is VERY, VERY good. Once I've done my presentation on above book, I have Claude Levi-Strauss's 'Myth and Meaning' and Marcel Mauss's 'A General Theory of Magic' to work through/skim read over Christmas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
palmer_eldritch Posted December 3, 2006 Report Share Posted December 3, 2006 about 3/4 way through fear and loathing and it's fantastic. have got a shitload more books coming through the door from recommendations on here every day so i've plenty to get through. they're coming through about 2 a day at the mo! /xSpeaking books which tell of drug-rampages, I'm currently reading Aleister Crowley's "Diary of a Drug Fiend". Never actually read any of Crowley's stuff before, but i suspect this is one of his easier to read novels. . . I once picked up the Book of Thoth in Waterstones. One look at it and i knew it wasn't meant to be. Instead I picked up Lon Milo Duquette's "Understanding Aleister Crowley's Book of Thoth". Hah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
palmer_eldritch Posted December 3, 2006 Report Share Posted December 3, 2006 I've just finished Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Marble Faun'. It's really good in the middle section, but I found it took a bit long to get into and then dragged on towards the end. Prefer his short stories to this, but the the middle part is VERY, VERY good. Once I've done my presentation on above book, I have Claude Levi-Strauss's 'Myth and Meaning' and Marcel Mauss's 'A General Theory of Magic' to work through/skim read over Christmas.If you have an interest in that stuff, have you ever read any of Israel Regardie's work? I highly recommend "The Tree of Life" and especially "The Middle Pillar". Both works are extremely informative and give A LOT to think about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue Denim.. Posted December 3, 2006 Report Share Posted December 3, 2006 I'm currently reading "Grunts" by Mary Gentle.Think Orcs with guns. o_O Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarmaTsunami Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 If you have an interest in that stuff, have you ever read any of Israel Regardie's work? I highly recommend "The Tree of Life" and especially "The Middle Pillar". Both works are extremely informative and give A LOT to think about.The Mauss and Strauss books are background reading for my Uni Dissertation, not really for fun - although I'm quite looking forward to getting stuck in to them. However, I may check out said books you have recommended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonie Posted December 5, 2006 Report Share Posted December 5, 2006 after finishing fear and loathing and reading slaughterhouse five (which is fucking fantastic) i decided to go for something light, like chewing gum for the brain, so i selected Bravo Two Zero. badly written but a good story. i'm still reading I, Lucifer as well. /x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kilgore Trout Posted December 8, 2006 Report Share Posted December 8, 2006 Speaking books which tell of drug-rampages, I'm currently reading Aleister Crowley's "Diary of a Drug Fiend". Never actually read any of Crowley's stuff before, but i suspect this is one of his easier to read novels. . . I once picked up the Book of Thoth in Waterstones. One look at it and i knew it wasn't meant to be. Instead I picked up Lon Milo Duquette's "Understanding Aleister Crowley's Book of Thoth". Hah!is he that devil worshipping fruit loop that hung about with Jimmy page? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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