Lemonade Posted December 26, 2016 Report Share Posted December 26, 2016 Put away the first Hunger Games book over Xmas. Way better than I was expecting. Kind of an updated version of thr Stephen King book The Running Man or another Stephen King story, The Long Walk. Better than most of the YA I've sampled. Might watch the film now, see how it compares. Also read The Girl On The Train, which was an excellent bit of pulp. Essentially a modern day whodunit. Might also watch this film. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonie Posted January 5, 2017 Report Share Posted January 5, 2017 reading Grit: The power of Passion and Perseverance which is excellent thus far Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemonade Posted January 5, 2017 Report Share Posted January 5, 2017 On 26/12/2016 at 8:15 PM, Lemonade said: Put away the first Hunger Games book over Xmas. Way better than I was expecting. Kind of an updated version of thr Stephen King book The Running Man or another Stephen King story, The Long Walk. Better than most of the YA I've sampled. Might watch the film now, see how it compares. Also read The Girl On The Train, which was an excellent bit of pulp. Essentially a modern day whodunit. Might also watch this film. Finishing off my Blockbuster Movie trilogy, I'm now reading We Need To Talk About Kevin. I really really like the writing. It's beautifully written. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonie Posted January 5, 2017 Report Share Posted January 5, 2017 That book is excellent but a tough read! Total nightmare situation! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonie Posted January 18, 2017 Report Share Posted January 18, 2017 Started Do You Love Football?!: Winning with Heart, Passion, and Not Much Sleep by Jon Gruden, former NFL HD and football boffin. Just getting into it now but good so far and he's an interesting guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaaakkkeee Posted January 18, 2017 Report Share Posted January 18, 2017 Started reading The Secret History of Twin Peaks. Also reading the Sterling Archer how to book which is just full of belly laugh moments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Broonbreed Posted January 19, 2017 Report Share Posted January 19, 2017 The Kraken Awakes - by John Wyndham. Excellent book so far (2/3 of the way through). I really like his style. Sci-Fi without being too Sci-Fi. I'll read The Day of the Triffids next. The Chrysalids was also a smashing read of his. Dirk Gently's holistic detective agency - I read this after being mildly entertained by the new US TV adaptation. Not bad, but not quite what I was expecting from Douglas Adams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonie Posted January 20, 2017 Report Share Posted January 20, 2017 Powered through the Gruden book in a day and onto another football autobiography. This time it's Lou Holtz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ca_gere Posted January 20, 2017 Report Share Posted January 20, 2017 Girl on the train dealt wi... enjoyed it quite a lot. It was like if Miss Marple was an early 2000s T4 programme sponsored by lambrusco. Will watch the film this wknd. heard its shite. About a quarter of the way through 'White Trash: the 400 year untold history of class in America' - i think the author was on a podcast I was listening to and that's why i got it. Good read but heavy on the info. Might take a while. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemonade Posted January 20, 2017 Report Share Posted January 20, 2017 1 hour ago, ca_gere said: Girl on the train dealt wi... enjoyed it quite a lot. It was like if Miss Marple was an early 2000s T4 programme sponsored by lambrusco. Will watch the film this wknd. heard its shite. About a quarter of the way through 'White Trash: the 400 year untold history of class in America' - i think the author was on a podcast I was listening to and that's why i got it. Good read but heavy on the info. Might take a while. Girl On The Train was weird. I knew it was terrible but I couldn't put it down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ca_gere Posted January 20, 2017 Report Share Posted January 20, 2017 I don't really think it's terrible. There's a tendency to believe that stream of consciousness style is inferior to flowery prose but if done right there's no difference. I felt she fleshed out the Rachel character really well. The rest not so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonie Posted January 26, 2017 Report Share Posted January 26, 2017 On 20/01/2017 at 2:05 PM, Spoonie said: Powered through the Gruden book in a day and onto another football autobiography. This time it's Lou Holtz. Lou Holtz book was excellent. He'd had a much more impressive career than I'd realised having watched him on College Gameday. Some great reminders form a coaching perspective too. Now onto The Fight for Freedom by Michael Ferrar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemonade Posted January 26, 2017 Report Share Posted January 26, 2017 On 05/01/2017 at 0:29 PM, Lemonade said: Finishing off my Blockbuster Movie trilogy, I'm now reading We Need To Talk About Kevin. I really really like the writing. It's beautifully written. Almost finished this, been taking it slowly because I'm really really enjoying it but fuck it's destroyed me. I am never having children. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trikelops Posted January 26, 2017 Report Share Posted January 26, 2017 Just finished Stalingrad by Antony Beevor. A pretty chilling book about the siege and then the abandonment of the German armies by Hitler. I was always one of those 'baby boomers' who thought 'Oh yeah, the war, pretty scary stuff' but this book really shocked me by the sheer brutality it portrays and the waste of human life by a couple of ego maniacs, Hitler and Stalin. The Russians lost nearly 9 million with 18 million wounded from their armed forces plus civilian losses of an estimated 18 million war dead. The Germans lost around half that number. Cannon fodder? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Broonbreed Posted February 27, 2017 Report Share Posted February 27, 2017 I'm on a roll of good books at the moment. The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham. Arguably the pinnacle of 50's sci-fi. All three books of his I've read are excellent - in story and prose. The Lost World, by Arthur Conan Doyle. Shove Jurassic Park up yer fuckin' hoop - although I'll probably read that in the near future also. Mid-way through Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway. War, succinct and emotionless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemonade Posted February 27, 2017 Report Share Posted February 27, 2017 4 hours ago, James Broonbreed said: I'm on a roll of good books at the moment. The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham. Arguably the pinnacle of 50's sci-fi. All three books of his I've read are excellent - in story and prose. The Lost World, by Arthur Conan Doyle. Shove Jurassic Park up yer fuckin' hoop - although I'll probably read that in the near future also. Mid-way through Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway. War, succinct and emotionless. Jurassic Park is a good read. I read it a few years ago. I'm reading the second Hunger Games book. Fuck you, don't judge me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaaakkkeee Posted March 2, 2017 Report Share Posted March 2, 2017 On 1/18/2017 at 11:37 AM, Jaaakkkeee said: Started reading The Secret History of Twin Peaks. Also reading the Sterling Archer how to book which is just full of belly laugh moments. Finished Archer first, as it was a very easy read. Lots of jokes from the series thrown in. Also, the last 2 pages of the book had me in knots. TSHoTP was a bit of a slog, but was fascinating. Stuff about Jack Parsons and L. Ron Hubbard and UFOs and Devil's Gates really made the second half of the book stand out more than the first half. The first half is full of old found pages from 1800s and was hard to decipher at times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaaakkkeee Posted March 7, 2017 Report Share Posted March 7, 2017 Went to the Nasty Women book launch last night. Which was amazing. Hearing women read essays they had put in to the book. Nasty Women is "a collection of essays and acounts on what it is to be a woman in the 21st century" put together by 404 Ink and I got a signed copy last night. @Stroopy121 I think this will be right up your street. Also received my signed copy of Dear Future Historians in the mail today. It's Lyrics and Exegesis of Rou Reynolds for the Music of Enter Shikari. Should be a proper good read. Be interesting to read what some of their more metaphorical songs are actually about, and also an insight in to the socio-political thoughts of Rou. I already knew Juggernauts was about Tesco, but it's nice having it confirmed in a pretty hard bound book. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stroopy121 Posted March 7, 2017 Report Share Posted March 7, 2017 Ah where was the launch? Gutted I didn't know about that! xx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirsten Posted March 9, 2017 Report Share Posted March 9, 2017 (edited) Books I've read this year so far...The Sellout by Paul Beatty I got given this for Christmas. It won the Booker last year and although I think the Booker is usually very lame and safe, this one is ace. It's about a black guy who gets taken to the Supreme Court for trying to reintroduce segregation and slavery to his hometown in Los Angeles. It's dark and absurd and hilarious, an actual GOOD satire! Who knew those existed? Man In The Dark by Paul Auster I'm attempting to read everything Paul Auster has ever written and even though now I can identify his tropes easily, it doesn't make his books any less enjoyable. This one is about this old dude whose wife has died, whose daughter then moves in with him after she gets divorced and her daughter does too, after her boyfriend is killed. It's a house of mourning and the auld fella can't sleep, so in the dark he makes up stories for himself. This takes up a fair chunk of the book and is a classic Auster self-referential story-within-a-story, which starts off slowly and then ends up becoming intriguing even though it's about fictional characters written by a fictional character. V good. And short! The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George A guy called Jean owns a bookshop on a barge on the Seine and after receiving some heartbreaking news, he drops everything and flees town on the barge. He ends up being joined by a young author who lives in his building, who is going through a mental block and a bit of an existential crisis. It's a good story, but a little too twee at points. Like, the bookshop owner has all these philosophies about the healing power of books, which is a little cringey, even if it is true! I feel like this was written to be made into a film. I'm sure we'll see one before long. Universal Harvester by John Darnielle This is the second novel from JD of the Mountain Goats, so it's obviously wonderfully written because that man is a genius with words. It's about a kid who works in a Blockbuster-esque video rental place in Iowa in the late 90s, who becomes intrigued when people start returning videos saying that there are weird recordings on them. It's very eerie and more instantly gripping than his first book, Wolf In White Van, but I thought the ending was a little flat. 4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster I was getting through books relatively quickly this year, and even optimistically thought I might be able to do the 50 book challenge, but then this 866 page beast entered my life and shot that idea down. I basically lived and breathed it for two weeks. I was hoping to have it read by last Monday, as Favourite Guy Paul Auster was doing a talk about it here, but fell 100 pages short. Weirdly, though, the passage he read at the event picked up from exactly where I'd got to reading. SPOOPY! Anyway, there's a lot to unpack with this one. It's more linear than a lot of his other novels, but still high-concept and ambitious. It's the story of one guy called Archie Ferguson, but four different versions of him, so the first chapter is called 1.0 and is about his parents getting together and their family history, then 1.1 is about the first version of Archie's early years, 1.2 is about the second Archie's early years, 1.3, 1.4, 2.1, 2.2, etc etc. To begin with, it's kind of hard to keep track of, plus there are a lot of characters who get namechecked, friends and families, but once you get into it it's great. Mission accomplished. Auster and The Archies share similar characteristics and I would love to know why Archie is born exactly a month after Auster in real life. I guess one half-criticism of it is that all versions of Archie have the same aspiration to become a writer, but then again, maybe it isn't such a bad thing as they do still go off in different directions and that gives us a clue that Auster probably believes in nature over nurture. I felt gutted finishing the book. The whole way through, I thought that it seemed like it had the potential to be a final novel from Paul Auster. It's sentimental and bigger than anything else he's ever written. 8/10, would read again. In many many years time.. Edited March 9, 2017 by kirsten Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaaakkkeee Posted March 9, 2017 Report Share Posted March 9, 2017 On 7 March 2017 at 10:45 PM, Stroopy121 said: Ah where was the launch? Gutted I didn't know about that! xx Waterstones in Glasgow, there's one in Edinburgh and London. Glasgow and Edinburgh were both sell outs. Havent actually started the book (still reading the enter Shikari one) but the essays that were read at the launch were fantastic. Eye-opening, at times horrifying, but absolutely amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Broonbreed Posted March 20, 2017 Report Share Posted March 20, 2017 Carl Sagan's Contact. A fantastic real science fiction about SETI picking up transmissions from a gang of alien fuckers from space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemonade Posted April 24, 2017 Report Share Posted April 24, 2017 Recent reads : We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver. 5/5 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins. 4/5 Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost & Found - Joe Bonomo. 2/5 The Pearly Prince Of St Pancras - Alf Doyle. 3/5 Pet Sematary - Stephen King. 5/5 The Old Man & The Sea - Ernest Hemingway. 5/5 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins. 3/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaaakkkeee Posted April 25, 2017 Report Share Posted April 25, 2017 Been listening to a lot of Podcasts recently about Scientology. Going Clear and Ron Miscavaige's books the best ones to read? Any other books along the lines of going clear about other religions? Also, anyone got any recommendations for books on the following subjects: UK Punk US Punk (black flag etc) Hip-hop/gangster rap LAPD racism Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soda Jerk Posted April 25, 2017 Report Share Posted April 25, 2017 3 hours ago, Jaaakkkeee said: Been listening to a lot of Podcasts recently about Scientology. Going Clear and Ron Miscavaige's books the best ones to read? Any other books along the lines of going clear about other religions? Also, anyone got any recommendations for books on the following subjects: UK Punk US Punk (black flag etc) Hip-hop/gangster rap LAPD racism Our Band Could Be Your Lifehttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Our-Band-Could-Your-Life/dp/0316787531/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493129024&sr=1-1&keywords=our+band+could+be+your+life American Hardcorehttps://www.amazon.co.uk/American-Hardcore-Steven-Blush-x/dp/1932595899/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493129071&sr=1-1&keywords=american+hardcore You probably won't be able to get one for a reasonable price anymore, but Henry Rollins' Get In The Van is great too. There might be an ebook/scan of it knocking about. If you have even the slightest interest in NOFX, I'd highly recommend their recent book, Hepatitis Bathtub. Some pretty brutal tales about what the early LA punk scene was like, among other stuff. When you finish it, you'll be amazed that somehow they're not all dead. For UK Punk, I've not ready any books about the more mainstream '77 stuff, but this is a good read about the 1980-84 Anarcho Punk scene:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Day-Country-Died-History-1980-1984/dp/1604865164/ref=pd_sim_14_6?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5XAAKCRHBX49RE7RG4ZT 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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