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Your current read?


Guest Jake Wifebeater

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I've been reading through the Song of Ice and Fire series (Game Of Thrones). Just finished A Feast For Crows and I'm pretty fed up with it. It's also just occurred to me that there's still way too much unresolved and the pace would have to pick up considerably for it to be wrapped up in the next book. Checking online confirms that there's still two as yet unwritten books to come.

I think that the author's original plan of having a five year character gap in the middle of the series might have served it better. The younger characters could grow up a bit and the story could take a bigger leap towards a proper resolution.

Just think of that and 'A Dance...' as one big megafucker, that may get annoying at times, but hangs together by the end, there are the usual WTF just happened there moments too. SayNoMore.

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Reading "The Man Who Wanted Stars" a pash pulp sc-fi novella published in 1965. Utter mince, but one of those so-bad-you-can't-put-it-down books. The central character is an utter cunt; the sort of guy you would happily see get kicked senseless outside Ma Camerons at 3am on a Sunday morning. But everyone's a critic, eh? Ho hum.....

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Reading "The Man Who Wanted Stars" a pash pulp sc-fi novella published in 1965. Utter mince, but one of those so-bad-you-can't-put-it-down books. The central character is an utter cunt; the sort of guy you would happily see get kicked senseless outside Ma Camerons at 3am on a Sunday morning. But everyone's a critic, eh? Ho hum.....

It has one of the greatest covers I've ever seen though.

!CETc-2g!2k~$(KGrHqN,!hEE0hBdmRpzBNRcF6n(7g~~_3.JPG

I don't know what's taboo shattering about it though...

You're right though the central character (Joe?) is an utter cockwad.

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I don't read books, partly because i can't find the time to do it and partly becuase i normally let the TV think for me. Having said that i've just read Russel Brand's autobiography and thought it was great.

What else would you recommend i read? I don't like the look of all that geeky fantasy-type guff and i doubt i would enjoy reading about ancient royals or such like. Im thinking more along the lines of interesting/witty/light hearted stuff. Fact or fiction, im not fussed.

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Currently reading "The Killing Season: A summer inside an LAPD Homicide Division" by Miles Corwin. As you'd imagine it's a journalist's account of shadowing a couple of homicide detectives in South Central LA in '94. Compared to David Simon it is not much to write home about, but compared to David Simon even God would seem average.

It is reasonably well written although a bit repetetive. The murder figures at that time were unbelievable. In that area of LA there were 400 murders a year. People just shooting the fuck out of each other, often for little reason and no punishment.

As NWA rightly pointed out - When something happens in South Central Los Angeles, nuthin happens....

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I don't read books, partly because i can't find the time to do it and partly becuase i normally let the TV think for me. Having said that i've just read Russel Brand's autobiography and thought it was great.

What else would you recommend i read? I don't like the look of all that geeky fantasy-type guff and i doubt i would enjoy reading about ancient royals or such like. Im thinking more along the lines of interesting/witty/light hearted stuff. Fact or fiction, im not fussed.

The current trend of celebrities barely out of their twenties churning out autobiographies kinda annoys me. At least in Brand's you'll get to read about his drug and sex addictions I suppose. However a lot of 'celebs' with books out haven't really done anything. Wayne Rooney is a prime example.

You say you like TV? What kind of shows do you like?

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The current trend of celebrities barely out of their twenties churning out autobiographies kinda annoys me. At least in Brand's you'll get to read about his drug and sex addictions I suppose. However a lot of 'celebs' with books out haven't really done anything. Wayne Rooney is a prime example.

You say you like TV? What kind of shows do you like?

I find historical biographies are good value for money; I've read a few biogs of various US presidents for example. It’s always worth researching beforehand which is regarded as the best, most readable, most accessible biog, though, as some of these things can be quite arid.

Anything by Robert Dallek is worth a try. Also the 3-part biog of LBJ by Robert Caro is worth the effort.

Both Caro and Dallek are modern biographers of the highest order.

My fave anecdote about LBJ: he hated the French (cos of the shambles they left behind in French Indo-China). So on one occasion, he ordered that the French Ambassador come see him in the White House. LBJ made the frog wait until he (LBJ) was ready for a shit, and had the Ambassador brought through for the meeting while LBJ was mid-shit on the loo. He further humiliated the frog by asking him to hand him some lavvy paper. Pure class. :finger:

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The current trend of celebrities barely out of their twenties churning out autobiographies kinda annoys me. At least in Brand's you'll get to read about his drug and sex addictions I suppose. However a lot of 'celebs' with books out haven't really done anything. Wayne Rooney is a prime example.

You say you like TV? What kind of shows do you like?

Couldn't agree more. I saw that Tom Daly has a book out now. Im clearly no expert on literature but that seems fucking ridiculous.

TV shows, hmmm - im big on Discovery at the moment, Auction Kings/Deadliest Catch/Myth Busters etc and i've also just caught up on Series 1 of Mad Men which was really good. Stuff like the Wire is also top notch. That book on mid-nineties LA murders sounds right up my street.

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I don't read books, partly because i can't find the time to do it and partly becuase i normally let the TV think for me. Having said that i've just read Russel Brand's autobiography and thought it was great.

What else would you recommend i read? I don't like the look of all that geeky fantasy-type guff and i doubt i would enjoy reading about ancient royals or such like. Im thinking more along the lines of interesting/witty/light hearted stuff. Fact or fiction, im not fussed.

Evil Spirits, the Oliver Reed biography is good and Mr. Nice by Howard Marks is one of my favourite books ever.

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I don't read books, partly because i can't find the time to do it and partly becuase i normally let the TV think for me. Having said that i've just read Russel Brand's autobiography and thought it was great.

What else would you recommend i read? I don't like the look of all that geeky fantasy-type guff and i doubt i would enjoy reading about ancient royals or such like. Im thinking more along the lines of interesting/witty/light hearted stuff. Fact or fiction, im not fussed.

I quite like "Confessions of a GP" by Benjamin Daniels. I think it's exclusively an ebook though which might throw you off. I think I talked about it elsewhere in this thread - it's a pretty light read, comes in wee five-or-six-page chapters and is nice to dip into to kill some time. Mixes humour with some pretty hard-hitting reality, though.

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The current trend of celebrities barely out of their twenties churning out autobiographies kinda annoys me. At least in Brand's you'll get to read about his drug and sex addictions I suppose. However a lot of 'celebs' with books out haven't really done anything. Wayne Rooney is a prime example.

You say you like TV? What kind of shows do you like?

I didn't realise Rooney had a book. That's mental. Footballers who are early/mid career releasing a book is seriously the dumbest thing ever. Theo Walcott recently released a book. I read bits of it which the Sun posted. It's all about how he chatted up his girlfriend and bought her a car, and his life in "digs". It's definitely not ghost-written. It's pretty much how you'd expect him to talk about his life outloud. What the fuck has he done to warrant a book? Wait til you're 40 and your boots have been hung up a while and you can reflect on your career. What a fucking fanny.

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I've nae long finished Jon Ronson's Psychopath test- funnily enough because it was mentioned on this thread. I had reservations about him because of his background but the book was great stuff. Battered through it in two sessions on me kindle. I'm chugging my way through Niall ferguson's "Civilisation" at the moment- it's awesome- some folk say he's like the Jeremy Clarkeson of historians- but by fuck the motherfucker can write. after that I've got David Icke's Giant blood drinking lizard book lined up. The man speaks the truth indeed.

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Finished. Good, but didnt blow me away. Maybe starting with Lehane's latest then going back to his first didnt help, but a good read none the less. It passed the time until White Jazz arrived in Waterstones. Last volume of Ellroy's LA Quartet. Stream of consciousness makes it at times quite taxing to read, but enjoying it so far.

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I finished 'Skagboys' last night. Enjoyable enough but ultimately I felt a bit underwhelmed with the storyline.

During my to and fro travelling to Manchester last week I read Frankie Boyle's 'Work!Consume!Die!' which was pretty good. Chapters alternate between him spieling off on various topics and a bizarre short story where he is trying to avoid sinking so low in celebrity status that he falls victim to an arse rapist targetting fading celebs.

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