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Your current read?


Guest Jake Wifebeater

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I picked up Andrew Matheson's 'Sick On You' as it kept cropping up on 'best music books of 2015' lists. It's basically the story of 'lost punk band' the Holywood Brats. They formed at the same time as the New York Dolls and dressed like them but in London. They never enjoyed the same success as the Dolls as they were disastrous human beings. The book is okay. It's a bit repetitive (rehearse, sound amazing, get potentially life changing gig offer, screw up at the gig, lose a member, hire a new member, get a potentially life changing gig offer, rehearse, sound amazing, screw up at the actual gig, etc) but there are some good stories. If you can get past that the book is written in the present tense (ugh) and the author tries too hard to come across as a total wideboy, then this is the book for you! 

I also read Eddie Argos' (aye, of Art Brut) book, I Formed A Band. It's quite entertaining and you can breeze through it in a couple of hours. If you like stories of him offending other 2005 bands at festivals, then this is the book for you! 

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I'm about 75% through The Black Ice by Michael Connelly. It's his second Harry Bosch novel and so far it's pretty similar to his first Harry Bosch novel. Typical hard-boiled US detective stuff, it's pretty good though. All grisly murders and sexy women. I'm going to read a few of his and a few James Patterson this year. I read one of each in my 52 book challenge last year and really enjoyed both.

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Just finished Dead Girl Walking. I really enjoyed this. Contrary to what I said before, this is a slightly new take for him. Telling two concurrent stories that feed together at the end isn't anything particularly groundbreaking, particularly for a crime/detective story, but while one of the tales was Jack Parlabane doing his detective thang, the other was kind of a budding romance, which was both well-written and really engaging. Good book.

Starting Send Back The Money: The Free Church of Scotland and American Slavery now. Basically, when Scotland first separated Church and State, the Church part needed money and took a bunch of donations from slave owners in exchange for their church remaining silent on the subject of slavery. Just getting started now but I believe this book talks of the major Scottish institutions and schools etc founded on this blood-money and of the campaign to try to get them to pay reparations for it. It's pretty dense and the language can be overly-formal which becomes challenging in places ("When the Stuart monarchy tried to impose Episcopal authority on the land, it required draconian military rule to control those who swore a Covenant to resist.") but it's interesting stuff (if you're interested in such stuff).

 

xx

Edited by Stroopy121
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On 1/15/2016 at 6:04 AM, James Broonbreed said:

I'm a wee bit through The Nigger of the Narcissus, by Joseph Conrad. I have a feeling you wouldn't get away with books like this these days.

Pretty crap really. I'm glad it was just a novella.

 

Started my first Arthur C. Clarke book the other day; Islands In the Sky. Seems pretty neat so far.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Richest Man in Babylon was a nice easy read and reinforced some basic principles of finance so an enjoyable read all round. Now onto Practice Perfect: 42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better by a group of teachers which was recommended on a sports coaching podcast I listened to last week. Hopefully get a few ideas for ways to improve practice planning at the team I coach and maybe a few tips for myself.

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10 hours ago, Lemonade said:

I'm burning through one of Stuart MacBride's. Such fun books. Really really dark but really funny as well. Not a challenging read, they're all story and the characters are all caricatures, but it's hard to put one down when you get going. 

I literally cannot read his books. Fucking dreadful writer.

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Ready Player One. by Ernest Cline

Trashy YA sci-fi but i...can't....put...it...down.

Apparently it's getting the Spielberg treatment next year. I can see it being an absolutely huge movie or piece of utter gash. It definitely won't be just ok.

Edit: i'm a bit of a changed man these days. I've started getting into Sci-fi. Any good recommendations welcome. I like really high concept stuff rather than just stories about spaceships n shit (although i'm now discovering that a lot of good sci-fi is just an exploration of 'what the world would be like if...x' and it's not all ray guns and weird names.

Edited by ca_gere
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6 minutes ago, ca_gere said:

Ready Player One. by Ernest Cline

Trashy YA sci-fi but i...can't....put...it...down.

Apparently it's getting the Spielberg treatment next year. I can see it being an absolutely huge movie or piece of utter gash. It definitely won't be just ok.

http://nerdist.com/ready-player-one-film-gets-pushed-back-to-2018/

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Islands in the Sky by Arthur C. Clarke. I pretty good read about some dude winning a ticket to go to space. It's hard to imagine reading this when it was first published in 1952 - it may seem quite a tame story as far as sci-fi goes these days but still a good read. I believe he is lauded for his understanding and use of accurate physics in his books and this book has made me want to read more of his shite.

Meanwhile - I read 2 hours worth of William Burroughs' Naked Lunch on the chopper this morning. Not quite sure what to think. Probably just a load of wacked out junky nonsense with some disgusting allegory thrown in for good measure.

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On 2/9/2016 at 9:18 PM, Frosty Jack said:

I literally cannot read his books. Fucking dreadful writer.

He is, the writing his horrible, so cartoony, and the characters are very unrealistic and wholly one-dimensional, but the stories are very good if you can get past the writing style.

Edited by Lemonade
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A slow start for me this year. So far I've read

"Tales From The Dugout" by Richard Gordon. Scottish football anecdotes. Pretty fun. 4/5

"The Black Ice" by Michael Connolly. LA Detective Harry Bosch investigates murders and shags women. Second book in the Harry Bosch series. 4/5

"A Long Way Down" by Nick Hornby. Four strangers meet on the roof of a London tower block, each with the intention of commiting suicide by jumping off, and instead they strike up an unlikely friendship. Ass. 2/5

"McX: Scottish X-Files" by Ron Halliday. True tales of UFO sightings, close encounters, ghost stories and other unexplained stories from Scotland. Decent but a lot of the UFO stories are very similar, and most of the ghost stories are olden days myths and legends. A good idea but poorly executed. Needs interviews with eye witnesses, and pictures. 3/5

"Broken Skin" by Stuart MacBride. #3 in the Logan McRae series. McRae investigates, among other things, the murder of a male porn star with an BDSM fetish, and a series of rapes, the main suspect of the latter is Aberdeen FC's homegrown star player Robbie MacIntyre. A terrific story but horribly written. 3/5.

I'm currently reading "Emma" by Jane Austen. It's a big departure from my usual reading, I tend to read modern novels that I can race through, you can't really race through Jane Austen. There's a lot of old fashioned prose to pick through / enjoy and very slow paced plot, so I'm having to change my reading style and take my time over it, but it seems pretty good so far. 

Edited by Lemonade
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