books (2 Viewers)

[pad]

anything by gabriel garcia marquez particularly his book of collected short stories.

 

[Germinal]

If you're looking for something recent, 'English Passengers' by Matthew Kneale is excellent. It's set in the nineteenth century and concerns clashes of class and culture amongst Aborigines, English settlers and Manx smugglers. At times very funny, at others very moving. It also won the Whitbread Book of the Year this year.

 

[ronan]

john (12 Jul, 2001 12:07 p.m.):
Ayuh, Bukowski kick buttock; although the semi-autobiographical one surrounding his formative years is almost too depressing for words. "Women", although one of the more mysoginistic books I can remember reading, is great.

...

yeah, "Women" is unbelievably mysoginistic. i don't think Bukowski's prose is a patch on his poetry though. his early poetry is unreal.
"Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame" is a brilliant collection, from about 1955 to '75.
"Love is a Dog from Hell" also has some unbelievably great moments.

anything by William S Burroughs is genius (esp. Naked Lunch, Cities of the Red Night). also "Visions of Cody" by Kerouac, "Grapes of Wrath" by Steinbeck, "The Stranger" by Camus, "Perfume" by Patrick Suskind, "Hunger" by Knut Hamsun, "At Swim Two Birds" by Flann O' Brien.....

more recently (ie, written since i've been born), "Great Apes" by Will Self and "Survivor" by Chuck Palahniuk have been amazing reads.

there you go....

started Ghostwritten this morning, seems promising.

 

[Hector Grey]

readings for qwee-ahhs.

 

[dudley]

Spike Milligan 'Adolf Hitler, My Part In His Downfall', 'Puckoon' or 'Milligans Ark'. The last one is a collection of poems, but they rule.

"There are holes in the sky where the rain gets in,
but they're ever so small,
that's why rain is thin'

Marvelous.

 

[gipetto]

brown spots on the wall - whu flung dung
yellow river - I.P Freely

 

[Hector Grey]

wow. that's just brilliant. i'm just getting it... they're puns! oh lord, there's tears in my eyes and piss in my shoes. i bow to your superior powers of devilment. just fucking brilliant. what are you? 14?

i'll clear out my desk. i can see i'm no longer needed.

 

[gipetto]

ive 14 langers and ten arses if thats what your askin. and no one likes you. so feck off

 

[Hector Grey]

sigh. you're brilliant. i want to make love to your mind.

 

[Pauls_Ferrari]

The Shipping News: E Annie Proulx
The Book of Daniel: E L Doctorow
Ragtime: E L Doctorow
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow: Peter Hoeg
Borderliners: Peter Hoeg
Surfacing: Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid's Tale: Margaret Atwood
Moby Dick: Hermann Melville
Zen and the Art....: Robert M Pirsig
The Electric Kool Aid Acid test: Tom Wolfe
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest: Ken Kesey
The Lord of the Flies: William Golding
Life After God: Douglas Coupland
The Crow Road: Iain Banks
Complicity: Iain Banks
The Cement Garden: Ian McEwan
The Innicent: Ian McEwan
The Book of Evidence: John Banville
Possession: A S Byatt
The Rings of Saturn: W G Sebald
Siddhartha: Herman Hesse
The Glass Bead Game: Herman Hesse
With Nails: Richard E Grant
Any of Paul Theroux's travel books
Marianne Faithfull's autobiography

Yeah that'll do for now!!

 

[leedy]

>Possession: A S Byatt

Ooh yes. That's brilliant. I'd also recommend
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
Vurt - Jeff Noon
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

 

[Pauls_Ferrari]

I forgot:

Foucault's Pendulum: Umberto Eco
The Name of the Rose: Umberto Eco
Out of Control - The New Biology of Machines: Kevin Kelly (editor of Wired)
High Fidelity: Nick Hornby

 

[rodney]

if you like gothic lit then read anything by edgar allen poe...very descriptive.
"lolita" is also very good, as is "do anderoids dream of electric sheep" by phillip k dick.
i could never get into "catch twenty two", i kept losing track of what had happened.

 

[rodney]

just had an after thought, "down these mean streets" by piri thomas is excellent.

 

[Willie Willions]

Anything by Bill Bryson. Read his books and you'll wish he lived down the road from you and that you went to the pub for a couple of pints with him now and then.

 

[george mcfly]

hey my mr. t is better!!

just finished reading the buddha of suburbia by hanif kuireshi. really excellent book and the funniest think ive read in a long long time

other faves are i am legend by richard matheson.
and the torture garden by octave mirbeau. really dark book but probably my fave ever

 

[gipetto]

bill bryson is one funny bastard. but he's a bit long winded. those sixties travel books that came out about two months ago are meant to be well good though.

 

[egg_]

Bill Bryson is glib.

 

[leedy]

I quite like Bill Bryson, but Tim Moore's travel books are much funnier. He's only written two - "Frost on my moustache" (in which he follows in the footsteps of a Victorian explorer) and "Continental drifter" (same deal, Elizabethan early tourist). I'd heartily recommend both.