What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (1 Viewer)

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

recently finished 'the wild life' by some chap called stempel jones about him living off the land for a year. a good, easy read. so then i started 'gravity's rainbow' and gave up on it after about 40 pages because i'm not in the mood for slogging through a book right now.

read this last year,your right about it being a handy read when you dont wanna think too much.
im still slogging through a splendid exchange

it is rather excellent.

 

[Jim Daniels]

Almost bought "The Slap" on Sunday, but it was such a nice day, I decided against it. Instead I went for these guys - not sure which one I consider my free one.

Room - Emma Donoghue

Skippy Dies - Paul Murray

One Day - David Nicholls

Have started Room. Promising!

 

[Lili Marlene]

Ah, let us know if Room is any good. I always have a professional interest in the abuse of the child's voice in literature


speaking of which, I have to get this finished by tomorrow so i'm off

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

let us know how 'skippy dies' is,looked good.

 

[Jim Daniels]

Well, yes, you're often on dangerous ground with the child's voice in literature. Not that I can think of any examples right now. The Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close kid was cool, but a bit older than this fella, who is only five.

Skippy Dies looks heftier than I thought.

Will let you know how both of them go..

 

[Lili Marlene]

Yes, plus sentences like my previous one make me sound like a child molester. Ok, now i'm actually off

 

[Scientician 0.8]

I just got Red Plenty and Voodoo Histories today. I think I'm gonna start with Red Plenty.

 

[Jerry Twig]

The copy I have is a bit bigger

 

[rettucs]

The copy I have is a bit bigger

I can't remember what I thought of that. I do recall reading the entire book on a flight from San Francisco to London though. And I also recall being very disappointed by 'High Fidelity'. I think I thought 'Fever Pitch' was ok.

Jim Daniels - I'm curious about Skippy Dies. Let us know how it goes. Cheers.

 

[MDR]

I did Silas Marner for the Leaving Cert too. Hard to disassociate it from that in my mind, even though I didn't hate it as almost everyone else did.

Hey MDR, if a fella was going to start reading Thomas Hardy, where would you recommend he start? I'm going to do that, and was going to begin with Jude the Obscure.

Tess of the D'Urbevilles is the best. Jude is probably the best after that so it's a good place to start.

I would rate the novels something like this:

Premier divison:
Tess
Jude
Mayor of casterbridge

Very good:
Far from the madding crowd
Return of the Native
The woodlanders
The well-beloved
A pair of Blue Eyes

Worth reading:
Under the greenwood tree
Trumpet Major
Short stories

A bit all over the shop:
A laodicean
Two on a Tower
Hand of Ethelberta

If you've read everything else and might as well finish the lot off:
Desperate remedies

 

[MDR]

RE: Silas Marner.

In the film the squid and the whale the Dad (scruffy professor type) gives out about the education system pushing the lesser novels of great writers just because they are shorter. I'd put Silas Marner in that camp. I also think it's on the leaving cert course because it has an 'honour thy (adopted) father and mother' morality tale ring about it.

Of Eliot's books, I have read Silas, Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch and Felix Holt. Felix Holt was the best even though most people seem to prefer Middlemarch and Mill on the Floss. Daniel Deronda is supposed to be good too.

I much prefer Hardy to Eliot. Hardy has huge feeling, poetic language and deep psychological insight. Eliot is a brainbox but narrates too much and leaves too little room for the reader to spend time with the characters.

 

[MDR]

I'm reading this.

Short stories all themed about the family. My next album (nearly finished writing it) is themed on family situations so it's sort of research.

 

[rettucs]

Man Booker Prize 2010 The shortlist in full

Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey (Faber and Faber)
Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador - Pan Macmillan)
In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut (Atlantic Books)
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (Bloomsbury)
The Long Song by Andrea Levy (Headline Review)
C by Tom McCarthy (Jonathan Cape – Random House)

Anyone read any of these?

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

not me, although the reviews of the peter carey one have made me optimistic that it might be a return to form

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

good reading,not a story as much a collection of chapters from his life.entertaining.

 

[Jim Daniels]

Anyone read any of these?

In the middle of Room by our Emma. Impressive! Great tension in the 45 minute section I read last night.

 

[Jill Hives]

good reading,not a story as much a collection of chapters from his life.entertaining.

This man is just too funny. I'd seriously suggest the audio version of any of his books. He always reads and does voices for his family members. Priceless. He makes something amusing read into laugh out loud funny with his tone and pauses. I've gone through them all and have seen him talk live a few times. The "Me Talk Pretty One Day" tour had me laughing so hard I couldn't breathe.

 

[Lili Marlene]

probably years ahead of it's time, feels a bit hackneyed now. Still effective buh

 

[nooleen]

it blew my mind, man

 

[IFF]

i've been meaning to read it again