What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (3 Viewers)

[sugar_referee]

Voltaire's Candide. Fairly sarky and funny. After reading every line of George Berkeleys fifteen times over to make sure i didn't misunderstand anything because the man was a monkey genius, this is like a cool glass of cynical lemonade.

 

[david jatt]

Still reading "A prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving, and loving it.

 

[Goff]

Still reading "A prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving, and loving it.

One of my favourite ever books. Time was I used to give that to people as a present.

Will I tell you what happens? (Joke!)

 

[cookiemonster]

hellfire: the jerry lee lewis story - nick tosches.

starts with him getting arrested for drunkenly trying to drive through graceland at 3am, he's on his third marriage by about page fifty and shoots his bass player at the end. quality.

i was a robot - wolfgang flur.

pretty boring, there's very little in it about the others in kraftwerk or details on how they made music, it's mostly boring bits about what restaurants they went to and how many girls he got while they were on tour. he plugs his solo album so many times i've lost count.

 

[david jatt]

One of my favourite ever books. Time was I used to give that to people as a present.

Will I tell you what happens? (Joke!)

You can tell me what happens in a couple of days, should have it finished then. Great book.

 

[MDR]

I read The World According to Garp and wasn't impressed. Is Owen Meaney better?

 

[david jatt]

I read The World According to Garp and wasn't impressed. Is Owen Meaney better?

Owen Meaney is my introduction to Irving, so not sure how it compares. I bought "Until I find you" recently, was sufficiently impressed by Meaney to make this my next Irving read.

 

[BC]

started:

"the story of v" by catherine blackledge: a biography of the vagina, from the perspectives of sexuality, biology, medicine, history, mythology and art.

"the marquis de sade" by donald thomas: a portait of the remarkable life of the libertine.

 

[muffin]

in the past few weeks ive read

the jodie marsh autobiography
the jordan autobiography..

i was sick and in the mood for something stupid..

i also read 'do you know who i am' by piers morgan..not as good as his first one but still reasonably enjoyable..

and prep by curtis sittenfield..like a judy blume book for grown ups about teenagers...was pretty alright..

 

[Mitchum]

Just started 'Suite Francaise' by Irene Nemerovsky.
The publishing sensation of 2006. I'm just hoping it lives up to the blanket praise it recieved.

 

[david jatt]

"The Book of Dave" By Will Self. His best since "Great Apes" I reckon.

 

[cyclotron]

Finished 2 recently...

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. Unrelentingly grim future-shock scenario but a pretty mesmerizing read.

"Safe Area Gorazde" by Joe Sacco. Can't recommend it enough.

Now started on the Harry Partch biography...

 

[david jatt]

I liked "The Road", very poignant ending. I struggled a bit with "The Border Trilogy". McCarthy sparse prose style takes a bit of getting used to. I believe "Blood Meridian" is excellent.

 

[magicbastarder]

will third the endorsements of the road. excellent book.

 

[MDR]

Just started The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. I'm in the mood for some pacey plot-driven reading at the moment.

 

[Dromed]

I am reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, having been inspired to do so by the excellent Capote film. Its excellent so far.

Before that I read Henry and June by Anais Nin, which was fleetingly great and incredibly interesting but not always enjoyable.

Just finished a few Henry Miller books - Quiet Days in Clichy and Tropic of Capricorn being really good. He was Anais Nins lover - just got 3 volumes of her diaries and 'Little Birds' which i haven't started yet. Looking forward to them.

 

[BC]

currently reading: "an insider's guide to submodalities" by richard bandler and will mcdonald.
the co-founder of neuro-linguistic-programming provides a guide into certain techniques of hypnosis, particularly with regard to changing habits and beliefs within the individual's psychology. it is not a good introduction to the whole subject of hypnosis (i would personally recommend joesph o'connor 's "introduction to nlp" and bandler + grinder's "trance-formations" to the interested), as it does presume that the reader is well aquainted with methods of inducing hypnotic states and in particular the use of "anchors" to call up certain altered states at will.
it is from this book that most of the hypnotic methods used to make people stop smoking, nail-biting, neurotic behaviour, and in some cases anxiety and depression, stem from.
loftly claims to be sure : a fascinating read, even (and conversely because of) the questions it poses.

 

[MDR]

Just finished 'Fathers and Sons' by Turgenev. Though it lacks a plot, it has the usual Russian mix of characters: young ideologue, incompetent landowner, peasant shirkers. Worth reading but I'm not sure that it's a classic.

About to start reading Claire Keegan's 'Walk the Blue Fields' - it's a new short story collection that has been getting very good reviews; I also liked the way she described her writing in a recent interview I read.

 

[david jatt]

"Falling man" by Don Lelillo, the first book of his that I finished in a long time. I usually find his stuff an ordeal but this was accessible and linear by his standards.

 

[Bladez]

About to start reading Claire Keegan's 'Walk the Blue Fields' - it's a new short story collection that has been getting very good reviews; I also liked the way she described her writing in a recent interview I read.

I've only read one of her short stories. It appeared in Birthday Stories, the collection of short stories that Murakami compiled and published. It was one of the better ones in the collection.

I've just finished Bucowski's Pulp which is some of the most exciting writing I've read in a long time. Hard to believe he wrote it at 70 something, a few years before his death.

I'm now reading Nabokov's Laughter in the Dark. This is the first book of his that I've read and I'm really enjoying it. Great style, great prose, excellent character detail.