Reading: The Book Thread

[demographic]

I've just started The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin as its had some fairly rave reviews.
Only a few pages into it so can't really comment.

[ZRX61]

Saigon Guns.

[gremlin]

Random purchase to pass the hours on a flight: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/447750/ ... 1405953177

Unruly - David Mitchell

A sort of potted history of the kings and queens of (pre-)England, written very much in the style of David Mitchell. It's quite funny and surprisingly accessible, for someone like me (i.e. not academic) who can find history a bit dry.

Recommended.

[Supermofo]

Random purchase to pass the hours on a flight: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/447750/ ... 1405953177

Unruly - David Mitchell

A sort of potted history of the kings and queens of (pre-)England, written very much in the style of David Mitchell. It's quite funny and surprisingly accessible, for someone like me (i.e. not academic) who can find history a bit dry.

Recommended.

I'll look out for that, I know he's been doing some YouTube about monarchs so now I know it's to promote a book. It's on my to watch list

[ZRX61]

Millionaire Teacher..

Why wasn't I taught this stuff in school?

[KungFooBob]

Just seen this on Friendface.

As a massive Iain M Banks fan, I think I'm going to have to sign up.

I know there's a few fans on here...

https://www.orbit-books.co.uk/landing-p ... 3z6HT6by1A

Edit: Maybe not the limited edition at a guestimated £250!

I was actually quite tempted by the limited edition, but I think it's better spent on a new mobile, anyways...

As I'd got a £25 Amazon voucher I've ordered the council version from them at a few quid less than RRP...

[Taipan]

It occurs to me I've never read any Hemmingway. Am I missing out? Which one would you recommend?

[Mr. Dazzle]

We did The Old Man and The Sea in year 9 (I think) English.

Dunno...guy catches a really big fish. There's probably more to it. Sometimes I think it's a waste of time doing these deep self-examination type stories with a bunch of 13 year olds.

I feel like I wanna read some Dickens, but I feel even more that they'd be more enjoyable as bed time audiobooks read by Stephen Fry or David Tennant.

[Pirahna]

Put the Kindle app on your phone, there are shed loads of free books available, Dickens and Hemmingway certainly because I've just looked. When I was cycing in the US I read the complete works of Conan Doyle.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Put the Kindle app on your phone, there are shed loads of free books available, Dickens and Hemmingway certainly because I've just looked. When I was cycing in the US I read the complete works of Conan Doyle.

Did you not need to look where you were going?

[Taipan]

Put the Kindle app on your phone, there are shed loads of free books available, Dickens and Hemmingway certainly because I've just looked. When I was cycing in the US I read the complete works of Conan Doyle.

Recently bought a new kindle.

[gremlin]

The copyright for George Orwell ran out a few years back, so I suspect 1984 will be available for free. It's worth a read.

Lolita by Nabokov (sp?) might be as well. Bit odd, especially by today's standard, but worth reading.

(Dickens is dreadful, in my opinion)

As far as most of the classics go, I'm in agreement with the wag who described the classics as book that everybody feels they should have read, but haven't.

[Count Steer]

We did The Old Man and The Sea in year 9 (I think) English.

Dunno...guy catches a really big fish. There's probably more to it. Sometimes I think it's a waste of time doing these deep self-examination type stories with a bunch of 13 year olds.

I feel like I wanna read some Dickens, but I feel even more that they'd be more enjoyable as bed time audiobooks read by Stephen Fry or David Tennant.

Never quite 'got' Hemingway. I know there's supposed to be deep and meaningful themes etc in The Old Man and the Sea but they passed me by. So yeah, guy catches big fish and gets in a bit of bother with sharks 'cos it's too big to get into the boat iirc etc. (The futility of ambition perhaps? ). 'Death in the Afternoon' makes bullfighting into some sort of quasi-religious activity and I just found it barbaric tbh. He 'did good title' though.

I think a Hemingway biography might be more interesting than the books though.

Laurie Lee was another chap that got mixed up with the Spanish Civil War too - his books didn't really light my fire either.

[Count Steer]

Just had a quick squizz at the Penguin list of 100 classics chosen by their readers. My favourite's 'I Capture the Castle'.

Grapes of Wrath is in there but it's a bit gruelling.

Read a few but some of them are hard going and the styles are a bit dense.

I enjoyed 'Ghormenghast' by Mervyn Peake....when I was 17 and his 'Mr Pye' is v sweet.

The missus is a fan of Virginia Woolf and she features a couple or 3 times. 'To the Lighthouse' etc. Haven't made it past the first 40 pages (of any of 'em) so can't really comment but, maybe I should have another go.

I even find some old classic SciFi hard work because they seem to be written at $x/1000 words.

[ZRX61]

I have a habit of collecting tech books. I just got one called "How to build & restore classic Japanese motorcycles" (2015) by an Aussie, Sid Young.

Wasn't expecting mush as it shows a small Honda twin on the cover. It arrived yesterday & features almost entirely 4 cyl Kaws: Z1-A, Z650-B1, Z900-A4, GPz11-B2 & A1, GPz900R, ZX9R, Z1000 MkII, A1 & J. The other stuff is CB750 & Suzuki 500 Titan.

It's not a book about how to do a concours condition restoration, just generic resto.

Well chuffed

He also has a website:

https://sidyoung.com/august-september-2020/

and an earlier website that also features his computer stuff:

https://z900collector.wordpress.com/

[Scootabout]

A read a book called Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts, recently. I don't read all that many books, and tend to look askance at anything over 300 pages. So this, at 900 pp, broke my rule, but I'm glad I did. It's loosely based - how loosely isn't clear - on the author's experiences in slums and underworld of Mumbai, while he was on the run from the law in Australia. Personally I found it absolutely extraordinary. Not pleasant to read at times, but at others, very uplifting. One of the best books I've ever read.

[Supermofo]

We did The Old Man and The Sea in year 9 (I think) English.

Dunno...guy catches a really big fish. There's probably more to it. Sometimes I think it's a waste of time doing these deep self-examination type stories with a bunch of 13 year olds.

I feel like I wanna read some Dickens, but I feel even more that they'd be more enjoyable as bed time audiobooks read by Stephen Fry or David Tennant.

Read Oliver Twist, I'd say that's a great start point. Absolutely fantastic book. Brilliant characters, funny, sad, social commentary, I loved it. With some of Dickens you can definitely tell/feel the fact that the books weren't read how we read them now. Usually they were serialised in papers/magazines and the author paid pretty much by the word/amount of work so in some of them things can drag. BUT, on the whole Dickens is a fantastic writer. I've not read loads of his and I think you need to be in the right frame of mind, plus they do seem to have a different feel to them. Barnaby Rudge dragged for me, I couldn't get on with Hard Times at all. But Oliver Twist was up there with one of my favourite books ever.

[ZRX61]

Book another Kaw resto book. Chris Rookes book that covers Z900 & Z1A mainly. It will be taking up a spot in The Throne Room Library.

[Sunny]

I'm a big sci-fi fan, but every so often I pick a 'classic' to read. I've just started Jane Eyre. Too soon to tell if it's one to regret.

Kafka's 'The Trial' was the last 'classic' I read. It was God awful. DO NOT recommend.

Muz recently read 'Jude the Obscure'. I thought 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles was bad, but the synopsis of Jude... was enough to confirm that I'm never reading another Thomas Hardy.

In happier non-classic world, I've just finished the Thursday Murder Club books, which are surprisingly good, not least because they're very well written. Oh, and the Neuromancer trilogy, having only read the first one previously - home of Count Zero's user name

[Rockburner]

Just seen this on Friendface.

As a massive Iain M Banks fan, I think I'm going to have to sign up.

I know there's a few fans on here...

https://www.orbit-books.co.uk/landing-p ... 3z6HT6by1A

Edit: Maybe not the limited edition at a guestimated £250!

I've got that on my wishlist.... if my (equally Banksian) brother doesn't buy it for me I'm cutting him off....



These days I only read a few pages when I'm trying to get to sleep: I just finished "Complicity" (Iain Banks) so I'm currently dipping into Robert Jordan's "Conan Chronicles" which are a blatant money-grab attempt to rip of the original Robert E Howards' work, but they're no worse and easy to read.