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Not sure if they have been mentioned, but the Russian trilogy by Tom Rob Smith (Child 44, Secret Speech and Agent 6) are very entertaining in a not too challenging kind of way.
Originally Posted by Groundrush
Young adult I think but don't let that put you off, all three books are superb. Well, I liked them anyway.
Cool. I might check them out. As I say, I have finished a YA recently, and you couldn't really tell. The main characters were teenagers, and it wasn't full of long words ;) , but it wasn't insulting to your intelligence, and very good. And that's all that matters really.
Not sure if they have been mentioned, but the Russian trilogy by Tom Rob Smith (Child 44, Secret Speech and Agent 6) are very entertaining in a not too challenging kind of way.
Just finished "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro. Much better than the film, and the film was pretty good. Beautifully written, thought provoking and ultimately very sad. Once you've finished that you might need a pick-me-up. "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen is a little belter. Again, far better than the movie which was a pretty uninspired attempt to bring the book to the screen.
Hmm sounds like a rip off from Battle Royale, the Japanese Manga :?: - which will also be better given its far more bloody and inappropriate for younger readers.....
I've heard a lot about this, but is it primarily a kids book? This isn't supposed to be dismissive, just wondering. I finished Divergent by Veronica Roth which I think is a Young Adult title, and really enjoyed it, Sci Fi, Dystopian kind of thing.
I am currently reading Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child. I love these Reacher stories and can't put them down.
Hmm sounds like a rip off from Battle Royale, the Japanese Manga :?: - which will also be better given its far more bloody and inappropriate for younger readers.....
I've heard a lot about this, but is it primarily a kids book? This isn't supposed to be dismissive, just wondering. I finished Divergent by Veronica Roth which I think is a Young Adult title, and really enjoyed it, Sci Fi, Dystopian kind of thing.
I am currently reading Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child. I love these Reacher stories and can't put them down.
Funnily enough, I just checked Amazon for HG and most people mentioned Battle Royale...but they were favourable reviews anyway...
I'm reading Pat Barkers Regeneration trilogy just now. I've finished the first book, Regeneration, and started the second, The Eye in the Door.
Battle Royale is a great Manga and disturbing at the same time - well worth reading IMO
OK, I might check it out. Disturbing is good.
I have read a lot of graphic novels/comics (Sandman next on the list), but never any manga at all. I know of the film, but not seen that.
Also sounds a little like Running Man written by Stephen King and a classic Arnie film :DHmm sounds like a rip off from Battle Royale, the Japanese Manga :?: - which will also be better given its far more bloody and inappropriate for younger readers.....
I've heard a lot about this, but is it primarily a kids book? This isn't supposed to be dismissive, just wondering. I finished Divergent by Veronica Roth which I think is a Young Adult title, and really enjoyed it, Sci Fi, Dystopian kind of thing.
I am currently reading Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child. I love these Reacher stories and can't put them down.
"Pillars out the Earth".
Full of suspense and conspiracy. Utterly gripping, all 1000 pages!
Now wading through the utter tosh which is The Lost Symbol.
The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy, only on book one but is good.
Absolutely fantastic books - one of the best writers of his generation, IMHO. The Crossing was my favourite of the trilogy, but all three were great reads.
Henning Mankell: A Troubled Man.
For fans of the Wallander books (and I am one) this is a real treat. Longer and more atmospheric even than usual, it goes deep into the mind of the fading, ageing Wallander as he realises that his best years and experiences, the best of his life, is all behind him.
Oh, and he goes on the trail of a missing ex-Naval Commander.
If you like your Fantasy and Sci-Fi then you really should read pretty much anything by Jack Vance.
I highly recommend Tales of the Dying Earth - a collection of arguably four of his best works - that have been the inspiration to many modern fantasy writers.
If there's ever a more likeable rogue in a book than Cugel I've yet to find one.
Saw a mention of Cormac McCarthy above and thoroughly recommend 'The Road' particularly for anyone with a young son. It's gruelling and truly terrible but worth it.
But for me his masterpiece is 'Blood Meridian' for the most startling juxtaposition of beauty and evil I think I've ever read. Judge Holden is one of the most remarkable characters in literature and the book is full of images I won't forget in a hurry.
Agree that The Road is a great novel. I've nearly finished reading a series of pretty awful but really enjoyable ones, The Jury series by Lee Goldberg, originally published in the 80s under the great title .357 Vigilante.
Basically its a series of really lurid short novels about a Death Wish style vigilante.
Goldberg went on to create Diagnosis murder.
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Just a few i've finished in the last few weeks, all of which i'm sure others may have mentioned.
Just finished The Leopard" by Jo Nesbo, enthralled from start to finish, 1st Nesbo i've read and wont be the last. The old cliche "couldnt put it down" but really i couldnt :) really top notch thriller.
"Field Grey" by Philip Kerr, i've read all the other Bernie Gunther novels and imho this one is the weakest, still a decent read but seems to have lost some of the magic from earlier Gunther.
"The Man who Smiled" by Henning Mankell, Wallender and its great, never tire of reading Mankell/Walender.
"Crossfire" by Dick & Felix Francis, average, a page turner BUT ultimately like eating a McDonalds fine at the time but really empty and pointless a short while after.
Currently trying to get stuck into Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Reversal by Michael Connelly, will report back when finished.
I read a great book about the Atlantic Wall recently, Hitlers Atlantic Wall Normandy
by Paul Williams, Helped by the fact I was in Normandy!
Just started reading Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow's "Grand Design" - fairly light read with some interesting concepts concerning philosophy and our cosmos ...
So many recommendations of Malcolm Gladwell here and elsewhere so I've now ordered Blink, Tipping Point and Outliers. Curious to see what the fuzz is about :)
McCarthy's The Road (and others) also get a lot of recommendations and I'll add to that. I read it when it was just out and still remember it strongly. Great read, not a single word too many in that book.
Finished the graphic novel Watchmen last month. Christ on a bike, that is one powerful and imaginative story :shock: Certainly worth a read.
Currently reading Dostojevskij's The Double. Amazing detail, character and as fresh today as it must have been in 1846 when it was first published.
Cheers
Mabuse
The Separation
The Affirmation
Both by Christopher Priest.
Very interesting reads.
I've just read four Iain Banks books, Use of Weapons (1990), Excession (1996), The Algebraist (2004), and Surface Detail (2010). They were enjoyable. A bit formulaic, perhaps. But, enjoyable.
Best wishes,
Bob
If you like steam punk fantasy in a rich urban gothic setting, I've been reading Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Its very well written and engrossing with a world that's so huge and complex with excellent characters and creations. Bit weighty though at nearly 900 pages but it's been a great read.
I really enjoyed Alan Sugar's book. Written almost like he speaks, very entertaining and pretty enlightening.
What the feck is 'steam punk fantasy' FFS?
Just finished Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities. Very funny, with the usual firecacker Wolfe prose. Fall-of-a-trader feels topical. Unlike the film, it has aged well. On the go now I have Niven's The Moon's A Balloon, which is going to be a quick read, and Robert Byron's The Road to Oxiana, which isn't.
Paul
It is just about that time of year again. So, I've been reading Emergence: contemporary readings in philosophy and science.
Interesting, although not a thrill-a-minute type book.
Best wishes,
Bob
What the feck is 'steam punk fantasy' FFS?
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain—that incorporates elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology or futuristic innovations as Victorians may have envisioned them, based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc. This technology may include such fictional machines as those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne.
Other examples of steampunk contain alternative history-style presentations of such technology as lighter-than-air airships, analog computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace's Analytical engine.
Henri Cartier-Bresson: The mind's eye. Interesting and very well written (photography was not his only talent) but a little too light perhaps :)
Would you mind adding a few words to as to why you find it interesting? I'd like to shape up a bit on, well, contemporary philosophy and science but not sure what to get :?
Cheers
Mabuse
For a bit of escapism,try Lee Child, Jack Reacher is unbelievably, not to be taken seriously. but passes a few hours
John
The Affair?
regards John
yup,i've nearly finished 'the affair' and very good it is too.goes back to show one of the main reasons why reacher leaves the army,great stuff as usual and highly recomended
cheers,mick
On a pretty standard view, complex entities and their properties are a result of the entities that make them up, and their properties. One relatively out of favour way of thinking about the relation is that it is reductive. So, for example, it is/was thought that biology could be reduced to chemistry, and chemistry to to physics. Similarly, it is/was thought that the mind could be reduced to activity of the brain, or group behaviour reduced to the choices/preferenes of individuals. Think of these as "levels". The reductive idea is that the higher level could be reduced to the lower level, perhaps by appeal to laws connecting these levels,or what are called "bridge laws". Semantic reduction goes so far as to allow talk about things at the higher level to be replaced by talk (complicated as it might be) about things at the lower level.Henri Cartier-Bresson: The mind's eye. Interesting and very well written (photography was not his only talent) but a little too light perhaps :)
Would you mind adding a few words to as to why you find it interesting? I'd like to shape up a bit on, well, contemporary philosophy and science but not sure what to get :?
Cheers
Mabuse
Reduction has fallen out of favour, and quite rightly too, I think. However, the idea that the higher levels are (in some way) a result of the lower levels is still a powerful idea. It is just that the "result of" relation generally isn't a reductive one. One of the most promising ways of understanding things is that that the higher levels emerge from the lower levels. The higher level entities and properties result from but are also autonomous of the lower level entities and properties. But the notion of emergence needs fleshing out, without which it starts to look like an appeal to magic.
This collection contains some of the best essays on how one might flesh out this notion of emergence in various areas of science and in philosophy.
Best wishes,
Bob
I read China Melville's 'perdido station' about 6 months ago. I quite like the genre in general, but found it 'went on a bit' for my liking. You can do a good theme to death sometimes.
Im also a very big fan of Ian M. Banks - excellent 'culture' series; gripping imo.
Try "Terminal World" Its a good size, and takes a bit of revving up- but the way ideas are introduced is very well done.
The new Neal Stephenson, REAMDE, is pretty good. Very like Cryptonomicon, I thought, and no bad thing.
New Reacher book arriving tomorrow. W00t
Thank you very much Bob, I appreciate it. I see that the preface is available online so I'll have a look at that and then probably order the book :)
Cheers
Mabuse
2/3 way through Joe Hill's - Horns. Very good, interesting. You can tell he is Stephen King's son, though it's not a copy/homage, he has his own style.
Defying Hitler by Sebastian Haffner
- if i ever read a better book about the War i'll be very surprised...
Im big into hiking , mountaineering etc, general military stuff , military history and some other random topics.
These are just a few of the books I have read in the last few years.
Into thin air
Eiger Dreams
Touching the void
The beckoning silence
A walk in the woods
The White spider
Annapurna
Rules of Engagement: A life in conflict
Sniper One
The green marine
Lone survivor
WWZ
Hi All,
Just read the Le Carre classic "The spy who came in from the cold", excellent book, although the ending can be seen coming from quite a way off,
Richie :)
Bashing my way through Wilbur Smith's Monsoon, what a ripping yarn :D
William Boyd - Any Human Heart. Didn't like the TV series at all, but put the book on my my "to read" pile. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Sebastian Faulks - A Week In December. Very decent. First Faulks book I've read. Will work through them now.
______
Jim.
The forgotten Highlander, Soldier captured by the Japanese, Burma railway-coffin ship-camp near Nagasaki!
The forgotten Highlander, Soldier captured by the Japanese, Burma railway-coffin ship-camp near Nagasaki!
Just reading this at the moment - about 20% of the way through. Had to buy it after reading the blurb - so incredulous at the bad luck I just had to laugh, not at someone's pain and misfortune but just sheer incredulity of someones's bad luck and going from bad to worse to undescribable.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Forgotten-Highl ... 292&sr=8-1
Alistair Urquhart was a soldier in the Gordon Highlanders captured by the Japanese in Singapore. He not only survived working on the notorious Bridge on the River Kwai , but he was subsequently taken on one of the Japanese 'hellships' which was torpedoed. Nearly everyone else on board died and Urquhart spent 5 days alone on a raft in the South China Sea before being rescued by a whaling ship. He was taken to Japan and then forced to work in a mine near Nagasaki. Two months later a nuclear bomb dropped just ten miles away ...This is the extraordinary story of a young men, conscripted at nineteen and whose father was a Somme Veteran, survived not just one, but three close encounters with death - encounters which killed nearly all his comrades.
I just couldn't get into it, despite everyone around me reading it and singing its praises. The film was rather odd, but strangely it has renewed my interested so I will probably give it another go as it is so highly rated.
Just started 'Snuff' latest Discworld book from Sir Terry Pratchett
i listen to quite a lot of audiobooks and i've just finished 'i,partridge-we need to talk about alan'.
read by the great man himself and genuinely laugh out loud funny with a great turn of phrase.highly recomended if you enjoyed the radio and tv shows.
i've also just started 'the thousand autumns of jacob de zoet' and so far,so good - a very well researched tale of what life was like in 18th century japan from the viewpoint of a dutch newcomer
cheers,mick
Yep enjoyed Jacob de Zoet a lot. Currently reading "Alone in Berlin" by Hans Fallada, I think it will be good.
Have read several Ronan Bennetts, can recommend them all, although his style is totally different from book to book they are all very well written, particularly enjoyed "Havoc, in it's Third Year". Set in 1630, puritan fanaticism as background. Interesting author, arrested for murder and conspiracy to cause explosions in the 70's.
I've always enjoyed classic sci-fi so when I saw these, they were ordered instantly. I read some of them many years ago when I was a teenager, it will be interesting to see how they've aged. This will be my first Terry Pratchett.
This is not a book club you have to join and there's no minimum commitment to buy.
http://www.thebookpeople.co.uk
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
On the book club theme, if anyone is appreciative of well made books, I recommend The Folio Society.
http://www.foliosociety.com/
Good selection of books, including many of the popular ones mentioned on this thread. They seem to have a joining offer every other month, usually a free or cheap box-set or Times Atlas. I always find something in their catalogue that I want to read, or read again.
No connection, obviously.
Paul
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