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read any good books lately...

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crimson thing View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote crimson thing Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 23 2006 at 09:59
I just started Lempriere's Dictionary a week or so ago (I tend to have 3 or 4 books going at once, to suit my various moods - currently "Clear Waters Rising" - Nicholas Crane's account of a looooong walk through the mountains of Europe from Cape Finisterre to Istanbul (rather boring, sadly); Tim Binding's "Island Madness", a novel set on Guernsey during WW2, which is excellent; and, just finished, Martin Amis's "Money".)
 
Anyhow, I was finding Lempriere's Dictionary rather boring......then I got to the bit about the vicar & the mashed potato Wink, so the book has been promoted in the lists somewhat!! I also read, a couple of years ago, Norfolk's "The Pope's Rhinocerus"; also very entertaining..Smile
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ricochet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 23 2006 at 10:01
Originally posted by Geck0 Geck0 wrote:

I plan to read some Plato very soon, but I suspect it'll get delayed, but I'll try read some later.

I also need to finish reading the following:

Jorge Luis Borges - Ficciones
Charlie Stross - Scratch Monkey
Terry Pratchett - The Wee Free Men
Charles Dickens - Martin Chuzzlewit
Jim Christopulos and Phil Smart - Van der Graaf Generator: The Book
Franz Kafka - The Trial
George Orwell - Down and Out in Paris and London

So I have a lot to finish!  Wish me luck on this.


Wow! Good luck.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote VanderGraafKommandöh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 23 2006 at 13:09
Why thankyou, Rico!  Some of these books have been half read for quite some time, so it may come to the point whereby I start afresh on them.

I think I'll finish the Borges first, as these are just short stories.

Also add to my list:

Lord Dunsany.  I have started to read a few of his collection of short stories also and need to finish these off.  An excellent writer I must say and a must for those into fantasy fiction (but not of the sword and sorcery kind).
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BaldFriede Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 23 2006 at 14:47
Originally posted by crimson thing crimson thing wrote:

I just started Lempriere's Dictionary a week or so ago (I tend to have 3 or 4 books going at once, to suit my various moods - currently "Clear Waters Rising" - Nicholas Crane's account of a looooong walk through the mountains of Europe from Cape Finisterre to Istanbul (rather boring, sadly); Tim Binding's "Island Madness", a novel set on Guernsey during WW2, which is excellent; and, just finished, Martin Amis's "Money".)
 
Anyhow, I was finding Lempriere's Dictionary rather boring......then I got to the bit about the vicar & the mashed potato Wink, so the book has been promoted in the lists somewhat!! I also read, a couple of years ago, Norfolk's "The Pope's Rhinocerus"; also very entertaining..Smile

I had exactly the same experience; the book did not grip me until I reached the part with the vicar and the mashed potatoes, but when I reached it I fell off my chair laughing, and from that point on the book really picked up pace. (Be prepared for a very horrible scene shortly after that laugh with the vicar!)


BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ricochet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 29 2006 at 01:30
Dostoievski - The third and last volume of "A Writer's Journal".
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Jim Garten Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 30 2006 at 03:34
I would highly recommend a couple of books I've recently finished by Carl Hiaasen, 'Sick puppy' and 'Skinny dip'; very funny and wickedly sharp ecologically based satire.

I've only read the above 2 books by him, but I understand most of his novels are set in Florida, dealing with the state's slow but sure eco-rape by the big corporations (especially Disney) - his books are written in an easy to read style, but don't let that put you off - the plots are tight and complex, the characters well drawn, but the humour is so sharp at times, you may need to wear gloves...
    

Edited by Jim Garten - June 30 2006 at 03:34

Jon Lord 1941 - 2012
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Vompatti Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 30 2006 at 07:05
I finally finished Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra and I still don't know what it was about. Confused
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Paul K. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 30 2006 at 08:37
^^ Oh yeah, Nietzsche's works are very hard to digest.
So far I've read "Daybreak", "Antichrist", "Human, All Too Human", parts of "Beyond Good And Evil" and "Thus Spoke Zarathustra".
My favourite philosopher.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TheProgtologist Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 30 2006 at 14:21
I'm currently reading a book of poems by Dylan Thomas called Deaths and Entrances.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Vompatti Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 30 2006 at 14:44
I started reading Nick Cave's novel "And the Ass Saw the Angel".
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trickster F. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 30 2006 at 14:50
Finished Dostoyevsky's "The Devils"(also known as "The Possessors" and "The Demons"... choose whatever name you like best).
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Paul K. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 01 2006 at 02:51
^^^ I think "The Demons" is more correct title.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Norbert Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 01 2006 at 04:29
 Life of Pi by Yann Martel.Thumbs Up
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rosescar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 01 2006 at 16:43
Willem Frederik Hermans - De Laatste Roker

He's a Dutch writer and he kicks ass. There are very few translations, if any, though.
My music!

"THE AUDIENCE WERE generally drugged. (In Holland, always)." - Robert Fripp
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Jim Garten Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 04 2006 at 03:42
Originally posted by Vompatti Vompatti wrote:

I started reading Nick Cave's novel "And the Ass Saw the Angel".

    
Good book - taken from a weird perspective, as I recall, but a great first novel.

Jon Lord 1941 - 2012
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote daz2112 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 04 2006 at 15:03
Shaun Hutson - No Survivors
In the constellation of cygnus,There lurks a mysterious force...The black hole
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Jim Garten Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 05 2006 at 03:22
Originally posted by daz2112 daz2112 wrote:

Shaun Hutson - No Survivors


It's been a while since I read any Hutson (who's a bit of a prog fan, himself) - as I remember him, he's somewhat akin to James Herbert... but with more blood!
    

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ricochet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 09 2006 at 09:17
Essays,by Jorge Luis Borges
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Joren Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 09 2006 at 09:23
I am currently reading this:



Next schoolyear I'll be following a course on the history of art, so I thought I'd get started during the holiday. Very interesting book. The writer avoided the use of very "academical" language, so it's easy to read. It also was pretty cheap. Only € 35,- for over 600 pages, including many beautiful pictures. I'm on page 159 right now and I can highly recommend it! Clap


Edited by Joren - July 09 2006 at 09:26
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Australian Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 10 2006 at 03:28
Treasure Island
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