6 replies to this topic

[greencarnation]

You know how sometimes you tear through a really readable book and it reminds you that novels can be breathtaking? Over the last six months, I've tried three Georges Simenon novels, and each of them has been brilliant. His pet topics (he was a Belgian pipe-smoker) are crime, art, duplicity, money, eroticism and psychopathy. The books are very well written, and can be mentioned to college dons as well as hard-boiled salts of the earth. Just thought I'd mention it; if you have any ideas for books for reading, I'd love to hear them (but don't panic!).

J.J.W. (greencarnation)

[ricardo de ponsa]

I borrowed a book from my local library last week, 'The History of Glue'.

 

                          I haven't been able to put it down all week!!!

[vectra666]

the only books I read are picture ones, also when reading the papers I seam to get stuck on page three lol. makes me feel a right tit sometimes

[strider]

You know how sometimes you tear through a really readable book and it reminds you that novels can be breathtaking? Over the last six months, I've tried three Georges Simenon novels, and each of them has been brilliant. His pet topics (he was a Belgian pipe-smoker) are crime, art, duplicity, money, eroticism and psychopathy. The books are very well written, and can be mentioned to college dons as well as hard-boiled salts of the earth. Just thought I'd mention it; if you have any ideas for books for reading, I'd love to hear them (but don't panic!).

J.J.W. (greencarnation)

 

I'll at least give them a look and maybe see if I can 'borrow' them off the internet, so cheers for the heads up.

 

I'm actually reading the Sherlock Holmes series for the first time, and they're quite enjoyable, if not a tad too short and a tiny bit predictable - but they must have been amazing to read in the late 1800's - which is why I'm guessing the legend has persisted.

 

I'm also reading a book called 'Laughing At My Nightmare', which is written by a young lad with a serious muscle wasting disease that quite likely hasn't got much longer to live. It's a story about his life and his struggle to come to terms with his predicament, but genuinely well written and with great humour. It's quite a small book too with short punchy chapters, so it's easy enough to get absorbed in. It can also put things in to perspective, all things considered.

[draytalon]

I enjoy reading a lot, mostly sci-fi or fantasy novels. The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and stuff like that. I love the Star Trek series from the Original with Captain James T Kirk, The Next Generation with Captain Jean Luc Picard, Voyager with Captain Catherine Janeway and the early part of DS9 with Captain Benjamin Sisko, but reading these books held no grip for me. The Belgariad series of books was awe inspiring, David Eddings the Author transported you into the characters giving realism and sometimes on the the edge reading.

[greencarnation]

When I was a teenager, many people said to me, 'you should read Sherlock Holmes'. 'Pooh!', I replied, 'I've seen Jeremy Brett in the television series and to me he is the ultimate sleuth. He's the Roger Moore of Baker St.'. I have finally got round to reading Conan Doyle, however, and if I was even half prepared for the bohemianism, chills and adventure that infuses the better Holmes fiction I'd have been glued to it in my twenties. Avoid Sign of the Four, though, I think it's purging the system of pulp.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Belgariad when I was younger and found its revelations pretty mystical. I didn't get round to reading LeGuin until I was thirty-something and though she writes very lucidly. Doris Lessing's first novel, The Grass is Singing, a South African book, is good if you can bear tales of descents into psychopathy. It's like Fight Club set on a farm by a woman.

Keep reading!

JJW (greencarnation)

[greencarnation]

P.S. Quite by chance I've just started Conan Doyle's Round the Fire Stories, which was in the wardrobe and waiting to be read. It's the second non-Holmes ACD short story collection I've broached (not counting Brigadier Gerald, only the first story of which is brilliant) and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. You must have mediumistic powers!

JJW (greencarnation)