ninorc Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Last book I read was Snowblind, that was about 8 years ago You might want to have a go with Smokescreen, Robert Sabbag's eventual follow up, which is along similar lines only it's pot not coke they're smuggling and, unfortunately, the protagonist isn't quite as flamboyant or entertaining as Zachary Swan! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big ghost Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 I need good books, so I got a friggin' list. Don't read much modern Fiction, Modern is already a feckin' Media Fiction. In front of me half read and to be read: Essays and Aphorisms - A. Schopenhauer The Diary of Geza Csath. (His book Magicians Garden and other Stories is beautifully evil.) The Writings of Jonathan Swift (Sublime Intelligence) Conversations - J.G. Ballard Animal Liberation - P. Singer Helmut Newton - Autobiography and trotted out for the sake of Hel . . Imaginative power: J. Conrad W.S. Burroughs L.F. Celine (Let the Cat out of the bag, and dished the dirt on Manners.) J.G. Ballard J. Genet F. Kafka M de Cervantes ( Not Georg) C. Baudelaire (Fleur de Mal . . . no less.) A. Rimbaud Theatre of Sleep - Anthology of Literary Dreams The Martian Chronicles - R. Bradbury Non Fiction: The Red Hourglass. Lives of the Predators - G. Grice My Last Breathe - Luis Bunuel The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium - Mark Dery Straw Dogs. - John Gray Madness and Civilization - Michael Foucault A Woman in Berlin - Anon' The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats - J. Masson The Divine de Sade - hardly fucking fiction, sadly. On Animisim / Shamanic / Tao: The Inner Chapters - Chuang Tzu / A.C. Graham The Peregrine - J.A. Baker (Englishman turns into Falcon, for real!) The Wisdom of the Wyrd / Real Middle Earth - Brian Bates The Iliad (The Ogre of Achilles) - The Homers ? The Origins of Conciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind - J. Jaynes. Pop Science books: The Blank Slate - S. Pinker The Symbiotic Planet - Lynn Margulis Right Hand Left Hand - Chris McManus Language of the Genes - Steve Jones The User Illusion, Cutting Conciousness Down to Size. - T. Norretranders Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaygrow Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 I thought Filth was just a pile of shit. How the hell they published it I'll never know, just trading on his name is all. Fair enough. Yeh, it's not one of Welsh's strongest books, and he will get whatever he writes published as his name sells. Much like any other popular author. I still like it though, a good quick fire read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boojum Posted January 23, 2006 Author Share Posted January 23, 2006 Yay, glad the thread's taken off Some good recommendations there, which I'll be checking out. My thoughts on a few. Gormenghast is a tricky one for me. Titus Groan is one of my all time favourites, a superb piece of writing, but I'm not as keen on Titus Alone and Gormenghast cos poor Mervyn was slowly going insane, and I think it shows Irvine Welsh. Wrote some decent stuff up until Marabou Stork Nightmares, then appears to have totally lost his literary ability. Shame, really. His Dark Materials is next on my list of stuff to read. And it wouldn't be a book thread without me recommending (again) possibly my favourite book ever. Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. I shan't go off on one about The Da Vinci Code cos I promised not to, but I'll just say that Foucault's Pendulum covers similar ground in terms of conspiracy theory, the templars, the hospitallers etc, but does it in a far, far, far, far (ad infinitum) better way, and Eco has actually bothered to do research. Proper research. A staggering amount of research. It's an incredible book, both for it's facts and for it's truths (two very different things). I think all conspiracy theorists should be locked in a room and forced to read it. Umberto Eco is a man that grounds me, intellectually. I occasionally (OK, often) overestimate my own intellect, then I just think of how frighteningly intelligent Eco is, and it makes me realise that I'm nowt special That's probably why it's my favourite book, because it humbles me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muppet Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 I thought Filth was just a pile of shit. How the hell they published it I'll never know, just trading on his name is all. I've got Filth sat on me bookcase at home, i got about three pages into it before all the Scottish slang it's written in made me put it down, never to be opened again..... Currently readin': Crime And Punishment - Dostoyvesky (seem to have been readin' in forever! ) Around Ireland With A Fridge - Tony Hawks ('bout 'alf way thru, hisd turns of phrase are quite funny in places) Then i got a big pile sat on top of me bookshelf to get through, don't seem to have the time to read much at the mo, most of me spare time disappears when the GR door is opened..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BushBandicoot Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Just finished reading another Carl Hiaasen book; Skinny Dip. Pretty much any Carl Hiaasen book will make me laugh out loud in parts (which isn't always such a good thing in public, but what the hell). Lucky You was his best book by far I reckon if you want a good laugh at American (Florida) society and their thick-as-shit lowlife criminals Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twenty Three Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Gormenghast is a tricky one for me. Titus Groan is one of my all time favourites, a superb piece of writing, but I'm not as keen on Titus Alone and Gormenghast cos poor Mervyn was slowly going insane, and I think it shows I hear what you're saying Boojum, and Titus Alone is seriously confused..but I enjoy Gormenghast almost as much as Titus Groan.But yeah,TA is a struggle for me. And it wouldn't be a book thread without me recommending (again) possibly my favourite book ever. Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. I love Foucault's Pendulum and The Name of the Rose.The only other book by Eco that I've read is 'The Island of the Day Before' which I thought was an absolute mess.It was almost as if Eco was trying to 'dumb down' his writing,and it just didn't work I'm always reading plenty of comic books as well..my favourite current series is 'Ex Machina'... Ex Machina My all time favourite series though has to be the Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's incredible 'Preacher'.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boojum Posted January 23, 2006 Author Share Posted January 23, 2006 I love Foucault's Pendulum and The Name of the Rose.The only other book by Eco that I've read is 'The Island of the Day Before' which I thought was an absolute mess.It was almost as if Eco was trying to 'dumb down' his writing,and it just didn't work no.gif Totally. The Island of the Day Before is a horrible book, took me the best part of a summer holiday to struggle through it cos I just couldn't be arsed with it. If it's comic books, there is only one in my eyes. Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Nothing else comes close. In any literary genre. One day people will look back and recognise it for what it is, probably the greatest work of literary imagination of the late 20th century. Bar none. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twenty Three Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 It was Sandman that re-kindled my interest in comics.Gaiman's imagination knows no bounds.There's some interesting essays to be found on his website.. Neil Gaiman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoda Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 currently constantly rereading black medicine by Dr N Mashiro quality book, the best seris of pressure point books i ever read, also going through some shitty sas survival guide thing, and a book of 1000 card games. Most interesting read recently was "how to be a ninja assassin", free pdf from the web. Hmmm spotting a trend in my reading material here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S2001 Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 You might want to have a go with Smokescreen, Robert Sabbag's eventual follow up, which is along similar lines only it's pot not coke they're smuggling and, unfortunately, the protagonist isn't quite as flamboyant or entertaining as Zachary Swan! Someone told me MrSwan is now a teacher in upstate NY Thanks for the recomendations, I'm going to Borders tomorrow Time to startreading again, good idea Booj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dohped Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 (edited) thud! by terry pratchett 'bout 20 pages in atm i do like the ones with the city watch in B) Edited January 23, 2006 by Dohped Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MS?MJ! Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 (edited) Oooh, people talking comics -good stuff :bush: My all time favourite series though has to be the Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's incredible 'Preacher'.. Preacher is one of my favourite comics too, I've just recently re-read the entire series and enjoyed it hugely - I liked the Garth Ennis/Steve Dillon team-up for Hellblazer as well. I'm really into Alan Moore's Top Ten, and of course Watchmen and V for Vendetta are utterly legendary, and rightly so. Grant Morrison writes some very good short series, We 3 in particular was one of the most moving things I have ever read (and Seaguy one of the most bonkers ) In the end I have to agree with Boojum on the comics front tho - there is, and probably never will be anything to surpass Neil Gaimen's Sandman. It was one of the first comics I ever read and is one I go back to again and again - just amazing writing. His books are all good as well, Neverwhere, American Gods and the short stories collection Smoke and Mirrors were excellent and I started Anansi Boys a couple of days ago and am loving it so far. No one seems to have mentioned Michael Marshall Smith - he used to be one of my very favourite authors and his earlier books (One of Us, Spares, Only Forward) were absolutely amazing reads. Unfortunately he then took the frankly incomprehensible step of re-inventing himself for the american market as Michael Marshall and writing dodgy thrillers Whoops, rambling now - nice thread idea Boo Edited January 23, 2006 by MS?MJ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boojum Posted January 23, 2006 Author Share Posted January 23, 2006 For anyone with darker tastes, who likes short stories, like me, there really is only one series (short horror is sadly not commercial so nobody prints it), the Best New Horror series edited by Steven Jones (and anything else he's edited too, the man REALLY knows his quality horror). Some of the best stuff I ever read, in any genre, has been within the pages of the best new horror series. Don't let the gaudy, cheesy covers put you off, it's proper adult literature, as proficient as anything else you'll read and probably a hell of a lot more imaginative and thought provoking. Short horror is my genre of choice, there just isn't enough of it around to keep me going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Father McPot Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 What am i reading at the moment? Razzle Nah, only joking..................you don't read Razzle Just now I'm reading Angels and Demons by....*gulp* Dan Brown Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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