What do you like to read ???

[Niels]

I`ve also began to read the latest by Jean Auel, but it was boring and I`ve not finished it yet.

I've read the first couple of those. I really liked them. But I haven't read the last 2 of the series.

 

[Corfe]

Sandbender and Corfe. Reading your replies about Violence doesn't come close to describing it yet beautiful left me confused. I've heard some very negative things about The Road and I even have it on my PC to download to my kindle but won't based on this Horror aspect Sorry chaps but your descriptions haven't warmed me to wanting to try reading his stuff.

McCarthy is kind of hard to describe, and he can be hard work at times. I've read all his books, but Blood Meridian is the best imo. It's a western, for one thing, and the beauty of the language is such that if you read it aloud it comes across as something between poetry and the King James Bible. He described a commanche attack which was one of the most horrific things I've ever read, but is written with such skill that you simply have to read it out loud to truly appreciate it. And his descriptions of deserts and landscapes are awe-inspiring. Not light reading by any means, but once it's in your head it stays there!

 

[sandbender]

"...but Blood Meridian is the best imo..."

For me 'The Orchard Keeper' would be my favorite.

“Toward early morning he woke, sat up quickly and looked about him. It was still dark and the fire had long since died, still dark and quiet with that silence that seems to be of itself listening, an astral quiet where planets collide soundlessly, beyond the auricular dimension altogether. He listened. Above the black ranks of trees the mid-summer sky arched cloudless and coldly starred. He lay back and stared at it and after a while he slept.”

Poetry indeed.

 

[Biker]

Hey Corfe and Sandbender. I just had a gander through files of Kindle books on my PC by McCarthy and found I have:

I have No Country for Old Men
The Road
All the pretty horses
Blood Meridian
The Crossing
Cities of the plain

So I have some samples of his works. Beautiful prose aside though I'm not sure I want to read "...a commanche attack which was one of the most horrific things I've ever read, but is written with such skill that you simply have to read it out loud to truly appreciate it." Having watched The Pacific and now read the book I find there are certain scenes in that of mutilation and horror of mans violence to his fellow man that I can live without knowing. I know it goes on, I accept that, but if I have a choice of whether reading about it I choose not to. Thanks for the support of his work. Having the books on file I may well give one a go one day.

Sandbender I read Beevor's D-Day battle for Normandy, I have that book and I think on Kindle as well. Fascinating reading as a lot of the events that happened in the first few months took place right around me. One battle took place 3 miles from the house I lived in, which really does bring things home to you.

santaman2000, thanks for the Chesty Puller link, and that quote made me chuckle. I remember a similar quote though I don't know who said it, it went: "Some would call it being outnumbered, others might call it a target rich environment." They don't make 'em like that any more though.

+1 for Clive Cussler's earlier work, but as the years went by the latter stuff seemed to get more outrageous and the adventures of Dirk Pitt went from mere preventing a dastardly crime, to saving the planet single-handed. I like my thrillers with a certain amount of action and intelligence, but not to the point of incredulity. Even science fiction doesn't get that extreme.

Thanks for the Nantucket recommendation British Red. I just checked my Kindle files and I have all three of those books on the PC. Result!

Scouse Monster - I like a bit of Warhammer type sci-fi with Power Armour and Mechwalkers especially. I'll keep an eye out for those books you mentioned.

 

[Biker]

Just as an aside did anyone else notice the Modesty Blaise connection in S.M. Stirling's Dies The Fire book? I read that reference with a certain about of smug satisfaction because I knew who he was homaging.

While on the subject, Peter O'Donnel's Modesty Blaise books are really enjoyable. I read those on a regular basis, and each at least 5 times over.

 

[Stringmaker]

I read all sorts of stuff. Some of the genres I can think of:

Victorian crime fiction - Various
Railway crime fiction - Andrew Martin
Travel/Nature/Bushy - Richard Mabey, Nick Crane, Robert MacFarlane, Uncle Ray
General thriller/crime - Agatha Christie and James Bond
Scandinavian crime fiction - All the main players
London history - Various
Motoring history - Various
Classics - Dickens
Poetry - John Donne

I have so much of a reading backlog I don't have enough shelf space for my books. Notice the word "books"; none of your new fangled kindling e-book things...

 

[Biker]

I have so much of a reading backlog I don't have enough shelf space for my books. Notice the word "books"; none of your new fangled kindling e-book things...

Do I detect a certain amount of pooh poohing in your tone?

Don't let my fondness for Kindling thingys confuse you. I still love my books too. Got about 5 banana boxes in storage of them. I used to have 3 times that, but downsized after the break up last year of me and the missus. Now the Kindle means I have a lot of those books to hand but in a fraction of the space. Kindles are great for the written word, but not so hot when it comes to technical manuals with reference photos and such. Those are what I kept and donated/ditched/burnt the other stuff I had triples of on the Kindle.

 

[Stringmaker]

Do I detect a certain amount of pooh poohing in your tone?

Don't let my fondness for Kindling thingys confuse you. I still love my books too. Got about 5 banana boxes in storage of them. I used to have 3 times that, but downsized after the break up last year of me and the missus. Now the Kindle means I have a lot of those books to hand but in a fraction of the space. Kindles are great for the written word, but not so hot when it comes to technical manuals with reference photos and such. Those are what I kept and donated/ditched/burnt the other stuff I had triples of on the Kindle.

Well spotted that man

I find myself a bit conflicted to be honest. I do have and use both an i-phone and i-pod but when it comes to books I prefer the real thing. I have bookcases jammed full with stuff which are part of the furniture of my home and my identity too. If it was all squeezed into a little metal box my house would be empty!

 

[Biker]

Well spotted that man

I find myself a bit conflicted to be honest. I do have and use both an i-phone and i-pod but when it comes to books I prefer the real thing. I have bookcases jammed full with stuff which are part of the furniture of my home and my identity too. If it was all squeezed into a little metal box my house would be empty!

Yup, my thoughts exactly, which is why I use it as a supplement to the real books. I've kept a lot of my "old friends books" that I grew up with and when i get the books out of storage they'll be back on the bookcase. I figures it's rather like a photo album over files on a PC. Having the picture in your hands is nice, but with hi-res digital technology now and larger monitors a directory on the PC has taken over family photos... but there will also be a hard copy in a frame on the wall.

Incidentally I don't have an iPhone and only recently bought an iPod and the learning curve on that is steep too. Having hundreds of songs stored in a little black box means I don't have to haul round my entire CD collection.

 

[Elines]

Generally anything that is a good story as opposed to lots of arty farty description eg has anyone ever actually read Ulysses? I did try once but soon gave up.

More specifically science fiction - I remember enjoying the 'Robot' series by ?Arthur C CLarke years ago.

But my most recent enjoyable read was the complete Martin Beck series of 10 detective stories, set in Sweden by Sjowall and Wahloo. Apparently these were the first stories in the genre of 'police procedural'. Each story stands on its own but I'm glad I started at the beginning and worked my way through them.

 

[ged]

You can't put your finger between the pages on a Kindle and flip back and forth to check things. Every time my wife hands me hers (she loves it) my big fat fingers press several of the buttons that my dim old eyes can't even see are there and whatever she wanted to shwo me has done a runner.

Lately my reading seems more and more to lean towards recent history. By a long way, the best book I've read recently was "The making of the atomic bomb" by Richard Rhodes.

Here's an interesting Wkipedia page that I found while reading it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site

Horrific.

 

[Biker]

You can't put your finger between the pages on a Kindle and flip back and forth to check things.

Very true, and with a book with footnotes it's a right bugger! But I coped.. somehow.

That nuclear site sounds terrible!

Elines. I haven't taken on Ulysses yet but I do have The Odyssey in my book box to read one day. Another book that stumped me was Moby Dick. I so wish I could break into chapter two without having to read paragraphs over again because the words bounced off my brain. I should put them in the "Life's too short" list and just accept some classics are beyond my intellectual grasp.

I think you'll find the Robot series was written by Isaac Asimov, but that not to say Arthur C Clarke didn't write about Robots either.

Robert A Heinlein still outshines them all in my opinion.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Robert A Heinlein still outshines them all in my opinion.

+1 to Bob Heinlein. Also like Joe Haldeman, James Herbert, A E Van Vogt, Kurt Vonnegut,, Terry Pratchet, Hal Clement, Stephen Baxter, Ray Bradbury, John Wyndham, Dava Sobel and many many more.

 

[abominable_scouse_monster]

Biker, PM inbound mate.

 

[Elines]

..................
I think you'll find the Robot series was written by Isaac Asimov, but that not to say Arthur C Clarke didn't write about Robots either.
.....................................

Yes - agreed - I was too idle to check on the internet - mind you - I was almost all the way through a bottle of Blue Monkey Fat Ape at the time

 

[Biker]

Yes - agreed - I was too idle to check on the internet - mind you - I was almost all the way through a bottle of Blue Monkey Fat Ape at the time

Yup, that'd distort anyone's perception

 

[santaman2000]

Generally anything that is a good story as opposed to lots of arty farty description eg has anyone ever actually read Ulysses? I did try once but soon gave up.....

LOL. Sounds like trying to read anything by William Faulner. Hwrites as most of us think (rambling, disjointed thoughts) But well worth it though. his insight on a bygone time and the complicated racism of the day is amazing.

 

[Biker]

Last night I put aside the book I was reading, Alex Scarrow's A Thousand Suns and started a new book I'd downloaded titled E.M.P. No Finger On The Pulse. Straight from the start it was easy going with the James character prepping for the worst case scenario by turning a holiday cottage in West Scotland into a retreat, the concept of this strikes a chord in all of us I suspect, a bolt away place to defend against invaders whether they be Mongols, Goths, Urak hai or Zombies. Anyway I'm about 4% into the book on my Kindle and finding it right up my street.

You can see the details here The reviews for it are glowing too. Sorry but it's only for Kindle, tablet or PC reading only at the moment.

Oh and I should mention it's written by our very own Eric Methven. Toddy made mention of this just recently.

Thanks Eric, I'm enjoying this and looking forward to how the story unfolds. Well done!

 

[ged]

Generally anything that is a good story as opposed to lots of arty farty description eg has anyone ever actually read Ulysses? I did try once but soon gave up.

Now you mention it, I once tried to read "The Lord Of The Rings". Never made it past chapter one. Bored out of my skull, it was like reading about my relations.

More specifically science fiction - I remember enjoying the 'Robot' series ... years ago.

Yeah, I did those -- years ago. Whenever I've gone back to those authors later they've seemed somehow not enough for me any more.

But my most recent enjoyable read was the complete Martin Beck series of 10 detective stories, set in Sweden by Sjowall and Wahloo. Apparently these were the first stories in the genre of 'police procedural'. Each story stands on its own but I'm glad I started at the beginning and worked my way through them.

That reminds me of a number of vaguely similar books I read about ten years ago by a Frenchman called Borniche.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Borniche

He started with his own experiences as a cop in post-war France and then moved onto fiction. I thought the fiction was pretty average but I found the biographical stuff riveting. All in French though, I don't know if they're available translated into English. Looking quickly on the 'net all I could find was DVDs (I hadn't even realized that any had been made into films) but nothing much about the books.

 

[Biker]

Now you mention it, I once tried to read "The Lord Of The Rings". Never made it past chapter one. Bored out of my skull, it was like reading about my relations.

I'm soooo glad I'm not the only one that's happened to. All I ever get from people who've read it is "It's FANTASTIC!!" and I'm sure it is, but all I seem to do is bounce off the pages when I try to get into it.

I feel less like a social outcast now. Thanks ged.