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Fiction:
100 years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Stone Gods - Jeanette Winterson
V - Thomas Pynchon
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
The Age of Reason - Jean Paul Sartre
Non Fiction:
The Blind Watchmaker - Dawkins
Liverpool a City that Dared to Fight - Tony Mulhearn and Peter Taaffe
The Atlantean Irish - Bob Quinn
A Season With Verona - Tim Parks (here because its not just about football)
Guns Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond
Sorry, didn't mean to imply that you couldn't post football books in this thread. I was just posting the link for referenceQuote:
Originally Posted by BohsPartisan
Have a lash at Chickenhawk by Robert Mason, there are quite a lot of Vietnam books out there but this is the best I've readQuote:
Originally Posted by Block G Raptor
Less related, I recently re-read Papillon & the follow up book Banco, they are now my 2 favourite books, really great reads, am half way through Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandresekaran, its about the American attempts to rule Iraq and impose American style ways of life, very interesting and quite funny!
yipe! i've always meant to tackle it or "gravity's rainbow" after reading "crying of lot 49" - someday!Quote:
Originally Posted by BohsPartisan
i love that earlier on the thread someone mentioned delillo's "white noise", an author i'd consider an heir to thomas pynchon's style, if not his post-modern(?) throne. i loved mccarthy's "the road" and liked "no country for old men." his earlier stuff can be HEAVY and faulkneresque though.
if you like vietnam books, try "dispatches" by michael herr. after writing htat he collaborated on the screenplay for Apocalypse Now. also, related but in fiction, last year's U.S. nat'l book award winner "tree of smoke" by dennis johnson encompasses ten years in vietnam and the philippines. i enjoyed it a lot.
the ultimate rec from me would be either "riddley walker" by russell hoban or "cloud atlas" by david mitchell. the latter is tons of fun.
Sorry to lower the Intelligence Quotiant but just finished reading Belfast Confidential by Colin Bateman and I dont laugh out loud at books or movies often but was crying with laughter reading it.
God I love Bateman (as he is now referred to). Funniest guy ever.
Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go. It's the kind of book that really makes you think about your values in life.
EchoedQuote:
Originally Posted by BohsPartisan
You must be ****ing kidding meQuote:
Originally Posted by pete
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/im...se-Posters.jpg
;)
reading "Stolen Years- Before and after Guildford" by Paul Hill with Ronan Bennett
the Story of Paul Hill one of the Guildford 4 who spent 14 years in prison when wrongly convicted of the Guildford and Woolich pub bombings. I read Proved Innocent (filmed as In the Name of the Father)by Gerry Conlon years ago and that book has stayed with me since. if anything Hills book is even more harrowing and gut wrenching.
Just finishing up The Traveller based on that recommendation, have to say I'm enjoying it a lot and would second the recommendationQuote:
Originally Posted by Block G Raptor
Yeah stumbled across it in a second hand book shop ages ago and it set on my book shelf for yonks before I picked it up and got a pleasant surprise. i've the dark river if you wanna borrow it if you're up Dublin way
Living up here so I might just take you up on that offerQuote:
Originally Posted by Block G Raptor
I'll stick it in my bag on monday. drop us a PM if you wanna pick it up
I recently finished the brilliant "Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life" by Alex Bellos.
Easily the best football book I've ever read. He didn't focus on the big leagues or the famous faces but instead followed the most interesting stories. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in football.
I've just started "Death and the Penguin" by Andrey Kurkov.
Nice book alright. You should try the Garrincha autobiography too for more on Brazillian footballQuote:
Originally Posted by superfrank
Thanks for the tip.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
V is way more accessible than Gravity's Rainbow which is also recommended but only if you're willing to concentrate very hard. I'm currently reading his latest, Against the Day and its another fine piece of writing.Quote:
Originally Posted by ken foree
i dunno... belfast confidential was not the best of his... the later books 'i predict a riot' and 'orpheus rising' would not have seen a publisher were they not bateman... murphy's law and murphy's revenge were among his best... but...Quote:
Originally Posted by Magicme
bring back dan starkey! easily the best... all of them...
and i agree with whoever said that about Brasil...
if you want a great football book read "She stood there laughing" by stephen foster... brilliantly miserable.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/She-Stood-Th...8746076&sr=8-1
Was Looking at a book called "One flew over the crossbar" and it looks like it could be a good read but it could be crap too. Has anyone read it? If so is it worth forking out €20 for it
Have Pele's book and Maradona's. Two good reads. Mc Grath's tops them all though. That man's a legend. Greatest ever Irish player for me.. And brutally honest in his book.
seconded. It was the most moving book I've ever read on any subject, the fact that it was about one of my all time heroes made it even more emotional to read.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pike B
Stop it man, I'm gonna bawl.... :(
I just finishd reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak-very rewarding read
Just about to read A prison Diary by a character I have always loathed-Jeffery Archer...I am open minded if nothing else.
I also bought a book called The Tomorrow Trap-"unlocking the secrets of the procastination-protection syndrome" but cant seem to get around to reading it.:)
Probably goes without saying but everyone needs to read the Hitch Hiker's Guide to The Galaxy series.
Mr L Prosser was, as they say, only human. In other words he
was a carbon-based life form descended from an ape. More
specifically he was forty, fat and shabby and worked for the local
council. Curiously enough, though he didn't know it, he was also
a direct male-line descendant of Genghis Khan, though
intervening generations and racial mixing had so juggled his
genes that he had no discernible Mongoloid characteristics, and
the only vestiges left in Mr L Prosser of his mighty ancestry were
a pronounced stoutness about the tum and a predilection for
little fur hats.
Ah Douglas Adams. Legend ! read Dirk Gentlys Hollistic Detective Agency as well as the Hitchhiker series Years Ago. ridiculously funny and irreverent. Described on the cover as being a :"thumping good detective-ghost-horror-whodunnit-time-travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic"
Quote:
I just finishd reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak-very rewarding read
I enjoyed the Book Thief. Would recommend it as well.
Right Lad's just finished the Paul Hill book mentioned above. anyone recommend any other good "prison Diary" or Mis-carriage of Justice type book's? I'm in the mood for more like Hill's harrowing tale
like wise i have been reading alot of andy mcnab books and that sort of genre, anyone recommend books along these lines:)
Cass Pennants Soul Crew
okay shameless plug, my mate tod just published this, his first novel. it's about a medieval reenactor trying to save his family while struggling against the increasingly modern world around him. very funny, he jokes that he's hardcore because his book's title has TWO semicolons in it :D -
http://tinyurl.com/5ruz2u
The Drowned and the Saved - by Primo Levi
"A book of essays on life in the Nazi Vernichtungslager (extermination camps) by Italian-Jewish author and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi, drawing on his personal experience as an inmate of Auschwitz.
Whereas If This is a Man was autobiographical The Drowned and the Saved is an attempt at an analytical approach. The problem of the fallibility of memory, the techniques used by the Nazis to break the will of prisoners, the use of language in the camps and the nature of violence are all studied in a poet's style that sometimes supersedes scientific conventions".
Fascinating, humbling and moving. Bears witness to Man's inhumanity to Man.
Went in to Easons to get ChickenHawk yesterday and and came across what could be a real Gem on the subject. "Vietnam-An Oral History" by Christian G. Appy. I've started it this morning and It's really interesting. as the Blurb proclaims it's "an oral history of the Vietnam War from not just both-sides but all sides" It's a book verymuch in the mould of Don Mullans "Eyewitness BloodySunday "(another Highly recommended read) in that it's a collection of Eyewitness accounts taken from a diverse spread of the people who where there on the ground. everyone from American 4star Generals, Commanders, Grunts(including Oliver Stones personal account of his tour of duty), NVA and Viet-cong Generals, Commanders Grunts,SVA Generals, Commanders, Grunts, Journalists, reporters and Photographers from all over the world and native Vietnamese Peasants and political leaders from all sides. I'm really looking forward to getting into it.Quote:
Originally Posted by stann
Agreed. A truly life-changing work.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolfie
Couple it with the documentary "Shoah" (9 hours long) and you'll have more mixed emotions about the quality of humans, and humanity, than you ever had before.
Not a TV of Film but author.
Anybody interested in proper crime novels look up this bloke. By proper crime I don't mean the copy and paste genre of the Grisham, Connolly etc al where the hero is always a maverick but secretly admired by top brass, where he has an on - off relationship with his ex wife and every case is a tangled mix of his past present and future but can he really face himself and the horrible truth...................ldfygeqrvb;febvbnberoerw - sorry fell asleep and face hit the keyboard.
This is gritty and focussed on the criminals. The subject of the novels is Parker - the hardest b*****d you would ever meet - totally amoral, but not eveil in a psychopathic sense - killing is only an occupational hazard in the way of professional thiefdom.
Top drawer
POTM for the Highlighted ParagraphQuote:
Originally Posted by Angus
Anyone looking for a funny yet intelligent book can I recommend "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole, its recognized as one of the funniest books ever written, I love it....its a brilliant book about a hapless loser called Ignatius J Reilly...Brilliant stuff, he also wrote a book called "Neon Bible" (as in the Arcade Fire Album) which is a little more serious but still as good a read, the tragedy is that the books were only ever released after the author had comitted suicide, he was in despair because he thought his work would never be picked up and it was only his mother campaigning on his behalf that got the books any recognition - keep an eye out for them
An Atheist Goes Undercover to Join the Flock of Mad Pastor John Hagee(You know, the one that called the Catholic Church 'The great whore of religions)
The following is an excerpt from Matt Taibbi's new book, The Great Derangement" (Spiegel and Grau, 2008).
Here
Interesting to say the least!
I recently finished Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. It was a very good read. It's a fascinating insight into life.
I finished A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry a few weeks ago. I though it was a wonderful novel, well written, moving story, excellent characterisation, it would be hard to fault it. I was always fascinated by WW1 poetry, Wilfred Owen and the like, and it takes up similar themes on the horror of war.
I'm reading the Sherlock Holmes anthology at the moment. Finished A Study in Scarlet and in the early stages of The Sign of Four at the moment. Surprisingly enough I had never read a Holmes story before and I've been impressed so far.
I've read a couple of Batemans books (though not that one) In my opinion he's just a poor mans (Or womans:D) Christopher Brookmyre. Try "A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away" "Boiling A Frog" "One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night" or "The Sacred Art of Stealing" or any of his stuff really.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magicme
Oh, and to Block G Raptor, re Prison/innocentvictim type books, John Grishams "An Innocent Man " is quite good. I'm not a fan of his fiction, but this is the story of a man who spent yearws on death row for rape and murder in acase where the police pretty much ignored the obvious prime suspect and decided to pick on two basically down and outs and fit them up.
As for current reading, I'm just about to start Denis Lehanes "A Drink Before the War." His "Mystic River" is an awesome book and I highly recommend it. Even better than the Film, which isn't half bad.