Recommended Reading

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

Originally Posted by BohsPartisan

A Season With Verona - Tim Parks (here because its not just about football)

Sorry, didn't mean to imply that you couldn't post football books in this thread. I was just posting the link for reference

Originally Posted by Block G Raptor

Would love to read some autobiographical accounts of the Vietman war but cant seem to find any, maybe someone could recommend some

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 read

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!

Originally Posted by BohsPartisan

Fiction:

V - Thomas Pynchon

yipe! i've always meant to tackle it or "gravity's rainbow" after reading "crying of lot 49" - someday!

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.

Originally Posted by BohsPartisan

Guns Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond

Echoed

Originally Posted by pete

It has now been made into film but when I read Bringing Down the House a few years thought was excellent.

You must be ****ing kidding me
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.

Originally Posted by Block G Raptor

which reminds me "The Traveller" and "The Dark River" the first 2 parts of a trilogy by John Twelve Hawks are superb. a 1984 for the 21st century

Just finishing up The Traveller based on that recommendation, have to say I'm enjoying it a lot and would second the recommendation

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

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 offer

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.

Originally Posted by superfrank

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.

Nice book alright. You should try the Garrincha autobiography too for more on Brazillian football

Originally Posted by Dodge

Nice book alright. You should try the Garrincha autobiography too for more on Brazillian football

Thanks for the tip.

Originally Posted by ken foree

yipe! i've always meant to tackle it or "gravity's rainbow" after reading "crying of lot 49" - someday!

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.

Originally Posted by Magicme

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.

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...

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.