Books [split topic]

[Queneau]

Y'know that Patrick Hamilton? Are any of the pubs in his books a) real and b) still trading? Google seems to say not but I'm sure I read someone (not in a Patrick Hamilton book) talking about visiting one.

Backstage might know this, if anyone here does.

[BritishHobo]

Picked up JK Rowling's Robert Galbraith's new book. I love 'em, but am finding it sorta interesting that I've seen no real mention of it anywhere. Anyway, she seems to have eschewed the private detectives actually taking on someone's case; the story is essentially just 'who has sent Cormoran Strike a leg in the post'.

[Famous Mortimer]

Up to "Matter" in my grand read-through of Iain M Banks. It's great man!

[mothman]

I'm intrigued.

[daf]

eschewed

Bless you.

[Blinder Data]

Turns out it was a bad idea to start two books at the same time, especially when neither of them were the easiest of reads. Only just got round to finishing both.

Harvest by Jim Crace was extremely evocative, impeccably researched and astonishingly well written in a Ye Olde Time way that was convincing, relatable and engaging. However, I'm not sure I'd read a Jim Crace book again. It just feels like hard work. Soz, Jim.

Phillipp Meyer's The Son has some absolutely cracking set-pieces and sections in it, and if the whole books was just the time spent with the Native Americans I'd be happy. However, it's got three narrators from the same family but generations apart telling their story from different periods of history. The device helps to contextualise actions and it's neat to see certain characters in different ages, but when it comes down to it, reading about a lady's forays into Texas's burgeoning oil industry is not nearly as interesting as the story of the guy growing up with the Comanches. Overlong too - could easily have cut 50-100 pages. The first few chapters are utterly captivating, however.

Gonna have a crack at Alberto Angelo by BS Johnson, which I only know about due to the witterings of people on here (Queneau?). I better like it! Last thing I read from this thread was Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash which was a very thought-provoking read.

[Garam]

I can confirm that Alberto Angelo is superb.

[buttgammon]

Term's up on Thursday and I haven't got any assignments for over a month, so I get to do some of my own reading for a change. To my eternal shame, I've never actually read Jane Eyre so that's high on my list (I traipsed across half of Dublin in the rain to get a cheap copy) and I've also got Paul Auster's Winter Journal in my to-read pile, among other things that I can't even remember.

[Blinder Data]

Term's up on Thursday and I haven't got any assignments for over a month, so I get to do some of my own reading for a change. To my eternal shame, I've never actually read Jane Eyre so that's high on my list (I traipsed across half of Dublin in the rain to get a cheap copy) and I've also got Paul Auster's Winter Journal in my to-read pile, among other things that I can't even remember.

Mate. Join the library. It will make you read books that otherwise you'd never have the inkling (or notes) to buy, and it will also make you read quicker due to the impending deadlines.

And it'll make you feel better about paying your council tax. And the more people that use the library, the less likely they are to close them down.

Join the library.

[Serge]

I have recently read:

Bruce Robinson's 'They All Love Jack', which I mentioned in the other thread. Completely turned everything I had thought about the Ripper case on its head, and has probably come as close as anybody is likely to with a convincing suspect.

Brian Blessed's 'Absolute Pandemonium'. Pretty good fun, almost exactly what you'd expect. The occasional line is a killer - on hearing what his salary would be for 'Z Cars', he says,"That should keep me in Sugar Puffs for a while."

Simon Armitage's 'Walking Home'. Excellent stuff. As most of his books are poetry, they've got less chance of getting in my house than a Katie Hopkins autobiography, but his account of his attempt at the Pennine Way is marvellous. Has also put me off ever trying it myself. Am currently reading his latest, 'Walking Away', where he walks half of the South West Coast path (a fact he doesn't mention - anyone who didn't know better would think the half he walks is the whole thing.) So far, it still hasn't put me off wanting a crack at it.

Currently working at a bookshop that gives me 50% discount, so my pile of unread books is increasing by the day.

[pigamus]

I was very confused by Serge's post until I remembered that Simon Armitage and Simon Amstell are not the same person.

[buttgammon]

Mate. Join the library. It will make you read books that otherwise you'd never have the inkling (or notes) to buy, and it will also make you read quicker due to the impending deadlines.

And it'll make you feel better about paying your council tax. And the more people that use the library, the less likely they are to close them down.

Join the library.

Not only are you right, my non-librariness is more than a bit silly on a few lines.

1. I don't pay council tax and as far as I know, there is not council tax over here so it would very literally be free.

2. The public library is very well-stocked and is literally five minutes walk away.

3. I was in my university library this morning and logically, I must have walked past the shelf that would have had the Bronte books on it.

But I did get it for €1.99 in the secondhand section of a brilliant independent bookshop so I'm still happy

[hedgehog90]

I'm looking for a book to get my mum for christmas.
Last year I got her 22.11.63 by Stephen King, which she really enjoyed. Other than that she's mostly into crime thrillers and shit like that.

I know that's not much to go on, but could someone recommend me some decent books for my dear old mummy?

[Garam]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Be-Great-Mum-Teach-Yourself-ebook/dp/B004KSRZOM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1450287053&sr=8-2&keywords=how+to+be+a+good+mum

[touchingcloth]

Picked up JK Rowling's Robert Galbraith's new book. I love 'em, but am finding it sorta interesting that I've seen no real mention of it anywhere. Anyway, she seems to have eschewed the private detectives actually taking on someone's case; the story is essentially just 'who has sent Cormoran Strike a leg in the post'.

How did you find the book? I enjoyed it a lot more than the second one, and possibly more than the first - it became a proper page turner about a hundred pages in and she had finally introduced the suite of suspects[nb]My biggest problem with the novel actually was that the four suspects all merged into one in my mind - a burly, ex-army identicunt.[/nb].

I didn't manage to guess the correct suspect. I thought it was

Spoiler alert

Brockbank

[close]

from about halfway through the book, mainly due to how

Spoiler alert

he and the people connected with him all referred to Cormoran as "Cameron", which seemed to link him to the misspelling on the leggy parcel

[close]

. Not sure many people would have guessed the true perp - the only clues she gave seemed to be the

Spoiler alert

seasonal flowers

[close]

and the

Spoiler alert

acne medicine

[close]

, but fucked if I could have pieced that together. Actually, was there a regional accent in there as a clue, too? My memory fails me.

The whole subplot with the transablists was redundant - didn't serve as a clue to the murders or even to throw readers off the scent. Was the whole thing - culminating with the lunch scene - left in to let her have a rant at the subculture she found during her research? Very odd.

[Serge]

I'm looking for a book to get my mum for christmas.
Last year I got her 22.11.63 by Stephen King, which she really enjoyed. Other than that she's mostly into crime thrillers and shit like that.

I know that's not much to go on, but could someone recommend me some decent books for my dear old mummy?

Does she like Jo Nesbo? Buy her some Jo Nesbo.

[BritishHobo]

Do it.

Do it immediately.

[hedgehog90]

Does she like Jo Nesbo? Buy her some Jo Nesbo.

She does.
I ended up getting her 'Silent Scream: An edge of your seat serial killer thriller'

[Famous Mortimer]

I know nothing about this book, but I sure hope it's under my tree come Christmas morning.

[Serge]

The only thing I know about it is that it's based on his blog - apparently teenagers are buying lots of books based on blogs at the minute. I've never sold a single copy of it, thankfully.

[BritishHobo]

Yeah fuckloads have sprung up recently. They seem to take up half the bestseller list in WHSmiths/Tesco. Most of them seem to be insultingly low-effort, too - check out This Book Is Not On Fire, if you ever get the bad fortune to stumble across it.

Joe Bish's article on Alfie Deyes' 'Pointless Book' is a pretty decent summary of that kind of shite.

It's just a shame, really. They've all had book deals thrown at them, and they've all wasted it by tossing out any old page-filling arse. At least Zoella actually tried to write a fucking novel.

[Serge]

Talking of 'will this do?'-type cash-ins, it has just struck me that the ghastly 'Cereal Killer Cafe Cookbook' isn't on sale in the shop I'm currently working in, so Derby can hold its head up high for once on that one.

[BritishHobo]

Ah, that's another good example. Just pages and pages of stuff barely fit for a children's comic annual. Lists and features where about ten words fill the entire page.

[Smeraldina Rima]

Got my hands on The essential Kafka and a few other books from suggestions in this thread. I like to just pick a random page of this thread and see what pops up.

The essential Kafka includes The Trial, The Castle Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, The Judgement, Letter to my Father, A Hybrid, A Message from the Emperor, On Metaphors, A Commentary, A Little Fable.

Only arrived today so I didn't get a chance to get stuck in but I got it for 1p on amazon so I can't really complain if they're shit.

How did you get on with this?

[Famous Mortimer]

My read through of all Iain M Banks' novels has got me as far as "Matter".

They've all been great, and this one is an absolute cracker, but I do wish there'd be a bit less of the silly alien names. Any name with an apostrophe in it is irritating, and there's thousands of the damn things. Which I admit is small potatoes.

[Famous Mortimer]

Cracking ending to that one, too. My shelf of Banks is now down to two - one Culture ("Surface Detail") and one not ("The Algebraist"). Then just one more ("Hydrogen Sonata") which I'll have to get from the library, and that's it. No more Banks.

People have recommended Steven Erikson, and I'm going to be reading a ton of non-fiction after all this, but if there's anyone who's got any good meaty book series they'd recommend, let's hear it.

[mr. logic]

Anne Tyler.

[BritishHobo]

How did you find the book? I enjoyed it a lot more than the second one, and possibly more than the first - it became a proper page turner about a hundred pages in and she had finally introduced the suite of suspects[nb]My biggest problem with the novel actually was that the four suspects all merged into one in my mind - a burly, ex-army identicunt.[/nb].

I didn't manage to guess the correct suspect. I thought it was

Spoiler alert

Brockbank

[close]

from about halfway through the book, mainly due to how

Spoiler alert

he and the people connected with him all referred to Cormoran as "Cameron", which seemed to link him to the misspelling on the leggy parcel

[close]

. Not sure many people would have guessed the true perp - the only clues she gave seemed to be the

Spoiler alert

seasonal flowers

[close]

and the

Spoiler alert

acne medicine

[close]

, but fucked if I could have pieced that together. Actually, was there a regional accent in there as a clue, too? My memory fails me.

The whole subplot with the transablists was redundant - didn't serve as a clue to the murders or even to throw readers off the scent. Was the whole thing - culminating with the lunch scene - left in to let her have a rant at the subculture she found during her research? Very odd.

Aye, I really enjoyed it once it got into full-swing. I definitely had the same problem as you, sometimes having to pause to seperate the different backstories in my mind. But aside from that, I thought it was an interesting structure, three intertwining stories. I'm shite at figuring these things out, so I had no idea.

I suppose the transablist subplot works as a bit of detail padding the topic out. I was more surprised that the stuff with

Spoiler alert

Strike's ex-stepdad and his abused girlfriend

[close]

tailed off to no conclusion, although I imagine that's because it'll come back in a later book.

[Blinder Data]

Albert Angelo by BS Johnson was a good read: very evocative of grimy 60's Londonand place, very interesting structurally, innovative without feeling too gimmicky, funny and moving. Will check out his others in good time.

Hiding the Elephant by Jim Steinmeyer I read because of Steven and Entropy B talking about it in the Derren Brown thread. It makes a decent fist of the story of magic in the 19th and early 20th century, but I wasn't too keen on the structure; the chapters were short and some didn't seem to have much point to them, and parts of it weren't too well written - Steinmeyer is clearly an expert on magic but not really an author/historian. The best parts were the openings to each chapter from his point of view; they were illuminating and smart. Still, it taught me a lot about magic and some of the solutions he presents are pretty astounding, especially how magicians would be blindfolded onstage and be able to describe audience members' items with the help of an assistant - so simple and yet ingenious and difficult to pull off.

Now onto Crime and Punishment which I've never read before but guess I bloody well ought to at some point. Thought about doing War and Peace but then I saw how thick it was. Fuck that shit.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Anyone looking for a good old fashioned, hard as nails crime thriller could do worse than The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow. 

It attempts to do an Ellroy on the War of Drugs and if the prose doesn't quite have the same punch or literary aspiration as Big Dog's does, it's still a robust, rattling read.