Recommendations Please...

[deeb]

I have fifty quids worth of Waterstones tokens in my grubby little hands and I want to spend it at lunch time. Any recommendations?

[deeb]

Right, I'm off. I think it'll be Geisha and Disgrace anyway. I may only use about £20, delayed gratification etc etc..

Thanks guys!!

[Jonny]

I want to go to Borders and lose myself for an hour too! http://www.p45.net/rant/frown.gif
But I've already spent about hundred quid in the last two weeks on books alone. It's an addiction though. Have to exercise some restraint. Keep telling myself that...

[Elimare]

know exactly what ye mean Jonny. a good cure for this addiction is poverty...

Let us know how you get on with 'memoirs' I thought it was a really beautifully written book...

[Jonny]

Eli, I've done a long stint of poverty, and now I'm over-compensating!
I'm really enjoying Memoirs (Thankyou!), and it is wonderfully written. One thing that perhaps you can clear up. Is this fiction or non-fiction. Is it a real memoir? I thought at first it was, but then there's a translator's note at the beginning. Is that a preface written by the author as if it were all a factual account, or to give it that guise? http://www.p45.net/rant/confused.gif

[Elimare]

ahhh... that's the best bit... took me a while to figure out as welll... do you really wanna know?? http://www.p45.net/rant/smile.gif

[Jonny]

Well, I don't know.
I'm guessing... no. Don't say anything. Let me read on and we'll discuss it again when I've finished. http://www.p45.net/rant/biggrin.gif

[Elimare]

http://www.p45.net/rant/biggrin.gif http://www.p45.net/rant/biggrin.gif

[Nemesis]

Originally posted by Elimare:
know exactly what ye mean Jonny. a good cure for this addiction is poverty...

or the library

[deeb]

Well, I'm back with Memoirs and Disgrace in my hands. I was very restrained and only bought one other Our Fathers by Andrew O'Hagan about a guy returning to Scotland and discovering the past of his fathers. Booker shortlisted last year and I read some good review of it, so I'll let you know.
Doncha just love the smell of a new book http://www.p45.net/rant/biggrin.gif

[grassshoppah]

Disgrace by Coetzee

[BABY_D]

Whats a Waterstones token????

[krayZpaving]

Hannibal (follow up to Silence of The Lambs)

[Jonny]

Oh Deeb, too many!
The usual suspects that I bang on about.
Wild Swans by Jung Chang
Anything at all by Jeff Noon
Yeah, just finished Disgrace, excellent. Started Memoirs of a Geisha on, I think, Eli's recommendation. Also very good. Just finished Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra too. Very disturbing and moving. Any short story selection by Tobias Wolff. All of Louis de Bernieres too. That's yer 50 quid spent, no problems. http://www.p45.net/rant/biggrin.gif

[julia]

Waterstone's is a book store.

What kind of stuff do you like to read?

[deeb]

Ooh, good one Grasss. Ist on the list
I always find when I walk into a bookstore/record shop, I immediately forget all the books and cds I wanted to buy.

BabyD - waterstones is a bookshop

[deeb]

Julia, anything really except overt sci-fi or those John Grisham type ones.

Jonny: read Wild Swans - excellent. Dipped into a Jeff Noon book called Alice (?) and hated it. Memoirs of a Geisha shall go on the list and maybe de Bernieres, (loved Captain Corelli)

[Sparky]

Originally posted by krayZpaving:
Hannibal (follow up to Silence of The Lambs)

Possibly the greatest load of shite I've ever read. How they plan on making a film about it is beyond me altogether.

[TheFunkeyGibbon]

Anything at all by:

Fredrick Forsyth (ICON is very good)
Stephen King (Start with Christine)
Ben Elton (Well the first three books anyway!)
Terry Pratchett (Start with The Colour of Magic)

Also:
Robert Harris - Fatherland or Enigma

That enough for ya? http://www.p45.net/rant/smile.gif

[Jonny]

Yeah Deeb, Automated Alice is the only Noon I've not read. Jeff Noon, after discussions here, seems like marmite in the love/hate sense. Fortunately I love marmite.
Anyone else here read Golden's Memoirs of Geisha?

[Thing]

Originally posted by Jonny:
Yeah Deeb, Automated Alice is the only Noon I've not read. Jeff Noon, after discussions here, seems like marmite in the love/hate sense. Fortunately I love marmite.
Anyone else here read Golden's Memoirs of Geisha?

Yes Jonny...enjoyed it...

[grassshoppah]

Bizarre Jonny.... Memoirs of a Geisha and Captain Corelli's Mandolin are in my next few to read...

[krayZpaving]

Sophie's World by Josteein Gaarder (i think that the spelling of his name is right)

[Jonny]

Grassshoppah!
I'm stunned that a lady who seems to have almost every title of decent contemporary fiction hasn't yet read Captain Corelli. Oh BOY are you in for a treat. From what you've said on the literary threads, I think you'll love living with that book.

[deeb]

Grasss, read Captain Corelli pronto. It really is an amazing book. And the film hype will be starting soon (it already has a bit), so read it before you have any preconceptions. Cannot praise it high enough

[Jonny]

Originally posted by krayZpaving:
Sophie's World by Josteein Gaarder (i think that the spelling of his name is right)
Yes Kray! And The Solitaire Mystery too. Beautifully weird.

[deeb]

Yup, Sophie's Choice is a good read.
RE Captain Corelli, I don't think it hit Ireland in the same way it did the UK for some bizarre reason.

I got it as a present from a friend in London about 2 1/2 yrs ago who said it was in everyone's hands on the tube, but it didn't seem to impact at home.

[grassshoppah]

Good to hear Deeb and Jonny....currently reading a very cool book of short stories...actually will do a thread on that later....but nice thing about s.s.'s is you can pick them up and put them down anytime....

...so Captain Corelli's it is...based on your glowing reports I will start it this weekend...and especially before I read anything about the film...hate that.....

[Jonny]

Unless the film is a Citizen Kane (which I never saw, but you get the idea) for the 21st Century, I think you can be assured that they'll fuck it up. It'll take SO much work to do the story any sort of justice. Get reading Grass, quick!!

[deeb]

Originally posted by grassshoppah:
..and especially before I read anything about the film...hate that.....

It's the worst! I loved the English Patient (film) and read the book afterwards and it was so frustrating because the characters have already been defined for you, no matter how much I tried to forget the film and they change the "facts". I'm sure I'd have liked the book if I'd read it BEFORE the film.

[Jonny]

Yeah, I read A Simple Plan a few weeks ago, and then a friend told me that a film of it had been made. Not only was the second main protagonist a completely different character, but the second half of the book had been largely left out, and the ending where all the threads came together, was totally changed. Didn't bear any resemblance to the book after the first twenty minutes. Fucked me right off that did.

[Elimare]

Originally posted by deeb:

Dipped into a Jeff Noon book called Alice (?) and hated it


Deeb, I think you have to read a couple of Noon's books to get a feel for his 'universe'... Automated Alice was probably the *wrong* one to start with. Try Nymphomation or Vurt and you'll begin to see the pattern...

[deeb]

Mind you, I went to see The Beach a while ago. I liked the book and I knew the film was meant to be shite, but I didn't realise just how much of a mess of it they could make. It bore no resemblence to the essence of the book, never mind the narrative. All that and they f*cked up the paradise.

[Nemesis]

Avoid Hannibal - finished it last night, hated the ending and am not surprised they plan to change it for the film....

Wild Swans is an excellent read - I'd recommend it (keep meaning to reread it).

[Elimare]

Originally posted by Jonny:
Originally posted by krayZpaving:
[b]Sophie's World by Josteein Gaarder (i think that the spelling of his name is right)
Yes Kray! And The Solitaire Mystery too. Beautifully weird.

Unusual story-telling style alright... http://www.p45.net/rant/smile.gif



[This message has been edited by Elimare (edited 15 June 2000).]

[deeb]

I don't think Hannibal is really my cup of tea. I mean, I haven't even seen Silence of the Lambs. Who wrote it again?

[Jonny]

Originally posted by deeb:
I don't think Hannibal is really my cup of tea. I mean, I haven't even seen Silence of the Lambs. Who wrote it again?
Thomas Harris

[Sparky]

Thomas Harris wrote all the Lecter books. The only one worth reading is "Red Dragon". That's a very good book.

[julia]

Memoirs of a Geisha is a wonderful book! I loved it.
Has anyone read The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood? Excellent book. Kind of a chick book, but a great read.

I love the smell of new books, old books, library books...any book is a good book!

[Palomino]

Originally posted by grassshoppah:
Memoirs of a Geisha and Captain Corelli's Mandolin are in my next few to read...

Interesting coincidence. I bought Captain Corelli's Mandolin last weekend, as part of a £120 splurge in Hodges Figgis...

[Gala]

Anything by E Annie Proulx. Start with The Shipping News, it's her lightest. Postcards was pretty grim but great, and At Close Range is a collection of grim short stories. Lovely cowboy stories, but grim all the same. Great stuff.

[Sparky]

I've just started a book called "Brazzaville Beach" by William Boyd. Has anyone else read this?

[Jonny]

Haven't read it Sparks, but is he the same Boyd who wrote "Are you Experienced?" ?

[Sparky]

I don't know Jonny. He wrote a book called A good man in Africa which you've probably heard of. He was shortlisted for the Booker prize for An ice cream war also.

[This message has been edited by Sparky (edited 23 June 2000).]

[Nemesis]

Originally posted by Sparky:
I've just started a book called "Brazzaville Beach" by William Boyd. Has anyone else read this?

I read this a while back - took me a while to get into it but I enjoyed it. Another of his is Armadillo which was good also.

[Sparky]

Originally posted by Nemesis:
I read this a while back - took me a while to get into it


I've heard it's good alright, but it's certainly a slow starter. As long as it gets better...

[deeb]

Well, I'd just like to echo what's been said about Memoirs of a Geisha...it's absoulutely fascinating, couldn't put it down until I'd finished. And it's definitely one of those "don't stop now, I want to know EVERYTHING books"
Am presently half way through Our Fathers by Andrew o Hagan and it's very good so far - very sad and beautifully written

[TheFunkeyGibbon]

I know they are old and most of you had to read them at school but some absolute classics are:

The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
1984 by George Orwell
Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Great stuff. http://www.p45.net/rant/biggrin.gif

[Elimare]

hiya FG, I always liked 'The Chrysalids' by wyndham.

[Jolie]

If you like books ala Patricia Cornwell the new Kathy Reichs books are good "Deja Dead" and "Death du jour".