Last Book You Read....

[Richey Edwards]

Finished The Count Of Monte Cristo last night. Wow, what a story. Definitely a book worth reading if you don't mind it being about 1200 pages long.

[topcat(The most tip top)]

Would you like to know more about Germany?

Enough to read more than about 220 Pages to more about Germany?

If your answers were "Yes" and "f**k that" in that order then I can recommend  "The Shortest History of  Germany" by James Hawes

[topcat(The most tip top)]

While the Shortest History of German packs centuries into a short book

Misha Glenny's "The Fall or Yugoslavia" covers a few tragic years in more pages

The complexity of the Balkans is fractal. The closer you look the more complexity you see

Edited July 24, 2018 by topcat(The most tip top)

[Stellaboz]

Dead Man's Trousers. Great read, love the story and following the 4 guys around the world.

[Clough85]

Birthdays for the dead by Stuart McBride.

First Ash Henderson outing, good read looking forward to the next part.  

McBride has a sick imagination at times. 

[WullieBroonIsGod]

Palace of Treason by Jason Matthews.

 

It's the sequel to Red Sparrow (there's a third book due at the end of the month).  If espionage is your thing then these are decent reads.  A lot of Acronyms thrown around the place, but certainly a decent read

 

 

[Ya Bezzer!]

On 7/13/2018 at 19:42, Scary Bear said:

Crime and Punishment is also an excellent book and you really care for Raskolnikov.

Some of these classics do affect your mental state when you get into them. Well, they did with me. I have to stop reading 1984 half way through as I thought it was bringing down my mood.

 

Marmeladov REALLY depresses me. 

Besides Doestoevsky, the one that really affected me most was Hans Fallada's 'Alone in Berlin' (or 'Every Man Dies Alone' if you prefer).  Harrowing.  And you know it's all going to go badly pretty much from the start.

Edited July 24, 2018 by Ya Bezzer!

[Detournement]

'Alone In Berlin' was one of the books that I didn't get the hype around. The plot is riveting but the characters are wooden, everyone is comically virtuous or comically corrupt.

Stoner is another book that was hyped up but basically amounted to misery porn.

[beefybake]

"Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine" by Gail Honeyman

One of the most enjoyable books I've read in a long time.  

A story of loneliness, and the life-changing power of kindness.  

A real feel good read. 

It's set in Glasgow.

[Richey Edwards]

On 06/07/2018 at 13:41, Slenderman said:

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.

Excellent.

I read it years ago and thought it was awful, but each to their own.

[Shandon Par]

Cat Chaser by Elmore Leonard

Pretty standard fare from Leonard (a good thing) from about 1982. Sleazy Florida hotels, dodgy gangsters, sassy gals. 

[King Kebab]

Finished the Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Shamefully I had not read it before. Thoroughly enjoyed it though and plan on reading the rest of the series.

Excellent read, and a true classic, the sequel "Twenty Years Later" though lesser known, is excellent, but give yourself time to read the third one, it's good but seems to go on forever, it usually comes in four volumes and each one is as large as the previous two books and make sure you read them in the right order!!!

There are other books in the d'Artagnan series and even though they appear under Dumas' name he didn't write them, he only wrote the first three, the others came out after he was dead!!!

[Richey Edwards]

4 hours ago, King Kebab said:

Excellent read, and a true classic, the sequel "Twenty Years Later" though lesser known, is excellent, but give yourself time to read the third one, it's good but seems to go on forever, it usually comes in four volumes and each one is as large as the previous two books and make sure you read them in the right order!!!

There are other books in the d'Artagnan series and even though they appear under Dumas' name he didn't write them, he only wrote the first three, the others came out after he was dead!!!

The other Musketeers books are on my "to read" list, along with War & Peace and Alone In Berlin.

Currently reading Crime & Punishment.

[paul-r-cfc]

'Crown of Thistles: The Fatal Inheritance of Mary Queen of Scots' by Linda Porter.

Took me a while to get through this as is usually the case with history books and I but got there eventually. Very good read, spending most of the book looking at the series of events that led to Mary eventually becoming Queen, starting with the rise of the Tudors and the overthrown of James III.

Also looks in more detail at aspects of Mary's life that are often skipped over quite quickly, namely her time in France and her actual time as personal ruler in Scotland. Most narrations of her tend to focus mostly on her death, which only really appears as a footnote herenad it's a story that has been told many times.

Overall, a good, sympathetic, reevaluation of Mary and her predecessors who have not always been viewed fairly in contrast to their English counterparts at the time. If you're into this kind of thing, then it would be a good book to read in anticipation of the upcoming film about Mary's life. Always good to know the true story before Hollywood murders it!

[tongue_tied_danny]

The Hacienda: How not to run a club - Peter Hook.

Hooky delivers a series of breathless anecdotes about the rise and fall of the iconic "Madchester" nightclub. Although he comes across as a bit of a plonker, he doesn't take himself too seriously and he can spin an a amusing yarn.

A decent read for anyone interested in the indie or dance music scenes...

 

Edited July 31, 2018 by tongue_tied_danny

[bishopburn boy]

The idiot gods 

 

 

[Kennboy1978]

The Hacienda: How not to run a club - Peter Hook.

Hooky delivers a series of breathless anecdotes about the rise and fall of the iconic "Madchester" nightclub. Although he comes across as a bit of a plonker, he doesn't take himself too seriously and he can spin an a amusing yarn.
A decent read for anyone interested in the indie or dance music scenes...
 

Cheers for reminding me of this, downloaded a few others last week like Last Night a DJ...., Generation Ecstasy and Rave On.

[GordonD]

On 31/07/2018 at 23:05, tongue_tied_danny said:

The Hacienda: How not to run a club - Peter Hook.

Hooky delivers a series of breathless anecdotes about the rise and fall of the iconic "Madchester" nightclub. Although he comes across as a bit of a plonker, he doesn't take himself too seriously and he can spin an a amusing yarn.

A decent read for anyone interested in the indie or dance music scenes...

 

Is that the guy who used to be married to Caroline Aherne?

[Ross.]

Struggled through The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment a few years back. Found it a slog and more work than it was worth.

American Psycho is the only Brett Easton Ellis novel I would say is worth reading. The way he writes is tailor made for the Patrick Bateman character. In his other books everything just feels a bit oddly detached and devoid of emotion. With Bateman it works spectacularly.

Read Danny Wallace's "F*ck You Very Much" last week. Was mildly amusing and interesting enough, but not exactly time consuming. Have a copy of "Brave New World" which I started on this morning. Ticking off another author that I keep meaning to read but haven't quite got round to.

ETA: That Peter Hook book was a decent enough read with plenty of funny stories. Well worth it if you like the music. Quite liked the gig listings that were posted throughout it. Some of the monthly line ups were tremendous.

Edited August 2, 2018 by Ross.

[The Moonster]

Finished Jon Ronson's "The Psychopath Test".  A good read, I enjoy Ronson's anxious style, even if he does come across as a bit gullible at times. We really don't have a fucking clue about mental health or how to treat it and it scares me quite a bit.