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Last Book You Read....


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The Steel Bonnets - A History of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers by George MacDonald Fraser.

Synopsis - A history of the reivers and reiving families across the English/Scottish border from Carlisle, the Debatable Land to Berwick between 1200 to 1603. A fascinating account of English and Scottish families fighting together and against each other, regardless of national enmities at the time. A read through will explain why us Berwickers, and others in the region, regard ourseleves as neither 'Scottish' nor 'English' but as having a separate Borderer's entity! ;)

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I can't remember the name of it, but the last book I read was by the two journalists who covered the revelations of David Shayler about the Security Services. Very interesting and kind of worrying when they went into detail about the pishiness of our security forces.

I quite fancy getting a book about the history of Israel to read. I also quite fancy getting one of Nick Cohen's books and 'The Strnage Death of Tory England' by Geoffrey Wheatcroft.

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Name & Author :- Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Subject :- WW1 based fiction

Blurb :- Follows life of Stephen Wraysford before and during the WW1. As the story gets going introduces his grand-daughter trying to find out information about him. So part of the story is her in 1978 trying to piece together what sort of man he was from his notebooks.

Score :- 8.5 out of 10. Took a little while to get into it - I nearly put it down as I thought that Faulks spent took long setting the scene in pre-war France. Once he get's into the war though it is incredible - really draws you in. In hindsight the pre-war stuff has it's place especially as the lead character returns to places he's been during the course of the war. Most enjoyable.

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  • 10 months later...

i read a book a couple of months ago called something like "the curious incident of the dog" (will google it in a second)

it is about an autistic boy and is written as if being dictated by someone with autism. i found it particularly interesting because i was in the same school class as a guy with severe autism for 4-5 years, its well worth a read and due to the fact that it is written from a cholds point of view it is short and easy to read!

8/10

Edited to say-

Tilte- "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time"

Author- Mark Haddon

Review or something!

I read this book this week, I thought it was brilliant!

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Of Mice And Men, by John Steinbeck

6/10

6/10 for one of the greatest books of all time?

I went to see a theatre production of that at Eden Court in Inverness, the big chap who used to be in Casualty was in it. It was excellent.

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I read this book this week, I thought it was brilliant!

I found it good for about 2/3rd of the way through, then the author loses the actual motivation for the character, imo anyway. It was a while back when I read it.

Of books I have just finished:

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson. A few of you might remember I posted a thread about, as I bought the DVD and the book at about the same time, whether I should be lazy and watch the film first (although I had seen it before). If you do remember that thread, the upshot is I finished the book a couple of weeks back, and still haven't watched the DVD.. :)

I don't think I could do a synopsis of the story as, as with Gonzo journalism, the story is not the story but the author is, if you know what I mean. For those who nothing about the book, it's not a bad read. Funny in places, but it does involve a lot of drug usage and covers some American politics of the late 60's early 70's (it's set in 1971) so if you know nothing about either, I feel the humour may be lost on you a little.

Out of 10? Hmm... 7/10 .. not bad, and certainly engaging enough.

I have also sort of finished, The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. I say nearly finished as it is, as the name suggests, 3 stories rather than 1. However I got a little tired of his style after the first two stories. I believe that the third story is meant to be the one that ties them all together, so I will probably get round to it.

While waiting to be inspired to finish off the Paul Auster last part I started reading Naked Lunch by William Burroughs, and by God, it's a doozy of a book to follow. Very difficuly dialog, for me at least, to pick up on, however it will probably even out as I get more into the book. If anyone is wondering it's about drugs and sex and going mad.

Oh, and I am about to go on holiday, so I thought I would pick up some trashy novel for the plane over. I am sure a certain P&B poster will be pleased to hear it is Boiling a frog. It's actually the first work of his I've picked up.

btw, regarding books, I tend to get a lot of mine from Fopp. You can sometimes find some right gems for only a couple of quid. I am a late starter with reading books (up until I was 30 I think I had read about 3 "proper" books in my life) so their selection is perfect for me. A limited amount of titles all dead cheap and they rotate the titles every month or two.

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Very good and very amusing. He can't half get stereotyped characters spot on.... ;)

I am sure a certain P&B poster ...

:rolleyes:

Not that I am going to out the media wh0re, but I am sure he'll be happy to know you were pleased..

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Oh i know he comes on here occasionally. i'm not trying to suck up or anything, i actually have all his books(except the new one, d'oh)

Anyway, who'd want to curry favour with a St. Mirren fan? Eeeeeuuuwww! :barf

;)

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My cousin is an author, amongst many different roles she has, and if I was to mention her name everyone of a certain age would know her, but I find it easy to be subjective about her work compared to the person she is.

The reason I mention this is that Boiling A Frog is the first CB book I have bought (heh, and even then it was only because it was on cheap at Fopp) but I would have no problem in saying to him I didn't like it.

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London Bridges by James Patterson.

If you ever want to know exactly how not to write a book, this should be the standard text.

So many reasons why it was dreadful, I can't even be bothered starting on them. Drivel. Quite how he is apparently the world's best selling author I will never know.

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My cousin is an author, amongst many different roles she has, and if I was to mention her name everyone of a certain age would know her, but I find it easy to be subjective about her work compared to the person she is.

The reason I mention this is that Boiling A Frog is the first CB book I have bought (heh, and even then it was only because it was on cheap at Fopp) but I would have no problem in saying to him I didn't like it.

Sure, but i'm betting you'll like it. If you like black humour and sarcasm its the dogs knackers.

If he writes a poor one i'll be telling everyone it was gash. I didn't buy his books just because he comes on here...... :ph34r:

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