[Misc] What Book are you Currently Reading?

[XYZ123]

Re-reading The Wasteland - TS Eliot. Won't take long - less than 500 lines long, but dense with meaning. But what exactly DOES it all mean??

Baffling stuff, mate. It's one of those that i re-read and interpret it entirely differently from the previous readings.

 

[Tarpon]

Only 100 pages in but this looks special if you can get past the privileged backgrounds of the main participants. All rather humbling.

 

[tinycowboy]

The Mayor Of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy

I love a bit of Hardy - a bit of rural misery goes a long way, never ends well. Jude the Obscure is a bit devastating. Can't help feeling a little bit sorry for Henchard.

Baffling stuff, mate. It's one of those that i re-read and interpret it entirely differently from the previous readings.

I've changed my interpretation since I re-read The Four Quartets. However, I think it's one of those things where you have to take in the language, feeling and imagery, go with it and worry about meaning later.

Right, I can start a new book now, and I'm going to go for Possession by AS Byatt, but with Build A Bonfire as a side order to dip into when I have a spare moment or two.

 

[jemwillett]

T he lighthouse by Allison Moore. Quite depressing but compelling.

 

[Surf's Up]

Police by Jo Nesbo

 

[Stat Brother]

I'm saving myself for the new Bond book, Solo by William Boyd (in the style of Ian Fleming).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24227999

This sneaked up on me, and I too will me checking it out.

I would have got it anyway being a massive fan of Any Human Heart also by Boyd, and well worth checking out if you like Solo.
Boyd did a great interview with Simon Mayo, now on his Weekly Mayo podcast, which he shares with Robert Harris talking about his new book.
A bit of a 'must listen' for the NSC bookists.

 

[red star portslade]

Elvis, Jesus and Coca Cola - Kinky Friedman

 

[One Love]

The 100 year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared.

Only a quarter through and has given plenty of laugh out louds

 

[Braders]

Been reading loads recently , just finished Paula Radcliffes autobiography - now just about to prepare for Uni coursebooks I guess!

 

[Gwylan]

I love a bit of Hardy - a bit of rural misery goes a long way, never ends well. Jude the Obscure is a bit devastating. Can't help feeling a little bit sorry for Henchard.

Hardy's not all misery: Under the Greenwood Tree is quite jolly; Return of the Native has a happy ending and Far from the Madding Crowd is not all gloom either. But Jude is devastating: saddest book I've ever read

I'm currently reading Red or Dead, David Peace's Shankly book. It's written in a very repetitive style and I do wonder whether I'll get bored with it before the end

 

[W.C.]

Hardy's not all misery: Under the Greenwood Tree is quite jolly; Return of the Native has a happy ending and Far from the Madding Crowd is not all gloom either. But Jude is devastating: saddest book I've ever read

I'm currently reading Red or Dead, David Peace's Shankly book. It's written in a very repetitive style and I do wonder whether I'll get bored with it before the end

The ending of Return of The Native was tacked on for the readership at the time to give it a kind of happy ending. It was supposed to be in 5 parts, like the greek tragedies. If you're going to read it, you can ignore the 6th bit.
It's a book close to my heart because as a dopey 17 year old, who'd been smoking dope, with an English teacher who liked the sound of his own voice, I was completely gripped by the scene where they play dice on the heath. I hadn't read the book at that point but when my teacher read aloud after I'd had a few cheeky lunchtime smokes, I went home and read the whole thing. Drugs work kids

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Just picked up Roy Keane's autobiography at the bhf charity shop in London road for £1.50. Should be IMMENSE!

 

[skipper734]

View attachment 47423

Only 100 pages in but this looks special if you can get past the privileged backgrounds of the main participants. All rather humbling.

Why do you have to get passed their privileged background? That is what enabled them to take part in all these adventures and instilled in them duty, service and sacrifice, for our benefit and theirs.
Even today most of the adventurers dead and alive are from a similar background.
Anyway thanks for posting about this book, the research is amazing. I am only a couple of hundred pages in so far, and just found out that Rupert Brook, he of.........If I should die, think only this of me.... Died of sepsis due to being stung by a wasp, and his piece of foreign field is in Skyros a small Greek island.
Great book! Good value for money too, with 623 pages plus 25 pages of index.

 

[Hyperion]

Reading City Baby by G.B.H Bassist Ross Lomas. Very good read so far.

 

[Spun Cuppa]

Just finished Filth by Irvine Welsh. LOL funny...

 

[Spun Cuppa]

And prior to that No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs - the John Lydon (auto)biography. Straight from the 'orse's maath, innit!? Solid read...

 

[Spun Cuppa]

Also read a few Clive Cussler's, the all-action shipwreck/treasure numbers that proliferate under C on charity shop book shelves. Fast moving pageturners with good endings...

 

[Surf's Up]

Just re-read "On the Beach" by Nevil Shute. Just as depressing as the first time I read it but still quite a powerful description of what the end of humanity might be like.

 

[Stat Brother]

I've got my nose out of cycling books, and have even raised my brow to high(ish):-

Majd interviews well so I'm looking forward to this, I think it'll be pretty interesting and well written.

 

[catfish]

Ghostman by Roger Hobbs.