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Reading

Holty10

Holty10

Colt
Anyone on here a big reader? Outside of horse racing.

I would like to read 52 books a year. Yet to do it, but I think I've done well in previous years with the size of books read.

Got through 28 books last year, total pages - 13739. Avg pages 490.

Only managed 14 so far this year, but I'm 2/3rds through another.

Im starting to expand my reading a bit too. Spent a lot of time reading fiction and fantasy. Now I'm looking to read 2 books at a time, 1 non fiction and 1 fiction (maybe classics). Currently reading The Shadow of the Wind and The Millionaire Fastlane.

Was hoping to share some recommendations. Got to suggest A song of ice and fire (Game of Thrones) if you have the time!
 
If you like A Song of Ice and Fire then, if you haven't already, have a look at Joe Abercrombie. I would recommend the First Law Trilogy to start with.
 
Thanks ArkRoyal ArkRoyal. I've already read them this year ;). Got to say they were slightly disappointing. The writing is great but I just wanted a bit more action. The whole second book was walking a desolate land.

Might give the follow up books a chance at some point.
 
Carol and myself spend a fair bit of time in second-hand bookshops, and we seem to have amassed quite an interesting library between us. Currently reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, and I also find myself re-reading some of the books I studied for English, as I appreciate them now I don't have to look for the weird references/examples that exams insist on asking for !
 
I'm fascinated by what drives a person to kill so I've a few books on famous or should that be infamous murderers, mass murderers also. I can recommend a good book or two to anyone who's into the dark side of human nature :mad:
 
Another favourite of mine is Chung Kuo by David Wingrove. Originally it was an 8 book series, first book released in 1989 and the last in 1999.
There were plan to reissue as a 20 book set starting in 2011. Unfortunately only 2 new prequels to the original 8 have been released but they are corkers.
 
Not really into reading - I amazed myself by reading Papillon and that was me done! Being the Phillistine that I am I always wait for the book to be turned into a film and then watch it on Freeview.
 
muddypaws said:
I'm fascinated by what drives a person to kill so I've a few books on famous or should that be infamous murderers, mass murderers also. I can recommend a good book or two to anyone who's into the dark side of human nature :mad:
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Feel free, I'll have a look at them. I'm open to reading anything at the minute.

ArkRoyal said:
Another favourite of mine is Chung Kuo by David Wingrove. Originally it was an 8 book series, first book released in 1989 and the last in 1999.
There were plan to reissue as a 20 book set starting in 2011. Unfortunately only 2 new prequels to the original 8 have been released but they are corkers.
Click to expand...

The first one sounds good, I'll add it to my to-read list.

If you're in to your sci-fi/ fantasy I'd give Red Rising by Pierce Brown a read. Described as Game of thrones meets Enders Game. There's 2 released from what will be a trilogy. I really enjoyed both. The first 15% or so of Red Rising is poor, but stick with it.

*tom* said:
Not really into reading - I amazed myself by reading Papillon and that was me done! Being the Phillistine that I am I always wait for the book to be turned into a film and then watch it on Freeview.
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Sounds like a great book.

I'm the opposite now, I find that the film just doesn't do the book justice in most cases.

Smithypops said:
Anything by Irvine Welsh!
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The only one that seems popular is Trainspotting, any others in particular? Think I've heard of Filth (Recent film?)
 
I would highly recommend:
Trainspotting
Marabou Stork Nightmares
Filth
Porno
Skagboys
The Acid House
Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance
Reheated Cabbage

The Acid House and Reheated Cabbage are collections of short stories and very easy to read. Trainspotting is part 2 of a trilogy, Skagboys is the prequel and Porno is the sequel.

Lots of humour but the books can be a bit dark and definitely not for the faint hearted.
 
Finding new books an open ended fascination / addiction

Where to start, similar to Holty in this aspect - 52 a year? not quite there.

Avid reader when you visit a second hand book store and retreat to your areas of interest Autobiog - Biog - Crime – Fiction – all sports - you feel as though you have read or even still have a copy of most what’s on offer, to list them is an impossibility so going to start with anything that I have multiple read and is an immediate thought otherwise like most I will be here all day – not including Bio & Sport

Wind in the willows

Cider with Rosy

Of Mice and men

Most John Le carre

Most Hillary Mantel – to me she is the New Patrick Cornwall of eng literature

Shogun series

Most Stephen King

The Devil and Margarita

The Firm – Chicago Mafia Brilliant book

Best 2nd bookshops I have been into – Gravesend - Carlisle – Alnwick – you can google them
 
I like good fiction which can educate as well as entertain and the benchmark for myself is how many times i will re read a book over the years.In this respect top on my list is one published in 1955 HMS Ulysses by Alister MacLean it's the story of the British sailors who took the convoys to Russia during WW2. Brave men indeed.
 
The only books I read last year were 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' - both for my English Higher.
Saying that, I really enjoyed Miss Jean Brodie and it was interesting to analyse some of the ideas in the book.
 
Since starting this thread I'm now up to 32 for the year.

Some of the more recognisable;
Magician - Raymond E Feist
The Alchemist - Paul Coelho
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
The Martian - Andy Weir
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S Thompson
Lucas Davenport series - John Sandford
A Study In Scarlet and The Sign of Four - Arthur Conan Doyle

Also enjoyed the Kite Runner and Red Rising (Great Sci-fi, 2nd of the trilogy just won goodreads choice) earlier this year.
 
mick mick,
mick said:
In this respect top on my list is one published in 1955 HMS Ulysses by Alister MacLean it's the story of the British sailors who took the convoys to Russia during WW2. Brave men indeed.
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that brings back memories ... first 'real' book I ever read when I was a kid, my old dad gave it to me on holiday in Cornwall one year. At the time couldn't understand what a 'kapok suit' was.
I went on to read all of the Alistair McClean books as a kid, none as good as HMS Ulysees though. Didn't realise at the time how samey they were.


Fiction:
Generally, would endorse Trainspotting, Porno from Welsh - not for everyone though.
Feast of the Goat - Mario Vargos Llosa - searing and riveting, woven around the story of Trujillo the absolute dictator of the Dominican Republic.
Headlong - Michael Frayn - funny, interesting and enjoyable but will also get you fascinated by Pieter Breughel (The Elder), and the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands .... really, it will! - highly recommended.

Non-fiction:
Stalingrad - Anthony Beever - story of Barbarossa, Battle of Stalingrad and how it turned the war.
A Voyage Long and Strange - Tony Horwitz - story of the 'discovery' of North America from the Vikings to the Spanish (who explored much of the continent for a century before the Brits turned up.)

I'm not really into Sci-fi, unless you count Stephen King, anyone got any recommendations for mysteries?

btw, recently bought 'The Third Policeman' by Flann O'Brien - couldn't finish it, avoid.

EDIT: Anthony Beever
 
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Wow,

Some brainiacs here, I have just got in to the Stuart mcbride books about Logan macrae, based in Aberdeen.

And of course there is Viz every month sorry but I love it!

Cheers
 
mick mick banjaxed banjaxed

Not sure how it compares to the book you mentioned, but I've just started Dead Wake.

#1 New York Times Bestseller

From the bestselling author and master of narrative nonfiction comes the enthralling story of the sinking of the Lusitania

On May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era’s great transatlantic “Greyhounds”—the fastest liner then in service—and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack.

Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger’s U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly small—hubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and more—all converged to produce one of the great disasters of history.

It is a story that many of us think we know but don’t, and Erik Larson tells it thrillingly, switching between hunter and hunted while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. Full of glamour and suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope to President Woodrow Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love.

Gripping and important, Dead Wake captures the sheer drama and emotional power of a disaster whose intimate details and true meaning have long been obscured by history.
 
Pingman - Great Avatar , happy days - I assume you will have read Redemption Song - also might to check out David Ashton and Ian Rankin for further Scot Cop books
 
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