Books - What are you reading?

Did you just describe trump

You could compare Trump and Vance in that they both came to public attention through having a media profile rather than political talent. In Trump's case it was reality TV, and in Vance's case it was an autobiography so airbrushed it might as well have been a docu soap.
But the persona they have projected in these mediums are at complete opposites. Trump is infallible, super human, a never ending success story, almost god like. Vance plays on his vulnerabilities and speaks openly about the flaws in his family history, something I presume many potential voters will identify with. Mind you, Vance tells us how he overcame this challenging start in life through smarts and hard work, proving to us that for people of the right calibre the American dream is not dead.

anyone interested in these books?

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the book the spine of which you can’t see is a book of funny pictures of dogs.

Having seen them mentioned here I read As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me and The Long Walk. Both ripping yarns but The Long Walk is very obviously fiction. It's a shame he claimed it was a true story as it would have been a decent enough novel. There's a lot of elements to it that start to make you doubt it. The arrival of Yetis puts the seal on it.

Far too high brow for me.

As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me

Did you like it? I thought it was a pretty good page turner.

I enjoyed it a lot.

The arrival of Yetis puts the seal on it.

😂😂😂

Just discovered Paul Auster and part way through The book of illusions and loving it -

Can anyone recommend any others please?

I'm about halfway through Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I was put off for ages by the cover below, which is what pops up on Goodreads but I'm really enjoying it. It's much better written, darker and generally interesting than I'd imagined. Would recommend if you're in to sci-fi at all.
If only there was some sort of commonly used saying about the relationship between a book and it's cover.

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I’m currently reading Butter Asako Yuzuki.

It’s keeping my attention but I can’t figure out where it’s going.

Would recommend Isabella Hammad's 'Enter Ghost'.
It's not delivering that much in terms of a plot, instead it's a fairly linear sequence of events as a British-Palestinian woman travels back to both Israel and the West Bank and gets entangled with various people and situations.
In addition to bringing out lots of interesting nuance in the Israel/Palestine conflict, seen with Arab eyes, she's also amazing at detail and descriptions of everyday scenes.

new york trilogy is the one I enjoyed the most. Moon palace has characters in common with the book of illusions.

Excellent, thanks 👍

I always wanted to like Auster, but only truly enjoyed In the Country of Last Things. That was pretty damned good tho.

Thanks very much 👍

This is great..

That's been on my shelf for a while. Would be interested to know your thoughts once you finish it!

Anyone want to swap books for postage?
Have a few mainly sci-fi/fantasy ones I’ve finished with.

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Finished reading Vurt. It's v good, but it took me a while to find the hook that made me want to carry on reading it. Enjoyed the fact that it's set in a version of Manchester, lots of familiar names. It was only really at the point where it went a bit meta that I decided that I was going to power on through to the ending. Definitely worth a read if you're into sci fi and / or drugs.

Holiday reading now, assuming that the orders all turn up in time:
Foundation Trilogy
Ice
Metro 2033

I’m 30% of the way through it. It’s a nice enjoyable read, nothing heavy so far. But it feels like something is building. I just can’t put my finger on it.

I'd swap. Tchaikovsky and Liu.

Most of these available for swaps.

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Excluding Orwell, Proulx, Auster and Pelecanos

Is Godkiller any good? It's been on my to read list for a little while but I can't remember why and don't know much about it.

It's not bad but it felt very much like the first book in a trilogy. It introduces the characters and then there's a bit of a journey and that's about it. If the second book had been in paperback I'd probably have gone straight to that after finishing this but now I've had a break I won't rush back to it.