Books - What are you reading?

Harry Patch's bio

A book with 'cybrarian' in the title. Really.

having nearly finished Bloods a Rover by James Ellroy i am that gripped by it i have ramraided the secondhand bookstore in Balham and now have American Tabloid, The Black Dahlia and The Cold Six Thousand. lined up.
never thought i would be into crime writing but i guess his books are great fiction that just happen to be about crime.

The Chrysalids by John Wyndham, after being blown away by The Day of the Triffids.

Just finished Wyndham's The Kraken Wakes for the third time. Read Cormac McCarthy's The Sunset Limited and Now I'm on John Wyndham's Plan for Chaos.

Day of the Triffids is utterly brilliant.

Now reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and The Code Book: The Secret History of Codes and Code-breaking both are amazing.

Finished Stewart Lee's 'How I escaped my certain fate'

If there is a finer example of a comedian writing about being a comedian I want to read it

having nearly finished Bloods a Rover by James Ellroy i am that gripped by it i have ramraided the secondhand bookstore in Balham and now have American Tabloid, The Black Dahlia and The Cold Six Thousand. lined up.
never thought i would be into crime writing but i guess his books are great fiction that just happen to be about crime.

Great books. Might dig them out for a re-read. It doesn't matter massively but if you can read Ellroy's books in the order they were written it helps - characters drift in and out and a referred back to.

Now reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and The Code Book: The Secret History of Codes and Code-breaking both are amazing.

Another great book - if you like that I highly recommend reading The Quincunx by Charles Palliser.

I recently finished:

The Thousand Autumns of Jacbob de Zoet by David Mitchell. Enjoyed it - quite different from his other books.

Solar by Ian McEwan. Wasn't sure about this. Great characterisation in Michael Beard but I felt the plot fizzled out a bit. Maybe that was the point.

In the middle of Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold. Excellent so far - reminiscent of Jonathan Strange / The Quincunx in so much as it's a modern take on a Wilkie Collins-esque sensation novel.

Has anyone read cloud atlas? really enjoyed that... any suggestions for something similar?

Just looked up The Thousand Autumns of Jacbob de Zoet , I love reading about japan think this may need ordering.

Has anyone read cloud atlas? really enjoyed that... any suggestions for something similar?

If you've not read David Mitchell's other novels then the one's preceding Cloud Atlas are pretty similar (Ghostwritten and number9dream). I enjoyed both.

Otherwise I think you would probably like The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas.

I read number9dream really enjoyed that, was reading Ghostwritten but got stuck half way through, just after the "spirit" or whatever it was, was born as a baby. Need to finish it really.

Ordered that scarlett thomas book, £3.99 play.com free del. bargain.

Is a bit different but i read The Book Thief recently, really enjoyed that as well. You read it?

I read number9dream really enjoyed that, was reading Ghostwritten but got stuck half way through, just after the "spirit" or whatever it was, was born as a baby. Need to finish it really. I'll look that scarlett thomas book up.

Is a bit different but i read The Book Thief recently, really enjoyed that as well. You read it?

Not read The Book Thief. Just looked it up and it looks interesting. I'll add it to my list as have nothing lined up for when I finish Carter Beats the Devil. Cheers!

Anyone know any good new uk fiction? I'm stuck in an old american rut of Bukowski, Mailer, Steinbeck (not such a bad rut but there must be some good new fiction about...)

@ malaysian,
I'm halfway through (ish) De Zoet, and its not great, imo.

but then I struggle with fiction as a whole these days. nothing grips like it used to

Anyone know any good new uk fiction? I'm stuck in an old american rut of Bukowski, Mailer, Steinbeck (not such a bad rut but there must be some good new fiction about...)

Graham Greene.

Try Brighton Rock, The Comedians, Ministry of Fear, Travels with my Aunt, The Third Man.
J.G. Ballard is very good too, but some of his books are a bit mental.
I'm a big fan of Daphne du Maurier - give her a go.

Nice one, thanks luci

Daphne du Maurier and Graham Greene 'new' British fiction...? Tuiloui, Tom McCarthy is the most interesting current British novelist that I've read recently. He's very good.

He wrote that Tintin thingy right (forget the name)? Looked interesting.

Not read The Book Thief. Just looked it up and it looks interesting. I'll add it to my list as have nothing lined up for when I finish Carter Beats the Devil. Cheers!

It's a really good read, not just the story (which is great) but the way it's presented.

@ malaysian,
I'm halfway through (ish) De Zoet, and its not great, imo.

but then I struggle with fiction as a whole these days. nothing grips like it used to

What is it about it you're not keen on? Have you read his other books? gonna try this mr Y book then probably have a pop at de zoet. May have to read the latest dan brown too, purely to see if there is an albino bad guy, and if the mastermind is a father figure to the main character...

Daphne du Maurier and Graham Greene 'new' British fiction...? Tuiloui, Tom McCarthy is the most interesting current British novelist that I've read recently. He's very good.

Ha yea i realised that after a quick wiki of those characters... Anyway, will check out McCarthy, thanks

Daphne du Maurier and Graham Greene 'new' British fiction...? Tuiloui, Tom McCarthy is the most interesting current British novelist that I've read recently. He's very good.

Yes, but what about his books? Are they any good?

Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
Good book, only read from page 170 onwards and need to read the beginning and end but champion.

J

Day of the Triffids is utterly brilliant.

It's not though is it? I've read it countless times since I was 10, just finished it again a week ago and there is so much that is wrong with it. He has almost no ability to deal with emotions; the love story element is embarrassingly cursory and trite. They find a girl who has been orphaned and her feelings are almost absent; it's like she has lost a pet. He gives no sense of grief or bereavement (all the characters either having no family or friends or ones they are unusually able to forget about quickly). They never seem to mourn anything other than a way of life. It's hidebound by the attitudes and mores of its day - which, I know, is true of many books, good and bad. His descriptions of decay, of buildings, towns and cities, stand in for his lack interest in, or inability to express, the mental state of his characters or the wholesale depression, anger and psychological derailment that you might expect to find after a catastrophe. And the external is not a metaphor for the internal; he isn't being that subtle.
It's a yarn, and a good yarn for sure, but it's not a great novel.

Just finished 'A Week in December' by Sebastian Faulks.. I wanted to read it because I'm abroad and thought that it would be nice to read about London, but most of the book just seems to be him sneering at parts of London society that he doesn't like, with a lot of it seeming like he's writing about people he knows and holds grudges against..

Spoiler It all seems like to be leading up to a big conclusion that never really happens, which was a bit unsatisfying..

Just started "The Girl Who Played with Fire".. Quite enjoyed the first one and am looking forward to finding out if the second book is as intriguing..

It's not though is it? I've read it countless times since I was 10, just finished it again a week ago and there is so much that is wrong with it. He has almost no ability to deal with emotions; the love story element is embarrassingly cursory and trite. They find a girl who has been orphaned and her feelings are almost absent; it's like she has lost a pet. He gives no sense of grief or bereavement (all the characters either having no family or friends or ones they are unusually able to forget about quickly). They never seem to mourn anything other than a way of life. It's hidebound by the attitudes and mores of its day - which, I know, is true of many books, good and bad. His descriptions of decay, of buildings, towns and cities, stand in for his lack interest in, or inability to express, the mental state of his characters or the wholesale depression, anger and psychological derailment that you might expect to find after a catastrophe. And the external is not a metaphor for the internal; he isn't being that subtle.
It's a yarn, and a good yarn for sure, but it's not a great novel.

To be honest, everything you've said is spot on.

I'm reading Wyndham's Plan for Chaos at the moment and in that he totally fails to grapple with the simplest concepts of emotion.

I suppose I love his books for the same reason you've read them again and again since you were ten - they are bloody brilliant stories. Really original, and he knows how to create a strange, creepy environment that you still want to explore yourself, regardless of the dangers he describes.
There are thousands of authors (usually aimed at male audiences) who skim over the emotional aspects of their characters, and I believe that is why they sell so well with men.
My dad's groaning bookcases are rammed with Lee Child, Richard Stark, John Buchan, Sapper and Bernard Cornwell. Every hero a man's man, and emotional content wavering at the zero mark.
If these books were to contain any real human feelings and emotions he wouldn't buy them, and neither would the hundreds of thousands of men who slurp them up like pints of strong ale.
There are many men who haven't got the first fucking clue about how to handle emotional situations, and the last person they want to start harping on about it is Sharp or Jack Reacher!
Emotionally, this is where Wyndham comes in.
I think he is the acceptable face of British Sci fi because of this lack of emotion. He doesn't get all 'wishy washy' over his content - instead he spins a very graphic yarn about a scenario, creates incredible landscapes, and peoples them with rather two dimensional characters. Can anyone really name any of his hero's? Possibly, but it's not as easy as remembering his creations, such as the Triffids.