Books - What are you reading?

"over-egged"
This is a good illustration of why I hang out here.

He's the Baron Münchhausen of letters.

I liked Midnight's Children. Have always found his style a little over-egged and affected but I enjoy luxuriating in his figurative language and he tells a good story.

I particularly enjoyed The Enchantress of Florence for this, and I also think I preferred it to Midnight's Children. Satanic Verses has been on the "to read" list for a while but never quite makes it to the top.

Two picks of things I've read recently include:

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. If you are interested in why we think how we think and how that influences the way we act then it's a fascinating and frequently surprising book. Kahneman is a psychologist who won the nobel prize for economics both of which are intimately intwined in everything we do.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. I found it an interesting but often bleak insight into the life of an old (/retired) man who narrates the story. The bleakness stems from the fact that life doesn't always turn out how you might have imagined it in adolescence and I thought the suicide of one of the characters raised interesting perspectives that I'd never considered before.

Anyway... the reason I actually came in here was to seek recommendations.

In a couple of months I will be travelling to Cambodia with work, but I have little more than a passing insight into the recent, tortured, history of the country. Can anyone recommend any interesting, accessible books that might give me some more insight into the history of the KR, how it came about, it's legacy and how Cambodia has transitioned towards it's current government?

If the book happened to give some insights into the current social and political institutions and how they function, and the issue of land rights and tenure then that would be a plus but I'd put my emphasis on an interesting and accessible modern history of Cambodia and the KR.

I particularly enjoyed The Enchantress of Florence for this, and I also think I preferred it to Midnight's Children. Satanic Verses has been on the "to read" list for a while but never quite makes it to the top.

Two picks of things I've read recently include:

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. If you are interested in why we think how we think and how that influences the way we act then it's a fascinating and frequently surprising book. Kahneman is a psychologist who won the nobel prize for economics both of which are intimately intwined in everything we do.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. I found it an interesting but often bleak insight into the life of an old (/retired) man who narrates the story. The bleakness stems from the fact that life doesn't always turn out how you might have imagined it in adolescence and I thought the suicide of one of the characters raised interesting perspectives that I'd never considered before.

I really got in to Julian Barnes a few years ago, and remember enjoying 'Love, etc.' but haven't read that Booker winning one yet (or so many other recent releases). For me, he has the edge over his contemporary Ian McEwan, a bit more humour (in amongst the bleakness) perhaps.

Ian McEwan has been a favourite of mine for a long time (Atonement, Saturday and especially Chesil Beach) but Julian Barnes is new to me - I'll have to explore some more. Incidentally, the book I read before The Sense of an Ending was Amsterdam and it was probably the first of McEwan's books I didn't really enjoy. I just didn't get on with the characters... a sorry bunch all round, although doubtless that was his intention.

Are you a Michel Houellebecq fan?

Never read him. Recommended?

Based on what you've said, I think you'd enjoy Atomised or Platform, yes. Disturbing but compelling and quite funny iirc.

Excellent, well I'll add them to the list. Thank you. I'm not getting as much time for free reading as I'd like at the moment, but hopefully things will pick up again in October.

"Pantone Blues" by G. Lucifer and "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Drawing-Right-Side-Brain/dp/0007116454

Going to start re-reading Infinite Jest tomorrow...

Get * The Iron King* by Maurice Druon.

Just finished general lucifers pantone blues.
All you would want from entertaining short stories that would make your hair stand on end.
Strap hanger (saving our cities and ourselves from the automobile) by taras grescoe just dropped through the door, this is gonna be good.

Get * The Iron King* by Maurice Druon.

Care to say more?

Atomised
Liked.

Platform
Did not liked.

Atomised had touches of Vonnegut about it. I just couldn't get with Platform though.

I'm more of a Virginia Woolf kind of girl myself. In fact I have struggled to get beyond the modernists.

I went through Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter (has anyone read Book Of Fairy Tales

??) and Sylvia Plath phases a few years ago, but although their skilled use if language inspired, disturbed and moved me, it's Woolf I'd take to a desert island.

(I'd have to take Dan Lepard to a dessert island.)

Oh, a reading thread!
D B C Pierre's Lights Out In Wonderland is the best thing I've read in a long long time. Haute cuisine, debauchery and rebellion in Berlin. Skip the footnotes though.

[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lights-Out-in-Wonderland-ebook/dp/B0045I7FZG/"]Lights Out in Wonderland eBook: DBC Pierre: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store[/ame]

Just got a copy of James Clavell's Tai Pan that I am going to get started on later tonight.

Finished this..

Started this..

Continuing with this..
[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities[/ame]

Unthology No3, a collection of short stories from Unthank Publishing.

There's quite a lot of short story anthologies springing up at the moment - I've got a preview copy of the latest one (out in November) as I'm writing a book review on it.
I love it so far - very original work from new authors.

Started this..

Love a bit of Beryl. She lived up the road from us, in Morley. I've met her daughter - she's a bit of an odd fish. She used to be a decent tester herself, back in the day. I believe they had a nasty falling out over it.

My sister-in-law has just got me
[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Quantum-Universe-Everything-happen/dp/1846144329"]The Quantum Universe: Everything that can happen does happen: Amazon.co.uk: Brian Cox, Jeff Forshaw: Books[/ame]
for my birthday. Once I've put together the robot arm I was also given, I shall be reading it, whilst watching my robot arm set off my marble run.

Care of Wooden Floors - Will Wiles
Like it so far

Ash - James Herbert.
20p for the kindle edition.

More JG Ballard
Kingdom Come

So far it is the same story as cocaine nights only instead of taking place in the costa del sol it is set in Surrey, which is nice...
...and fucking freakier