What Books Are People Reading Now ?

[OldChinaHam]

Thank you for the Fiction writer list. I will give a few a try, although LeCarre I have read. My preference for Non Fiction has nothing to do with the author being or not being an intellectual. My problem is that my mind wanders back to the real world when I read Fiction. (Films are much the same for me these days. I have no patience with fantasy.)

[OldChinaHam]

DMC1, you might try this:

Shanghai Diary: A Young Girl's Journey
from Hitler's Hate to War-Torn China

[davejones]

Just finished Moving To Thailand by Mike Santos - a pretty good book for someone thinking of moving here. Recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Moving-To-Thailand-Everything-ebook/dp/B00CKA3ACI

Just started reading Kicking Life's Ass! by Mike <deleted>. This is about the 5th Mike <deleted> book I've read. All have been great reads. I love this guy's writing. His two fiction books - Thailand's Sickest - are particularly good. One of them is free on Amazon Kindle.

http://www.amazon.com/Kicking-Lifes-Motivational-Series-ebook/dp/B004M8SLQG

[Ulysses G.]

Junkie Love by Phil Shoenfelt is a very well written book about being a heroin addict by someone who knows what he is talking about. It made me very happy that I got away from excessive use of hard drugs at a young age, because it was a dead end street.

[Gladiator]

Morgan's Run

By Colleen McCullough - the author of The Thorn Birds.

The plot revolves around Richard Morgan from Bristol. The son on a pub and Innkeeper. Who leads a happy life up until the time he is falsely accused of theft and his world falls apart. He is sentenced to Gaol, initially in Bristol an then in Gloucester, before being shipped to form a colony at Botany Bay and Port Jackson in Australia. A great read.

The author also wrote The Thorn Birds, which I found difficult to get into but I will give it another try.

[Gladiator]

Morgan's Run

By Colleen McCullough - the author of The Thorn Birds.

The plot revolves around Richard Morgan from Bristol. The son on a pub and Innkeeper. Who leads a happy life up until the time he is falsely accused of theft and his world falls apart. He is sentenced to Gaol, initially in Bristol an then in Gloucester, before being shipped to form a colony at Botany Bay and Port Jackson in Australia. A great read.

The author also wrote The Thorn Birds, which I found difficult to get into but I will give it another try.

[Gaccha]

"Always check university libraries." Thank you. 2 outta 3 ain't bad!

And, what DMC1 says is actually true. After passing a certain age, this probably varies with the individual, fiction ceases to have much interest, especially with the world falling apart around us. It has been quite some time since I have been able to read more than a few pages of fiction. It may be my age, or it may just be my world.

I've found the opposite. I have read almost entirely factual, but now am increasingly reading fiction, albeit fiction often described as philosphical fiction.

[Ulysses G.]

I am pretty old and I read both fact and fiction. I go back and forth.

[HeavyDrinker]

Just re-read 'The Lost World' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Super read!

[sunshine51]

The collective works of Douglas Adams...in ebook form.

Anybody want a copy pm me....

[OldChinaHam]

sunshine51

Thank you but I think I already have access to that.

What I do need though is a complete unabridged set of OED electronic version.

If you have it, please send to me.

I am try8ing to implove me witing.

[lazygourmet]

Just finished:

Just starting:

[BuddhistVirus]

sunshine51

I am try8ing to implove me witing.

Looks like you need a good editor too...

[Ulysses G.]

I am reading Nightmare in Bangkok by Andy Botts. It is another "served time in Bangkok" thing, but well written and a good story. I had kind of sworn off books about Thailand by little known authors at one time, but have read some excellent ones lately about being in prison with a lot of interesting stuff about their lives on the outside. It makes me open to trying more.

[simple1]

War Against the Taliban - Why It All Went Wrong by UK jounalist Sanday Gall who did a lot of assignments in Afghanistan, including two documentaries during the Russian invasion. Also has founded a charity in Afghanistan who those who lost limbs in combat.

Provides insignt to the alliances with the various warlords and lessons learnt for NATO forces

[BookMan]

I have not read it, but this book is titled 'The <deleted> Diet'

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/news-features/we-think-weve-found-the-worst-book-of-the-year-20130531-2nggw.html

[tutsiwarrior]

oh, wahhhh...

I left me kindle on the airplane from Paris to Doha and I don't think that I'll be able to retrieve it...

wahhhhh...and I was right at the end of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure...what shall Sue and Jude do in their predicament?....

(and then someone well known to this forum will say: 'you poor man, please come to my house and we shall discuss the ending and I make a grand cup of tea...' and then I shall say: 'd'ye mind if I bring some voddy to liven things up a bit? and shall you be wearing short cut-offs and a t-shirt? immodesty and a lack of social decorum are the major themes, you know')

Edited June 4, 2013 by tutsiwarrior

[jellydog]

Old Murakami. "Dance, Dance, Dance". Wonderful.

[Gaccha]

'Dostoevsky, Kierkegarde, Nietzsche & Kafka' by William Hubben (1952)

A book with perhaps the easiest title to misspell in the history of books. An attempt to synthesis the works of the 4 great thinkers of existentialism. A quick read-- possible in under 4 hours. And also, despite yours truly being sloshed on Manhattan, Irish Car Bomb and a martini, I was still able to read my way through it.

But the book is a painful failure. It's attempt to mock the atheist opinions of Nietzche as stuck at the first level of aesthetics and never having reached the exultant level of faith simply rings hollow, particularly when most intellectuals are solidly atheist. His attempt to synthesise through Christianity doesn't work.

It has made me go back and re-read Dostoevesky's Grand Inquisitor chapter. Like most Anglo-Saxons the overtop Russian histrionics is laugably unconvincing (in the same way that Arab mourning feels etc.) but the author (Hubben) did at least try to show why Mr. D. did what he did.

All in all, a book to avoid. Right, I need a Tom Collins.

[StreetCowboy]

oh, wahhhh...

I left me kindle on the airplane from Paris to Doha and I don't think that I'll be able to retrieve it...

wahhhhh...and I was right at the end of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure...what shall Sue and Jude do in their predicament?....

(and then someone well known to this forum will say: 'you poor man, please come to my house and we shall discuss the ending and I make a grand cup of tea...' and then I shall say: 'd'ye mind if I bring some voddy to liven things up a bit? and shall you be wearing short cut-offs and a t-shirt? immodesty and a lack of social decorum are the major themes, you know')

I'm on the Mayor of Casterbridge at the moment, a post-copyright printing from India, in hardback. There are some irritating type-setting errors; missed words and the like. But it was less than four quid, so one can't complain.

SC

[Gaccha]

oh, wahhhh...

I left me kindle on the airplane from Paris to Doha and I don't think that I'll be able to retrieve it...

wahhhhh...and I was right at the end of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure...what shall Sue and Jude do in their predicament?....

(and then someone well known to this forum will say: 'you poor man, please come to my house and we shall discuss the ending and I make a grand cup of tea...' and then I shall say: 'd'ye mind if I bring some voddy to liven things up a bit? and shall you be wearing short cut-offs and a t-shirt? immodesty and a lack of social decorum are the major themes, you know')

I'm on the Mayor of Casterbridge at the moment, a post-copyright printing from India, in hardback. There are some irritating type-setting errors; missed words and the like. But it was less than four quid, so one can't complain.

SC

For a kindle, simply download from Gutenberg or the archive dot org websites the book for free.

e.g. Hardy's Mayor of Casterbridge: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/143

Edited June 9, 2013 by Gaccha

[StreetCowboy]

oh, wahhhh...

I left me kindle on the airplane from Paris to Doha and I don't think that I'll be able to retrieve it...

wahhhhh...and I was right at the end of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure...what shall Sue and Jude do in their predicament?....

(and then someone well known to this forum will say: 'you poor man, please come to my house and we shall discuss the ending and I make a grand cup of tea...' and then I shall say: 'd'ye mind if I bring some voddy to liven things up a bit? and shall you be wearing short cut-offs and a t-shirt? immodesty and a lack of social decorum are the major themes, you know')

I'm on the Mayor of Casterbridge at the moment, a post-copyright printing from India, in hardback. There are some irritating type-setting errors; missed words and the like. But it was less than four quid, so one can't complain.

SC

For a kindle, simply download from Gutenberg or the archive dot org websites the book for free.

e.g. Hardy's Mayor of Casterbridge: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/143

But by the time I've printed it out and got it hard-back bound, it's easy enough just to pick up the cheap editions in the discount bookshop.

SC

[overherebc]

Reading three at the moment.

Horses Arse by Charlie Owen

The Dome by Stephen King

A Womens Murder Club Omnibus by James Patterson

and next in line is Beersheba byPaul Daley.

[tutsiwarrior]

the airline has recovered my lost kindle from the Paris to Doha flight and has advised me that it shall be available for collection at the Premium First Class Lounge in Doha when I return to Jeddah...so that I shall read fer meself what happened to Sue and Jude...thank you, very much...

(tutsi is at the Premium Lounge in Doha: 'ahem, yes...I'm missing my kindle ereader from the last flight in from Paris and I believe that it was left in the FIRST CLASS CABIN where I was seated...can you please assist me to retrieve the item?' the ground staff assistant is harassed as things are busy and makes a few calls and advises reluctantly: 'Sir, you will need to contact the airport lost and found and etc...'...tutsi is mildly annoyed (ye can buy a kindle anytime from amazon.com with 2 week delivery) but in full Vincent Price menacing posture he sez: 'am I correct that you have now advised that my inconvenience is 'not your problem'?' and the ground staff assistant then cringes in terror...

tutsi then lays a business card on the counter and smiles and sez: 'just take care of it sweetie, will ye?')

tutsi is a bastard...just like in the movies...

Edited June 9, 2013 by tutsiwarrior

[GooEng]

Seb Faulks is mentioned a couple of pages back - recommend one of his more recent books "Week in December".

Am about to re-read the books of my youth by Iain Banks as he sadly passed away this week from cancer.

My faves by him were :

The Wasp Factory

Walking on Glass

The Bridge

[DMC1]

+1 for 'Week in December.' I am reading 'Human Traces' by Seb Faulks at the moment. OK so far, not an action packed book.

Edited June 11, 2013 by DMC1

[GooEng]

Faulks is an unusual writer, his books explore a wide variety of themes, but are always worth a look.

Also recently read one by him called "Engleby", about a psychopathic split personality. Interesting read....

[Morakot]

Yes to the Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz

by Frank J. Barrett, Harvard Business Press Books

240 pages. Publication Date: Aug 14, 2012.

[Gaccha]

As start of my new adventure in trying to read all the Speculative Fiction (a more appropriate name than Sci-Fi) classics, I have read my way through A Canticle for Leibowitz and The Forever War.

A Canticle for Leibowitz (1961) by Walter M. Miller

A book about the place of religion and its role in civilization and with the State. it is slow and turgid with many heavy dialogues plucked from Dostoevesky. For an atheist, this is an argument that is well understood and doesn't need a quasi-intellectual barrage of discourse.

In contrast....

The Forever War (1974) by Joe Haldeman

With chapters averaging only 5 pages, it is sharp and gorgeously written. No long deluges of discourse, but a brilliantly clever conceit of using the aging process of space travel as a metaphor for the Vietnam Vet's experiences in returning to the USA. Download this.

Edited June 20, 2013 by Gaccha

[Ulysses G.]

IMO, slow and turgid is a good description of A Canticle for Liebowitz. If you want to read some good sci-fi, start with these: