The Book Thread

[Stringer]

I read The Kite Runner by not long ago.

Good book.

The main character made me feel sick though.

That was made into a movie wasn't it?

[Um Jammer Lammy]

Yes it was.

I am yet to see the film. I really should track that down.

[1-eyedgreen]

Weaveworld by Clive Barker is my all time fav.

[Stringer]

I just finished Adam Gilchrists true colours. Thought it was pretty good.

[beetlejuice]

im a bit of a book worm at the moment. Im in the middle of reading several books at the same time.

my favorite author is matt Reilly, i havnt read a book of his i didnt like.

at the moment im reading catcher in the rye, gough whitlam's biography, lolita, twilight (to see what all the fuss is about, its average at best) and im starting the first book in the wheel of time series.

I enjoyed reading Orwell's animal farm, but found 1984 to depressing. I loved the Da Vinci code!!!!!

[Off]

i have just finished reading internert for dummies for the forth time..
i still dont get it.

[Stringer]

i have just finished reading internert for dummies for the forth time..
i still dont get it.

I still need to read Photoshop for Dummies

[beetlejuice]

catcher in the rye was ****!

[Rodman]

im a bit of a book worm at the moment. Im in the middle of reading several books at the same time.

my favorite author is matt Reilly, i havnt read a book of his i didnt like.

at the moment im reading catcher in the rye, gough whitlam's biography, lolita, twilight (to see what all the fuss is about, its average at best) and im starting the first book in the wheel of time series.

I enjoyed reading Orwell's animal farm, but found 1984 to depressing. I loved the Da Vinci code!!!!!

Animal Farm is great. I'm actually reading 1984 as we speak (well right now I'm typing, but I was reading a few chapters about an hour ago...).

IMO it is one of the few truly essential books of the 20th century.

[thickos]

Just finished 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by Khaled Hosseini - his second book after 'The Kite Runner.'

Stunning. Even if it only gives you a taste of the brutality and oppression that the people of Afghanistan have suffered recently, it does its job. As a people they have been through so much, so incredibly sad.

[VictorTheViking]

Too many books to list so ill just put down authors.

Tom Clancy
John Grisham
John Marsden

One author that stands out is Robert Barrett, an aussie author, his stuff is always good for a laugh

[Manbush]

Weaveworld by Clive Barker is my all time fav.

Right author, but prefered Imajica myself, lol but all of Clives books would be acceptable

[Michael]

I'm reading American Tabloid by James Ellroy for the second time. Brutal...

[mick_63]

im a bit of a book worm at the moment. Im in the middle of reading several books at the same time.

my favorite author is matt Reilly, i havnt read a book of his i didnt like.

at the moment im reading catcher in the rye, gough whitlam's biography, lolita, twilight (to see what all the fuss is about, its average at best) and im starting the first book in the wheel of time series.

I enjoyed reading Orwell's animal farm, but found 1984 to depressing. I loved the Da Vinci code!!!!!

Animal Farm is great. I'm actually reading 1984 as we speak (well right now I'm typing, but I was reading a few chapters about an hour ago...).

IMO it is one of the few truly essential books of the 20th century.

Orwell is a giant.....my favourite is Down and out in Paris and London,

[Albi]

im a bit of a book worm at the moment. Im in the middle of reading several books at the same time.

my favorite author is matt Reilly, i havnt read a book of his i didnt like.

at the moment im reading catcher in the rye, gough whitlam's biography, lolita, twilight (to see what all the fuss is about, its average at best) and im starting the first book in the wheel of time series.

I enjoyed reading Orwell's animal farm, but found 1984 to depressing. I loved the Da Vinci code!!!!!

Animal Farm is great. I'm actually reading 1984 as we speak (well right now I'm typing, but I was reading a few chapters about an hour ago...).

IMO it is one of the few truly essential books of the 20th century.

Agreed on 1984. Brilliant. Movie with Richard Burton was good too.

[Chickas shoe]

Michael - have you read "The Cool Six Thousand"? it's a companion/sequel to American Tabloid. Not as immediately interesting but really worth the effort. There are a couple of Howard Hughes bios that read like Ellroy and will help you put real names to many of the characters in American Tabloid. "Citizen Hughes" is a good one and if you like Ellroy then I'd recommend some James Lee Burke, fomulaic but still excellent crime stories from Louisiana rather than LA. The Dave Robicheaux/Clete Purcell ones are his best.

[Michael]

Michael - have you read "The Cool Six Thousand"? it's a companion/sequel to American Tabloid. Not as immediately interesting but really worth the effort.

I've read The Cold Six Thousand and just about all of Ellroy's stuff. American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand form part of a Trilogy, with the final installment due out late this year - its entitled Blood's A Rover, and its release is more important to me than world peace and masturbation combined.

The one-page preface at the start of American Tabloid is probably my favourite piece of writing:

"America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to a single event or set of cirucumstances.You can't lose what you lacked at conception.

Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless versimilitude can set that line straight.

The real Trinity of Camelot was Look Good, Kick Ass, and Get Laid. Jack Kennedy was the mythological front man for a particularly juicy slice of our history. He called a slick line and wore a world-class haircut. He was Bill Clinton minus pervasive media scrutiny and a few rolls of flab.

Jack got whacked at the optimum moment to assure his sainthood. It's time to dislodge his urn and cast a new light on a few men who attended his ascent and facilitated his fall.

They were rouge cops and shake-down artists. They were wiretappers and soldiers of fortune and **** lounge entertainers. Had one second of their lives deviated off course, American History would not exist as we know it.

It's time to demythologise an era and build a new myth from the gutter to the stars. It's time to embrace bad men and the price they paid to secretly define their time. Here's to them."

[Chickas shoe]

I loved Brown's Requiem, based on his recollections of life sleeping rough and then daytimes working as a caddie, all on the golfcourses of LA. He's done some living. A mate of mine brought him out years ago for a lecture tour, he was a bit of a handful from all reports. Might have to put that third one on my Christmas list.

[Canberra Milk]

catcher in the rye was ****!

I used to think that, but liked it more on second reading. It probably is a bit overrated... but it has a good feel to it I reckon. A bit beat. I just like that era, New York City in the 50s and the jazz clubs etc.

[Rodman]

I just starting reading Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange.

It helps that I've seen the movie a hundred or so times, but f**k me it's difficult to read as the entire thing is first-person narration composed in the apocryphal hybrid cockney-Russian language of nadsat. I'm going to persevere with it but I swear that completing this book will be one of the greatest accomplishments of my life.

[-LG-]

catcher in the rye was ****!

I used to think that, but liked it more on second reading. It probably is a bit overrated... but it has a good feel to it I reckon. A bit beat. I just like that era, New York City in the 50s and the jazz clubs etc.

I read it back in the day as an angsty teen, and loved it.

Has one of my favourite lines in it: "People always think something's all true."

[Nick]

IM about to start reading "Better than sex" - Hunter S Thompson

[-LG-]

Sounds racey...

[Chickas shoe]

69er - have you read Hunter's "Curse of Lono"? Just about my favourite of his, and I recently saw a large format version of it with the Steadman illustrations in full effect, my old copy is a about dead.

[Michael]

IM about to start reading "Better than sex" - Hunter S Thompson

Its OK - if you're expecting Fear and Loathing 2.0 you'll be disappointed. Its in the same vein as Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail or Generation of Swine.

[Nick]

IM about to start reading "Better than sex" - Hunter S Thompson

Its OK - if you're expecting Fear and Loathing 2.0 you'll be disappointed. Its in the same vein as Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail or Generation of Swine.

Well my sister has demanded its return when i was only a chapter or so into proceedings, your right, not as good as Fear and Loathing but still good reading
Chikka, havent got around to reading curse of lono but its on the agenda

[Michael]

IM about to start reading "Better than sex" - Hunter S Thompson

Its OK - if you're expecting Fear and Loathing 2.0 you'll be disappointed. Its in the same vein as Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail or Generation of Swine.

Well my sister has demanded its return when i was only a chapter or so into proceedings, your right, not as good as Fear and Loathing but still good reading
Chikka, havent got around to reading curse of lono but its on the agenda

I didn't mean it like it was worse than Fear and Loathing, just that it was a lot less abstract and free-wheeling. Its more serious and political.

[Chickas shoe]

"Hells Angels" and his Hemingwayesque (until recently unpublished) debut, "Rum Diary" are both crackers as well and if not on your bookshelf or your agenda, they should be. I like his long form stuff the best, but the articles are always superb. Ralph Steadman has written another book about him recently too, it looks great but new books are out of my budget at the moment.

[Canberra Milk]

im a bit of a book worm at the moment. Im in the middle of reading several books at the same time.

my favorite author is matt Reilly, i havnt read a book of his i didnt like.

at the moment im reading catcher in the rye, gough whitlam's biography, lolita, twilight (to see what all the fuss is about, its average at best) and im starting the first book in the wheel of time series.

Lolita would have to have the most masterfully written prose I have come across.

I just finished reading Kafka's The Trial - I found it disturbing.

[Nick]

"Hells Angels" and his Hemingwayesque (until recently unpublished) debut, "Rum Diary" are both crackers as well and if not on your bookshelf or your agenda, they should be. I like his long form stuff the best, but the articles are always superb. Ralph Steadman has written another book about him recently too, it looks great but new books are out of my budget at the moment.

Speaking of which, Johnny Deep is on board to play the role of Hunter S in a movie based on "Rum Diary", to be released mid 2010

[Chickas shoe]

The Trial is a great book if only to understand what Kafkaesque means. I'm reading John Updike's "Rabbit, Run" at the moment, it's about a man in 1959 escaping from his suburban hell and alcoholic wife - I'm a touch pissed off, as he just went back home so, I seem to be engaged by it. Updike writes very detailed descriptions of everything seen or heard by the character, he's very perceptive and hence, you get a real sense of place through his writing.

[Shadow Boxer]

"Hells Angels" and his Hemingwayesque (until recently unpublished) debut, "Rum Diary" are both crackers as well and if not on your bookshelf or your agenda, they should be. I like his long form stuff the best, but the articles are always superb. Ralph Steadman has written another book about him recently too, it looks great but new books are out of my budget at the moment.

Speaking of which, Johnny Deep is on board to play the role of Hunter S in a movie based on "Rum Diary", to be released mid 2010

I nhadn't heard about that it would have to be a must see..

[Shadow Boxer]

Just finished Nick Cave's second novel "The death of Bunny Munroe".

It is deeply disturbed (but funny at the same time).

[Michael]

Less than a month now to the release of the final installment in James Ellroy's Underworld America trilogy.

[Shadow Boxer]

Just googled that, it does look good...