[JamieG]

 Andy you should definitely read 'blood meridian' then, but be warned it is brutal and unrelenting. Starts of bad and then heads south. Utterly compelling to read though. And the ending does not pull any punches, but I won't spoil it.

I personally thought it was better than the Road, which I also loved.

Suttree is a much harder one to recommend. I found it hard to get through. Parts of it are brilliant. Some of the stories in it are very funny. But other bits I found tough going. Overall I thought it was a worthwhile read, but not up to the standard of the Road and Blood Meridian. But then I'm not a book critic and maybe others will love it.

[Will Hunt]

Last night I finished Nevil Shute's 'On the Beach.' I couldn't say what my idea of him was but I think I've always had the wrong idea about Shute. I thought 'On the Beach' a very good book. Heartbreaking. Has anyone read any of Shute's other books?

Andy recommended this to me last week and I couldn't keep my nose out of it. Best book I've read in years. However this comes with a very real health warning. Finished it last night and then had a fitful night's sleep. Then moped around a great deal today, requiring regular hugs. Was eventually sent out to the wall to cheer myself up which I succeeded at. It really is heart wrenching in every respect but utterly compelling throughout.

[AndyR]

There's also that bonding-with-your-son thing that runs through it.

You mean trips to A&E?

[Rocksteady]

Just finished reading The Brothers Karamazov.

I enjoyed it and thought that at times it was excellent. To confess fully, I actually had low expectations of it, having read Crime and Punishment a few years ago and thinking it tedious and a bit rubbish to be honest.

Brothers Karamazov was far superior to my mind, having a more interesting and realistic story set up, and more attractive characters.

Classic books that I dislike often seem to have the same element: that is characters that feel so wildly and extravagantly that I cannot recognise their behaviour as consistent with what I have observed in real life. I just have never seen or heard of amongst anyone in my acquaintance or wider of people falling into paroxysms of emotion and hysteria due to being upset, or doing things utterly out of character because they're so wound up emotionally. I've not read about it in any books that I think are good either. Brothers Karamazov has this element in it, and I dislike it. Characters get very overwrought yet are somehow able to articulate why they feel this way and the basis of this emotion.
I also don't like being too overtly preached at in a book and in Brothers Karamazov the Christian preaching is very thinly veiled. I prefer it when the way the characters act and how they behave is set as the example, rather than all their thinking spelled out and the proper justifications given.

So I thought the book was OK, but I wouldn't read it again. Of the 'great' Russian novels give me War and Peace every time.

[seankenny]

Classic books that I dislike often seem to have the same element: that is characters that feel so wildly and extravagantly that I cannot recognise their behaviour as consistent with what I have observed in real life.

Several times in Brothers Karamazov the characters fall into a deep gloom, everyone is sitting around immersed in their thoughts, grumpy as anything. Then - bam! - someone arrives, vodka is poured, and everyone is in the finest of spirits. Frankly, I thought this was completely unrealistic. No one I knew every behaved like that, going from gloom to mania in the space of minutes.

Then I went to Russia and spent a couple of weeks in the mountains as the only Brit with a big group of Russians. They really do behave like that. It's completely normal.

I felt the same way the first time I tried to read VS Naipaul's "A House for Mr Biswas", in which the protagonist marries his wife by accident after one meeting. Just couldn't believe it. I went back to the book some years later with a much better understanding of South Asian families and found it totally realistic and very funny.

Remember too that the past is a different country.

[frasermcilwraith]

Is Blood Meridian written in the same style? What do other people think about the style?

blood meridian is great, i really enjoyed it. Thought it was a lot better than no country for old men, which to me was like a slightly-better-than-average but kind of dull novel with a few amazing chapters stuck on the end. i liked it at least as much as i liked the road, the style is a lot more experimental and less controlled than it is in the road though, so if you didn't like the particularly McCarthy-y bits of the road then i'd avoid it.

i personally really like the style, i know loads of people who hate it though, and to be honest, he does probably take it a bit far at points in blood meridian. i found myself laughing sometimes cos it occasionally read more like a parody of McCarthy than actual McCarthy. still definitely worth reading though, it's a lot better than most of the stuff you could read instead and it's pretty unique in terms of its style

[chris05]

Has anyone mentioned McCarthy's the border trilogy? Some of my favourite writing of all time, although I am not sure I want to read them again in case they don't live up to my initial impression. I have read all of his books and enjoyed them all, although The Road was probably the least interesting.

Many thanks for the Patrick Leigh Fermor recommendation above. looking forward to the second book.

Also recently read Gone with the Wind which I had expected to be dull romantic nonsense but was in fact hugely enjoyable and interesting. Note, I did read it on holiday which generally helps as you can devour books in a day or two.

[fried]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colony-Unrequited-Dreams-Wayne-Johnston-ebook/dp/B005CUTQEO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1392745535&sr=1-1&keywords=the+colony+of+unrequited+dreams

This is a fantastic book about newfoundland's early confederacy with Canada. Lots of history but with such a sense of imagination, the imagined biography of Joe Smallwood the first leader of the island after confederacy.

I found this by chace in a guesthouse in India a long time ago, a rare find.

[DaveC]

Last night I finished Nevil Shute's 'On the Beach.' I couldn't say what my idea of him was but I think I've always had the wrong idea about Shute. I thought 'On the Beach' a very good book. Heartbreaking. Has anyone read any of Shute's other books?

Andy recommended this to me last week and I couldn't keep my nose out of it. Best book I've read in years. However this comes with a very real health warning. Finished it last night and then had a fitful night's sleep. Then moped around a great deal today, requiring regular hugs. Was eventually sent out to the wall to cheer myself up which I succeeded at. It really is heart wrenching in every respect but utterly compelling throughout.

On the Beach was part of our high school English curriculum here in Victoria (Oz) back in the 1970s and I think it is the only book from that time that I still have on my shelf now. As Will says, a great but heartbreaking story.

[Fultonius]

My recent reading has been mainly:

Treasure Island, R.L. Stevenson

I did not read as a child or even a teenager. I think I had read 3 novels by the time I was 20. The upside to this is that there are hundreds of free or cheap classics on kindle that i have not read, so I thought I would start with this one. Not much point reviewing it as everyone else in the world has read it. Didn't the first 1/3 too much but once they got out to see it was a great read, twist and turns and double crossing galore!

Dirt, David Vann

Dark, disturbing. Explores area of your mind you probably haven't been to before. Written in a way that draws you in and makes you sympathise with the - strange - main character.

Here's a real review if you're interested:  http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jun/10/david-vann-dirt-review

[Falling Down]

Dirt - yeah, creepy!

New Ellroy book out later this year and a great interview here : http://m.shortlist.com/entertainment/books/james-ellroy

[andy popp]

I've just read Frankenstein, more out of curiosity than in real expectation. But this is a seriously good book, and suprisingly modern in many ways.

[kelvin]

I've just read Frankenstein, more out of curiosity than in real expectation. But this is a seriously good book, and suprisingly modern in many ways.

Agreed - I've taken to listening to old classics when I'm driving to Wales and apart from being irritated by dodgy accents that change every chapter, I've been quite impressed by what I've listened too. Bram Stoker's Dracula stood out for some reason too.

[andy popp]

I've just read Frankenstein, more out of curiosity than in real expectation. But this is a seriously good book, and suprisingly modern in many ways.

Agreed - I've taken to listening to old classics when I'm driving to Wales and apart from being irritated by dodgy accents that change every chapter, I've been quite impressed by what I've listened too. Bram Stoker's Dracula stood out for some reason too.

Interesting. I read Dracula last year and despiteit  being written 90 years later than Frankenstein I thought it had dated much more badly. Frankenstein is far more subtle and perceptive and the writing is better. Amazingly Mary Shelley was 18 when she wrote it.

[kelvin]

I guess I'd always assumed that Dracula would be a poor tale in comparison to some of the modern offerings but it turned out that I never really knew the story at all.

I have 'Last Man' by Shelley sitting on the shelf somewhere - one of those books I've meant to read for far too long.

[andy popp]

Ditto, turns out I had no idea at all what Frankenstein was about. I'll be really interested what you make of 'Last Man'.

[Rocksteady]

Recent reads:

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco - absolutely brilliant, I thought. Beautifully written, nice little story, lots of theology, philosophy and history of an interesting period. Maybe a bit of a contrived ending is the only sour note for me. Strongly recommended to fans of historical fiction or just good novels.

The Riddle of the Sands - Erskine Childers. Early spy novel from 1903. I enjoyed the narrative voice on this one - I like when the narrator initially starts out a bit dislikeable and sort of comes good because of their experiences in the book. Perhaps quite a prescient novel as foreshadowed German Imperial ambitions a long while ahead of war; but the plot to a modern reader seems completely unrealistic. Then I read that in 1910 two guys were inspired by the novel and spied on German military instalations off the East Frisia coast just by sailing their yacht about. So it's a snapshot of a different, more innocent world.

Don Quixote - I am struggling through this at the moment. There are parts that I'm finding amusing in a slapstick way, but I'm not laughing out loud. In my view it's improved a lot after the first section, which is essentially setting Don Quixote up as a character / stereotype from that era. It's moved onto the sort of stuff that might have formed the basis for a Shakespearean comedy, I'm finding it more palatable. Anyone got any views on this book, is it worth persevering with?

[kelvin]

Ditto, turns out I had no idea at all what Frankenstein was about. I'll be really interested what you make of 'Last Man'.

Just started this - I'll stick it in the post when I'm finished if you like?

[fried]

Recent reads:

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco - absolutely brilliant, I thought. Beautifully written, nice little story, lots of theology, philosophy and history of an interesting period. Maybe a bit of a contrived ending is the only sour note for me. Strongly recommended to fans of historical fiction or just good novels.

I must read this book about once a year, once of my favourite books ever. If anyone has any suggestions for good books mixing history, fiction, theology, philosophy....

[slackline]

If anyone has any suggestions for good books mixing history, fiction, theology, philosophy....

Neal Stephensons The Baroque Cycle Trilogy of books Quicksilver, The Confusion and The System of the World.


I also enjoyed his earlier book Snow Crash which covers linguistics, philosophy, theology, politics, computer science and pizza delivery.

[fried]

Cheers, I'll check them out.

[kelvin]

fried - it might seem a bit of an off the wall suggestion, especially if you have the usual *geek alert* alarm when some one mentions science fiction but Dan Simmons wrote an amazing few books that are now known as the Hyperion Cantos. There's 2 books in reality (4 in actuality) that merge but I've never been so impressed by the scope of a fictionary tale.

It certainly fulfills your wish for theology, history and philosophy - it had me hunting through reference books to check if what he was saying was actually true. There's the catholic church, tons of John Keats and even John Muir the wilderness protector. Keats is a central part of the story and there are many musings on the part love plays in the universe.

If you can get past the space ship parts, then I'd say you'd enjoy it. I've never been so 'involved' in a story as this one.

[andy popp]

The Riddle of the Sands - Erskine Childers. Early spy novel from 1903. I enjoyed the narrative voice on this one - I like when the narrator initially starts out a bit dislikeable and sort of comes good because of their experiences in the book. Perhaps quite a prescient novel as foreshadowed German Imperial ambitions a long while ahead of war; but the plot to a modern reader seems completely unrealistic. Then I read that in 1910 two guys were inspired by the novel and spied on German military instalations off the East Frisia coast just by sailing their yacht about. So it's a snapshot of a different, more innocent world.

Don Quixote - I am struggling through this at the moment. There are parts that I'm finding amusing in a slapstick way, but I'm not laughing out loud. In my view it's improved a lot after the first section, which is essentially setting Don Quixote up as a character / stereotype from that era. It's moved onto the sort of stuff that might have formed the basis for a Shakespearean comedy, I'm finding it more palatable. Anyone got any views on this book, is it worth persevering with?

I really enjoyed it (DQ) and found it very funny (but that might just be me) and poignant. I vote persevere but do have a high tolerance for very long books.

I also enjoyed Riddle of the Sands as a bit of an old fashioned yarn. There's quite a nice film version with Michael York. If you want something much darker set in the same part of the world then Theodor Storm's The Dykemaster/Rider on the White Horse (various translations of the title) is a great little slice of German Gothic.

And on the theme of German imperial ambitions (and more) I'm currently getting stuck into Christopher Clark's The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 and I'm learning a great deal. Very dense but fluidly written.

[andy popp]

If anyone has any suggestions for good books mixing history, fiction, theology, philosophy....

I haven't read them but Paul Sussman's books mix modern detective stories, archaelogy, and Egyptology/Ancient Egypt and seem to be well reviewed.

[andy popp]

Ditto, turns out I had no idea at all what Frankenstein was about. I'll be really interested what you make of 'Last Man'.

Just started this - I'll stick it in the post when I'm finished if you like?

Thanks, that's a very kind offer but don't worry, I'll be able to get it out of the library at work.