[Zods Beard]

Stuff wot I 'ave read recently.

Matterhorn - Karl Malantes A big f*ck off dense novel about Vietnam that took the author thirty years to write.  In close focus rather than expansive, it covers a small, relatively inconsequential part of the war about Bravo Company's attempts to take and retake a series of nondescript hills in Vietnam.  It's all about the characters and the visceral horrors of war and is clearly semi-autobiographical in the main character Melas.  Very good, tough going at times but very good.

Good stuff FD. I've got this on my Amazon wish list, should hopefully have a copy soon. Have you read Michael Herr's Dispatches?

Out of interest anyone read Iain M Banks new one?

[nik at work]

Assault on Lake Casitas by Brad Alan Lewis - Only available on Kindle (cheap) or second hand (ridiculously expensive) this is Lewis' account of walking away from the official US Olympic camp to train with his mate and then go on to win Gold at the 1984 Olympics on home soil in the double scull rowing event. For a book on rowing it's absolutely gripping and for anyone interested in training and sports psychology it should be required reading. Superb.

That sounds properly brilliant, nice one FD have another wad. Shame I don't have a kindle...

[andy popp]

I can't recommend strongly enough Bird and Sherwin's American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer -

I got this for my birthday on your recomendation and it's been sat on the shelf bearing down on me since. It's a biggie!

A few years back I read The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes which again was a real page turner (and won the Pullitzer).

A biggie yes, but also another real page turner. It always moves along and its a gripping human narrative. Go for it.

[Falling Down]

Dolly, I've been thinking about reading what I think about when I think about running 

I'm currently reading and watching City think about playing football in Kiev
 

[underground]

I'm working my way through the entire works of Thomas Hardy on the Kindle. I started by reading The Woodlanders because I wanted to see the references to green wood pole lathe turning, but found it utterly gripping - all the books so far are the same; romantic tragedy, perhaps ivolving a love triangle, but he does it very well. For me it's a very kinaesthetic and visual experience reading this stuff as the minutiae of the country are so well expressed, and it makes me wish I was a farmer in 1800s Wessex

(albeit a really rich farmer and not 'courting')

[Dolly]

Dolly, I've been thinking about reading what I think about when I think about running 

Very good
I think if you liked born to run then you'll like Murakamis take on the running thing.
Youre welcome to borrow my copy if you want

[butters]

Andy and FD - love your recommendations on this thread - not all grab me but the ones that I have gone for have proved to be really good.

On that note - American Prometheus which I bought following the recommendation here - yes it is huge but it is a really good book and very well written in my opinion. Will have to check out "The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes" as well.

Something that I don't think has been mentioned so far and might well appeal to Andy, FD and others is Henry Olonga's book Blood Sweat & Treason which I haven't bought yet but will be doing so once funds allow.

[fried]

I'm working my way through the entire works of Thomas Hardy on the Kindle. I started by reading The Woodlanders because I wanted to see the references to green wood pole lathe turning, but found it utterly gripping - all the books so far are the same; romantic tragedy, perhaps ivolving a love triangle, but he does it very well. For me it's a very kinaesthetic and visual experience reading this stuff as the minutiae of the country are so well expressed, and it makes me wish I was a farmer in 1800s Wessex

(albeit a really rich farmer and not 'courting')

I really should read this. Ive just been reading Wildwood and Waterlog by Roger Deakin for the umpteenth time and he makes a lots of references to The Woodlanders, sounds fascinating...

[SA Chris]

Just finished Pandaemonium by Christopher Brookmyre. "Demons" vs Schoolkids in remote Highlands - lowbrow, but great entertainment.

[seankenny]

Dolly, I've been thinking about reading what I think about when I think about running 

Read it - excellent book and you'll get through it in a week or less. HM comes across as a thoroughly decent chap for someone so single-minded.

[Falling Down]

Jim, just downloaded Woodlanders, thanks.

Butters - I read a review of that some time ago but forgot what it was so thanks for the reminder.

Zod's - Yes. I read dispatches several years ago.  Matterhorn is less of a polemic anti-war novel and the better for it IMHO.

Dolly - PM'd ya, thanks for the offer.

[andy popp]

The pick of recent reads:

Flaubert, Madame Bovary: is there a finer novel. As beautiful as it is cruel.
de Laclos, Dangerous Liaisons: more French cruelty. The great epistolary novel.
David Grossman, Be My Knife: two strangers, who never meet, conduct an affair entirely through letters. One of the most intense reading experiences ever. Got inside my head.
Martha Hanna, Your Death Would be Fine: moving microhistory recreating the marriage of French peasant couple during WW1. Again reliant on letters as a source.

[Anyone noticing a theme here would be correct. I am near obsessed with letters. I read letters, I read about letters and I write letters.]

Tolstoy, War and Peace: fully worth the effort. Master storytelling.
Tove Jansson, A Summer Book: Moomin author goes adult, light, funny, moving
W.G. Sebald,Austerlitz: strange and dreamlike, seems to encompass all of C20th European history.
Herzog, Annapurna: gets my votes for finest mountaineering book of all time.

[fried]

The pick of recent reads:

Flaubert, Madame Bovary: is there a finer novel. As beautiful as it is cruel.
de Laclos, Dangerous Liaisons: more French cruelty. The great epistolary novel.
David Grossman, Be My Knife: two strangers, who never meet, conduct an affair entirely through letters. One of the most intense reading experiences ever. Got inside my head.
Martha Hanna, Your Death Would be Fine: moving microhistory recreating the marriage of French peasant couple during WW1. Again reliant on letters as a source.

[Anyone noticing a theme here would be correct. I am near obsessed with letters. I read letters, I read about letters and I write letters.]

Tolstoy, War and Peace: fully worth the effort. Master storytelling.
Tove Jansson, A Summer Book: Moomin author goes adult, light, funny, moving
W.G. Sebald,Austerlitz: strange and dreamlike, seems to encompass all of C20th European history.
Herzog, Annapurna: gets my votes for finest mountaineering book of all time.

This may be of interest to you if you haven't read it. Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flauberts-Parrot-Julian-Barnes/dp/0099540584/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300039010&sr=8-1

[account_inactive]

[Wood FT]

second the above. Recently read 'glamorama' by brett easton ellis as well, great stories.

On the fiction tip I've just finished 'If this is a man/the truce', an autobiography by Primo Levi, about his time at Auschwitz and then getting back to Italy after. The description of his life in the work camp is done in such a way that it feels like reading about the whole thing for the first time, definitely recommended.

[Falling Down]

Just finished Taking Leave by Roger Hubank. Excellent.  a must if you know The Peak well, very few books are as deeply seated in the landscape as this.

Just ordered that and Hazard's way. Both look good and from the fantastic Ernest Press.

Also I forgot to say thanks for recomending  R S Thomas biography which was brilliant.

[SA Chris]

Just finished Beyond the Mountain by Steve House. One of the best mountaineering books I have read. Insightful without becoming too ponderous,  and his descriptions of the technical climbing are gripping.

[chris05]

Just finished Feet in the Clouds: A Story of Fell Running and Obsession by Richard Askwith. Fantastic book and much better IMO than Born to run (Admittedly different subject matter). If it doesn't make you want to get out and push yourself then nothing will!

Dont think its been mentioned but apologies if it has.

[matthew]

Just finished Feet in the Clouds: A Story of Fell Running and Obsession by Richard Askwith. Fantastic book and much better IMO than Born to run (Admittedly different subject matter). If it doesn't make you want to get out and push yourself then nothing will!

Dont think its been mentioned but apologies if it has.

Seconded. An excellent book about the need to be outside and skidding down a scree slope.

[hongkongstuey]

Just finished A Search in Secret India by Paul Brunton and will happily recommend it. Far better reviews than my blurb can be found here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Search-Secret-India-P-Brunton/dp/1844130436/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302759492&sr=1-1

[saintlade]

Not sure if this is the most recent thread on good books but this is what the search turfed up.

Anyway, just finished You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers, which was excellent. Great humanist story in the fashion of Jonathan Safran Foer.

Speaking of which, he has just brought out a new book (which I have got and is next on my list) called Tree of Codes. It looks amazing.

Thanks for the heads up on the Tree of Codes link, haven't really been keeping up with Foer's work of late but this looks interesting.

Of greater interest on the same site I found that the same publisher Visual Editions is doing a reprint of Marc Saporta's Composition No. 1 which I have been trying to track down for years now since reading B.S Johnson's "The Unfortunates" (if you haven't read "Christie Malry's Own Double Entry" it's worth a pop) and Jonathon Coe's Biography on Johnson which mentions the Marc Saporta work. More details here;

http://www.visual-editions.com/our-books/book/composition-no1

[Falling Down]

Stewart Lee - How I escaped my certain fate.


Interesting this one.  A biography written through the lens of a microscope focused on the details of his standup routines (90's Comedian).  After the introductory chapters dealing with his early time as a comedian and how his career was saved by writing Jerry Springer, The Opera, each chapter is a verbatim transcription of his three or four standup shows but interspersed with extensive notes on the source, musings on comedy and life in general.  Really good and very funny.

[andy popp]

I can imagine that is good, Lee is an interesting bloke. I'm always impressed with therange of non-fiction people on here read. I hardly seem to read any (perhaps because I read so much to do with work).

So I've just been ploughing through more novels as usual. Recently finshed Ford Madox Ford's Parade' End - a brilliant disection of England either side of and during WW1, and one of the best novels I've read.

[slackline]

Don't read much fiction myself, but have recently enjoyed Milan Kundera The Book of Laughter and Forgetting which whilst fiction relates to events in the Czechoslovakian revolution and subsequent occupation by Russia and was quite good.

[Will Hunt]

Of late I have read:

We, The Drowned, Carsten Jensen
Wow! A great story. Very much a page turner, if you haven't read it then please do. I've been recommending it to everyone and they all love it. Basically the story of three generations of a seafaring family and their respective adventures.

pr0no, Irvine Welsh
Sequel to Trainspotting following the same group of characters on their latest venture into the pr0n industry. Sadly this feels like it was purely written because Welsh knew that it would sell off the back of the success of Trainspotting. At times it felt a little tedious, however it does highlight the exploitative nature of the pr0n industry for those naive enough not to be aware of it already. Begbie is also a great, terrifying character. Some scenes, particularly those at the end, do well to explore the complexities of what the group call "friendship".

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
Found this very compelling and enjoyable. After reading it I subsequently set about reading a load of Murakami's other stuff. God almighty! Talk about repetitive! Sadly I don't think I could stomach another of his books.