[webbo]

. anyone who doesn't think the hobbit, silmarrillion and lord of the rings are not amongst the best books ever written do not deserve to be able to read

whilst have read your post.i have not read any of the above and i do not intend to.

you will recomending angel bay next.

[Stubbs]

Anyone read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell? Finished it a couple of weeks ago and it was one of the best books I've read in a long time. Touted as 'Harry Potter for adults', but more like a period novel that just happens to contain some magic.  Most recommended.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

[BenF]

Haven't been reading for a while. Only thing I've read lately has been Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, which was brilliant. A near future dark dystopian....

I quite liked that book too.  Though am I the only person who gets a bit annoyed by Margaret Atwood's repeated denials that she is, in any way, a sci-fi writer?  I'm sorry Mag's but if you're writing about genetic mutants in the future at least have the honesty to admit some kinship with the genre. 

No, I find her assertion quite bizarre too. I've read a few Atwood books (including the one in question) and all have them have clearly been sci-fi in my mind.  Very good sci-fi and nothing like the trashy stuff that is around, but sci-fi nonetheless.

[a dense loner]

you will recomending angel bay next

have we no vomit projecting smilies this time?
i can understand your reluctance to the silmarillian houdini but being sad i have read LOTR a fair amount of times, yes i know there are more books but... and consequently find the other book very good.
 

[Fiend]

Moose I agree entirely, it's snobbery and prejudice and nothing more - a genre being dismissed because it's being regarded as unfashionable and nerdy despite that some old and new classics are actually part of it.

[SA Chris]

Got bought the Philip Pullman - Dark Materials series for christmas the other year. Read it, it's great.

Soon to be a "blockbuster" movie trilogy 

Jury is still out as to how good it would be.

[moose]

Dark Materials series for christmas the other year. Read it, it's great.
Jury is still out as to how good it would be.

SPOILER ALERT - RE HIS DARK MATERIALS

Didn't the original director leave last year? It was officially claimed to be because of the technical difficultly of making its world believable... but rumours abounded of interference: studio unwillingness to offend right-wing Christians.  Struck me as a pretty intractable problem being as the trilogy is a polemic against Christianity with the death of god and underage sexual awakening as it's major events.  What's the betting on a cute little film with packed with wise-cracking polar bears?

SPOILAGE ENDS

Cheers Fiend... I admittedly lost my yen for most "hard" sci-fi years ago.  The working life has drained much of my time (and frankly inclination) for intense reading.  I realised a few years ago that the number of books I will have time to read before I die is worryingly small.  And, with so many unread classics I found sci-fi generally presented just too much hard work to seperate the good from the bad.  So the genre remains an itch for me that's only scratched when a book I am pretty certain to enjoy comes out (that rare combination of good writing and powerful ideas); say, a new Iain M Banks or William Gibson effort, or I happen to see something interesting in a charity shop.  But I do still absolutely loathe the hypocrisy and snobbishness attached to the genre; generally by people who think not knowing about something they disapprove of marks them out as discerning rather than ignorant.  A similar phenomenon occurs with the public understanding of science.  It is a mark of pride for artsy types to twitter that they don't understand anything about the physical basis of the world they live in (and have no intention of rectifying the situation).  Yet the same people  react in horror to those who profess ignorance or dislike of say Shakespeare or have "declasse" literary tastes..... tossers.

RE Houdini's "And what the fuck is literary fiction? "... I reckon the definition of literary fiction is something to do with whether, when reading a book in public, the reader feels compelled to prominently display the cover and thereby advertise how impeccably learned their tastes are!

[Andy F]

i can understand your reluctance to the silmarillian houdini but being sad i have read LOTR a fair amount of times, yes i know there are more books but... and consequently find the other book very good.
 

Same here. Read LOTR at age 9, 10 , 11.... etc. Then tried to read The Silmarillion at about 17 and gave up. For 13 years. Tried again and loved it. I think it took the 13 years for my brain to comprehend WTF Tolkien was on about in The Silmarillion.

[JaseM]

quite scary jaseM i agree with all your book choices, except i read pratchett as well. so this must make me a giant intellect as well as knowing when to get lost in another place. anyone who doesn't think the hobbit, silmarrillion and lord of the rings are not amongst the best books ever written do not deserve to be able to read

I've not read much of Pratchett, but, I must say I wouldn't place him along side Tolkien. Slight aside but I live in the town which is genuinely twinned with Ankh Morpak. We regularly have visits from Pratchett and his fans all dressed as their favorite characters! Rather bizarre seeing an OAP barbarian walking down the high street in just a fur pair of speedos.

Another good outdoor book is Wildwood Camping by "Nessmuk". Warns of the loss of wild areas from one hundred years ago

[a dense loner]

that sounds amazing. i am not saying he's a literary giant fit to flex his pen alongside tolkien, just that i enjoy reading his books, same with bryson. they both fill a very good spot

[Houdini]

I haven't read Bryson.  What's the one to read?

[a dense loner]

any really i've not read a bad one yet. started off with "a walk in the woods" yes doylo that was an "l" not an "n" don't get excited. if you read "a short history of nearly everything" this is also very good but not his usual style

[Johnny Brown]

Read Bruce Chatwin's 'On the Black Hill' last week. Powerful in a subtle way. Much better than his travel stuff I think.

[Bonjoy]

I haven't read Bryson.  What's the one to read?

I go for the Short History of Everything too.

[Houdini]

Paul Auster.

I've been slowly making my way through his books for a few years now, in fact, ever since I started getting them for xmas.  Though for some reason these gifts have changed to TC Boyle books (who I'm not so keen on) which I hope will change. 

His site.

He's obsessed with chance, probability, and the weird paths lives can unpredictably take.  I think he's worth reading, especially Moon Palace, The New York Trilogy, and Mr. Vertigo.  I can't liken him to anyone else I've read.

[Nibile]

this morning i finished "the catcher in the rye" for tenth time, this time in english.
and im currently reading albert speer memories. (the architect of the reich).

[Falling Down]

On the strength of earlier recomendations I currently have Ghostwritten on the go - I'd read No 9 Dream a few years back and thought it was awful but Ghostwritten is superb.  Over the weekend I read 'Let my people go surfing' - Yvon Chouinards history of Patagonia and a manifesto for sustainable business practises - very thought provoking and also has some good climbing and surfing history.

[a dense loner]

thought catcher in rye was the most over-rated book i've ever read

[BenF]

this morning i finished "the catcher in the rye" for tenth time, this time in english.

So, will you now become a serial killer or assasinate someone significant? 

This book has allegedly been found in the possession of many serial killers and assasins.  I say allegedly because I rarely believe these kind of urban myth type stories.  I'm sure many killers have also been found in possesion of a book of Soduko puzzles. 

I've read Catcher in the Rye about four times and have yet to murder anyone.  Or at least be convicted of murder anyway.  And I kind of agree with Dense, a little over rated but still a quality book in my opinion.  Reading it certainly meant a lot to me when I was a teenager.
 

[Nibile]

many serial killers have been reported as being the nicest persons in the neihborhood: never a complaint, never a noise, always paying bills in time.

i dont believe at all to the statistic theories (esp. american ones) about serial killers. theyre far too simplified to match with the complexity of real life. not everybody who has a violent father and an alcoholic mother will become a killer.
just as not every hyperactive child has to be labeled with ADD and stuffed with pills. its worth noting that in the us the FDA is again lowering the age at which you can start giving small children drugs. i think its 8 or ten now...
and the us are still a big mess.

[BenF]

i dont believe at all to the statistic theories (esp. american ones) about serial killers. theyre far too simplified to match with the complexity of real life.

That's the problem, we want our world to be black and white.  Unfortunately it is generally a shade of grey and very hard to predict or simplify to the degree that people seem to want.  And of course, grey does not sell newspapers, if you catch my drift. 

[Yossarian]

nonsense...

when fergus henderson put grey squirrel on the menu at st john that was all over the papers.

tanni grey thompson got double gold. the sun dined out on that one.

what about danger mouse's grey album?

grey goose vodka - always in the sunday supplements

grey's anatomy

charlotte grey

grays inn road (ok, so i'm slipping)

grey is good...

[Houdini]

Hear Hear! 



Like all of his books, it's winning.

Here's my favourite of late, a re-take on Wildes' tale.  But now with AIDS!  The major protagonist is fantastically rude.



Can also recommend Selfs' most recent book, Feeding Frenzy, a collection of journalistic works (Similar to Junk Mail).  It's all good, he'll not a write a bad book.

[Houdini]

And not forgetting Scotlands' Finest,  Alasdair Gray.  Fucking brilliant writer.





His meisterwork is Lanark, but also found The Fall of Kelvin Walker to be grand.  As fascinating an illustrator as any I've seen.  And quite quite unique.  Extremely hard to describe, but Poor Things is a fine start.

www.alasdairgray.co.uk

[Bubba]

thought catcher in rye was the most over-rated book i've ever read

I was left feeling very underwhelmed by it. Apparantly it helps to be an angst-ridden teen when you read it.