[Yossarian]

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

i loved dorian. not like that. the best recent self by a long shot. (i never got very far with how the dead live).  grey area was good though. i have tough tough toys for tough tough boys sitting here waiting for me to find time for it again. ah will, you spoil us with your derangedness and enormous thrusting vocabulary....

[BenF]

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...

Fantastic list and a (nearly) well made point that serves me right for being almost serious.  However few of those "grey" examples actually sell many papers (Tanni Grey Thompson excepted).  But being a fan of grey (not David btw) and no fan of black/white, I shall leave this point alone because grey should sell more papers. 
Let's hear it for grey.  Not David.

 

[Andy F]

The problem with grey is it's too much like the John Major spitting image puppet. Which was a bit, well too grey. If you know what I mean.

[Houdini]

(In Yorks accent)

Hey!  You say 'Gray'.  I'll say 'David'.



It were proper bo!  I tell thee.  Wittgenstein or Beyonce? I'm all a muddle me!

[BenF]

Grey by name, grey by nature.

 

[Yossarian]

And don't forget the grey pound...
I certainly didn't.  Saga Magazine paid very well thank you very much.
Oh shit, there goes all my credibility in a cloud of hairspray and potpourri.

[tommytwotone]

BUMP

check this out...the Wu Tang Manual

http://www.amazon.co.uk/-Wu-Tang-Manual/dp/0859653676/ref=sr_11_1/202-5467931-0155008?ie=UTF8

according to the person who recommended it to me

"like a mixture of the Bible and the Koran, only more insprirational"

[Bubba]

according to the person who recommended it to me

"like a mixture of the Bible and the Koran, only more insprirational"

That'd make me avoid it like the plague

I've read the Bible, but I didn't find any inspiration in there.

[tommytwotone]

Hear Hear! 

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.

Houd's right on "feeding frenzy", a great book - mainly his restaurant reviews from The Observer, plus some other random stuff.

Oh, and what about Grays Athletic?

[Falling Down]

Just finished Cormac McArthy's new one 'No Country for Old Men'.. very high quality indeed.  Similar to Blood Meridian but set in the present day... dark, bleak and very, very good.

[slackline]

Kinky Friedman detective series are very entertaining.

Currently working my way through Haruki Murakami's books which are superb, very dream like and surreal ("Dance, Dance"; "Kafka on the Shore"; "Wind up Bird Chronicle" so far).

"Life of Pi" by Yann Martell is superb.

Recently read some Franz Kaffka which was good as well, particularly "Metamorphosis".

[Nibile]

unlike my bouldering ticklist, with books ticklist i have success.

so, now the history of I WW, then kynn hill biography.

[Monolith]

Has anybody read The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen? It had some great reviews in the broadsheets and looks a thoroughly interesting read.
If you're interested in Indian cultural history, have a browse:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Argumentative-Indian-Writings-History-Identity/dp/0141012110/sr=8-1/qid=1157706115/ref=pd_ka_1/202-3430581-1330256?ie=UTF8&s=gateway

[Nibile]

errr...
lynn hill biography

[jfw]

Just finished Cormac McArthy's new one 'No Country for Old Men'.. very high quality indeed.  Similar to Blood Meridian but set in the present day... dark, bleak and very, very good.

i realy liked "all the pretty horses"

then i tried to read "the crossing" (which is part of his border trilogy or summat) - it started off good then seemed to go up its own arse with the old man visionary stuff (so i have to confess i didn't finish it)

re: will self (higher up t'thread)

i've only read "great apes" and thought it was brilliant

[Monolith]

Currently reading Isaac Asmiov's New Guide to Science. For a non-scientifically educated person, it's great reading so far.

[Bubba]

Just read Moondust by Andrew Smith.

It discusses the ideas and politics behind the Apollo missions. It talks to nearly all of the surviving Apollo astronauts and many other key players of the times. Sounds quite boring but I found it genuinely fascinating.

[Houdini]

Just read quite a sweet little book by Fred Forsyth called The Shepherd.  All about a guy flying his jet from a German airbase to the UK to get home for Xmas - getting totally lost but being guided to a disused wartime airfield in Norfolk by an old Mosquito bomber.  Yes, a ghost, whose job it was to search for lost returning airplanes during the war (who one time never came back).  A slim tome with lots of canny sketches.  Really sweet.

[unclesomebody]

The Art of War - Sun Tzu

As much as this might be a book that people read so they can say they have read it, it's actually genuinely good. There is much to be learnt, and whilst it might appear to be old mumbo jumbo there are certainly many general lessons that can be applied in many situations. Personally, I've found it to be rather worthwhile in helping me with playing poker. I mean, it's all fairly obvious stuff, but still worth reading. Plus, it can be picked up for a few quid from places like FOPP.

[Duma]

The Party's Over - Heinburg

Peak Oil and all that jazz - well researched and convincingly argued.

Also scary as fuck.

[BenF]

Just read quite a sweet little book by Fred Forsyth called The Shepherd.  All about a guy flying his jet from a German airbase to the UK to get home for Xmas - getting totally lost but being guided to a disused wartime airfield in Norfolk by an old Mosquito bomber.  Yes, a ghost, whose job it was to search for lost returning airplanes during the war (who one time never came back).  A slim tome with lots of canny sketches.  Really sweet.

Wow, I remember reading that a few times years and years ago.  I think my dad gave me the book when I was pretty young and being pretty obsessed with planes at the time, I probably read it half a dozen times.  I'd forgotten about that completely.  Thanks for reminding me.  As you say, it's quite a nice, gentle book.

[Fiend]

Alistair Reynolds - Century Rain.

New-ish sci-fi author who has been making a deservedly big name for himself in the last few years with a series of very good, very sharp, proper hardcore sci-fi books with intriguing ideas, twisty plots, and enough of a cyberpunk-esque edge to be interesting.

Century Rain is a standalone and quite seperate novel, I'm part way through and finding it excellent, a stylish blend of sci-fi and detective story in a clash of two eras of planet Earth. The back cover says it all - recommended.

[BenF]

Ghostwritten by David Mitchell

My sister bought me this book and I read it this summer whilst away.  It truly is a wonderful book and one of the best I've ever read.  Part sci-fi, part fantasy, part thriller, part straight fiction, part everything else.  It comprises of about a dozen seemingly unconnected stories that somehow pretty much completely link with each other as the stories cross the globe from Japan, to Mongolia, to London to New york.  Lots of themes including sarin gas attacks in Japan, ghosts, financial crime, theft, love and the day-to-day lives of ordinary people. 

The language used is frequently just beautiful and Mitchell tells each story in such a captivating way, that you don't want them to end.  But of course each new story is just as absorbing as the last.  Honestly a fantastic book and one that won or was runner up for the Guardian First Book award. 

[SA Chris]

Has anyone read this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0471638609/sr=1-1/qid=1160726382/ref=pd_bowtega_1/026-3477640-4792446?ie=UTF8&s=books

Looks like it mght be worth a read, especially as they are the competition up here.

[Fiend]

Ben - selling it to me, I will keep an eye out for that.