Books...

[moose]

I can recommend anything by:
- Carl Hiaasen
- Kinky Friedman
- Hemingway (esp Old Man and The Sea, and Farewell to Arms)
- Garcia Marquez (esp Love in a Time of Cholera)
- Hunter S Thompson (esp Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Great Shark Hunt)

Too right... Hiaasen and Hemingway are proper bo'. Fear and Loathing is a fantastic read too - one that's fuelled many a dissipated weekend.

Be warned though - a lot of Hunter S's stuff is basically political journalism. Unless you have an exhaustive knowledge of members of the Nixon administration a lot of his stuff will probably be lost on you (it was on me).

Never really got Marquez tho' - read "one hundred years of solitude" and spent most of my time muttering "fer fucks sake" under my breath. Maybe I'm just not a magical-realism type of person (although those who have seen my ticklist might disagree).

Big recommendation: English Passengers by Matthew Kneale. Fantastic - C18 set tale of (amongst other things) a smuggler's voyage to Tasmania and the early settlement of the place. Skips from proper funny comedy to man's-inhumanity-to-his-fellow-man without missing a beat.

 

[a dense loner]

"shackleton's forgotten men" by lennard bickel, real account of the race to cross the south pole from another point of view
if u like to get a bit of latin for your money "in the name of the rose" is class, forgot by who, momentery lapse just keep thinkin of udo newman
for a pretty light hearted read a chapter at a time book, bill bryson's "a short history of nearly everything"
anything by terry pratchett

 

[Bonjoy]

I'd have to second Dense on the SHNE thing. Not usually a huge fan of Bryson but thought that one was brilliant. More stupidly incredible facts than you can shake a pleisiosaur at.

 

[casa]

Requiem for a Dream-Hubert Selby, awesome story. In fact anything by this guy (i seem to remember a book called somethin like The Room to be quite disturbing)
Sci-fi- Stephen Donaldson not that bad
Anything by Terry Pratchet is a screem
Also anything by Tom Holt
And all PG Wodehouse stuff

 

[a dense loner]

keep meaning to get some tom holt but never do. must try harder

 

[casa]

proper laugh out loud stuff dense i promise you

 

[saltbeef]

maurikami, dream like japanese stuff, well good.
as for brett easton ellis i preferred less than zero, there was a south bank show special about him about 6 years ago where he basically admitted it was an autobiography, it gives you a really sinister glimpse into the world of the children of the american glitteratti, and how scary and mindless they are, really worth reading.
martin amis is also very good, sometimes self indulgent, but dead babies and times arrow are brilliant.

 

[Bubba]

I like Brett EE though he can be hard reading sometimes with his almost bland, disconnected style.

American Psycho is a classic, though I know a few people who haven't been able to finish it because of the gnarl, and I really enjoyed Glamorama too.

 

[Fingers of a Martyr]

D J Taylors biography of Orwell is pretty amazing, just finished it last night, quite moving in parts :cry: lol

 

[Jonboy]

Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer
True story.
About a young man who decides to run away from the bouring routine that society creates for us. He ends up in Alaska Yukon but sadly dies alone which through better planning he could of lived read and find out (its ok I did not spoil the ending you are aware he dies from the start).
Despite his death he was a resourseful young bloke and brave to actualy go out and try and live of the land.
Defiantly worth reading, its not along book 205 pages and the pages go qucikly.

From the bcak of the Book:
what emerges from this mesmerizing, heartbreaking story is a version of the wilderness that is hard and seductive, a place where one can quite possibly find ones self, but also opening the dark possibility that we might find our own nature strange and disturbing.

 

[the_dom]

Moose: I'd say you need to read 100yrs twice to appreciate it. Or read Love in a Time of Cholera. It's exceptional.

I also second Requiem for a Dream and anything by Murakami (esp Sputnik Sweetheart and Norweigian Wood)

 

[AndyR]

Moose: I'd say you need to read 100yrs twice to appreciate it. Or read Love in a Time of Cholera. It's exceptional.

I also second Requiem for a Dream and anything by Murakami (esp Sputnik Sweetheart and Norweigian Wood)

I'll third anything by Haruki Murukami - a revelation to find an author whose work is simply mesmerising (for me obviously - some people may find it repetitive). Sheer class.

 

[chappers]

i just got american psycho. goin to take it away with me. got a 10 hr flight to dispatch it on. going to pick up another tomoz to read after.

can also recomend "man in the high castle" by P. Dick. if the nazis won the war kind of messed up portrait of america. i enjoyed it.
read something in the same vein by Don DeLillo called cosmopolis or summat which was good. bit twisted.

favorite book of all time tho has to go to "the wasp factory" by iain banks.

 

[chappers]

right, after reading reviews on here and amazon, have decided to pick up a copy of spares by michael marshall smith tomoz.
cheers guys

 

[a dense loner]

oh yeah, iain banks is good as well

 

[fatneck]

Yeah, when I first read the wasp factory about ten years ago I thought it was the best book ever! Re-read it recently and wasn't as impressed, (are you ever on a second read?) but some of his other stuff is pretty cool.

 

[moose]

Yeah, when I first read the wasp factory about ten years ago I thought it was the best book ever! Re-read it recently and wasn't as impressed, (are you ever on a second read?) but some of his other stuff is pretty cool.

agree... Complicity is my favourite of his fiction - as nasty in its way but with a better story. Coming to the conclusion with Banks that whilst he's a pretty good fiction writer he's a great sci-fi writer - probably to be honest because of the lack of competition (not to say sci-fi is by definition badly written... it just attracts a lot of people who, whilst they might have a few good ideas, lack any ability to express them).

 

[a dense loner]

sci-fi writer? r u on about iain m. banks? who is a different person

 

[Bonjoy]

I hope you are being sarcastic Dense.

 

[chappers]

sci-fi writer? r u on about iain m. banks? who is a different person

:roll: iain banks, writer of crow road, a song of stone, wasp factory etc. thats who im on about.