Really rather good books

[HonaloochieB]

EDOldie Wrote:

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> SimonM Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > Best book I ever read - and re-read many times

> -

> > by a mile is/was Catch 22

>

> I got a bit obsessed with Joseph Heller after

> Catch 22, it was one of those books and I was only

> 16. But, Something Happened, his second novel, was

> just wonderful. (Sneaks off to bookshelves to see

> if it's still there). Also Anthony Burgess, famous

> for A Clockwork Orange wrote a book called Earthly

> Powers, read the opening page for the best start

> to any novel.

Right with you there on Anthony Burgess, have read most of his books and you're spot on with Earthly Powers, as introductions go it commands attention and draws the reader in.

The Enderby series is also worth reading, though I read them years ago, as a young man and as I recall the theme might have been the dilemmas of a late middle-aged man, I might not be as interested to reread.

Who knows.

[Jimbob]

any book by colin bateman usually hits the spot for me, and the pianist by wladyslaw szpilman was an eye opener but for something to hold the imagination and to draw the final line over what happened in n.ireland over the past 40 years and why it should never be repeated, one should read the book "lost lives", which is a chronology of every person murdered/killed during the troubles. its heartbreaking and every time you feel the depths of human depravity have been reached, you turn the page and open a new chapter on how low mankind can sink.

[EDOldie]

Oh God HB, sounds like me, late middle age, in a dilema, sadly addicted to the edf, sounds a great read. Think I had one of those books once, have to have a look (goes back to bokshelves, picks up a Wilbur Smith)

[HonaloochieB]

EDOldie Wrote:

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> Oh God HB, sounds like me, late middle age, in a

> dilema, sadly addicted to the edf, sounds a great

> read. Think I had one of those books once, have to

> have a look (goes back to bokshelves, picks up a

> Wilbur Smith)

Probably for the best EDO, I think I'll go along the same lines and go for an Alistair McLean.

Now, where did I put 'Fear Is The Key'?

[SimonM]

>>a book called Earthly Powers, read the opening page for the best start to any novel.<<

I think "Earthy Powers" is his masterpiece and surely I cannot be the only one who, before consulting the dictionary, had assumed "catamite" was something to do with cars.....:)

[Sue]

Yeh agree re Earthly Powers, brilliant book.

[HonaloochieB]

SimonM Wrote:

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> >>a book called Earthly Powers, read the opening

> page for the best start to any novel.

> I think "Earthy Powers" is his masterpiece and

> surely I cannot be the only one who, before

> consulting the dictionary, had assumed "catamite"

> was something to do with cars.....:)

SimonM, I unmask you as Jeremy Clarkson.

Actually I had half an idea what it was when I read it, but then it wasn't my first excursion into Burgess. Getting a hankering for a rereading actually.

[SimonM]

>>SimonM, I unmask you as Jeremy Clarkson. <<

Bloody hell that's a low blow! But, yes, I too bought a new paperback copy for an overdue re-reading...:)

[veryseriousgirl]

My top three:

Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

[SeanMacGabhann]

Glamorama - Brett Easton Ellis was a rather good, if scary, read I thought

I've banged on about how good the Road is enough already - and plenty of people disagree with me on that point. But really.. very very good

[mockney piers]

Ooh, I love Neil Gaiman too, though I'm pretty sure all his books are basically the same story retold slightly differently, I can honestly say I don't mind.

Also quite like China Mieville who introduced me to the quote (though not originally his):

"Yes 90% of science-fiction is shit, but then 90% of everything is shit"

[Brendan]

mockney piers Wrote:

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> Ooh, I love Neil Gaiman

Have you read the Sandman series? Absolutely bloody brilliant. They?re proper books too, you know, the ones with pictures.

[mockney piers]

I haven't but do intend to. May go picture book shopping today as it goes.

[Brendan]

On the subject of really rather good picture books, I finished Watchmen the other day (just in time to be disappointed by the film. Where would Hollywood be without comics?)

I think it is actually better than V for Vendetta.

[SeanMacGabhann]

And that is saying something - but yep, it's pretty near flawless IMO

A much snappier Alan Moore book is The Killing Joke - another take on the Joker's backstory, how he came to be and how he and Batman relate. I thought it was ace when I read it 20 years ago and thought it was ace when I re-read it recently

[Moos]

I've only read Neil Gaiman's co-authored book with Terry Pratchett (Good Omens) but I thought that was funny. Also dipped into a collection of his short stories, at least one of which was shiveringly thrilling and memorable.

My favourite book ever is The Power And The Glory by Graham Greene, and before you all shout 'predictable!' that has everything to do with the beauty of the writing and the wonder of the human spirit.

Also love

The Moor?s Last Sigh - Salman Rushdie

Middlemarch - George Eliot

Most of AS Byatt?s books, although she is patchy, especially fond of Possession

The Great Gatsby ? Fitzgerald

yes to His Dark Materials ? brilliant

Cat?s Eye ? Margaret Atwood

A Prayer for Owen Meany ? John Irving

The Corrections ? Jonathan Franzen

The Reader ? Bernhard Schlink

Love in a Time of Cholera, Autumn of the Patriarch, 100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez?s books

Why is it so hard to remember great books when you want to come up with a list?

[Elfy]

I loved The Corrections. Absolutely hilarious...and I'm not normally one to laugh out loud at books.

[Rhinestone Cowboy]

Bret Easton Ellis - American Psycho Not for the faint of heart.

[Moos]

That one's a real opinion-divider. I'd put it in the awful, awful, awful camp but know a few people who loved it.

[TillieTrotter]

I found it absolutely horrifying. (td)

[Moos]

Yes, but not just that - really dull and obvious. I know the endless descriptions of clothing, business cards etc. were supposed to be Making A Point, but it was just too much.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Tis one of the few books I nearly had to put down not because I was bored but how vile I was finding it. But I'm glad I stuck with it - it's a terrific book. Of course it's horrifying but it isn't amoral and I think it's good to read something which is well-written, intelligent and horrifying and ask questions fom it. The protagonist is now easily-portrayed as an 80s yuppie and therefore From Somewhere Else - but his ability to be at the centre of society and yet go unnoticed whilst that depraved... why it almost has echoes of recent financial scandals.... What dehumanises someone to that level? Making a shedload of cash and being told how important you are to global markets might be a factor

[mockney piers]

I thought he was basically a fantasist and it was all supposed to be in his head anyway?

Once someone told me that I didn't find it nearly as difficult, and the weird obsessions are quite funny.

[EDOldie]

Try Lunar Park the, very, weird 'follow up' to American Pyscho. Now thats a really scary book and brilliant.

[SeanMacGabhann]

With you on that one too edoldie