The books thread

[blixa]

finished the wasp factory, which i really loved. it was kind of twisted. i didn't expect the end to be the way it was. all the storylines behind the characters were very good.

next up:


also i'm going to check out tana french. her books seem interesting.

[lukas989]

finished the wasp factory, which i really loved. it was kind of twisted. i didn't expect the end to be the way it was. all the storylines behind the characters were very good.

next up:


also i'm going to check out tana french. her books seem interesting.

Cool - u read any other Iain Banks?  May I heartily recommend...well all of em, but specifically The Bridge and Espedair Street, both magnifico.

[blixa]

i'd never read him before. that was the first banks book. i'm going to read more of him. his writing is very much suited to what i like.

[lukas989]

You cant go wrong as I say - plus the Wasp Factory was his first, so its kinda a case of the only way is up from there...not that Im saying that was a bad book...quite the opposite - but you definitely see the skills being honed with his later stuff.  His stories are often very imaginative - I mentioned the Bridge specifically, which has a pair of stories running side by side, one set in reality, the other in a fantasy style...lets just say you find yourself, 'What the...oh wow right!' a  lot, - it was the first book in a good while I read again just to marry up what had confused me a bit before.  With this, hes also a prominant sci-fi writer (Iain M Banks) - Im generally not a big sci-fi guy, but the few Ive read have been great as well.  Being Scottish, he was a writer I had thrust upon me - but that has no bearing on him being one of my absolute favourites, hes just generally really good. 
  On the subject of Tana French - Im half way through Faithful Place, and is absolutely great.  I read a few reviews on Amazon and stuff, and she gets a lot of criticism form crime fans, for being predictable and getting bogged down in character backgrounds...but for me that much more entertaining than abc crime shit - I want to know all the background on the people Im reading about - which makes her books all the more intriguing as with each the focus switches to a character who was a bit part in other books (the first from the focal point of the guy investigating the crime bearing similarities to his experiences as a child, the second from that of his partner, the third, from that of the head of undercover that sent the partner into the premise of the second) - to me all adds to the desire to keep reading.  I love subtle things in books and films that nod to previous unexplained at the time happenings...brings the analytical nerd out in me

[blixa]

i just bought it for $5.50 off ebay. you're a good salesman hahaha

you know, david peace got quite a bit of criticism too but i'm loving 1974 right now. the language is right up my alley. i'm going to give french a whirl and see what she's like. i'm liking the context of the books and the storyline seems really interesting. i also like it when the characters are given a background. it gives you a chance to care about them.

[lukas989]

Cool - Im hugely confident that money with be a worthwhile investment   Please hit me with your recommendations by the way...my stack of xmas books is fast running out...I am however gonna get The Secret History by Donna Tartt - heartily recommended by other Tana French fans funnily enough.  Have you (or anyone else for that matter) read her stuff?

[blixa]

i really love annie proulx and flannery o'connor but other than that i don't tend to read a lot of female novelists. for a long time all i read was kazantzakis and berger. both whom i recommend highly. i've been branching out recently and reading a lot of stuff i wouldn't normally. i'm also finally reading david foster wallace.

[lukas989]

Great - I'll wade into their works forthwith.  All the talk of books has had me reminisce about others Ive read recently..there was a couple of total turkeys (but the completist in me saw me struggle through to the end...avoid Martina Coles The Business at all costs...fuck knows how it ended up in my pile, and also Playing Dead by Harlan Corben - complete and utter shit), but I heartily recommend Losing You by Nicci French (no relation to Tana haha), which is a chapterless onslaught about a woman who wakes up on the day her and her family are due to go on holiday,  only her daughters missing...cue the frantic search, desperate wrangles with friends and police alike to join her and prove shes not overreacting, suspecting those around her...its a tough one to put down.

[blixa]

the only bad ones i've read have been by nick hornby hahaha

do you (or anyone else for that matter) know of any books that deal with incest or have incest as a plotline? i'm seriously obsessed with incest.

[lukas989]

hehe - well read Iain Banks' second book Walking on Glass.  Its featured.

[blixa]

i knew he would've dealt with it hahaha. that's what i liked about wasp factory. frank's 'accident' was like a OH MY JESUS for me. i found the character of his brother eric intensely interesting. i think eric was the most interesting thing about the book. his breakdown was very validating to me as a reader. it was so wonderfully and explicitly described. it seriously gave me the creepies.

[blixa]

currently reading 'we need to talk about kevin'. it is fucking great. so so so great. i'm halfway and man, it's chilling me to the bones.

can't wait for the movie. if it's as brilliant as this book then it's going to be sweeeet:

[raynor]

Anyone else feel that Hakuri Murakami is a bit overrated? I only read one of his books, Kafka on the beach. I guess it was alright, but everybody is always raving about how awesome he is.

[Variable]

Apparently I need to get my shit together.  I don't even know who he is. 

Right now I have to re-read Orwell's 1984 for my english class.  which is cool, because I get to do a lot of research papers about how bad government control is and shit.  But, I don't have time to read anything else that I want to for the time being. 

Next I want to read "Hells Angels" By Hunter Thompson.  Anyone else read it?  I just feel like it's one of those books that I should have read at least 10 years ago, and never did. 

[bright lights, big city]

A Dance With Dragons comes out today!!

[Jerry_Curls]

Anyone else feel that Hakuri Murakami is a bit overrated? I only read one of his books, Kafka on the beach. I guess it was alright, but everybody is always raving about how awesome he is.

Ehh....probably overrated, but his books are fun reads. I like the way he implements humour, sensuality, irony, fantasy into one. I would read another one by him, maybe give The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle a try....a bit long, but amazing.

I'm reading Try by Dennis Cooper. It's pretty intense, homo shit, but great nonetheless. Can't wait to read his first novel, Closer.



I'm also reading Coin-locker Babies by Ryu Murakami. Interesting story so far.

[tarkil]

A Dance With Dragons comes out today!!

I know... I so want to buy it, but I wanted to re read all the other books before, as it's such a long time since I read them... Meaning my memories of it are reasonably vague... But I left all my books in France, so I would need to buy all of them a second time... Which would not only break my balls, but cost me a fucking arm and a leg as well, because books in Hong Kong are so damn expensive !!!

Second option is that I wait to come back to France for Christmas, and get my books at that time... But I'm sure I will have read too many spoilers by that time... Damn it !!

I'm also reading Coin-locker Babies by Ryu Murakami. Interesting story so far.

Ryu Murakami, is great, much butter than Haruki Murakami in my opinion...

[tarkil]

RIP Ray Bradbury.


http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-bradbury-local-20120607,0,7302192.story

[TheShade1989]

I tried reading The Hunger Games because apparently it's a brilliant book and a friend whose recommendations I trust said it was good, but...boring. And the only books I consider boring are books by Jane Austen, so that's a big deal. I like crime/thriller books at the moment though; Jeffery Deaver, Karin Slaughter and Dean Koontz's books are the best.

[endstand]

Anyone else feel that Hakuri Murakami is a bit overrated? I only read one of his books, Kafka on the beach. I guess it was alright, but everybody is always raving about how awesome he is.

I do feel he is overrated! I don't understand why he is so popular. I read three of his books (A Wild Sheep Chase; Dance Dance Dance; The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle) and they all are so familiar.. Guy is left by his girlfriend, strange things begin to happen, and in the end girlfriend comes back.