[Misc] What Book are you Currently Reading?

Buzzer

Languidly Clinical

Oct 1, 2006

26,121

• Aug 1, 2016

• #2,001

basque seagull said:

Have read the winner, The Vegetarian, good book but very dark. Any others you recommend from the shortlist? Will have a read of the The Four Books. Thanks!

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The only other I'd really recommend from the other shortlisters would be Orhan Pamuk - 'Strangeness in my Mind'. However, if you're after a good book then I'd highly recommend Ian McGuire's 'The North Water'. I've set myself the task again this year of reading the Man Booker longlist, currently I've only read The North Water and found it impossible to put down - I had to read it as quickly as possible. Unusually for a Man Booker lister this is an action thriller novel - a historical one at that. Set in the 1800s it follows the journey of a whaling ship from Hull to Greenland and the 2 main protagonists - one a ship's captain and the other a Bill Sykes type baddie who is evil personified. It's fast-paced but still quite cerebral and the attention to period detail is something else, it could easily have been written by someone like Joseph Conrad or Herman Melville.

 

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basque seagull

Active member

Oct 21, 2012

361

• Aug 1, 2016

• #2,002

Buzzer said:

The only other I'd really recommend from the other shortlisters would be Orhan Pamuk - 'Strangeness in my Mind'. However, if you're after a good book then I'd highly recommend Ian McGuire's 'The North Water'. I've set myself the task again this year of reading the Man Booker longlist, currently I've only read The North Water and found it impossible to put down - I had to read it as quickly as possible. Unusually for a Man Booker lister this is an action thriller novel - a historical one at that. Set in the 1800s it follows the journey of a whaling ship from Hull to Greenland and the 2 main protagonists - one a ship's captain and the other a Bill Sykes type baddie who is evil personified. It's fast-paced but still quite cerebral and the attention to period detail is something else, it could easily have been written by someone like Joseph Conrad or Herman Melville.

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Thanks!

Enviado desde mi XT1068 mediante Tapatalk

 

Buzzer

Languidly Clinical

Oct 1, 2006

26,121

• Aug 1, 2016

• #2,003

basque seagull said:

Thanks!

Enviado desde mi XT1068 mediante Tapatalk

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You're welcome!

Regarding Primo Levi, I agree - he's a must-read and probably the definitive first-hand account of the holocaust. He set out to write as full and factual account of life and death at Auschwitz as possible but also the motives of those involved was something Levi struggled to come to terms with and this is why he wrote so much on it.

You have some books that, as others have written, focus on the little things (Moments of Reprieve details how prisoners normalised their situation and managed somehow to have friendships, rivalries, routines and suchlike whereas Drowned and the Saved tells of the types of characters who were overwhelmed very quickly by the horrors and then others who were determined to survive as long as possible) and you then have some books where Levi reflects on his own feelings towards the Germans. His books are certainly not repetitive.

Given his analytical approach (he was a scientist) and that he was well into his old age when he died, I don't think he deliberately killed himself. His fall from a top balcony of stairs It was either accidental or murder, I reckon.

 

SUA Seagull

Well-known member

Jul 23, 2016

408

Stratford-upon-Avon

• Aug 1, 2016

• #2,004

basque seagull said:

Another vote for Primo Levi here, probably the best writer on the Holocaust. If this is a man is an excellent work.

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Agree re Levi's "If this is a man". The power in Levi's writing is that he focuses on a factual account of the (literally) day-to-day survival rituals that many in the concentration camps pursued in the face of unspeakable atrocities perpetrated by their captors. It describes calmly and objectively, without rage, the victims' primal instinct to survive to "tell the tale", rather than graphically portray the Nazis' methodical and cynical violence. It is one of those books you have to put down from time to time to draw breath and absorb the gravity of what he's just written in terms that are so matter-of-fact, or to comprehend how man can be capable of behaving so monstrously towards his fellow man. It is a haunting read and one of my favourite books.

 

SULLY COULDNT SHOOT

Loyal2Family+Albion!

Sep 28, 2004

11,283

Izmir, Southern Turkey

• Aug 1, 2016

• #2,005

Don Quixote said:

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

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Good choice - Abercrombie is masterful writer

 

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Cheeky Monkey

Well-known member

Jul 17, 2003

23,037

• Aug 1, 2016

• #2,006

The Wall Jumper by Peter Schneider, about people crossing the Berlin Wall, a novel that reads like non-fiction.

 

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wilko1

Active member

Feb 23, 2009

592

Eastbourne

• Aug 1, 2016

• #2,007

Reading the End of the World Running Club
Really enjoying it so far...can't beat Civilisation crumbling

 

wakeytom

New member

Apr 14, 2011

2,718

The Hacienda

• Aug 4, 2016

• #2,008

Anyone read this? Not sure if to read it before Elon Musk, about to start one of them

 

Marshy

Well-known member

Jul 6, 2003

19,725

FRUIT OF THE BLOOM

• Aug 4, 2016

• #2,009

To kill a mockingbird - Harper lee

Literally started it today

 

Behind Enemy Lines

Well-known member

Jul 18, 2003

4,806

London

• Aug 4, 2016

• #2,010

Just finished the Narrow Road to the Deep North. I thought was a slow burner to begin with but then became electrifyingly intense and whilst that was impossible to maintain post POW camp, I loved the aftermath and found it moving. It's a brilliant written and memorable book which I'd throughly recommend.

 

whitelion

New member

Dec 16, 2003

12,828

Southwick

• Aug 4, 2016

• #2,011

Marshy said:

To kill a mockingbird - Harper lee

Literally started it today

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Read it a few months ago. Always been on a bucket list. Found the style difficult at first but determined to finish it and found it very good.

 

Silk

New member

May 4, 2012

2,488

Uckfield

• Aug 14, 2016

• #2,012

Behind Enemy Lines said:

Just finished the Narrow Road to the Deep North. I thought was a slow burner to begin with but then became electrifyingly intense and whilst that was impossible to maintain post POW camp, I loved the aftermath and found it moving. It's a brilliant written and memorable book which I'd throughly recommend.

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That's good to know. I downloaded it from Kindle when it was on offer at 99p. It's on my albeit enormous "to read" list!

 

jakarta

Well-known member

May 25, 2007

15,632

Sullington

• Aug 14, 2016

• #2,013

wakeytom said:

Anyone read this? Not sure if to read it before Elon Musk, about to start one of them

View attachment 76953

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Yes, a Holiday Read while in New Zealand in January. I could see what he was driving at, but don't think it is that memorable a book.

I think Churchill as a Politician is rather beyond BoJos simplistic world view. Max Hastings Finest Years Churchill as Warlord 1940-45 is a much better book.

 

Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's Tackle

NSC Patron

Oct 8, 2003

50,138

Faversham

• Aug 14, 2016

• #2,014

'Thatcher Stole my Trousers' by Alexei Sayle. Holiday read.

BTW, Mrs Tackle reported various approving gesticulations by a fellow Seagull at the various Seagulls stickers and whatnot in my car, parked at Porthcurno car park today. If that man is on NSC, reveal thyself

 

BN9 BHA

DOCKERS

NSC Patron

Jul 14, 2013

21,561

Newhaven

• Aug 14, 2016

• #2,015

Death Comes Knocking - Policing Roy Grace's Brighton.
Graham Bartlett with Peter James.

Very good book if you like reading about crime.
Just read a chapter about a gang, and one of them was in my year at school.
Also a chapter on policing fans for Albion matches, including when we played Palace in the first season at the Amex.

 

CorgiRegisteredFriend

Well-known member

May 29, 2011

8,318

Boring By Sea

• Aug 15, 2016

• #2,016

Non Fiction- Prisoners Of Geography. Concise insite into world Geopolitics.
Fiction- The Fishermen. About four boys living in Nigeria who disobey their father and the events that take place when they meet up with the local madman. Not the happiest of tales!

 

Simon Morgan

New member

Oct 30, 2004

6,065

Oxford

• Aug 15, 2016

• #2,017

Having another go at Jonathan Wilson 'Inverting the Pyramid'.

 

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CHAPPERS

DISCO SPENG

Jul 5, 2003

44,784

• Aug 15, 2016

• #2,018

Just finished Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami. It was fine, I guess.

On to American Gods by Neil Gaiman next.

 

Tom Hark Preston Park

Will Post For Cash

Jul 6, 2003

70,215

• Aug 15, 2016

• #2,019

Just finished re-reading 'Porno', Irvine Welsh's 2002 sequel to Trainspotting. Fantastic story-telling. Can't wait for THIS little beauty to be released in early 2017

 

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Larry Day

New member

May 13, 2016

27

Haywards

• Aug 17, 2016

• #2,020

A Spy Among Friends - Ben Macintyre's excellent addition to the well-documented Cambridge Spy Ring. An interesting take on how Kim Philly was tracked down by his chum Nicholas Elliott and, to a lesser degree, James Angleton. Well written and skilfully plotted, despite a non-fiction piece. Friendship or country first? Discuss.

Also enjoyed Andrew Lownie's excellent biog of Guy Burgess. Fascinating portrait of the man and a revealing social history of middle / upper class Britain on either side of the second world war.