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Post by mosiemo on Aug 24, 2017 10:43:07 GMT
Oh I might have to go and re-read that now you mention it. I'm about to start Graham Norton's novel, which according to my Mother was actually quite good (and the Mother has a low tolerance for poor books). I'm also re-reading 'Fangirl' by Rainbow Rowell which I find a comforting read reminiscent of my own University years. I'm halfway through 'Holding'. Wasn't really expecting to enjoy it as much as I am, but so far it's a good read |
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Post by joem on Aug 26, 2017 21:42:19 GMT
I am currently reading The Kalevala, one of the CJ Sansom Tudor novels and the first Capital book (Marx, not Lanchester).
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Post by Marwood on Aug 26, 2017 22:40:03 GMT
Reading Alec Baldwins autobiography Nevertheless- only got a few chapters in but I'm enjoying it more than a lot of other actors memoirs (I'm reading it as if I have Jack Donaghy speaking the words out loud) - he's still at school at this point but I'm hoping he goes into detail about his, ahem 'creative differences ' with Shia LaBoeuf later on 😝 Just finished this and found it interesting but fairly underwhelming. I felt rather cheated with his repeated use of "heres a list of other movies I enjoyed making..." etc. Now nearing the end - he does seem to skip over a lot of the stuff he's done, but the book would be three or four times the size if he went into details about every film he's done - think its's fair to say he's not Harrison Ford's biggest fan though  |
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Post by Marwood on Sept 6, 2017 10:54:10 GMT
Got a couple of long(ish) train journeys lined up for this weekend and next week, so am going to be reading Smile by Roddy Doyle while I do so - I haven't read much of his work since the Barrytown Trilogy, and this was the most appealing looking book on offer when I had a browse in the Foyles on the South Bank last night.
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Post by Tibidabo on Sept 22, 2017 21:39:59 GMT
Oh, and I'm really looking forward to reading the new Ken Follett novel that'll be released this September. This has arrived! It is the size of a breeze block! It has maps of Kingsbridge and Kingsbridge Priory on the inside cover. Can't wait to get stuck in!📖😃 |
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Post by Michael on Sept 23, 2017 4:58:00 GMT
Oh, and I'm really looking forward to reading the new Ken Follett novel that'll be released this September. This has arrived! It is the size of a breeze block! It has maps of Kingsbridge and Kingsbridge Priory on the inside cover. Can't wait to get stuck in!📖😃 The German edition has 1168 pages. I've read the book over the last weekend - a true Follett and a real page turner. Really enjoyed it and you don't need to know anything from the other two books to follow the story. |
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Post by Tibidabo on Sept 23, 2017 7:44:12 GMT
The German edition has 1168 pages. Lol! Only 750 in the English edition - but we all already knew that German words are nearly twice as long as their English counterparts!  Can't believe you've had the luxury of reading it in a weekend! Glad you enjoyed it Michael - I can't wait! |
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Post by Tibidabo on Oct 19, 2017 16:09:02 GMT
I've read the book over the last weekend - a true Follett and a real page turner. Really enjoyed it and you don't need to know anything from the other two books to follow the story. I'm afraid I can't agree with you on this one Michael. After an entire month I have, sadly, given up on page 300 (of 750) of Ken Follett's latest tome. I think it's awful. The writing doesn't have the usual Follett flow but is more 'He said this,' 'She did that.' The characters are dull - not a patch on Prior Philip, Tom Builder, William Hamleigh, etc etc. There is nothing to replace all the wonderful descriptions of cathedral building or bridge building or the slow realisation of how diseases are spread, as happened when the plague hit. And the forbidden love story is a damp squib compared with Jack and Aliena. I simply kept dozing off. I am bitterly disappointed, having waited ages in anticipation. |
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Post by anita on Oct 29, 2017 10:42:42 GMT
My copy of "Must Close Saturday" by Adrian Wright just arrived. [-Not another bloody book! says husband]. Will start it this afternoon.
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Post by joem on Oct 29, 2017 10:55:31 GMT
Currently reading the new Salman Rushdie "The Golden House" and the old noir classic "The Mask of Dimitrios" (Eric Ambler).
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Post by viserys on Oct 31, 2017 12:36:45 GMT
I'm afraid I can't agree with you on this one Michael. After an entire month I have, sadly, given up on page 300 (of 750) of Ken Follett's latest tome. I think it's awful. The writing doesn't have the usual Follett flow but is more 'He said this,' 'She did that.' The characters are dull - not a patch on Prior Philip, Tom Builder, William Hamleigh, etc etc. There is nothing to replace all the wonderful descriptions of cathedral building or bridge building or the slow realisation of how diseases are spread, as happened when the plague hit. And the forbidden love story is a damp squib compared with Jack and Aliena. I simply kept dozing off. I am bitterly disappointed, having waited ages in anticipation. I'm sorry to hear that, Tibs. I've been on the fence about this one, as I quite liked the first two instalments of the saga. Ironically I had the same problem with Follett's 20th century trilogy - I LOVED the first two, Fall of Giants and Winter of the World, but found the third one, Edge of Eternity, completely awful and nearly unreadable - I ended up skimming big parts just to get to the end. I wonder if Follett signs contracts for trilogies but runs out of steam and ideas in the second book, so the third is drivel. There's so much else good stuff to read, I guess I'll pass on this then. I'm presently reading Nicola Griffith's "Hild", a novelization of the life of 7th century (later) Saint Hilda and anglo-saxon Britain. Once I got my head around all the anglo-saxon place names, tribes, etc. and the story picked up pace, it's become an engrossing read about a period I knew absolutely nothing of before. |
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Post by Tibidabo on Oct 31, 2017 15:06:11 GMT
viserys , the reviews on Amazon are basically saying that some people are finding it ok as a standalone but anyone who is expecting the Kingsbridge story to continue is bitterly disappointed as there is not much of the story actually set there. (Having only read a third of the book I presumed the setting would revert back to Kingsbridge later as most of what I read was set in Spain and France.) Also, I really don't like real historical characters mixed with fictional ones to the extent they are in Column. It's just weird. One of the main characters is the 'best friend' of Mary Queen of Scots and it's all just a bit meh and another becomes the right hand man to Elizabeth 1. Personally I only think this works in the case of things like Blackadder, where everything is to be taken with a huge bucket of salt. As for Follett being contracted for trilogies, etc. I often think that authors let someone else write some of their stuff for them when they get a bit bored with their characters. I stopped reading Lynda La Plante when I became convinced she'd allowed a teenager to write most of one of her books! (Sheer conjecture on my part of course.) Always leave them wanting more is a mantra that maybe authors should take up when they keep bashing out series that should have reached their natural conclusion.
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Post by viserys on Oct 31, 2017 15:17:59 GMT
Always leave them wanting more is a mantra that maybe authors should take up when they keep bashing out series that should have reached their natural conclusion. Here's looking at you, JK Rowling and your cursed child... ahem. But yea, I agree. To be fair, it's been so long since I read the other Kingsbridge books, I have forgotten most of their plots anyway. I loved the adaptation of "Pillars of the Earth" where I first discovered the young Eddie Redmayne and David Oakes. Follett tends to be a very "black and white" writer with some super-goody heroines and heroes and some moustache-twirling super-baddies, which can also get a bit formulaic. |
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Post by Tibidabo on Oct 31, 2017 15:31:42 GMT
I loved the adaptation of "Pillars of the Earth" where I first discovered the young Eddie Redmayne and David Oakes. Follett tends to be a very "black and white" writer with some super-goody heroines and heroes and some moustache-twirling super-baddies, which can also get a bit formulaic. William Hamleigh has to be The Best Baddie ever created.....formulaic or not! Rupert Evans playing Godwyn in World Without End was absolutely terrific as a nasty, conniving little snake. Oh, and David Oakes. Just because. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2017 15:36:28 GMT
I stopped reading Lynda La Plante when I became convinced she'd allowed a teenager to write most of one of her books! (Sheer conjecture on my part of course.) Always leave them wanting more is a mantra that maybe authors should take up when they keep bashing out series that should have reached their natural conclusion. Arthur C Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama was one of my favourite books as a child, telling a story of an alien visitor to our solar system so far ahead of us that they didn't even register that we were here. Then Gentry Lee wrote several sequels to it that threw away the galaxy-spanning scope of the original and made it all about petty squabbles and a bunch of poorly-defined species that didn't much care about anything outside their neighbourhood. The Gentry Lee books are best bought as ebooks, because then it saves you the muscular effort of physically throwing a block of paper into the bin. |
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Post by peelee on Nov 1, 2017 17:35:44 GMT
Speaking of JK Rowling, I am two-thirds of the way through The Cuckoo's Calling, the first book by Robert Galbraith, which I was given as a birthday present in 2013. It's been an enjoyable bedtime-reading experience so far.
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Post by Tibidabo on Nov 2, 2017 14:30:37 GMT
Has anyone read the new Dan Brown, Origin? I ask because, for the first time ever, I am listening to it in audio book version. I have a new long drive to work and my favourite radio station changes to opera on every roundabout  and is sketchy the rest of the time, so thought this seemed like a good idea. I am trying to decide if it's the book or if it's just me. I keep zoning out. Really badly zoning out. The whole point is to take my mind off work, which is not happening. I wonder if I'm zoning out because a) I'm just not used to audio books and need to persevere or b) because the narrator is horrendous or c) because the book's rubbish! I know Dan Brown comes in for a lot of stick, but I'm positive if I'd had the Da Vinci Code in audio version I'd have taken an even longer route to work as it was perfect escapism........or would I? Anyone got any comments? |
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Post by viserys on Nov 2, 2017 19:55:19 GMT
I haven't read Origin (yet?) but I found that Dan Brown gets old very fast. The first book by him I read was Angels & Demons and I loved it. The second was DaVinci Code which I thought was "okay", then I read the third one (I have actually forgotten the title already, the one set in Florence) and was getting really tired of the same-y style, the oh so many last-minute saves by Langdon, the bland female sidekick, the long-winded descriptions (which you can at least skim in a book, but not in an audio book).
So you might just be bored by the fact that Dan Brown basically keeps writing the same book just set in a different European town, or it may be the narrator or perhaps the location? I have never tried listening to audio books, but I figure it's something I'd do in a sunlounger or on a train but not in the car where I need to focus on driving too much to immerse myself in the story.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2017 20:00:37 GMT
I love audio books, but I can NOT listen to them in the car. I find it impossible to concentrate on the story in the car and get so sleepy. Long journeys for me are concert downloads or soundtracks I can sing along to. Audio books are for bedtime!
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Post by Tibidabo on Nov 2, 2017 20:38:19 GMT
or it may be the narrator or perhaps the location? The narrator is awful. He does a pretty good Spanish accent and a passable English one, but the voice he puts on for the female lead reminds me of David Walliams being silly. It's tedious. The location is the reason I bought it. I lived in the 3 Spanish cities where it is mainly set and know the names of streets and the buildings that are mentioned. I love this, but even find I tune out during these descriptions and have to rewind. the bland female sidekick, She is. She really is. And soooo beautiful. *yawn* I can NOT listen to them in the car. And maybe that's the problem. Maybe driving takes more concentration than we realise we give it, especially in rush hour. I really appreciate your comments viserys and @elanor. It's interesting to hear what you think. I wonder if it would be worth having another try, but going for a narrator like Stephen Fry who would be amusing or Roger Allam who I could listen to recite the phone book. (I have no idea if they record audio books - they are just examples.) |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2017 21:37:52 GMT
For me, my love of audio books started as a small child when my mum read me bedtime stories. I always wanted one more, so she recorded herself reading them and gave me a cassette player so I could relisten. She'd read me one then go downstairs, and I'd listen to another couple. I've listened to stories in bed ever since. I only have one tape of my mum reading left, and it's adorable - she sounds so different being 40 years younger, and she reads so well. And I can hear me chiming in every so often to ask what a word means or to point at something in the picture. Anyway, nowadays my favourite audio books are the Shardlake books read by Anton Lesser, the Jane Austen novels read by Prunella Scales and the TimeRiders novels read by Trevor White. I also love the Lord of the Rings radio drama from the 80s, which I remember listening to on the radio first time round.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2017 21:39:39 GMT
Ooh, I also really like Tim Piggott Smith reading Lord of the Flies.
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Post by viserys on Nov 11, 2017 16:13:10 GMT
Not exactly a big read but... I got a large coffee table book called "London Theatres" by Michael Coveney and Peter Dazeley for my birthday which is a really nice thing to have. I'm missing a few of the smaller theatres but otherwise the coverage is very extensive with interesting background stories for each theatre and most importantly, lots of great photos.
They allow me a peek into the theatres I still haven't got around to visiting and draw my eyes to so many amazing little details in theatres I know but which I never noticed. I think some of the big pictures of the auditorium are very useful in combination with Theatremonkey's website.
So, anyway, if you're soon facing "What would you like for christmas?" questions by relatives and friends, I'd definitely recommend this.
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Post by tmesis on Nov 13, 2017 16:11:36 GMT
I'm half way through Isy Suttie's 'The Actual One.' It's a highly recommended memoir (although she would find the term way too poncey) about growing up and relationships. Some hilarious tales of awful stand up gigs and fringe theatre. It's very well written, quirky and lovable.
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Post by Tibidabo on Nov 15, 2017 19:42:52 GMT
Well, I finally finished the audio version of Origin. Don't ask. No idea. Nada. Regardless of the poor narration, I fear it's no Da Vinci Code.
I still needed to find something to occupy my long journeys to work so I hatched a cunning plan....in fact, No Cunning Plan if truth be told! I am now listening to Tony Robinson's self-narrated autobiography and it's perfect! Funny anecdotes, loads of gossip and it doesn't matter if I miss a bit as there's no plot to keep up with. I'm not that far in, but by the time he was 15 he'd been understudied (and bullied) by small faces (I first accidentally typed that as faeces) Steve Marriott, been taught PE at school by Ron Pickering and had his first crush severely crushed backstage by Marti Webb when he was brought down to earth to discover that she didn't even know his name after several months in the cast.
Every year he receives a royalty cheque amounting to £4.85 for his footsteps making the sound of Oliver's walk up to ask for more in the original cast recording. (The boy singing Oliver was wearing plimsoles so they couldn't use him!)
I'm really enjoying it and Tony (sorry, Sir Tony....and I won't give away the hilarious story of what happened when he went to tell his mother-in-law he was receiving a knighthood) manages to keep the tone neutral without sounding too self-satisfied.
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and is sketchy the rest of the time, so thought this seemed like a good idea.