The book thread

Dick Knecht!

Any recommendations for books to go on Mocky C's Christmas wishlist?

Everybody should have at least one Winnie the Pooh book to turn to in times of need (small people feeling poorly, stormy weather/noisy neighbours preventing sleep, that sort of thing). Genuine comfort reading (and it might make girls think you're cute).

I've just finished Patricia Cornwall's latest offering, it wasn't bad, which I guess isn't much of a recommendation. I only really buy them out of habit as I've read all of her Scarpetta novels. Anyway there's a new Michael Connelly book out soon and I also enjoy reading Lee Child, Harlan Coben and Robert Crais.

I've had a Kindle for about a year now, I really like it but it does make it very easy to buy books as soon as you've finished the last one.

I got a coupla books for Chrimbo, huzzah!

I asked for Pilgermann by the aforementioned Hoban and got it.

My other half also noticed how much I enjoyed The Ballad Of Trenchmouth Taggart by Glenn Taylor, and bought me 'The Marrowbone Marble Company', which I've gotten about half way through. It's good: set in post war Yankland about some guy whose returned home and sets up, well, a marble company. Not sure what happens from there, but it is written nicely. Not sure I'm as gripped as I was by TT yet tho.

Peggy wrote:

Peggy wrote:

Tonight I shall be starting a new (to me) series of Swedish crime novels, by Helene Tursten. The cover of the first one says 'The Swedish Prime Suspect', which might be a good thing or might be a bad thing.

I'll report back.

Still reading it, and it's going very well. The murder victim (we're not sure yet if he's a good guy or a bad guy) is called Richard von Knecht.

Finished that one: it was good enough to encourage me to seek out another of hers, which was terrible.

Not long finished Bill Bryson's Private Life: A short history of nearly everything (or something like that - I've taken it back to the library, and can't be arsed to google it). This was very good: he used a tour round an old village rectory (his own house) as the basis/excuse for a big sweep through all sorts of stuff which could have been very boring but was told in the engaging, conversational tone of his early travelogues.

I'm now reading The World According to Garp. Having been a fan of John Irving for years, I'm surprised I haven't read it before. Or, perhaps, I read it so long ago I've forgotten it (this is something to look forward to, kids: when you reach a certain age you get to relive whole swathes of your life). Anyway, it's very good.

I got that one before Xmas too (Garp) Pegs, so perhaps this makes us mates?

I've not started it yet tho.

Might start it so we can be better mates than before.

Ah ............. Pilgerman ........... !!!!

I have recently started on "The Lacuna" by Barbara Kingsolver. It was a Xmas pressie a couple of years ago. Her "Poisonwood Bible" was a quite superb book - one of my favourites of recent years (along with 'Pilgerman' & Dickens' 'Hard Times').

I am still reading "Ulysses" though I have put it aside for the time being.

Hmm. For after Garp I've got a couple of Phillippa Gregory's out of the library - you want to read them too? It could be like a proper book group - like the one I used to go to until I got some paid work at exactly the same time.

(I feel compelled to add: my interest in history is mostly about ordinary people - especially labour history - so I wouldn't usually go within a gnat's crotchet of the kind of historical fiction she writes, which is mostly about kings and queens and that. Only she does write it very well, and I've enjoyed virtually everything she's produced.)

Knecht: I got both those Kingsolver books out of the library earlier this year, but didn't have time to start either of them before they were recalled because another reader had requested them.

You better hurry up and read them as she's just written another one (that is getting mixed reviews).

I stopped going to my Book Group as it was made up of boring old(ish) men which, of course, I'm not.

Peggy wrote:

Peggy wrote:

Peggy wrote:

Tonight I shall be starting a new (to me) series of Swedish crime novels, by Helene Tursten. The cover of the first one says 'The Swedish Prime Suspect', which might be a good thing or might be a bad thing.

I'll report back.

Still reading it, and it's going very well. The murder victim (we're not sure yet if he's a good guy or a bad guy) is called Richard von Knecht.

Finished that one: it was good enough to encourage me to seek out another of hers, which was terrible.

Not long finished Bill Bryson's Private Life: A short history of nearly everything (or something like that - I've taken it back to the library, and can't be arsed to google it). This was very good: he used a tour round an old village rectory (his own house) as the basis/excuse for a big sweep through all sorts of stuff which could have been very boring but was told in the engaging, conversational tone of his early travelogues.

I'm now reading The World According to Garp. Having been a fan of John Irving for years, I'm surprised I haven't read it before. Or, perhaps, I read it so long ago I've forgotten it (this is something to look forward to, kids: when you reach a certain age you get to relive whole swathes of your life). Anyway, it's very good.

I'm sure I recommended Garp on a Mundane post sometime.

Wonderful. Absolutely laugh out loud, cry to yourself & wish-for-a-different-turn-of-events wonderful.

Might dig it out & start on it again tonight, myself.

Ps I think the book of the film saw Robin Williams' movie debut. But could be wrong.

Just read barney Hoskins led zeppelin book. Basically jimmy page was a thoroughly nasty piece of work, John bonham was an alcoholic schizophrenic capable of supreme acts of violence and also gentleness, Peter grant set out with the right ambitions, to wrest control back from the shyster promoters to the artists but in doing so created a new type of beast and became a paranoid bully boy. John Paul jones was disregarded by everyone and was prepared to leave by 1974 had the manager not talked him out of it. Robert plant comes out of it very well, but then he suffered the most out of all of them and has spent his life trying to avoid the juggernaut.

In short nothing you didn't already know or suspect.

JonB wrote:

Ps I think the book of the film saw Robin Williams' movie debut. But could be wrong.

Haven't seen that (but according to IMDb it was his second starring film role, after Popeye). But then I never watch the film before reading the book - and in some cases deeply regret seeing the film after reading the book, if the film doesn't do justice.

Cold Mountain, for instance. The book's amazing, full of incredible characters coping with extreme circumstances - nearly every chapter makes you stop and think. The film. on the other hand, reduced it all to a soppy love story and proved that full length novels should rarely, if ever, be put on screen because too much has to be left out. (Breakfast at Tiffany's, one of the most perfect films ever made, isn't entirely true to the book - mostly because the book was considered too blunt for the audience of the time - but it works because the book's very short.)

And sometimes they just get the pictures wrong. Tess of the D'Urbervilles was one of my favourite novels until I saw the Roman Polanski (spit) film: beautiful though Nastassia Kinsky is, that's NOT what Tess looks like!

All of which just goes to prove that reading is better than watching. And that radio's often better than telly.

Garp is excellent, Jon.

I've about 50 pages to go but the other half doesn't like me reading as it means I'm not being entertaining. I'll finish it on the bus to work I expect.

Great characters yet very believable.

Any Garp updates?

A Garpdate?

Found myself disliking Helen and wanting to know more about Roberta (not in a sicko way, just struggled to picture the friendship).

A good tale throughout. It might sound funny, but I really liked the fairly flat tone of the book. Meant it could stay quite dry and not lose it's touch on reality.

Will be checking our the Cider House Rules...

OUT ffs.

Knecht.

Pilgermann.

Excellent again.

Finding it tough to read - again (I have a reading age of a drunk 6 year old, and the anatomy of a beaver).

Breaking it down into paragraph by paragraph.

I can't honestly say how far I've gotten yet because I'm finding re-reading it more rewarding than finishing it. I think I'm about on chapter 8/9.

I might have to deviate from it to fit in Cider House Rules as per bookclub. I'll finish it one day and feel a better human being for doing so.

I did similar with Pilgerman. And getting to the end is well worth it.

I chose one of Hoban's early books, Kleinzeit, for my book-club. Not one of his best but a fun read. It went down like a french kiss at a family reunion.

Nobody reading anyfink no more, then? Standards have slipped round here and no mistake.

I started reading the Cider House Rules on 12 February. I will be finishing it later tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. (Had a lot on, see.)

It's really ever so good. But I'm not going to tell you anything more - you'll just have to read it for yourselves.

(I do like it when I'm masterful.)

I've already read it.



I liked it, I don't think as much as Garp (the last third wasn't as good as the rest of the book imho, and I think Garp was more me than Homer, if that makes sense), but still very good.

The best thing about Irvine is the depth of 'part-time' characters like Roberta Muldoon, Melony, the two nurses, Ernie Holm, etc.

I think I liked Garp more, although it did upset me big time. You'll know the bit I mean.

Irving has a proper skill at creating BIG, sexually precocious, really rather scary girls - there's Melony (who I'd like to meet in real life, actually), there's one in Owen Meany, and there's several in Until I Find You.

Not really fair to compare Garp and CHR, though, on reflection. Garp's about individual morality, doing the right thing and that, whereas CHR's more about collective responsibility. Innit.

Larch is exceptional, too. Posso my fave character across the two books. Apart from the first two. And praps the mystery of Mr Rose, who obvo lets himself down in the end.

Also, welcome back. The site gains a certain respectability when the critical voices are slightly more measured, and aint all rabid members of the plymuff brethren sucking menthol, etc. roar.