Last book you read?

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Strangled Cat said:
I was waiting for someone to bite when I posted up War and Peace. Sure I read it, but not to its completion. Sadly Partridge I am a fraud! I will however endeavour to read it to its completion one day, all 1444 pages which are in the 1982 published edition that I've got. So far I've read 107 pages, that was before I put it down and read one of the many Wilbur Smith books in the book case, with the last one being River God. Well now it is back to War and Peace, I've only got another 1337 pages to go...
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Give Vassily Grossman's Life and Fate a go. Grossman was a Jewish journalist who wrote about Stalingrad for one of the Red Army's newspapers, and then followed the Army all the way through to VE Day in 1945. His mother was captured in 1941 and died in the Holocaust, and Grossman was the first first journalist into Treblinka after it was liberated - keeping in mind that the Holocaust was not at the time common knowledge. He wrote Life and Fate in the early 60s and it was an explicit nod to War and Peace. It's easier to read, although I haven't finished it either - keep getting sidetracked.
 
thejester said:
Give Vassily Grossman's Life and Fate a go. Grossman was a Jewish journalist who wrote about Stalingrad for one of the Red Army's newspapers, and then followed the Army all the way through to VE Day in 1945. His mother was captured in 1941 and died in the Holocaust, and Grossman was the first first journalist into Treblinka after it was liberated - keeping in mind that the Holocaust was not at the time common knowledge. He wrote Life and Fate in the early 60s and it was an explicit nod to War and Peace. It's easier to read, although I haven't finished it either - keep getting sidetracked.
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Cheers man I'll have to check it out sometime. As for getting sidetracked, I've got a 6 yo and a 2 yo so I do find it hard to get time to read, and since my wife runs a business from home and sorts out the kids while I'm at work, she relies on me to sort them out when I get home so she can catch up on work. I find myself reading more BF than books these days too!
 
Just finished The Hobbit, fantastic book to read, highly recommended and the movie does it no justice, in fact the movie is just full of bloatware.

On another note, does anyone here recommend reading Joe Abercrombie books?
 

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Strangled Cat said:
I was waiting for someone to bite when I posted up War and Peace. Sure I read it, but not to its completion. Sadly Partridge I am a fraud! I will however endeavour to read it to its completion one day, all 1444 pages which are in the 1982 published edition that I've got. So far I've read 107 pages, that was before I put it down and read one of the many Wilbur Smith books in the book case, with the last one being River God. Well now it is back to War and Peace, I've only got another 1337 pages to go...
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How are we going with War and Peace, mate?

From Woody Allen: "I took a speed reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia".
 
FredLeDeux said:
How are we going with War and Peace, mate?

From Woody Allen: "I took a speed reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia".
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I haven't touched it again since. I'm still on page 107 and that won't change for some time. Longer hours at work, school holidays the kids have been up later driving me nuts, and I'm now in the process of moving house. So, sometime in 2013 I should get around to reading a bit more of it LOL.
 
Im currently reading this true story called "Deceived". About some loony who convinced a few people they were being targeted by the IRA- made them change their whole lives, stop all contact with friends and family and made them live a life constantly on the run. Crazy stuff.

FredLeDeux said:
How are we going with War and Peace, mate?

From Woody Allen: "I took a speed reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia".
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Dont you mean.. War what is it good for??
 
Shell said:
Im currently reading this true story called "Deceived". About some loony who convinced a few people they were being targeted by the IRA- made them change their whole lives, stop all contact with friends and family and made them live a life constantly on the run. Crazy stuff.



Dont you mean.. War what is it good for??
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No, I don't think so.
But I'm not really sure I understand the question.
 
Finished Ball Four by Jim Bouton last week, one of the first sporting diaries written by a player. It documents Bouton, a former Yankees pitcher, during his 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots (later to become the Milwaukee Brewers) and the Houston Astros. It caused a major stir when it was released, with the commissioner of the league at the time having a meeting with Bouton and essentially ordering him to sign a statement, saying that the things he'd written about in the book were untrue. He was blacklisted from Yankees 'old timer' days for decades. Opposition teams staged book burnings when Bouton was on the visiting team in their hometown.

I'm a bit torn on this book. On the one hand, it's brilliantly written and a gripping read from beginning to end. I'm not a huge baseball fan (don't mind it, but I couldn't watch an entire nine inning game on TV) and I thought it gave a great insight into what goes on behind the scenes at a professional baseball club. On the other, I can see why people got so upset about the contents of the book. Not only does Bouton talk about some of the more unsavoury activities that baseballers (including himself) would get up to, including 'beaver shooting' (basically a group peeping tom session), popping 'greenies' before a game and players' infidelities, he names names when there really is no need to, with the legendary Mickey Mantle coming in for special attention.

Moved on to The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer, the story of Gary Gilmore, who committed two murders in Utah in 1976. He was caught, convicted and sentenced to death, causing a stir when he demanded that his death sentence be carried out. When he was executed by firing squad in early 1977, it became the first execution in the United States in nearly 10 years. Since 1977, over 1300 people in the United States have been executed. I'm only in the very early stages of the book (about 900 pages to go), but it's as amazing as I've always been told it is. Considering the impact that his fight has had, I wonder how many more important Americans there have been in the past 40 years.
 

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Wow .... Just found this thread. Will look through it all later. A few books I haven't heard of, and others that make me want to go and get them :) Thanks for this .
 
Lloyd Townsend said:
The Art of Captaincy by Mike Brearley.

Could just watch Selwood play to find the answer though.
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"On Friday I watched JM Brearley directing his fieldsmen very carefully. He then looked up at the Sun and made a little gesture which suggested it should move a little squarer. Who is this man?"
Letter to The Guardian, 1981

I also like the fact that Phil Edmonds got into the habit of walking backwards to his bowling mark, just to make sure Brearley didn't alter the field behind his back.
 
just to add to this thread. I am reading Stephen King's Under the Dome now. Can't put it down Must read more of his.
 
Blitzen Trapper, thanks for that Will look for that . Have finished Under the Dome .... saw the dvd is available in the shop . BUt will wait for awhile . Love his The Green Mile, and Shawshank Redemption .
 
Thanks for jolting my memory with this thread coffeelover :thumbsu:

Have just finished reading the first 3 books in a series by Carlos Castaneda

-Teachings of Don Juan
-A Separate Reality
-Journey to Ixtlan

They are based on the author's introduction to shamanism with a Yaqui Indian. Even after reading the first 3 books, it's difficult to tell if they are fact or fiction, but an amazing read nonetheless. Can understand they wouldn't be to everyone's taste, but I like my books to be a bit 'out there' :thumbsu:
 
:thumbsu: catgal 006 Wow They are books and an author I have never heard of . Will even have to Google "Shamanism "
 
what are you reading these days, coffeelover ?
I felt like something humorous tonight so picked up the Va Dinci Cod which is a fishy parody of the DaVinci Code. It's written by a bloke by the name of A.R.R.R. Roberts, under the pen name "Don Brine" ;)
 
Am trying to read the Wind Up Bird Chronicle at the moment. Clearly a great book but requires more attention than I can give it right now...
 
Teriyakicat said:
what are you reading these days, coffeelover ?
I felt like something humorous tonight so picked up the Va Dinci Cod which is a fishy parody of the DaVinci Code. It's written by a bloke by the name of A.R.R.R. Roberts, under the pen name "Don Brine" ;)
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LIked the DaVinci code Teriyakicat Trying to get a list together for future reading .
 
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