My Current Reader

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Kafka on the Shore is a great read too.

He's got a non fiction book on the Saran attacks in Japan which is also good.

Many good books.
 
moginie said:
I stopped reading the modern novel several years ago because I realised I wasn't drunk enough, stoned enough or dysfunctional enough to identify with a lot of it.

It was a lot of Pratchett etc for a while. I like satire/comedy & at the moment the toilet reader is the scripts of the 1970's series 'Porridge' with Ronnie Barker . Really witty & doesn't date anywhere near as badly as Chopper Read's books.

I go through periods of fantasy style stuff - devoured all of the Game of Thrones series in 2012 - I must be the only person who has read all the books but never seen any of the tv series!

Have read more than my share of sport biogs - mainly cricket. I picked up 'High on Hawthorn' yesterday & I'll try to finish it before the season starts.
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Ah, the modern novel. I will rephrase that to the modern book should I rephrase that to the modern bunch of words. Only kidding.

As I said I get my books from Op shops and the shelves are full of the thriller genre, quasi medieval history, fantasy or whatever was the fad 4 to 20 years ago. Every now and again I come across a classic.

I'm going to throw some books out there to see if any others have read and their take on them.

The Bridge On The River Kwai Pierre Boulle. and
We Who Survived Cannot remember the author's name. It is a completely different take on the Burma Railway

Mogine and Grizz, How did you get around pronouncing all the Cezch names. Do you do what I do and call them Smith, Jones, Brown or even Phantasmagoria?
 
Lord Mud of Glenferrie said:
Ah, the modern novel. I will rephrase that to the modern book should I rephrase that to the modern bunch of words. Only kidding.

As I said I get my books from Op shops and the shelves are full of the thriller genre, quasi medieval history, fantasy or whatever was the fad 4 to 20 years ago. Every now and again I come across a classic.

I'm going to throw some books out there to see if any others have read and their take on them.

The Bridge On The River Kwai Pierre Boulle. and
We Who Survived Cannot remember the author's name. It is a completely different take on the Burma Railway

Mogine and Grizz, How did you get around pronouncing all the Cezch names. Do you do what I do and call them Smith, Jones, Brown or even Phantasmagoria?
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I dunno. I don't try to understand the word/name in that case, merely recognize the word form.
 

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Lord Mud of Glenferrie said:
Ah, the modern novel. I will rephrase that to the modern book should I rephrase that to the modern bunch of words. Only kidding.

As I said I get my books from Op shops and the shelves are full of the thriller genre, quasi medieval history, fantasy or whatever was the fad 4 to 20 years ago. Every now and again I come across a classic.

I'm going to throw some books out there to see if any others have read and their take on them.

The Bridge On The River Kwai Pierre Boulle. and
We Who Survived Cannot remember the author's name. It is a completely different take on the Burma Railway

Mogine and Grizz, How did you get around pronouncing all the Cezch names. Do you do what I do and call them Smith, Jones, Brown or even Phantasmagoria?
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I read the Anthony Beevor book on WW2 last year. Magnificent.
 
Lord Mud of Glenferrie said:
Mogine and Grizz, How did you get around pronouncing all the Cezch names. Do you do what I do and call them Smith, Jones, Brown or even Phantasmagoria?
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Fake it as much as possible. I just pronounced names as a collection of consonants with the occasional smatterings of a vowel. Then on to the next word like everything is normal.
 
grizzlym & Lord Mud of Glenferrie

Our discussion of Good Soldier Svejk dragged something from the recesses of my mind, so I had to go & find my copy to refresh my memory.

In the introduction to my copy Cecil Parrott, who IMHO writes an amazingly sneering biography of Hasek, informs the reader of the name of the political party that Hasek founded in 1912 - The Party of Moderate and Peaceful Progress Within the Limits of the Law.

Why don't we have party names like that in politics these days?
 
moginie said:
grizzlym & Lord Mud of Glenferrie

Our discussion of Good Soldier Svejk dragged something from the recesses of my mind, so I had to go & find my copy to refresh my memory.

In the introduction to my copy Cecil Parrott, who IMHO writes an amazingly sneering biography of Hasek, informs the reader of the name of the political party that Hasek founded in 1912 - The Party of Moderate and Peaceful Progress Within the Limits of the Law.

Why don't we have party names like that in politics these days?
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Too true.

He was an anarchist off memory. So probably having a laugh at the whole political system. Founding a political party is quite the anarchistic thing for an anarchist to do I would have thought.
 
moginie said:
grizzlym & Lord Mud of Glenferrie

Our discussion of Good Soldier Svejk dragged something from the recesses of my mind, so I had to go & find my copy to refresh my memory.

In the introduction to my copy Cecil Parrott, who IMHO writes an amazingly sneering biography of Hasek, informs the reader of the name of the political party that Hasek founded in 1912 - The Party of Moderate and Peaceful Progress Within the Limits of the Law.

Why don't we have party names like that in politics these days?
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Delighted you have mentioned this.

I tried to register the Party of Extremes and Zero Tolerance Outside the Limits of the Law. The Electoral Commission informed me that that party already exists. When I told them I had 9000000 signatures they aggressively informed me stiff bickies the original PEZTOLL had 90000001 signatures and reminded me that Australia is a democracy and PEZTOLL 1 has a mandate to do whatever it wants .
 
Lord Mud of Glenferrie said:
Delighted you have mentioned this.

I tried to register the Party of Extremes and Zero Tolerance Outside the Limits of the Law. The Electoral Commission informed me that that party already exists. When I told them I had 9000000 signatures they aggressively informed me stiff bickies the original PEZTOLL had 90000001 signatures and reminded me that Australia is a democracy and PEZTOLL 1 has a mandate to do whatever it wants .
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Dare I suggest that you form a coalition?

Looks like it is sorely needed in the Ukraine at the moment.
 
moginie said:
I stopped reading the modern novel several years ago because I realised I wasn't drunk enough, stoned enough or dysfunctional enough to identify with a lot of it.

It was a lot of Pratchett etc for a while. I like satire/comedy & at the moment the toilet reader is the scripts of the 1970's series 'Porridge' with Ronnie Barker . Really witty & doesn't date anywhere near as badly as Chopper Read's books.

I go through periods of fantasy style stuff - devoured all of the Game of Thrones series in 2012 - I must be the only person who has read all the books but never seen any of the tv series!

Have read more than my share of sport biogs - mainly cricket. I picked up 'High on Hawthorn' yesterday & I'll try to finish it before the season starts.
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I've read all the books, starting in the year game of thrones was released almost 20 years ago. I haven't seen a single episode. As an aside, when I began reading them, the book store purchased too many of the first book (GoT) and had them in the bargain bin out the front for $1 (no one had ever heard of them) I bought a copy read it and went back and bought the rest to distribute among my friends. I figured this was so good, I wasn't going to stand for it being discontinued. SO I set about spreading the book around doing my bit to ensure a sequel came out.
 
Just finished the new Murakami novel.

Love his books. Love 'em.

But this one was a real let down.
 
grumbleguts said:
I've read all the books, starting in the year game of thrones was released almost 20 years ago. I haven't seen a single episode. As an aside, when I began reading them, the book store purchased too many of the first book (GoT) and had them in the bargain bin out the front for $1 (no one had ever heard of them) I bought a copy read it and went back and bought the rest to distribute among my friends. I figured this was so good, I wasn't going to stand for it being discontinued. SO I set about spreading the book around doing my bit to ensure a sequel came out.
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Glad I'm not the only one. Well done for spreading Martin's works around too.

Nearly finished Umberto Eco's "Baudolino". That's got me thinking.
 

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moginie said:
Glad I'm not the only one. Well done for spreading Martin's works around too.

Nearly finished Umberto Eco's "Baudolino". That's got me thinking.
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Fourcault's Pendulum was awesome. Felt like my vocabulary was much larger by the end of the book.

I've had to shelve a few of his other books though - just didn't work for me.

I like Eco as an individual though. Very smart and insightful man.

You ever read Black Swan by Taleb? Interesting book.He coins this great phrase 'anti library' and uses Umberto Eco to illustrate the idea.
 
grizzlym said:
Fourcault's Pendulum was awesome. Felt like my vocabulary was much larger by the end of the book.

I've had to shelve a few of his other books though - just didn't work for me.

I like Eco as an individual though. Very smart and insightful man.

You ever read Black Swan by Taleb? Interesting book.He coins this great phrase 'anti library' and uses Umberto Eco to illustrate the idea.
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No, I haven't. Maybe there is another book to add to my list (once I finish the others on it!). I don't mind my vocabulary being stretched & Eco certainly does that. And yes, a very, very smart man.
 
grizzlym said:
Fourcault's Pendulum was awesome. Felt like my vocabulary was much larger by the end of the book.

I've had to shelve a few of his other books though - just didn't work for me.

I like Eco as an individual though. Very smart and insightful man.

You ever read Black Swan by Taleb? Interesting book.He coins this great phrase 'anti library' and uses Umberto Eco to illustrate the idea.
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Grizz, your new avatar looks like a promo for "Hell om Wheels." Is it?

Am I allowed to mention a book I wrote in this thread?
 
Thaihawk said:
Grizz, your new avatar looks like a promo for "Hell om Wheels." Is it?

Am I allowed to mention a book I wrote in this thread?
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of course you can.

No idea where my avatar is from.
 
Just in the very early stages of Book 1 (Gardens of the Moon) of the series "The Malazan Book of the Fallen"
 
Just about to start the new Michel Faber book 'The Book of Strange new Things'.

Big fan of his books. And, according to today's Age, he's given up writing now, so it's the last one.
 
Thaihawk said:
If anyone is interested, my book, "Sweatshop Greed," is free on Amazon Kindle until December twentieth.
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I will get on it Thai Hawk, but will not get it for free if that's OK, I'd rather some funds went to the creator. I'll look at the previous link you posted. but first I have to move house and I have three library books out. The one I'm about to start on is Terry Pratchett's "Raising Steam."
 
grumbleguts said:
I will get on it Thai Hawk, but will not get it for free if that's OK, I'd rather some funds went to the creator. I'll look at the previous link you posted. but first I have to move house and I have three library books out. The one I'm about to start on is Terry Pratchett's "Raising Steam."
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Thanks grumbleguts, that's great news for me. It's so difficult to get started, but next year could be good. Early in the new year, I am submitting it to three of Australia's largest publishers, (not that that guarantees anything) and in February, the book will be (very positively, I might add) reviewed by a local English magazine here in Thailand. I have my fingers crossed. By the way, far more confident of a three peat, than making a best seller list.;)
 
Thaihawk said:
Thanks grumbleguts, that's great news for me. It's so difficult to get started, but next year could be good. Early in the new year, I am submitting it to three of Australia's largest publishers, (not that that guarantees anything) and in February, the book will be (very positively, I might add) reviewed by a local English magazine here in Thailand. I have my fingers crossed. By the way, far more confident of a three peat, than making a best seller list.;)
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Don't sell yourself short TH. I want to buy your book but I have so many on the go at the moment and for personal reasons am having trouble concentrating.

Currently 2/3s of the way through 'The Road Back' by Erich Maria Remarque. His sequel to All Quiet On The Western Front. A brilliant writer. He has that rare knack of putting together sentences of simple words that soar like an angel.

His method of using flashbacks is stark and brutal and never romantic yet are compellingly beautiful.

I have always considered James Jones 'Whistle' to be the ultimate story about soldiers returning home. The Road Back rival's it and you could not get two completely different books about that subject.
 
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