Random The Book Club

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I just finished 'Fever Pitch' by Nick Hornby after someone mentioned it on RWO a while back - about his experiences being a lifelong Arsenal fan. Highly, highly recommended if you are a fan of any football, even if you don't support Arsenal. (And I know some of you don't!) It's not really a 'sport' book because it's written from the point of view of 'explaining' football obsession to people who don't really 'get' it but it's an excellent examination of the football sub-culture. For mine, this quote sums it up beautifully:

"I know how annoying we are, how cranky we must seem, but there is nothing much we can do about it now. An obsessive's memory is more creative than that of an ordinary person; not in the sense that we make things up, but in the sense that we have baroque cinematic recall, full of jump-cuts and split-sreen innovation. Who else but a football fan would use a fumble on a muddy field three hundred miles away to recall a wedding? Obsession requires a commendable mental agility".
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For the literate ones amongst us (dont expect to see much of vonn here) please feel free to share what you are reading at the moment.

Fiction, non-fiction, biographies, graphic novels, poems, film scripts, instruction booklets, the Target catalogue, and anything else under the sun. I'm always keen to find out new reading material.
 
I'm more into non-fiction right now (that may well change as I get older but it's certainly the case at the moment). While I was away I read 'Lucky Country' by Donald Horne and I really enjoyed it. It talks about the ludicrously prosperous conditions that have been thrust upon us rather than us building prosperous conditions for ourselves as many other industrialised nations have.

'Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck'. That is essentially the tagline of the book.

It does make a number of broad generalisations about the Australian people that I didn't agree with but it discusses a lot of different points and factors in Australian society and what is probably most interesting is to consider how fitting his thoughts are in a 2011/12 context.

Also read 'False Economy' by Alan Beattie which is a look at the economic history of many different countries and the misguided policies and views that sent some countries off on a downward slope whilst others went in the other direction. Also a very interesting book and he writes very accessibly for those who aren't brilliant economists as he is.
 
I've always been non-fiction and bios. Would have read about 15 fiction books in my life (excluding school novels). 7 Harry Potter's, 3 LOTR's, The Hobbit, Jurassic Park, The Lost Word and Temple. Fairly well known books so it's normally a movie that makes me want to read the book (apart from HP, dislike the movies). Probably a couple more that I have forgotten.

Temple by Matthew Reilly was the last one I read and that was very good. I'll start reading more fiction books as I get older I suppose because it's a good way to wind down after work. At the moment though most of the books I read are sport books, autobiographies, going over old uni books for work etc.
 
S120 said:
I'm more into non-fiction right now (that may well change as I get older but it's certainly the case at the moment). While I was away I read 'Lucky Country' by Donald Horne and I really enjoyed it. It talks about the ludicrously prosperous conditions that have been thrust upon us rather than us building prosperous conditions for ourselves as many other industrialised nations have.

'Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck'. That is essentially the tagline of the book.

It does make a number of broad generalisations about the Australian people that I didn't agree with but it discusses a lot of different points and factors in Australian society and what is probably most interesting is to consider how fitting his thoughts are in a 2011/12 context.

Also read 'False Economy' by Alan Beattie which is a look at the economic history of many different countries and the misguided policies and views that sent some countries off on a downward slope whilst others went in the other direction. Also a very interesting book and he writes very accessibly for those who aren't brilliant economists as he is.
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I'm not going into this book as a whole as i've never read it in anything but excerpts or patches but Donald Horne was part of the intelligentsia that held contempt for the people who were not part of the academia elite (Ironic for someone without a university degree)

No doubt he was intelligent but some times he wore the fact he was out of touch with every day Australia as a badge of pride.
 
Dammit this thread is a sad reminder I have a half finished manuscript that im no longer too enthused to get off my arse to do anything about... thanks for the bump.



Can I just say Thomas Hardy is a judgmental moralistic peace of poo and The Mayor of Casterbridge is an excellent book.... if you need fire starters. Cheers
 
Also can I recommend this merged thread has some re branding.

the words book club imply a small insular group reading a pre set list.

Grim i'll take your advice but perhaps something along the lines of Great Reads, Great Books or something like that?
 
CAS79 said:
I'm not going into this book as a whole as i've never read it in anything but excerpts or patches but Donald Horne was part of the intelligentsia that held contempt for the people who were not part of the academia elite (Ironic for someone without a university degree)

No doubt he was intelligent but some times he wore the fact he was out of touch with every day Australia as a badge of pride.
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That summary of him doesn't surprise me at all really. He does often come off as a condescending and arrogant prat who disparages the way Australia has become a working and prosperous haven more many purely because it hasn't done it in the same industrialised way as America or doesn't tax and spend on the public as much as the some European (particularly Scandinavian) countries.

I enjoyed the book and many of his points were interesting to consider though.
 

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After many sittings (it's 500+ pages!) spread out over the last two weeks, I finally finished The Street Sweeper, by Elliot Perlman, a fictionalised account of the American civil rights movement which leads to a greater story about the experiences of Holocaust survivors in Auschwitz. It's incredible storytelling, and many of the historical events depicted in the novel actually occurred. Some of the stories may be familiar, but one of the lesser known aspects of World War II covered in the novel is the role played by African American soldiers in the liberation of concentration camps such as Dachau, at a time when they were faced with racism and discrimination at home.
 
CAS79 said:
Also can I recommend this merged thread has some re branding.

the words book club imply a small insular group reading a pre set list.

Grim i'll take your advice but perhaps something along the lines of Great Reads, Great Books or something like that?
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'Great Books....we've got you covered'
'Bookworms United'
'The Book Club...the best page turners in town'

Stuff like that? Not all mine, google helped.
 
guyz i rly luv da twilite ceries.
 
vonn said:
guyz i rly luv da twilite ceries.
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Edward-Scissorhands-winona-ryder-154547_475_597.jpg


A female at my work has this image up at her desk with the caption.

This is the only pale guy named Edward that any girl would want to get this close.
 
OmGGZ i LuV EdWArd skissor hanndz
 
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