2226 replies to this topic

[killkenny kid]

54 by The Wu Ming Foundation.

Fantastic, in every sense.

But, do you want to be Cary Grant? No, I don't think so.

[Qwerty]

I'm on Reading the 'Moneypenny' diarys which is so far enjoyable

Hope you enjoy it. It's a fantastic read.

[james st.john smythe]

Razzle, its a top read for single men!

[Agent 76]

currently on:

The Winter King - by Bernard Cornwell

[ACE]

1) Commuter book: An Insular Possession by Timothy Mo
2) Bedtime book: Al Qaeda by Jason Burke - a fascinating, thought-provoking must for anyone engaged in "The War On Terror"...
3) A slow burn tome for dipping: C S Lewis - Letters

The Man Who Saved Britain by Simon Winder is the best written book on the Bond and Britain and fandom. Part social and cultural history of post-war Britain, part Anatomy of A Bond fan, this book is insightful, hilariously well-observed and exquisitely well-written. Packed with original insight and beautiful observations, Winder is hard on the films and the novels but is also a huge fan. I disagree vehemently with large tracts of the book - it has me cursing, purring and smiling in equal measure. Imagine John Cork's James Bond The Legacy/Martin Sterling's Martini's Girls and Guns/Jeremy Black's The Politics of Bond/James Chapman's Licence To Thrill mixed with Raymond Seitz's Over Here/Bill Bryson's Notes From A Small Island/Jeremy Paxman's The English/Katie Fox's Watching The English. Note there are no pictures and no factoids about the films. If you are a Bond fan, British, over 30 and male, this book is your DNA.

Stopped reading scripts for work. Taking a break. Reading a nice documents on commercial leases and UK Immigration rules.

[Byron]

Anyone here read Jeffrey Jenkins? His adventure novels any good? Similar to Fleming?

[Qwerty]

I believe there was some discussion about him and his novels in this thread: http://debrief.comma...showtopic=29677

[Johnboy007]

Have read within the week: Jedi Search & Dark Apprentice. About to start reading Champions of the Force. All by Kevin J. Anderson.

[/geek]

Also reading Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. So far, I like The Crucible more.

[Qwerty]

Just started Agatha Christie's Third Girl. However, as I've got one final paper to write for the semester, I'll porbably be putting on that hold for a few days.

[Qwerty]

To James Bond With Love by Mary Wickham Bond. Just started it...

[TortillaFactory]

Also reading Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. So far, I like The Crucible more.

I adore Miller; both plays are extremely good. I will put him up against Shakespeare any day. Yeah - I said it! What are you gonna do about it, huh, huh?

BOT:

Postcards From the Edge, Carrie Fisher - Just started this...wish I could carve out more spare time, as it looks quite good. Reminiscent of my beloved Chuck Palahniuk. I read somewhere that she helped Lucas spruce up the scripts for the SW prequels...one wonders if she did it in her sleep, or something.

Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald - For school, but I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Its flaws are its strengths. The character descriptions are quite insightful and entertaining...I can't see it ending happily, though. Not that that's a bad thing.

Enchantment, Orson Scott Card - A bit too sly and clever, like always...IMHO he'll never be able to top Speaker for the Dead, which I consider to be one of the all-around best books of the twentieth century. His dialogue is always interesting, but all the characters appear to be at the same exalted intellectual level - too many witty repartees. This worked when he was writing books about groups of genius kids, but as you read his other stuff you realise that he writes all of his characters as if they were genius kids. Love scene, by which I ultimately judge all authors, is tame (which is fine) and rather stale (which is not). Fun read, but I won't be buying it.

Quite shamefully, I've now had my copy of Blood Fever for weeks and I haven't cracked the cover. Ugh. I will soon, I promise.

[00-FAN008]

Dr No

Really awesome so far. Unfortunately I couldn't start with Casino Royale because I couldn't find it yet... but I get the just of this one, and I'm not too picky about spoiling the previous ones (Russia, which is referred to at the beginning of the novel). Some of you may chew me for doing this, but I enjoy the book anyways. After all, I didn't start the film series with Dr No!

[Santa]

The last good book I finished was Blood Fever. I was not too impressed by the idea of young Bond books, for reasons which have been proved correct - namely that this is not James Bond to me. However that weakness is also a strength as, although I can never see this as my James Bond, I think these are nice little adventure books and very enjoyable. I even found the prose in some of the action sequences quite Flemingian, although not at all in other sections. Someone pointed out that whether you approve of this addition to the James bond cannon or not, anything that encourages kids to pick up a book can only be a good thing, and I can't think of a better example than Higson's young Bonds, even more so than Harry Potter.

Now enjoying Talk to the Hand : The Utter Bloody Rudeness of Everyday Life. I got this on the strength of Eats, Shoots and Leaves and, although not a useful as that, it is fun and after all is only intended as a rant. It has made me think though. I do place quite high value on manners but this book has reminded me that I frequently leave that value behind out of sheer frustration. At the moment I try and remember this book at the beginning of each encounter with another human being and keep it very civil and polite, but so many times I find that doesn't work when it is so one-sided - my good manners seems to make absolutely no impression on those around me. This is particularly noticeable in this part of the world where cultural differences make for many 'misunderstandings'. Anyway, it's an entertaining little book.

[Blofeld's Cat]

Now that I'm back in Sydney (therefore much closer to my storage ) I just may reaquaint myself with Matt Helm, Dr. Jason Love, Commander Shaw, and a few others.

[Qwerty]

Dr No

Really awesome so far. Unfortunately I couldn't start with Casino Royale because I couldn't find it yet... but I get the just of this one, and I'm not too picky about spoiling the previous ones (Russia, which is referred to at the beginning of the novel). Some of you may chew me for doing this, but I enjoy the book anyways. After all, I didn't start the film series with Dr No!

Well, at least you're starting with (IMO) the all time best Bond novel. But definitely search for Casino Royale.

[Lazenby880]

SOUTH BY JAVA HEAD (1958) by thriller writer Alistair MacLean.

This is MacLean's third novel - following the bestselling H.M.S. ULYSSES (1955) and THE GUNS OF NAVARAONE (1957) - and it is truly inspired. Including the aforementioned, better known works of his might be ICE STATION ZEBRA (1960), WHERE EAGLES DARE (1967) or WHEN EIGHT BELLS TOLL (1966), the three having been made into reasonably successful (I believe) motion pictures. This may put some off, however the level of writing in his books, especially those told from a third person narrative, excels beyond the confines of the genre.

SOUTH BY JAVA HEAD features a grim Singapore in the messy aftermath of the Japanese invasion, and MacLean's masterful handling of the setting infuses the novel with a wonderful exoticism. The opening paragraphs effectively demonstrate the quality of the writing:

'Choking, dense, impenetrable, the black smoke lay pall-like over the dying city. Every building, every office-block and house, the intact and the bomb-shattered alike, was invested by it, swathed in the dark anonymity of its gently swirling cocoon. Every street, every alley, every dock-side basin was full of it, drowned by it. It lay everywhere, sulphurous and evil, scarcely moving in the soft airs of the tropical night.

Earlier in the evening, when the smoke had come only from the burning buildings in the city, there had been wide, irregular gaps overhead and the stars had shone in the empty sky. But a slight change of wind had obliterated these gaps, had brought with it the rolling, blinding oil-smoke from ruptured fuel tanks outside the city. Where the smoke came from, no one knew. Perhaps from the Kallang airport, perhaps from the power station, perhaps clear across the island from the naval base in the north, perhaps from the oil islands, from Pulo Sambo and Pulo Sebarok, four or five miles away. No one knew. All one could know was what one saw, and the blackness of that midnight was almost complete. There was hardly any light now even from the burning buildings, for these were burnt out and utterly destroyed, the last embers, the last tiny flames flickering to extinction, like the life of Singapore itself.'

A 'MacLean sweep' is definitely, I feel, discernable throughout much of the novel. If you like Desmond Bagley or Duncan Kyle I gather MacLean would be your sort of bag too; he was in a sense the precursor of those chaps. Literary Bond fans may like some of his work also. In fact, MacLean *may* have written an interesting Bond continuation...

Edited by Lazenby880, 08 May 2006 - 08:47 PM.

[Daddy Bond]

"The Sum of All Fears" by Tom Clancy
"The Grim Grotto" by Lemony Snicket (great children's author)
"The Bartimaeous Trilogy" (may have spelled that wrong)

Regards

[Blonde Bond]

Ian Fleming - Casino Royale (my first James Bond book ever)

[Number 6]

The Mask by Dean Koontz

[Lazenby880]

I got through SOUTH BY JAVA HEAD relatively quickly, and am now reading:

THE PRIVATE SECTOR (1971) by Joseph Hone.

I am reading this on the basis of a recommendation by spynovelfan, and thus far I am very pleased that I followed his advice. Granted, I have yet to hit page 100, so the nuances and broader elements of the plot I cannot fully appreciate, however it is nevertheless a supremely enjoyable spy thriller. Here is how it opens:

'I don't know. Certainly I'm not going on William's calculations. It may have been a week before - or a day. Anyway, sometime before he disappeared, for no good reason I could think of, Henry had given me an Egyptian ten-piastre note: the remains, among other pieces of grubby paper - hotel bills, ticket stubs and so on - from one of his trips abroad. He'd thrown the mess down on my office table, just after he'd come back from Egypt - from one of his "missions", as he described his visits to that part of the world which interested him most. When he went further afield - east or west - he talked simply of having been on a holiday, as if the only real work he did took place in the middle east. And that was probably true though I didn't know much about his work. We were friends in other ways.

Perhaps he had meant to encourage me with his collage of foreign bric-

Edited by Lazenby880, 10 May 2006 - 01:54 PM.

[spynovelfan]

Glad you're enjoying it so far, Laz880, and look forward to reading your comments later.

[Mamadou]

Just finished "The Oxford History of Greece and the Hellenistic World." It's absolutely fascinating, and a very well-done series. Just looking at the list of contributors with their credentials is awe-inspiring. When I was barely two chapters into it, I knew I had to get the whole "Oxford History" series. Currently, I have the ones on Rome, Medieval Europe, and the 20th Century. You could use them as textbooks for introductory history courses in college (or very advanced high school history courses, depending on what school you go to).

Probably by the end of the day, I'll have finished Aeschylus's "Oresteia" tragedies. They're a little strange for someone who's used to theatre without choruses, especially because they're so prevalent in his plays, but they're also nothing short of brilliant. The trilogy deals with vengeance, justice, and where they collide. Even the gods have to take sides. It's also a gorgeous translation by Robert Fagles, one of the premier classicists nowadays. Now if I can just convince myself that I'm ready to read Homer...

[Qwerty]

Death to Spies by Quinn Fawcett. Enjoyable so far, but I'm only about 50 pages in.

[Johnboy007]

The Things They Carried - Tim O' Brien

Another one of those horrid books English teachers absolutely love. It breaks the streak of Oprah's Book Club novels we've read, dating back to summer reading for last year. It's only a matter of time until this does become an Oprah Book



I just finished a ghastly book by Barbara Hambly. I'll skip out on the rest of her stuff. Christ it's bad. Don't know what i'll read next, i'm still traumatized by the awfulness.

[Lady Templar]

I'm about to beginning "The Gulf Conspiracy" (in english )which was sent by my good friend Vince

[Judo chop]

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service", by Ian Fleming.

Anyone heard of it?

[TortillaFactory]

Second time around. Very, VERY funny (and educational!) book by Dave Barry's erstwhile editor.

Stick your hand in your pocket or purse, and find a quarter. Feel it. Can you tell which side is tails, and which side is heads? You should be able to. If you can't, that might be the sign of an urgently life-threatening condition...buy this book to find out what.

[Johnboy007]

Found my two new books to read:

HANK AARON (And the Home Run That Changed America) - Tom Stanton

First book source for my Amerian history paper on the cultural significance of Aaron breaking Ruth's record. It has some current significance with the Barry Bonds chase *grumble*cheater*grumble*. Positive reviews for it. Should prove to be most helpful.

Outbound Flight - Timothy Zahn

By far the best Expanded Universe writer

[Agent 76]

going to start:

[Aussie21]

I've got so many books to read during this summer, I'm quite bogged down.

Just finished reading Gardner's License Renewed. Next up is Higson's Blood Fever. Following that will be The Moneypenny Diaries: Guardian Angel. After that, it's anyone's guess.

I purchased Michael Crichton's Airframe recently, but I don't know when I'll get around to it. It may sit on my shelf for some time before I open it up.

Edited by Aussie21, 24 May 2006 - 12:11 AM.