2226 replies to this topic

[Ambler]

Jane Austen's Emma.

And I have been enjoying it a great deal. It must be well over a decade ago since I first read it, but I do not remember it being this good. Chalk it up to my being a blasé and aloof teenager at the time...

I remember recommending a re-reading of Austen a couple of years ago when you were seeking a new suitor. As you say, you weren't so keen back then.

I'm still working my way though The Kindly Ones. As yet I remain unconvinced of its merits, maybe it's better in the original.

[volante]

Sir Ranulph Fiennes - Mad Bad and Dangerous to Know

[Tybre]

Last night I was turned onto a series which sounds so ridiculously awesome and yet...oh god, let's just say there will probably be a lot of headdesking. Going to start book one, Ghost, a little later this evening. For anyone curious, the wikipedia page for the series and the lolsome post (with excerpts) that turned me on to it.

[Kilroy6644]

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

[elizabeth]

Act III, scene iii is the most compelling to me. Iago subtly and devilishly convinces Othello that he desperately wishes he didn't see what he claims to have seen, which is the lie that Cassio expressed his love to Desdemona while talking in his sleep. Genius, and a very difficult scene to pull off for an actor playing Iago.

a genius and well-crafted lie indeed. and the sad thing if you're rooting for othello is you'd think that a general would be smarter than to fall for the lies and rumors that iago is spreading. some might construe this as shakespearean insult/racial slur to blacks (shakespeare claiming that blacks are not smart enough to tell a lie from the truth).

[RedKelly]

Read Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller in english class. I thought it was quite good. Definitely can picture the hardworking American in it. Also watched the film version with Dustin Hoffman and John Malcovitch, good as well.

[Kilroy6644]

The Ghost Mountain Boys, by James Campbell. It's about the New Guinea campaign in WWII.

[elizabeth]

i got Brisingr by christopher paolini, the 3rd book in the Inheritance trilogy for christmas and i've been reading that.

[danielcraigisjamesbond007]

The Lost Symbol

This book started off to a good start. Sure, the topic of Freemasonry sure sounded interesting. However, the way that it's executed at the end of the book is so weak.
Also, did anyone else think that Robert Langdon was more dumbed down in this book? In the book, they constantly repeat things that are so completely obvious, and yet Langdon "doesn't know what they're talking about."
So, on the outside it looks interesting, but ultimately, when you get to the very end, it gets stupid and almost sophomoric...

[Jose]

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Edited by Jose, 12 January 2010 - 09:46 PM.

[Harmsway]

2666 by Roberto Bolaño

Picked it up on a whim after seeing it on display. I'm only a fifth of the way through, but it's brilliant stuff so far.

[Kilroy6644]

The Eugenics Wars Vol. 1: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh by Greg Cox

[Tybre]

The Eugenics Wars Vol. 1: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh by Greg Cox

Personally I found Volume I the better of the two, but there was a lot of wonderful stuff in both. Love to hear what you think of Vol 2, when you get to it, if you haven't read it before already.

[Kilroy6644]

The Eugenics Wars Vol. 1: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh by Greg Cox

Personally I found Volume I the better of the two, but there was a lot of wonderful stuff in both. Love to hear what you think of Vol 2, when you get to it, if you haven't read it before already.

Nope, I haven't. I've actually had both books for a few years, but am just now getting around to reading them. I just started Vol. 1 yesterday.

[Qwerty]

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. It's been years and years since I last read this - long enough that I've pretty much forgotten the entire story.

[Tarl_Cabot]

Pirate Lattitudes by Michael Crichton. I'm lovin it!™ Spielberg is on board to direct the adaptation...can't wait.

[Jim]

The second volume of the Michael Palin diaries.

What a tip top toppermost solid chap.

[DaveBond21]

The FA Cup - the Complete Story (2005)

by Nick Holt and Guy Lloyd


A good read. Even though it's broken down year by year, it reads like a story of the oldest football (soccer) competition in the world, going back to 1872. It includes all the shocks, all the romance, and all the memorable matches.

[DAN LIGHTER]

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. Very good. Should be a classic in time to come.

[Kilroy6644]

The Eugenics Wars Vol. 1: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh by Greg Cox

Personally I found Volume I the better of the two, but there was a lot of wonderful stuff in both. Love to hear what you think of Vol 2, when you get to it, if you haven't read it before already.

Nope, I haven't. I've actually had both books for a few years, but am just now getting around to reading them. I just started Vol. 1 yesterday.

Just started book 2 today. I really enjoyed book 1, and got a kick out of all the little references that were included.

[Gabe Vieira]

Ever since reading Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on a Serious Earth, which is now one of my favorite graphic novels of all time, I've been reading a lot of Lewis Caroll and Philip K Dick. Currently working on The Man in the High Castle by Dick; a Do Andriods...-esq tale of a world where Japan and Germany had won World War II.

I'm also re-reading Masamune Shirow's original Ghost in the Shell manga, and Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series, the later of which is my favorite piece of literature ever written. A true masterpiece.

[Tybre]

I've been reading Knots and Crosses, figuring I've put off reading Rankin long enough. Not far in, but good stuff so far. Hide and Seek and Tooth and Nail are on standby for when this is finished. Also I've been dabbing in and out of Childhood, Boyhood & Youth, the compendium of Tolstoy's autobiographies on his childhood, teens, and twenties. Very good stuff so far.

[Ambler]

A Study in Scarlet

Not bad for a 27-year-old.

[jwheels]

The Hobbit

[Kilroy6644]

Just finished Pardon My Body, by Dale Bogard. It's one of the reprints from the Harlequin Vintage collection. Normally I wouldn't touch a Harlequin book with a ten-foot pole, but when they first started, they weren't centered around romances, and some of their earliest books were crime novels, like this one. Besides, I'm a sucker for flashy covers and red-edged pages. It certainly wasn't a memorable read. Time has a way of weeding out the crap and leaving us with the good books, but Harlequin didn't try to sugar-coat the past; they reprinted the same crap they printed 50+ years ago . It was a good time-killer, though, and I've read worse.

[Ambler]

The new Graves translation of Red Room. It's still tough going.

[SecretAgentFan]

The second volume of the Michael Palin diaries.

What a tip top toppermost solid chap.

Thanks for the tip! I loved the first volume and enjoyed it even more in the audiobook version read by Sir Palin himself.

[Ambler]

The fallout: how a guilty liberal lost his innocence

Andrew Anthony

First write absolute crap then write bestselling book attacking the crap wot you wrote. Easy, innit.

[Kilroy6644]

Still working on A Perfect Spy, which I've been reading for the better part of a month. I don't know why it's going so slow; it's not a difficult read. Just passed the halfway mark today.

[Salomé]

The fallout: how a guilty liberal lost his innocence

Andrew Anthony

First write absolute crap then write bestselling book attacking the crap wot you wrote. Easy, innit.

Go for it!