2226 replies to this topic

[Byron]

Currently I'm reading several books, including "The Davinci Code" By Dan Brown, "Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince" by JK Rowling, "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and several physics books concerning general/special relativity etc.

Never read Da Vinci code or any of the Harry Potter books. Am i missing anything?

Don't know if you'd be interested Mina, but there's a book titled "Hyperspace" by the physicist Michio Kaku. It's a fun read and it deals with time travel, parralel universes etc in an easy to understand manner.

[Bond_Bishop]

The Da vinci code is something of a cult book right now. It is very good even though it's mediocre language. I think you should read it. The HP books is also good but that is on another level. And by the way Angels and Demons by Dan Brown is way better than TDVC I think.

[Byron]

The HP books is also good but that is on another level.

Can you explain this comment?

[TortillaFactory]

Never read Da Vinci code or any of the Harry Potter books. Am i missing anything?

Skip Da Vinci, it's a load of bogus history put together in a book that you won't be able to put down, but which you'll be furious with later for wasting so much of your life. Seriously. The main characters are shameless Mary Sues and are quite uninteresting. yeah, so maybe Fleming has spoiled me for any other pulp writer...but really. Skip it.

The Harry Potter books are really quite, quite good, especially when you get up to the fifth one, Order of the Phoenix. Read them. In order. You will not be disappointed.

[Joyce Carrington]

Recommended to me by Hitch, I finished Stephen King's 'From a Buick 8' last night. Good stuff.

[Kingdom Come]

I don't read Fiction but I can HUGELY recommend the following Faction:


. . . Haunted Spirits by Brad Steiger [If you were on the fence with notions of an afterlife this book will make you come down firmly on one side . . . 10/10]


Smiling In Slow Motion [Diaries of film director, Derek Jarman, as he battles his impending death. Stunningly well written and very moving. 10/10]


Perfect Victim [Young woman hitchhikes from Washington to Southern California and gets a 'lift' from a young couple with their baby. During the seven years the hitchhiker stayed with the couple, they had two children and held down two jobs, the couple entertained friends at home whilst their hitchhiker was sealed in a coffin-like box beneath their bed. More remarkably, after several years she was let out of the box and was 'free' but did not escape as she had been successfully programmed to 'stay'. 10/10]


Frozen In Time [The 1800s Franklin Expeditions to find the Northwest passage - all lives lost due to... the canned food on board... or more especially... the cans themselves... 10/10]


The Kenneth Williams Diaries [One of those 'dip-in' books which rarely need to be re-read from front cover to back cover. These diaries cast a spell; funny; touching; disgraceful; caustic; profound diaries, packed with jaw-dropping pathos and achingly funny 'spots' on one of the greats of British comedy, who committed suicide 40 years before he had. . . 10/10]


Killing For Company [Account of civil servent, Denis Nilson, who murdered. . . . for company. 10/10]


The Book Of Lists Vol 1 & 2 [For anyone who loves an hour of facinating
bedtime reading - these cannot be bettered. 10/10]

[Hitch]

Busted!

I'm currently going through a "genre" phase in my reading, from sci-fi to fantasy to thriller to horror to murder mystery. And back again. At the moment I'm ploughing through Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy - pace from the depths, prose from the gods.

Len Deighton's Spy Story is filling in until I track down a copy of Horse Under Water.

Recent reads:

Patricia Cornwell - can't be bothered to name it because her last two books were so bad (as in amateurish) that her fans are wondering whether they were ghost-written. Seriously.
My Name Escapes Me - Alec Guinness
Ten Tales Tall and True - Alasdair Gray
Letters from London - Julian Barnes
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
The Spire - William Golding

[Byron]

Never read Da Vinci code or any of the Harry Potter books. Am i missing anything?

Skip Da Vinci, it's a load of bogus history put together in a book that you won't be able to put down, but which you'll be furious with later for wasting so much of your life. Seriously. The main characters are shameless Mary Sues and are quite uninteresting. yeah, so maybe Fleming has spoiled me for any other pulp writer...but really. Skip it.

The Harry Potter books are really quite, quite good, especially when you get up to the fifth one, Order of the Phoenix. Read them. In order. You will not be disappointed.

Thanks for that Tort!

[Byron]

"Beasts in the Cellar: The exploitation film career of Tony Tenser".

by Fabpress.

Just read this book and highly recommend it to anyone interested in 1960's and 1970's British Horror films, Tigon especially.

Fantastic detail on all facets of film production and distribution and in depth detail of all of Tony Tenser's films inc the more well known ones like "Witchfinder General", "Blood on Satan's Claw", "Roman Polanski's "Repulsion" and "Cul de Sac" etc.

[Qwerty]

The Seven Dials Mystery

[Mina Galore]

Never read Da Vinci code or any of the Harry Potter books. Am i missing anything?

Skip Da Vinci, it's a load of bogus history put together in a book that you won't be able to put down, but which you'll be furious with later for wasting so much of your life. Seriously. The main characters are shameless Mary Sues and are quite uninteresting. yeah, so maybe Fleming has spoiled me for any other pulp writer...but really. Skip it.

The Harry Potter books are really quite, quite good, especially when you get up to the fifth one, Order of the Phoenix. Read them. In order. You will not be disappointed.

Thank you for the info on DaVinci, I tried to read it a couple months ago but I couldn't get into it, it's far too popular for my liking. I really dislike it when I can't tell historical from fiction in a book, I think that's what's really got people into it, they start to believe too much of it.

I've also been trying to read The Half Blood Prince, it's incredible so far but keeping up with school work is impeding on my success in finishing it. I'm looking for ward to finishing it off. The series is quite amazing, it's fit for both children and adults, although the last few books are becoming a bit dark for a child's mind.

I've begun reading since yesterday Time Travel In Einstein's Universe quite an amazing book if you've been interested in the notion of time travel. I really adore physics books.

Edited by Mina Galore, 15 September 2005 - 03:45 AM.

[gkgyver]

I'm reading the English version of The Half- Blood Prince as well. In my opinion, Harry Potter reached its highest quality in The Goblet Of Fire. The Order Of The Phoenix is incredibly interesting and full of brilliant details, but too long.
So far, I think Half Blood- Prince is somewhere between Chamber Of Secrets and Prisoner Of Azkaban. Revealing Snape as a baddie at the very beginning was a risky, but brilliant move, though.

[Byron]

Have you read many/all of her books?

I read nearly all of them when I was younger. Between the ages of 10 and 13, I went on a total Christie kick. I think I reached the 70 mark, but I never have read the Westmacott stuff. I gave up before I got to the finish line, though, because they were starting to merge into one big mystery in my brain - and I'd discovered other writers, like Dennis Wheatley and Henry Cecil. That makes me sound 102, but our school library had some old books. I didn't read ENDLESS NIGHT until a few years ago, and then I saw the TV film made of it with Joss Ackland and read it again. Very good stuff: really chilling, and I didn't see the twist coming at all. Best Poirot has to be CURTAIN, though.

Which Dennis Wheatley books did you most enjoy?

Haunting of Toby Jugg is probably my favourite although Uncharted Seas was also great, racism aside.

[ComplimentsOfSharky]

Cause for Alarm - Eric Ambler

[Qwerty]

The Clocks - Christie

[Byron]

Cause for Alarm - Eric Ambler 

Are the books of Eric Ambler similar to Fleming?

Weren't Fleming and Ambler friends?

[ComplimentsOfSharky]

I don't know if they were friends, but Fleming read him (Bond reads a few of books on plane rides and such).

Most of his stories involve stuffy English gentlemen with no experience in the espionage world getting thrown into these complicated tales of political intrigue and assassination. It's not a great deal like Fleming (their writing styles have similarities) but very good nevertheless. Try A Coffin for Dimitrios or Journey into Fear those are my favorites.

[Bond_Bishop]

I am currently reading Deception Point by Dan Brown

[Joyce Carrington]

'With no one as witness' by Elizabeth George

[Agent 76]

going to read Batman: Hush Vol.2

[Roebuck]

''Glamorama'' by Bret Easton Ellis. It starts out as a Zoolander-esque comedy about self-absorbed 'it' boy Victor Ward, who becomes connected to a terrorist cell whose membership consists entirely of top fashion models. By the second half it's a twisted and bloody political thriller involving a US presidential candidate. Also features a brief cameo from Patrick Bateman.

[Qwerty]

Blood Fever

[killkenny kid]

Working with Words - James L. Pinson

[TortillaFactory]

Currently embroiled in Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of Psychopaths Among Us by Robert D. Hare. Fascinating stuff. Don't mean to spoil it for anyone, but did you know psychopaths are sane?

Started le Carre's Absolute Friends a while ago, and have yet to pick it up again...man, ever since he quit writing Smiley, he's sure been slipping.

[keva]

The Blue Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver.

[pgram]

Stanislav (Solaris) Lem's "Cyberiad" and "The star diaries". Science fiction fairy tales, hillarious humour and real profound understanding of Physics. So profound that he just turns it upside down! Just excellent.

[Byron]

The Island of Dr Moreau by H G Wells

Quite interesting so far.

[Roebuck]

''Cosmopolis'' by Don DeLillo. It's the story of the last day in the life of Eric Michael Packer, self-made billionaire and proud owner of his own Soviet TU-160 Blackjack nuclear bomber. In these twenty-four hours his financial empire goes into meltdown, while Packer himself travels across Manhattan in his futuristic limousine on a pilgrimage to a run down barbers shop and a date with an unknown assassin.

Its a little over-written, so not the best of DeLillo's canon, but the poetry of the dialogue and the characters who inhabit Packer's world make the journey worthwhile.

[killkenny kid]

Casino Royale. But, I like to found the one Martin Campbell read.

[Joyce Carrington]

Finished the latest Elizabeth George. Great stuff.