2226 replies to this topic

[Ambler]

Warburton's War by Tony Spooner.

The incredible story of Adrian Warburton, photographer extraordinaire, and the only pilot to become an air ace while flying bombers.

[DaveBond21]

I've just finished re-reading Red Dwarf by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor.

Very funny, and still seems fresh, 21 years on.

[OmarB]

Robert Ludlum - The Scorpio Illusion.

Just finished this one last night. It was a good read. It's your huge conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of power and a plot to kill major world leaders starting with the US President. We have a great villainess, a great organization that reaches everywhere, many crosses and double crosses and a plot so well covered up that the hero sounds crazy just trying to explain it. The hero himself I didn't care for much, he's a bit old, retired Navy intelligence guy pulled into the plot he wants nothing to do with. He also takes a lot of damage through the book and not just physically (but there is a lot of that). To be honest, I didn't like him, I liked everyone else though, not that I hate old guys as the main character, after all, George Smiley is amazing! Thing is, George is not an action hero, this guy is. I prefer my heroes in the Jason Bourne, Drew Latham, Todd Belknap, Dr. Jonathan 'Jon' Jackson Smith mold. Guys at the top of their game.

It was a nice distraction from reading the Bond series in order. Now I'm delving back in with Role Of Honor.

[Kilroy6644]

The Man Who Was Thursday, by G.K. Chesterton.

[Harmsway]

The Man Who Was Thursday, by G.K. Chesterton.

Fun book. I also recommend--if you haven't read them--Chesterton's THE BALL AND THE CROSS and THE RETURN OF DON QUIXOTE. They're not widely recognized, but they're better than THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY.

[DaveBond21]

I'm reading Stephen King's IT for the third time.

I am hoping there's a whole new generation of Stephen King fans out there who will read this before watching the movie. The movie is a waste of time. There's no way you can fit a book that takes 12 hours to read into 2 hours.

Needless to say, IT is not a horror story about a clown, as some may think.

-

[Conlazmoodalbrocra]

My Life So Far, by Frankie Boyle

About halfway through and so far I've been a bit disappointed. I love Boyle's stand-up, but his book seems to lack a lot of the danger one feels from his incredibly rude brand of humour, although this may be because he is standing in front of a live audience when he does it, whereas in a book there's a much less direct contacty between comedian and "victim"! There are definitely some big laughs in it though, particularly his rant about Susan Boyle, but I'm starting to drift a bit from it now. Hopefully it will pick up towards the end.

[OmarB]

No Deals Mr Bond

[zencat]

I'm reading Sunnyside by Glen David Gold.

[Single-O-Seven]

A Devil's Chaplain by Richard Dawkins and Newton's Notebook by Joel Levy.

[jwheels]

Re-reading the first of The Moneypenny Diaries. I finally got around to ordering the other two, so I'm going back to refresh my memory.

[Harmsway]

THE MYSTERIOUS FLAME OF QUEEN LOANA by Umberto Eco

I understand that this isn't one of Eco's more beloved works, but I'm enjoying it so far.

[terminus]

I'm a few chapters into A Spy By Nature - it is pretty good so far.

[Sbott]

Just started reading Tony Blairs - A Journey. Just got to the chapter on Princess Diana, hmmmm.
Anyway the book is highly readable, unlike many political memoirs i have read.

[Kilroy6644]

I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov

[SecretAgentFan]

I'm reading Sunnyside by Glen David Gold.

Thanks for the link! Looks absolutely fascinating. I will check that one out.

[Harmsway]

EARTHLY POWERS by Anthony Burgess.

Quite compelling.

[Loomis]

EARTHLY POWERS by Anthony Burgess.

Quite compelling.

Ah. Glad you're liking it.

[Harmsway]

EARTHLY POWERS by Anthony Burgess.

Quite compelling.

Ah. Glad you're liking it.

So far it's more accessible than the other Burgess material I've encountered--Burgess isn't playing around with language as much as he does elsewhere--but that's not a slight against it. It's riveting, moving stuff.

[Loomis]

You know, I think it's the only Burgess I've read, other than A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (which obviously plays with language to the max) and a few pieces of journalism. On my slight acquaintance with him, though, I'd say he's definitely an author who demands to be sampled, and EARTHLY POWERS is certainly an amazing - and often highly amusing - epic journey of a novel, packed with fascinating ideas and observations.

[Harmsway]

You know, I think it's the only Burgess I've read, other than A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (which obviously plays with language to the max) and a few pieces of journalism. On my slight acquaintance with him, though, I'd say he's definitely an author who demands to be sampled, and EARTHLY POWERS is certainly an amazing - and often highly amusing - epic journey of a novel, packed with fascinating ideas and observations.

I've not read too much Burgess, so I'm hardly an expert, but what I have read gives me the impression that he's a bold, clever literary artist who deserves more attention than he receives.

[Loomis]

You know, I think it's the only Burgess I've read, other than A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (which obviously plays with language to the max) and a few pieces of journalism. On my slight acquaintance with him, though, I'd say he's definitely an author who demands to be sampled, and EARTHLY POWERS is certainly an amazing - and often highly amusing - epic journey of a novel, packed with fascinating ideas and observations.

I've not read too much Burgess, so I'm hardly an expert, but what I have read gives me the impression that he's a bold, clever literary artist who deserves more attention than he receives.

Well, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, if nothing else, will always ensure that his name is remembered. Nothing like being filmed to guarantee a writer's place in history. Now, it's true that Burgess seems to get a little less acclaim these days than, say, Greene or Kingsley Amis - he's not really a household name. But he's still in a much better posthumous position that some other fine writers of his era. For instance, the other day I was dipping into some wonderful short stories by a contemporary of Burgess, John Wain, who now appears criminally forgotten to the point that his name barely shows up on a Google search.

But I wonder whether Burgess would have been (was?) put out to be remembered by the public at large chiefly, indeed exclusively, for A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, a work that I suspect he dashed off in his sleep one rainy afternoon while simultaneously attending to a dozen other more interesting and worthwhile projects. For it would seem that Burgess was a man of towering scholarship and intellectual and artistic ability, enough for several lifetimes, fluent in several languages (I've read that - no doubt to kill a dull Sunday morning - he taught himself Persian and translated THE WASTE LAND into its script) and a fount of knowledge on all manner of matters. Of course, whether all that made him a truly great novelist is open to debate, but it appears that he was certainly a giant of sorts and maybe a genius - a genius at being a polymath, perhaps. I suspect that there are few if any writers in the world today who can match the breadth and depth of his expertise or his awesome intellectual and literary firepower. Frankly, it amazes that a novel as long, as complex and as erudite as EARTHLY POWERS was written without recourse to the internet as a research tool, as well as without a word processor or computer with its editing facilities. Then again, I often experience the same feelings of awe when reading books of yesteryear. Writers of days long gone must have genuinely held all their knowledge inside their heads (or at the very least must have done an awful lot of poring over reference books). They would have needed to have le mot juste at the ready at all times - that, or be prepared to do a huge amount of retyping or rescribbling. Not only that, but they needed to know the precise meanings of all the words and expressions they used - unless, of course, they didn't mind constantly breaking off to leaf through dictionaries. The difference between the working methods of a modern novelist and a novelist of fifty years ago strikes me as akin to the difference between crossing a chasm via a wide, sturdy bridge and doing it on a tightrope like Philippe Petit. Then again, I guess the likes of Burgess with their newfangled typewriters had it ridiculously easy compared to earlier writers. I mean, Dickens used a quill pen and didn't even have electric light!

[ChristopherZ22]

I am reading Dr. No. I like it because I enjoy the relationship between Bond and Honeychile.

My problem with the book is that the story is a little weird. The idea of Dr. No using his metal dragon to torch birds and angering some animal (or birds) rights group is strange and kind of silly.

I do like M's bored attitude towards the case. At least M can kind of get passed the bird issue and have Bond investigating the death of Strangways. I would feel the same if I was M and the head of the British secret service and had to put an agent like Strangways on a case investigating the death of birds. I mean what head of a secret service would want to be bitched at by an animal rights organization and have to put one of their secret agents on a case investigating the death of birds? Chirp!!! Chirp!!! Chirp!!!

But seriously, if you were Strangways or any secret agent, would you want to be investigating the disappearance and death of birds?

Edited by ChristopherZ22, 25 September 2010 - 08:21 AM.

[Harmsway]

But I wonder whether Burgess would have been (was?) put out to be remembered by the public at large chiefly, indeed exclusively, for A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, a work that I suspect he dashed off in his sleep one rainy afternoon while simultaneously attending to a dozen other more interesting and worthwhile projects.

I know this much about Burgess: he was very irritated to be known primarily for A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, we he thought was one of his lesser works.

For it would seem that Burgess was a man of towering scholarship and intellectual and artistic ability, enough for several lifetimes, fluent in several languages (I've read that - no doubt to kill a dull Sunday morning - he taught himself Persian and translated THE WASTE LAND into its script) and a fount of knowledge on all manner of matters. Of course, whether all that made him a truly great novelist is open to debate, but it appears that he was certainly a giant of sorts and maybe a genius - a genius at being a polymath, perhaps.

Burgess was also a musician. He reportedly composed over sixty-five musical works, and composed them without the use of a keyboard, sending in the manuscripts without ever having heard them anywhere besides his mind. He wouldn't even write the manuscripts in pencil. He used pen. When he put a note on the page, he was confident that was where it belonged.

For it would seem that Burgess was a man of towering scholarship and intellectual and artistic ability, enough for several lifetimes, fluent in several languages (I've read that - no doubt to kill a dull Sunday morning - he taught himself Persian and translated THE WASTE LAND into its script) and a fount of knowledge on all manner of matters. Of course, whether all that made him a truly great novelist is open to debate, but it appears that he was certainly a giant of sorts and maybe a genius - a genius at being a polymath, perhaps. I suspect that there are few if any writers in the world today who can match the breadth and depth of his expertise or his awesome intellectual and literary firepower.

Indeed. And his ambition as a writer is astonishing. Take NAPOLEON SYMPHONY, the novel he once selected as his favorite. He structures the novel according to Beethoven's third symphony, which was dedicated to Napoleon by Beethoven, and attempts to match the novel's content to the moods of the symphonic work. He adopts James Joyce-flavored prose, and furthermore decides it's not enough to do just prose, but he should throughout the novel, he should dip in and out of poetry, like a Greek chorus. I haven't heard of anything like that being published today. Perhaps folks are writing such impressive material and it isn't getting published. Then again, perhaps geniuses like Anthony Burgess are truly that rare.

[Loomis]

Well, I guess that if even half the claims made about Burgess were true, then he must have been one of the rarest people ever to walk the earth.

Anyway, inspired by this discussion, I've picked up his 1966 spy thriller TREMOR OF INTENT, which has been described as "sort of a combination of Ian Fleming and St. Augustine". I'm about halfway through and it strikes me so far as a diverting minor curio with some amusing ideas. For instance, instead of the usual duel via baccarat, bridge, pheasant shooting or golf, the book's Bond figure and a villain compete by.... seeing who can down the most food at one sitting (but, naturally, it's all the very best gourmet cuisine). It's hardly in the EARTHLY POWERS league (or even the Fleming league, really), but it's a decent timekiller of a quick read.

[Harmsway]

Well, you do know that Burgess wrote a screenplay for THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, right? Going by Burgess' comments as to what it contained, it was wild.

[Loomis]

Yeah. I gather it involved a plot to humiliate Britain by forcing the Queen to strip on live TV. I've read that it also featured a Bond girl disfigured by a skin condition that would clear up every time Bond kissed her.

I really wish Burgess had written a Bond novel, ideally following Amis as "Robert Markham" (although I've no idea whether he was ever asked to do so). I also wish Roald Dahl had done a Bond novel, not so much on the basis of his YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE script, but more because of his wonderful short stories and his novel MY UNCLE OSWALD.

[Harmsway]

Yeah. I gather it involved a plot to humiliate Britain by forcing the Queen to strip on live TV. I've read that it also featured a Bond girl disfigured by a skin condition that would clear up every time Bond kissed her.

Yep. That's it, alright.

I really wish Burgess had written a Bond novel, ideally following Amis as "Robert Markham" (although I've no idea whether he was ever asked to do so). I also wish Roald Dahl had done a Bond novel, not so much on the basis of his YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE script, but more because of his wonderful short stories and his novel MY UNCLE OSWALD.

Oh, that would have been lovely.

[Kilroy6644]

Alaska, by James Michener

[Scottlee]

Currently reading The Bourne Ultimatum, having not so long ago finished the first two.

Perhaps more notably, I read Killing Floor recently by Lee Child. I say this because I would count it as the best novel I've ever read. Brilliantly entertaining.