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This is a question Books

We love books. Tell us about your favourite books and authors, and why they are so good. And while you're at it - having dined out for years on the time I threw Dan Brown out of a train window - tell us who to avoid.

(, Thu 5 Jan 2012, 13:40)
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Neither my favourite nor my worst.
I thought I'd put in a book I put down and refused to continue reading - I'm a voracious reader so unless out of bordom this is a VERY BAD THING! & then I thought I'd mention one in a similar vein that got it rite. Completely.

Happy Like Murderers - Gordon Burn - trite, scatter-brained, literally repetitive crap. Most of the gore thrown in not for shock or to give some sense of horror not even for some sense of lurid perving but I think purely 'cause it gave the author a semi. Won't throw it or give it away - I'm a stingy bastard and wouldn't subject anyone else to that shit, so there it sits, unfinished on the shelf till the end of time.

Who Killed Leigh Leigh? - Kerry Carrington - well researched, carefully and thoughtfully (as far as the victim and family are concerned) written book looking not only at the crime, victim and alleged perpetrators but also at the judicial process itself. No salaciousness needed as the author approached the subject with a sense of dignity and some common sense.

EDIT: Anyone who's read either/both of these care to weigh in?

Too many faves to mention but I'll always reread any of the Dune books. Except for that shit by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson - I don't imagine Frank would've been particularly happy with any of that. But then we'll never know, will we?
(, Thu 5 Jan 2012, 21:08, 2 replies)
Gordon Burn...

I haven't read his book but I applaud anyone who can combine finding the time to write a book with presenting the Krypton Factor for so many years.
(, Thu 5 Jan 2012, 21:45, closed)
Happy Like Murderers
Astounding work. Combines facts with a fictional feel for place, dialogue and character. Left me feeling really dirty as if I'd been dragged through a selection of horrible, putrescent, vilenesses.

Already encountered him as a novelist so more accepting of the style which is, I would admit, unusual. Try Alma Cogan

Oh and just noticed you didn't finish it. The "repetition" is a way of illustrating the poverty of imagination and social morality amongst the whole of the social milieu in which Fred received his "education". It also suggests the ever popular Hannah Arendt line "the banality of evil".
(, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 20:11, closed)

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