I only like books with lots of car chases.
I don't get to read much.
(Woodlouse say it with flowers. Send her a Triffid, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 1:37, Reply)

A book I can't even remember buying
Brightside - G H Morris. It's a trilogy, it appears to be the only thing he's ever written and he doesn't even get a Wiki mention.

Books are subjective and, to an extent, very personal. To say "I like books" is like saying "I like music" or "I like history". I'm never going to read Barbara Taylor Bradford, but many people do.

Brightside is every bit of MY love of literature, and I'm not asking you to know it, or seek it out. I'm not being smartarsey by having read it and loved it. It's the one that resonates - it has done for 15 years at least and eventually it'll fall to pieces.

That, maybe, is the essence of the question.
( The Disappointed Caravanner of the year, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 1:28, Reply)

Best Kids Book
In The Night Kitchen - Maurice Sendak

It was my childhood favorite book... Hungry Caterpillar is NOTHING in comparison to Micky and the Gruffalo can go sodomise that mouse in the woods for all I care.

We should all thank Mickey for the cake we have in the morning. What a hero.
( sutit only the crumbliest, flakiest posts, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 1:02, Reply)

Rude Kids
by Chris Donald.

As an aspiring cartoonist handicapped by the lack of any artistic ability, this book never fails to give me hope that one day I might just chuck in my job and make a gazillion dollars (I'm from NZ, we don't even measure stuff in pounds) doing something I love.

He might not own an airline or a rocket ship, but I'd be more inclined to hear him speak than some beardy who does.
(rockstar, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 0:50, Reply)

Don't hate me but....... I'm not a massive Roald Dahl fan
Being a child of the 80s who didn’t like Roald Dahl was like being a total freak, but I stand by my opinions now. I think his adult writing is absolutely brilliant, particularly the short stories, but his children’s books are full of made-up words, mad loopy tangents, and are unforgivably, gratingly moralistic, often about the most ludicrously petty things (don’t watch television EVER or your brain will explode, blah blah blah). So, I didn’t like them anywhere near as much as I said I did to fit in, but I read every single one, and found them all at least vaguely entertaining.

There was one aspect of one of his books however that I found really disturbing, even as a seven-year-old, and as an adult I find it positively revolting - the treatment of the Oompa Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Think about it. They are:

* Trafficked into the country
* Kept prisoner inside a dangerous factory
* Forced to work in return for beans
* Coerced into acting as guinea pigs for dangerous experiments

For anyone who’s forgotten the details, Willy Wonka travels to Loompaland and observes the natives living in difficult conditions. He cuts a deal with them knowing that they have very little bargaining power, smuggles them into the country and sets them to work in his factory, where they are paid only in cocoa beans and never allowed to leave. This isn’t a wholesome idea to sell to kids. This is trafficking and slavery.

I wonder if the Oompa Loompas have been allowed to keep their passports. I wonder if they have a union, or if they have insurance for the disturbingly large number of industrial accidents that seem to happen in that factory. Are they informed of the risks and adequately compensated when testing Wonka’s dangerous products? Wonka is clearly quite patronising and racist towards his staff. He talks about them as if they’re all the same, and treats them like a pack of obedient dogs - with affection, sure, but little to no respect.

What’s really disturbing is the smug, self-satisfied prose in which this arrangement is introduced. It’s presented as if it’s actually a great opportunity for these savages to work for a few beans, and of course they‘re all ever so grateful to the benevolent Mr Wonka. Nobody at any point in the book questions the moral ramifications of treating human beings like this. It is essentially no more or less than a romanticised depiction of slavery.

And for this reason, I will not be reading this book to my future children without a full and frank discussion about this issue, underpinned by a potted history of the slave trade. Sorry, future Little Fluffles.
(grandmasterfluffles Come to my Armageddon party on, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 0:23, 9 replies)

"If you only ever read one book in your life...
...I highly recommend you keep your mouth shut."
- The League Against Tedium
( Tab Hunter Make this useless process end and so, begin again, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 23:49, Reply)

I like books, me
I've always read, voraciously in fact and my dad was a massive influence on my reading from a very young age. Because of him I had read seven Irvine Welsh novels before I turned 16 for example - he lent me 'Porno' when I was about 14, and it's a great read. Another book my dad gave me at a young age was Tom Sharpe's 'The Throwback' - still genuinely the funniest book I have read.

As for now I love anything by Bret Easton Ellis (The Rules of Attraction is his best work) and Raymond Carver (Where I'm Calling From is the greatest collection of short stories ever published, fact.) and I am half-way through an English degree which has taken me from Victorian Britain to American Literature from 1776, stopping off at Realism, Naturalism (try Emile Zola's Therese Raquin) and Modernism, and I even enjoyed Jane Eyre!

Books is good, and I guess I owe my dad a massive thanks for influencing me to take the path I eventually did (I'll save that story for another time).

First post, be gentle.
(Maverickjames 's name is not James, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 23:42, 6 replies)

Collected Fictions of Borges
Have these been mentioned? can't be arsed to ctrl+f through all the previous pages
I've destroyed two copies through reading and re-reading. Now on my kindle.
Staggeringly good.
( Tab Hunter Make this useless process end and so, begin again, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 23:38, 3 replies)

Holocaust Books
So instead of a great big list I'll stick up a few at a time in loose categories

Mixing fiction and non here as there's no real fiction here
Auschwitz and Afterwards by Charlotte Delbo- Just astonishing, should be much better known

This Way for the Gas Ladies and Gentleman Tadeusz Borowski. Subversive in the way it implicates the reader

If This is a Man by Primo Levi. A foundational text.

At the Mind's Limit by Jean Amery, especially the essays on Torture and Resentments

The Destruction of the European Jews by Raul Hilberg is magisterial and comprehensive. Abridged will still tell you plenty

Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning. Sobering and horrible. Think Milgram.

I could go on and if anything really vital strikes me I'll edit. Anyone mentions the boy in the fucking striped pyjamas, I'll find you and break out the zyklon B. There is no defence for such purulent garbage

Oh yes, completely forgot to say Jorge Semprun. The Cattle Truck and Literature or Life are both excellent. The first was written early and the second long after. It's a meditation on the first and as a pair they are absolutely up there.

The first two volumes of Victor Klemperer's diaries are also an interesting insight into how it felt to be under the Jackboot as events developed.
(unclestinky, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 22:34, 2 replies)

Russian brothers + Science Fiction + imminent peril = utter delight.
"A Roadside Picnic", a novel by the Russian Strugatsky brothers which was written in the late 70s is my pick. It inspired a wonderful film called Stalker as well as the PC game S.T.A.L.K.E.R and many others (Metro 2033 being one of the more modern examples to bowl people over).

I cannot really do it justice but the book is essentially about a no-man's land called "The Zone" (think Pripyat and the area surrounding Chernobyl after the disaster). mighty, massively advanced aliens used it as a pit stop (though this is left up to the reader's interpretation) and left only debris and detritus.

All I can say is please read this book when you get the chance. It is wonderful.
( Hitler's Barber Soylent Green is high in saturated fat, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 22:33, 2 replies)

Funny and surprising
White Man Falling by Mike Scott, because I nearly fell off the chair a few times. I loved the humour in it.
Down And Out In Paris And London by George Orwell, because it's just not what you'd expect from the author of Animal Farm.
There's lots more of course but more of a reader than a writer be I.
(apaulinthought, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 22:16, 2 replies)

I like books where stuff explodes.
I know people who can only read a book once. Get to the end, that's it, done with it, give it to the charity shop. Whereas I can go back to a book time and time again. In fact, I have been known to finish a book then start reading it again.
Anyway, some books I like rather a lot:
Discworld - Obviously.
Simon R Green's Deathstalker books (Everything but the kitchen sink Fantasy/SF)
John Birmingham - The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco (Aussie flatmates get ripped off. Lunacy ensues)
David Gemmell - Most of his stuff but especially Legend and Knights of Dark Renown (One of my go-to authors for solid fantasy storytelling)
Tad Williams - Memory, Thorn and Sorrow series(Tolkienesque fantasy epic that avoids most of the usual pitfalls)
John Ringo - The Posleen War/Prince Roger series (Military SF)
S M Stirling - The Peshawar Lancers -(Alternate History-Has a swordfight on top of a zeppelin so you know it's cool)
Robert E Howard - The old Conan tales. His Kull and Bran Mak Morn stuff is worth a read too.
And I've been reading a lot of Matthew Reilly lately. Nobody in their right mind is going to call him a great writer but he writes the most bonkers action sequences you will ever read.
(Big D, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 21:50, 1 reply)

They can annoy you...
A Short History Of Nearly Everything: Made me realise I would have completely changed my education to do something I would have loved. Instead I work in insurance and spend all day looking at people who (for lack of a better word) are fucked
(Samantha Bricks Better half done a poo on, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 21:31, 6 replies)

Need help!
I remember reading this one novel back around 1998 and I was wondering if anyone out there might be able to help me figure out who wrote it and what it was called.

What I thinly remember of the plot:

It was set in a mental hospital and was written in the first person by a guy in a wheelchair who couldn't communicate with the other patients or staff. I think he may have been a deaf blind mute but I'm not sure. I seem to remember staff members abusing him etc and it was a really powerful, tragic and often funny book. I think about it a lot but I can't for the life of me remember the title or author. It was a pretty short book (couple of hundred pages or so). Dark, twisted sexual favors for anyone who can help.

As for my favorite book, it has to be the Dark Tower fantasy series by Stephen King. If you get past the first book (which goes pretty slowly) then you're in for a treat. Really amazing stuff.
( dirtyscarab intends to live forever. So far, so good..., Fri 6 Jan 2012, 21:18, 4 replies)

Haven't read a lot lately,
But when I do find a good book I tend to go on a mission to find all of that authors books. The last two were David Gemmel and Conn Iggulden. Brilliant, the kind of books that make you want to go back in time.
(yourmumonastickwithmintsauce, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 21:14, 2 replies)

120 Days Of Sodom by The Marquis De Sade
A truly hilarious and monstrous read, recommended for all B3tans.

Diary of a Drug Fiend - Aliester Crowley. Amazingly modern and relevant read, i've read it about 6 times.

Anything by Philip K Dick. His style is simple, yet effective. No author plumbs the depths of mental disintegration so effectively. Wonderfully inventive and cinematic, never disappointing.
(Cancer Joy was short lived, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 20:35, 1 reply)

Susan Hill
The Woman in Black is one of the scariest books I have ever read, i recommend to anyone who doesn't mind sleeping with the light on after reading. My mum was so scared she couldnt finish it and had to hide from reflections in windows!

From an English teachers point of view, 'The curious incident of the dog in the night time', by Mark Haddon is also a great read.

The Road-Cormac McCarthy, very depressing, but worth reading.

My guilty pleasure: anything by Jackie Collins
( squiddylyd Once you pop you can't stop!, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 20:32, Reply)

The Magic Faraway Tree
by Enid Blyton was a book I read many times as a child, not realising the subtle piss-takes of the author by giving 2 of the child characters names like 'Dick' and 'Fanny', not to mention the 'tripping' story itself.
I now realise, as an adult, that Enid Blyton must have been into some right heavy shit drugs as she was writing books.
(Appleseed Is getting married 24/05/2014. All invited., Fri 6 Jan 2012, 20:19, Reply)

Kurt Vonnegut
Pretty much all his books (apart from Player Piano) are brilliant.

The best are Slaughter House Five and Cats Cradle.

They can really change the way you view life, death and time, but they are not nerdy sci-fi.
(Bitter and Twisted, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 20:17, 5 replies)

Few more I've remembered.
"K-PAX" - plus the second and third books.

"This perfect day" by Ira Levin.

"Earth Abides" by George R Stewart - written in 1949 and follows the story of one man who's left alone after the death of civilization from a plague.
( Maffers I flow kinda strange like Spina Bifida footprints, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 20:06, 3 replies)

Sci Fi at its best
Altered Carbon
Broken Angels
Woken Furies

All by Richard K Morgan. These books are gritty, stylish, hard and raw. Think cyberpunk crossed with detective crossed with a few shots of absinthe.

Anyone read his fantasy books?
( sutit only the crumbliest, flakiest posts, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 19:08, 9 replies)

Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock

A great story about the birth of legends.
( Larry Death Anger Pain Fear Aggression, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 18:55, Reply)

Like a lot of people
I'm slowly turning away from physical books. By "slowly" I mean running at full pelt - I had a Sony eReader shortly after it came out, loved it, and was distraught when it was stolen... but (and get this) I had all my books saved elsewhere so lost not a one.

I've since replaced it with a Kindle. My shelves are slowly being whittled down as old mustkeeps are finding their way into the digital realm. Its aces, but I don't mind reading real books and I've kept quite a few. Schotts Almanac for example is much better as a book on a shelf that you can pick up, read a snippet randomly, and put back.

Now - what is my favourite book? My Tiny Life by Julian Dibbell. An autobiographical piece by a journalist experiencing a burgeoning online community for the first time (LambdaMOO), following on from an article he originally wrote for The Village Voice called A Rape in Cyberspace. Its in many ways naive, but in others quite illuminating. Its also interesting to see how, not so long ago, online communities were seen as the "other" but are slowly becoming the norm. Its also interesting to think about the damage he did to that community - indeed, it is impossible to visit the MOO without seeing the repurcussions. I believe it is now out of print in physical book form, but you can still get hold of a copy through Lulu.
(Captain Skippy pooed in a bag and left it on your doorstep, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 18:53, Reply)

The Evolution Man
by Roy Lewis. The best sci-fi book ever written, and nothing more technologically advanced in it than a bow and arrow.

A Second Chance by Philip Kerr. Sci-Fi based on blood disease.

Dry Guillotine by Rene Belbenoit. Where Henri Charriere stole the idea for Papillon
( social hand grenade I was a lurker before you were a lurker, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 18:22, Reply)

Mt wife is a published author
and I love all of her books. I'm not just typing this because she's looking over my shoulder.


Love you sweetie XXXX
(MadBouncyDog Barking at the moon since, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 18:14, Reply)

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this weeks postings, but it has reminded me how little I read now days.
As a kid there where always lots of books in the house, and I’d go through an authors complete works if I ‘discovered’ a cracker. The week I found Steinbeck was good’un.

Anyway, there’s one book that sticks in my memory. It was a great big thick 1970’s feminist job that my mum stuck on the book shelf in the hope that I’d stumble across it, absorb it’s messages and become one of them “New Men”. I was about 12 years old when I found it.

It was clearly the work of a bunch of insane harpies.

The overriding message was that everything bad was because of men. All sex involving men was an expression of violence. Breast cancer was men’s fault etc.

Rather than go down the softer “Woman’s Studies” route and claim that anything discovered or invented by men was actually due to the work of a woman, they completely eschewed the whole of western civilization as nothing more than a throbbing cultural phallus. The only examples of matriarchies it gave where tribes in the Amazon where people lived perfect peaceful lives freed from the male tyranny, eating grubs out of rotting wood and dying before they were 40.

But I couldn’t put it down. The idiocy of it was so entertaining, the more I read it the more superior I felt.

And that is why I became the massive sexist that I am today.

Thanks mum.
( Ring Of Fire A petty, drooling belming butthurt retard., Fri 6 Jan 2012, 17:55, 2 replies)

I rarely read fiction
Not because I'm some sort of book snob, just that I find made-up stories are often less exciting than some of the unusual things that happen in actual life. When I do read fiction, I like things as unrealistic as possible, like sci-fi, or reality-based police procedurals like the Rebus novels. That said, if you're looking for some interesting reads and like a bit of history, I highly recommend the following:

The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World

-In 19th century London, cholera is sweeping across the city like a fire. Dr. John Snow and Rev. Henry Whitehead have some fresh ideas on how to combat the long-time foe, but will the medical establishment prove as dangerous as the disease?


Tulipomania : The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower & the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused by Mike Dash

-The 'credit crunch' looks paltry compared to the Dutch tulip craze in the 1600s, where a single bulb could make or break a fortune and a mania changed markets like nothing before it.


The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary/The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, both by Simon Winchester

-Intrigue, drama, passion and determination can all be found in dictionaries, but those words aren't usually associated with the publications themselves. Creating a work meant to be a summary of an entire language is no mean feat, though, and not something achieved without causing a few waves in the waters of academia, politics and history.


The Poet and the Murderer by Simon Worrall

-How did a supposedly lost poem by Emily Dickinson reveal a tale of forgery, deceit, fraud and murder that traced back to a single man? The story of Mark Hofmann, a quiet religious boy who became one of the best forgers known to history, might leave all rare document collectors wondering just a little about their acquisitions.


False Impressions: The Hunt for Big-Time Art Fakes by Thomas Hoving

-Prestigious museums like the Getty and the Metropolitan Museum of Art would never get duped by fakes or knowingly display a forged piece with a suspect provenance. Right?
(louveciennes , Volvospotter, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 17:51, 2 replies)

Knut Hamsun- Hunger

(shezam slouching towards nirvana., Fri 6 Jan 2012, 17:34, 5 replies)

Fly fishing by J.R.Hartley
I never read the book as the short movie was enough to satisfy me and they played it every night on TV for what seemed years.

I love a happy ending.
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 17:34, 2 replies)