Read a good book lately?

**Maha** · 10th June 2013, 16:07

I have advanced from the TV Guide and Sunday paper. Bought a book yesterday called The Case of the Missing Bloodstain, another book about the Crewe Murders.
I did read Beyond Reasonable Doubt years ago. There is a lot more court and police transcript in this book than in Yallops earlier book.

**granstar** · 10th June 2013, 18:39

Currently reading and enjoying Briggo's story http://www.briggo.net/News/wembley%2...0paperback.jpg

Prior to this read Untamed by Swaziman Davie Hughes, great story as well.

http://www.raymears.com/_rm_pictures...vey_Hughes.jpg

**scumdog** · 10th June 2013, 18:49

I've just finished The Battle For Guadalcanal by Samuel b. Griffiths III - a bloody good read depicting the total cluster-fucks on both sides.

**Grashopper** · 17th June 2013, 23:09

Just finished "At 61 degrees" by Mike S Martin http://www.amazon.com/AT-61-DEGREES-ebook/dp/B005KMBS1S. One of the most powerful books I've ever read. I inhaled it in a couple of days. Actually made me late at work this morning cause I couldn't put it away.

It's difficult to describe the story without giving anything away, so lets just say it's about a guy who wants to race in MotoGP. Although it is so much more.

**superjackal** · 20th June 2013, 16:28

Something a bit different, just finished reading a couple of Batman novelisations, "Fear itself" and "Dead White". Both were terrific books getting nicely into the character's head.

**unstuck** · 20th June 2013, 16:31

The encyclopedia of motorcycling, 1974 addition. Bloody hilarious some of the predictions for bikes of the future.

**unstuck** · 11th July 2013, 20:36

50 shades of GHEY, What a load of shite. How many 20 something pretty young girls are still virgins and never had an orgasm.........Not many....If any.

**george formby** · 12th July 2013, 00:44

Any fans of Iain Banks here? He's probably the author of fiction who has dropped my jaw more than any other, he took the title from John Irving. He has passed away from cancer which he was diagnosed with when he was almost finished writing a book about a guy dying from cancer seen through the eyes of his autistic son. I'm a bit battered by that.

Any hoo, if your a fan, The Quarry will be worth reading but bloody depressing, if your not, read some of his other books. He wrote sci fi as Iain M Banks, some mind bending & thoroughly entertaining tomes.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013...r-quarry-widow

**HenryDorsetCase** · 16th July 2013, 13:15

Originally Posted by Usarka

This is regarding a trilogy of books by M. John Harrison starting with Light, then Nova Swing, and ending with Empty Space.

I honestly don't know how to review this. A stab at a summary is that it's a cross between Ernest Hemingway, Alistair Reynolds, and Auldus Huxley. I don't know much poetry but chuck a poets name in there too.

The last book came out late last year, and I've recently started re-reading Light and Nova Swing, and just finished Empty Space. What a ride. Light blew me away when I first read it, flicking between modern day weird happenings while two scientists experiment with quantumn computing, through to fucked up alien physics with "K-Ships" that have the pilots brain wired into the ship and alien code running on, well, anything. Nova Swing was an easy(er) read per se, but set in an anomaly event site where again physics was fucked up. Empty Space builds on the cumulation (if cumulation is a non-linear multi dimensional concept) of this and a great example of how to stay hooked on something that at (most) times doesn't make sense at face value but subconciously feels like it all fits into place. Hence the poetry reference.

There's stuff about the future (and present) that we can't comprehend and these books do their best to tell a story about it. At times it doesn't make sense. If you want space opera that's easy to read then go with Peter Hamilton, which is not a criticism, but if you want some serious literature sci-fi with poetic style and can handle being the equivalent of a caveman watching blade runner on the big screen then it's well worth the investment.

Beautifully written. Great ideas. Poetic. This shit should be classifed as literature rather than, or as well as, sci-fi, and it should be up for some serious literature awards.

i have just finished the third of these books. I hated them. Specifically I hated all of the characters in the books:they are all awful people and why I had to spend so much time with them I have no idea. I persevered to find out what happened after three books and guess what? not.a. fucking. thing.

I get that the idea being explored is "Its not only stranger than you imagine, its stranger than you CAN imagine" I get that its the exploration of quantum physics and its application to the so-called real world. I quite liked some of the descriptors and settings. But the characters are loathsome. the few that I liked (the detective for example) were short lived, and the central mystery is not only not resolved, it isn't even tried to be resolved. And that whining fucking bitch that takes up half the third book: I wanted to strangle her within a page. Oh yeah, no resolution there either.

I manfully struggled and finished but I would not recommend these books at all. And the concept promised so much.

I am re-reading NEUROMANCER to cleanse my mind of this awfulness.

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel"

then I'll get back to my cave and watch BLADE RUNNER on the big screen.

**Winston001** · 17th July 2013, 19:51

Huh, sounds like Lord Foul's Bane etc better known as the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever - by Stephen Donaldson. Read the first books six years ago and admittedly, they are well written and good fantasy. But sooooo depressing. Wish I'd never bothered.

**george formby** · 18th July 2013, 01:15

Originally Posted by Winston001

Huh, sounds like Lord Foul's Bane etc better known as the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever - by Stephen Donaldson. Read the first books six years ago and admittedly, they are well written and good fantasy. But sooooo depressing. Wish I'd never bothered.

Ha, got into them when I was in college, chalk & slate in them days. I had to wait for each new book to come out but yeah, ground me down in the end. Hard to get behind a self doubting rapist leper & all the characters I really liked got killed.

**awa355** · 26th July 2013, 18:42

When I started high school, I discovered my older brothers stash of " MAN " magazines in his wardrobe. Somehow, grown up reading took on a new meaning for me.

Back in the fifties, there were a series of stories written about two down and out cockies set in Taranaki about the 1920's. " Me and Gus ". they were printed on a weekly basis ( I think ), in a Taranaki newspaper. I had a collection of their yarns published as a book many years ago.

Would anyone here remember these stories? or who wrote them?

**unstuck** · 26th July 2013, 18:48

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/document...rom-me-and-gus

These the ones?? Remember reading a couple once, great stuff.

**scumdog** · 26th July 2013, 21:56

Originally Posted by awa355

When I started high school, I discovered my older brothers stash of " MAN " magazines in his wardrobe. Somehow, grown up reading took on a new meaning for me.

Back in the fifties, there were a series of stories written about two down and out cockies set in Taranaki about the 1920's. " Me and Gus ". they were printed on a weekly basis ( I think ), in a Taranaki newspaper. I had a collection of their yarns published as a book many years ago.

Would anyone here remember these stories? or who wrote them?

Or the 'Hori' series - like 'half-gallon jar'