What was the last book you read? I finished "The Stand" by Stephen King this morning. Got to say, King is probably the best story teller in modern literature.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Answers

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire... just read it to the littl'uns... real fun!!!!!

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Too busy to open anything new these days so I just reread "Dune" and am currently reaquainting myself with the brilliance of Iain Banks' "Complicity":- probably why have gone all London taxi-driver over the death penalty :-)

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Great book the Stand.....you should now listen to Dire Straits by Dire Straits...Fer some reason that albumn reminds me of the book.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Just finished Lord of the Rings (for about the 50th time!), Mr X by Peter Straub and i've got The Fatal Englishman (Sebastian Faulks) sitting there after so many recommendations by you lot!

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Why does everything non football have to be a "Controvosy"?

Particularly in the off season?

Last book I read I think was Dragon and Bear Tom Clancy. OK not really literary but it filled in a few hours when I was away from home for a couple of nights.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Tradition Gus.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Just finished Espedair Street by Iain Banks. Now reading Arrivals and Departures by Leslie Thomas. Getting through a lot of books at the moment while the council are digging up the road on my bus route home!

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Whoops I know "controvosy" has an "e" in it.

sparxx, I enjoyed all 4 HP books cannot wait until September for the movie and Book 5.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Never been called that before dougal, ;o)

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

You get to see it early over there Gus? release date for HP is mid november over here....

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Bought Northern Lights for my daughter and was spell-bound, brilliant stuff, Iain Banks with younger characters. Luckily its the first of a trilogy and the subsequent two were also very very good.

If Harry Potters are the perfect kids books, and they are, then Philip Pulman is the perfect book for kids just slightly older and on up to 90. The HP four are collectively better than than the PP 3 but the first PP is better than any of the individual HPs. Get it now !!

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Can I be REALLY controversial here and state that the Harry Potter stuff is a bit overated? I know it's for kids and all that but 20 pages into the second one I thought to myself "Hold on, this is exactly the same story as the first one" - anything that gets kids reading rather than shooting up smack or playing computer games has to be a good thing though I supppose. Just finished Tom Wolfe's 'A man in full' - good yarn, bit long mind.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Touching the Void by Joe Simpson.

One of the few books that I'd rate "must read"

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Started reading the new Nick Hornby novel "How To Be Good". Absolute rubbish which left me with a feeling of "why am I doing this to myself?". It's like a middle class Eastenders where every character is loathesome and you wish for armageddon by page 50. I got half way through and threw it on the floor in disgust. How the mighty are fallen!

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Just finished fathers book club present, "Killing Pablo", The story of Escobar , bliddy unreal , no wonder Tino was a sandwich short of a picnic , Medilin would have that effect on most, great book, well researched, ****

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

I get through around 150 books a year, easily, mostly out of sheer boredom but occasionally due to spectacular write-ups from critics. The only one I would recommend, without reservation, is Neil Stephensons 'Cryptonomicon'. Wow.

BTW, one of the heroes of the book is an American soldier called - wait for it - Bobby Shaftoe. Can't think of a better recommendation!

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

The Road to Mars by Eric Idle. A novel about a couple of comedians getting involved in trouble on an intergalactic Borscht Belt kind of thing. Travelling with them is an android trying to study comedy. It's not anywhere near as funny as I'd thought it would be.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Just finished 'Whatever happened to the Tories: The Conservatives since 1945' Ian Gilmour.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Was that as funny as you thought it would be Stevo?

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Janet & John Go Computing. Or was it Fred & Doug's Relaxing Holiday Haunts

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Not a great reader, but presently reading "The Invention of Peace" by Michael Howard (non-fiction).
Premise: Throughout history the majority of societies have regarded war as the normal state, and it formed the basis for their legal and social structure.
Not until the 18th century did war come to be regarded as an evil that could be abolished by rational social organisation, and only after the massive slaughter of the two World wars did this become the declared objective of 'civilised' states. However, peace has had to be invented.
Sounds utter sh*te, but its really interesting.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Jonno- Being an avowed non-Tory it did have its entertaining moments, especially post '92.

For anyone interested (well you never know) Gilmour, an unabashed One Nation Tory, blames Thatcher for having "poured her govts favours on the few not the many....systematically dismantled the nation's sense of itself as a unity. Her legacy includes resurgent nationalism in Scotland and Wales, islands of poverty in every major city, a permament underclass, a bloated 'fat cat' elite and a Conservative Party which has spent the last few years tearing itself apart as it struggles to accomodate her ideological legacy."

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Yes, and his problem is what exactly ?

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

......prior to that it was "Biggles goes East".

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Harry Pearson's good - 'The Far Corner' about NE non-league football and 'Tall man in a low land'. David Lodge - any of his but especially Small World and Nice Work, any by Bill Bryson, PG Wodehouse, James Joyce, Peter Hoeg. For kids, you can't beat Emil & the Detectives - pure class, Iron Man by Ted Hughes, and Just William, Jennings, Biggles (Goes West is a good one, plus all the WW1 stories), .... To me HP is over-rated. On music the best book ever must be Revolution in the Head by Ian McDonald on the Beatles.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Nick - have you read 'Snowcrash'? Re: those reading Iain Banks - Crow Road, Wasp Factory and Espedair Street are the best IMHO. Canal Dreams and The Business are rubbish.

I'm just finishing Nicholson Baker's 'The Mezzanine' and have Dave Eggers 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius' and Cephas Goldsworthy's 'The Satyr' - a biography of Rochester - awaiting my attention...

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Stevo - as an avowed non Tory myself I agree with all of that though I doubt I could have waded through such a tome. Still I don't have to as your single paragraph summing up was quite excellent. Thanks.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

I did read, although not in a book, that the release date here was September. Now you have sown the seeds of doubt Gav, cannot be sure that it was to be the book or the movie.

Was under the impression that the 2 of them would be released around the same time.

We quite often have music and movies released here before the UK. It might be that we are used as a test market.

Re HP being over rated, yes it might be true, depending on what style of stories you like. It is, however, a beacon at a time of low quality in childrens books.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

That's pretty likely gus, when I moved back to Blighty from RSA in 1984 I was bemused to hear about "New Releases" of films and music I had heard or seen up to 18 months before. It's definitely got a bit tighter since then, though, partly because of instant access to global information.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

Still wading through A History of the 20th Century - small bites, as it cuts off the cirulation to my legs!

About to start Anthony Bourdain`s `Kitchen Confidential (Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly)`. Bought it for Pete after hearing Bourdain interviewed on Radio 4, and thought he was a very `colourful` character! `More gripping than a Stephen King novel` Sunday Times. `It`s not exactly Delia` Guardian. `Elizabeth David written by Quentin Tarantino` A.A.Gill.. `Exposes Jamie Oliver for the choirboy that he is` Glasgow Herald. Etc., etc. Pete really enjoyed the book too.

Pete`s busy reading `Surviving Galeras` - about a vulcanologist(sp) who survives and escapes an eruption of Galeras (albeit with half his skull missing and a foot hanging on by his bootlaces). Several other members of the expedition died. I was listening to it serialised on the Radio, and missed the last episode - which is why Pete got it for Fathers Day!

Confession time now. I picked up a Danielle Steel in the supermarket - don`t ask me why, I haven`t read a `girlie romance` for twenty odd years now. I have read my fair share of them though, mostly historical bodice rippers with cringeworthy tiles like `The Flame and the Flower`, and `The Wolf and the Dove`! They start to lose their appeal when you are too old to identify with the seventeen yearold, stubborn, pouty heroine!

Anyway, ten pages into the book and I had already concluded that it is complete and utter rubbish, shallow, and apologies to Ms Steele, the writing is (especially having just read Capt. Corellis Mandolin) less than poetic, and not exactly challenging. Ten more pages into the book, and I am disgusted with myself that I can`t put it down! Maybe I`m regressing, or maybe underneath it all I`m just as shallow as I ever was!

Actually, it`s just dawned on me why I am finding I can read and enjoy it - I am relating the main character not to myself, but to my daughter. Mystery solved!(:o)

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

Oh-oh....just realised how that sounded! I am NOT suggesting that Yelli is a `stubborn, pouty, seventeen year old`. Actually the main character in this book is a stunningly beautiful, incredibly intelligent, highly principled lawyer. OK Yell?

(Just wanted to make that quite clear as Pete is away for the weekend and I don`t want to fall out with her!) (;o)

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

I'd give Elmore Leonard a big plug. And a guy called Philip Kerr, before he went over to science fiction type stuff. The three set in Berlin are excellent. Avoid Colin Dexter like the plague.

Mention of Biggles brought back happy memories. And another childhood favorite was Rider Haggard. King Solomon's mines still one of my favorites.

de Berniere's other books are quite good as well. Bit surreal and not quite as good as Capt Corelli.

And I'm bracing myself to get stuck into Philip Schama's, Rembrandt's Eyes, which I got for Christmas and haven't had the guts to pick up yet, assuming I can lift it in the first place.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

I'll bet you're still 'stubborn and pouty', Gal! ;-{)

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

My pouting days are over Clarky - somehow it doesn`t have the same effect now. But stubborn? Hell yes!!!(;o)

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

Am I the only person who isn`t too enthusiastic about the Harry Potter books?(:o)

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

You're sort of not on your own Gal, but only cos I've never read any HP, but neither have I read any of the Lord of the Rings stories, can't say fantasy has much appeal. SF neither.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

Why apologize for the Danielle Steele? Sometimes it's fun to read mind-numbing trashy stuff. Though I have to admit, I never was much into DS. Much preferred the bodice-rippers set in ancient England/Ireland/Scotland. Gabaldon's Outlander being a particularly good one. Guess I could pretend they were historical novels, rather than mind-numbing romance novels. ;-))

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

Fair comment Ciara........who says everything has to be heavyweight and serious. I think I`ve just got into the habit of reading more non-fiction than fiction these days.(:o)

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

I read a couple of Colin Dexter's after I had seen Inspector Morse, and you're right Pit Bill, what a let-down. The TV version is much better than the books. Whicjh is usually not the case. Who can think of other examples when the film or TV show is better than the book?

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

Agree about Harry Potter Galaxy. I've only read The Philospher's Stone and thought it wasn't a patch on Terry Pratchett.

I recently read Anthony Beevor's "Stalingrad" which is an immense book - couldn't put it down. Am currently reading Philip Roth's "The Human Stain" which I'm finding a bit of a struggle.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

Jacko - Stalingrad is on my list to read - Clarky`s recommendation I believe. It`s become a bit of a joke with my husband that when I say `I think I`ll read something light now` - I do actually mean weight as opposed to content!(:o)

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2001

You critics of HP should realise that it is intended for 6 - 16 year olds.

Not as good as Terry Pratchett indeed!

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2001

And Pit Bill better watch himself....not reading Lord of the Rings....that's fighting talk that is! :))

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2001

Pit Bill is Sauron in disguise. :-)

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2001