I got these.
What are you reading right now? Page 189
What an eclectic collection although I'd only read one of them.
Barry Cryer?
indeedy
the others look interesting
I think I might finally read long walk to freedom
You should all get into Tales Designed To Thrizzle. Absurdly silly.
I picked up the Morrissey autobiography at the library yesterday. Very nicely written with a deft descriptive touch. It's maybe a little slow to start what with rather in depth back stories about his family, but I'm not struggling yet.
Quote: Ben @ 29th December 2013, 1:03 PM GMTI picked up the Morrissey autobiography at the library yesterday. Very nicely written with a deft descriptive touch. It's maybe a little slow to start what with rather in depth back stories about his family, but I'm not struggling yet.
It's an easy read, if you don't weary of the pompous self-deprecation. Bitchy recollections of Sandie Shaw go on a bit, whereas those of Siouxise Sioux are the right length. For comedy fans, he does mention a few old sitcoms and comedy actors. Including his phone call to Charles Hawtrey, when he wanted him for the Everyday is Like Sunday clip. And he recalls bolting out of a recording of Friends after he was asked to sing something depressing alongside Lisa Kudrow in Central Perk.
Up to book four of Rebus. Bet Rankin's glad he didn't kill his hero off at the end of book one.
Quote: Kenneth @ 29th December 2013, 3:00 PM GMTAnd he recalls bolting out of a recording of Friends after he was asked to sing something depressing alongside Lisa Kudrow in Central Perk.
Although it's a busy time of year workwise and and otherwise, I have been getting stuck into the Billy Bunter books. They make a relaxing break from thinking and are read swiftly.
Little wonder I found so few in my local libraries when a school student. The word "nigger" is used unsparingly in several of the books. The token Indian student and his "humourous" malapropisms of proverbs are thus far a complete waste of time.
Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School: A poor opening to the series. Bunter should be mercilessly bullied and expelled for being an inveterate thief, liar and sloth. Yet everyone amiably puts up with his twattery. Feeble.
Billy Bunter's Banknote: I had to struggle for a few seconds to remember what this one was about, despite having read it only a week ago. More plot than the previous one. Good stuff about schoolboys going to the pub to bet on horses.
Billy Bunter Among the Cannibals: Blimey. This was an odd one. Paternalistic racism aside, there is a marvelous passage about a white man who has succumbed to the demon that is drink in the tropics:
EZRA HUCK slouched into the shady verandah of the ramshackle bungalow, back of the beach, and stared out at the sea... And he muttered savage words in his shaggy beard. It was the view that met his eyes every day, week after week, year after year, till the weariness of it was in his very bones. Ezra had been twenty years on Kamakama: and he had always been going to get off the island, as soon as luck came his way: but luck had never come. And more and more, year by year, the trader of Kamakama had sunk under the temptation of all white men in the tropics, which he had not the moral fibre to resist: and innumerable long drinks had sapped away whatever energy he had once had. So many drinks, of so many kinds, had so long been mixed up in Ezra Huck that he was little more than a chunk of disagreeing chemicals. His looks were sulky and savage, his eyes bloodshot, his temper so ferocious that his house-boy, Suloo, came near him only in fear and trembling.
Never got this sort of thing in Blyton.
Billy Bunter's Brain-Wave: Good description of Bunter having the living shit thrashed out of him by a bullying prefect. Good descriptions of the pleasures of cigarettes. This is more like Tom Brown's Schooldays than any Enid Blyton boarding school fare.
Billy Bunter's Barring-Out: Serious stuff but verges into the absurd and stays there. A nice tale of British spunk.
Quote: Will Cam @ 17th October 2013, 10:36 PM BSTI am currently enjoying this very much:
I can't believe it's taken me so long but I am on the last few pages of this. What a fantastic read. Mclaren-Ross brings to life the people he writes about. I think I am obsessed with him. 
Quote: Will Cam @ 24th September 2013, 8:45 AM BSTThis should be dropping through my door today.
Finally started reading this tonight.
I am 47 and think it is time to have my eyes tested as the print seems very small.
probably a good idea, or get a device where you can adjust text size
Quote: sootyj @ 3rd January 2014, 12:39 AM GMTprobably a good idea, or get a device where you can adjust text size
I refuse point blank to use an electronic reading device for reasons I covered here:
Quote: Will Cam @ 3rd January 2014, 12:27 AM GMTFinally started reading this tonight.
I am 47 and think it is time to have my eyes tested as the print seems very small.
You can buy 'readers' from supermarkets.
Mrs Brady however has to go to a opticians for her 'seers'.