Just about to read Bill Bryson's The Road to Little Dribbling, which I meant to buy when it first came out, and found in a Spanish supermarket this afternoon.
What are you reading right now? Page 216
Quote: Kenneth @ 29th June 2016, 5:46 PM BSTAsterix and the Missing Scroll. The first book by the post-Uderzo Asterix team (Ferri and Conrad), Asterix and the Picts, was awful. Their second effort, the Missing Scroll, is a vast improvement. Flashes of brilliance. A bit much flat exposition and telling (rather than showing), but not a terrible read.
I used to bunk off school when I was about 13/14 and would spend all morning in the children's room in the local library reading Asterix and Tin Tin books. The librarians hardly ever came in during the day, and those who did chose to ignore me.
I just read this.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/4fd2lr/my_romantic_cabin_getaway_with_my_fiancee_isnt/
It's a horror story written sort of in real time as it's happening. Which sounds kind of complicated, but just give it a look if you like horror. It's honestly one of the scariest things I've ever read! I had to stop a few times mid-way to recover.
Stephen King's Revival. He's still got it. He shouldn't have after about a thousand books, but he has.
Quote: Will Cam @ 29th June 2016, 11:29 PM BSTI used to bunk off school when I was about 13/14 and would spend all morning in the children's room in the local library reading Asterix and Tin Tin books. The librarians hardly ever came in during the day, and those who did chose to ignore me.
And The Three Investigators? When and where did they enter the scene?
The Definitive Deadpool - completely mindless fun. I'm on a comic book kick at the moment but the other day I read, in one sitting, Driving Jarvis Ham by Jim Bob of Carter
USM fame.
Very funny, very cringworthy and with a nice bit of skullduggery that you can pretty much see coming a mile away but doesn't spoil the enjoyment.
Must get hold of his Frank Derricks and if that doesn't sound like a euphemism I don't know what does.
Quote: Kenneth @ 29th June 2016, 5:46 PM BSTAsterix and the Missing Scroll. The first book by the post-Uderzo Asterix team (Ferri and Conrad), Asterix and the Picts, was awful. Their second effort, the Missing Scroll, is a vast improvement. Flashes of brilliance. A bit much flat exposition and telling (rather than showing), but not a terrible read.
I gave The Picts ago, but apart from the awful storytelling (as bad as Uderzo's worst efforts), the artwork just seemed a bit off.
Quote: Tursiops @ 9th July 2016, 2:07 PM BSTI gave The Picts ago, but apart from the awful storytelling (as bad as Uderzo's worst efforts), the artwork just seemed a bit off.
Scroll is well worth reading - just because it's so much better than the Picts.
I'm struggling to re-read all the old Leslie Thomas books. Currently reading The Man With The Power.
Has anyone read Garen Ewing's books?
They're my Tintin replacement. They're pretty good.
I finally finished off The Bell Jar the other day. Really liked Sylvia Plath's tone, but I found the actual narrative a little underwhelming and uneventful.
I guess that, if I want to explore alienation through a young character's eyes, I'll head for Catcher in the Rye.
I remember expecting The Bell Jar to be really worthy and depressing and hard to plough through, but it was actually really fun to read.
And has an excellent opening line.
Might Google this, would like to read some comic books/graphic novels when I finally get some days off, I've no chance reading a novel in a week! I rarely get past 60 pages in a whole week off. Comic books and mags suit my skittish mind on hols. There's probably half the TinTin catalogue I've not read yet but some of them I find too turgid to finish, tbh, great artwork, stories too dense and complex for my simple-direct taste. Asterix on the other hand had superb stories until the writer died then they went horribly wrong.
Recently finished Marc P's excellent Murder Club, just downloaded Enigma by Robert Harris, a book I've been wanting to read after loving the great film version, but I'll need a year or two at least for it, I've only just fathomed the plotline from my 20th viewing of the film, I think I always get sidetracked fantasising about Kate's Winslet. I'd have retrieved those documents from her knickers, for God and country. Ooh I'm getting dizzy again. 
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 10th July 2016, 12:57 PM BSTThere's probably half the TinTin catalogue I've not read yet but some of them I find too turgid to finish, tbh, great artwork, stories too dense and complex for my simple-direct taste.
Tintin and turgid do not belong in the same sentence. Too turgid? Stories too dense? F**k me dead, as we say in Kensal Green. If you think Tintin is heavy going, then you should try something called Blake and Mortimer:
Or rather, try some non-Carl Barks Donald Duck comics. You may find Barks too heavy.
Like the Will Cam guy, I discovered Tintin at school, aged eight. There were four titles in our small central school's school library. It had a policy of loaning one book per week (and you couldn't bring it back before the week was up and exchange it for another). So I memorized The Shooting Star, The Broken Ear, The Secret of the Unicorn and Tintin in America. Great vocab builders. Then I found Asterix in the local town library.
Having recently finished David Quammen's science books, I'm now going through The Three Investigators books in sequence. Some great, some ordinary and some --
But never mind, are David Walliams' books for kids any good?
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 10th July 2016, 12:57 PM BSTAsterix on the other hand had superb stories until the writer died then they went horribly wrong.
Fair shake of the old salt shaker. Uderzo may have churned out a lot of infantile and misogynistic and contradictory crap, but I'd hardly call The Land of Black Gold or even The Great Divide "horribly wrong". I didn't find anything unreadable until All at Sea and then The Picts. Still, René Goscinny, eh, what a loss. And to Lucky Luke too.
Quote: Ben @ 10th July 2016, 12:36 PM BSTI guess that, if I want to explore alienation through a young character's eyes, I'll head for Catcher in the Rye.
Or Jane Eyre? No underwhelming attempted suicides.
I've been reading The Writers Tale by Russel T Davies. Really interesting. My problem is I get halfway through a book and start another. In the middle of around 7 so finishing them one by one before I start anything else!