What are you reading right now? Page 44

Quote: Griff @ November 8 2008, 2:37 PM GMT

That's bad. I was afraid there wouldn't be any other Golding books worth following up on, although I will take Timbo's suggestion and try out The Inheritors, giving The Spires a big swerve. I hadn't seen the conch as a vagina. Is that what English teachers are saying now or a personal insight Scats(*)? Our teachers never mentioned it. Mind you they were so prudish that they used to say things like "there are lots of rude jokes in this which we are NOT going to dwell on" when we read Shakespeare.

But I do love Lord Of The Flies. Forget all the stuff about it being an allegory for WWII etc. It's just a razor-sharp description of how kids (and many adults) would behave given half a chance. All sentimental adults who think ickle kiddywinks are cute (presumably because they've grown too old to remember their own childhoods) should be made to read it. The slow descent into savagery and murder is just mesmerising. I remember we all watched the film of it at school (the B&W Peter Brook version). There was sniggering at the beginning and by the time they dropped a big rock on Piggy and smashed his head in everyone was horribly enthralled.

And Alan Moore knows the score. (Even when he goes off the rails a bit like his Promethea stuff.) Next stop for Nick I would recommend From Hell, or as Sooty suggests, League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Or in fact anything else he ever wrote.

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Just found my copy of TLOEG2 there's a short cartoon strip in the appendix about how he stabs to death people who complain about his stuff being late.

n.b. his old 2000AD stuff Halo Jones and Dr & Quich are also ace.

Well, here's a recommendation for you:

Tibor Fischer - Good To Be God.

Just read this. Fantastic book, genuinely funny and wise, superbly written.

Anybody else read anything by him? Do tell.

Quote: john lucas 101 @ November 24 2008, 3:31 PM GMT

Well, here's a recommendation for you:

Tibor Fischer - Good To Be God.

Just read this. Fantastic book, genuinely funny and wise, superbly written.

Anybody else read anything by him? Do tell.

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I've read a collection of his short stories called "Don't Read This Book If You're Stupid." That was very good.

Anyone read 'Any Human Heart' by William Boyd?

It's a great read and I was lucky enough to get it for 50p from a charity shop about a year after it had come out.

Here's Amazon's review:

Logan Gonzago Mountstuart, writer, was born in 1906, and died of a heart attack on October 5, 1991, aged 85. Any Human Heart is his disjointed autobiography, a massive tome chronicling "my personal rollercoaster"--or rather, "not so much a rollercoaster", but a yo-yo, "a jerking spinning toy in the hands of a maladroit child". From his early childhood in Montevideo, son of an English corned beef executive and his Uraguayan secretary, through his years at a Norfolk public school and Oxford, Mountstuart traces his haphazard development as a writer. Early and easy success is succeeded by a long half-century of mediocrity, disappointments and setbacks, both personal and professional, leading him to multiple failed marriages, internment, alcoholism and abject poverty.

Mountstuart's sorry tale is also the story of a British way of life in inexorable decline, as his journey takes in the Bloomsbury set, the General Strike, the Spanish Civil War, 1930s Americans in Paris, wartime espionage, New York avant garde art, even the Baader-Meinhof gang--all with a stellar supporting cast. The most sustained and best moment comes mid-book, as Mountstuart gets caught up in one of Britain's murkier wartime secrets, in the company of the here truly despicable Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Elsewhere author William Boyd occasionally misplaces his tongue too obviously in his cheek--the Wall Street Crash is trailed with truly crashing inelegance--but overall Any Human Heart is a witty, inventive and ultimately moving novel. Boyd succeeds in conjuring not only a compelling 20th century but also, in the hapless Logan Mountstuart, an anti-hero who achieves something approaching passive greatness.

It could probably make a good film. I wonder how I'd go about buying the rights.

Quote: Ben @ November 28 2008, 10:07 AM GMT

Anyone read 'Any Human Heart' by William Boyd?

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If it's the one I think it is it is a very good book. Although William Boyd's a very good writer, I particularly like Brazaville Beach and The New Confessions by him.

Quote: Griff @ November 28 2008, 10:13 AM GMT

You should take this idea to Dragon's Den. It's a surefire winner. Remember to point out in your pitch that you bought it in a charity shop, thus demonstrating sound financial prudence.

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But when I say "I took advice from Griff" they'll all be OUT.

Quote: Ben @ November 28 2008, 10:07 AM GMT

Anyone read 'Any Human Heart' by William Boyd?

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No, but I probably will now. I love anything set in or to do with the Spanish Civil war - even in a remote sense.

Just started on the new Alexei Sayle - Mr Robinson.

40 pages in and very good thus far.

Reread Zodwallop by William Browning Spencer in 2 days.

That is one kick ass read, funny and utterly ingenious.

Currently reading Leather Maiden and Just after Sunrise.

Now this is a good read.

That would appear to be an edition from about 1854.

Quote: john lucas 101 @ December 1 2008, 2:05 PM GMT

That would appear to be an edition from about 1854.

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1938

Spycraft - The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs from Communism to Al-Qaeda

Saw it on the shelf at the library and thought it looked interesting. Miniature cameras, concealed microphones, suicide pills and secret codes - it covers it all. It was written by the former head of the CIA department responsible for such goodies.

The Holy Bloody and the Holy Grail. Pretty interesting stuff so far.

Just started to read Eric Sykes autobiography "If I Don't Write It Nobody Else Will". Just sent off for Hattie Jacques biography as well, really looking forward to that one.