What are you reading at the moment

[wurwolf]

Currently reading Angela's Ashes. 'Tis sad.

[PSimon23]

I decided to give a hand and sent a post into social bookmarks. I hope the popularity will rise in.

[goflyblind]

this spammer is a poet. "I hope the popularity will rise in." beautiful, manbot.

thread content: i got the archer book from the library yesterday. pretty funny so far, but i'm not as good with imagining the voices as i'd like.

[Tripe H. Redux]

Currently reading Angela's Ashes. 'Tis sad.

Which is ironic because 'Tis is a wee bit more cheerful.

[MontyServo]

this spammer is a poet. "I hope the popularity will rise in." beautiful, manbot.

Dude, I think that is the real Paul Simon.  This is his first computer, so he still doesn't quite have the hang of it.

Welcome Mr. Simon.  Please send in your list of crap top comic strips.

Or...  Send please list.  Really way cool. Social way of function.  (smiley face)

[wurwolf]

Currently reading Angela's Ashes. 'Tis sad.

Which is ironic because 'Tis is a wee bit more cheerful.

Not the way those poor mooks use it. Jesus, Mary and the Holy Saint Joseph, I don't think there's one single cheerful thing about this book so far.

[Tripe H. Redux]

No I mean the book 'Tis, things imporve for hinm slightly as he gets older and skedaddles to America. Slightly.

[wurwolf]

Oh! I think I even have Tis on my list of books to read, too.

[Tripe H. Redux]

I should actually read Teacher Man at some point but really, I can't be arsed all that much.

[mrbasehart]

I just finished reading The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru.  Set just after the first World War, it's about an Indian boy who can pass for white and his various attempts to assimilate himself into society, beginning in the incredibly tense atmosphere of 1920s India up until (after a chance meeting with dead boy) he begins an education at Oxford University.  Written in a ironic-detached style that's not entirely dissimilar to Jane Austen, it's really excellent.  It's portrayal of the Indian slums, Indian royalty and its relationship with the British, and then the subsequent examination of the kind of institutions that develop those kinds of people is really well drawn and contains genuine moments of humour.  It's not as rigid or as structured as an Austen novel though, and it has a vagueness (and at times, complete lack of grammar) that may put some off.  Still, I enjoyed it.

[Tripe H. Redux]

(and at times, complete lack of grammar)

That's intentional though, would I be correct in assuming?

[mrbasehart]

(and at times, complete lack of grammar)

That's intentional though, would I be correct in assuming?

Yeah.  The style is very much someone relating a story to you, but it varies in style when its talking about a certain person, or in a different country, or something very specific is happening.  It's distancing, but fits with the main character's lack of personality.

[mrbasehart]

The thing about working 48 hours a week? You can get a bunch of reading done.  I'm currently in the middle of...



If you're not familiar with the name, he's the guy who wrote the novel The Thirty Nine Steps, which Hitchcock made into a movie in the 30s and is the template for a lot of man-on-the-run stories since.  The first two of the five novels starring Richard Hannay form a loose trilogy set in and around the First World War, beginning with The Thirty Nine Steps.  Now, as the earlier books were written during the First World War, there has to be a little tolerance for some of the mindsets of some of the characters - Buchan seems to imply that the Jews conned the Germans into war - but it's fairly good stuff, with enough boys own adventure plotting that it manages to never get too dull.  None of the books look too long either, hovering around the 200 page mark (Thirty Nine Steps is 90 pages) so the novels never really outstay their welcome.  Still, for boys own adventure type stuff, it's not a patch on King Solomon's Mines.

[Tripe H. Redux]

Yeah Haggard is a far more entertaining writer and, if you feel like reading more daring do with dodgy racial attitudes, Nayland Smith  from Sax Rhomer is a far better protagonist than Hannay.

Oh, and have you read Rogue Male?

[mrbasehart]

I haven't, but it sounds pretty decent.  I'll keep a look out for it when I next go book shopping.