The GOT Book Club

[Alio]

afternoon alio i have book called the dog that saved my life,

Afternoon Carlostwentyone

Is the book any good? Don't tell me how the Dog saved someone life, just in case I want to read it...

 

[Azzurri]

The Da Vinci Code is currently sitting by the front door in the same position I left it two weeks ago like 'YOU WOT LAD?'

 

[carlos21]

Afternoon Carlostwentyone

Is the book any good? Don't tell me how the Dog saved someone life, just in case I want to read it...

i am fine today i will not tell you mate.

 

[chicoazul]

Your 5 book recommendation list GO!

1 - The Count of Montecristo.
2 - Mr Nice.
3 - The first three books by Anne Rice. Picking one, The Vampire Lestat.
4 - Most books by Lee Child. Picking one, One Shot.
4 - Dice Man.

There's better books I've read but they're not for everyone, like Antony Beevor books. I'm doing this as if I see similar recommendations from y'all then I'm going to order them for the kindle as I need some new inspiration now.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Are we talking fiction or non-fiction?

 

[dholliday]

The Da Vinci Code is currently sitting by the front door in the same position I left it two weeks ago

Proper pageturner that.

Uno - Dice Hombre

Dos - Senor Nice

Tres - La Playa

The Diceman almost changed my life.

What were your other two? I'm guessing the middle one was Howard Marks.


I recommend you cheekbones:

some escapism from stephens:

Stephen King - The Gunslinger (trippy original 70's one, not the retrofit one)
Stephen Baxter - Time/Space/Origin (oh ye gods...)
Stephen Lawhead - Taliesin/Merlin (it's like you're there yourself)


some literature:

Patrick Süskind - Das Parfum (Perfume...it's poetic, tasty and very strange)
George Orwell - Down & Out in Paris & London (reads like the diary you wanted to write before life became routine)
Mikhail Bulgakov - Master & Margarita (the devil is actually alright...i'd have a pint with him anyway)



and some brainy stuff...not fiction:

Carlos Castaneda - Tales of Power (start the trip at the end. if you like it, then go to the beginning)
Timothy Leary - Design for Dying (the brain as excel spreadsheet)
Keith Devlin - The Math's Gene (marvel...for now you understand advanced mathematics)

 

[dholliday]

try Franz Kafka's short stories. The longer novels are also good but can be a tad annoying after 100 or so pages.

Agreed. Metamorphosis is visceral stuff! No need to get hung up on the metaphors...just feel that opening scene.

the alchemist - paulo coelho this is a short book and wont take you long to read, but must be unique in that it's the book that most people read and then say it is their favourite of all time.

bored the crap out of me...don't think i finished it. twee as hell it was, with the kind of over-idealised moralising even Disney shies away from.

Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell is a classic in my view. It's a real Chicoazul book, which means it's very funny and full of witty observations.

If you like the cut of Orwell's wit, you'll like perusing his Collected Essays, Letters and stuffs.

1984 - George Orwell

1984. The best bit of polemic ever penned in our language...an assault on the power of government to intrude into our lives and our very thoughts. An novel that shapes our thinking about how we are governed.

It's insane how relevant this book still is.

I've read it a dozen times since my first time almost 20 years ago. The last time was around 2006...due another one, I reckon. Gets better every time too (and I'm normally not one to re-read books).

brave new world

I kinda liked it, but it left me cold somehow...lots of fine detail and colour, but no feeling, the characters never had any warmth (which I suppose was the point). Still a solid recommendation for fans of dystopia or cynical sci-fi.

Papillon .
Fatherland .

Yeah! Also Archangel from the same author. Robert Harris is an extremely skillful scene-setter.

Sookie Stackhouse series

Twilight Saga

Discworld series

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!

Be back later!

I bet you're a girl

Can anyone recommend a good horror/fiction horror book ?

Dean R Koontz - Midnight (which incidentally is also the title of my favourite Doctor Who story, equally delightfully disturbing).

Bram Stoker - Dracula (one of the most famous books of all time. Not proper scary, but a genuinely riveting read)

Got into Czech literature a bit recently.

Ano! I'm a dobry big fan of czech stuff, but not read any of their literature yet. What you recommend for someone who enjoys classic dark literature, like a czech Crime & Punishment? Not interested in war & nazi stuff, tho'...it's been done to death (ahem).

Quite partial to Salman Rushdie novels. Does depend on what you like though.

Respect to you, I tried 'Satanic Verses' and found it so frustrating, I found it disjointed and the narrative a bit impenetrable. Gave up about half way through.

Concur with malcson...after a spectacular opening scene I just couldn't wade through the wordy prose...gave up well before halfway through.

I've been reading a fair bit of Isaac Asimov lately, just finished Bicentennial Man.

Aye...I used to enjoy reading his short robot stories while being toked up on the green.

Still on the all-in-one lord of the rings trilogy. Its not only soul destroyingly long but wrist destroyingly demoralising. Can't do anything after I've been reading for 15 minutes.

Yeah...I remember it being all:

fight-> rest-> walk for hundred pages-> fight-> rest-> walk for hundred pages-> fight-> rest-> walk for hundred pages-> fight-> rest-> walk for hundred pages->


The middle section dragged on like fook. I bought Silmarillion but could never bring myself to read more than 3 pages.

Superb books! If you really like the dystopian genre definitely read Brave New World and A Clockwork Orange if you haven't already. Maybe Handmaid's Tale as well?

Also Zamyatin's We is trippy dystopia, and I believe it might be the first futurist dystopia, influencing Huxley & Orwell. Koestler's Darkness at Noon is bleak as hell, but a good read.

Love the Sci Fi genre and I am a massive fan of Philip K Dick, Ben Bova and Kim Stanley Robinson.

I tried getting into KSR's Mars series...they read well, but didn't get past the first couple of hundred pages of Red Mars. Was the series any good in the end?

I Do fancy reading some proper Space Sci-fi type books, if you go into a book shop the sci fi section is all Fantasy type stuff, nothing against that just fancy some proper sci fi

Try Frank Schätzing - The Swarm. It's blockbuster hard sci-fi!

For the really deep space stuff, my favourite series was Baxter's Manifold Cycle. Ideas so huge your mind is blown! What Baxter does really well is describe the technical stuff at a high level yet without making it impenetrable. This is very important in hard sci-fi as you need to understand it to grasp the insane concepts he's come up with.

Try Catch 22 by Joseph Heller - my favourite book of all time. So funny but quite profound in its way.

Couldn't get into it, I found the characters to be irritating and unrelatable and the sarcastic tone Heller writes with got on my nerves.

Agree with Cahill...just didn't agree with me at all that book. Never got close to finishing it, mind.

I ordered 'Football Manager Stole My Life' the other day, still hasn't came yet FFS. Looking forward to it though I'm not much of a reader. Anyone read it ?

I listen to Football Weekly on the Guardian and one of the semi-regular podders wrote that book. He mentions it sometimes...I lost a whole summer (summer! it wasn't even winter!) playing Premier Manager on the Amiga...so can relate...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unbearable-Lightness-Being-Milan-Kundera/dp/0571135390

I was reading about this book just the other day as it was mentioned on listverse (or rather, the philosophical concept behind the idea described in the title was listed there).

 

[dholliday]

no, just an op on the old ear/nose/throat area. only off for a couple of weeks.

I had similar op in August last year: swollen adenoids/glands lasered out in response to chronic Sinusitis/Rhinitis...2 weeks off.

To be honest, there's been little to no long-term improvement. What about you?

 

[noharmdone]

Your 5 book recommendation list GO!

1 - The Count of Montecristo.
2 - Mr Nice.
3 - The first three books by Anne Rice. Picking one, The Vampire Lestat.
4 - Most books by Lee Child. Picking one, One Shot.
4 - Dice Man.

There's better books I've read but they're not for everyone, like Antony Beevor books. I'm doing this as if I see similar recommendations from y'all then I'm going to order them for the kindle as I need some new inspiration now.

Dice man ! Christ, forgot I read that... Very strange read.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Crumbs, Czech books that aren't about war. That does kinda limit things

It is cheating a tad, as it is about war, albeit the first one, but I thoroughly recommend The Good Soldier Svejk. Fantastic satire. Very funny.

Another with a similar sense of humour is The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window. It's Swedish rather than Czech but very funny.

 

[malcson]

Just ordered this from the Book Depository, took a week to arrive and will be picking it up once I finish Asimov - Foundation

 

[peskyrobot]

 

[Gwladysyoungestson3:16]

I really recommend all twelve volumes of the Flashman series. Not only really interesting historically but also really funny, I can't recommend them highly enough. I've also just reread Agent ZigZag which is also fantastic. Oh also the Bulldog Drummond series (really only the first four).

 

[McBain]

 

[Furey1878]

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

All time favourite book, although I must admit I only truly began reading books like 3 years ago.