What are you reading tonight?

perfan · **Posted:** Thu May 01, 2008 11:54 am

I am reading Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. Not got very far into it, it's OK, I expect it gets better the further into it you get, like The DaVinci Code.

David Lee's Hair · **Posted:** Thu May 01, 2008 11:58 am

perfan wrote:

I am reading Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. Not got very far into it, it's OK, I expect it gets better the further into it you get, like The DaVinci Code.

Personally speaking it's a lot better than the DaVinci code

perfan · **Posted:** Thu May 01, 2008 12:02 pm

David Lee's Hair wrote:

perfan wrote:

I am reading Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. Not got very far into it, it's OK, I expect it gets better the further into it you get, like The DaVinci Code.

Personally speaking it's a lot better than the DaVinci code

Most people who have read them both say that. All the science-y stuff hurts my head though, I'm not a science person at all, hopefully now they've reached the Vatican all the complicated science stuff will stop!

Lord Kangana · **Posted:** Thu May 01, 2008 7:18 pm

Up Pompey by Chuck Culpepper.

The blurb says "A clueless American Sportswriter bumbles through English Football"

Only bought it cos I was in Waterstones buying Adrian Chiles one (DSB reccomended), and they had a 3 for 2 thingy so I went for it.

jimbo · **Posted:** Wed May 07, 2008 9:51 pm

Inbetween medical textbooks I'm getting through some Kurt Vonnegut stuff. Very, very good reads. Well recommended!

Prufrock · **Posted:** Wed May 07, 2008 11:26 pm

Burmese Days by Mr Orwell, not far into it but good so far, he has a way with words that fella

Prufrock · **Posted:** Wed May 07, 2008 11:38 pm

Worthy4England wrote:

Dujon wrote:

Has anyone here (or in the whole world for that matter) ever read Thackeray's Henry Esmond from front to back? It was required reading in the English syllabus of 1961 - as directed and controlled by the N.S.W. Dept. of Education. I never did get beyond the first couple of chapters. Fortunately it didn't damage my results in the end of year examinations as I still passed them.

I tried again a few months ago (the school copy of the book somehow managed to stay in my possession) with the same result. It may be that I had consumed a little too much wine before the attempt; maybe not enough; maybe memories of the past haunt me?

No, but a similar(ish) story here - had to read Great Expectations for English (Lit) and never got past the first couple of chapters...I have to say anyone who thinks it's a "good read" needs their bumps testing.

ditto Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, i have read the left hand half of that book for GCSE, sounds daft but the man takes 7 pages to describe a wardrobe, so i dont think i lost any of the plot!

To whoever said regarding 'classics' you should read what you like. Very fair point, i do think however there are certain books people should be encouraged to try, be it that they are seminal works historically or in terms of quality. stuff like The Picture of Dorian Gray, Hamlet etc..if you don't like it after, or find it too heavy after 5 pages, fair cop dont go wasting hours of your life just because someone told you you should read it.

Has anyone ever read Mein Kampf? Has always interested me to read it but ive never got round to it.

TANGODANCER · **Posted:** Wed May 07, 2008 11:38 pm

Prufrock wrote:

Burmese Days by Mr Orwell, not far into it but good so far, he has a way with words that fella

A better way then old TSE I hope. Your namesake's love song is an excercise in senile dememtia. Worse still are those who try to explain it. If it needs explanation, it failed. Just my view. :wink:

TANGODANCER · **Posted:** Wed May 07, 2008 11:47 pm

Prufrock wrote:

ditto Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, i have read the left hand half of that book for GCSE, sounds daft but the man takes 7 pages to describe a wardrobe, so i dont think i lost any of the plot!

Made me laugh. On the advice of my Spanish teacher I once read a poem by some Spanish/South American poet (can't remember who, Neruda maybe) in which the poet took three pages describing somebody'd nose. Turned out the guy had fxxked off with his wife and this was his revenge. Weird.

Prufrock · **Posted:** Wed May 07, 2008 11:48 pm

TANGODANCER wrote:

Prufrock wrote:

Burmese Days by Mr Orwell, not far into it but good so far, he has a way with words that fella

A better way then old TSE I hope. Your namesake's love song is an excercise in senile dememtia. Worse still are those who try to explain it. If it needs explanation, it failed. Just my view. :wink:

Interesting issue. Depends in my view. If it needs explaining because the ideas attempted are too complex and not well enough presented then i definately agree. However i think part of it is mindset and taste, and whether or not the reader 'gets' it. i dont mean that in a haha you're stupid you dont get it, im not i do way. im not sure how to explain it. for example, last year i did some Catullus as part of my degree. now smarter men than my have proclaimed the man a genius, to me he just seems a whinging, pathetic little clinger. Virgil=good description, often boring. Ovid=fecking genius. i think a lot is taste.

Prufrock · **Posted:** Wed May 07, 2008 11:53 pm

TANGODANCER wrote:

Prufrock wrote:

ditto Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, i have read the left hand half of that book for GCSE, sounds daft but the man takes 7 pages to describe a wardrobe, so i dont think i lost any of the plot!

Made me laugh. On the advice of my Spanish teacher I once read a poem by some Spanish/South American poet (can't remember who, Neruda maybe) in which the poet took three pages describing somebody'd nose. Turned out the guy had fxxked off with his wife and this was his revenge. Weird.

interesting method, could have just let his tyres down or scratched 'C*NT' on his car like most folk but hey!

as for Hardy, that's not an exageration (well maybe slightly) but the entire book is in that vein, its massive, easily the longest book i'd ever read at that age, 14 i think, and that's only counting the half i read

TANGODANCER · **Posted:** Wed May 07, 2008 11:55 pm

Prufrock wrote:

TANGODANCER wrote:

Prufrock wrote:

Burmese Days by Mr Orwell, not far into it but good so far, he has a way with words that fella

A better way then old TSE I hope. Your namesake's love song is an excercise in senile dememtia. Worse still are those who try to explain it. If it needs explanation, it failed. Just my view. :wink:

Interesting issue. Depends in my view. If it needs explaining because the ideas attempted are too complex and not well enough presented then i definately agree. However i think part of it is mindset and taste, and whether or not the reader 'gets' it. i dont mean that in a haha you're stupid you dont get it, im not i do way. im not sure how to explain it. for example, last year i did some Catullus as part of my degree. now smarter men than my have proclaimed the man a genius, to me he just seems a whinging, pathetic little clinger. Virgil=good description, often boring. Ovid=fecking genius. i think a lot is taste.

That's quite funny really because I have The Poems of Catullus staring at me from the bookshelf behind my pc. ( Course the translations are there too) Rum old sod with a definite penchant for homosexuality in a big way, but I agree. I ploughed through it once but, poetry lover as I am, not again. Omar Khayyam's the man for me.

Lord Kangana · **Posted:** Wed May 07, 2008 11:58 pm

Prufrock wrote:

Worthy4England wrote:

Dujon wrote:

Has anyone here (or in the whole world for that matter) ever read Thackeray's Henry Esmond from front to back? It was required reading in the English syllabus of 1961 - as directed and controlled by the N.S.W. Dept. of Education. I never did get beyond the first couple of chapters. Fortunately it didn't damage my results in the end of year examinations as I still passed them.

I tried again a few months ago (the school copy of the book somehow managed to stay in my possession) with the same result. It may be that I had consumed a little too much wine before the attempt; maybe not enough; maybe memories of the past haunt me?

No, but a similar(ish) story here - had to read Great Expectations for English (Lit) and never got past the first couple of chapters...I have to say anyone who thinks it's a "good read" needs their bumps testing.

ditto Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, i have read the left hand half of that book for GCSE, sounds daft but the man takes 7 pages to describe a wardrobe, so i dont think i lost any of the plot!

To whoever said regarding 'classics' you should read what you like. Very fair point, i do think however there are certain books people should be encouraged to try, be it that they are seminal works historically or in terms of quality. stuff like The Picture of Dorian Gray, Hamlet etc..if you don't like it after, or find it too heavy after 5 pages, fair cop dont go wasting hours of your life just because someone told you you should read it.

Has anyone ever read Mein Kampf? Has always interested me to read it but ive never got round to it.

As embarrasing an admission as it is I tried to read Mein kampf once (out of curiosity, no ulterior motive). I found it the most unutterable w*nk of the highest order. I managed about 20 pages and gave up. Its just B*llox .

Prufrock · **Posted:** Thu May 08, 2008 12:04 am

TANGODANCER wrote:

Prufrock wrote:

TANGODANCER wrote:

Prufrock wrote:

Burmese Days by Mr Orwell, not far into it but good so far, he has a way with words that fella

A better way then old TSE I hope. Your namesake's love song is an excercise in senile dememtia. Worse still are those who try to explain it. If it needs explanation, it failed. Just my view. :wink:

Interesting issue. Depends in my view. If it needs explaining because the ideas attempted are too complex and not well enough presented then i definately agree. However i think part of it is mindset and taste, and whether or not the reader 'gets' it. i dont mean that in a haha you're stupid you dont get it, im not i do way. im not sure how to explain it. for example, last year i did some Catullus as part of my degree. now smarter men than my have proclaimed the man a genius, to me he just seems a whinging, pathetic little clinger. Virgil=good description, often boring. Ovid=fecking genius. i think a lot is taste.

That's quite funny really because I have The Poems of Catullus staring at me from the bookshelf behind my pc. ( Course the translations are there too) Rum old sod with a definite penchant for homosexuality in a big way, but I agree. I ploughed through it once but, poetry lover as I am, not again. Omar Khayyam's the man for me.

Not a massive poetry man myself, i like bits like the odd bit of TSE (thogh as i said somewhere else the inspiration for my name comes indirectly, through a song) and i love The Ballad of Reading Gaol, but i think even that is coloured by my stronger love of Oscar Wilde (another with that homosexual penchant you keep banging (sorry

) on about). Most poetry i read is the Classics, but i either read that slowly whilst translating from the original, or in translation, but even in translation, a lot of it just reads as prose.

Verbal · **Posted:** Thu May 15, 2008 8:56 pm

Smith, Malthus, Ricardo, Mill, Jevons, Marshall and Keynes...have an Economic thought and policy exam on monday and I'm planning to map it all by tonight so i can review it at the weekend. I'll go f*cking insane by Sunday.

Dave Sutton's barnet · **Posted:** Thu May 15, 2008 9:29 pm

jimbo wrote:

Inbetween medical textbooks I'm getting through some Kurt Vonnegut stuff. Very, very good reads. Well recommended!

Up and down, I'd say. Loved Slaughterhouse 5, bored by God Bless You Mr Rosewater.

Prufrock wrote:

Burmese Days by Mr Orwell, not far into it but good so far, he has a way with words that fella

Now there's a truly excellent writer, often in content and always in form. Lots of essays [url]here[/url] including "A nice cup of tea" and "Books v Cigarettes".

Dave Sutton's barnet · **Posted:** Thu May 15, 2008 9:32 pm

Lord Kangana wrote:

Up Pompey by Chuck Culpepper. The blurb says "A clueless American Sportswriter bumbles through English Football" Only bought it cos I was in Waterstones buying Adrian Chiles one (DSB reccomended), and they had a 3 for 2 thingy so I went for it.

Hmmm. Hope I didn't give the impression Chiles was a must-buy; it's pleasant enough and mildly diverting but a bit samey and overtrying after a while. Reflects its author...? I'm still struggling through it, and usually picking up magazines instead. Up Pompey, on the other hand, is a good read, although it could have done with tighter editing (he reuses a few phrases and seems unsure whether to address a knowledgeable English market or a clueless US one - non-soccer fans, that is, no disrespect intended to Statesiders on here).

Lord Kangana · **Posted:** Thu May 15, 2008 9:36 pm

Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:

Lord Kangana wrote:

Up Pompey by Chuck Culpepper. The blurb says "A clueless American Sportswriter bumbles through English Football" Only bought it cos I was in Waterstones buying Adrian Chiles one (DSB reccomended), and they had a 3 for 2 thingy so I went for it.

Hmmm. Hope I didn't give the impression Chiles was a must-buy; it's pleasant enough and mildly diverting but a bit samey and overtrying after a while. Reflects its author...? I'm still struggling through it, and usually picking up magazines instead. Up Pompey, on the other hand, is a good read, although it could have done with tighter editing (he reuses a few phrases and seems unsure whether to address a knowledgeable English market or a clueless US one - non-soccer fans, that is, no disrespect intended to Statesiders on here).

See, I had it the other way round!

Enjoyed Chiles, thought Culpepper was one "stranger in a strange land" cliche after another.

Vive la difference - and on to Don Quixote for me :crazy:

Edit:(and heads up to Verbal? who reccomended Kurt Vonnegut - I've been reading his musings on the interweb. Seems like a very intelligent and profound guy. Shall be reding Slaughterhouse 5 very soon)

Verbal · **Posted:** Thu May 15, 2008 9:36 pm

Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:

jimbo wrote:

Inbetween medical textbooks I'm getting through some Kurt Vonnegut stuff. Very, very good reads. Well recommended!

Up and down, I'd say. Loved Slaughterhouse 5, bored by God Bless You Mr Rosewater.

Prufrock wrote:

Burmese Days by Mr Orwell, not far into it but good so far, he has a way with words that fella

Now there's a truly excellent writer, often in content and always in form. Lots of essays [url]here[/url] including "A nice cup of tea" and "Books v Cigarettes".

Fan of Orwell meself, still not managed to get through his collection thoroughly though. Burmese days I liked. Also DSB, could you put in the link to his Essays?

Dave Sutton's barnet · **Posted:** Thu May 15, 2008 9:39 pm

Ha! Mongtard. :oops:

http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/

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