As it seems there is no willingness to create a "sticky" thread I'll post again regarding books I'm reading or recently read:
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SJ Watson Before I Go TO Sleep - 3/10 Christine has suffered a terrible assault and lost her memory. The bits which return vanish every night when she sleeps. Husband Ben and Dr Nash are the only other characters. Very little character or plot development - I gave up at 53% and it was a slog to get that far. Decent writing and the author has promise.
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Stieg Larsson The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - 6/10
The Girl Who Played with Fire - 0/10 Gave up in disgust at around 15%. Larsson is a misandrist. His female heroin is a young woman who has been defiled by men but won through anyway. Also, she can hack computer systems without issue and is an untutored mathematical genius. Drivel.
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Michel Faber The Book of Strange New Things - 1/10 Heard this as a 10 part series on BBC Woman's Hour. It is truly awful. Dull, boring and pointless - and they're its best points.
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Kim Stanley Robinson Red Mars - 4/10 Much too long and sometimes poor sentence construction, it needs some serious editing.
John, Nadia, Maya, Arkady and many others colonise Mars. The story covers the individuals and their relationships, the science and the politics. I did finish it but only just. I will not read any other books in this three book series.
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Taylor Buck The Medici Letters - 3/10 Clearly, the author has read The DaVinchi Code and decided to rewrite it using slightly different characters and locations. Both the plot and writing are juvenile and amateur - much like the DaVinchi Code. It's no surprise this is a private publication. I gave up at 60% - couldn't take any more.
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Rhys Bowen Evan and Elle - 4/10 Constable Evan Evans of the north Wales police saves the world. A pleasant enough ramble with believable characters and a gentle story. I'll read another some time. Best suited for when I don't want to read anything which takes effort.
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Richard K Morgan Altered Carbon - 7/10 A Takeshi Kovacs novel; Kovacs (an ex "Envoy") investigates the suicide of Lauren Bancroft, a "Myth". The authors first novel and a sterling effort. It is long with a complicated plot and many characters and occasionally hard to follow. However the author writes very well and both the plot and all science fiction aspects of it are believable.
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Martin Walker Bruno - Chief of Police - 6/10 A village in Perigord; an elder Algerian Arab who was in the Force Mobile during the war working for the Germans is murdered. The story wanders a little too much into food and cooking at times but does portray life in country France very well.
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Bill Bryson I'm a Stranger Here Myself - 7/10 Bryson returns to live in America with his usual incisive and very funny analysis of social attitudes.
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"I beseech you in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken"
Oliver Cromwell, 3rd August 1650 - in a letter to the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland
The last book I've read is "Pearl in a Cage" by Joy Dettman. It's not the usual type of book I read and don't know if I liked it or not. It's compelling, has lots of twists and turns, set in rural Victoria back in the 1920's and into the depression years. It is the first book of 6 in the series. Pearl in a cage is the first book in a dark and additive series so it says and that is how I would sum it up too.
I only read books when I travel, I am not too fussy what I read, as I still have the ability, to follow the plot.
If the plot is not to my taste, then I stop reading it
The wife and I, usually buy half a dozen books from an Op Shop/Sally Army type bookshop
We will then donate the books back, the next time we visit an Op Shop/Sally Army type bookshop
At the moment the wife looks out for books by Patricia Cornwell, which I have never read
I look out for books by Bernard Cornwell, which the wife has never read, but I think that I may have read most of his by now
I have no idea if the above two authors are related
I am, at present, about three quarters of the way through the series "... In Death" by JD Robb. A futuristic series, crime (the main protagonist is a NY copper, in the Murder squad) with plenty of twists in the plot and some tech stuff that's yet to be devised. Series is set in around 2060, if I recall correctly.
I read these on the tablet, can download a number of books to the tablet, and don't have to worry about the trees destroyed, nor the weight of books in luggage.
+ "reads" books from the library in audio-book format. I cannot do that as I have hearing loss and the buds don't work for me.
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If you had to choose between being fit and drinking wine ...
rockylizard wrote:Like Desert Dweller I don't read fiction
That's a shame because you're missing: Shakespeare, Dickens, Homer, Jane Austen, Thomas Mann, Dante, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, George Orwell, John le Carre, John Steinbeck, JRR Tolkien, Tolstoy, Kipling, Arthur Miller, DH Lawrence, Douglas Adams, William Golding and the beautiful and gentle Don Camillo stories by Giovannino Guareschi and many more than I can currently think of....
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"I beseech you in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken"
Oliver Cromwell, 3rd August 1650 - in a letter to the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland
rockylizard wrote:Like Desert Dweller I don't read fiction
That's a shame because you're missing: Shakespeare, been there, dun that ... and have attended many, many live theatre productions of the bard's work
Dickens, been there, dun that ... but gave up on Dickens by the time I got to my early twenties
Homer, Nup ...not my style
Jane Austen, Not my style either
Thomas Mann, read a few ... not my style
Dante, read some of his when younger ... not my style
Mark Twain, well read .. but in my youth
Oscar Wilde, ditto
George Orwell, ditto
John le Carre, Nah ... definitely not my style
John Steinbeck, read most of his work ... but many years ago.
JRR Tolkien, Tolstoy, Kipling, Arthur Miller, DH Lawrence, Douglas Adams, William Golding and the beautiful and gentle Don Camillo stories by Giovannino Guareschi and many more than I can currently think of....
Gday...
I could go on .... I have certainly been exposed to and read much fiction. However, most of those named were in my youth .. only so many times one can re-read those works.
I particularly find biographies and autobiographies of people ... and mainly NOT famous folk but rather ordinary folk who have had extraordinary lives.
The history of our great land holds my attention ... proper researched history not the rot we were fed in school in the 50s and 60s - and I learn something new from every book.
Luckily, like so much in life, it all depends on what takes one's fancy ... and thank god we are all different - would be damned boring if all were jest like me.
Cheers - John
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2006 Discovery 3 TDV6 SE Auto - 2008 23ft Golden Eagle Hunter Some people feel the rain - the others just get wet - Bob Dylan
People should *never* be shouted down for expressing their opinions; argued and debated with, most certainly, but never shouted down. Far too much of that happening these days.
>Recently read "State of Fear" Michael Chrichton He of Jurassic Park >fame. Scientist and Author.
I've always eschewed him because, well... to be honest... I'm a bit of a literary snob and always consider he was an "Airport bookshop author" I did not know he was a Harvard science graduate.
The climate change thing has gotten totally out of hand and has become a belief system rather than an objective analysis of the little we understand about how a planet works. Frankly it's all so complicated that I do not believe for one moment anyone or any institution *really* understands what is going on and I see little point in debating it with other people as ill-informed as me. It gives the Western middle-class something to feel guilty about and express angst at dinner parties before they drive home in their 4.5lt cars.
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"I beseech you in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken"
Oliver Cromwell, 3rd August 1650 - in a letter to the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland
Recently read "State of Fear" Michael Chrichton He of Jurassic Park fame. Scientist and Author.
Gives the other side of the Climate change story with pages of scientific references about climate.
Written as a novel for obvious reasons..
Lots of facts to boot a good read,
Gday...
This is an excellent read with clear, unbiased scientific observations and data. Open minded and mind opening.
When frontline BBC news reporter David Shukman switched beat from world affairs to environment in 2003, he feared he might be in for a dull life. He couldn't have been more wrong. His new job has taken him to every corner of the earth: journeying up the fabled North West Passage in the Arctic, chasing after loggers in the Amazon and battling through plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean, getting trapped in Siberian blizzards along the way.
Reporting Live from the End of the World charts Shukman's extraordinary adventures, in the process providing a fascinating eye-witness account of the state of the planet. Wonderfully written and often very funny, the book will be loved by travel, science or environment readers alike.
Cheers - John
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2006 Discovery 3 TDV6 SE Auto - 2008 23ft Golden Eagle Hunter Some people feel the rain - the others just get wet - Bob Dylan
........and if you want to read about how this country was settled and some detailed history, get ya hands on this 688 page book that is hard to put down.
The Fatal Shore:The Epic of Australia's Founding by Robert Hughes is a history of the birth of Australia out of the suffering and brutality of Britain's convict transportation system. It also addresses the historical, political and sociological reasons that led to British settlement. It was first published in 1986.
An extraordinary volume--even a masterpiece--about the early history of Australia that reads like the finest of novels. Hughes captures everything in this complex tableau with narrative finesse that drives the reader ever-deeper into specific facts and greater understanding. He presents compassionate understanding of the plights of colonists--both freemen and convicts--and the Aboriginal peoples they displaced. One of the very best works of history ever produced.
Cheers - John
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2006 Discovery 3 TDV6 SE Auto - 2008 23ft Golden Eagle Hunter Some people feel the rain - the others just get wet - Bob Dylan
... and it isn't restricted to just this continent .....
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown's eloquent, fully documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century. A national bestseller in hardcover for more than a year after its initial publication, it has sold almost four million copies and has been translated into seventeen languages. For this elegant thirtieth-anniversary editionpublished in both hardcover and paperbackBrown has contributed an incisive new preface.
Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown allows the great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell us in their own words of the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them demoralized and defeated. A unique and disturbing narrative told with force and clarity, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee changed forever our vision of how the West was really won.
Cheers - John
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2006 Discovery 3 TDV6 SE Auto - 2008 23ft Golden Eagle Hunter Some people feel the rain - the others just get wet - Bob Dylan
For the Term of His Natural Life was a great read, as was A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey. For anyone wanting to read more about Australia and more modern exploration, read the books written by the late Len Beadell, about his surveying exploits after WW2 and the establishment of Woomera and Maralinga. As well as being informative, Lens books are quite entertaining.
We have a lot of books written by Australian authors about how our great country was settled, all of which (those I have read) are excellent reading.
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Dave (Nutgrass)
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Carpe Diem - Seize the day!
You never get a second chance at a first impression, so make the first a good one.
rockylizard wrote:Like Desert Dweller I don't read fiction
That's a shame because you're missing: Shakespeare, Dickens, Homer, Jane Austen, Thomas Mann, Dante, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, George Orwell, John le Carre, John Steinbeck, JRR Tolkien, Tolstoy, Kipling, Arthur Miller, DH Lawrence, Douglas Adams, William Golding and the beautiful and gentle Don Camillo stories by Giovannino Guareschi and many more than I can currently think of....
I don't read fiction because it never really happened, just the product of someone's fertile imagination.
Love books about Australian exploration, Eyre, Mitchell, Sturt, Kennedy, Giles, Hume etc.
Recently finished Rob Mundle's series of books, Bligh, Cook, Flinders etc.
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Cheers Keith & Judy
Don't take life too seriously, it never ends well.
Trip Reports posted on feathersandphotos.com.au Go to Forums then Trip Reports.
DD I totally respect the fact that you choose not to read fiction but if your reason is only because it is a product of someone's fertile imagination then you will be missing out a lot of life's other great pleasures. Movies, music, art, architecture etc.etc. which were also created by someone's fertile imagination. Even the explorers that people have named in this thread were probably driven (at least in part) by imagining what may be laying just over the next horizon. In my opinion reading is a wonderful way of passing your time and whether a person chooses to read fiction, non fiction, great classics or just a comic book is irrelevent as long as they are getting enjoyment from doing it.
My peronal favourites are usually based in Southern Africa either non fiction or fiction from authors like Tony Park - why because I have lived there and I can associate with many of the places mentioned. People who have visited Africa know the pull that that part of the world has on you maybe it's just the fact that our species originated from there and its appealing to my own primeval instinct (now that's a part of my own fertile imagination).
Cheers
BB
-- Edited by The Belmont Bear on Monday 25th of June 2018 08:10:10 AM
A couple of other great books are: The Dig Tree, - about Burke & Wills ill fated traverse of Australia from south to north, and the books by Dame Mary Durack - Kings in Grass Castles, and Sons in the Saddle.
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Dave (Nutgrass)
________________________________________
Carpe Diem - Seize the day!
You never get a second chance at a first impression, so make the first a good one.
I have to agree with Rocky lizard, reading the fatal shore at the moment. Interesting read on the English story and why the transportation of criminals started.
For the Term of His Natural Life was a great read, as was A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey. For anyone wanting to read more about Australia and more modern exploration, read the books written by the late Len Beadell, about his surveying exploits after WW2 and the establishment of Woomera and Maralinga. As well as being informative, Lens books are quite entertaining. We have a lot of books written by Australian authors about how our great country was settled, all of which (those I have read) are excellent reading.
I have all of those that you mentioned along with dozens of others in my Australiana section of my library. (I have a audio copy of the Len Beadell address to a community Services group many years ago). I have all of his books & those of Mary Durack too.
I'm fortunate in that my memory is such that I can re read them all after about 5 years or so, getting just as much pleasure as I did the first time.
Unlike some others, I read fiction as well as classics, Au history, Au poets & a lot of Amazon free e book rubbish. Got a bit of a thing for Military stuff too.
Cloak .. My eyes have just got a new lease of life with the first of my Cataract operations.
I like books about self-consciousness, I always read it with a sharp pencil in my hand)) underline important thoughts and often return to these books when it's necessary.
Desert Dweller wrote:I don't read fiction because it never really happened, just the product of someone's fertile imagination.
Human existence is about more than just the acquisition of factual knowledge it is also about understanding our place as individuals in the world, how we relate to others, how they relate to us. It is about ethical and moral positions; is it right to kill another, is it right to kill an animal?
Feelings and emotions have a huge impact upon our lives, they shape our interaction with others, our wives, children, friends, work colleagues etc. They determine our happiness or sadness, our mental health.
We may read all the factual books we can find on the psychology of emotional behaviour but not a single one of them will be able to give you the slightest sense of how it feels to love or to grieve. And that is what good fiction *can* do.
I wish to reread John le Carre's book "The Constant Gardener" but I know I must wait until I am feeling emotionally strong because such is the power of le Carre's depiction of his character Justin's loss following the death of his wife that it brings tears to my eyes as I write this.
The emotional dilemma of whether it is right to apply a death penalty to someone who has murdered cannot be gleaned from books which may do a good job of analysing the ethics but watch the film "Dead Man Walking" and I'd be amazed if it did not challenge your views irrespective of which ever side of that moral fence you may sit.
Good fiction will teach you things about yourself you may never otherwise have discovered.
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"I beseech you in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken"
Oliver Cromwell, 3rd August 1650 - in a letter to the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland
DD I totally respect the fact that you choose not to read fiction but if your reason is only because it is a product of someone's fertile imagination then you will be missing out a lot of life's other great pleasures. Movies, music, art, architecture etc.etc. which were also created by someone's fertile imagination. Even the explorers that people have named in this thread were probably driven (at least in part) by imagining what may be laying just over the next horizon. In my opinion reading is a wonderful way of passing your time and whether a person chooses to read fiction, non fiction, great classics or just a comic book is irrelevent as long as they are getting enjoyment from doing it.
My peronal favourites are usually based in Southern Africa either non fiction or fiction from authors like Tony Park - why because I have lived there and I can associate with many of the places mentioned. People who have visited Africa know the pull that that part of the world has on you maybe it's just the fact that our species originated from there and its appealing to my own primeval instinct (now that's a part of my own fertile imagination).
Cheers
BB
-- Edited by The Belmont Bear on Monday 25th of June 2018 08:10:10 AM
Thanks for the heads up on Tony Park.
I have got an E book version of African Dawn from the Brisbane City Library. 1/2 way through in two days. Looks like the sort that I enjoy. Much like the early Wilbur Smith books.
I now have some 12 more of his to read and then his 14th (Captive) about to be published.
Whilst the eBooks are free, I prefer hard copies so a visit to my favourite 2nd hand book shop is in order. Might do the rounds of a few of the regular flee markets around the area.
My current library includes ..
Full works of ..
Wilbur Smith
Robert Ludlum
Hemmingway
RM Williams
Len Beedel
Bryce Courtenay
Of course .. AB Patterson & Henry Lawson
Leon Uris
Ion Idress
Mary Durack
James A Michener
A few Tom Clancy (but I usually move them on)
Xavier Herbert
at least 7 books on Au SAS & one on Brit SAS
Other war books .. eg. Gallpoli (3 off ) Singapore (2 off ) Vietnam, Kakoda + many many more
Dozens of Au biographies/ western tales like - Diary of a Welsh Swagman -
One current project is to build a full wall book case for in my downstairs lounge/ media room. Currently my books are stored in piles three deep in the current 3 book cases & a lots more including two encyclopedias & AU & other classic volumes, war & peace Au Explorers volumes, etc in a store room.
Of course there are about 350 in my Kindle eReader too though I now 'delete' them as I finish reading the novels.
I have a large pile of books on management theory & quality (Though I gave away most of the best ones when I retired 20 years ago), statistics, maths, english Literature, electronic/ electrical text books and the like.
I think that I am a book hoarder.
I put a note on the fly leaf when I read them so that I can come back in 5 to 10 years & re read my favourite Authors. Of course I have a system for loaning books, the loan chit has a butt that stays in the book & the tear off section is a book mark for the borrower. Works well for both sides.
Great quote from Jimmy Hendrix Cloak. Shame that some people wouldnt listen to what he had to say or hear his music because he made it up out of his own amazing imagination. Did you know that Jimmy served in the 101st Airborne Division and was a trained paratrooper?
James Mitchener is one of my all time favourites. The Source, Centenial, The Land and the Promise, Hawaii ........Historical novels that enrich understanding of history and why the world is as it is today.
