Books

[Betty Swallicks]

I'd say The Catcher In The Rye is one of mine.

Read it whilst at school and few times since (at circa 10years intervals).

Its remarkable how your view of the book changes as you get older.

 

 

Also Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith.

Bit of history, bit of action and fecking scary.

Pity his other stuff has not been of the same standard.

[StandFree1982]

Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy!

American Psycho

1984 - a bit clich

[Bluto10]

viz profanisaurus

and

the office scripts.

[Betty Swallicks]

Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy! American Psycho

1984 - a bit clich

[StandFree1982]

Never fancied it. Always seemed a bit geeky to me.

 

1984 is one scary book.

The "we are the dead....we are the dead.....you are the dead" bit when they get rumbled freaks me out every time even though I know its coming.

Definitely prefered 1984 to Brave New World.

 

Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy is a very funny book, slightly geeky i'll admit, but not half as geeky as Terry Pratchetts discworld series!

[Bluto10]

yep tip of the day.

 

avoid like the plague any books with hobbits, hitchhikers, lords, rings, dwarfs, goblins, elders and all that geeky stuff.

 

not for cool people.

[tup]

My all time favourite book is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it was the first one I read cover to cover, and I recently read it to my daughter, magnificent story.

[JFK]

Been reading quite a few works to do with Soviet History recently, including:

 

Bulgakov- The Master and Margarita

Shalamov- Kolyma Tales

Zamyatin- We

Serge- The Case of Comrade Tulayev

Scott- Behind the Urals

Hindus- Red Bread

Mochulsky- Gulag Boss: A Soviet Memoir

Bogdanov- Red Star

[Betty Swallicks]

Been reading quite a few works to do with Soviet History recently, including:

 

Bulgakov- The Master and Margarita

Shalamov- Kolyma Tales

Zamyatin- We

Serge- The Case of Comrade Tulayev

Scott- Behind the Urals

Hindus- Red Bread

Mochulsky- Gulag Boss: A Soviet Memoir

Bogdanov- Red Star

 

 

 

Have you?

Have you really?

 

For pleasure?

[tup]

Soviet history is fascinating. They are mental in that country, brutal.

 

Their god is vodka.

[JFK]

Have you?

Have you really?

 

For pleasure?

 

For both pleasure and for a course at university.

 

It's quite easy to zip through books when you only have 4 hours of teaching time a week.

[Betty Swallicks]

For both pleasure and for a course at university.

 

It's quite easy to zip through books when you only have 4 hours of teaching time a week.

 

 

Thought so.

 

Child 44 is about as far as my Russian reading goes and its not too taxing to be honest.

 

Any others?

[JFK]

Thought so.

 

Child 44 is about as far as my Russian reading goes and its not too taxing to be honest.

 

Any others?

 

Actual history books or novels and Memoirs like the ones i've listed above?

 

If you mean novels and memoirs then the following are good, although some of them can be hard to find

 

Serge- Memoirs of a Revolutionary

Platonov- Happy Moscow

Platonov- The Foundation Pit

Lyons- Assignment in Utopia

Kravchenko- I chose freedom: the personal and political life of a Soviet official

 

If you mean actual history books is there any subject in-particular you're interested in e.g. the Terror, Collectivisation, Stalin, the Space Race?

[StandFree1982]

I always mean to go out and read something thats a bit more topical and relevant, then end up reading some fiction. I try and avoid anything too intense for bedtime reading, spend enough time mulling over stuff at work.

 

I do fancy reading up on WW history and Scotlands history some time though.

[Betty Swallicks]

Actual history books or novels and Memoirs like the ones i've listed above?

 

If you mean novels and memoirs then the following are good, although some of them can be hard to find

 

Serge- Memoirs of a Revolutionary

Platonov- Happy Moscow

Platonov- The Foundation Pit

Lyons- Assignment in Utopia

Kravchenko- I chose freedom: the personal and political life of a Soviet official

 

If you mean actual history books is there any subject in-particular you're interested in e.g. the Terror, Collectivisation, Stalin, the Space Race?

 

 

 

No!

 

Any novels that you like and are not linked to your uni studies or Russia/USSR and are readily available to buy in WH Smiths?

[tutankamun]

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

[tup]

I do fancy reading up on Scotlands history some time though.

 

Then try this chief

 

Scots invented England

[StandFree1982]

Then try this chief

 

Scots invented England

Sounds good, I might purchase and peruse. It's a pity it wasn't actually called "Scots invented England"

[Betty Swallicks]

I always mean to go out and read something thats a bit more topical and relevant, then end up reading some fiction. I try and avoid anything too intense for bedtime reading, spend enough time mulling over stuff at work.

 

I do fancy reading up on WW history and Scotlands history some time though.

 

 

I find it pretty hard to find a decent book.

 

The charts are full of Chick Litt, My Childhood Was Shyte books or the usual thriller crap about an ex cop and a crazed killer.

 

I'm going to buy The Shadow Of The Wind.

[amancalledbuck]

Dan Brown's books are the only ones ive read and have really kept me engrossed

 

 

dont really read per-se,

 

[JFK]

No!

 

Any novels that you like and are not linked to your uni studies or Russia/USSR and are readily available to buy in WH Smiths?

 

The autobiography of Malcolm X

Keyes- Flowers for Algernon

Orwell- Homage to Catalonia

Camus- The Outsider

Koestler- Darkness at Noon

Solzhenitsyn- One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

[Betty Swallicks]

Dan Brown's books are the only ones ive read and have really kept me engrossed

 

tried a jeffrey archer one too, about Baghdad - didnt like it

 

dont really read per-se, but when im on the beach you cant beat it!

 

 

 

Dan Brown and Jeffrey f**king Archer.

 

Fishing?

 

Why don't you test yourself with some Jilly Cooper or Katie Price?

[Betty Swallicks]

The autobiography of Malcolm X

Keyes- Flowers for Algernon

Orwell- Homage to CataloniaCamus- The Outsider

Koestler- Darkness at Noon

Solzhenitsyn- One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

 

 

 

Spanish Civil War?

I've read it.

[Betty Swallicks]

what?

 

 

 

FISHING!?

 

jeeso...lemme guess, im gonna get lectured now on how the books i read are also for thickos, am i?

 

 

Not from me, they are a bit "tesco" and bland but if that what you like fair enough.

[StandFree1982]

I find it pretty hard to find a decent book.

 

The charts are full of Chick Litt, My Childhood Was Shyte books or the usual thriller crap about an ex cop and a crazed killer.

 

I'm going to buy The Shadow Of The Wind.

The books you get in supermarkets are usually aimed at women, so you end up with sh*te about lost or abused children, stories about mentally ill kids growing up or something similar. Either that or it's vampire love story written for fat lonely chicks.

 

I really enjoyed the Shadow Of The Wind. It's a pity i can't read in Spanish as I would have read the non translated version instead.

 

Michael Crightons books are usually really good reads, and usually well researched (juding by his bibliography at the end, he reads a shed load). Mind you, if I had to create a "top 10" i'd probably not include any of his books, merely because they don't have the same impact as a lot of books can invoke.

[amancalledbuck]

what?

 

 

 

FISHING!?

 

jeeso...lemme guess, im gonna get lectured now on how the books i read are also for thickos, am i?

 

I'm not going to lecture you.

 

I will judge you, though.

[StandFree1982]

The Dice Man - brutal novel about a guy who decides to let the throw of a dice make his decisions in life for him.

[Coopy100]

No!

 

Any novels that you like and are not linked to your uni studies or Russia/USSR and are readily available to buy in WH Smiths?

Tell you a good book about Russia. Stalin: Court of the red TSar. I especially like the bit when Stalin is described as being like an omnipitent tramp.

 

I mainly read history books. Just finished Lynn Macdonalds They called it Passchendale. Excellent book about a pretty harrowing event. Now about to Start one on Marlbourgh.

[diamondsr4ever]

The Dice Man - brutal novel about a guy who decides to let the throw of a dice make his decisions in life for him.

 

 

I love reading John Grisham, and have stuck with him for years

[Betty Swallicks]

Life of Pi by Yann Martel is very good.

 

Heard there was a case of potential plagiarism with it which is a pity if true.

 

A strange and sweet book.