Safe As Book

[PrincessPunkRock]

a mate of mine's just lent me "london fields" by martin amis which is turning out to be quite alright. i also read that there new glastonbury tales book which was good as well.

x

[Tommy BOO]

I seriously would suggest "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" by Douglas Adams (the author of the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy series) to everyone. It's probably the funniest book I've ever read - I read it about a year ago but I haven't forgotten some of the funny parts that still make me smile.
The beginning, the first 30 pages maybe, was actually a bit boring - the introduction to the crazy world and its weird and unique characters... It's all very confusing at first but once you start to understand it, it's really rewarding in a fun way. It's like building a jigsaw puzzle... (although I can't remember having any fun building those when I was a kid!)
Douglas Adams was a genius, and probably my favourite (fiction) author ever, his style of writing is very clever but still so funny. It's a crying shame that he died a few years ago still relatively young.

Has anyone else hear read "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" or any other books by Douglas Adams?


_________________
"Tommy Boo has played a pivotal role in my life. I've looked up to him since I was a kid and he has inspired every note of music I have ever written. The man is a fucking genius" -BC

[bc]

the only one i've read was 'the restaurant at the end of the universe' some years ago. it was very funny. never read one since tho'.
mx

[Melz]

Adams was a class author! I've read all of the Hitch-Hiker books and loved them all (except the ending of "Mostly Harmless" seemed a bit of an anti-climax to me). I've read the first Dirk Gently too and thought it was hilarious. Didn't understand the ending though so I will have to read again before moving onto "Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul" which sounds even funnier.

In my opinion, the best character by far in "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" was the Electric Monk Who Believes That The World Is Pink.

I'm currently reading Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series which were recommended to me by a friend. I'm on Book 3 and it's not bad so far.

Melz.
_________________
"It's too beautiful to stay inside..."

[Tommy BOO]

[Melz]

I'm not really a huge fan of King, I'm just enjoying this "Dark Tower" series. It's very interesting and a breath of fresh air after the world went "Lord Of The Rings" crazy for three years.

Melz.
_________________
"It's too beautiful to stay inside..."

[bravecaptain]

Forgot to say that I finished 'Life Of Pi' and can't recommend it highly enough. One of the best books I ever read, seriously. It's hard to write about it without giving it away. It is magic, every page.

On a lighter note, now reading 'Happy Like Murderers' by Gordon Burn, a book about Fred and Rose West. 100 pages or so in and the bad dreams have arrived. Bleak.



Mx

[Darraghh]

Hey! Yer too right about life of pi mart, and its nicely short too.
I'm finished my zams tomorrow and cant wait to dive into summer reading.
In the meantime, may I recommend Setting Free the Bears by John Irving. Its his first book and I'd say his best, a real YOUNG live-life kinda read. RECOMMEND! RECOMMEND! RECOMMEND!

[gillworm]

[bravecaptain]

no you don't mate. that was a fucking awful book.
brilliantly written though, soom as i have got this one out of my head (might take a while) i may read one of his others.
i feel like i know every inch of that house and i don't want to go through that door again. like i said, bleak.

right, who's next?

Gary Younge - No Place Like Home



mx

[ciaranm]

what about autobiographies/biographies. Malcom X's is a classic.

Also, Karl Marx by Francis Wheen, which is really very funny an paints a picture of Marx as a man fueled by petty squabbles with his contemporaries. The amount of money the guy squanders is unbelievable.

His Dark Materials by Philip Pulma, which have probably already been mentioned on this thread, but must be again, as they are far and away the most captivating and thought provoking imaginitive work I've read in quite a while. I know if I had kids I'd be swapping their Harry Potters for Pulman on the sly!

[John Mc]

Just finished reading "Understanding Power" by Noam Chomsky. It’s a collection of transcripts of talks and questions and answer sessions with him from the 1990's. I've never read any of the books he's written so I thought this would be a good place to start. Its a really interesting book but I found myself feeling a bit despondent after reading it, I suppose I wanted him to say "Do X, Y and Z and the world will be a better place" but he makes a point of saying that it isn't as simple as that.

Need something light to read now so I've bought Stuart Maconies book about his life as a music journalist.

[KENFROM RHYL]

ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVOURITE BOOKS WAS "50 YARDS TO THE BUS STOP" BY WILLY MACKIT (ILLUSTRATED BY BETTY WONT) DOES ANYBODY ELSE REMEMBER THIS ONE??

[ciaranm]

I'm currently enjoying Kerry Walks,
it's a guidebook of walks in and around co.kerry. It's getting me out in the freah air and a tan on my arms. Best book I've read in a long time!

[gillworm]

ok, this is from the Guardian newspaper, June 5th. The top 50 contemporary reads, sampled from visitors tot he Hay on Wye literary festival. I find that I've read 12 of them. Opinions? Loads of familiar names, I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's read any of these...

A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
American Pastoral - Philip Roth
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Being Dead - Jim Crace
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres *
Cloudstreet - Tim Winton
Disgrace - JM Coetzee *
Enduring Love - Ian McEwan
Faith Singer - Rosie Scott
Fingersmith - Sarah Walters
Fred and Edie - Jill Dawson
Fugitive Pieces - Anne Michaels
Girls With a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier
Grace Notes - Bernard MacLaverty
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
His Dark Materials Trilogy - Philip OPullman
Hotel World - Ali smith
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eufenides
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
Misery - Stephen King
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow - Peter Hoeg *
Money - Martin Amis
Music and Silence - Rose Tremain
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez *
Oranges are not the Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson
Riders - Jilly Cooper
Slaughterhouse-five Kurt Vonnegut
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
The Corrections - Jonathan Frantzen
The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood *
The House of Spirits - Isabel Allende *
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco *
The Passion - Jeanette Winterson
The Poisonwood Bible -Barbara Kingsolver
The Rabbit Books - John Updike
The Regeneration Trilogy - Pat Barker *
The Secret History - Donna Tartt *
The Shipping News - E annie Proulx
The Tin Drum - Gunter Grass
The Wind Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
The Women's Room - Marilyn French
Tracey Beaker - Jacqueline Wilson
Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh *
Unless - Carol Shields
What a Carve Up! - Jonathan Coe*
What I Loved - Siri Hustvedt
White Teeth - Zadie Smith *


I've asterisked the ones I've read...of course it's a limited readership giving their preferences, so there are some names that might be added in a wider survey.