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What book are you reading atm??

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  • Registered Users Posts: 10,962 ✭✭✭✭dark crystal


    Just started reading Room by Emma Donoghue last night. Has anyone read it? It was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize in 2010. Seems very eerie so far, a bit Fritzl-esque. It's written from the point of view of a 5-year-old so is a bit strange.

    Yeah, the narrative takes a bit of getting used to, but I found it surprisingly gripping and finished it in two nights!

    I'm currently alternating between The short stories of Oscar Wilde and the follow up to Gone With the Wind, Scarlett.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,705 ✭✭✭Johro


    Just barely managed to finish 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' by Hemingway. Awful boring, tedious book full of waffely rambling dressed up as literature. Out of all the classic authors Hemingway is a consistent let down. I have yet to find a book of his I enjoy but feel that I must be missing something somehow.
    Try John Steinbeck. Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, East of Eden etc.
    Grapes of wrath could even be called topical...


  • Registered Users Posts: 814 ✭✭✭Tesco Massacre


    Aldebaran wrote: »
    I'm making my second attempt at reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Faring a bit better this time, but still tough going, it's hard to get into a good rhythm with it because of the multiple changes in style and those damn footnotes!

    My favourite book of all time. The first 75 pages or so are hard going but it's a very readable novel after that point. Very rewarding as well.

    And I read all the endnotes when I finished the novel rather than flicking to the end to see what the reference was.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,847 ✭✭✭HavingCrack


    Johro wrote: »
    Try John Steinbeck. Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, East of Eden etc.
    Grapes of wrath could even be called topical...

    Read all of Steinbeck's books already :D. I always felt East of Eden was a better novel than Grape of Wrath actually ;).


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,705 ✭✭✭Johro


    Read all of Steinbeck's books already :D. I always felt East of Eden was a better novel than Grape of Wrath actually ;).
    Fair enough, it probably is. On Hemingway though, maybe you should just accept he's massively overrated and move on. :p


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  • Registered Users Posts: 15,127 ✭✭✭✭kerry4sam


    The SAVI Report (Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland) is the book I'm reading right now.


    It's heavy reading but very relevant to research I'm conducting right now for college.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,414 ✭✭✭kraggy


    Exit Music by Ian Rankin.

    My least favourite of the 4 Rebus novels that I've read so far. Struggling to get through this one.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,053 ✭✭✭Aldebaran


    My favourite book of all time. The first 75 pages or so are hard going but it's a very readable novel after that point. Very rewarding as well.

    And I read all the endnotes when I finished the novel rather than flicking to the end to see what the reference was.

    I actually finished Infinite Jest a few weeks ago, I'd actually say the first 200 pages are the toughest but once I got used to the changing styles etc. I started to fly through it. A absolutely stunning book though, I think I started having withdrawal symptoms when I finished it, the book itself is like a drug!

    And I made sure to read all the endnotes as I went along, even the ones that went on for pages, I actually had to use two bookmarks when reading it. Very challenging book but very rewarding.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,847 ✭✭✭HavingCrack


    kraggy wrote: »
    Exit Music by Ian Rankin.

    My least favourite of the 4 Rebus novels that I've read so far. Struggling to get through this one.

    It's probably one of the weaker Rebus novels simply because it's the final one. Attempting to finish up a character's story in a believeable way is very difficult.


  • Registered Users Posts: 912 ✭✭✭chakotha


    One Steppe Beyond: Across Russia in a VW Camper.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,770 ✭✭✭LeeHoffmann


    The official Driver Theory Test 4th Edition. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to take their theory test before the test changes at the end of the month (you have enough time)


  • Registered Users Posts: 671 ✭✭✭skipz


    Iam reading Tim Severins "The Brendan Voyage".
    Seen the programe a year or so ago of Tim's journey in the 70's as he follows the story of st Brendan the Irish monk who sailed the seas from Ireland and apartently found America a 1000 years before Columbus, so got the book.
    10/10 on the read and 10/10 on the programe!

    If your Irish, please read this book!


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,466 ✭✭✭Snakeblood


    I, Partridge: We need to talk about Alan.

    It's quite good so far, actually.


  • Registered Users Posts: 12,631 ✭✭✭✭OldGoat


    Bed book - Matter - Iain Banks
    Going to work book - Iron Sunrise - Charles Stross.
    After dinner book - Robert Mapplethorpe. (Photography book. Images are NSFW if googling - don't come crying to me)
    Toilet book - Lady sings the Blues - Billie Holiday autobiography

    Various others.
    Also online reading courtsey of The Project Gutenberg eBooks

    I tend to have 4 or 5 books on the go at any one time - not counting work/research related reading.

    I'm older than Minecraft goats.



  • Registered Users Posts: 3,953 ✭✭✭aujopimur


    And never let her go by Ann Rule, great true crime writer.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,834 ✭✭✭Sonnenblumen


    fontanalis wrote: »
    I found 1974 to drag in places but having some great bits; the events really set up the rest of the series.
    When I read them first I ranked them from best to "worse" as 1983, 1980, 1977 & 1974; on second reading I put 1974 ahead of 1977. I found the bits where one of the character has the stuff going on inside his head a bit distractuing.

    Yes I can relate to some of the distracting confusion. But I enjoyed both 1983 and 1980, the latter probably most of all. Had to get the DVDs ( 3 set: 1970, 1980 and 1983) and the 3 films (each made by a different director) made much more sense second time round and compulsive viewing.

    Hit a brick wall when I read Julian Barnes ' The Sense of an Ending', was really disappointing, especially given the Book's Booker success.

    Change of pace now reading 'Homework for Grown-ups - everything you learnt at school and promptly forgot'. Very entertaining.:)


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,131 ✭✭✭Azureus


    Reading Agent 6 at the moment, third book by Tom Rob Smith (Child 44).
    Pretty disappointing compared to his first to be honest-but then again that was one of my favourite ever books.

    Also reading Lee Childs The Visitor in work, one of my fave of his so far.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 588 ✭✭✭MisterEpicurus


    The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky

    Would definitely recommend it! :-)


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,324 ✭✭✭BillyMitchel


    The life of Pi, not far into it so cant give much of an opinion. Seems ok though.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,116 ✭✭✭starviewadams


    The Blue Wall by Carsten Stroud.

    He's a journalist and spent a year on the beat with various police forces in Canada.

    Interesting,sad and funny!


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,848 ✭✭✭Andy-Pandy


    The Passage by Justin Cronin.

    Had no idea what it was about when i started it. Turns out its about Zombie Vampires. First third was excellent, not so sure about the second third but im sure the story will pick up again.


  • Registered Users Posts: 172 ✭✭jackwigan


    American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.

    Taking ages as usual...


  • Registered Users Posts: 19,585 ✭✭✭✭Lady Chatterton


    "Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of a Great English Dynasty" by Catherine Bailey
    Wentworth House is in Yorkshire and was surrounded by 70 collieries employing tens of thousands of men. It is the finest and largest Georgian house in Britain and belonged to the Fitzwilliam family. It is England's forgotten palace which belonged to Britain's richest aristocrats.

    Black Diamonds tells the story of its demise: family feuds, forbidden love, class war, and a tragic and violent death played their part. But coal, one of the most emotive issues in twentieth century British politics, lies at its heart. This is the extraordinary story of how the fabric of English society shifted beyond recognition in fifty turbulent years in the twentieth century.


  • Registered Users Posts: 866 ✭✭✭Palytoxin


    Round Ireland With A Fridge by Tony Hawks (Surprisingly funny) :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 116 ✭✭histories


    Revenge of the Babysat (Calvin and Hobbes) - Bill Watterson

    The Origin of Species - Charles Darwin (only just starting)

    To echo some other posters I love Stephen King also, I have Full Dark No Stars but I have yet to get around to reading it. Love the way he writes, the tone/style is so different to other writers (I know all writers have a different style but his is so unique... can't really explain it). Bag of Bones is chillingly brilliant.


  • Registered Users Posts: 18,562 ✭✭✭✭The Princess Bride


    Just starting George Pelecanos ,The Way Home- haven't read a decent book in a few weeks,hope this is okay as I don't have any others to read.


  • Registered Users Posts: 26 sorifinh


    Azureus wrote: »
    Reading Agent 6 at the moment, third book by Tom Rob Smith (Child 44).
    Pretty disappointing compared to his first to be honest-but then again that was one of my favourite ever books.

    Also reading Lee Childs The Visitor in work, one of my fave of his so far.

    Child 44 is one of my favourites ever. I've several on the go at the moment. Saturday by Ian McEwan, boring but sticking with it because I loved Atonement. Some Michael Connelly book, Bridehead Revisited and one other, I like to mix it up...


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,729 ✭✭✭Acoshla


    Ireland's Arctic Siege, The big freeze of 1947.

    Ordered it last week and it arrived today, already hooked, been dying to find something to read about this for ages.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,512 ✭✭✭Ellis Dee


    The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (Translated from the French by Alison Anderson)

    Delightful.:):)


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  • Registered Users Posts: 6,259 ✭✭✭positron


    Just finished reading 'The Book of General Ignorance' - it's the stuff that Fry brings up in QI - interesting trivia - it's a good casual read. Some funny bits, but nothing exceptional. I would score it 3.5 out of 5.

    A few chapters into Michael McIntyre's Life And Laughing at the moment - man is no literary genius, but he writes exactly like how he does stand up - and that's not a bad thing. It's not comparable to say Frank Skinner's autobiography, it's more straight forward observational comedy built around his memories. Another easy read, so far.


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