no more uni and I feel uncultured-recommendations?

[francopopfille]

For some reason over the last uni year I've hardly read anything at all. Now I've got no uni until 2009 and 4 months until I go and traumatise teach some French kids, I'd like to make some sort of start on "books to read before I die", but don't know what they are.
I'm open to anything, except crime/thrillers because they're the only genres I've read this year really.

So far I have:
Dear Green Place by Archie Hind- recommended in the Herald. Not as amazing as they made out, yet.

and

Dain Do Eimhir by Sorely Maclean- Great poetry, a bit depressing in large doses, but still great.

Any recommendations gratefully received, I will read almost anything. If they're going cheap in Fopp that would be even better, but isn't a requirement.

Thanks!

[The Moog]

I heartily recommend:


The Last Party: A book about the rise and fall of Brit Pop and the rise of New Labour. Very entertaining and interesting.

For more info click here


World War Z: A book about the rise and rise of zombies. Written in a matter of fact way and approaching the subject like it was the real honest deal. Sometimes, horribly disturbing, like the sequence where a Nuclear Sub discovers that something very nasty is on the bottom of the ocean.

If you like zombies, and something a bit different, then go for it.
For more info, click here


The Beatles Shadow: Stuart Sutcliffe's Lonely Hearts Club: A book about the rise and fall of Stuart Sutcliffe - the "fifth" Beatle. This does not have a happy ending.

For more info, click here

[Rad]

Obvious ones you may have read, but if not, are worth it:
The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
Starter for Ten - David Nicholls
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

Fairly recent non-fiction that I liked
The Year of Living Biblically - A J Jacobs
My Life as a Man - Norah Vincent
America Unchained - Dave Gorman
Dawn of the Dumb - Charlie Brooker

Other fiction worth a pop
Astonishing Splashes of Colour - Claire Morrall
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Rumours of a Hurricane - Tim Lott
Through a Glass Darkly - Jostein Gaarder
East of Eden - John Steinbeck

[francopopfille]

Thanks, I'll have a look at the John Harris, I like his stuff in Q (the only decent stuff in it these days...) and the "Fifth Beatle" looks quite interesting...

[francopopfille]

Jun 16, 2008 17:10:58 GMT Rad said:

Obvious ones you may have read, but if not, are worth it:
The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
Starter for Ten - David Nicholls
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

Fairly recent non-fiction that I liked
The Year of Living Biblically - A J Jacobs
My Life as a Man - Norah Vincent
America Unchained - Dave Gorman
Dawn of the Dumb - Charlie Brooker

Other fiction worth a pop
Astonishing Splashes of Colour - Claire Morrall
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Rumours of a Hurricane - Tim Lott
Through a Glass Darkly - Jostein Gaarder
East of Eden - John Steinbeck

Thanks Rad! Have you read any of Lionel Shriver's other books? I liked ....Kevin but I'm not sure whether I was meant to warm to his mother or not.

[emma]

I did read another of Shriver's but I put it down (which I NEVER do), just couldn't get into it at all. The title was something about birthdays?

I second The Last Party and Rumours Of A Hurricane. Also for non fiction serious buisness, Larry Kramer's Reports from the Holocaust.

[QuincyMD]

Do what I do and buy any old crap from FOPP,

I've bought the following in FOPP and been entertained -

1984
100 Years of Solitude
The Princess Bride
LA Confidential

[Mike]

Jun 17, 2008 18:37:42 GMT emma said:

I did read another of Shriver's but I put it down (which I NEVER do), just couldn't get into it at all. The title was something about birthdays?

The Post-Birthday World? I'm reading that just now. I agree it is pretty tough to get into, but I'm going to stick with it. The only book I've ever given up on was Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, which I actually threw across the room in disgust.

The last book I read was The Interpretation Of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld which is brilliant - I got through 500+ pages in only a couple of days.

[fuzzydunlop]

I noticed your last two reads are Scottish ones. If you wanted to continue in that vein I would recommend No Great Mischief by Alasdair Macleod. The author is actually Canadian but the novel deals with a Canadian family with a strong Scottish heritage - it's quite beautiful and sad.

I would also recommend anything by James Robertson. Joseph Knight and The Testament of Gideon Mack are great.

[Chris]

I tried both The Post-Birthday World and Double Fault and I couldn't hack either. I'm beginning to think Lionel Shriver is a bit of a one-hit wonder, despite giving good opinion on Newsnight.

[Cherubic]

I've not been reading very much recently (which I blame my horrible job for) but am currently reading Great Expectations and Songlines by Bruce Chatwin. The latter is a travelogue of a man's attempt to explore the culture of Australian Aborigines and contrasting it with the way they are presently forced to live and I still can't work out if it has any basis in reality or not. But it's interesting. The former is the only thing I've read by Dickens that doesn't make me want to take a fire poker to the faces of each character in turn, even if it completely preposterous.

[SBaholic]

I've just finished reading "Oystercatchers" by Susan Fletcher, which was beautifully written and completely engrossing from the first page. There were never any moments where you consider giving up- in fact it was hard to stop. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on "Eve Green" soon.

Just about to start "the Tenderness of Wolves" by Stef Penny, which seems completely different to anything I've read before and should be interesting, and then "The Time Travellers Wife" just in time before the film comes out.

Others I've read in the last year I would highly recommend:

"And I Don't Want To Live This Life" by Deborah Spungen - charts the life of Nancy Spungen, tragic girlfriend of Sid Vicious, by her mother. Quite possibly my favourite book ever and the only one to ever make me cry.

"The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguru - classically English, subtle, and heartbreaking

"Wasted" by Moira Hornbacher - memoirs of an anorexic/bulimic author; not very easy to read, particularly if you have experience of eating disorders, but it's so well written.

"The Brief History of the Dead" by Kevin Brockmeier - WONDERFUL book that I cannot get anyone else to read! I wish this author would hurry up and write something new.

"Perfume" by Patrick Suskind (and steer well away from the film)

"The Cement Garden" by Ian McEwan - again, not a very easy read and horribly disturbing (in a good way)

- anything by Emily Maguire

- Adrian Mole is always excellent, especially for reading in short bursts


And avoid anything by Nick Hornby. Ugh.

[Mike]

And avoid anything by Nick Hornby. Ugh.

I don't mind a couple of his earlier books, but A Long Way Down was so insultingly awful that it put me off him for life.

[SBaholic]

Jul 3, 2008 8:11:29 GMT Mike said:

And avoid anything by Nick Hornby. Ugh.

I don't mind a couple of his earlier books, but A Long Way Down was so insultingly awful that it put me off him for life.

I think this book has tainted the rest of them for me. I too liked some of his earlier stuff, but after reading the meandering drivel that was A Long Way Down and also reading some excellent authors recently, I have convinced myself that actually most of his stuff is overrrated and pretentious. And it annoys me too, because the premise for A Long Way Down was so good, and the whole time I was reading it I expected it to suddenly become brilliant, but then it finished. Pah. I gave it to the British Heart Foundation last week.

HOWEVER - 31 songs, which is non fiction, is quite enjoyable.

[DaphneMoon]

Jul 4, 2008 13:41:08 GMT SBaholic said:

Jul 3, 2008 8:11:29 GMT Mike said:

HOWEVER - 31 songs, which is non fiction, is quite enjoyable.

I have been looking for this in charity shops (as my new year resolution was to buy secondhand books only this year) and, whilst there is always a copy of Long Way Down, I've yet to find it.

I broke my resolution to buy for my son and as it was "free" (or three for two) have got Pies and Prejudice by Stuart Maconie for myself - only just started and has made me laugh out loud already.


My favourite author of recent months has been Anne Tyler - Saint Maybe or Ladder of Years I particularly enjoyed.

Also John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meany is my favourite

[DaphneMoon]

Jun 16, 2008 16:58:23 GMT The Moog said:

I heartily recommend:



World War Z: A book about the rise and rise of zombies. Written in a matter of fact way and approaching the subject like it was the real honest deal. Sometimes, horribly disturbing, like the sequence where a Nuclear Sub discovers that something very nasty is on the bottom of the ocean.

If you like zombies, and something a bit different, then go for it.
For more info, click here

]

Bought The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks today for my son's birthday - maybe should have got this too! Which came first?

[francopopfille]

Jul 4, 2008 13:41:08 GMT SBaholic said:

Jul 3, 2008 8:11:29 GMT Mike said:

I don't mind a couple of his earlier books, but A Long Way Down was so insultingly awful that it put me off him for life.

HOWEVER - 31 songs, which is non fiction, is quite enjoyable.

I agree with 31 songs, although I thought it was quite blokey. I hated High Fidelity and didn't get past the start.

I went to Fopp and bought Persepolis and Stephen Fry's autobiography yesterday, there weren't that many cheap books when I went in. Boo.