Just been revisiting some great reads....

With "War of the Worlds" on TV I have just finished that again on my Kindle.... (don't worry no spoilers )

H Rider Haggard too with "She" and "King Solomons Mines".

John Buchans "39 Steps" cracking stuff ....

Jules Vernes "Mysterious Island" and "20,000 Leagues under the sea"

I am thinking about some Dickens... but I heard "Great Expectations" doesnt live up to the hype.

you're a better man than me if you can get to grips with dickens, tried a few times and find them impenetrable, shame too, because I am sure they are great works of literature, but I will never know.

Don't know if you do biographies or how old you are but Hurdy Gurdy Man, Donovans story is half decent.

Wile E Coyote wrote:you're a better man than me if you can get to grips with dickens, tried a few times and find them impenetrable, shame too, because I am sure they are great works of literature, but I will never know.

I've had some "Hard Times" trying to get into Dickens...

It is i Ishmael.. ..

I have heard there is nothing interesting once you get into " The Old Curiosity Shop" either !!

I asked the young librarian at my local library if she liked Dickens, she said "I don't know Iv'e never been to one "

I once went out with a girl who said she had never read Dickens but she did enjoy a Dickens Cider.

Bosscat wrote:I am thinking about some Dickens... but I heard "Great Expectations" doesnt live up to the hype.

i like what you did there.

but on a serious note it is possibly the best book i've ever read and i've read a lot.

frankenstein is another timeless classic.

yTib wrote:i like what you did there.

but on a serious note it is possibly the best book i've ever read and i've read a lot.

frankenstein is another timeless classic.

Had to smile at Wile Coyotes reply missing the joke

Its Dickens best book....

Joseph Conrad books . Heat of Darkness. The Secret Agent. Lord Jim all good reads

Stalingrad by Antony Beevor.
The horror of what went on there beggars belief.

Great book.

Papillon by Henri Charriere. It’s an absolute cracker. Very, very difficult to put down.

Anything by Ken Follet. Pillars of the Earth is a fantastic book .
https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/book ... gKqYvD_BwE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman.

. has just revisited The Golem by Gustav Meyrink. He finds it a difficult but enjoyable book.

The Chestnut Man-Soren Seirstrup

War and Peace - Tolstoy.

Should keep you occupied for a while.

icu81b4 wrote:War and Peace - Tolstoy.

Should keep you occupied for a while.

"War and Peace" more like the average day on UTC

karatekid wrote:The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman.

I got this book because a recommendation on here having previously watched the film. I’m not the best of readers but I took it on an away trip to Palace by coach and had finished it by the time I got home. Thought it was a brilliant read.

Bosscat wrote:"War and Peace" more like the average day on UTC

Do you like James Patterson?

Bosscat wrote:Just been revisiting some great reads....

With "War of the Worlds" on TV I have just finished that again on my Kindle.... (don't worry no spoilers )

H Rider Haggard too with "She" and "King Solomons Mines".

John Buchans "39 Steps" cracking stuff ....

Jules Vernes "Mysterious Island" and "20,000 Leagues under the sea"

I am thinking about some Dickens... but I heard "Great Expectations" doesnt live up to the hype.

I read David Copperfield recently and it was a great read. Certainly the best Dickens novel.

Shantaram is far and away the best book I have ever read. Well worth a read.

bobinho wrote:Papillon by Henri Charriere. It’s an absolute cracker. Very, very difficult to put down.

i thought so too, until it turned out to be a pack of lies.

ElectroClaret wrote:Stalingrad by Antony Beevor.
The horror of what went on there beggars belief.

Great book.

So have we worked out who prefers beevor or dickens....?

The best books ever written are the Aubrey Maturin series and there are twenty of them. I wish there were twenty more.

If you like boxing / sports books then I’d recommend Four Kings.
It’s about the Hagler, Hearns, Duran and Leonard era of boxing - in my view the best period of boxing ever in terms of the quality of fighters in the same division and the quality of the fights against each other.
4 very different people and the book covers their stories really well.
It’s on Amazon

Banana wrote:Shantaram is far and away the best book I have ever read. Well worth a read.

Overwritten.

Bosscat wrote:Just been revisiting some great reads....

With "War of the Worlds" on TV I have just finished that again on my Kindle.... (don't worry no spoilers )

H Rider Haggard too with "She" and "King Solomons Mines".

John Buchans "39 Steps" cracking stuff ....

Jules Vernes "Mysterious Island" and "20,000 Leagues under the sea"

I am thinking about some Dickens... but I heard "Great Expectations" doesnt live up to the hype.

The Flashman novels by George MacDonald Fraser are a riotous read and historically interesting. He was in every battle during the Victorian era. A coward and poltroon who was somehow highly decorated. A good read.

Beevor definitely peaked with "Stalingrad"

Hasn't done anything remotely as good since.

If you are going for Dickens, then the only one I've actually read is "A Tale of Two Cities".

I've never got beyond about page 30 of "War and Peace" as well!

Anabasis by Xenophon (the tale of the 10,000 Greek mercenaries who made it back to Greece from Persia) is a cracker btw.

Banana wrote:I read David Copperfield recently and it was a great read. Certainly the best Dickens novel.

Barnaby Rudge is my favourite Dickens novel.

I enjoyed 'Anna Karenina' a little more than 'War and Peace' and 'Bleak House' amongst Dickens novels, unless you're a lawyer. I've just read a couple of books by J. M. Coetzee that I would recommend as well as 'The Year of the Flood' by Eduardo Mendoza and 'Spies' by Michael Frayn. Tried one by Ian Rankine, which was OK but no more, and currently reading 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' by Stieg Larsson, which certainly holds the interest.

No More Mr Nice Guy - Keith Altham

https://www.amazon.co.uk/entertainment- ... oks&sr=1-1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Philosophy - A Very Short Introduction

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophy-Ver ... oks&sr=1-3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fate is the Hunter - Ernest Gann

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fate-Hunter-Er ... oks&sr=1-2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bosscat wrote:Just been revisiting some great reads....

With "War of the Worlds" on TV I have just finished that again on my Kindle.... (don't worry no spoilers )

H Rider Haggard too with "She" and "King Solomons Mines".

John Buchans "39 Steps" cracking stuff ....

Jules Vernes "Mysterious Island" and "20,000 Leagues under the sea"

I am thinking about some Dickens... but I heard "Great Expectations" doesnt live up to the hype.

If you want Dickens and a good old depressing read try Hard Times mate. Did that years ago at 'A' level and it is a humourless tome but paints a good picture of Preston at the time. Coketown is actually based on Preston. Dickens spent some time there as a journo in 1854. Personally if you like SCI-FI I would heartily recommend Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke (or indeed any of his books but particularly that one). For the longer haul (assuming you haven't read it but I suspect a man like you will have) have a go at Moby Dick. Anyone who can't get beyond whales and whaling in that book isn't reading it right. If you are feeling really suicidal try anything by Kafka, particularly The Trial, once famously described as the most depressing book ever written. Don't be put off Kafka though, for sheer atmosphere he can't be beaten.

I suppose it is a matter of preference for novels or factual books. Bill Bryson is always a good read. Travel books in the main but they are 'travel with a difference.' His other stuff is very compelling and 'eye opening.'
Auto Biographies by R. Dahl's early life and war experiences are a great read too. He had a bitter opinion of the Vichy French forces who fought on the German side in the theatres of war in the Middle East. A little known period of history and under reported.

Bosscat wrote:Had to smile at Wile Coyotes reply missing the joke

Its Dickens best book....

did you, well how literate and smug that sounds. did you use a "wry smile too" cos only the really smart people utilise that technique to show their credentials over the plebs.

The world according to garp
A prayer for owen meany

Both John Irving.

Incredible novels

1fatclaret wrote:The world according to garp
A prayer for owen meany

Both John Irving.

Incredible novels

Garp is a fabulous book and the film with Robin Williams is a must see. Wonderful performances all round. Seeing the film actually lead me to reading the book. Must watch the film again sometime soon - a funny/sad tale that makes you laugh and cry in equal measure.

"One Hump Or Two" by Frank Worthington. Great stuff! You might have to pay a premium for it now but well worth it, plus could sell-on later, as it's become collectable.

Reading Texas for the second time and thoroughly enjoying it, like his style of writing.

Love reading and get through quite a lot of different books, but autobiographies are not really something I have read, only one I can think of years ago, The Moons a Balloon, did enjoy it though although I prefer a good story, particularly history entwined in fiction.

Reading Texas for the second time and thoroughly enjoying it, like his style of writing.

Love reading and get through quite a lot of different books, but autobiographies are not really something I have read, only one I can think of years ago, The Moons a Balloon, did enjoy it though, although I prefer a good story, particularly history entwined in fiction.

If you want an amusing book I laughed my socks off reading 'Scoundrels' by Duncan Crowe & James Peake. The Sequel 'Scoundrels -The Hunt For Hansclapp' is also amusing but nowhere near as good as the first one.

I love Charles Dickens, I've read all his novels, most of them several times.

I've just finished "This Is Going To Hurt" , which is the diary of a junior hospital doctor, Adam Kay. It's full of anecdotes, most of them funny but some very sad.

A typical story is when Adam was accompanying a consultant on a ward round. They came to a woman who was in hospital because the herbal remedies she was taking were reacting with her prescribed warfarin. The consultant went mad with her, and the patient said " but herbal remedies are natural ". The consultant replied that just because they were natural didn't mean they weren't dangerous, pointing out that the death cap mushroom had a 50% fatality rate, and that there was a plant in his garden that if you sat underneath it for ten minutes, you'd be dead.
Later on the consultant and Adam were doing a colonoscopy, and Adam asked the consultant what that plant was that would kill you if you sat under it for ten minutes.

" a water lily".

Wile E Coyote wrote:i thought so too, until it turned out to be a pack of lies.

Then we’ll have to pick a copy up in the fiction aisle.

Fact or fiction, it matters not.

Fact, and it’s an immense tale of the human instinct to survive against all the odds.

Fiction, and it’s a damn good story, beautifully told.

Most, if not all, of the Dickens books are on kindle for free. My very favourite price for a book.
I believe there are only 13 full novels and I’m slowly working my way through them. Haven’t found a poor story yet and the descriptive writing of the times is wonderful. Not that I was around to see them.

Any Don Winslow or Larry Mcmurtry. They are at a different level to everyone else.

Wind in the willows is a favourite of mine and while it may be perceived as a childrens book, there are many layers to it. The 7th chapter is "A piper at the gates of dawn " which is where Pink Floyd's 1st album got its name from.
I would also recommend many of the Tom Sharpe books which are extremely funny.
Along the same genre I also hugely enjoy Terry Pratchett and although not as well known, but also very clever and funny, Nicholas Saloman.

Siddo wrote:Any Don Winslow or Larry Mcmurtry. They are at a different level to everyone else.

I've just read 'Savages' by Don Winslow. It was awful, although I'm told his earlier stuff is brilliant. For me, the best two crime writers in the world are James Ellroy and George Pelecanos.

Jupiter's Travels by Ted Simon,

Haynes Series One Land-Rover manual or Rod's MX-5 1.6 Enthusiast's Workshop Manual. Great stuff!