The unofficial Book Thread which doesn't look as good but was here first

[MANTIS01]

By far and away the best book on the shelves right now is Fifty Shades of Grey. I don't know what it's about but I bought it for the mrs and now she's a crazed sexual deviant. Great purchase, highly recommended.

[flushthemout]

By far and away the best book on the shelves right now is Fifty Shades of Grey. I don't know what it's about but I bought it for the mrs and now she's a crazed sexual deviant. Great purchase, highly recommended.

My Misuus got all three of the books, Mr Christian Gray is in charge and i dont get a peep, whilst on holiday 2 weeks ago, 9 women in different areas of the pool were reading the books.

[rfgqqabc]

Good bump.

I bought a kindle a couple of weeks ago, and despite thinking I'd mainly save it for when I was travelling it has boosted the amount of reading I've done just because of the convenience.

The 2 weeks before I bought it I read Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes - it's not worth really talking about what the book is about, the main draw of a Julian Barnes book is that he just writes so well that it doesn't matter what he's actually writing about. And I read a good history of the Spanish Armada (The Confident Hope Of A Miracle) - which stood out from the normal history books because it actually had new facts in it rather than just new opinions (the "new" facts might already have been known - they were just ignored quite a lot).

The 2 weeks since I bought the Kindle I read the 7 Harry Potter books plus a couple of spin-off novelty books. Taken individually they are exactly as expected which is they're not very demanding - but that doesn't mean they're bad; they're just okay. Taken as a whole though they have a beautifully structured over-arching story arc with rock solid integrity in it's characterization and plotting. But I would have to say you do have to be a pretty committed bibliophile to read all 7 books just so you can appreciate the structure of them rather than the actual story.

So many free books about, whether its upcoming authors or the classics. One or two of my favourite books came from the free section of the kindle. I'd find the title but i dropped it and didn't call to get it fixed under warranty

[david3103]

By far and away the best book on the shelves right now is Fifty Shades of Grey. I don't know what it's about but I bought it for the mrs and now she's a crazed sexual deviant. Great purchase, highly recommended.

oh rly?

[nirvana]

The Sisters Brothers - rather excellent, if you've enjoyed Bukowski, McCarthy then you're probably gonna like this. Read it a few months back and lent it to my son recently, his appreciation of it made me think the message needed to be spread wider

[DaveShoelace]

I've had a really lucky run of about 6 great books in a row.

Brandwashed - all about tricks marketeers use when they are trying to sell us stuff
Confessions of a media manipulator - how PR folks manipulate the web based media
Why England Lose - An economist explanation of various football phenomena, basically Freakonimics for football
So good they cant ignore you - why people love or hate their jobs.
Everything Now - a book about how we have never had it so easy, yet everyone is still unhappy.

Currently reading Thinking Fast and Slow, which is proving a good read

[George2Loose]

Bump

[kukushkin88]

I've had a really lucky run of about 6 great books in a row.

Brandwashed - all about tricks marketeers use when they are trying to sell us stuff
Confessions of a media manipulator - how PR folks manipulate the web based media
Why England Lose - An economist explanation of various football phenomena, basically Freakonimics for football
So good they cant ignore you - why people love or hate their jobs.
Everything Now - a book about how we have never had it so easy, yet everyone is still unhappy.

Currently reading Thinking Fast and Slow, which is proving a good read

Shouldn´t these all be one book titled "How the Capitalists F***ed Us" Or nearly but thankfully we started making fortunes out of writing books about it first! Soma for the masses and we mostly love it! Huxley called it.

[Tal]

Ultimate favourite novel is Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Every now and then you get a description of the landscape so vivid you can smell the daisies.

[leethefish]

Ultimate favourite novel is Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Every now and then you get a description of the landscape so vivid you can smell the daisies.

Love Tal

[shedboymuff]

I have only really read autobiographies, but Santa got me the further adventures of an idiot abroad, will give that a bash, has anyone read it?

[Sheriff Fatman]

Finished JK Rowling's "The Casual Vacancy" a few days ago.  Its about as far removed from Harry Potter as you could imagine but is ultimately underwhelming and a bit of a letdown.

Fans of crime novels should give James Ellroy a whirl.  He's best known for LA Confidential (I love the film, and its one of the better film adaptations out there, but the book is fabulous) and The Black Dahlia (great book, poor film), but most of his books are a great read, especially the American Tabloid Trilogy which are a fictional interpretation of the Kennedy assasinations (JFK and Bobby), plus Howard Hughes, Bay of Pigs, etc.  Some of his books are written in a staccato style, which takes some getting used to, but he's a great author of dark, twisted, crime stories.

I love this time of year for searching out cheap Kindle bargains as Amazon always do a post-Christmas sale.  Just bought "Life of Pi" for the grand sum of 20p, which I've been meaning to read for ages, plus a few speculative purchases to stockpile.