Question What are you reading?

[Tangled up in Blue]

More than halfway through Chriss Mullin's excellent A Walk-On Part.A wonderful inside account of the rise of New Labour,

 

[Rob Noxious]

Shame it ended the way it did.

Finally got around to finishing (Wreckless) Eric Goulden's partial autobiography, 'A Dysfunctional Success,' and I now see what you mean about the ending. It was quite clever (albeit lazy) due to the parallel with the alcoholism and the "you've just got to stop" conclusion. Despite the humour, it was quite a sad book. Loved the insights into Costello, Lowe and Dury from the days when Stiff ruled the world.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Mark Radcliffe's Thank you for the Days.Not my usual sort of fare but it was an Xmas pressy.Great start featuring an interview with the Feelgoods but it sort of goes downhill from there.M.R.sounds like a nice bloke though(and I've no idea what sort of music he plays)plus writes pretty well.
Cheers Rob.:thumbsup:

 

[Dick Bate's Protege]

Churchill - Roy Jenkins

 

[MK Shrimper]

God is not Great - Christopher Hitchens courtesy of Osy. Nice one mate, good book. I can't put it down. :thumbsup:

 

[Rob Noxious]

Mark Radcliffe's Thank you for the Days.Not my usual sort of fare but it was an Xmas pressy.Great start featuring an interview with the Feelgoods but it sort of goes downhill from there.M.R.sounds like a nice bloke though(and I've no idea what sort of music he plays)plus writes pretty well.
Cheers Rob.:thumbsup:

De nada. The Jagger photo chapter is quite amusing too.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

De nada. The Jagger photo chapter is quite amusing too.

Yeah.Liked most of the interviews with musicians eg Bowie,Kate Bush,Macca, etc.Could have done without the rest of the anecdotes though he does sound like a nice bloke.

 

[Jedi Shrimper]

Just finished reading Richard Grant's 'Ghost Riders: Travels with American Nomads', which I read having watched his recent BBC4 doc also about nomads in the US (rodeo riders, hippies, hobos, truckers). The book was a bit different from what I was expecting, with about 2 thirds concentrating on early american history of native americans & frontiersman, but it was very interesting all the same.

Just started the new 'Lost' Jack Keroauc book 'The Sea Is My Brother' which I got for christmas and have been looking forward to for a long time.

 

[Napster]

Just read an interesting thriller from CJ Box, now reading one about a mercenary and an African prophecy; it's alright.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Just finished Roddy Doyle's The Dead Republic an excellent fictional account of the making of The Quiet Man and the split in the IRA.
Thanks to Drastic for reminding me that RD was still writing great stuff.:thumbsup:

 

[Eastblack]

Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian. Good so far, but not that far in.

 

[canveyshrimper]

Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian. Good so far, but not that far in.

I've read all of O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin books, and they are all pretty good IMO.

 

[Bluesmanager]

Good Omens (or, alternately, Pratchett and Gaiman Take Over the World) and Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon to read after that.

The Apocalypse and WWII. Fun.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Quim Monzó's The Enormity of the Tragedy.A comic,surrealistic novel about a man who wakes up with a permanent errection,is told he has just seven weeks to live and is murdered by his step-daughter.
Wonderful stuff.Monzó is easily Catalonia's finest fiction writer.

 

[Bluesmanager]

And the missus has finished Inheritance (at last) so no doubt I'll be pinching that at some point. Still got her copies of Stone Heart and Muddle Earth, thinking about it...

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

...from Barcelona
Stories Behind the City:Volume 1 by Jeremy Holland.

A truly awful collection of short stories about Barna written by a Sherman who's been here for 10 years.I won't be buying volume 2 that's for sure.:nope:

 

[Uncle Leo]

Just finished "Team on the Run", about the short-lived Linda McCartney cycling team; very enjoyable read for cycling fans.

Now reading "I, Partridge -We Need To Talk About Alan"

 

[hollis long legs]

Winter of Spies by David Newham, would make a great film as well

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Rage to Survive.
The Etta James Story,
by Etta James and David Ritz.

And quite a story it is too,which will I'm sure(some day),make an excellent film.
Brother Ray liked it:"Etta tells it like it is.I related to every page.Great book!"-Ray Charles.

 

[Jedi Shrimper]

Finished The Sea Is My Brother, Kerouac's recently published lost novel. The story was really enjoyable but quite short, over half the book is then made up of a smattering of early writings and alot of letters between Jack & his Lowell friend Sebastian Sampas when they are at college and in the army/merchant marine, interesting but only for diehard fans like me.

Now reading Coltrane by Paolo Parisi, a graphic novel biography of the jazz musician.