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BS: books I must get round to reading
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Subject: BS: books I must get round to reading From: The Sandman Date: 29 May 12 - 09:44 AM Marsh Heirs. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Rapparee Date: 29 May 12 - 09:47 AM Why? |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Donuel Date: 29 May 12 - 09:51 AM 'Ignorance' I read the e reader sample and is the kind of book one can agree with on every page. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Nigel Parsons Date: 29 May 12 - 11:15 AM "Marsh Heirs"? - Mad! |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Bill D Date: 29 May 12 - 11:49 AM "The Decline of the West"..Oswald Spengler tried several times...kept falling asleep. Maybe I'll start with "Gödel, Escher, Bach" I don't fall asleep, but my brain hurts. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Amos Date: 29 May 12 - 12:45 PM Godel, Eascher Bach will ruin your intellectual peregrinations for months, Bill, and tie your mind in knots! (That's not true). A |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Stilly River Sage Date: 29 May 12 - 12:51 PM The Nature Principle: Human Restoration and the End of Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. Heard an interview with him yesterday and forgot I'd meant to pick up his book. I also heard an interview with the author of Ignorance. It sounds excellent. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 29 May 12 - 01:00 PM Is this as in books-I-know-I-really-Should-read-but-in-realistic-fact-it-ain't-never-gonna-happen; or as in books-I-am-interested-in/feel-guilty-about-my-ignorance-of-and-truly-intend-to-read-one-day ??? I think War And Peace probably qualifies on both counts - |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: The Sandman Date: 29 May 12 - 01:07 PM "Marsh Heirs"? - Mad! hi Nigel, can you explain your comment, do you think I am mad or the book is mad. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Elmore Date: 29 May 12 - 01:12 PM Les Miserables. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Musket Date: 29 May 12 - 01:13 PM The Bobsy Twins and the goldfish mystery |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 29 May 12 - 01:17 PM Thought of another one: Empson's Seven Types of Ambiguity which certainly lives up to its name. [Dick - I think he probably means the March Hares are mad] Big ALLLLLLLL... where arrrrre youuuuuuuu...? |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: The Sandman Date: 29 May 12 - 01:20 PM 12 of 12 people found the following review helpful 4.0 out of 5 stars A great comic read. Stay with it during first chapter!, August 28, 2011 By Mary Eagleton (New York) - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition) This book is about as black as black comedy can get. It's an amazing mix of outrageous dialogue and mind-bending scenes, some of which had even me cringing with horror. It starts a bit slowly as the author paints the scenery carefully for us - collapsing mansion, mad poverty-stricken owners, criminal friends - then it takes off and weird events follow one another at breakneck speed. I loved the characters, all over the top but still as if drawn from life, and the setting. All in all a great, exciting, really funny holiday read. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comment 9 of 10 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars Really funny black humor from Brit aristo crime gang, August 28, 2011 By James Murchison (Idaho) - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition) I loved this. Brilliantly written and full of wacky scenes. I don't usually go for this sort of clever Brit humor but I got straight into it and it just took off like a rocket. I wonder how many of the English aristocracy are really as disreputable as this? Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comment 6 of 6 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars This doesn't aim to be great literature but it's damn entertaining, September 1, 2011 By Annie Lambert (California) - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition) I have to confess to being an Englishwoman living in California but my partner, who's a "real" American, kept trying to this book away before I'd finished! If you're looking for something discreet to read on the plane or train, forget it. People will turn round to see what you are cackling at! Also it's fast paced, and the dialogue really fizzes. But when you sit back at the end and think about it, you realise it's making some really serious points about what's happening in the world today, that is the growing number of people over 60 who are healthy and just want to have a good time, including lashings of sex! Characters I liked: of course Bill Staggs, the gangster stud, and of course Margaret with her "razor sharp pelvis", John the would-be doctor (and medical experimenter), and the boy Iain, who is a devilish creation."His was the kind of dedicated curiosity that leads people to pick up discarded cash register slips in supermarket car-parks, to see what complete strangers have been spending..." Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comment 5 of 5 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars A bit near the bone sometimes but really amusing dialogue and characters, August 30, 2011 By Henry Ireson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME) Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition) Totally enjoyed this unusual book although agree with the other reviews that the first chapter is just setting up this incredible yet believable situation and you have to stay with it before the real action starts. After that you get into the writer's nightmare world and it all seems quite normal! It really carried me along and the dialogue and extreme characters are really funny. I warn some readers that some of the sex scenes between the residents are just a bit too near the bone! There's a lady called Margaret Levitt who is something else - totally obsessed. And there's loads of bad language, although all the "cockney" speech is very convincing... Some readers have complained that the book is racist - that's totally wrong. Some characters are - but it's credible and is part of the story... the truth is some some characters are racist, homophobic, ageist (as in, they are against young people!) - but funny. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comment 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars not sure I agree it is as black or dark as all that, September 23, 2011 By Tommy T Johnson - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition) Obviously the "criminals" being a bit older than is usual is a bit of a change but it also makes for high comedy. OK there is some sex between the old folk, but it's not done in a lascivious way, it's part of the action and it's all part of the general fun. Personally I found it all very acceptable and entertaining. Don't expect hours of existential navelwatching as in so many modern novels. However people who don't like the odd-swearword should keep away! The landscape and characters are great. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comment 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars interesting to read, sophisticated and fun, September 26, 2011 By Janie Webb - See all my reviews (REAL NAME) Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition) It seems the writer is trying to do several things at once: a "darkish" comedy, a sort of thriller, a satire and social comment on the way our demography is going, and a "hommage" to gothic romance, as other reviewers have said - anyway the combination works very well. I "lent" it to my 80-year old mother and my 19-year old son, who is studying Enhglish at University, and they both really enjoyed it too. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comment 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars more than a nod and a wink towards the gothic novel, September 25, 2011 By Deborah Wilks - See all my reviews (REAL NAME) Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition) If you could say that the setting of the Gothic (or Gothick) Novel is a character in itself then this book certainly draws on and refers to the genre. The plot of such works is usually set in a castle, an abbey, a monastery, or some other, usually religious edifice, and the scenery around tends to be desolate and wild. The author has certainly achieved this and even deliberately signals it by naming rooms in the mansion after famous gothick novels (Otranto, Udolpho, Melmoth etc). Also the wild antics, secret passages and so on are all I think a reference/pastiche. A real success, but very entertaining as well. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comment 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars I enjoyed this and shall keep it on my kindle to read again soon, September 29, 2011 By MarkMyWords - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition) excellent characters, setting, funny too. I liked the main character and his wife, and of course Bill. Even the awful boy was OK in the end it seems. I'm busy telling my friends about it. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comment 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars Top characters and description of place., September 17, 2011 By Tony|Tone - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition) The main character, Freddie, is actually quite sympathetic, despite his dodgy activities. You feel he's sort of put-upon by the other characters. I guess the plot itself is more there to show off both characters and location to best advantage - although it still romps along. I enjoyed the gang's adventures and it certainly draws you in. Also cameos like the terrible greedy Pecry family and John the extremely eccentric overenthusiastic male nurse are great. A very good entertainment. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comment 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars I was expecting to laugh and I wasn't disappointed, September 12, 2011 By Jessie B. Nolan - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Marsh Heirs - A Black Comedy (Kindle Edition) I was expecting a comedy and it is very funny but the book is also really interesting as an evocation of a part of the UK (I presume the Essex or Suffolk marshes) I used to know well, so I enjoyed that. Even though the story is over the top sometimes I guess that's not really the point, it's all part of the fun, you get drawn into the crazy off-beat way he sees things. However I definitely have the impression that it was based on real people at least in part. The writer also has a great turn of phrase, some of my favourites - there are many: "His joints cracked out a funeral volley as he straightened up, his skin wet with stress under his layers of clothing." "Years of squinting along the sights of a variety of firearms had given her face a lop-sided look, and wherever she was, the larger of her fine, grey eyes drifted upwards - as if scanning the skies for incoming geese." "His shirt-sleeves were so tightly rolled up that they acted almost as tourniquet on his arms, forcing the veins to stand out and leading the eye down to a profusion of tattoos" "An otter dived nearby. A cautious gull peered down to see if Lady Anne had a firearm in her hand before avoiding her eyes and flying inland as high as it could." "Bill, freshly shaven and smelling of John's cleaning alcohol, closed the back doors and slid in behind the wheel, automatically touching the cosh under the dashboard as he did so, as if it were a rhinoceros horn talisman. "Heigh-ho and away we go!" he cried, as he started the engine. " Also you can tell it is set in the eighties or around that time - took me a while before I realised there were no cell-phones! I'm really looking forward to the sequel, now he apparently has got back to writing again... |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: GUEST,fiddler43 Date: 29 May 12 - 01:59 PM I love, love, love the real life story of the Louvin brothers (one of the most legendary country duos of all times) The book is called "Satan is Real" It is a must read for all country music fans. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 29 May 12 - 02:45 PM "The Divine Comedy," by Dante, in the translation by Dorothy Sayers. The three volumes have been sitting by my bedside table for several months but I always seem to put them aside and read the latest mystery I get from Amazon. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Will Fly Date: 29 May 12 - 03:23 PM Bonnie - "War and Peace" is one of the greatest books I've ever read - I must have read it at least half a dozen times over the years, and I've just started on it again... "Ulysses", on the other hand, has defeated me several times! |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Owen Woodson Date: 29 May 12 - 04:01 PM Definitely War and Peace. Also, Huxley. Brave New World. Koestler. Darkness at Noon. Michels. Political Parties. Well, I read it as a student and it had a profound effect on me. Hardy. The Return of the Native/The Woodlanders. The only two Hardy novels I still haven't caught up with. Plato. The Republic. London. The Iron Heel. Adams. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Honest, I must be the only individual in the English speaking world who has never read The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings.Honest, I must be the only individual in the English speaking world who has never read The Lord of the Rings. Golding. Lord of The Flies. Honest, I must be............. Yeah, yeah. Lee. To Kill a Mocking Bird. Dostoevsky. Crime And Punishment. Shokolov. And Quiet Flows the Don. Marx. Capital. Harold Wilson once said he couldn't get past page 3. All I can say is I made it all the way to page 20. Homer. The Iliad and The Odyssey. My God, that is a serious oversight. Darwin. Origin of Species. Defoe. Tour Through The Whole Island of Great Britain. Cobbett. Rural Rides. Hurston. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Merriman. The Midnight Court. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Bert Date: 29 May 12 - 04:10 PM How do you know that you must read a book? You haven't read it yet! |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Owen Woodson Date: 29 May 12 - 04:12 PM Sorry, I meant to add that well known tome, The Encyclopaedia of Clairvoyance and Psychic Phenomena. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Elmore Date: 29 May 12 - 06:05 PM Owen, you better get going. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Bert Date: 29 May 12 - 06:30 PM Nice one Owen;-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Bat Goddess Date: 29 May 12 - 06:49 PM Lawrence Stern's "Tristram Shandy"...I started reading it in 1968 and, while I've restarted it many times, I still can't seem to finish it. And it's not what you think. I just get so wrapped up in the wonderful writing that other books get finished and I keep getting stuck in my favorite places (without being able to get to what will be other favorite places) and never finishing it. I can't explain it. Maybe it's time to start it again. I just discovered I have both a hardbound copy and the paperback (still next to the bed) that I bought in 1968. Linn |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: framus Date: 29 May 12 - 07:27 PM Bought Bach, Godel, Escher and found it difficult. Then some bugger stole it in a pub. Wonder if he enjoyed it? Also read The Good Soldier Schweik. Anybody heard of it? |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Rara Avis Date: 29 May 12 - 07:46 PM Love Thomas Hardy but couldn't stand Return of the Native. The Woodlanders was good, though. I'm currently rereading Far From the Madding Crowd. I no longer think I MUST read a particular book. Sometimes reading simply for pleasure is its own edification. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: The Sandman Date: 30 May 12 - 06:13 AM Good Soldier Schweik is an excellent book. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 30 May 12 - 01:27 PM Must re-read "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" by T. E. Lawrence. Have read it more than once. He forsaw much of the chaos that would result from the division of the mid-east by the winning powers. If his remains could cry-- "Origin of Species"- get an unedited version. There are many interesting comments on the people and places he visited. He was a good writer as well as a scientist. I enjoyed the book. Das Kapital- Marx was a dull writer, with no knowledge of the world except what he read in his studies. There is little new in his writings. My advice is "don't bother." People quoted him in setting up their versions of communism, but the system had never worked except in a few small subsistance groups. I guess each of us could make a long list of books that they would like to read (or have been told that they shold be read). Chaucer in the original is difficult because of the old English usages; Robert Graves did an excellent transcription into modern English. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: The Sandman Date: 30 May 12 - 02:30 PM one book I would advise against is Pincher Marten, all the worst characteristics of Martin Amis |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 30 May 12 - 03:56 PM I thought William Golding wrote Pincher Martin? Never read it, though I loved Lord Of The Flies. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: The Sandman Date: 30 May 12 - 04:16 PM WILLIAM GOLDING wrote it, on what one can only assume was an off day, perhaps he was trying to write in the style of Martin Amis, who knows?it is a waste of time |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Big Al Whittle Date: 30 May 12 - 05:29 PM I have to watch myself. I try to resist the impulse for self improvement. So often I come home and I realise that once again, instead of living for titilation and fun, I have bought some worthy tome that will enable and inspire me to write the great work, make the great creation that will redeem this wasteful period of buggering about called life. There's a sort of idealism behind this question - that I respect. But I think I will (as with my music) just mess about in the shallows of human endeavour. If the great artistic statement is to be made, it will be made by someone else - someone cleverer and more able. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: EBarnacle Date: 30 May 12 - 08:46 PM I have just begun reading the massive tetrology about Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro. I will probably be done about the time that volume 5 comes out. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Nick Date: 31 May 12 - 11:55 AM Next on the list are: The God Delusion Gödel, Escher, Bach (on order from the library as is 'I am a strange loop') Art of Fielding War and Peace seems daunting so probably never get there. I was almost tempted to look out Marsh Heirs as it's interesting to take recommendations until the person who suggested it wrote off Pincher Martin as a 'waste of time' and written 'in the style of Martin Amis' - who would have been 6 at the time Golding was writing it. Precocious talent, indeed! |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 31 May 12 - 01:05 PM GSS, when Nigel wrote 'mad', he was only referring to the expression 'as mad as a March hare', because Marsh Heirs is perhaps a pun on that saying. I'm sure he didn't mean that either you or your choice of reading are mad! (Just thought I'd say!) |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 31 May 12 - 03:56 PM Years ago, a local book dealer friend persuaded me to buy a set he had- MARCH OF AMERICA FACSIMILE SERIES - 101 volumes. Just the thing for history buffs. Important books from Cristoforo Colombo Epistola de insulis nuper inventis, (Translation, of course), and Hakluyt, Diaz del Castillo, Drake, John Smith, Marquette- to Mackenzie, Pike, Fremont. Gregg and McCoy and Dimsdale (The Vigilantes of Montana, to Theodore Roosevelt (i>Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail. I mention the last two because I actually read them; I read Gregg but just skimmed bits of the others. Books I will never get round to reading. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Steve Shaw Date: 31 May 12 - 04:00 PM On The Origin Of Species. Beautiful writing, the product of a beautiful mind. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: The Sandman Date: 31 May 12 - 05:41 PM War and Peace is IMO a great book,I also liked Mr Pye. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 01 Jun 12 - 03:27 PM A seldom read novel about home life in WW1, but a minor masterpiece- "Mr Britling Sees It Through," H. G. Wells. I would like to re-read. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: jacqui.c Date: 01 Jun 12 - 03:43 PM I've given up reading for improvement - gone all hedonistic. If I don't enjoy it I ain't gonna finish it. Life is too short. I have just finished the Hunger Games trilogy. IMO great stories that I found difficult to put down. |
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Subject: RE: BS: books I must get round to reading From: ChanteyLass Date: 01 Jun 12 - 09:04 PM The latest mysteries by all my favorite writers plus whatever my two book clubs choose. |
