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KenH
Joined: 24 Jan 2010
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Post subject: Good Books read! | |
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I am sure that we have a few avid readers in this group. I thought that I would let you know of a couple of great books that I have read since the start of this year.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanigan.
We are all completely beside ourselves. by Karen Joy Fowler.
Both books I will highly recommend loved both of them. _________________ Cheers big ears |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005 Location: In flagrante delicto
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I personally like matthew reilly. Australian author, writes in the style of an 80's action movie, non stop wow. me like.
Today i made myself sit down for a while and started reading a comic series, ""Injustice, Gods Amongst us"..
For those familiar with the superheroes in the DC universe (Superman, Batman etc) the basic premise is that stuff happens and Superman flips his shit and decides no more working within the system, from now on what he says goes. Worldwide.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I dunno who said that but I'm enjoying the read on several different levels.
People who disparage comics, kindly go become fornicated. I remember in yr 6 at school when it was quiet reading time and I went and grabbed 10 kids books and started plowing through them. The teacher ( who was also the principal) came over to me and said to me that i should be reading much higher level stuff. I just looked at him and said "yeah, but I enjoy reading these". So shove that up ya arse sideways ya old turd. _________________ Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Location: Andromeda
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I just started reading Atomised by Michel Houellebecq. Looks really interesting, from what I've read so far. _________________ All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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HAL
Please don't shout at me - I can't help it.
Joined: 17 Mar 2003
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from what he or she've read so interests me too. |
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blackmissionary
Lurker King
Joined: 26 Jul 2002
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Barry Oakley - A Salute to the Great McCarthy
Brilliant satire on Melbourne and footy, which makes us seem (certainly in the 1960s, but the lessons are applicable today) incredibly and irrevocably provincial.
William Nagle - The Odd Angry Shot
SAS troops in the Vietnam War. Short, repetitive, and not as interesting as it could have been, seeing as it talks about people who actually chose ti go to war rather than conscripts. Joe Haldeman's sci-fi novel The Forever War is a much better effort (and Haldeman was also a Vietnam war veteran).
Richard Ford - The Sportswriter
A bloke in his late 30s is in a bit of a midlife crisis. Frank Bascombe is a pretty boring, overthinking, over talking kind of person, and I couldn't figure out why a lot of the characters interacted the way they did. I wasn't a fan of this, but I can see why others would adore it.
Yukio Mishima - The Temple of the Golden Pavillion
An ugly, stuttering apprentice Zen Buddhist monk struggles to overcome his obsession with the beauty of his temple. Amazing allegory of immediate post-war Japanese society, as well as a journey into the state of obsession.
Gore Vidal - Myra Breckenridge
Myra, a female transsexual causes mayhem in a small corner of Hollywood. Pioneering analysis of sleaze, pop-culture, gender. Not my kind of humour, but this is essential reading for anyone doing gender or media studies. |
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KenH
Joined: 24 Jan 2010
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stui magpie wrote: | I personally like matthew reilly. Australian author, writes in the style of an 80's action movie, non stop wow. me like.
Today i made myself sit down for a while and started reading a comic series, ""Injustice, Gods Amongst us"..
For those familiar with the superheroes in the DC universe (Superman, Batman etc) the basic premise is that stuff happens and Superman flips his shit and decides no more working within the system, from now on what he says goes. Worldwide.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I dunno who said that but I'm enjoying the read on several different levels.
People who disparage comics, kindly go become fornicated. I remember in yr 6 at school when it was quiet reading time and I went and grabbed 10 kids books and started plowing through them. The teacher ( who was also the principal) came over to me and said to me that i should be reading much higher level stuff. I just looked at him and said "yeah, but I enjoy reading these". So shove that up ya arse sideways ya old turd. |
Yep good on ya, I have heaps of old comics still read them from time to time, good stuff! _________________ Cheers big ears |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005 Location: In flagrante delicto
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Started reading the first in "The Dave" trilogy by John Birmingham, Emergence.
Quite a good read so far, for a born pom he writes like an aussie.
Quote: | John Birmingham delivers in spades in the first book of his explosive new trilogy.
Dave Hooper is not your typical hero. In fact he is a bit of an arsehole. He works on the oil rigs and blows most of his pay packet on booze, drugs and women much to the ire of his very-soon-to-be ex-wife and two kids. Dave is nursing a particularly nasty hangover on the way to work when all hell literally breaks loose Dave’s oil rig has been drilling deeper than anyone ever has before. And they may have just drilled too far. A barrier sealing off our world from another has been broken and creatures that haven’t been seen in millennia have come through and begun feasting on a long-lost delicacy; human meat. And so begins the adventures of Dave Hooper who is inadvertently thrown into this maelstrom and in the process inherits some kind of superpowers to fight these monsters from below. As Dave, the military and the outside world try to come to grips with what is happening more ‘gaps’ in the barrier appear and two worlds who haven’t been in contact for thousands of years will erupt. And an overweight, barely sober, safety engineer appears to be our only hope of survival.
Birmingham mixes up a combination of Middle Earth orcs with a Marvel universe sensibility but with his own trademark humour and insight firmly stamped all over any comparisons. As with Birmingham’s previous books he creeps in a geo-political undertone to the consequences of what he puts in motion which only makes the reading more fun. The next two installments in the trilogy have already been written and will be released throughout 2015. I can hardly wait to see what happens next (especially after the epilogue!!!) |
http://bitethebook.com/2014/11/03/john-birmingham-emergence/ _________________ Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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KenH
Joined: 24 Jan 2010
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I might have to have a look at his books! _________________ Cheers big ears |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005 Location: In flagrante delicto
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He's the guy who wrote "he died with a felafel in his hand"
Lives in Bris vegas. I like his sense of humour _________________ Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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John Wren
"Look after the game. It means so much to so many."
Joined: 15 Jul 2007
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^ that was a brilliant book that did not translate well into film.
i am reading "the phoenix rises" which charts the revival of the vfl and its transformation to the afl. _________________ Purveyor of sanctimonious twaddle. |
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The Prototype
Paint my face with a good-for-nothin smile.
Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Location: Hobart, Tasmania
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005 Location: In flagrante delicto
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Not a book as such but just been reading some Banjo Patterson poems.
Looking at photos online of the Murray in flood at the moment and after 30 years living in Melbourne after being raised in the bush, I can appreciate his stuff all over again.
Next book will be Matthew Reilly's latest due out this month. Gotta download it onto the Kobo so I can sit by the pool or on 4 mile beach at Port and have a reason to sit back and do nothing but read. _________________ Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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Skids
Quitting drinking will be one of the best choices you make in your life.
Joined: 11 Sep 2007 Location: Joined 3/6/02 . Member #175
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I just finished - Man in a grey suit. The guy attacked by a shark at Bondi. Enjoyable read.
Anyone else read all of Les Nortons adventures by Rob Barrett? I think there was around 20 books! Great books! _________________ Don't count the days, make the days count. |
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roar
Joined: 01 Sep 2004
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Recent reads that I really enjoyed:
Rules of Backyard Cricket by Jock Serong
Toy Maker by Liam Pieper
The Summer That Everything Melted by Tiffany McDaniel
Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon. _________________ kill for collingwood! |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Location: Andromeda
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I'm part way through the second book in Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle series. For what is essentially autobiography (a six-part autobiography, no less!), it's absolutely engrossing and brilliantly written. _________________ All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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