A jolly good read?

[t3ch]

tidied up the bookshelves again with stuff i have read this year. i seem to be filling the shelf I store read books quicker! I've finished at least 8 books since the end of this list already. I know, i read too many JtR/true crime books...

Contents (with some comments) were as follows:
P Cornwell - Ripper, the secret life of walter sickert
The secret footballer - how to win
Timur Vermes - look who's back - recommended by someone o here. very funny hitler story.
Robert Cowley - what if? - reimagining of significant historical events but with different outcomes
Naoki Higashida - the reason i jump - written by a severely autistic child, giving a first person perspective of autism
Dean koontz - the city
Robert Kolker - Lost Girls - series of murders labelled the long island serial killer
Michael Braddick - gods fury englands fire - no, not about brexit, but the english civil war (wait a minute!)
Joseph Heller - catch 22 - it's so-so. not sure why it is so hyped?
Lorraine Harrison - a potted history of vegetables - gardening!
Douglas Hofstadter - Godel Escher Bach an eternal golden braid - huge tome on consciousness. I was partway through this when lockdown 1 started. a very intense book.
Nick Hornby- Juliet naked - Hornbys novels have all been pretty good tbh. read a few. Need to read high fidelity.
Neil R bell - Capturing Jack the ripper
Timothy Leary - a design for dying - he's as mad as you expect him to be.
Oliver Sacks - migraine - sacks writes so well about medical issues affecting self perception and the brain. Love the majority of his books.
Stephen King - doctor sleep - good sequel to the shining. very engaging.
Erving Goffman - asylums - old school classic study on social environments
John J Eddelston - jack the ripper encyclopedia
Jostein Gaarder the world according to anna - Gaarders later work has started introducing some darker aspects, which is good, as some earlier novels seemed merely variations on a theme.
William Shatner - Leonard - more about shatner than nimoy sadly.
Robert Littel -The company - pretty good fast paced CIA novel. another big book.
Richard Wallace - jack the ripper light hearted friend - insane attempt to put forward charles dodgson, aka lewis carroll forward as JtR. ridiculous!
Roald Dahl - charlie and the chocolate factory & charlie and the great glass elevator - had never read them (i think). great glass elevator is actually quite dark in places, and reading it was quite surprising!
Julian Baggini/Jeremy Stangnom - do you think you think what you think? - excellent book about logic and thought processes/rational and irrational thinking etc.
Edwin T woodhall - jack the ripper or when london walked in terror
Caleb carr - Killing time - enjoyed the alienist many years ago. this, not so much...
Gordon Honeycombe - the murders of the black museum - UK crime anthology
Howard Pyle - the adventures of robin hood
Adam Wood - Swanson the life and times of a victorian dtective - another huge book, but this was amazing
Tom Stoppard - rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead - my favourite film of all time!
Robert Harris - archangel - excellent cold war style novel. really well done.
Roger Pol-droit - 101 experiments in the philosophy of everyday life - fascinating thought provoking little book. doubt I'll actually do them all, but some of the experiments are really worth doing.
Gail Honeyman - Elinor oliphant is completely fine - recommended by a friend. exceptionally funny in places, very relateable. loved the whole thing apart from the very end, but that's me being greedy an wanting more.
Sun Tzu - the art of war - Nuno's bible? classic ancient eastern text.
Paul Sussman - the final testimony of raphael ignatius phoenix - also recommended here.
Stephen Pile - the not terribly good book of heroic failures - loved stephen piles books as a kid. love the ironies included in the book.
Jean Overton Fuller - sickert and the ripper crimes
Iain Banks - complicity - a quite nuts multi character/perspective book covering a journalist/serial killer. very fast paced, and graphic in places.
Charles Dickens - david copperfield - far far far better than great expectations!
Leonard Matters - the mystery of jack the ripper
Michael Moore - downsize this
Chuck Palahniuk - survivor - final words of the last member of a cult left alive. like other palahniuk novels, this is a bit out there.
Richard Dawkins - the magic of reality - dawkins is brilliant, although he draws his claws firmly in during this book.
Stewart Evans/Keith Skinner - the ultimate jack the ripper source book

a bit obsessed with jack the ripper eh?

 

[lemonjelly]

a bit obsessed with jack the ripper eh?

not a new thing mate. check out the jack the ripper thread on here...

 

[t3ch]

but I'm not obsessed with jackie, or even care about it the slightest, so I haven't clicked in the thread.

 

[sycophantia]

White Knight Black Swan.
Written by David Gemmell, best known for his fantasy books ( which are excellent btw) its a crime thriller based around gangsters and.....a good man

 

[Dire Wolf]

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. Being made into a film with Denzel Washington. Unsettling and riveting story of how a family copes in a remote holiday home when the whole world appears to have been cut off in a massive power outage. Or has it?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Just ordered Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Never read any Le Carre and that needs to be corrected:

 

[Tredman]

Just ordered Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Never read any Le Carre and that needs to be corrected:

You’re lucky, they are superb. I’ve read all the Smiley books and everyone is s very good read.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

I must get round to Le Carre at some point, that whole genre is something I've never really given a go.

I've not long started on Game of Thrones, after watching the TV series over lockdown I came across a load of the books in a charity shop.

I'm about a 3rd into the first one and it's decent enough, although I'm not sure how much I would be enjoying it without having seen the programme, although I have limited time for reading these days so I does help.

The books certainly adds some depth to the characters that the show could only touch upon.

 

[The Bear]

I tore through the books a few months ago too. They are quite in depth with certain characters, as you'd expect compared to a TV show with limited time for each character.

It's crazy how long it's taken him to write this next one, and he hasn't even finished it yet. It's now 10 years since the last one!! I think the TV shows took away a lot of his time, and he has projects on the go all the time now.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

Its an odd one, I've read that he doesn't particularly have an overarching storyline and develops the story as he writes.

I could imagine the fact the ending has already been filmed and written by someone else has effected his ability to draw a natural conclusion to his works. Or perhaps he can't be arsed to commit to a body of work that no matter which way he goes will draw critism and potentially damage him as a writer.

 

[lemonjelly]

another who has never read Le Carre (I thought I had, but quickly scanned the bookshelves and it appears not).

I've debated getting the game of thrones books (not seen the tv series at all).
recently really enjoyed Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and also Don't Let My Past Be Your Future by Harry Leslie Smith. Both very enjoyable reads for very different reasons.

currently reading sole survivor by dean koontz. so far it's a pretty good story and has kept me interested. I have the feeling that I have just got to a key point in the story, and that'll decide for me whether the book as a whole is good or not mind, as a lot in the book is naturally far fetched.

 

[sycophantia]

I enjoyed Game of Thrones...Will probably have to re read them before I read the last one.
Anyone who likes fantasy could have a look at David Eddings, The Belgariad and The Mallorean

 

[Tredman]

I much prefer the Game of Thrones books to the TV series, but probably as I read them before watching the TV programme. I think GRRM has just given up on the books really - such a shame.

 

[lemonjelly]

forgot to say, someone gifted me a lee child book the other day. not read any of the jack reacher books before.

 

[Tredman]

forgot to say, someone gifted me a lee child book the other day. not read any of the jack reacher books before.

Mindless fodder but decent enough to pass the time.

 

[nimrod]

I much prefer the Game of Thrones books to the TV series, but probably as I read them before watching the TV programme. I think GRRM has just given up on the books really - such a shame.

i think some of the inconsistencies between the books and tv series would just make it a bit weird if he carries on now.

 

[Tredman]

i think some of the inconsistencies between the books and tv series would just make it a bit weird if he carries on now.

Unlucky for the TV viewers I guess, must admit the books were getting a bit longwided though.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

I much prefer the Game of Thrones books to the TV series, but probably as I read them before watching the TV programme. I think GRRM has just given up on the books really - such a shame.

I don't know if I'd have enjoyed them not having seen the TV series. I don't read much these days and the constant switching between characters would have probably just left me lost and confused (not for the first time I may add)

 

[Tredman]

I don't know if I'd have enjoyed them not having seen the TV series. I don't read much these days and the constant switching between characters would have probably just left me lost and confused (not for the first time I may add)

I read them back when I used to take long haul flights - they were superb accompniment to being forced to sit and do nothing for 10 hours. Does take some dedication to all the flicking back and forwards.

 

[BillyDee]

I gave up on the fourth book when the tv series overtook my reading, and it was really becoming a chore.
Started on the Wheel of Time series now.