Safe As Book

[bravecaptain]

shuv it kinky

the last shit book i read was some book about football hooligans. oh man, it was shit.

and you need to message me about that wink wink thing you were doing at work (stop laughing at the back there) can you tell me what it is yet. or what?

come on liverpool!

mx

[Rich Left Side Brain]

Ahhh, I just finished Ham on Rye by Bukowski. What a book, what a writer. I've read Women, Post Office, Factotum and now HOR... are there any others by him left?

[bravecaptain]

hundreds but none are as good as 'ham on rye'.

there is a another of a similarly autobiographical nature called, i think, 'south of no north'. there a loads of poetry books, some of which contain lots of mini stories. i dont think there is anything bad by him. he wrote to the very end as well, they are among my favourites 'septuagenarian stew' and 'the last night of the earth poems'. beautiful. checkitowt

mx

[Bev]

[gillworm]

I'm slowly getting through 'Biko' by Donald Woods. For some reason his writing style is a bit dull, even though he's writing of his own relationship with Biko. Some of the extracts of Biko's writing are hard work too, that's probably me being thick about political theory though! I find it quite hard to read about oppressive regimes, the nasty details get me down at times.

Last book I read was 'the Bang Bang Club', also about South Africa, though a little more recent. It's about a group of white South African photographers and their experiences at the time when apartheid was finally on the way out, a particularly violent time. Two of the 'club' died, Ken Oesterbrook was probably killed by a UN Peacekeeper (if I remember correctly) and Kevin Carter killed himself, unable to cope with the nightmares and guilt brought on by being exposed to extreme danger. You may recognise his name from the Manics song about him, it's a bloody sad story.

[Tommy Tynans Lovechild]

all footie hoolie books r posturing macho shite with the following exceptions:

steaming in 'cos its pretty funny (well the leatherhead bits are!)

bloody casuals 'cos its matter of fact not AND WE DID 'EM posturing
and the best of all is...

Casuals by Phil Thornton 'cos its more about the clobber n tunes which is what people like me got off on.

though peter bloke from beautiful south blokes forward to a sheff utd fan is top n a good summary on life as a footie fan in the 80s.

[Rich Left Side Brain]

I'm progressing through a huge stack of Bukowski poetry... Just as good as his novels. Bloody great.
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www.leftsidebrain.com

[Dave w.]

i'd like to recommend the following books by jonathan coe:
what a carve up
rotters club
the closed circle
house of sleep

(all excellent)

[gillworm]

I'm possibly the last person in the country to pick up 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time' by Mark Haddon and then rave about it, but....what a brilliant book! gawd, funny, sad, pathetic, sad, funny, brilliant, I can't count how many times my feelings changed as I progressed through it!

[Kris]

Not the kind of recommendation you normally get on here, but I'm reading a "normal" fictional Crime Thriller book at the moment, "The Treatment" by Mo Hayder.

Horrific, brutal and shocking, but brilliant all the same. You may want to read "Birdman" first as that establishes the main character and his past.

Birdman's not half as good though.

xxx
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"fashioned by the blade of a world that doesn't care,
feeling so removed, drifting thru stealing air then...
pause and think about it, try to move and shift the pain, but it's there you feel it kicking and you scream and feel alive."

[Rich Left Side Brain]

Sirens of Titan
Slaughter House 5
Breakfast of Champions

by Kurt Vonnegut. Just read them in quick succession.

I'm gobsmacked. Some of the best novels I've ever read.
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www.leftsidebrain.com

[gillworm]

[Kris]

[discoRdance]

I got a gift totally out of the blue last week of my favourite book, which is Frances Farmer's autobiog (..not so mad about fiction type books). Haven't seen it since the library accused me of stealing it about 5 years ago.
I should have.

[Dubya - T]

Audiobooks is my thing, it's not particularly safe reading on the motorway...

Anyhow, just finished The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nightime which is interesting. I reckon it's better being read out. I like the way the narrator ( Na boy with Aspergers Syndrome) is so matter of fact about everything when he's either in extreme danger or being a total nutter. It's also quite funny how you get the impression that he's normal and it's everyone else who's strange!

I'm now nearly at the end of Zen & The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, but I think I'll have to try that one again.
It goes into lecture mode and I miss huge chunks. Still some good thoughts in it.

I've also recently listened to Stiff- The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers which was fascinating, if a little stomach churning in places, especially the bit about medicines being made from dead bodies in the middle ages.
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We would like to announce that due to cutbacks the light at the end of the tunnel has been switched off.....