The Book Thread

I’ve recently got back into the ‘the answer is never’ after a few years, will follow up with The Most Fun Thing once I’m done.

Recently read ‘the reason I jump’ written by a non-verbal Autistic boy in Japan a number of years back and am following that up with his second book ‘Fall down 7 times get up 8’ which is a title we should all be familiar with. Really illuminating and a great help in trying to understand my son - from an autistic persons perspective and not a clinical perspective.

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I got On Chesil Beach from the library the other day. I just finished it and want my money back.

A bit too exquisite for me. Think I’ll try Bravo Two Zero next time.

I really liked it and the previous McEwan book ‘Saturday’. Obviously it’s no Bravo Two Zero, which I hear actually improves with every read.

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An entire (admittedly tiny) book describing one sex scene was just a bit much. I know it’s all clever dever subtext subtext blah blah but it was a bit of a slog.

I really should get into literary criticism.

In other news I thought our nursery wasn’t doing the world book day. How wrong I was.

Saturday is good. Without giving too much away it’s about a surgeon and his family taken hostage by a criminal

I quite liked the Cement Garden, but I can’t be arsed with Ian McEwan any more. Too plot-driven and not literary enough for my snobbish tastes.

I’m reading Gravity’s Rainbow I’d quite like something plot driven next haha.

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Halfway through the brothers karasamov.
Really struggling when it gets super religious but promised myself I’d persevere.

My resolution was to read 50 books this year. 900 pages is really fucking with this.

Just read 50 Agatha Christies. Bangers.

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I did see a vintage copy of Hickory, dickory dock in BHF this morning, any good?

Not the best Poirot but will be infinitely more enjoyable to read than impenetrable 150 year old Russian literature.

This is the best Poirot.

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Just get it and read it. No spoilers.

Fuck it, ordered.
Thanks.

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Life’s too short to endure shit.

I think you’ll enjoy it.

The only Russian author I can get down with is Bulgakov.

Master and Margarita and Tales of a Country Doctor both bangers and quite easy reads.

Dostoevsky and Tolstoy I find completely unreadable. Don’t why anyone bothers, it’s such a chore. Except maybe Crime and Punishment.

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I just decided to ‘tick him off the list’ just to say I’d done it.
But yeah, not hating it but I’m not exactly absorbed.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is great. I love ‘A day in the life…’ and ‘Cancer Ward’ was good too. Read it while in hospital. Proper vibes.

Also ‘We’ by Yevgeny Zamyatin is good.

My daughter (16) is obsessed with Dostoyevsky. She loved Crime and Punishment and the Idiot. I should really give him a go. I’ve read Gogol - really liked the Overcoat and the Nose.

19th century French literature is my big comfort read. I can’t recommend the Count of Monte Cristo enough. Ridiculously entertaining. I also love Flaubert and Stendhal.

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I cant stand Tolkein for the same reason people hate Dostoyevsky, I just find it really boring drawn out shite.

Ive been on a massive Vonnegut binge recently but have dipped in and out of it to read post WW2 nazi hunting stories or SAS histories.

Wish I had time to read more but not sure thats going to change anytime soon

The films are even more drawn out. The Hobbit is a great little book with a clear plot. The film shoves in loads of other stuff and turns it into a 3-movie epic that looks like a video-game.