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Thread: Watcha Reading?

  1. #61

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dadie View Post
    Errrm...I think I have actually read better written Mills and Boons books......
    Might just add I picked up a box of books at a carboot sale and read all of the books within.
    I dont choose to read romantic fiction/trashy smutty stories .....now trashy westerns .....thats another thing...I picked up a load of Edge books at another carboot sale and they were good to lose yourself in for an hour or so each book!....light reading with violence....think I only spent a £5 on the whole lot.
    Usually its crime fiction or vampire/werewolf or a good stephen king or pratchett I like to read and have just recently read the whole series of trueblood books which had better written sex scenes in than the 50 shades....which says a lot more about 50 shades than the trueblood series....as I didnt buy the trueblood for the sex, more for the vamp violence......
    Lol! I spent a few hours last night trying to chat up a beautiful woman on a flight back from New York - she was reading this book, and she was trying to convince me it was an intellectual masterpiece. I had no idea it was famous for its sex scenes.

  2. #62

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    Quote Originally Posted by donnick View Post
    just finished "ME BEFORE YOU" great read and insight to a touch subject self euthanasia as the story of a guy who was in a accident and was made a quadriplegic ...highly recomend it
    This was a fantastic read. One of the best books I have ever read. Highly recommend.

  3. #63
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    Dec 2003
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    'Far from the Rowan Tree' loved it.
    Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

  4. #64
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    Aug 2012
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    Currently reading The Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot, a very good book richly descriptive. Really wonderful so far.
    "Or perhaps they had invisible writing unknown to ordinary trolls"

  5. #65
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    Apr 2009
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    Wick
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    10

    Thumbs up

    Quote Originally Posted by Blondie View Post
    This was a fantastic read. One of the best books I have ever read. Highly recommend.
    Just finished reading this book today! A brilliant story. Would highly recommend it too.

  6. #66
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    Have finally got round to getting, The Poetic Edda Translated by Carolyne Larrington.
    "Or perhaps they had invisible writing unknown to ordinary trolls"

  7. #67
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    Jun 2010
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    Edinburgh
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    103

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    Those are great books,Tuoni.Penguin Classics have translations of the Icelandic sagas, many by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson, that are tremendously clear and readable.Njal's Saga, a book I've been reading since I was young,along with The Orkneyinga Saga(in spite of its title, much of the action takes place in Caithness) are personal favourites.

    The book I'm reading at the moment is Ron Ferguson's George Mackay Brown:The Wound and the Gift.It's a very interesting read,neither a straightforward biography nor a piece of literary criticism(Ferguson himself says both of those things have already been done perfectly well), looking at GMB's life and the development of his thought, and how that shaped his work.He has some interesting and thought-provoking perspectives on a writer I thought I knew fairly well.Well worth a look for anyone who's ever read GMB.

  8. #68
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    I have read Orkneyinga Saga it is very good, Has helped me understand the history of Caithness at the time. I was surprised to find that Caithness was part of Norway at the time Njals & Egils Saga are both a good read too!

    Not familiar with George Mackay Brown though sounds good.

    Have you read Beowulf?
    "Or perhaps they had invisible writing unknown to ordinary trolls"

  9. #69
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    Jun 2010
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    Edinburgh
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    I still have the 1960s Penguin Classic with the Sutton Hoo helmet on the cover! My mother had a great interest in history,so we had a lot of older texts like that around the house.English wasn't her first language, so the Icelandic sagas, which have a very clear and direct prose-style, appealed to her.Thurso's own George Gunn wrote a dramatised version of Egil's Saga(Egil,Son of the Night Wolf which was really good ,Brian Smith from Thurso took the lead role,a tremendous performance).The play was published a couple of years ago,Bews or DR Simpson should be able to trace it.

    Pretty much everything George Mackay Brown wrote is still available,poetry,short stories,novels,childrens' books,plays,an autobiography and three collections of articles from The Orcadian, so plenty to choose from,certainly well worth a read.
    Last edited by stumpy; 12-Oct-12 at 13:04. Reason: punctuation

  10. #70
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    Will check out that play it sounds interesting, I have an adaptation of Beowulf. By Magnus Magnusson, Sheila Mackie, & Julian Glover. Which worth a look, my version of the original has the old english version along side the modern english which is pretty neat.
    "Or perhaps they had invisible writing unknown to ordinary trolls"

  11. #71
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    Scrabster
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    Default Me Before You

    I also recently finished this book by Jo Jo Moyes, absolutely Fantastic!!

  12. #72
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    The Quarriers Story by Anna Magnusson

    A very interesting read about Glaswegian, William Quarrier, who opened a home for boys, in 1878. At times, the firsthand accounts by those who lived in the home was harrowing, but the book also celebrates the achievements over the years. Recommended reading.

  13. #73
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    'The Collected Poems of Rudyard Kipling.' My favourite is 'The Gods of the Copybook Headings.' This is an abridged version.

    As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
    I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
    Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
    And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

    We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
    That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
    But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
    So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

    With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
    They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
    They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
    So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

    When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
    They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
    But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
    And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

    On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
    (Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
    Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
    And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

    In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
    By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
    But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
    And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

    Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
    And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
    That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four —
    And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

    As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man —
    There are only four things certain since Social Progress began: —
    That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
    And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

    And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
    When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
    As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
    The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!



  14. #74
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    Åsa Larsson The Savage Alter, read the synopsis of this book and wanted to get it so I did.
    "Or perhaps they had invisible writing unknown to ordinary trolls"

  15. #75
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    Oct 2012
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    'Trust Me,' by one of my favourite writers, Lesley Pearce. If you haven't read it, then give it a go, but keep your tissues handy. After Lesley wrote this book, she suffered a mental breakdown. I'm not surprised it's a harrowing story, but one I believe needed telling.

  16. #76
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    Oct 2011
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    "The Diary Of A Submissive" by Sophie Morgan. If you haven't read it, then give it a go, but keep your tissues handy.....
    “We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine....
    And the machine is bleeding to death."


  17. #77
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    Default Watcha Reading

    Anything by Lee Child [while not imagining tom cruise as Jack Reacher] Dean Koontz & Jodi Picoult

  18. #78

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    Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde.

  19. #79
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    Henrik Meinander A History of Finland, a very good book so far. Covering the cultural, military and social economics of Finland.
    "Or perhaps they had invisible writing unknown to ordinary trolls"

  20. #80
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    "Red Adair an american hero," fascinating book but a slow read as there is just so much going on.

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