Last Book That You Read- Fiction

"The Girl Who Played With Fire"
if "Dragon Tatoo" was a Sherlock Holmes / detective style story,
then "Fire" is James Bond / thriller / action style story

more sensational and dramatic but ultimately not as believable or realistic
both take a while to build momentum, but then become almost unputdownable
and I very much enjoyed both of them

I've heard that the third is not as good apparently, but I still want to read it

I'm also reading "Laughing Gas" by PG Wodehouse, which is vintage
it's a novel, but I still find it best to consume it one chapter per sitting, so the magic doesn't become threadbare, because for me the joy is in the arrangement of the language rather than the story itself

lalala2004 wrote:

lalala2004 wrote:

Last book I finished with my students was Animal Farm, and we're currently reading Hound of the Baskervilles.

Finished it so I would be a few chapters ahead. Really quite a read. Perfectly eerie and the kind of mystery you hope for. I just hope it isn't his best, because now I hope to read more, and don't want to think I've hit the peak too soon. I've just read a Study in Scarlett previously.

for me "Baskervilles" marks the point where Conan-Doyle really hits his stride with the Holmes stories
I find the plots are more consistently well constructed from here on.

Currently reading Jean Raspail's The Camp of the Saints. It is about the collapse of Western Civilization under a deluge of immigration from the Orient. It is banned in Great Britain.

Stilicho Bias wrote:

Currently reading Jean Raspail's The Camp of the Saints. It is about the collapse of Western Civilization under a deluge of immigration from the Orient. It is banned in Great Britain.

A quick check on Amazon.co.uk would tell you that's not the case, Khan.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Camp-Saints-Jean-Raspail/dp/1881780074

You can actually read it online, here.

Perhaps formerly banned in the UK. In any event, I'm happy to see it has not been tossed on Oriana Fallaci's burning stake.

I'm about 18 chapters into the online version Sharky posted.

It's a more compelling read than I expected it to be. Definitely not one to take to your local hipsters' book club.

I wonder what Fleming would have thought about TCOTS? If Tiger Tanaka and Dikko Henderson represented Fleming's thoughts on decolonization and encroaching Western softness, then he might have approved heartily.

Δ

I disagree entirely. After JFK publicly fellated Fleming, Fleming had the character James Bond tack slightly to the Left as a sort of thank you. But the other sympathetic characters stayed firmly on the right. James Bond thus diverged from Fleming politically at his point while M and characters such as Dikko and Tanaka came more to represent Fleming's views.

Had Fleming lived to see the 70's, I can't imagine him being vehemently opposed to the messages of TCOTS, especially its castigation of damp, caricaturish, professional do-gooders.

The Lonely Silver Rain- John D. MacDonald

The final outing in the Travis McGee novels. Not the strongest in the series, but certainly a poignant conclusion to end series. Lovely novel. One day, I'm going to read the series in order from beginning to end. MacDonald was just brilliant. Just read that in an interview Fleming even admired MacDonald and was a fan.

Don't blame him. One of the best (and more underrated) writers of the past 100 years.

Moore wrote:

One of the best (and more underrated) writers of the past 100 years.

John D. MacDonald was one of my favourite genre writers, though his work is not well known in Britain. I read many of the Travis McGee series when I was just 11, and they were a profound influence on my way of life and thinking.

Unfortunately, tough and self sufficient characters such as McGee aren't favoured in our increasingly rigid society - they're too unneeding of big government and big taxes. Maybe that's why there has been no successful film adaptation: the teens wouldn’t get McGee’s moral codes, and his chivalrous behaviour would be anachronistic. Much the same problem that Ian Fleming's authentic James Bond character faces, in fact.

Couldn't agree more with you on both accounts. MacDonald's work- in particular McGee- have had quite an influence on me. It is a shame, as you said, that such a character could not really work today. I could not see McGee on the big screen now. If he was it would be a hollowed out shell of what he is in the novels. It wouldn't work.

BULLET PARK by John Cheever was excellent. A strangely celebratory critique of American suburbia. I'm certainly going to want to read more Cheever now, and I'm sure this is a novel I'll revisit in the future.

THE FINANCIER by Theodore Dreiser. I'm not really sure why Dreiser is considered some sort of giant of American literature, at least not from the evidence presented here. Unlike Cheever, Dreiser is not a stunning writer of prose. He often gets bogged down in technical, businesslike details, and it really spoils the drama of the events unfolding. I'm sure Dreiser was a very fine journalist, but that sort of style doesn't work well in a novel for me. The book does pick up for a while in the middle, as we see the after-effects of the Chicago fire and a very good court case, but the beginning and the end lack any sort of flare. The story itself is very compelling though, and a stunningly considered fable about the pitfalls of American capitalism, which makes the somewhat pedestrian writing worthwhile. It's just a shame that Dreiser has to eexplain every little idea so much. It isn't enough to describe Frank's fascination with a lobster killing a helpless squid, he has to further explain that it gave Frank a particular view on the way life is organised - there is very little subtlety to it.

Never The Bride - Paul Magrs

Took about 90 minutes to read, but so enjoyable. Utter fluff. The Bride of Frankenstein is hiding out in Whitby and running a B&B. Great stuff. Apparently, there's about four books so far, and I'm looking forward to more.

Ed Tom Kowalsky wrote:

I disagree entirely. After JFK publicly fellated Fleming, Fleming had the character James Bond tack slightly to the Left as a sort of thank you. But the other sympathetic characters stayed firmly on the right. James Bond thus diverged from Fleming politically at his point while M and characters such as Dikko and Tanaka came more to represent Fleming's views.

Yes Fleming being ever astute, caused his wiser more mature characters to continue to espouse his own eminently sensible conservative world view.

CJB wrote:

Had Fleming lived to see the 70's, I can't imagine him being vehemently opposed to the messages of TCOTS, especially its castigation of damp, caricaturish, professional do-gooders.

Must check out the link supplied by Sharky. Sounds like a very readable book.
Speaking of professional do-gooders, my liberal friends this weekend were trying to convince me of the evils of bottled water and not for the usual environmental reasons, which I am not entirely unsympathetic too, but rather because of the quaint notion that the boycotting of bottled water here in North America, "shows solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the global south" (they actually do talk like that) who are being oppressed by corporate bottled water companies buying up their water supplies.
There are some obvious issues with who the villains might actually be in this scenario if there even are any real villains but meanwhile I wonder did these people have a marathon viewing of QoS and then lose their minds and power of rationale thought.
Never mind Michael Moore and company, the 22nd Bond film truly is subversive.

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

Currently reading Atlas Shrugged for the second time. Feel free to mock me, as I am long used to it.

I'm reading Atlas Shrugged as well, but I started on it back in January :) The thing is so long that I've decided to give myself the end of the year to finish it (at 10 pages a day). I'm currently reading ACT OF TREASON by Vince Flynn. Just finished DEATH IS FOREVER a few days ago.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

Currently reading Atlas Shrugged for the second time. Feel free to mock me, as I am long used to it.

I'm reading Atlas Shrugged as well, but I started on it back in January :) The thing is so long that I've decided to give myself the end of the year to finish it (at 10 pages a day). I'm currently reading ACT OF TREASON by Vince Flynn. Just finished DEATH IS FOREVER a few days ago.

Coincidentally, I just re-read The Fountainhead. Coming back to it after 25 years is strange. Bits of it are like Harold Robbins meets Nietzsche, which is more entertaining than it sounds.

Recently Shock Wave and Flood Tide by Clive Cussler.

Meh. I enjoy his early stuff, but this was rather underwhelming. Enjoyable, yes. But doesn't really come close to the quality of the earlier novels.

Moore wrote:

Recently Shock Wave and Flood Tide by Clive Cussler.

Meh. I enjoy his early stuff, but this was rather underwhelming. Enjoyable, yes. But doesn't really come close to the quality of the earlier novels.

ditto. More's the pity being a big Cussler fan.

Top 3 be Raise the Titanic, Deep Six, Vixen 03

perhaps.

---------------

read, Brighton Rock (Graham Greene)

Sailed through Candide a couple of nights ago.

Poor fucker.

Last fiction was Jeffrey's Deaver's Carte Blanche. Enough said

Hilly wrote:

Moore wrote:

Recently Shock Wave and Flood Tide by Clive Cussler.

Meh. I enjoy his early stuff, but this was rather underwhelming. Enjoyable, yes. But doesn't really come close to the quality of the earlier novels.

ditto. More's the pity being a big Cussler fan.

Top 3 be Raise the Titanic, Deep Six, Vixen 03

perhaps.

---------------

read, Brighton Rock (Graham Greene)

I have to be honest. I have only read the Cussler novels once each and still have a few to go through but have been spreading out my reading of them. I remember Deep Six being quite enjoyable and for some reason I remember enjoying Treasure a lot. Although I must confess I still have not read Raise the Titanic yet (!) or Vixen 03 despite the good reviews.