Off Topic Chazz's Book Club.

Have you read any Colin Bateman? He's a Northern Irish writer with a similar dark humour to McDonnel.

 

I haven’t. I’ll look him out.

 

I thought Catch-22 was tedious...Along with 'The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'....
I think I'd rather read the Hull White pages A to Z.

PS..'The Dice Man' is slightly better, but still mainly bollox.

 

OK chaps, you're on Desert Island Discs. What would be your book of choice? You already get the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare.

For me I'd see if they'd swap the Bible for the complete works of John Le Carré. Not so much for the stories, which are good, but for the quality of the writing. He does dialogue like nobody else, imho.

 

Razzle.


The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.

 

Winged Victory by V M Yeates
Winged Victory is a 1934 novel by English World War I fighter pilot Victor Maslin Yeates that is widely regarded as a classic description of aerial combat and the futility of war. The novel concerns World War I, the existence pilots lead and the fear involved in flying early biplanes.

You can keep Shakespeare and The Bible (I know how it ends), but I'll have the complete works of John Le Carré, and also Iain M Banks if possible.

 

I seem to remember liking Dice Man but I read it so long ago I don't remember much of it.

The only book I really thought was truly over hyped bollocks was Ulysses by James Joyce. Couldn't get more than a chapter in.

 

East of Eden - Steinbeck
The underworld usa trilogy - James Ellroy

No interest in the bible or any religious texts and school destroyed any hope of enjoying Shakespeare.

 

Diceman started well but got boring by halfway. Same as Shantaram, which by the time I was halfway through, gave up giving a **** about his imagined life, although was great for the first couple of hundred pages.

I like the Martin Cruz Smith Arkady Renko series.

 

I'd have to ditch the Bible for the complete works of Cormac McCarthy - my single book would 'probably' be book 4 of 'A Song Of Ice & Fire' series i.e. 'A Feast Of Crows'

 

I’d take the complete works of Graham Greene. And the collection of Clive James television reviews, still finny decades later.

 

Did he review Gone Fishing?


The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.

 

Make note to self - don’t try typing on phone.

 

I like the 1960s and 1970s le carre stuff, but found it got a bit preachy and the characters started to grind from the 1980s (well-intentioned women/men naively finding themselves in a battle against an evil corporation/government etc), then tried to read one from the 1990s and it was unreadable. Not read anything from the noughties, so maybe he refound his magic.

I'd put Len Deighton's game, set and match up there with le carre's smiley books.

 

I know I've read Gorky Park but I couldn't tell you a thing about it. I might revisit it.

 

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Unless I can swap the complete works of Shakespeare for the complete works of Hunter S Thompson? If I can then I’d have Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy as my single book

 

I think most of you are overlooking the value of the complete works of Shakespeare and the Bible on a desert island. There are a good couple of years worth of reasonably soft toilet paper in those two collections.

 

Just remember 'Daniel 9:9' when you're on your last page..."The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving,even though we have rebelled against him"

Bless you son

 

Good point
Maybe the complete works of Barbara Cartland would be a good shout for wiping?

 

The only thing that sticks in my mind about Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas is when the drugs kicked in and this came on-