Having enjoyed the other pastimes thread so much and the music "what are you listening to" the obvious next step was books. My favourite authors are Stephen Leather, Tess Gerritsen, John Grisham, Lynwood Barclay, Frederick Forsyth and Bill Bryson - a real mixture of different genres. Just finishing Too Close To Home by Lynwood Barclay, a really good page turner as all of his are with plenty of twists and also a bit of humour to oil the story. Over to you folks.......
There was a book thread that I meant to contribute to. Just finished Perfume by Patrick Suskind. It is about a boy abandoned on the streets of 18th century Paris with no scent of his own but a sense of smell more powerful than any other human's. He learns to exploit this gift by making sublime perfumes but then gets obsessed by the scent of an innocent young virgin... was stunningly written and much better than the film adaptation. On a completely different note: A life too short, the tragedy of Robert Enke is upsetting but a worthy read. Has made me look at the nature of footballers again
The Secret Race - Tyler Hamilton It's all about doping at the Tour de France...seriously interesting story. Just goes to show that pretty much all of the top 5 in each of Armstrong's winning years were at one point or another banned for doping offences (whole peloton was doing it!). Froome and Cavendish to win Yellow & Green jerseys at the TdF this year (Cav definitely has never doped...absolutely no way you can win 41 grand tour stages and not get caught, given that they test EVERY winner). Sky will have a real problem on their hands come the end of this summer as to who to favour as leaders (Uran and R.Porte are both future GC top contenders)
My favourite author is Iain Banks and I was mortified to hear that he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer! At the moment though I have well and truly jumped on the 'A Song Of Ice And Fire' bandwagon and am working my way through G.R.R. Martin's books.
I've heard really good things about "Perfume" Kent, definitely on my list of things to read when I get the time.
Reading books has never really appealed to me to be honest - the only ones I ever read are the ones of the big, bulky textbook variety.
Like music books are a very personal thing.Over the years I have collected a veritable private library ranging across all genres.Two of my all time favourites are:Brilliant Orange :The Neurotic genius of Dutch Football and The Good Soldier Svejk A comic masterpiece of the early 20th century.
Reading is very much one of my fav pastimes....especially with a 90 min commute each way means I prob get through about 2 books a week! At the moment I am reading Count of Monte Cristo.....my all time fav book that I read at least once every 2 years and have done for the last 14!
O.K.Kent, Too Close To Home (Lynwood Barclay) is about a family who get killed one night and the neighbours lad was in their house at the time. Their relief though is short lived as they realise that it was they that were the intended victims after all. Lots of other sub-plots such as the relationship between the main character's wife and the head of the local college (who is accused of ripping off a student's book) a student who subsequently died and a copy of who's book was on a computer in the house of the family who died.
Goldeneye, have read the secret race recently, it's very good. Will have to re read it Currently reading the prisoner of heaven by Carlos Ruiz zafon, who also did shadow of the wind, set in barcelona.
currently into Lee Child, the author of Jack Reacher books ( who is 6'5" and weighs about 18 stones, so it made sense to have him played by the colussus Tom Cruise ). real action books set in USA, though Child is British.
Brilliant Orange,David Winner. The book explores the footballing culture of The Netherlands.But it is about far more than football.It covers the eccentricity of the Dutch nation who,with a population of barely twelve million have become a major force in the world,far more than their numbers would warrant.In the introduction the author writes: If this is a book about Dutch football,at some stage you'll probably wonder why it contains pages and pages about art and artichitects,cows and canals,anarchists,church painters,rabbis and airports,but barely a word about PSV and Feyenoord.A very fair point.And the reason,I suppose,is that this is not so much a book about Dutch football as a book about the idea of Dutch football,which is something sligthly different.
I've just bought the first two Jack Reacher novels, probably start them next! Atm I'm reading a book called "The Glint of Silver", a historical who-dun-it, only available from Amazon, written by a not606-er on the Watford forum!
It's the same characters in this one Kent, I think there was one other as well a few years back Too So far it's good but not quite the calibre of shadow of the wind which was ace
I'm more into non-fiction, particularly history, and currently have two books on the go, one at home and one at work. The one at work is A History of Ancient Britain by Neil Oliver and the one at home is Tower: an epic history of the tower of London by Nigel Jones. Just finished The Complete History Of Jack The Ripper.
I'm loving Bernard Cornwell at the moment. His Hundred Year War and Viking series have ignited an interest in these exciting, brutal and significant periods in British history. The storylines that he uses to weave real life events together are formulaic. However, I've read about ten of his books and the formula is gripping.
I like history books too.About thirty years ago I had a chap working for me who had been a tank commander in Normandy.We took him and his wife back there for a holiday.He had never been back since 1944 and going there with him after forty years was a terrific experience for us both.
