Wall of Mouths

Titus Livy’s History of Early Rome, The Boy’s- We Gotta Go Now (OK it’s a graphic novel but hay I’ve been busy).. and eventually I’ll blow through the latest Dresden Files book “Turn Coat”“

Cider With Roadies was very enjoyable.

Just been off work for a couple of days and have finally read Wilt that a certain mrs h sent me about 2 years ago. Very good book, and I somewhat identified with Henry Wilt…I wonder if that is why mrs h sent it me…?

Not read the others, but if the RiB one didn’t say “Starts great, ends great, shite in the middle - overrated, go check out Seasons In The Abyss instead”, then it’s definitely inaccurate :D

Dennis wrote:

Not read the others, but if the RiB one didn’t say “Starts great, ends great, shite in the middle - overrated, go check out Seasons In The Abyss instead”, then it’s definitely inaccurate :D

:-D

I’ve always rated Seasons, but, for whatever reason, my friends hated it when it came out. They still call it “Seasons in the Anus.”

However, there is no way Seasons is better than RiB or SoH! ;-)

You sir, may be the only person in history to slag Slayer for their speed! :-)

If you can pick it up for like £3 or whatever I spent, then yes. I’d offer to send you my copy if you weren’t halfway round the world!

Dennis wrote:

Cider With Roadies was very enjoyable.

Just been off work for a couple of days and have finally read Wilt that a certain mrs h sent me about 2 years ago. Very good book, and I somewhat identified with Henry Wilt…I wonder if that is why mrs h sent it me…?

Actually I thought you might identify with Eva ;)

Just make sure you never ever watch the film. Not a patch on the book. Not even a patch on a patch on the book. And I bet loads of people have avoided reading it because of the film. On the plus side there are a few other Wilt books which are all really good, and loads of other Tom Sharpe books which are all brilliant (except the ones that are set in South Africa which are really hard work).

Glad you enjoyed it anyway :)

If you want another Wilt one then ‘The Wilt Alternative’. Not because it’s better than the others, just because I always think it’s best to read things in the order they were written. But if you are just after the genius of Tom Sharpe in general than I think my absolute favourite has to be ‘Ancestral Vices’.

I think in fairness they had to bugger about with the plot for the film, because so much of the humour in the book is in the skill of the writing. It’s probably about 25 years since I read Wilt - but the whole thing about Eva in the lemon yellow loungers is as vivid in my mind now as it was when I first read it! :D

I’m currently reading ‘The Underground Man’ by a guy called Mick Jackson. I think it is the only book I’ve ever read that is not exactly gripping, but is somehow completely captivating. It’s written like a journal of this eccentric old aristocrat, who starts off pretty dippy but is going crazier and crazier, and seems to be a raging hypochondriac amongst other things. But because you know what he’s thinking all the time there’s a kind of sense to his nonsense, and the line between what’s crazy and what isn’t starts to get quite blurred. It’s almost like a really gentle, old fashioned version of ‘The Late Hector Kipling’ by David Thewliss, Except If anything bad happens to this guy at the end I’m going to cry like a baby :(

Just finished Songbook by Nick Hornby. Fun, fast read, if a little meandering (damn, can’t anyone get to the point?). Have yet to listen to the enclosed CD, but it looks promising.

I think John Wyndham was one of the greatest novelists ever to have walked the earth. He was so far ahead of his time!

I have quite a collection but would like to know if there’s anything in your set that I don’t have? I’ve got these ones:

Jizzle
Chocky (which scared the shit out of me as a kid!!)
The Midwich Cuckoos
The Chrysalids
The Day of the Triffids
Trouble with Lichen
The Seeds of Time
Web
The Kraken Wakes
Consider Her Ways and Others
Sleepers of Mars

It’s been almost a year since I last read a book, only when I started reading again I realised how much I missed it.
Over the weekend I read Sliver by Ira Levin, Kamermuziek by Paul Mennes and now I’m reading Slam by Nick Hornby.
I can’t afford to take break like that again since I haven’t only been reading books, I also bought quite a lot of books over the weekend :p

Cheers for that! If I see any you don’t have whilst I’m out and about I’ll let you know.

He was writing in the 50s but I think he was writing earlier as well. The thing I love about 1950s sci-fi is that it’s soooo broad, anything a bit strange counted as sci-fi then! Have you read any Ray Bradbury? His early stuff is brilliant, and his short stories. If you like John Wyndham you will like Ray Bradbury for sure.

Good stuff. You’ll get to the end of the list eventually and you’ll love it. In fact my first experience of Ray Bradbury was when I was skiving off PE at school and I snuck in the library and found one of his books of short stories. I enjoyed them so much that I nicked the book (what can I tell you, we were poor). I still have it though - it’s been well loved and cared for.

I just recently finished ‘The Underground Man’ by Mick Jackson, and ‘A Clue to the Exit’ by Edward St Aubyn. Loved them both, but the Underground Man has the edge because I shed a few tears at the end.

I’ve started book 12 of the Wheel of Time series that I have been reading for 20 years. I have devoted so much time to following this epic adventure, always rushing to by each new book as it came out. The story has got increasingly complicated, as you would imagine over 20 years and 11 books - and then the bloody author dropped dead before he could finish the damn thing!! Luckily his wife has roped in a new bloke to finish it off so there will only be 2 more books after this one. It’s annoying though because the new bloke uses phrases that Robert Jordan would never have used, and he doesn’t have the same style of writing, or the same level of skill. I have to read it though. I’ve been reading it for so long I can’t not know what happens at the end!