Book Recommendations

[c.d.]

I just looked at the reviews on amazon.com for "Water for Elephants." Great reviews and almost 1300 of them. I am going to read that. Thanks, Mike.

It kills me when you read reviews that there is always at least one person who gives a book or music one star. Doesn't matter what it is. They always strike me as someone who would look at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and say "he used too much blue."

c.d.

[Stephen Thomas]

I am in need of a good book to read. Does anyone have a recommendation? My tastes are pretty eclectic. I enjoy both fiction and non-fiction and a variety of subjects.

c.d.

Well if you haven't read it ,cd, I would recommend Boswell's 'Life of Johnson'.

The best book ever written in the Engllish language to my mind.

Others may disagree.

[c.d.]

Well if you haven't read it ,cd, I would recommend Boswell's 'Life of Johnson'.

The best book ever written in the Engllish language to my mind.

Others may disagree.

Thank you, Stephen. I have read that. I did enjoy it too but obviously not as much as you did.

c.d.

[dougie]

CD
I have two reccomendations for you ,and for anyone else for that matter...."autiobiography of a supertramp" by W.H.Davies............"Bound for glory"..by Woody Guthrie.Both books were autobiographical, both written by authors who suffered poverty,hardship and tragedy,neither made too much of those things,just simply "got on with it"....both books are simply written,no false heroism, no delusions of granduer in their writings......no b.s ,just shockingly immediate and real.Both authors wrote as they spoke....i didnt read them in the normal way,it was almost as if those books grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and forced me to turn the pages,and left me at the end wishing the author had written more pages so that i could have read them.
regards

[c.d.]

Hi Dougie,

I have read "Bound for Glory" and you are right, it was a great book. Old Woody had a heck of a life. If the Davies book is anything like it, it should be good. I'll check it out. Thanks for the recommendation.

c.d.

[Celesta]

Bound for Glory is a classic, and Woody has been a real inspiration to a couple of generations of singer-songwriters. After I read Bound for Glory, I tackled Grapes of Wrath. I think it meant more to me after reading Woody's book.

Connie Willis writes time-travel novels, among others, and I highly recommend To Say Nothing of the Dog. It moves from about the year 2050 to WWII to the Victorian Era. It's so well done and one of the most entertaining books I've read. I've given everybody who reads a copy for Christmas. The heroes are on a mission to rescue the Bishop's Bird Stump! She also wrote Doomsday Book, which is a sort of sequel but rather heavy, and Passage, which I could not put down until I had finished.

I've seen Manhunt and wondered about it. Will check it out on your rec, C.D.

[Sam Flynn]

Reading Spike Milligan's Puckoon should be made compulsory. One of the funniest books ever.

[dougie]

CD and Celesta,
Well if you have both read "bound for glory" and enjoyed it, then "supertramp " is for you....same kind of style ,and although guthries book was terriffic,id say davies work was marginally better.First printed in 1903 I think, and many more times since.....its a cracker of a book !
regards

[steje73]

Anything by Robert Rankin is good, but especially 'Armageddon- The Musical.',
The Brentford Trilogy, and 'The Book of Ultimate Truths.'

[plang]

Admittedly did not study this thread. The list of fantastic books goes on and on and on.
In the fiction category of classics you are offered this suggestion:
Dracula, by Bram Stoker.
Brilliant story telling.

Bram Stoker 1847-1912. British novelist born in Ireland.

[Mike Covell]

I love Dracula, my friends love the book so much, they got married in Whitby and live in a house looking across at the Abbey!

I love any Gothic Horrors, and have several compilations.

[plang]

Mike, why didn't they get married in Transylvania at the castle?

[Mike Covell]

They were doing it on a budget and the day was amazing.
We arrived at the hotel and were taken to a cliff top registery office, before we went in, a pirate wedding came out, complete with parrot and everything.
After the wedding they were taken to the abbey for some shots then arived back the the hotel were they cut the cake.
The cake was a traditional white cake, with red marzipan for blood, and a giant knife stabbed in the top. The evening celebrations were fancy dress, I made an entrance as Michael Myers and my wife as Death!
All the tables had pumpkins on, and as the sun set, "The Raven" was read out by candlelight. It was a memorable day, plus it was halloween!
I had a series of palpatations and was rushed off to hospital, across the North Yorkshire Moor's at Midnight on Halloween, not something I wish to repeat!
All in all an action packed, eventful weekend!

[Roy Corduroy]

...they were taken to the abbey for some shots

Haven't we all found drinking on Halloween to be scary?

c. d., per Manhunt, there is Judah P. Benjamin, the Jewish Confederate by Eli Evans. An excellent biography, because after reading it, you will really feel like you know him.

Roy

[c.d.]

If you like Dracula, you might enjoy "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova. It seems that Vlad the Impaler is alive and well. I really liked it as did everyone in my office who read it. 1, 347 reviews on amazon.com

c.d.