Trevor Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 I'm hardly well read, but Dan Brown is terrible. Judging by his book sales, many would disagree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WU LYF 4 LYF Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 That's a ridiculous argument. Just because Justin Bieber has sold millions of records doesn't make him a great music artist. Â I hated the Da Vinci Code - I thought his characters were so indistinctive, and lacking in any personality. They were secondary to the plot, and since I hate mystery books for the most part I thought it absolutely sucked. The whole thing was highly unbelievable as well, not least the romance between the male and female protagonists, between whom no charisma or spark was portrayed through the pages, and yet they still got together at the end for the obligatory happy-romantic ending. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted November 25, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted November 25, 2011 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/b...-sentences.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 LaGoosh, I have no interest in some smarty pants, pseudo intellectual Telegraph writer. He can mock all he likes, he's just a hater who's jealous of Dan Brown's writing capabilities. The great British public clearly agree with me since it sold very well across the world. In 2010 it was voted as one of the best 101 books ever written, a well deserved honour for the impressive writing of Mr. Brown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Au Posted November 28, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 I've been reading Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy but it's been a real drag to get through. I'm about 200 pages in, just less than halfway through, but the other day I found myself gazing out the train window because it was more interesting than reading the book. It's just so, so dry. I initially loved that nothing's spoon fed to you and you really have to pay attention to what's going on and who each character is but it's one of those books where your mind wanders and you realise you've no idea what's happened for the last half a page and have to reread it. Â I missed the film in the cinema so thought I'd have time to read the book before it came out of DVD but at this rate I may well give up on it in the very near future and read something else instead. Â In fact, I did give up on it for a week to read Scooter, the second Mick Foley novel, before the stand-up tour. It's not a patch on Tietam Brown which is, in some ways, a bit of a shame. Could be that I just couldn't relate to to baseball references but it seemed sloppy in places and whilst Tietam Brown fell apart at the end in some ways this had an even less satisfying ending. Â And for all the talk about Mick having a really dark imagination around the time it came out, I didn't think anything in it was particularly dark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WU LYF 4 LYF Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Stuff I've been reading lately...   Lord Byron's Jackal: A Life of Edward Trelawny  Well written, well researched, but ultimately disappointing. I was hoping to read more about the romantics and the immortal gathering at Pisa in the early 1820;s, but instead it's mostly a study of the Greek War Of Independence circa 1822-25. Which is somewhat relevant, but Trelawny only spent three years of his life involved as oppose to the eighty five years when he was doing other things. I'm more interested in the man rather than the war, so it was at times a drag to work through.   Killing Pablo: The Hunt For The World's Greatest Outlaw  About Pablo Escobar and his drug empire as the name suggests, and a much better biography than the above. Very balanced, detailed, intriguing. I get the feeling there's still a better book on Escobar that could be written but this is still no less than very good.   Superstar DJs: Here We Go  Highly enjoyable study on DJs and dance music in general from 1988-2009. Phillips was Mixmag editor for much of this time, so well in the thick of it, and there are some great stories in here, of parties and great nights and random stuff like Norman Cook snorting coke off a railway line. Does a good job of holding the narrative as well, would have been either for this to get really disjointed but it flows nicely and you get a sense of a rise and fall in the careers of a lot of the guys depicted, especially the lesser known names who had to go and get real jobs once the bubble burst.   Lolita  Thought this was a little overrated to be honest. The lead character was as fascinating as people have said, but I thought the plot got a bit dull from the midway point. Still, can't deny it's a seminal work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SiMania Posted December 20, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted December 20, 2011 I'm about a third of the way through A Clash of Kings (2nd in the fire and ice series) - I might go through what I've read this year at some point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Galt Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 I found out yesterday there's another volume in Stephen King's Dark Tower series coming out in the spring. My mind doesn't comprehend how this is possibly going to work... Â I gave up on that series after Wizard and Glass. Such a pointless book and the epilogue did nothing to get me interested in Wolves of the Calla. The amount of retconning he's done since The Drawing of the Three is insane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted December 20, 2011 Awards Moderator Share Posted December 20, 2011 I found out yesterday there's another volume in Stephen King's Dark Tower series coming out in the spring. My mind doesn't comprehend how this is possibly going to work... Â I gave up on that series after Wizard and Glass. Such a pointless book and the epilogue did nothing to get me interested in Wolves of the Calla. The amount of retconning he's done since The Drawing of the Three is insane. Â There's going to be another one? I've read the series and I too can't quite figure out how that's going to work... Â Â I'm currently reading Life Among The Pirates by David Cordingly. I think I mentioned it in another thread a few weeks ago. Basically, Cordingly is a world authority on the history of piracy and this book is considered the definitive work on the subject. Accessible and fascinating, which is what I look for in non-fiction. Looking forward to finishing it and moving on to his latest, Captain Woodes-Rogers and the Pirates of the Caribbean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Surf Digby Posted December 20, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted December 20, 2011 To kill some time tonight while the internet was down, I started Weekend At McColls. For anyone considering reading this for a bit of a laugh - don't. It's an absolute chore. Ridiculously laborious for something so substanceless, such is it's tediousness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted December 20, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted December 20, 2011 Nah its an epic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAFKAC Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 About halfway through Glue by Irvine Welsh. It's not bad and if you like Trainspotting or Porno, then you will like this. Hoping to get it finished by Christmas, just in time for some books no doubt! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sym Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I found out yesterday there's another volume in Stephen King's Dark Tower series coming out in the spring. My mind doesn't comprehend how this is possibly going to work...I gave up on that series after Wizard and Glass. Such a pointless book and the epilogue did nothing to get me interested in Wolves of the Calla. The amount of retconning he's done since The Drawing of the Three is insane.Heres an extract from what appears to be the start of the book from Tor.comCome TETCertainly left me wanting more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted December 21, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted December 21, 2011 I found out yesterday there's another volume in Stephen King's Dark Tower series coming out in the spring. My mind doesn't comprehend how this is possibly going to work... Â I gave up on that series after Wizard and Glass. Such a pointless book and the epilogue did nothing to get me interested in Wolves of the Calla. The amount of retconning he's done since The Drawing of the Three is insane. Â How is Wizard and Glass a pointless book? It fills out Roland's backstory and basically shows you why he is the way he is and why he started his quest to find The Dark Tower (which is the whole point of the book), it also gives tons of backstory on Mid-World, alternate worlds and how they work. And I can't think of any retconning in the series at all and I've read through it 3 times. Â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Dearly Devoted Dexter Posted December 21, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted December 21, 2011 Over the past few weeks I've been reading James/Jan Morris' "Pax Britannica" trilogy, just finished "Farewell the Trumpets" today. Still a great read some 40-odd years on. Richard Gott's "Britain's Empire", on the other hand, was wank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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