Moderators Chest Rockwell Posted March 2, 2009 Moderators Share Posted March 2, 2009 Wow.. you really do have the most unrepentantly lowbrow tastes... It's like you just manage to keep lowering the bar on my expectations. Â Interestingly the Paul O'Grady book is actually supposed to be very good as it doesn't follow the standard ghost written "I was poor, then I made it, so and so is really a twat" formula. Â If memory serves it is the only celeb book from 2008 that Private Eye didn't savage. Â ... Â Paul O'Grady's was a real let down. Â Â Oh well. So close! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steveo2007 Posted March 2, 2009 Share Posted March 2, 2009 Wow.. you really do have the most unrepentantly lowbrow tastes... It's like you just manage to keep lowering the bar on my expectations. Â Interestingly the Paul O'Grady book is actually supposed to be very good as it doesn't follow the standard ghost written "I was poor, then I made it, so and so is really a twat" formula. Â If memory serves it is the only celeb book from 2008 that Private Eye didn't savage. He had some genuinely funny stories in it and it was more about the people around him than the man himself, showing how they shaped him etc. and I can relate to a lot of stories told by him especially when describing his relationship with his mother. I don't know what, but I expected a bit more, maybe I'll give it another read in a few weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steveo2007 Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 So I finished  Last night and absolutely loved it.  And today I've gone through   And for my first Graphic Novel, I really enjoyed it and think I'll be picking up more graphic novels.  I've seen World War Hulk on a few websites and like the idea so may pick that up next, or maybe pick up Watchmen after all the hype. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dopper Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 Â It's a chronological account of his career from 1994 to 2004 during which he was the editor of News Of The World, before going on to be the editor of the Daily Mirror. Â I'm up to 1999 so far and am finding it very interesting. His close relationships with people like Tony Blair, Princess Diana, and Paula Yates (briefly) put a whole different perspective on the stories we thought we knew about them. Â It's covered huge stories so far like Labour beating the Tories and the aftermath of Diana's death, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he says about the crazy hyperbole that surrounded the Millenium and then Spetember 11th 2001 among other things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted March 7, 2009 Paid Members Share Posted March 7, 2009  'Red Mars is the ultimate in future history' Daily Mail 'One of the finest works of American sf' Times Literary Supplement 'Absorbing, impressive, fascinating... Utterly plausible' Financial Times 'Red Mars may simply be the best novel ever written about Mars' Interzone 'A staggering book. The best novel on the colonization of Mars that has ever been written.' Arthur C Clarke First of a projected trilogy about the near-future colonization of Mars, from the author of Pacific Edge, Escape from Kathmandu, etc. Robinson's Mars is realistically cold, arid, and lifeless; and even before they reach the planet, his first hundred scientist-colonists are hotly debating how Mars should be terraformed. Each phase of the latter process is told from a different character's point of view, and thus Robinson constructs an intricate and fascinating mosaic of science and politics, love and betrayal, survival and discovery, murder and revolution. Among further complications: practical immortality, discovered by Martian scientists; the building of a space elevator; ice asteroids to pound the Martian crust, bringing water and thickening the atmosphere; vast Moholes excavated to tap vital heat from the core; and the ingenious creation of life forms genetically engineered to survive the harsh conditions. Yet the constantly intensifying struggle between Mars's idealists and Earth's transnational corporate exploiters makes revolution inevitable; and a handful of First Hundred survivors flee into the Martian wilderness, where other idealists have secretly prepared hidden sanctuaries. Despite the imposing density of the narrative, a novel of splendid characters in a brilliantly realized and utterly convincing setting. A pity about the overfamiliar colonization-exploitation-revolution plot cycle; still, for power, scope, depth, and detail, no other Martian epic comes close. (Kirkus Reviews)  It's pretty good so far, it's a trilogy and so it's a commiment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted March 7, 2009 Paid Members Share Posted March 7, 2009 Currently reading "Wizards and Glass" in The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. So far these books have just completely sucked me in. The world, mythology and characters are just amazing. My dream would be to one day see a HBO animated series based on it, it''ll never happen but it would be incredible. Â I've got the first one of that series. Haven't got round to reading it yet, am currently reading the Illuminatus! trilogy. It's a sort of semi-parodical version of the Da Vinci Code, but was written in 1975. The style of writing is bizarre, but it reads surprisingly well. Definitely recommended for both conspiracy theorists and de-bunkers alike. Â I have this, and started to read it before I started the book above but I just couldn't get past the strange writing style. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted March 8, 2009 Paid Members Share Posted March 8, 2009 Currently reading "Wizards and Glass" in The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. So far these books have just completely sucked me in. The world, mythology and characters are just amazing. My dream would be to one day see a HBO animated series based on it, it''ll never happen but it would be incredible. Â I've got the first one of that series. Haven't got round to reading it yet, am currently reading the Illuminatus! trilogy. It's a sort of semi-parodical version of the Da Vinci Code, but was written in 1975. The style of writing is bizarre, but it reads surprisingly well. Definitely recommended for both conspiracy theorists and de-bunkers alike. Â I have this, and started to read it before I started the book above but I just couldn't get past the strange writing style. Â Stick with the Mars Trilogy first - it's very good indeed, although very heavy on technical detail. I will say this, though - if you can get through the Mars Trilogy, you can get through Illuminatus! relatively easily. Â Oh, and if you decide you like Robinson, have a read of The Years Of Rice And Salt - it's a historical work of an alternative Earth where the East, not the West, became the dominant hemisphere, owing to the European nations being decimated and almost completely destroyed by the Plague. Well worth a read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bring Back Minipops Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Started reading Stephen King's IT last night. Got through the first 150 or so pages so far and its a case of so far, so good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harvey Dent Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators PowerButchi Posted March 8, 2009 Moderators Share Posted March 8, 2009 Â Doubt too many of you would find this one too riveting, but I've decided to turn my hand at Fly Fishing, after fishing in an Orthodox manner for the past 15 years or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald Eyes Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 A Cool Head, by Ian Rankin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steveo2007 Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Â I've always held a secret love for modern history, so I thought I would give this a go as I have to be honest and say I've never really understood the whole idea of Communism and the USSR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted March 10, 2009 Paid Members Share Posted March 10, 2009 Don't take a book about Stalin, of all people, to be a be-all and end-all treatise on communism, particularly as he was the guy who pretty much ruined the concept. Â If you want to understand communism (even if you don't agree with it), read Capital by Karl Marx, to start with. That's pretty much the fundament. From there, if your interest is still piqued, read anything by Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Gramsci, Plekhanov amongst a myriad of others. Just like capitalism, there's no one, single type of communism or socialism, or hard-and-fast definition of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_the_Lion Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Â It's a chronological account of his career from 1994 to 2004 during which he was the editor of News Of The World, before going on to be the editor of the Daily Mirror. Â Â I like the way the very first thing you say about the book highlights one of it's biggest failings. It isn't chronologically correct, mainly because it isn't a diary as Moron claims - he has gone back in and added things to make himself look good but in the process ends up tripping over the truth and creating many instances in which he refers to things that hadn't yet happened or people in jobs they hadn't yet got. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cum Doctor Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Been reading Dean Koontz - Your Heart Belongs To Me. Â Not impressed in the slightest. I usually like Dean Koontz stuff, but I feel like I could have skipped about 100 pages at a time with this book and still not have missed anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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