Read any good books lately?

[Sue Dyer]

Following the similar thread on movies thought I'd give this one a shot. I'm an avid reader averaging several novels a week. (one a day at the moment - I'm off sick, the cold I felt guilty about staying off work developed into a chest infection laying me really low)

I used to read all sorts of genres then got hooked on American crime/detective novels. English crime novels just don't cut it with me, I thought Morse was like watching paint drying (sorry to his many fans who no doubt will yell at me) Anyway, favourite authors are Robert Crais (writes about P.I Elvis Cole), Michael Connelly (chief character is Detective Harry Bosch) and Dennis Lehane - (the movie of Mystic River stayed very close to the book plot) Use to like Patricia Cornwall before she got too silly to read, Kathy Reichs is okay and I like Sue Grafton (the alphabet novels) too.

I read the odd chick lit to remind myself how bad it is (and how easily I feel I could write one ) but nothing has the buzz of a good serial killer/cop novel to me... Any recommendations? Mine would be any of the authors above.

I wouldn't be able to afford to read this much if it wasn't for a brilliant second hand bookshop http://www.barterbooks.co.uk/ in the town of Alnwick near here. They give you about half the cover price in "barter" - my account is currently £180 - they charge about £1.80 for a regular paperback so my reading is secure for quite a while!!

Sorry for the long rambling post - I've been laid up here without any company for days and I'm stir crazy

[Hanorah]

Hope you feel better soon we are all suffering with the flu as well and my brain feels like mush at the moment. I recently read the De Vinci Code which I quite enjoyed (even though I was bought up a catholic).

I also read a book last week called One Child (I think). It was a true story about a teacher breaking through with a child with severe problems who had suffered terrible abuse. Not the nicest read but puts life into perspective and it was inspirational in the way that any thing can be overcome with love and commitment.

[jimadept]

I recently got back into comics again after a 20-year break (thanks to BitTorrent!) and bought and devoured three Alan Moore graphic novels: Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta and The Watchmen. The latter is superb, so good it won the Hugo Award for best science fiction novel. Otherwise I enjoy Nick Hornby, Tony Parsons, Elmore Leonard, John le Carre, Iain Banks, Ian Rankin and the odd Fay Weldon book.

That Barter Books deal sounds good, Soonyer, although I expect shipping them from Spain might make it uneconomical. Shame, as my bookshelves need a good clearout. I recently gave away two big carrier bags full, one to the local public library and one to the local secondary school's library, but there's only so many types of books you can do this with, plus philanthropy can only go so far when you've invested lots of hard-earned euros in your book collection.

Jim

[Sue Dyer]

Thanks Hanorah.

Me and my husband joke a bit about these miserable childhood books (I know it's not funny but there are so many of them, even by the siblings of the child in question etc etc, there are shelf loads in the bookshops. I gave up after the 2nd Dave Pelzer one)

We said we should have a backlash and write a completely opposite one. Well, someone beat us to it and "Where Did it All Go Right" by Andrew Collins (ex NME journo) is a really funny read about a middle class comfortable childhood in the 70's- essentially a nostalgia trip for the TV shows, food, music etc. Worth looking at.

Jim - I forgot all about Ian Rankin, he is one of the authors I will shell out for the hardback of. I love Nick Hornby too although he is usually seen as a guy's writer. I've dipped into some of the others too. Must make a list of what I have read. Oh, Harlan Coben is okay too but not the series where he is the sports P.R guy.

Ah, Barter Books - shame you can't make the trip. I buy hardbacks usually priced around £16.99 at the cash and carry for around £8. Read it in or or so days then barter it or ebay it for around the same amount!!

Oh, forgot new Harry Potter out in June too

[vrooje]

I'll read just about anything, with the possible exception of any Danielle Steel novel!

On our trip I brought two books: Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss, and Naked by David Sedaris.

The first is a british book about punctuation that was on the UK bestseller's list for a while and is now on the US bestseller's list -- and I just had to know what was in it that could make a book about punctuation so popular. As it turned out, it was informative as well as hysterically funny.

The second is by an author who reads his work frequently on a show called "This American Life" which plays on our National Public Radio. His writing is piercing, poignant, and really funny. Strangely enough I find I'm laughing less while reading his printed work myself than I do when he reads his printed work over the radio, but it's still brilliant. I haven't finished this one yet. I don't spend as much time reading as I'd like.

Next up on my list is The Agony and the Ecstasy (by Irving Stone), the biographical book about Michaelangelo that I've always meant to read but never yet gotten around to.

It's actually only very recently that I've started reading for pleasure again -- I usually find that there are so many other things for me to do on any given day that I can go weeks without picking up a book.

[Sue Dyer]

I'll read just about anything, with the possible exception of any Danielle Steel novel

Ha - I've read a couple and even Louis L'amour once from the hotel library when I'd ran out of other reading.

There's this American humour writer I love called Joe Queenan, his book "In Red Lobster, White Trash and the Blue Lagoon: Joe Queenan's America" - he immerses himself in U.S mainstream culture, it is very, very funny. A quote is: Until I saw Adam Sandler I'd always thought the three scariest words in the English language were 'starring Dan Aykroyd.'