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greencol

greencol

Almost knackered radge.
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Joined
Sep 22, 2002
Not the ones you've enjoyed, but the ones you've given up on for whatever reason.

For me, Les Miserables was tedious. Gave up about halfway.
I also conked out on The Grapes of Wrath.
 
greencol said:
Not the ones you've enjoyed, but the ones you've given up on for whatever reason.

For me, Les Miserables was tedious. Gave up about halfway.
I also conked out on The Grapes of Wrath.
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One I didn't give up on but was seriously tedious was A Place of Greater Safety and one I gave up on, despite loving the story and later the audiobook, was Wolf Hall. Both by Hilary Mantell, just couldn't get into the writing style.
 
Cavalier said:
One I didn't give up on but was seriously tedious was A Place of Greater Safety and one I gave up on, despite loving the story and later the audiobook, was Wolf Hall. Both by Hilary Mantell, just couldn't get into the writing style.
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Aye. The writing style/ prose of some authors can be hard to get into.
 
Cavalier said:
One I didn't give up on but was seriously tedious was A Place of Greater Safety and one I gave up on, despite loving the story and later the audiobook, was Wolf Hall. Both by Hilary Mantell, just couldn't get into the writing style.
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A place of greater safety is tedious af. Histrionic nonsense. Got through the audio book by just having it trundle away in the background.

I'm too many to mention re the op. Long ago adopted a "life's too short" attitude.
 
Many years ago i started The Silmarillion and gave up about a quarter of the way through, tried again recently and never even got near a quarter.
 
I rarely give up on books but off the top of my head:
The Nineties - When Surface Was Depth by Michael Bracewell.
The blurb from Morrissey on the dust jacket should have been a warning to give this pile of insufferably smug and pretentious tosh a wide berth.

The Sopranos by Alan Warner.
First encounter with that lack of punctuation or quotation marks style of writing when you have no idea who is speaking. Fuck the fuck off with that. To quote Dorothy Parker, this isn't a book to be tossed aside lightly, it should be hurled with great force. And it was.

You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier. Totally scoobied after about 5 pages. May as well have been written in Sanskrit.
 
Sancho Panza said:
I rarely give up on books but off the top of my head:
The Nineties - When Surface Was Depth by Michael Bracewell.
The blurb from Morrissey on the dust jacket should have been a warning to give this pile of insufferably smug and pretentious tosh a wide berth.

The Sopranos by Alan Warner.
First encounter with that lack of punctuation or quotation marks style of writing when you have no idea who is speaking. Fuck the fuck off with that. To quote Dorothy Parker, this isn't a book to be tossed aside lightly, it should be hurled with great force. And it was.

You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier. Totally scoobied after about 5 pages. May as well have been written in Sanskrit.
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You might find him in more digestible form in 'the social dilemma' film.

After decades working in IT I've had more than my fill of 'digital gurus' though. I don't think he has anything to say 'philosophically' that will be news to you Sancho. Where he is worthwhile is on the technical mechanics of how the platforms do what they do and that's probably easier to get from the film
 
I gave up about page 2 of 'Les Miserables'.I thought the stage show was quite watchable so maybe I'll give it another go.
 
I was given a copy of ‘The Men of 1924’ last Christmas. It’s about the first Labour government. It’s so tediously written I gave up before they got anywhere near power. (I might go back to it so nobody tell me how it ends)
 
I was going through all my cupboards the other day and found my copy of the first book I ever bought for myself and read.

An original copy of Richard Allen's book Skinhead.

Saying that he didn't half kick the balls out of it. Suedehead, Bootboys, Skinhead Escapes, Skinhead goes to Australia, Son of Skinhead* etc.

*maybe I just made that one up though.
 
Have paused American Tabloid by James Elroy, it might be good, it could be shite. Can’t decide and I think I’m half way through. Will give it another go.

Bought Seven Pillars of Wisdom by TE Lawrence and read maybe 3 pages. A time where the film is deffo better than the book.
 
southfieldhibby said:
Have paused American Tabloid by James Elroy, it might be good, it could be shite. Can’t decide and I think I’m half way through. Will give it another go.

Bought Seven Pillars of Wisdom by TE Lawrence and read maybe 3 pages. A time where the film is deffo better than the book.
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That's what I said to the twins (13) who asked for Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky books for their crimbo.

But I have a copy of One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denosovitch to give them. Far easier to read.
 
Have a good few of yous read No Mean City?

A good look at how life was back in the day of the razor gangs.

There was a book of similar type called Cut And Run.

Published in 1962. It just arrived today......

20250215_144744.jpg
 
 
Sancho Panza said:
That looks very good. Be interested to hear what you think. Tempted to buy it for £0.99 but already have way too much on my Kindle waiting to be read!
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I did a stock take of my kindle over the weekend, only 179 unread :coffee1:
 
 
@egb_hibs
Do you know much about G.K. Chesterton? Just got a biography from the library. He was a convert from High Anglicanism to Catholicism (like Waugh and Greene) and wrote numerous apologetics. You've quoted him in the past so wondered what your opinion was of him?
 
Sancho Panza said:
@egb_hibs
Do you know much about G.K. Chesterton? Just got a biography from the library. He was a convert from High Anglicanism to Catholicism (like Waugh and Greene) and wrote numerous apologetics. You've quoted him in the past so wondered what your opinion was of him?
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I’m an an admirer though have read more about him, than read him.

I have read ‘The Man Who Was Thursday’ which is a kind of metaphysical analog to Conrad’s Secret Agent as I recall. I can’t say I was bowled over as I’m not a fan of fantasy / sci fi / magical realism. I think someone without my prejudices would get more out of it.

I started Orthodoxy once and may give it another go at one point.

Tbh I’m more interested in him as an agent in the world. His spats with the eugenicists and all round championing of sanity. With that in mind a biography might be more up my street so let me know how you get on.
 
His brother was involved with Oswald Mosely wasn't he?
 
EH17 Jimmy said:
His brother was involved with Oswald Mosely wasn't he?
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His first cousin once removed which, wiki tells me, means he was the grandson of GK’s brother. Which is a bit odd cos only 25 years separates their births.

GK was as opposed to to Nazism as other forms of progressivism, with which back then it shared eugenic obsessions. He did have some rather questionable views on the Jews at times though, but opposed nazi anti semitism as well as the heresy of racism and race nationalism generally.
 
Just started this book about the Jonestown Massacre. Hasn't got onto the People's Temple yet but the first two chapters deal with the history of Guyana, Surinam and Trinidad in the 60s and 70s. How Forbes Burnham turned Guyana from a prosperous former colony into a "socialist" shit hole and his personal fiefdom in just a few years. Extremely interesting.

en.m.wikipedia.org

Black & White (book) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
 
I hardly ever read books these days but I did try The Brothers Karamazov, three, maybe four chapters and I was done. I read most of a Billy Connolly book, Rambling Man but just couldn’t see it through. Bailed with a couple of chapters to go. And World War Z which was nothing like the movie. Bailed on that about a third of the way in.
 
egb_hibs said:
Any Mick Herron fans that stick to the main slow horses series, you need to read the secret hours, which goes back to Jackson Lamb in Berlin. I'll say no more but ...really
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You had me at Berlin. 😆 I've only read the first four Slough House books. Will this one spoil any later volumes?
Have you read any Len Deighton? Just finished Billion Dollar Brain, which is the last of his four "Harry Palmer" books. More Herron than Le Carré.
 
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Sancho Panza said:
You had me at Berlin. 😆 I've only read the first four Slough House books. Will this one spoil any later volumes?
Have you read any Len Deighton? Just finished Billion Dollar Brain, which is the last of his four "Harry Palmer" books. More Herron than Le Carré.
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Just checked and it's present day sections are meant to be in line with book 12 in slow horses. I've read the first five, and there is one incident mentioned that I don't think I've encountered yet (though haven't read one for a while and I'm not certain).

You're probably ok to read now as it's mainly about events in the past.
 
EH17 Jimmy said:
Have a good few of yous read No Mean City?

A good look at how life was back in the day of the razor gangs.

There was a book of similar type called Cut And Run.

Published in 1962. It just arrived today....

View attachment 16897
Click to expand...
Good read. First time I heard "face" being described as a coupon, as in getting your coupon slashed with an open razor. Took a while to realise what the fuck was going on. Who razor slashes a football pools entry?
 
Aye a Malcy Fraser tae the coupon. It was the first time I'd seen a lassie referred to as a 'wee hairy' as well.

Meaning she couldn't afford a hat to wear.
 
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