Best Books

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PDJ

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The old thread has gone so here is another. I have just finished The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night time. Brilliant, heartbreaking at times, hysterical at others. I really recommend this book to everyone.
 
readin Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault...very very good. It's about Alexander the Great.

Btw, Bar...I bought Perfume on your recommendation, will read it after I've finished this Alexander trilogy...
 
I agree wholeheartedly about Catch 22. I have just been given a loan of The Da Vinci Code, but I doubt if it will be my type of book. Thrillers tend to be high on "excitement" and, seemingly in this book a conspiracy theory, but low on characterisation and quality of writing.

I will grudgingly give it a chance, to appease my mother, who thinks it is the business. The fact that she reads Jackie Collins and Jillie Cooper might help to explain my trepidation.
 
Not a popular choice but I got hooked on Honore De Balzac at an early age . It's taken me years to work my way through the Comedie Humaine but if you like historical novels that's a bonus . His attention to detail is amazing but it's his perspective on human nature that really rings true . His characters are portrayed with such complexity that you can feel admiration and contempt towards them simultaneously .His novels are a mix of satire, melodrama and social history and I'd highly recommend them
 
Brace yourself, Brian. I loved the Da Vinci code. It was my favourite Dan Brown book and I have read Angels and Demons, Deception Point and Digital Fortress also. Of those three, Angels and Demons would be my recommendation after the Da Vinci Code
 
I am reading the Discoverers by Daniel Boorstin at the moment. History of everything type book, and while probably its best use is as a reference, its an enjoyable read.

Thought the Da Vinci Code dragged a bit myself, good story, not so good a book.
 
Solerina I have the first of the comedie humaine somewhere I think so i shall dig it out now you have mentioned it .

Read Great Expectations for the first time on holiday recently and although I enjoyed it i was bemused by the ending and the hiding of Magwitch . For someone who was able to conceal himself into the country I did not see why he needed Pip's ham fisted efforts to conceal him and get him out of the country . A plot device I suppose .

Am reading Robin Cook's memoir at the moment - fascinating and depressing
 
I only read Vanity Fair after the BBC series of a few years back - thought it was brilliant
 
Another fantastic book (well, trilogy really) is The Roth Trilogy by Andrew Taylor, it can be bought as a whole book called Requiem For An Angel and it is superb, albeit a little disturbing. I found it last time I was at my Mums so grabbed it to read again. I'd highly recommend it.
 
I took four books on holiday with me and waded through three of them.

'Revolution in the head' is an excellent book about the Beatles and their songs and how they fitted into the world in the 1960's. A great read.

'The Rum Diary' was a novel that I picked up cheap in HMV as it looked a bit weird. It was but I thoroughly enjoyed that too.

Martin Johnson's autobiography was a nice read too. I had read McEnroe's effort last year on hols and decided that he was an arse. I liked Johnson though, seems a genuine guy. A fan of The Jam too.

The last book was Bill Clinton's autobiography and I didn't get very far with this. He doesn't have an interesting style of writing and I doubt that I'll ever finish it.
 
I am half way through Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. It is brilliant so far.
 
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