Books To Recommend ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ardross
  • Start date Start date
I'm reading Memoirs Of A Geisha at the moment and it really is superb - I'm struggling to put it down in fact. I've got the film on DVD too but I'm dreading to see how they tear it apart.....
 
Just finished Eric Sykes' If I Don't Write It Nobody Else Will, and would highly recommend it.
 
I made my way through a rather varied selection of 5 and a 1/2 books while on holiday.

Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception - brilliant and imaginative childrens book, quite good for adults too. :D

Shrine by James Herbert - about the only one of his I hadn't read and one of his best. Usual supernatural, strange goings on.

Ginger's autobiography - easy reading and a good read.

Midwinter Of The Spirit by Phil Rickman - an author I hadn't read before. I was a bit dubious at first and it took me a while to get into it but once I was I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a sort of slightly spooky/mystical thriller and a bit different from anything I've read. There's quite a few in the series so I'll probably make my way through the rest of them in time.

Graham Greene's Brighton Rock - started this on holiday and should finish it tomorrow. Another excellent book by him, I love the 'feel' and atmosphere he manages to create in so many of his books.


Shadow - I loved Memoirs Of A Geisha but like you have never managed to bring myself to watch the film. I just feel it would be impossible to do it justice. I was the same with Captain Corelli's Mandolin, the reviews put me off, and the fact that they changed the end which I thought would put a whole different slant on the story. :angy:
 
Originally posted by Triptych@Sep 6 2006, 07:44 PM
Shrine by James Herbert - about the only one of his I hadn't read and one of his best. Usual supernatural, strange goings on.
Click to expand...
Strangely enough, that is at the top of my "pile of books to read". Good to know that it's one of his best! :D
 
Shrine is a very good book & I'd agree that it's one of Herbert's best. I do like James Herbert though, he writes very well. Nobody True is another very good one of his.

Triptych I certianly agree with you about Captain Corelli's Mandolin - a superb book that was torn to shreds by the film. Unfortunately though that is one example of many - I can't think of a film yet that was better than the book! Brilliant film though it is even the book Silence Of The Lambs was better. Mind you I thought they did a pretty good job on The Green Mile - but I still reckon the book was better!
 
I am amazed that there are two people on here who finished reading Captain Corelli, everyone I talk seems to have given up after a couple of chapters.

Only read the first chapter myself and thought that it was very well-written but I didn't think I would really enjoy a LURRRRRVE story!!

To try and make a book into a film is always going to disappoint surely, how would it be possible to give the characters depth? ..............when a book can run to 5/6/700 pages and a film what?? 2/3 hours?
 
I'm surprised you don't know anybody who enjoyed Captain Corelli's Mandolin Colin - I thought it was very good and read it after so many people told me I had to read it!

Of course you're right about not being able to give the same amount of detail in a film as a book but too many film directors tend to try & be clever by injecting their own storylines into a film to try to make it appeal to more people. I can see why they'd do that from a commercial point of view but it just tends to annoy me - why bother basing a film on a book if you're going to change the story anyway? A good case in point actually would be Schindler's List - the film certainly didn't have the depth of the book (for starters they left out a lot of the recurrent characters in the book) but it was still a very good film that Spielberg pulled off very well - the little girl in the red coat being a great touch.

Actually, thinking of it now another film that was pretty good (even if the did omit the best part of the book, the Zoo Of Death!!) was The Princess Bride.

The other bugbear of mine [which runs along similar lines of thinking] is all the historical "epic" films that are released and aren't even historically correct - arrgghhh!!!! :angy:
 
BTW, Shads................there's an Inspector Rebus story on ITV soon, think it maybe Friday.

I have now read the first seven Rebus stories and I agree, they are good.

PS..............my wife says that anyone who finished reading Corelli deserves a medal! :shy:
 
I know of a few medals to be dished out then!! :lol:

Cheers about Rebus - not so sure I can bring myself to watch it again with Ken Stott in the role though, he's just not right! Rebus is, and always will be, John Hannah in my eyes!
 
Absolutely - Stott is a brilliant actor but just not Rebus.

Btw, watching the series now you've read the books can be pretty disappointing - since they introduced Stott they also decided to do away almost completely with the storylines of the books as well.
 
I watched Memoirs Of A Geisha last night and to be fair it wasn't too bad, albeit a condensed & dramatised version. About 2/3 of the way through it started to change bits of the story to dramatise it though and the last bit was Americanised far too much (which annoyed me incessantly!!!) - other than that it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. The costume, set & make-up was very good throughout as well.
 
I couldnt do the book (MOAG) at all - I got about a third of the way through and gave up.Didnt bother with the film either - though i have bought a masterpiece mascara,and it does do what it says in the advert....
 
Woerd isnt it - we agree on so many things, but rarely books!! thionk it was a bit too deep and grown up for me. Off to start topsy and tim tomorrow.... ;)
 
Don't be daft!! Actually, it's not the sort of book I'm generally into but I enjoyed it a lot. I think that might have something to do with being brought up around Japenese art & stuff (I have a kimono somewhere!!!) and always being fascinated with Japan.
 
I bought it for 50p at a car boot sale,not long after it came out,on the strength of its stunning reviews.Might look for it again and give it another go - but its a bit too heavy for me - i like my reading to take me away from teh real world, and the knowledge that its a true story is a bit big for me.Im more into the gentle romantic stuff, and the comedys.

(and the kids books!!!!) :lol:
 
Oh - I thought it was supposed to be based on the geisha who was supposedly the best one about in those days?
Tell you what I did like - The diary of a manhatten call girl - that was very good. Havent got to the second one yet though.

Def have to stick to Harry Potter - I can just about cope with gilliweed and blast ended skrewts !!!! ;)
 
The introduction at the beginning would have you believe it is a true story but it's part of the story.

But yes, Harry Potter is great too!! :D
 
Back
Top