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Live from New York: An uncensored history of Saturday Night Live by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller

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Kes by Barry Hines.

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http://www.amazon.com/Kes-Lawrence-T...0151550&sr=8-3

That sounds stupid.


BAN ME, C'MON BITCH, BAN ME!!!

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Belfast Confidential - Colin Bateman.

Cracking crime novel - but from the point of view of a Belfast journalist, with a perpetual hangover, a love of taking the piss and the ability to be a "shit magnet".

Very, very funny at some parts - particularly if you can hear the Norn Iron accent in your head.

I don't usually read crime/detective books - but this was very enjoyable.

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'the crossroads' by niccollo amaniti - quirky little tale of a small-town italian robbery plot. well-written and populated, with some nice comic touches that owe a lot to a good translation, it feels like.

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Yeah long time ago. Theres a new BBC TV series where Stephen Fry tracks down the animals in the book. Looks good.

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'the death of bunny munroe' by nick cave

(it's lovely having time to read for now...)

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Not so sure why, but I always feel like you're talking trash. :p

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National Geographic - EarthPulse/state of the Earth 2010
(Collector´s Edition)

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How to Woo a Queen by Benjamin Disraeli

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Dark Impressions - The Art of Philip Hitchcock

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The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History by John Ortved

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not recommended... characters like this might work in songs where they only have time to make a brief impression; but not in novels...

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just finished 'the girl with the dragon tattoo' by stieg larsson - superb thriller (i'm not usually one for the genre) now onto the second book in the trilogy. recommended...

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recently read:
If Chins Could Kill - Confessions of a b-movie actor, autobiography of Bruce Campbell, the ultimate B-movie star :)
Really funny and full of great anecdotes. If you liked the Evil Dead films this is well worth reading.

Overlord by Max Hastings. WWII history about the D-day invasion and subsequent struggle for the breakout into France in 1944. I read his book Armageddon about the final battle for Germany which I found a gripping read. WWII has always fascinated me enormously and Hastings manages to bring it to life in vivid detail, all the way from the big strategic overview to the personal experiences of the people on the ground, while at the same time challenging a lot of the preconceived notions about it.

I've now started in Nemesis, his book about the war in the Pacific against Japan. This one is even bigger than the other two books so it will take me a while I think...

Also I just got part 3 of the Discworld series for my birthday so I'll start that pretty soon as well :)

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ah, I saw the movie they made of this book (though it was called by the original title "Men who hate women" which I find a lot cooler :)) and it was really great.

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partially read - 'loup' by lady newell and friends, an art collective who likes little victorian child stories and linking them with actual topics, this time with the song 'wolf at the door' by radiohead.

over the rack - 'siutico' by oscar contardo, which is an analysis of the behaviour of the high classes in chile. wanted to read this book for quite a while, my boss brought it to work one day and asked me if i wanted to read it.

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Just finished Plato: a very short introduction. Nice punchy little guide. I'm a sucker for wanting to collect every book in a given series, but there are over 200 of these cute little buggers, so that won't be happening anytime soon. Still, some very interesting topics covered, and they're a good way into a subject you might otherwise not think about studying. Archaeology will be next I think.

Currently working my way through Dawkins' 1976 classic The Selfish Gene (30th anniv edition). A beautifully explained gene's eye view of life, but still having to concentrate as I'm definitely no biologist. Having to keep reminding myself that it's a metaphor. His speculation about how life might have emerged from the primordial soup is fascinating.

Coming up next: I've just had the Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide posted to me from the US, a lovely leather-bound collection of Adams' five Hitchhiker novels. Unbelievably, I've reached my mid 30's and never read any of these (so I figured I'd do it in style :)).

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Currently I´m reading Michael Jackson - Moonwalk. (Yes, I´m one of those who discovered MJ too late, in other words after his dead.)

The more I read about him now the more fascinating I find that substantiality and spirit he gathered around himself.
All the riches he gained by engaging all those talented artistic people is more than amazing, besides his own contribution of course.

But who is the real winner from a mortal/earthly perspective?
The one who manage to get thousands to serve his/her interest or the one who´s just watching the spectacle?
...and then there´s another perspective that Ingmar Bergman described so ingeniously...

"...you can never figure out or capture human holiness...
Only the poets, musicians and saints may depict that which we can but discern: the inconceivable. They´ve seen, known, understood, not fully, but in fragments..."
Private Confessions - Ingmar Bergman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjGw9p--t7A)

MJ seemed to be a rather interesting person with one foot always leaping in the dark, in the unknown, just like Bergman

...and I still wonder... is it only musicians and poets who are privileged or are there any other saints out there besides me? :)

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hey decks, I think you might enjoy Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia by british philosoper John Gray. it uncannily resembles our discussion of evil in context with atheism and the religious elements of secular political and scientific movements.

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Hey thanks for that. Will add it to my wishlist (which is expanding so fast it will soon develop its own intelligence).

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lets see, other books I've been reading...

I quite enjoyed Love Sex Fear Death about the Process Church of the Final Judgment. The process church of the final judgment is yet another apocalyptic cult of the sixties, and by yet another I mean file this next to anton lavey's church of satan, scientology, the OTO, the manson family, etc.

What is the same in each of these cults is that their members all interchanged, they all involved celebrities, they all saw the world in dark terms of apocalypse, past or future, and they all had something to do with California. I don't know, you tell me what to conclude from that.

With respect to the PCOFJ, apparently the two founders decided that Scientology just wasn't batshit crazy enough for their tastes so they took a few e-meter machines and went home to devise a new level of weird. 5 to 6 years later : there are "coffee houses" in every major city in north america and the uk, that are the front for church communes where they worship jesus, jehova, lucifer, and satan, the holy tetraty, have sex orgies, and send their initiates out in black funereal robes and warped crosses on chains to hand out literature.

So yeah, just another weave in the rich tapestry of the human experience.

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Thanks for the hint, hadn't heard of that.

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Whoa, mighty late in the game, unbelievable indeed. Life-long learning, ey? ;)

I think I lil'ed (laughed inward loudly) more than once per page on the average. It's one of the very few books I read more than once.

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Yup, I'm going to read 'em back-to-back, followed by The Salmon of Doubt.

(Btw, the recent Last Chance to See BBC series was very enjoyable - Carwardine and Fry shared a good chemistry.)

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Googled: The End of the World As We Know It by Ken Auletta

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Blott on the landscape - Tom Sharpe:D

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Just started the Dune series by Frank Herbert. Inspiring topics, captivating writing, great language.

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halfway through 'the girl who kicked the hornet's nest' by stieg larsson - 3rd book in the 'millenium' trilogy - absolutely brilliant stuff.

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oops..maybe i shouldn't have started a new thread..

glad you're enjoying those..

i'm reading the latest 'and another thing'... in the hitchhikers series,
but its by another author, since douglas adams passed away..

later
-1

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Haven't read it yet, but certainly will. What do you make of it? I'm always highly suspicious when someone is appraised to "write like Douglas Adams" or "hit Douglas Adams' sense of humour", so that DNA fans "will surely love it".

I did read the first installment in Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series and was rather underwhelmed.

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well i just started reading it.. and yes, it emulates douglas adams
pretty well..

i don't know if he'll be able to sustain it though. i''m a fast reader..
so i'll let you know once i finish the book...

i was fortunate to meet douglas adams in LA for an E3 gaming convention,
for the 'starship titanic' game, and talked to him for a little while. he signed some books/laserdiscs, and the game for me. he was looking forward to the 'hitchhikers' movie coming out..

yes, he was very tall.
and yes, he was really kind, and funny!

i'll always remember that day..

later
-1

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I´m still in my "discovering MJ" era so I just started to read J. Randy Taraborrelli - Michael Jackson: the magic and the madness.

The book seems to be a quite detailed screening of the Jackson family not only MJ.
Interesting is the author´s rendering of situations, people and their behaviour in a way like if it was the matter of fact, nevertheless the book is MJ friendly so far.

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Just finished "Blood's A Rover" by James Ellroy, which I loved...

And reading now "By Reason Of Insanity" by Shane Stevens, which makes "The Silence of The Lambs" looking like a fairy tale :)

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Finishing
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
(a reread in prep for his new novel, a sequel to Less Than Zero, Imperial Bedrooms)

Midway through
Although of course you end up becoming yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallce by David Lipsky

Coming up
Freedom: A Novel by Jonathan Franzen
Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis
The Ask by Sam Lipsyte
Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin

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A million Philosophy texts, and 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle' by Haruki Murakami.

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Reading poetry out of a memory book about Ruth Randall Edström (1867-1944), bellowed wife to Mr Electricity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigfrid_Edström

nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
can be retentive to the strength of Spirit

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just finished the first Temeraire book, which I think was recommended earlier in this thread. Really good stuff, definitely gonna continue with the series.

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FINALLY finished 2666. Golden. Page 609(I think) is one of those occurrences where I get pissed that someone said it before me...

Also:

S. King's last set of short stories. Cat From Hell started good, but the last few pages got stupid. Final sentence rocks. LOVED "Mute", the priest bit is hilarious.


G.D.T. and someone else "The Strain". So/so. Not a bad read.

Some book on gardening too.