Gimlet Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 Suttree By Cormac McCarthy Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy Summer Lightening by P. G. Wodehouse The Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reece Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 I prefer non fiction books and have one or two favourites. Caledonia - Scotland's Heart of Pine by Peter Cairns and Niall Benvie (not sure on spelling of his name). A very good book about the caledonian pine forests of Scotland. The Ever Changing Woodlands - I got this from grandparents when I was about 7 I think. I loved reading through it. I still have it on the bookshelf, though it's had some wear and tear. The book's about as old as I am as well. Silent Summer - the State of Wildlife in Britain and Ireland was pretty interesting as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimlet Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 Non fiction. That reminds me: The Wild Places by Robert MacFarlane. A beautiful book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oscarsdad Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 Captain Corelli's mandolin is a fantastic book...the film is utter drivel but the book is well worth reading. The kite runner is a good book but not in the same league. I have to agree about catch 22 - jolly hard work to read and mostly boring and repetitive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pegasus bridge Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 That's a book I started to think i'd imagined - I had a heated conversation with my family where I was screaming "There's a girl in a valley and it's after a nuclear war and this guy turns up who she thinks is nice but he's a baddy, there's a film of it I watched at school" until we googled various permutations of that summary and found it The film has a very disturbing full frontal of the man which traumatised me as a teenager however There is a film version being made now!! Due out next year apparently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyska Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 I'm a big reader, lot of it'text books' though because I'm a nerd....but Anyone with a kindle try The Penal Colony, it should be free or a pound at most, best value book ever. I am pilgrim....just superb The young doctors notebook....even better And for some reason, which eludes me, unexplainably I love the Harry Potter books, juvenile escapism I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newarcher Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 it was the best of times, it was the worst of times . a tale of two cites ,it was the first classic I ever read Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lincs1963 Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 Chickenhawk by Robert Mason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oscarsdad Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 I'm a big reader, lot of it'text books' though because I'm a nerd....but Anyone with a kindle try The Penal Colony, it should be free or a pound at most, best value book ever. I am pilgrim....just superb The young doctors notebook....even better And for some reason, which eludes me, unexplainably I love the Harry Potter books, juvenile escapism I guess. I read that kindle book...good for a freebie. There was also one called "into the darkest corner" which is one of the most gripping books I have ever read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scully Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 Have been an avid bookworm all my life, and can remember all the books we read at school such as Shane, Day of the Triffids and another of Wyndhams, the Kraken Wakes. There was also Lord of the Flies and the Lord of the Rings. Fabulous books, alongside far from the Madding Crowd and A Clockwork Orange, although the latter one simply confused my adolescent brain. And of course All Quiet on the Western Front. There was also a lot of lesser well known but pretty riveting stuff for a young teen', such as those published back then by NEL with the titles Skinhead, Suedehead and Boot Boys. Along the way there have been many genres which have captured my imagination as a youngster such as the westerns in the 'Edge' series and other authors in that genre I've long since forgotten. A very good one I can recommend is Gone To Texas by Forrest Carter(?) which was the book on which Clint Eastwood based his film The Outlaw Josey Wales. The book is so very much better than the film. If you're into WW1 then any Lyn MacDonald book will more than satisfy, although they are non-fiction, and TH Lawrence, plus The Lieutenant and Others. WW2 then A Bridge Too Far takes some beating, as does Hellers Catch 22, and The Long Days Dying. Remember the Sven Hassel books ? Cops ? Then you have anything by Joseph Wambaugh, author of among many others which have been made into movies, The Choirboys. Ed McBain runs a very close second. Vietnam? Fields of Fire by James Webb will break your heart. Then there is Mentioned in Despatches, or A Rumour of War. Far far far too many to mention. Then there is Any Human Heart but if I had to choose favourites then it has to be based on those I re-read time after time, such as Terry Pratchetts Guards Guards and Witches Abroad or the truly superb A Piece of Cake by Derek Robinson and War Story. Sorry for prattling on, but next to gunshops, bookshops are my favourite kind of browsing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harnser Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 Robert Jordan ,the wheel of time . Took him 20 years to write and me 20 years to read . Harnser Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougall Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 an impossible question really as love reading..but the book I remember as a child,which got me going on shooting was BBs Brendan Chase... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paddywack12 Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 Merle by Brian Plummer King of the Gypsies - Bartley Gorman In pursuit of the largest by Terry Hearn The Easy Way to stop smoking by Alan Carr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimlet Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 an impossible question really as love reading..but the book I remember as a child,which got me going on shooting was BBs Brendan Chase... That book made me want to run away to the woods when I was eleven, and I still do. A magical writer on a magical, vanished countryside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
islandgun Posted May 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 some magnificent recommendations on here I've been googling the titles and have found plenty of interest, due to advancing years I find myself often drawn to books of my youth or books that remind me of my youth like BB and the scraper board illustrations (which I copied) Im not sure I've got long enough to read the Robert Jordan collection harnser, captain corellis mandolin looks worth a look as do many if not all thats been mentioned so far, Pratchet, Tolkien, Plummer, one not mentioned is one flew over the cuckoo nest, kesey a very long list. petethegeek please dont read jude the obscure your loss would be a loss to literature Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimlet Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 (edited) Many years ago I had occasion to drive back from Reading to Worcester every Friday afternoon for six weeks. I can vividly remember breaking the tedium by listening to a Radio 4 production of Jude the Obscure which was being serialised at the same time. As the series progressed I became ever more depressed, but at the same time unable to avoid the compulsion to keep listening. Looking back I can only think that I may have been subconsciously - and somewhat forlornly in the circumstance - awaiting a deus ex machina to provide some vestige of a happy ending. Ever since I have been unable to either face up to any exposure to Thomas Hardy - or drive down the A417/419 without thinking of Jude and his doleful existence. Its a powerful book sure enough, generations ahead of its time. I read it again last year and second time around familiarity with the plot allows you to concentrate more on the characters. This time I was left not so much depressed by events as infuriated by the pathologically selfish and manipulative Sue Bridehead (who was clearly a lesbian) and the boned-headed refusal of Jude to kick her, physically, into touch. Hardy had a line in worthy dullard men who fall for hopeless wrong uns. Giles Winterborne was another and Clym Yeobright. Hardy had a wickedly dry sense of humour and Under The Greenwood Tree and The Trumpet Major are great antidotes to the grim pessimism of Jude. The former is wittily charming and the latter a cheery little period romance full of comic caricatures and set pieces. Old Squire Derriman regaling his nephew Festus with the travails and expenditure he has endured on an unwanted day trip to Budmouth is very funny. Edited May 15, 2014 by Gimlet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaun4860 Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 The Little Grey Men The Little Grey Men Go Down The Bright Stream Both the above written by "BB" who I believe wrote a lot of fishing books They are about a family of gnomes and their travels, The second one has a dark side to it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ack-ack Posted May 16, 2014 Report Share Posted May 16, 2014 In another thread a book was mentioned "the man who planted trees" which got me thinking about my favourite books and if anyone has recommendations. I like The old man and the sea ( Ernest Hemingway) Catch 22 (Joseph Heller) Puckoon (Spike Milligan) It was love at first sight.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fagus Sylvatica Posted May 16, 2014 Report Share Posted May 16, 2014 The following made an impression and were inspirational and thought provoking : Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy The Power and the Glory - Graham Greene, in fact just about anything by Greene. The Long Day Wanes ( A Malayan Trilogy ) - Anthony Burgess - because of where I've lived for the past 20 years. 1984 - George Orwell. ( His recently published diaries are a treat, if you are an Orwell fan ) The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck. Moby **** - Herman Melville The Diary of a Nobody - George & Weedon Grosssmith Favorite contemporary authors include; William Boyd, Sebastian Faulks, Ian McCewan, Martin Amis, Paul Theroux, Salman Rushdie and, as previously mentioned Robert Macfarlane whose writings about nature and landscape boarders on the sublime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penelope Posted May 16, 2014 Report Share Posted May 16, 2014 (edited) Roald Dahl - Danny, Champion of the World. The book, bought for me as a ten year old that got me into reading for pleasure. Jean Auel's Earth Children series of novels ( Early European man, 5 in all). One, Clan of the Cave Bear, the first was made into an appalling film with Darryl Hannah. Conn Iggulden's - Lords of the Bow series of novels (Ghengis Khan - 4 books). Alexandre Dumas - The Count of Monte Christo. Colin Butt's - Is Harry on the Boat. Irving Welsh - Trainspotting. Chris Yates - Casting at the Sun and Four Seasons. Rod Hutchinson - The Carp Strikes Back. Peter Scott - Morning Flight. BB - Tides Ending, Dark Estuary, Recollections of a Longshore Gunner and Manka, the Sky Gypsy. Van Campen Heilner - Duck Shooting. Colin Willock - Kenze, The Wildgoose man & Landscape With A Solitary Figure (the last chapter on ethics is a must read for any hunter/angler) Fred Bodsworth - The Last of the Eskimo Curlew (the cartoon film had me bawling my eyes out in the early 70's). Dee Brown - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Sharon Penman - The Sunne in Splendour & When Christ and His Saints Slept. Ernest Hemmingway - The Old Man and the Sea & For Whom the Bell Tolls. Stephen King's short story - The Long Walk. Anything by Bernard Cornwall. Most of Wilbur Smith's. Tom Sharpe - All of them. Another one to the list - The trials that Harrison went through?? There are many but Longitude by Dava Stobel is up there. Edited May 16, 2014 by Penelope Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penelope Posted May 16, 2014 Report Share Posted May 16, 2014 Inspired by the English Partridge I believe, the original 'Little Grey Men'. The Little Grey MenThe Little Grey Men Go Down The Bright StreamBoth the above written by "BB" who I believe wrote a lot of fishing booksThey are about a family of gnomes and their travels,The second one has a dark side to it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penelope Posted May 16, 2014 Report Share Posted May 16, 2014 The TV series broadcast on ITV in the early 80's had the same effect. I have read the book since. As kids we nicknamed a mates dad 'Smokoe'. That book made me want to run away to the woods when I was eleven, and I still do. A magical writer on a magical, vanished countryside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLuke Posted May 16, 2014 Report Share Posted May 16, 2014 Difficult to pick but Stig of the dump Anything by John Grisham Moon fleet Will think on..! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henry d Posted May 16, 2014 Report Share Posted May 16, 2014 Life of Pi, Yann Martel Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk The shipping news, Annie Proulx But reading too many text books atm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Bb Posted May 16, 2014 Report Share Posted May 16, 2014 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Puckoon (again). Ray Bradbury short stories. John Wyndham. Spitfire, the history, Morgan & Shacklady. Any/all Sherlock Holmes stores. Any/all Bill Bryson. Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T E Lawrence, one day I'll finish it............ So many books out there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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