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islandgun
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1. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee, great film too)

 

2. Fantastic Mr Fox (Roald Dahl - proof foxes are always going to survive!)

 

3. The Silmarillion ( JRR Tolkien - probably the most 'difficult' book I have ever read!! It provides the background to the world as existed prior to and during The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings)

Edited by Beretta06
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Birds without Wings by Louis la Bernieres--Author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin--but set in Turkey at the time of the Greek/Turkey population exchange in the 1920s.

 

Ulverton-by Adam Thorpe--a series of stories which illustrate the history of a village in the south of England from the time of the English Civil War to the recent past.

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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

"The road" is a good post nuclear apocalyptic read too.

Difficult to pick but

 

Stig of the dump

 

Anything by John Grisham

 

Moon fleet

 

Will think on..!

Memories of Stig & Moonfleet from School :good:

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In no particular order- these remain in my top ten and i re-read them often:-

 

In Pale Battalions:- Robert Goddard

 

On the Beach:- Neville Shute

 

To serve them all my days:- R F Delderfield

 

I like a lot of the John Grisham novels but could not read " A time to kill" for a long while after my daughter was born.

 

 

The one i want to read but cannot bring myself to, is "The boy in the striped pyjamas.

Edited by keg
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"The road" is a good post nuclear apocalyptic read too.

 

 

I should say its good. It won McCarthy the Pulitzer Prize. To be fair though it isn't really about nuclear apocalypse. (Though releasing a post-apocalypse masterpiece at the moment when the global-warming debate was at the height of its fever probably did his bank balance no harm at all).. The nature of the cataclysm which has befallen the Earth is not specified. All we know is there has been some global immolation which has destroyed human civilisation and reduced the surface of the Earth to ashes. The real theme of the story is one man's relationship with his son which is examined in the cold light of a ruined landscape from which the consolations and distractions of human society have been erased. Its the play Samuel Becket didn't write.

Its a book of staggering power and an instant modern classic which everyone should read. Like all McCarthy's work it draws no conclusions, political or otherwise. There is no easy resolution, no tidy endings, no circles are completed. It tells you without blinking a story in cinematographic clarity and leaves you to live with the consequences. Brilliant.

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As a kid reading books like the Dambusters and The Guns of Navarone would stir my imagination. My favourite books were Stig of the dump and the Wind in the Willows.

 

I like Joseph Conrad books like Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim and the Secret Agent. Hard going at times but Last of the Mohicans is one I enjoyed.

 

A recent find which should appeal to most on here is a book called, Bird Brain by Guy Kennaway. Its a funny novel about a murder on a pheasant shoot, when the victim is reincarnated as a pheasant, and the gundogs are smarter than the humans. The description of the antis is particularly amusing...give it a try.

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I read a hell of a lot but one book that made a real impression on me was World War Z by Mel Brooks.

It's nothing like the film and really only shares a title with it.

Amazing book that makes you think about how a pandemic can happen [in this case it's a zombie one] and how mankind is taken to the brink by government ineptitude and human greed.

 

If you are interested in the horror/ zombie genre this book is basically the daddy and leaves all others for dead in my opinion.

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A recent find which should appeal to most on here is a book called, Bird Brain by Guy Kennaway. Its a funny novel about a murder on a pheasant shoot, when the victim is reincarnated as a pheasant, and the gundogs are smarter than the humans. The description of the antis is particularly amusing...give it a try.

I will look into this one

 

Reminds me of FLUKE by James Herbert,

 

Which is also a cracking read

 

:shaun:

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I should say its good. It won McCarthy the Pulitzer Prize. To be fair though it isn't really about nuclear apocalypse. (Though releasing a post-apocalypse masterpiece at the moment when the global-warming debate was at the height of its fever probably did his bank balance no harm at all).. The nature of the cataclysm which has befallen the Earth is not specified. All we know is there has been some global immolation which has destroyed human civilisation and reduced the surface of the Earth to ashes. The real theme of the story is one man's relationship with his son which is examined in the cold light of a ruined landscape from which the consolations and distractions of human society have been erased. Its the play Samuel Becket didn't write.

Its a book of staggering power and an instant modern classic which everyone should read. Like all McCarthy's work it draws no conclusions, political or otherwise. There is no easy resolution, no tidy endings, no circles are completed. It tells you without blinking a story in cinematographic clarity and leaves you to live with the consequences. Brilliant.

Try "On the Beach" if you haven't read it. Written in a simpler age when the cold war was very real. Similar structure

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Last book I read was The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolfe. All about the original human diet when we lived as hunter gatherers. Quite geeky in places as he goes in to all the techie stuff about hormones, etc. and how they are affect by our modern diet.

 

Someone yesterday loaned me A Brief History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson so that is on my 'to read' list as is 'Rifleman' by Victor Gregg, '59 Seconds: Think a little, change a lot' by Richard Wiseman plus one or two others. My Mrs gets the right hump as she says I have too many books. Is there such a thing?

 

One of my favourite novels, which I have a few times now and is probably a strange choice to put up on a forum ;like this, is 'Watership Down' by Richard Adams. Ok, I know what you lot will probably say but it really is a very well written book and the consistency is spot on. That is one thing which annoys the hell out of me where some novels are concerned when the consistency or continuity doesn't tally.

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Obviously "Best of Readers' Wives", generally the 1970s for full-on lady gardens, followed by any Razzle "best of" collection.

 

After those beauties, I always return to the Sanders stories by Edgar Wallace. Colonial District Officer in Africa shows British pluck to keep unruly natives in their place. Well worth checking out on Kindle for a couple of quid. For a slightly more PC read, the Flashman novels - what else - by George MacDonald Fraser. Victorian history through the eyes of a coward.

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Someone yesterday loaned me A Brief History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson so that is on my 'to read' list

 

An excellent book but put aside a two week holiday (preferably raining) to read and understand it. It took him two years to research and write!

 

 

My Mrs gets the right hump as she says I have too many books. Is there such a thing?

 

Not in my book and I get the same comments. I'm now down to only four large bookcases, all full!

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Obviously "Best of Readers' Wives", generally the 1970s for full-on lady gardens, followed by any Razzle "best of" collection.

 

After those beauties, I always return to the Sanders stories by Edgar Wallace. Colonial District Officer in Africa shows British pluck to keep unruly natives in their place. Well worth checking out on Kindle for a couple of quid. For a slightly more PC read, the Flashman novels - what else - by George MacDonald Fraser. Victorian history through the eyes of a coward.

Dam right!, i always say you can date gentlemen's relaxation pamphlets by ladygarden style

 

Knees to Navel- 1960- 1979

 

Bit of lawn edging- 1979-1989

 

Art Nouveau- 1989-to 1994

 

Smooth as silk 1994 to present.

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Dam right!, i always say you can date gentlemen's relaxation pamphlets by ladygarden style

 

Knees to Navel- 1960- 1979

 

Bit of lawn edging- 1979-1989

 

Art Nouveau- 1989-to 1994

 

Smooth as silk 1994 to present.

My favourite 79-89 still enough foliage to be interesting

 

 

I will be definitely will be looking out for The Road, Shantaram, and Birdbrain

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Colonial District Officer in Africa shows British pluck to keep unruly natives in their place.

Ah, yes - that reminded me of the first to two books that made me laugh out loud when commuting on the train:

 

Tom Sharpe - "Riotous Assembly" and "Indecent Exposure".

 

Regards,

 

Mark.

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Some really good ones I'd forgotten about; namely Tom Sharpe. Have read most of them in the past and must admit they're well worth another read.Pity I gave most of them away!

Stephen King was a favourite of mine in the horror genre for a long time, had I realised he was an anti earlier I would still have read them, just not bought them. Never mind.

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Never realised I was a member of such a we'll read club!

I have got through a lot of books in my time,some good some,some bad, some just plain pants. The one that really sticks in my swede is The dice man by Luke Rhinehart, about a man that basically lives his life dictated by the cast of dice. Pretty mad!!

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