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Top Ten Books

zenjenny said:
PicsbyJCG christer the 'heroin diaries' sound gritty. Reminds me I read everything I could of Burroughs but especially liked (if that's the word) his 'Junkie'. There's an Australian writer, Andrew something (?) "Candy" was mainly good, some bits superb and some I just thought hmm. As you do. If memory serves (and it rarely does) Candy was made into a film.
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Oh, now you reminded me: almost every gdmn book by Charles Bukowski! :lol:

zenjenny said:
Re 'the first was enough': isn't that so often the case?
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Sure is. As for "spiritual/new age/whatever" books, I've often said to people: first, a new idea, or vision, pops into the mind of someone. They write a book about it. The vision enters the minds of people. Mission accomplished. But, as a side effect, if the book sells well: money comes into the picture. "Hey I'm not poor anymore and I sure as hell don't want to be again, ever". Thus a dozen or so books repeating the same theme floods the market, "there's a buck to be made here".

Like with Conversations With God and also with "The Celestine Prophecy".
 
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RoseCat said:
Very interesting and diverse list. I'm intrigued by The Heroin Diaries....

And I'm assuming Lemmy is Jasongag's Lemmy portrait that he painted? :thumbs:

The Prophet..... lovely. :thumbs:

Really love this thread... not only for the plethora of new books to read, but the fascinating insights into our MobiPeeps and their interests.
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zenjenny said:
Ian Banks as in Scottish crime writer?
Never heard of Hiaissen, thanks for the tip.
Loved Leonard - iconic.
Read everything Robbins in six months in my early 20s and could never pick him up again, sotospeak. But fond memories.
I like the Scandinavian crime writers, too - Mankell and that lot.
Indian writers, too - Rohan Mistry & Rushdie (Shame was my favourite). The Kite Runner - forget who, but it broke my heart and reminded me why I stopped reading Mistry et al years ago.
Amis *meh*
Stoppard, Beckett - jees, everywhere you look there's some book or play or poetry that's just perfect for/in something ...
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Ah yes the Indians. Read Mistry's A Fine Balance, Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things and a few others that escape me. I was particularly taken by a touching memoir or novel or bit of both by a Sri Lankan writer Shyam Selvaduri called Funny Boy.

Richard E Grant's With Nails and later The Wah Wah Diaries are both brilliant and funny reads. If you believe as I do that Withnail and I is one of the funniest films of all time and most perfect pieces of screenwriting, you will love Richard E's account of making Withnail and I, which was based on writer and film maker Bruce Robinson's experiences as a jobbing (or not jobbing) pretty boy actor beset by the old queens and bitchy luvvies who flit around the fringes of theatre and film. The Wah Wah diaries is about his youth in Swaziland.

Paul Auster is another author whose work intrigues and sometimes baffles. Dig it though. None of them left much of an impression that lasted though. Remember thinking they were brilliant at the time.

Jenny: no you are thinking of Ian Rankin, author of the Inspector Rebus novels. Read em all. Great stuff. Other guilty pleasures include the Lee Child 'jack Reacher' books, and forget the author, Barrie Eisler I think and his John Rain books
 
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