Books

[Eoin McLove]

It's good,  don't get me wrong.  It just feels a bit long-winded. There are some fantastic sections of writing scattered throughout, but there's a hell of a lot of story and I wonder if it had been trimmed by 200 pages would it have hit the mark a bit more accurately. I'm not sure why it's taking so long to get to the finish line but maybe in  the end it will all fall into place.

[Carnage]

Life's too short to continue reading a book that you aren't getting into imo.
If its still not doing it for me after 100 or pages I just don't bother finishing it.

100 pages is usually my cutoff point too. A book called Canada by Richard Ford is one that was highly recommended to me, one of the most miserable books I ever read, binned it after 100 odd pages.

[Don Gately]

Life's too short to continue reading a book that you aren't getting into imo.
If its still not doing it for me after 100 or pages I just don't bother finishing it.

100 pages is usually my cutoff point too. A bookncalled Canada by Richard Ford is one that was highly recommended to me, one of the most miserable books I ever read, binned it after 100 odd pages.

Yes certainly not his best. But he's a great writer. The short story collection Rock Springs is fantastic and I loved also the Sportswriter series of books.
If you like Ray Carver, Tobias Wolf you'd be into it.

[Blankety Blank]

Life's too short to continue reading a book that you aren't getting into imo.
If its still not doing it for me after 100 or pages I just don't bother finishing it.

100 pages is usually my cutoff point too. A book called Canada by Richard Ford is one that was highly recommended to me, one of the most miserable books I ever read, binned it after 100 odd pages.

I was recommended 50 pages about ten years ago and I swear by it. Cut it loose if it's not grabbing you by then.

I'm reading 'Miracles of Life', JG Ballard's autobiography, at the moment and it is great. As an English person born and raised in Shanghai. He doesn't pull any punches about English culture. An easy breezy read about a traumatic life.

[Don Gately]

Currently reading Empire Falls by Richard Russo

[kiehozero]

Currently on Jeffrey Lewis' alternate history book about North Korea nuking the USA. It was written in 2018 but some of the assumptions he makes about Trump are frightening in their accuracy.

[Nail_Bombed]

Starting to reread The Stand. Seems the right time, what with the current plague panic.

[Carnage]

How are they (awesomebooks) for quality? I've found buying secondhand online to be very hit & miss, it'd be nice to know a reliable seller.

I'd be interested in the answer to this too.

Just got my first delivery from them a few minutes ago.

On the plus side, all of the books were listed as being in good condition, I'd rate them as very good - one is like new. Cheap too, 4 books + postage for €13.65.

Negatives are: 1. They came in a flimsy plastic bag that was ripped open, the postman handed me one of the books separately. 2. The site gave me the option of picking which print/edition of each title I wanted, 3 out of 4 were the wrong editions (TV tie-ins, which I fucking despise). 3. Stickers I can't remove and traces of stickers, but that's a minor thing, you get that with most secondhand books. 4. Not the fastest delivery, 12 days from order to delivery but again, you'll get that with the likes of Amazon/eBay etc. anyway.

Overall, I reckon they'd definitely be worth a go if you're not as fussy as I am, can't fault the pricing or general condition of the books.

This concludes my Ted Talk.

[Scáthach]

Just finished Alan Moore's debut novel there, Voice of the Fire. Very good, something of a primer for his magnum opus Jerusalem.
Started in on Aleister Crowley's collected Simon Iff stories. A little hit and miss but that's to be expected with his writing. Also got the 2 new Bardo Methodology issues through the letter box today so really looking forward to digging in later.

[kiehozero]

Getting through David McWilliams' Renaissance Nation at the moment, it's a light enough introduction to Ireland's economy but while I love his podcast I'm finding his writing style grates a bit. Maybe I'm just reading it and hearing his voice and mannerisms come out from that.

[blessed1]

I started reading some of those warhammer 40k novels. Pretty cool if your into a bit of mindless action.

[Caomhaoin]

No work and nothing else to do for at least three weeks so I'm going to get stuck into Dune post haste.

[Pedrito]

Nice

[Carnage]

Once I finish my current book (Christopher Priest: The Prestige), I'm going to reread Dune & Dune Messiah, and hopefully read all six original books. They've been gathering dust on my shelves for long enough.

[kiehozero]

Going to hit Dune as well as soon as I get through the last of my library books