Books

[naomi24]

I've been given book tokens to the value of �50. Any recommendations on how I should spend them would be gratefully received.

(I've got Richard Dawkins God Delusion, bibles in several 'flavours', and the koran).

Thank you.

[China Doll]

Do you want any reading for fun in there or are you only going for the deep and meaningfuls? (I have suggestions for the former but not the latter).

[flobadob]

Catcher In The Rye. Then tell me what hidden meaning you found. Also its a short read so I expect your synopsis by sunday evening at the latest. Now get going, chop chop. Times a wasting.

[Theland1]

Donate them to your local primary school.
Or exchange them in the off license.

[naomi24]

Wiz. Thanks.

China, reading for fun of course. Something like the God Delusion would fit the bill very well. :o)

flobadob, read it. Not my style.

Theland, very funny.

[beso]

For diversity in the same kind of theme of religious perspectives two are a must.

Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet" which is probably best described as a Humanist bible though it is much more.

Richard Bach's "Illusions" is in a genre of its own. It is both profound and entertaining.

[China Doll]

Butcher Boy - Patrick McCabe
Sophies World - Can't remember author
The Lovely Bones - Sebold
What a Carve Up - Jonathan Coe
An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears
One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night - Christopher Brookmyre (it's just very funny)
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
The Shakespeare Secret - J.L. Carrell
The Interpretation of Murder - Jed Rubenfeld
Foucault's Pendulam - Umberto Echo
Metamorphasis - Kafka
Trial - Kafka
Whit - Ian Banks
The Wasp Factory - Ian Banks
Waiting for Godot - Samuel Becket
We Need to Talk about Kevin - Lionel Shiver
Perfume - Patrick Suskind (terrible film, good book)
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Handmaids Tale - Can't remember author
Lord of the Flys - William Golding
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Memoires of a Geisha - Can't remember author

There's a few from my iRead thingy on FB that I really enjoyed but I'm sure you've read some of them. (The ones with gory titles are not actually gory! Well actually Butcher Boy is a tiny bit in places but it's not the primary motivation).

[China Doll]

Oh... And I forgot Beloved.

[naomi24]

Thanks everyone.

China, I have read several of those, but thank you. ('Geisha' has been sitting on my shelf for ages waiting to be read!).

Have you read 'The Shadow of the Wind'? By a Spanish man - can't recall his name at the moment. Also The Kite Runner, Brick Lane, and The Bookseller of Kabul. All very good.

....... but I digress.

Chakka recommended a book a few months ago which I intended to pick up to keep me entertained on a few long flights I was taking. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get it, so if you're around Chakka, and you can tell me again what it was, I'd be grateful. I'm not sure - it might have been another Richard Dawkins book.

[abstract]

the giant fun book of colouring in?

[Abdulmajid]

If you are after a good read but with some spiritual meaning may I suggest "FLUKE" by James Herbert.

To the best of my knowledge it is the ONLY book his has penned which is not a horror novel.

It is truly fantastic, all about reincarnation.

Is it a man who was once a dog or a dog who was once a man???

It is funny, sad, romantic, and utterly readworthy.

And with �50 you will have about �45 left to enjoy others!!!

[bensmum]

Shadow of the Wind was by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and it is an excellent book.
I liked Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

[naomi24]

Abdul, oh, I loved Fluke. Brilliant book.

Bensmum, I haven't heard of Love in the Time of Cholera, but I'll check it out. Thanks.

[Abdulmajid]

Glad you enjoyed it.

Now away from spiritual books........

If you like good Edwardian novels, written in beautiful English and again utterly un-put-a-downable, may I suggest "The Complete Richard Hannay" by John Buchan.

You may have seen or read The 39 Steps, but this book follows Hannay in his many post-Empire antics across the world in pursuit of British global interest.

The character building is perhaps only bettered by Conan-Doyle or Fleming before and after Buchan's time.

[Whickerman]

Anything written by Irvine Welsh
The Painted House by John Grisham - the last great American novel. Not his usual lawyer thingy, this is a truly memorable read. Beautiful book.
The Dead Heart by Douglas Kennedy - actually anything by him
The Hiram Key by (working from memory here) Knight and Lomax?
The Lost Years Of Jesus by Elizabeth Prophet - controversial
The Confessions of Aleister Crowley -autobiography - can be heavy though.

Yaay - typing on a German keyboard and finished ok- nothing is where it should be...

[naomi24]

Thanks everyone - and well done, Whicker!

[Whickerman]

ooooh - just thought of this. A great read by a man with clearly too much time on his hands.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Round-Ireland-Fridge-T ony-Hawks/dp/0091867770

Tony Hawks (no, not the skateboarder), who for a bet hitchhiked around Ireland pulling a small fridge with him, for a bet.
i remember him doing this, it was covered by a national radio show here every day. His writings are a great document of Irish life/