Rail Forums Reading Recommendations

[alxndr]

I'm currently reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. I'm amazed, and a little frustrated with myself, that I've lived so many years not having read them!

 

[backontrack]

backontrack's favourite books of 2021 were:

1. Vita Sackville-West - All Passion Spent, and
2. Italo Calvino - If on a winter's night a traveller

They're both among my favourite novels I've ever read. Both are short and fairly snappy, both are wryly funny, and they're both very different. The first - which edges the second I think - actually did make me cry a little, because it's very innocent and gentle at its core. The second is tricksterish and inventive, and has a sneaky little romance tucked inside it. They're not the only things I read this year, although... I probably didn't read enough.

 

[Calthrop]

I'm currently reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. I'm amazed, and a little frustrated with myself, that I've lived so many years not having read them!

I'm feeling here, as though making a confession of heresy -- but Terry Pratchett is one of several authors, highly regarded by very many, who totally fail to "do it" for me. I've tried a few of his novels; and so far as I'm concerned, his writing is leaden, facetious, and almost totally un-funny. There are so many people, whose taste I for sure respect, who find Pratchett terrific; that I can't help but feel that it's got to be something wrong with me, rather than with the late Mr. P. Happily, though, this is a scene on which obtains freedom for people to like, or dislike, stuff as they choose -- and read it or eschew it, accordingly.

 

[LOL The Irony]

I'm feeling here, as though making a confession of heresy -- but Terry Pratchett is one of several authors, highly regarded by very many, who totally fail to "do it" for me. I've tried a few of his novels; and so far as I'm concerned, his writing is leaden, facetious, and almost totally un-funny. There are so many people, whose taste I for sure respect, who find Pratchett terrific; that I can't help but feel that it's got to be something wrong with me, rather than with the late Mr. P. Happily, though, this is a scene on which obtains freedom for people to like, or dislike, stuff as they choose -- and read it or eschew it, accordingly.

If we all liked the same things, we'd be boring. I've never read any of his books as their subjects don't interest me but as you say, he has a cohort of followers, so he must've done something right.

 

[backontrack]

I'm feeling here, as though making a confession of heresy -- but Terry Pratchett is one of several authors, highly regarded by very many, who totally fail to "do it" for me. I've tried a few of his novels; and so far as I'm concerned, his writing is leaden, facetious, and almost totally un-funny. There are so many people, whose taste I for sure respect, who find Pratchett terrific; that I can't help but feel that it's got to be something wrong with me, rather than with the late Mr. P. Happily, though, this is a scene on which obtains freedom for people to like, or dislike, stuff as they choose -- and read it or eschew it, accordingly.

A friend was telling me about how Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman wrote Good Omens together. Pratchett would write a bit of the story, then he'd take the floppy disk out of his computer tower and post it to Gaiman, who'd then work on the next part of the story before sending the disk back to Pratchett. I've never really touched his work - I've never really been one for fantasy writing - but things like that endear him to me. I have respect for him, in passing, even if I've not consumed his books which aren't really my cup of tea. Maybe nothing's wrong with us at all and it's just a matter of taste. I doubt he would've minded.

Even before you get onto her recent comments - which are offensive to many - I personally think JK Rowling is a bit of a rubbish author, to be quite honest. Leaden prose, like you say (Hermione said, Neville said) but also Harry Potter is full of thinly-veiled racial stereotypes. The long-nosed banker goblins who control the wizarding world's finances, Harry's crush in The Order of the Phoenix who's a Chinese student in the designated clever house (Ravenclaw) whose name is Cho Chang, the black auror called Kingsley Shacklebolt, or Seamus Finnegan - the Irish character - who's preoccupied with explosives...I wish I were making it up...

 

[Calthrop]

A friend was telling me about how Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman wrote Good Omens together. Pratchett would write a bit of the story, then he'd take the floppy disk out of his computer tower and post it to Gaiman, who'd then work on the next part of the story before sending the disk back to Pratchett. I've never really touched his work - I've never really been one for fantasy writing - but things like that endear him to me. I have respect for him, in passing, even if I've not consumed his books which aren't really my cup of tea. Maybe nothing's wrong with us at all and it's just a matter of taste. I doubt he would've minded.

Irrespective of (dis)liking; or merit or otherwise; of Pratchett's "product" -- I do have the impression that he was, personally, an extremely nice guy.

Even before you get onto her recent comments - which are offensive to many - I personally think JK Rowling is a bit of a rubbish author, to be quite honest. Leaden prose, like you say (Hermione said, Neville said) but also Harry Potter is full of thinly-veiled racial stereotypes. The long-nosed banker goblins who control the wizarding world's finances, Harry's crush in The Order of the Phoenix who's a Chinese student in the designated clever house (Ravenclaw) whose name is Cho Chang, the black auror called Kingsley Shacklebolt, or Seamus Finnegan - the Irish character - who's preoccupied with explosives...I wish I were making it up...

Tolstoy or Proust she ain't, for sure; but I read the books -- got enough enjoyment out of them, to persevere through all seven tomes. Confess to not having really been struck by racial stereotyping on her part; other than the banker goblins, who for the reasons which you point out, can make one feel not altogether comfortable -- but having read your post, I see where you're coming from there (if at the time I'd been aware of Seamus having explosives on the brain, I'd forgotten it). In honesty: I wasn't greatly taken with the books' rather crude and cartoon-ish good-versus-evil narrative framework; or the relationship- and teenage-struggles "angstery" (I'm male, after all -- we tend to have limited tolerance for gooey lurve stuff). Their real appeal to me, was the delightfully bonkers world built by the author: of respective Wizarding, and Muggle, societies, existing in parallel; but with minimal awareness of each other (the wizards doing their utmost to ensure that this is so), and even less mutual comprehension -- even re things which would have been very easy to research. All this requiring on the reader's part, much "voluntary suspension of disbelief" -- but that for me, worth it for the sheer glorious daftness of the whole thing.

 

[backontrack]

Irrespective of (dis)liking; or merit or otherwise; of Pratchett's "product" -- I do have the impression that he was, personally, an extremely nice guy.



Tolstoy or Proust she ain't, for sure; but I read the books -- got enough enjoyment out of them, to persevere through all seven tomes. Confess to not having really been struck by racial stereotyping on her part; other than the banker goblins, who for the reasons which you point out, can make one feel not altogether comfortable -- but having read your post, I see where you're coming from there (if at the time I'd been aware of Seamus having explosives on the brain, I'd forgotten it). In honesty: I wasn't greatly taken with the books' rather crude and cartoon-ish good-versus-evil narrative framework; or the relationship- and teenage-struggles "angstery" (I'm male, after all -- we tend to have limited tolerance for gooey lurve stuff). Their real appeal to me, was the delightfully bonkers world built by the author: of respective Wizarding, and Muggle, societies, existing in parallel; but with minimal awareness of each other (the wizards doing their utmost to ensure that this is so), and even less mutual comprehension -- even re things which would have been very easy to research. All this requiring on the reader's part, much "voluntary suspension of disbelief" -- but that for me, worth it for the sheer glorious daftness of the whole thing.

Yes, I agree with you; part of the reason why I decided to bring JK Rowling up was in relation to your Pratchett point. Other people love her worldbuilding and find it a rich and imaginative world, yet I've never really clicked with it, much like yourself and Discworld. But I don't think it's due to any failure of suspension of disbelief; instead, I think it might be that I saw the films first as a child, before I read the first book - so the fictional world wasn't new to me. I'm sure it's delightful and wondrous for the new reader though. Maybe I missed out on something.

To be quite honest I don't know if the films play up Seamus's "proclivity for pyrotechnics" or if they portray them as the books do. His spells are always exploding in class, as I remember.

 

[Calthrop]

Yes, I agree with you; part of the reason why I decided to bring JK Rowling up was in relation to your Pratchett point. Other people love her worldbuilding and find it a rich and imaginative world, yet I've never really clicked with it, much like yourself and Discworld. But I don't think it's due to any failure of suspension of disbelief; instead, I think it might be that I saw the films first as a child, before I read the first book - so the fictional world wasn't new to me. I'm sure it's delightful and wondrous for the new reader though. Maybe I missed out on something.

To be quite honest I don't know if the films play up Seamus's "proclivity for pyrotechnics" or if they portray them as the books do. His spells are always exploding in class, as I remember.

I pretty much "don't do" films: can to all intents and purposes, be relied on to prefer the book version of anything, to the subsequent film ditto. Have seen the earlier Potter films (generally, "dragged along" thereto by someone else); but I basically accessed the Wizarding World, via the books -- the films mostly left me cold-ish.

See a likelihood of my getting -- mildly -- turned on to the Potter books, having come about rather by chance. When the phenomenon initially burst upon the world, my reaction was, "sounds like some rubbishy kids' book -- the latest nine days' wonder, heaven knows why"; might well never have explored further -- had it not been for a paperback edition of Volume 1, bearing on its cover: a rather arresting black-and-white pic, photographic kind, of a North American steam-hauled train, looking very much to be from the pre-1960 era of everyday real steam in those parts. (Presumably some publisher's "take" -- how come, who knows? -- on the Hogwarts Express.) Curiosity piqued by this picture, I picked the book up and dipped into it a little, which I might well never otherwise have done; what I read then, suggested that it might be worth deeper investigation -- I bought the book; and what followed, followed.

 

[birchesgreen]

A highly recommended book is Henry Gee's A very short history of life on Earth. Very up to date with the latest discoveries and very readable.

 

[ABB125]

I may have mentioned this before, but I'd definitely recommend reading George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (better known for the television series based on it, Game of Thrones). It'll take you a long time, but is well worth it in my opinion (and, by the time you've finished, the next book may have been published! We can live in hope...). The series has everything: complex political masterstrokes and plot twists; gritty warfare; DRAGONS ; intricate, abusive and incestuous marriages/relationships; one or two "OMG I really can't believe this is happening and never in a million years saw it coming" shocking moments*; supernatural forces woven in, but without the "yay, it's magic" kind of stuff you get in other books.

*The biggest one, involving a certain coloured wedding, is done far better in the books than the TV adaptation (unsurprisingly)

 

[John Hunt]

I can definitely recommend Bomber by Len Deighton - the events on and around a night-time bombing raid on Germany on June 31st 1943.
The novel is fiction based on intensely researched fact covering the experiences of RAF, Luftwaffe and civilians on the ground.
My father served in India flying Spifires (only once did he ever relate to me any of his experiences), and his brother was bomber crew on a Lancaster.
He did frequently talk about what it was like (but never in the presence of my dad!) being a flight engineer on that iconic aeroplane, but never spoke of any of the horrors of war.

 

[Gloster]

I can definitely recommend Bomber by Len Deighton - the events on and around a night-time bombing raid on Germany on June 31st 1943.
The novel is fiction based on intensely researched fact covering the experiences of RAF, Luftwaffe and civilians on the ground.

Twenty or so years ago Radio 4 did a dramatisation of Bomber. It was done in small segments through the day to replicate the various stages of activity leading up to the raid, ending at the end of the day’s programming. When they did the scenes set in the Lancaster, they recorded it in a corridor with the actors spread out to represent the positions that the characters they were playing would occupy: the actor playing the tail-gunner was stuck down the end on his own with his back to the others.

 

[172007]

GERT8000

 

[LOL The Irony]

CRUSH3D!! by YAA Comics, about high school ice hockey in a boarding school in a fictional country that's a cross between Canada and Germany.

Just completed it's short prequel/spinoff, Middle Child Syndrome. As to not spoil anything, it features a character we've already come across.

(If you want a clue as to who it is, Windows on the World ( the restaurant) should help)

 

[Acey]

Working through Bill Bryson's A Short History of Everything again and The Dancers at The End of Time trilogy by Michael Moorcock ,a book Ihave to read at least once a year !