4215 replies to this topic

[Sneakeater]

Well, co-starred. Norwood himself was played by Glen Campbell, who was kind of making a career of acting in Charles Portis movies back then.

I really do have to read this. Thanks.

[Wilfrid]

I loved True Grit. It never occurred to me to read Norwood. Did you know that Joe Namath starred in the movie?

I had forgotten who wrote True Grit. I had it as a skinny Penguin paperback with John Wayne on the cover, way back when.

Glenn Campbell.

[Sneakeater]

It's really a good book, though, right? Portis's style is really something.

[g.johnson]

Alan Partridge's autobiography, I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan.

Journalist, presenter, broadcaster, husband, father, vigorous all-rounder – Alan Partridge – a man with a fascinating past and an amazing future. Gregarious and popular, yet Alan’s never happier than when relaxing in his own five-bedroom, south-built house with three acres of land and access to a private stream. But who is this mysterious enigma?

I Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan is the memoir of Alan Partridge, the nation’s favourite broadcaster. It is a work of heart-breaking majesty.

Genuinely one of the best books of the last, what, fifteen to twenty years, I, Partridge charts the highs, lows and middle bits in the life of one of Europe’s most revered inquisitors.

[Wilfrid]

Aha!

[balex]

Alan Partridge's autobiography, I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan.

Journalist, presenter, broadcaster, husband, father, vigorous all-rounder – Alan Partridge – a man with a fascinating past and an amazing future. Gregarious and popular, yet Alan’s never happier than when relaxing in his own five-bedroom, south-built house with three acres of land and access to a private stream. But who is this mysterious enigma?

I Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan is the memoir of Alan Partridge, the nation’s favourite broadcaster. It is a work of heart-breaking majesty.

Genuinely one of the best books of the last, what, fifteen to twenty years, I, Partridge charts the highs, lows and middle bits in the life of one of Europe’s most revered inquisitors.

Doing your homework?

[balex]

Started reading Edward St Aubyn -- the first Melrose book, Never Mind is brilliant.

[Wilfrid]

A recent New Yorker profile didn't make me want to read his books. Sounded very cold.

I recently finished Mahfouz's Cairo trilogy, and really was absorbed in it. Didn't want to say goodbye to the family.

[balex]

A recent New Yorker profile didn't make me want to read his books. Sounded very cold.

I recently finished Mahfouz's Cairo trilogy, and really was absorbed in it. Didn't want to say goodbye to the family.

Yes, that's fair, and the first one is quite pitiless, with almost no sympathetic characters.

[Wilfrid]

Hence the comparison with Evelyn Waugh, I suppose.

[Sneakeater]

The Mahfouz Cairo trilogy really is great.

I read it after he got the Nobel, and it was like, yeah, he really is all that.

[balex]

Hence the comparison with Evelyn Waugh, I suppose.

That and the snobbery -- but he (St Aubyn) combines that snobbery with a real hatred of the upper classes; so very different from the Mitford/Waugh approach which is entertaining but nauseating.

[Daniel]

Reading Death in the City of Light, a book written by David King.. Holy cow, this book is amazing. it is a story about Doctor Petiot. A serial killer doctor that roamed the streets of german occupied Paris. David King writes this book in such a way that it reads like a text book/novel. The amount of history and dates and facts that are included are just amazing.. It's so detailed. It's kind of seamless how it happens. I don't think I have experienced anything like it. It's just so well researched and how he brings you into the time period by describing everything that is happening in the world and in Paris at the time, it's awesome. I highly suggest this book.

[StephanieL]

Two "history of" books: I Want My MTV and Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. The former is a real hoot, especially if you grew up with MTV like I did. The latter has some interesting parts but has way too much information on the backgrounds of the principal creators of the series.

[Wilfrid]

Death in the City of Light sounds like another one for the list.

I've just emerged from several weeks with a loose trilogy of novels by the utterly and completely forgotten Italian author, once the toast of Europe and America, Antonio Fogazzaro. I do like picking up these waifs and strays from literary history. Perceived in his day, and absolutely rightly, as the sane alternative to D'Annunzio, Fogazzaro once sold stacks of his novels about politics and romance, set in late 19th century Italy (the books I've been reading were published 1896-1905).

From my perspective, he's an Italian Henry James as far as plot goes (lighter on the prose); but the fact is, his novels are gradually overtaken by his enthusiasm for reform of the Catholic church -- which means I can't recommend them to anyone with zero tolerance for theology or religious sentiment.

And then, I shouldn't recommend them at all, as I clearly have very marginal taste in literature.