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| Topics | | messages | Last message | | | 75 Books Challenge for 2010 : iansales going for 75 in 2010 | | 12 | iansales, Yesterday 8:55am |  |
| Literary Snobs : Book Hauls | | 170 | mathgirl40, Saturday 6:33pm | |
| 75 Books Challenge for 2009 : Part Four in the Increasingly Inaccurately Named Trilogy of FlossieT's Common Reading Confessions | | 283 | blackdogbooks, Friday 10:43am | |
| Reading Globally : Recommendations for British Women Writers | | 24 | thelotustree, December 2009 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : 2009 WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? | | 188 | thanuj2409, December 2009 | |
| 75 Books Challenge for 2009 : Kidzdoc's 75 Book Challenge for 2009 #5 | | 268 | kidzdoc, October 2009 | |
| Club Read 2009 : Kidzdoc's 2009 Goals #3 | | 207 | kidzdoc, September 2009 | |
| 999 Challenge : SpiraledStar's 999 | | 20 | SpiraledStar, September 2009 | |
| 50 Book Challenge : merry10's 2008 challenge | | 222 | merry10, August 2009 | |
| 75 Books Challenge for 2009 : Kidzdoc's 75 Book Challenge for 2009 #3 | | 259 | kidzdoc, August 2009 | |
| 75 Books Challenge for 2009 : AlcottAcre's 2009 Reads, Take 6 | | 363 | alcottacre, July 2009 | |
| BookCrossing Australia! : Group reading log: June 2009 | | 165 | wookiebender, June 2009 | |
| BookCrossing Australia! : Group Reading Log: May 2009 | | 130 | catsalive, June 2009 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : First Line Game Chapter 9 | | 354 | thorold, May 2009 | |
| 75 Books Challenge for 2009 : Kidzdoc's 75 Book Challenge for 2009 #2 | | 280 | kidzdoc, May 2009 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : Another Meme--please forgive me | | 57 | jnwelch, May 2009 | |
| BookCrossing Australia! : Group Reading Log: April 2009 | | 90 | wookiebender, April 2009 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : Books that came home with you in February part II | | 229 | Neverwithoutabook, March 2009 | |
| Book talk : Translating the Queen's English | | 77 | VisibleGhost, March 2009 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : Favorite 5 Fiction Reads of 2008 | | 109 | pm11, March 2009 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : Books that came home with you in February | | 267 | crazy4reading, February 2009 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : What You Are Reading the Week of 3 January 2009 | | 213 | Biyismom, January 2009 | |
| 50 Book Challenge : englishrose60 | | 253 | englishrose60, January 2009 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : What You Are Reading the Week of 27 Decembeer 2008 | | 175 | thioviolight, January 2009 | |
| 50 Book Challenge : Wandering_star's 50 book challenge: more non-fiction | | 132 | carlym, January 2009 | |
| 250 book challenge : Dyrfinna's 2008 Reading | | 36 | Dyrfinna, January 2009 | |
| 75 Books Challenge for 2008 : drneutron's Books Red in 2008 | | 326 | drneutron, December 2008 | |
| 50 Book Challenge : angrystarlyt-100 book challenge! | | 125 | angrystarlyt, December 2008 | |
| 50 Book Challenge : cabegley's 2008 challenge | | 105 | mrstreme, December 2008 | |
| Book talk : Looking for a "different" book - Need help so please do | | 14 | emaestra, December 2008 | |
| Book talk : Guess The Book Mk 4 | | 351 | MrAndrew, October 2008 | |
| The Prizes : The Booker | | 210 | Nickelini, October 2008 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : Top Five Books 3rd quarter 2008: July - Sept. | | 78 | MarianV, October 2008 | |
| Girlybooks : What books by and/or about women are you reading May-August 08? (PART 2) | | 81 | urania1, September 2008 | |
| King's Dear Constant Readers : Joe | | 30 | cal8769, September 2008 | |
| 75 Books Challenge for 2008 : alipals' books for 2008 | | 27 | alcottacre, September 2008 | |
| The Green Dragon : Your Most Original LT Tag | | 84 | Lyz, August 2008 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : What Books Came Into Your Home Today? - #1: AUGUST. 2008 | | 320 | charlienmary, August 2008 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : Abandoned Books | | 335 | Cariola, August 2008 | |
| Girlybooks : What books by and/or about women are you reading May-August 08? | | 253 | TerrierGirl, August 2008 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : Top 3 Reads July 2008 | | 48 | Medellia, August 2008 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : What You're Reading the Week of 12 July 2008 | | 315 | cameling, July 2008 | |
| Book of the month club : What we read in May | | 63 | Booksloth, June 2008 | |
| Reading Globally : Where in the World are you Now? April 2008 | | 126 | lindsacl, May 2008 | |
| Best of British : Prizewinners? | | 15 | skoobdo, May 2008 | |
| Book of the month club : April books | | 16 | CarlaR, May 2008 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : Top 3 Reads February 2008 | | 48 | laruebk, March 2008 | |
| Book talk : Books You've Read so Far in 2008 | | 16 | skyler1534, March 2008 | |
| 50 Book Challenge : The Mistress' 75 Book Challenge | | 47 | prophetandmistress, December 2007 | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : What books came into your home today? - September 2007 | | 147 | thioviolight, October 2007 | |
| Book talk : Booker Prize Winner | | 1 | naturalblonde, October 2007 | |
| Reading Globally : Where in the World Are You Now? September 2007 | | 155 | digifish_books, October 2007 | |
... William Gibson
Sandman Slim, Richard Kadrey
Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
The Fahrenheit Twins, Michel Faber
Darkmans, Nicola Barker
The Lemur, Benjamin Black (AKA John Banville)
Black Swan Green, David Mitchell
The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
That is, of course, ... ... and Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey.
However, on Boxing Day I visited a couple of discount book shops and picked up: Darkmans, Black Swan Green, The Lemur, The Fahrenheit Twins, Blood Meridian and Remains of the Day - all for about 99p each. ... great surprise, since Ness cited her at his Cambridge talk as one of his favourite authors, and provided fulsome praise of Darkmans when he reviewed it, also for the Grauniad).
Above all, they are varied - in character and place, at least, even if the tone for the most part is a sort of ... #242: Hmm...I'm still very tempted to bring Darkmans with me, but maybe I'll choose a smaller book. I doubt that I'll finish Désert by tomorrow, so I'll bring that and either The Time of the Hero by Llosa or Solo by Rana Dasgupta, which "won" the Guardian's "Not the Booker Pr ... I'm going to be very interested to see what you think of Darkmans. I'm as American as one can get so I did have to look up some of the slang on the net. Right now, I'm at 50/50 on whether this is a kidzdoc book. ;) >239
Darryl, Darkmans should certainly keep you going for a bit!! I'm not sure it's your usual sort of fare - a bit more leaning towards the scifi/fantastic than the area you normally read in - but I really loved it. If it's the only book you're taking I might plump for something else, myself - ... ... writing this on Microsoft Notepad to avoid further snafus, and then
I'll transfer it to LT.
I'm now tempted to take Darkmans with me to read on the flight to San Francisco on Thursday. I'll
bring one fiction and one non-fiction book, as I'm sure that I'll buy a couple of dozen books at ... ... Did you hire a hitperson?? (Or is it just that he's in his own little world.... now which is more likely....)
>76 Darkmans is fabulous - quite unlike anything else. Although, I wonder whether some of it might be a bit too 'British' to travel well: it's very very specifically about the ... ... But, I have at least a couple of hundred books that I am very eager to read, such as Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Darkmans and Petals of Blood, but haven't been able to get to yet. I'm sure that I'll renew my Archipelago Books subscription next year, and buy the 2010 Orange and Booker ... ... I need to interject shorter works between the tomes. Next month I plan to read Seven Ages of Paris (422 pp) and either Darkmans by Nicola Barker (838 pp) or The World Is What it Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul (499 pp), both of which I've put off for months.
Edited ... ... I'll start The Blackwater Lightship this weekend, thanks for the reminder.
#64: Thanks, Rachael! I have my copy of Darkmans close by, as I would like to read it next week. I bought my hardcover copy at Blackwell's on Charing Cross Road two years ago. My copy of Behindlings is still ... Belated congrats on hitting 75, Darryl! And on the amazing book haul - I just got a copy of Barker's Darkmans for 2.50 from the RSPCA shop last week :) (I've read it already, but it's one of those books I want to own a copy of too....) I loved Darkmans - it was just the right recipe of weird and smart that I like. I have another of her books, Wide Open, but I haven't yet read it. Perhaps this summer. Any fans of Nicola Barker? FlossieT highly recommended Darkmans, which I have and plan to read soon. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2007. She has written other notable novels, but I'm not familiar with her. ... I'd better get serious about the Set It Yourself Challenge - I definitely won't finish it (A Fraction of the Whole, Darkmans, The Woman in White *and* The Master and Margarita still to go - none of which are short and easy) but it would be nice to give it a good try, at least. And it ... ... of V.S. Naipaul, Frantz Fanon: A Biography, Sartre: The Philosopher of the Twentieth Century) and hefty novels (Darkmans, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov, The Satanic Verses, The Moor's Last Sigh, etc.), so I'm sure that my reading will appear to "slo ... ... But I don't think I'll finish the challenge this time - two ~1000 page books still to go! (A Fraction of the Whole and Darkmans.) Meep. ... I plan to get to it this summer (along with the long put off Naipaul biography!).
#145: Thanks for the comment about Darkmans, Rachael, I'll definitely put it on my summer reading list. >141, kidzdoc, I LOVED Darkmans - it's a totally insane book, and one where I found I kept having to flip back and re-read bits to try and work out what on earth was going on, but it kept me following right to the end. The style reminded me a lot of Behindlings, in particular the darkly ... I'd love to hear more about the Espresso machine when you do get to see it, Rachael.
That reminds me, have you read Darkmans by Nicola Barker? I bought it at Blackwell's on Charing Cross Road when I was there in 2007, as Foyles didn't have it that day. I haven't read it yet, mainly due ... ... second everything of yours, manuscript found in saragossa sounds particularly appealing, as does the Nicola Barker's Darkmans, a book that keeps taunting me to read. I think too an adultery would be a wonderful, relatively "easy" intro to A. Theroux (haven't read it myself, but Ganeshak ... ... son; little dorrit; life and opinions of tomcat murr; sot-weed factor; brothers karamazov; colossus of maroussi; darkmans; snow; gargantua and pantagruel; the way we live now; an adultery and just about anything anyone else might suggest. I might even prefer reading ... ... I was reading it. Almost my favourite from the 2007 booker challenge. But Mister Pip still holds that place :-)
Just Darkmans to go now and I've finished the challenge!
Badly needed some light relief after work yesterday and The List: A love story in 781 chapters arrived, it's such a ... ... finished it out of stubbornness.
8) What is the best book you've read in the past year?
The one I enjoyed the most was Darkmans, by Nicola Barker.
9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Hmm, either Anna Karenina or Confederacy of Dunces. Can ... Kent, but it obviously isn't Dickens or H.G. Wells... I haven't read it, but it sounds as though it must be Nicola Barker's Darkmans ... there on the shelves, their spines mocking my best intentions for quite some time:
Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
Darkmans by Nicola Barker
2666 by Roberto Bolano mentioned him in the other tread but this really belongs here.
The Sot Weed Factor by John Barth ... Finn, Mason and Dixon, The Sot-Weed Factor, and books with modern or near-modern UK slang like Black Swan Green or Darkmans. With Kieron Smith, boy I was missing a lot and I'm sure I was 'mistranslating' parts of it. I'll give it another go sometime. ... had a familiar face
Feast of Love
Do travel writers go to Hell?
The Economist Book of Obituaries
Smashed
Darkmans
Last Things
Firebird
... bit worse for wear when it arrived.
Sigh, so with sadness but also excitement I received:
Book of Obituaries and Darkmans I'm almost finished Darkmans, which was a brilliant start to the year. Next is Three Day Road. #47: Let us know what you think of Darkmans after you finish! I'm 400 pages in Darkmans and moving relatively quickly. It's an excellent start to a new year of reading. ... decided this year to catch up on more recent authors. I think I did pretty well.
Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
Darkmans by Nicola Barker
Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
A Mercy by Toni Morrison
Just started Darkmans last night. It's a bit hard to follow at times, and the font it's printed in is a mite hard to focus on (curse you, sans serif!), but it is an enjoyable read nonetheless. ... many books that I want to read that don't quite fit anywhere else, and my lit classes will add more books to my plate.
1. Darkmans by Nicola Barker
2. Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks
3. Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips
4. An Introduction to Elvish by Jim Allan
5. T ... Darkmans by Nicola Barker. ... by Eric Berlin (fiction, 244 pages)
83. Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis (nonfiction, 278 pages)
84. Darkmans by Nicola Barker (fiction, 838 pages)
85. The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta (fiction, 358 pages)
86. The Colossus of New York by Colson Whitehe ... ... - Susan Rabiner (284)
56. What On Earth Have I Done? - Robert Fulghum (308)
57. Be Generous - David Marell (117)
58. Darkmans - Nicola Barker (838)
59. Nobody’s Fool- Richard Russo (549)
60. The Trap - Daniel Brook (274)
61. Why I Jumped - Tina Zahn (239)
62. Don’t Kiss The ... 109. Darkmans by Nicola Barker
I realize this may seem like a niggling reason to dislike an 838-page book, but cat torture is never cool with me; *ever*.
Postmodern masterpiece, whatever. Hanging an animal up by a noose, doing a backflip that kicks it into the ceiling until it's dead? F ... ... - Susan Rabiner (284)
56. What On Earth Have I Done? - Robert Fulghum (308)
57. Be Generous - David Marell (117)
58. Darkmans - Nicola Barker (838)
59. Nobody’s Fool - Richard Russo (549)
60. The Trap - Daniel Brook (274)
61. Why I Jumped - Tina Zahn (239)
62. Don’t Kiss Them Goo ... 123. Darkmans by Nicola Barker. The experience of reading this book can only be compared to riding a ghost train with its brake cable cut - you hurtle with increasing speed through bizarre and sometimes sinister surroundings, with the occasional flash of illumination to show you where you are. ... ... British author
published in the past 5 years or so
good and evil theme with a Bible in there...
I am going to guess Darkmans by Nicola Barker ... so I don't think I'll be finishing anything else this week. In no particular order:
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
Darkmans by Nicola Barker
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
Bonk: the Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roac ... #21 - keep harrassing the library to get it in. Ask for it every time you go in.
I tried to order Darkmans by Nicola Barker at my library many times and kept being told that it was not and never would be included in their stock because there was no call for it.
I told them that I was ... What was your verdict on Darkmans? Glad you took the time to read it or no? Finished Darkmans - once I got into it confusion cleared somewhat, but I'm not entirely satisfied that I understood the story. Think I need a reading guide for this one! 78. Darkmans by Nicola Barker - finished this at last.
I am about halfway through Darkmans - not my favourite read of the year but I shall finish it - it's certainly a long one. Her style is refreshing if a little confusing to start with.
In fact while reading this I have interspersed it with Bridget Jones's Diary and Bridget Jones:The Edge of Re ... Halfway through Darkmans by Nicola Barker. Took a while for me to get used to the way the story is unfolding - all those asides. Still haven't worked out what the bold type signifies. Perhaps someone more enlightened can help me there.
Had to intersperse my reading of it with something light ... ... the whole point of the public library. After reading and loving library copies, I bought The Savage Detectives and Darkmans. I tell myself that someday my kids will ask for a good book and I will have plenty. Yeah, that's why. It's been a few days since I last posted but I have been reading!! Finally finished Darkmans too...so here's an update of my reading...
30. Darkmans by Nicola Barker: enjoyed the storytelling and characterisations but couldn't help feeling I missed something at the end - maybe I was ... I am going to lighten my tbr pile and read Darkmans by Nicola Barker - 863 pages - might take a few days!! ... he and Jack Kerouac could have been very good friends. I will now be hunting down everything I can find by Bolano.
Darkmans by Nicola Barker. This is such a weird book that I probably will have to read it again to fully get it. Dark, funny, smart, and very demented. ... SWTWC from my local library - am looking forward to it after the recommendations :-)
In the meantime, still reading Darkmans. I was also recommended to try www.dailylit.com which sends books (out of copyright so includes many classics) in installments via RSS or email - I picked The Los ... Darkmans is on my TBR list. How is it? ... this one. Is it just me, or does this book remind anyone else of Kerouac con salsa?
I have also started another - Darkmans. I am about 130 pages in, still have no real idea what it is about, and I love this one. Some of these characters are frighteningly familiar. One scene rankled ... ... easy reading for train journeys, some work related reading and some I could get my teeth into!
I'm currently reading Darkmans by Nicola Barker - over 800 pages which is a nice change from the shorter books I usually seem to read... #54 - There is that. :-D
#55/56 - I was wondering the same thing.
#58 - The Da Vinci Code? Also, I gave up on Darkmans very quickly, please tell me why fear of salad - it sounds like my husband and now I need to know. ... out as being original.
Jesus Is A Daddy- I'll let you figure the book for that one.
Fear Of Salad- For the book Darkmans. 84. Darkmans, Nicola Barker, 2007
Medieval jestering in 21st Century Ashford. Lots of linguistic wordplay and some great laugh out loud moments. ... great stuff that didn't make book of the month? For example (and no disrespect here to a wonderful book) I nominated Darkmans for April, but then April was a bit of a dry month for me. Was it actually better than Personality, A Quiet Belief in Angels or Animal's People - all of which are ... ... Mystique - Betty Friedan (reread)
7 Animal's People - Indra Sinha
8 The Haunted Hotel - Wilkie Collins
9 Darkmans - Nicola Barker
10 Being Emily - Anne Donovan (ER copy)
11 The Killer Inside Me - Jim Thompson
12 Affluenza - Oliver James
It's quite hard to pick a ... No, not any more. At the moment I'm absolutely engrossed in 21stC Ashford (Kent, England) with Nicola Barker's Darkmans - what a great book! ... Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. There's a reason this still sells many decades after it first came out.
3. Darkmans by Nicola Barker. This won't appeal to everyone but might do so for those that like over the top smartassed writing. Great big glob of fun reading. ... if I counted correctly. I read between 80 to 120 pages per hour depending on the book.
Some books slow me down. Like Darkmans by Nicola Barker. One reason was I enjoyed the way she used language and savored it. Another was she used a lot of UK slang so sometimes I had to think or find ... ... a book...) but I've gotten to know my own reading habits over the years and my instincts for this are pretty good now.
Darkmans by Nicola Barker has been my biggest disappointment in the past few months. I heard a good review of it, tried to order it and was told that no libraries in Doncas ... If you liked Good Omens you should pick up Darkmans by nicola Barker. It's like if you crossed Gaiman and Prechett with The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. It was on the Booker short list for 2007.
-mistress 'rissa I gave up on Samuel Beckett. My brain says its done reading hard stuff for the year.
64. Darkmans by Nicola Barker
Absolutely amazing! Smart, funny, absurd and nerdy!
65. Criminal Macabre-a Cal MacDonald Mystery: Two Red Eyes by Steve Niles
Honestly, the Cal MacDonald ... ... I thought was fantastic. I will start reading The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng later today, and I'll probably get to Darkmans by Nicola Barker sometime next month. ... just me??
My favourite was Animals people by Indra Sinha but I would have been happy to see On Chesil Beach or Darkmans to win as well. Well, better than being in Ashford, Kent for ages, which is my sorry lot, having started Darkmans... I've read neither Darkmans (800+ pages! Bloody hell...) nor Animal's People, but hopefully one of them will be a stunner...
I'm underwhelmed by the inclusion of On Chesil Beach, Mister Pip, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist and very disappointed by the exclusion of Gifted and What Was ... Hey, hasn't anybody posted the short list yet?
Here we go:
Darkmans by Nicola Barker (Fourth Estate)
The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)
On Chesil Beach ... ... are from the Man Booker Prize longlist.
1. The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
2. Starbook by Ben Okri
3. Darkmans by Nicola Barker
4. The Child in Time by Ian McEwan The Man Booker Prize 2007 long list:
Darkmans by Nicola Barker (Fourth Estate)
Self Help by Edward Docx (Picador)
The Gift Of Rain by Tan Twan Eng (Myrmidon)
The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish ... ... theoretically qualify!)
The Pregnant Widow by Martin Amis
The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks
Darkmans by Nicola Barker
Life Class by Pat Barker
The Song Before It Is Sung by Justin Cartwright
The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies
The Gathering ...
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