Spudrick68
Justified & Ancient
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2008
- Messages
- 3,646
Peripart: no I generally only recently got to reading crime novels so was reading different authors to see what I do and don't like.
I read a lot of crime novels, which authors have you tried so far?Peripart: no I generally only recently got to reading crime novels so was reading different authors to see what I do and don't like.
I do like Ian Rankin and I do like Peter Robinson. I read one author who's book I found chilling but interesting but can't recall her name! Perhaps old hat now but I read one by Peter James and I enjoyed that.
Doesn't ring any bells but I'll probably stumble across it one of these days.Thank you I will look at your suggestions. I love to read non fiction but sometimes a good novel is relaxing. the disturbing one involved a hanging in an old industrial unit and a murder tour operator finding the body on a tour.
I read one author who's book I found chilling but interesting but can't recall her name!
Another book worth having a look at is The Dry by Jane Harper - mystery set in a small town in the Australian outback during a drought. A city cop returns home for the funeral for a friend who appears to have murdered his family and then killed himself but quickly realises it's not that simple.
It was recommended to me by one of the staff in Waterstones who also advised me not to make any plans once I started reading it - he was right, it's one of those "Oh just one more chapter then..." books.
To be honest, I would be highly suspicious, through perhaps entirely unjustified in doing so, of someone who proudly states they have never read a book.
There's a bloke round our way - a slightly older gentleman who looks and sounds a bit like Dave Angel - who is well known for announcing his intense pride at never having read a book. Unlike Dave he is no eco-warrior, but nevertheless holds some strong convictions and seems to suspect the reading of books to be either an indicator or possibly a cause of homosexuality in the human male.
looks like ive tried to kickstart before, recall finishing the crumleyjolting this old thread back to life as ive recently been able to strongarm myself back into reading after what must be well over a decade
...the reading of books to be ... a cause of homosexuality in the human male.
There's a bloke round our way - a slightly older gentleman who looks and sounds a bit like Dave Angel - who is well known for announcing his intense pride at never having read a book. Unlike Dave he is no eco-warrior, but nevertheless holds some strong convictions and seems to suspect the reading of books to be either an indicator or possibly a cause of homosexuality in the human male.
When I was a kid we had a neighbour like that. My dad was an avid reader but this guy - an insurance salesman from one of the posher suburbs of Manchester - was convinced that anyone who had time to read either didn't work hard enough or was avoiding more manly pursuits like drinking beer and watching the Grand Prix.
He also made disparaging remarks about my dad hanging out the washing.
I remember the day this happened watching my dad step over the very low hedge between our gardens, walk over to the guy and speak quietly to him for a couple of minutes.
'What were you talking about, dad? I asked when he came back in.
'Not much. I told him what I did in the war!'
Never had any more mither after that.
My Uncle Peter had a habit of asking people "What are you supposed to do for a living then?" When they told him what their job was, he would step back, look them up and down, slowly shake head and say "That's not a man's job."
It didn't matter what sort of job you did - Lumberjack, Alligator wrestler, bomb-disposal expert, according to Uncle Peter it wasn't a man's job.
And what was his manly profession? He was an assistant storeman for the council's parks department and, by all accounts a lazy, officious, whingeing, pain in the nether regions who spent most of his time either complaining or just being as awkward as possible.
My squaddie son, raised like the others on the Guardian, would read that fine publication while other square-bashers moved their index fingers along under the print in the Sun or Star. He was roundly mocked for being an intellectual. It only got worse when he was seen reading a book. A book! Who DID he think he was?
...Another book worth having a look at is The Dry by Jane Harper - mystery set in a small town in the Australian outback during a drought. A city cop returns home for the funeral for a friend who appears to have murdered his family and then killed himself but quickly realises it's not that simple...
looks like ive tried to kickstart before, recall finishing the crumley...
Maybe he was one of those people who'd confused 'unsociable' with 'antisocial'?This thread has reminded me that some years back I heard an interview on Radio 4 with a guy who proposed that reading was bad for society because it was anti-social.
Maybe he was one of those people who'd confused 'unsociable' with 'antisocial'?
Reading is an 'unsociable' activity, but it's not antisocial.
My Mum, bless her, made this mistake with me when I was young (because I read a LOT and never went anywhere). I had to point out that I wasn't doing anything bad.