Any Readers Here?

[mozo]

Clues in the title, really.

Basically I thought I'd start a thread about summat high-brow to distance myself from the young hooli wannabes on the City forum!

[Sir Colby-Tit]

I just read Cas Pennant's autobiography....oops, sorry!

[turbo]

Just finishe the new Martina Cole book and Rene Descartes Meditations and other metaphysical writings.

[dagest]

Books are my manna man.

The Russian Victor Pelevin is definitely the coolest modern author I've ever read. His The Clay Machine Gun is cool and fantastic. Read it!

Gabriel Garcia Marquez and J.M Coetzee always knock out an imaginative and atmospheric story.

In terms of classics the Russians like Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Gogol etc produce great stuff.

For a classic yarn Dumas is hard to beat. The Count of Monte Cristo is a particular favourite of mine.

[mozo]

Just finishe the new Martina Cole book and Rene Descartes Meditations and other metaphysical writings.

Descartes (everybody's favourite Enlightenment thinker), good read then? Gimme the lowdown on Martina Cole.

Books are my manna man.

The Russian Victor Pelevin is definitely the coolest modern author I've ever read. His The Clay Machine Gun is cool and fantastic. Read it!

Gabriel Garcia Marquez and J.M Coetzee always knock out an imaginative and atmospheric story.

In terms of classics the Russians like Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Gogol etc produce great stuff.

For a classic yarn Dumas is hard to beat. The Count of Monte Cristo is a particular favourite of mine.

Tell me more about this Clay Machine Gun

[North Bristols Cider Army]

Clues in the title, really.

Basically I thought I'd start a thread about summat high-brow to distance myself from the young hooli wannabes on the City forum!

Well I have just bought the Da vinci code, has anybody read it, if so is it any good, I know theres been a lot of hype over it

[dagest]

Descartes (everybody's favourite Enlightenment thinker), good read then? Gimme the lowdown on Martina Cole.

Tell me more about this Clay Machine Gun

If you like books that screw with your brain and leave you feeling uncomfortable about the nature of reality etc it's for you. It's set in the Russian Civil War and has loads of really cool characters, Buddhism, drugs and philosophical dialogues, but remains eminently readable and a very good story.

Have a look:

Amazon

All the other customer reviews will confirm how good it really is.

I only hope I haven't over-hyped it.

[hilltop red]

Well I have just bought the the vinci code, has anybody read it, if so is it any good, I know theres been a lot of hype over it

its good, but remember whilst reading, that it is a work of fiction. Its easy to get carried away with that book.

Defientley worth a read

[mozo]

If you like books that screw with your brain and leave you feeling uncomfortable about the nature of reality etc it's for you. It's set in the Russian Civil War and has loads of really cool characters, Buddhism, drugs and philosophical dialogues, but remains eminently readable and a very good story.

Have a look:

Amazon

All the other customer reviews will confirm how good it really is.

I only hope I haven't over-hyped it.

You can't overhype something that struck a chord with you. If books are your thing I implore you to use this thread whenever you like to impart some of your knowledge for my benefit.

If I'm honest, I'm not a great reader, I much prefer writing (not that I'm a novelist or owt like that, but I'm sure you know what I mean).

The only author that I've read many books by is Kurt Vonnegut Jnr because he captured my imagination when I was kid.

My recent reads have been:

Milan Kundera-Immortality

Norman Mailor-The Fight

and G.C. Ward-Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise & Fall of Jack Johnson

[note that the latter two are about boxing, a current theme of mine).

The only Dostoyevsky I've read is Crime & Punishment, plus one chapter of The Idiot (laziness prevented me from finishing it).

This week I have mostly been reading Truman Capote's 'In Cold Blood' basically cos of the hoohah about the film 'Capote' (and cos it was only £3 in Fopp).

[North Bristols Cider Army]

its good, but remember whilst reading, that it is a work of fiction. Its easy to get carried away with that book.

Defientley worth a read

ok I won't let my imagination take over me

[WTFiGO!?!]

Hello.

I think my favorate and most influential book was 'The Catcher in the Wry'. Turns out the kids' slightly off his rocker but then most of the best characters do tend to be I find.

The Dictionary's quite good. Bit wordy and the plot is fairly confusing, but no, I was gripped - looking forward to the film.

And then there's this writer; Busty Becky, who features in this magazine I prescribe to, she does tend to be slightly crude at times though.

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Here's a though for every man who tries to understand what's in his hands. He walks along the open road of love and life surviving if he can - but only if he can....('Cast no Shadow' - Oasis)

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[hilltop red]

The Dictionary's quite good. Bit wordy and the plot is fairly confusing, but no, I was gripped - looking forward to the film.

i feel the author spent too much time with the "s" chapter and not enough with "x" "y" "z". The ending just seems rushed. Was gripped though. The second book the "theasuraus" was a real dissapointment.

[mozo]

Hello.

I think my favorate and most influential book was 'The Catcher in the Wry'. Turns out the kids' slightly off his rocker but then most of the best characters do tend to be I find.

The Dictionary's quite good. Bit wordy and the plot is fairly confusing, but no, I was gripped - looking forward to the film.

And then there's this writer; Busty Becky, who features in this magazine I prescribe to, she does tend to be slightly crude at times though.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Here's a though for every man who tries to understand what's in his hands. He walks along the open road of love and life surviving if he can - but only if he can....('Cast no Shadow' - Oasis)

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

'Catcher In The Rye' is a really nice book I reckon.

I hate to break it to you but Busty Becky's words are probably penned by a fat fifty-five year-old bloke who has a habit of all-day onanism. Think of that next time you 'read' your magazine!

[WTFiGO!?!]

I hate to break it to you but Busty Becky's words are probably penned by a fat fifty-five year-old bloke who has a habit of all-day onanism. Think of that next time you 'read' your magazine!

Oh I'm well aware

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Young man, there's no need to feel down.....('YMCA' - The Village People)

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[dagest]

Oh I'm well aware

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Young man, there's no need to feel down.....('YMCA' - The Village People)

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If there was ever a time to invent a "throwing-up" smiley it is now.

[mozo]

Look you lot, stop ruining Mozo's literary thread! This is high brow don't you know.

[tommy doc]

Look you lot, stop ruining Mozo's literary thread! This is high brow don't you know.

Referring to yourself in the third person? How very high brow indeed

[WTFiGO!?!]

Look you lot, stop ruining Mozo's literary thread! This is high brow don't you know.

I'll make you a deal, high-brow conversations ain't really my thing, eye-brow conversations on the other hand;now we're talking. So I'll have a stab at giving you a bit of pretentious high-brow waffle if you then allow me to give you a bit of very silly eye-brow waffle, 2, no 3 fasinating eyebrow story's spring to mind, but I'll have to keep you in suspense just for a while longer.

I've read a bit of the works of Sigmund Freud and the main point I'll highlight in this summary was that he thought you could divide men up into two main categories like thus:those that liked women with big breasts and those that liked women with small breasts. My overall evaluation is:''no more drugs for that man''. I think he'd probably had one to many toots on your crackpipe mate.

Einstein I thought was thick as pigswill so I can't be bothered with that.

Read parts of Plato's Republic and although I think had he been able to kick my hedenistic tendencies out of me may have taken me under his wing he was a bit of a fascist old coot imo.

Biography a many I have read. Georgie Orwell, my main man Lennon, many old booze lugging footballers such as GB and Rodney Marsh and many books on football in general actually. Howard Marks, gangster books, Frank Skinner - I related particularly well with his outlook on this crazy world, funny bloke imo. Anyway, eye-brows.....

One of my brothers has got a mate whoes always just been known as Brow due to the fact he has only one fat eye-brow reaching from the left side of his left eye to the right side of his right eye. I've always been from the school of thought that says your eyebrow colour matches your natural hair colour....up intill what is now yesterday that is. Met someone with brown eyebrows but ginger hair,(I'd like to point out it's the sexyish ginger type hair that Shannon from Home and Away had - still open to carrot-top abuse mind you) I said, 'Surely you've not died your hair ginger?!!!!' Turns out she hadn't (nor her eyebrows brown btw). Told her about my hair/eyebrow colour theory which has now been dismissed as an utter load of testicles.

Third eye-brow tale, once had someone wanting to pluck, yes PLUCK, mine, and the few I have in that gap between the two of them, which my brother's mate Brow doesn't have. I told her, had I been a raving faggott I may have gone along with her idea.

Anyway, this post has been as lengthy as it has been pointless so I shall call it a night I think.

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Mr. Brown is a clown who rides to town in a coffin....('Mr.Brown' - Bob Marley)

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[dagest]

I'll make you a deal, high-brow conversations ain't really my thing, eye-brow conversations on the other hand;now we're talking. So I'll have a stab at giving you a bit of pretentious high-brow waffle if you then allow me to give you a bit of very silly eye-brow waffle, 2, no 3 fasinating eyebrow story's spring to mind, but I'll have to keep you in suspense just for a while longer.

I've read a bit of the works of Sigmund Freud and the main point I'll highlight in this summary was that he thought you could divide men up into two main categories like thus:those that liked women with big breasts and those that liked women with small breasts. My overall evaluation is:''no more drugs for that man''. I think he'd probably had one to many toots on your crackpipe mate.

Einstein I thought was thick as pigswill so I can't be bothered with that.

Read parts of Plato's Republic and although I think had he been able to kick my hedenistic tendencies out of me may have taken me under his wing he was a bit of a fascist old coot imo.

Biography a many I have read. Georgie Orwell, my main man Lennon, many old booze lugging footballers such as GB and Rodney Marsh and many books on football in general actually. Howard Marks, gangster books, Frank Skinner - I related particularly well with his outlook on this crazy world, funny bloke imo. Anyway, eye-brows.....

One of my brothers has got a mate whoes always just been known as Brow due to the fact he has only one fat eye-brow reaching from the left side of his left eye to the right side of his right eye. I've always been from the school of thought that says your eyebrow colour matches your natural hair colour....up intill what is now yesterday that is. Met someone with brown eyebrows but ginger hair,(I'd like to point out it's the sexyish ginger type hair that Shannon from Home and Away had - still open to carrot-top abuse mind you) I said, 'Surely you've not died your hair ginger?!!!!' Turns out she hadn't (nor her eyebrows brown btw). Told her about my hair/eyebrow colour theory which has now been dismissed as an utter load of testicles.

Third eye-brow tale, once had someone wanting to pluck, yes PLUCK, mine, and the few I have in that gap between the two of them, which my brother's mate Brow doesn't have. I told her, had I been a raving faggott I may have gone along with her idea.

Anyway, this post has been as lengthy as it has been pointless so I shall call it a night I think.

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Mr. Brown is a clown who rides to town in a coffin....('Mr.Brown' - Bob Marley)

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What an odd, but ultimately likeable man you are. (I'm not being undiverse, just in case the thought police are watching) I'm still trying to work out if you were tired or just stoned.

You can't overhype something that struck a chord with you. If books are your thing I implore you to use this thread whenever you like to impart some of your knowledge for my benefit.

If I'm honest, I'm not a great reader, I much prefer writing (not that I'm a novelist or owt like that, but I'm sure you know what I mean).

The only author that I've read many books by is Kurt Vonnegut Jnr because he captured my imagination when I was kid.

My recent reads have been:

Milan Kundera-Immortality

Norman Mailor-The Fight

and G.C. Ward-Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise & Fall of Jack Johnson

[note that the latter two are about boxing, a current theme of mine).

The only Dostoyevsky I've read is Crime & Punishment, plus one chapter of The Idiot (laziness prevented me from finishing it).

This week I have mostly been reading Truman Capote's 'In Cold Blood' basically cos of the hoohah about the film 'Capote' (and cos it was only £3 in Fopp).

I suppose we can still go back to the orginal subject can't we? What was Kundera like Mozo? I know his "Unbearable likeness of Being" is supposed to be very good.

If you fancy reading a bit more Dostoyevsky, some of his short sotries are very good. "The Double" is very amusing and sinsiter.

What do you write?

To be honest, I think I've got a couple of novellas in me, but my existence as a helpless slave in the capitalist economy ultimately frustrates any literary ambitions I might have.

That's another Blair crime: preventing the greatest living novelist from existing at all.

[solo1bc]

Strictly Historical books for me mainly. I hardly ever read contemporary stuff unless it's some conspiracy nonsense

Top 3 books all adults should read apparently as voted by 'somebody or other that I can't remember' recently:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird (hmm, I guess so but number 1?)

2. The Bible

3. Lord of the Rings (now that I agree with!)

Interesting that the bible is listed with other works of fiction?!

For an easy read I like Coleen McGulloch, Conn Iggulden or some fantasy stuff like Robert Jordan or Raymond E. Fiest. Tolkein as well.

If I'm prepared to use my brain then I'll read some classics like Dickens or Dumas (Tale of Two Cities & Monte Cristo are both amazing books) or some non-fictional stuff (usually something to do with history as well). Have just finished something called 'The Terror before Trafalgar' which is something I wasn't aware of before (about the threat of Napolean invading Britain).

As for writing then I've been writing the same novel for about 10 years. Still only about 5 chapters so it's quite possible I'm not cut out for it! One day I'll have that doobie farm in Cornwall though so I'll get back to it then!

WTFIGO - So you only questioned her on the 'eyebrow' descrepency? Nothing else?

[barry_manc]

I like this thread

Well I have just bought the the vinci code, has anybody read it, if so is it any good, I know theres been a lot of hype over it

I'm sorry but I have some very contraversial views of that fraudulent (-unt. He should die he did not write any of that drivel and I cannot beleive how fickel the modern day reader has become. If I had one bullet, it would be from me to him.

its good, but remember whilst reading, that it is a work of fiction. Its easy to get carried away with that book.

Defientley worth a read

No, no and no.

WTFIGO WTF? Very entertaining read. Completely lost though. I have a friend called Eyebrow. Maybe we can compare stories over some marinated catapillars and mulled wine?

Read a book by Tom Robbins called Villa Incognito, it's so so funny, the first sentance reads something like:

"It has been reported that Tanuki fell from the sky using his scrotum as a parachute."

And it continues for 2 hundred pages or so talking about Tanuki (a Japanese type of Badger) and their overly large sized scortums.

Writing is food for the soul. Damn straight. Have a script I wrote that I'm sending about at the mo, the writer of Biker Grover is looking over it

[barry_manc]

10.58 AM

Bottoms up? Bloody alchy.

[WTFiGO!?!]

What an odd, but ultimately likeable man you are. (I'm not being undiverse, just in case the thought police are watching) I'm still trying to work out if you were tired or just stoned.

The thought police are always watching my friend

Am flattered by your compliments, they have been well received, I like to pride myself on both qualities of oddness and friendliness. To show my appreciation, here, have a :pancake: . Enjoy. (Edit: That was meant to be a pancake, just not meant to be I s'pose :-()

No though, have strange enough thought processess and paranoid tendencies without the addage of narcotics. :Cool27:

They tend to make me go a tad :Crazy:

Anyway, bottoms up :Party3:

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I found my freedom, on Blueberry Hill, on Blueberry Hill, when I found you. The moon stood still on Blueberry Hill, it lingered until my dream came true. ('Blueberry Hill' - Fats Domino)

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WTFIGO - So you only questioned her on the 'eyebrow' descrepency? Nothing else?

I can confirm that the hair on her nipples is also ging.

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I've never seen you looking as lovely as you did tonight, have never seen you shine so bright....

('Lady in Red' - Eric Clapton)

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[WTFiGO!?!]

I like this thread

I have a friend called Eyebrow.

Eyebrow??? what were his parents thinking?

10.58 AM

Bottoms up? Bloody alchy.

Oi! less of the bloody, tis s'pose to be a family show don't you know.

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Girls, and all I really want is girls, and in the morning it's girls cos in the evening its girls. I like the way that they walk, and its chill to here them talk, and I can always make them smile - from my castle to the Nile.

('Girls' - Beastie Boys)

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[mozo]

What an odd, but ultimately likeable man you are. (I'm not being undiverse, just in case the thought police are watching) I'm still trying to work out if you were tired or just stoned.

I suppose we can still go back to the orginal subject can't we? What was Kundera like Mozo? I know his "Unbearable likeness of Being" is supposed to be very good.

If you fancy reading a bit more Dostoyevsky, some of his short sotries are very good. "The Double" is very amusing and sinsiter.

What do you write?

To be honest, I think I've got a couple of novellas in me, but my existence as a helpless slave in the capitalist economy ultimately frustrates any literary ambitions I might have.

That's another Blair crime: preventing the greatest living novelist from existing at all.

Kundera was pretty good. Thoughtful and ponderable, and I get the feeling that the storyline was just a vehicle for him to philosophise through. There are three parts to Immortality really, a story about a bird, his thought's on Goethe and a a story about this fellas sexual exploits. I particularly enjoyed reading it because the chapters are really short, 2-4 pages each, which helped me keep my concentration!

The only writing I do is for a boxing website, which I've been a correspondent for since the turn of the year. I'd love to be a novelist - the hours are great and you don't have to wear a collar and tie. It's the ultimate lazy man's job.

As for your novellas Dagest, 100 words a night is reasonable (you waste that much on here!), get it started.

I'll make you a deal, high-brow conversations ain't really my thing

Biography a many I have read. Georgie Orwell, my main man Lennon, many old booze lugging footballers such as GB and Rodney Marsh and many books on football in general actually. Howard Marks, gangster books, Frank Skinner - I related particularly well with his outlook on this crazy world, funny bloke imo.

I'll let you into a secret, I'm not the most high-brow man in the world myself (I'm sure you didn't guess that much).

A lot of people frown upon biorgraphies but I've read loads. I've read that Howard Marks one, plus loads of boxing biographies. Some football, Keane obviously, Cloughy too. Bill Hicks, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and other randoms.

The best bigraphy I read recently was Malcolm X. It a wicked book I reckon, he had an amazing life, became fiercely racist against white people (and put forward a compelling argument for it) and obviously played his part in Elijah Mohammad's movement, then went to Mecca and discovered that true Islam is a peaceful and non-discrimitory religion and it changed his whole life. He wrote it shortly before his death because he knew he was going to get killed sooner or later. Bang! He did.

Referring to yourself in the third person? How very high brow indeed

It's the ultimate sign of egotism innit! Mozo really must do it more often

[All Those Wasted Years]

Jack Kerouac.

Further:

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels - 'The Communist Manifesto'.

As inspiring today as at the time it was written. There remains a compulsive quality to its prose as it provides insight time and again into the society in which we live, where it comes from and where it is going. It is still able to explain today's world of recurrent wars and repeated economic crises, of hunger of hundreds of millions in the one hand and 'overproduction' on the other.

In Seattle at the very end of the twentieth century a new anti-capitalist movement was born. This political pamphlet, I believe, remains a manifesto for it.

[mozo]

Writing is food for the soul. Damn straight. Have a script I wrote that I'm sending about at the mo, the writer of Biker Grover is looking over it

Is it about geordies?

[barry_manc]

Is it about geordies?

No, Bristolian builders. He's good at the contextualised national dialect thing.

[mozo]

many old booze lugging footballers such as GB and Rodney Marsh and many books on football in general actually

I'll tell what the best football biography I've read is - 'Garrincha'.

Garrincha was a 1950s Brazilian wing-wizard who was born in an impoverished shanty town. From birth he had crooked legs and doctors expected him to be crippled all his life, yet somehow he could dribble the ball like no other player in Brazil. He had outstanding pace and unparalelled trickery and was unstoppable down the right wing. He was an extremely selfish player and his favourite thing to do was to beat a player, leaving them on their arse, then wait for them to get up and get back in position so that he could beat them again!

He was notoriously thick and easily led and for most of his career had terrible alcohol addiction. Amusingly, he was also, although not a looker like George Best was, extremely well-hung and his thirst for sex was unquenchable. I'd imagine he out-sh@gged the brits from the 70s by a long margine.

I think he played for Botofogo and was part of the national teams of the 50s. Pele was coming though when Garrincha was in his prime, and attributed a lot of his success to his friend with the freakish legs.

No, Bristolian builders. He's good at the contextualised national dialect thing.

I'm confused, have you really written a script? If so, tell me more. If not, why am I so poor at spotting wind-ups?

[solo1bc]

I can confirm that the hair on her nipples is also ging.

Sexy!