Last book you read

I keep seeing Chav hoes reading it on the bus on the way to/from work. Who the hell wants to read an erotic novel on the bus!? Although I suppose this being the first book they've ever read means its better than nothing..

This might sound snobby but when I see someone reading 50 shades of grey I automatically assume that they don't usually read. It's even more plebian than the Da Vinci Code.

That might be a sweeping generalisation but I tried to read some of it on holiday (every girl we were with had a copy :s ) and it was genuinely terrible, I don't see why anyone who reads regularly would give it the time of day after a few chapters.

She writes like a 15 year old doing some expressive writing in an English class, the dialogue is terrible, the story as far as I followed it just didn't ring true at all and the sex scenes (yes I skipped forward ) aren't sexy, or erotic or anything really.

A true display of style over substance.


But I digress.

I've recently finished reading a biography of an old Glasgow cop. Was decent enough.

Now I'm reading Frankie Boyle's latest book now. He's completely lost the plot this weather. It's all over the place and I'm not sure whether it's supposed to be ironic, stir shit up or he just gets high and writes whatever comes to his mind but it's really bizarre and off the wall in places.

He does make several good points about Peter Kay being absolutely shit though. Which brings us full circle as Peter Kay is undoubtedly the 50 shades of grey of the comedy world.

"Journey of souls" by Michael Newton.

"Everything Is Illuminated" - Jonathan Safran Foer.
I so love his work. It took me some time to really get into the plot since he uses quite unconventional methods which could be described as post-modern and jumps between centuries and generations. Not as good as "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" (which was an emotional roller-coaster ride - I've never read a book that made me sad and hopeful on so many levels)!
I strongly recommend both books.

Interesting viewpoint from the opposite gender and exactly how I felt about it. I figured that since it was such a big deal I should at least start the trilogy and see how it went. Even then I knew it was Twilight fan fiction that had been tweaked some but I thought - "ah, don't be such a book snob."

And I couldn't agree more with your assessment - I finished book one (sort of) I resorted to reading really fast and skimming and had no desire to continue.

However (and it's a big however), in a way I am happy to see the big splash those books made. Is it finally acceptable for women to admit that they read porn (or erotica if you will) also? When I was my daughter's age there was NOTHING available but male oriented porn. Nothing at all from the female point of view. Nancy Friday and My Secret Garden didn't even come along until the later 70s when I was close to 30. These days there isn't a plethora of female porn but there is some damn good erotica out there which I am very pleased to see. I may be in the minority admitting this but just maybe 50 Shades may move the attitude a bit.

And on a related not, I saw Avenue Q this past weekend in the city. The internet is for porn

That's a great point Kathleen but I think the actual erotica in it is piss poor too. Of course this is coming from a guys point of view so it might be different if you're female. I've noticed there's dozens of authors jumped on the band wagon throwing out similar stuff.

I bought a bunch of books from the pound shop when I was drunk a few weeks ago (never a good idea) One is called Jaclyn the Ripper.

Jack the Ripper is sent into the future by HG Wells whose time machine was actually built and worked but somehow Jack is turned into a female during the time travelling process and lands in the 21st century America and wants to get revenge. Somehow or other HG Wells manages to travel forward in time too and needs to try and stop her whilst hunting for his estranged wife (who I think came from the 70s, went back to the 19th century with Wells and then decided to piss off to the 21st century because she wasn't happy in the marriage)

It's as terrible as it sounds and about 2 chapters in the story is already getting stupidly convoluted. The only book I've never managed to finish was Hitler's follow up to Mein Kampf so I'd like to think I'll get through this one eventually but it's such a stupid premise for what could actually be a pretty cool story if you took out HG Wells as a protagonist and didn't turn the Ripper into a female.

What the ****?!?

Have you read any of the books Kathleen?? I can't get into the first book at all, aquired it once all the hype died down. It is poorly written. Everyone that I know who has read them says the same but they are good....

I just don't know how people can enjoy/read a book that is so bad...

I actually forced myself to read/skim the 50 Shades trilogy. Not really sure why. Terrible writing, ridiculous characters, more filler than a Subway sandwich, and the sex scenes are actually kind of boring... But for anyone who's ever tried to follow a bad fanfiction serial that went on forever, you can see how this used to be one. But hey, each to their own.

Last book I read was "I Couldn't Love You More" by Jillian Medoff... Probably a little slow paced or soapish for some, but I really got into it.

It was a very long winded way of saying I'm reading this book that is terrible but not quite as terrible as Hitler's second book.

That being said, I read a few more chapters during the week and it's growing on me. Better than 50 shades for what it's worth.