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Original poster

Help me decide on a book to take on holiday next week

163 replies

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 06/04/2014 15:45

A real, live book - not Kindle. Has to be one I've not read before and has to be big. Ideally it will - be well written without being literary, have either a who-dunnit or historical or dystopian or apocalyptic element to it, or indeed all of those.

Things that would tick those boxes but that I've already read are:
Anything by Wilkie Collins
The Passage / The Twelve
CJ Sansom's Shardlake books
This Thing of Darkness

Don't fancy sci-fi at the moment and don't want anything in the best seller lists.

Thanks in advance.

OP posts:
Original poster
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 12/04/2014 21:48

Charlie - that's kind, thank you - have read it though.

Game of Thrones - have read two & given up as the writing is so bad.

John Connolly - didn't like The Book of Lost Things much, so have never tried any of his others. Are they v different?

Love the Holmes stories but have read them all many times. Don't like Middlemarch.

OP posts:
Hiphopopotamus · 12/04/2014 21:44

Obviously that should be 'Thrones'

Hiphopopotamus · 12/04/2014 21:44

Games of Throne? Cracking book - and if you like it, will get you into a whole book ( and TV) series.

CheckpointCharlie · 12/04/2014 21:30

remus I think I have a Touching the Void from a couple of years ago when I was a book giver (am this year too, and last year!) I can stick it in the post if you fancy it?

dingalong · 12/04/2014 19:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 12/04/2014 18:55

Ooh yes - that does look good. :)

OP posts:
MadamBatShit · 12/04/2014 18:12

Yep me too, the old stories are more interesting than the modern ones about sponsors and high tech mojo. Though Simpson and Krakauer do it well.

Hm, novels are tricky, lots of them are rather boring.
Strange bodies by Marcel Theroux?

Original poster
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 12/04/2014 17:40

Read it - absolutely loved it.
Read Joe S' ones too.
Think I might have read Herzog too: having a memory fail.

I love mountain ones but only really the historical ones, rather than contemporary. I'm fine finding non-fiction generally, but am really struggling with novels.

OP posts:
MadamBatShit · 12/04/2014 17:36

Do you like mountain climbing books? I may have asked this before (not here though) and I cannot remember..
Into the Silence by Wade Davis.

About Malory, war and the mountain.
Fear of hights, that's me, but reading about these expeditions... ah, the stuff of madness!
Herzog's book about Annapurna is fab too, but probably not long enough. Also not very accurate but the story is good anyway.
Jon Krakauer and Joe Simpson do good books on this as well, but also too short probably.

Original poster
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 12/04/2014 16:17

Read and love, 'The Worst Journey in the World' - one of my favourite books ever.

OP posts:
MadamBatShit · 12/04/2014 16:01

Don DeLillo. Definitely man. Big one is Underworld.

Have you read Unfinite Jest? David Foster Wallace. Very big one.

A naked singularity, Sergio de la Pava, very trendy, and big.

Neal Stephenson.

Paul Preston's the Spanish Holocaust. Not exactly ight holiday reading, very big.

You've read the Worst Journey in the World?

I must admit not to have read these but they are from my 'to read' pile.

DuchessofMalfi · 12/04/2014 15:24

Final suggestion - something by Sharon Penman? Detailed, historical, and very long eg The Sunne in Splendour, or Lionheart? I have both of these lined up to read - getting more interested in historical novels.

Original poster
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 12/04/2014 14:43

Charlie - yes I knew you meant Jasper Fffffffffffffffffff and not the racy series! I don't like Jasper Fffffffffff and haven't read the racy ones. One paragraph as a taster was at least 6 lines too many.

Have read Ken Follet's ones. Not v well written but okay to lose self in a doorstop for a while.

I don't mind YA and actually read it often, but they are just not long enough for what I want now.

I can't read Cloud Atlas. Have tried, several times, but it bores me to tears and makes me want to poke myself with a pointed stick just to cheer myself up a bit.

Hated, 'Gone with the Wind'. I actually didn't finish it - made it about three quarters of the way through, hating every minute of it, and then realised that I didn't actually have to finish the damn thing.

Read Line of Beauty and Midnight's Children but neither are really my sort of thing. Only read because desperate.

I still haven't got anything - think I will have to buy something at the airport, in which case it'll probably end up being a history book.

OP posts:
traviata · 11/04/2014 16:53

what did you decide in the end?

evelynj · 11/04/2014 14:45

I was going to rec heartbreaking work-I loved it but seemingly it's a bit marmite -couldn't get into you will know our velocity but what is the what is worth reading.

Have you read Cloud Atlas? Sorry if it's been mentioned.

The line of beauty
Midnights children
Fatherland

I was looking for recs from the last 10-20 years really :)

DBXmum · 11/04/2014 14:31

Wilbur Smith? Lots to lose yourself in there....

DBXmum · 11/04/2014 14:30

Gone With the Wind? I didn't like it much but again it's long!

DBXmum · 11/04/2014 14:29

Game of Thrones and all the sequels?

DBXmum · 11/04/2014 14:27

Did you read The crimson Petal and The White? It's historical and it's long :)

CheckpointCharlie · 10/04/2014 23:54

Likewise with Gormengast. You know I meant shades of grey by jasper Fforde not the salacious one?! Just checking.

A dystopian adult book I liked was called Divided Kingdom by Robert somebody, really good, a bit disturbing.

I know you said you weren't sure about YA but Blood Red Road is really good. By Moira somebody (have been to the pub and can't remember surnames)

Bit cheesy but have you read any Ken Follett? Pillars of the earth is properly epic.

Original poster
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 10/04/2014 19:45

Thanks all.

Have read:

The Patrick Ness ones - liked
The Rivers of London ones - 1st one okay; didn't like the others
Shades of Grey - didn't like it
American Wife - disliked
I tried Gormenghast but didn't manage to finish it.

Thanks for the reminder about, 'The Circle.' I loved, 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" so, "The Circle" is now definitely on my list.

Googling the others now, thanks.

OP posts:
JodieGarberJacob · 10/04/2014 18:26

I'll offer 'London' or 'New York' by Edward Rutherfurd.

JodieGarberJacob · 10/04/2014 18:19

Oooh I nearly picked up The Goldfinch in the library yesterday! Unfortunately it was a weekly loan and not renewable and I knew I wouldn't get through it that quickly! Definitely on my list of must-reads!

ladybranston · 10/04/2014 18:17

my suggestion:

North and South trilogy by John Jakes...amazingly written, historical, gorgeous characters...really one of the best books i've read all year.

S

nettie · 10/04/2014 17:33

What about the Gormenghast trilogy?

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