Spotlight Book Club - recommendations

Finished 'Solar'. Was okay, but not one of Ian McEwan's best. Started Cormac McCarthy's 'Blood Meridian' - takes a while to get into his writing style, but enjoying it so far - brutal and poetic.
 
not read them yet but on my next to read list are

Not really Here - Paul Lake

and We Need To Talk About Alan
 
And I plan to read A Christmas Carol in December. Obviously know the story, but have never read the original text.
 
Johnny Vodka said:
Anyone know much about Cormac McCarthy? Seeing as I loved The Road, what would be the next book of his I should read. I've seen the film of No Country For Old Men already, so would rather another story...
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Try Blood Meridian.

Then The Border Trilogy (which took me months to read)

Great books.

A similar style book in subject matter to The Road is "Far North" by Marcel Theroux. brilliantly written.
 
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books

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Three great books i've read recently, the last one "War" is also a short docu-film called Restrepo. fascinating.
 
Johnny Vodka said:
Just started it. As with The Road, it takes you a few pages to get used to his writing style, but it works very well. Far more brutal depiction of the wild west than anything I've seen on film.
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Yeah, it took me a while to get into it too. Worth persevering with it.

I can see how he made such a jump, genre wise, between these western books and the apocalyptic theme of "The Road" as Blood Meridian is so bleak.

Even moreso than The Road because it doesn't have the Father/Son relationship which provides an element of humanity and hope to the storyline, there's none in Blood Meridian.

Hmm gonna stop there or I might start sounding a bit academic and stuff, like.
 
The style is similar and I can see a general lawlessness/what men will stoop to when there's no society/authority/etc theme. Maybe David Cameron should read? :lol:

Got a load of books tracked in my Media Pricer: Wuthering Heights, Far North (ta!), Let The Right One In, Walkabout, Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, We Need To Talk About Kevin... I won't run out of reading ideas in the near future. 8)
 
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We need to talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver

In case no one's mentioned it already.

Just finished it moments ago, amazing!
 
I'm about halfway through Blood Meridian now. It's good, but hard going. As soon as December starts, I'm gonna take a break from it and read A Christmas Carol.
 
Finished 'Blood Meridian' - good book, but hard work and not convinced I 100% understood it. What to make of the judge? It'll be a while before I have the brain power for another McCarthy... I like his style, but it takes a hell of a lot of concentration.

Chose 'Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' over 'We Need To Talk About Kevin' for my next read. Already started it and enjoying it so far. I'm guessing it continues more as a discussion of ideas rather than an actual story? Hopefully I can get through this one a bit quicker!
 
Anyone into their Knut Hamsun? :lol: I read 'Hunger' ages ago and really liked it. Today I read an article in The Guardian that mentioned 'Pan'. Would that be a good next book of his to read or should I go for something else?
 
I'm reading this at the moment, it's the 2nd book in a trilogy
It's not a light read!! But it's mind blowing!

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I'm sure I asked this before, but I don't think it was on this forum...

Can anyone recommend a book which tracks man's relationship with psychedelic plants? I'm not talking about hippy stuff, but going much further back in time. It's a theory I'm interested in (that mushrooms, etc influenced the human mind, spiritual belief, religion and society) and I'm looking for a reasonably academic book on the subject!
 
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