1. Fiasco - The American adventure in Iraq - Thomas Ricks
2. Lois on the Loose - Lois Price (she rides a motorbike the length of the America - v. good)
3. Kill your friends - John Niven

2 out of 3 Word related. Must get out more.

Right, in reverse order

Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel - a good premise about a medium who is tortured mentally by the shady characters from her abusive childhood, but it is too long and seriously loses its teeth in the middle.

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami - a fantastic, deadpan, slightly odd coming-of-age story set in Tokyo in the sixties, full of coffee, cigarettes, jazz, pop and lots of doing-it. It seems naive and slow for a while and then hooks you in until you are rooting mercilessly for the characters.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro - an exquisite novel with once more, as ever with Ishiguro, a deluded, unreliable narrator in Stevens, an ageing Butler looking back over his life, who lies to himself and in the process lies to the reader. The construction of the novel is excellent, its dialogue diamond hard and honed to crystalline perfection and the gradual dawning of the truth, romantic or political, is absolutely devestating.

Wow honest to goodness, no fibs.

Mine are:

1) A history of Modern Britain by Andrew Marr.
BBC bod delivers an excellent, readable, history book which has kept me engrossed for several hundres pages. Suprisingly good on the music too.
2) Toast by Nigel Slater. One of the best biographies I've read in years. Really excellent and thoroughly recommended.
2) The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Did not finish). Bought on a whim...good investigation of the disproportionate impact of highly unlikely events, however I found it overlong and bailed out before the end

I sometimes wish that The Word spent a little more magazine space in the literary world - any thoughts?

What A Carve Up by Jonathon Coe
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson
(both highly-recommended page-turners)
Rich Desserts & Captain’s Thin by Margaret Forster (about the Carr family biscuit firm in Carlisle, which sounds achingly dull but is nothing of the sort .)

Also reading After The Victorians by AN Wilson on the side - slowly, because it’s pretty dense.

Great thread, dolly. Could well prove more useful than the music one.

1. Just about to finish the Andrew Marr. Highly recommended. Got it for Christmas and only recently got around to it. You can get it in paperback from Amazon for just £3.55!

2. London in the Nineteenth Century - Jerry white. Excellent, non-stuffy, readable history.

3. Kill your Friends - John Niven. Had to get this after hearing the author on the podcast. Highly unlikely ever to be chosen for Radio 4's Book at Bedtime.

And yes, I'd welcome a bit more literary coverage in the magazine. Without checking on back issues, I feel there used to be more in the early days.

In order of reading, most recent first:

Running For The Hills - Horatio Clare
Utterly captivating account of an unusual middle-class upbringing in the depths of Thatcher-ravaged Wales, on a hill farm, raising sheep with a bonkers yet fantastic mum and intermittently stoic dad. Brilliant.

Kill Your Friends - John Niven
Mentioned in Word, and discussed at length with the author in Podsville, I finished it in a day or two. It was rather funny, and has a sordid, quirky feel, but I won't read it again. Amusing, is enough of a summary.

Ronnie - Mr Wood
Oh Dear. Starts well, with lots of larvely child'ood mem'ries. Cor blimey luv a duck. I'm afraid it shouldn't really be on the "finished" pile, as I ran out of indulgences and gave up on it about three quarters of the way through. I mention it here in order to sound a warning: it is not Art, nor is it art, as it were.

PS Mrs Fox is tackling Lois On The Loose right now, so I'll try that one next!

PPS Can I put in a HUGE shout for "Snow Falling On Cedars" by David Guterson, a fantastic tale weaving history, peoples lives, cultural bias, bigotry and personal honour into a grand sweep of a yarn. I know it's now been filmed, but as ever, the book is the real thing.

Striptease-Carl Hiassen (hilarious)
On Chesil Beach-Ian McEwan(big fan of McEwan, wondefrul little book)
Cardus On Music-Arthur Cardus(great writer on cricket too)
halfway through McEwan's "Atonement"

John Updike - The Complete Henry Bech. 3 novels in 1. Highly entertaining tales of literary author and his absurd and comic adventures.

Leonora Carrington - The Hearing Trumpet. Odd, surreal story of elderly woman who gets put in a home by her family when she loses her faculties. Author was also a surrealist painter once married to Max Ernst. Apparently Carrington spent some time in an asylum in Madrid from where she was rescued by her Nanny in a submarine. I think a biography would be more interesting than this novel. It was a bit of a chore to read, but was short so stuck with it.

Douglas Coupland - The Gum Thief. I think I've read all his novels to date. I really like them. Generation X and Girlfriend In A Coma are his best known ones probably. This is the most recent one. Haven't quite finished it yet. It's funny yet quite bleak. Very good.

I tend to get most my books from the library, if that's of any interest to anyone. Good for the environment and cheap, I would say free but I owe £2.98 in fines and of course there's council tax?

Yes-more book reviews, please!

The Idea of North-Peter Davidson

A series of essays on Northerness in Art and Literature (pretentious, moi?)

Updike-PG Wodehouse

Corking short stories revolving round a man who always has a "glint in the eye" and a business plan. Permanently skint of course.

3 sheets to the wind-Pete Brown

Man goes round world drinking beer. Alright if you like that kind of thing...

Currently reading: Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky. Web 2.0, social networking, the wisdom of herds, communication in the age of the Internet, etc. It reads like a series of lectures in book form, but it's never less than interesting, and features fairly regular 'lightbulb' moments. He's a clear thinker.

Previously: Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart by Tim Butcher. Daily Telegraph reporter attempts to follow the route of Henry Stanley's second great African expedition, in which he mapped the Congo. A scary book for a number of reasons, not least for the manner in which the jungle has completely swallowed up any signs of the development that took place in the country before Mobutu swept to power in the early 60s.

Previously: Safe Area Goražde by Joe Sacco. Graphic novel about the Bosnian War from the point of view of the residents of Goražde, a UN-declared 'safe area' that was anything but. Absolutely chilling in parts.

… Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton. Life in the seedy pubs and boarding houses of prewar Earls Court. If you like that sort of thing (as I do), this is the sort of thing you'd like. Not my favourite Hamilton, but a classic nonetheless.

Previous two:
Eye Mind by Paul Drummond. Astonishing and exhaustive story of Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators.

Twelve Bar Blues by Patrick Neate. A novel encompassing the story of jazz in early 20th Century New Orleans, its African heritage and issues of black identity encompassing late 20th Century London. Written by a white guy from south London. You have to admire his chutzpah (or maybe not...), but he doesn't quite pull it off - although it's very readable.

FerrisCollier, have you read J White's previous book on 20th Century London? That's great, too (haven't read the 19th C one, but I think I should).
I'm thinking of starting a thread on great London books…

I was on leave last week, and got through half a dozen books without realising it until I came to write this. It's all pretty lightweight as befits a holiday:
Tales of the city - Armistead Maupin: The first in the series. Warm and funny - you'll wish you knew such a supportive group of friends.
Moonraker - Ian Fleming: A freebie from the Times a week or two ago. I'm not a huge Bond fan (in book or film, and be assured that this is nothing like the film of the same name), but it's enjoyable nonsense. If you like this sort of escapist book I say the Modesty Blaise novels are a much better read.
The Devil in Amber - Mark Gatiss: Lucifer Box rides again (and again, and again, and again ...)

Ronnie Wood - Ronnie
David Buckley - Roxy Music The Thrill Of It All
John Robb - Punk Rock: An Oral History
Alan Parker - No One Is Innocent

1. Lost Highway by Peter Guralnick
2. Feel Like Going Home by Peter Guralnick
3. Sweet Soul Music by Peter Guralnick

Just finished
- The Commitments, Roddy Doyle - after it was recommended in another thread on here. Currently 2/3 through The Snapper, next in the trilogy, excellent stuff
- Death in the Clouds, Agatha Christie - ok, it had been on the shelf for years without being read and yes, I looked for it after that Doctor Who episode about the wasp.
- A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, Eric Newby - definitive manual on How to Be English Abroad.

And in the "to be read" pile, the Jonathan Coe "Rain Before It Falls" alluded to earlier (looks to be up to his normal standard), another Roddy Doyle, the last Rebus, and I am Legend by Richard Matheson. Which should keep me going til Christmas I reckon.

"The Damned United" - David Peace
Wonderful book, can't recommend it highly enough. Gets into the mind of Brian Clough, and that can be a very dark place. Its fiction based on true events but the way its written is fantastic. Brian Clough's team talk to his new club is a great summary of his time at Leeds United
"Gentlemen, I might as well tell you now. You lot may have won all the domestic honours there are and some of the European ones but, as far as I am concerned, the first thing you can do for me is to chuck all your medals and all your caps and all your pots and all your pans into the biggest fucking dustbin you can find, because you've never won any of them fairly. You've done it all by bloody cheating ..."
You can guess the rest....
I have another of Peace's books on the to read list - Tokyo Year Zero.

"Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us About Living in the West" - T.R. Reid
Great insight into Japanese culture. I am going there for my honeymoon in September so it was fascinating to read about what to expect when I get there. The author was the Washington Post Tokyo Bureau Chief so he gives a "foreign" insight to the country.

Kill Your Friends - John Niven
A popular book among the Word community...funny, dark, sick...what else do you need?

Currently reading "All the Pretty Horses" by Cormac McCarthy, enjoying it so far

I read a couple on the advice of Mark Lawson and they're very good. I'm always on the lookout for a good murder mystery man but you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a good one. I got suckered into Peter James after I heard him being interviewed on Radio Four and thought it was preposterous. In fact today I passed a woman who was walking along reading one of his and I felt like saying "are you mad?"

On the other hand I have discovered two things:
1. Revisiting John Le Carré he's even better than I remembered.
2. The American Le Carré is a guy called Robert Littell whose books I've enjoyed a great deal.

Currently... "Making Money" by Terry Pratchett

Before that "My Bass and Other Animals" by Guy Pratt

Before that "Black Vinyl White Powder" by Simon Napier Bell

However, to break the rules I can't but mention one read just before.. "Hitler's Gift" by Jean Medawar & David Pyke. No, not some neo-Nazi tome but the story of the (often Jewish) research scientists and other intellectuals who fled Germany and Austria in the years running up to the war. The gift which Hitler therefore bestowed (on the Allies) being the brains who then worked on the allied war effort, and ultimately on the Manhattan Project. Fascinating stuff.

I too read Kill Your Friends - I'm with Vulpes - it was okay, I'd have liked more music biz stuff and less Brett Easton Ellis, Martin 'Money' Amis sex and violence.

Can I count all of David Peace's Red Riding Quartet as one - they are connected, and I did re-read 'em all in quick succession. D Hepworth mentioned them on one 'cast as he's from that neck of the woods (West Yorks) I believe - anyways, they are fantastic, dirty, crime novels in which everyone is flawed. People mention Ellroy as an influence, and I love Ellroy - but this is a different kettle of worms.

Finally - um- anyone read graphic novels? I just finished David Boring by Daniel Clowes (best known in the mainstream for Ghostworld) - and I enjoyed it, slow paced, intriguing, fine art.

I would also like a lot more of this sort of thing in the Word mag.

Yep,on Word recommendation
Kill Your Friends-John Niven
This is Serbia Calling- Matthew Colin.
The story of Belgrade radio Station B92 .An Excellent read.
Stalin's Ghost-Martin Cruz Smith.
Have loved The RENKO books since Gorky Park and William Hurt is RENKO.
Currently reading
Behind the Curtain: Travels in Football in Eastern Europe -Jonathan Wilson.
Good so far but a serious oversight concerning my Beloved Czech Republic,After the other night i've given up Kebabs.

1 . Age and Guile ,beat Youth , Innocence and a bad Haircut .....PJ ORourke . His politics are very different from my own but this bloke is very funny , as can be witnessed on Wait Wait don't tell me N.P.R. podcast . The story why explosives should never get into the hands of the drugged out , is worth the cost alone .

2 . Shultz and Peanuts .....David Michaelis . A wonderful examination of a damaged character part sage part cartoonist ,( his comment re porn from Snoopy " Sex is not a spectator sport " still makes me smile ) , and some of his struggles as a creation becomes a leviathan .

3 . The Bodrhan Makers .....JB Keane .One of my favorite writers examines Religion , Community , Tradition and Class Struggle mixed with the the craft of instrument making and playing . As a player ( poor ) myself it also salutes the power of the beat within music .

The Wrong Boy - Willy Russell.(fiction)

This one's been talked about on another thread so I won't go on about it again. Even though I thought it was fine, I don't suppose I'd recommend it.

The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night Time - Mark Haddon.(fiction)

A very different type of murder mystery. It's actually the story of a couple of months in the life of a 15 year old boy with Aspergers Syndrome. He lives in his life of puzzles, logic and order whilst real life is going on all around him unnoticed. Fabulous!!

Rogue Trader - Nick Leeson.(non fiction)

For those under 30, this is the story of the downfall of Barings Bank in 1995, which was brought down by the author. Slightly over technical in the details of share/futures dealing, but I managed to keep up with it. Very scary stuff!!

For the record, I never buy books(except biographies). I get them as gifts, but mainly I get them from charity shops or my local library.

Mere Anarchy - Woody Allen (slight, amusuing vignettes)

Dylan Redeemed: From Highway 61 to Saved - Stephen H Webb (exploring the use of the Bible in Dylan's work)

My Life - Bill Clinton (A heavy tome from the former Pres)

Last Three in Chronological order

Ghostwritten - David Mitchell: In a similar vein to his Cloud Atlas , some of it is wonderful and other stories don´t stand up to well.
The Summer That Never Was - Peter Robinson: Top knotch Yorkshire detective novels.
The State of Africa - Martin Meredith: Absorbing and depressing chronicle of Africa´s many ills over the last 50 years. His chapter on Rwanda is amazing.

Currenntly reading David Peace´s Tokyo Year Zero and liking it very much.
Has everybody read Kill Your Friends ? Any Good ?

solicitors and commissioners for oaths?

Last 3 books read in my house:

'What's So Funny' by Donald Westlake. This guy came recommended from the Funny Books thread earlier. Very dry. I'll be reading more. A doleful Manhattan crook is blackmailed into organising the most difficult robbery of his career. Think Silvio and Paulie Walnuts on a sabbatical from The Sopranos...

'Blood, Tears and Folly - an Objective look at WWII' by Len Deighton. Execptional dissection of the causes of the 2nd world war and how most of the participants on each side blundered through it.

'Carry On Jeeves' by PG Wodehouse. Peerless first person narrations from Bertie Wooster.

White Heat by Dominic Sandbrook.

A history of the Wilson years, following on from his 'You've Never Had it so Good' which covers the years from Suez through to Wilson's 'coronation'. Both excellent social histories - not read the Andrew Marr book referred to above which I'm sure is excellent, but Sandbrook is definitely recommendaed as well.

Renegade - Mark E Smith

A quick read that is intermittently entertaining but (as you might expect) a bit like being cornered in the pub by the local drunk who is talking at you, sitting just a little bit too close and seems to be on the verge of switching to a randomly violent mood at a moment's notice.

Innocent When You Dream - Mac Montandon

A collection of contemporaneous interviews with Tom Waits, covering his whole career up to around 2004. Inevitably some of the interviews cover similar ground and all have to start with the obligatory comment on Waits' need to conduct interviews at a (greasy, dingy) location of his choosing - but the subject matter is never less than entertaining and the book (just about) hangs together as a whole. Better dipped into than read at one sitting.

The Fashion in Shrouds by Margery Allingham - a cracking 30s crime novel.

Before that:

Pies and Prejudice by Stuart Maconie - tour of the North to discover what it is to be Northern. Good fun if entirely unconvincing on a sociological/academic level, but then I doubt it was written with that intent.

King Suckerman by George Pelecanos - Washington DC in the 70s. Blaxploitation-style crime novel.

Then We Came To The End - Joshua Ferris
Ahem, already much discussed here

Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi
Superb graphic novel, the first I've read (unless you include Tintin and Asterix), and it won't be the last. Funny, poignant, pointed.

The Surgeon's Mate - Patrick O'Brian
Number 7 in the long saga. Well up to standard.

The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Like a previous poster, I'm still slowly grinding my way through it. Recommended, but not the electric, unputdownable read the cover blurb seems to suggest. In fact, this is a trend I've noticed in the last couple of years. It seems to work too; take a reasonably well written Economics tome, slap a few overwrought quotes on a quite swanky cover et voila! Another book I'm not quite dedicated enough to finish reading..

Kill Your Friends - bought as a result of the podcast appearance of yer man Niven and thoroughly enjoyable it was too. Thanks Word.

The Dark Heart Of Italy - Tobias Jones. So far (chapter 2!), so good. English ex-pat journo gets to grips with the strange dichotomy at the heart of the Italian nature; total refusal to obey most laws; minor or major but obsequious in the face of even the most petty bureaucrat.

Also just flying through Is it just me or is everything shit?
No awards, but plenty of snorting coffee down your nose moments.

I've not read any of those mentioned above...

Finished "Then I bought a mountain," published in the 50's, it's the tale of a bloke who gave up living in Canada and decided to be a sheep farmer in Snowdonia. Try that for a hard living.

"Flesh House," by Stuart Mcbride- scottish noir (as they call it), murder mystery, great yarn, the latest of four so far, took about three days to read, lapped it up, and

"Middlemarch"- which was ardous. Did I mention boring?

Provided you dont kiss me - Duncan Hamilton.Very readable biography of Cloughie - I have Damn United ready to read but wanted to read this first as I had forgetten a lot of his career.

The five people you meet in heaven - Mitch Albom. Re-read this because it is in turns sad and uplifting. If i had the money I would buy a copy for everyone on this site.

Empire Falls - Richard Russo - Only halfway through this one, excellent writer and extremely descriptive. Great characters but it is so rich that you have take in small installments.

I also have E's autobiography to read and Bringing it all back home by Ian Clayton. I heard him interviewed on BBC Radio 2 and i think I will love the book and I havent read a word yet.

I get through so many books.

Currently reading - A Crack In The Edge Of The World by Simon Winhester (non-fiction based about the San Fransisco earthquake of 1906)

Previously - The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (again - I have a habit of re-reading books in my own personal library. It's a clever idea - looking at it as a curse)

Previously (2) - The Caves Of Steel by Isaac Asimov - I'm basically going to run through the whole robots/empire/foundation sequence.

Currently doing Empire Of The Sun by JG Ballard and loving it.
Just finished The Life And Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson which was charming and funny.
Prior to that Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore which I loved
And before that Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, which I bloody hated and didn't finish which made me feel kind of dumb...

I have just bought 1977 by David Peace as a consequence of the comments.

Cheers

(last) FALLEN STAR by JAMES BLISH (1957, 1st Edition) - SCI-FI

(before that) KILL YOUR FRIENDS by John Niven - American Psycho for Brit Music Fans

(and before that)
MATTER by Iain M Banks - SCI-FI

Currently reading 'getting rich first' by Duncan Hewitt. Just been on a work visit to China and became absolutely fascinated with the country. Saw this book reviewed in the Guardian and bought it. Really interesting so far - looking at the speed with which the many aspects of life for Chinese people is changing - everything from housing to sexual relations.

Recently read Stuart Maconie's Pies and Prejudice. Like many others, really enjoyed it, but it fell apart a bit in its coverage of my bit of the north (well I don't think there really was much coverage at all East of the Pennines!).

Still reading Roger McGough's biography - not sure why I stalled as it's a good read, I think I just diverted to Pies and Prejudice.

Also read Richard Benson's book 'The Farm' as its about the part of Yorkshire I grew up in. Also a book called Golden Handcuffs by Polly Courtney. Mainly because it was about a graduate's life in a City bank and it had interest to me as I work with students and graduates.

More than 3, but I can't just read one book at once !

Honestly, The Gruffalo's Child, The Cat in the Hat and Paddington Bear would be the last 3 books I've read - the bedtime read.

Other than that

1)America Unchained - Dave Gorman
2) Science of the Discworld - Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen
3) I blame the scapegoats - John O'Farrell