What book(s) are you reading currently? - Page 228

**dauls** · January 8th, 2018, 12:56 AM

Paperback found yesterday in a secondhand bookshop for only 50p, the pulp fiction novel Nothing Burns in Hell (1998) by sci-fi author Philip José Farmer.

**Brecht** · January 8th, 2018, 01:06 AM

James Ellroy - L.A. Confidential (1990)

I finished The Big Nowhere last summer, the second of the L.A. Quartet, so it's time for the better known follow-up. Most of you are probably familiar with the screen adaptation from 1997, starring Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Kevin Spacey. The reader is left to put this novel into two kinds of series: the aforementioned L.A. Quartet or the Dudley Smith Trio. For the time being I'm going with the latter which makes L.A. Confidential part two.

The differences between the book and the film are immense. Ellroy's much celebrated noir cesspool maze is much more densely plotted than the film version. What you get to see in the film is basically a subplot, mainly focused on the tense relationship between the LAPD cops Wendell "Bud" White and Edmund Exley. The film plot is set in 1953 while the original story stretches over a decade. You'll also be surprised to learn that Jack Vincennes, one of the film's main protagonists, is a pretty minor character in the book who's certainly not tormented by qualms of conscience like the Kevin Spacey version. Exley's Rollo Tomasi does not exist in the book and "Buzz" Meeks isn't some low-rank bodyguard but a central character in the previous instalment, The Big Nowhere, whose fate is revealed in L.A. Confidential's prologue.

Like I said, the film is just a small part of the book's highly complex story. The many subplots and the endless string of characters are not easy to follow. But the reader is rewarded with a gripping crime thriller about corruption, murder, prostitution, drugs, Hollywood decadence and pornography. Believe me when I say that the screen version is a family movie compared to the book.

**rlg118** · January 8th, 2018, 01:46 AM

The Betrayal: The 1919 World Series and the Birth of Modern Baseball by Charles Fountain

Fall from Grace: The Truth and Tragedy of "Shoeless Joe" Jackson by Tim Hornbaker

**gareth547200** · January 8th, 2018, 01:48 AM

james bond casino royal

**howerd** · January 8th, 2018, 02:14 AM

I generally read non-fiction rather than fiction & I like science & philosophy on the whole. This book is a justification of Darwinian Evolution from first principles (not that I had any serious doubts that evolution is a fact rather than a 'claim') & it's meticulously argued point by point. The great thing about Dawkins writing is he really is a brilliant thinker & brings up all sort of issues I'd not think of left to my own devices. For example I remember the Carl Sagan show 'Cosmos' which mentioned a Japanese crab which looked kind of like a Japanese warrior & the TV show said it was because of artificial selection: superstitious fishermen threw any crab back into the water which looked like it harbored the soul of a dead warrior because it looked like them as illustrated:

Well for years I'd believed that this accounted for the appearance because it seemed logical that the genes which made these particular crabs look warrior like because the ones which looked that way get to survive & so their traits became emphasized more & more as a result.

Well Dawkins said he reckons that this was probably more down to coincidence rather than artificial selection & now I come to look at the images too I have to say he's probably right! He really does test his own beliefs just as much as any one else's. I like to think that I do too but I didn't manage to appreciate that the conclusion from Sagan's Cosmos was actually fairly contentious. It's nice to see scientists being self skeptical rather than just bigging themselves up which they could easily do instead.

**otokonomidori** · January 9th, 2018, 12:01 AM

Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S Grant.

**Sir Honkers** · January 9th, 2018, 04:19 AM

The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde. DCI Jack Spratt (on his second marriage, but still carrying the memories of his first wife who died from eating too much fatty food) and Det Sgt Mary Mary of the Nursery Crime Division, investigate the murder of Humpty Dumpty...who only fell off the wall after he was shot. Full of good puns, funny jokes, stereotypical TV coppers and forensic pathologists and lots of dead pan humour.

**scoundrel** · January 10th, 2018, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by otokonomidori

Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S Grant.

Did these include pink elephants and seeing double?

**Sir Honkers** · January 11th, 2018, 08:43 PM

The Furthest Station, the latest novel in the Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch. Well novella really, it's only a 170 pages or so long, but it's a great read. All sorts of ghostly doings on the Metropolitan line.

**MrLinc** · January 11th, 2018, 11:16 PM

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, by Edgar Allan Poe.

January 8th, 2018, 01:46 AM	#2273
rlg118 Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Land o' Lake-Effect Posts: 5,348 Thanks: 5,911 Thanked 113,480 Times in 5,360 Posts	The Betrayal: The 1919 World Series and the Birth of Modern Baseball by Charles Fountain Fall from Grace: The Truth and Tragedy of "Shoeless Joe" Jackson by Tim Hornbaker __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

January 8th, 2018, 01:48 AM	#2274
gareth547200 Vintage Member Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 502 Thanks: 1,332 Thanked 8,833 Times in 455 Posts	james bond james bond casino royal

January 8th, 2018, 02:14 AM	#2275
howerd Vintage Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: UK Posts: 1,731 Thanks: 2,663 Thanked 19,953 Times in 1,685 Posts	The Greatest Show On Earth by Richard Dawkins I generally read non-fiction rather than fiction & I like science & philosophy on the whole. This book is a justification of Darwinian Evolution from first principles (not that I had any serious doubts that evolution is a fact rather than a 'claim') & it's meticulously argued point by point. The great thing about Dawkins writing is he really is a brilliant thinker & brings up all sort of issues I'd not think of left to my own devices. For example I remember the Carl Sagan show 'Cosmos' which mentioned a Japanese crab which looked kind of like a Japanese warrior & the TV show said it was because of artificial selection: superstitious fishermen threw any crab back into the water which looked like it harbored the soul of a dead warrior because it looked like them as illustrated: Well for years I'd believed that this accounted for the appearance because it seemed logical that the genes which made these particular crabs look warrior like because the ones which looked that way get to survive & so their traits became emphasized more & more as a result. Well Dawkins said he reckons that this was probably more down to coincidence rather than artificial selection & now I come to look at the images too I have to say he's probably right! He really does test his own beliefs just as much as any one else's. I like to think that I do too but I didn't manage to appreciate that the conclusion from Sagan's Cosmos was actually fairly contentious. It's nice to see scientists being self skeptical rather than just bigging themselves up which they could easily do instead.

January 11th, 2018, 11:16 PM	#2280
MrLinc Vintage Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Nowhere to be found Posts: 629 Thanks: 6,911 Thanked 10,570 Times in 628 Posts	The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, by Edgar Allan Poe. __________________ Who farted?

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January 8th, 2018, 01:06 AM	#2272
Brecht Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 10,657 Thanks: 180,485 Thanked 188,138 Times in 10,453 Posts	James Ellroy - L.A. Confidential (1990) I finished The Big Nowhere last summer, the second of the L.A. Quartet, so it's time for the better known follow-up. Most of you are probably familiar with the screen adaptation from 1997, starring Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Kevin Spacey. The reader is left to put this novel into two kinds of series: the aforementioned L.A. Quartet or the Dudley Smith Trio. For the time being I'm going with the latter which makes L.A. Confidential part two. The differences between the book and the film are immense. Ellroy's much celebrated noir cesspool maze is much more densely plotted than the film version. What you get to see in the film is basically a subplot, mainly focused on the tense relationship between the LAPD cops Wendell "Bud" White and Edmund Exley. The film plot is set in 1953 while the original story stretches over a decade. You'll also be surprised to learn that Jack Vincennes, one of the film's main protagonists, is a pretty minor character in the book who's certainly not tormented by qualms of conscience like the Kevin Spacey version. Exley's Rollo Tomasi does not exist in the book and "Buzz" Meeks isn't some low-rank bodyguard but a central character in the previous instalment, The Big Nowhere, whose fate is revealed in L.A. Confidential's prologue. Like I said, the film is just a small part of the book's highly complex story. The many subplots and the endless string of characters are not easy to follow. But the reader is rewarded with a gripping crime thriller about corruption, murder, prostitution, drugs, Hollywood decadence and pornography. Believe me when I say that the screen version is a family movie compared to the book.

January 9th, 2018, 12:01 AM	#2276
otokonomidori 緑の男 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Jockistan, UK. Posts: 8,316 Thanks: 39,023 Thanked 122,410 Times in 8,316 Posts	Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S Grant.

January 9th, 2018, 04:19 AM	#2277
Sir Honkers Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Land Of Glorious Leader Posts: 30,341 Thanks: 286,789 Thanked 386,202 Times in 30,298 Posts	The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde. DCI Jack Spratt (on his second marriage, but still carrying the memories of his first wife who died from eating too much fatty food) and Det Sgt Mary Mary of the Nursery Crime Division, investigate the murder of Humpty Dumpty...who only fell off the wall after he was shot. Full of good puns, funny jokes, stereotypical TV coppers and forensic pathologists and lots of dead pan humour.

January 11th, 2018, 08:43 PM	#2279
Sir Honkers Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Land Of Glorious Leader Posts: 30,341 Thanks: 286,789 Thanked 386,202 Times in 30,298 Posts	The Furthest Station, the latest novel in the Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch. Well novella really, it's only a 170 pages or so long, but it's a great read. All sorts of ghostly doings on the Metropolitan line.