What book are you reading...

Just started the first Dark Tower book the Gunslinger. Very odd, not sure what to make of it. Also Kindle is telling me its 306 pages long, but im up to about 25% and only read about 60 pages, very confused, is it a really short book?
 
Can anyone reccomend me a good NOVEL about world war 1/2?

Not just eye witness accounts but a proper story with a beginning/middle/ending.

Doesn't matter if its a obvious classic, I won't have read it.

Thanks guys
 
Eames said:
Can anyone reccomend me a good NOVEL about world war 1/2?

Not just eye witness accounts but a proper story with a beginning/middle/ending.

Doesn't matter if its a obvious classic, I won't have read it.

Thanks guys
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Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad by William Craig - great non-fiction book about the struggles on both sides. It is well researched but still has a story and feels personal. The movie was very loosely based on a tiny portion on the book.
Catch-22 by Joesph Heller - absolutely must read about the futility and insane nature of war.
 
Meridian said:
Re-reading (I last read it over a decade ago) The Name of the Rose.


M
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Is that the one by Umberto Eco? If it is I really want to read it!

Currently reading Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. Only 3 chapters in but it's strange and I must admit to struggling to rustle up the will to continue.

Just finished One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest which was one of the most perfect books I have ever read.
 
Eames said:
Can anyone reccomend me a good NOVEL about world war 1/2?

Not just eye witness accounts but a proper story with a beginning/middle/ending.

Doesn't matter if its a obvious classic, I won't have read it.

Thanks guys
Click to expand...

Off the top of my head -

fiction - The Traitor:
The Traitor is a World War II spy novel written by Guy Walters in 2002. It follows the story of Captain John Lockhart, an MI6 agent who is captured by the Nazis in Crete and forced join the Waffen SS with several British Fascists in order to save the life of his Wife who is a prisoner. Parts of the story also follows the lives of one of the British traitors and of John's daughter Amy Lockhart, an Oxford Historian in an attempt to clear his father's name who after the war was branded a traitor.

fiction - Tramp in Armour - Colin Forbes:
War novel of a British Matilda tank crew caught behind the 1940 German advance, and setting out to reach Dunkirk.

fiction - Enigma - Robert Harris:
Enigma is a novel by Robert Harris about Tom Jericho, a young mathematician trying to break the Germans' "Enigma" ciphers during World War II. It was adapted to film in 2001. He is stationed in Bletchley Park, the British cryptologist central office, and is worked to the point of exhaustion.

fiction - Fatherland - Robert Harris:
The story begins in Nazi Germany, the Third Reich in April 1964, in the week leading up to Adolf Hitler's 75th birthday. The plot follows detective Xavier March, an investigator working for the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo), as he investigates the suspicious death of a high-ranking Nazi, Josef Bühler, in the Havel, on the outskirts of Berlin. As March uncovers more details he realises that he is caught up in a political scandal involving senior Nazi party officials, who are apparently being systematically murdered under staged circumstances. In fact, as soon as the body is identified, the Gestapo claims jurisdiction and orders the Kripo to close its investigation.

For books regarding actual events in the war that aren't just 'this unit moved here' etc you should have a look at anything by Stephen Ambrose (although he does have the usual American anti-English slant) or Anthony Beevor.

Edit - also there are the fantastic because they are real stories of The Great Escape, The Wooden Horse and The Colditz Story. Some of the things those blokes got up to you couldn't make up.
2nd Edit - If you only read one book about WW2 - try Surviving The Sword - about POW's under the Japs in the Far East. Really brings home the horror of what actually went on.
 
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Jano said:
Just started the first Dark Tower book the Gunslinger. Very odd, not sure what to make of it. Also Kindle is telling me its 306 pages long, but im up to about 25% and only read about 60 pages, very confused, is it a really short book?
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Keep reading it only gets better!

And yea it is pretty short but its the smallest out of the 7 books in the series by a few hundred pages.
 
Freakbro said:
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

Really gripping and brilliant characters.
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The entire First Law trilogy is fantastic reading, as are the two semi-follow ups, Best Served Cold and The Heroes. Abercrombie is top-class author of the new fantasy breed; if you haven't already, you'd do well to check out Scott Lynch (The Lies of Lock Lamora / Red Seas under Red Skies) too.

I'm currently chomping through A Dance with Dragons: absolutely adore GRRM's work.
 
Just started reading Fatherland.

I want to get stuck into something bigger (Fall of Giants esque) after I'm done. I'll take any recommendations.
 
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