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    Postby Dean 06 Feb 2012, 06:04

    Not sure if anyone else is a big reader out there but I thought I'd discuss some of the books I've been reading and how I read them.

    First off, I bought an Amazon Kindle eReader last year and it's one of the best things I've ever bought. I have the Series 3 Keyboard version;
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    I've downloaded about 1,000 books so far, everything is available if you know where to look! :wink:

    I wasn't sure if I'd ever get used to reading anything but a traditional paperback, but now there's just no comparison! The ease of being able to read the Kindle is something you just can't match. My wife has an iPad that I bought her and while she finds it easier to read on that than a actual paperback, it is still quite a large thing to hold for long periods when reading. The Kindle I find is the perfect size. It's roughtly similar to a paperback size, is perfectly weighted and the technology of the screen makes it as close to reading a digital representation of a real page as you can get. The onlt thing that took me a little bit of time to get used to was reading only on the one side, whereas with a novel you read right-left, turn the page, right-left, turn the page etc.

    Anyway, I thought I'd discuss some of the books I'd read lately just to let anyone out there who is an avid reader know my thoughts on what might be a good read and if that book might be interesting to you. Hope this helps, and please, if you've been reading anything yourself, contribute to the discussion! I'd love to hear anyone's opinions on the books i've been reading as well to hear how they agree or differ.

    I'm only going to list books I've read in 2012 going forward.

    Open - Andre Agassi
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    Wow, this was a great book. It's not just about tennis but a brutally honest, truthful telling of his life growing up, his over-bearing Father and how, despite hating tennis, how he became one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Agassi pulls no punches, talks directly about who he does and doesn't like personally on the tour, about his drug use, lying to tennis officials and all the demons he's encountered in in professional and personal life. A really interesting read if you are into Autobiographies/Biographies, it's about a lot more than just tennis too!
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    Postby Dean 06 Feb 2012, 06:14

    Moneyball - Michael Lewis
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    To be honest, I hadn't heard of this book until the film came out, but once I read the synopsis of the film it really facinated me and it became something I was interested in reading, not because I like Baseball - I can take it or leave it, but the whole statistical side of it and how players are selected and recruited. Reading this I could actually make some similar analygies to Australian Rules Football and how sometimes it's just a big stroke of fortune to sometime pick the right players.
    The book can be quite statistical at times, and covers a lot of what different people were doing over the last 30 years to produce facts and figures, but there is an interesting storyline of how it was adopted and ultimately became successful. If you are a baseball fan, and especially if you like all the stats that go with it, you'll find it an interesting read, otherwise you may be a litle overwhelmed with al the data in it. If you hang in there the tale of the team that utilised it, which the film is mostly about, makes this a very interesting read. Like all book/film adaptations I'll leave it up to the individual as to which one you watch/read first!
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    Postby Dean 06 Feb 2012, 06:19

    The Christmas Wedding - James Patterson
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    I'm a big James Patterson fan, I have every book he's every written, but I fucking HATED this book. Yes, I'm aware this is supposed to be a romantic, feel good type book, but it was so preposterous and so ridiculously unrealistsic that it was a real struggle to even finish it. The only people I can think who would like this were Women over 50, who are divorced or widowed and are looking for some fanatasy type read that could escape them from reality. There's some nice feel good stuff in here but just everyone's lives is too happy and wonderful and everything just always seems to work out perfectly for everyone. No one ever says a cross word to another and every days end in laughter, happiness and hugs - yup, as I said, totally unrealistic. Don't read this book - EVER! :evil:
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    Postby Dean 06 Feb 2012, 06:27

    High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
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    This was made into a movie about 10 years ago starring John Cusack and Jack Black, and I loved the movie. It's quirky, funny and a very entertaining film. Reading the book, you can see that this is one of those movies where the makers have gone to big lengths to try to maintain the theme and feeling of the book, which isn't always an easy thing to do, but the film benefits from it. While reading the book, it's hard to imagine anyone else playing the roles, other than by the actors who were cast so having their personalities come across in your head as you read helps make this more entertaining. The book follows Cusacks failing love life as well as his failing record store business and all the people he works with and comes across.
    It has plenty of humour, moves along at a nice place and makes you constantly think of your 'top 5' lists as the writers are discussed throughout the book. I enjoyed it but unless you really want to read the book becuase of the author, I'd suggest watching the movie, as it's pretty good too! :)
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    Postby Dean 06 Feb 2012, 06:38

    My Booky Wook - Russell Brand
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    Now, this was certainly an eye-opener! Brand brutally discusses his life and rise to fame and basically just proves that he is one of the luckiest assholes on the planet to still have a career! This covers his sex addiction, drug and alcohol abuse and total disrespect and mistreament of everyone that ever cared about and loved him. Somehow dispite being a totall drug addicted asshole that he kept getting chances some how and came out with a career at the end. It literally makes no sense how he made it, there's people out there that toil away for decades without success but for some reason chances just kept coming his way. Some was pure luck but the rest must have been because he genuinely is one of the funniest Men on the planets. Don't take his movie roles as being what Brand is all about, watch some of his stand up routines and tv shows and see about how funny he really is.
    This is a little hard to read but at least he's honest, I've read so many other Autobiographies that just either tell the writers point of view or simply leave out some of the less glamorous parts of their lives or the ones that may affect their credibility, but at least Brand has the balls to lay it all out there and basically says, 'well, I'll leave up to you if this changes you're opinion of me but at least you all know the truth'.
    Not sure if people that aren't that familiar with brand or his work would get as much out of this as i did but I can recommend it to anyone who thinks they might be an interesting read.
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    Postby Tricob1974 06 Feb 2012, 06:51

    Aside from simple reference books (programming, etiquette, info on the music industry), most of what I read is collections of short stories and/or poetry. My reading interests are almost as versatile as my music interests; sci-fi (Martian Chronicles), children's stories (Brothers' Grimm), satire (old MAD magazines), Ogden Nash, and Dorothy Parker (poetry and short stories, mostly dark-humored ones).
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    Postby Dean 06 Feb 2012, 08:27

    Against Medical Advice - James Patterson
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    This is based on a true story of a family friends Son who suffers from Tourette's Syndrome and Obsessive-Compulsive disorder. It's certainly an interesting and eye-opening read about this infliction which i found quite fascinating as I've never met anyone who suffered from anything like this (well actually some of my mates when drunk at the football resembe this a bit!).
    It has it's usual Patterson embelishments amd additional story telling interwoven but otherwie it gives you a real perspective of what the parenst have to deal with having a Son that has this.
    It's fairly straight forward and easy to read.
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    Postby Dean 06 Feb 2012, 08:39

    The Hunger Games Trilogy (1. The Hunger Games, 2. Catching Fire, 3. Mockingjay) - Suzanne Collins
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    These were quite good and well written, even if they were a massive rip off of Koushun Tukami's amazing Battle Royale. They take place in a futuristic Earth society that takes place after some sort of massive World War or incident that wiped out a huge chunk of the population and countries. The US is broken up into 12 zones. Each year a contest is held where 2 representative's from each zone, sends a Male and Female to battle it out (to the death) until only one survives, who then becomes famous and lives in opulance for the rest of their days. The first book follows the 2 particpants from Zone 12 and their battle to survive the Contest. The following books follow the ongoing feud with the increasingly controlling Government and their part in over throwing the 'Big Brother' type controls and injustice happening across the zones.
    They have just made a movie of the first book so it will be interesting to see what they've done with it, with the remaining books to be adaptd over the next couple of years. The books are supposed to be for 'young Adults' but the subject mater is a little full on for some in that demographic so the books are more open to readers older than that category. They are fairly well written and move along a decent place. I can recommend these fpr those that like a bit of Action and fantasy.
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    Postby Dean 06 Feb 2012, 08:44

    Born Standing Up - Steve Martin
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    This is Martin's autobiographt but unfortunately it only covers his stand up days and early life and stops as soon as he breaks into TV/Movies. Martin's writes in a comically irreverant style that doesn't become boring and there are plenty or mentions of famous people in their younger days before coming famous. This covers martins love life and struggle to survive and make through to his huge success and ultimate abandonment of stand up.
    I enjoyed the book but would like to see a sequel that takes us through his Hollywood days as I think that would be amazingly fascinating.
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    Postby Ron 06 Feb 2012, 15:46

    @Dean: Funny enought I've been reading through My Booky Wook as well. I always found Brand to be a fascinating character, he's as funny as he is self-destructive. Have you ever seen The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2006 and 2007? It's an end of the year quiz where Brand was one of the contestents together with Noel Fielding. It's one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen! :D

    I'm reading Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré at the moment. I'm halfway through now and I really like it so far.

    I also just finished 'Nooit ziek geweest' (Never Been Sick in English) by the Dutch writer Nico Dijkshoorn. It was a very autobiographical book about his relationship with his father. I liked it a lot, particulary because I found it to be very relatable for me personally.

    I also have Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis on my laptop, but I haven't gotten around to completely read it. But what I've read is full with sex, drugs and rock-n-roll, just what you'd expect.

    I've been bitten by the reading-bug as I hadn't done it for quite some time. :)
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    Postby Dean 07 Feb 2012, 01:11

    I've been trying to find an eBook version of Kiedis' book so I can have a read of it.
    I'm reading through the Millenium Trilogy at the moment. I have the movies here to watch (The foreign versions) once I'm done - It will interesting to see what the US versions will be like as well.

    God is not Great - Christopher Hitchens
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    Being an athiest myself this was very interesting, especially from such a notorised academic. Hitchens just basically points out how blinded people are by faith, so much so that they ignore scientific proof and, well the reality that contradicts the Bible and it's timelines. I don't begrudge anyone their faith but when some people blindly refuse to accept what Science has proven because of a book of fables and stories then they really are just lying to themslves. Heck, none of us really know the truth, and there's something poetic in living on after our mortal death, but some scientific facts are just irrefutible, no matter how much faith you have. Not all religious believers are so blinded, obviously, and I'm not trying to turn this into a discussion about religion, nor do I think the book will change anyone's faith but it certainly might broaden some peoples views and open their eyes that we can accept Scientific fact while still maintaining our faith in religion.
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    Postby Dean 07 Feb 2012, 01:23

    The Murder of King Tut - James Patterson
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    Patterson tries to pass this off as fact rather than fiction and I guess a little of it is based on fact but a Hell of a lot of this is mere story telling and speculation. This takes part in 2 seperate time periods, 1300BC and 1895-1925AD. The times of Tutankahmen when alive, are of course just Patterson spinning his skill, which is the ficticious part, but a lot of finder Carters movements 100 years ago are well documented.
    No one knows what really did happen to the Boy King but the fact that James Patterson of all people think that after 3,500 years is going to work out what happened when no one else has is frankly quite preposterous.
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    Postby Ron 07 Feb 2012, 02:08

    Christopher Hitchens makes a lot of good points about religion. I'm an atheist as well, and I think religion has done a lot of damage not only to the world but to our evolution as humans as well. Not to say that religion is a bad thing per se, some people can find strength out of it I guess, but to me the whole concept of God is on par with Santa Clause and Superman. It's make believe. Though I can understand it can be hard for believers to let it go, after all it's sort of a foundation on which they build their life. And I do hope there's a heaven of some sort of afterlife, because it would suck if it would just end. But like with a lot of big organisations, you should stay critical.
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    Postby Dean 09 Feb 2012, 05:41

    Nerd do well - Simon Pegg
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    This had some funny moments but basically tells the story of a guy and how he became famous with nothing much remarkable happening to him. There's some comical moments plus a lot of name dropping, although he states he hates doing that, there is still a lot of it in the book.
    The book was entertaining in most parts but overly drawn out in others, where his writing just waffles on for far too long about unimportant aspects of his life.
    Worth a read if you a big fan of his movies and Tv shows, or just generally like the guy, but otherwise you really aren't missing much here.
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    Postby Dean 09 Feb 2012, 06:02

    Tick Tock - James Patterson
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    Book 4 in the Michael Bennett series. I've read all of Patterson's Alex Cross and Women's Murder Club series and like those, this is also an enjoyable, ongoing series. The main character is likeable, the situations seem mostly believable and the books are easy to read. This style of book is what Patterson does best and although with the amount of books he churns out, some of his stuff becomes fomulaic, this is still quite a decent, entertaining read.
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