justcycling.myfastforum.org

Mrs John Murphy · Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 11:19 am Post subject:

My students' essays. Crying or Very sad

Occasionalsweeper · Joined: 06 Oct 2006 Posts: 47 Location: Scotland

Kathy

I read Cat by Freya North a couple of years ago after my wife bought it second hand for holiday reading. I didn't think much of the story line (definitely chick-lit) but the background and atmosphere of the TDF was well researched and she had obviously spent some time in her preparation. I read somewhere that she had interviewed David Millar among others during her research and he does get a mention in the book.

For me I've finally got round to buying 'In search of Robert Millar' by Richard Moore.

Nolte · Joined: 15 Oct 2006 Posts: 2438 Location: irlande

kathy · Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 9:01 pm Post subject:

Nolte · Joined: 15 Oct 2006 Posts: 2438 Location: irlande

maffy · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 9:15 am Post subject:

Nolte · Joined: 15 Oct 2006 Posts: 2438 Location: irlande

finished "rebecca" by dauphne du maurier. really enjoyed it. very good
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Nolte · Joined: 15 Oct 2006 Posts: 2438 Location: irlande

currently reading

jorge luis borges - Labryinths (aq collection of short stories)
diarmuid ferriter - what if? (alternative view of historical events affecting eire)
glen duncan - a day and a night and a day (started today. one of my favourite authors and also his books relate closely to the real tuesday weld's music of which i am a fan - see music thread)
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fede40 · Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:15 pm Post subject:

Just finished Ruiz Zafon's latest: The Angel's Game (El Juego del Angel)

really liked it, although I still prefer The Shadow of the Wind
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cardinal guzman · Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 4256 Location: The moors.

I was playing left 4 dead today with someone called 'dark fede' - was that you? Cool

Jackov · Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 5:30 pm Post subject:

I picked up one of my wife's Barbara Vine novels. Not too bad.

fede40 · Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 12:44 pm Post subject:

cardinal guzman · Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 4256 Location: The moors.

pantanifan · Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2009 7:26 am Post subject:

Does anyone else like Solzhenitsyn? Currently well on the way to completing the 700 pages of "The First Circle" about life in the Soviet Union in the Stalinist era. Particularly enjoyed this dialogue between a famous Soviet writer and his (critic) brother-in-law:

"Look, do novels really have to be like military textbooks? Or like newspapers? Or like slogans? I know Mayakovsky made it a point of honour not to rise above the level of a daily paper - but then why have literature at all? Aren't writers supposed to teach, to guide? Isn't that what was always thought? And for a country to have a great writer - don't be shocked, I'll whisper it - is like having another government. That's why no régime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones."

"What you say is only true of bourgeois countries."

"Of course!" Our ways are altogether different. We have a unique literature - created not for readers, but for writers."

"You mean we aren't much read?" Galakhov was capable of agreeing with some very painful criticisms of Soviet literature and of his own books, but not of giving up the hope that he was being read and read widely. "You are wrong there. We have a bigger public than perhaps we deserve."

MAILLOT JAUNE · Joined: 06 Oct 2006 Posts: 1189

'Fraid not pantanifan. Had to do "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" at school and I just didn't get into it from what I can remember so it kind of put me off Solzhenitsyn, which is not a good reason to dismiss the rest of an author's work, but hey that's how I feel. But hope you enjoy it!
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kathy · Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2009 9:12 am Post subject:

I read 'The Gulag Archipelago' many years ago. It took me a while, but I enjoyed it, if you can use that sort of word about a book like that. I've never read any more of his stuff, though - I don't think - I've read such a lot over the years I can't remember. Wink

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Mrs John Murphy · Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2009 11:16 am Post subject:

There is a lot of good gulag literature out there. The problem is that most of it is not translated into English.

I've just been reading Mircea Carturescu's 'Nostalgia' - basically a collection of surreal short stories. Very good. I tend to prefer short stories because I can dip in and out of them.

Nolte · Joined: 15 Oct 2006 Posts: 2438 Location: irlande

i might look into that mjm.

currently

jorge luis borges - labryinths
jonathan frantzen - corrections
laurence rees - behind closed doors (about world war II)
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Nolte · Joined: 15 Oct 2006 Posts: 2438 Location: irlande

god those are 3 long books

anyway, i was looking at the acknowledgments of cavendish's auto-hagiography and noticed a big acknowledgement to procycling magazine journalist Daniel Friebe so my question is was daniel friebe the actual author

i know there's a habit of getting ghost writers to write books for famous people.

do you think jordan or kerry katona cans tring 5 words together? hell no. they actually both use the same writer to write their books for them

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