The 'find the frog a pile of new books' thread

[Mount Suribachi]

How about Pride and Predjudice or Sense and Sensibility?




*ducks flying poisoned hairpin*

[Somebody Else]

Similar to Pratchett in terms of humour - an author by the name of Jasper Fforde.

Pertaining to Rome - the Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough (nice and thick - several of them, an inch and a half each - glorious). Also, Ross Leckie has some on the Punic wars.

I'd put in a shameless plug for my father's book here, but that'd contravene my code of attempting to maintain anonymity.

[JAG]

I should probably have mentioned that I found these books stunk. Also please don't recommend Bernard Cornwall. His original Sharpe books were ok in a popcorn reading kind of way, as was his Arthur trilogy; everything else stinks

wrong, wrong, wrong. The arthur trilogy wasn't his best - though some seem to think it is - but his Starbuck series - the American civil war books - are GREAT. You may not like the 19th century historical books, but you shouldn't go around saying all his work is crap because these are very, very good. Great descriptions of just what so many people in the period felt like and a great understanding of how the war early on was conducted. I can't recommend them enough.

[frogbeastegg]

Ser Clegane, thanks. I might give the first book in the Memory, Sorrow, Thorn series a go sometime. Shame about the Black Company; anything which can compare to aSoIaF is exceptional. I'll see if I can find a library copy or something.

I suppose the Emperor series might read better under public transport conditions, and it does depend on what you really want from a book. I didn't like the way it altered history so much, and the constant push for action scenes felt out of place.

Jane Austen? :sigh: Well, I did manage to enjoy the famous BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, so I suppose I can risk that book. I can enjoy Lizzy and Darcy arguing and then boo at the end when they stop and get married

:adds Jasper Fforde to list of people to investigate: I have Masters of Rome; it's good, dry but so detailed and epic that is more than forgivable. I suspect this series is partly the reason I don't get on with Emperor.

Jag, I found the original Sharpe books (from Rifles to Waterloo) enjoyable in a light reading kind of way. I did not like Sharpe's Devil much. Arthur was ok; I remember not liking the third book much, and I also disliked some of his characters and concepts. His Grail Quest trilogy was awful; I had to force myself to read the final book, and didn't care at all at any point about any of the characters or even what would happen with the plot. That one off book he did (gallows .... thief?) I borrowed a library copy of, and I didn't make it past the first 100 pages. His new Sharpe books have none of the appeal of the originals and after struggling through several of them I gave up. His recent book about king Alfred had me running from the cover blurb.

Since his earlier books were considerably better than his recent ones I might see if my library has any of the Starbucks.

[t1master]

i enjoyed the clan of the cave bear (think it's the children of the earth series) try that one out.

do you ever visit the library frog? or do you have trouble returning the books in a timely fashion like myself?

[BDC]

Get some Terry Pratchett books!

[frogbeastegg]

Yes, clan of the cave bear is one of the children of the earth series.

Ah, my local library, or should that be libraries? There are two in comfortable distance. One is a great cavernous Victorian building, massive and awe inspiring, what you dream a library should be like. The other is smaller, a 70's concrete construct that looks as if it is about to collapse. Between them they house hundreds of thousands of books. For some reason or other about 29% of those books are Harry Potter.

The rule for acquiring books in froggy's pond goes like this:
-The library does not have it, nor have they ever heard of it. They have had a grand total of 2 books I have enquired about in the last ... fourish years. I am not enquiring solely about obscure books; indeed I only ask about the common, popular ones.
-Waterstones have never, ever heard of it. It does not exit. At all. Go away. Now. Your request has crashed our computer.
-Amazon can send it within 24 hours and it's half price too.

This holds true, even for supposedly popular books by supposedly popular authors. If the shops had these books I would be able to stand there and read the first few chapters to see if I liked them or not :sigh: Shame.

BDC, I have all the Discworlds except going postal. Thanks anyway.

AdrianII, I just looked Maurice Druon up and I can get two of his books, both in French. I never advanced beyond GCSE French. Drat! Sounded promising.

Hosakawa Tito, nice link. I am off to browse.

[BDC]

Going Postal is quite good. I got it for Christmas.

Get the new Adrian Mole... ;)

[Adrian II]

AdrianII, I just looked Maurice Druon up and I can get two of his books, both in French. I never advanced beyond GCSE French. Drat! Sounded promising.

I'm sorry to hear that. Since you have already pretty much exhausted 'all that is good and promising' among English authors, allow me to recommend one more French author. Regine Pernoud was a respected medievalist and she has written some fantastic monographs on Abelard and Heloise, Joan of Arc and Alienor of Aquitaine. There must be good English translations of her work. If not, then your Commissar for Translation should be executed forthwith on grounds of counterrevolutionary sloth. Like Druon's, Pernoud's books are not politically correct at all, historically they are about as close to the subject's characters as you can get - in fact they are so well done that in some instances you actually hold your breath between chapters. I'm sure you will love her book on 'Aliénor, by the wrath of God Queen of England...'