What book are you reading?

**Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:10 pm**

Good day today for watching rugby and reading.

Just about to start on The Miami Showband Massacre by Stephen Travers.

**Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:37 pm**

Shaz wrote:Good day today for watching rugby and reading.

Just about to start on The Miami Showband Massacre by Stephen Travers.

Good luck. I love Steve Travers, he's a terrific musician and a great bloke, but I lost patience with his ghostwriter's Sunday Best writing long before he had exhausted the name of every showband head in Ireland. I'll get back to it, but I'll be skipping a few chapters. I surrendered it for Seb Barry's "A Long Way Way" which is more extraordinary and convincing than it really has any right to be.

**Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:46 pm**

Irish Ways The story of Ireland in song, music and poetry Ron Kavana.

**Tue Oct 02, 2007 12:14 am**

i cant find any good books to read

**Tue Oct 02, 2007 10:37 am**

just finished "Legends of Irish Rugby". very entertaining, loved it. :wink:

**Tue Oct 02, 2007 2:01 pm**

philipchevron wrote:
Clash Cadillac wrote:
Just started The Record Men: The Chess Brothers and the Birth of Rock & Roll by Rich Cohen

I loved that, very insightful once you get accustomed to his Gonzo-manqué stylings. It reminded me there was life after Chemo, what can I tell you?

Just finished this book last night. I loved it as well. Have you read any other books about the recording industry that you recommend?

**Tue Oct 02, 2007 2:02 pm**

Just started R. Crumb Handbook last night.

**Wed Oct 03, 2007 2:38 pm**

Clash Cadillac wrote:
philipchevron wrote:
Clash Cadillac wrote:
Just started The Record Men: The Chess Brothers and the Birth of Rock & Roll by Rich Cohen

I loved that, very insightful once you get accustomed to his Gonzo-manqué stylings. It reminded me there was life after Chemo, what can I tell you?

Just finished this book last night. I loved it as well. Have you read any other books about the recording industry that you recommend?

Most of the "acclaimed" ones are so for a reason - Lester Bangs, Nick Kent, Peter Guralnick etc, but I'm not a great reader of such materials myself.

**Wed Oct 03, 2007 6:50 pm**

philipchevron wrote:
Shaz wrote:Good day today for watching rugby and reading.

Just about to start on The Miami Showband Massacre by Stephen Travers.

Good luck. I love Steve Travers, he's a terrific musician and a great bloke, but I lost patience with his ghostwriter's Sunday Best writing long before he had exhausted the name of every showband head in Ireland. I'll get back to it, but I'll be skipping a few chapters. I surrendered it for Seb Barry's "A Long Way Way" which is more extraordinary and convincing than it really has any right to be.

Let's just say I've put the Travers book to one side for the moment! It's a story that I really want to hear told, but ghostwriters tend to make my teeth hurt.

Instead I've picked up another ghostwritten book, this time the 'autobiography' of a former American footballer who played in the NFL for a good while and came out as gay when he retired. The bloke's name is Esera Tuaolo and the book is Alone in the Trenches. Now, I'm a Brit who loves cricket and rugby, and knows nuffink about American football. But the guy's story is fascinating.

John Amaechi's autobiography, which I finished last week, is the same, although marred by a ghostwriter who was clearly brought up on tabloid writing.

**Wed Oct 03, 2007 7:02 pm**

I just bought a nice used copy of White Niggers of America by the late Pierre Vallières, one of the top guys of the Front Libération du Québec, the group which kidnapped a few MPs and blew up a lot of postal employees in the '70s in the name of freeing Québec from Anglo-Saxon oppression and turning it into an independent Marxist collective.

It's a good read. It's a mixture of the history of Québec, including the details of the grueling life of the Habitants that the standard history books gloss over and sugar-coat, his own personal experience growing up in working-class Montréal, his views on the oppression of the quèbècois, his views on the future of Québec and some FLQ manifesto/party policy type stuff.

It's a pretty interesting read so far.

**Wed Oct 03, 2007 7:14 pm**

Just started 'kwantum' by Herman Brusselmans. I allready was reading 'De perfecte koppijn' so I'm reading two books by him at the same time now..

It's a shame he only writes in dutch (he's belgian) and you english readers can't read it. I really love his style!

**Wed Oct 03, 2007 7:20 pm**

Wat zijn de boeken over?

I'm an English-speaker by birth, but I've studied Dutch now for about a year and a half, so some books I can read in Dutch, if they aren't overly-complicated. Right now my favourite book in Dutch is a children's book about ducks.

**Wed Oct 03, 2007 8:29 pm**

Shaz wrote:The bloke's name is Esera Tuaolo and the book is Alone in the Trenches.

Mr. Tuaolo was the San Diego Pride Grand Marshal back in 2003.

"I'm just your typical gay Samoan ex-nose tackle who'd like to break into show biz."

Love it.

Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris

**Wed Oct 03, 2007 8:44 pm**

Frances wrote:
Shaz wrote:The bloke's name is Esera Tuaolo and the book is Alone in the Trenches.

Mr. Tuaolo was the San Diego Pride Grand Marshal back in 2003.

"I'm just your typical gay Samoan ex-nose tackle who'd like to break into show biz."

Love it.

Great quote! According to the book he's got a good singing voice, and sang the US anthem before some matches.

**Wed Oct 03, 2007 8:50 pm**

Shaz wrote:According to the book he's got a good singing voice, and sang the US anthem before some matches.

And that didn't give it away? Go figure, huh?
I'm sure he wrote that bit himself, though.

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