What book are you reading right now?

Great frontman yes, but as a lyricist Elvis Costello has him roundly beaten. You may not agree of course. And three years later came Morrissey......

....who was worse that both of them.

BBM,

I already read Hunters. On the same topic, Len Deighton's 'Bomber' is a must.

Haim

Costello is one of the most ludicrously overrated pop personages ever, and a decent enough if fairly standard/straightahead lyricist; so no, I don't agree. Moz is a generation on from Curtis.

The Chronicles of Narnia 

Wanted to read this for a bit.  Bonus; my daughter is reading it in school. 

+1

Couldn't agree more.

steve

A new biography on Mozart in which they also reflect a lot on the dark sides of Mozart.

Plunging into:

You might say so - I've found him feeble, vacuous, sanctimonious, overrated and downright dull.

Tune In - Volume 1 of Mark Lewisohn's 3 volume history of the Beatles. It covers the period from their birth to 31 December 1962. Quite fascinating, even for a non-fan.

Memoirs of a Geezer - Jah Wobble's autobiography. Disappointingly unspecific and with a masively irritating over use of single inverted commas.

The new Murakami - hardback first edition only £5.99 from Eaglebooks. Don't know how they do that when it is £20 in Waterstones.

Very interesting...

Where's that confounded duck press when you need it?

Bernard seems a bit too keen to explain/justify himself and, the section on his childhood aside, this is a disappointingly unrevealing book. His habit of addressing the reader directly is a bit irritating as well.

Now, this is weird replying  to your own post.

Having now worked through to the end it seems that the mighty jah has a problem with Bangladeshis which seems at odds with his otherwise, self-proclaimed, tolerant and spiritual views.

I still like his music.

"I'm breaking your balls a little bit, that's all. I'm only kidding with ya... just bustin' your balls"

Factory (surely) are not the only fruit.

To Kill a Mockingbird - a wonderfully book full of humour, courage, good sense and strong ethics.  I've loved it since I first read it in school and rereading it is like visiting an old friend.  A great shame they still don't use it in schools as its message is sorely needed nowadays in my view

 I have read a number of Beatles books from Anthology to various biographies of the members but this book is a monumental work that has made me feel I am walking the streets of LIverpool with John, Paul, George and Ringo at my side.  I have loved this band for over thirty years and am still in awe of their utter command of melody, pathos, innovation and composition.  In short they utterly transcend any other popular music artist in terms of importance and this is their story.  There is no question in my mind that if humanity survives the next 1000 years their music will still be listened to by billions. 

This book is the first chapter of the definitive history of the most important rock band in history by the greatest living authority on the subject.  This is the first of three volumes and runs to almost a thousand pages itself and stops in 1962!!  Ten years in the making it is the musical equivalent of Churchill's 'History of the English Speaking Peoples.

I approached it wondering just how interesting a book that stops at the release of Love me do could be?  The answer is absolutely fascinating - the drawback is that it's likely to be another 20 years before the trilogy is complete...

Jonathan 

Fascinating review Jonathan. You make me want to run out and buy this today. Thanks for sharing.

I've been chased down the road by knife-wielding loonies, been done over by a gang of Newcastle Utd fans, had a gun (real, loaded) pointed at me, but being stalked by a duck is one of the oddest, scariest experiences of my life. 

Can't get on with this one for some reason...

Lamentation by C.J Sansom - The newest of the Shardlake series. Great series of novels set in the time of King Henry VIII