Two Plus Two Older Archives  

Go Back   Two Plus Two Older Archives > 2+2 Communities > Other Other Topics

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #21  
Old 10-06-2005, 07:21 PM
Sightless Sightless is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 103
Default Re: Suggest me some books!

Master and Margarita By Bulgakov, I am reading it for the third time right now, amazing book...

I am shocked to see another 2p2er recomend this book as not many people outside EX USSR know about it..

one of the best books ever... even better in Russian ):
also I recomend Choke and Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
Reply With Quote
  #22  
Old 10-06-2005, 09:52 PM
Blarg Blarg is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,519
Default Re: Suggest me some books!

I'm going to chime in with another that strikes me as appropriate if you like things like Fight Club, but just as good if you don't like Fight Club. It's a non-fiction book about the fight game by a guy who goes from easily beaten young college fighter to professional sportswriter to manager of a world champion, and the people he meets and things he sees along the way. There are many heart-wrenching sequences set in and out of the ring, some great fear, great exhiliration, and great sadness. This guy's powers of observation and description powers are phenomenal. This one really hit me hard. I've recommended it in OOT before, and it's called This Bloody Mary is the Last Thing I Own.

Here are some reviews at the top of the page in Amazon.com.

[ QUOTE ]
Amazon.com
There's something about the mano-a-mano primacy of boxing, something about men fighting men, and the seediness and corruption that so much of the sport wallows in that forces chroniclers of the sweet science to adopt the film noir persona of a Sam Spade. Rendall provides the antidote. His marvelously titled memoir recounts his transition from a starry-eyed young British boxing writer to a disenchanted manager of a promising fighter named Colin McMillan, who rises from nobody status to the featherweight champion of the world.

This is a knockout performance by a graceful writer who knows his subject, knows how to spin a yarn, and knows how to make an eclectic stable of characters come alive on the page. As a stylist, Rendall comes out swinging; when he finds an opening, he can score, whether he's in a smoky British boxing club or beneath the neon skies of Las Vegas. He is not afraid to run counter to so much of the good boxing writing that has come before him: what others have praised as colorful, he sees from his insider's perspective as somewhat sinister and grotesque. There is a sadness, a melancholy really, to much of Rendall's personal journey as he begins to distinguish between boxing's realities and its myths. And yet he's capable of relating this with an almost surreal sense of humor, well timed and well placed, like good jabs should be. A lesser writer might have been flattened by the ordeal; it's Rendall's grace under pressure that, in the end, leaves him standing. --Jeff Silverman--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
Boxing can be an elegant sport. Seldom do physical skill, intelligence, courage, and tactics converge in other sports as they often do inside the ring. But outside the ring, the human toll can be exacting in damage that goes far beyond broken noses and concussions. Rendall, a British boxing writer and sometime manager, trains his eye beyond the ropes. The boxing industry, he argues, is based on the disposability of its only commodity--the fighters--and the invincibility of its most unsavory element, the promoters. Rendall approaches the sport by tracing the career of Colin McMillan, currently the world featherweight champion. He wasn't always a champ. Rendall describes McMillan's rise to the top, fighting "smokers" in England and eventually progressing to undercards in Las Vegas. The journey in journeyman can't begin to suggest the frustrations and setbacks along the road to a championship for a kid who doesn't have the backing of a major promoter. Maybe at one time boxing was filled with "colorful" characters, or maybe that was just the way the Hemingways and Mailers chose to present them. But in Rendall's view, the sport is now populated by sharks, piranhas, and tasty little boxers, prime for devouring. This is a wonderful book, one that takes readers deep into the heart of a world that will appall even longtime fans. The very best book on boxing in many a year. Wes Lukowsky

[/ QUOTE ]

Here's the link. You don't have to like boxing to like this book. The author himself veers between adoring and despising it, and sees it from all sides as few people can or do.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...ce&s=books
Reply With Quote
  #23  
Old 10-06-2005, 09:56 PM
TheMainEvent TheMainEvent is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 544
Default Re: Suggest me some books!

[ QUOTE ]

heartbreaking work of staggering genius by dave eggers.

[/ QUOTE ]

"You shall know our velocity" is good also
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:48 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.