Hehehehehe... I like both actually! McMahon and Binchy is definately my favourite legal textbook - tort law always has the most interesting cases whether it's people doing stupid things or defamation. I only started the autobiography yesterday and I am busy at the moment so I would say it will take a while to work through. It is fairly well written and the person who lent it to me told me they had enjoyed it.

By one of my favourite EU authors Simon Hix. He's great. And after reading some books which were a little too critical of the EU it's nice to read some positive analysis and realistic solutions.

cookiemonster wrote:

By one of my favourite EU authors Simon Hix. He's great. And after reading some books which were a little too critical of the EU it's nice to read some positive analysis and realistic solutions.

Thanks cookiemonster, I'll give it a try.

cookiemonster wrote:

Harris is one of my favourite authors. They only problem I find with him is that his books are not long enough. I bought The Ghost in Hodges and Figgis on Friday evening, started reading it on the way home and was finished by 4am Saturday morning. And The Ghose while very enjoyable wasn't his strongest.

Fatherland, and Archangle are fantastic but Imperium blows them both out of the water.

I agree with you there, cookie. Have you read Pompeii? I find that that is a great introduction to Imperium. I can't wait for Conspiracy, the next instalment, it should be brilliant!

cookiemonster wrote:

By one of my favourite EU authors Simon Hix. He's great. And after reading some books which were a little too critical of the EU it's nice to read some positive analysis and realistic solutions.

And if you want good old-fashioned Europhilia, Mark Leonard, Rifkin and TR Reid will happily supply you with the EC-approved and regulated good stuff.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cookiemonster wrote:

Harris is one of my favourite authors. They only problem I find with him is that his books are not long enough. I bought The Ghost in Hodges and Figgis on Friday evening, started reading it on the way home and was finished by 4am Saturday morning. And The Ghose while very enjoyable wasn't his strongest.

Fatherland, and Archangle are fantastic but Imperium blows them both out of the water.

I agree with you there, cookie. Have you read Pompeii? I find that that is a great introduction to Imperium. I can't wait for Conspiracy, the next instalment, it should be brilliant!

I didn't know there was a trilogy until you mentioned it earlier, I'm fierce excited now!

I'm a fan of Mark Leonard, he's a fantastic foreign policy mind. I also love Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century, it's so optimistic and while an awful lot of it is bang on I think it's perhaps behind the times. Hix is the man for the moment.

cookiemonster wrote:

I didn't know there was a trilogy until you mentioned it earlier, I'm fierce excited now!

Either did I till I was aimlessly wandering the wilds of the world wide web one night. I saw Amazon, Conspiracy and Robert Harris there in my Google results page and I've been in tremulous anticipation ever since! It should be out Octoberish.

Quote :

I'm a fan of Mark Leonard, he's a fantastic foreign policy mind. I also love Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century, it's so optimistic and while an awful lot of it is bang on I think it's perhaps behind the times. Hix is the man for the moment.

Yeah. Mark Leonard's world view is slowly coming into view, though it is a bit dated post-Lisbon. I haven't heard of this Hix fella. I must get that book and read through it.

riadach wrote:

cookiemonster wrote:

At Swim-Two-Birds. Fucking smashing stuff, why I didn't read it before I don't know!

Ag Snám-Dá-Én. Haven't read it myself, but I have read Buile Shuibhne. It is a really odd story middle Irish story which has to be one of the strangest things ever written. The manner in which it uses a man, dressed in feathers, who thinks he's a bird yet pines in poetry for his former life, yet still managing to evoke pathos is one of the strangest literal experiences I've had in the Irish language. It is both whimsical and satirical, pathetic yet playful, and it is no surprise that it should have attracted the attention of the bould Myles. The descriptive language employed is both harsh and beautiful, and the character arc, though blunt and primitive is actually rather interesting considering the time in which it was composed. It's a gem in itself, and someone really should update the language an re-publish it for the modern Irish speaking audience.

edit: And for those who are confused by the name, at swim-two-birds (though it's probably explained in the book), it's actually a placename in Buile Shuibhne on the Shannon, as I have written above, ag snám-dá-én. Snám lit. swim, was a name given to a point in a river which allowed one to swim across it.

A brilliant book with a terrible name. O'Brien apparantly wanted to call it 'Sweeney in the Trees'. It's quite a good parody of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I highly recommend it Riadach, as soon as you're through with The War of the Irish with the Foreigner.

By the way, until someone updates Builoe Suibhne, will the translation by Seamus Heaney do? Or have you read it?

905 wrote:

riadach wrote:

cookiemonster wrote:

At Swim-Two-Birds. Fucking smashing stuff, why I didn't read it before I don't know!

Ag Snám-Dá-Én. Haven't read it myself, but I have read Buile Shuibhne. It is a really odd story middle Irish story which has to be one of the strangest things ever written. The manner in which it uses a man, dressed in feathers, who thinks he's a bird yet pines in poetry for his former life, yet still managing to evoke pathos is one of the strangest literal experiences I've had in the Irish language. It is both whimsical and satirical, pathetic yet playful, and it is no surprise that it should have attracted the attention of the bould Myles. The descriptive language employed is both harsh and beautiful, and the character arc, though blunt and primitive is actually rather interesting considering the time in which it was composed. It's a gem in itself, and someone really should update the language an re-publish it for the modern Irish speaking audience.

edit: And for those who are confused by the name, at swim-two-birds (though it's probably explained in the book), it's actually a placename in Buile Shuibhne on the Shannon, as I have written above, ag snám-dá-én. Snám lit. swim, was a name given to a point in a river which allowed one to swim across it.

A brilliant book with a terrible name. O'Brien apparantly wanted to call it 'Sweeney in the Trees'. It's quite a good parody of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I highly recommend it Riadach, as soon as you're through with The War of the Irish with the Foreigner.

I'm done with that a while. It was ok, but someone ruined the ending for me I've also read caithréim ceallacháin chaisil in the meantime (it's online somewhere if you want it), I'm now trawling almost aimlessly through the annals looking for instances of crech, argain, and indred. Have 98 pages worth so far.

Quote :

By the way, until someone updates Builoe Suibhne, will the translation by Seamus Heaney do? Or have you read it?

No no, I'll read the original thanks . I have it at home, the Irish is surprisingly intelligible, but I have the advantage of doing 12th century Irish in college. Acallam na Senórach is another interesting store though incomplete.

Riadach - crech, argain and indred ?

riadach wrote:

cookiemonster wrote:

At Swim-Two-Birds. Fucking smashing stuff, why I didn't read it before I don't know!

Ag Snám-Dá-Én. Haven't read it myself, but I have read Buile Shuibhne. It is a really odd story middle Irish story which has to be one of the strangest things ever written. The manner in which it uses a man, dressed in feathers, who thinks he's a bird yet pines in poetry for his former life, yet still managing to evoke pathos is one of the strangest literal experiences I've had in the Irish language. It is both whimsical and satirical, pathetic yet playful, and it is no surprise that it should have attracted the attention of the bould Myles. The descriptive language employed is both harsh and beautiful, and the character arc, though blunt and primitive is actually rather interesting considering the time in which it was composed. It's a gem in itself, and someone really should update the language an re-publish it for the modern Irish speaking audience.

edit: And for those who are confused by the name, at swim-two-birds (though it's probably explained in the book), it's actually a placename in Buile Shuibhne on the Shannon, as I have written above, ag snám-dá-én. Snám lit. swim, was a name given to a point in a river which allowed one to swim across it.

If you can get hold of (in that amazing library you get to use every day) Woman and Scarecrow, by Marina Carr you might enjoy it. It's a play in which one of the characters is dressed as a crow and it tells the story of a woman on her deathbed (Olwyn Foueré played the part superbly at the Peacock last year) and the crow-like scarecrow who is her memory, her conscience, her alter-ego. Carr sets her plays in the Midlands around the bogs and they are dark and bleak, beautiful, profound and hilarious. I think you'd like it, riadach.