[shooks]

Thanks to all who voted on our TSR Book Club thread. As you'll have seen on that thread, this month's read has been chosen as Noughties by Ben Masters.

We've got 10 copies of the book to send out, which have been won by Amberee, Mariah246, The Velour Fog, Arty, Jangrafess, Goody2shoes-x, Lollytish, Sheldor, Thebugler and Colonel.



Congrats to all of them - your books are in the post!

But it would be great for everyone who's interested to get involved on this thread.

Here are some places where you can buy Noughties for under £7:
Amazon
Amazon (Kindle version)
The Book Depository
Sainsbury's
WHSmith

If you pick up a copy, please post a review of the book on this thread and give it a rating in our poll at the top of the page. And look out for reviews from the members listed above, and for specific discussion points - coming soon...

[Gofre]

If the gods are kind and I get my job tomorrow I'll be sure to pick up a copy [=

[RandomPeopleDancin]

*Goes on BookButler to get it even cheaper* Might get on Kindle...

[arty]

Ok... Excited to receive this book. Just finished reading the book & here are some of my thoughts!


On the whole I was rather disappointed.

The book starts well. It comprises of three cheeky clever chapters (pub, bar and club – the progression of a night out). However the over the top use of taboo language and relationship subject matter lost my interest totally. I quickly became bored of the continual mention of ‘w**ks’, ‘flies’, ‘erections’ etc. It’s a reflective story of an undergraduate’s experience of drugs, alcohol and sex.

I enjoyed the literary references, which cleverly juxtaposition with all the taboo language he uses. This gives the impression that although he’s a typical lad, he’s very able academically.

The story is based loosely around the clichéd idea of a state school educated lad who’s ‘completely surprised’ when his parents and teacher suggest he should apply to Oxford. He then assumes he’ll be completely out of place and worries about his accent and his dress etc etc. His friends are the usual stereotypes – the posh one, the quiet one, a proper lad and so on. His girlfriend at home has different interests to him and isn’t at all academic.

There is no doubt about Master’s writing ability. It certainly feels like a contemporary twenty first century novel, however it just didn’t really go anywhere.

Before I read the book I saw someone describe it as ‘lad literature’ and now I completely agree. Not many people will be able to really connect with this book unless you’re au fait with ‘laddish’ antics on a rowdy night out.

[shooks]

Interesting review - thanks arty. Do you see any similarities in Noughties to any other novels you've read?

[Jangrafess]

So I'm replying as a result of shooks' private message asking us for feedback even if we haven't finished! That makes sense - this thread might take a while to get going otherwise. I started yesterday after polishing off the other book I was reading and I'm disappointed so far. I seem to be reading a book from the point of view of an Oxford-educated lad, who's desperate not to give the 'wrong' impression to anyone. This is an incredibly dull concept which doesn't speak to me at all, as a transgender feminist who went to an ex-poly. The language is pretentious at the same time as being an attempt to shoehorn in references to cocks and sex as often as possible. It's excruciating. Hopefully it'll get better. I'll hold off further criticism for now as I'm only a third of the way through it and I really want it to get better.

[Mariah246]

Only just started it...not a fan so far. It feels like the author is trying too hard and adding in bits he thinks makes him different? I don't know yet, so I'm still going to give the book a fair chance, read it all and then write a proper review.
Oh and in the very beginning the repetition was annoying "Ah mate.", not sure what Masters was trying to achieve with that.

[This Honest]

I agree so far with mariah, I'm not a huge fan atm and I'm currently reading another book at the same time which is more appealing
I'm also a bit lost from time to time but I think that's because I was tired when reading it

[Tactical Nuclear Penguin]

Strange one this really. I'm not quite sure what Ben Masters was trying to portray in this novel. It's halfway between a serious, literature references-filled take on relationships, growing up, university life etc...and an Inbetweeners style 'lads' book.

I didn't really connect with the main character much, although there were some brilliant oh-so-true comments about guys at Uni that had me in stitches. From a novel that promised so much I was a bit disappointing overall. It jumped around from the serious to the puerile at times and I found some of the characters a bit over-complicated; a strange juxtaposition in their portrayal as 'normal, 'everyday' people whereas in fact they all had tonnes of worries and issues. Whilst the complex language and imagery was great at times I felt it was over-done on occasion.

It was a bit up and down for me. It had its great moments and made a few superb observations on the thoughts of a typical Uni guy. But overall I think its mixed message and mixed characters took the gloss off it. A book I would read again, but not a classic or one of my favourites.

[Sheldor]

I've only just started reading and I'm definitely not impressed so far. The author/narrator seems to be quite desperate to enforce the image of the "Oxford English Student" in our minds, but to little success. The use of descriptive language is just plain random at times, and really doesn't fit in with the narrators use of language in speech and character, quite at odds too the slang and casual language used most of the time. There seems to be a lot of name dropping of authors initially, and the start seems to be dragging on quite a bit with a poor setup and starting scene that gives us very little attachment too the characters. The progression of the book is very random, too. (Moving from party to flashback without much positive effect.)

So , not a good start. I may carry on and see if it manages to endear itself, but the writing style is almost painful so far.


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[Sheldor]

If anyone wants me to send them my copy of the book (I don't think I'll be reading it again, so it's whoever asks firsts to keep) then PM me your address and I'll send it too you.


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[Tactical Nuclear Penguin]

(Original post by Sheldor)
I've only just started reading and I'm definitely not impressed so far. The author/narrator seems to be quite desperate to enforce the image of the "Oxford English Student" in our minds, but to little success. The use of descriptive language is just plain random at times, and really doesn't fit in with the narrators use of language in speech and character, quite at odds too the slang and casual language used most of the time. There seems to be a lot of name dropping of authors initially, and the start seems to be dragging on quite a bit with a poor setup and starting scene that gives us very little attachment too the characters. The progression of the book is very random, too. (Moving from party to flashback without much positive effect.)

So , not a good start. I may carry on and see if it manages to endear itself, but the writing style is almost painful so far.


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Great post. You put my thoughts far more succinctly than I could! Great review. Would be interesting to see what you think once you've finished, and if your opinion changes!

[Sheldor]

(Original post by dudleyian)
Great post. You put my thoughts far more succinctly than I could! Great review. Would be interesting to see what you think once you've finished, and if your opinion changes!

Thanks! I finished the book earlier, and to be honest there was one bit that I giggled at but the rest was still pretty bad! I don't think I'll be reading it again.


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[RandomPeopleDancin]

I'm part way through now and my overall impression is of confusion. As others have said this book is very 'laddish' and some of the language is like that, but a lot of the book seems like he is an Oxford English student. There seems to be more description than dialogue so far which makes it very much unlike any book I have read and when there is dialogue it doesn't go on very long; at most 5 lines, with 1 line per person. In the beginning it keeps using description and then 'Ah mate' as if to remind you that the characters are still at the pub. Sadly it didn't really do much and if anything it got a bit repetitive and boring.
I can't really seem to gel to the main character ,Elliot so far, because the way he describes things is interesting but the way he is always on sex spoils it a bit. The book also tends to move about a lot so I have found myself getting terribly lost at points as there are only three chapters.
I feel as though two books has been squished together here and if it was rewritten it probably could be quite a good read.
So far I would say a 3/5 but only just.
I will say more when I finish

[shooks]

Thanks for all the reviews so far - how have the rest of you found Noughties?

A couple of possible talking points for you:

- How important was the Oxford setting of Noughties? How relevant do you think the book is to the general student experience?

- Which character did you identify with the most? Why?

[Nynyflower]

I just finished this last night actually. I'm going to disagree with everyone and say I quite liked it, apart from the ending. I agree that it's rather "Laddish" but I didn't find it to be as bad as a lot of what I read on the internet (and this is someone who leads something of a one woman crusade against sites like the LAD bible at times). I liked how unflinching it was, there was nothing it shied away from and that's something I like about a book. I found it interesting to learn about how things work at Oxford, having been to an ex-poly I've always been quite curious to know, although some of the tutorial conversations really did not need to be there and many of the literary references went right over my head.

So to criticisms I guess. Yes, I suppose the descriptions of the women in the novel were rather two dimensional, what with the "not hot one" not even being graced with a description. And I hated the "babe" metaphor, I could see what was trying to be done there but it just seemed a bit pointless. I felt sorry for Eliot in some situations, like watching what happened with Ella, but his constant going back to Lucy grated quite a bit. I think this is my big bugbear with the ending. He and Lucy obviously have nothing in common and he was downright rude about her not being very academic, so why keep forcing himself on her? Oh and early in the book some lines were ripped straight from the Inbetweeners, really?

Oh one question, I'll spoiler it.

Spoiler:

Show

Was Ella's baby the tutor's? I thought that was implied but I wasn't sure

[Goody2Shoes-x]

*creeps shamefacedly into thread*

I know I'm horrendously late with this! I'm terrible! But here's my weird little video review - I didn't want to give too much away about the plot etc, but if need be I can elaborate more in text.

EDIT: For some reason I can't get the video on here, say's there's an upload error; I'll redo it as a written review.

I went into this expecting to like it, and while I did, it was nowhere near as much as I’d originally hoped. The basic plot revolves around a guy from state school who manages to get into Oxford University to study English. On the last “night out” of his graduating year, he’s having to confront some issues around a girl from home, a girl from university, and his friends. It’s split roughly into three chapters, the pub, the bar, and the club, and involves flashbacks to previous issues, but frequently gets dragged back to the current time.
The text was this odd mix of “laddish” dialogue (the phrase “ah mate,” was seriously overused!) and lofty, inspirational-esque descriptive text, as if the author was trying too hard to say something really meaningful. Sometimes this mixture worked; other times, it really didn’t, as it would be too distracting, and would drag on for far too long. It would get to the point where I’d find myself growing bored, and thinking “get to the point!”

That’s not to say it didn’t have its good points – I think the author was trying to do something innovative with this contrast of speech, but it was just strange. The book also had a very dry wit which at times was quite humorous. And it did seem to capture the kind of “uni” mind-set really well. Overall, the book had a very coming of age feel to it, which wasn’t too bad.
The plot took a long while to get going though, and I did find it difficult to get into. Once things did start happening, it was enough to hold my attention, but I wouldn’t say this was anything ground-breaking. I found it hard to empathise with the characters, whose behaviour again, for the most part, was this weird mix of upper class snobby and stereotypical “laddish”.
I’m not sure if this is a book that’s intended more for guys, but I definitely wouldn’t count this as a favourite, or be in a rush to read it again anytime soon. 3/5 stars at most.

[amberee]

I know I'm late but sorting out Uni stuff sorry!!!

My view on the book=4/5. From reading the blurb, its not what I expected but I still enjoyed it all the same apart from that weird bit in the middle where all the writing was in text form. Didn't really follow that part...
But I still liked it, lovely to escape reality for a bit and I would recommend it to someone who was bored maybe?

[shooks]

Thanks everyone for taking part. In case you've not seen it - we've currently got a bonus book read running: Painting by Numbers by Tom Gillespie. We've got a copy of this for everyone who wants to take part.

Spoiler:

Show

(Original post by RandomPeopleDancin)

(Original post by Gofre)

(Original post by arty)

(Original post by Jangrafess)

(Original post by Mariah246)

(Original post by This Honest)

(Original post by dudleyian)

(Original post by Sheldor)

(Original post by Nynyflower)

(Original post by Goody2Shoes-x)

(Original post by amberee)

[Denver2010]

Hi, I'd like to join if possible? Currently doing a levels in literature and English language as well as open university English literature degree.

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