I had avoided reading this 'generation defining' book as I had previously struggled to grasp the hard Scottish vernacular used, but after thoroughly enjoying Filth, I thought I was ready to read this. A book, a collection of numerous little stories, of the events and escapades of a group of young men with no real future or prospects, scraping out a life in and amongst the most disenfranchised and marginalised communities in Leith (part of Edinburgh); a group, mostly deeply involved and/or connec...

Edinburgh was a sick city in the 1990s. While the industrial and employment crisis raged in these post-Tatcharian years, a group of lost friends managed to survive. This world revolves around dope: heroin, cocaine, weed, alcohol, H, barbiturates, clusters of asteroids in perdition, attracted by the fatal orbit of the powder, which is nothing like stardust. So fixed that we lavish ourselves in mock hugs convulsed with pleasure, humiliating pleas to the local dealer for alloyed merchandise, calami...

This initially was challenging similar to A Clockwork Orange but I quickly grew to enjoy it. The book is uniquely presented because it is a series of stories told from first-person and a third-person narrative. After about halfway through the book I realized the characters and their experiences progress linearly. I was able to tie things together on my own and enjoy the book overall. The plot centers around a group of mates in what is roughly the late 1980s Thatcher-era United Kingdom and inside...

First time I've read this and couldn't put it down, seen the movie over a hundred times, know screenplay off by heart basically; what a great adaptation eh?

Anyway enough of the movie..

This book was absolutely brilliant, I now understand why it's such a cult classic.

It's written so well, the character development is spot on, it's dark, it's hilarious and a true masterpiece.

I need to read more books from my homeland. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Go read this one ya radge! 👊

Choose mainstream. Choose cheap ebooks that won't challenge you, stretch you, change you or otherwise fuck with your mind. Choose YA and chicklit and bland massproduced airport thrillers with sanitised violence and the kind of sex you're sure you can get from a random stranger you picked up half an hour ago when you were both pretending to be too drunk to know what you were doing. Choose to ignore anything unexpected or transgressive including but not limited to Plato, Dante, Chaucer, Shakespear...

Probably the most famous passage from the book: "Whin yir oan junk, aw ye worry about is scorin. Oaf the gear, ye worry aboot loads ay things. Nae money, cannae git pished. Goat money, drinkin too much. Cannae git a burd, nae chance ay a ride. git a burd, too much hassle, canne breathe withoot her gitten oan yir case. Either that, or ye blow it, and feel aw guilty. Ye worry aboot bills, food bailiffs, these Jambo Nazi scum beatin us, aw the things that ye couldnae gie a fuck aboot whin yuv goat ...

“Scegli la vita. Scegli il mutuo da pagare, la lavatrice, la macchina; scegli di startene seduto su un divano a guardare i giochini alla televisione, a distruggerti il cervello e l'anima, a riempirti la pancia di porcherie che ti avvelenano. Scegli di marcire in un ospizio, cacandoti e pisciandoti sotto, cazzo, per la gioia di quegli stronzi egoisti e fottuti che hai messo al mondo.”“Beh, io invece scelgo di non sceglierla, la vita. E se quei coglioni non sanno come prenderla, una cosa del gener...

I must have read the first page of Trainspotting more than twenty times since purchasing the book years ago, and each time I would put it back in fear of all the Scottish dialect. There's no point lying, this is a challenging novel, sometimes you have to read things twice or pause to think about them to fully understand what's being said. But, unlike a lot of books that are difficult to read, this was ultimately rewarding and once you get used to the slang words it becomes a very gritty, moving ...

Fuck me insensible. Oh ya cunt, ya! Ah dinnae watch the movie, bit ma heid’s spinnin fae readin this shite, ah kin fuckin tell ye. The book’s no novel – mair a collection ay short stories, likesay, aboot a bunch ay Scot junkies. The cunts go aroond, fartin n shitein n shootin smack. The book is written in the Scottish dialect, sortay like whit ah’m tryin tae imitate, ken whit ah mean? It wisnnae easy fe us tae git intae it. It made us scoobied aboot whit the cunts were sayin, likesay, bit after ...

Everything you heard about this book is true. It will not only melt your face, but also the faces of anyone in the same room as you. Be prepared for a deluge of c-words from page one to page last, be prepared for a detailed account of a bunch of lively Scottish junkies scuffling and waiting for their man and spiking up and all of that. This is offensiveness which achieves transcendence. There are scenes which will make you will drop your jaw so far you'll have to spend half an hour looking for i...