Rating: 
Summary: gross but fantastic!
Review: no one told me of how it was gonna be like when i first picked it up. so initially, i was intrigued by the kinda language, but soon after, the book just totally blew my mind away. every story (well, most) inside is brilliantly written, some twisted, but still very intelligent. the characterization is as real as it gets and hell!! just go buy the goddarn book and start reading! u won't regret it. oh well, it probably isn't as fine and as rich as those 18th century-type classical novels, but its probably a lot more interesting. haha it stands in a class of its own and is literature in its very sense.
Rating:
Summary: More realistic characters than Coupland's!!
Review: It's not a book for everybody. Yes, it was dark. Yes, it had naughty, naughty language. Yes, parts of it depressed the hell out of me. But parts of it also touched me and even made me cry.... The characters were more real than those in any other book I have read to date. I have finally found an author who can rival Douglas Coupland at people-making! Mr. Welsh deserves a hurrah for his incredible talent for seeing and writing people as they truly are. Everybody knows somebody from Trainspotting, whether or not said someody is a heroin addict. I think that, for many, the attraction to this book lies in the fact that we are all addicted to something...people, places, books, love, hate...and we have all been "kicking" something. Therefore, this novel can speak to anybody...if you listen to it. Oh, and it's the first time I have actually been attracted to a literary character. C'mon, ladies, wouldn't Renton be just the IDEAL man if he'd just kick that nasty habit of his??? Read this book! If nothing else, you will feel that you are prepared to travel to Scotland and talk with the natives.
Rating: 
Summary: The Worst Book I've Read In Ages
Review: This book was completely asinine, shallow, self-absorbed, contrived, and just about everything else that seems to be wrong with modern novels. Though Welsh has some impressive technical skills (truly getting inside his character's heads is probably his strongest) this alone does not an artist make. Welsh is no novelist, and perhaps this work would have been better served if it had been chopped up into short stories. There are long stretches in this novel in which nothing, absolutely nothing happens, during which one wonders whether this is his idea of "realism" or if he just didn't know exactly what to do with 300+ pages to work with. Furthermore, even those scenes in which "something happens" do not serve to reveal anything to the reader about truth, life, and the other things that art, at its best, should give us. The only thing Welsh seems capable of telling us is "these people do herion cause they don't have anything better to do." Well, fine---but I don't really want to spend 350 pages reading about something that I could have told you by page 1. On top of that, Welsh's "humor" is of the most trite and predictable varitety. I suppose this is probably the perfect book for the masses illiterati out there who's idea of art is something which merely serves to validate their own self-absorbed existence, rather than expand and enrich it; but for those readers out there who demand something more--do yourself a favor and find a better book.
Rating:
Summary: FAHKIN ACE, RENTS.
Review: This book is perfect in every way. It blows the film away any day of the week and the film was really good. I'm glad I read the book first, it really did show the film up. The Scottish phonetics make the book work so well, adding some real feel of authenticity. The true grittiness and honesty of the book speak for themselves. Buy this book. Just don't lend it to grandma.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best ever
Review: This is a book about life the way it really is, ken? Irvine Welsh is a master author who draws you in and doesn't let go, even after you've finished the book. He writes about what no other author dares touch with a five hundred foot pole. There were times (more than once) when I would finish reading a chapter and just sit back and say "Wow," and sigh and wipe back a small tear. This is simply one of the greatest books ever written and deserves to be a staple of all school curriculum. There is so much in this book that isn't in the movie - think of it as reading the cut scenes from the movie. Buy it today. Then pass it on to a complete stranger. They'll thank you, I guarantee it.
Rating:
Summary: An novel of pure genious.
Review: When I first saw the film Trainspotting I was blown away by one of the funniest and most creative films I had seen since Pulp Fiction. When I discovered there was a book behind this remarkable film, I was determend to read it. Borrowing my sister's copy, I spent about a month going through this book's 345 pages (it didn't take so long out of boredom, I'm just a slow reader), and I ended up with only one conclusion...I HAD JUST READ ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS EVER!! Trainspotting is a hilarious, violent, and even sickening book that takes us into and below the lives of a group of junkies in Edinburgh, Scotland. It takes us into the minds and emotions of several characters, all who at one point in time act as narrator. The book is about heroin, sex, fighting, dead people, almost dead people, stealing, cheating, but most importantly, friendship (or lack of). It is a truly remarkable book which, as "Reble, Inc." says, "deserves to sell more copies than the Bible."
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book well worth reading!!
Review: Trainspotting is a wonderful book well worth reading. Even if one has seen the movie prior to reading, one is in for MANY surprises! I did not expect the book to be this way when I picked it up. It contains characters not even mentioned in the movie and there are scenes in the book not portrayed in the film. Once I got past the THICK Scottish accent, I couldn't put it down. I actually started thinking in the dialect in which the book is written, ye ken?! This book is doss barry novel! (read the book and you'll understand the slang)
Rating:
Summary: Literary Excellence
Review: Welsh's "Trainspotting" is a wild ride through the minds and lives of this group of Scottish junkies. This is a novel that will transcend time and become one of the most popular cult books ever. It is as vivid in description as it is in Scottish-drowned humor. The Scottish dialect only adds to the remarkable essence of the book. Soon, the reader will be speaking as one of the characters. The movie, though terrific in its own right, hardly does the novel justice. The reader is forced to look at the problems and lifestyle of Mark Renton, Sick Boy and the others. It's as close as one will ever get to being strung out on smack and living in a pit of desperate measures for their next hit without having to actually shoot up.
Rating:
Summary: an incredible journey i didn't want to come back from!!
Review: trainspotting is a staple in my library! welsh was able to create a world that no matter how disturbing or disgusting it was i never wanted to leave. i fell in love with renton, felt sorry for spud, and despised begbie. all his novels follow that same path. i now search for books that capture life in the same clear and disturbing way. i can't wait for the next novel! thanks to mr. welsh for the incredible time!!
Rating:
Summary: ABSOLUTE GENIUS!
Review: I came across this novel, I forget hoe exactly, in 1994. It blew me away. NEVER before i had i read about my country in such a truthful way; I'd never read about Orangemen, drug-addicted prostitutes, schemies, draftpaks, swedgin... But it all made sense. I'm from about as far away from Edinburgh as you can get but this opened my eyes to Scotlans as a whole. Welsh is always in control; he captures the voices beautifully (tho maybe his women aren't perfect). It's exhilarating, deeply thoughful, philosophical, dramatic, comic... it's everything a novel can be. Genius, pure class.
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